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23 May 2011 10:33

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Politics: Shocker: Scott Brown doesn’t support the Paul Ryan Medicare plan

  • Thumbs-up to photo ops, thumbs-down to the Ryan plan. Sen. Scott Brown got into office largely on the promise he’d vote against the health care bill. Since then, he’s followed a strongly moderate path, reaching out to the other side of the aisle more than any other GOP senator. So, it’s with that in mind that you should read the op-ed Brown wrote for Politico, which claims that Medicare has already been weakened by Obamacare, and that at large, the focus should be on removing waste in Medicare. “While I applaud Ryan for getting the conversation started,” he said, “I cannot support his specific plan — and therefore will vote ‘no’ on his budget.” If only Newt Gingrich had this script to read from a week ago. (photo via Flickr user dianezink1021) source

23 May 2011 10:19

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U.S.: Joplin tornado: Warning sirens not enough with storm this huge

  • At the moment it’s surreal, our landmarks are gone — road signs, places where you know to turn — we’re doing search and rescue, going house to house on that six mile strip.
  • Joplin emergency management director Keith Stammer • Describing the situation in his town this morning. While he notes that all of the alarms went off and gave 20-minute notice of the quickly-approaching storm, it clearly wasn’t enough to protect people from a supremely devastating tornado. It was one of 47 that the storm system produced in the region yesterday — and by far the worst. source

23 May 2011 09:59

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U.S.: By the numbers: The Joplin, Missouri tornado’s trail of destruction

  • 89+ people have been killed by the tornado that hit Joplin on Sunday
  • 200 the reported speed of the tornado, in miles per hour; it was a mile wide
  • 25%+ of the town of Joplin has been destroyed, authorities say source
  • » President Obama, reporting from Ireland: After the massive storm ravaged the Missouri town, the president, heading to Ireland to play diplomat, called Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon and coordinated the FEMA response from Air Force One. Nixon declared a state of emergency and activated the Missouri National Guard in response the the storm, which devastated a town of 49,000.

23 May 2011 00:33

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U.S.: Joplin, Missouri slammed by massive, devastating tornado

  • “I would say 75% of the town is virtually gone.” Those are the words of Kathy Dennis of the American Red Cross worker currently in Joplin, Missouri, a town slammed by a tornado this evening. Throughout the Midwest this evening, a number of large storms have left a huge trail of destruction, flattening buildings and leaving Twitter loaded with many scary scenes like the one above taken by Twitter user @CarmenSeda (thanks to @ProducerMatthew for that). Greatly-damaged buildings (including crushed Wal-Marts) are all around the area, and the death toll is reportedly high, but CNN won’t even list an actual number. Scary. We’re going to give you guys a few more updates as the night goes on. source