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07 Jul 2011 14:03

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World: Recovering Yemeni President Saleh shows up on television

  • President Ali Abdullah Saleh showed up on Yemeni television in a prerecorded speech about his health. He was wounded and severely burned in a bomb blast at his palace earlier this month, and has gone through 8 surgeries since then. He’s making the speech to ensure the people of Yemen that he is recovering, but it’s unclear how true that is — he hasn’t been seen in public since the incident last month. (Photo via Aljazeera) source
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07 Jul 2011 13:48

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U.S.: Elizabeth Smart is joining ABC News — as a contributor

  • She’s going to comment on missing persons cases to give people the perspective from the family. This is pretty good, because this is a unique perspective that she can do well — and it’s one that is often overlooked. What’s better is that she’s willing to do this, despite what happened to her in the past. But one has to wonder if this gives into the tabloidy nature some of these stories fall into. That said, it will certainly be interesting to see what she has to say, and hopefully adding her voice to those kinds of stories will help people see the bigger picture. source
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07 Jul 2011 13:28

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World: News of the World shut down because it’s the easy way out

  • So what to do? Cut your losses. Fold the paper. Wash your hands of the whole ordeal. You can expect News Corp’s rhetoric about ‘moving on’ to start today. And that’s how you get out of a scandal with all the top executives’ jobs intact.
  • Hamilton Nolan, editor at Gawker • speaking brilliantly about the end of the News of the World. Basically, they were going downhill fast because of their hacking scandal. Instead of actually working through it, it seems like Rupert Murdoch’s son, the owner of the paper, took the easy way out and just shut the paper down. That way, they don’t have to worry about advertising, or damage control, or anything else that goes on with a scandal like this. Ultimately, News Corp. is a business that focuses on making money on top of its journalism. And it didn’t look like NOTW would be making any money for a long, long time. So they picked their best option. source
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06 Jul 2011 14:09

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World: In Iceland, you might need a prescription to smoke

  • Your doctor may have to give you the go-ahead if you want to keep up the habit. Officials are hoping to do this as an effort to get people to quit. Recently, they’ve raised taxes on cigarettes and they’re on the way to banning them in many public places. Under the proposal, smokers would have to go through treatment programs to try to kick their habit. If they couldn’t pull it off, they’d get prescribed cigarettes. This seems like a bit far to reach, if you ask us, and it could create a black market because it’s so restrictive. Regardless, it should help people quit, should this measure pass —because that’s a lot of trouble to go through for a smoke. (photo via Flickr user mamagrrl) source
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06 Jul 2011 13:29

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U.S.: President changes military condolence policy for suicides

  • This issue is emotional, painful, and complicated. But these Americans served our nation bravely … we need to do everything in our power to honor their service, and to help them stay strong for themselves, for their families and for our nation.
  • President Barack Obama • Reversing a previous policy that didn’t send military families condolence letters if their family member had committed suicide. This is definitely a good thing, because suicide is actually a common cause of death in Iraq and Afghanistan. Just because a soldier isn’t killed by the enemy, doesn’t mean their life means any less — military families deserve a letter from the president, regardless of the cause of death. source
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06 Jul 2011 13:08

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U.S.: A tale of two unemployment rates, through an urban microcosm

  • 9.8% the unemployment rate in the Washington, DC — a little higher than the rest of the nation
  • 3.6% the unemployment rate for the more affluent areas of DC — mostly populated by whites source
  • » This isn’t good. The unemployment rate of Anacostia, a district in Southeast DC east of the river mostly populated by blacks? Nearly 20 percent. DC is merely just a flash point for a much-larger trend. All over the United States, blacks are twice as likely to be unemployed as whites. What’s worse is there’s no real explanation for it — other than the obvious one.
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05 Jul 2011 16:50

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World: Indian official makes anti-gay remark, then steps it back

  • Unfortunately, this disease, where a man has sex with a man, which is absolutely unnatural and shouldn’t happen but it is happening, is spreading around the world and has also come to India. Even in our country the numbers of men having sex with men is significant.
  • Indian Health Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad • Making comments about the AIDS virus. He later tried to clarify that he didn’t mean gay people, but it’s kinda hard to prove that when he’s quoted saying this. He claims that it only sounded like this because of the way he said it in Hindi, but there’s no way of telling if that’s true. Let’s hope not, because placing a stigma on an entire group of people is wrong, but especially when it comes from government official, simply because it has more impact. source
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05 Jul 2011 16:25

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Offbeat: Main claims discrimination over his pinball wizardry

  • 40 lawsuits filed by John Luckett; he’s also a wizard at litigation source
  • » Who’s John Luckett? Not someone you should know anything about, probably. He’s just filed lots of lawsuits – so many he can’t even sue in California anymore. Right now he’s trying to sue the Las Vegas-based Pinball Hall of Fame because he was told by police to stay away from it after he shoved an employee. He also claims he was thrown out because he was discriminated against for his “pinball wizardry” — that is, his ability to play for so long on only 50 cents. Something tells us that pinball wizards aren’t protected by the EEOC. (via Gawker)
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04 Jul 2011 16:31

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U.S.: Follow the leader: Joe Biden has an official VP twitter account

  • A few days after President Obama started tweeting, our VP is too. Well, it’s not really him, but it still shows how hard the White House is trying to reach people through social media. Sure, it’s kinda lame, but it’s also pretty cool – after all, they wouldn’t be trying things like this if they didn’t care, right? It’s also pretty interesting to note that Joe Biden had a Twitter account back when he was a senator, but it hasn’t been updated since August of 2008. source
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04 Jul 2011 15:52

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World: Rebels invite Gaddafi to stay in Libya … after he resigns

  • If he desires to stay in Libya, we will be the ones to determine the place and there will be international supervision on all his movements and communications.
  • Mustafa Abdel Jalil, a rebel leader in Libya • He’s saying that Gaddafi can stay in Libya after he resigns, so long as he has supervision. It just shows that rebels are more eager to get to a peace deal. Rather than having him exiled, they’re willing to let him hang around after he’s out of power. This is all coming in response to a proposal from the African Union that rebels have interpreted as saying that Gaddafi shouldn’t have any sort of power anymore. source
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