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23 Jul 2010 17:48

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U.S.: D.C. schools Chancellor Michelle Rhee drops hammer on teachers

  • 261 teachers were fired just before the new school year
  • 165 were cited for having poor classroom performance
  • 737 more educators are on thin ice for the next year source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 2 Comments • Permalink

23 Jul 2010 17:39

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U.S.: Deepwater Horizon’s alarm too noisy, so they shut it off

  • Apparently, there were a lot of false alarms. They apparently were annoying and woke up sleeping workers. That’s what a chief technician for Transocean, the company that ran the oil rig, said about the reasons that safety systems were knowingly turned off – which helped lead to the disaster that killed 11 people and caused the ocean to flood with oil. In other oil-company-friendly news, BP got transparent about their Photoshopped images and posted a set of images up on Flickr – the ‘chopped images and the originals. Which is funny, because none of the images needed any Photoshopping at all. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

23 Jul 2010 14:44

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U.S.: Bad uses of top-secret clearance: Accessing child porn online

  • bad Dozens of Pentagon officials and contractors with clearance have been tied to purchasing child porn.
  • worse While some cases have been prosecuted, many have languished over a number of years. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

23 Jul 2010 14:00

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U.S.: RIP Daniel Schorr: They don’t build journalists like him anymore

Dude is IN CONGRESS smoking a cigar while at a hearing about whether Nixon tried to give him a job. He worked for both CBS and NPR in his lengthy career. He died today at 93. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

22 Jul 2010 19:28

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U.S.: Ethics charges: So, what is Charles Rangel facing, anyway?

  • The charges are unspecified. The allegations, though … This sounds pretty bad for Charlie. According to the Sunlight Foundation, the longtime New York congressman reportedly omitted between $239,026 and $831,000 from his financial disclosures (assets either purchased, sold or held), and also reportedly had some shady dealings with AIG. He’s had a rough couple of years, and stepped down from his chairmanship of the Ways and Means Committee back in March. Poor Charlie. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

22 Jul 2010 11:17

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U.S.: The good and the bad of the latest unemployment extension

  • plus Unemployment checks will be retroactive to June 2, when the benefits first ran out. Yay lump sums!
  • minus The month and a half off will still count against those hitting their 99-week employment limit.
  • plusTemp work will now be allowed without a future reduction in benefits. Good for the temps!
  • minusUnemployment benefit checks will be $25 lower than before –including the retroactive ones. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 2 Comments • Permalink

22 Jul 2010 10:43

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U.S.: Obama losing public’s confidence, but at least he’s not Congress

  • 36% of those polled had high levels of confidence in Obama
  • 11% could say the same about Congress (wonder why) source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink
 

22 Jul 2010 10:37

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U.S.: Barefoot Bandit slightly more lonely, messed up than rest of us

Colton Harris-Moore’s life started bad, with lots of fighting with his mom, and then it got weird. He spent a lot of time alone. He stole planes. Lots of them. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

21 Jul 2010 23:02

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U.S.: Did BP know of the idea for the cap for a really long time?

  • YES it was suggested months ago; good job, BP source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

21 Jul 2010 21:09

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U.S.: Which recent news figure does this pair of eyes belong to?

Hint: It’s obviously an old white guy. Another hint: The eyes don’t appear to look all that cheerful. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink
 
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