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14 Aug 2011 11:23

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Music, U.S.: Indiana stage collapse follows Flaming Lips, Cheap Trick incidents

  • We are all right. We are praying for our fans, and the people of Indianapolis. We hope you’ll join us. They need your strength.
  • The members of Sugarland • In a tweet sent out soon after last night’s devastating stage collapse at the Indiana State Fair, where Sugarland was performing last night. There has been a spate of these lately — just last weekend, The Flaming Lips suffered a bunch of damage to their gear after a similar stage collapse in Oklahoma which took out a massive video screen. And prior to that, Cheap Trick had a stage fall to the ground in Canada, nearly injuring the band and thousands of spectators. The Indiana situation was clearly the worst, however — five lives were lost and 40 people were injured, and those numbers could go up. Devastating. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

12 Aug 2011 14:42

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U.S.: Serial killer Anthony Sowell sentenced to death by lethal injection

Sowell, from Cleveland, was convicted in the deaths of 11 women. He didn’t even look at the victims’ families during the sentencing, nor did he acknowledge the judge when asked to sign a court document. source
Posted by Justin Jones • 0 Comments • Permalink

12 Aug 2011 11:38

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U.S.: U.S. Postal Service: Desperate times call for desperate measures

  • $20
    billion     the amount of money the struggling U.S. Postal Service has lost in the past four years — including $8.5 billion last year alone
  • 120,000 workers number of employees the struggling postal service has proposed cutting to stave off their financial issues; did your e-mails do them in? source
  • » No more federal health care? If you’ve been following the U.S. Postal Service’s financial situation closely, you might know that part of the reason they’ve been struggling involves high pre-paid health care costs, an issue that cropped up due to a federal law forcing them to set aside a large amount of money for health care. This means that they can’t use any of the money to, you know, do anything else. Now the USPS says they’d be better off getting off the federal plan and doing private health care and pensions instead. They say it’s cheaper. Was that whole thing a ploy to get them further off the federal dime? They’re independent, you know.
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

11 Aug 2011 11:01

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U.S.: True justice: Corrupt juvenile court judge sentenced for kickback scheme

  • unjustified A Pennsylvania juvenile court judge who happened to have a couple of friends at some youth detention centers sentenced kids to these centers (even for minor offenses!), then received over $1 million in kickbacks from the camps.
  • justified Now former Luzerne County Judge Mark Ciavarella Jr. will have a long time to think about how much he probably screwed up those kids, after he received a harsh sentence of his own — 28 years in the clink. Oh, sweet justice. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

10 Aug 2011 15:00

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Offbeat, U.S.: How imprisoned polygamist sect leader Warren Jeffs will keep his influence

  • cause Warren Jeffs is the leader of a polygamist sect of the Mormon church who was recently sentenced to life in prison for child sex abuse. Not only was he married to underage girls, but many others in the complex he ran were clearly pregnant. However, this was all part of his religion, he claimed — and everyone there has been pretty much brainwashed to believe the same.
  • effect Life in prison won’t separate those in Jeffs’ cult from him. Since he’s been in jail, his followers have continued to believe that he is a prophet and he’s continued to lead church services over the phone. “Now we can really begin to focus on liberating these people and freeing their minds from the mental shackles that Warren Jeffs has put on them,” said Elissa Wall, a former member of the church. source
Posted by Justin Jones • 0 Comments • Permalink

08 Aug 2011 14:31

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U.S.: President Obama tries to reassure after credit rating downgrade

  • No matter what the agencies say, we will always be a AAA country.
  • President Barack Obama • Talking about the S&P’s downgrade of the United States in a speech today. He explained that they didn’t downgrade us because they didn’t believe that we would default on our debt, but because our politics get too much in the way — and because the threat of default was used as a bargaining chip. He also talked about our real challenge — long term deficit reduction. He stuck to his guns on policies like tax  cuts for the wealthy, and also said that we need to keep unemployment benefits around to keep our recovery going. However, just from this speech it’s clear that it isn’t going to be easy. It’s evident that despite the fact that Obama has good intentions, the politics simply aren’t going to change overnight. Obama also honored the troops that died in the helicopter crash over the weekend, which was well-deserved and moving. source
Posted by Justin Jones • 0 Comments • Permalink

06 Aug 2011 13:02

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U.S., World: SEAL Team Six members reportedly killed in Afghanistan

  • 20+ Navy SEALS reportedly killed in Afghanistan plane crash source
  • » And they weren’t just any Navy SEALS, either: These are some of the guys who took out Osama bin Laden in Pakistan back in May. (Edit: There are conflicting reports.) This is horribly sad, and we’ll keep you posted as we learn more. The AP has received word of this but nothing official has been noted due to the fact that families are still being notified. (h/t ProducerMatthew)
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink
 

05 Aug 2011 13:46

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Biz, U.S.: Jobs report: More silver lining than cloud, but it’s still cloudy out

  • positive After a couple of fairly mediocre months, the latest jobs report from the federal government was fairly positive, showing a dip in unemployment to 9.1 percent and an increase in jobs.
  • negative Problem is, the report happened to come the day after a massive stock selloff that followed a week of non-positive economic data. And a debt ceiling crisis. And a weakened worldwide economy. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

04 Aug 2011 14:20

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U.S.: Amid negative economic data, stock market having a really crappy day

  • 350+point dip in the Dow at one point today (ouch) source
  • » It’s becoming more and more apparent that we might be heading for a double-dip recession here. The Dow fell for eight days straight, only ending the losing streak yesterday — but it could fall steeply today. The new jobless numbers are mostly to blame for the weak market. There were 400,000 new unemployment claims in the week that ended July 30. That, in addition to a spreading debt crisis in Europe, has been enough to convince investors that the U.S. economy isn’t in a great spot right now, and it’s hurting our stock market bad.
Posted by Justin Jones • 0 Comments • Permalink

03 Aug 2011 21:44

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U.S.: Could Donald Rumsfeld get personally sued for torture?

A military contractor with a particularly fascinating backstory wants to sue the former defense secretary for illegally detaining him. The judge — get this —is gonna allow it. Whoa. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink
 
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