Read a little. Learn a lot. • Tightly-written news, views and stuff • Follow us on Twitter • Be a Facebook Fan • Tumble us!

06 Jun 2011 08:00

tags

U.S.: Rogue bus company Sky Express may still be operating

Despite the deadly Virginia bus crash which tarnished their name, Sky Express may still be running buses … possibly under a completely different name. Their Web site brings up a 404 error. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

05 Jun 2011 21:49

tags

U.S., World: The U.S. faces terrorism, diplomacy threats amid Yemen instability

  • We would be shortsighted to think this doesn’t pose short-term national security concerns. The likelihood is that [al-Qaeda operatives] will be raising their heads.
  • Frank J. Cilluffo, the head of, George Washington University’s Homeland Security Policy Institute • Describing the danger that the Saleh’s transition away from Yemeni leadership means for the War on Terror. A key terror cell — al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula — could cause serious issues by taking advantage of the instability in the region, while Yemeni opposition leaders deny the group’s existence at all. (Which is troubling because two separate attacks have been tied to the group since late 2009 — including the underwear bomber.) Another way this could force the U.S. into a precarious position: Saleh was an ally of the U.S., and an unstable transition could force diplomats to scramble to make up for a transition that doesn’t favor Americans. A complicated issue all around — and one with difficult answers. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

05 Jun 2011 13:16

tags

U.S.: Breast cancer trial: At-risk patients helped by new drug

  • 65% decreased risk after taking hormone-blocking pill source
  • » A huge step forward: The study, which involved 4,500 people, represents progress towards a safe-to-take drug that prevents breast cancer in at-risk patients. While anti-estrogen drugs already exist on the market, they’ve had pretty horrific side effects that discourage their use. So far, aromatase inhibitors don’t have any of these side effects — but it’s important to note that there haven’t been long-term studies with this, either. (This is the first time researchers tested an aromatase inhibitor tested clinically.) However, it’s still encouraging and worth keeping an eye on.
Posted by Justin Jones • 0 Comments • Permalink

05 Jun 2011 00:59

tags

U.S.: The guy who designed DC’s Metro map preps for a redesign

  • A classic design gets a refresh: Nearly 40 years ago, graphic designer Lance Wyman designed a map that’s come to define a city. The result — a map of a fairly self-contained Metro system — has survived numerous station changes and many iterations to remain a truly useful piece of work. With upcoming changes to the Metro system that will make the map significantly more complicated, Wyman’s getting another chance to work on the design, which needs room for Dulles Airport, a new color and a ton of names that have gotten unwieldy over the years (see “U Street/African-American Civil War Memorial/Cardozo“). And people are clamoring for a redesign — seriously, check out this contest right here. If you’re wondering if the 73-year-old Wyman is getting nervous about all this, the answer is yes. This is his ’68 Comeback Special here. (photo by The Washington Post’s Jennifer S. Altman; see a gallery here) source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

04 Jun 2011 17:14

tags

Offbeat, U.S.: Homeowner revenge: Bank of America branch gets foreclosed

  • They’ve ignored our calls, ignored our letters, legally this is the next step to get my clients compensated.
  • Attorney Todd Allen • Describing the process he went through to get his clients their money back. That’s right, he foreclosed on the bank, forcing the bank to pay back attorney’s fees by padlocking the doors. Maurenn Nyergers and her husband, Florida residents who paid for their home in cash, received a false foreclosure request from Bank of America, forcing them to fight the charges in court. The homeowners won their case, but Bank of America didn’t pay the fees after five months, so (with a little help from the Sheriff’s Department), on went the padlocks and out went the computers, furniture and money from the tellers’ drawers. An hour later, the bank manager resolved it like that. Gotta love it. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

03 Jun 2011 20:10

tags

U.S.: Convicted killer in Yale slaying receives 44-year sentence

  • Annie was and will always be a wonderful person, by far a better person that I will ever be in my life. I’m sorry I lied. I’m sorry I ruined lives, and I’m sorry for taking Annie Le’s life.
  • Former Yale animal-research technician Raymond Clark III • Speaking during his sentencing, during which he received a 44-year sentence for the killing of Annie Le, a Yale graduate student whose tragic murder turned her family’s excitement over her wedding into overwhelming grief. The sentence, which will keep the 26-year-old in prison until he turns 70, wasn’t enough for some members of Le’s family, who had hoped he’d receive a life sentence. If it’s of any solace to the Le family, he won’t get paroled early, because Connecticut doesn’t allow parole for convicted murderers. The case drew a large amount of media interest — due in part to the fact that it happened on a highly-secured part of the Yale campus that few people could get inside. Which meant that it was relatively easy to figure out that Clark, who accepts full responsibility for the crime, was the culprit. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

03 Jun 2011 14:08

tags

U.S.: Defending Dr. Death: On Jack Kevorkian’s right-to-die legacy

  • A complex ambassador for a complex debate: The death of Jack Kevorkian, which wasn’t artificial, is a great time to reflect on what he meant to an issue still fully unresolved to this day: The right-to-die debate. Jack was a purely Michigan icon, an idiosyncratic figure who defines the post-industrial shakiness and weirdness of the state the same way that two other purely Michigan icons of the era, Insane Clown Posse and Eminem, did — by taking a dark, tough-to-grasp issue or demeanor and just going for it, without worrying about the consequences. It led to over 100 assisted suicides that Kevorkian played a direct role in, a number of legal cases, a raised profile for lawyer Geoffrey Fieger (who actually made a failed gubernatorial run back in 1998), and finally, jail time for Kevorkian. While some criticize what Kevorkian did to this day, we think he represented an important role that actually got people to think about a real issue. More thoughts:
  • Freedom of death One philosophy currently in vogue is libertarianism, which focuses on keeping the government as far away from our personal rights as possible. Is there a more libertarian idea than keeping the government out of our final affairs, instead of gumming up the works? The fact of the matter is, he worked with private citizens on private affairs that they agreed to. To us, it only seems fair to respect this. Maybe government shouldn’t be involved here?
  • A changing society The concept of the hospice only grew in the wake of Kevorkian’s notoriety. The National Association of Home Care and Hospice notes that in 1990, the year Kevorkian completed his first assisted suicide, 76,000 people used Medicare Hospice Outlays. In 2008, the number topped 1 million for the first time. So, even if it isn’t exactly done Jack’s way, we are focusing on end-of-life issues more. And that’s a huge credit to him.
  • Was he the right guy? Oakland County Executive L. Brooks Patterson reacted to Kevorkian’s death by suggesting that “the cause of aging and death with dignity is so complex that I don’t think Kevorkian was the right ambassador for that message.” But, really, that was the problem. Nobody was dealing with it on a serious scale until Jack came along. He put the issue in our faces until we finally started to take it seriously. That deserves our respect. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink
 

03 Jun 2011 13:43

tags

U.S.: Sky Express bus crash: Driver charged with manslaughter

  • crash Early Tuesday morning, a major bus crash killed four people in Virginia, and many others on the 58-passenger bus had to go to the hospital after the bus they were on flipped over.
  • company The government shut down the bus company that owned the vehicle, Sky Express, after the crash; it had garnered many federal safety violations in the past, including driver fatigue.
  • chargesToday, officials charged the driver behind the wheel during the crash, Kin Yiu Cheung, with involuntary manslaughter for the passenger deaths. Fatigue played a role in the crash. source
Posted by Justin Jones • 0 Comments • Permalink

03 Jun 2011 12:18

tags

U.S.: Unemployment creeps upward for second month in a row

  • 9.1% unemployment in May, up from 9% in April  source
  • » That’s a .2% increase since March, when unemployment was looking “good” at 8.9%. A total of 83,000 jobs were added in the (nonfarm) private sector; however, 29,000 governmental employees got the axe last month, bringing the total number of jobs added down to 54,000. Here’s to a better month.
Posted by Seth Millstein • 0 Comments • Permalink

02 Jun 2011 21:25

tags

U.S.: Sony hacked yet again, or LulzSec’s continually-growing rep

  • Not this $@(& again. Somehow, Sony managed to get itself hacked by another group of hackers who want to cause some drama and security issues for them, proving a couple of things: First, screwing with white-hat hackers, as Sony did, is a terrible idea, and they’ve been learning that lesson repeatedly for a solid month or two. Second, Lulzsec appears to be obsessed with drawing as much attention as humanly possible. In a month, they’ve hacked Fox, PBS, Sony and the contestant list to the upcoming “X Factor” show. Seriously? In it for the “Lulz”? These attacks are way too malicious and dangerous for something so innocuous. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink
 
<< newer 
top tags
older >>