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10 Jan 2012 14:18

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U.S.: Panel awards compensation to victims of North Carolina eugenics program

  • $50,000 for each victim sterilized source
  • » This is justice? For some background, from 1929 to 1974, the North Carolina engaged in a eugenics program ostensibly designed to remove criminals and the mentally disturbed from the gene pool through state-mandated sterilization. Pretty heinous, right? Well, the panel decided to award the above figure to all “verified” victims (the state estimates between 1,500 and 2,000 victims may still be alive, but only 72 are verified). As it happens, $50,000 is about double the average yearly income in North Carolina, a pretty modest compensation for having the very right to create life stripped for all time by the state.
Posted by Chris Tognotti • 0 Comments • Permalink

10 Jan 2012 11:22

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U.S.: Small Alaskan town gets all the snow the rest of the country isn’t getting

  • 18′ amount of snow, in feet, that has fallen in the town of Cordova, Alaska this winter
  • 6′ amount of snow, in feet, that has fallen in the past few days alone; it’s reaching a crisis level source
  • » How bad is it getting? To put it simply, the remote Alaskan town needs help. According to one resident, “there is getting to be more snow in Cordova than people and shovels to deal with it.” In some cases, buildings have collapsed. The city’s mayor has already declared a state of emergency and called the National Guard. And they’re not alone: In Nome, in the same state but 700 miles away, they’re waiting on an ice tanker with necessary fuel — and it’s moving very, very slowly.
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

09 Jan 2012 20:58

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U.S.: Polygamist sect leader Warren Jeffs can’t call his followers anymore

Bro just had his privileges taken away for three months after prison officials realized his phone calls were getting put on speakerphone — essentially allowing him to lead his flock from prison. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

08 Jan 2012 23:02

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U.S.: Gabrielle Giffords, one year later: How an error defined real-time news

  • The sausage was being made in front of our eyes, with all of the messiness that analogy implies.
  • Poynter’s Craig Silverman • Discussing the Gabrielle Giffords shooting one year ago today, as well as the way the media covered it on Twitter. Very notably that day, NPR tweeted that Giffords had died of a gunshot wound to the head, and a number of media outlets reported it, when she in fact hadn’t. Silverman, who runs Regret the Error for Poynter, kept a Storify from that day. It was a key moment for the real-time news movement, and a decision that once might’ve played behind closed doors is now in plain sight. It reflects the new world we live in as both news producers and news consumers — one where the errors play out in the open. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

06 Jan 2012 19:35

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U.S.: Mistakenly-deported teenage girl returned to U.S. after outcry

  • Our day has been hectic, hers is too, just as long as she makes it home, just as long as she gets here.
  • Johnisa Turner • Discussing the fate of her 15-year-old daughter, Jakadrien Lorece Turner, who returned to the U.S. on Friday after mistakenly getting deported from the country in May. Jakadrien, a runaway, apparently used a fake name that just happened to be that of an undocumented immigrant from Colombia, leading to the deportation. The U.S. government and Colombian government have gone back and forth over who was at fault for the deportation — with many concerned the U.S. didn’t do due diligence when deporting the girl. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

06 Jan 2012 10:06

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U.S.: Ohio earthquakes may be man-made byproduct of “fracking”

  • These earthquakes were sitting there waiting to happen. We have triggered these earthquakes.
  • Seismologist John Armbruster • Discussing the recent string of earthquakes in Ohio. If you live in that state, you might have noticed up to a dozen small earthquakes since last spring. There hasn’t been a measured earthquake in the area ever until last March. Apparently, the disposing of waste water into the ground (during a energy-releasing process called “fracking”) may have flowed into an earthquake fault line. This same problem has happened in Oklahoma, Texas and Arkansas. In Arkansas alone, 1,000 mini-quakes were measured. source
Posted by samimain • 0 Comments • Permalink

05 Jan 2012 14:39

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U.S.: U.S. cancer death rates on the decline

  • 1.8% decline in cancer deaths for men in the U.S. from 2004 through 2008
  • 1.6% decline in cancer deaths for women in the U.S. over the same period source
  • » The march of medical advancement: That’s what’s being touted as the cause for this heartening reversal of trend, as reported by the American Cancer Society’s annual report. The news isn’t entirely as rosy as it might be — some less pervasive types of cancer, such as pancreas, kidney, liver and esophageal have seen their incidences rise. The most common types — lung, breast, colon, and prostate — all saw declines, however, with black and Hispanic men demographically showing the most improvement in avoiding the lethal diseases.
Posted by Chris Tognotti • 0 Comments • Permalink
 

05 Jan 2012 10:13

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U.S.: Iowa judge favors married same-sex couple in birth certificate case

  • cause The Iowa Department of Public Health told a married same-sex couple they couldn’t put both their names on their child’s birth certificate.
  • reaction The couple sued, saying it went against a 2009 decision by the Iowa Supreme Court that legalized same-sex marriages.
  • result A district court judge ruled in favor of the couple, scolding officials for not interpreting older laws in light of the 2009 decision. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

03 Jan 2012 15:10

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U.S.: NASA scientist denounces 2012 apocalypse theories

  • Nibiru is ridiculous because it doesn’t exist — it never existed as anything but a figment of the imagination by pseudo-scientists who don’t seem bothered by a complete lack of evidence.
  • Dan Yeomans, director of NASA’s Near-Earth Object program • Dismissing some of the 2012 apocalyptic theorizing that’s become something of a cultural meme leading up to this year. The fear that Earth will be struck by a planetary body known as Nibiru (also sometimes called “Planet X”) represents one such theory, distinct from  similarly stoked fears about whether the Mayan calendar can somehow forecast the end of the world. source
Posted by Chris Tognotti • 0 Comments • Permalink

03 Jan 2012 10:30

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U.S.: 2012 in gay rights: Hawaii, Delaware legalize civil unions, couples cheer

  • aloha “We really don’t want to wait any longer because we have been together for 33 years waiting for the opportunity and our rights and everything that goes with it,” said Donna Gedge. She and her wife Monica were one of four couples to receive civil unions in Hawaii as the new year rang in Sunday.
  • not alone Now 11 states (plus D.C.) recognize same-sex civil unions or gay marriage. Hawaii and Delaware just joined the ranks of Massachusetts, Connecticut, Iowa (as a good friend of ours reminded everyone last night), Vermont, New Hampshire, New York, Illinois, New Jersey and Rhode Island. source
Posted by samimain • 0 Comments • Permalink
 
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