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06 Feb 2012 23:46

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U.S.: Former White House intern’s book claims to expose Kennedy sex scandal

  • An 18-month affair: A former intern for the Kennedy administration plans to release a tell-all book titled “Once Upon a Secret: My Affair with President John F. Kennedy and its Aftermath.” Starting when she was 19, Mimi Alford worked at the White House and claims to have had an 18-month affair with President Kennedy. Alford, who says she lost her virginity to the president, claimed that the president overpowered her, but he did so using his charm, not physically, “because I really think I was willing to do it.” source
Posted by samimain • 0 Comments • Permalink

06 Feb 2012 20:03

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U.S.: Amid molestation scandals, parents keep Miramonte Elementary students home

  • 73% of Miramonte students showed up Monday source
  • » And parents were protesting outside: Roughly three dozen parents and supporters protested outside the L.A.-area school Monday, which has been rocked by two shocking but unrelated allegations of sexual molestation. The first case, involving a former teacher accused of doing unspeakable things to his students (note: trigger warning), was shocking enough; the second case, involving a teacher active until last week, only worsened things, as the allegations against him came out only as a result of the first case. The initial allegations did not lead to parents keeping their children home en masse (as the school had over 90 percent attendance throughout last week), but the second case, however, did. Low attendance hurts the school’s funding, so this hurt financially, but the school will also close Tuesday and Wednesday for emergency staff meetings, so the pain could go even deeper for the school. And things might go deeper: A third allegation at a different school in the region led to the arrest of a janitor.
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

06 Feb 2012 14:20

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Politics: The Onion’s response to the Congressman who mistook one of its articles for the real thing

  • We’re delighted to hear that Rep. Fleming is a regular reader of America’s Finest News Source and doesn’t bother himself with The New York Times, Washington Post, the mediums of television and radio, or any other lesser journalism outlets.
  • The Onion editor Joe Randazzo • In response to the Republican Congressman who mistook an Onion article for the real thing. source
Posted by Seth Millstein • 0 Comments • Permalink

06 Feb 2012 14:11

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Politics: Obama opens up big lead over Romney in general election polling

  • 9 point lead for Obama over Romney in the latest WaPo/ABC News Poll source
  • » It’s the largest lead either candidate has held over one another since The Washington Post/ABC News started polling Romney-Obama match-ups in April of last year. It’s also a huge reversal from just a month ago, when Romney led Obama by one. Why the change? Well, it could be the (slowly) improving economy, or the insanity of the Republican primary taking its toll on all the Republicans, or Romney saying that he’s “not concerned about the very poor” on CNN last week. Or maybe, people are just fickle, and Romney will be twelve points ahead of Obama next week.
Posted by Seth Millstein • 0 Comments • Permalink

06 Feb 2012 10:33

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Tech, World: Google, Facebook forced to block content by Indian high court

  • last month Facing legal complaints that their sites “create enmity, hatred, and communal violence” and “will corrupt minds,” Facebook and Google told an Indian court that they could not block content, and that it would be difficult to pre-screen. The complaint was filed by a journalist, Vinay Rai, who has been on a crusade over this issue.
  • this month Facing an order from the Delhi High Court to block said content from their services, Google and Facebook say they’ve already removed objectionable content, and Facebook has submitted a compliance report to the court on Monday, but not without joining Yahoo and Microsoft in having misgivings on the case. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

06 Feb 2012 10:16

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U.S.: Georgia court strikes down assisted suicide law on free-speech grounds

  • The State has failed to provide any explanation or evidence as to why a public advertisement or offer to assist in an otherwise legal activity is sufficiently problematic to justify an intrusion on protected speech rights.
  • The Georgia Supreme Court • In a unanimous ruling on a 1994 assisted suicide law that said two things — one, it didn’t fully make assisted suicides illegal, and two, it blocked legal forms of free speech, meaning that the law ran smack-first into the First Amendment. As a result of the incident, members of the Final Exit Network, who were facing charges over allegedly helping a cancer-stricken man die, won’t face trial for the incident. The 1994 law, passed in the wake of Jack Kevorkian, made it a felony for anyone who “publicly advertises, offers or holds himself or herself out as offering that he or she will intentionally and actively assist another person in the commission of suicide and commits any overt act to further that purpose.” source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

05 Feb 2012 11:27

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Politics: Annoyed Paul supporters turned away from Nevada caucus for orthodox Jews

  • situation Yesterday’s Nevada caucus happened at a time that was difficult for some Jewish voters to take advantage of, due to the fact that it was happening during the sabbath. This was a problem for Sheldon Adelson, the major Nevada GOP figure who is Jewish. So, partly to account for him, a special later caucus was held after sundown on Saturday night — at a school named after Adelson.
  • problem However, Ron Paul’s camp told some voters — who weren’t Jewish, by the way — that the caucus was a “second chance” for them to vote if they missed earlier caucuses. However, this didn’t happen. Volunteers there would only let people take part if they had religious reasons to be there — a claim subject to perjury laws. “It’s discrimination,” one annoyed 23-year-old voter said. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

05 Feb 2012 11:01

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U.S.: Missing mushroom pickers found alive after six-day ordeal

  • They just got turned around. They sought some shelter in a hollowed-out tree and basically they stayed in the same place. But it was heavy vegetation where they were.
  • Curry County, Ore. Sheriff John Bishop • Discussing the disappearance and later recovery of a family of mushroom pickers who spent six days lost in an an Oregon forest. Considering their situation — lost in a forest in freezing temperatures for roughly six days — the three family members (husband and wife Belinda and Daniel Conne and son Michael) came out of the situation relatively unscathed, with the three suffering only minor injuries. It helped that they largely stayed in the same spot. While the trio could see the helicopters circling them overhead, they had no way of sending them a signal informing them of their presence, slowing things down. The trio were lucky — former CNet editor James Kim died under similar circumstances five years ago. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

04 Feb 2012 13:29

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World: Syria: Hillary Clinton says Russia was unwilling to budge on UN resolution

“I thought that there might be some ways to bridge, even at this last moment, a few of the concerns that the Russians had,” she told the Munich Security Conference. “I offered to work in a constructive manner to do so. That has not been possible.” source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

03 Feb 2012 17:04

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Biz: Mark Zuckerberg won’t enjoy his tax bill after Facebook goes public

  • $1.5 billion in taxes for the Zuck after Facebook’s IPO source
  • » Why? Zuck plans to sell some of his shares: Back in 2005, Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg received a set of new stock options for his company. With said company looking to  go public, Zuckerberg will exercise those shares before the IPO, effectively buying them at the price they were worth back then, and sell them after the IPO, effectively setting himself up for a windfall of nearly $5 billion … and one of the largest tax bills in history. It’s not like he’s gonna be broke, though — in fact, he’ll still be worth $24 billion by the end of it, much of that invested in his company. So hard for him, gotta tell you guys.
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink
 
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