Newspapers go green ... In a manner of speaking
by Stephen C. Webster
Writers with two mainstream American newspapers took on the issue of marijuana today. And here's the shocker: both articles are outstanding.In the San Francisco Chronicle, Bob Egelko explores the questions surrounding medical marijuana defendants charged under Bush-era policies that don't sync with the Obama administration's position on the matter. |
After mashed potatoes comment, Thornton professes love for Canada
by Nick Patch
TORONTO - A day after Billy Bob Thornton said Canadian audiences were like mashed potatoes without gravy, the actor professed his love for the Great White North.Thornton talked briefly to reporters before going into Massey Hall on Thursday night for a performance with his band, the Boxmasters. The group was opening for Willie Nelson. |
Is Gates Channeling Cheney on Iraq with 'Last Gasp' Remark?
by Nancy A. Youssef
WASHINGTON - Midway through a week of mayhem in Iraq, Defense Secretary Robert Gates raised eyebrows when he said the recent resurgence of violence in Baghdad was "a last gasp" of Islamic extremists.It was an echo of former Vice President Dick Cheney, who in 2005 said the insurgency was "in the last throes." The following two years were the deadliest period of the war. |
Obama's Easter message: No progress without cooperation
by Raw Story
US President Barack Obama on Saturday urged nations of the world to unite to resolve the most pressing global challenges -- from extremism to environmental pollution to the economic crisis.In a weekly radio address timed to Easter and Passover celebrations, Obama cautioned that the world remained a dangerous place, and people must be strong and vigilant in the face of multiple threats. |
Madoff syndrome strikes California Mormons
by bfwebster
Comes this news from California: FOLSOM, CA - A Folsom investment firm that allegedly ran a $40 million Ponzi scheme drew largely from members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, according to federal investigators. Equity Investment Management and Trading, Inc. was headed up by Anthony Vassallo, 29. A professional networking Web site indicates Vassallo attended Brigham Young University between 1998 and 2003. |
Poll: Three-quarters favor relations with Cuba
by CNN
(CNN) -- A new poll shows that two-thirds of Americans surveyed think the U.S. should lift its travel ban on Cuba, and three-quarters think the U.S. should end its five-decade estrangement with the country. According to the CNN/Opinion Research Corp. poll conducted April 3 to 5, 64 percent of the 1,023 Americans surveyed by telephone thought the U.S. government should allow citizens to travel to Cuba. |
March budget defict sets record
by Martin Crutsinger
The Treasury Department said Friday that the budget deficit increased by $192.3 billion in March, and is near $1 trillion just halfway through the budget year, as costs of the financial bailout and recession mount.Last month's deficit, a record for March, was significantly higher than the $150 billion that economists expected. |
Pledge of Allegiance: Virginia School Superintendent Needs to Get Schooled
by Tamara Dietrich
Hampton Schools Superintendent Patrick Russo (prusso@sbo.hampton.k12.va.us) walked into spokeswoman Ann Stephens-Cherry's office recently and told her that she needed to "address" something.Daily Press reporter Samieh Shalash didn't always stand for the Pledge of Allegiance at School Board meetings, he said, and while two attorneys told him that it wasn't illegal for her to remain seated, they all agreed it was disrespectful. |
Water Crisis Rocks LA, Mexico City; Who's Next?
by Martin Sieff
WASHINGTON -- Water, water hardly anywhere. Water crises are rocking two of the world's largest cities as Mexico City starts a 36-hour water cutoff and Los Angeles is in the midst of a water dearth.The problem, however, is far wider than two of the most populous cities in the Western Hemisphere. Beijing, the capital of China, has a serious water shortage. The Israelis and the Palestinians are at loggerheads over control of the key aquifers west of the River Jordan that are vital to sustain both peoples. An unprecedented world population of 6.8 billion people -- more than three times that of 80 years ago -- and the inexorable reality of global climate change are guaranteed to make the long-term crisis worse. |
Biden's Puppy Breeder: "Never, Never, Never Again"
by Karen Ariza
Fifteen minutes of fame turned into four months of bitter remorse for the Chester County woman who sold the Bidens their adorable little German shepherd puppy.Linda Brown's been investigated, scorned and had her life threatened."I thought when Joe Biden bought a puppy from me, what an honor," Brown told the Daily Local News. "Out of millions of breeders in the country, in the world, he picked me." |
Obama not worthy of honorary degree, Arizona State University decides
by Rachel Oswald
Though it's tradition to present a college commencement speaker with an honorary degree, in the eyes of one Arizona school, their commencement speaker this year -- President Obama -- has not done anything yet that would merit such an honor.Arizona State University has announced that it will not award an honorary degree to Obama when he gives the school's commencement speech on May. 13. |
GOP Rep.'s campaign funds lose $703,500 in stock market
by Muriel Kane
Reports that the campaign accounts of Rep. Joe Barton (R-TX) have lost $703,500 in the stock market since last year are raising eyebrows. Barton is the ranking Republican member -- and former chair -- of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, and several of the firms in which his campaign holds stock have a stake in bills handled by that Committee. |
The Obama Holiday Tour
by Gail Collins
Happy holidays! This is one of those times of year when families and friends can forget their troubles and join together for a Passover seder, as President Obama did on Thursday, or commemorate Easter with the traditional egg hunt, as President Obama will do on Monday. Americans with less religious inclinations can look forward to the upcoming Earth Day celebrations, when the president is planning to do something as yet unannounced, but undoubtedly special, and Arbor Day, when rumor has it that he will not just plant a tree, but personally reforest a large swath of the nation of Mali. |
No End in Sight
by Mike Whitney
It's been 21 months since two Bear Stearns hedge funds defaulted setting off a series of events which have led to the gravest economic crisis since the Great Depression. No one expected the financial meltdown to hit this hard or spread this fast. The failure at Bear triggered a freeze in the secondary market where mortgage loans are repackaged into securities and sold to investors. That market is now completely paralyzed cutting off 40 percent of funding for consumer and business loans and thrusting the broader economy into a deep recession. Banks and financial institutions have been forced to curtail their off-balance sheet operations and build their reserves which have ballooned from $45 billion to nearly $700 billion in the last 6 months alone. Like millions of homeowners who have seen their home equity vanish and their retirement savings slashed in half, the banks are hunkering down hoping they can outlast the deflationary hurricane ahead. |
Brother can you spare a dime: Storefronts, senior citizens & stimulus packages
by Jane Stillwater
Here in Berkeley, there's a big debate raging right now. Does that mean that we are all busy debating Berkeley's usual political hot-button topics such as whether or not it's fair that Israeli neo-cons can pump thousands of rockets into Gaza, kill over 900 un-armed civilians and still not get in trouble with the UN -- but if North Korea even dares to try to launch even one measly fizzling rocket into the freaking Pacific, the UN is all over the DPRK like white on rice? Nope. That's not the hot debate topic in Berkeley these days. |
Is Inciting Sedition The Latest Republican Strategy?
by Stephen Rose
Back in June of 2008 I wrote a blog entitled, “Surround Barack Obama With Protective Energy.” Most of the over 2000 readers “got” the point, the need to protect by any means a man who, by his very nature, would incite many against him. After all, he was half Black, and his liberal-leaning ideas would most assuredly seem threatening to many within the economic “Establishment” and, by definition, the right wing. Little did I know at the time just how important the need for protection might become. |
