US News

Hurricane Earl forces evacuations in North Carolina

Wed, 01 Sep 2010 09:35:43 GMT

Hurricane Earl forces evacuations in North Carolina

Evacuations will begin today in part of North Carolina as Hurricane Earl gathered steam in the Atlantic, threatening East Coast residents and Labor Day weekend travelers.

Renewed calls for US adoption treaty amid new abuse charges

Mon, 30 Aug 2010 10:06:39 GMT

Renewed calls for US adoption treaty amid new abuse charges

Russia’s top advocate of children’s rights Pavel Astakhov said on Sunday that the latest incident with adopted Russian children in the USA once again demonstrated the need for a separate Russian-US treaty on adoptions.

Looking ahead today

Mon, 30 Aug 2010 06:44:23 GMT

Monday

• BP will start removing the temporary cap from its Gulf well so crews can raise the failed blowout preventer from the seafloor.

Work Begins to Remove Oil Spill Cap, Recover Failed Safety Device

Oil giant BP, working in conjunction with the U.S. Coast Guard and Transocean, will today begin a multi-step process to finalize work on the mile-deep well that had been leaking oil and gas into the Gulf of Mexico for much of the summer.

4th Amendment Violating Mobile X-Ray Scanners

Thu, 26 Aug 2010 08:32:17 GMT

4th Amendment Violating Mobile X-Ray Scanners Hit The Streets

As we warned at the beginning of the year, X-ray body scanners currently being used and abused in airports across the world are set to hit the streets as American Science

Feds found Pfizer too big to nail, so they looked the other way on massive fraud

Mon, 23 Aug 2010 09:25:43 GMT

When the world's largest pharmaceutical company was found to have engaged in a massive illegal marketing campaign, federal prosecutors decided the company was too big to punish so they let it set up a shell corporation to take the blame.

In 2001, the FDA approved Bextra for the relief of arthritis and menstrual cramps, but did not approve it for more severe surgical pain. Yet Pfizer aggressively promoted the drug to anesthesiologists and surgeons "anyone that use[d] a scalpel for a living," in the words of one internal company document. Company employees also told doctors that the FDA had approved Bextra as safe in doses as high as 40 milligrams, whereas the agency had actually only approved doses up to 20 milligrams.

Yet when the government threatened Pfizer with prosecution for off-label marketing fraud, it realized that a conviction would, under federal law, require that Pfizer be excluded from Medicare and Medicaid and that this would probably put the company out of business.

"If we prosecute Pfizer, they get excluded," said federal prosecutor Mike Loucks. "A lot of the people who work for the company who haven't engaged in criminal activity would get hurt."

Prosecutors were also concerned that forcing the company out of business might take important drugs off the market.

"We have to ask whether by excluding the company, are we harming our patients," said Lewis Morris of the Department of Health and Human Services.
Read more...

Bodies hung from bridge in Mexico

Mon, 23 Aug 2010 09:01:39 GMT

Bodies hung from bridge in Mexico

Mexican police have said that they found four decapitated and mutilated corpses hung from a bridge outside the Mexican capital.

Troop deaths top 2000 in Afghan war

Mon, 16 Aug 2010 10:02:06 GMT

Troop deaths top 2000 in Afghan war

More than 2,000 foreign troops have died in Afghanistan since the war began in late 2001, according to the independent icasualties.org website.

In all, 2,002 soldiers have been killed since the US-led invasion, including 1,226 Americans and 331 British.

President goes for a swim in the Gulf – or does he?

Mon, 16 Aug 2010 08:57:59 GMT

President Barack Obama wanted to convince America that the Gulf of Mexico remains open for business. But perhaps he didn't want the world to catch another glimpse of his hairless chest.

So when he and his daughter, Sasha, took a dip in the sea off Florida this weekend, only the White House photographer was allowed to capture proceedings.

The official picture was intended to provide evidence that the region's beaches are back to normal. Yet it soon emerged that the private beach on which it was taken, off Alligator Point in St Andrew Bay, north-west Florida, isn't technically in the gulf.

Ah..yes tricked you again..there is no end to the lies...

Look Ahead This Week

Sun, 15 Aug 2010 08:09:40 GMT

Saturday

• In Louisiana, early voting begins for the Aug. 28 congressional primaries.

Sunday

• It's the deadline for 400,000 U.S. service personnel to complete a survey about repealing Don't Ask, Don't Tell, the policy governing homosexuality in the military. A report on the proposed repeal is to be delivered to President Obama by Dec. 1.

Obama Tells All Video: Muslims did not cause 9/11

Sun, 15 Aug 2010 07:53:33 GMT

President Obama backs N.Y. mosque site
Erica Werner / Associated Press

Washington -- President Barack Obama on Friday took a strong stand in favor of building a mosque near the site where Muslim terrorists flew airplanes into the World Trade Center on Sept. 11, breaking his silence on a political tempest.

Voters Strongly Believe Most in Congress Are For Sale

Thu, 12 Aug 2010 02:36:23 GMT

Voters overwhelmingly believe that most members of Congress are for sale, and over half think it’s at least somewhat likely that their own representative has been bought with cash or a campaign contribution.

A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that 70% of U.S. voters believe most members of Congress are willing to sell their vote for cash or a campaign contribution. That’s a 14-point increase from three years ago.

Only 13% don’t think this is true, but another 17% aren’t sure.

Fifty-six percent (56%) say it’s likely that their own representative in Congress has sold his or her vote for either cash or a campaign contribution. Half as many (28%) think it’s unlikely.

Those figures include 28% who say it’s Very Likely that their representative has sold his or her vote. Only nine percent (9%) say it’s Not At All Likely.

The issue of government ethics and corruption has consistently been second only to the economy in terms of importance to voters.

More Polls can be found at Rasmussen Reports

Rasmussen’s daily presidential tracking poll numbers indicate that Obama’s approval index rating has now revisited a low of -22, the weakest level recorded for this President.

This low has been matched despite generally positive media spin in favor of Obama over the last week, even in the face of vociferous criticism even from his own liberal supporters.

“The Rasmussen Reports Media Meter shows that media

Texas Guard, Czech army trains for disaster in Operation Lonestar

Wed, 11 Aug 2010 06:03:50 GMT

For the joint members of the Texas Military Forces, the Department of State Health Services and local civil agencies, preparedness means more than a ready standing force.

With the persistent threat of hurricanes, flooding and seasonal pandemics, preparedness requires a fully trained, joint force capable of engaging a large-scale incident anywhere in the state.