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NEWS MONDAY, MAY
12 , 2008 NEWS
EARLY EDITION
Tornadoes
Tear Across Central U.S.
Crews and search dogs hunted Sunday for survivors or bodies in piles
of debris after tornadoes and storms rumbled across the region a day earlier
and killed at least 23 people in three states. Seven people died in Picher,
once a bustling mining center of 20,000 that dwindled to about 800 people
as families fled lead pollution here, and officials held out hope that
they wouldn't find any more bodies. Residents said the tornado created
a surreal scene as it tore through town Saturday afternoon, injuring 150
people, overturning cars, damaging dozens of homes and throwing mattresses
and twisted metal high into the canopy of trees. Fox
News
Families
Will Make Case For Vaccine Link To Autism
Families claiming that a mercury-based preservative in vaccines triggers
autism will challenge mainstream medicine today as they take their case
to a federal court. They seek vindication and financial redress from a
government fund that helps people injured by shots. Two 10-year-old boys
from Portland, Ore., will serve as the test cases that determine whether
the children and their families should be compensated. Attorneys for the
boys will attempt to show the boys were happy, healthy and developing normally.
But, after being exposed to vaccines with thimerosal, they began to regress
and show symptoms of autism. ABC
News
Confusing
Ballot Designs Still Plague Elections
The solution should have been a no-brainer, voting experts say. After
all, it was a badly designed ballot that enflamed the 2000 election meltdown
and introduced the vagaries of chads to the political lexicon pregnant,
hanging and otherwise. So it would seem that redesigning ballots to make
them simpler should have been a high priority. But that hasn't been the
case, voting experts say. Eight years after the fiasco in Florida's Palm
Beach County, confusing ballots continue to stymie voters and plague elections
in this primary season. Newsday
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Obama
Camp: Clinton Not Looking For A Deal
Sen. Barack Obama's presidential campaign rejected suggestions Sunday
that Sen. Hillary Clinton is staying in the race in hopes of brokering
some kind of agreement with the likely Democratic nominee. Sen. Hillary
Clinton isn't interested in the No. 2 spot, her campaign said Sunday. Last
week, Obama sparked rumors that his campaign would pay off Clinton's campaign
debts once he secured the nomination. Obama on Sunday called the discussion
"premature," and said he believes Clinton "will have the capacity to retire
her debt." CNN
Edwards:
Clinton Now A Stronger Candidate
Former Democratic presidential candidate John Edwards said that in
recent weeks Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton has become a stronger candidate,
and has made a compelling base for her continued candidacy for the nomination.
However, Edwards said, the math is very, very hard for her. Edwards, told
Face The Nation host Bob Schieffer that his own reasons for pulling out
of the race for the White House came out of both a recognition that he
would not accumulate enough delegates to secure the nomination and that
his continued candidacy would likely prolong the selection of a nominee.
CBS
News
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Drilling
For Oil … In Downtown L.A.
Record prices are prompting oil prospectors to renew interest in drilling
in Los Angeles, where urban sprawl, environmental opponents and decades
of production make for one of the world's toughest oil fields. "We're more
active than ever," says Venoco, which is running wells and reviving old
ones in the city and elsewhere in California. Oil has been produced in
Los Angeles since the early 1900s, directly offshore as well as along city
streets. To meet the demands of environmental opponents and gain needed
permits, oil drillers have come up with a variety of methods to disguise
oil wells so that most passersby don't even know oil drilling is going
on. ABC
News
Insurance
Model Follows American Tradition
Call it Obamacare or call it Clintoncare. But don't call it "socialized
medicine." And don't think that the health care systems that Barack Obama
and Hillary Clinton have promised to put into effect if they get into the
White House would be anything like the universal health coverage offered
in Great Britain or Canada. Clinton and Obama aren't proposing government
hospitals or government doctors. They want people to have health insurance,
and they want people to be able to choose from a variety of policies. The
menu would include private plans as well as an option similar to Medicare.
Tax breaks would help lower- and middle-income people pay their monthly
premiums. Las
Vegas Sun
VOA VIEW: Liberal media cover-up.
Gas
Prices Knock Bicycle Sales
Four-dollar-a-gallon gas is good for business, if you run a bike shop.
Commuters around the country are dusting off their old two-wheelers or
buying new ones to cope with rising fuel prices, bicycle dealers say. About
18 million bicycles have been sold annually in the U.S. over the past few
years, accounting for about $6 billion in annual sales. Bicycle shops across
the country are reporting strong sales so far this year, and more people
are bringing in bikes that have been idled for years. Newsday
Dollar
Bulls Gain Control As Futures Signal Euro Close To Peak
For the first time since December 2005, futures traders are turning
bullish on the dollar. The difference in the number of wagers by hedge
funds and other large speculators on a gain in the greenback versus the
euro, known as net longs, was 21,315 on April 29, figures from the Commodity
Futures Trading Commission in Washington show. There were net-short positions
in each of the previous 123 weeks. At the same time, traders have stepped
up their purchases of options that profit from the dollar's appreciation.
Bloomberg
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Feminists
Divided Over Clinton And Obama
No constituency is more eager to see a woman win the presidency than
America's feminists, yet despite Hillary Rodham Clinton's historic candidacy
the women's movement finds itself wrenchingly divided over the Democratic
race as it heads toward the finish.At breakfast forums, in op-ed columns,
across the blogosphere, the debate has been heartfelt and sometimes bitter.
Are the activist women supporting front-runner Barack Obama betraying their
gender? Are Clinton's feminist backers mired in an outdated, women's-liberation
mind-set? CNN
Supreme Court Avoiding
5-4 Decisions
This could be the Supreme Court term, one court watcher joked recently,
that Justice John Paul Stevens remembers he is a Republican. A 1975 appointee
of President Gerald Ford, Stevens is regarded as the anchor of the court's
liberal wing. But he has joined with his more conservative colleagues in
three high-profile cases that defied predictions they would showcase deep
ideological divisions on the court. Last term was marked by an unusually
high number of 5-4 decisions, and many experts believed this term's notable
cases would produce similar outcomes. But the biggest cases decided so
far upholding lethal injection procedures, photo identification requirements
for voters and Texas' treatment of a Mexican on death row have had six
or seven justices, including Stevens, in agreement on the outcome. MSNBC
Retail
Sales Probably Dropped
Sales at U.S. retailers probably fell in April as the biggest housing
slump in a quarter century, record gasoline prices and the loss of jobs
took their toll, economists said before reports this week. Purchases fell
0.2 percent, following a 0.2 percent gain the prior month, according to
the median estimate in a Bloomberg survey before the Commerce Department's
May 13 report. Other reports may show housing starts fell to a 17-year
low and rising food and fuel prices continued to push up the cost of living.
Bloomberg
Renault-Nissan
Seen Investing Up To $1 Bln In Electric Car
The head of an electric car project estimated that its partner, the
Renault-Nissan alliance, would likely invest $500 million to $1 billion
in the swappable-battery electric cars. Renault and Nissan signed a deal
with Better Place in January to begin mass producing electric cars as a
part of a project to develop alternative energy sources and slash oil dependency.
Better Place will build the first electric grids in Israel and Denmark,
with initial deployment slated for 2010. Reuters
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Number
Of Disabled Veterans Rising
Increasing numbers of U.S. troops have left the military with damaged
bodies and minds, an ever-larger pool of disabled veterans that will cost
the country billions of dollars for decades to come even as the total population
of America's veterans shrinks. Despite the decline in the total number
of veterans as soldiers from World War II and Korea die the government
expects to be spending $59 billion a year to compensate injured warriors
in 25 years, up from today's $29 billion, according to internal documents
obtained by The Associated Press. And the Veterans Affairs Department concedes
the bill could be much higher. Fox
News
The
Price Of Bananas
For American corporations, the rewards of doing business abroad
are enormous, but so are the risks. And over the past 25 years no place
has been more perilous than Colombia, a country that is just beginning
to emerge from the throes civil war and narco-terrorism. Chiquita Brands
International of Cincinnati, Ohio, found out the hard way. It made millions
growing bananas there, only to emerge with its reputation splattered in
blood after acknowledging it had paid nearly $2 million in protection money
to a murderous paramilitary group that has killed or massacred thousands
of people. CBS
News
Cablevision
Near Deal To Buy Newsday
Tribune Co is close to an agreement to sell its Newsday newspaper to
Cablevision Systems Corp and an announcement could come as early as Monday,
a source familiar with the situation said on Sunday. Newsday reported that
the deal would be valued at $650 million, according to a report on the
Long Island newspaper's website. The agreement was expected after Rupert
Murdoch's News Corp said on Saturday it was withdrawing its $580 million
bid for Newsday. A Tribune spokesman declined to comment. Cablevision was
not immediately available for comment. Reuters
At
Least 427 US Military Deaths In Afghanistan
As of Sunday, May 11, 2008, at least 427 members of the U.S. military
had died in Afghanistan, Pakistan and Uzbekistan as a result of the U.S.
invasion of Afghanistan in late 2001, according to the Defense Department.
The department last updated its figures May 3 at 10 a.m. EDT. Las
Vegas Sun
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Britain
Warns Of 'Unimaginable Tragedy'
Britain warned of an "epic" humanitarian disaster unfolding in Burma
in the wake of the cyclone, even as international relief finally began
to trickle into the stricken country.The foreign secretary, David Miliband,
criticised the military regime over its failure to swiftly open up to international
aid for its suffering millions and predicted that if it did not alter course
soon the massive death toll could rise dramatically. The blunt message
over the generals' lack of urgency came as aid agencies echoed his fear,
warning of an "unimaginable tragedy" if significant amounts of relief did
not arrive quickly to stave off disease. Guardian
US:
Israel, Palestinians Need To Show Progress
The Bush administration has told Israeli and Palestinian leaders they
will need to show progress in their secret talks soon, or risk a potentially
fatal erosion in public support for a process now in its sixth month without
any obvious successes. The news comes as President George W. Bush is scheduled
to visit Israel and Arab states starting Tuesday, adding to public pressure
to demonstrate that US-sponsored peace talks are bearing fruit. Jerusalem
Post
Nepal
Arrests 560 Tibetan Women
Nepalese police have arrested some 560 Tibetan women, including many
Buddhist nuns, after breaking up demonstrations against China's crackdown
in Tibet. In the first example of all-women protests, three rallies in
Kathmandu were quickly stopped by police. It was the biggest round-up since
Tibetan exiles began near daily demonstrations in March. Protestors wearing
black armbands wept and shouted ''We want free Tibet" as they were dragged
to police vans. Police said those detained were being held in detention
centres around the capital, and would be freed later. BBC
Hizbullah
Seizes Key Areas Of Lebanon
Iranian-backed Hizbullah and its opposition allies yesterday escalated
their armed takeover of key areas of Lebanon held by the western-backed
government, gaining control of the Druze heartlands of Mount Lebanon and
clashing with pro-government Sunni fighters in the northern port city of
Tripoli. The pro-government Druze leader, Waleed Jumblatt, who had controlled
the mountain areas south-east of Beirut for generations, ordered his fighters
to stand down after fierce clashes with Hizbullah militants in which both
sides kidnapped and executed rival supporters. Guardian
'Ghost
City' Mosul Braces For Assault
Mosul looks like a city of the dead. American and Iraqi troops have
launched an attack aimed at crushing the last bastion of al- Qa'ida in
Iraq and in doing so have turned the country's northern capital into a
ghost town. Soldiers shoot at any civilian vehicle on the streets in defiance
of a strict curfew. Two men, a woman and child in one car which failed
to stop were shot dead yesterday by US troops, who issued a statement saying
the men were armed and one made "threatening movements". Independent
News
1000s
Protest Drug Violence In Mexico
Thousands of white-clad people marched silently to protest a surge
of drug-related violence in a Mexican city across from Texas where the
No. 2 police officer was shot dead. The crowd of several thousand students,
church leaders, businessmen and politicians walked for about four miles
across Ciudad Juarez to a park near a border crossing, breaking the silence
in a burst of speeches, dancing and singing. More than 200 people have
been killed so far this year in Ciudad Juarez. The city of 1.3 million
across the border from El Paso, Texas, is home base for the powerful Juarez
drug cartel. Jerusalem
Post
Burma Cyclone
Raises Rice Prices
Rice prices have risen for a sixth consecutive day as global supplies
continue to be stretched by cyclone damage to crops in Burma. With worldwide
demand also at a record high, the cost of rice rose as much as 5.1% to
$23.45 per 100lb in electronic trading on the Chicago Board of Trade. Rice
prices had already hit all-time highs after some weak harvests. The rice
market is dealing with some serious issues right now The price of US long-grain
rice - the global benchmark - has now risen by almost two-thirds since
the start of this year. This increase has been replicated around the world,
with Thai and Indian rice prices going up by similar amounts. Burma is
the world's sixth largest rice producer. BBC
Mangroves
Would Have Protected Villagers
Tens of thousands of people died in the Cyclone Nargis disaster because
vital mangrove forests had been cut down, destroying the land's protection
against the sea. Far more people were killed by a 12ft wave which stormed
ashore during the violent storm than by its 120mph winds, the Burmese government
admits. But the wave could only be so devastating because the thick mangrove
forests had been almost entirely destroyed; intact, they would have absorbed
much of the power of the sea. Eighty-three per cent of the mangroves of
the Irrawaddy delta, the area worst hit by the cyclone, have been cleared
since 1924, first to grow rice, and more recently by people desperate for
fuel.
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