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via Tyler Kingkade, The Huffington Post Even members of Congress are carrying student debt. Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) is $100,000 in the hole for student loans he took out in the 1990’s — and could owe as much as $250,000. The exact figure is unknown because members of Congress are allowed to report financial holdings … Continue reading
via Chad Livengood, Detroit News House Republicans tried to silence two female Democratic lawmakers Thursday for floor outbursts a day earlier referencing male sterilization and a female sex organ. The majority party prohibited state Rep. Lisa Brown from speaking on the floor Thursday after she ended a speech the day before against a bill restricting … Continue reading
via, The AP, Fox News A high-profile member of the Boy Scouts of America’s governing board says he doesn’t support the Scouts’ policy of excluding gays and will work from within to seek a change. Ernst & Young CEO James Turley, whose accounting firm has welcomed gays and lesbians in its own work force, becomes … Continue reading
via Noreen Ahmed-Ullah and Joel Hood, Chicago Tribune The Chicago Teachers Union says nearly 90 percent of its members have voted to authorize a strike, far more than the required 75 percent. At a news conference announcing results of the vote, CTU President Karen Lewis said they show how the relationship between the Chicago Board … Continue reading
via Len Lazarick, The Chestertown Spy The right and the left agree on a few things about current trends in voting laws: democracy is being threatened by a desire to win elections and wield power. But at panels a mile apart this weekend, the two sides presented very different views of the state of election … Continue reading
via Don Lee, Chicago Tribune The Great Recession took such a heavy toll on the economy that the typical American family lost nearly 40% of its wealth from 2007 to 2010, shaving the median net worth to a level not seen since the early 1990s. The Federal Reserve said in a new report Monday that median family net … Continue reading
via Laura Bassett, The Huffington Post A massive, 60-page omnibus bill that drastically limits abortion access and could shut down all abortion clinics in the state is being rushed through the Michigan State House of Representatives on Thursday. The bill was introduced just last week, but lawmakers held a hearing for it on Thursday morning … Continue reading
via Jessica Hopper, NBC Rock Center When Helen and Jay Stassen’s 21-year-old son, Benjamin, committed suicide 19 months ago, he did not leave a note. If it had been 20 years ago, the Stassens might have looked through diaries, letters or other personal items in an attempt to find clues as to why he decided … Continue reading
via E.J. Dionne, Jr., The Washington Post The left will make a big mistake if it ignores the lessons of the failed recall in Wisconsin of Gov. Scott Walker (R). The right will make an even bigger error if it allows the Wisconsin results to feed its inclination toward winner-take-all politics. The danger on the … Continue reading
via Douglas Belkin and Caroline Porter, The Wall Street Journal Wisconsin voters headed to the polls Tuesday to decide whether to recall Republican Gov. Scott Walker in a bitter dispute over his efforts to curb unions that could affect the presidential race and influence policy toward organized labor nationwide. More than $60 million has flooded … Continue reading
via Jennifer Bendery, The Huffington Post President Barack Obama on Monday dropped in on a White House press call to urge the Senate to pass legislation that ensures women are paid the same amount as their male counterparts. “Tomorrow, Congress is going to have a chance to vote on the Paycheck Fairness Act,” Obama said … Continue reading
via David Ignatius, The Washington Post As an intelligence operation, it must have seemed like pure genius: Recruit a Pakistani doctor to collect blood samples that could identify Osama bin Laden’s family, under cover of an ongoing vaccination program. But as an ethical matter, it was something else. The CIA’s vaccination gambit put at risk … Continue reading
via MSNBC A federal appeals court has ruled that the Defense of Marriage Act, a law that denies a host of federal benefits to same-sex married couples, is unconstitutional. The 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Boston ruled Thursday that the act known as DoMA, which defines marriage as a union between a man … Continue reading
via Sophia Tareen, The Huffington Post More than two dozen gay and lesbian couples filed lawsuits Wednesday arguing that it’s unconstitutional for Illinois to deny them the right to marry, a move advocates hope will lead to legalized same-sex marriage in the state. The two lawsuits – backed by the American Civil Liberties Union of … Continue reading
via Jonathan Benson, Natural News The vast majority of so-called scientific studies focused on cancer research are inaccurate and potentially fraudulent, suggests a new review published in the journal Nature. A shocking 88 percent of 53 “landmark” studies on cancer that have been published in reputable journals over the years cannot be reproduced, according to … Continue reading
via Tim Padgett, Time Drug thugs dumped 49 bloodied and dismembered corpses on a northern Mexican highway on Sunday, May 13. We journalists are finding little new to say, few fresh insights to offer, about these all too frequent narco-massacres in Mexico and the 50,000 people murdered so far in the country’s endless drug war. … Continue reading
via David Brooks, The New York Times As a young man, Peter Thiel competed to get into Stanford. Then he competed to get into Stanford Law School. Then he competed to become a clerk for a federal judge. Thiel won all those competitions. But then he competed to get a Supreme Court clerkship. Thiel lost … Continue reading
via Guy Adams, The Independent Declaring that “life must always be protected”, a senior Vatican cleric has defended the Catholic Church’s decision to excommunicate the mother and doctors of a nine-year-old rape victim who had a life-saving abortion in Brazil. Cardinal Giovanni Batista Re, who heads the Pontifical Commission for Latin America, told reporters that … Continue reading
via Laura Bassett, The Huffington Post Franciscan University of Steubenville, a Catholic institution in Ohio, has decided to drop its entire student health insurance plan as of the fall semester 2012 because of the new federal rule requiring contraception coverage under most employee and student health policies. While a number of religious colleges have filed … Continue reading
via Ruth Marcus, The Washington Post President Obama is walking a tightrope on same-sex marriage, teetering between his stated view that marriage is the province of the states and his legal position that refusal to recognize same-sex marriage can violate the Constitution. In his interview with ABC’s Robin Roberts, the president emphasized the traditional state … Continue reading
via Zachary Bernstein, ThinkProgress The Missouri House passed a “conscience bill” yesterday to allow health care workers to deny health care to women. Under the law, medical professionals cannot be fired or discriminated against for refusing to provide contraception or perform abortions if it conflicted with their personal views, while employers do not have to … Continue reading
via Marcus Wohlsen, The Huffington Post A watchful eye has arrived on San Francisco’s bar scene, but not to keep you in check. It just wants to check you out. A new app launched this weekend that will scan the faces of patrons in 25 bars across the city to determine their ages and genders. … Continue reading
via Ed Pilkington, The Guardian Democratic politicians in Virginia are weighing up their options in the wake of the general assembly’s vote to block the appointment of the state’s first openly gay judge. Senior Democrats expressed their dismay and outrage at the vote in the House of Delegates to reject a prominent local prosecutor, Tracy … Continue reading
via Matt Krantz, USA TODAY Facebook shares jumped 13% to $43 as the stock opened in the frenzied first minutes of trading Friday, but just as quckly the price slid, tas investors stormed Wall Street to trade shares of the world’s leading social networking company. The stock rose $5 from its initial price of $38 … Continue reading
via Erika Niedowski, The Huffington Post Rhode Island’s governor on Monday declared that the state will recognize same-sex marriages performed elsewhere, giving gay couples the same rights as heterosexual ones when it comes to health insurance and a slew of other benefits. The order signed by Gov. Lincoln Chafee in a Statehouse ceremony directs state … Continue reading
The Brandt Standard 