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Information from some sites may not be reliable, or may not be vetted.
Some sources may require subscription.
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from CNN
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from Daily Mail (UK)
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from Fox News
BOMBSHELL: Atty Says IRS Letters Prove Obama Admin Not Being Truthful
Jay Sekulow announces lawsuit from 25 conservative groups against IRS, reveals explosive letters from the IRS.
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from The Jerusalem Post
Encountering Peace: Kerry can succeed
Kerry’s shuttling back and forth between the parties, carrying the sides’ positions on the issues in fact enables the mediator to do just that – mediate and propose bridging solutions to close the gaps.
Obama states: Peace - Palestinian statehood "is necessary", "peace is just", "peace is possible".
EU move to arm Syria rebels shows war will escalate
Political solution unlikely with splintered opposition and the distance between Assad and rebels’ positions; France, UK will have to smuggle weapons into Syria, triggering response from the Assad regime.
UN official urges powers not to send arms to Syria
Navi Pillay tells forum after EU Syria arms embargo expires powers should press both sides in Syria to find political solution.
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Hang Up on Robocall Insurance Scammers
Robocalls are telling people they've qualified for a lower car insurance rate.
Why Modern Appliances Don’t Last
Think your new appliance isn't as good as the old one? You might be right. Here's what you can do to minimize the repair cost.
The Republican Party Lies More Than Democrats, Study Finds
Smithfield Foods To Be Sold To Chinese Firm For $4.72 Billion
Michele Bachmann retiring under fire
EU move to arm Syria rebels shows war will escalate
Political solution unlikely with splintered opposition and the distance between Assad and rebels’ positions; France, UK will have to smuggle weapons into Syria, triggering response from the Assad regime.
UN official urges powers not to send arms to Syria
Navi Pillay tells forum after EU Syria arms embargo expires powers should press both sides in Syria to find political solution.
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from Money Talks News
Robocalls are telling people they've qualified for a lower car insurance rate.
Think your new appliance isn't as good as the old one? You might be right. Here's what you can do to minimize the repair cost.
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from The National Memo
[Information from this site may not be reliable.]The Republican Party Lies More Than Democrats, Study Finds
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from NPR
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from POLITICO
Michele Bachman photo galary
Moments from the political career of the Minnesota Republican lawmaker and former presidential candidate.
Moments from the political career of the Minnesota Republican lawmaker and former presidential candidate.
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from The Spokesman-Review
Russia’s pledge to supply regime in Syria prompts Israeli warning
Spokane pays tribute to fallen Fairchild airmen
Gerlach to be charged with manslaughter for shooting car thief
City braces for budget cuts despite strong sales taxes
Some officials, union leaders think early deficit forecast is high
Reports boost economic hopes
Astronauts dock at station from Russian spacecraft
Colorado marijuana laws signed
Planned Parenthood case declined
Supreme Court refuses to hear controversial suit
Obama, Christie visit site of storm
Truck and train trigger big blast
Derailed train held chemicals
Quintuplets born in Utah
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In brief: From Wire Reports:
WASHINGTON – The chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee issued subpoenas on Tuesday for State Department documents related to the widely debunked talking points about the cause of the deadly attack on the U.S. diplomatic mission in Benghazi, Libya, last year.
Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif., is pressing for material from 10 current and former department officials, including several who had worked for former Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton. He gave the department until June 7 to comply.
The intelligence community’s talking points compiled for members of Congress suggested the Sept. 11 attack that killed U.S. Ambassador Chris Stevens and three other Americans stemmed from protests over an anti-Islamic video rather than an assault by extremists.
Republicans have accused the Obama administration of trying to mislead the American people about an act of terrorism in the heat of the presidential campaign.
Storm in Pacific may hit Mexico
MIAMI – A tropical storm has formed in the eastern Pacific Ocean, bringing a storm warning for coastal areas in the southernmost parts of Mexico.
The National Hurricane Center said Tuesday evening that Tropical Storm Barbara was about 145 miles south-southwest of Salina Cruz, Mexico.
The storm has maximum sustained winds of 40 mph and is standing still.
However, forecasters said the storm is expected to strengthen and should begin moving northward soon, bringing it to the coast of Mexico today.
A tropical storm warning is in effect in Mexico from Lagunas de Chacahua to Boca de Pijijiapan.
Dying winds offer firefighting respite
SANTA BARBARA, Calif. – Firefighters took advantage of a lull in winds on Tuesday to gain ground against a forest fire in mountains northwest of Santa Barbara, Calif., as some crews were diverted to a second fire that broke out nearby and jumped two highways.
The Santa Barbara County blaze erupted Monday in Los Padres National Forest, carving its way through 3.2 square miles of dry chaparral, oak and pine. Firefighters had it 65 percent contained by sunset Tuesday, despite feared wind gusts of up to 40 mph, fire spokesman Manuel Madrigal said.
More than 600 firefighters, supported by a dozen aircraft, were on the lines about 10 miles northwest of downtown Santa Barbara.
The fire, which remained under investigation, burned two vehicles and a U.S. Forest Service garage.
Obama speaks at heritage event
WASHINGTON – President Barack Obama says the contributions Asian-Americans and Pacific Islanders have made to the U.S. underscore the need to overhaul the nation’s immigration system.
Obama spoke at a White House event marking Asian-American Pacific Islander Heritage Month. He lauded Asian-Americans and Pacific Islanders for helping build and defend the United States, and he called for immigration laws that would respect that history.
Slain officer to get posthumous job
BOSTON – Gov. Deval Patrick has signed a bill that would allow an MIT police officer allegedly slain by the suspects in the Boston Marathon bombing to be posthumously appointed to a suburban Boston police department.
Sean Collier had been offered a job and was planning to join the Somerville Police Department before he was fatally shot while sitting in his police cruiser on April 18. Authorities say he was killed by the two men suspected in the twin bombing, which happened three days earlier.
Patrick on Tuesday called the 27-year-old Collier a “true hero” and said the appointment was a “small token to honor his memory and his sacrifice.”
The Legislature approved the bill, which allows Somerville Mayor Joseph Curtatone to appoint Collier to the force.
Curtatone said Collier would have been sworn in next week.
Violence claims 19 more lives in Iraq
BAGHDAD – Bombings and gunfire in central and northern Iraq killed at least 19 people and wounded dozens on Tuesday, in the latest bloody chapter of a wave of violence that has edged the country closer to all-out internal warfare.
A day earlier, 70 people were killed, and more than 450 have died this month. Most of the attacks are sectarian in nature, with Sunni and Shiite areas targeted frequently.
Tuesday’s violence spread across the country.
A bomb explosion inside a bus killed five commuters in Sadr City, a poor Shiite district in the Baghdad’s east, a police officer said. Five policemen and 20 civilians were wounded.
In Baghdad’s northern Shaab neighborhood, a bomb exploded in the street, killing two people and wounding eight, police said. Another bomb went off in a commercial street in Baghdad’s southern Dora neighborhood, killing one and wounding 10, authorities said.
More than a half-dozen other bombings and weapons attacks were reported around the country on Tuesday.
No one has claimed responsibility for the recent wave of attacks.
Sectarian violence plagues Myanmar
YANGON, Myanmar – Sectarian violence spread to a new region of Myanmar, with a mob burning down a mosque, a Muslim orphanage and shops in a northeastern town after rumors spread that a Muslim man had set fire to a Buddhist woman, authorities said today.
There were no reported fatalities, according to a police officer and a Buddhist monk in Lashio, the remote northern town near China’s border where the violence erupted Tuesday night.
Deadly sectarian violence between Buddhists and Muslims has occurred since last year in other parts of the country. The new flare-up will reinforce doubts that President Thein Sein’s government can or will act to contain the violence.
The government quickly condemned the violence in a statement Wednesday that urged the public to stay calm.
Air Force grounds Okinawa F-15s
TOKYO – The U.S. Air Force grounded its F-15 fighters on the southern Japan island of Okinawa for a safety review today following a crash that forced a pilot to eject over the Pacific Ocean.
All F-15s attached to the 18th Wing on Okinawa’s Kadena Air Base are to undergo inspections during the one-day stand down to ensure that they are safe to fly, the military announced.
An F-15 developed problems during training on Tuesday that forced the pilot to eject. The plane was lost in the ocean, but the pilot was rescued by a Japanese military helicopter and taken to a military hospital, where he was listed in stable condition. No further details, including the pilot’s name, have been released.
Base officials said it was the first crash of an F-15 from Kadena since January 2006.
Cuba expands access to public Internet
HAVANA – Cuban authorities said Tuesday that they are expanding public Internet access with more than 100 new cybersalons across the island, though home Web service remains greatly restricted.
Starting June 4, people can sign up with state telecom Etecsa for temporary or permanent accounts.
Until now, the Internet has been limited to places such as tourist hotels that charge $8 an hour for creaky Wi-Fi, foreign-run companies and some sectors of Cuban business and government. Residential dial-up accounts are rare and restricted.
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Seven charged in massive money scheme
U.S. seeks military alliance with China
Peacekeeping, aid could be closer
Mom reported infant in sewer
Woman says abortion too expensive
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In brief: From Staff and Wire Reports:
Bail set at $1 million in baby-freezer case
TACOMA – Bail has been set at $1 million for a 25-year-old Washington man accused of putting his 6-week-old daughter in a freezer for about an hour to stop her crying.
Pierce County Prosecutor Mark Lindquist said doctors believe the baby will survive, but it’s too soon to know potential complications.
Tyler James Deutsch pleaded not guilty Tuesday to charges of child assault, criminal mistreatment and interfering with reporting of domestic violence. The prosecutor said Deutsch fell asleep after putting the child in the freezer Saturday, then awoke and was removing the baby when the child’s mother returned. He’s accused of taking the phone away when the mother tried to call for help from their trailer in Roy, Wash. The mother took the child and got neighbors to call police.
Scientists downgrade volcano threat level
ANCHORAGE, Alaska – Scientists have downgraded the threat level of Alaska’s Pavlof Volcano.
The Alaska Volcano Observatory said it lowered the advisory level for Pavlof on Tuesday from orange to yellow, which means activity has decreased significantly but continues to be closely monitored.
Seattle police admit violating records act
SEATTLE – The Seattle Police Department acknowledged it broke public records laws when it withheld from the Seattle Times an internal memo about its response to riotous May Day demonstrations in 2012.
The department agreed to pay $20,000 to the newspaper and its attorneys to avoid a lawsuit over the issue, the Times reported Tuesday.
In a settlement signed by Interim Police Chief Jim Pugel, the department acknowledged it should have turned over the report or cited a valid exemption to the Washington state Public Records Act.
The Times filed a public-disclosure request for the memo in July. The internal report on the response led to an external review.
Department commanders “believed that the report was subject to the deliberative process exemption, and that premature disclosure would prejudice the independent review,” according to the police statement.
However, instead of informing the Times of that decision, as required by the Public Records Act, and giving the newspaper a chance to challenge the exemption in court, the department never officially acknowledged the memorandum existed, even though retiring Chief John Diaz talked about it in a story published in the Seattle Times on July 23.
Diaz acknowledged in April that he had ordered the memo withheld pending the release of the department’s own investigation report and an independent review by retired Los Angeles Deputy Chief Mike Hillmann.
Bioterrorism lab could shut down
A Spokane laboratory that helped crack a recent ricin-laced letters scare that targeted a federal judge could close by next year amid ongoing cuts to public health funding.
The Bioterrorism Laboratory, funded with federal dollars and run by the Spokane Regional Health District, opened in 2004 and has since tested dozens of suspicious materials to aid criminal investigations and solve disease mysteries.
The work includes testing that confirmed a patient had the plague; preliminary work on a backpack bomb found along the Martin Luther King Jr. Unity March route; and processing scores of threatening letters to people and businesses as diverse as television stations and a Gonzaga University athletic director.
This month the lab tested a letter containing the deadly poison ricin and addressed to Eastern Washington federal judge Fred Van Sickle. A Spokane man is in custody in the case, accused of making a death threat.
Local politicians are pressing state and federal officials to keep the lab open with a funding pledge.
The lab runs on a $170,000 annual budget, most of which comes from the federal Centers for Disease Control.
John Stucke
Wal-Mart pleads guilty to dumping hazardous waste
SAN FRANCISCO – Wal-Mart Stores Inc. will pay $81.6 million after pleading guilty on Tuesday to criminal charges of improperly disposing of fertilizer, pesticides and other hazardous products pulled from stores in California and Missouri because of damaged packaging and other problems.
The retail giant entered the plea in federal court in San Francisco to misdemeanor counts of violating the Clean Water Act and another environmental law regulating pesticides. The fine also settled Environmental Protection Agency allegations.
In Kansas City, Mo., the company pleaded guilty to improperly handling pesticides.
The plea agreements ended a nearly decade-old investigation involving more than 20 prosecutors and 32 environmental groups that has cost Wal-Mart a total of $110 million.
Court documents show illegal dumping occurred in 16 California counties between 2003 and 2005. Federal prosecutors said the company didn’t train its employees on how to handle and dispose hazardous materials at its stores.
The result, prosecutors say, was that waste was tossed into trash bins or poured into sewer systems. The waste also was improperly taken to one of several product return centers throughout the U.S. without proper safety documentation, authorities said.
Wal-Mart spokeswoman Brooke Buchanan said the company has fixed the problem.
Agency rates U.S. banks stable
NEW YORK – Moody’s Investors Service has raised its outlook for the U.S. banking industry for the first time in five years, citing the improving economy and banks’ stronger balance sheets.
The rating agency said in a report issued Tuesday that sustained economic growth and a better jobs picture will help banks during the next 12 to 18 months. Moody’s raised its outlook for the industry to “Stable” from “Negative.” It had been “Negative” since 2008, the year the financial crisis struck.
Moody’s said that after a year of reducing losses from soured loans and building cushions against losses, banks are in a better position to handle any future economic downturn.
Tablets poised to surpass PCs
SAN FRANCISCO – Just three years after hitting the market, tablets are now poised to outsell personal computers.
Tablet shipments are on track to surpass notebooks and other portable PCs this year, according to an IDC report released Tuesday. By 2015, tablets will be outselling desktops and portable PCs combined, the report said.
The report underscored both the rapid growth of media tablets, which were introduced in 2010 when Apple Inc. rolled out the first iPad. It also highlighted the steady decline of the PC market.
A total of 229.3 million tablets are expected to ship this year, up 58.7 percent from the year-earlier period, according to IDC. Portable PC shipments are expected to total 187.4 million.
Kellogg settles marketing suit
NEW YORK – Kellogg has agreed to pay $4 million to settle a class-action lawsuit over the marketing claims it made for Frosted Mini-Wheats.
The company was sued for saying that the cereal improved children’s attentiveness, memory and other cognitive functions.
Kellogg, based in Battle Creek, Mich., says in a statement that the ad campaign in question ran about four years ago and that it has since adjusted its messaging.
If approved by the court, the law firm representing consumers says the settlement will result in cash refunds for up to three boxes of cereal purchased during the time of the advertising in question.
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Anti-DUI device use popular in Washington
Sens. Murray, Cantwell speak in Spokane
Wife, unable to swim, was pulled out by spouse
U.S. stays behind in paid vacation
EU warns of youth job rate
Leaders call on business to help reduce unemployment
Japan vows reform after nuclear leak
Exposure north of Tokyo wasn’t reported for day
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Twin giraffes born in Texas refuge
Roll with summer
Squeeze veggies into your picnic with Chinese dish
Bowled over by creativity
Create your own doctored ice cream concoctions at home
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