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from Fox News (& affiliates)
OUTRAGE: 15-Year-Old Benji Backer Bullied by Teachers for His Conservative Values
FoxNews.com's Jana Winter should be praised, not threatened with jail time By Judge Andrew P. Napolitano
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from Huffington Post
[Information from this site may be unreliable.]
A Small Home For Four Has Us Reconsidering How Much Space We Really Need (PHOTOS)
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A Small Home For Four Has Us Reconsidering How Much Space We Really Need (PHOTOS)
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Federal judge makes morning-after pill available for all ages
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from Military Times
and Air Force Times, Army Times, Marine Corps Times, and Navy Times
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from POLITICO
Jobs report: March numbers a big miss
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from The Spokesman-Review (Spokane, WA)
Idaho’s lawmakers pass budget, head home
States act quickly on guns
Changes occurring even as Congress deliberates
North Korea puts missile on east coast, Seoul says
Weapon can’t reach U.S. mainland, according to official
Jordan is ‘playing with fire,’ Syria says
Obama’s Medicaid budget spares program deep cuts
Toxic lead in children more common
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More volunteer cuts to White House pay
WASHINGTON – Three Cabinet secretaries became the latest senior administration officials to give back part of their salaries, in the spirit of government spending cuts.
The announcements that Secretary of State John Kerry, Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano and Treasury Secretary Jacob Lew will voluntarily reduce their pay came a day after President Barack Obama and Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel said they’d return 5 percent of their paychecks to the Treasury.
State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said Kerry, however, will give his 5 percent to a charity for department employees.
Kerry makes $183,500 this year. His donation is worth $9,175.
The Homeland Security Department said Napolitano would donate 5 percent of her salary to foundations that benefit Homeland Security staff.
The Treasury Department said that Lew would contribute a portion of his salary to nonprofit organizations that are supporting people and programs adversely affected by automatic government spending cuts. The amount of Lew’s contributions and the organizations receiving the money were still being worked out.
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In brief: From Wire Reports:
WASHINGTON – Three Cabinet secretaries became the latest senior administration officials to give back part of their salaries, in the spirit of government spending cuts.
The announcements that Secretary of State John Kerry, Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano and Treasury Secretary Jacob Lew will voluntarily reduce their pay came a day after President Barack Obama and Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel said they’d return 5 percent of their paychecks to the Treasury.
State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said Kerry, however, will give his 5 percent to a charity for department employees.
Kerry makes $183,500 this year. His donation is worth $9,175.
The Homeland Security Department said Napolitano would donate 5 percent of her salary to foundations that benefit Homeland Security staff.
The Treasury Department said that Lew would contribute a portion of his salary to nonprofit organizations that are supporting people and programs adversely affected by automatic government spending cuts. The amount of Lew’s contributions and the organizations receiving the money were still being worked out.
Velshi quits CNN for Al Jazeera America
LOS ANGELES – The Al Jazeera America channel says that CNN chief business correspondent Ali Velshi is coming aboard.
The channel, set to launch later this year, said Thursday that Velshi will develop and host a prime-time program that will debut as a half-hour weekly series.
Velshi’s magazine-style show is expected to expand to a daily schedule by the end of the year, Al Jazeera America said.
In the as-yet untitled series, Velshi will focus on how the economy in the U.S. and internationally affects American lives, the channel said.
Velshi said this week he is exiting CNN, where he hosted “Your Money.”
New bird flu strain kills two more
BEIJING – A middle-aged man who transported poultry for a living and another unidentified person have died from a new strain of bird flu, bringing the death toll to five among 14 confirmed cases in China, the government and state media reported Thursday.
The 48-year-old man, who died in Shanghai, is one of several among the infected believed to have had direct contact with fowl. Until recently, the virus, called H7N9, was not known to infect humans.
The official Xinhua News Agency did not identify the fifth fatality, but said that person also died in Shanghai on Wednesday.
It said the Ministry of Agriculture confirmed on Thursday that the H7N9 virus had been detected in pigeons at a market selling agricultural products in Shanghai.
It is not known how people are becoming sick with the virus, and health officials and scientists caution that there are no indications it can be transmitted from one person to another. Scientists who have studied the virus’s genetic sequence said this week that the virus may have mutated, spreading more easily to other animals and potentially posing a bigger threat to humans.
Guidelines issued Wednesday by the national health agency identify butchers, breeders and sellers of poultry, and those in the meat processing industry as at higher risk.
Experts only identified the first cases on Sunday. Some among the 14 confirmed cases fell ill several weeks ago but only now are being classified as having H7N9.
Xinhua said six cases have been confirmed in Shanghai, four in Jiangsu, three in Zhejiang and one in Anhui.
NSA closing Yakima listening post
YAKIMA – The National Security Agency is closing a secretive listening post it has quietly operated near Yakima since the early 1970s, a newspaper reported Thursday.
The electronic eavesdropping operation, located within the U.S. Army’s Yakima Training Center, has been linked to Echelon, a global surveillance network operated by the NSA.
The office of U.S. Rep. Doc Hastings, R-Wash., confirmed the closure to the Yakima Herald-Republic on Wednesday. Hastings’ 4th District includes the NSA operation.
Hastings was informed of the pending closure last summer by the NSA, spokesman Neal Kirby said.
The closure is part of NSA’s effort to streamline and reorganize its operations, with some Yakima functions moving to Colorado, he said.
The NSA did not immediately respond to a request for comment Thursday.
Kirby said an exact date of the closure was not available, and that the number of employees at the facility is considered classified.
Motorists on Interstate 82 can catch a glimpse of the operation in the distance.
The center includes several buildings and a collection of large white satellite dishes set amid the rolling, arid land of the military reservation north of Yakima.
Access is highly restricted. The training center, a 327,000-acre Army base used primarily for artillery training and target practice, does not mention the facility on its website. And the Army routinely refers any inquiries about the facility to the NSA, which is based in Fort Meade, Md.
The Yakima facility has been mentioned in several books on national security but otherwise hasn’t attracted widespread attention.
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Alabama lawmakers unanimous in votes; all in ’30s case dead
Spokane Club is gearing up to sell its Valley component
Fewer private club members prompts focus on cutting debt
Five adjacent properties across from Manito Park to be sold separately
Corridor is in transportation plans
House, Senate consider $8.4 billion proposals
Environmental statement identifies four on Klamath
Groups plan to file suit over Klamath flows
Sheriff exasperated with repeat offender
Applications for unemployment up
Japan bank launches stimulus
Flood of money supply aims to reverse lull
Encouraging "consumers and companies to borrow and spend."
Smartphone software offers site at fingertips
NYC fast-food workers march at restaurants for higher pay
Editorial: Lawsuit not needed over coal dust
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