Saturday, May 2, 2015

In the news, Tuesday, April 21, 2015


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APR 20      INDEX      APR 22
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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 Allen West
[Information from this site may not be reliable.]

Marines may be forced to lower standards to appease Obama

4 signs Obama is the modern-day Nero
1. His lame response to the latest ISIS slaughter
2. His inability to make any real progress against militant Islam
3. Conveniently forgetting who let Libya fall to pieces
4. Acting like any deal with Iran will stick

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from The American Conservative

Long Live the Personal Library
Why collecting books is a timeless and life-altering pursuit

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from Associated Press

Jeb Bush prepares to give traditional campaign a makeover
The traditional presidential campaign may be getting a dramatic makeover in Jeb Bush's bid for the White House as he prepares to turn some of a campaign's central functions over to a separate political organization that can raise unlimited amounts of money.

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from Bloomberg

Obama Kept Iran's Short Breakout Time a Secret
The Barack Obama administration has estimated for years that Iran was at most three months away from enriching enough nuclear fuel for an atomic bomb. But the administration only declassified this estimate at the beginning of the month, just in time for the White House to make the case for its Iran deal to Congress and the public.

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from Breitbart

OBAMA DECEIVED AMERICANS ABOUT IRAN’S NUCLEAR BREAKOUT TIME
Eli Lake at Bloomberg View reports that President Obama’s administration has confirmed that Iran is “two to three months” away from developing a nuclear weapon, contradicting the White House’s rebuttal of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s assertion that Iran is months away from the breakout.

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from CNSNews.com (& MRC & NewsBusters)

CNN's Cuomo Cracks 'Brain Damage' Joke About Republicans

Iranian VP: Iran Not Acting ‘Aggressive’ When Chanting ‘Death to America’
In an interview with CNN, Iranian Vice President Masoumeh Ebtekar discussed ongoing nuclear talks between the U.S. and Iran, claiming that, despite continued outward hostility toward America by Iran’s supreme leader and military, “the general population is looking forward to an agreement which is just and is balanced” – that will bring “peace and stability” to the world.

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from Conservative Post
[Information from this site may not be reliable.]

Helicopters Just Flew To Closed Walmarts – Here’s What’s Taking Place Inside
Last week, 2,200 Walmart employees all over the U.S. were laid off and given just a few hours notice as their stores were shut down for unknown reasons. Conspiracy theorists soon linked the closings to the government, suggesting that they were shut down so the stores could be used for military training operations.

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from The Guardian (UK)

Barack Obama will not label 1915 massacre of Armenians a genocide
US president abandons campaign promise to acknowledge genocide of Armenians by Ottoman Turks due to opposition from State Department

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from MSN News

Anger at acquittal of Chicago policeman in shooting of woman
A judge's surprise acquittal of an off-duty Chicago police officer in the shooting death of an unarmed woman called into question prosecutors' decision not to charge the man with murder, and set off protests outside the courthouse and near the site of the killing.

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from National Catholic Register

Pope Francis: ‘How Many Stephens There Are in the World!’
‘The true history of the Church is that of the saints and the martyrs,’ the Holy Father said at daily Mass on April 21, reflecting on the persecution of Christians.

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from National Review
[Information from this site may not be reliable.]

To End Racism, Toni Morrison Wants to See Bad Things Happen to White People

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from The Spokesman-Review

Spokane County unemployment rate falls to 6.8%
There were 6,000 new jobs added in Spokane from March 2014 to March 2015, driving down the jobless rate from 7.9 percent to 6.8 percent, said state labor economist Doug Tweedy. In March 2010 the jobless rate in Spokane County was 11.3 percent.

Spokane police hope liquor board continues ban
Spokane police hope the state Liquor Control Board will continue to ban the sale of certain high-alcohol beverages in the downtown area, though department data about the ban’s effectiveness is limited.

US lets in Thai fish caught by slaves despite law
In its first report on trafficking around the world, the U.S. criticized Thailand as a hub for labor abuse. Yet 14 years later, seafood caught by slaves on Thai boats is still slipping into the supply chains of major American stores and supermarkets. The U.S. has not enforced a law banning the import of goods made with forced labor since 2000 because of significant loopholes, The Associated Press has found. It has also spared Thailand from sanctions slapped on other countries with weak records in human trafficking because of a complex political relationship that includes cooperation against terrorism.

Penalty phase opens in Boston Marathon bombing trial
The life-or-death phase in the trial of Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev got underway Tuesday with a prosecutor showing the jury a photo of Tsarnaev giving the finger to a security camera in his jail cell three months after the attack.

Migrant ‘death voyages’ denounced
Prosecutors said today that they arrested the captain and a crew member of the boat in which as many as 900 people are feared to have drowned while seeking to escape from war-torn Libya. Even as the search continued for victims of the weekend disaster, coast guard ships rushed to respond to new distress calls on the high seas – two off Libya and a third boat that ran aground near Greece. Decrying what he called an “escalation in these death voyages,” Italian Premier Matteo Renzi urged Europe to put the focus on preventing more boats from leaving Libya, the source of 90 percent of migrant traffic to Italy.

Bird flu infects big Iowa egg farm
Up to 5.3 million hens at an Iowa farm must be destroyed after the highly infectious and deadly bird flu virus was confirmed, the U.S. Department of Agriculture said Monday.

Baumgartner bill targets left-lane slowpokes
Driving under the speed limit while in the fast lane could get pricey under legislation being pushed by state Sen. Michael Baumgartner, R-Spokane, who wants a new crackdown on “aggravated left-lane driving.” Slow left-lane drivers are not only a nuisance but also a safety hazard, forcing other drivers to slam on their brakes or weave around them, Baumgartner said.

CdA wheelchair access advocate dies in crash
A Coeur d’Alene man who recovered from a severe spinal cord injury to lead an active life and advocate for those with physical challenges was killed Sunday when his all-terrain vehicle went over a cliff above Lake Pend Oreille. Thomas W. McTevia, 42, died along with a friend, Tina A. Hoisington, 45, of Lewiston. Both were in the Polaris ATV when it plunged down a 500-foot embankment at Bernard Overlook just east of Farragut State Park, the Idaho State Police said.

NOAA wants to lift humpback protections
The federal government on Monday proposed removing most of the world’s humpback whales from the endangered species list, saying the massive mammals have rebounded after 45 years of protection and restoration efforts.

Seattle Times wins Pulitzer for Oso coverage
The Seattle Times staff took the breaking news award for its coverage of the Oso, Washington, mudslide that killed 43 people and its exploration of whether the disaster could have been prevented.
List of 2015 Pulitzers in journalism and arts

Videos add to debate over police
Killings of unarmed black men by white police officers in the past year have touched off a national debate about police conduct, which has only escalated as additional interactions between police and suspects – lethal or otherwise – are captured on video by law enforcement or civilians.
DETROIT-AREA OFFICER CHARGED IN VIDEOTAPED BEATING
POLICE: BALTIMORE MAN WHO DIED ARRESTED ‘WITHOUT FORCE’
TULSA SHERIFF: VOLUNTEER DEPUTY’S TRAINING RECORD NOT FALSIFIED

In brief: Mother sentenced in newborns’ deaths
A mother who killed six of her newborn babies and hid their bodies in her garage was sentenced to up to life in prison Monday at an emotional hearing in which a prosecutor depicted her as an “incredibly indifferent and callous” murderer.
Cuomo, executives court Cuba business
Cuban officials and New York business executives are exploring ways for companies to do business on the communist-run island despite the long-standing U.S. embargo that makes most trade and investment illegal, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo said Monday.
Bipartisan Senate bill focuses on cosmetics
Two U.S. senators introduced legislation Monday that would require the Food and Drug Administration to evaluate and report on some of the ingredients used in cosmetics and personal-care products such as shampoo and skin cream.

Minnesota men charged with trying to join Islamic militants
Six Minnesota men of Somali descent are charged with terrorism-related offenses in a criminal complaint unsealed Monday. They are the latest Westerners accused of traveling or attempting to travel to Syria to join the Islamic State group, which has carried out a host of attacks including beheading Americans.

Warships patrolling sea lanes off Yemen
Top Obama administration officials have failed for several days to persuade Saudi Arabia’s government to limit the scope of its airstrikes on cities and towns in Yemen, a campaign that authorities said killed nearly 50 people Monday in Sanaa, the capital. The U.S. effort to restrain the Saudi attacks came as the Pentagon moved the aircraft carrier Theodore Roosevelt and a guided-missile destroyer into waters off Yemen. Officials said the growing armada is meant, in part, to deter Iran from shipping weapons and other supplies to the Houthi rebels and their allies battling remnants of the central government for control of Yemen, the Arab world’s poorest nation.

In brief: Northern Somalia bombing kills four UNICEF workers
Islamic extremists set off a bomb in a U.N. van in normally tranquil northern Somalia on Monday, killing at least seven people, including four employees of the U.N. children’s agency in an attack that was widely denounced.
Turkey’s prime minister extends condolences
Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu on Monday extended condolences to the descendants of Armenians killed 100 years ago by Ottoman Turks, saying Turkey shared their pain, and also announced that a service would be held at the Armenian Patriarchate in Istanbul to commemorate the victims.
Argentina’s president cleared of accusations
An Argentine prosecutor on Monday dismissed accusations against President Cristina Fernandez that she helped shield Iranian officials allegedly behind the 1994 bombing of a Jewish center, effectively putting an end to a case that had exposed deep divisions in the South American nation.
U.S. providing $18 million in non-arms aid to Ukraine
The United States will supply Ukraine with nearly $18 million in aid to provide shelter, food vouchers, potable water and health and sanitation in regions affected by fighting between government forces and pro-Russia fighters.
S. Korea prime minister offers to quit amid scandal
South Korea’s prime minister has offered to resign amid a bribery scandal just two months after he took up the country’s No. 2 post, officials said today, in the latest political crisis to hit President Park Geun-hye.
Vienna-born U.S. author Frederic Morton dies at 90
U.S. writer Frederic Morton, who became internationally recognized in part through books on the Austrian homeland that he was forced to flee because of the Holocaust, has died, his Austrian publishers said Monday.

Ethiopians shocked by IS killings
Many in Ethiopia are reeling from the news that several Ethiopians were killed in Libya by the Islamic State group, which over the weekend released a video purporting to show the killings.

In brief: Officers praised for actions during dangerous incident
Spokane police officers drew praise from the city’s Public Safety Committee on Monday for their handling of two potentially dangerous suspects in Browne’s Addition on Friday.
North Spokane car crash leaves 300 without power
More than 300 north Spokane residents were without power Sunday night after a drunk driver slammed into a telephone pole at North Nevada Street and East Magnesium Road.
‘Ticket bots’ could soon be illegal in Washington
Ticket-buying robots soon could be illegal in Washington. Both legislative chambers have voted to outlaw the “ticket bots,” which are faster than humans at buying tickets to concerts and sporting events online. The measure won House approval Monday and now heads to Gov. Jay Inslee.

County considers signing bonuses for hard-to-fill positions
Spokane County could be offering signing bonuses of up to $10,000 in hopes of attracting high-quality applicants for tough-to-fill jobs.

Luna still on Idaho payroll at salary of $95,202
Despite embattled former Idaho Department of Administration Director Teresa Luna’s announced resignation, she remains on the department’s payroll at the same salary and a new title. State records show Luna is now employed full-time as a “program specialist” for the department at a salary of $95,202 a year, the same salary she earned as director.

Spokane students earn scholarship honors
Two dozen of the region’s brightest and most promising high school seniors will share $60,000 awarded by the Spokane Scholars Foundation.

Woman rescued from burning church’s roof in Olympia
A woman was rescued from a burning building early Monday morning in downtown Olympia after flames drove her up to the roof. At 2:25 a.m., firefighters responded to the scene, an empty building that had most recently been Capitol City Studios but had been built as a church. As of Monday morning, all that remained of the original Foursquare Gospel Church, built in 1939, was a pile of smoldering rubble.

In brief: Armed man robs title loan company
Post Falls police are searching for a shotgun-wielding robber who held up a Northwest Title Loan on Monday.
Idaho man guilty of bank larceny
A former Bonners Ferry man pleaded guilty in federal court Monday to bank larceny by use of a dangerous weapon and conspiracy to commit bank larceny. Matthew Taber Annable, 40, will be sentenced June 10.
Controlled burns starting in N. Idaho
The Forest Service is starting its annual controlled burn program this week on the Coeur d’Alene River Ranger District.
‘Westlake groper’ gets three years
A man known as the “Westlake groper” has been sentenced to more than three years in jail. The Seattle Times reported that Daryl Sharma, 36, of Kirkland, pleaded guilty last week to five counts of assault with sexual motivation.
Pot prices down by more than half
Marijuana prices have dropped dramatically since stores opened last summer. The Seattle Times reported that the average gram of marijuana in the state’s system sells for about $12. That’s down from a $30 average last year when prices peaked.

Mammoth dig near Kennewick uncovers other animal bones
Researchers excavating a mammoth found south of Kennewick have unearthed other discoveries, including the remnants of snakes, lizards, ground squirrels, birds and possibly even a camel. Researchers have dug through more than 11 feet of dirt at the Coyote Canyon dig site since excavation began five years ago, recovering more than 70 bones from the mammoth in addition to a variety of other animals.

Seattle tunnel subcontractor fined over worker injuries
Washington state safety regulators issued two citations and a $2,050 fine against the subcontractor overseeing workers injured when a wall in the north portal of the Seattle tunnel project collapsed. Four ironworkers fell Feb. 12, including one who was hospitalized after being seriously hurt.

State treasurer proposes income tax to fund education
Washington state Treasurer Jim McIntire is proposing an income tax to pay for education. McIntire’s plan calls for a 5 percent personal income tax but would eliminate the state property tax and reduce business taxes. The plan would raise billions of dollars. It is one of a handful of ideas floating around Olympia about how to meet the Supreme Court’s order to fix the way the state pays for public schools.

Luxury club founder Tim Blixseth ordered back to jail
U.S. District Judge Sam Haddon ordered the founder of a luxury Montana mountain resort back to jail Monday, saying he failed to disclose what happened to $13.8 million from the sale of a resort in Mexico. Former billionaire Tim Blixseth, 64, was taken into custody by the U.S. Marshals Service after a contempt hearing in Helena.

Closure of Wal-Mart stores prompts labor outcry
A union is asking labor regulators to go to court to force Wal-Mart to rehire all 2,200 employees affected by an abrupt temporary closing of five stores a week ago. The United Food and Commercial Workers International Union filed the charge with the National Labor Relations Board on Monday, arguing the closings were retaliation for labor activism. Wal-Mart said it closed the stores to fix plumbing issues.

Limited-time retail sales can be limiting
Target shoppers found out this weekend that when stores make deals to carry merchandise from high-end designers for a limited time, it can be, well, really limiting.

Summer airfares take a dip
After years of steadily rising airfare, travelers this summer can expect a tiny bit of relief – $2.01 in savings to be exact. The average roundtrip domestic ticket this summer, including taxes, now stands at $454, down less than a percent from last summer. Vacationers to Europe will fare better with the average ticket down 3 percent to $1,619, about $50 less than last summer.

In brief: AT&T shareholders meeting to be held in Spokane
AT&T, one of the world’s largest companies, will hold its annual meeting of shareholders in Spokane on Friday.
Spokane House to be Red Lion
The former Spokane House Hotel in west Spokane will become a Red Lion Inn and Suites, Spokane-based Red Lion Hotels Co. said Monday. The hotel at 4301 W. Sunset Blvd. opened in 1953 and once was a go-to spot in Spokane. Originally called the Desert Caravan Inn, it was a “Duncan Hines selection as one of the 10 best motels in America” the year it opened.
Blue Bell issues total recall
Texas-based Blue Bell Creameries issued a voluntary recall Monday for all of its products on the market after two samples of chocolate chip cookie dough ice cream tested positive for listeriosis.
Kraft Mac & Cheese losing dye
This is the last year the original version of Kraft Mac & Cheese sold in the U.S. will contain artificial preservatives or synthetic colors. Beginning in January its macaroni and cheese will be colored using paprika, annatto and turmeric.

Tax overhaul hits obstacles
Despite optimistic talk from Democrats and Republicans about overhauling the tax code, General Electric Co. recently showed that corporate executives aren’t holding their breath for a bipartisan deal.

Bird flu could hurt turkey sales
Hormel says it will sell less turkey this year because of a spreading bird flu outbreak. So far the virus has been found at farms housing 2.3 million turkeys, all of which have died of the disease or have been killed or soon will be in order to stem the spread of avian flu. Most of the birds were in Minnesota, the largest turkey-producing state in the U.S.

Tiered pricing for water found unconstitutional
An Orange County appeals court ruled Monday that San Juan Capistrano’s tiered water rates are unconstitutional, potentially dealing a blow to agencies statewide that have used the pricing structure to encourage water conservation. The 3-0 ruling by the 4th District Court of Appeal upholds a Superior Court judge’s decision that found that charging bigger water users incrementally higher rates violates a voter-approved law that prohibits government agencies from charging more than the cost of a service.

Panel sticks with mammogram advice
An expert panel convened by the federal government is standing by its controversial recommendation that most women should get mammograms to check for signs of breast cancer only once every two years, and that the tests need not begin until the age of 50.

Editorial: Funding key to growth of medical education

Robert J. Samuelson: Moore’s Law has virtues, vices

A brighter outlook: UW researchers make inroads on cure for colorblindness
For the more than 10 million Americans with colorblindness, there’s never been a treatment, let alone a cure, for the condition that leaves them unable to distinguish certain hues. Now, for the first time, two University of Washington professors have teamed with a California biotech firm to develop what they say may be a solution: a single shot in the eye that reveals the world in full color.

Ask Dr. K: Benefits vs. risks of aspirin

Migraine strategies
If you suffer from migraine headaches, you’ve got plenty of company. More than 10 percent of the population is hurting right along with you, including 18 percent of women. Migraines are most common from the ages of 25 to 55. The good news: New research can help change your approach to managing your migraines.

Ten signs it’s time to dump your doctor
Seeing a doctor you don’t like can be hazardous to your health. It can be little things, like a cool demeanor when you’re a big hugger, or serious issues such as a failure to explain procedures effectively.

Obituary: O’Reilly, Julia Marie
27 Jun 1967 - 15 Apr 2015     Edwall, Reardan, Davenport, Spokane

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from The Washington Free Beacon (DC)

NY Post: ‘Quid Pro Dough’ for Clintons
Hillary and Bill Clinton found themselves in pile of cash on the cover of the New York Post on Tuesday morning in the wake of a new book that charges that the couple was doing favors for foreign governments in exchange for big pay-days.

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from The Weekly Standard

Did Susan Rice Disclose Classified Info on Iran?
Bloomberg's Eli Lake reports Tuesday that the Obama administration kept secret until the beginning of April Iran's two to three month breakout time for a nuclear weapon, saying "the administration only declassified this estimate at the beginning of the month, just in time for the White House to make the case for its Iran deal to Congress and the public."

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from The Western Center for Journalism
(Western Journalism)

Did The Big-Spending Koch Bros Just Drop A HUGE Clue That Could Signal A GOP Game Change?

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