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NEWS SATURDAY,
MAY 19, 2012 NEWS
EARLY EDITION
Appeals
Court Affirms Minority Voting Rights Law
A federal appeals court on Friday upheld a key provision of the landmark
U.S. voting rights law aimed at protecting minorities in states and local
areas with a history of racial discrimination. The U.S. Court of Appeals
for the District of Columbia Circuit in a 2-1 decision said Congress did
not exceed its power by renewing a requirement that nine states, mostly
in the South, and dozens of local governments with a history of racial
discrimination get federal permission to change their election procedures.
That was part of the Voting Rights Act, a major piece of civil rights legislation
enacted in 1965, that Congress renewed in 2006. Reuters
VOA VIEW: Liberal mad ruling.
Romney
Releases 'Positive' TV Ad And First Since Santorum Exited
The Mitt Romney campaign released a TV ad on Friday outlining what
the GOP presidential candidate would do on his first day in the White House,
if elected in November. The ad is titled "Day One," and features Romney
saying he would approve the Keystone oil pipeline, introduce tax cuts and
tax reform and try to replace President Obama's health care plan with what
the ad calls "common sense health care reform." The campaign has not aired
commercials since Romney's top Republican challenger, Rick Santorum, dropped
out of the race in early April. Fox
News
Vacation?
No Thanks, Boss
Dubbed the "no vacation nation," the United States lags behind most
other developed countries when it comes to vacation days. But Americans
don't seem to mind. Most workers don't use all their vacation days in the
first place. About 57% of working Americans had unused vacation time at
the end of 2011, and most of them left an average of 11 days on the table
- or nearly 70 percent of their allotted time off, according to a study
performed by Harris Interactive for JetBlue. Employers certainly aren't
complaining. Separate data from financial information company Sageworks
shows profits-per-employee are at a 10-year high. Could workers cramming
in more hours be a factor? Yes, says Libby Bierman, a Sageworks analyst.
CNN
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Chaplain's
Group To Pelosi: Crisis? No, But Military Chaplains Are Under Fire Over
Same-Sex Marriage
A group representing more than 2,500 Evangelical Christian military
chaplains says House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) was wrong
on Thursday when she called a provision in the House defense authorization
bill designed to protect military chaplains “a fraud.” “I think she misses
the point entirely,” said Dr. Ron Crews, executive director of the Chaplain
Alliance for Religious Liberty. “Right now this administration has created
an environment in the Department of Defense that if you are in favor of
same-sex relationships, you may speak. If you are not in favor, you cannot
speak,” Crews said. CNS
News
Health
Secretary Urges Contraception Compromise
The Obama administration's top health official on Friday took the debate
over whether healthcare coverage should include contraceptives to the campus
of a Catholic university that has been deeply divided over the administration's
policy. U.S. Health Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, in a speech at Georgetown
University a few miles from the White House, praised the new U.S. healthcare
law requiring coverage and called for "conversation and compromise." Sebelius
has become the public face for the contraception rules issued earlier this
year that have provoked fierce backlash from Catholic Church officials,
political conservatives and anti-abortion advocates. The issue has become
a point of debate in the U.S. presidential race. Reuters
All
Boomers Need Hep C Test For Liver
Anyone born from 1945 to 1965 should get a one-time blood test to see
if they have the liver-destroying virus, the Centers for Disease Control
and Prevention said in draft recommendations issued Friday. The often undiagnosed
virus is contracted through contact with blood from an infected person.
While the risk of infection has dropped dramatically since the early 1990s,
many older adults are still at risk, according to the CDC, which released
the draft guidelines. Baby boomers account for 2 million of the 3.2 million
Americans infected with the blood-borne virus. The virus can take decades
to cause liver damage, and many people don't know they're infected. According
to the CDC, one in 30 baby boomers has been infected with hepatitis C.
MSNBC
Paul's
Final Moneybomb Draws Half A Million
Date night with Mitt — cheaper than ObamaObama raises money off gay-marriage
decisionElection LinksDrudgeRep. Ron Paul's final fundraising "moneybomb"
on Thursday raised more than half a million dollars, giving the Republican
presidential candidate money to continue his push to win delegates to the
GOP's convention. The Texas lawmaker this week announced he was scaling
down his presidential bid, saying he won't be able to stop Mr. Romney from
getting the nomination, though he will try to continue winning delegates
in order to have a bigger role in preparing the party's platform and rules
for 2016. Washington
Times
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Zimmerman
Atty: Don't Judge By "Piecemeal" Evidence
The defense lawyer for George Zimmerman warned against judging his
client just on the partial evidence released so far in the shooting death
of Trayvon Martin, saying that "looking at it piecemeal is what has caused
some of the problems in the past with the case." Appearing Friday on "CBS
This Morning," attorney Mark O'Mara said the evidence released this week
marks the beginning of his work on the case, helping focus him and his
team on completing depositions and planning on appropriate pretrial motions,
but also that part of the discovery evidence is still to be released. In
the evidence file, details of the fatal February 26 confrontation spill
into public view for the first time: Crime scene photos show the immediate
aftermath, including Zimmerman's facial injuries - a broken nose, two black
eyes, gashes in the back of his head. But Mark Strassmann reports, according
to officers, Zimmerman refused three times to go to the hospital. CBS
Biden
Doesn’t ‘Blame People’ For Voting Felon Over Obama In W.Va.
Vice President Joe Biden said Thursday that it’s understandable why
40 percent of Democrats in this month’s West Virginia presidential primary
opted for a convicted felon serving time in a Texas prison over incumbent
President Barack Obama. “When you’re out of work, man, it’s a depression.
And a lot of people are still hurting because of this god-awful recession
we inherited that cost 8.4 million jobs before we could really get going.
And so I don’t blame people; they’re frustrated, they’re angry,” Biden
said in an interview with WTOV-TV in Martin’s Ferry, Ohio. ABC
Romney
Backer Defends Bain’s Money Making Mission
A top surrogate to Mitt Romney said making money -- rather than creating
jobs -- was the primary goal of the presumed Republican Party presidential
nominee when he was running Bain Capital LLC, saying he “acted responsibly”
as chief executive officer of the private-equity firm. “The role of private
equity as fiduciaries is certainly to make money,” said Tom Stemberg, the
founder of Staples Inc. (SPLS), in an interview on Bloomberg Television’s
“Political Capital.” Bain also helped businesses grow, so “these things
had redeeming social value, in addition to making Mitt and his investors
a lot of money.” Bloomberg
Fed
May Prefer Another Twist To Adding Assets
Federal Reserve policy makers may find another round of Operation Twist
is preferable to an outright asset-purchase program if the economy shows
further signs of weakness or risks increase. Chairman Ben S. Bernanke on
April 25 said he was prepared to take further action to aid the economy
if necessary, even as he signaled that he didn’t see an immediate need
to add stimulus with inflation near the Fed’s goal and unemployment falling.
The minutes from the Fed’s April meeting showed several policy makers said
additional action could be necessary if the recovery slips. “If there were
scope to do another twist of some type it would be prudent to consider
it, especially in the scenario where things are worse and the Fed feels
like it needs to move,” said Nathan Sheets, Global Head of International
Economics at Citigroup Inc. in New York. Until August, Sheets was the Fed’s
top international economist. Bloomberg
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Obama
Touts $3B Plan For Food Security
President Obama announced a new public-private partnership to help
African farmers and fight hunger and malnutrition in a speech Friday ahead
of the the Group of Eight summit at Camp David. With Irish rock star and
humanitarian activist Bono in the front row of the audience, the president
said a consortium of agribusiness giants including DuPont, Monsanto and
Cargill, along with smaller African-based companies would commit $3 billion
for projects assisting farmers in the developing world to create local
markets and improved supply chains. Along with the need to address “unacceptable”
starvation, Mr. Obama said fighting hunger in impoverished areas benefits
American companies by expanding the world market and advancing world peace.
Washington
Times
Will
Birtherism Ever Go Away?
Sometimes, when you want to believe something badly enough, no amount
of evidence to the contrary will change your mind. To understand how this
plays out, consider the subset of Americans who still identify as "birthers."
Birthers are people who express their dislike of President Obama by arguing
- forcefully - that he was not born in the United States, and is thus not
eligible for the presidency. Some birthers were finally disabused of that
notion when President Obama, whose birth had been announced in two Hawaii
newspapers and who had already released his short-form birth certificate,
released his long-form birth certificate last April. The percentage of
Americans who said Mr. Obama was born outside the United States fell from
20 percent before the release to 10 percent afterward. But even then, one
in ten Americans held tight to their birtherism, showing a remarkable willingness
not to let the facts get in the way of their convictions. CBS
Obama
Stance Adds Fuel In Marriage Battlegrounds
President Barack Obama's support for gay marriage has emboldened activists
and politicians on both sides of the issue, setting off a flurry of political
activity in a number of states and serving as a rallying point in others
where gay marriage votes are being held this fall. With the nation divided
on gay marriage, Obama's declaration this month — a day after North Carolina
voters approved an amendment to the state constitution affirming that marriage
may only be a union of a man and a woman — has added a wrinkle in the political
debate on a touchy subject. Obama's stand has put wind in the sails of
gay marriage supporters, while providing political fuel to opponents, said
Kamy Akhavan, president of ProCon.org, a nonpartisan California-based nonprofit
that researches pros and cons on controversial issues. ABC
Romney
Points To Restored Bridge As Obama Failure
Republican presidential challenger Mitt Romney on Friday criticized
a restored 19th century bridge as another "Bridge to Nowhere" and a fresh
symbol of the waste he says is rampant in President Barack Obama's economic
stimulus plan. From the parking lot of a Ford dealership, Romney pointed
to the nearby stone bridge that straddles the Contoocook River and called
it a boondoggle. The town of Hillsborough received $150,000 in federal
stimulus money to repair the Sawyer Bridge as part of a new park project
designed to put people to work installing new benches, lights and visitor
parking. Those additions have not happened. Las
Vegas Sun
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House
OKs $642B Defense Bill That Obama Threatened To Veto
The House on Friday ignored a presidential veto threat and passed a
$642 billion defense bill that abandons the deficit-cutting agreement that
President Obama and congressional Republicans backed last summer. On a
299-120 vote, lawmakers backed the spending blueprint that adds $8 billion
for the military for next year. The bill calls for a missile defense site
on the East Coast that the military opposes and restricts the ability of
the president to reduce the arsenal of nuclear weapons under a 2010 treaty
with Russia. It also preserves ships and aircraft that the Pentagon wanted
to retire in a cost-cutting move. Lawmakers also rejected the military's
request for another round of domestic base closings. The White House has
threatened a veto, as Republicans made wholesale changes in Obama's budget
proposal. Fox
News
Stocks:
Worst Week Of The Year
Stocks closed out an ugly week. Despite initial euphoria surrounding
the debut of Facebook on the public markets, the social network's shares
barely popped above its offering price and failed to inspire investors
to buy into the broader market. All three indexes clocked their worst weekly
losses of the year, finishing at the lowest levels since January. U.S.
investors resumed focus on the global issues plaguing world markets Friday,
which dragged stocks down for the third straight week. On Friday, the Dow
Jones industrial average (INDU) lost 73 points, or 0.6%. The index is down
3.5% for the year. CNN
Army
General Says He Will Never Fail To Speak Up For 'Moral And Ethical Behavior
And Values'
Army Chief of Staff Gen. Raymond Odierno says after ten years of continuous
combat, the U.S. is transitioning to a "leaner," "more agile" Army -- one
that retains its "unwavering commitment to the honor of our profession
and our values." As the Army undergoes major organizational changes, including
openly homosexual troops in the ranks and women moving closer to the front
lines, Odierno reaffirmed the Army's commitment to discipline, ethical
behavior and values, saying he will "never pass up an opportunity" to talk
about those values. CNS
News
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When
Debt Is The Message, Romney Employs A Powerful Visual Aid
It has appeared behind Romney on stage more often than several of his
sons, standing stiff and silent, but saying volumes about the candidate's
stark vision of an economy led for another four years by President Barack
Obama. It is Romney's enormous electronic debt clock, now concluding its
first trip here to Florida. "We try to make the venue and the backdrop
underline the message the governor is talking about on the stump," explained
Romney's advance director Will Ritter, who came up with the idea. Depicting
the national debt is tricky. With education, a blackboard would convey
the message. For the military, American flags. But with the debt – a complicated,
16-digit figure that changes every fraction of a second – the point is
tougher to convey visually. MSNBC
Senator
Wants Parties To Refund Convention Money
A Republican senator has asked both political parties to refund the
millions of federal dollars each has received to help pay for this summer's
presidential nominating conventions. In a letter to leaders of the Democratic
and Republican parties, Sen. Tom Coburn, R-Okla., said the two gatherings
will be "weeklong parties paid for by taxpayers." He also compared them
to recent revelations about a lavish conference the General Services Administration
held in Las Vegas. Even Coburn's party is spurning the request. Republican
National Committee spokeswoman Kirsten Kukowski said Friday that the meetings
play an important role in the nominating process and that if Coburn had
other ideas for financing future conventions, "he should address them through
the legislative process." Las
Vegas Sun
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North
Korea Denies Jamming GPS Signals
North Korea Friday denied South Korea's claim that Pyongyang had jammed
satellite navigation systems, affecting hundreds of commercial flights
and ships. South Korea has accused the North of disrupting Global Positioning
System signals April 28-May 13 from the North's western border city of
Kaesong, Yonhap News Agency reported. North Korea called the accusation
a "new farce and smear campaign." The official Korean Central News Agency
reported a spokesman for the North's Post and Telecommunications Ministry
said in a statement South Korea "stuck to its inveterate bad habit of shifting
the blame for the scandals committed by its clan onto compatriots." UPI
News
U.S.
Aids Israel Missile, Seeks Joint Deal
The Pentagon has given Israel a quick-fix $70 million to buy at least
two Iron Dome counter-rocket batteries as part of an overall package of
nearly $1 billion for the missile defense shield it is putting together.
But, with both countries slashing defense spending because of global recession,
there is talk of transforming Israel's development of missile defense systems
by state-owned Israel Aerospace Industries and Rafael Advanced Defense
Systems into jointly owned and managed ventures with U.S. defense companies
that would give the Americans direct access to advanced Israeli missile
technology. Iron Dome is the only operational system capable of intercepting
short-range rockets and mortar shells, with a computer that can detect
which incoming missiles will hit populated areas and disregard those that
won't. UPI
News
Obama,
G8 May Remind Iran Of Their Own 'Oil Weapon'
After months of intense but quiet diplomacy with key allies, US President
Barack Obama may secure the support of the G8 to essentially pre-authorize
a release of strategic reserves later this summer, just as US and European
sanctions on Iran come into force. Late last year, Iran issued a series
of not-so veiled threats to the West, suggesting it could use its "oil
weapon" to show displeasure over toughening sanctions by halting exports
or disrupting the Strait of Hormuz. This weekend, the Group of Eight nations
may offer a timely retort: We've got an oil weapon of our own, and we're
not afraid to use it. Jerusalem
Post
'Haniyeh:
No Future For Israel In Palestine'
Hamas Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh told an international pro-Palestinian
delegation on Friday that there is no future for Israel "on the land of
Palestine," Gaza news portal Al-Resalah reported. Haniyeh was speaking
at a meeting in Gaza with delegates from several countries including Jordan,
Egypt and Lebanon. "We must live up to our motto.. .which says, we will
not recognize Israel," the Hamas-affiliate quoted him as saying. He reportedly
emphasized the importance of the right of return for Palestinian refugees,
and lauded the "victory of the Palestinian hunger strikers." Jerusalem
Post
Merkel
'Suggests Greek Referendum On Euro Membership'
Germany's leader has had telephone contact with the Greek president,
amid continuing speculation that his country may have to leave the eurozone.
Greek officials said Chancellor Angela Merkel had suggested Greece could
hold a referendum on the euro when it votes in national elections next
month. However their German counterparts denied she had made such a proposal.
The crisis in the eurozone is expected to dominate G8 talks in the US this
weekend. The reports of the German-Greek contacts came as US and French
leaders ended talks in Washington focusing on the economy. BBC
'Thousands'
Protest In Northern Syrian City Of Aleppo
Thousands of people have taken to the streets in the northern Syrian
city of Aleppo, activists say, in the biggest protests there since the
revolt began. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said several people
were injured by tear gas and live ammunition. Protests were reported elsewhere,
a day after activists called for rallies in solidarity with students in
Aleppo. Observers say anti-government sentiment is rising there, after
security forces killed students in a raid in early May. Videos posted by
activists show hundreds of people taking part in anti-government rallies
in various parts of Aleppo. BBC
UK
'May Never Recover' If Greece Exits Euro
A Greek exit from the single currency threatens to plunge Britain into
a second recession equal in ferocity to the record postwar slump of 2008-09,
according to the expert responsible for the government's economic forecasting.
Robert Chote, chair of the Office for Budget Responsibility, who was speaking
to the Guardian as world financial markets staggered to the end of a week
that rekindled memories of the collapse of Lehman Brothers in 2008, warned
that there was risk that a fresh downturn would do irreparable damage to
the UK. Britain has made up less than half the ground lost when output
plunged by more than 7% in 2008-09, and Chote said there was a risk that
"you go down and you never quite get back up to where you started". Guardian
IAEA
Chief Returns To Iran For Nuclear Talks
The UN nuclear agency chief will fly to Tehran over the weekend to
sign a deal meant to allow his organisation to resume probing Iran's disputed
nuclear programme, the agency and diplomats said Friday. An International
Atomic Energy Agency statement announcing the Sunday trip said only that
Yukiya Amano would "discuss issues of mutual interest with high Iranian
officials" during his one-day visit, which will include a meeting with
Iran's chief nuclear negotiator, Saeed Jalili. Guardian
Al-Qaeda
Leader Ayam Al-Zawahri Calls On Saudi Arabia To Rise Up
Al-Qaeda chief Ayman al-Zawahiri has urged Saudis to follow the example
of the Arab Spring and rise up against their rulers. "Why don't you rise
while you are the sons of the proud and strong tribes that look down upon
death in order to lift the humiliation and the oppression?" Zawahiri asked
in a video translated by the US-based SITE Intelligence Group. "Why don't
you follow the example for your brothers in Tunisia, Libya, Egypt, Yemen
and the Levant?" He was referring to the Arab Spring wave of popular uprisings
that has roiled North Africa and the Middle East since December 2010. The
six-minute video was produced in February or March and appeared Thursday
on extremist websites, according to SITE. Telegraph
Pregnant
Women Should Not 'Eat For Two'
Pregnant women who eat for two and gain too much weight are at greater
risk of having complications than those who stick to a healthy diet, research
has found. Staying on a healthy diet while pregnant is a safe and effective
way of avoiding gaining too much weight, researchers found. Exercise or
a combination of exercise and diet were not as effective, it was found.
Women who dieted gained four kilos less than those who did not and their
risk of suffering pre-eclampsia, a potentially life threatening condition
involving high blood pressure, was reduced by a third. They were also 61
per cent less likely to develop gestational diabetes, 70 per cent less
likely to have high blood pressure and were a third less likely to give
birth prematurely. Telegraph
Presence
Of Observers In Syria Has ‘Calming Effect’ In Areas Deployed
Amid ongoing violence in parts of Syria, the presence of UN military
observers on the ground has had an overall calming effect in their areas
of deployment in the Middle Eastern country, the head of the UN observer
force said today. “We were very pleased to see and witness an immediate
calming effect brought about by our arrival,” the head of the UN Supervision
Mission in Syria (UNSMIS) and Chief Military Observer, Major-General Robert
Mood, told reporters in Damascus today. “This has been challenged by asymmetric
incidents, sometimes intense, but [only] in some locations.” UN
News
Sustainable
Development Must Inform Global Economic Revival Efforts – Ban
Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said today that efforts to revive the
global economy must be based on a long-term vision of sustainable and inclusive
development, stressing that the current financial difficulties make it
imperative that the world seeks balanced growth for future generations.
“If we act within a long-term vision of sustainable development, we can
reduce debt burdens, we can consolidate development gains and we can generate
new dynamism and growth,” Mr. Ban said in his closing remarks to the General
Assembly’s high-level thematic debate on The State of the World Economy
and Finance and its Impact on Development. UN
News
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