Severe flooding has killed at least 90 people in El Salvador after heavy rains soaked the country. The government declared a state of emergency as the search for more victims went on.
Hezbollah is reportedly prepping for another possible conflict with Israel, stocking up on arms and reinforcing fixed positions, as fears grow that the Netanyahu government will launch a new assault against Lebanon as a precursor to any attack against Iran and its nuclear facilities.
With a new populist government in place in Tokyo, the people of Okinawa are stepping up their protest against the relocation of a U.S. Marine Corps air base on the island. They want the base gone altogether.
With a few dozen Democrats jumping ship and the support of just one Republican, the House passed a historic health reform bill by just five votes. The measure would expand coverage to most Americans through individual and employer mandates, outlaw some of the insurance companies’ more unsavory tactics and provide a weakened public insurance option. (continued)
A new vaccine trial is underway in Africa in an attempt to control malaria, a disease that not only kills 1 million people every year, but also makes 300 million seriously sick. If the trial results come back positive, a worldwide vaccine could be available as soon as 2012.
More than one in every six U.S. workers are either unemployed or underemployed, a statistic arguably more significant than the 10.2 percent jobless rate posted in October, as it factors in those who have quit looking, as well as part-time workers desiring full-time gigs.
A day after it was announced that the U.S. unemployment rate had hit the double-digit mark, a report was released showing that nearly half of the members of Congress are millionaires, seriously questioning the notion that our lawmakers identify with “we the people.”
By Friday evening, it wasn’t clear whether Saturday’s scheduled vote on the famous health care reform bill would happen on time in the House of Representatives, but Democrats were busy wooing any remaining potential supporters among their congressional ranks.
On Friday, Jason Rodriguez, a 40-year-old engineer who had been fired from an Orlando, Fla., construction firm two years ago, went back to his former office and opened fire, killing at least one person and wounding at least five others before fleeing to his mother’s house, where he was tracked down and arrested.
“Illegal protest” can count a new baritoned bedfellow. In an interview ahead of the Copenhagen climate change conference, former Vice President Al Gore pronounced civil disobedience to be justified, believing that the global warming crisis requires more forceful methods of political activism.
Honduras’ government is on the ropes again. Roberto Micheletti, the interim president, moved to form a new government after a deal to form a “unity” cabinet collapsed. Manuel Zelaya (pictured), the elected president ousted in a coup in June, is now urging a boycott of the election scheduled later this month.
In news that President Barack Obama described as “sobering,” the U.S. unemployment rate in October broke into the double-digit range, with 10.2 percent of Americans without jobs, the highest rate since April 1983.
By the end of the day, some confusion about Thursday’s shooting at the Fort Hood Army base in Texas had been cleared up. It turns out, according to later reports, that the military doctor shot at the scene, Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, was the only gunman involved in the attack and that he was still alive in its aftermath.
Don’t be fooled by stimulus critics who cite expenditures such as the “electric fish orchestra” (actually an educational demonstration of a larger project related to robotics and prosthetics) or trips to resorts (to train special-ed teachers). “Waste,” as ProPublica reports, “is in the eye of the beholder.” (continued)
On Thursday afternoon, two gunmen in military uniforms opened fire in a processing center at the U.S. Army’s Fort Hood base in Texas, killing 12 people and wounding at least 31. According to The New York Times, the alleged shooters were U.S. Army soldiers but had not been identified yet. Updated
Thursday would have been a good day for members of Congress to use those underground tunnels to get around the Capitol. Outside, throngs of conservative protesters, heeding Minnesota Rep. Michele Bachmann’s loony call, converged on the Hill to demonstrate against the proposed health care bill—also known, in GOP-speak, as the first official step in the socialist takeover of our government.
U.N. inspectors have found “nothing to be worried about” in their first report after visiting a previously clandestine uranium-enrichment site south of Tehran. The clean assessment, which described the site as a “hole in a mountain,” may cause critics to now look for more diplomatic solutions to Iran’s nuclear program.
The chairman of the Joint Chiefs, Adm. Mike Mullen, expects the Pentagon to request emergency financing for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, a Bush-era tactic that uses “supplemental funding” to flesh out the already massive Pentagon budget to pay for the conflicts.
In the face of failing peace talks with Israel and a stalemate with rival Hamas, reports suggest that a frustrated Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas will not seek re-election early next year.
What’s wrong with a $60,000 wand that can detect explosives and truffles from up to a kilometer away? Nothing, if it works. The U.S. military, technicians, journalists and people with eyes have been trying to get Iraqi officials to see reason, but that doesn’t bother one Gen. Jabiri, who says ... (Continued)
She admits she hasn’t always been a true believer in our country’s electoral system, but former Hewlett-Packard CEO Carly Fiorina is now hoping to become a major player in the U.S. political arena by challenging longtime California Sen. Barbara Boxer for her congressional seat in 2010.
Twenty-three CIA agents are going to have to think twice about leaving the U.S. now that an Italian court has convicted them in absentia for snatching an imam in Milan and sending him to Egypt, where the cleric says he was tortured. (continued)
Why did voters in Maine reject a law that would have sanctioned same-sex marriage? Well, according to some marriage equality supporters, one big reason currently resides at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, and another has to do with conservative scare tactics played out via television ad campaigns.
In the aftermath of Afghanistan’s scuttled presidential runoff, Adm. Michael Mullen, chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, urged President Hamid Karzai to go after the corruption within his ranks. Meanwhile, Karzai’s former challenger, Abdullah Abdullah, advised his supporters to contain their discontent and avoid violence.
Tuesday’s elections were dispiriting in some ways for Democrats, particularly in Virginia and New Jersey (not to mention Maine, though that issue cuts across party lines), but the New York Daily News’ Michael McAuliff wonders whether another, more encouraging object lesson for 2010 might’ve happened in upstate New York.
When Voters Disrupt the Tea Party
