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Hissyspit's JournalBREAKING: U.S. House Passes Bill to Reopen Government, Increase Debt Limit
Source: Reuters
U.S. House passes bill to reopen government, increase debt limit
Wed Oct 16, 2013 10:20pm EDT
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. House of Representatives late on Wednesday passed legislation to avoid a damaging default on government debt and to reopen federal agencies shuttered when funding ran out on October 1.
The House vote came hours after the Senate overwhelmingly approved the bill. President Barack Obama earlier on Wednesday said he will promptly sign the bill into law.
Read more: http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSBRE99G03G20131017
Ray McGovern: Laptops Snowden Took to Hong Kong, Russia Were a 'Diversion'
http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSBRE99A0LK20131011Laptops Snowden took to Hong Kong, Russia were a 'diversion'
By Mark Hosenball
WASHINGTON | Fri Oct 11, 2013 2:14pm EDT
By Mark Hosenball
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The four laptop computers that former U.S. spy contractor Edward Snowden carried with him to Hong Kong and Moscow were a "diversion" and contained no secrets, according to an ex-CIA official who met with Snowden in Russia this week.
The classified documents that Snowden had downloaded from the U.S. National Security Agency were stored on smaller devices, such as hard drives and thumb drives, and they have not been turned over to the Russian or Chinese authorities, said Ray McGovern, a former Central Intelligence Agency analyst.
On Wednesday, Snowden held a six-hour meeting in Moscow with McGovern and three other former U.S. intelligence and law enforcement officials who have all become critics of government surveillance programs.
Snowden, 30, is living in a secret location in Russia, beyond the reach of U.S. authorities who want him on espionage charges because he leaked the details of top-secret electronic spying programs to the media.
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BREAKING: Nobel Peace Prize Awarded to The Organization For The Prohibition of Chemical Weapons
Source: Reuters
@Reuters: OPCW, chemical weapons watchdog in Syria, wins Nobel Peace Prize http://t.co/tv0NjEgb19
Chemical weapons watchdog OPCW wins Nobel Peace Prize
Fri Oct 11, 2013 5:02am EDT
OSLO (Reuters) - The Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW), which is overseeing the destruction's of Syria's arsenal, won the Nobel Peace Prize on Friday, the Norwegian Nobel Committee said.
Experts from the Hague-based global chemical weapons watchdog, supported by the United Nations, are working to destroy Syria's massive chemical weapons stockpile after a sarin gas strike in the suburbs of Damascus killed more than 1,400 people in August.
The $1.25 million prize will be presented in Oslo on December 10, the anniversary of the death of Swedish industrialist Alfred Nobel, who founded the awards in his 1895 will.
Norwegian public broadcaster NRK, which has a strong track record leaking the names of winners, reported the OPCW's victory more than an hour before the official announcement.
Read more: http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSBRE99A07F20131011
GOP Now Most Unpopular Political Party Ever Measured By Gallup
http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2013/10/10/gop-now-the-most-unpopular-political-party-ever-measured-by-gallupGOP now the most unpopular political party ever measured by Gallup
By Travis Gettys
Thursday, October 10, 2013 15:00 EDT
The Republican Party has recorded the lowest favorability rating for a political party ever measured by Gallup.
The polling company found the GOP’s favorability rating had dropped 10 percent, from 38 percent last month to 28 percent last week, in the wake of the government shutdown over the implementation of the Affordable Care Act.
The Democratic Party dropped from a 47 percent favorability rating to 43 percent over the same period.
A record-high 62 percent of Americans view the GOP unfavorably, compared to 49 percent who view the Democratic Party negatively.
MORE AT LINK
BREAKING: AP sources: Boehner to ask House GOP for short-term debt ceiling increase
Source: Associated Press
@AP: BREAKING: AP sources: Boehner to ask House GOP for short-term debt ceiling increases
http://mobile.reuters.com/article/idUSBRE9990JH20131010
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. House of Representatives Republicans are still weighing a short-term debt-limit increase, possibly for six weeks, with no decisions going into a closed-door party meeting on Thursday, according to a senior Republican aide.
"It's one of the options being considered," the aide said, without outlining the other options. The aide also did not say whether any temporary increase in U.S. borrowing authority would contain policy changes, such as spending cuts or changes to President Barack Obama's 2010 health care reform law.
Read more: http://bigstory.ap.org/article/ap-sources-boehner-ask-house-gop-short-term-debt-ceiling-increase
Carter: Today's Middle Class Looks Like Poor From His Presidency Due to Income Gap
Source: Associated Press
@AP: Former President Carter says today's middle class looks like the poor from his presidency due to income gap: http://t.co/U1UYX8fFwQ
CARTER: MIDDLE CLASS TODAY RESEMBLES PAST'S POOR
By LISA LEFF
— Oct. 7 11:46 PM EDT
OAKLAND, Calif. (AP) — Former President Jimmy Carter said Monday that the income gap in the United States has increased to the point where members of the middle class resemble the Americans who lived in poverty when he occupied the White House.
Carter offered his assessment of the nation's economic challenges Monday at a Habitat for Humanity construction site in Oakland — the first of five cities he and wife Rosalynn plan to visit this week to commemorate their three-decade alliance with the international nonprofit that promotes and builds affordable housing.
The recent economic downturn revealed that families living in even comparatively well-off, but expensive regions like the San Francisco Bay Area are economically insecure, he said.
"Even in one of the wealthiest parts of the world there is a great deal of foreclosures and now a great deal of people who are fortunate to own their own houses owe more on them than the houses are worth in the present market, and that's all changed in the last eight years," Carter said during an exclusive interview with The Associated Press.
Read more: http://bigstory.ap.org/article/carter-commemorates-habitat-work-calif-visit
Steubenville Rape Case Grand Jury Issues Charges (School IT Employee)
Source: Associated Press
@AP: Ohio grand jury issues indictment of school IT employee in Steubenville HS football player rape case: http://t.co/AJwu7sLhzE -RJJ
STEUBENVILLE RAPE CASE GRAND JURY ISSUES CHARGES
By ANDREW WELSH-HUGGINS
— Oct. 7 6:01 PM EDT
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COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — An Ohio grand jury investigating whether other laws were broken in the case of a 16-year-old girl raped last year by two high school football players has issued an indictment naming a school information technology employee.
The indictment announced by Attorney General Mike DeWine on Monday charges William Rhinaman of Mingo Junction with tampering with evidence, obstructing justice, obstructing official business and perjury.
DeWine says the charges are related to Rhinaman's job as a Steubenville city schools employee. He would not release specifics on the allegations.
A phone listing for the 53-year-old Rhinaman was not taking calls Monday. Messages were left for the Steubenville schools superintendent.
Read more: http://bigstory.ap.org/article/steubenville-rape-case-grand-jury-issues-charges
5 Off-Duty Officers Among Bikers in SUV Incident
Source: WABC
@BreakingNews: Report: 5 off-duty New York City police officers were among bikers in SUV beating incident - @eyewitnessnyc http://t.co/wZ2PWCusaY
5 off-duty officers among bikers in SUV incident
Updated at 10:32 PM today
NEW YORK (WABC) -- Eyewitness News has learned that among the bikers on the Henry Hudson last weekend, were five off-duty NYPD officers.
Sources say at least two detectives witnessed the attack on Alexian Lien and did not directly intervene. And investigators are still working to determine what role, if any, was played by the other three officers.
What is clear, sources say, is that the men did not begin to come forward until late Wednesday, four full-days after the incident.
And detectives are also investigating reports that several others in the group may have been off-duty New York City correction officers.
An undercover detective has informed Internal Affairs that he was present at the time of the confrontation.
The undercover narcotics detective, himself a motorcycle rider, was off duty. Official sources say he did not get involved because he did not want to blow his cover. Internal Affairs is now investigating. The undercover detective is being advised by an attorney.
Read more: http://abclocal.go.com/wabc/story?section=news/local/new_york&id=9274018
Overflowing Tank Cause of New Leak at Fukushima
Source: Associated Press
OVERFLOWING TANK CAUSE OF NEW LEAK AT FUKUSHIMA
By MARI YAMAGUCHI
— Oct. 3 11:35 PM EDT
TOKYO (AP) — Another day, another radioactive-water spill. The operator of the crippled Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear plant says at least 430 liters (110 gallons) spilled when workers overfilled a storage tank without a gauge that could have warned them of the danger.
The amount is tiny compared to the untold thousands of tons of radioactive water that have leaked, much of it into the Pacific Ocean, since a massive earthquake and tsunami wrecked the plant and sent it into meltdown in 2011. But the error is one of many the operator has committed as it struggles to manage a seemingly endless, tainted flow.
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TEPCO said the water then spilled out of a concrete barrier surrounding the tank and believed that most of it reached the sea via a ditch next to the river. The company later said, however, radiation levels in sea water samples taken just off the plant's coast remained below detectable levels.
The overspill, the latest of several mishaps in less than a month, prompted the Nuclear Regulation Authority to summon the utility president and reprimand him in public. Katsuhiko Ikeda, administrative head of the agency, ordered TEPCO President Naomi Hirose on Friday to ensure better on-site management and prevent human error, and submit improvement plans in a report.
Read more: http://bigstory.ap.org/article/new-leak-japan-nuke-plant-due-tank-overflow
New Leak at Japan Nuke Plant Due to Tank Overflow
Source: Associated Press
Oct 2, 11:59 PM EDT
NEW LEAK AT JAPAN NUKE PLANT DUE TO TANK OVERFLOW
Oct 2, 11:59 PM EDT
TOKYO (AP) -- Japan's crippled nuclear plant has a new leak of highly radioactive water entering the Pacific Ocean after a storage tank overflowed.
Plant operator Tokyo Electric Power Co. said Thursday that workers detected the water dripping from the top of a tank when they were patrolling the site the night before.
TEPCO estimates 430 liters (110 gallons) of water leaked outside a concrete barrier surrounding the tank and four others. TEPCO believes the water reached the sea via a ditch next to the barrier.
Massive amounts of water have been used to cool the reactors and fuel rods since the March 2011 earthquake and tsunami destroyed the Fukushima Dai-ichi plant's cooling system. Leaks of the contaminated water are causing concerns over the plant's stability.
Read more: http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/leak-japan-nuke-plant-due-tank-overflow-20453236
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