August 3, 2013

Alison L. Grimes: "If doctors told McConnell that he had a kidney stone, he'd refused to PASS it."

Bluegrass Politics @BGPolitics

"If doctors told McConnell that he had a kidney stone, he's refused to PASS IT," Grimes said. #fancyfarm

August 2, 2013

Pentagon fires 60 troops after sex-assault review

Source: USA Today

WASHINGTON — Sixty troops have been disqualified as sexual assault counselors, recruiters or drill instructors after the military investigators found they had committed violations ranging from alcohol-related offenses to child abuse and sexual assault, USA TODAY has learned.

Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel ordered that the records of recruiters and sexual assault counselors be examined on May 17. That action came in light of the Pentagon's report in May that estimated 26,000 troops had been sexually assaulted in 2012, a 35% increase since 2010, with offenses ranging from groping to rape. Army Gen. Martin Dempsey, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, has called sexual assault in the military a crisis.

The records of at least 35,000 troops have been screened or are under review, according to the services.

Each of the services appears to have interpreted Hagel's directive differently. The Marines screened recruiters, for example, against a public database, while the Army considered criminal records for sexual assault, child abuse and alcohol-related offenses.

Read more: http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2013/08/02/military-sexual-assault-pentagon/2610181/?sf15667156=1

August 2, 2013

Lowest jobless claims since Jan 2008 goes completely unreported on FOX News.

Fox News let the fact that weekly jobless claims fell to the lowest level since January 2008 go completely unreported.

On August 1, the Department of Labor released its weekly jobless claims report, which showed the number of initial claims for unemployment benefits fell by 19,000 to 326,000. The number came in lower than economists' expectations, and was the lowest level of initial claims in five and a half years.

Virtually every news report noted in the headline that the number reached a landmark low. While reports were tempered with the caveat that summer claims tend to be volatile, the four-week moving average -- a much more stable measure -- also fell to 341,250, a level consistent with those seen in early 2008.

Fox didn't seem to think the news warranted any attention. When the initial claims report was released, Fox & Friends devoted only 16 seconds to the numbers. While co-host Alisyn Camerota noted that the number came in below expectations, she failed to mention the landmark news behind the report:

http://mediamatters.org/blog/2013/08/01/fox-doesnt-have-time-for-landmark-low-in-unempl/195174