ALJAZEERA: The futility of Colombia’s two-decade air war on the cocaine trade was laid bare on Thursday when the government, following President Juan Manuel Santos’ recommendation, agreed to halt the aerial spraying of coca crops with the herbicide glyphosate — a pillar of Plan Colombia, the multibillion-dollar U.S. aid package to fight drug trafficking. Drug […]
Cyber attack on Penn State compromises data
CENTRE TIMES: …According to Provost Nick Jones, Penn State was made aware of the attacks Nov. 21, 2014, when the FBI alerted the university about an “outside entity attack.”… “Based on our intelligence, we believe they are based in China,” Bennett said. When asked if that meant the Chinese government or individuals within China, […]
Witness Accounts in Midtown Hammer Attack Show the Power of False Memory
These are not the knowingly untrue or devious statements of people who are deliberately lying. False memories can be as persuasive as genuine ones, Dr. [Elizabeth] Loftus said: “When someone expresses it with detail and confidence and emotion, people are going to believe it.”
Sometimes it only takes a few words in the right ear
An application for a variance under the zoning code had been filed to establish a methadone clinic in a township outside of Wilkes-Barre. The local Citizens Voice, a sister publication to the Scranton Times-Leader , had been critical in its coverage of the application.
Coroners step up on overdoses
SCRANTON TIMES-TRIBUNE EDITORIAL: …Statewide, the Pennsylvania State Coroners Association reported, 2,489 people died of drug-related causes in 2014, about seven people every day. And the trend has continued so far in 2015, the coroners said. About half of those deaths were due to overdoses of heroin and other opioids. Although addiction overdoses were a primary […]
Amtrak train sped up for about a minute before crash, NTSB says
WASHINGTON POST: The Amtrak train that crashed Tuesday sped up from 70 mph to more than 100 mph in less than a minute before derailing, the National Transportation Safety Board said Thursday. There was no explanation for that acceleration, the NTSB said, but the train’s engineer has agreed to be interviewed by federal investigators… Investigators […]
Jeb Bush Now Says ‘I Would Not Have Gone Into Iraq’
NBC NEWS: …”Here’s the deal: If we’re all supposed to answer hypothetical questions, knowing what we know now, what would you have done, I would have not engaged. I would not have gone into Iraq,” he said at a town hall event in Tempe, Arizona. Bush added that the world is still safer because of […]
Amtrak service to New York may resume as early as Monday
NEW YORK TIMES: A major stretch of rail line remained shut Thursday after Tuesday night’s deadly Amtrak derailment, forcing thousands of commuters to adjust travel plans and generally muddle through an abrupt suspension of train service. The derailment in Philadelphia killed eight people and injured more than 200… Amtrak said on Thursday that limited service […]
VA improperly spent $6 billion annually, senior official says
WASHINGTON POST: The Department of Veterans Affairs has been spending at least $6 billion a year in violation of federal contracting rules to pay for medical care and supplies, wasting taxpayer money and putting veterans at risk, according to an internal memo written by the agency’s senior official for procurement. In a 35-page document addressed […]
A Tiny Crack in the Russian Ice
NEW YORK TIMES EDITORIAL: It is a measure of how low American-Russian relations have sunk that a meeting between President Vladimir Putin and Secretary of State John Kerry that achieves nothing is perceived as good news. But good news it was when they met for four hours in the southern Russian city of Sochi on […]
Derailed Amtrak Cars Nearly Hit ‘Bomb Train’
DAILY BEAST: …Reports emerged Wednesday afternoon that the derailed train came close to plowing into one or more Conrail oil tanker train cars. One witness told CNN the train missed a tanker “by maybe 50 yards.” Conrail, whose lines carry between 45 and 80 oil trains through Philadelphia each week, transports crude oil headed to […]
“Hungary is being ruled by a mafia government”
The leader of Hungary’s center-right Movement for a Modern Hungary (MOMA) says Hungary has been under the control of a mafia government for a long time.
China concerned about possible US patrols around islands
AOL / AP: China on Wednesday expressed “serious concern” about reports that the U.S. is considering sending military ships and planes to challenge Chinese claims to islands it is building in the South China Sea, and said it would resolutely defend what it considered its sovereign territory. Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said the U.S. […]
KEISLING: Pennsylvania courts must get out of the prosecution business
No doubt many are comfortable in Montgomery County with Judge Carpenter’s unusual arrangement with his own “special prosecutor.” But safeguarding rights is seldom about comfort. Often safeguarding rights is about making powerful people uncomfortable.