Critics say the Pennsylvania Republican is stalling the nomination to punish the Obama administration for its immigration stance…
Barack Obama slams Elizabeth Warren on trade comments
POLITICO: …In an interview with Yahoo! Politics published Saturday, Obama said that the Massachusetts senator’s arguments “don’t stand the test of fact and scrutiny,” and that “she is absolutely wrong,” on any trade deal’s potential to roll back the Dodd Frank Act… Warren has argued that a bill giving Obama “fast-track” authority to approve the […]
As Lake Mead hits record lows and water shortages loom, Arizona prepares for the worst.
SLATE: Last week, Lake Mead, which sits on the border of Nevada and Arizona, set a new record low—the first time since the construction of the Hoover Dam in the 1930s that the lake’s surface has dipped below 1,080 feet above sea level. The West’s drought is so bad that official plans for water rationing […]
Two NYT articles testify to potential for good of humanity
“It wasn’t easy, but it wasn’t torture, either,” [Adam Sirois] said. “I feel all of my fellow jurors were very respectful of my position. I’m proud to be on a jury with all of them, even if I don’t agree with all of them about the decision.”
LNP editors owe Kathleen Kane and Lancaster public an apology
uCertainly a matter as serious as calling for the resignation of an elected public official deserves some research, some questions, some reflection on the seriousness of the alleged offense.
North Korea Says It Test-Fired Missile From Submarine
“North Korea’s development of a submarine-launched missile capability would eventually expand Pyongyang’s threat to South Korea, Japan and U.S. bases in East Asia, also complicating regional missile defense planning, deployment and operations,” Joseph S. Bermudez Jr., an expert on the North Korean military, said in an article posted on the website 38North in January. “Submarines carrying land-attack missiles would be challenging to locate and track, would be mobile assets able to attack from any direction, and could operate at significant distances from the Korean peninsula.”.
British polling flop prompts global reassessments
POLITICO: …Political surveys do more than measure just the horse race: They help explain the issues and personal factors that help voters reach their decisions. But when public pollsters botch the horse race, it undermines credibility in the industry as a whole. And it would be difficult for the pollsters to perform any worse than […]
US employers add solid 223K jobs; rate falls to 5.4 percent, 7-year low
AOL: U.S. employers added 223,000 jobs in April, a solid gain that suggests that the economy may be recovering after stumbling at the start of the year. The job growth helped lower the unemployment rate to 5.4 percent from 5.5 percent in March, the Labor Department said Friday. That is the lowest rate since May […]
N.S.A. Collection of Bulk Call Data Is Ruled Illegal
NEW YORK TIMES: A federal appeals court in New York ruled on Thursday that the once-secret National Security Agency program that is systematically collecting Americans’ phone records in bulk is illegal. The decision comes as a fight in Congress is intensifying over whether to end and replace the program, or to extend it without changes. […]
David Cameron’s Conservatives surge to U.K. election win
USA TODAY: …The party won at least 325 seats, enough for a working majority to form a government without a coalition partner. The outcome defies months of extensive polling data that showed Cameron’s right-of-center party struggling to overcome a statistical dead heat with the Labour Party and setting the stage for a second coalition government […]
Pennsylvania prison recidivism rates drop to historic lows
PENN LIVE: Fewer convicted criminals are going back to their illegal behavior after serving time in Pennsylvania prisons, according to new information from the Pa. Department of Corrections. Statistics show that the latest six-month, one-year and three-year recidivism rates between 2011 and 2013 have dropped to all-time lows. Corrections Secretary John Wetzel said the latest […]
US Senate passes bill to review Iran nuclear deal
FINANCIAL TIMES: …The US Senate voted overwhelmingly on Thursday for a bill to give Congress a chance to approve or reject a nuclear deal with Iran, in a rare moment of bipartisan unity. The bill passed by 98-1 after several Republican senators were blocked by the party leadership in their efforts to insert amendments that […]
LETTER: PA Senate to vote on improving medical marijuana law
The Pennsylvania Senate is expected to consider amendments to SB 3, the state’s medical marijuana bill, within the next week. Make sure your elected representative hears from you before casting his or her vote! The current version of SB 3 is so limited it wouldn’t meet MPP’s definition of an effective medical marijuana law. It […]
Our Biased Brains
NEW YORK TIMES COLUMN: …Racial bias also begins astonishingly early: Even infants often show a preference for their own racial group. In one study, 3-month-old white infants were shown photos of faces of white adults and black adults; they preferred the faces of whites. For 3-month-old black infants living in Africa, it was the reverse… […]