DAILY BEAST: …Top military leaders in the Pentagon and in the field are growing increasingly frustrated by the tight constraints the White House has placed on the plans to fight ISIS and train a new Syrian rebel army. As the American-led battle against ISIS stretches into its fourth month, the generals and Pentagon officials leading […]
Long-conservative Latin America is turning liberal
Just a couple of years ago, this tiny country that’s squeezed between Brazil and Argentina found itself in the same position as so many of its Latin-American neighbors. Abortion was illegal. Gay marriage was illegal. Marijuana was not tolerated.
US Sanction on Hungary: Charles Gati: “The travel ban is just the beginning”
US foreign policy expert Charles Gati believes that popular support among Hungarian voters for Prime Minister Viktor Orbán is far weaker than his two-thirds parliamentary majority suggests, and that his government could be vulnerable if the “EU takes up the issue of corruption more seriously than it has in the past”.
What should have happened with Harrisburg: Judge approves Stockton’s plan to exit bankruptcy
The approval came despite objection from Franklin Templeton Investments — a creditor owed nearly $32.5 million by Stockton. The firm has argued that the city is asking that it walk away from collecting the debt, while refusing to touch a massive employee pension fund…
US shakes off torpor with 3.5% growth
The figure came in well ahead of analysts’ expectations of 3 per cent growth – supporting the US Federal Reserve’s decision to end its third round of quantitative easing on Wednesday.
Russia and Ukraine reach gas deal
FINANCIAL TIMES: …But after 30 hours of negotiations in Brussels, Moscow signed a deal with Kiev to guarantee supplies until March. “There is now no reason for people in Europe to stay cold this winter,” said José Manuel Barroso, president of the European Commission. According to the terms of the accord, Kiev will make prepayments […]
California Leads on [Prison] Reform
Dire warnings that crime would go up as a result were unfounded. Over two years, the recidivism rate of former three-strikes inmates is 3.4 percent, or less than one-tenth of the state’s average. That’s, in large part, because of a strong network of re-entry services…
“Rape”, “Sexual predator”: When words fail
“According to VAWA, during any ‘institutional disciplinary hearing,’ both the accuser and accused are entitled “to be accompanied to any related meeting or proceeding by an advisor of their choice. That ‘clearly and unambiguously’ includes the option of an attorney, the Department of Education says.”
Corbett’s pre-election grant giveaway raises questions about motivation behind grant awards
HARRISBURG PATRIOT-NEWS: Gov. Tom Corbett has been playing Santa Claus for the past six months going around the state doling out more than $137 million in taxpayer-funded economic development grants for a parking garage, a skyscraper, hotels and numerous other projects. And he has a few more grants left in his bag of goodies yet […]
Metal patch may point to Earhart’s plane
USA TODAY: Researchers say they are increasingly confident that a piece of aluminum found on a remote Pacific atoll more than 20 years ago probably came from the airplane flown by Amelia Earhart on her ill-fated attempt to circle the world in 1937. The metal sheet, found in 1991 with other possible Earhart artifacts on […]
LETTER: Local media won’t critique LGH / Penn arrangement
Can anyone realistically expect that LNP (or WGAL for that matter) will dig deep in any semblance of an investigative report against LGH?
Jim Crow Returns: Millions of minority voters threatened by electoral purge
ALJAZEERA: ..The Crosscheck list of suspected double voters has been compiled by matching names from roughly 110 million voter records from participating states. Interstate Crosscheck is the pet project of Kansas’ controversial Republican secretary of state, Kris Kobach, known for his crusade against voter fraud… There are 6,951,484 names on the target list of the […]
Prosecutors See Repeat Offenses on Wall Street
NEW YORK TIMES: …imposed new practices and fines on the banks but stopped short of criminal charges, according to lawyers briefed on the cases. Prosecutors are exploring whether to strengthen the earlier deals, the lawyers said, or scrap them altogether and force the banks to plead guilty to a crime. That effort, unfolding separately from […]
Tens of thousands take to Hungary’s streets in latest Internet tax protest
ALJAZEERA: About 100,000 Hungarians rallied late into the night on Tuesday to protest a planned tax on Internet data traffic and the broader course of Prime Minister Viktor Orban’s government, which they see as undermining democracy and relations with the European Union… Orban’s government, which was nonetheless re-elected by a landslide this year, has imposed […]