If there is doubt on who really does care, it isn’t the senators and congressmen who spent months lambasting the VA and Secretary Shinseki — but waited until the final days before their August recess to pass any reform legislation…
Poll: Corbett gaining ground on Wolf
PHILADELPHIA INQUIRER: Gov. Corbett appears to be closing the gap with Democratic opponent Tom Wolf in his race for reelection in November, according to a Magellan Strategies poll conducted for the news website the Keystone Report and released Tuesday. Corbett has pulled to within 12 percentage points among likely voters, the survey said. Wolf, a […]
Gannett To Spin Off Its Publishing Business including USA Today
USA TODAY: The game of survival is on for newspapers, as USA Today owner Gannett on Tuesday became the most recent major media entity to say it will divide its print and broadcast divisions into separate companies. As consumers continue to gravitate toward online sources of news and entertainment, newspapers are increasingly being asked to […]
Gaza cease-fire holds ahead of Cairo talks
USA TODAY: The longest cease-fire in a war between Israel and Hamas that Gaza’s health ministry says has killed nearly 1,900 Palestinians and Israel’s military says has led to the deaths of over 60 of its soldiers appears to be holding for a second day Wednesday. The 72-hour truce is for humanitarian purposes. In the […]
Feds stop public disclosure of many serious hospital errors
USA TODAY: The federal government this month quietly stopped publicly reporting when hospitals leave foreign objects in patients’ bodies or make a host of other life-threatening mistakes. The change, which the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) denied last year that it was making, means people are out of luck if they want to […]
Preventing binge drinking and campus rapes
At least half of college students’ sexual assaults are associated with alcohol use. In one study, 74% of perpetrators and 55% of rape victims had been drinking…
Corbett met with campaign aides in office; action appears contradictory
Republican Gov. Tom Corbett, the former attorney general whose prosecutions drew a strict line between campaign and government activities, met with top campaign advisers in the governor’s office on numerous occasions since taking office in January 2011, state records show.
Israel Pulls All Troops From Gaza as Cease-Fire Under Way
NEWSMAX / BLOOMBERG: Israel pulled its remaining troops out of the Gaza Strip after completing a campaign to destroy tunnels used by militants to stage attacks, bolstering a 72-hour truce that took effect early today. Under the Egyptian-brokered accord — the latest effort to end four weeks of fighting — hostilities ceased at 8 a.m. […]
Fed: Banks easing lending standards
USA TODAY: The home mortgage market improved last quarter as demand increased and many banks eased their lending standards for the most creditworthy borrowers, the Federal Reserve said Monday. Banks also loosened lending criteria for a variety of other consumer and business loans as the economy improved and demand picked up… The developments could foreshadow […]
A Mainstream Sci-Fi, and several overlooked indies
“Lucy” is a fizzy midsummer diversion, driven by the visual flair of director Luc Besson and a full throttle performance from Scarlett Johansen. It’s less than the sum of its several high points, and ultimately a head scratcher, but its energy brings a smile to your face in a season that, up to August, has offered mainly duds.
Practicing Muslims far outnumber practicing Christians in Russia
The population of Russia is about 132 million. Twenty million of them are Muslims. It appears like small minority. But it is an ideologically and religiously homogeneous minority. All identify themselves as practicing Muslims.
Courts going soft on pot-smokers and sellers
As a former public defender in Philadelphia, [Northampton County Prosecutor Tatum] Wilson said, she tried a marijuana delivery case in which the jury came back with a not-guilty verdict. Talking to jurors afterward, they were “incensed” that authorities had pursued the charges, Wilson said.
A Web Guerrilla Breaking News From the Jungle
NEW YORK TIMES: …The visit to [Glenn] Greenwald’s jungle redoubt about 15 minutes from the beaches of Rio last week was notable for its contradictions. He is among the most wired journalists on earth, but he lives and works in Brazil, a country with a notoriously flaky Internet infrastructure… “No one, not The New York […]
Adventures in ‘Prior Authorization’
In theory, this is a reasonable way to control costs by making it harder to prescribe costlier medications. In practice, it is a wasteful administrative nightmare, a cavalcade of recurring paperwork, lengthy phone calls and bureaucratic battles.