by AR Staff
Bradenton, Fla.
Oct. 24, 2011
CURRENT AND RECENTLY DELETED TICKER ITEMS
Printable version of this story
BRADENTON, Fla. -- Below are the current and the recently deleted ticker items that have appeared in The American Reporter, all authored by the AR Staff.
The date of their deletion is noted, Please note that the current blurbs are in the same order they appear currently on the front-page ticker.
Older blurbs, however, start with those deleted Sept. 12, 2011. The ones most recently deleted are at the end.
In Windows, to search for an AR Ticker item of interest to you, use Control+F and in the dialogue box enter a word or short phrase likely to appear in the item.
CURRENT AND DELETED TICKER ITEMS (AS OF 7:59AM ET, OCTOBER 11, 2012)
Contrary to a Fox News report, CIA agents rushed to the Benghazi consulate within 25 minutes of the beginning of the Sept. 11 terrorist assault, the New York Times reported this morning. Rather than having denied help to the mission, as Fox reported, the team of six agents enlisted Libyan militia members, rushed two commandoes from Tripoli and comandeered a Predator drone in their effort to save Ambassador Chris Stevens and other consulate personnel, the Times said; two of the CIA agents perished in the fight, it said (11/2/2012, 7:22am) --AR ONLINE-- "
He'll come at me like a cannonball," GOP VP contender Rep. Paul Ryan says of Vice President Joe Biden, who will face off against him tonight at 9pm ET in the only 2012 vice presidential debate. "Joe Buiden will come out swinging," says a CNN anchor this morning. Both observers are probably wrong; Biden will not let himself be goaded into what CNN calls an "aggressive" performance that in any way steps over the line. After all, he would not gain any votes or sympathy by trying to trample a young, nice-looking policy wonk. Instead, Biden will probably have familiarized himself in depth with the many talking points presented by Ryan's self-authored plans for Medicare and the budget, both of which may be damning in the eyes of many Americans, particularly seniors and the poor. Biden is expected to be his ordinary, gregarious, friendly self. Biden said he has been busy "mostly studying up on Congressman Ryan's positions on the issues," he told CNN this morning (10/11/2012, 8:36am) --AR ONLINE--
Israel's threats to attack Iran have raised the price of oil about $15 a barrel, a report by the Bipartisan Policy Center says, according to BPC officials speaking on C-SPAN. Daniel Ahn, Citigroup's chief economist and a member of the BPC who worked on the report, said an additional spike can be expected if war breaks out. The price of oil has resulted in gasoline prices that are among the highest ever and currently average $3.69 in most of the U.S. and over $4.50 in California, which has ordered the sale of "winter gas," a cheaper formulation, for distribution throughout the state. That move has already brought prices down, CNN reported. "Tehran crossing the nuclear threshhold is unlikely to cause an immediate disruption in the flow of oil," the report said, but would have important geopolitical ramifications, and if not prevented, have "significant" effects on supply and price. The report said 18% of the world's oil, about 16 million barrels per day, comes from the Middle East, and 35% of that passes through the Straits of Hormuz, the report said, adding that a nuclearized Iran could increase the price of oil by $20 a barrel and gasoline by $0.50 a gallon. The C-SPAN panel had difficulty dealing with the possibility even a US strike on Iran might not entirely disrupt the Iranian nuclear program, but panel members said a strike would not end the program, and that a failure to eliminate it with a strike would create "uncertainty." The BPC report appears aimed at increasing US support for an Israeli strike against Iran. The report even suggests that a failure to strike successfully against Iranian nuclear facilities could lead in just 3 years to an additional $1.40 price hike at the pump and the loss of 1 million jobs. The report contemplates a nuclear exchange between Saudi Arabia and Iran which would increase gas prices by $2.75 a gallon, double oil prices and cause an 8% drop in America's Gross Domestic Product, "sending the nation into a severe recession," raising unemployment 4% and inflation by 5%. Saudi Arabia has no nuclear weapons, however, so it is unclear how there could be such an "exchange." In an aside, the report says the Saudis probably funded the Pakistani nuclear effort, and the Kingdom may have a pact with Pakistan to provide it with nuclear weapons on short notice in the event of an emergency, and adds that some sources say the Saudis are already seeking a nuclear weapon. The report predicted that the probability of a nuclear exchange between Iran and Israel is 40% after the first year of Iran's nuclearization and 45% after the third year. The possibility of a conventional-weapons strike against Iran now is about 35%, the report indicated. And if the current sanctions against Iran were allowed to lapse, the report says, the price of oil would probably drop by 20% - the only outcome that appears to benefit the American consumer. The report in its entirety can be read at: http://bipartisanpolicy.org/sites/default/files/PriceofInaction.pdf (10/11/2012, 11:35am) --AR ONLINE--
Breaking: Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez re-elected - Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez was re-elected Sunday to another six-year term, according to partial results announced by the National Electoral Council. Chavez has been president since 1999. He defeated Henrique Capriles Radonski, who was backed by an opposition coalition (10/7/2012, 12:30am) --Courtesy of CLG*--
Mother mourns 2,000th death in Afghanistan as war enters 12th year - Lisa Freeman was cradling her 6-day-old grandson in one arm and watching the news on her iPad while her daughter and son-in-law caught some much-needed sleep. The retired teacher was taking notes with her free hand when she heard the news: The nation had suffered its 2,000th casualty in the Afghan war (10/7/2012, 12:30am) --Courtesy of CLG--
Taliban mock US as Afghan war enters 12th year - America's longest war entered its 12th year Sunday, with the anniversary marked by a Taliban statement claiming that NATO forces are "fleeing Afghanistan" in "humiliation and disgrace". The US led the invasion on October 7, 2001, to topple the Taliban government for harbouring Al Qaeda [al-CIAduh] leader Osama bin Laden after the September 11 attacks on New York and Washington (10/7/2012, 12:30am) --Courtesy of CLG--
Drone protest heads for Pakistan's tribal region - A protest against US drone strikes in Pakistan, led by cricketer-turned-politician Imran Khan, is continuing for a second day. Khan led at least 1,000 supporters and dozens of Western peace activists to Tank, the last town before the semi-autonomous area where the Taliban and 'Al-Qaeda' have strongholds and often called the most dangerous place on Earth. "It's our right to go to our people," said student Fakhruddin Shinwari, accusing the Pakistani government of trying to hide the real situation in the tribal belt. "There's no security risk. The main factor is if Imran Khan goes to Waziristan the real situation made by the United States and Pakistan will be seen. There are no terrorists there - it will be shown to be a lie" (10/7/2012, 12:30am) --Courtesy of CLG--
Pharmacy linked to outbreak issues wide recall - Outbreak spans nine states and has killed at least seven people 07 Oct 2012 The pharmacy that distributed a steroid linked to an outbreak of fungal meningitis has issued a voluntary recall of all of its products, calling the move a precautionary measure. The New England Compounding Center announced the recall Saturday. The Food and Drug Administration had previously told health professionals not to use any products distributed by the center. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention posted updated figures to its website Sunday showing there are 91 confirmed cases of the rare form of fungal meningitis (10/7/2012, 12:30am) --Courtesy of CLG--
65% of Jews support President Barack Obama, the Jewrusalem Post reported, with only 24 percent supporting contender Mitt Romney and 10 percent undecided, the paper said in its Friday editions. "The poll, conducted Sept. 6-17 among 1,040 Jewish voters nationwide, found Obama doing better than Romney among Jews of all religious backgrounds with the exception of Orthodox Jews, who favored the Republican nominee" by 54 percent to 40 percent the paper said, reviewing a poll conducted by the U.S.-based American Jewish Committee (9/28/2012, 1:58am) --AR ONLINE--
Two close friends of America's third-richest Member of Congress, Republican Rep. Vern Buchanan of Sarasota, Fla., have pleaded guilty just weeks before elections to giving Buchanan's campaign $84,300 in illegal contributions from March 2006 to October 2008. by reimbursing dozens of employees of a trucking company they owned disquised as bonuses. The men gave the money separately not only to hide its true origins but because the amounts violated federal laws. The men face 5 and 1 years in federal prison, respectively. This is the first criminal prosecution to result from six years of investigations of Buchanan's elections and finances. Buchanan faces Democrat Keith Fitzgerald, a former state representative who served two terms in the state legislature and is a highly-regarded professor of political science at New College University in Sarasota, on Florida's suthern Gulf Coast (9/28/2012, 2:42am) --AR ONLINE-- >P>
A NYT/CBS/Quinnipiac poll of likely voters in the critical swing states of Ohio and Florida show President Obama dramatically widening his lead over GOP presidential contender Mitt Romney in both states. In Ohio, which every Republican president has won, Romney is trailing Obama by 10 points, 53% to 43%, and in Florida, where seniors are key voters, Romney trails Obama by 9 points, 53% to 44%. Obama outscored Romney on all but one issue - who would better tackle the budget deficit - that pollsters queried voters about. The Times said the results point to a need for Romney to do very well in the Oct. 3 presidential debate (9/26/2012, 2:53pm) --AR ONLINE--
Lance Easley, the referee in the blown Seahawks-Packers touchdown call Monday night, is currently employed as a VP of small business banking at a Bankamerica branch in California, according to Bloomberg news. Meanwhile, the NFL announced that New England Patriots coach Bill Belichek has been fined $50,000 for making physical contact with an official during a Sunday game after referees awarded a field goal for a kick that appeared to pass over the center of the right-hand goalpost. Belicek was seen in broadcasts grabbing the arm of a passing official, who didn not stop. Belicheck said he was trying to signal the referee that he was asking for a timeout; he momentarily grabbed the referee's arm and then let go (9/26/2012, 1:18pm) --AR ONLINE--
In a sign that relief may be coming for drivers burdened by the high price of gasoline in the United States, crude oil on world markets has fallen below $90 a barrel for the first time in months. Gas is currently averaging about $3.826 per gallon across much of the United States. "[T]he prospect of a $3-per-gallon national average seemed like it could become a reality by Halloween," Time Magazine reported Tuesday (9/26/2012, 11:33am) --AR ONLINE--
According to his 2011 tax returns, GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney made $11,000 on shares of the Chinese National Overseas Oil Corporation (CNOOC) he bought in 2009, when the United States was publicly expressing concern about CNOOC's multibillion deals with Iran, the Financial Times reported this afternoon, (9/25/2012, 3:28pm) --AR ONLINE--
Syrian mortar shells fell on the Israeli side of the Golan Heights, Bloomberg News reported this afternoon, but no damage or injuries were reported. Shells from Syria also landed in the Golan in July 2012. Observers say the shells were aimed at rebel-held Syrian villages but overshot their targets (9/25/2012, 3:44pm) --AR ONLINE--
The Dow was down about 100 this afternoon, but September 2012 consumer confidence survey shows sharp rise, from 61% to 70%, news reports say (9/25/2012, 4pm) --AR ONLINE--
Bipartisan foes of controversial Phoenix, AZ, Sheriff Joe Arpaio have formed a SuperPAC to defeat him, the Huffington Post reported today (9/25/2012, 1:33pm) --AR ONLINE--
Bloomberg.com reports that bettors on the outcome of the Green Bay Packers-Seattle Seahawks Monday Night Football game saw $150 million shift with the controversial touchdown call by NFL's replacement refereees. The result dropped Green Bay from 7-1 favorites to win the Super Bowl to 9-1 favorites behind four other teams (9/25/2012, 1:33pm) --AR ONLINE--
CURRENT TICKER ITEMS (AS OF 12:05AM ET, JUNE 3, 2012)
The slow collapse of the Assad regime in Syria accelerated as a planted bomb in the regime's high-security war room killed the defense minister, interior minister, and deputy defense minister - who was President Assad's brother-in-law. Following joyous rallies in cities across the nation as Syrian state TV announced the deaths, Syrian rebel forces seized all four vital crossings with Iraq and another with Turkey today, the New York Times reported (7/19/2012, 11:33pm) --AR ONLINE--
New Victims of Sandusky? Three men who say they were abused by former Penn State coach Jerry Sandusky during the 1970s or 1980s - long before the period in the 1990's when Sandusky is believed to have molested dozens of children at his home and on the Penn State campus - have come forward to police with their stories, Sara Ganim of the Harrisburg (PA.) Patriot-News reports (7/16/2012, 5:12pm) --AR ONLINE--
The world's banks and European leaders dodged a bullet - an exit from the Euro currency speeding right at them - when Greek voters turned conservative and chose the pro-Euro "New Democracy" party to lead them through the next stages of Greece's attempt to restore its people to economic health (NYT). In France, however, the victory of Prime Minister Francois Hollande's Socialist Party - claiming an absolute majority in Parliament - will steer France in a different direction (BBC). In Egypt, it appears the revolution was wasted - military leaders decreed vast new powers for themselves as the Muslim Brotherhood claimed victory in the country's presidential elections (WP)(6/17/2012, 11:48pm) --AR ONLINE--
The name of the person selected as a Vice Presidential nominee by former Mass. Gov. Mitt Romney may not be of someone already known to the American people, an anonymous source tells The American Reporter. (8/10/2012, 8:49am) --AR ONLINE--
If the Supreme Court were to rule for the government today on the Affordable Health Care Act, what reasoning might it use? First, it could say that it is the standing policy of the Court over many years not to reverse an act of Congress unless it is clearly and unequivocally unconstitutional. Mitigating such a finding would be the fact that insurance is required by the states and federal government in many of the more obscure areas of American life; uninsured goods cannot enter a bonded Customs warehouse, for instance, and many types of vessels and businesses are required to have insurance; also, banks must have deposit insurance. Most ststea require drivers to hold liability insurance. A second mitigating factor may be that Congress did not act precipitously in passing the Affordable Health Care Act, regardless of how late the hour when it passed or the 2,000-page breadth of the legislation. The health-care law had been fully debated in every corner and crevice of America for several years, and at especially great length prior to the passage of the law by Congress last year. While the Court may be reluctant to impose a requirement on individual citizens that they purchase insurance if they do not have any, it would not be a stretch to say that doing so could advance "the general welfare," a principle goal of the U.S. Consitution stated in the Preamble. So, if the ruling does support the law, don't be too surprised. (JS) (6/27/2012, 11:22pm) --AR ONLINE-- Update, 5:57pm, 6/28/12: In the opinion handed down today, Chief Justice John Roberts echoed this argument, according to the New York Times: "Chief Justice Roberts wrote that the decision offers no endorsement of the law’s wisdom, and that letting it survive reflects 'a general reticence to invalidate the acts of the nation’s elected leaders. 'It is not our job to protect the people from the consequences of their political choices,' he wrote." --AR ONLINE--
She is the monarch that "launched a thousand ships" on the River Thames today, the 60th Anniverary of her June 2, 1942, royal coronation. The Queen of England, HRH Elizabeth II, now 86, seemed her jovial and happy self celebrating her Diamond Jubilee. She smiled and waved often as she surveyed millions of British subjects that lined the banks of an ancient river where Viking longboats once sailed as they came to pillage London. On board her boat, "The Spirit of Chartwell," was a magnificent display of British pomp and splendor, one that evoked from the millions watching the greatest days of Empire (6/3/2012, 11:52am) --AR ONLINE--
The discovery of bits of 27% highly enriched uranium sent shudders through the world's non-proliferation community. It is not clear whther the enriched uranium was weapons-grade, whicvh can bem 90% entriched, but it was found in nuclear facuilities; Iran said it was the byproduct of "routine technical issues." Meanwhile, ISIS, a US-based weapons research institute, said - based on the IAEA's most recent report - Iran has enriched enough uranium to make five nuclear weapons over the past five years. So far, it has not yet been shown that the enriched uranium was a product of the enrichment facilities that International Atomic Energy Agency inspectors want to see, but it doesn't typically fall out of the sky. The anomaly may precipitate another round of pro-war rhetoric in Israel, where leading figures in the intelligence community and the military have warned of the futility of an attack on deeply buried enrichment and weapon fabrication facilities. It is now feared that the futility of an attack may not overcome the enthusiasm for one, which had been waning quite sharply as the world community, led by the United States warned against one (5/28/2012, 12:20am) --AR ONLINE--
Several developments, while not clearly related, have changed the equation that will decide whether Israel goes to war by attacking Iran without military provocation. First, the American Ambassador to Israel and high-ranking officials have stated that all the plans, preparations and non-critical choices have alredy been made and Israel is now "ready" to attack Iran. On the other side of that equation, White House and State Dept. insiders say they have grown optimistic that six-party talks on Iran's nuiclear weapons program are now more likely to achieve positive results and also prevent strong oil sanctions to go into effect in July, with possibly catastrophic results for the most fragile economies in Europe and Asia. If we were to place a bet on the matter, however, it would be that Israel will not launch an attack before the US elections, and would then rely on asserted support from contender Mitt Romney, presuming his election as President. According to a survey by the highly conservative Pew Charitable Trustm, more than 60% of Americans and high percentages of some 26,000 people surveyed around the world support military action against Iran. (5/20/2012, 12:01am) --AR ONLINE--
The American Reporter - the world's first online daily newspaper, founded 18 years ago - has been barred from today's media walkthrough of the Tampa Bay Times Forum, site of the Aug. 27-30 Republican National Convention, after it criticized media arrangements for the conventions in 2008. The paper also revealed in a Jan. 24 interview with a University of South Florida professor of conomics that this year's convention will come at a substantial cost to Tampa taxpayers for law enforcement training, highway closures and other convention "necessities" (5/13/2012, 8:42am) --AR ONLINE--
Israel could attack Iran "at any moment," say some American diplomats after the main Israeli opposition party, Kadima, saw its leader embrace the conservative Likud Party of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and give Likud an unassailable majority in the Knesset. It was like the moderate Democrats joining the Republicans in the House of Representatives - unexpected and unwieldy. Meanwhile, much of the discussion about the supposed concerns of U.S. diplomats has taken place on right-wing Websites like LunaticOutpost.com, and U.S. major media is giving it short shrift. Politically, Netanyahu is now in quite the opposite situation he faced a few weeks ago, when leading political and military/intelligence figures (see next item) were condemning Netanyahu's seemingly headlong rush into a military confrontation with Iran over its alleged nuclear weapons program. Netanyahu was so unsettled by attacks on the Iran plan from former heads of the Mossad, the Israeli Defense Forces and Shin Bet and former Labour Party Prime Minister Ehud Olmert that he was reportedly ready to call for elections as soon as mid-June instead of at the end of 2013, when his term officially ends. Now the election timetable is restored and Netanyahu is almost certain to find strong support in the Knesset for an attack on Iran, which in many ways could be devastating not only to Iran but to Israel itself, foes of an attack have said. There have been substantial objections to the new coalition from moderate Kadima members of the Knesset, only 12 of whom turned out to hear the announcement of the coalition, while 16 failed to appear. If Netanyahu is willing to risk fracturing the coalition by staging an attack, he almost certainly has to do it before disaffected Kadima members fracture it themselves. The formation of the new coalition put the formerly fading Labour Party back in power as leader of the opposition, and its leaders still oppose the proposed war. In this volatile political environment, a resolution to the war issue could, indeed, occur "at any moment," and Israel could even suffer a pre-emptive attack on its own soil as a result (5/13/2012, 12:04am) --AR ONLINE--
The horrific toll of U.S. drug laws and Mexican drug cartel violence was compressed into a few short paragraphs in Sunday's New York Times.that should be universal reading in America: "A drug gang allied with the Sinaloa cartel left 35 bodies at a freeway overpass in the city of Veracruz in September, and police found 32 other bodies, apparently killed by the same gang, a few days after that. The goal apparently was to take over territory that had been dominated by the Zetas. Twenty-six bodies were found in November in Guadalajara, another territory being disputed by the Zetas and the Sinaloa group. … "So far this month, 23 bodies were found dumped or hanging in the city of Nuevo Laredo and 18 were found along a highway south of Guadalajara, Mexico's second-largest city. …"In April, police found the mutilated bodies of 14 men in a minivan abandoned in downtown Nuevo Laredo, along with a message from an undisclosed drug gang. Also in April, the tortured and bound bodies of seven men were dumped in the Pacific port city of Lazaro Cardenas along with messages signed by allies of the Sinaloa drug gang. …"Officials last year found 193 bodies in mass graves in the Tamaulipas state town of San Fernando. They were believed to have been migrants killed by the Zetas drug cartel. Another 72 migrants, many of them from Central America, were found slain in San Fernando in 2010.” (5/13/2012, 3:51pm) --AR ONLINE--
Former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Ohlmert has added his to the chorus of powerful voices that are urging PM Benjamin Netanyahu not to attack Iran before sanctions are given a full opportunity to slow its alleged production of weapons-grade uranium in pursuit of an atomic weapon. Joining the former heads of the Mossad and Shin Bet, is the former top general in the Israeli Defense Forces, Gabi Ashkenazi, and the former commander of the Israeli Air Force, Eliezer Shkedy. Ohlmert, speaking to American Jews in Washington, was roundly booed as he offered support for President Barack Obama and urged Netanyahu to continue on a diplomatic path to a resolution of differences with Iran, the New York Times reported. Meanwhile, in an Executive Order later Tuesday, President Obama further tightened sanctions on Iran and Syria (5/1/2012, 4:31pm) --AR ONLINE--
With criticism leveled by fiery ex-Mossad chief Meir Dagan and the former head Shin Bet, Israel's equivalent of the FBI, the semblance of a united front backing hard-line Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu on the possibility of attacking Iran has apparently crumbled. Now, Netanyahu must pick up the pieces before the embarassment becomes fatal to his re-election chances. Dagan started the revolt by declaring that an attack seemed unnecessary because President Barack Obama's sanctions are working, he said. A week later, former Shin Bet chief Yuval Diskin accused Likud leaders Netanyahu and Ehud Barak of exaggerating the impact an attack would have on Iran's underground weapons facilities that Israel's conventional weapons may not be able to destroy. But this sudden revolt, which certainly seems to have been orchestrated by someone, may in fact be an Israeli feint to prompt Iran to relax before it is struck a devastating blow that would redeem Netanyahu's reputation and perhaps cripple the suspected Iranian nuclear weapons program. Alarmingly, however, it may be that the only way Israel's weapons can have a major impact is if they themselves are nuclear weapons, perhaps of a low-yield grade that would not claim so many innocent lives from radioactive fallout (4/29/2012, 11:53pm) --AR ONLINE--
At least in sports, it was a day when at last all was well in the world. Tony Stewart won the race. Kentucky was back in the Final Four. And Tiger Woods was was holding the winner's cup at the end of the fourth round. It was a day sports raconteur (that's a guy who talks a lot and tells great stories), historian and universal friend Bert Sugar, longtime editor of magazines like Ring and Argosy, former denizen of the Lion's Head and exnyclopedic go-to guy for fact-hunting reporters, tossed out his cigar, took off his fedora and took his final rest at his home in Chautauqua, N.Y. - next door to the home of former President Bill Clinton, where he went to play poker. The American Reporter is saddened at his passing, and grateful for his generosity in the past, but rests sure in the knowledge tonight that his cromies at the Big Game are waiting eagerly to deal him back in (3/26/2012, 1:07am) --AR ONLINE--
Many Americans will be hearing the buzz but not necessarily the words as 6 hours of arguments - the most ever in recent times - are devoted to oral arguments in hearings on the Affordable Healthcaere Act in the august halls of the U.S. Supreme Court. Bending tradition, the Court will allow a transcript and an audio to be releaased at 1pm from today to Wednesday covering oral arguments completed each day. No video will be permitted. A ruling on the far-reaching law is expected in August. The most contentious issue is whether the government can require everyone to have or buy health insurance. Supporters of the bill point out that President George Washington in 1792, fearing future invasions, required every U.S. household to have or purchase a musket and 22 musketballs, and note that many states require every licensed car to have insurance. Not the same, opponents say: there is no basis in law for such a requirement, they say (3/26/2012, 1:34am) --AR ONLINE--
Today's two Deep South primaries in Alabama nd Mississippi, since they were not preceded by debates and won't in themselves make a difference for any candidate except Ron Paul, should he finally win one, are likely to cut into television ratings for the networks that follow the results tonight. Mitt Romney, should he win both, will have demonstrated stronger support among evangelicals and Southern Republicans than he is believed to have; if Rick Santorum wins, it would be further evidence that his earlier wins were not the proverbial flashes in the pan; should Ron Paul win, it might awaken his followers in other states and some of those who have been on the sidelines admiring him without hope. For Newt Gingrich, however, the primaries may be the last best test of whether he has any hope whatever of ultimately beating Romney to the nomination. Should Newt win both, the boost will not be immense but will lend new resolve to his campaign staff and supporters (3/13/2012, 1:56am ET) --AR ONLINE--
The fallout from the horrific mass shooting by a fourth-tour Marine Staff Sgt. in two Afghanistan villages has yet to be felt with the force of the Koran burnings that preceded it, probably because other Arab nations do not feel involved. The incident, in which a still-unnamed soldier took his AK-47 automatic assault rifle off his base into the homes of innocent villagers, where he slaughtered at least 9 children and 3 women, is being treated as a major international incident by the Obama Administration and by NATO and US commanders, but it has not generated the rioting and bloodshed that followed the recent Koran burnings. Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai reacted angrily but it gave him a chance to overshadow a deeper investigation of official Afghani armed forces units allegedly engaged in large-scale opium smuggling, and it also amplified calls for an early withdrawal from the war-torn country and its ongoing civil war. President Barack Obama, who has apologized and offered condolences to the stricken families several times since the incident, says he will not allow it to speed up the withdrawal set to occur in 2014 (3/13/2012, 2:09am ET) --AR ONLINE--
Meir Dagan, The former head of Israel's Mossad, a CIA-like intelligence agency, suggested on "60 Minutes" Sunday that if Iran is attacked by Israel, it would suffer "devastating impact," presumably from Iranian retaliation, Gaza mortars and Hezbollah rockets, both of the latter are already flying. Dagan said that the attack would be fruitless because the country's 20-odd nuclear-oriented facilities are widespread and well-hidden. Dagan said he has told Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to give sanctions and other diplomatic efforts a chance to work, as President Obama has also urged. In one positive development, Israel has said there will be no air striked against Gaza militants after an Egyptian mediator brought followers of Hamas and Israel to a truce Monday after four days of intense cross-border exchanges (3/13/2012, 12:27am ET) --AR ONLINE--
In the aftermath of Super Tuesday's divided results, the situation in the Republican presidential primary race remains cloudy. The kinds of statements that might have generated news coverage and controversy - bread and butter to the pols who offer them - have not materialized. No one is saying Republicans ought to turn off Rush Limbaugh - even though hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of Republican working women who get contraceptives from employer health plans are similarly situated with Limbaugh's victim, 31-year-old Georgetown Law student Sandra Fluke - but none of the candidates have the courage to speak out even when the opportunity for outrage is served up on a plate. What will they say when it's not Rush Limbaugh but Ahmadinejad? None have questioned the need for new cars and argued for new fuels, nor advanced earth-shaking ideas that can galvanize our eoonomy and help us make strides toward world peace. None were particularly jubilant about the Syrian Army allowing the UN High Commissioner for Refugees to enter the Baba-Amr section of the besieged city of Homs, nor did any of them dare to address the vast gap between them and their campaigns and that of President Barack Obama, who now appears to be a shoo-in for re-election. It is almost as though no one really cares what his would-be challengers think (3/7/2012, 11:34am ET) --AR ONLINE--
Super Tuesday may restore some momentum to Newt Gingrich as he is expected to take all the state's 67 delegates. The former House Speaker also has a shot in Tennessee, while Rick Santorum is slightly favored in polls to win Ohio, a critical battleground state in the general electio in November. Former Mass. Governor Mitt Romney seems likely to capture the rest of Super Tuesday states, consolidating his lead as the primary season nears an end. Gingrich has said he expects to do well in Texas and California, two delegate-rich states that seem unlikely to go for him (3/5/2012, 9:43am ET) --AR ONLINE--
Super Tuesday may restore some momentum to Newt Gingrich as he is expected to take all the state's 67 delegates. The former House Speaker also has a shot in Tennessee, while Rick Santorum is slightly favored in polls to win Ohio, a critical battleground state in the general electio in November. Former Mass. Governor Mitt Romney seems likely to capture the rest of Super Tuesday states, consolidating his lead as the primary season nears an end. Gingrich has said he expects to do well in Texas and California, two delegate-rich states that seem unlikely to go for him (3/5/2012, 9:43am ET) --AR ONLINE--
The furor over inappropriate remarks by radio talk-show host Rush Limbaugh has intensified with the departure of a seventh advertiser, Pro Flowers, joing Carbonite, Quicken Loans, Sleep Train and Sleep Number mattresses, Auto Zone and others.
Limbaugh released an apology on Saturday, but that has not satified critics. The Web site Daily Kos is leading the charge to get more advertisers to withdraw from the show, which is the most popular and influenctial conservative radio talk show in the country. It is aired by the conservative Clear Channel radio network, which broadcasts other conservatives like Mark Levin, Neal Boorts, Mark Schnitt and Glenn Beck (3/5/2012, 9:39am ET) --AR ONLINE--
One of the few journalists who demonstrably could alter the outcome of the 2012 election, Andrew Breitbart of www.bigjournalism.com, died suddenly of a heart attack at the age of 43 as he walked near his home in the tony Brentwood section of West Los Angeles after talking to a liberal marketing agent at a Brentwood bar. One Breitbart video deservedly got the social work group ACORN defunded, and Breitbart exposed ex-US Rep. Anthony Weiner's sexy portraits of himself, forcing the seven term Congressman from New York City to resign. Breitbart, a longtime associate of Matt Drudge, apparently erred when he released a misleading video of Dept. of Agriculture official Shirley Sherrod of Georgia that made her appear to be a black racist and led to her firing. She was absolved of wrongdoing when more of the taped speech she made was aired. Last September, asked by AR Correspondent Joe Shea in Orlando if there would be new exposés in the 2012 election season, he responded, "How can there not be?" None have been brought forward thus far, and it's now less likely any will be (3/2/2012, 12:01am ET) --AR ONLINE--
According to a Flash from blogger Lauren Hallahan in Tampa, executive chairman James Murdoch of News International has just stepped down from that post (2/29/12, 9:51am ET --AR ONLINE--
ROMNEY WINS MICHIGAN, AMERICAN REPORTER SAYS; CNN SAYS ARIZONA GOES TO ROMNEY With 70% of votes in, Mitt Romney leads Rick Santorum in Romney's home state of Michigan by 42% to 37%, or 30,000 votes, according to CNN, while Ron Paul finishes third with 11% and Newt Gingrich fourth with 7%. Arizona's polls closed at 9pm ET and CNN called the state's 29 delegates for Romney immediately afterwards based on exit polls (2/28/2012, 10:26pm ET) --AR ONLINE--
Not So Allegra For the second time in six weeks, a Carnival cruise lines ship has met with disaster at sea. The Allegra suffered a major fire that disabled the ship, which is being towed by a fishing boat to the Seychelles, 1,500 miles east of the African coast. The government of The Republic of Seychelles, a group of 115 beautiful, sea-swept slands, has sent two tugboats expected to reach the Allegra this afternoon. Food is being flown to the ship by helicopter from Mahe, a group of islands north of Madagascar, Bloomberg News reported. There is no word of any casualties among the 639 passengers and 413 crew (2/28/2012, 5:54am ET) --AR ONLINE--
The Elite Lie and Cheat "The 'upper class,' as defined by a study at UC Berkeley, "were more likely to break the law while driving, take candy from children, lie in negotiation, cheat to increase their odds of winning a prize and endorse unethical behavior at work," the study by grad student Paul Piff found, according to Bloomber News. Poorer people who have to rely more on their community are less likely to break community standards, the study showed. One test of honesty was a computer dice game in which all scores were the same in a contest to win a $50 prize. Wealthier participants were more likely to lie when self-reporting their score, Piff said. More expensive cars among 426 studied at an intersection were more likely than cheaper, older cars to violate a pedestrian crosswalk as people were crossing, he said. Wealthier people recruiting an applicant for a job were more likely to omit the fact that thje job was about to be eliminated than poorer people, another test in the study - done for Piff's Ph.D. - revealed (2/28/2012, 6:28am ET) --AR ONLINE--
As today's Michigan and Arizona primaries unfold, former Mass. Gov. Mitt Romney has once again recaptured the lead in most polls in both races as challenger Rick Santorum, the former two-term US Sen. from Pennsylvania, became entangled in thorny questions about his religious beliefs with respect to conteraception and abortion and his views on the value of higher education. Romney's lead is a thin but surging one this morning, while Santorum's decline has been somewhat precipitous. The American Reporter believes both states will fall in Romney's column, but at least one shows him still behind in Michigan, his native state (2/28/2012, 4:48am ET) --AR ONLINE--
Christopher Plummer, who played a gay man in "Beginners," won Best Supporting Actor, and Meryl Streep won her third Oscar for Best Actress for her portrayal of Reagan-era British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher in "Iron Lady;" other big winners included "The Artist," whose Jean Dujardin won for Best Actor, for Best Picture and Best Director, and Octavia Spencer, as Best Supporting Actress, for her powerful performance in "The Help," at the 84th Academy Awards. Director Martin Scorsese took home 5 Oscars for his animated feature "Hugo" (2/27/2012, 7:06am ET) --AR ONLINE--
How beautful is Alberta, Canada? Scroll down to the second rack of videos, and check out the third video - and a beautiful Albertan blonde! (2/26/2012,2:48am ET) --AR ONLINE--
Two journalists, American foreign correspondent Marie Colvin of the Sunday Times of London, and Rémi Ochlik, a young French photographer, have been killed by mortar shrapnel in Syria today as the Syrian Army shelled their makeshift media center in the besieged rebel city of Homs, news reports say. About 80 civilians and three other war correspondents were hurt, one of them critically (2/21/2012,2:08am ET) --AR ONLINE--
All four GOP presidential contenders will face off for the last time tonight at the Mesa Arts Center in Mesa, Ariz., near Phoenix, on the eve of next Tuesday's Arizona and Michigan primaries. The debate will be shown on CNN at 9pm ET, 9pm Central. Another two debates in Georgia and Ohio have been canceled due to "viewer fatigue," and the CNN report indicated a March 16 debate has met the same fate (2/21/2012,2:08am ET) --AR ONLINE--
49 passengers have been killed amd hundreds injured in the crash of an Argentine commuter train as it came into Station 11 in Buenos Aires at around 8:30am this morning, news reports say (2/22/2012,2:07am ET) --AR ONLINE--
Four more bodies, including that of a young girl, have been found aboard an Italian luxury liner that hit rocks and capsized with more than 1,000 passengers aboard two weeks ago (2/22/2012, 2:10am ET) --AR ONLINE--
As traders watch the Big Board on the floor of the NYSE and cheer it upwards, the Dow Jones Average stands at 13,000 - a mark not reached since an intraday high on May 20, 2008, the last year of the Bush Administration. What that means for the ordinary American is, unfortunately, nothing. With oil prices also hovering at 8-month highs at 104.81 and the world poised for war between Iran and Israel, the Greek bailout finally completed but Spain, Portugal and Italy still on financial crutches, the good news for home-owning non-investors remains a slowly improving job and housing-price picture. The 13,000 milestone will no doubt buoy the White House and the Obama re-election campaign, as it dramatically and significantly undercuts the notion that the President has done little to improve the U.S. economy. That may be one reason the new front-runner for the GOP nomination,. Rick Santorum, has moved his goalposts to social issues like abortion, contraceptives and climate change. However, the Dow soon gave way and fell back a few points below 13,000, and ended lower (2/21/2012,11:35am ET) --AR ONLINE--
Mitt Romney is trailing by 4% to 10% in national polls, so the former Massachusetts Governor heads into the critical Arizona and Michigan primaries next Tuesday playing catch-up ball with former Pa. U.S. Sen. Rick Santorum, whose support has wavered over the past weekend due to comments about what he called President Barack Obama's "phony theology" on climate change and the right of women to have amniocentesis covered by federal health care. The close contests may spark genuine fireworks at the Feb. 22 CNN Debate at the Mesa Arts Center in Mesa, Arizona, the 20th in the debate series. The conservative Republican two-time senator says 90% of amniocentesis procedures that show the presence of brain defects such as Down's Syndrome then result in abortions, which he adamantly opposes. Santorum's daughter Bella was born with Down's. Santorum also has an issue with contraceptives, which he specifically supports but would limit coverage for as President. The remarks have severely eroded support for Santorum among women, polls show. The 20th GOP Debate will be hosted by CNN on Wednesday (tomorrow night) at 8pm ET, 9pm Central. Meanwhile, a CNN Debate scheduled for March 1 in Atlanta and an NBC debate scheduled for March 5 at the Reagan Library in California have been canceled after the candidates declined to participate. The next debate after tomorrow night's will be in Portland, Ore., on March 19. (2/21/2012,1:07am ET) --AR ONLINE--
Europe Bails Out Greece with a $172-billion loan. After 13 testy hours of negotiation in which Greece agreed to at least $492 million in spending cuts, the agreement means steep losses for private investors, mostly banks, who hold earlier Greek loans. Under the agreement, Greece's debt will be reduced by spending cuts from its current 160.5% of GDP to 120% of its GDP by 2020 (2/21/2012,1:28am ET) --AR ONLINE--
Hard Choices The next few days will see a strong run-up in the retail price of gasoline after Iran's unilateral halt in sales of oil to Britain and France - a decision that is likely to be expanded to other parts of Europe in the near future, and possibly to the United States. Meanwhile, Israel is feeling isolated as the U.S. does not appear eager to back a strike by its air force against Iran to shut down the rogue Islamic nation's nuclear weapons program. The rising gas prices will turn Americans' attention from their own economy to the growing Middle East crisis, and the search for realistic solutions - all of which will present the world's leaders with many hard choices. Israel has one step it can take now, which is to surreptitiously decapitate the Syrian regime and undercut its partnership with Iran before the war starts. That will make it much easier to face Hezbollah, which likely will not enjoy the shelter of the Syrian Army and an abundant supply of missiles if al-Assad is gone and a pro-Western leader takes over. Another hard choice is for Iran: How much income can it shut off before a lack of funds cripples its extremely expensive nuclear effort? If Israel strikes, the United States must decide if it will try to replace the Ahmadinejad regime in order to ensure a reliable flow of oil. Saudi Arabia, which is reportedly now cutting back oil production, must decide whether to increase it during the run-up to a war in order to stabilize the dollar, for which oil is now the de facto "gold standard." (2/18/2012,11:57pm ET) --AR ONLINE--
Iran's state-run media said today that Iran has cut off oil shipments to Great Britain and France. The New York Times noted, "an apparent pre-emptive blow against the European Union after the bloc imposed sanctions on Iran's crucial fuel exports." European Union officials have enacted stiff sanctions against Iran, including "a freeze of the country's central bank assets and an oil embargo set to begin in July," the Times said (2/19/2012, 1:23pm ET) --AR ONLINE--
You didn't have to be a fan of Whitney Houston to have wept with the hundreds of celebrities, officials and friends who mourned her "homegoing" at her native church in Newark, N.J. this afternoon. Perhaps the most moving moment of many was the rendition of "I Will Always Love You" as her coffin was carried by pallbearers from the crowded church. Her soaring farewell to her lover from the movie "The Bodyguard" resonated far beyond Hollywood glamour, reminding us all that her journey from her family's church to the heights of stardom in Hollywood had an inevitable if untimely end at the same church where her singing career began. The funeral was streamed live by CNN at a respectful distance that was frequently collapsed by the fervor, spirit and tremendous emotion of performances by Stevie Wonder, Alicia Keys and others, and beautifully informed in the eulogy of Kevin Costner (2/18/2012, 4:20pm ET) --AR ONLINE--
Before a star-studded congregation of celebrities and friends from her childhood in Newark, N.J., singer Whitney Houston will be remembered at her funeral today, just days after her sudden death at the Beverly Hilton on the eve of the Grammies. As the state has for native sons like Frank Sinatra, Gov. Chris Christies of New Jersey ordered flags at state buildings to fly at half-mast in honor of her life. No cause of death has yet been identified. A coroner's report says she was found undeerwater in her bath by an aide (2/18/2012, 12:01am ET) --AR ONLINE--
New York Times Correspondent Dies in Syria Anthony Shadid, 43, described by colleagues as one of the most admired journalists of his time, died in Syria Thursday of an asthma attack, the newspaper said. Shadid, winner of two Pulitzer Prizes for International Reporting in 2004 and 2010, was an eloquent writer with a reputation for achieving deep understandings of the cultures and events he covered. "Anthony was one of our generation's finest reporters," New York Times said publisher Arthur Sulzberger. "He was also an exceptionally kind and generous human being. He brought to his readers an up-close look at the globe's many war-torn regions, often at great personal risk. We were fortunate to have Anthony as a colleague, and we mourn his death." (2/17/2012, 7:15am ET) --AR ONLINE--
Santorum Now Leads in National Polls Former Pa. US Sen. Rick Santorum has passed Mitt Romney in national polls, according to the >i>New York Times influential "The Lede," a political blog. "After his surprise triple victories in Colorado, Minnesota and Missouri, Rick Santorum has begun soaring among Republican primary voters, erasing Mitt Romney’s lead in the race for the party’s presidential nomination" the Times said. "A New York Times/CBS News poll released Tuesday morning showed Mr. Santorum surging among Republican primary voters nationwide, lifted by support among conservatives, evangelical Christians and Tea Party supporters," the paper said. "In the new poll, 30 percent of Republican primary voters say they support Mr. Santorum, compared with 27 percent for Mr. Romney. While Mr. Santorum’s lead is essentially a tie with Mr. Romney because it is within the margin of sampling error, it reflects a significant jump for him from earlier polls."(2/14/2012, 5:00pm ET) --AR ONLINE--
Happy Valentine's Day? Pakistani police have identified a female associate professor who mailed a package of deadly anthrax to Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani. According to the widely-read Urdu-language newspaper Dawn, "after handing over the evidence, including the powder, to the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA), the Prime Minister Secretariat directed the agency to hush up the case, sources said. They said the sender of the powder was identified as an associate professor of Sindh University, Jamshoro, who was also the sister of a serving senior police officer of Sindh. She allegedly sent anthrax to Prime Minster Yousuf Raza Gilani on 18 Oct 2012 from the colony of the university. The registered (No 209) parcel also carried a stamp of the associate professor. The secretariat has already conducted an investigation into the issue during which it was revealed that the teacher had gotten the anthrax from a laboratory of the university and sent it to the prime minister without any lethal motive. "The associate professor has some psychological problems," the sources added. Although the PM Secretariat had approached the police and investigation agencies, now efforts are in progress to hush up the matter, the sources said. They said the senior police officer was close to some leaders of the ruling political party, who convinced the secretariat not to take any legal action against the sender," Dawn reported. (2/13/2012, 11:55pm ET) --AR ONLINE--
At least 24,000 people in Central America have died since 2000 by a "mystery illness" that attacks the kidneys, the AP reports. Most of the victims have been manual laborers working in sugar cane fields in Nicaragua and El Salvador on the Pacific Coast of Central America. According to an AP article from Chichigalpa, Nicaragua, most of the victims - located in regions between southern Mexico and Panama - have suffered kidney disease, and in Chichigalpa at least three-quarters of men show signs of kidney failure. Many of the victims have worked long years in the hot and humid sugar cane fields without enough water, possibly triggering renal stress that activates the disease. Scientists have discounted the possibility that powerful agricultural insecticides triggered the disease, which often requires dialysis. "Last year it reached the point where El Salvador's health minister, Dr. Maria Isabel Rodriguez, appealed for international help, saying the epidemic was undermining health systems," the AP reported (2/13/2012, 12:13pm ET) --AR ONLINE--
Whitney Houston, the great American pop singer, has died of unknown causes at 48. The New York Times said she had been "ravaged" by drug use and a difficult marriage to singer Bobby Brown. A Times obituary said of Houston, "She wowed audiences with effortless, powerful, and peerless vocals that were rooted in the black church but made palatable to the masses with a pop sheen." Her body was found Saturday in her 4th Floor hotel room at the exclusive Beverly Hilton Hotel once owned by showman and producer Merv Griffin. Her producer for 25 years, Clive Davis, urged that the Grammies go on as planned today because "that's what Whitney would have wanted." On Twitter, friend and fellow star Mariah Carey lamented, "Heartbroken and in tears over the shocking death of my friend, the incomparable Ms. Whitney Houston." Houston was a six-time Grammy Award winner. Her best-known hit was the soaring, powerful "I Will Always Love You" from the movie "the Bodyguard" starring Houston and Kevin Costner (2/12/2012, 12:19am ET). According to Wikipedia, she won 415 career awards of every kind, sold 170 million albums, songs and videos and in 1993 was the first black woman actress to be nominated for an Oscar --AR ONLINE--
The Jones Group fashion mogul Sidney Kimmel'sfoundation has donated $5.5-million dollars to Low Energy Nuclear Reaction or "cold fusion" studies at the University of Missouri, the local Columbia Tribune reported. LENR is the process by which the fusion of neutrons from Nickel, Hydrogen and a carbon catalyst creates excess energy, and has recently been produced in Italian inventor Andrea Rossi's so-called Energy Catalyzer and a series of hushed-up NASA experiments. Last year, Rob Duncan, UM's Vice-Chancellor for research and onetime "cold fusion" critic was featured a year ago in a "60 Minutes" segment that brough so-called the research back into the spotlight. "It’s a chance to turn cold confusion to real understanding and opportunity," said Duncan, MU's vice chancellor for research. The "60 Minutes" cold fusion segment is available at http://www.american-reporter.com/4,557188.html">http://www.american-reporter.com/4,557188.html.
(2/11/2012, 8:50pm ET). The Jones Group owns some of the antion's biggest fashion names, including Nine West, Anne Klein and Gloria Vanderbilt, and Kimmel is one of four American billionaires who has vowed to leave his fortune to charities (http://www.columbiatribune.com/news/2012/feb/10/billionaire-helps-fund-mu-energy-research/">http://www.columbiatribune.com/news/2012/feb/10/billionaire-helps-fund-mu-energy-research/) that promote clean energy, the Tribune said Friday (2/11/2012, 8:50pm ET) --AR ONLINE--
Mitt Romney barely won twice Feb. 10, taking the Maine caucuses by just 194 votes from Rep. Ron Paul, and winning the Conservative Political Action Committee (CPAC) straw poll from Rick Santorum, also by a narrow margin of 38% to 31% (2/11/2012, 8:50pm ET) --AR ONLINE--
A Great Super Bowl unfolded from the opening minutes Sunday. The New York Giants took the lead with a touchback, touchdown and a field goal in the first quarter, and when the Patriots clawed it back that the excitement only heightened. After touchdowns by both teams and some near-miraculous sideline catch by wide receiver Mario Manningham that led to the winning touchdown, the game came down to the last minutes with the Giants behind 17-15, needing only a field goal to finish off the Patriots. At the foal line, though, the Patriots decided to let Ahmed Bradshaw reach the goal, but Bradshaw had been told to stop before he reached the goal line so the Giants could slow down the game long enough to keep Tom Brady from marching downfield against them during a would-be field goal try. In a weird irony, Bradshaw stopped, squatted down as he faced the Patriot defense, but awkwardly fell across the goal line backwards. That gave Brady his chance with 58 seconds left, but Brady's receivers muffed two passes and a run went nowhere. A hail-mary pass far down the field failed to find a receiver on fourth down among the crowd of them in the end zone, and Giants fans erupted in joy around the Indianapolis Colts' Lucas Oil Stadium stadium while Patriots owner Robert Kraft stood alone and morose in his box. At one point, Brady threw 11 consecutive caught passes to complete a 96-yard drive from his 4 and lead the game. He threw another 5 completions to set a Super Bowl record for most consecutive receptions. The drive was the longest in Super Bowl history, and the game was an absolute thriller right to the end. Madonna performed at halftime on one of the most amazing sets the Super Bowl has ever seen. Clint Eastwood, in a Chrysler ad, gave a inspiring, powerful pep talk that reminded Americans worried about the economy that we "are in halftime," and promised that in the second half of our economic crisis people of the world "will hear our engines roar." It was perfectly timed, given the soaring jobs report released Friday and the good news of dropping unemployment. An ad that depicted the aftermath of a predicted Dec. 21, 2012, Mayan apolcalypse, in which GM's Chevy Silverado survived but a Ford F-150 pickup did not, was widely panned. Ford had earlier asked GM to withdraw it, but the auto giant declined to do so. President Obama appeared before the game with Matt Lauer in a NBC News interview and said Israel has not yet decided whether to attack Iran, but said he prefers a diplomatic solution and that an Iran-Israeli War would cause a lot of problems, including with oil prices (2/6/2012, 2:00am ET) --AR ONLINE-- <[>
In another primary, Mexico's ruling PAN party voters picked a woman to run for President of Mexico. She is Josefina Vazquez Mota, 51, an attractive woman and former Secretary of Education who is described as "personable and charismatic." She is currently running second in polls. She is the first woman ever named as the nominee of the three major political parties in Mexico, and will face Andres Obrador of the Democratic Revolution Party, who lost to President Felipe Calderon in 2006 by a razor-thin margin (Mota was his 2006 campaign manager). The July 1 election will pit her against Obrador and the PRI party candidate, Mexico state Gov. Enrique Pena Nieto, who is leading in the polls. Mota won the PAN primary with about 55 percent of the vote. She would serve among several recent female presidents in Panama, Costa Rica and Chile (2/6/2012, 4:51am ET) --AR ONLINE--
Israel Has Not Yet Decided to Attack Iran President Obama told the nation during a pre-Super Bpwl interview. The President also noted an attack would create many problems for the US. "Any kind of additional military activity inside the Gulf is disruptive and has a big effect on us. It could have a big effect on oil prices. We've still got troops in Afghanistan, which borders Iran. And so our preferred solution here is diplomatic," he was quoted as saying in a story on the front page of Monday's Jerusalem Post, the nation's leading newspaper. (2/6/2012, 1:18am ET) --AR ONLINE--
Is the Tea Party dead? Voters who identify with it voted better than 2-1 for Newt Gingrich over Ron Paul, so if it is indeed a group of voters who want to preserve personal liberties, they did not show significant signs of life on Saturday in the Nevada caucuses. With 76% of votes reported and results of the midnight caucus of observant Jews and Seventh-Day Adventists still to be counted, Mitt Romney was also running ahead of Gingrich 47.6% to 22.9%, while Ron Paul ran ahead of Rick Santorum 18.6% to 11.1%. The big news of the day was the vow from Newt not to quit the race and the low turnout predicted by The American Reporter (2/5/2012, 12:01am ET) --AR ONLINE--
The 2012 presidential campaign may have ended on Friday, when the stock market soared to the highest level in years, unemployment rates fell across the country, and 243,000 new jobs were created. The glowing numbers are hard to attack, but there was no enthusiastic cheering from GOP heavyweights, naturally - but nor was there any excessive crowing from the White House. What did happen was that major media empires, including those of Rupert Mutrdoch and of The New York Times, played big stories on the campaign-altering nws on their front pages, probably making a lasting impression on recession-plagued voters. But it should have been no surprise: Internet commerce is up, the NASDAQ is at its highest since the year 2000, and the logjam in Congress is beginning to show some signs of no-partisan wisdom (but not many, just yet). At Saturday's Nevada caucuses, one impact may be felt - low turnouts. Why spend all day listening to speeches when you can bet for the Packers in the Super Bowl, America's biggest day of the year? (2/3/2012, 11:51pm ET) --AR ONLINE--
Osama's Hideout in Abbotabad, Pakistan, may have been used earlier by Abu Nidal, the Palestinian terrorist who took over the Italian cruise liner Achille Lauro in 1985 and killed an innocent Jew, wheelchair-bound Leon Klinghoffer, and threw him overboard, a source has told the American Reporter (2/4/2012, 1:42am ET) --AR ONLINE--
'Charlatan in Chief' After aides and other sources deceived dozens of the nation's top political reporters into believing he would endorse Newt Gingrich, real estate and tv mogul Donald Trump turned the tables on them in Las Vegas and endorsed Mitt Romney, the big winner of the Florida and New Hampshire primaries. It is unclear whether the endorsement - if not backed by a fat check - will make any difference in the upcoming Nevada caucus Saturday night or in Tuesday's Maine primary, which Romney (before he said "I don't care about the very poor") was expected to win with ease. The Las Vegas Sun's J.Patrick Coolican panned the event in his front-page column in scathing terms: "It was a fitting closing chapter in the Republican presidential nominating contest," Coolican wrote, "which has had all the gravitas of Mardi Gras. Donald Trump, the nation’s charlatan-in-chief, endorsed likely nominee Mitt Romney on Thursday in his fabulously classy, super glamorous, totally loathsome building near the Las Vegas Strip."(2/3/2012, 4:34am ET) --AR ONLINE--
"I don't care about the very poor," Mitt Romney told a CNN interviewer on the morning after his striking victory in the Florida GOP primary. Like his telling a Massachussetts voter "I'm not a partisan Republican" and "I have some progressive views" (see video of that below), the comment was intended to be much less harsh than it seems. Romney followed it by saying that the very poor have a "safety net" and that if it's broke, he'd fix it, and then said he "I don't care about the very rich, either," because they "can take care of themselves." Nonetheless, the comment ignited a firestorm of criticism, and was quickly followed by an announcement from Donald Trump, the NYC real estate and gambling mogul, that he would make a "major announcement" this morning. It's not clear that was prompted by Romney's remark. The anouncement is believed to be a Trump endorsement of Florida loser Newt Gingrich that could allow Newt to at least remain competitive in two upcoming primaries in Maine (Mitt territory) and Nevada (Ron Paul territory) if it is accompanied by a substantial donation. The endorsement is likely to have little value in itself, however (2/2/2012, 12:07am ET) --AR ONLINE--
"Florida, you're the best!" Mitt Romney shouted at the end of a speech to hundreds of cheering people at his victory party in Tampa tonight, just after he'd soundly defested and outspent former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich with a negative tv ad campaign by 47% to 32%. Former Pa. US Sen. Rick Santorum captured 13% of the vote and was already in Nevada, which votes Saturday, and spoke of a head-to-head tie in polls with Romney In Missouri, which votes next Tuesday. Rep. Ron Paul, whose supporters worked very hard as he left for Texas, won just 7% of Florida's Republican vote. He was back in time for a rousing "victory" speech, perhaps the best of the night. CNN exit polls showed that the issue of electability, not conservatism, were the principal motivatpor for 45% of Romney voters. Also, Romney outpolled Newt among female voters 51% to 32%, while Gingrich ran jy=ust 2 points behind the former Mass. Gov. 37% to 32% among married men (1/31/2012, 9:07pm ET) --AR ONLINE--
As Mitt Romney prepares to move into the Maine and Nevada primaries after a strong victory in Florida today, states like New York, Ohio, Illinois and California wonder what all the fuss is about. The answer, of course, is 2000 - the year the state hung the nation out to dry for 3 weeks as it tried to learn who it had chosen as President, and ultimately left the decision to the U.S. Supreme Court. As Republicans try to choose a GOP successor to President George W. Bush, some will be able to tell their grandchildren many years from now that although they knew he couldn't win, they can say they had learned the lesson of 12 years ago and thus voted for the last honest man in American politics - Rep. Ron Paul of Texas, and helped prevent a war like the one they could have prevented in 2003 (1/31/2012, 5:28am ET) --AR ONLINE--
Newt Gingrich's up-and-down poll ratings have again improved with his endorsement by Herman Cain - who won the Florida Straw Poll that launched him to prominence - and now may be closing the gap with Mitt Romney. One woman quoted in the Bradenton Herald who said that she had never heard of Gingrich went to hear him speak at the Bradenton Municipal Auditorium and said she left the experience "a born-again American" (1/29/2012, 12:16am ET) --AR ONLINE--
New Quinnipiac Poll shows Newt Gingrich leading Mitt Romney 38% to 29% nationally, and another poll shows Romney leading Gingrich 38% to 29% in Florida. The first poll, for CNN, was taken up to the night of Thursday's debate, casting doubt on its accuracy in light of what is perceived as Romney's big win. However, it's not clear voters are reading the polls, elsewhere or in Florida (1/27/2012, 1:17am ET) --AR ONLINE--
A Strong Debate performance by former Mass. Gov. Mitt Romney may have erased a few points from what a NBC Jan. 22-24 poll said was the former House Speaker Newt Gingrich's lead among national voters. Gingrich was stung at least twice by sharp questions and comments from Romney, while the onetime Speaker of the House scored rarely. Former Pa. US Sen. Rick Santorum also had strong moments, particulalrly when he scored against Romney on the similarity of then-Gov. Romney's Mass. health care and President Obama's health care plan, but it was not a performance that could help him decisively win the state such as Gingrich had on Jan. 21 in South Carolina. Libertarian favorite Ron Paul got noticed, too, yet in general, the 19th debate was a net win for Romney. The NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll released on the Evening News broadcast Thursday showed Gingrich leading Romney across the nation among likely voters by 37% to 28%, but Thursday night - just two days after Monday night's debate in Tampa - a number of less-recognized polls, including the Rasmussen, showed Romney erasing the Gingrich lead. A number of observers, including Bill Clinton campaign manager James Carville, said the Republican Establishment was shocked by Romney's loss and is terrified by the prospect of further Gingrich wins and his possible capture of the GOP nomination. Both men debated the future of NASA, but while Gingrich's plan for colonization of the Moon was derided by Romney, neither mentioned the space agency's amazing scientific discovery of a "new form of energy" called Low Energy Nuclear Reaction (LENR) that could replace fossil fuels and nuclear energy, the agency says (1/26/2012, 12:43am ET) --AR ONLINE--
The President's annual State of the Union speech Tuesday night was widely approved by voters who heard him promise equal treatment regardless of income in the US Tax Code. "No Bailout, no handouts, no cop-outs," President Barack Obama vowed. One reader, identified only as "HC, Tex.," told the New York Times: "Mr. President, thank you for reminding me why I voted for you in 2008. HC, Tex." Another, identified as E.G. Penet of Michigan, said, "I liked the tone, but there was no BIG idea, eg. the Moon. It was all pretty logical, common sense, and practical stuff. Alas, these are not times to dream. e. g. penet, Mich." Presidential candidate Mitt Romney, however, said he was "disappointed." Rep. Gabby Giffordss, the victim of a madman's shooting spree in Tucson, Ariz., last year, made what may be her final appearance on the House floor before resigning later this week. She sat in the front row on the Democratic side, escorted by a Republican and Democratic Members of Congress from her home state. The Vice President, and then President Obama came to the podium and kissed her on the forehead and cheek, and Associate Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburh also approached and greeted her. Following the tradition begun last year of partisans sitting with members of the other party, many of the U.S. Senate Republicans present found Democratic seatmates, as did a few Members of the House, including Rep. Nancy Pelosi; the former Speaker sat with a Republican Member(1/25/2012, 12:37am ET) --AR ONLINE--
Solar Storm hits Earth Tuesday A huge solar storm caused by a massive eruption on the Sun hit Earth Tuesday - with little obvious effect. Delta had to reoute some of its flights, cellphones dropped calls and the Northern Lights were spectacular, the Drudge Report revealed Wednesday morning.
The Drudge Report began 17 years ago on April 24, 1995, at 1810 Whitley St., just two weeks after and three short blocks away from the April 10, 1995, Hollywood birthplace of The American Reporter, the world's first online daily newspaper, at 1812 Ivar Ave. Drudge is now headquartered at the Four Seasons Hotel in Miami, while AR is based in Bradenton, Fla., on the state's southern Gulf Coast. Saturday was the 16th anniversary of founder Matt Drudge's Jan. 21, 1996, release of the Monica Lewinsky story that Newsweek declined to print, telling of her affair with President Bill Clinton (1/25/2012, 12:24am ET) --AR ONLINE--
The Help," a memorable and hilariousiosly touching film of Southern life in the 1960s won five Academy Award nominations, including two for Best Supporting Actress, while "The Artist" and "Moneyball" both garnering more than one. Brad Pitt's role as a general manager of the OPakland A's won a nod as Best Actor, as did George Clooney in "The Descendants." "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo also got multiple nominations, including one for Rooney Mara, the star of the salacious film in which she suffers forcible anal and oral rape (1/22/2012, 3:36pm ET) --AR ONLINE--
In what was the tv debate equivalent of a punch in the mouth, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich decried CNN political anchor John King's deeply personal questions about his relationship with his second ex-wife as "despicable" and "trash," and won several standing ovations from the overflow crowd at the North Charleston Coliseum watching the South Carolina Republican primary debate (1/19/2012, 9:39pm ET) --AR ONLINE--
Jon Hunstman To Quit A source in the Huntsman campaign has told FoxNews that the former Utah Governor and U.S. Ambassador to China will announce this morning that he is suspending his campaign for the Republican presidential nomination and will endorse former Mass. Gov. Mitt Romney for the job. The announcement took many supporters by surprise because Huntsman had just won the endorsement of the most powerful newspaper in S. Carolina, The State. In its latest poll, the paper - which is not reporting the suspension of the Huntsman campaign - shows four polls. Tow of those show him with 1% of the vote, and the other two with no more than 5% - a dismal omen for victory. But has Huntsman had his surge? Perhaps not. His campaign - if and when it moves on to more cosmopolitan states - may fare far better in coming months, particularly if he can get financial help from his billionaire father. But Huntsman has scheduled an 11am speech in Myrtle Beach, Calif for today, and he is said to believe he would only impede the election of Romney as president by staying in the race, while Romney, he feels, can do the job and can beat Obama (1/16/12, 1:01am ET) --AR ONLINE--
Israel Ready to Strike Iran? We're not! "U.S. defense leaders are increasingly concerned that Israel is preparing to take military action against Iran, over U.S. objections, and have stepped up contingency planning to safeguard U.S. facilities in the region in case of a conflict," the top story in the Wall Street Journal (wsj.com) reported Saturday. "President Barack Obama, Defense Secretary Leon Panetta and other top officials have delivered a string of private messages to Israeli leaders warning about the dire consequences of a strike," the WSJ story continued. "The U.S. wants Israel to give more time for the effects of sanctions and other measures intended to force Iran to abandon its perceived efforts to build nuclear weapons," the paper said (1/14/12, 3:08pm ET) --AR ONLINE--
Israel Used CIA to recruit terrorists Israeli intelligence agents 'posed as CIA to recruit operatives against Iran's nuclear program' --The operation - often called a 'false flag' operation - occurred during the presidency of George W. Bush, Citizens for Legitimate Government says. The CLG says, "One of the main entities in the Israeli Intelligence Community has been placing its agents within the CIA to recruit operatives against Iran's nuclear program, according to a new report. Mossad officers posed as American CIA agents were recruiting for the Pakistani militant group Jundallah, the (http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2012/01/13/false_flag">http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2012/01/13/false_flag) report says. The Foreign Policy [magazine report by Mike Perry} details how Mossad officers were equipped with U.S. passports and money, recruiting extremists 'under the nose of U.S. intelligence officers.' (1/16/12, 1:01am ET) --AR ONLINE--
At least two dozen people are dead or missing, including at least 2 Americans, after a huge Italian passenger liner struck a rock off the coast of the Italian island of Tuscany near Giglio, and the captain of the ship was detained as he protested, "That rock should not have been there!" - although it was clearly marked in navigational maps. He has been detained(1/16/12, 11:23pm ET) --AR ONLINE--
Will Newt be 'Left Behind'? Rev. Tim LaHaye, the author of the best-selling "Left Behind" series of religious apocalyptic novels and pastor of a huge San Diego church has endorsed former GOP House Speaker Newt Gingrich for President, the zany conservative Web site Newsmax is reporting, based on a statement from the Gingrich campaign, it said. "Please prayerfully consider going to the polls on January 21 and help elect Newt Gingrich," LaHaye asked in a letter to South Carolina pastors. The move seems designed to counter Gingrich's formation of his Faith Leaders Coalition on the day former U.S. Sen. and Iowa second-place finisher Rick Santorum won the endorsement of a far larger coalition of conservative pastors who want their flocks to raslly behind one candidate through the end of the race. ..."It seems apparent the Republican candidates have come down to two possible winners," LaHaye wote. As my friend, the late Dr. Jerry Falwell, told me personally, 'Speaker Newt Gingrich is the most qualified man in America to run as president of the United States.'" The Gingrich campaign, said Newsmax, welcomed the endorsement. "I am honored to have Tim's endorsement. His work as both a minister and author is truly unmatched. Tim will be a terrific partner for the Gingrich Faith Leaders Coalition as we work to combat the influence of radical secularism and activist judges." It is unknown how much the endorsement means, as LaHaye represents Christians who believe that one day they will be "taken up" to Heaven during a "rapture," leaving behind all non-Christians and those not "born again." The "left Behind" series, among 60 books LaHaye has written, some of which have become low-budget movies, have sold millions of copies and frequently appear on best-seller lists (1/14/12, 1:37pm ET) --AR ONLINE--
At least two people are dead as a huge Italian passenger liner strikes a rock off the coast of the Italian province of Tuscany, and the captain of the ship was detained as he protested, "That rock should not have been there!" - although it was clearly marked in navigational maps. He has been detained (1/15/12, 1:10pm ET) --AR ONLINE--
"Iron Lady" is one of the biggest films of the decade - and one of the saddest. (1/28/13, 1:22am ET) --AR ONLINE--
EXCLUSIVE NASA has released an unqualified endorsement of cold fusion, or, as it is now better-known, Low Energy Nuclear Reaction (LENR). NASA Langley Research Center senior research scientist Joseph Zawodny, Ph.D., says the technology has demonstrated the ability to produce excess heat (i.e., more power than it uses) with no ionizing radiation or "nasty" waste. The energy can support everything from homes to airplanes and power systems. It is the first time any U.S. government agency has issued such an unqualified support for the discovery, which is an outgrowth of the work of much-maligned University of Utah discredited scientists Dr. Stanley B. Pons and Henry Fleischmann. The video is at http://technicalgateway.nasa.gov/media/CC/lenr/lenr.html">http://technicalgateway.nasa.gov/media/CC/lenr/lenr.html. See the AR story below (ON HOMEPAGE)
With the nation's frst "primary" scheduled to begin at 7pm MT tomorrow in Iowa, Republican voters still find themselves with a wide range of choices and no clear favorite for the Republican presidential nomination. The latest Des Moines Register poll of likely Iowa caucus-goers shows former Mass. Gov. Mitt Romney the favorite of 24%, with Rep. Ron Paul statistically tied with him at $22%, while the surging former Senator from Pennsylvania, Rick Santorum, is at 15% "and rising," pundits say. A last-minute ABC News poll shows Santorum and Romney statistically tied and Rep. Paul in third place. Grouped behind Santorum in the Register poll, and within striking distance of Santorum are former Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives Newt Gingrich, with 12% and statistically tied with Texas Gov. Rick Perry, at 11%, while the winner of the Iowa Straw Poll, Rep. Michelle Bachmann, trails at 7%. Jon Hunstman is not competing in Iowa bus concentrated on Iowa, the next stop for the media caravans and the campaign buses. One-time contender Gov. Gary Johnston of New Mexico has bolted the GOP and is now a Libertarian candidate for President who backs Rep. Ron Paul in the Republican primary and faces no opposition in his own. About 43% of Iowans say they have not made up their mind. (1/1/12, 11:53pm ET) --AR ONLINE-- The year ahead? Bankruptcy, war, revolution - all are in the picture as America and the world enters 2012, according to an unnamed psychic (12/30/11, 3:49am ET) --AR ONLINE--
A UFO on C-SPAN? The Sarasota Herald Tribune's De Void blog, by staffer Billy Cox - the only UFO blog in the mainstream media - mentioned a tip from American Reporter editor Joe Shea Wednesday. Shea spotted a UFO on C-Span that remained there for all of the 43-minute-long segment on government surveillance. You can see the UFO by playing a clip at http://devoid.blogs.heraldtribune.com/12647/behind-you-man-look-behind-you/">http://devoid.blogs.heraldtribune.com/12647/behind-you-man-look-behind-you/ (12/29/11, 1:55am ET) --AR ONLINE--
GOP Flip-Flop The Republican-controlled House of Representatives under Speaker John Boehner reversed itself this afternoon on the 2-month payroll tax cut extension offered by a bipartisan Senate bill passed last Saturday and the White House. After defeating an almost identical measure Tuesday, the House accepted the bill today to avert what was likely to be - and still could be - an election-year debacle of enormous proportions had they raised taxes on 160 middle-class Americans at Christmas. "Bowing under intense pressure from members of their own party to end the politically damaging impasse over a payroll tax holiday, House Republican leaders agreed Thursday to accept a temporary extension of the tax cut, beating a hasty retreat from a showdown that Republicans increasingly saw as a threat to their election opportunities next year," the New York Times said. Final passage of the bill will come Thursday when a motion for unanimous consent to the bill is presented to the House. If even a single Member of Congress objects, Boehner said he will not hesitate to call the entire House back into session to pass the measure. It's unclear whether voters will forgive Republican Congressmen for even contemplating raising their taxes, which is supposedly contrary to everything the GOP believes about tax cuts for wealthy Americans. The law also restores higher payments to doctors who take Medicare and extends unemployment benefits for millions of jobless. The measure will keep an additional $40 a week in the poaychecks of persons earning $50,000 a year. In a slip of the tongue, a commentator on CNN' "John King USA" referred to the debacle and the Republicans as a "multitude of idiots." She changed the phrase to a multitude of idiocy," which, of course, is poor grammar (12/22/2011, 6:19pm ET) --AR ONLINE--
Chinese Hackers Thousands of Chinese hackers working for the government have invaded private, government and corporate computers in the US, stealing unformation and secrets worth $250 billion, the government says. One prominent target may have been the US Chamber of Commerce data on foreign contributions to US politicians, including presidential candidates. It's a matter of speculation whether China would use the data to manipulate US elections or to blackmail elected officials. The Supreme Court has tacitly approved the use of anonymous contributions by corporate PACs on behalf of non-citizens to persons seeking Federal office. A key tool for the hackers was the circulation of controversial emails among tens of millions of conservatives that purported to prove President Obama was not born in the United States, a claim long ago proved false, and other myths. "Sniffer" program tools hidden in such email seek out passwords and private information and can be hidden in photographs, other attachments and animations (12/21/2011, 2:42am ET) --AR ONLINE--
Here Comes Ron Paul! Rep. Ron Paul is polling 10 points higher than former Mass. Gov. Mitt Romney in the latest CNN/CBS poll of Iowa caucus voters. He leads Newt Gingrich 28% to 25%, and Romney 28% to 18%. Although some media folks call him unelectable because if his views on Iran and its nuclear program, Paul has thrown a wrench into the works of thise campaigns that hoped to leave Iowa with a winning boost as they head to critical battles in New Hampshire, Florida, and South Carolina (12/21/11, 12:01am ET)
A "Merry Christmas!" From the GOP The New York Times reports that "House Republicans on Tuesday soundly rejected a bill approved by the Senate that would have extended the payroll tax cut for most Americans beyond the end of the year and allowed millions of unemployed people to continue receiving jobless benefits." The vote of 229 to 193 delivered a Christmas gift of enormous proportion to Democrats and President Barack Obama, who persuaded the Senate to extend the tax cut for two months but could not get the House to agree. Some 160 million American workers will pay $700 more a year on a $35,000 inbcome if the House, which is now going home for the holidays, does not return and act before the end of the year. Republicans under Speaker John Boehner adopted the thin pretext that two months was not long enough and would make it difficult for employers to gauge future costs. With the tax cut rejection, the GOP has effectively raised taxes on the middle class, something they have indicated is a horrific violation of their "family values." The entire predicament is complicated by the pending approval of the Keystone XL natural gas pipeline from Canada into the United States to serve refineries run by energy companies owned by the Koch Brothers, two billionaires that have vowed to spend $200 million in 2012 to defeat Obama. The Administration's resistance to the pipeline on environmental grounds has become a political football, and efforts to win approval for it now threaten GOP control of the House of Representatives and the White House in 2012. President Obama's approval rating has risen six points since the debate about the tax-cut extension began much earlier this year (12/20/2011, 6:25pm ET) --AR ONLINE--
Due to a failure by the Associated Press to publish a story about a new source of cheap energy from cold fusion developed by Italian electrical engineer Andrea Rossi, the Electric Power Research Institute and others are protesting an EPA plan that will shut down 30 coal-fired power plants in the U.S. over the next few years. AP's failure to publish - even after it sent a science writer to Bologna, Italy, to observe the demonstration of Rossi's 1-million-watt Energy Catalyzer, meant the Wall Street Journal and other reporters knew nothing of the new technology and thus treated the plant closure as an impending catastrophe that could lead to rolling power blackouts when demand grows as early as next Summer. Rossi may begin manufacturing the new energy generators in Massachussets within the next few montrhs, according to published reports. The devices will also be available for home heating soon, as his company has received 10,000 orders for them since revealing their availability lastt month. The home devices produce 5 kilowatts of heat, and electricity, enough for many smaller homes. The advantage tpo power utilities is that they can produce the same or more power with the so-called "E Cat" devices on far less space and at much lower cost (12/19/11, 2:56pm ET) --AR ONLINE--
Betcha! For some reason, Mitt Romney is under fire now from Democrats for trying to bet Rick Perry $10,000 during the ABC Republican Presidential Debate that Perry can't produce an alleged endorsement of the individual health care mandate as a model for the whole country in the first edition of a Romney book that Perry says was changed for the second edition. That's more than many Democrats make in a year, the party says. Perry, during the 2-hour debate Saturday night in Iowa - sponsored by ABC News, Yahoo and the Des Moines Register - said he was "not in the betting business," and declined to shake Romney's hand to seal the bet. But if Perry was sure about it, why would it be gambling? And if he wasn't sure enough to take the bet, why would he make such a charge? Obviously, there is some ambiguity at work (12/11/11, 2:40am ET)
Former Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich will join his predecessor in a Federal prison after being sentenced to 14 years for trying to sell a gubernatorial appointment to the U.S. Senate seat once held by President Barack Obama to the highest bidder. The harsh sentence means "Blago" cannot be paroled except by a presidential pardon or commutation --AR ONLINE--
Herman Cain Saturday suspended his campaign for the 2012 Republican presidential nomination in a statement in Atlanta to a large crowd of cheering supporters. Cain sited "false" accusations of sexual harrassment and a 13-year affair with Virginia White that hurt "my wife and family" and hurt me" and "hurt me.". None of the allegations were ever proved. Cain also said that in a few days he will announce an endorsement of another candidate in the race, whpom many expect to be Newt Gingrich, another Georgia politician. Michelle Bachmann's campaign has also sought his endorsement (12/02/11, 11:48pm ET) --AR ONLINE--
With convincing wins over dangerous opponents, the Lousisiana State University Tigers and Oklahoma State Unoversity Cowboys moved closer to the opportunity to play for the national college football championship. LSU topped the University of Georgia Bulldogs after coming back from a 10-0 first half deficit in which they failed to gain a single firsst down. The Tigers roared back in the second half to win 42-10. The story was similar in the Cowboys-Sooners clash. The Sooners got off to an early lead, but when the Cowboys settled down, they beat the Sooners decisively en route to their first victory over Oklahoma in the classic in the past 8 years. The Cowboys finally triumphed over OU 44-10 (12/02/11, 11:59pm ET) --AR ONLINE--
With an eagle putt on the 11th hole. Tiger Woods took a 1-stroke lead over K.J. Choi in the second round of the Chevron World Challenge at Sherwood Country Club in Thousand Oaks, California, which he has won four times. Only 18 of the world's best PGA players participate in the tournament. He and Choi both bogeyed the 5-par, 563-yard 15th hole, with Woods going two over and Choi needing 7 shots. Woods appears to be playing as well as he ever has, and ended up 8 over with a 67, matching 5-under Matt Kuchar and 4-under Zach Johnson, while Choi finished with a 1-over 72. Woods said later his improved putting was due to "watchng Steve Stricker." The field hit a total of 6 eagles, which contributed $150,000 to the 4-day Eagles for Education program sponsored by Chevron, which paid $25.000 each on Friday and will pay $50,000 each on Saturday and $100,000 each on Sunday. Last year's eagles raised $530,000 for the oil giant's non-profit partners, who use the money for teachers, schoolbooks and other resources (12/02/11, 7:13pm ET) --AR ONLINE--
Gingrich Rules In the third poll of Florida voters with similar results this week, Newt Gingrich dominates the field of 8 Repubican presidential candidates in the Sunshine State by a huge margin of 50%-19% over onetime favorite Mitt Romney. Much of Gingrich's gain in the ARG poll comes from the fall of Herman Cain from 26% to 10% and from Rick Perry;s decline from 15% to 8%. Iowa caususes are just a month away, on Jan. 3, and Florida's GOP primary is Jan. 31, 2012 (12/01/11, 6:30pm ET) --AR ONLINE--
NASA Investment The actual buyer of the 1-million-watt "cold fusion" device demonstrated by electrical engineer and inventor Andrea Rossi in Bologna, Italy on Oct. 28, 2011, was NASA, the US space agency which had been working to replicate it in secret. According to a first-person news report in New Energy Times and an audiotape of a lecture by Sven Kullander, a distinguished professor of physics at Sweden's Uppsala University, now retired, who witnessed several demonstrations of the device and has followed its development closely. Kullander identified the secret buyer during a recent lecture at Orebro University in Sweden. The news report says that the unidentified buyer - now said by Kullander toi be the US space agency - and a separate news report, "a normal customer" plans to buy 12 more of the reactors, which sell for $2 million each and reportedly produce many times more energy than required to operate them. The company says on its Ecat.com Website it can produce about 30 per year. An AP science writer, Peter Svensson, attended the October 28 demonstration and was the only journalist permitted to observe the entire test, but The Associated Press - the world's largest news agency - has not allowed him to file a story on it (11/30/11, 8:10am ET) --AR ONLINE--
An influential member of a discussion group founded by The Nation magazine Monday night urged the Occupy movement to occupy the Port of Manatee at a meeting of the Manatee County Democratic Executive Committee. Robin Cooper, who also spoke to the DEC, and one of three leaders of the local Occupy group, did not say whether "occupation" of the newly-enhanced port was in the works. The speaker, Joe Naimann, who is 99 years old, said the port's business and location made it an ideal place to follow up on the brief closure by Occupy of the Port of Oakland, Calif., which was ended by police. Port Manatee is now the closest container port to the expanding Panama Canal (11/30/11, 1:41am ET) --AR ONLINE--
Bonds of a dozen major US banks, including the largest, were downgraded by S&P today, taking the steam out of a continued rally on Wall Street. Dow Futures were up 240 points or more overnight, but the day finished up just 34 ponts (11/29/11, 6:58pm ET) --AR ONLINE--
Iranian Basijii militiammen seized the British Embassy in Teheran, Iran, Tuesday in a backlash apparently approved by the government after Great Britain cut off all dealings with the Iranian Central Bank. The militia burned paper US, Israeli
and British flags in an assault reminiscent of the November 1979 attack on the US Embassy there (11/29/11, 7:02pm ET) --AR ONLINE--
News reports said GOP presidential candidate and businessman Herman Cain is "reassessing" his presidential race after an Atlanta woman said she and the founder of Godfather Pizza had a 13-year affair. Cain said the claim was untrue but the accretion of such charges has taken a heavy toll on his popularity among right-wing voters (11/29/11, 7:04T) --AR ONLINE--
As a fire alarm went off at the Bloomberg News studio, literally, the deficit-reduction "Super Committee" announced Monday afternoon in a statement by the co-chairs that they were unable to put their country first and their party ideology second long enough to devise a plan to cut the nation's insupportable $14-trillion debt. "We have come to the conclusion today that it will not be possible to make any bipartisan agreement available to the public before the committee's deadline," said Sen. Patty Murray, a Washington State Democrat, and Rep. Jeb Hensarling, a Texas Republican. In a statement later, President Obama said "There are too many Republicans in both houses of Congress who are unwilling to listen" to outside experts and act now to hike revenues from taxes and to sharply cut spending. The President said he will veto any bill that tries to avoid the automatic cuts to defense spending and entitlements that will occur if Congress does not make $1.2 trillion in cuts over the next year, when the automatic cuts and higher taxes would kick in. Meanwhile, the Dow shed 248 points after being down more than 300 points several times during the day (11/21/11, 5:51pm ET) --AR ONLINE--
New York City officials on Sunday announced the arrest of a 27-year-old U.S. citizen born in the Dominican Republic for plotting to bomb returning U.S. servicemen, police stations and post offices. They said they had been watching Jose Pimentel since 2009 and arrested him Saturday at his home in Brooklyn. He was believed to have been assembling a pipe bomb to carry out his plan. The FBI reportedly felt Pimentel, whom it called mentally unbalanced, did not pose enough of an imminent threat for the agency to become involved. However, an FBI source told the New York Times that the agency feared a confidential informant that spied on Pimentel had become too closely involved with him(11/22/11, 1:32am ET) & --AR ONLINE--
The Port of Manatee, soon to be the closest deepwater container port to the expanding Panama Canal, has a new director today. He is Carlos Buqueras, since 1993 the executive director of Port Everglades, near Fort Lauderdale, Fla., who is replacing Port Manatee Executive Director David L. MacDonald, PPM. MacDonald grew Port Manatee over 36 years from little more than a dock on Tampa Bay to a newly important competitor to Miami, Tampa and ports as far away as Philadelphia. With the addition of a CSX rail hub and a dedicated fruit-and-vegetable CSX expedited rail service called Green Express, the produce coming into Port Manatee from Panama and Costa Rica will reach Chicago 3 days more quickly than from the Port of Philadelphia due to the shortened sailing time and a 60-car "unit train" program (unit trains carry the same product from the same place to the same destination) launched with Providence Logistics of Elmhurst, Ill., that will serve a common distribution hub in Indiana. The system "will also pull a lot of that [produce] traffic off the road," a spokeswoman told the Port Authority --AR ONLINE--
The hiring of Buqueras was briefly marred by the reprimand of At Large Commissioner Joe McClash, who officials said made an unathorized attempt to negotiate with Buqueras over deferred compensation, including severance. Port Authority Chairman Larry Bustle, a former mayor of Palmetto, Fla., and base commander in Turkey for the USAF, sharply rebuked McClash for an attempt to get Buqueras to settle for a 5% cap on deferred compensation, while the IRS will permit a 22.5% cap starting in January - when Buqueras begins work at $175,000 a year. The difference between the 5% cap and the 2012 deferred compensation IRS limit is $30,625. McClash said Buqueras told him he was unaware of but would accept the 5% cap other county officials have on retirement pay when McClash asked him if he was happy with the contract. Asked by Commissioner Donna Hayes to weigh in on the tempest, Port Authority attorney R. Hamilton "Chip" Rice said McClash had "no authority" to negotiate with Buqueras and called the discussion between the two "troublesome." McClash said he had not negotiated at all but merely wanted to Buqueras to know that his "no" vote on the contract did not mean McClash was opposed to hiring Buqueras, whom he said he supports. Later, Rice was questioned by Commissioner Donna Hayes about bringing 3 attorneys to board meetings instead of just one. The Port Authority gets the 3 attorneys for the price of one, Rice responded, and the firm writes off another $30,000 in free services it provides to the port, he said. Rice later said he stands by his comments about McClash's negotiations. After a McClash amendment to limit the new director's deferred compensation to 5% failed 4-3, Buqueras was hired by a vote of 6-1, with McClash the lone vote in the negative (Updated 11/29/11, 11:09pm ET) --AR ONLINE--
A man the Secret Service believes fired shots last Friday that lodged in the exterior of the White House and slammed into a window in President Barack Obama's residence was arrested by police in Indiana, Pa., after a nationwide manhunt led Secret Service agents to his motel room there. He has been charged with attempted assassination of the President --AR ONLINE--
Bloomberg News reports that its poll of Iowa caucus-goers finds Herman Cain on top, New Gingrich trailing him, Ron Paul next and Mitt Romney behind them, with all four coming within the margin of error. Ron Paul is a new addition to the top tier, while Romney is slowly fading but still expected to win big in New Hampshire - as Massachussetts politicians usually do in both Democratic and Republican primaries. Discounting a New Hampshire win, the real test will come in South Carolina, a battleground state for both parties and all the GOP canidates. Most American mass media organizations have made Romney their favorite and will try to diminish Iowa's importance in the coming weeks so they can crown Romney the front-runner when he wins in New Hampshire. It is unlikely the remaining early states will fall for it, however, and that could see the Romney bandwagon with a flat tire all the way through January until it hits the big Eastern states, where he can expect support from more liberal Republicans than are found in the South, Midwest and Western primary states 11/15) --AR ONLINE--
Herman Cain and Newt Gingrich lead Mitt Romney and other candidates ahead of the Jan. 3 Iowa caucuses, according to a new private poll reported in in the online political blog Politico on Monday, Nov. 14. The report says Gingrich trails Cain by just 1 point, 20% to 19%, and Romney trails them both at 14 percent. The difference between Cain and Gingrich is not statistically significant --AR ONLINE--
Newt Gingrich is coming on strong. Once the darkest of dark horses, he has risen steadily by doing well in debates and demonstrtating high intelligence, wit and a sense of perspective on Congressional and world issues none of his competitors can match. The latest victory came for Gingrich when, as he'd promised he would in a recent debate, he took on Herman Cain in a one-on-one debate. Never mind that under ordinary circumstances Cain might not stand a chance, or that the debate was more of an extended interview than a real debate. The meeting paired the two men - both unlikely candidates in the first place - and probably helped make them, by fiat and by choice, the first Republican presidential ticket that could gain wide support in the party. While much will occur before Iowa, the meeting/debate in Iowa last week may place them men in the 1-2 position, which is likely to flip them beforehand, leaving Cain right behind Gingrich in the caucuses on Jan. 3 --AR ONLINE--
St. Petersburg Times: Scientists say Alzheimer's effects can be dramatically reduced in months by 2 tablespoons daily of non-hydrogenated, extra-virgin coconut oil --AR ONLINE--
Free schooling: A new online "school" called the Academy (www.khanacademy.com) is backed by Microsoft founder Bill Gates, and provides 2,400 video tutorials teaching everything from algebra to zero-based budgeting, all for free --The American Reporter--
DELETED NOVEMBER 4, 2011
Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou has decided not to seek a referendum on austerity measures that would come with any bailout from the European Union, while some European Union leaders have begun to talk openly of dropping Greece from the EU to preserve the euro as as a single currency. Greece would presumabnly oppose the idea, but it appears to have buoyed the US stock market. Amid that news, the Dow was up over 200 points just before 2pm, gold has jumped $37.30 to $1,765, and oil is up $1.24 to $94.25 --AR ONLINE--
Is Romney Doomed? The Los Angeles Times gave a boost to front-runner Herman Cain late Sunday when it reported that former Mass. Gov. Mitt Romney, now second in the GOP primary field, who has derided federal health care aid for illegal aliens on the campaign trail, nonetheless provided free care for illegal aliens and the poor in the health care law he signed in 2006. Major media have avoided the issue since Sunday except for covering a denial issued by the campaign that blamed Romney's signature of the law on a successor. "The Massachusetts healthcare law that then-Gov. Mitt Romney signed in 2006 includes a program known as the Health Safety Net, which allows undocumented immigrants to get needed medical care along with others who lack insurance," Times staffer Noam Levey reported from Washington. The news could haul Romney's second-place standing in the polls even lower --The American Reporter--
St. Petersburg Times: Scientists say Alzheimer's effects can be dramatically reduced in months by 2 tablespoons daily of non-hydrogenated, extra-virgin coconut oil --AR ONLINE--
Free schooling: A new online "school" called the Khan Academy (www.khanacademy.com) is backed by Microsoft founder Bill Gates, and provides 2,400 video tutorials teaching everything from algebra to zero-based budgeting, all for free --The American Reporter--
DELETED NOVEMBER 8, 2011
At least 12 Americans and 5 others have died in yet another deadly bombing in Kabul Saturday. Insurgents hit a heavily-armored bus that transports troops between psts. "The bombing was the single deadliest assault on Americans in the capital since the war began," military officials told the New York Times --AR ONLINE--
First Words: It works, and it's a deal! The self-sustaining Andrea Rossi 1mW cold fusion reactor known as the E Cat, demonstrated for a customer Friday in Bologna, Italy, is working, the inventor reports, and the sale has been completed, according to reports from both the inventor and observers. "FIRST INFORMATION REGARDING THE 1 MW PLANT TEST: WE STARTED REGULARLY THE TEST THIS MORNING. EVERYTHING IS GOING WELL SO FAR. THE 1 MW E-CAT IS WORKING IN SELF SUSTAINING," a short note from Rossi in his Journal of Nuclear Physics said Friday afternoon. You can see the machine in operation at http://www.hhogames.com. We recommend seeing it in full-size view. An AP Science writer trusted by Rossi was observing, but there's no story yet. Late Friday, Rossi published a rough public "report" on the tests in his online science journal. The demonstration was reportedly done for an unidentified "major industrial group" that was the first customer for the device. Our comment: The world cannot go back and remove the harsh criticism of Professors Pons and Fleischmann, who saw their careers destroyed by their early display of cold fusion, but mankind may now hope that incidents like the 10-million barrel Valdez oil spill - which occurred the same day as their first cold fusion was announced - will never darken our seas and lives again. Update: After an early evening Q&A session Friday, Peswiki founder Sterling Allan reported: "Q&A just finished; reading of results; 470 kW maintained continuously during self-sustain; customer satisfied; sale made; more later" --The American Reporter--
Cancer Breakthrough: Tumors grow through a process called metastasis, in which proteins called macrophages chew through tissue barriers to build tumors. How they do that has been a mystery until now. Scientists at Dalhousie University in Nova Scotia, Canada, have identified a protein, S100A10, the Journal of Cancer Research reports, that is the key driver of macrophages. "We found that the protein, S100A10, acts like a pair of scissors" on the outside of macrophages and lets them "chew their way through tissues" to enter the tumor site, said lead researcher David Waisman. If they can now understanmd how the scissors-like action of the protein works and find drugs that can shut it down at the tumor site, it "could slow, or even stop, tumor growth," Weisman said. The story was embargoed until today, and published here earlier as a result of our not seeing the embargo notice in our all-text Pine email processor. The American Reporter regrets the error --The American Reporter--
DELETED TICKER BLURBS (BY DATE, IN REVERSE ORDER OF APPEARANCE)
DELETED ON SEPTEMBER 12, 2011
A threat to blow up a vehicle bomb in New York or Washington has so far proved baseless --The American Reporter--
It's still "High Noon" at Bani Walid as Libyan rebels continue to assault a city held by some of the last of Ghadafi's loyalists, who have used snipers and rockets to repel the attack --AR ONLINE--
Police say they have no named suspects after 24 people in Manatee County, Fla., were shot - two fatally - at a nightclub early Saturday morning. Ironically, the shootings came days after the County Commission voted to repeal laws that prohibit carry in bars, libraries and city and county buildings in a unanimous vote. Local residents said they believed the incident was "retaliation" for an incident that occurred a few nights before, but that could not be confirmed. Palmetto police, however, ruled out gang violence, and said at least one of the killers carried an automatic AK-47 (see story) --The American Reporter--
Space.com: A huge atmospheric research satellite weighing 6.5 tons will fall to Earth unchecked in late September or early October, NASA officials say. Most of the satellite will burn up in the atmosphere, but some debris is expected to crash to the ground intact, officials said --AR ONLINE--
Islands shake: Metro Vancouver skyscrapers were swaying after a strongly-felt 6.4 earthquake struck off Vancouver Island Friday afternoon at 12:41pm local time, and a smaller quake hit Hawaii 3 hrs. later, the USGS says. 4 medium-sized quakes also shook Alaska and its Fox and Aleutian islands during the day, and two 2.5 quakes struck Puerto Rico earlier Friday. There were no reports of damage or injuries --The American Reporter--
CNN: Thousands of Egyptian protestors stormed the Israeli embassy in Cairo Friday, tearing down an outside wall and ransacking offices, but no diplomats were there. Egyptian commandoes rescued six workers who were trapped inside after the diplomats fled. Israeli PM Benjanin Netanyahu said the events will not lead to abrogation of the Egyptian-Israel peace treaty negotiated in 1978 by Anwar Sadat and Menachem Begin --AR ONLINE--
Reuters: Bank of America discussing termination of 40,000 of its 280,000 bank workers --The American Reporter--
St. Pete Times: Palatial floating "Fisherman's Paradise" barge off Clearwater beckons to anglers and would-be Waterworld denizens --The American Reporter--
In an urgent, forceful, nationally-televised speech Thursday night, President Obama proposed a far-reaching and "fully paid for" $447-billion jobs plan, but Republicans who heard it live often sat silently or chanted Tea Party slogans as he spoke --The American Reporter--
Homeland Security warns of "specific, credible but unconfirmed" threat of vehicle bomb to be used in New York City or Washington, DC, on Sept. 11 anniversary; they seek 3 men who left Middle East together and entered US a month ago; two are Americana, DHS believes --AR ONLINE--
SEPTEMBER 14, 2011
The most recent GOP debate was a big hit for CNN. "According to Nielsen Fast National data (8-10pm), CNN’s Tea Party Republican debate moderated by Wolf Blitzer delivered 3.6 million total viewers and 1.1 million among adults 25-54 last night, Monday, September 12," CNN said on its Press Room blog (see story). Fox News gets the next shot in Orlando Sept. 22, and AR will be there --AR ONLINE--
"The phone hacking scandal in the UK hasn’t muzzled Rupert Murdoch in his native Australia, where his newspaper empire is doing more than any other to undermine Prime Minister Julia Gillard," Bloomberg News reports Monday morning --AR ONLINE--
Hispanics turned out for a White House summit on excellence in Hispanic education and heard Orlando city commissioner Tony Ortiz say about President Obama, "I love this man." Ortiz is a Republican and the lone Hispanic on the city council in the conservative Orange County, Fla., vacation hub (see story) --The American Reporter--
Following up on comments by President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to NBC News [in New York City - WRONG] yesterday, Iran's official PressTV said Iran's judiciary has officially "refuted" Ahmadinejad's statement that the two American hikers jailed for 8 years on espionage charges will be released as a humanitarian gesture upon payment of their $500,000 bail --The American Reporter--
More on Hikers: The news from Iran's president, [here for a UN General Assembly meeting on Palestinian statehood - WRONG], had overjoyed the hikers' parents and suggested a thaw in US-Iranian relations. PressTV had earlier reported on Ahmadinejad's comments to NBC. It was a remarkable contradiction of the Iranian president, if not an outright repudiation, and it's possible Ahmadinejad was seen by the judiciary as using the possible release as a bargaining chip to sway American opposition to Palestinian statehood. --AR ONLINE--
More on News Corp: "In particular, the action outlines what it calls a 'litany of misconduct' at company's US subsidiaries including computer hacking, privacy breaches, [and] anticompetitive behaviour," Joseph O'Halloran of RapidTVNews said. The suit comes as CEO James Murdoch is being recalled to answer more questions from Parliament's special inquiry commission on the company's PC and voicemail hacking scandal. --AR ONLINE--
Sources in Pakistan's intelligence service say Osama bin Laden's successor, Ayman Al-Zawahiri, is in Yemen or Somalia. The intel is likely to be suspect due to the divided loyalties of Pakistan's ISI --The American Reporter-- ’
SEPTEMBER 16, 2011
Meanwhile, as expected, Republican Mark Amodei won a special election for Congress from Nevada's conservative 2nd District with 58% of the vote --The American Reporter--
According to a report released Tuesday by the U.S. Census Bureau, the number of uninsured Americans under age 65 rose from 48.3 million in 2009 to 49.1 million in 2010. The bureau also said 15% of Americans now live in poverty. --AR ONLINE--
In other debate news, an article in the New York Times Tuesday morning questioned the health and wisdom of the pairing of the CNN and the Tea Party. CNN responded that it had complete control over the selection of candidates and questions --AR ONLINE--
Family members of a man killed at a shuttered Palmetto nightclub where 2 died and 22 were wounded in a shooting Sept. 9 plan to sue over a lack of security --The American Reporter--
A first-time candidate took the seat opened by the resignation of Rep. Anthony Weiner of New York City, a 7-term Democrat in a heavily Democratic district in Queens felled by a racy Internet sex scandal last spring. The seat will now be held by Bob Turner, a retired cable executive and little-known Queens Republican who won in his first try for public office --AR ONLINE--
SEPTEMBER 17, 2011
LA Times: The medical bills may reach $50 million for a San Francisco Giants fan beaten nearly to death at a Los Angeles Dodgers game at Dodgers Stadium six months ago, said attorneys for Bryan Stow, a Santa Cruz, Calif., paramedic, in a civil lawsuit filed against the Dodgers and their owner, Frank McCourt --The American Reporter--
News reports said today that 6 insurgents had died and 7 Afghan police officers lost their lives after Taliban fighters launched a major attack against the U.S Embassy in Kabul Monday, using rockets and grenades --AR ONLINE--
Harvard consumer advocate Elizabeth Warren, once the Administration's top pick to head a federal consumer watchdog agency she designed, kicked off her run for the U.S. Senate Wednesday against Sen. Scott Brown. She also faces a large field in the Democratic primary \. --AR ONLINE--
No B-Ball? The scheduled start of the NBA season is now in doubt after players and owners made no progress at a key meeting; no further talks are scheduled, NBA officials say --The American Reporter--
News Corp. shareholders and pension funds brought suit in Delaware against Rupert Murdoch's company. According to Britain's RapidTVNews.com, "The charges are being brought as [a] result of what the shareholders consider repeated failures to correct illegal conduct that has severely battered the company's reputation and market value" --AR ONLINE--
A US district court judge in Pennsylvania has ruled that the insurance mandate in President Obama's health care reform law is unconstitutional. The mandate decision has gone both ways as the law is tested in federal courts across the country. Appeals could be consolidated and heard by the US Supreme Court in its new term --The American Reporter--
According to comScore research, "Video-friendly Android has overtaken Apple to become the second-most popular smartphone platform in Europe" after Nokia, RapidTVNews reports Wednesday morning. "Nokia's Symbian operating system is still No. 1 but losing ground," it said --AR ONLINE--
CNN said Tuesday a statement by Gov. Rick Perry at Monday's debate that President Obama's stimulus program created "zero" jobs was "flat-out false." The $700-billion stimulus actually saved or created between 3 and 3.3 million American jobs --The American Reporter--
CNN: Evidence grows that Gov. Perry executed an innocent man, then quashed an investigation into the 'arson' that killed the man's family. Some state forensics officials say arson wasn't the cause of the blaze --AR ONLINE--
SEPTEMBER 20, 2011
President Obama's plan to cut the U.S. budget deficit by $3 trillion would not raise the eligibility age for Medicare or change Social Security rules, the Wall Street Journal reports this morning --The American Reporter--
The expensive quarterback of the Philadelphia Eagles, Michael Vick, was hurt Sunday night in the Eagles' game against Atlanta. He was spitting blood from a split tongue when he left the field, but his real problem was a sprained neck that prevented him from returning to hang on to his team's 10-point lead. Atlanta used his absence to erase the deficit and win 35-31 --AR ONLINE--
Violent crime was down 6% in 2010, the fourth straight year of decline, according to the newly released FBI Uniform Crime Repor. In Tucson, Jared Loughner's rampage alone raised the homicide rate --AR ONLINE--
Markets: The Dow ended off 108.8 points Monday after being much lower earlier on continuing worries about Europe's ability to handle Eurozone debt. Oil moved sharply lower, to $85.83, down $2.13. Gold was down $33.30 at $1,781.40 (5:04pm ET) --The American Reporter--
In front of his horrified family and friends and thousands of spectators, 74-year-old Jimmy Leeward, a Hollywood stunt pilot in a WW II-vintage P-51 Mustang, plunged straight down into the airfield's concrete apron and the VIP boxes at a Reno, NV, air show Friday, killing 9 and injuring at least 50 people --The American Reporter--
The Manatee HS Hurricanes of Bradenton, Fla., led America's No. 1-ranked Don Bosco Prep of New Jersey into the 4th quarter, when Don Bosco scored twice, taking advantage of 'Canes ball-handling blunders. Halfway into the 4th quarter the 'Canes led 10-9, but a 63-yard pass by Bosco QB Mike Yankovich to wide receiver Leonte Caroo was the beginning of the end. Don Bosco scored again on a fumble recovery at Manatee's six-yard line, but Manatee scored again on a great leaping catch at the goal line. Then, with just a minute to go, an onside kick went awry. Don Bosco got the ball and sat on it, winning 22-16. They extended their decade-long win-loss record to 112-4 (see videos above) --AR ONLINE--
After ditching a red-light camera program at accident-prone intersections, Los Angeles appears ready to look at lengthening the time yellow signals are displayed to increase safety. "Yellow lights don't get enough respect," Prof. Panos Prevedouros of the University of Hawaii at Manoa said. The yellow signal is "the critical interval that comes into play," Prevedouros said. "The whole thing is the yellow." --The American Reporter--
Muammar Ghadafi said his forces have captured 17 French and British NATO troops during the ongoing sieges of the deposed Libyan leader's strongholds, Bani Walid and Sirte, his birthplace, but the report has not been confirmed --AR ONLINE--
NYT: A "rogue" British trader from its big money Delta One desk, Kweku Abodoli, 31, lost $2.3 billion for UBS, the former Union Bank of Switzerland, authorities said. Abodoli was charged Friday in a London court as UBS shares sank 8% --The American Reporter--
Hikers: Despite complaints by Iran's independent judiciary, indications are that the release of the 2 American hikers held for 2 years in Iran on espionage charges may still happen. News reports Sunday, including from CNN, said both hikers' $500,000 bail has been paid --AR ONLINE--
SEPTEMBER 21, 2011
Herman Cain has the flu. That's what supporters of his longshot presidential campaign were told Monday when they showed up in Bradenton, Fla., at the Mixon Fruit Farm, a mainstay of the South Florida tourist trade and meeting place of the Manatee County Tea Party --AR ONLINE--
Facebook users will soon see Netflix and Hulu integrated into their pages, according to a story this morning from the New York Post. The movie distributor Miramax is readying an app that will let Facebook users watch clips and feature-length films on Facebook --The American Reporter--
Ashton Kutcher's debut as Charlie Sheen's replacement on "Two and A Half Men" got the show its highest ratings ever Monday. It was seen by 27.7 million people, the Los Angeles Daily News reports today --The American Reporter--
China's rare earths trade policy is the target of a major enforcement action by US trade officials announced by the Obama Administration Tuesday --AR ONLINE--
SEPTEMBER 22, 2011
War in Europe? "A collapse of Europe's monetary union would likely lead to a breakup of the European Union as a whole, posing significant risks to the region and even raising the possibility of war in the long term," Poland's Finance Minister told CNBC late on Thursday --AR ONLINE--
Straw Man? Ron Paul was the winner of a straw poll of California Republicans at the state party's convention this weekend. Supporters say he "drew large, boisterous crowds" at speeches at a downtown Los Angeles J.W Marriott hotel. He drew 45 percent of 833 ballots cast --The American Reporter--
Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas is in New York City to lobby for an application by Palestinians to join the UN, a move opposed by the US and Israel. Former President Jimmy Carter has called on President Obama to support the application --AR ONLINE--
Iran's prosecutor-general announced 19 arrests Sunday in the embezzlement of $2.8 billion from seven government-owned and private banks using forged documents stolen from Saderat Bank, Iran's PressTV reported Monday morning --The American Reporter--
A source has told The American Reporter to anticipate a deadly terrorist attack on an elevated American freeway ramp in the next month --AR ONLINE--
The death toll is 68 in a very strong 6.8-magnitude earthquake that hit Sikkim in northern India Monday, leaving 2 Norwegians stranded and the fate of 2 US tourists unknown. --The American Reporter--
SEPTEMBER 23, 2011
Guns, Guns, Guns: As The American Reporter revealed Sept. 10, "Many of Florida's parks, city halls and libraries - once gun-free zones - will soon be forced to allow firearms under a state-led effort to curtail gun restrictions imposed by local governments" that takes effect Oct. 1, the Sarasota Herald-Tribune reports Sept. 21. Local officials face $5,000 personal fines, and cities can be fined $100,000 a day, for attempts to enforce or enact local gun control ordinances --AR ONLINE--
'Appeasement?' Nonsense, Says Israel: Defense Secretary Ehud Barak, a former Israeli prime minister, rejected Gov. Rick Perry's charge that President Obama engaged in "appeasement" of the Palestinians. He added that "more so than any previous Administration" the Obama Administration has been helpful to Israel on security issues --The American Reporter--
The Al Jazeera news network modified its views under US pressure, WikiLeaks documents revealed. In response, the network's news director was replaced by a member of Qatari royalty. Qatar pays for the news operation --The American Reporter--
The head of Afghanistan High Peace Council was assassinated at his home by a suicide bomber today. Former Afghan President Burhanuddin Rabbani was trying to reconcile opposing parties and the Taliban to bring a political end to the war --AR ONLINE--
SEPTEMBER 25, 2011
Expect a bit of an upset in today's Florida GOP Presidential Preference Straw Poll, an influential barometer of how the state will vote in 2012 primaries. AR Correspondents Joe Shea and Ted Manna expect surprisingly high tallies for Herman Cain, strong ones for Ron Paul and Mitt Romney, and suggest that national front-runner Gov. Rick Perry of Texas may finish no higher than fourth. The vote will be announced tonight --AR ONLINE--
Markets: Bruised and battered, US stocks limped into Friday's closing bell after a week that saw some of the worst losses in years. At 3:23pm ET, CNBC said the Dow was up 25, gold off $98 at $1,645, and - good news - oil off $0.26 at $80.35. Silver was down $5.95 at $30.64, having lost 25% of its value this week. --AR ONLINE--
Meg Whitman, former head of eBay, will become the CEO of Internet giant Hewlett-Packard (HP) after losing a race for governor of California to then-state attorney general Jerry Brown last November --The American Reporter--
Markets: Dow Jones futures were down 90 points at 3:18am ET Monday morning, and it looked like another bad day on Wall Street. The outlook had changed dramatically by 7:10am ET, and DJ futures were up 137. Oil was up $0.50 after climbing to $80.33. Gold was at 1,619, down $20, as analyst Mark Faber warned CNBC it may fall to $1,100 --The American Reporter--
SEPTEMBER 26, 2011
Hypocrisy? Senate GOP majority leader Mitch McConnell sought as much as $235 million for Kentucky-based Zap Motors to build electric motors from the clean-energy part of the stimulus, the New York Times reports. McConnell has criticized the Obama Administration over failed projects in the clean-energy plan. Other top Republicans also sought got stimulus money, too --AR ONLINE--
The Big Bluff: "… Howard Lederer, Chris Ferguson and Rafael Furst got rich by bluffing players out of their money in televised tournaments. Now, the U.S. government alleges that they and their colleagues used this same approach in running Full Tilt Poker, now accused of defrauding online poker players of $300 million after new laws made it illegal to pay out online winnings. The owners cashed them in instead, and took out $444 million over the years --The American Reporter--
SEPTEMBER 27, 2011
Markets: The Good news about a new bailout in Europe buoyed the Dow, which in early futures trading this morning waa down 90 points. The DJIA finished 272 points or 2.5% higher, once again to above 11,000. Oil regained $1.50 as it moved up from $79.85 at the open to $81.35. Gold restrained its precipitous fall and was at $1,625, off $12, after analyst Mark Faber warned CNBC it may fall to $1,100. It had been under $1,600 during the afternoon but recovered (4:40pm ET) --The American Reporter--
A small plane carrying 19 tourists to see Mount Everest has crashed in Nepal, killing all aboard. The victims, including 2 Americans, were carried from the crash site by Nepalese troops --AR ONLINE--
An American couple and 2 Norwegian tourists trapped in villages isolated by a powerful earthquake earlier this week in the former Himalayan Kingdom of Sikkim, now an Indian state, have been airlifted out of danger, the Times of India told The American Reporter in answer to an email from AR that asked about their status --The American Reporter--
US Sen. Charles Schumer said OnStar, the in-car communications network, is storing data on drivers whose cars no longer use the service, and called that "a blatant invasion of privacy," the Associated Press reports Sunday morning. OnStar said they have never sold the driver information, but contracts give them that right, the AP said --AR ONLINE--
A 6-ton, bus-sized NASA spacecraft fell to Earth between 11:23pm ET and 1:09am ET, but scientists observing the Upper Atmosphere Research Satellite say they don't yet know where it fell. The New York Times said it "was passing eastward over Canada and Africa, as well as vast portions of the Pacific, Atlantic and Indian Oceans during that period" --The American Reporter--
The Presidential V Debate on Fox News was lively but little new emerged from the nine candidates, now joined by former New Mexico Gov. Gary Johnson. His one-liner about a neighbor's two dogs having created more shovel-ready jobs than the Administration was the hit of the night. But some saw Gov. Rick Perry slowing down. "He just wasn't there," said delegate Helen Franta of Brevard County, Fla. "He wasn't on his game." The beneficiary? Mitt Romney. Herman Cain and Ron Paul also scored well with delegates. --AR ONLINE--
Two hikers held by Iran for 2 years, Josh Fattal and Shane Bauer, were released after paying $1 million bail and flown to Oman, whose ruler sent a plane to pick them up in Teheran. Their joyous families greeted them on the tarmac in Muscat, Oman's capital --The American Reporter--
Troy Davis is dead. After a brief stay was ordered by the U.S. Supreme Court he was put to death in a Georgia prison for the slaying of a police officer 21 years ago. His cause had stirred thousands of protests from people around the world. "Basically, he went very quietly," a reporter watching said. His last words, directed at the victim's family, claimed his innocence, saying "It was not my fault. I didn't have a gun." Finally, he told prison guards preparing to execute him, "May God have mercy on your souls. May God bless your souls," then laid his head back and prepared to die --AR ONLINE--
Statehood: Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas, brushing aside the objections of the U.S. and Israel, entered a formal application for statehood before the General Assemly of the United Nations Friday --The American Reporter--
Broke Like Us: Rep. Vern Buchanan's net worth has dropped 20.3% during his two terms in Congress, moving him from the 3rd richest member to 10th, Roll Call reported. Buchanan said he lost money selling 3 of his dealerships is left with only $44 million --AR ONLINE--
Markets: A European plan to resolve various debt crises has inspired new confidence in world markets, and the Dow is up 248 points a few minutes before noon and has repeatedly crossed the 11,300 threshhold (11:50am ET). Oil is also soaring, up $3.21 to $83.45. Gold, too, is sharply higher, too, now at $1,656.30, up $61.50, and silver - which lost 25% of its value last week - has risen 7.3%, or $2.19, to $32.17. (11:55am ET) --The American Reporter--
Employer premiums for health insurance have risen 9% to an average of $15,000 s year per employee, the Wall Street Journal reports, inhibiting new hires. As soon as and if health care exchanges are permitted under the Health Care Reform Act, those costs could fall sharply --The American Reporter--
NOTE: DARYL GUPPY comments to CNBC re gold prices was inadvertently erased.
A Tampa-based inventor who gets 80MPG out of his 2006 Toyota Corolla says he expects 5,000 orders for his tiny, $279 hydrogen generator that he says will save drivers 40%-50% on gasoline and uses just 2 teaspoons of water and 5/100ths of an ampere for power. He may display the device at the Sarasota Classic Car Museum during the Nov. 11-13, 2011, HHO Games & Exposition there, he says. "HHO" stands for hydrogen and oxygen the generators produce to burn with gasoline --AR ONLINE--
Shooting Gallery: Tucson's murder rate jumped 46% in 2010 - before Jared Loughner killed 6 and wounded Rep. Gabrielle Giffords in January. Nationwide, violent crime dropped 6% --The American Reporter--
SEPTEMBER 30, 2011
(4:19 pm EST) Stocks, soaring before noon, turned downward with a vengeance, then closed up 143 points at 11153.98, but technology stocks fared less well. The DJIA plunged into negative territory at mid-afternoon, from a 260-point gain on good GDP news. Oil is rising again, now up $1.52 at $82.73. Gold, strong earlier, is rising now, down $2 at $1,21, CNBC says
On an unhappy Friday, the Dow closed down 240.60 at 10913.38 this afternoon. Gold is up $5.70 at $1,623.50. Oil is down $3.41 at $78.73. Bank of America closed off 3.50% at $6.12 after announcing a $5 monthly debit card fee. Earlier in the afternoon, the bank's online banking network announced a "Network Outage" and in a statement to customers said the site was "unusually slow." Online account information was only intermittently available --The American Reporter--
The Dept. of Justice told CNBC Thursday it will probe a number of Chinese firms doing business with American firms, but did not name the Chinese companies. The DOJ's press office told AR it could not confirm the report, but said six major Japanese air freight forwarders are being investigated for price-fixing --AR ONLINE--
Rogue Al Qaeda cleric Anwar al-Awlaki, a US citizen, was killed along with another top Al Qaeda figure in a US raid in Yemen today, Pentagon officials say --The American Reporter--
In bad news for consumers, Bank of America, America's largest bank (in assets), has announced it will charge $5 monthly to use its debit card. Millions of small depositors are expected to leave the bank, whose stock has lost 53% of its value so far this year. Nonetheless, the list of banks following suit is growing rapidly --AR ONLINE--
Meanwhile, CME Group, Inc., and McGraw-Hill Cos., are in talks on a joint venture that would bring together McGraw's S&P indices and CME's Dow Jones Indexes under a single roof, which could give the company enormous sway over financial markets, the Wall Street Journal reports this morning.The WSJ, of course, is owned by Rupert Murdoch, whom the American Reporter has said became an agent of influence for China while concluding his exclusive billion-dollar satellite broadcasting deal with the Communist nation --The American Reporter--
OCTOBER 3, 2011
Iran and Pakistan will sign a joint security agreement, Iran's official PressTV reported. "Iranian and Pakistani officials are drawing up the security agreement and will sign it soon, said [Iranian Interior Minister] Mohammad-Najjar in a joint press conference with his Pakistani counterpart Rehman Malik in Islamabad on Wednesday," the PressTV Web site reported --AR ONLINE--
Saudi King Abdullah has revoked a sentence of 10 lashes for a Saudi woman who was convicted of driving a car --The American Reporter--
Facebook Follows You: "In its latest privacy blunder, the social networking site was forced to confirm that it has been constantly tracking its 750 million users, even when they are using other sites," London's Daily Mail reports today --The American Reporter--
Fla. Speaker of the State House of Representatives Dean Cannon says a special state commission is likely to adopt Jan. 31 as the date for the 2012 Florida primary, leapfrogging the state ahead of Iowa, New Hampshire, South Carolina and Nevada. They may move up their primaries in response, and the move may bring party sanctions, CNN reported. The Republican convention is slated for Tampa, Fla., in August 2012 --AR ONLINE--
OCTOBER 4, 2011
"Unusual Circumstances:" That's what Time-Warner subsidiary Bright House is telling customers Monday morning who call to find out why their digital desktop boxes are not working, preventing access to cable channels and sometimes any tv at all. The company's Support recording uses that phrase, "unusual circumstances," to explain why customers can't reach them (1:15am ET) --The American Reporter--
Gov. Chris Christie joked, "Please don't ask me to be leader of the Free World" (NOTE: THIS IS A SLIGHT MISQUOTE) at a Reagan Library dinner in Simi Valley, Calif., last night, once again failing to dampen rampant speculation that he will jump into the Republican primary race for the party's presidential nomination --The American Reporter--
Herman Cain leads the Republican race with 28% of the vote, according to a Zogby poll cited by the Drudge Report from Human Events, a conservative magazine. "A new Zogby Poll puts Herman Cain at the top of the Republican field as the top choice of 28% of poll respondents. The IBOPE Zogby International poll says the polling sample consists of "all likely voters and of likely Republican primary voters" The story adds, "Rounding out the top three are Rick Perry at 18%, and Mitt Romney at 17%. Fourth place goes to Ron Paul at 11%." --The American Reporter--
Asian markets are somewhat lower in early trading Tuesday morning, with the Nikkei off 89.36, the Hang Seng off 149.91 and the main China index off 6.12. Dow futures were better, however, up 46 (3:15am ET Tuesday). The DJIA and oil prices were down dramatically Monday at the 4pm ET Wall Street close. The Dow was down 259.13 to 10,654.85, while oil was down $2.41 at $76.81. Gold was up, now at $1,655.90, a $33.60 gain. Trading in the stock of American Airlines (AMR) was halted 5 times during the day as the airline fended off bankruptcy rumors. Kodak, facing similar rumors, surged after saying it had no desire to file for debt relief (4pm ET) --AR ONLINE--
OCTOBER 5, 2011
A group of wealthy businessmen, including Tea Party founder David Koch and Home Depot chairman Ken Langone, has organized a draft committee to back NJ Gov. Chris Christie for President., the New York Times reports today. "There is Kenneth G. Langone, the billionaire Home Depot founder who is perhaps Mr. Christie’s most fervent booster; Paul E. Singer, the publicity-shy hedge fund magnate and Republican activist who is among the most-sought-after Republican donors in the country; and David H. Koch, the industrialist, Tea Party benefactor and, according to Forbes, the richest man in New York," the Times said. --The American Reporter--
After a series of gas line explosions, Congress acted with unusual speed to enact a law requiring more federal safety precautions and more inspectors. But GOP Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky, where three counties were rocked by such explosions a month ago, is blocking passage. Based on his libertarian principles, he said, Sen. Paul is using a senatorial prereogative to slow the measure, which is supported by most of Congress and gas companies --The American Reporter--
Wasting Gas: Meanwhile, the New York Times front page reports this morning that 30% of the natural gas in rich N. Dakota wells is flared off as waste, far more than any other gas field in the country --AR ONLINE--
A group of 8 hikers in the Gila Wilderness of New Mexico say a UFO hovered overhead close to their campsite Sunday, turned on a light to illuminate the trees below, and then apparently crashed to the ground. The episode lasted 15 to 20 minutes, they told MUFON, according to a story by Roger Marsh of the UFO Examiner --AR ONLINE--
700 demonstrators were arrested as the Occupy Wall Street group advocating stern measures against those who helped plunge America into a devastating debt crisis tried to block the Brooklyn-bound lanes of the Brookly Bridge. Now the mopvement has spread to at least 6 other cities, including Los Angeles, Chicago and Seattle --The American Reporter--
No Peace: "Officials in Kabul said they were abandoning efforts at peace talks with the Taliban, concluding that insurgent leaders weren't serious about negotiations," the Wall Street Journal reports in its weekend edition --AR ONLINE--
OCTOBER 6, 2011
Rhode Island has become the latest state, like Texas, to give graduating high school seniors who are in the US illegally in-state tuition discounts at state colleges and universities, the Los Angeles Times reports this morning --AR ONLINE--
Pro-Ghadafi fighters have lost the battle for the Mediterranean port of Sirte in western Libya, Moammar Ghadafi's birthplace, CNN reports --AR ONLINE--
Markets: Solutions proposed for the Eurozone debt crisis buoyed overseas markets Wednesday morning, but the contagion has finally reached New York, where DJIA stocks closed up 131.24 points. Gold is now moving, too. It's at $1,641.40, down $25.40, while oil despite a $4.13 gain is far from recovering from a steep fall; it is now at $79.80 (4:33pm ET) --The American Reporter--
OCTOBER 7, 2011
Shooting Rampage: Heavy equipment operator Shareef Allman, 49, of San Jose, is still at large after allegedly shooting 9 people Wednesday, killing 3, at a Lehigh Industries limestone quarry in the hills above Cupertino, Calif., and a woman five miles away during a carjacking. The suspect, a black man, was apparently a figure on local cable television, where he interviewed Rev. Jesse Jackson. Police say he arrived at the quarry where he worked Wednesday morning for a 4:30am safety meeting, left briefly and returned carrying a pistol and a rifle and started shooting. Police SWAT teams conducted an intensive manhunt for Allman not far from the carjacking scene, but as of Thursday morning he remains at large (8:55am ET) --The American Reporter--
A commercial helicopter with 5 people on board crashed at 3:35pm ET in the East River off Manhattan, and 4 of the occupants were rescued and now in good condition. A woman who was the fifth passenger was found dead an hour later by NYPD divers. It was the seventh chopper crash in the river since 1995, the New York Daily News reported --AR ONLINE--
NJ Gov. Chris Christie, saying "It is not my time," will not seek the Republican presidential nomination in 2012, throwing a race that has lost direction into further confusion. The decision, announced at a 1pm ET press conference, may open the way for a late entrance by former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, Sen. John McCain's 2008 running mate, who would have just days to decide due to filing deadlines --The American Reporter--
Sarah Palin has now ruled herself out of the 2012 GOP presidential race. She revealed her decision to conservative Cklear Channel talk-show host Mark Boorts.--The American Reporter--
Amanda Knox Flies Home: After more than 10 hours of deliberation, a 6-person Italian appeals court jury and two judges in a majority verdict overturned all charges in the murder conviction of Amandas Knox, but ordered her to pay restitution to a man she allegedly defamed. She is now back home in Seattle. Her emotional plea in fluent Italian, saying "I am innocent," came as she fought for absolution in the murder of Meredith Kercher, a fellow college student killed in 2007 (4:30pm ET) --AR ONLINE--
OCTOBER 8, 2011
An ACLU report on the Los Angeles Central Jail is due to be filed in Federal District Court there today, the New York Times reports this morning. "'This situation, the length of time it has been going on, the volume of complaints and the egregious nature are much, much worse than anything I’ve ever seen,' said Tom Parker, a retired F.B.I. official who led the agency’s Los Angeles office for years and oversaw investigations into the Rodney King beating and charges of corruption in the Los Angeles Police Department. 'They are abusing inmates with impunity, and the worst part is that they think they can get away with it,'" he told the Times --The American Reporter--
"A nondisease-causing virus kills human breast cancer cells in the laboratory, creating opportunities for potential new cancer therapies, according to Penn State College of Medicine researchers who tested the virus on three different breast cancer types that represent the multiple stages of breast cancer development," the university announced --AR ONLINE--
OCTOBER 9. 2011
Deputies say they killed Shareef Allman, 49, of San Jose, the only suspect in Wednesday's shooting of 10 people, three of whom died, at the Lehigh Southwest Cement Permanente Plant in Cupertino, Calif. He was killed around 7:30am PT Thursday morning at a home in Sunnyvale in the heart of Silicon Valley, according to the San Jose Mercury-News --AR ONLINE--
Trade War? "China warned Washington it is 'adamantly opposed' to a proposed U.S. bill aimed at forcing Beijing to let its currency rise, saying its passage could lead to a trade war between the world's top two economies," the Reuters news agency reported Tuesday morning --The American Reporter--
Troops to Mexico? Republican presidential candidate Gov. Rick Perry said he would send troops to Mexico to fight the drug cartels if Mexico would accept them. "'It may require our military in Mexico working in concert with them to kill these drug cartels and to keep them off of our border and to destroy their network,' Mr. Perry said during a campaign appearance here," the New York Times reports Sunday morning --AR ONLINE--
Corrupt sheriff's deputies help inmates smuggle drugs in the L.A. County Jail, the Los Angeles Times reports. "Los Angeles County jail inmates have used corrupt guards to penetrate tight security at lockups, helping fuel a lucrative drug trade behind bars," the Times said --The American Reporter--
OCTOBER 10, 2011
On Sunday, protestors are gathered around Wall Street financial offices for their 23rd day. It remains uncertain whether the protests might lead to the same sort of massive demonstrations that toppled the Soviet Union 20 years ago, and Egypt and Somalia during the Arab Spring. Similar protests are spreading in earnest across the nation, and protests have also been taking place in Israel, aimed at financial greed and government incompetence that protestors say cause great hardship across the nation. There appears to be fertile ground for the movement in a recent CBS News poll, which showed only 11% of Americans approve of Congress, its lowest approval rating ever --The American Reporter--
Howard Phillips, a pharmaceutical company owner who earned his Masters in Nuclear Engineering at the University of Oklahoma, said his new. proprietary catalyst can easily increase the chemical production of hydrogen without electrolysis to quantities that could run a car solely with hydrogen made on demand, rather than stored in tanks. That discovery if replicated in tests occurring now around the world would have a vast number of other applications --The American Reporter--
"U.S. scientists for the first time have used a cloning technique to get tailor-made embryonic stem cells to grow in unfertilized human egg cells, a landmark finding and a potential new flashpoint for opponents of stem cell research," the Reuters news agency reports. The finding means such stem cells can be transplanted to create missing cells without fear of rejection by the immune system --AR ONLINE--
OCTOBER 11, 2011
The real frontrunners in the GOP Presidential primary are Meet The Press, Face the Nation and Fox News Sunday, in that order, since they get to tell viewers who the frontrunners are. That's the evidence of recent polls that show Herman Cain leading all contenders among likely Republican voters, and Ron Paul not far behind him, while news organizations choose Mitt Romney and Rick Perry as their top guys. There's a great cultural divide between the mainstream media, who see electability in Romney and Perry in the general election, and conservative voters, who prefer Cain to Ron Paul by a large margin over either the former Massachusetts governor or the current Texas governor. Cain, coming off a 37% beat-down in Florida of the two men favored by Sunday talk shows, topped a Zogby Poll with 28% and ran far ahead of both media choices at the important Values Voter Summit in Washington, D.C., this weekend. At the Summit, Paul packed the hall with 600 late-arriving voters who left immediately after picking their man. Paul ran first with 37%, Cain with 23%, and ex-Sen. Rick Santorum 16%. Gov. Perry tied Michelle Bachmann with 8% and Romney outdrew Newt Gingrich 4% to 3%. Jon Huntsman and Gary Johnson got no votes. Cain, then, was the real winner after a rousing speech that drew huge applause, but talk shows make their own picks --AR ONLINE--
Former Mass. Gov. Mitt Romney lashed out at critics in the right-wing Christian movement this morning who have warned the GOP could nominate a candidate who is not a "true Christian." The critics, including the pastor of the First Baptist Church of Dallas, a campaign ally of Gov. Rick Perry - whose campaign vetted the pastor's remarks - attacked him again this morning on religious grounds. Romney referred to another such critic near the end of his 20-minute speech as he asked fellow conservatives to reject a message of intolerance. Mormons consider themselves Christians, but the Southern Baptist Convention has labeled the American-born religion a "cult" --The American Reporter--
The economy was buoyed by reports of 103,000 new jobs in September, but the Drudge Report points out that 40,000 of those were of striking Verizon workers who returned to their jobs --The American Reporter--
OCTOBER 13, 2011
Herman Cain took a 20-point lead in Zogby poll of likely Republican voters, scoring 28% compared to much smaller totals for supposed frontrunners Mitt Romney and Rick Perry --AR ONLINE--
Steve Jobs Dies: Apple founder Steve Jobs, 56, hailed by President Obama as one "who changed the way each of us sees the world," and by his greatest rival, Microsoft founder Bill Gates. He was lauded as a national treasure whose inventions transformed the computer industry. With Steve Wozniak, Jobs created the personal computer, the mouse, Macintosh and Apple computers, the iPad, iPod, and iPhone, and was the founder of iTunes and the Apple stores. He died at home after a years-long fight to pancreatic cancer, surrounded by family and friends. "I will miss him immensely," said Gates --The American Reporter--
Koch & Iran: "A Bloomberg Markets investigation has found that Koch Industries - in addition to being involved in improper payments to win business in Africa, India and the Middle East - has sold millions of dollars of petrochemical equipment to Iran, a country the U.S. identifies as a sponsor of global terrorism," Bloomberg News reported. The billionaire Koch brothers own the Lycra, Stairmaster, Dixie Cups, Quilted Northern toilet paper and Brawny paper towel brands. Charles and David Koch are each worth a reported $20 billion, and spend freely in support of Tea Party and other right-wing causes. David Koch is a key backer of N.J. Governor Chris Christie, who was a potential 2012 GOP Presidential contender --The American Reporter--
Urgent: A plot hatched by Iran's Revolutionary Guard unit Quds to assassinate Adel al-Jubeir, the Saudi Ambassador to the United States, possibly at a Washington restaurant, was broken up by U.S. officials with the arrest of one of two Iranian-born co-conspirators, Manssor Arbabsiar and Gholam Shakuri, and the identification of a $1.5 million transfer of Iranian money to fund the hit. The plot enlisted supposed killers from violent Mexican drug cartels who were actually undercover DEA informants, American officials said, and included plans to bomb a Saudi embassy. Arbabsiar, the naturalized American suspect who was captured, told the hired hit men to accept collateral damage if needed, saying "They want that guy done, if the hundred go with him." The Saudis have not yet commented on the revelations, made in court filings today, Oct. 11, in Manhattan. The government of Mexico played a significant role in averting the assassination when it identified one of the men, Arbabsiar, from a U.S. alert and warrant as he arrived from Iran in Mexico City on Sept. 28. They put him on a plane to New York City on Sept. 29, where he was arrested immediately. Talk of war with Iran has followed the revelations on cable news shows. An item on this ticker published in early September said "A source has told The American Reporter to anticipate a deadly terrorist attack ... in the next month," but suggested it would occur on a U.S. freeway. The item ran here until Sept. 22 --AR ONLINE--
Senate Democrats have joined with Senate Republicans Wednesday to kill the American Jobs Act on a procedural issue, 50-49. The bill needed 60 votes to pass. President Obama reportedly plans to now break the bill into pieces and pass separate elements of it. It is not known what may become of his plan to pay for the bill with a special 5% surcharge on the tax bills of Americans earning over a million dollars a year, who often pay no taxes at all --The American Reporter--
Democrats are divided on the Panama Free Trade Bill now being debated on the House floor. Opponents include Rep. Dennis Kucinich of Cleveland and Rep. Kathy Hochul of Upstate New York. Rep. Sander Levin of Michigan, the floor leader for the measure, says the bill was amended to reduce its impact on US jobs and is now acceptable to Democrats --AR ONLINE--
Former Louisiana Gov. Buddy Roemer planned to join Occupy Wall Street protestors today as a Republican presidential candidate who rejects all special interest money offered to his campaign. Roemer, who is also a former La. Congressman, is the only candidate of national stature who has never been invited to a nationally televised debate. Protestors are gathered around Wall Street financial offices for their 25th day --The American Reporter--
"The Ides of March" is a brilliant political film of motives, choices, and the desecration of innocence. George Clooney, Ryan Gosling, Philip Seymour Hoffman and Paul Giamatti are all terrific. Clooney plays a leading Democratic presidential candidate and Gosling is his "media mind" during the last days of a critical Ohio primary in 2008 --AR ONLINE--
A popular college professor, Keith Fitzgerald, who is a former State Senator from Florida's southern Gulf Coast, will challenge the 10th-richest man in Congress, Rep. Vern Buchanan, a Ford dealer who won a hotly disputed 2006 election after 18,000 blank votes appeared on ballots and who was sued 11 times in recent years by ex-employees and business associates who said their contributions were allegedly coerced or paid for by Buchanan. Buchanan's net worth is said to be $44 million. He is closely aligned with the Tea Party. "I drive a beat-up old professor car with the handles falling off because that’s what I can afford, and he’s having trouble unloading his yacht," Fitzgerald told the Roll Call Web site --The American Reporter--
GOP presidential candidate Gary Johnson, who wants to cut the federal budget 43% and legalize marijuana to save billions spent prosecuting users, accused CNN of censorship Friday for excluding him from debates after he says he ran ahead of ex-Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman and ex-Pa. Sen. Rick Santorum in CNN's own polls. He has never been defeated for re-election, and said that in his two terms as Governor of New Mexico he created jobs at a faster rate than Mitt Romney or Rick Perry. Johnson points out that Herman Cain got 1% in polls until allowed to debate in Tampa, and that Presidents Clinton and Carter both started as small-state governors with 1% standings in polls --AR ONLINE--
Breakthrough! Tests at the University of Bologna Thursday showed some of the world's most distinguished physicists a device that can make clean energy cheaply and render other forms of power obsolete. The demonstration was the equivalent of heating a pot of water to a boil, then turning off the heat and watching it boil for another four hours. The "E Cat," a device created by Italian electrical engineer Andrea Rossi, underwent hours of operation, examination and testing by European, Chinese and American scientists, including the chairman of the energy committee of the Swedish National Academy of Sciences and officials from the Office of the European Patent Examiner. As planned, the device ran in self-sustaining mode for 4 hours. The suitcase-sized device was then disassembled and examined. Among those supporting the theory behind the E Cat are NASA Chief Scientist Dr. Dennis Bushnell of its Langley Research Center and Nobel physics laureate Dr. Brian Josephson. "The produced output thermal energy is completely autonomous; it does not depend on any electrical support, and is that of the latent heat of water evaporation," said Dr. Daniele Passerini, a longtime investigator of the device. A 1-megawatt reactor is scheduled for demonstration in Florida this month but contract disputes may force it to occur elsewhere. The E Cat promises to be an earth-shaking innovation in the accessibility of cheap power for homes and industry. For an in-depth discussion, see our video section below --AR ONLINE--
Tokyo Red: Citizens wary of government indifference tested a variety of areas around Tokyo for radiation, and found lethal does equal to those in areas surrounding Chernobyl, the scene of a Russian nuclear reactor disaster on a scale similar to that of the Fukushima nuclear meltdown 160 miles north of Tokyo after three of five reactors there were partly destroyed by a devastating tsunami earlier this year --AR ONLINE--
Doubts have arisen among U.S. observers about the details of a plot allegedly hatched by Iran to kill the Saudi Ambassador to the United States using hit men from Mexican drug cartels. The bizarre outline of the conspiracy to kill Adel al-Jubeir, however, was confirmed by the President and other high-ranking officials. What remains unknown is whether the highest elected officials of Iran conceived the bungled plan, or if it was born of the continuing rivalry between Iran's ayatollahs and its Shia militants in the Quds element of the Revolutionary Guards. So far, the latter seem to the favorites for the rap in the U.S. intelligence community, and the White House has stopped short of accusing President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and his associates of planning the assassination --The American Reporter--
Turnabout: Community Bank, which has 17 branches serving Manatee and Sarasota counties on Florida's southern Gulf Coast, will pay debit card users $5 - along with free checking - to draw them away from big banks that are charging them to use their debit cards, the bank announced Thursday --AR ONLINE--
Second-Hand Smoke Alarm: The federal Dept. of Housing & Urban Development has charged an Ocala, Fla., property owner, management company and its employees with discriminating against the handicapped after the company wouldn't respond appropriately when a woman was hospitalized due to neighbors' second-hand smoke. A HUD press release said they were charged "for refusing to allow a resident to move to a different apartment after her neighbors' second-hand smoke twice sent her to the emergency room." The managers at Magnolia Walk II, a 144-unit low income housing tax credit participant, wanted a new application, requiring new fees and deposits, before they would grant her request. "Managers claimed, falsely, that tax regulations prevented the tenant's transfer without her being treated as a new tenant," HUD said. If convicted, an administrative law judge will determine fines and monetary damages, if any --The American Reporter--
The death toll from cantaloupes tainted by Listeria monocytogenes has reached 23, the CDC says. The Rocky Ford cantaloupes are from Jensen Farms in Granada, Colo., where the outbreak apparently began on Sept. 12. After sickening 116 people, it has become the worst outbreak of food poisoning in 25 years --AR ONLINE--
OCTOBER 20, 2011
Wild Storm Coming: AccuWeather.com reports "snow, cold, high winds, flooding rain and severe thunderstorms" are headed for the eastern U.S. and SE Canada this week. "The atmosphere has been showing increased volatility over recent days with a strengthening storm aiming for the Northeast. However, another potentially much stronger storm for the same region and other areas is forecast to come about later on. ... The end result may be an intensifying storm that runs from south to north along the Atlantic Seaboard of the U.S. The storm has potential to foil outdoor plans and cause major travel delays," forecaster Justin Roberti says --The American Reporter--
Mystery: An unidentified disease has struck 3,000 people in 3 villages in Ethiopia, the Addis Fortune newspaper in Addis Ababa reports. "A mysterious disease, which has infected approximately 3,000 people in Afar Regional State in the past 3 months, has medical professionals puzzled. Blood samples were sent to Senegal after an investigation at the Ethiopian Health and Nutrition Research Institution (EHNRI) failed to identify cultures grown here, according to sources in Afar. People who are infected show symptoms including high fever, shivering, hallucinations, vomiting, and back pain, according to Hussein Ali, an official in the Regional Health Bureau. 'At first we thought it was malaria because of the symptoms, but blood tests done for it came back negative,'" Ali told the newspaper --AR ONLINE--
OCTOBER 21, 2011
Monday's 247-point drop in the Dow Jones Index and comparable losses on European exchanges again reflect deep anxiety about the potential of a Greek collapse. Banks are being urged with great force to reduce the debt (by far more than the 21% they've already given), and Greece's likely failure to make future bond payments may very substantially damage Deutschebank and another large Swiss institution. Opposition to giving the country the great degree of debt relief it needs is growing in Europe, but the understandable intransigence of Greeks themselves to deep pay cuts, massive layoffs, the end of the minimum wage and the prospective loss of most pensions threatens a fall into anarchy. The consequences of Greek contagion for Americans could also be very substantial. There is no easy fix, nor is a consensus coming together on anything more than that the ripples fanning out from Greece could turn into a tsunami that sinks the entire world economy (2:07pm ET) --The American Reporter--
Influence? Newspaper editorials are intended to influence the outcome of all kinds of decisions, so the mayor of a small town in Florida is requiring reporters who want to interview him for their stories about local government to register as lobbyists before he will talk to them. It may be the first real proof anyone ever reads editorials. "I will be needing all reporters and others from the paper who contact me for information to file whatever is required as a lobbyist to the City of Lauderhill before I can communicate further," Mayor Richard Kaplan of the City of Lauderhill, Fla., told journalist Brittany Wallman of the South Florida Sun-Sentinel --The American Reporter--
The CNN debate was full of noise and fury on a Las Vegas stage Tuesday night, but the tumult couldn't disguise the fact that only one of the candidates had a "big idea," as a talking head noted later. That was obviously Herman Cain, whose 9-9-9 plan has captured America's imagination. Cain was the target of a carefully orchestrated attack against his flat tax plan, but the attack failed to achieve its goal. Cain was as strong after the debate as he was when he took the stage. The big loser was undeniably Gov. Rick Perry of Texas, who came off badly with the audience when he ignored rules of the debate and tried to talk over ex-Mass. Gov. Mitt Romney; Perry got booed during the heated exchange. Romney, too, came under attack for hiring illegal aliens to mow his lawn, and for removing his written support for a national version of Massachusetts' "Romneycare" health system from the second edition of a recent book --The American Reporter--
Consumer Gloom: Folks who feel their lifestyle slipping are not alone. CNBC reported Wednesday afternon that the last three years has seen the U.S standard of living fall "longer and more steeply" than at any time in the past 50 years. "The average individual now has $1,315 less in disposable income than he or she did three years ago at the onset of the Great Recession - even though the recession ended, technically speaking, in mid-2009. That means less money to spend at the spa or the movies, less for vacations, new carpeting for the house, or dinner at a restaurant," the Web site said --The American Reporter--
Cain Leads Iowa: Two new polls show Herman Cain with a growing lead among likely voters in the Iowa Republublican caucuses Jan. 3, the campaign says. "Recent polling from two independent public opinion firms report Herman Cain as the clear frontrunner in the Iowa Republican Presidential Caucus. Cain leads 30% to Mitt Romney's 22%, according to Public Policy Polling, and Cain leads 26.4% to Romney's 18.1% in the InsiderAdvantage/Majority
Opinion Research survey," they reported Wednesday morning. The campaign said Cain leads Romney 38-19 among those 42% who say they are firmly committed to their first-choice candidate, according to the Public Policy Polling. "Herman Cain not only has the lead in Iowa, he also has far more committed supporters than Mitt Romney," said Dean Debnam, President of Public Policy Polling --AR ONLINE--
Thursday's Wall Street Journal poll put Herman Cain ahead of the entire Republican field, and elevates one part of his prior experience from deputy chairman - Cain's claim - to "chairman of the board of directors of the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City." No doubt he'll be criticized later for the inconsistency. "The latest Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll put him in first place at 27%, just ahead of former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney," The paper said Thursday. The Journal also reported that Gov. Rick Perry plans to introduce a flat tax proposal to "make the tax code so simple that even Timothy Geithner can file his taxes on time..." --The American Reporter--
The source of the deadly listeria outbreak in cantaloupes shipped by Jensen Farms in Granada, Colo., that so far has killed 25 Americans, has been traced to unsanitary conditions at the farm's shipping plant, where the bacteria was found on a conveyor belt, in standing pools of water on the floors that workers walked through, in a melon drying area and a drain, the New York Times says Thursday morning --AR ONLINE--
OCTOBER 22, 2011
3-3-3: Presidential candidate and pizza magnate Herman Cain - now leading in national polls - has come up with what may be the best idea yet to save America's distressed inner cities. Cain, who was deputy chairman of the Kansas City Federal Reserve Bank, would not create a bureaucracy but a new version of the economic Empowerment Zones that have been around for years. The difference between those areas and the Cain's Opportunity Zones is based on his well-known 9-9-9 plan to create a 9% flat corporate tax, 9% personal income flat tax and a 9% national sales tax. In the special zones, though, the flat tax would be 3-3-3, and could quickly boost inner city economies by attracting manufacturers and corporations wanting to save tax money, wealthier individuals who want to pay loweer tazes, and shoppers who want to save money on the sales tax. Such a plan could transform those areas through a qualified gentrification almost overnight, some believe. The rest of the voluminous tax code would be completely scrapped, Cain says --The American Reporter--
Big Splash: There are no plans to make news at the Oct. 28-30 Florida Democratic Convention at Disney's Contemporary Resort near Orlando. These delegates would have just one candidate in their straw poll, so instead they'll enjoy a reception Friday night by state party chair Rod Smith, a charismatic former state senator, prosecutor and candidate for governor, and on Saturday night will splash around in an Olympic-sized pool at a 2-hour party sponsored by three-term U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson, the state's top elected Democrat, whose race this year is populated by Republican unknowns. Vice President Joe Biden will also speak. In between are meetings for county chairs, the state's Democratic Congressional delegation and workshops on Florida's new and very restrictive voter registration laws. On the pyramid-shaped, ultra-modern hotel, a monorail runs right above a third-floor dining area that features the Contempo Cafe, Chef Mickey's and the Outer Rim bar --AR ONLINE--
OCTOBER 24, 2011
Cain Wins Nevada: "The good news continued for Herman Cain Friday, as the former Godfather’s Pizza CEO won the Western Republican Leadership Conference straw poll of GOP presidential contenders, edging out former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney and former House Speaker Newt Gingrich - and leaving Texas Gov. Rick Perry in a distant fifth place," the conservative Washington Times reported Saturday morning. "Mr. Cain, whose long shot campaign got a major boost by winning a major Florida straw poll last month, received nearly 31 percent of the vote and Mr. Romney pulled in nearly 29 percent of the vote," the paper said --AR ONLINE--
Libyan officials say that longtime Libyan strongman Muammar Khadafi is dead after the nation's new government took Khadafi's hometown of Surt (also spelled Sirte), his birthplace. Earlier reports on Wednesday reported the death of one of the dictator's sons. Khadafi was reportedly captured alive in a drainpipe, shot once in the head, twice in the shoulder and 6 times in the back, and his dead body was then placed in an the rear luggage compartment of an SUV. The announcement, followed by nationwide celebrations, came a day after Secretary of State Hillary Clinton visited the country to show support for the new Libyan government --AR ONLINE--
The American Reporter was invited under the strictest secrecy today to view a lawnmower-sized engine that runs on water. It was anticlimactic, in that we poured in a quart or so of water, the inventor turned it on and it ran for about 9 minutes before it turned off to protect some electronics that must remain wet inside the locked and sealed orange box that holds a catalyst, creates the hydrogen and provides the water for electrolysis. A 1" clear plastic hose runs from the box to the engine, and other than the odorless, colorless hydrogen and a little vapor, no chemical or gasoline variant that we could smell or otherwise discern passed through it. The resulting exhaust was also odorless. So why are we writing about it? Because so far, three well-known billionaires, engineers from a major automaker, the CEO of one of the largest independent auto parts suppliers (a household name), all at different times, have flown their corporate jets to this small corner of Florida to see the otherwise absolutely normal 11hp engine, mounted on a countertop with nothing below it, run on the most abundant fuel in the universe - uncompressed hydrogen made on-demand (i.e., not stored in a tank) from water and a few cents worth of ordinary, off-the-shelf household chemicals. He had difficulty explaining why a rag suffused with the odor of gasoline was left immediately next to the device. Skeptics say the box probably holds a small amount of gasoline which loses its odor when the catalyst is added, and is sprayed from the electrolysis process in a fine vapor that travels unseen through the hose. The device is the result of four years of work, and may yet be the best hope that American cars, motorcycles, buses and trucks will soon run on water. The inventor, who was badly beaten by two men who purportedly wanted to partner with him, won't provide his name any other details that could identify him. If the pending patents he has are legally protected, he may become our next great American innovator, a new Thomas Edison. He expects to license the hydrogen generator within the next few months --The American Reporter--
12:47PM 10/21/11 URGENT - In just minutes, President Obama is expected to announce that all US troops will leave Iraq by the end of December. The White House, National Security Council and Office of Management & Budget press offices did not respond to a question from AR on the use of funds now supporting the Iraq operations in the United States, and the number has not been published in a fact-checked publication. The US has spent about $3 trillion on the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, and President Obama requested $159 billion for both in 2011. If half of that were to be repatriated, the answer might be $80 billion, but experts say war savings would not result in a dollar-for-dollar increase in US funds. If the White House won't answer the question, it may be that it knows the number to the penny but is reluctant to encourage a struggle between Congress and others desperate for revenues from repatriated funds --The American Reporter--
Anthrax Questions: Three scientists in the Journal of Bio-Terrorism & Bio-Defense have published a critique of the FBI's closing of the case on anthrax attacks that occurred shortly after 9/11. An epidemiology bulletin based at Harvard University, ProMED-mail, summarized the issues. The bulletin says there were at least two different kinds of spores, one of which was not intended for the letter attacks, and suggested the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) may have produced spores used in some attacks. "The attack anthrax spores have been found to contain silicon, oxygen and tin on the surface of the spore coats, unlike normal anthrax spores. Because tin is toxic, and is present in substantial amounts, it must have been added after the spores were grown. Although silicon occasionally occurs naturally on the spore coats of anthrax spores, the amount of silicon on the attack spore coats was much greater than that on other spores, even those with the highest amounts, which implies that silicon may also have been an additive. The elements present on the spore coats suggest that the spores may be silicone-coated. Tin is a catalyst for cross-linking silicone polymers. The small, silicon and oxygen-containing molecules that react to form the polymerized coating can pass through the outer membrane of the spore (the exosporium) to reach the spore coat, where moisture is present to complete the reaction. Unlike the anthrax powders in the Senate letters, the powders in the earlier attack letters were impure and contained cellular debris, which could also react with the additives; as a result, the bulk NY Post letter powder has a much higher silicon and tin content than the bulk Senate powders. Put another way, 2 separate preparations were used. This is reinforced by the finding of the _B. subtilis_ contaminant in the coarse powder but not in the finer, nor in the presumed source flask RMR 1029. Microencapsulation with silicone has been used to confer high stability on biologicals, protecting them from environmental hazards, not a property relevant to their use in the letter attacks, but of interest to bio-defense. (The assumption that additives must necessarily be related to dispersibility does not necessarily apply in the case of anthrax spores, which are surrounded by the exosporium.) If the attack spores were microencapsulated, they were probably made for some purpose other than letter attacks. For example, DARPA's project on CBW detection was planning to look at microencapsulated pathogens in 2001." --The American Reporter--
Ups and Downs: The Dow is up 124, oil is down almost $3, and gold is up $17 just before 3:00pm Wednesday, with the European crisis on many traders' minds. The German parliament has just voted to approve a way to boost the bailout fund without taxpayer money, and at a European summit in Brussels, French and German leaders Nicolas Sarkozy and Angela Merkel have agreed to require banks to raise reserves to get government loans and cushion themselves against fallout from a potential Greek, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese or Irish meltdown. Both have agreed to meet with heads of the biggest European banks tonight, and optimism for a resolution is growing but best described as wary. China just minutes ago said it may be willing to help bail out Europe by buying bonds. There was also glee on Wall Street as housing numbers improved, with new home sales jumping 5.7% in September, but despite that, CNBC analysts say the numbers represent contract signings, not closings, and sales did not actually jump from the 25,000 mark set in August, but remained flat at 25,000 in September. Meanwhile a top Goldman Sachs director, Rajat K. Gupta, who is charged with insider trading, has been released by a federal court in Manhattan on $10 million bail --The American Reporter--
King Tide: The relatively rare phenomenon of "king tides," when the Sun and the Moon align and exert an extra-strong pull on Earth, is stimulating a nationwide tide-watching event on Oct. 25, Oct. 26 and Oct. 27 at 1pm, 2pm and 3pm, respectively, Toni Whitt [of] Bradenton Patch reported this morning. "King tides occur when the moon and sun align on one side of the Earth creating greater gravitational forces than normal... . When that happens, the gravitational forces create extraordinarily high tides. While the king tides are natural occurrences, they provide a glimpse of the future landscape as sea levels rise," she said --AR ONLINE--
Diseased Walruses: In the late 1980s, North Sea grey seals adapted to the little-known morbilli virus (distemper), so when they left the warming North Sea for Norway, they carried the virus to grey seals there that had not adapted. Now, the same virus may be attacking seals and other marine life, including walruses, in Alaska. The online Alaska Dispatch reports Sunday that "Arctic ringed seals aren't the only marine mammals suffering an unusual skin-lesion outbreak along Alaska's northern coasts. Walruses that have been hauled out by the thousands at Point Lay in Northwest Alaska during recent summers - an event driven by climate change - are also turning up with bizarre, festering sores. Scientists estimate perhaps 600 are infected. Instead of wounds on their faces and rear flippers, red abscesses pepper the animals' entire bodies. said Tony Fischbach, a federal walrus biologist who first saw the sores on some walruses in late summer, 2011 --AR ONLINE--
Jeddah: There were at least 7 terrorist incidents in Jeddah, Saudia Arabia, between April 2004 and the end of March 2005, including an attack on the U.S. Consulate there, but none were reported in the city since then. Is the city again a target, perhaps in the coming month? Some of the dwindling number of terrorists sought, arrested or killed have been from other countries, including Yemen, Chad, Morocco and Mauritania. The country is now in a state of extremely tense relations with Iran following revelations of an Iranian Quds plot against the Saudi Ambassador to the United States. Many of the Jeddah incidents stem back to the killing of 3 suspected militants in March 2004 --AR ONLINE--
Butt Out: A legitimate 60-second campaign ad that shows Republican presidential front-runner Herman Cain's chief of staff smoking at the end has gone viral on the Internet. Maybe the fact that smoking bans are beginning to extend to beaches, parks and sidewalks is evidence even to non-smoking Americans that the cultural regime that combats smoking has badly overreached and is now deeply encroaching on civil liberties. "I am a longtime non-smoker and certainly don't care to be around a lot of smokers, but it's sufficient for me that people go outside to do it. When the laws follow them outside to stop them, I think they begin to cause people to think the rest of our freedoms are also endangered," said one commenter. "The message of the ad is defiance of that regime, and I think it works for those who feel resentment toward big government. It doesn't endorse smoking but allows it in the constructive light of defiance." --The American Reporter--
One has to ask, when the day has finally arrived that Forbes.com, Wired.com and Network World have called one of the most momentous days in world history - the demonstration of a 1,000,000-watt cold fusion reactor that can eliminate oil as a source of fuel forevermore - why major media like CNN, CBS, NBC, Fox and the New York Times, Los Angeles Times and Washington Post have completely missed or spiked the impending news? Even though people ranging from NASA Chief Scientist Dennis Bushnell, Nobel Physicis Laureate Brian Josephson and the chairman of the energy committee of the Swedish Royal Academy of Sciences - who helps pick the Nobel Prize winner - have endorsed it, the E Catalyzer of Italian scientist Andrea Rossi that will be turned on for its final public demonstration at the University of Bologna Friday is still unknown to the American public. The energy subcommittee staff of Rep. Henry Waxman had never even heard of the device, much less of the test, but top NASA scientists and engineers along with famed U. of Illinois Prof. George Miley, have studied it under a deep veil of unwanted secrecy - and Miley says he has replicated its success at the prestigious Urbana campus, site of one of the world's most powerful computers. Yet on Friday, when the supposed vital news organs of the planet are elsewhere, the American public may still be in the dark. UPDATE: Thanks to an Albanian friend at the AP in Europe, a Science writer from the AP is flying to Bologna to be there today. Now we have no complaint! --The American Reporter--
'Huge Relief' - Markets buoyed by European debt negotations closed sharply higher in New York and around the world Thursday, with gains in October topping 13% - the Dow's best October performance since 1974. Europeans finally took a major step after long negotiations that ended just before 4am Thursday to stop a Greek default and protect banks at risk from it. The deal will require banks to take a 50% "haircut" on their bonded Greek debt, far more than the 21% they'd agreed to, and also require them to buttress reserves, which will allow them access to new government loans. The step, which should save Greece and Portugal, still leaves Spain and Italy at risk. "The results will be a source of huge relief to the world at large, which was waiting for a decision," French President Nicolas Sarkozy told the New York Times after the marathon talks. And German Chancellor Angela Merkel told the paper, "I believe we were able to live up to expectations, that we did the right thing for the euro zone, and this brings us one step farther along the road to a good and sensible solution." The positive effect on world markets may be dramatic, and Asian exchanges have already soared this morning (12:22am ET, 10/27/11) Update, 4:01p, ET: The Dow was up 337 points at the close, its best showing in months; gold and oil are both markedly higher, while the dollar is hitting new recent lows that should improve the country's export performance --The American Reporter--
Wow! An astonishing flying sphere (see video below) has been displayed at a Digital Content show in Japan. The object, the size of a basketball or slightly larger, is operated by voice commands, and hovers, speeds up and hovers, and even shoots video as it does so. No word yet on the signal range. When first viewed, the video may take your breath away! --AR ONLINE--
Flat This: Trying to catch up with 9-9-9 flat tax proponent Herman Cain by out-taxing him - a bizarre twist for a Republican - Texas Gov. Rick Perry proposed Tuesday that all Americans pay a 20% flat tax on income. At a South Carolina press conference unveiling the plan, he spoke about the tax, focusing on his desire to create jobs. The tax would be an option to the regular tax code, and filers would have to choose one or the other. It would also apply many of the tax deductions that exist now, while Cain's plan doesnt - at least to the same degree. Perry held up a postcard-sized form to show how small his new tax form would be, but it was an 8 1/2" x 11" piece of paper folded in half. Unfolded, it would be same length as the current 1040EZ IRS form if it has no reporting requirements on the back. He also swatted away questions about a statement over the weekend that raised his doubts about the birthplace of President Obama. Perry's plan went over like a lead balloon Tuesday. He has fallen to 6% approval in CNN polls, trailing Newt Gingrich, who has 10%. Gingrich is now proposing a 15% flat tax. Herman Cain continues to lead Mitt Romney by a healthy margin, 25% to 20%, in the CNN polling. Ron Paul is in third place --AR ONLINE--
Censored Bucks: Saying a concerted "financial blockade" had slowed their cash flow, WikiLeaks has suspended publishing, it said Monday. The well-known Poynter Institute columnist Jim Romenesko reports this morning that The Age of Australia says WikiLeaks has told the paper it will stop publishing until it raises enough money to continue operations. The site has been singularly disruptive of all sorts of secrets and plans hatched by governments around the world. One disclosure it avoided, however, was the content of some 500 secret cables from the U.S. Emassy in Beijing, China, relating to activities of Rupert Murdoch's News Corp. there. It recently published 250,000 U.S. State Dept. cables with no effort to conceal sources that may now be at risk of losing their lives. "We are forced to temporarily suspend publishing whilst we secure our economic survival. For almost a year we have been fighting an unlawful financial blockade. We cannot allow giant US finance companies to decide how the whole world votes with its pocket. Our battles are costly. We need your support to fight back. Please donate now," a statement on the WikiLeaks.org Web site says. "Whilst" is archaic English for "while." --AR ONLINE--
NOVEMBER 9, 2011
In a 5pm ET press conference in Scottsdale, Ariz., Herman Cain says he will address sexual harassment charges against him for the last time. The most recent sexual harassment claim by a "media person" who says Cain "groped" her have been described by GOP national chairman Gov. Haley Barbour of Mississippi as the most grave so far. Fox, CNN and MSNBC are expected to carry the event live. Cain vowed on the Bill O'Reilly talk radio show Monday night that his discussion of the charges last night with O'Reilly will be the last he'll engage in on the topic - until today. Exactly how that strategy might work for him is hard to predict, but O'Reilly noted in response that Cain's poll numbers are now higher than ever and that his fund-raising has jumped far ahead of earlier levels. Others have warned that Cain needs to clear the air, a suggestion he derided in an article in The American Reporter today --AR ONLINE--
A nationwide test of the emergency broadcast system will occur at 2pm Eastern Time Wednesday, Nov. 9, affecting 30,000 radio and tv stations across the United States, FEMA says. The initial plan called for a three-minute silence on the airwaves - not including cellphones - but officals feared a panic. For many, it will be the first time they realize the entire radio and tv communication network of the United States can be turned on and off by the government. It is unclear what kind of emergency the government fears would require such a capability --AR ONLINE--
On their second day of deliberation, a Los Angeles County jury convicted Dr. Conrad Murray of one count of involuntary manslaughter in the death of pop singer Michael Jackson, whose profligate use of propafol administered by Murray at Jackson's mansion violated well-established procedures for use of the sleep aid. He was led off to jail without bond in handcuffs for later sentencing --AR ONLINE--
AR Correspondent Joe Shea's CNN iReport on the Andrea Rossi 470,000Kw E Cat cold fusion energy device has gotten 7,193 readers and been shared 58 times since posting here Oct. 30 and on CNN Nov. 2. The AP continues to mature its article by Science writer Peter Svensson, which should have appeared more than a week ago --AR ONLINE--
Republican presidential candidate Herman Cain continues to lead all other candidates in the respected nation-wide Quinnipiac Poll, and a CNN/CBS News poll shows him trailing by just one percentage point, 24% to 23%, behind Mitt Romney - well within the margin of error. The profesional poll taken by Quinnipiac, however, showed Cain leading all candidates and Mitt Romney by 30% to 23% over Romney, which is not within the expected error margin. The smear campaign run by CNN following its unsuccssfeul and highly-orchestrated attack at the Las Vegas debate, now amplified by anonymous allegations made by women who once worked at the National Resataurant Association - where Cain was chairman of the board - appears to have strengthened his support. One of the women won a $35,000 settlement from the association, but the document memorializing it was lost and Cain nver signed it, the woman's lawyer said. She has now opted not to come forward. As we predicted here last week, a photo of Cain wiping his forehead with a clean handkerchie beneath dozens of hot floodlights at the National Press Club has surfaced again and again as a symbol of the story, while fresh photos of a smiling, confident Cain - the reality on the ground - are ignored --AR ONLINE--
Attacks by a sniper may be imminent, a source has told The American Reporter --The American Reporter--
Her charges at first seemed likely to hurt Cain, and a Reuters poll taken before last night's press conference shows him down 9 points, trailing Mitt Romney. Ordinarily, lawsuits occur when such charges arise, and one action and a settlement of $35,000 went against the association 12 years ago, when Cain was chairman of the board, but there have been none since. Kraushar's complaint, though, may suggest to voters that all the charges are bogus --AR ONLINE--
There's no "smoking gun" in the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) report on the status of Iran's nucelar weapons program, diplomats told the Los Angeles Times, but the report due out today warns that the rogue nation may need only six months to complete its first nuclear weapon. Amid that renewed sense of urgency, America has warned that an Israeli strike on the Iranian nuclear workshops is more likely. How well Israeli weapons can penetrate the deeply buried and extensively hardened workshops is unknown, and might require American ordnance that would more clearly inject the United States into the Israeli decision. However, U.S. feelings - supporting Israel but so far not a strike - on the issue are well-known. Russia has warned against such a strike but given no indication it would actively defend Iran, to which it supplies nuclear equipment. The question not asked: Would newly-nuclear Pakistan, despite differences in religious beliefs and political friction, defend Iran against Israel? The statement by Afghan President Hamid Karzai that he would back Pakistan against an attack by the U.S. on Pakistan suggests a geopolitical shift that could become a tectonic one, metaphorically, if Pakistan swings out of the American orbit into a new alignment of Middle Eastern nations, creating a rift between moderate and aggressive Islamic states. There is no other indication that will happen soon, however. Former U.S. Ambassador to the UN John Bolton has wrongly predicted twice - both times on Fox News - that an Israeli strike on Iran was imminent, but Bolton, a very conservative Republican appointed during the Bush Administration, was not the progenitor of the new American warning --AR ONLINE--
Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou, for decades a fixture at the center of Greek politics, proved why his legacy endures on Sunday. At the height of the Greek financial crisis late last month and in early November, with European leaders and banks reluctant to bail out his country's soaring debt without harsh austerity measures, Papandreou wanted to put the question of such measures to the Greek people in a referendum. When it appeared that the vote would risk the fundamental stability of Greece by delaying and perhaps destroying any possibility of a European bailout, Papandreou faced a vote of no confidence in the Greek parliament. His party had just a one-vote majority. The canny Greek Prime Minister then made a daring move: If the opposition would vote to help him survive the vote of confidence long enough to agree to the terms of the bailout, he would then step down. Sunday, Papandreou kept his word, and with that act of honor amd delf-sacrifice, Greece, and perhaps the European Union, have been saved. It is likely world markets will react with restrained jubilation tonight and through Monday as they throw off the cloud the Greek crisis has created for many nations (8:22pm ET Sunday) --AR ONLINE--
Wilson Ramos, the catcher for baseball's Washington Nationals, has been kidnapped by four gunmen from his home in Maracay, Venezuela, where Ramos was planning to play winter league baseball with Venezuela's Tigres de Aragua BBC. So far, no ransom demand has been made and his captors have not contacted his family, the Denver Post Web site reported Thursday. At least two other major leaguers' family members have been targeted in recent years; both were rescued. The team finished third in the National League East division with an 80-81 win-loss record --AR ONLINE--
Hundreds of students gathered at the Penn State student union gasped Wednesday evening when tv screens carried the news that the president of the university had been asked to step down by the state college's board of trustees and that its beloved 82-year-old football coach, Joe Paterno, had been "dismissed" effective immediately, just hours after announcing his plans to retire at the end of the year. The firings came after authorities revealed the football team's defensive coordinator had engaged in severe sexual abuse of children for years. Investigations showed two football team superiors knew of the allegations and failed to act. Paterno was not implicated --AR ONLINE--
DELETED NOVEMBER 14, 2011
Veterans fed up with the high price of gasoline and diesel fuel and the wars and lives it takes to secure it for America headed by the dozens to the HHO Games & Exposition this weekend in Sarasota, Fla. There, proponents of a switch to hydrogen fuels are leading seminars, displaying hydrogen-fueled cars and offering demonstrations of the latest fuel-saving, hydrogen-on-demand technology. One new idea: a way to produce unlimited amounts of hydrogen on demand (as opposed to pressurized hydrogen tanks) through a chemical process that may make possible all-hydrogen vehicles that need no gasoline. The method was invented by an American Indian, Howard Phillips, Ph.D., a former Professor of Chemistry at the University of North Carolina and full-blooded member of the Choctaw Nation who later started the Phillips Co., a pharmaceutical firm whose antibacterial products are approved for use in diabetes and other illnesses by the FDA, on the tribal nation's reservation in Millerton, Okla. The HHO Games & Expo is sponsored by The American Reporter and runs through Sunday, Nov. 13, from 9 to 5 Saturday amd Sunday at the Sarasota Classic Car Museum. Veterans, students, the disabled and children under 12 were admitted free Friday, and admission is just $3 all other times --AR ONLINE--
It was a CNBC commodities analyst on the floor of the Chicago Commodities Exchange whose unscripted rant during the U.S. fiscal crisis of 2009 who called for a new tea party to emulate the Revolutionary War-era Boston Tea Party. Listeners and others set up the organization over the next few months and saw their nominees help Republicans take over from the Democrats last year. But it remains a tough row to hoe: as The American Reporter said last week, when the Florida Tea Party convention invited state officials like Gov. Rick Scott and federal candidates like Sen. Marco Rubio, neither of those men nor any of the presidential candidates showed up --AR ONLINE--
At 2 p.m. ET Wednesday, FEMA and the FCC interrupted all the radio and tv broadcasts from 30,000 radio and tv stations simultaneously for 30 seconds to test the Emergency Broadcast System on a national scale for the first time. It remains unclear why it needs that capability, or whether it should have it at all. Some national emergencies that could require the EBS might include a rapidly-disseminating biological warfare agent released in many cities at once, a nuclear attack by China, an asteroid about to strike Earth or a visit from space aliens. Earthquakes, fires, floods, hurricanes and tornadoes would ordinarily be confined to just one part of the country and not require a national broadcast. The FCC sais the broadcasts could share "information about tsunamis, earthquakes, child abductions or national security issues." --AR ONLINE--
CNBC sponsored a GOP Presidential Debate Wednesday night, featuring all the major candidates. They were talking about the nation's most pressing economic issues, Chinese trade practices, the tax code, and the upheaval currently roiling European markets, banks and governments. An unforgettable highlighht: Gov. Rick Perry of Texas was stumped when asked to name the 3 Cabinet departments he plans to eliminate. Perry remembered 2 - Commerce and Education - but until 10 minutes later couldn't remember the third: the Dept. of Energy. The mishap lasted 53 seconds. CNBC analyst Larry Kudlow said afterwards he thought that Herman Cain's performance was "absolutely fantastic." Cain's apparent rebound came as the campaign reported results of a Rasmussen Poll of likely Florida voters that show him leading that group by a margin of 30% to 24% for Romney. He has been ahead there since he won the Republican straw poll in September, the campaign said --AR ONLINE--
Election results in Ohio show a measure that would restrict union bargaining rights has been defeated, while another that would restrict most abortions and limit sales of birth control pills also went down to defeat in Mississippi. The Democratic governor of Kentucky was re-elected, while a Republican Lieutenant Governor was elected to replace term-limited GOP Gov. Haley Barbour of Mississippi, the chairman of the Republican National Committee. Absent from the results was a clear indication of any major shifts in the voting patterns of key states, although Ohio's GOP Governor John Kasich had fought to limit public-sector labor rights --AR ONLINE--
Repeated Accuser: It's still too early to tell how effectively GOP presidential front-runner Herman Cain responded Tuesday afternoon to charges from five women that he either "groped" or sexually harassed them. He got a break Wednesday, however, when an AP exclusive reported that Karen Kraushar, 55, a former spokesperson for the immigration service during the Bush Administration, filed a sexual discrimination complaint against the agency in late 2002, three years after a 1999 job at the Natl. Restaurant Assn., where she says she was "groped" by Cain. The complaint at the the INS involved a flier circulated through the agency now known as ICE. She reportedly demanded thousands of dollars, at least a $12,000 raise and a year's fellowship at Harvard's Kennedy School of Government; she dropped the complaint in 2003 and left that job for one at Treasury, where she is a spokesperson for the IRS Inspector General's tax administration office --AR ONLINE--
Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi of Italy, adopting the playbook of Greece's George Papandreou, promised Tuesday to resign if the Italian parliament will pass austerity measure demanded by European leaders in exchange for a bailout by Europe's major banks, which are partly idemnified by the European Union. The news sent stocks on the NYSE up 100 points after a lackluster opening that saw all commodities rising but stocks slowly losing ground. Papandreou resigned in a similar deal with the Greek parliament last Friday. Asian markets rose Wednesday in anticipation of Berlusconi's departure, and that sentiment is likely to infect European traders later today if no contrary news develops during the day Update, 10:39am ET: A eisew in the Italian 10-yr. bond over 7% spooked markets in Europe and the U.S. after Asian equities closed strongly up. In New York, the Dow was off 155 points within a minute of the NYSE open; the NASDAQ was down 62 and the S&P off 12. Minutes later, the Dow was down over 200 points (9:41am ET) --AR ONLINE--
The world will miss the quiet spirit, great strength and fierce dedication to his craft of the late heavyweight boxing world champion Joe Frazier, knocked out by liver cancer on Monday night in Philadelphia. Said HBO sportscaster Larry Merchant, "This is a body blow to me because I knew him personally as well as professionally," Merchant told ESPN. "I thought he was as honest and as real a fighter as there ever was. He followed in a tradition of [Jack] Dempsey and [Rocky] Marciano as the 'Warrior King.'" The former heavyweight champion, known as "Smokin' Joe" for his devastating punches, defeated the great Muhammad Ali in Madison Square Garden in 1971, but was defeated twice in their second and third matches. The "Thrilla in Manila" was watched by hundreds of millions and fought for more than $2.5 million in purses. Ali praised his former adversary, calling him a great fighter and great man. He was 67 --AR ONLINE--
A convention of the Florida Tea Party last weekend was notable for the complete absence of politicians whom got their start and ground troops from the Tea Party, including Gov. Rick Scott and U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio. None of the GOP presidential candidates accepted their invitations to join in a straw poll and address the convention. Some of the jilted Tea Partiers promise "payback" for the snub when those candidates again seek election or re-election, sources told The American Reporter last night --AR ONLINE--
President Barack Obama on Sunday offered reporters wide-ranging views of multiple issues from the Penn State sex abuse scandal to Chinese intellectual property rights abuses as he finished meeting with leaders at the Asia Pacific Economic Conference in Hawaii. He praised China and Russia for their effective cooperation in seeking ways to deal with the potential for a nuclear Iran, and suggested administrators of all kinds should put their basic humanity ahead of policies and protocols in the face of human suffering as witnessed at Penn State. The President did not call upon any foreign reporters during the press conference, which is a departure from practices at the White House when foreign dignitaries are invited --AR ONLINE--
After a 17-year journey that defined an era in Italian politics, Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi stepped down Saturday to save his nation from an economic crisis that could have prevented any help from European banks. Italy, now under technocrat Mario Monti, must adopt painful austerity measures, just as Greece must do following a similar resolution that saw its pivotal Prime Minister George Papandreou step down after four decades at the center of Greek politica. There now remain the problems of Spain and Portugal, but Europe, once headed to financial collapse, is at least halfway there --AR ONLINE--
The bipartisan deficit committee in Congress appears ready to prove once again that neither side will put the country ahead of their parties and compromise to whittle away at the nation's $14-trillion deficit. The 6 Demcorats and 6 Republicans are symmetrically opposed on cuts in entitlements, defense spending and new taxes on millionaires. The committee was formed this past summer after skyrocketing national debt became a major political issue and both sides tried to reduce it and a major credit agency downgraded U.S. debt. The group of senators and congressmen was supposed to cut an additional trillion-plus dollars or risk even more painful automatic "sequestered" cuts to defense and social spending and new taxes. They have until Wednesday to do it, but few think they can. Meanwhile, credit agencies appear ready to cut our bond rating again. The current plan is to pass a law to avoid facing the automatic cuts reports said --AR ONLINE--
DELETED NOVEMBER 29, 2011
Tens of thousands of fans headed to theaters at midnight Friday morning to see the latest installment, "Breaking Dawn - Book 1" in the Twilight vampire franchise. Los Angeles Timesfilm critic Betsy Sharkey said Friday, though, that the movie "is lifeless." Sharkey said "'Breaking Dawn' kinda sucks, in the metaphoric rather than the vampiric sense. The film doesn't have nearly the bite - ferocious or delicious - that any self-respecting vampire movie really should. It's as if all the life has drained away." Nonetheless, it set box-office records with a $139-million weekend take. An American Reporter critic found it repulsive and wrong-headed. The New York Times, however, praised the film --AR ONLINE--
DELETED NOVEMBER 30, 2011
Partial remains of dead American servicemen were cremated at a Dover AFB mortuary in Delaware and dumped in a Virginia landfill for 5 years during the Bush Administration, the Washington Post reported Wednesday. They are now buried at sea --AR ONLINE--
DELETED DECEMBER 1, 2011
Stocks Surge Stoking stronger hopes of an economic recovery, the Dow Jones Industrial Average enjoyed one of its strongest days in years, soaring 490 points and marking the biggest one-day gain since March 2009. Observers attributed the sharp gains to a strong start to the shopping season on Black Friday, Nov. 25, better jobless numbers in the US, and to action taken by the US Federal Reserve and European central banks to contain the persistent crisis in the so-called Euro Zone, where the value of the Europe-wide currency known as the Euro has been in question as several nations - including Greece, Spain, Ireland, Portugal, Belgium and Italy - appear unable to meet obligations to borrowers who bought their bonds (Updated 11/30/11, 8:00pm ET) --AR ONLINE--
DELETED DECEMBER 4, 20111
Bloomberg News reports that its poll of Iowa caucus-goers finds Herman Cain on top, New Gingrich trailing him, Ron Paul next and Mitt Romney behind them, with all four coming within the margin of error. Ron Paul is a new addition to the top tier, while Romney is slowly fading but still expected to win big in New Hampshire - as Massachussetts politicians usually do in both Democratic and Republican primaries. Discounting a New Hampshire win, the real test will come in South Carolina, a battleground state for both parties and all the GOP canidates. Most American mass media organizations have made Romney their favorite and will try to diminish Iowa's importance in the coming weeks so they can crown Romney the front-runner when he wins in New Hampshire. It is unlikely the remaining early states will fall for it, however, and that could see the Romney bandwagon with a flat tire all the way through January until it hits the big Eastern states, where he can expect support from more liberal Republicans than are found in the South, Midwest and Western primary states 11/15) --AR ONLINE--
Herman Cain and Newt Gingrich lead Mitt Romney and other candidates ahead of the Jan. 3 Iowa caucuses, according to a new private poll reported in in the online political blog Politico on Monday, Nov. 14. The report says Gingrich trails Cain by just 1 point, 20% to 19%, and Romney trails them both at 14 percent. The difference between Cain and Gingrich is not statistically significant --AR ONLINE--
Newt Gingrich is coming on strong. Once the darkest of dark horses, he has risen steadily by doing well in debates and demonstrtating high intelligence, wit and a sense of perspective on Congressional and world issues none of his competitors can match. The latest victory came for Gingrich when, as he'd promised he would in a recent debate, he took on Herman Cain in a one-on-one debate. Never mind that under ordinary circumstances Cain might not stand a chance, or that the debate was more of an extended interview than a real debate. The meeting paired the two men - both unlikely candidates in the first place - and probably helped make them, by fiat and by choice, the first Republican presidential ticket that could gain wide support in the party. While much will occur before Iowa, the meeting/debate in Iowa last week may place them men in the 1-2 position, which is likely to flip them beforehand, leaving Cain right behind Gingrich in the caucuses on Jan. 3 --AR ONLINE--
Cain Giving Up? An Atlanta woman, Ginger White, who has alleged she had a 13-year "affair" with GOP presidential candidate and former Godfather's Pizza CEO Herman Cain, actually had sex with Cain, according to unpublished reports. Rice has told the Atlanta Journal & Constitution today that "It wasn't a 'love' affair. It was a sexual affair, as hard as that is for me to say," the papwr reported today. Meanwhile, Cain returned from the Republican Governor's conference in Orlando, Fla., today to meet with his wife about Rice's allegations. NBC Evening News with Brian Williams reported that Cain may announce he is dropping out of the race on Saturday. Meanwhile, it remains unclear who will pay the bills Cain has admitted paying for White going forward. Cain said Friday that he felt someone had paid White to come foreward (12/02/11, 7:29pm ET) --AR ONLINE--
With an eagle putt on the 11th hole. Tiger Woods TOOK a 1-stroke lead over K.J. Choi in the second round of the Chevron World Challenge at Sherwood Country Club in Thousand Oaks, California, which he has won four times. Only 18 of the world's best PGA players participate in the tournament. He and Choi both bogeyed the 5-par, 563-yard 15th hole, with Woods going two over and Choi needing 7 shots. Woods appears to be playing as well as he ever has, and ended up 8 over with a 67, matching 5-under Matt Kuchar and 4-under Zach Johnson, while Choi finished with a 1-over 72. Woods said later his improved putting was due to "watchng Steve Stricker." The field hit a total of 6 eagles, which contributed $150,000 to the 4-day Eagles for Education program sponsored by Chevron, which paid $25.000 each on Friday and will pay $50,000 each on Saturday and $100,000 each on Sunday. Last year's eagles raised $530,000 for the oil giant's non-profit partners, who use the money for teachers, schoolbooks and other resources (12/02/11, 7:13pm ET) --AR ONLINE--
A man the Secret Service believes fired shots last Friday that lodged in the exterior of the White House and slammed into a window in President Barack Obama's residence was arrested by police in Indiana, Pa., after a nationwide manhunt led Secret Service agents to his motel room there. He has been charged with attempted assassination of the President --AR ONLINE--
DELETED DECEMBER 7, 2011
Bonds of a dozen major US banks, including the largest, were downgraded by S&P today, taking the steam out of a continued rally on Wall Street. Dow Futures were up 240 points or more overnight, but the day finished up just 34 ponts (11/29/11, 6:58pm ET) --AR ONLINE--
TOP SECRET: A conference at NASA's Glenn Research Center in Cleveland, Ohio, that brought together key scientific and energy experts on Sept. 22 to discuss the latest advances in cold fusion (now known as Low Energy Nuclear Reactions, or LENR), including the 1MW E Cat device due to be tested Friday, Oct. 28, in Bologna, Italy, was deliberately kept secret. "It was not an oversight, it was a decision that was made by the workshop participants," said Diane Billik of NASA, who organized the event, told The American Reporter. "Although I was the POC (Point of Contact) for organizing the LENR Workshop here at Glenn, I am not able to distribute any materials that were presented. The event was not recorded so there is no audio or video available. A decision has not yet been made as to how, if, or when these will be distributed (to my knowledge) and my participation was limited to organizing the workshop," she said. News of the pivotal Oct. 28 tests at the University of Bologna just reached the mainstream media in an Oct. 17 article by Mark Gibbs in Forbes.com. He said success could upend the entire spectrum of conventional energy. The secrecy was apparently invoked to allow participants to speak freely on a topic that's long been taboo. One of the retired professors, Sven Kullander of Sweden's University of Uppsala who vetted the device, said in a lecture earlier this week that the buyer for the device was, in fact, NASA. The price was $2 million. A different article that includes photos and an interview with NASA Chief Scientist Dennis Bushnell about the Italian device is available at http://www.american-reporter.com on the home page.
210.html. For more information, see hhogames.com (Updated 11/20/11 at 1:23am ET) --AR ONLINE--
Today may be the beginning of the end for the world's oil companies if a million-watt device being demonstrated for a customer at the University of Bologna this morning proves to work as advertised. It is the cold fusion "E Cat" reactor developed by Italian scientist Andrea Rossi and could utterly eliminate the need for fossil fuels. The AP's chief Science writer has flown from New York to Italy to report on the demonstration, so look for news early this afternoon (Update: 9:33am in Italy - the test has just started in Bologna, which is 6 hours ahead of New York) ... (Update: 11:05am in Italy - The AP has gotten the global exclusive, physicist Daniele Passerini said in a Tweet) --AR ONLINE--
DELETED DECEMBER 19, 2011
Gold and Oil Crash As the European financial crisis eases, gold is falling sharply. The precious metal is testing its lowest levels since July 2011, and is below $1,600 an ounce to $1,576, down a whopping $86.60 today. Oil, too, after pushing itself over $101 a barrel on Iranian threats to cut supply by closing the Straits of Hormuz, is getting hit hard. Now the US Navy's 5th Fleet is there to ensure no such closure happens, and at 2:20 this afternoon oil is off $5.61 to $94.53, boosting Christmas cheer among drivers headed home or elsewhere for the holidays. The Dow Jones Average, however, is dropping at a slower rate and now stands at 11,831, off 122.76 (12/14/11, 2:36pm RT) --AR ONLINE--
A 3-hour "Lincoln-Douglas"-style debate Tuesday night at St. Anselm College in Manchester, N.H., between former Utah Gov. and US Ambassador to China Jon Huntsman and former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich yielded little of interest and zero fireworks, unlike the clashes it was modeled upon. In those seven debates in during the Illinois U.S. Senate race in 1858, the challenger, Lincoln, and incumbent Senator Douglas were allowed to speak for 60 minutes and given 30 minutes each to respond. The subject was slavery, and excited enormous interest at the time (12/13/11, 3:46am RT) --AR ONLINE--
The hiring of Buqueras was briefly marred by the reprimand of At Large Commissioner Joe McClash, who officials said made an unathorized attempt to negotiate with Buqueras over deferred compensation, including severance. Port Authority Chairman Larry Bustle, a former mayor of Palmetto, Fla., and base commander in Turkey for the USAF, sharply rebuked McClash for an attempt to get Buqueras to settle for a 5% cap on deferred compensation, while the IRS will permit a 22.5% cap starting in January - when Buqueras begins work at $175,000 a year. The difference between the 5% cap and the 2012 deferred compensation IRS limit is $30,625. McClash said Buqueras told him he was unaware of but would accept the 5% cap other county officials have on retirement pay when McClash asked him if he was happy with the contract. Asked by Commissioner Donna Hayes to weigh in on the tempest, Port Authority attorney R. Hamilton "Chip" Rice said McClash had "no authority" to negotiate with Buqueras and called the discussion between the two "troublesome." McClash said he had not negotiated at all but merely wanted to Buqueras to know that his "no" vote on the contract did not mean McClash was opposed to hiring Buqueras, whom he said he supports. Later, Rice was questioned by Commissioner Donna Hayes about bringing 3 attorneys to board meetings instead of just one. The Port Authority gets the 3 attorneys for the price of one, Rice responded, and the firm writes off another $30,000 in free services it provides to the port, he said. Rice later said he stands by his comments about McClash's negotiations. After a McClash amendment to limit the new director's deferred compensation to 5% failed 4-3, Buqueras was hired by a vote of 6-1, with McClash the lone vote in the negative (Updated 11/29/11, 11:09pm ET) --AR ONLINE--
New York City officials on Sunday announced the arrest of a 27-year-old U.S. citizen born in the Dominican Republic for plotting to bomb returning U.S. servicemen, police stations and post offices. They said they had been watching Jose Pimentel since 2009 and arrested him Saturday at his home in Brooklyn. He was believed to have been assembling a pipe bomb to carry out his plan. The FBI reportedly felt Pimentel, whom it called mentally unbalanced, did not pose enough of an imminent threat for the agency to become involved. However, an FBI source told the New York Times that the agency feared a confidential informant that spied on Pimentel had become too closely involved with him(11/22/11, 1:32am ET) & --AR ONLINE--
A new Des Moines Register poll of likely Republican caucus-goers puts Newt Gingrich in a comfortable lead, but that's not the news. The news is that Congressman Ron Paul is in second place with 18%, and that national front-runner Mitt Romney is in third (12/04/11, 3:19pm ET) --AR ONLINE--
Herman Cain Saturday suspended his campaign for the 2012 Republican presidential nomination in a statement in Atlanta to a large crowd of cheering supporters. Cain cited "false" accusations of sexual harrassment and of a 13-year affair with Virginia White, an Atlanta acquaintance to whom he admitted loaning money for bills, that hurt "my wife and family" and
hurt me." None of the allegations were ever proved. Cain also said that in a few days he will announce an endorsement of another candidate in the race, whom many expect to be fellow Georgia Republican Newt Gingrich, another politician bedeviled by marital issues gone awry. Michelle Bachmann's campaign has also sought Cain's endorsement (12/02/11, 11:48pm ET) --AR ONLINE--
With convincing wins over dangerous opponents, the Lousisiana State University Tigers and Oklahoma State University Cowboys moved closer to the opportunity to play for the national college football championship. LSU topped the University of Georgia Bulldogs after coming back from a 10-0 first half deficit in which they failed to gain a single first down. The LSU Tigers roared back to take the SEC crown in the second half and win 42-10. The story was similar in the Cowboys-Sooners clash. The Sooners got off to an early lead, but when the Cowboys settled down, they beat the Sooners decisively en route to their first victory over Oklahoma in the past 8 years. The Cowboys finally triumphed over OU 44-10 (12/02/11, 11:59pm ET) --AR ONLINE--
Gingrich Rules In the third poll of Florida voters with similar results this week, Newt Gingrich dominates the field of 8 Repubican presidential candidates in the Sunshine State by a huge margin of 50%-19% over onetime favorite Mitt Romney. Much of Gingrich's gain in the ARG poll comes with the fall of Herman Cain from 26% to 10% and from Rick Perry's decline from 15% to 8%. Iowa caucuses are just a month away, on Jan. 3, 2012, and Florida's GOP primary is Jan. 31, 2012 (12/01/11, 6:30pm ET) --AR ONLINE--
Betcha! For partisan reasons, Mitt Romney is under fire now from Democrats for trying to bet Rick Perry $10,000 during the ABC Republican Presidential Debate that Perry can't produce an alleged endorsement of the individual health care mandate as a model for the whole country in the first edition of a Romney book that Perry says was changed for the second edition. That's more than many Democrats make in a year, the party says. Perry, during the 2-hour debate Saturday night in Iowa - sponsored by ABC News, Yahoo and the Des Moines Register - said he was "not in the betting business," and declined to shake Romney's hand to seal the bet. But if Perry was sure about it, why would it be gambling? And if he wasn't sure enough to take the bet, why would he make such a charge? Obviously, there is some ambiguity at work (12/11/11, 2:40am ET) --AR ONLINE--
Former Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich will join his predecessor, ex-Ill. Gov. George Ryan, in a Federal prison after being sentenced to 14 years for trying to sell a U.S. Senate seat via a gubernatorial appointment to the one formerly held by President Barack Obama. The harsh sentence means "Blago" cannot be paroled except by a presidential pardon or commutation. Ryan is in prison on other bribery charges --AR ONLINE--
DELETED DEC. 22, 2011
After nine years of conflict, the loss of 4,500 American soldiers' lives and the expenditure of $899 billion dollars, the American presence in Iraq ended this morning with the lowering of American flags across the Middle Eastern country. The war began when false information that the Iraqi government of the late Saddam Hussein was in possession of materials to build a nuclear weapon and had substantial stores of biological and chemical weapons. As in Viet Nam, when 10 years of war were preciptated by false reports of an attack by the North Vietnamese on a U.D. Navy vessel in the Gulf of Tonkin and 54,000 soldiers died, and the Spanish-American War, which was started after newspapers falsely reported that a Spanish mine had sunk the U.S. vessel Maine, the war went on at full speed even after the lies were discovered. At the height of the Iraq War, some 170,000 soldiers served in the country, and today just 4,500 remain, according to news reports (12/15/11/ 9:20am ET) --AR ONLINE--
Talk-show host Piers Morgan discomfited some viewers and plainly startled others when he announced on Thursday night's show that he would be replaced as a judge on "America's Got Talent" by shock jock Howard Stern, who currently appears on Sirius Radio.(12/16/11, 12:39am ET) --AR ONLINE--
Tiger's back! Two years since he won his last golf tournament, Tiger Woods came back twice in the clutch Sunday, Dec. 4, at the Chevron World Challenge at the Sherwood Country Club in Thousand Oaks, Calif., to defeat Zack Johnson with back-to-back, decisive 10- and 12-ft. putts. Tiger came into the 18th hole with a one-stroke deficit, and when Johnson 2-putted, Tiger tied and sent the match into an elimination round. The two men both shot close to the hole from the fairway on the par 4, with Woods dropping onto the green about 2 feet closer than Johnson. Johnson shot first and missed by a foot or so, and Tiger closed it with a straight putt from 10 feet --AR ONLINE--
An influential member of a discussion group founded by The Nation magazine Monday night urged the Occupy movement to occupy the Port of Manatee at a meeting of the Manatee County Democratic Executive Committee. Robin Cooper, who also spoke to the DEC, and one of three leaders of the local Occupy group, did not say whether "occupation" of the newly-enhanced port was in the works. The speaker, Joe Naimann, who is 99 years old, said the port's business and location made it an ideal place to follow up on the brief closure by Occupy of the Port of Oakland, Calif., which was ended by police. Port Manatee is now the closest container port to the expanding Panama Canal (11/30/11, 1:41am ET) --AR ONLINE--
DELETED DEC. 24, 2011
The Port of Manatee, soon to be the closest container port to the expanding Panama Canal, has a new director today. He is Carlos Buqueras, since 1993 the executive director of Port Everglades, near Fort Lauderdale, Fla., who is replacing Port Manatee Executive Director David L. MacDonald, PPM. MacDonald grew Port Manatee over 36 years from little more than a dock on Tampa Bay to a newly important competitor to Miami, Tampa and ports as far away as Philadelphia. With the addition of a CSX rail hub and a dedicated fruit-and-vegetable CSX expedited rail service called Green Express, the produce coming into Port Manatee from Panama and Costa Rica will reach Chicago 3 days more quickly than from the Port of Philadelphia due to the shortened sailing time and a 60-car "unit train" program (unit trains carry the same product from the same place to the same destination) launched with Providence Logistics of Elmhurst, Ill., that will serve a common distribution hub in Indiana. The system "will also pull a lot of that [produce] traffic off the road," a spokeswoman told the Port Authority (11/18/11, 2:40pm ET) --AR ONLINE--
A "Merry Christmas!" From the GOP The New York Times reports that "House Republicans on Tuesday soundly rejected a bill approved by the Senate that would have extended the payroll tax cut for most Americans beyond the end of the year and allowed millions of unemployed people to continue receiving jobless benefits." The vote of 229 to 193 delivered a Christmas gift of enormous proportion to Democrats and President Barack Obama, who persuaded the Senate to extend the tax cut for two months but could not get the House to agree. Some 160 million American workers will pay $700 more a year on a $35,000 inbcome if the House, which is now going home for the holidays, does not return and act before the end of the year. Republicans under Speaker John Boehner adopted the thin pretext that two months was not long enough and would make it difficult for employers to gauge future costs. With the tax cut rejection, the GOP has effectively raised taxes on the middle class, something they have indicated is a horrific violation of their "family values." The entire predicament is complicated by the pending approval of the Keystone XL natural gas pipeline from Canada into the United States to serve refineries run by energy companies owned by the Koch Brothers, two billionaires that have vowed to spend $200 million in 2012 to defeat Obama. The Administration's resistance to the pipeline on environmental grounds has become a political football, and efforts to win approval for it now threaten GOP control of the House of Representatives and the White House in 2012. President Obama's approval rating has risen six points since the debate about the tax-cut extension began much earlier this year (12/20/2011, 6:25pm ET) --AR ONLINE--
DELETED JANUARY 6, 2011
Iranian Basijii militiammen Tuesday seized the British Embassy in Teheran in a backlash after Great Britain cut off all dealings with the Iranian Central Bank. The militia burned big paper flags of the US, Israel and Britain in an assault reminiscent of the November 1979 attack on the US Embassy(11/29/11, 7:02pm ET) --AR ONLINE--
News reports said GOP presidential candidate and businessman Herman Cain is "reassessing" his presidential race after an Atlanta woman said she and the founder of Godfather Pizza had a 13-year affair. Cain said the claim was untrue but the accretion of such charges has taken a heavy toll on his popularity among right-wing voters (11/29/11, 7:04T) --AR ONLINE--
As a fire alarm went off at the Bloomberg News studio, literally, the deficit-reduction "Super Committee" announced Monday afternoon in a statement by the co-chairs that they were unable to put their country first and their party ideology second long enough to devise a plan to cut the nation's insupportable $14-trillion debt. "We have come to the conclusion today that it will not be possible to make any bipartisan agreement available to the public before the committee's deadline," said Sen. Patty Murray, a Washington State Democrat, and Rep. Jeb Hensarling, a Texas Republican. In a statement later, President Obama said "There are too many Republicans in both houses of Congress who are unwilling to listen" to outside experts and act now to hike revenues from taxes and to sharply cut spending. The President said he will veto any bill that tries to avoid the automatic cuts to defense spending and entitlements that will occur if Congress does not make $1.2 trillion in cuts over the next year, when the automatic cuts and higher taxes would kick in. Meanwhile, the Dow shed 248 points after being down more than 300 points several times during the day (11/21/11, 5:51pm ET) --AR ONLINE--
DELETED JANUARY 7, 2011
With the nation's first "primary" scheduled to begin at 7pm MT tonight in Iowa, Republican voters still find themselves with a wide range of choices and no clear favorite for the Republican presidential nomination. The latest Des Moines Register poll of likely Iowa caucus-goers shows former Mass. Gov. Mitt Romney the favorite of 24%, with Rep. Ron Paul statistically tied with him at $22%, while the surging former Senator from Pennsylvania, Rick Santorum, is at 15% "and rising," pundits say. A last-minute ABC News poll shows Santorum and Romney statistically tied and Rep. Paul in third place. Grouped behind Santorum in the Register poll, and within striking distance of Santorum are former Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives Newt Gingrich, with 12% and statistically tied with Texas Gov. Rick Perry, at 11%, while the winner of the Iowa Straw Poll, Rep. Michelle Bachmann, trails at 7%. Jon Hunstman is not competing in Iowa but is concentrated on New Hampshire, the next stop for the media caravans and the campaign buses. One-time contender Gov. Gary Johnston of New Mexico has bolted the GOP and is now a Libertarian candidate for President who backs Rep. Ron Paul in the Republican primary and faces no opposition in his own. About 43% of Iowans say they have not made up their mind. (1/3/12, 12:45pm ET) --AR ONLINE--
DELETED JANUARY 12, 2012
"Multitude of Idiots" The Republican-controlled House of Representatives and Speaker John Boehner reversed field Wednesday afternoon on the 2-month payroll tax cut extension offered by a bipartisan Senate bill passed last Saturday and the White House. After defeating an almost identical measure Tuesday, the House accepted the bill today to avert what was likely to be - and still could - an election-year debacle of enormous proportions. "Bowing under intense pressure from members of their own party to end the politically damaging impasse over a payroll tax holiday, House Republican leaders agreed Thursday to accept a temporary extension of the tax cut, beating a hasty retreat from a showdown that Republicans increasingly saw as a threat to their election opportunities next year," the New York Times reported. Final passage of the bill came Thursday when a motion for unanimous consent to the bill was presented to the House and succeeded in gaining passage. It's unclear whether voters will forgive Republican Congressmen for even contemplating raising their taxes, which is supposedly contrary to everything the GOP believes about tax plans for wealthy Americans. The law also restores higher payments to doctors who accept Medicare patients and extends unemployment benefits for the jobless. The measure will allow taxpayers earning $50,000 a year to keep an additional $40 a week in their paychecks. In a slip of the tongue, a commentator on CNN's "John King USA" referred to the debacle and the Republicans as a "multitude of idiots." She quickly rephrased that to "a multitude of idiocy," which, of course, is poor grammar (12/23/2011, 6:20pm ET) --AR ONLINE--
DELETED JANUARY 14, 2012
N. Korean 'Dear Leader' Kim Jong Il passed away at the age of 69 due to the complications of a massive heart attack and earlier stroke. He was mourned in the streets by N. Koreans who reportedly burst into crocodile tears at the news. A ruthless dictator who starved his broken and desperate people into submission and led a nation on the short list of U.S. enemies into nuclear weapons, Kim had named his son, Kim Jong Un, as his successor after his stroke. He will be buried on Dec. 28. Meanwhile, the government of S. Korea has put its armed forces on high alert, although no hostilities are anticipated (12/19/11, 12:36am ET) --AR ONLINE--
The last combat soldiers in the last platoons stationed in Iraq crossed the border into Kuwait Saturday morning, ending an 8-year occupation that took 100,000 Iraqi lives, 4,500 American lives and cost U.S. taxpayers $800 billion - and some of the small store of faith they hold in the words of American presidents. Both the departing troops of the 3rd Brigade of the Army's 1st Cavalry and Iraqis along the roadway as the last convoy crossed erupted in cheers and saluted as the war came to a palpable end. The last soldier to leave was not identified, although the last truck in the convoy was (12/18/2011, 1:49am ET) --AR ONLINE--
NASA Investment The actual buyer of the 1-million-watt "cold fusion" device demonstrated by electrical engineer and inventor Andrea Rossi in Bologna, Italy on Oct. 28, 2011, was NASA, the US space agency which had been working to replicate it in secret. According to a first-person news report in New Energy Times and an audiotape of a lecture by Sven Kullander, a distinguished retired professor of physics at Sweden's Uppsala University who witnessed several demonstrations of the device and has followed its development closely, Kullander identified the secret buyer in a recent Orero University lecture in Sweden. The news report says that the unidentified buyer - now said by Kullander to be the US space agency - and a separate news report, saying "a normal customer" plans to buy 12 more of the reactors, which sell for $2 million each and reportedly produce many times more energy than required to operate them. The company says on its Ecat.com Website it can produce about 30 per year. An AP science writer, Peter Svensson, attended the October 28 demonstration and was the only journalist permitted to observe the entire test, but The Associated Press - the world's largest news agency - has not allowed him to file a story on it. A petition is circulating at wh.gov/j3P to urge the White House to investigate the E Cat technology for American use (11/30/11, 8:10am ET) --AR ONLINE--
Gingrich's Fall Abruptly, support for Newt Gingrich in Iowa among likely caucus-goers has dropped sharply. Just a week ago, Newt was far ahead of his rivals, but today's Huffington Post reports that the former House Speaker from Georgia has dropped behind Ron Paul and Mitt Romney - in that order. "The Public Policy Polling telephone survey of 597 likely Republican caucus voters in Iowa found Paul, a congressman from Texas, leading with 23 percent of the vote, followed by 20 percent for former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney and 14 percent for Gingrich," the site reported (12/19/11, 8:32pm ET) --AR ONLINE--
Due to a failure by the Associated Press to publish a story about a new source of cheap energy from cold fusion developed by Italian electrical engineer Andrea Rossi, the Electric Power Research Institute and others are protesting an EPA order that will shut down 30 coal-fired power plants in the U.S. over the next few years. AP's failure to publish - even after it sent a science writer to Bologna, Italy, to observe the demonstration of Rossi's 1-million-watt Energy Catalyzer, meant the Wall Street Journal and other reporters knew nothing of the new technology and thus treated the plant closure as an impending catastrophe that could lead to rolling power blackouts when demand grows as early as next Summer. Rossi may begin manufacturing the new energy generators in Massachusetts within the next few months, according to published reports. The devices will also be available for home heating soon, as his company has received 10,000 orders for them since revealing their availability last month. The home devices produce 5 kilowatts of heat, and electricity, enough for many smaller homes. The advantage to power utilities is that they can produce the same or more power with the so-called "E Cat" devices on far less space and at much lower cost (12/19/11, 2:56pm ET) --AR ONLINE--
Jon Hunstman To Quit A source in the Huntsman campaign has told FoxNews that the former Utah Governor and U.S. Ambassador to China will announce this morning that he is suspending his campaign for the Republican presidential nomination and will endorse former Mass. Gov. Mitt Romney for the job. The announcement took many supporters by surprise because Huntsman had just won the endorsement of the most powerful newspaper in S. Carolina, The State. In its latest poll, the paper - which is not reporting the suspension of the Huntsman campaign - shows four polls. Tow of those show him with 1% of the vote, and the other two with no more than 5% - a dismal omen for victory. But has Huntsman had his surge? Perhaps not. His campaign - if and when it moves on to more cosmopolitan states - may fare far better in coming months, particularly if he can get financial help from his billionaire father. But Huntsman has scheduled an 11am speech in Myrtle Beach, Calif for today, and he is said to believe he would only impede the election of Romney as president by staying in the race, while Romney, he feels, can do the job and can beat Obama (1/16/12, 1:01am ET) --AR ONLINE--
DELETED JAN. 21, 2012
A UFO on C-SPAN? The Sarasota Herald Tribune's De Void blog, by staffer Billy Cox - the only UFO blog in the mainstream media - mentioned a tip from American Reporter editor Joe Shea Wednesday. Shea spotted a UFO on C-Span that remained there for all of the 43-minute-long segment on government surveillance. You can see the UFO by playing a clip at http://devoid.blogs.heraldtribune.com/12647/behind-you-man-look-behind-you/ (12/29/11, 1:55am ET) --AR ONLINE--
Chinese Hackers Thousands of Chinese hackers working for the government have invaded private, government and corporate computers in the US, stealing information and secrets worth $250 billion, the government says. One prominent target may have been the US Chamber of Commerce data on foreign contributions to US politicians, including presidential candidates. It's a matter of speculation whether China would use the data to manipulate US elections or to blackmail elected officials. The Supreme Court has tacitly approved the use of anonymous contributions by corporate PACs on behalf of non-citizens to persons seeking Federal office. A key tool for the hackers was the circulation of controversial emails among tens of millions of conservatives that purported to prove President Obama was not born in the United States, a claim long ago proved false, and other myths. "Sniffer" program tools hidden in such email seek out passwords and private information and can be hidden in photographs, other attachments and animations (12/21/2011, 2:42am ET) --AR ONLINE--
Here Comes Ron Paul! Rep. Ron Paul is polling 10 points higher than former Mass. Gov. Mitt Romney in the latest CNN/CBS poll of Iowa caucus voters. He leads Newt Gingrich 28% to 25%, and Romney 28% to 18%. Although some media folks call him unelectable because if his views on Iran and its nuclear program, Paul has thrown a wrench into the works of these campaigns that hoped to leave Iowa with a winning boost as they head to critical battles in New Hampshire, Florida, and South Carolina (12/21/11, 12:01am ET)
Times Out? Some of the nation's best regional journalism, including the Pulitzer-Prize-winning Sarasota Herald-Tribune, will soon be the property of a newspaper chain based in Arkansas if a deal now in the offing is completed. The "Trib", as it is called in the region south of Tampa Bay, won a Pulitzer Prize for last year's investigative reporting series by staffer Paige St. John on massive insurance industry fraud committed against residents of Florida, would be sold to Halifax Media Holdings LLC, backed by the Stephens, Inc., investment bank of Little Rock, Ark. Other papers in the group of 16 serve Lakeland, Winter Haven, Gainesville, and Ocala, Fla., Santa Rosa, Calif., and Wilmington, N.C. Last year, the group bought the Daytona Beach, Fla., News-Journal. Herald-Tribune publisher Diana McFarlin indicated at a newsroom "town hall" that the deal is likely to go through, the paper reported.. The head of the New York Times Regional Media Group said the "vast majority" of the newspapers' employees would be likely to be hired to work at their present jobs. Local journalists have said for years that the Trib was in a precarious financial position, as the New York Times itself has been. It plays a central and leading role in the life of the affluent Sarasota community (12/20/11, 3:04am ET) --AR ONLINE--
A Strong Debate performance by former Mass. Gov. Mitt Romney may have erased a few points from what a NBC Jan. 22-24 poll said was the former House Speaker Newt Gingrich's lead among national voters. Gingrich was stung at least twice by sharp questions and comments from Romney, while the onetime Speaker of the House scored rarely. Former Pa. US Sen. Rick Santorum also had strong moments, particulalrly when he scored against Romney on the similarity of then-Gov. Romney's Mass. health care and President Obama's health care plan, but it was not a performance that could help him decisively win the state such as Gingrich had on Jan. 21 in South Carolina. Libertarian favorite Ron Paul got noticed, too, yet in general, the 19th debate was a net win for Romney. The NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll released on the Evening News broadcast Thursday showed Gingrich leading Romney across the nation among likely voters by 37% to 28%, but Thursday night - just two days after Monday night's debate in Tampa - a number of less-recognized polls, including the Rasmussen, showed Romney erasing the Gingrich lead. A number of observers, including Bill Clinton campaign manager James Carville, said the Republican Establishment was shocked by Romney's loss and is terrified by the prospect of further Gingrich wins and his possible capture of the GOP nomination. Both men debated the future of NASA, but while Gingrich's plan for colonization of the Moon was derided by Romney, neither mentioned the space agency's amazing scientific discovery of a "new form of energy" called Low Energy Nuclear Reaction (LENR) that could replace fossil fuels and nuclear energy, the agency says (1/26/2012, 12:43am ET) --AR ONLINE--
DELETED FEB. 5, 2012
"Florida, you're the best!" Mitt Romney shouted at the end of a speech to hundreds of cheering people at his victory party in Tampa tonight, just after he'd soundly defested and outspent former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich with a negative tv ad campaign by 47% to 32%. Former Pa. US Sen. Rick Santorum captured 13% of the vote and was already in Nevada, which votes Saturday, and spoke of a head-to-head tie in polls with Romney In Missouri, which votes next Tuesday. Rep. Ron Paul, whose supporters worked very hard as he left for Texas, won just 7% of Florida's Republican vote. He was back in time for a rousing "victory" speech, perhaps the best of the night. CNN exit polls showed that the issue of electability, not conservatism, were the principal motivatpor for 45% of Romney voters. Also, Romney outpolled Newt among female voters 51% to 32%, while Gingrich ran jy=ust 2 points behind the former Mass. Gov. 37% to 32% among married men (1/31/2012, 9:07pm ET) --AR ONLINE--
As Mitt Romney prepares to move into the Maine and Nevada primaries after a strong victory in Florida today, states like New York, Ohio, Illinois and California wonder what all the fuss is about. The answer, of course, is 2000 - the year the state hung the nation out to dry for 3 weeks as it tried to learn who it had chosen as President, and ultimately left the decision to the U.S. Supreme Court. As Republicans try to choose a GOP successor to President George W. Bush, some will be able to tell their grandchildren many years from now that although they knew he couldn't win, they can say they had learned the lesson of 12 years ago and thus voted for the last honest man in American politics - Rep. Ron Paul of Texas, and helped prevent a war like the one they could have prevented in 2003 (1/31/2012, 5:28am ET) --AR ONLINE--
Newt Gingrich's up-and-down poll ratings have again improved with his endorsement by Herman Cain - who won the Florida Straw Poll that launched him to prominence - and now may be closing the gap with Mitt Romney. One woman quoted in the Bradenton Herald who said that she had never heard of Gingrich went to hear him speak at the Bradenton Municipal Auditorium and said she left the experience "a born-again American" (1/29/2012, 12:16am ET) --AR ONLINE--
New Quinnipiac Poll shows Newt Gingrich leading Mitt Romney 38% to 29% nationally, and another poll shows Romney leading Gingrich 38% to 29% in Florida. The first poll, for CNN, was taken up to the night of Thursday's debate, casting doubt on its accuracy in light of what is perceived as Romney's big win. However, it's not clear voters are reading the polls, elsewhere or in Florida (1/27/2012, 1:17am ET) --AR ONLINE--
A Strong Debate performance by former Mass. Gov. Mitt Romney may have erased a few points from what a NBC Jan. 22-24 poll said was the former House Speaker Newt Gingrich's lead among national voters. Gingrich was stung at least twice by sharp questions and comments from Romney, while the onetime Speaker of the House scored rarely. Former Pa. US Sen. Rick Santorum also had strong moments, particulalrly when he scored against Romney on the similarity of then-Gov. Romney's Mass. health care and President Obama's health care plan, but it was not a performance that could help him decisively win the state such as Gingrich had on Jan. 21 in South Carolina. Libertarian favorite Ron Paul got noticed, too, yet in general, the 19th debate was a net win for Romney. The NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll released on the Evening News broadcast Thursday showed Gingrich leading Romney across the nation among likely voters by 37% to 28%, but Thursday night - just two days after Monday night's debate in Tampa - a number of less-recognized polls, including the Rasmussen, showed Romney erasing the Gingrich lead. A number of observers, including Bill Clinton campaign manager James Carville, said the Republican Establishment was shocked by Romney's loss and is terrified by the prospect of further Gingrich wins and his possible capture of the GOP nomination. Both men debated the future of NASA, but while Gingrich's plan for colonization of the Moon was derided by Romney, neither mentioned the space agency's amazing scientific discovery of a "new form of energy" called Low Energy Nuclear Reaction (LENR) that could replace fossil fuels and nuclear energy, the agency says (1/26/2012, 12:43am ET) --AR ONLINE--
The President's annual State of the Union speech Tuesday night was widely approved by voters who heard him promise equal treatment regardless of income in the US Tax Code. "No Bailout, no handouts, no cop-outs," President Barack Obama vowed. One reader, identified only as "HC, Tex.," told the New York Times: "Mr. President, thank you for reminding me why I voted for you in 2008. HC, Tex." Another, identified as E.G. Penet of Michigan, said, "I liked the tone, but there was no BIG idea, eg. the Moon. It was all pretty logical, common sense, and practical stuff. Alas, these are not times to dream. e. g. penet, Mich." Presidential candidate Mitt Romney, however, said he was "disappointed." Rep. Gabby Giffordss, the victim of a madman's shooting spree in Tucson, Ariz., last year, made what may be her final appearance on the House floor before resigning later this week. She sat in the front row on the Democratic side, escorted by a Republican and Democratic Members of Congress from her home state. The Vice President, and then President Obama came to the podium and kissed her on the forehead and cheek, and Associate Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburh also approached and greeted her. Following the tradition begun last year of partisans sitting with members of the other party, many of the U.S. Senate Republicans present found Democratic seatmates, as did a few Members of the House, including Rep. Nancy Pelosi; the former Speaker sat with a Republican Member (1/25/2012, 12:37am ET) --AR ONLINE--
Solar Storm hits Earth Tuesday A huge solar storm caused by a massive eruption on the Sun hit Earth Tuesday - with little obvious effect. Delta had to reoute some of its flights, cellphones dropped calls and the Northern Lights were spectascular, the Drudge Report revealed Wednesday morning.
Jan. 17 is the 14th anniversary of the Drudge Report's release of the Monica Lewinsky story from Newsweek, Drudge announced. The Drudge Report began 17 years ago at 1810 Whitley St., just two weeks after and three short blocks away from the April 10, 1995, Hollywood birthplace of The American Reporter, the world's first online daily newspaper, at 1812 Ivar Ave. Drudge is now headquartered at the Four Seasons Hotel in Miami, while AR is based in Bradenton, Fla., on the state's southern Gulf Coast (1/26/2012, 12:24am ET) --AR ONLINE--
The Help," a memorable and hilariousiosly touching film of Southern life in the 1960s won five Academy Award nominations, including two for Best Supporting Actress, while "The Artist" and "Moneyball" both garnering more than one. Brad Pitt's role as a general manager of the Oakland A's won a nod as Best Actor, as did George Clooney in "The Descendants." "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo" also got multiple nominations, including one for Rooney Mara, the star of the salacious film in which she suffers forcible anal and oral rape (1/22/2012, 3:36pm ET) --AR ONLINE--
Patriots to meet Giants The Super Bowl will be fought out Feb. 5 in Indianapolis after the New England Patriots beat the Baltimore Ravens 23-20 in overtime after the Ravens missed a field goal in the last few seconds. The San Francisco 49ers, as VP Joe Biden inadvertently predicted last week, fell to the New York Giants 20-17 after 31-yard Lawrence Tynes field goal in overtime clinched the Super Bowl berth for them (1/22/2012, 3:36pm ET) --AR ONLINE--
Wounded Congresswoman Gabrielle Goffords is resigning her Congressional seat to focus on her recovery, she announced. The resignation will be effective tomorrow. Arizona's governor has announced that a special election will select her successor (1/22/2012, 3:36pm ET) --AR ONLINE--
The Gingrich Turn In a strong affirmative showing against former Mass. Gov. Mitt Romney, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich swamped Romney today in the South Carolina Republican primary by a whopping 12 percentage points, 40% to 28%. Gingrich was declared the winner just minutes after the polls closed in the state's primary Saturday, leaving former US Sen. Rick Santorum of Pa. and Texas Rep. Ron Paul with 17% and 13%, respectively, with 99% of the votes counted. The all-or-nothing primary will award 35 more delegates to Gingrich, who now leads Romney by 25 to 33, while Santorum leads Ron Paul 14 to 4. Much of Gingrich's remarkable victory was attributed to a fierce attack he launched against CNN political anchor John King when King asked him about personal matters among allegations made by his second wife, Miriam, calling the questions "despicable" and the allegations "trash" as King reeled from the harsh depiction. However, the King approach to Gingrich was remarkably similar to so-far unproven allegations against Herman Cain about which CNN's Anderson Cooper queried Cain at the opening of an earlier debate. It left the impression that had Cain struck back at Cooper as Gingrich did at King, the outcome of several primaries might have been very different, and the former Speaker may have created a new template for responding to such questions when they arise. He is expected to give a victory speech within minutes (1/21/2012, 10:08pm ET) --AR ONLINE--
Penn State coach and football legend Joe Paterno is dead at 85 from lung cancer in State College, Pa., after he was taken off a respirator devices and, according to his wife, asked that his friends be gathered at this bedside for final goodbyes. The coach of the Nittany Lions of Penn State was recently fired by the Board of Regents for having failed to take stronger action when he was informed of charges against an assistant coach Jerry Sandusky, who is alleged to have sexually molested children in the shower room and elsewhere on campus. Police have cordoned off the block where Paterno lives. His firing on Nov. 9, 2011, precipitated a riot among students opposed to the firing of one of America's winningest football coach in history, with 409 Penn State victories and 2 national championships among a host of bowl appearances (1/21/2012, 8:32pm ET) --AR ONLINE--
In what was the tv-debate equivalent of a punch in the mouth, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich decried CNN political anchor John King's deeply personal questions about his relationship with his second ex-wife as "despicable" and "trash," and won several standing ovations from the overflow crowd at the North Charleston Coliseum watching the CNN South Carolina Republican primary debate (1/19/2012, 9:39pm ET) --AR ONLINE--
Rick Perry dropping out Gov. Rick Perry of Texas is dropping out of the GOP presidential race, two sources in his campaign have told CNN. Perry suffered early from verbal missteps in televised debates; most recently, he said America should return to Iraq (1/19/2012, 9:22am ET) --AR ONLINE--
Actually, Santorum Won Sen. Rick Santorum (R-Pa.) won the Iowa caucuses by 34 votes, according to news reports, but Iowa will not certify him as the winner because due to careless procedures some 8 precincts have not produced their ballots for certification, the Des Moines Register reports today. The Republican Party of Iowa will call the issue a "split decision" (1/19/2012, 9:22am ET) --AR ONLINE--
Death Toll Rises to 17 in the wreck of the Costa Contadina, while 21 people remain missing - among them at least 2 Americans. Authorities revealed Sunday that among the missing are some passengers who were not on the ship's manifest (1/23/2012, 12:17am ET) --AR ONLINE--
The Obama Administration is ready to reject the Keystone Pipeline project that once was hostage to passage of a bill reducing the payroll tax. "The Obama administration was poised on Wednesday to reject the Keystone crude oil pipeline, according to sources, a decision that would be welcomed by environmental groups but inflame the domestic energy industry," Yahoo News reported this morning (1/18/2012, 1:38pm ET) --AR ONLINE--
A YouTube video reported by Reuters shows Gov. Mitt Romney telling voters during his gubernatorial campaign that "I'm not a partisan Republican...I'm a moderate... I'm a progressive in my views" (scroll down to see video below) (1/18/2012, 1:16pm ET) --AR ONLINE--
Sen. Marco Rubio has withdrawn his support for SOPA and PIPA, the controversial Internet regulation bills, his staff told The American Reporter this morning. (1/18/2012, 12:27pm ET) --AR ONLINE--
Sen. Bill Nelson of Florida is running for re-election to a third term, but according to the campaign office listed on his campaign Web site - which is focused on campaign finances - Nelson has no press secretary. When it was called today and a reporter asked for the campaign press person, the caller was told, "That's taken care of in the Senate office. ... He doesn't have a campaign press secretary." Reminded that it is a violation of federal law to conduct campaign business in Senate offices, the man simply said, "We have no press secretary." A call to the Senate office was referred to voicemail when the reporter declined to identify himself, on which a tape recording identified it as the "press office.". The Senate office promised on Friday to secure a comment from the Senator, who is on the Senate committee responsible for NASA and new technology - about his reaction to a "new form of energy" allegedly discovered by NASA, but has so far failed to do so. It appears that NASA swiped the technology from an Italian inventor, Andrea Rossi (1/16/12, 4:03pm ET) --AR ONLINE--
Wikipedia to Shut Down in Protest The widely-used Wikipedia encyclopedia will be shut down Wednesday for one day in rpotest of the SOPA anti-Internet piracy bill (1/16/12, 2:30pm ET) --AR ONLINE--
Israel Ready to Strike Iran? We're not! "U.S. defense leaders are increasingly concerned that Israel is preparing to take military action against Iran, over U.S. objections, and have stepped up contingency planning to safeguard U.S. facilities in the region in case of a conflict," the top story in the Wall Street Journal (wsj.com) reported Saturday. "President Barack Obama, Defense Secretary Leon Panetta and other top officials have delivered a string of private messages to Israeli leaders warning about the dire consequences of a strike," the WSJ story continued. "The U.S. wants Israel to give more time for the effects of sanctions and other measures intended to force Iran to abandon its perceived efforts to build nuclear weapons," the paper said (1/14/12, 3:08pm ET) --AR ONLINE--
Israel used CIA to recruit terrorists Israeli intelligence agents 'posed as CIA to recruit operatives against Iran's nuclear program' --The operation - often called a 'false flag' operation - occurred during the presidency of George W. Bush, Citizens for Legitimate Government says. The CLG says, "One of the main entities in the Israeli Intelligence Community has been placing its agents within the CIA to recruit operatives against Iran's nuclear program, according to a new report. Mossad officers posed as American CIA agents were recruiting for the Pakistani militant group Jundallah, the (http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2012/01/13/false_flag) report says. The Foreign Policy [magazine report by Mike Perry} details how Mossad officers were equipped with U.S. passports and money, recruiting extremists 'under the nose of U.S. intelligence officers.' (1/16/12, 1:01am ET) --AR ONLINE--
At least 13 people are dead and more are missing, including at least 2 Americans, after the Costa Concordia, a huge Italian passenger liner, struck a rock off the coast of the Italian island of Tuscany near Giglio. The captain of the ship was detained as he protested, "That rock should not have been there!" - although it was clearly marked in navigational maps. He has been detained (1/16/12, 11:23pm ET) --AR ONLINE--
Will Newt be 'Left Behind'? Rev. Tim LaHaye, the author of the best-selling "Left Behind" series of religious apocalyptic novels and pastor of a huge San Diego church has endorsed former GOP House Speaker Newt Gingrich for President, the zany conservative Web site Newsmax is reporting, based on a statement from the Gingrich campaign, it said. "Please prayerfully consider going to the polls on January 21 and help elect Newt Gingrich," LaHaye asked in a letter to South Carolina pastors. The move seems designed to counter Gingrich's formation of his Faith Leaders Coalition on the day former U.S. Sen. and Iowa second-place finisher Rick Santorum won the endorsement of a far larger coalition of conservative pastors who want their flocks to raslly behind one candidate through the end of the race. ..."It seems apparent the Republican candidates have come down to two possible winners," LaHaye wote. As my friend, the late Dr. Jerry Falwell, told me personally, 'Speaker Newt Gingrich is the most qualified man in America to run as president of the United States.'" The Gingrich campaign, said Newsmax, welcomed the endorsement. "I am honored to have Tim's endorsement. His work as both a minister and author is truly unmatched. Tim will be a terrific partner for the Gingrich Faith Leaders Coalition as we work to combat the influence of radical secularism and activist judges." It is unknown how much the endorsement means, as LaHaye represents Christians who believe that one day they will be "taken up" to Heaven during a "rapture," leaving behind all non-Christians and those not "born again." The "left Behind" series, among 60 books LaHaye has written, some of which have become low-budget movies, have sold millions of copies and frequently appear on best-seller lists (1/14/12, 1:37pm ET) --AR ONLINE--
"Iron Lady" starts today! It stars Meryl Streep and promises to be one of the biggest films of the decade - check it out! (1/12/13, 12:00am ET) --AR ONLINE--
EXCLUSIVE NASA has released an unqualified endorsement of cold fusion, or, as it is now better-known, Low Energy Nuclear Reactions (LENR). NASA Langley Research Center senior research scientist Joseph Zawodny, Ph.D., says the technology has demonstrated the ability to produce excess heat (i.e., more power than it uses) with no ionizing radiation or "nasty" waste. The energy can support everything from homes to airplanes and power systems. "[This] cheap, abundant, clean, scalable, portable source of energy will impact everyone,” Zawodny has reportedly said elsewhere. It is the first time any U.S. government agency has issued such an unqualified statement of support for LENR, which is an outgrowth of the "cold fusion" work of much-maligned University of Utah scientists Dr. Stanley B. Pons and Henry Fleischmann. The video is at http://technicalgateway.nasa.gov/media/CC/lenr/lenr.html. See the AR story below for more information (1/12/12, 10:46am ET) --AR ONLINE--
Two videos with dramatically different impacts but potentially far-reaching effects are making the rounds of talk shows and Internet sites this morning. One shows a group of five alleged U.S. Marines urinating on the bodies of three Taliban fighters in Afghanistan who were apparently slain in battle; the other shows poll workers in New Hampshire freely handing out ballots in the names of dead voters. While the rage that might be anticipated from the first video has already been vented in Afghanistan, there has been little reaction so far to the New James O'Keefe expose. He is the videographer whose taped accounts of federal ACORN workers appearing to approve of benefits for child prostitutes led to the elimination of funding for the agency. Theoretically, graphic proof of the vote-stealing once so famous in Chicago could lead to a legal contest of the election's outcome, at least in the precincts shown (1/12/12, 10:46am ET) --AR ONLINE--
The patented hydrogen-based gas called Aquygen is not headed for play in the stock market yet, a company executive told The American Reporter. The intial offering of the Tampa-based Hydrogen Technology Applications is not yet scheduled, he said. The company claims that extensive testing on a diesel-engine Ford 250 showed a 21 percent improvement in mileage. Hydrogen Technology Applications is headed by associates of Tampa inventor Denny Klein, who became famous in the alternative energy world when a Fox News video showed him demonstrating his technology went viral in 2007 (Updated 3/5/12, 10:01am ET) --AR ONLINE--
"President Mitt Romney?" It's started to look that way as the former Massachusetts governor and venture capitalist walked triumphantly away from New Hampshire toward South Carolina Tuesday night with a 39% victory that places him far ahead of all rivals for the Republican presidential nomination to be awarded in late August in Tampa. It was a dramatic showing that lived up to all of the Romney campaign's expectation. About 95% of the vote is in, with the remainder likely to make a difference only to Rick Santorum and Newt Gingrich, who were just 300 votes apart with 9% of the vote. The Granite State awarded 5 delegates to Romney and 3 to Rep. Ron Paul won a strong second-place showing at 23% that boosted his longshot campaign's chances for a victory in South Carolina, where he polls well. Former Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman came in third but won no delegates with 17% of the vote. Texas Gov. Rick Perry captured just 1% of the vote and will limp into the first Southern primary with little momentum. Michelle Bachmann captured less than 1% of the vote - just 351 - after dropping out of the race following a stunning defeat in her native Iowa, where she won just 7% of the vote. Meanwhile, disaffected conservatives are meeting soon in South Carolina to see if they can join forces to back a conservative candidate - possibly Ron Paul - that could slow the Romney juggernaut (1/11/12, 1:46am ET) --AR ONLINE--
Difficulties with our Internet service delivery have kept The American Reporter from updating since Jan. 3. We appreciate your patience with us. Most of the problems are resolved for now. (1/6/12, 8:09pm ET) --AR ONLINE--
Happy New Year! from The American Reporter! (12/31/11, 11:48pm ET) --AR ONLINE--
The year ahead? Bankruptcy, war, revolution - all are in the picture as America and the world enters 2012, according to an unnamed psychic (12/30/11, 3:49am ET) --AR ONLINE--
Mitt Romney barely won twice on Saturday, taking the Maine caucuses by just 194 votes from Rep. Ron Paul, and winning the Conservative Political Action Committee (CPAC) straw poll from Rick Santorum, also by a narrow margin of 38% to 31% (2/11/2012, 8:50pm ET) --AR ONLINE--
Obama reverses himself on legislation that would require Catholic hospitals to provide health insurance that offers free contraceptives to female employees. Under his improved plan, a Catholic or other religious institution - not the institutions - only their insurance companies are required to provide free contraceptives. The plan does not address abortion requirements. Under health care legislation, they would be provided to Catholic hospital workers who want them in hospitals' standard insurance plans (2/10/2012, 8:38pm ET) --AR ONLINE--
In one extraordinary stroke, former 2-time Pa. US Sen Rick Santorum swiftly changed the parameters of the GOP presidential race tonight with persuasive wins over Mitt Romney, Newt Gingrich and Ron Paul in Minnesota, Colorado and Missouri, states where Romney had expectations of winning. Santorum, dubbed "the white Obama" by the American Reporter for his mirror-image match of the President - a tall, young, new and different Senator - but white, conservative and not quite as eloquent, adds three more states to his last-second recount victory in Iowa. Obama and Santorum are almost perfectly opposite in philosophy and platform issues as well.(2/7/2012, 12:00am ET) --AR ONLINE--
A great Super Bowl unfolded from the opening minutes. The New York Giants took the lead with a touchback, touchdown and a field goal in the first quarter, and when the Patriots clawed it back that the excitement only heightened. After touchdowns by both teams and some near-miraculous sideline catch by wide receiver Mario Manningham that led to the winning touchdown, the game came down to the last minutes with the Giants behind 17-15, needing only a field goal to finish off the Patriots. At the foal line, though, the Patriots decided to let Ahmed Bradshaw reach the goal, but Bradshaw had been told to stop before he reached the goal line so the Giants could slow down the game long enough to keep Tom Brady from marching downfield against them during a would-be field goal try. In a weird irony, Bradshaw stopped, squatted down as he faced the Patriot defense, but awkwardly fell across the goal line backwards. That gave Brady his chance with 58 seconds left, but Brady's receivers muffed two passes and a run went nowhere. A hail-mary pass far down the field failed to find a receiver on fourth down among the crowd of them in the end zone. Cheering Giants fans erupted in joy around the Indianapolis Colts' Lucas Oil Stadium stadium while Patriots owner Robert Kraft stood alone and morose in his box. At one point, Brady threw 11 consecutive caught passes to complete a 96-yard drive from his 4 and lead the game. He threw another 5 completions to set a Super Bowl record for most consecutive receptions. The drive was the longest in Super Bowl history, and the game was an absolute thriller right to the end. Madonna performed at halftime on one of the most amazing sets the Super Bowl has ever seen. Clint Eastwood, in a Chrysler ad, gave a inspiring, powerful pep talk that reminded Americans worried about the economy that we "are in halftime," and promised that in the second half of our economic crisis people of the world "will hear our engines roar." It was perfectly timed, given the aoring jobs report released Friday and the good news of dropping unemployment. An ad that depicted the aftermath of a predicted Dec. 21, 2012, Mayan apolcalypse, in which GM's Chevy Silverado survived but a Ford F-150 pickup did not, was widely panned. Ford had earlier asked GM to withdraw it, but the auto giant declined to do so (2/6/2012, 2:00am ET) --AR ONLINE--
In another primary, Mexico's ruling PAN party voters picked a woman to run for President of Mexico. She is Josefina Vazquez Mota, 51, an attractive woman and former Secretary of Education who is described as "personable and charismatic." She is currently running second in polls. She is the first woman ever named as the nominee of the three major political parties in Mexico. Mota will face Andres Obrador of the Democratic Revolution Party, who lost to President Felipe Calderon in 2006 by a razor-thin margin (Mota was his 2006 campaign manager). The July 1 election will pit her against Obrador and the PRI party candidate, Mexico state Gov. Enrique Pena Nieto, who is leading in the polls. Mota won the PAN primary with about 55 percent of the vote. She would serve among several recent female presidents in Panama, Costa Rica and Chile (2/6/2012, 4:51am ET) --AR ONLINE--
Israel Has Not Yet Decided to Attack Iran President Obama told the nation during a pre-Super Bpwl interview. The President also noted an attack would create many problems for the US. "Any kind of additional military activity inside the Gulf is disruptive and has a big effect on us. It could have a big effect on oil prices. We've still got troops in Afghanistan, which borders Iran. And so our preferred solution here is diplomatic," he was quoted as saying in a story on the front page of Monday's Jerusalem Post. the nation's leading newspaper. (2/6/2012, 1:18am ET) --AR ONLINE--
Is the Tea Party dead? Voters who identify with it voted better than 2-1 for Newt Gingrich over Ron Paul, so if it is indeed a group of voters who want to preserve personal liberties, they did not show significant signs of life on Saturday in the Nevada caucuses. With 76% of votes reported and results of the midnight caucus of observant Jews and Seventh-Day Adventists still to be counted, Mitt Romney was also running ahead of Gingrich 47.6% to 22.9%, while Ron Paul ran ahead of Rick Santorum 18.6% to 11.1%. The big news of the day was the vow from Newt not to quit the race and the low turnout predicted by The American Reporter (2/5/2012, 12:01am ET) --AR ONLINE--
The 2012 presidential campaign may have ended on Friday, when the stock market soared to the highest level in years, unemployment rates fell across the country, and 243,000 new jobs were created. The glowing numbers are hard to attack, but there was no enthusiastic cheering from GOP heavyweights, naturally - but nor was there any excessive crowing from the White House. What did happen was that major media empires, including those of Rupert Mutrdoch and of The New York Times, played big stories on the campaign-altering nws on their front pages, probably making a lasting impression on recession-plagued voters. But it should have been no surprise: Internet commerce is up, the NASDAQ is at its highest since the year 2000, and the logjam in Congress is beginning to show some signs of no-partisan wisdom (but not many, just yet). At Saturday's Nevada caucuses, one impact may be felt - low turnouts. Why spend all day listening to speeches when you can get points for the Patriots in Sunday's Super Bowl, America's biggest day of the year? (2/3/2012, 11:51pm ET) --AR ONLINE--
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Almost Over The Syrian regime of Bashar al-Assad may collapse in as little as 3 days from now under continuing pressure from horrified servicemen in Assad's army, which continues its slaughter of protestors, and a rebellious people who want him gone, sources told AR today. It is unclear whether Assad himself will survive Update Earlier versions of this item mistakenly identified the current leader of Syria, Bashar al-Assad, as his late father, Hafeez Assad. AR regrets the error (2/19/2012, 1:18pm ET) --AR ONLINE--
A 15-20-story building that houses Army and other offices, perhaps in Bangkok, may be a target for terrorists in early March, a source tells AR (2/17/2012, 11:37am ET) --AR ONLINE--
Hard Choices The next few days will see a strong run-up in the retail price of gasoline after Iran's unilateral halt in sales of oil to Britain and France - a decision that is likely to be expanded to other parts of Europe in the near future, and possibly to the United States. Meanwhile, Israel is feeling isolated as the U.S. does not appear eager to back a strike by its air force against Iran to shut down the rogue Islamic nation's nuclear weapons program. The rising gas prices will turn Americans' attention from their own economy to the growing Middle East crisis, and the search for realistic solutions - all of which will present the world's leaders with many hard choices. Israel has one step it can take now, which is to surreptitiously decapitate the Syrian regime and undercut its partnership with Iran before the war starts. That will make it much easier to face Hezbollah, which likely will not enjoy the shelter of the Syrian Army and an abundant supply of missiles if al-Assad is gone and a pro-Western leader takes over. Another hard choice is for Iran: How much income can it shut off before a lack of funds cripples its extremely expensive nuclear effort? If Israel strikes, the United States must decide if it will try to replace the Ahmadinejad regime in order to ensure a reliable flow of oil. Saudi Arabia, which is reportedly now cutting back oil production, must decide whether to increase it during the run-up to a war in order to stabilize the dollar, for which oil is now the de facto "gold standard." (2/18/2012,11:57pm ET) --AR ONLINE--
Iran's state-run media said Sunday that Iran has cut off oil shipments to Great Britain and France. The New York Times noted, "an apparent pre-emptive blow against the European Union after the bloc imposed sanctions on Iran's crucial fuel exports." European Union officials have enacted stiff sanctions against Iran, including "a freeze of the country's central bank assets and an oil embargo set to begin in July," the Times said (2/19/2012, 1:23pm ET) --AR ONLINE--
You didn't have to be a fan of Whitney Houston to have wept with the hundreds of celebrities, officials and friends who mourned her "homegoing" at her native church in Newark, N.J. this afternoon. Perhaps the most moving moment of many was the rendition of "I Will Always Love You" as her coffin was carried by pallbearers from the crowded church. Her soaring farewell to her lover from the movie "The Bodyguard" resonated far beyond Hollywood glamour, reminding us all that her journey from her family's church to the heights of stardom in Hollywood had an inevitable if untimely end at the same church where her singing career began. The funeral was streamed live by CNN at a respectful distance that was frequently collapsed by the fervor, spirit and tremendous emotion of performances by Stevie Wonder, Alicia Keys and others, and beautifully informed in the eulogy of Kevin Costner (2/18/2012, 4:20pm ET) --AR ONLINE--
Before a star-studded congregation of celebrities and friends from her childhood in Newark, N.J., singer Whitney Houston will be remembered at her funeral today, just days after her sudden death at the Beverly Hilton on the eve of the Grammies. As the state has for native sons like Frank Sinatra, Gov. Chris Christies of New Jersey ordered flags at state buildings to fly at half-mast in honor of her life. No cause of death has yet been identified. A coroner's report says she was found undeerwater in her bath by an aide (2/18/2012, 12:01am ET) --AR ONLINE--
New York Times Correspondent Dies in Syria Anthony Shadid, 43, described by colleagues as one of the most admired journalists of his time, died in Syria Thursday of an asthma attack, the newspaper said. Shadid, winner of two Pulitzer Prizes for International Reporting in 2004 and 2010, was an eloquent writer with a reputation for achieving deep understandings of the cultures and events he covered. "Anthony was one of our generation's finest reporters," New York Times said publisher Arthur Sulzberger. "He was also an exceptionally kind and generous human being. He brought to his readers an up-close look at the globe's many war-torn regions, often at great personal risk. We were fortunate to have Anthony as a colleague, and we mourn his death." (2/17/2012, 7:15am ET) --AR ONLINE--
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According to a Flash from blogger Lauren Hallahan in Tampa, executive chairman James Murdoch of News International has just stepped down from that post (2/29/12, 9:51am ET --AR ONLINE--
ROMNEY WINS MICHIGAN, AMERICAN REPORTER SAYS; CNN SAYS ARIZONA GOES TO ROMNEY With 70% of votes in, Mitt Romney leads Rick Santorum in Romney's home state of Michigan by 42% to 37%, or 30,000 votes, according to CNN, while Ron Paul finishes third with 12% and Newt Gingrich fourth with 6%. Arizona's polls closed at 9pm ET and CNN called the state's 29 delegates for Romney immediately afterwards based on exit polls (2/28/2012, 10:26pm ET) --AR ONLINE--
Parts of major British cities are under control of drug gangs, a UN study reported in London's Daily Telegraph said this morning. The head of the UN International Narcotics Control Board (INCB), Prof. Hamid Ghodse, said the cities of Manchester, Birmingham and Liverpool have "no go" zones police cannot safely enter. Part of the solution may be legalization of marijuana, he said (2/28/2012, 7:33am ET) --AR ONLINE--
Not So Allegra For the second time in six weeks, a Carnival cruise lines ship has met with disaster at sea. The Allegra suffered a major fire that disabled the ship, which is being towed by a fishing boat to the Seychelles, 1,500 miles east of the African coast. The government of The Republic of Seychelles, a group of 115 beautiful, sea-swept slands, has sent two tugboats expected to reach the Allegra this afternoon. Food is being flown to the ship by helicopter from Mahe, a group of islands north of Madagascar, Bloomberg News reported. There is no word of any casualties among the 639 passengers and 413 crew (2/28/2012, 5:54am ET) --AR ONLINE--
Elite Lie and Cheat "The 'upper class,' as defined by a study at UC Berkeley, "were more likely to break the law while driving, take candy from children, lie in negotiation, cheat to increase their odds of winning a prize and endorse unethical behavior at work," the study by Paul Piff found according to Bloomber News. Poorer people who have to rely more on their community are less likely to break community standards, the study showed. One test of honesty was a computer dice game in which all scores were the same in a contest to win a $50 prize. Wealthier participants were more likely to lie when self-reporting their score, Piff said. More expensive cars among 426 studied at an intersection were more likely than cheaper, older cars to violate a pedestrian crosswalk as people were crossing, he said. Wealthier people recruiting an applicant for a job were more likely to omit the fact that thje job was about to be eliminated than poorer people, another test for the study revealed (2/28/2012, 6:30am ET) --AR ONLINE--
b>As today's Michigan and Arizona primaries unfold, former Mass. Gov. Mitt Romney has once again recaptured the lead in most polls in both races as challenger Rick Santorum, the former two-term US Sen. from Pennsylvania, became entangled in thorny questions about his religious beliefs with respect to conteraception and abortion and his views on the value of higher education. Romney's lead is a thin but surging one this morning, while Santorum's decline has been somewhat precipitous. The American Reporter believes both states will fall in Romney's column, but at least one shows him still behind in Michigan, his native state (2/28/2012, 4:48am ET) --AR ONLINE--
Christopher Plummer, who played a gay man in "Beginners," won Best Supporting Actor, and Meryl Streep won her third Oscar for Best Actress for her portrayal of Reagan-era British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher in "Iron Lady;" other big winners included "The Artist," whose Jean Dujardin won for Best Actor, for Best Picture and Best Director, and Octavia Spencer, as Best Supporting Actress, for her powerful performance in "The Help," at the 84th Academy Awards. Director Martin Scorsese took home 5 Oscars for his animated feature "Hugo" (2/27/2012, 7:06am ET) --AR ONLINE--
DELETED MARCH 14, 2012
A cluster of deaths associated with a flu-like respiratory illness has killed three people in a Maryland family, raising fears of a viral fatal illness spreading in that area. "The Calvert County Health Department [CCHD] is investigating a cluster of deaths following respiratory illnesses in the Lusby area. 4 family members who live near the Calvert Cliffs nuclear facility fell ill with an unidentified respiratory illness at the end of February, [2012] and 3 died this month. An 81 year old woman was the 1st to become sick, in late February. The woman's 3 adult children, 2 daughters and a son, traveled to her home to care for her. Subsequently, they became sick with similar health problems,"the county health department told local broadcaster News4 (3/9/2012, 2:20am ET) --AR ONLINE--
After a long crisis that threatened global financial stability, Greece has met the requirements for disbursement of bailout funds through a write-down of government bonds bought by investors to 36% of their nominal value, the world's financial newspapers reported today (3/9/2012, 2:33am ET) --AR ONLINE--
In the aftermath of Super Tuesday's divided results, the situation in the Republican presidential primary race remains cloudy. The kinds of statements that might have generated news coverage and controversy - bread and butter to the pols who offer them - have not materialized. No one is saying Republicans ought to turn off Rush Limbaugh - even though hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of Republican working women who get contraceptives from employer health plans are similarly situated with Limbaugh's victim, 31-year-old Georgetown Law student Sandra Fluke - but none of the candidates have the courage to speak out. What will they say when it's not Rush Limbaugh but Ahmadinejad? None have questioned the need for new cars and argued for new fuels, nor advanced earth-shaking ideas that can galvanize our eoonomy and help us make strides toward world peace. None were particularly jubilant about the Syrian Army allowing the UN High Commissioner for Refugees to enter the Baba-Amr section of the besieged city of Homs, nor did any of them dare to address the vast gap between them and their campaigns and that of President Barack Obama, who now appears to be a shoo-in for re-election. It is almost as though no one really cares what his would-be challengers think (3/7/2012, 11:34am ET) --AR ONLINE--
The furor over inappropriate remarks by radio talk-show host Rush Limbaugh has intensified with the departure of about 36 advertisers. Recently, Pro Flowers, joined Carbonite, Quicken Loans, Sleep Train and Sleep Number mattresses, Auto Zone and others in ending their purchase of air time on the controversial show. Limbaugh released an apology last Saturday, March 3, but that has not satified critics. The Web site Daily Kos is leading the charge to get more advertisers to withdraw from the show, which is the most popular and influential conservative radio talk show in the country. It is aired by the conservative Clear Channel radio network, which broadcasts other conservatives like Mark Levin, Neal Boorts, Mark Schnitt and Glenn Beck (3/5/2012, 9:39am ET) --AR ONLINE--
One of the few journalists who demonstrably could alter the outcome of the 2012 election, Andrew Breitbart of www.bigjournalism.com, died suddenly of a heart attack at the age of 43 as he walked near his home in the tony Brentwood section of West Los Angeles after talking to a liberal marketing agent at a Brentwood bar. One Breitbart video deservedly got the social work group ACORN defunded, and Breitbart exposed ex-US Rep. Anthony Weiner's sexy portraits of himself, forcing the seven term Congressman from New York City to resign. Breitbart, a longtime associate of Matt Drudge, apparently erred when he released a misleading video of Dept. of Agriculture official Shirley Sherrod of Georgia that made her appear to be a black racist and led to her firing. She was absolved of wrongdoing when more of the taped speech she made was aired. Last September, asked by AR Correspondent Joe Shea in Orlando if there would be new exposés in the 2012 election season, he responded, "How can there not be?" None have been brought forward thus far, and it's now less likely any will be (3/2/2012, 12:01am ET) --AR ONLINE--
As traders watch the Big Board on the floor of the NYSE and cheer it upwards, the Dow Jones Average stands at 13,000 - a mark not reached since an intraday high on May 20, 2008, the last year of the Bush Administration. What that means for the ordinary American is, unfortunately, nothing. With oil prices also hovering at 8-month highs at 104.81 and the world poised for war between Iran and Israel, the Greek bailout finally completed but Spain, Portugal and Italy still on financial crutches, the good news for home-owning non-investors remains a slowly improving job and housing-price picture. The 13,000 milestone will no doubt buoy the White House and the Obama re-election campaign, as it dramatically and significantly undercuts the notion that the President has done little to improve the U.S. economy. That may be one reason the new front-runner for the GOP nomination,. Rick Santorum has moved his goalposts to social issues like abortion, contraceptives and climate change. However, the Dow soon gave way and fell back a few points below 13,000 (2/21/2012,11:35am ET) --AR ONLINE--
The U.S. Army Staff Sgt. charged with killing 17 innocent Afghan civilians, including 9 children, on a rampage through homes in two villages has been airlifted out of the country. In another development, he has been identified as Sgt. Robert Bales. Thousands of Afghan citizens and national officials who want him tried in Afghanistan's courts are protesting the move and the government of Afghanistan is now apparently balking at signing a strategic agreement with the U.S. Army officials are investigating whether a traumatic brain injury last year in Iraq and the use of alcohol played a role in his attack (3/15/2012, 7:05am) --AR ONLINE--
The Japanese island of Honshu, the site of a devastating tsunami and earthqualke at this time last year, was struck by a 6.8 earthquake Wednesday morning (US time). Tsunami advisories for Hokkaido, Iwate & Aomori prefectures have now been cancelled. Later, the Tokyo area was struck by a 6.1-magnitude eearthquake that inspired panic but left little damage and no reported injuries in its wake. (3/14/2012, 7:26am) --AR ONLINE--
Tuesday's two Deep South primaries in Alabama and Mississippi, since they were not preceded by debates and won't in themselves make a difference for any candidate except Ron Paul, should he finally win one, are likely to cut into television ratings for the networks that follow the results tonight. Mitt Romney, should he win both, will have demonstrated stronger support among evangelicals and Southern Republicans than he is believed to have; if Rick Santorum wins, it would be further evidence that his earlier wins were not the proverbial flashes in the pan; should Ron Paul win, it might awaken some who have been on the sidelines admiring him without hope. For Newt Gingrich, the primaries may be the last best test of whether he has any hope whatever of winning the nomination. Should Newt win both, the boost will not be immense but will lend new resolve to his campaign staff and supporters (3/13/2012, 1:56am ET) --AR ONLINE--
The fallout from the horrific mass shooting by an unnamed fourth-tour Army Staff Sgt. in two Afghanistan villages has yet to be felt with the force of the Koran burnings that preceded it, probably because other Arab nations do not feel involved. The incident, in which the soldier took his AK-47 automatic assault rifle off his base a few hours after midnight into the homes of innocent villagers, where he slaughtered at least 9 children and 3 women, is being treated as a major international incident by the Obama Administration and by NATO and US commanders, but it has not generated the rioting and bloodshed that followed the recent Koran burnings. Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai reacted angrily but it gave him a chance to overshadow a deeper investigation of official Afghani armed forces units allegedly engaged in large-scale opium smuggling, and it also amplified calls for an early withdrawal from the war-torn country and its ongoing civil war. President Barack Obama, who has apologized and offered condolences to the stricken families several times since the incident, says he will not allow it to speed up the withdrawal set to occur in 2014 (3/13/2012, 2:09am ET) --AR ONLINE--
Meir Dagan, the former head of Israel's Mossad, a CIA-like intelligence agency, suggested on "60 Minutes" Sunday that if Iran is attacked by Israel, it would suffer "devastating impact," presumably from Iranian retaliation, Gaza mortars and Hezbollah rockets, both of the latter are already flying. Dagan said that the attack would be fruitless because the country's 20-odd nuclear-oriented facilities are widespread and well-hidden. Dagan said he has told Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to give sanctions and other diplomatic efforts a chance to work, as President Obama has also urged. In one positive development, Israel has said there will be no air striked against Gaza militants after an Egyptian mediator brought followers of Hamas and Israel to a truce Monday after four days of intense cross-border exchanges (3/13/2012, 12:27am ET) --AR ONLINE--
At what point does Iran gain the moral high ground in the arena of "pre-emptive" war? Clearly in the bullseye of either an Israeli or American attack on its alleged nuclear facilities - alleged in that the CIA and NSA believes they don't exist for developing nuclear weapons - Iran could soon feel it has little choice but to avert an attack on Israel - since it can't reach the US - by attacking Israel itself. Since God is presumably on neither side, it would seem Iran would have the moral right to do do so since it is so widely discussed as coming (3/9/2012, 8:23pm ET) --AR ONLINE--
A novel video attempt to capture Ugandan rebel Joseph Koney and stop the abductions by his Lord's Resistance Army of more than 65,000 children in Central Africa that he uses as child soldiers and sex slaves has captured imaginations around the world, leading to prominent interviews on CNN and on the front page of today's New York Times and Los Angeles Times. President Obama has sent 100 US advisors to Uganda to assist in the Ugandan Army in the effort to capture and try Kony for his crimes. A YouTube "movie" about the effort has already gotten 50 million views, the New York Times said (3/9/2012, 2:25am ET) --AR ONLINE--
72 nations met in Geneva to try to find a peaceful rsolution to the violence in Syria, which has already claimed 9,000 civilian lives, mostly in its third-largest city, Homs, which has been bombarded for weeks by the Syrian Army with rockets, mortars and tank shells, indiscriminately killing thousands of completely innocent people (2/24/2012,2:08am ET) --AR ONLINE--
Two journalists, American foreign correspondent Marie Colvin of the Sunday Times of London, and Rémi Ochlik, a young French photographer, have been killed by mortar shrapnel in Syria today as the Syrian Army shelled their makeshift media center in the besieged rebel city of Homs, news reports say. About 80 civilians and three other war correspondents were hurt, one of them critically (2/23/2012,2:08am ET) --AR ONLINE--
All four GOP presidential contenders will face off for the last time tonight at the Mesa Arts Center in Mesa, Ariz., near Phoenix, on the eve of next Tuesday's Arizona and Michigan primaries. The debate will be shown on CNN at 9pm ET, 9pm Central. Another two debates in Georgia and Ohio have been canceled due to "viewer fatigue," and the CNN report indicated a March 16 debate has met the same fate (2/22/2012,2:08am ET) --AR ONLINE--
49 passengers have been killed in the crash of an Argentine commuter train as it came into Station 11 in Buenos Aires at around 8:30am this morning, news reports say (2/22/2012,2:07am ET) --AR ONLINE--
Four more bodies, including that of a young girl, have been found aboard an Italian luxury liner that hit rocks and capsized with more than 1,000 passengers aboard two weeks ago (2/22/2012, 2:10am ET) --AR ONLINE--
DELETED APRIL 7, 2012
At least in sports, March 26 was a day when all was well in the world. Tony Stewart won the race. Kentucky was back in the Final Four. And Tiger Woods was was holding the winner's cup at the end of the fourth round. It was a day sports raconteur (that's a guy who talks a lot and tells great stories), historian and universal friend Bert Sugar, longtime editor of magazines like Ring and Argosy, former denizen of the Lion's Head and enyclopedic go-to guy for fact-hunting reporters, tossed out his cigar, took off his fedora and took his final rest at his home in Chautauqua, N.Y. - next door to the home of former President Bill Clinton, where he went to play poker. The American Reporter is saddened at his passing, and grateful for his generosity in the past, but rests sure in the knowledge tonight that his cromies at the Big Game are waiting eagerly to deal him back in (3/26/2012, 1:07am) --AR ONLINE--
Many Americans will be hearing the buzz but not necessarily the words as 6 hours of arguments - the most ever in recent times - are devoted to oral arguments in hearings on the Affordable Healthcaere Act in the august halls of the U.S. Supreme Court. Bending tradition, the Court will allow a transcript and an audio to be releaased at 1pm from today to Wednesday covering oral arguments completed each day. No video will be permitted. A ruling on the far-reaching law is expected in August. The most contentious issue is whether the government can require everyone to have or buy health insurance. Supporters of the bill point out that President George Washington in 1792, fearing future invasions, required every U.S. household to have or purchase a musket and 22 musketballs, and note that many states require every licensed car to have insurance. Not the same, opponents say: there is no basis in law for such a requirement, they say (3/26/2012, 1:34am) --AR ONLINE--
What if Iran is misleading us, and really building an EMP weapon? The rogue nation could do all of the work in the background as would-be nuclear inspectors try to swarm over a group of facilities that now seem likely to spur a fight between iran and Israel. But if, instead, the Iranians are developing an EMP (short for electromagnetic pulse) in a second, more deeply hidden program, the weapon would be far easier to hide, to deliver and use either against another country. Moreover, while dozens of nuclear weapoons could not extinguish the spirit of America, just one high-altitude burts of an EMP - according to a recent novel, "Without Warning" - could destroy an immense portion of the the entire nation's electrconic and electrical infrastructure (3/26/2012, 1:34am) --AR ONLINE--
deleted may 8, 2012
An NBC/Wall St. Journal poll released April 19 shows President Obama still leading challenger Mitt Romney by 6 precious percentage points, 49% to 43%. Other polls have the President leading by a smaller margin, and some have the two men tied. Clearly, only a dramatic event will reverse this electoral standoff. Huge donations have fueled a barely effective ad campaign against the President's energy policies, but few Americans are unaware the ads originate in money culled by a non-reporting PAC from the nation's oil and gas giants. But the President still has not taken advantage of an ace in his cards - the discovery revealed in January by NASA that the US space agency has identified "a new form of energy" that can make oil and gas obsolete, save consumers tens of billions in fuel costs and clean up the nation's air, while creatings tens of millions of new jobs in the application of the discovery (see article). (4/19/2012, 11:38am) --AR ONLINE--
TUESDAY, April 10, WAS THE 17th ANNIVERSARY OF THE AMERICAN REPORTER, THE FIRST DAILY NEWSPAPER, FIRST BLOG, AND THE FIRST DAILY NEWS SITE WITH ORIGINAL CONTENT ON THE INTERNET. THANK YOU FOR YOUR READERSHIP! (4/10/2012, 4:18am) --AR ONLINE--
DELETED MAY 29, 2012
Israel could attack Iran "at any moment," say some American diplomats after the main Israeli opposition party, Kadima, saw its leader embrace the conservative Likud Party of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and give Likud an unassailable majority in the Knesset. It was like the moderate Democrats joining the Republicans in the House of Representatives - unexpected and unwieldy. Meanwhile, much of the discussion about the supposed concerns of U.S. diplomats has taken place on right-wing Websites like LunaticOutpost.com, and U.S. major media is giving it short shrift. Politically, Netanyahu is now in quite the opposite situation he faced a few weeks ago, when leading political and military/intelligence figures (see next item) were condemning Netanyahu's seemingly headlong rush into a military confrontation with Iran over its alleged nuclear weapons program. Netanyahu was so unsettled by attacks on the Iran plan from former heads of the Mossad, the Israeli Defense Forces and Shin Bet and former Labour Party Prime Minister Ehud Olmert that he was reportedly ready to call for elections as soon as mid-June instead of at the end of 2013, when his term officially ends. Now the election timetable is restored and Netanyahu is almost certain to find strong support in the Knesset for an attack on Iran, which in many ways could be devastating not only to Iran but to Israel itself, foes of an attack have said. There have been substantial objections to the new coalition from moderate Kadima members of the Knesset, only 12 of whom turned out to hear the announcement of the coalition, while 16 failed to appear. If Netanyahu is willing to risk fracturing the coalition by staging an attack, he almost certainly has to do it before disaffected Kadima members fracture it themselves. The formation of the new coalition put the formerly fading Labour Party back in power as leader of the opposition, and its leaders still oppose the proposed war. In this volatile political environment, a resolution to the war issue could, indeed, occur "at any moment," and Israel could even suffer a pre-emptive attack on its own soil as a result (5/13/2012, 12:04am) --AR ONLINE--
The horrific toll of U.S. drug laws and Mexican drug cartel violence was compressed into a few short paragraphs in Sunday's New York Times.that should be universal reading in America: "A drug gang allied with the Sinaloa cartel left 35 bodies at a freeway overpass in Veracruz in September, and police found 32 other bodies, apparently killed by the same gang, a few days later. The goal apparently was to take over territory that had been dominated by the Zetas. Twenty-six bodies were found in November in Guadalajara, another territory being disputed by the Zetas and the Sinaloa group. … "So far this month, 23 bodies were found dumped or hanging in the city of Nuevo Laredo and 18 were found along a highway in Guadalajara, Mexico's second-largest city. "In April, police found the mutilated bodies of 14 men in a minivan abandoned in downtown Nuevo Laredo, along with a message from an undisclosed drug gang. Also in April, the tortured and bound bodies of seven men were dumped in the Pacific port city of Lazaro Cardenas along with messages signed by allies of the Sinaloa drug gang. "Officials last year found 193 bodies in mass graves in the Tamaulipas state town of San Fernando. They were believed to have been migrants killed by the Zetas drug cartel. Another 72 migrants, many of them from Central America, were found slain in San Fernando in 2010.” (5/13/2012, 3:51pm) --AR ONLINE--
Former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Ohlmert has added his to the chorus of powerful voices that are urging PM Benjamin Netanyahu not to attack Iran before sanctions are given a full opportunity to slow its alleged production of weapons-grade uranium in pursuit of an atomic weapon. Joining the former heads of the Mossad and Shin Bet is the former top general in the Israeli Defense Forces, Gabi Ashkenazi, and the former commander of the Israeli Air Force, Eliezer Shkedy. Ohlmert, speaking to American Jews in Washington, was roundly booed as he offered support for President Barack Obama and urged Netanyahu to continue on a diplomatic path to a resolution of differences with Iran, the New York Times reported. Meanwhile, in an Executive Order later Tuesday, President Obama further tightened sanctions on Iran and Syria (5/1/2012, 4:31pm) --AR ONLINE--
With criticism leveled by fiery ex-Mossad chief Meir Dagan and the former head Shin Bet, Israel's equivalent of the FBI, a united front backing hard-line Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu on the possibility of attacking Iran has apparently crumbled. Now, Netanyahu must pick up the pieces before the embarassment becomes fatal to his re-election chances. Dagan started the revolt by declaring that an attack seemed unnecessary because President Barack Obama's sanctions are working, he said. A week later, former Shin Bet chief Yuval Diskin accused Likud leaders Netanyahu and Ehud Barak of exaggerating the impact an attack would have on Iran's underground weapons facilities. But this sudden revolt, which certainly seems to have been orchestrated, may be an Israeli feint to prompt Iran to relax before it is struck a devastating blow that WOULD perhaps cripple the suspected Iranian weapons program. Alarmingly, however, it may be that the only way Israel's weapons can have a major impact is if they are nuclear weapons, perhaps of a low-yield grade (4/29/2012, 11:53pm) --AR ONLINE--
It's remarkable how some government entities can set themselves up for unrest. In the Rodney King case, for instance, it was widely believed riots would follow a not guilty verdict, and few believed the Simi Valley, Calif., jury would return anything else. The decision to charge George Zimmerman sets up the same kind of circumstances. Second-degree murder is a very hard charge to prove, as it requires the prosecution establish the defendant had an "evil" or "depraved" state of mind at the time of the crime. That well may be unprovable. But if, as in the Casey Anthony case, the central Fla. jury returns a "not guilty" verdict, both Orlando and Miami, and perhaps Tampa, are likely to see unrest as a result. A manslaughter charge would not have been so likely to cause either a "not guilty" verdict or civil unrest. It's always easier to view such choices after the fact and find fault with them, yet in this case, it seems far more likely that manslaughter was closer to the defendant's intent than "evil" thinking or the outright homicidal intent that would require a first degree murder filing. (4/11/2012, 10:43pm) --AR ONLINE--
The American Reporter wishes the peace and joy of the Easter season will bless all of our readers throughout the year (4/6/2012, 12:12am) --AR ONLINE--
She is the monarch that "launched a thousand ships" on the River Thames today, the 60th Anniverary of her June 2, 1942, royal coronation. The Queen of England, HRH Elizabeth II, now 86, seemed her jovial and happy self celebrating her Diamond Jubilee. She smiled and waved often as she surveyed millions of British subjects that lined the banks of an ancient river where Viking longboats once sailed as they came to pillage London. On board her boat, "The Spirit of Chartwell," was a magnificent display of British pomp and splendor, one that evoked for the millions watching the greatest days of Empire (6/3/2012, 11:52am) --AR ONLINE--
The discovery of bits of 27% highly enriched uranium sent shudders through the world's non-proliferation community. It is not clear whther the enriched uranium was weapons-grade, whicvh can bem 90% entriched, but it was found in nuclear facilities; Iran said it was the byproduct of "routine technical issues." Meanwhile, a US-based research institute said Iran has enriched enough uranium to make five nuclear weapons over the past five years. So far, it has not yet been shown that the enriched uranium was a product of the enrichment facilities that International Atomic Energy Agency inspectors want to see, but it doesn't typically fall out of the sky. The anomaly may precipitate another round of pro-war rhetoric in Israel, where leading figures in the intelligence community and the military have warned of the futility of an attack on deeply buried enrichment and weapon fabrication facilities. It is now feared that the futility of an attack may not overcome the enthusiasm for one, which had been waning quite sharply as the world community, led by the United States warned against one (5/28/2012, 12:20am) --AR ONLINE--
Several developments, while not clearly related, have changed the equation that will decide whether Israel goes to war by attacking Iran without military provocation. First, the American Ambassador to Israel and high-ranking officials have stated that all the plans, preparations and non-critical choices have alredy been made and Israel is now "ready" to attack Iran. On the other side of that equation, White House and State Dept. insiders say they have grown optimistic that six-party talks on Iran's nuclear weapons program are now more likely to achieve positive results and also prevent strong oil sanctions to go into effect in July, with possibly catastrophic results for the most fragile economies in Europe and Asia. If we were to place a bet on the matter, however, it would be that Israel will not launch an attack before the US elections, and would then rely on asserted support from contender Mitt Romney, presuming his election as President. According to a survey by the highly conservative Pew Charitable Trustm, more than 60% of Americans and high percentages of some 26,000 people surveyed around the world support military action against Iran. (5/20/2012, 12:01am) --AR ONLINE--
The American Reporter - the world's first online daily newspaper, founded 18 years ago - has been barred from today's media walkthrough of the Tampa Bay Times Forum, site of the Aug. 27-30 Republican National Convention, after it criticized media arrangements for the conventions in 2008. The paper also revealed in a Jan. 24 interview with a University of South Florida professor of conomics that this year's convention will come at a substantial cost to Tampa taxpayers for law enforcement training, highway closures and other convention "necessities" (5/13/2012, 8:42am) --AR ONLINE--
Why don't the men who want to lead this nation - i.e., the GOP candidates for President - talk about the issue that is dividing and stigmatizing across the country: the George Zimmerman-Trayvon Martin story? Obviously, it's a controversy they don't want to touch: but what will happen if they become President? Will they also fail to take on the burning issues of the day? (4/1/2012, 11:38pm) --AR ONLINE--
Copyright 2013 Joe Shea The American Reporter. All Rights Reserved.
*CLG is Citizens for Legitimate Government, a progressive, Internet-based muckraking news organization.