Undernews For 23 January 2009

UNDERNEWS
The news while there's still time to do something about it

THE PROGRESSIVE REVIEW
Editor: Sam Smith

EMAIL US

REVIEW E-MAIL UPDATES
REVIEW INDEX
UNDERNEWS
XML FEED

23 January 2009

WORD
What is primarily secret is what is a secret and what isn't; that is perhaps the actual state secret. - Hans Magnus Enzensberger

PAGE ONE MUST
UNIONS: THE FOLKS WHO BROUGHT YOU THE US AIRWAYS RESCUE
Empty Wheel - They're calling it a miracle--the successful landing of a US Airways jet in the Hudson and subsequent rescue of all 155 passengers. They're detailing the heroism of all involved, starting with the pilot and including cabin crew, ferry crews, and first responders. What they're not telling you is that just about every single one of these heroes is a union member.

The pilot, Chesley Sullenberger, is a former national committee member and the former safety chairman for the Airline Pilots Association and now represented by US Airline Pilots Association. He--and his union--have fought to ensure pilots get the kind of safety training to pull off what he did yesterday.

Then there are the flight attendants: They are members of the Association of Flight Attendants-CWA.

There are the air traffic controllers: They're represented by the National Air Traffic Controllers Association.

There are the ferry crews: They're represented by the Seafarers International Union. They provide safety training to their members so they're prepared for events like yesterday's accident.

There are the cops and firemen: They're represented by the Patrolmen's Benevolent Association and the Uniformed Firefighters Association and Uniformed Fire Officers Association.

Bob Corker and Richard Shelby like to claim that union labor is a failed business model. But I haven't heard much about Bob Corker and Richard Shelby saving 155 people's lives.
GATES SAYS WE'LL BE IN AFGHANISTAN FOR YEARS
CNS - Defense Secretary Robert Gates predicts the U.S. will be in Afghanistan for years to come. In an article in the current issue of Foreign Affairs, Gates laid out the state of the U.S. military -- and how well it is poised to face the future. .

"To be blunt, to fail -- or to be seen to fail -- in either Iraq or Afghanistan would be a disastrous blow to U.S. credibility, both among friends and allies and among potential adversaries," Gates wrote.

Gates said the number of U.S. combat units in Iraq will decline over time – "as it was going to do no matter who was elected president in November," he added. "Still, there will continue to be some kind of U.S. advisory and counterterrorism effort in Iraq for years to come," he said. In Afghanistan, however, troop levels will likely continue to increase in the year ahead.

"Afghanistan in many ways poses an even more complex and difficult long-term challenge than Iraq -- one that, despite a large international effort, will require a significant U.S. military and economic commitment for some time," the defense secretary and former CIA head wrote.
OBAMA READY TO SWITCH AFGHAN PUPPETS IN MID STREAM
Independent, UK - Barack Obama's arrival in the White House and the wind of change sweeping through Washington could lead to the ousting from power of Hamid Karzai, President of Afghanistan, The Independent has learnt.

International support for Mr Karzai, who was once the darling of the West, has waned spectacularly, amid worsening violence, endemic corruption and weak leadership. But until very recently, diplomats insisted there were no viable alternatives even as fighting has intensified and the Taliban insurgency in the south has grown. But four key figures believed to be challenging Mr Karzai have arrived in Washington for meetings with Obama administration officials this week. There is now talk of a "dream ticket" that would see the main challengers run together to unite the country's various ethnic groups and wrest control away from Mr Karzai. . .
PELOSI DOES SOMETHING RIGHT FOR A CHANGE
This was one of the ways that the New Deal got things done fast and well in the Depression. It is an indication of the times we live in that today some consider it radical

Washington Post - House Speaker Nancy Pelosi gave her support to legislation that would allow bankruptcy judges to modify troubled mortgages, saying it is a "very high priority and should be passed as soon as possible."

Democrats have been considering whether to include the provision in the economic stimulus package making its way through Congress or attempt to pass it as a stand-alone bill. "Either way, I'd like to get it passed as soon as possible," the California Democrat said.

House Majority Leader Steny H. Hoyer (D-Md.) told reporters that the provision has support in both the House and Senate, but its inclusion in economic stimulus legislation would probably make it more difficult for that package to pass in the Senate. "President Obama, as you know, said he is for doing this but would prefer not to do this in the package because this package is so critical to get this done," Hoyer said. "Whether or not it is included in this bill or subsequent bill still remains to be seen."

Some Democrats, including Sen. Richard J. Durbin of Illinois, have been pushing for the provision since 2007, but have faced strong resistance from the banking industry. The effort received a boost earlier this month when Citigroup reached a deal with Senate leaders to support the provision. According to a congressional aide, two other large banks are actively negotiating with Durbin.

Pelosi's comments came as the House Judiciary Committee debated versions of the legislation, which would allow bankruptcy judges to change the terms of a mortgage by reducing its interest rate, extending its length or lowering the loan balance, known as cram down provisions.

"A year ago modifying mortgages in bankruptcy seemed radical," Adam J. Levitin, a Georgetown University associate law professor, told the committee. "Now it is a moderate response. Our choices today are bankruptcy modification or nothing."
EMENDATION
Sam Smith - One of the pleasures of editing the Review is a readership of limitless knowledge on the most obscure matters. There was a time, for example, when I was almost afraid to mention any specific type of airplane because I was sure that I would be challenged on wingspan, range, altitude or similar issues.

But one of the skills of a reporter is the ability to cover your ass in as few words as possible. That why you see the word "allegedly" so frequently or "some critics say, however."

Thus I knew I was taking a risk when I quoted a 19th century congressman but thought I was safe in writing, "I prefer the Missouri motto that some say stems from an 1899 speech by Congressman Willard Vandiver, when he declared, 'I come from a country that raises corn and cotton, cockleburs and Democrats, and frothy eloquence neither convinces nor satisfies me. I'm from Missouri, and you have got to show me.'"

Review reader (as well as former National Security Council staffer and author of the best biography of Bill Clinton) Roger Morris, however, hails from Missouri and saw through the guile of "some say." His grandmother actually knew Vandiver and Morris "always heard he had stolen the 'show me' from some unknown forerunner, and that was hardly the only way he was ahead of his time. Story told he quit Congress to go on the take as state insurance commissioner, then a bigwig in big insurance company, then on to assistant secretary of Treasury under Wilson. We of the 'show me state' invented 'show me the money' long before the movie line. Vandiver had started as a local teacher around Kansas City, and fondly remembered as the only teacher in Missouri who ended up with a million-dollar pension."

As for Obama, Morris writes, "I agree he is probably what a friend of mine once called an Afghan regime -- a 'sheep in wolf's clothing.'"
LOOK WHO'S SAVING THE NEW YORK TIMES
Newsosaur - Carlos Slim Helu, whose fortune of approximately $60 billion makes him the second-wealthiest man in the world, was reported by the Wall Street Journal over the weekend to be negotiating a financing that would prevent the New York Times Co. from possibly defaulting on $400 million in debt due in May. . .

Slim finds himself in a position to do so as the result of the wealth he amassed by owning a near-monopoly over both wired and mobile telephone services throughout Mexico.

Slim-s success as a businessman was the topic of a bluntly worded column by Times editorial writer Eduardo Porter in August, 2007. Here-s some of what he had to say:

"Mr. Slim is richer even than the robber barons of the gilded age. . It takes about nine of the captains of industry and finance of the 19th and early 20th Centuries - [John D.] Rockefeller, Cornelius Vanderbilt, John J. Astor, Andrew Carnegie, Alexander Stewart, Frederick Weyerhaeuser, Jay Gould and Marshall Field - to replicate the footprint that Mr. Slim has left on Mexico.

"But the momentous scale is not the most galling aspect of Mr. Slim-s riches. There-s the issue of theft. . . Mr. Slim-s sin, if not technically criminal, is like that of Rockefeller, the sin of the monopolist.

"In 1990, the government of President Carlos Salinas de Gortari sold his friend Mr. Slim the Mexican national phone company, Telmex, along with a de facto commitment to maintain its monopoly for years. Then it awarded Telmex the only nationwide cellphone license.

"When competitors were eventually allowed in, Telmex kept them at bay with some rather creative gambits, like getting a judge to issue an arrest warrant for the top lawyer of a competitor. Today, it still has a 90% share of Mexico-s landline phone service and controls almost three-quarters of the cellphone market..

"But Mexico has paid, dearly. In 2005, there were fewer than 20 fixed telephone lines for every 100 Mexicans, and less than half had cellphones. Just 9% of households had Internet access. Mexicans pay way above average for all these services."
CREEPING BANK NATIONALIZATION
Pro Publica - The big question these days is whether the government will step in and take over the nation's faltering major banks. Details in the government's recent agreement with Citigroup to limit the bank's losses show how the Bush administration was haltingly moving in the direction of a takeover, but only after significant further losses at the bank.

Last November, government officials intervened to halt Citigroup's free fall. The Treasury Department ponied up $20 billion in exchange for preferred shares. That's on top of the $25 billion pumped into Citigroup as part of the original move to bail out banks. As part of the November deal, regulators also agreed to backstop a $301 billion pool of assets by absorbing a portion of the losses beyond a certain point. (The government recently struck a similar deal with Bank of America.)

Last week, Citigroup finally released the details of that agreement in an SEC filing. It provides for government officials to dictate management of the assets should losses exceed $27 billion.

Here's how the deal will work: $301 billion in assets are covered. Citi will absorb the first $39.5 billion in losses -- this is referred to as Citi's "deductible" in the agreement. If the losses continue past the deductible, the government will absorb 90 percent of the losses. A trio of governmental agencies would pay that share: The Treasury would first use $5 billion from the TARP, then FDIC would put up $10 billion, and a Federal Reserve loan would provide the last resort. As a fee, the Treasury and FDIC together are receiving a total of $7.06 billion of preferred stock in Citi -- bringing the government's total holdings of Citi preferred stock to $52.06 billion. . .

The agreement calls for increased oversight once losses hit $19 billion. At that point, the government can demand "increased reporting, communication or audit requirements," appoint a government official to sit on the oversight committee, and reduce the compensation of the Citi officials managing the assets.

If losses reach $27 billion, the government can essentially seize management of the assets. The government could tap another company to do the job and "change the fundamental business objective of Citigroup" from "maximizing the long-term value" of the assets to "minimizing losses." In such a scenario, the government will have effectively seized control of a large portion of Citigroup's assets (about 15 percent) -- a kind of partial nationalization -- but only after the bottom falls out.
ALL IN THE FAMILY
Jeff Stein, CQ Spy Talk - Longtime megawatt diplomat John D. Negroponte may have made his bones in Republican administrations, but his next act will take him to a powerful consulting firm run by former Bill Clinton chief of staff Thomas F. "Mack" McLarty according to an item by Al Kamen in The Washington Post. . .

Lest conservatives despair that the outgoing Deputy Secretary of State (and first head of National Intelligence) has gone over to the dark side, though, they should note that McLarty was partners with Henry Kissinger (as Kissinger McCarty Associates) from 1999 to a year ago. Their apparently amicable January 2008 dissolution was over strategy and the allocation of resources and income, according to a report at the time.
Recovered History
World Socialist - From 1981 to 1985, Negroponte was the US ambassador in Honduras, overseeing operations that included the illegal funding of the Contra mercenaries and a massive buildup of the Honduran armed forces, including the construction of bases, air fields and supply dumps throughout the country.

Among these facilities was the El Aguacate air base, built on the pretext of providing a temporary facility for the thousands of US troops that were rotated through Honduras on "training" exercises. In reality, it was used to provide a permanent facility for the Contras and to funnel aid to these right-wing mercenaries in violation of restrictions imposed by the US Congress. In 1999, mass graves were discovered at the site, along with blood-stained jail cells.

While he was ambassador to Honduras, Negroponte supervised a 20-fold increase in US military aid to the country, which he aggressively defended as a model of democracy in Central America.

During this same period, hundreds of people were kidnapped and "disappeared," including a number of union leaders, student organizers and other opponents of the military-dominated regime. Prisoners were routinely tortured on the direct orders of the chief of the Honduran armed forces.

Much of this dirty work was carried out by a unit known as Battalion 316, whose members were trained in the United States and "advised" by the CIA in Honduras. While issuing his glowing endorsements of the Honduran regime's human rights record, Negroponte was intimately familiar with the grisly work of these killers. . .

Honduras was not Negroponte's first introduction to US covert operations and mass killing. He began his climb up the national security establishment ladder as a political affairs officer at the US Embassy in Saigon from 1964 to 1968, a position that often serves as a cover for CIA operatives.

From 1969 to 1971, he was an aide to Henry Kissinger in the Paris negotiations with the Hanoi government, reportedly criticizing Kissinger for making too many concessions to the Vietnamese. From 1971 to 1973, he oversaw operations in Vietnam for the National Security Council, then headed by Kissinger. Thus, for nine years he played a direct role in prosecuting a US war that killed millions of Vietnamese.

Progressive Review - 1984: Ronald Reagan wants to send the National Guard to Honduras to help in the war against the Contras. Massachusetts Governor Michael Dukakis goes to the Supreme Court in a futile effort to stop it but Clinton is happy to oblige, even sending his own security chief, Buddy Young, [later FEMA official] along to keep an eye on things. Winding up its tour, the Arkansas Guard declares large quantities of its weapons "excess" and leaves them behind for the Contras.

Terry Allen, In These Times: According to a 1995 four-part series in the Baltimore Sun, hundreds of Hondurans were kidnapped, tortured and killed by Battalion 316, a secret army intelligence unit trained and supported by the Central Intelligence Agency. As Gary Cohn and Ginger Thompson wrote in the series, Battalion 316 used "shock and suffocation devices in interrogations. Prisoners often were kept naked and, when no longer useful, killed and buried in unmarked graves." Members of Battalion 316 were trained in surveillance and interrogation at a secret location in the United States and by the CIA at bases in Honduras . . . Negroponte tried to distance himself from the pattern of abuses, even after a flood of declassified documents exposed the extent of US involvement with Battalion 316. In a segment of the 1998 CNN mini-series Cold War, Negroponte said that "some of the retrospective effort to try and suggest that we were supportive of, or condoned the actions of, human rights violators is really revisionistic."
COMMUNITIES ORGANIZING AGAINST FORECLOSURES
Ben Ehrenreich, Nation - Community-based movements to halt the flood of foreclosures have been building across the country. They turned out in Cleveland once again in October, when a coalition of grassroots housing groups rallied outside the Cuyahoga County courthouse, calling for a foreclosure freeze and constructing a mock graveyard of Styrofoam headstones bearing the names of local communities decimated by the housing crisis. (They did not, unfortunately, stop the more than 1,000 foreclosure filings in the county the following month.) In Boston the Neighborhood Assistance Corporation of America began protesting in front of Countrywide Financial offices in October 2007. Within weeks, Countrywide had agreed to work with the group to renegotiate loans. In Philadelphia ACORN and other community organizations helped to pressure the city council to order the county sheriff to halt foreclosure auctions this past March. Philadelphia has since implemented a program mandating "conciliation conferences" between defaulting homeowners and lenders. ACORN organizers say the program has a 78 percent success rate at keeping people in their homes. One activist group in Miami has taken a more direct approach to the crisis, housing homeless families in abandoned bank-owned homes without waiting for government permission.

It's unlikely, though, that any of these activists will be able to relax soon. Other than calling for a ninety-day freeze on foreclosures--which, given that loan negotiations can take many months to work out, would almost certainly be inadequate--President Obama has been consistently vague about his plans to address the foreclosure crisis. He has indicated his support for a $24 billion program proposed in November by FDIC chair Sheila Bair, which would offer banks incentives to renegotiate loans, aiming to reduce mortgage payments to 31 percent of homeowners' monthly income. Obama's economic team has since worked with House Financial Services Committee chair Barney Frank on a bill that would require that between $40 billion and $100 billion of what's left in the bailout package be spent on an unspecified foreclosure mitigation program. It would be left to Obama's Treasury Department to design that program. But Frank's and Bair's proposed plans are voluntary. Banks that choose not to accept federal assistance won't have to renegotiate a single loan.
TREE DEATH RATE DOUBLES
Dan Shapley, Daily Green - Trees are dying at more than twice the rate they were just a few decades ago, and rising temperatures is most likely to blame, according to a new report published in Science by scientists with the U.S. Geologic Survey. The death rate is not limited to a single species or region, but was described as "pervasive" across all forest types, all elevations, in trees of all sizes. Pines, firs, hemlocks and other kinds of trees all showed the same "worrying" decline.

The end result could be "substantial changes in Western forests," according to the report's lead co-author, Phil van Mantgem: more wildfires, fewer wildlife species and forests as sources of the atmospheric carbon that causes global warming, not sinks.

In other words, the very problem causing these trees to die will be enhanced by the fact of their dying. That is what scientists cause a positive feedback loop, and it's one of the most terrifying aspects of global warming. Force too many of these feedback loops, and you get a runaway global warming scenario that no carbon taxes or energy efficiency improvements will counteract.
SOLVING THE THIRD RAIL PROBLEM IN MASS TRANSIT
Richard Layman, Urban Places & Spaces - Transport Politic reports that Bombardier, the Canadian rail vehicle and airplane manufacturer, has introduced reliable underground third rail powering for outside use for streetcar and light rail systems. (The Alstom system used in Bordeaux hasn't proved to be reliable or easily used in snowy climates.)

In the old days, underground powering of streetcars was not uncommon. However, "modern" safety standards would not allow the installation and use of similar systems today. DC has a law banning overhead wires in the original "City of Washington" which we commonly call the "L'Enfant City" as well as Georgetown. This has been one of the many holdups over moving forward with streetcar planning in DC.:

The PRIMOVE system’s outstanding feature is its safe and contactless power transfer. Its electric supply components are invisible, hidden under the vehicle and beneath the track. This is a key benefit in historic or environmentally protected areas of cities. . .

Sam Smith's Memoir - Washington had streetcars, noisy double-enders and the streamlined Presidential Conference Cars the heads of the nation' trolley lines had adopted as a new standard the year I was born. Streetcars, Griffith Stadium, and the Library of Congress were about the only places in Washington that were not segregated. In an early successful civil rights protest, Sojourner Truth and other black leaders had successfully petitioned against plans to separate blacks and whites on horse-drawn trolleys.

The segregation of the rest of DC, unlike elsewhere in the south, was one of custom rather than law, but it was just as effective. And when one of the city's streetcars crossed the line into Virginia, blacks were required to move to the rear.

The streetcars stopped traffic as they turned corners, clanged bells and generally displayed admirable supremacy over everything in their way. To me as a boy, power in Washington was represented not by politicians or lobbyists but by the streetcars.

Local regulation prohibited overhead wires in the downtown section. This rule, as far as I was concerned, produced two major benefits. Downtown there was a third rail and in snow and ice the streetcars' connectors rubbing against the third rail would produce a gorgeous bluish plume of sparks. Even better, the 30 line ran up Wisconsin Avenue and switched from third rail to overhead lines just a few blocks from my house. There a man sat in a hole in the street. A streetcar would stop over the hole, and the man would raise or lower the trolley and change the third rail connector. To a young boy, observing this border crossing was second only to eating ice cream from Stohlman's.
OBAMA TO OVERTURN FAMILY PLANNING ADVICE BAN
Guardian, UK - President Barack Obama is to make the most contentious move of his young administration with an order overturning a ban on federal funds to foreign family planning organizations that either offer abortions or provide information or counseling about abortion.

The rule change continues the dismantling of George Bush's conservative policies. It is likely to encounter fierce criticism from the still robust anti-abortion movement.

It will allow US aid, usually through the US agency for international development, to flow to HIV/Aids clinics, birth-control providers and other organizations that advocate or provide counseling about abortion across the world. It is known as the "global gag rule" because it denies US taxpayer dollars to clinics that even mention abortion to women with unplanned pregnancies.

The rule was signed by President Ronald Reagan in 1984, overturned by Bill Clinton in 1993, and reinstated by Bush. Critics of the rule say it deprives the world's poor women of desperately needed medical care, while proponents say US tax dollars should not promote abortion.
OBAMA WON'T BAN RENDITIONS
La Times - Retired Navy Adm. Dennis C. Blair, the president's nominee to serve as the next director of national intelligence, testified that the government would withhold specifics from any new interrogation document for fear that "we not turn our manual into a training manual for our adversaries." In testimony during his confirmation hearing, Blair declined to say whether he thought the interrogation technique known as waterboarding -- in which a prisoner is doused with water to create the sensation of drowning -- was torture.

When pressed on the issue, Blair said he did not want to "put in jeopardy" CIA officers who had employed the method. Asked whether CIA interrogations had been effective, Blair said, "I'll have to look into that more closely." Sen. Carl Levin (D-Mich.), a member of the intelligence committee, said he found Blair's responses "troubling." . . . "There will be no waterboarding on my watch," Blair said. "No torture on my watch.". .

Obama's orders did not ban the controversial CIA practice of "extraordinary rendition," in which prisoners are transferred by the CIA from one country to another. Those transfers can continue, according to the orders, as long as prisoners are not taken to other nations "to face torture" or as part of a CIA effort to circumvent international laws on detainee treatment. "There are some renditions that are, in fact, justifiable, defensible," said the senior Obama administration official. "There's not going to be rendition to any country that engages in torture."
HEALTH INSURANCE COMPANIES SPYING ON PRESCRIPTION RECORDS
Another problem raised by Obama's medical records plan: abuse by the insurance companies he wants still to be major players in our medical system.

Joanne Waldron, Natural News - The Washington Post reports that health and life insurance companies use a type of consumer health "credit report" that is derived from databases containing the prescription medication records on over 200 million Americans. In fact, some insurers are already testing information systems that contain information about the laboratory test results on patients. Previously, in order to determine insurability, insurance companies had to rely on records obtained directly from physician's offices. Insurers these days, however, rely on records that are obtained electronically at a very low cost (currently about 15 bucks), and these records are often used to deny people health insurance. . .

Some of the information stored about each consumer includes a history of five years worth of prescription medications and dosages, dates they were filled/refilled, the therapeutic classes of the drugs, and the name and address of the doctor who prescribed each medication. From this information, each consumer is assigned an expected risk score (kind of like a credit rating, except instead of measuring one's credit worthiness, it measures one's expected health risk).

It is doubtful that most doctors bother to warn their patients that taking optional or unnecessary medications could make it impossible or very expensive to get health insurance. In fact, most patients mistakenly believe that it is illegal for companies to sell private consumer health information. Nothing could be further from the truth.

For instance, according to the aforementioned Washington Post article, one doctor reported that she prescribed a drug called Amitriptyline for migraine headaches, and the patient was then denied life insurance due to the fact the medication was also an antidepressant. The article also asserts that insurers also leap to conclusions about patients' probable health outcomes if they notice that patients are taking the highest possible dosage of, say, a cholesterol medication.
BREVITAS
OBAMALAND

Declan McCullagh, CNET - Obama has selected the Business Software Alliance's top anti-piracy enforcer and general counsel, Neil MacBride, for a senior Justice Department post. Among other duties, MacBride has been responsible for the BSA's program that rewarded people for phoning in tips about suspected software piracy. Neil MacBride, vice president of antipiracy and general counsel to the Business Software Alliance, Obama's pick for associate deputy attorney general. MacBride was also an aide to Vice President Joe Biden. . .

The elevation of RIAA and BSA lawyers must feel like a poke in the eye to the copyleft and progressive crowd, who spent over a year showering Obama with praise. . . BSA has opposed changes to the Digital Millennium Copyright Act's anti-circumvention section, once saying that legislation to allow backup copies of DVDs or video games would provide a "safe harbor for pirates who could easily claim that the 'intent' of their actions were legal." Early in the campaign, Obama told CNET News that he would support such a law, but hedged it by saying his support was "in concept" only. (He also claimed at the time to oppose retroactive immunity for telcos that illegally opened their networks to the National Security Agency, and we know how that turned out.)

Politico - President Obama made a surprise visit to the White House press corps Thursday night, but got agitated when he was faced with a substantive question. Asked how he could reconcile a strict ban on lobbyists in his administration with a Deputy Defense Secretary nominee who lobbied for Raytheon, Obama interrupted with a knowing smile on his face. "Ahh, see," he said, "I came down here to visit. See this is what happens. I can't end up visiting with you guys and shaking hands if I'm going to get grilled every time I come down here."

Someone should explain to Obama that reporters are hired to ask questions and not shake hands.

INAUGURATION

Channel 4, DC - The musical composition heard by millions at the inauguration was actually an audio tape, recorded days earlier. Carole Florman, spokesperson for the Join Congressional Committee on Inaugural Ceremonies, says it was too cold for the instruments to stay in tune, so the famed quartet decided to use the taped version. It was 28 degrees at 12:00 pm, when Cellist Yo-Yo Ma, violinist Izhak Perlman, pianist Gabriella Montero and clarinetist Anthony McGill began their performance. . Ceremony attendees with seats near the musicians could hear them play, but the instruments were not amplified

HEALTH & SCIENCE

Discover Magazine - According to the first rigorous nationwide survey of how evolution is taught in U.S public schools, as many as one in eight high school biology teachers presents creationism or intelligent design as a viable scientific alternative to evolution. . . About one in six of the surveyed teachers espoused young earth creationist views, and most of them taught their students those views. Only 23 percent strongly agreed that evolution was a central theme in their teaching.

Press Watch - The European Medicines Agency said that patients prescribed Novartis's Ritalin and other similar hyperactivity drugs should be screened for heart and psychiatric problems before and after they start treatment. The EMEA said the drugs were safe for use in the treatment of children and adolescents over the age of 6, but recommended that all patients be checked for heart-rate or blood-pressure problems and asked about any family history of heart disease. It also warned that the drugs could cause or worsen depression, suicidal thoughts, hostility, psychosis and mania.

ARTS & CULTURE

Mashable - Monty Python's You Tube channel? [has] a selection of their brilliant (as always) clips, and it's got links to buy their DVDs on Amazon. As those crazy Monty Python dudes put it, "We're letting you see absolutely everything for free. So there! But we want something in return. None of your driveling, mindless comments. Instead, we want you to click on the links, buy our movies & TV shows and soften our pain and disgust at being ripped off all these years." And you know what? Despite the entertainment industry's constant cries about how bad they're doing, it works. As we wrote yesterday, Monty Python's DVDs climbed to No. 2 on Amazon's Movies & TV bestsellers list, with increased sales of 23,000 percent. Similar approach worked for Nine Inch Nails and other artists. And yet, lately we hear more about various restrictions to free redistribution of copyrighted content than ever before.

FURTHERMORE. . .

MSNBC - A Nebraska Lottery official says the winning numbers for the state's Pick 3 lottery on Tuesday were exactly the same as the winning combination from the night before. Lottery spokesman Brian Rockey says one of two lottery computers that randomly generate combinations picked the numbers 1, 9 and 6 - in that order - for Monday night's drawing. He says the other computer picked the same three numbers Tuesday in the same sequence. The odds of such an occurrence? One in a million.

Illinois Governor Blagojevich says his arrest was a surprise like the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, but, like America, he will prevail.

An Israeli is going through customs at JFK. The customs officer asks, "Occupation?" and the Israeli says, "No, I'm just visiting."

ENDS

© Scoop Media