TV News LIES

The Idaho Senate on Monday approved a measure requiring women seeking abortions to undergo an ultrasound before ending a pregnancy, joining a number of states passing ultrasound measures to discourage abortions.

The bill now heads to the state House of Representatives, where it was expected to pass. Idaho's Republican Governor, C.L. "Butch" Otter has not yet said whether he would sign the bill into law and a spokesman declined to comment on Monday.

Explosions rocked four cities across Iraq today, including a bombing near the Foreign Ministry in Baghdad where the annual Arab League summit is due to be held next week.

A total of 27 people were killed and 161 wounded in the explosions in the capital as well as in Kirkuk, Salaheddin, Karbala, Hilla and Ramadi, according to Health Ministry and police officials. The highest toll was in Karbala, where 13 people were killed and 58 others wounded, Health Ministry local spokesman Jamal Mehdi said in a telephone interview.

The fourth annual report released today Monday March 19 2012 by the UNHCR has criticized the involvement of Israel, the Palestinian Authority and the de-facto authorities in the Gaza Strip in human rights violations and abuses. The report focused on and exposed the Israeli practices against Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. The report covers the period from December 1 2010 until November 15 2011.

The fourth annual report of the Commissioner on the situation of human rights in Palestine and other occupied Arab territories ” the number of cases documented by UNHCR indicate that the IDF most often uses live ammunition against unarmed Palestinians”.

The discovery of radioactive tissue boxes at Bed, Bath & Beyond Inc. (BBBY) stores in January raised alarms among nuclear security officials and company executives over the growing global threat of contaminated scrap metal.

As U.S. and European leaders tackle the proliferation of weapons-grade uranium or plutonium in countries like Iran and North Korea, industries are confronting the impact of loose nuclear material in an international scrap-metal market worth at least $140 billion, according to the Brussels-based Bureau of International Recycling. Radioactive items used to power medical, military and industrial hardware are melted down and used in goods, driving up company costs as they withdraw tainted products and threatening the public’s health.

“If the American economic system is set up to reward risk takers, what happens when the majority of Americans are no longer willing to take risks?” said David Bowers, managing director of Absolute Strategy Research, a London-based investment consultancy that commissioned the research.

Fairness was the biggest perceived flaw in the economic model – only 20 per cent of Americans said it “distributes wealth and income fairly”. Majorities said the US system did not provide equal opportunities for everyone or reward people for their hard work and skill.

The natural gas industry defends hydraulic fracturing, better known as fracking, as safe and efficient. Thomas J. Pyle, president of the Institute for Energy Research, a pro-industry non-profit organization, claims fracking has been “a widely deployed as safe extraction technique,” dating back to 1949.

What he doesn’t say is that until recently energy companies had used low-pressure methods to extract natural gas from fields closer to the surface than the current high-pressure technology that extracts more gas, but uses significantly more water, chemicals, and elements.

Chicago native Ellie Lavi could not have been happier when she gave birth to beautiful twin girls overseas. She found that the U.S. State Department did not share in her joy when she went to the U.S. Embassy in Tel Aviv to apply for citizenship for her children.

An embassy staffer wanted to know whether Lavi got pregnant at a fertility clinic. She said yes and was told that her children were not eligible for citizenship unless she could prove that the egg or sperm used to create the embryo was from an American citizen.

There is a great story about an editor at UPI long ago, back in the 1970s, who inserted advice to journalists in a foreword to that organization's style guide for writers:  A burro is an ass, a burrow is a hole in the ground:  you are expected to know the difference between the two.

What great advice for Republican candidates vying for their party's coronation!  These guys are already phenomenally low in wattage as illumination of any real issue goes, so, that simple advice should be hugely helpful to them, too!