TV News LIES

The Supreme Court on Monday upheld the centuries-old tradition of offering prayers at government meetings.

The 5-4 decision avoided two alternatives that the justices clearly sought to avoid: having government leaders parse prayers, or outlawing them altogether. It was written by Justice Anthony Kennedy, with the court's conservatives agreeing and its liberals dissenting.

It was a narrow victory for the Town of Greece, N.Y., which was taken to court by two women who argued that a plethora of overtly Christian prayers at town board meetings violated their rights.

Nine acrobats were seriously injured Sunday after falling from an aerial platform during a circus performance, a safety official said. The accident happened at around 11:45 a.m. during the Ringling Brothers and Barnum and Bailey Circus' Legends show at the Dunkin' Donuts Center in Providence.

Providence Public Safety Commissioner Steven Pare said the acrobats fell 25 to 40 feet, but officials and inspectors haven't yet determined what caused the accident.

He says, "Obviously, something went wrong."

Advocates for sexual assault victims are furious with a Texas judge who said a raped 14-year-old "wasn't the victim she claimed to be," even after her attacker admitted to the crime.

Jeanine Howard, a Dallas County district judge, has drawn further criticism for her light sentence last week — a five-year probation — against the rapist in the 2011 assault.

The now 20-year-old Sir Young will be labeled a sex offender for life, but Howard did not issue standard sex offender restrictions, such as ordering him to refrain from pornography or undergoing sex offender treatment, the Dallas Morning News reported.

Central Texas Gun Works is in a nondescript strip mall in the southern part of Texas’ capital city. It’s a gun store and firearm training center that’s located, somewhat improbably, two doors down from an acupuncture center. Customers can buy handguns and long guns, as well as a miniature pink firearm with “My First Rifle” engraved on the stock. Posters from the National Rifle Association gild the waiting room. T-shirts saying “Buy a Gun. Annoy a Liberal” are also for sale.

It’s into this Texas microcosm that former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg has dropped a depth charger.

Using $50 million of his personal fortune, Bloomberg last month launched a coalition to champion issues like mandatory background checks for private firearm sales.

"I did not really realize I was getting life until the date of sentencing. When my attorney told me, I told him that I wanted to take back my guilty plea... they denied me."

Timothy Tyler says his life ended when he was 23-years-old. That was two decades ago, when he was arrested and later sentenced to a mandatory double-life term in prison without the possibility of parole for conspiracy to possess LSD with intent to distribute. A self-described "Deadhead," Tyler was busted after mailing five grams of the hallucinogenic drug to a friend who was working as an informant for the federal government.

The nation’s spy satellite agency failed to notify authorities when some employees and contractors confessed during lie detector tests to crimes such as child molestation, an intelligence inspector general has concluded.

In other cases, the National Reconnaissance Office delayed reporting criminal admissions obtained during security clearance polygraphs, possibly jeopardizing evidence in investigations or even the safety of children, according to the inspector general report released Tuesday , almost two years after McClatchy’s reporting raised similar concerns.