May 29, 2014

The Campaign for Junk Food - by Michelle Obama

Michelle Obama on Attempts to Roll Back Healthy Reforms

By MICHELLE OBAMA MAY 28, 2014

WHEN we began our Let’s Move! initiative four years ago, we set one simple but ambitious goal: to end the epidemic of childhood obesity in a generation so that kids born today will grow up healthy.

To achieve this goal, we have adhered to one clear standard: what works. The initiatives we undertake are evidence-based, and we rely on the most current science. Research indicated that kids needed less sugar, salt and fat in their diets, so we revamped school lunch menus accordingly. When data showed that the lack of nearby grocery stores negatively affected people’s eating habits, we worked to get more fresh-food retailers into underserved areas. Studies on habit formation in young children drove our efforts to get healthier food and more physical activity into child care centers.

Today, we are seeing glimmers of progress. Tens of millions of kids are getting better nutrition in school; families are thinking more carefully about food they eat, cook and buy; companies are rushing to create healthier products to meet the growing demand; and the obesity rate is finally beginning to fall from its peak among our youngest children.

So we know that when we rely on sound science, we can actually begin to turn the tide on childhood obesity.

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/05/29/opinion/michelle-obama-on-attempts-to-roll-back-healthy-reforms.html

May 28, 2014

Pope, Netanyahu spar over Jesus' native language

JERUSALEM Mon May 26, 2014 3:39pm BST

(Reuters) - Pope Francis and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu traded words on Monday over the language spoken by Jesus two millennia ago.

"Jesus was here, in this land. He spoke Hebrew," Netanyahu told Francis, at a public meeting in Jerusalem in which the Israeli leader cited a strong connection between Judaism and Christianity.

"Aramaic," the pope interjected.

"He spoke Aramaic, but he knew Hebrew," Netanyahu shot back.

more
http://uk.reuters.com/article/2014/05/26/uk-pope-holyland-jesus-idUKKBN0E618X20140526

May 28, 2014

China sentences 55 in Xinjiang mass trial

Source: Reuters

(Reuters) - Local officials in China's western Xinjiang region held a public rally for the mass sentencing of criminals on Tuesday, handing out judgements for 55 people and at least three death sentences for crimes such as "violent terrorism", state media said.

The public sentencing, reminiscent of China's revolutionary era rallies, attracted a crowd of 7,000 at a sports stadium in Yining city in the northern prefecture of Yili.

Photos showed packed stadium bleachers and trucks parked on the sports field loaded with prisoners in orange vests being guarded by armed police.

The mass trial follows a similar event last week in the region where 39 people were sentenced to jail on terrorism charges.

-snip-

Read more: http://uk.reuters.com/article/2014/05/28/uk-china-xinjiang-idUKKBN0E80H820140528

May 28, 2014

V.A. Watchdog Finds Failures in Care at Phoenix Hospital

Source: New York Times

The inspector general for the Department of Veterans Affairs reported on Wednesday that at least 1,700 veterans at the agency’s medical center in Phoenix were not registered on the proper waiting list to see doctors, creating a serious condition that means veterans “continue to be at risk of being forgotten or lost” in the convoluted scheduling process.

All the while, the hospital falsely reported waiting times that suggested delays were minimal, the report said.

“While our work is not complete, we have substantiated that significant delays in access to care negatively impacted the quality of care at this medical facility,” Richard J. Griffin, the acting inspector general for the department, said in an interim report on his investigation into the Phoenix medical center.

Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2014/05/29/us/va-report-confirms-improper-waiting-lists-at-phoenix-center.html?emc=edit_na_20140528

May 28, 2014

National Review remembers Maya Angelou for being a gun owner

The article is titled: "R.I.P., Maya Angelou, Proud Gun Owner and User"

PRACHI GUPTA

As various communities across the world reflect on what late Renaissance Woman Maya Angelou meant to them — hope, opportunity, freedom, to many — writer Tim Cavanaugh at the National Review Online has chosen to remember Angelou for that one time she talked about guns. In a piece titled “R.I.P., Maya Angelou, Proud Gun Owner and User” in the National Review, he references a Time Magazine interview, writing:

Angelou also emerged very late in life as an off-hand supporter of the right to bear arms. In a 2013 interview with Time magazine’s Belinda Luscombe, the ancient poetess talked Star Trek and death (“I’ll probably be writing when the Lord says, ‘Maya, Maya Angelou, it’s time’”), but she recounted how she used a gun for home defense:

Did you inherit your mother’s fondness for guns?

I like to have guns around. I don’t like to carry them.

Have you ever fired your weapon?

I was in my house in North Carolina. It was fall. I heard someone walking on the leaves. And somebody actually turned the knob. So I said, “Stand four feet back because I’m going to shoot now!” Boom! Boom! The police came by and said, “Ms. Angelou, the shots came from inside the house.” I said, “Well, I don’t know how that happened.”

more
http://www.salon.com/2014/05/28/national_review_remembers_maya_angelou_for_being_a_gun_owner/

May 28, 2014

AP source: Walker in talks to end campaign probe

Source: ASSOCIATED PRESS

MADISON, Wis. (AP) — A person close to an investigation of Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker’s campaign says Walker’s attorney is discussing a possible settlement with the lead investigator that would end the probe.

The person who spoke Wednesday to The Associated Press on the condition of anonymity said he could not do so publicly because of a secrecy order covering the investigation.

The person said he had spoken with several people with direct knowledge of the discussions between prosecutors and Walker’s attorney. The secret investigation, known as a John Doe, focuses on alleged illegal coordination between conservative groups, Walker’s campaign and others during recall elections in 2011 and 2012.

The Wall Street Journal in an editorial on Wednesday first reported on the possible settlement.

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Read more: http://www.salon.com/2014/05/28/ap_source_walker_in_talks_to_end_campaign_probe/

May 28, 2014

Judges orders temporary halt to Ohio executions

Source: ASSOCIATED PRESS

COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — A federal judge has ordered a 2 1/2-month moratorium on executions in Ohio to allow time for arguments over the state’s new lethal injection procedures. The order delays executions scheduled for July and August while attorneys prepare filings about the state’s decision to boost the dosages of its lethal injection drugs.

The one-page order by Columbus federal judge Gregory Frost on Tuesday affects the state’s latest death penalty policy change, which was announced in late April.

Ohio uses two drugs injected simultaneously in executions. The policy change considerably increases the amount of the sedative and raises the amount of the painkiller.

The procedure update followed the Jan. 16 execution of Dennis McGuire, who repeatedly gasped during the record 26 minutes it took him to die.

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Read more: http://www.salon.com/2014/05/28/judges_orders_temporary_halt_to_ohio_executions/

May 28, 2014

GOP is losing the Obamacare war: What a new lie reveals about the law’s success - By Joan Walsh

What happens when a program in your state is really popular, but you're on record opposing it? Total humiliation

JOAN WALSH

Embattled Kentucky Sen. Mitch McConnell has an Obamacare problem, and not the one you think. His state’s version of the program, KyNect, is so popular and so successful, that if he tells voters outright that he wants to kill it, he might be killing his Senate career, too.

So ever since his GOP primary victory over the Tea Party’s Matt Bevin, he’s been bobbing and weaving trying to avoid admitting that his plans to repeal the ACA would destroy KyNect. Last Friday, during a joint press conference with Sen. Rand Paul, he called the ACA the “single worst piece of legislation” passed in half a century. But then he claimed that the fate of KyNect was “unconnected” to the repeal of the law.

He’s been dogged by disbelieving local and national reporters ever since, so now McConnell has a new lie: If Kentucky likes its state exchange, it can keep its state exchange, even after the repeal of Obamacare.

“If Obamacare is repealed, Kentucky should decide for itself whether to keep KyNect or set up a different marketplace,” McConnell campaign spokeswoman Allison Moore told Louiville’s NPR affiliate WFPL.

The only problem is, it isn’t true.

more
http://www.salon.com/2014/05/28/gop_is_losing_the_obamacare_war_what_a_new_lie_reveals_about_the_laws_success/

May 28, 2014

Obama Warns U.S. Must Not Rush to War

Source: Agence France-Presse

President Barack Obama mounted a defiant defense of his global leadership Wednesday, rebuking critics who see him as weak but warning that not every global threat justifies a U.S. military response.

In a major speech at the West Point military academy, Obama denied U.S. power had ebbed under his watch, after he withdrew troops from Iraq and as he does the same in Afghanistan.

He also pledged to ramp up support for Syrian rebels, vowed to stand up to Russia over Ukraine and promised to make drone strikes against terror suspects more transparent.

He vowed to hold China accountable to international "rules of the road" in the South China Sea and elsewhere. "To say that we have an interest in pursuing peace and freedom beyond our borders is not to say that every problem has a military solution," Obama said.

Read more: http://www.naharnet.com/stories/en/132628-obama-warns-u-s-must-not-rush-to-war

May 28, 2014

Taliban Condemn U.S. Exit Strategy from Afghanistan

Source: Agence France-Presse

Taliban insurgents Wednesday denounced U.S. plans to keep troops in Afghanistan up to the end of 2016, threatening to wage war against the "occupation" until the very last foreign soldier pulls out.

But outgoing President Hamid Karzai welcomed the timetable for the U.S.'s complete withdrawal and called on the insurgents to seize a "historic" opportunity to seek peace after more than a decade of war.

Outlining the U.S. strategy to end America's longest war, President Barack Obama confirmed on Tuesday that the 32,000-strong U.S. deployment in Afghanistan would be scaled back to around 9,800 by the start of 2015.

Those forces would be halved by the end of 2015 before being reduced to a normal embassy presence with a security assistance component by the end of 2016.

Read more: http://www.naharnet.com/stories/en/132621-taliban-condemn-u-s-exit-strategy-from-afghanistan