The Radio Television Digital News Foundation is presenting its First Amendment Award to The Associated Press for defending press freedoms against secret government subpoenas for reporters’ phone callsThe AP was selected as the 2014 winner of the foundation’s First Amendment Award, which honors an individual or organization that champions the First Amendment and press freedoms. […]

Last month, NBC and a number of other corporate news sites reported on cluster of extremely rare and severe birth defects in Yakima, Benton and Franklin counties in Washington State. http://desultoryheroics.com/2014/03/11/what-caused-a-cluster-of-rare-birth-defects-in-washington-state/ The reports stated there have been over two dozen cases of anencephaly (a condition which blocks the development of parts of the brain and […]

A first-time mother who failed a drug test while in labor because she ate poppy seeds has sued a Pittsburgh hospital, saying officials defamed her and violated her doctor-patient confidentiality by sharing the results with a child welfare agency. http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2014/03/11/us/ap-us-poppy-seed-drug-test.html?emc=eta1&_r=0 Rachael Devore, 31, who gave birth at Magee-Women’s Hospital of the University of Pittsburgh Medical […]

C.I.A. employees were improperly monitoring the work of staff members of the Senate Intelligence Committee, according to government officials with knowledge of the investigation. http://www.nytimes.com/2014/03/05/us/new-inquiry-into-cia-employees-amid-clashes-over-interrogation-program.html?hp The committee has spent several years working on a voluminous report about the detention and interrogation program, and according to one official interviewed in recent days, C.I.A. officers went as […]

A wild chase in 2004 that started in West Memphis, Ark. and continued at 100-mile-per-hour speeds on a highway and ended in a hail of 15 bullets in a parking lot in Memphis, Tenn. The shots killed the driver, Donald Rickard, and his passenger, Kelly Allen.  http://www.nytimes.com/2014/03/05/us/justices-seem-united-on-key-argument-in-fatal-police-chase.html?ref=us The main legal question for the justices seemed […]

An ambitious U.S.-funded project to build hospitals in Afghanistan has run into the ground, with the largest hospital ever planned in the country unlikely to open in full, U.S. and Afghan officials said. http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/2014/03/05/world/asia/05reuters-afghanistan-aid.html?hp The $60 million project by the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) started in 2008 and aimed to meet the medical […]

Islamist fighters have made a habit of quietly slipping across the border into Niger to rest, rearm and refit, officials say — a pipeline the African nation of Niger is eager to shut down with the Pentagon’s help.  http://www.nytimes.com/2014/03/05/world/africa/us-takes-training-role-in-africa-as-threats-grow-and-budgets-shrink.html?hp With more than a decade of land wars in Iraq and Afghanistan drawing to an end, […]

Secretary of State John Kerry offered of $1 billion in American loan guarantees and pledges of technical assistance to the Ukraine’s new government, a senior State Department official said on Tuesday. http://www.nytimes.com/2014/03/05/world/europe/secretary-of-state-john-kerry-arriving-in-kiev-offers-1-billion-in-loan-guarantees-to-ukraine.html?ref=world&_r=0 The purpose of the loan guarantee is to support Ukraine’s efforts to integrate with the West. The United States will also send technical […]

J. Craig Venter is another wealthy entrepreneur that thinks he can cheat aging and death. He hopes to do so by sequencing genomes. http://www.nytimes.com/2014/03/05/business/in-pursuit-of-longevity-a-plan-to-harness-dna-sequencing.html?src=twrhp Dr. Venter announced on Tuesday that he was starting a new company, Human Longevity, which will be focused on figuring out how people can live longer and healthier lives. To do […]

A UN illegal drugs body has criticised 2012 moves in two US states to legalise recreational use of marijuana. In a new report, the International Narcotics Control Board urged the US federal government to ensure anti-drug treaties were “fully implemented on the entirety of its territory”. http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-26432776 It also said Afghanistan’s response to record levels […]

An ancient virus has “come back to life” after lying dormant for at least 30,000 years, scientists say. http://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-26387276 It was found frozen in a deep layer of the Siberian permafrost, but after it thawed it became infectious once again. The French scientists say the contagion poses no danger to humans or animals, but other […]

While one of the newer double-walled nuclear waste storage tanks at a Washington state complex has leaked, six others have “significant construction flaws” that could lead to additional leaks, according to documents obtained by The Associated Press. http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2014/03/01/us/ap-us-hanford-tanks.html?ref=us The 28 double-walled tanks at Hanford nuclear waste complex hold some of the worst radioactive waste at […]

A smartphone designed for handling top secret communications has been developed by Boeing. http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-26367777  If the phone is tampered with, it automatically deletes any data and renders itself inoperable. The device, named Black, joins a growing range of high-security smartphones entering the market. At the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, a similarly-titled Blackphone was announced, […]

A California high school which barred students from wearing American flag T-shirts did not violate their rights, a federal appeals court has ruled. http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-26388424 The Ninth US Circuit Court of Appeals found Live Oak High School near San Jose used the ban to avoid violence. The school has had a history of problems between Latino […]

The Israeli military have shot dead a Palestinian woman who locals say was mentally ill, near the Gaza-Israel security barrier. http://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-26397750 nThe area near the border is declared a no-go zone by Israel. The incident happened near the southern city of Khan Younis, late on Friday. The Israeli military said she was part of a […]

Gov. C. L. (Butch) Otter on Friday signed a bill threatening anyone who secretly films animal abuse at agricultural facilities with a year in jail and a $5,000 fine. Mr. Otter, a rancher, said the measure was promoted by the dairy industry http://www.nytimes.com/2014/03/01/us/idaho-film-document-of-animal-abuse-is-banned.html?ref=usThe bill came in response to videos released by the vegetarian and animal […]

Scuffles broke out Friday between demonstrators and police outside the finance ministry in central Athens, as Greece’s international debt inspectors met with ministers to discuss the pace of reforms. http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2014/02/28/world/europe/ap-eu-greece-financial-crisis.html?ref=world The demonstrators, mainly finance ministry cleaning ladies, school guards and municipal workers, were protesting job cuts required under Greece’s bailout agreement. They attempted to block […]

Last June, state employees in charge of stopping water pollution were given updated marching orders on behalf of North Carolina’s new Republican governor and conservative lawmakers. http://www.nytimes.com/2014/03/01/us/coal-ash-spill-reveals-transformation-of-north-carolina-agency.html?hp&_r=0 “The General Assembly doesn’t like you,” an official in the Department of Environment and Natural Resources told supervisors called to a drab meeting room here. “They cut your […]