Cheat Sheet
The Best In Brief
Please register to manage your email preferences and comment on the site.
"Let's begin the debate," said Sen. Max Baucus, Democrat of Montana, as the Senate voted along party lines to move health care legislation one step closer to fruition. The vote allows debate proceedings to start after Thanksgiving over a bill which would cost $848 billion and add 31 million Americans to the number of insured in the United States. The vote was a victory for Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid who was able to lure Democratic centrists Sen. Mary Landrieu, Sen. Blanche Lincoln, and Sen. Ben Nelson over to his side—if only for the moment. Republicans are digging in. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky said, "The battle has just begun." Getting all the Democrats in line proved to be an expensive feat, as Landrieu's support came after she won at least $100 million in federal aid for her state.
After rejecting a deal aimed at reducing its nuclear capabilities, Iran began a 5-day-long series of air-defense war games, designed to be a pre-emptive strike against attacks on its nuclear facilities. The exercise will take place in areas of the country that house nuclear facilities and will involve the regular military along with the Revolutionary Guards. In spite of many suspicions to the contrary, Iranian officials maintain that the tests are for peaceful purposes and are simply a preventative measure to defend the facilities’ airspace. Israel is reportedly still considering military action as a means of preventing Iran from developing nuclear weapons.
Bank of America may employ an interim CEO to replace departing head Ken Lewis when he leaves the company on Dec. 31, Bloomberg News reports. Initially the bank directors had said they wanted a permanent leader in place by Thanksgiving, but as the Daily Beast’s Charlie Gasparino learned, none of the top candidates wanted the job. Already four external candidates have turned the bank down. Leading the trouble to find a replacement is the need to find someone who would be willing to take a salary low enough to please the Treasury Department paymaster, according to Bloomberg. One member of the House of Representatives told the directors that an internal candidate lacked the proper level of leadership. “For people who have choices, it’s hard to figure out why someone would take this job," said one Wall Street exec.
People looking to buy an e-reader as a holiday present may be out of luck. Barnes & Noble announced Friday that the Nook is sold out and new orders won't be filled until after the New Year. A Sony official said its e-reader, the Daily Edition, will also be a hard device to find this month. “We’re deeply concerned that we won’t have enough to get them under the Christmas tree,” he told the Financial Times. It seems the companies have failed to find a way to manufacture enough to meet up with demand. One industry analyst said that he expects 900,000 e-readers to be sold this holiday season in the United States.
The number of unclaimed bodies in Detroit's mortuaries has reached a record high, reaching 70 people earlier this year. “I have not seen this many unclaimed bodies in 13 years on the job,” a mortuary official told The Times of London. “It started happening when the economy went south last year. I have never seen this many people struggling to give people their last resting place.” Escalating murder and unemployment rates are being blamed as causes, as the body count is seen as another sign of desperation for Detroit.
Scientology—the half-century-old religion made famous by celebrities like Tom Cruise and John Travolta—is facing some of its most significant challenges yet as celebrity members themselves protest the church and governments demand investigation. In Australia, Prime Minister Kevin Rudd has criticized Scientology for "a worldwide pattern of abuse and criminality." A former church employee at the Los Angeles headquarters has a new book out about abuse within Scientology. The church was nearly banned in France last month, and in Belgium, Scientology is facing a criminal investigation. In the U.S., the church was abandoned by Oscar-winning director Paul Haggis, accusing Scientology of homophobia. The Guardian predicts that with rising criticism and attention, for Scientology next year could be even worse than this already difficult one.
American and Afghan officials are aiding anti-Taliban militias to start fighting against insurgents in Afghanistan. The emergence of anti-Taliban leaders has encouraged officials to help grow more like-minded armed groups across southern and eastern Afghanistan, where the Taliban has more control, with the hopes of starting a large-scale tribal rebellion against them. The goal is that the militias will quickly boost the number of Afghans fighting against the Taliban, which is especially important while the Afghan army and police forces are being trained. But Americans are trying to avoid repeating past mistakes: militias will stay connected to the Afghan government, will be limited to protecting villages and manning checkpoints, and will stay small. The plan is ambitious and risky because the militias could turn on one another, or against us. There's no need to arm the groups for now, because they already have guns.
The Environmental Protection Agency is demanding that Texas tighten its pollution laws. The EPA says the state, which is the top carbon-dioxide-emitter in the country, has air-quality regulations that break federal law, and it's studying whether oil refineries emit dangerous levels of toxins. Texas says its simpler regulatory system, which regulates facilities rather than individual smokestacks, is more efficient, but environmentalists say the rules are too lax. Air quality fights are intense in Texas; Houston and Dallas have violated federal air-quality standards for years, and city officials are cheering the EPA's move. But businesses aren't. The EPA has become far more aggressive under the Obama administration, and has said it will regulate carbon-dioxide emissions, set tougher limits on mercury emissions, and has held up dozens of permit applications for Central Appalachian coal mining projects. Business groups say the agency's mandates are too expensive and could drive jobs overseas.
Los Angeles police say they will not decide whether to prosecute Michael Jackson's doctor, Conrad Murray, until next year. Jackson's death last June was ruled a homocide by the county cororner, who found lethal levels of the drug propofol in the singer's body. Murray admitted to giving Jackson the drug at bedtime to help his patient sleep. But authorities have not determined whether the doctor was solely responsible, and whether there was any negligence that can be considered criminal. According to a search warrant unsealed Friday, Murray was not the first doctor to give Jackson propofol, which Jackson called his "milk." Jackson had several doctors (both local and overseas) who kept him supplied.
The Twilight Saga: New Moon brought in $72.7 million in its first day in theaters, breaking the record previously held by The Dark Knight, which took in $67.2 million on its opening day last year. Midnight screenings alone amounted to $26.3 million, and if New Moon maintains this pace, it could break the best-ever opening-weekend record of $158.4 million, also held by The Dark Knight.
An Indonesian ferrying carry 242 sank off Sumatra Sunday. Police said at least 9 people have been killed. One report said that rescue ships had sighted people floating in the water around small islets but that ships couldn't reach them because of the high waves. Eventually, 232 people were pulled from the water. According to the Associated Press, Indonesian ferry accidents have claimed the lives of hundreds in recent years as safety protocols are not well enforced and overcrowding is common.
The debate over what President Obama should do in Afghanistan has spun out of control, The Washington Post reported Sunday. As a candidate, Obama opposed the war, and now as president he is pinned between his stated opposition and his military aides who are asking for a troop increase to turn the war around. Perhaps most notably, for political watchers, is how the White House has turned into a leak machine, with word of each twist and turn in the debate over troop deployment dripping out to the press. The polls highlight the president's dilemma: according to The Post: 45 percent of Americans approve of Obama's handling of the war and nearly the same number say the war is not worth fighting. But those who disapprove of Obama's handling of the war are likely to be Republicans while those who want out are Democrats. With lives at stake so too is the early perception of the Obama presidency.
Thanksgiving is usually about coming together, but this year it’s become a historical turf war. Residents of Provincetown, Mass. are currently bent on publicizing the fact that their town was the Pilgrims’ first stop in the U.S., not Plymouth, Mass. where they moved later on. “Plymouth is wonderful, but they were second! We were first,” said the director of Provincetown’s chamber of commerce. The town houses an impressive 252-foot granite tower, a monument to the Pilgrims’ time there, when they began a number of new traditions including Mondays as laundry day. Provincetown’s defenders also point to the murky-at-best story of a literal Plymouth rock, which is not based on any historical record. “I was kind of amazed. It wasn’t Plymouth Rock, it was actually Provincetown,’’ said a visitor. “What’s all the big hoopla about Plymouth if it was Provincetown? I don’t blame the people here for being a little ticked off.’’
Climate-change skeptics have taken emails (apparently illegally obtained from the Climate Research Unit of the University of East Anglia) to be evidence that scientists are rigging data to make the case that humans are the root cause of global warming. One of the emails reads in part "I've just completed Mike's Nature trick of adding in the real temps to each series... to hide the decline," the wording of which, according to some, indicates an attempt by the email's author, Phil Jones, to rig his data in favor of the human-cause theory. Jones' defenders say the email is taken out of context. "It's hardly anything you would call a trick," says Michael Mann—the "Mick" referred to in the email—continuing that it simply involves placing proxy temperature records next to a line showing instrument-collected temperatures, with both being clearly marked and differentiated. Reachers say the emails are merely an honest exchange of ideas.
Fox News' wackiest host is taking up a new role: community organizer. Glenn Beck says he hopes to rally his audience by promoting voter-registration drives and conservative conventions all across the country, all culminating in a rally in Washington that will coincide with the release of his new book in August. Beck didn’t say how directly he might back political candidates, The New York Times reports, only saying he wants to help people be more "proactive." He's announcing his new role in a Florida rally on Saturday. Conservative pundits like Beck, Sean Hannity, and Mike Huckabee have a huge effect on politics, especially for the nebulous "tea party" movement, where they stand in as leaders. Beck rejects the title, saying he is just a fed-up citizen.
A gas explosion just before dawn on Saturday killed 87 people in the state-run Xinxing mine in Heilongjiang, and 21 others are still trapped a third of a mile below ground. Of the 528 working miners, 415 managed to escape, and miners have already been saved by some 300 rescuers, working in the frigid, dark underground, left powerless by the blast. Some miners have been hospitalized with broken bones and carbon monoxide poisoning. One entrance of the mine was cut off by the explosion, caused by a gas build-up, and a nearby building collapsed. Windows were blown out of homes in a city several miles away. The disaster highlights the difficulty China has had with enacting safety standards in the face of heavy demand: the country has said it is cracking down on unregulated mining operations—which comprise 80% of China's mines—and has cut fatalities to an average of six a day in the first half of this year. But accidents still happen: the February deaths of 74 miners in an explosion in Shanxi was the worst in a year.
Partner Sites: Expedia| Hotels| Hotwire| Urbanspoon| Vimeo
