Your daily look at late-breaking national and international news, upcoming events and stories that will be talked about today, Nov. 30, 2012:
1. OBAMA TAKES "FISCAL CLIFF" FIGHT OUTSIDE THE BELTWAY
The president will employ campaign-style tactics in the Philadelphia suburbs, hoping to mobilize public support as the year-end deadline for reaching a deal with Congress over taxes and spending cuts looms.
2. WHY U.N. VOTE RECOGNIZING PALESTINE MAY ULTIMATELY DISAPPOINT
Real independence remains an elusive dream until the Palestinians negotiate a peace deal with the Israelis.
3. ISLAMISTS APRROVE EGYPT'S CONSTITUTION
A draft constitution is passed without the participation of liberal and Christian members, a move that further inflames the clash between the opposition and President Mohammed Morsi.
4. WHO MIGHT'VE HIT THE POWERBALL JACKPOT
The Missouri Lottery confirms one winning ticket and is expected to reveal the winner at noon. The second ticket holder, in Arizona, remains a mystery.
5. SENATE REVIVES DEBATE ON CIVIL LIBERTIES
By voting that American citizens suspected of terrorism and seized on U.S. soil may not be held indefinitely, it sets up a fight with the House, which rejected efforts to bar indefinite detention earlier this year.
6. RIGHTS GROUP URGES MORE COMPASSIONATE PRISON RELEASES
For humanitarian and economic reasons, the federal Bureau of Prisons should grant more early releases to incapacitated and terminally ill prisoners, advocacy groups say in a report.
7. MYANMAR TACKLES CITIZENSHIP QUANDARY
In an exclusive report by AP's Todd Pitman, authorities in western Myanmar are tasked with determining who is a citizen. Rohingya Muslims seem to have the most to lose.
8. SOURCE TELLS AP: STRAUSS-KAHN AGREES TO SETTLE WITH ACCUSER
Hotel maid's lawsuit alleged that the former IMF chief tried to rape her in a New York hotel.
9. RESEARCHERS NAIL DOWN SEA MYSTERY
Scientists have figured out how to determine the age of a lobster — by the number of rings in its eyestalk or in the teeth-like structures found in its stomach.
10. NOT SO SAINTLY NIGHT FOR BREES
The star quarterback throws five interceptions, damaging New Orleans' playoff hopes in a 23-13 loss to rival Atlanta
MAY 24 Blogger Robert Mann posts this entry about the Baton Rouge Chamber's recent report on Louisiana's higher education system. It's critical to economic development, and yet our system is facing a "funding crisis" with no way to resolve it, the report says. The Chamber says control of tuition and fees must be returned to the higher ed governing boards.
MAY 24 Here's a NBC33 story about Tyrann Mathieu. He has signed with the Arizona Cardinals, inking a $3 million, four-year deal. He gets a signing bonus of $265K, but gets another, larger bonus if he doesn't get cut from the team for doing drugs. The deal reportedly includes mandatory tests and meetings for the player.
MAY 24 Jarvis DeBerry posts here about the redonkulus rhetoric that would have us believe NOLA is a safe city with a murder problem. Maybe the city's crime stats don't compare with its murder stats because you can't manipulate a murder, he says: a dead body's a dead body. It just doesn't make sense, he says, and his readers agree: a poll asks if they believe the city is safe, and more than 90 percent say no.
MAY 24 Jindal administration officials announced Thursday that the privatization of public health care is going to cost a lot more than they budgeted for, the Advocate reports here. "I'm so surprised," said no one. Anywhere. The cost they're projecting now is more than $1 billion - a lot more than the $626 million budgeted for it. And, it's more than it cost the state to operate those hospitals. So why are we doing this again?
MAY 24 Blogger CB Forgotston ridicules the recent PR campaign by the state GOP in the wake of a legislative auditor's request to both major parties. The GOP (apparently unaware that the Dems got the same request) started yammering about being targeted because it had "killed" a tax increase. CB finds that laughable, but it's also pretty funny that the GOP was comparing this episode to the IRS scandal (Because the President has so much to do with our state auditor. Right?).
MAY 24 Politico details some recent fund-raising efforts by Sen. David Vitter, which have raised the question of his future political plans. This time, it is a $5,000 per head "bayou weekend" that includes "Cajun cooking" and an all-caps "alligator hunt," the story reports. Funds raised go to a super PAC that can spend money to support Vitter in federal or state races, the story points out.
MAY 24 The pink building on Royal in the quarter was sold at a sheriff's sale Thursday, this Picayune story reports. An injunction that would have halted the sale wasn't enforced because the family failed to post a $150,000 bond, the story reports. So the owner of the mortgages on the building bought it, for nearly $7 million. Now the feuding family will have to negotiate with that company to get a lease on the building that has housed their business for close to 60 years.
MAY 23 This post in Louisiana Voice tells us about a bill by a Winnsboro lege that would require all public high school students to take at least one Course Choice online class in order to graduate. (What?) Blogger Tom Aswell says it's a monument to "waste and corruption," especially in light of the problems he's exposed with the program in recent weeks. Idaho had a similar program, but voters removed it by a 2-1 margin, Aswell says.
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