January 15, 2010 Breaking News

“It is amazing how this scaremongering from climate change lobbyists keeps arising even though they are constantly being proved wrong.”

“Last year there was snow in Saudi Arabia and still they persist in saying the temperature is going up.”

Christopher Booker, author of “The Real Global Warming Disaster

“In addition to the global warming challenges, we need to address ‘global cooling’ effects and to do so promptly,” he said.

Vladimir Putin, Prime Minister of Russia as reported by Itar Tass News agency

ABC NEWS: The U.S. Food and Drug Administration slammed Tylenol manufacturer McNeil Healthcare LLC during a media briefing this morning for what it called a slow response to problems at a facility in Puerto Rico that led to consumers becoming sickened by tainted pills.

“McNeil should have acted faster,” said Deborah Autor, director of the FDA’s Office of Compliance, of the arm of Johnson & Johnson that manufactures Tylenol products…

A recall of Tylenol products that began last month with the popular Tylenol arthritis caplet expanded this morning to include more than two dozen other over-the-counter products manufactured by McNeil.

McNeill initiated a voluntary recall of Tylenol Arthritis Relief Caplets at the end of December after consumer complaints of stomach problems. The problems were linked to the presence of a chemical called 2,4,6-tribromoanisole (TBA)…

Now it appears that the problem extended into other Tylenol products as well, according to the FDA.

Tylenol Extra Strength, Rolaids and a number of children’s medicines are now included in the recall, which affects 27 products in various packaging quantities.

THE HILL: A big reason why the government is inefficient and ineffective is because Washington has outdated technology, with federal workers having better computers at home than in the office.

This startling admission came Thursday from Peter Orszag, who manages the federal bureaucracy for President Barack Obama.

The public is getting a bad return on its tax dollars because government workers are operating with outdated technologies, Orszag said in a statement that kicked off a summit between Obama and dozens of corporate CEOs.

“Twenty years ago, people who came to work in the federal government had better technology at work than at home,” said Orszag, director of the Office of Management and Budget. “Now that’s no longer the case.

“The American people deserve better service from their government, and better return for their tax dollars.”

BOSTON HERALD: Weekly Standard reporter says he was roughed up last night outside a Washington, D.C. fund-raiser for Attorney General Martha Coakley by someone he believes is associated with her U.S. Senate campaign.

According to McCormack’s account, Coakley took two questions from reporters after the event, but declined to respond to his question.

“TWS: Attorney General Coakley, you said last night that there are no terrorists in Afghanistan–that they’re all in Yemen and Pakistan. Do you stand by that remark?

COAKLEY: I’m sorry, did someone else have a question? Then answered another reporter’s question.

McCormack wrote after Coakley finished her answer he followed her and asked her why health care industry lobbyists were supporting her at the fundraiser. He said she did not reply.

As he continued to walk down the street, he said a man who appeared to be associated with Coakley’s campaign pushed him into a freestanding metal rail.

“I ended up on the sidewalk. I was fine. He helped me up from the ground, but kept pushing up against me, blocking my path toward Coakley down the street,” he wrote.

McCormack wrote he eventually caught up to Coakley, who declined to answer his question.

TAMPA, Fla. (UPI) — U.S. researchers say they’re surprised to discover radiation from cell phones may protect against and even reverse Alzheimer’s disease. The researchers at the Florida Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center, led by University of South Florida neuroscientist Gary Arendash, said exposing old Alzheimer’s mice to electromagnetic waves from cell phones erased brain buildups of a harmful

protein known as beta amyloid and eliminated memory problems typical of Alzheimer’s. The radiation also prevented beta amyloid buildup in younger Alzheimer’s mice, the researchers said in a study funded in part by the National Institute on Aging and published in the Journal of Alzheimer’s Disease. In fact, exposing normal mice to cell phone radiation for two hours a day over seven to nine months actually improved their cognitive abilities compared with so-called control mice tested in a parallel experiment for comparison, Arendash and colleagues said. The highly controlled study let researchers isolate the effects of cell phone exposure on memory from other lifestyle factors such as diet and exercise, the researchers said. It involved 96 mice, most of which were genetically altered to develop beta amyloid plaques and memory problems mimicking Alzheimer’s disease as they aged. “It surprised us to find that cell phone exposure, begun in early adulthood, protects the memory of mice otherwise destined to develop Alzheimer’s symptoms,” Arendash said. “It was even more astonishing that the electromagnetic waves generated by cell phones actually reversed memory impairment in old Alzheimer’s mice.”

BOSTON (AP) - Massachusetts’s top election official says it could take weeks to certify the results of the upcoming U.S. Senate special election. That delay could let President Barack Obama preserve a key 60th vote for his health care overhaul even if the Republican who has vowed to kill it wins Democrat Edward M. Kennedy’s former seat.

Secretary of State William F. Galvin, citing state law, says city and town clerks must wait at least 10 days for absentee ballots to arrive before they certify the results of the Jan. 19 election. They then have five more days to file the returns with his office.

Galvin bypassed the provision in 2007 so his fellow Democrats could gain a House vote they needed to override a veto of then-Republican President George W. Bush, but the secretary says U.S. Senate rules would preclude a similar rush today.

The potential delay has become a rallying point for the GOP, which argues Democrats have been twisting the rules to pass the health care bill despite public opposition. It’s also prompted criticism from government watchdogs…

Massachusetts Democrats already changed state law last fall so the governor could appoint a fellow Democrat to fill the seat after Kennedy died in August.

The Boston Herald reported that, according to a source, Secretary of the Commonwealth William Galvin’s office wants to certify the race on Feb. 20.

NEW YORK DAILY POST: Conan O’Brien broke down in tears yesterday while reading to his writing staff his 553-word statement that he no longer wants to host the “The Tonight Show” if it’s moved to midnight, an insider said.

With Conan out of the picture, Jay Leno will take back “The Tonight Show” by March 1, if not sooner, sources said.

But he was his sardonic self at the show’s LA taping last night, introducing himself as “soon to be available for children’s birthday parties,” and saying how it was “always my dream to host ‘The Tonight Show’ for seven months.”

WASHINGTON (AP) - President Barack Obama will ask Congress for an additional $33 billion to fight unpopular wars in Afghanistan and Iraq on top of a record $708 billion

for the Defense Department next year, The Associated Press has learned - a request that could be an especially hard sell to some of the administration’s Democratic allies.

The extra $33 billion in 2010 would mostly go toward the expansion of the war in Afghanistan. Obama ordered an extra 30,000 troops for that war as part of an overhaul of the war strategy late last year.

Military officials have suggested that the 2011 request would top $700 billion for the first time, but the precise figure has not been made public.

PRAVDA: A sheep gave birth to a dead lamb with a human-like face. The calf was born in a village not far from the city of Izmir, Turkey.

Erhan Elibol, a vet, performed Cesarean section on the animal to take the calf out, but was horrified to see that the features of the calf’s snout bore a striking resemblance to a human face.

“I’ve seen mutations with cows and sheep before. I’ve seen a one-eyed calf, a two-headed calf, a five-legged calf. But when I saw this youngster I could not believe my eyes. His mother could not deliver him so I had to help the animal,” the 29-year-old veterina

The lamb’s head had human features on – the eyes, the nose and the mouth – only the ears were those of a sheep.

Veterinaries said that the rare mutation most likely occurred as a result of improper mutation since the fodder for the lamb’s mother was abundant with vitamin A.