Current News US // Current

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9 months ago

51% of kids have access to any and every website

According to new research conducted by MSN, that studied the online habits of 20,000 14-19-year-olds, over 50% of Europe's... more

mattbrawn
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Ecstasy 'no more dangerous than horse riding'

Writing in an academic journal, Professor David Nutt said taking ecstasy was no worse than the risks of "equasy", a term... more

Anyother
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28% of smokers would quit to spare pets from harm

People unwilling to quit smoking to improve their own health may consider giving up cigarettes to spare their pets the harmful effects of secondhand smoke, U.S. researchers said on Monday.

Twenty-eight percent of pet owners who smoke said in a survey they would try to quit based on knowledge that secondhand smoke could harm their dogs, cats and other pets, the researchers wrote in the journal Tobacco Control.

Another 11 percent said they would think about quitting.

"It's not necessarily that people love their pets more than they love themselves or their children, it's just another motivational factor for people to consider quitting smoking," Sharon Milberger of the Henry Ford Health System in Detroit, who led the research, said in a telephone interview.

Milberger said asking smokers to quit for the sake of their pets may be an appealing new way to get them to throw away their cigarettes. Of the 71 million pet owners in the United States, about a fifth are smokers, Milberger estimated.

Just under 20 percent of Americans smoke, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Just as secondhand smoke can harm people, studies indicate it can raise a pet's risk of lung cancer and other forms of cancer, allergies, eye and skin diseases and respiratory problems, the researchers said.

The findings were based on a Web-based survey of 3,293 U.S. pet owners, mostly from Michigan.

Among the nonsmokers who owned pets and lived with someone who did smoke, 16 percent said they would ask that person to quit and 24 percent said they would tell the smoker to light up outside instead of indoors, the study found.

"It would be hard to believe that there's any smoker out there now who doesn't know that smoking is bad for them and the people around them," Milberger said.

"For tobacco control advocates, on our team we can now have vets and kennels and pet supply stores. So, for example, when someone takes Fluffy in to the vet, the vet can ask them about their smoking behavior and whether they allow smoking in their home," added Milberger, a nonsmoker with a 1-year-old cat...People unwilling to quit smoking to improve their own health may consider giving up cigarettes to spare their pets the harmful... more

AwesomeJosh
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9 months ago

Senator Proposes 'Truth Commission' to investigate Bush

WASHINGTON (AP) - The chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee is proposing a "truth commission" to investigate abuses of detainees, politically inspired moves at the Justice Department, and whole range of decisions made during the Bush administration.
Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., said the primary goal of the commission would be to learn the truth rather than prosecute former officials, but said the inquiry should reach far beyond misdeeds at the Justice Department under Bush to include matters of Iraq prewar intelligence and the Defense Department.

Leahy outlined his suggestion for a "truth and reconciliation" commission during a speech at Georgetown University Monday.

"I'm doing this not to humiliate people or punish people but to get the truth out," he said.

The panel he envisions would be modeled after one that investigated the apartheid regime in South Africa. It would have subpoena power but would not bring criminal charges, he said.

Among the matters Leahy wants investigated by such a commission are: the firings of U.S. attorneys, treatment and torture of terror suspect detainees, and the authorization of warrantless wiretapping.

"Rather than vengeance, we need a fair-minded pursuit of what actually happened" during the Bush administration, Leahy said.

Some Democrats have called for criminal investigations of those who authorized certain controversial tactics in the war on terror. Republicans have countered that such decisions made in the wake of the 2001 terror attacks should not be second-guessed.

"We need to be able to read the page before we turn the page," Leahy said. "We need to come to a shared understanding of the failures of the recent past."

After the Sept. 11 attacks, the government created a 9/11 commission to examine failures within government anti-terror efforts.

Leahy said that commission was hampered by a lack of cooperation from the administration, and would like a new commission to have access to everything they needed.

He said he was offering the idea to see how much support it had.

"We need to see whether the American people are ready to take this path," he said, adding that he did not have anyone in particular in mind to lead the commission, but wanted "people with real credibility."WASHINGTON (AP) - The chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee is proposing a "truth commission" to investigate abuses... more

LukesAlive
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9 months ago

Ten of thousands inmates could be released because of overcrowding

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) - A special panel of federal judges has tentatively ruled that California must release tens of thousands... more

gooma2
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44 comments

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9 months ago

New vaginal gel shows promise in AIDS fight

A vaginal gel which can kill the HIV virus during sexual intercourse was hailed Monday for showing it was somewhat effective in... more

TravG73
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21 comments

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9 months ago

Marijuana cuts lung cancer tumor growth in half, Harvard study shows

The active ingredient in marijuana cuts tumor growth in common lung cancer in half and significantly reduces the ability of the... more

conservativelyliberal
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92 comments

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9 months ago

$838 billion stimulus bill barely survives Senate test vote

The economic stimulus bill backed by the President and key Democrats survived a test vote in the Senate today despite strong... more

joshuaheller
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20 comments

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9 months ago

Native Alaskans starve while Palin plays politics

Story Highlights Villagers paying up to $1,500 to heat homes for a month, $400 for groceries a week Some families say they... more

mik661
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70 comments

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9 months ago

$3.9 billion in Katrina recovery funds still unspent

WASHINGTON — A massive effort to fix public works destroyed more than three years ago by the Gulf Coast hurricanes remains... more

bansheewail
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27 comments

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9 months ago

Regular orgasms are 'good for a woman's career'

And no, not just for porn stars... apparently women who have healthy sex lives and who climax regularly are more likely to be... more

abbym0308
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75 comments

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9 months ago

Teens oogle 87 hours of online porn a year

Is that all? Research conducted by OnePoll has discovered that UK teenagers spend on average 87 hours a year watching online... more

mattbrawn
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41 comments

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9 months ago

The Pirate Bay demanding 'webcast' of trial

This coming Monday will see the start of one of the most important court cases in the history of P2P filesharing, if not the whole... more

mattbrawn
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31 comments

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9 months ago

Chris Brown under investigation for felony battery

Rumor has it, Chris Brown may have physically hit Rihanna a day before the Grammy's. Chris Brown was not permitted to... more

amilli23
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29 comments

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9 months ago

Why Is Congress Attacking The Arts?

"Why is it so hard for some to realize that jobs in the arts support millions of Americans and are no less worthy than any... more

St_Alia_10191
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55 comments

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9 months ago

Saturday Night Live: Really?!?: Michael Phelps

Seth shares his thoughts on Michael Phelps. Please make a quick phone call to Kellogg's at 800-962-1413 Let the company... more

ras_menelik
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72 comments

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9 months ago

Biden signals U.S. is open to Russia missile deal

MUNICH — Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. said Saturday that the United States will pursue a missile defense plan that has... more

current89
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9 months ago

Two years recession, or ten years of hell? (Part 3)

Engdahl: The danger is the US may turn to military might as their financial power weakens.

Discussing the global economic crisis, the context, and the history of the U.S. financial meltdown, Paul Jay continues our interview with William Engdahl, political economist and author. “I think it’s a symptom but not a fundamental cause of the crisis,” says Engdahl of the stagnation in wage increases in the United States. He continues to explain that, “if you go back to August 1971, when Nixon decoupled the dollar from gold, the United States went into what’s called in the Banking world ‘a Fiat Money System.’ Initially, after the decoupling, the U.S. dollar was backed by oil, but over the years, the United States became “increasingly dependent on the dollar being backed by the U.S. military power projection in the world. F16s and Abraham tanks instead of gold.” Engdahl continues to explain that, “this allowed the U.S. administrations to run deficits like no other nation in the world was able to. I think that is what now is reaching its limits.” As the U.S. financial dominance in the world comes to an end, Engdahl says he fears that, “certain powerful actors will turn to the U.S. military power projection around the world,” and that, “this is the real danger of a World War III.” He points out that the team Obama has brought into his administration is a, “really hawkish continuation of the old [Bush] team.”

F William Engdahl is an economist and author and the writer of the best selling book "A Century of War: Anglo-American Oil Politics and the New World Order." Mr Engdhahl has written on issues of energy, politics and economics for more than 30 years, beginning with the first oil shock in the early 1970s. Mr. Engdahl contributes regularly to a number of publications including Asia Times Online, Asia, Inc, Japan's Nihon Keizai Shimbun, Foresight magazine; Freitag and ZeitFragen newspapers in Germany and Switzerland respectively. He is based in Germany.

See Part 1 at:

http://current.com/items/89796259/two_years_recession_or_ten_years_of_hell_part_1.htm

See Part 2 at:

http://current.com/items/89796275/two_years_recession_or_ten_years_of_hell_part_2.htm

See Part 4 at:

http://current.com/items/89807549/two_years_recession_or_ten_years_of_hell_part_4.htm

.Engdahl: The danger is the US may turn to military might as their financial power weakens. Discussing the global economic... more