Top in United State

2012-09-09T18:28:00.001-07:00

Obama vs. Romney: Future of the Workforce--Graphic

2012-08-23T20:21:00.001-07:00

SPECIFIC POLICY POSITIONS

HIGHER EDUCATION
Obama says that the United States should lead the world in college-graduation rates by 2020. He has pushed to expand the size of, and access to, Pell Grants for students from low-income families, increasing the maximum per-student amount. In the spring, Obama shifted his attention to student loans, advocating for legislation to prevent the 3.4 percent student-loan interest rate from doubling. He succeeded when Congress passed a one-year delay. Obama launched an aggressive campaign promoting community colleges. He has also warned universities that their federal funding could be reduced if they don’t rein in tuition costs.

K-12
Obama considers the Education Department’s Race to the Top competitive-grant program, which encourages state-level school reforms, to be one of his crowning domestic-policy achievements. His budget for fiscal 2013 includes $850 million for the program, down from its $4.35 billion level in the 2009 economic-stimulus bill. He has also pushed for tougher teacher evaluations based on student test scores, a controversial requirement for some Race to the Top funding. He backs the Common Core State Standards Initiative, an effort to set uniform career- and college-readiness standards in all schools.

JOB TRAINING
In March, the White House unveiled Obama’s job-training strategy—“a streamlined reemployment system.” He wants to unify training programs online under an “American Jobs Center” and invest more in counseling. Displaced workers could be eligible for $4,000 in annual training awards for up to two years, and weekly stipends to cover expenses as they search for work. Older people could receive up to two years of wage insurance to ease the transition to jobs that pay less than their previous ones.

IMMIGRATION
Obama wants to boost high-skilled immigration by attaching green cards to Ph.D.s or diplomas in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics earned in the U.S. He also advocates a new start-up visa, encouraging foreign entrepreneurs who receive U.S. investment to set up shop here, giving them permanent residency if their businesses create domestic jobs and generate revenue. In the wake of the failed Dream Act, Obama established administrative two-year deferrals from deportation for illegal immigrant teens who were brought to the United States by their parents.

UNIONS
Unions cheer Obama for his trio of recess appointments to the National Labor Relations Board in February and his support of the Employee Free Choice Act, which would make it easier for workers to form unions. Teachers unions have chafed at his push to tie teacher evaluations to test scores.

RECORD

FUNDING
Obama has been a strong proponent of education funding. In 2009, he
dedicated roughly $100 billion of his $787 billion stimulus package to education, according to the Education Department. He has staved off the most draconian of Congress’s proposed cuts to education programs, and he saved Pell Grant funding.

RACE TO THE TOP
The 2009 stimulus package allocated $4.35 billion for the Race to the Top fund, to be distributed among states for education reform. By January, the initiative had helped one of every three states, while using less than 1 percent of total education spending for the program, according to the White House.

COMMUNITY COLLEGES
Obama announced an $8 billion “Community College to Career Fund” in February. Touted by Jill Biden, the goal is to help community colleges and businesses train 2 million workers for high-demand industries.

KEY ADVISERS

Arne Duncan: The Education secretary is a longtime friend of Obama’s and an ardent champion of school reforms. Duncan started his career at a nonprofit that funded college educations for inner-city students in Chicago, and he spent seven years as chief executive officer of Chicago Public Schools.

Cecilia Muñoz: An experienced civil-rights advocate and a veteran of the National Council of La Raza, Muñoz has spent her career fighting for immigrants’ rights. Her portfolio broadened earlier this year when she became director of the White House Domestic Policy Council.

Alan Krueger: As a labor economist and the current chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers, Krueger plays a key role in developing Obama’s jobs policies, making sure they have a strong link to economic growth. He served as the Labor Department’s chief economist in the mid-1990s.

Jill Biden: Obama deputized the vice president’s wife, a longtime community-college instructor, as the face of the administration’s push to raise awareness of and increase access to community colleges.

SPECIFIC POLICY POSITIONS

HIGHER EDUCATION
Romney has promised to reintroduce private banks to the student-loan market, undoing a centerpiece of Obama’s education plan that Romney says “nationalized” the market. To offset “massive increases” in the size of the Pell Grant program, Romney says he will refocus those funds on only the neediest students. He plans to scale back the Education Department’s data-collection requirements and instead partner with the private sector to measure institutional success. Romney promises to unwind “complicated and unnecessary” regulations.

K-12
Expanding school choice, measuring school performance, and implementing teacher evaluations are the three legs to Romney’s K-12 plan. School choice is the boldest of his promises. He wants to require states to give disadvantaged students open enrollment at any school, public or private; the plan would upend the current system in which communities dole out federal dollars to schools with the highest percentage of low-income or disabled students. He would require states to eliminate caps on charter and digital schools and to issue simple report cards on each of their schools. Romney’s plan would eliminate the current law’s “highly qualified” teacher-certification requirement and make block grants available to states that work to improve teacher effectiveness.

JOB TRAINING
Romney would consolidate various federal retraining programs into a block grant for states. He also backs personal reemployment accounts, a George W. Bush-era proposal that lets the unemployed choose how to use cash aid (for example, toward community-college classes or other forms of training). Romney says that the government should reimburse training costs for businesses that train and hire jobless workers.

IMMIGRATION
Romney’s position on high-skilled immigration is similar enough to Obama’s that their plans share imagery—both mention “stapling” green cards to the diplomas of math, science, and engineering students studying here. Romney backs raising the cap on H-1B visas for highly skilled workers and would make mandatory the voluntary “E-Verify” system under which employers electronically check the citizenship status of their hires. As governor of Massachusetts, he vetoed in-state tuition benefits for illegal immigrants, and he has vowed to veto the Dream Act if Congress ever passes it. He is “studying” the scaled-back version of the Dream Act proposed by Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla.

UNIONS
Romney opposes “card-check” legislation that would allow workers to organize unions and elect leaders more easily, and he supports a measure that would require the use of secret ballots in all union elections. He plans to use the bully pulpit, if elected, to promote right-to-work laws at the state level.

RECORD

DREAM ACT
As governor of Massachusetts, Romney vetoed a bill in 2004 that would have allowed illegal immigrants who graduated from state high schools to pay in-state tuition at state colleges and universities.

CHARTER SCHOOLS
Romney also vetoed a state freeze on opening charter schools in 2004, arguing that it was not consistent with the Legislature’s budget, which included $37 million to compensate local districts for funds lost to educate charter students, The Boston Globe reported at the time.

UNIONS
Early in his tenure as governor, Romney wrestled with public-employee labor unions over their steering half a dollar of state employees’ weekly paychecks to political action committees, according to The Boston Globe. If elected, Romney would propose legislation banning such practices.

KEY ADVISERS

Rod Paige: Who better to advise you on education policy than someone who once implemented it? Paige was secretary of Education during President George W. Bush’s first term.

John Bailey: A former member of George W. Bush’s Domestic Policy Council, Bailey has emerged as a key adviser on immigration and technology. He also served as deputy policy director at the Commerce Department.

Emily Stover DeRocco: One of Romney’s point people on job training, DeRocco joined thecampaign after a stint at a nonpartisan arm of the National Association of Manufacturers. Before that, she was Bush’s assistant secretary of Labor for employment and training.

Kris Kobach: The Kansas secretary of state has become something of a torchbearer for far-right opposition to the Dream Act. His clout as a Romney adviser has been somewhat in question; the campaign has said that Kobach is merely a “supporter.”

Photos: Marilyn Monroe, the LIFE covers

2012-08-23T20:00:00.011-07:00

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Professor wins $5 million grant to study life after death

2012-08-23T20:00:00.009-07:00

Pop quiz: Does life exist after death?

A University of California, Riverside philosophy professor, John Martin Fischer, has been awarded a three-year, $5 million grant by the John Templeton Foundation to study just this topic—and yes, students can take his class.

Fischer noted in an email to Yahoo News, "Both I and my post-doc, Benjamin Mitchell-Yellin, will teach related classes over the next three years. I have frequently taught classes on death, immortality, and the meaning of life both at Yale University and UC Riverside."

So what's the meaning of life? More on that in a moment.

Fischer noted, "We'll be open both to studying religious and non-religious views about immortality. One thing that we'll study is whether human beings would want to live forever: would it be boring? Would it lose its meaning and beauty and urgency? Does death give meaning to life?"

According to the university's website announcing the grant award, many anecdotal reports of the afterlife abound, but there has been "no comprehensive and rigorous, scientific study of global reports about near-death and other experiences, or of how belief in immortality influences human behavior." The research will look at a range of phenomena, including heaven, hell, purgatory, and karma. The grant is the largest ever awarded to a humanities professor at UC Riverside, and one of the largest given to an individual at the university.

Fischer said in a statement, "We will be very careful in documenting near-death experiences and other phenomena, trying to figure out if these offer plausible glimpses of an afterlife or are biologically induced illusions," Fischer said. "Our approach will be uncompromisingly scientifically rigorous. We're not going to spend money to study alien-abduction reports."

The grant will also fund two conferences to discuss the findings. Said UC Riverside Chancellor Timothy P. White, Fischer's research "takes a universal concern and subjects it to rigorous examination to sift fact from fiction."

The Immortality Project, as it is called, will solicit research proposals from eminent scientists, philosophers and theologians whose work "will be reviewed by respected leaders in their fields and published in academic and popular journals."

The research will also delve into cultural aspects of the afterlife. For example, there are reports of millions of Americans seeing a tunnel with a bright light at the end. In Japan, reports often find the individual tending a garden.

The professor added that the academic research could include a range of issues, like "heaven and hell: If we are material beings, how can we exist in heaven, where we would not have physical bodies (or not of the sort we have here)?

"There is a lot of interest in near-death experiences. We can carefully catalog them and look into whether there are patterns. There has already been a lot of work on this. Perhaps some cross-cultural studies would be helpful.

"We'll also be open to studying the relationship between beliefs in afterlife and behavior--moral behavior and crime rates."

Sounds like the kind of research topics that many college students have already spent hours pondering. As for the meaning of life? The professor says check back in three years.

Syria pleads with Russia for aid in sign of desperation

2012-08-23T20:00:00.007-07:00

BEIRUT - Syria reached out to its powerful ally Russia on Friday, as senior officials pleaded with Moscow for financial loans and supplies of oil products — an indication that international sanctions are squeezing President Bashar Assad's regime.

The signs of desperation came as resilient rebels fought regime forces in the Syrian capital only two weeks after the government crushed a revolt there. The renewed battles in Damascus show that Assad's victories could be fleeting as armed opposition groups regroup and resurge.

"The fighting in Damascus today proves that this revolution cannot be extinguished," said activist Abu Qais al-Shami. "The rebels may be forced to retreat because of the regime's use of heavy weaponry but they will always come back."

Syria is thought to be burning quickly through the $17 billion in foreign reserves that the government was believed to have at the start of Assad's crackdown on a popular uprising that erupted in March 2011. The conflict has turned into a civil war, and rights activists estimate more than 19,000 people.

Deputy Prime Minister Qadri Jamil, who has led a delegation of several Cabinet ministers to Moscow over the past few days, told reporters Friday that they requested a Russian loan to replenish Syria's hard currency reserves, which have been depleted by a U.S. and European Union embargo on Syrian exports.

He said Damascus also wants to get diesel oil and other oil products from Russia in exchange for crude supplies.

"We are experiencing shortages of diesel oil and gas for heating purposes," Syrian Oil Minister Said Maza Hanidi said in Moscow. "This unfair blockade has hurt all layers of the population."

The Syrian regime has blamed sanctions for shortages that have left Syrians across the country standing in long lines to pay inflated prices for cooking gas, fuel, sugar and other staples.

Syrian officials refused to mention specific figures but said that deals with Moscow could be finalized within weeks. There was no immediate comment from the Russian government.

While the Syrian delegation was holding talks in Moscow, a squadron of Russian warships was approaching Syria's port of Tartus, the only naval base Russia has outside the former Soviet Union.

Russian news agencies reported that two of the three amphibious assault ships will call at Tartus while the third will cast anchor just outside the port.

They said that each of the three ships is carrying about 120 marines backed by armoured vehicles. It wasn't immediately clear whether some of the marines will stay to protect Tartus. Some Russian media said the marines were supposed to ensure a safe evacuation of Russian personnel and navy equipment from the base if necessary.

Russia has protected Syria from U.N. sanctions and continued to supply it with weapons throughout the conflict. The Kremlin, backed by fellow veto-wielding U.N. Security Council member China, has blocked any plans that would call on Assad to step down.

On Friday, the U.N. General Assembly overwhelmingly denounced Syria's crackdown in a symbolic effort meant to push the deadlocked Security Council and the world at large into action on stopping the civil war.

Before the vote, Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon accused the Syrian regime of possible war crimes and drew comparisons between the failure to act in Syria with the international community's failure to protect people from past genocide in Srebrenica and Rwanda.

"The conflict in Syria is a test of everything this organization stands for," Ban said. "I do not want today's United Nations to fail that test."

Syrian Ambassador Bashar Ja'afari called the resolution's main sponsors, Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Bahrain, "despotic oligarchies."

"The draft resolution will have no impact whatsoever. It is a piece of theatre," he told reporters after the vote. And Iran's No. 2 ambassador, Eshagh Alehabib, called the resolution "one-sided."

Assad's regime stands accused of a number of massacres in which hundreds of civilians, including women and children, were killed. The Syrian government blames gunmen driven by a foreign agenda for the killings, but the U.N. and other witnesses have confirmed that at least some were carried out by pro-regime vigilante groups, known as shabiha.

But the recent emergence of videos showing summary executions committed by rebel forces — albeit on a far smaller scale than the regime's alleged atrocities — is making it more difficult for the Syrian opposition to claim the moral high ground.

With the civil war becoming increasingly vicious, chances for a diplomatic solution were fading after the resignation Thursday of Kofi Annan, the U.N.-Arab League envoy to Syria. Annan cited divisions within the Security Council preventing a united approach to stop the fighting.

The fighting continued Friday in the country's two most important cities, Aleppo and Damascus.

In Damascus, residents reported loud explosions and plumes of smoke over the southern edge of the city Friday, as frightened people stayed at home.

"The bombs are back, I have been hearing explosions all day," a resident of central Damascus told The Associated Press, asking to remain anonymous for fear of reprisals.

Government forces crushed a rebel assault on Damascus two weeks ago, but pockets of resistance remain including the southern neighbourhood of Tadamon, where most of Friday's fighting took place.

Late Friday, Syria's official news agency SANA said government forces had hunted down the remnants of the "terrorist mercenaries" — its term for the rebels — in Tadamon. It said several were killed and many others wounded.

Al-Shami and other activists said troops backed by dozens of tanks and armoured vehicles broke into Tadamon on Friday evening, forcing a fresh wave of residents spilling into nearby areas for shelter.

Many Damascus residents had earlier taken refuge in the country's largest Palestinian refugee camp, Yarmouk, where mortar shells raining down on a crowded marketplace killed 21 people late Thursday.

Nevertheless, there were signs that rebels may be planning another run on Damascus in an effort to drain the army's resources as fighting stretches into its second week in Aleppo, 350 kilometres (215 miles) to the north.

The U.N. peacekeeping chief, Herve Ladsous, warned of a major government assault on Aleppo in the coming days to retake the rebel-held neighbourhoods.

"The focus is now on Aleppo, where there has been a considerable buildup of military means," he told reporters in New York late Thursday after briefing the Security Council on his trip to Syria. "We have reason to believe that the main battle is about to start."

____

Isachenkov reported from Moscow. Associated Press writers Ali Akbar Dareini in Tehran, Iran, and Dalia Nammari in Ramallah, West Bank, contributed to this report.

Earth to Mars rover, Curiosity: Have you landed?

2012-08-23T20:00:00.005-07:00

Tune in to the Yahoo! live-stream on Sunday, August 5, at 10:31 p.m. PT or 1:31 a.m. ET.

On Sunday night, millions of miles away, a nail-biter of a landing will be executed—or not—on Mars. The Mars rover, Curiosity, which has been traveling to the distant planet for the past eight-and-a-half months, will land on the red planet by remote control.

To stick the landing, the car-size rover must successfully slow down from 13,000 mph to zero in seven minutes, or "Seven Minutes of Terror," as the wildly popular video from NASA explains—which you can watch above.

Due to the long-distance signal from Mars to Earth, researchers won't know for an agonizing 14 minutes if the landing, programmed from Earth, is a success or an epic fail. The event has gotten so much attention that it will be broadcast live in Times Square.

During the short but tense wait, a sequence of events must fall into place for the landing of the 1,982-pound spacecraft to be successful, including using a parachute to slow it down, firing rockets to prepare for the landing, and carefully setting it in a crater to avoid a dust cloud. If all goes well, the craft will send out a signal that its landing was successful.

The Mars rover has already become somewhat of a celebrity, with its own Facebook page, and messages posted on its wall like this one from Issam Motawaj: "Very excited. We hope you will be a safe landing. Good Luck." And from Jeff Baber "I'm be watching!!! Love it!!!"

But the landing is just the beginning of what's hoped to be a two-year mission to explore signs of life on the planet. The rover, essentially a moving science lab, cost NASA $2.5 billion to build and comes equipped with 17 cameras, a 7-foot-long robot arm, and state-of-the-art science experiments and sensors weighing 125 pounds.

Bing Quock, assistant director of Morrison Planetarium at California Academy of Sciences, calls this "exciting times." He wrote in an email to Yahoo! News, "There are so many things that could go wrong, but it's not like NASA's engineers haven't thought it through. They have a way of performing the impossible, so I'll be watching the feed on the Internet that night with fingers crossed, hoping for the best. "

N. Korea gives refrigerators for medals, labor camp for losing

2012-08-23T20:00:00.003-07:00

North Korea's Olympic athletes are thrilling their countrymen with surprising success in winning medals and they are attributing their success to their Dear Leader Kim Jong Un.

But others, including former North Korean athletes who have defected, suggest the success of the country's small contingent of athletes at the games may be the result of a policy of training them from a very young age at specialized schools, backed up by rewards like cars and refrigerators for winners and the threat of labor camps for losers.

North Korea ranks 14th in the overall medal count, but fifth in terms of the number of gold medals with four.

The country won two golds in men's weightlifting, one in women's weightlifting and one in women's judo. It also captured a bronze medal in women's weightlifting.

The communist nation has 56 athletes competing in 11 sports. Its hopes for additional medals lie in boxing, wrestling, diving, table tennis, judo, and archery. The best Olympic result in the past was four gold medals and five bronzes in Barcelona 1992.

Joyful residents in North Korea gather to watch the games on huge outdoor screens and public places with television connection.

"After witnessing the gold medal at the Olympics, my heart is unutterably happy and my pride (in our nation) is growing," an unidentified woman said on state television news.

That pride is exactly what the country's new 28 year-old leader Kim Jong Un is looking for. He has taken control of the impoverished nation of 25 million after his father Kim Jong Il passed away last December. Decades of famine have left many North Koreans bitter and analysts say this Olympic Games' fever is a perfect opportunity to generate loyalty and devotion among his subjects.

Gold medalist Kim Un-Guk, who set an Olympic record in 62-kilogram weightlifting, dutifully attributed his triumph to their leader Kim Jong Un.

"I won first place because the shining Supreme Commander Kim Jong Un gave me power and courage," he told reporters in London.

An Kum-Ae, who won her gold in the women's judo 52-kilogram division, said, "I cannot be any happier than right now for I can give my gold medal to our great leader, Kim Jong Un."

Woo-Young Lee, a professor at University of North Korean Studies in Seoul, says, "Athletes in North Korean society are revered as elites and they are managed, trained, and supported on a national level."

Hand-picked by the Communist Party's Sports Committee, the athletes are trained at very young ages and registered at specialized schools which provide "daily meals and spending money at times," said Gu-Kyeong Bang, a defector living in South Korea.

Bang was a student athlete in Taewondo in the North. Training involved four hours of "ideological education" per week aimed at cultivating loyalty to the leader.

"They play with a different mind set," said another North Korean defector to the South, Kim Yo-Han. "An absolute loyalty towards the country and the leader is the core foundation of the North Korean athletes' sportsmanship."

Kim's father was a soccer coach and mother was a rhythmic gymnastics coach in the North.

Upon returning home, gold medal athletes like Kim Un-Guk and An Gum-Ae would be rewarded with handsome prize money, an apartment, a car, and additional perks like refrigerators and television sets.

But most of all, they will be rewarded with a huge jump in social status with the title of "hero" or "people's athlete."

But poor performances, especially losing to their archenemy nations like the United States or South Korea, have consequences. Rumors of athletes being sent directly to labor camps upon arriving home are not confirmed, but it is a common procedure to open "review meetings" after the sports events in which participants "assess" their own and each other's games, said Kim Yo-Han.

If during that process the person is determined "disloyal" to their Dear Leader, the athlete is likely to be expelled from the sports organization and at times sent to labor camps.

Yunjoo Lim and Sungeun Lee contributed to this report

SEAL who wrote book on bin Laden raid revealed

2012-08-23T20:00:00.001-07:00

White House Situation Room, May 1, 2011 (Pete Souza/White House)

The Navy SEAL who used a pseudonym to write an upcoming book on the raid that killed Osama bin Laden has been revealed.

Penguin Books—which is publishing "No Easy Day: The Firsthand Account of the Mission That Killed Osama bin Laden" on Sept. 11 on its Dutton imprint—said the author used the pen name Mark Owen and changed the names of his fellow SEALs for security reasons.

But Fox News published Owen's real name, saying he is a 36-year-old Alaskan and former member of the so-called Team 6 that killed bin Laden in a May 2011 assault on the al-Qaida chief's compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan. (The Associated Press also published his name; other news outlets, including CNN, chose not to do so.)

"Owen was one of the first men through the door on the third floor of the terrorist leader's hideout," Penguin said in a press release on Wednesday, "and was present at his death":

The blow-by-blow narrative of the assault, beginning with the helicopter crash that could have ended Owen's life straight through to the radio call confirming Bin Laden's death, is an essential piece of modern history.

Owen said the reason he wanted to write the book—co-authored with Kevin Maurer—was to "set the record straight about one of the most important missions in U.S. military history."

Pentagon officials, though, say they have not vetted the account. Penguin said the publisher consulted with a former special operations attorney on its release.

"He vetted it for tactical, technical and procedural information as well as information that could be considered classified by compilation and found it to be without risk to national security," Christine Ball, a spokeswoman for Dutton, told The Associated Press.

"I haven't read the book and am unaware that anyone in the department has reviewed it," Pentagon press secretary George Little said Thursday.

Defense Department spokesman Lt. Col. James Gregory said that if the book reveals classified information about the raid, the Pentagon would turn the case over to the Department of Justice.

Since the bin Laden raid, "there has been a consistent and effective effort to protect the identity of those that participated in the raid," then-Defense Secretary Robert Gates said in 2011. "I think that that has to continue."

"No Easy Day" is not the first account of the bin Laden raid to spark controversy.

Last August, the New Yorker published "Getting Bin Laden," a gripping, 8,500-word play-by-play of the killing written by freelancer Nicholas Schmidle.

It was, perhaps, too gripping. Schmidle's sourcing came under fire from several critics who said that he and the New Yorker failed to disclose that Schmidle never spoke with the SEALs directly.

[Related: The New Yorker's account of raid is amazing—perhaps too amazing]

And the White House was criticized by lawmakers for its collaboration with the producers of "Zero Dark Thirty"—Academy Award-winning director Kathryn Bigelow's upcoming film on the bin Laden raid—over their possible access to classified material. Bigelow and the White House disputed the claims; the CIA said the agency's involvement with the filmmakers was not unusual and that no intelligence was compromised.

The film, originally scheduled to open before the presidential election, was pushed back to Dec. 19 after Republicans complained it might affect voters.

Retired porn star Jenna Jameson supports Mitt Romney

2012-08-23T19:59:00.030-07:00

Retired adult film actress Jenna Jameson voiced support for presumptive Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney at a strip club Thursday, CBS San Francisco reports:

"I'm very looking forward to a Republican being back in office," Jameson said while sipping champagne in a VIP room at Gold Club in the city's South of Market neighborhood. "When you're rich, you want a Republican in office."

Jameson was being interviewed "exclusively" by a CBS reporter who was "on assignment" at "an event marking the 8th anniversary" of the San Francisco-area strip club.

Jameson isn't the first in the business to praise Romney: Ron Jeremy recently called Romney "a good man" and "such an amazing father." In an interview with Yahoo News earlier this year, gay porn titan Michael Lucas said he would "of course" support the former Massachusetts governor.

Alaskan fishermen save bear cub from whirlpool (VIDEO)

2012-08-23T19:59:00.029-07:00

A boat of Alaskan fishermen documented their successful, and risky, attempt to rescue a bear cub who was struggling against the river current and in danger of being pulled into a nearby whirlpool.

Mike Polocz tells the Anchorage Daily News that the bear was struggling to stay afloat in the Kenai River when Polocz, his son and a fishing buddy went into action.

"I couldn't watch this defenseless animal suffer," Polocz told the Anchorage Daily News. "I was ready to go in after it if it went under."

And aside from the obvious risks involved with trying to save even a bear cub, Polocz notes that the cub's mother, along with its siblings, were all standing nearby on the shoreline watching the entire scene unfold.

"I was so close I could look into its eyes and they were wide open and filled with just sheer terror," Polocz said.

On a somewhat unusual aside, the bear is screaming throughout the video in a tone that almost sounds like a disgruntled human yelling the word, "bear." But anyway, back to the rescue.

At first, Polocz tries to use his fishing net to bring the bear aboard, and the cub tries climbing into it. But when that fails, he uses the net's handle to guide the cub close enough to the shoreline for it to safely escape.

The video does not contain the final moments of the cub's escape but it reportedly let out a roar of approval upon reaching the shore and its worried mom.

"There were three pretty tough guys in the boat, and there wasn't a dry eye among us," Polocz said.

Warning: The video contains some mildly not-safe-for-work language.

Romney: My health plan is superior to Obama's

2012-08-23T19:59:00.028-07:00

DENVER (AP) — Claiming health care bragging rights, Mitt Romney said Thursday his plan to provide health insurance to everyone in Massachusetts was superior to the one it inspired, President Barack Obama's much-debated national law.

"My health care plan I put in place in my state has everyone insured, but we didn't go out and raise taxes on people and have a unelected board tell people what kind of health care they can have," Romney said in an interview with CBS' Denver affiliate, KCNC.

The law signed by Romney in 2006 sought to expand health care but did not guarantee coverage for all. Romney and Massachusetts lawmakers decided that rather than reinvent the entire health care system, they would instead close a series of holes, allowing the vast majority of residents to keep their existing plans.

Obama's law basically followed the same outline — a private insurance system with an expanded government safety net. But there are some important differences.

The federal law is national, and most of its important provisions are binding even in states that oppose it. Romney's law was a state effort that enjoyed support from both political parties, and the Republican candidate argues that health care reform should remain a state prerogative.

Obama's law cut Medicare payments to hospitals, insurers and other service providers. As a state law, Romney's plan had no effect on Medicare.

Romney's law has led to about 400,000 Massachusetts residents gaining coverage, state officials say. More than 98 percent of state residents are covered. Obama's law has already led to coverage for more than 2.5 million young adults on their parents' plans. If all of its provisions go into effect, more than 30 million uninsured people will be covered.

The Massachusetts law requires residents to have insurance, with certain exemptions.

Those who can show they earn too much to qualify for the state's subsidized health care plan, but not enough to afford even the least expensive nonsubsidized plan, are not required to pay the so-called "individual mandate" penalty.

The Supreme Court ruled that Obama's individual mandate constitutional — as a tax. It, too, has exemptions for financial hardship, religious beliefs, and membership in an American Indian tribe.

The law Romney signed also created an unelected board — known as the Commonwealth Health Insurance Connector Authority Board — which oversees an independent state agency that decides what level of insurance complies with the state law.

The agency can also exempt people whose financial hardships prevent them from enrolling in health insurance.

Since Obama's plan was modeled on Romney's, some conservatives remain wary of the former Massachusetts governor. Some GOP activists were angered when a Romney spokeswoman touted the Massachusetts plan on Fox News earlier this month.

In Thursday's interview, one of a series the presumptive Republican presidential nominee gave local broadcast outlets in swing states, Romney was asked how he'd appeal to women voters on health care and other issues. The Obama campaign has been pounding Romney for his stances on birth control, abortion and other women's issues.

Romney replied by talking about how he'd improve the economy and education. Then he shifted to health care, saying it was "a big issue."

Romney also laughed off concerns that a hurricane could disrupt the Republican National Convention in Tampa next week. "The winds of change are coming," he said, "so we're looking forward to it."

---

AP Writers Steve LeBlanc in Boston and Ricardo Alonso-Zaldivar in Washington contributed to this report.

Police investigating reported threat against Akin

2012-08-23T19:59:00.027-07:00

WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. Capitol Police said Thursday that officers are investigating a reported threat against Rep. Todd Akin, the Missouri congressman who has been criticized for comments he recently made about rape.

Police spokeswoman Lt. Kimberly Schneider said there was "an active, open investigation" into a reported threat against the Republican, though she declined to detail the threat because it involved security of members of Congress.

The six-term congressman, who is running for the U.S. Senate, created a firestorm when he said in a television interview Sunday that women's bodies have ways of preventing pregnancies in cases of what he called "legitimate rape." He has repeatedly apologized, saying he misspoke, and has refused demands by top Republicans to withdraw from the Senate race.

Several threats have been made against the congressman, his family and staff since the interview aired, Akin spokesman Steve Taylor said. Taylor said threats of rape and other violence have been aimed at Akin through phone calls, emails and tweets.

Akin is challenging incumbent Democratic U.S. Sen. Claire McCaskill.

Slideshow: The best photos of the day

2012-08-23T19:59:00.026-07:00

Sorry, I could not read the content fromt this page.

Typhoon batters southern Taiwan with winds, rain

2012-08-23T19:59:00.025-07:00

TAIPEI, Taiwan (AP) — A powerful typhoon made landfall in southern Taiwan before dawn Friday, toppling trees and dumping torrential rain that flooded farmlands before roaring out to sea.

No casualties from Typhoon Tembin were immediately reported. Authorities had taken precautions, evacuating more than 3,000 people from mountainous, landslide-prone areas of Taiwan a day ahead of the storm.

The Central Weather Bureau said Tembin landed in coastal Pingtung County at 5 a.m. (2100 GMT), packing winds of 155 kilometers (96 miles) per hour, before blowing out to the Taiwan Strait 2 1/2 hours later.

Mindful of a devastating typhoon three years ago that took 700 lives, Taiwan's military readied thousands of soldiers equipped with rubber boats and amphibious vehicles to help with relief efforts in areas impacted by Tembin's fury.

Authorities also ordered workers home in the eastern city of Hualien, where all flights were canceled. Schools were closed in several areas in the southeast.

Farmers urgently harvested crops ahead of the storm's arrival, and many homes and businesses in eastern Taiwan boarded up their windows. Outdoor events to mark a special Taiwanese Valentine's Day on Thursday were canceled.

Another typhoon may threaten southern Japan over the weekend. Typhoon Bolaven has winds of 144 kph (89 mph) and may intensify, the Japan Meteorological Agency said. The current forecast has the typhoon affecting southern islands, including Okinawa, on Sunday.

Washed out bridge strands Missouri couple in their home

2012-08-23T19:59:00.024-07:00

For Bob and Connie Bushner, a trip to the grocery store involves a trek on a four-wheel ATV down a creek bank, across the creek, up another steep bank and then to a car parked away from their home.

It's been that way since December of 2010, when a storm washed away a small bridge over the creek that connected their Ozark County, Mo., home to the main road.

With the bridge washed away, the Bushners essentially have been stranded in their own home, Fox News reports.

"Nobody can come and visit unless we bring them over on the four-wheeler," Connie told the news station.

The Bushners are at odds with Ozark County officials on the reconstruction of the bridge. The long-standing argument is over who is responsible for fixing the bridge.

Fox notes that County Commissioner T.J. Lewis said he won't pay for repairs because it would be "a waste of taxpayers' money." The Bushners have proposed to pay for half of the construction of a new bridge, but Lewis seems not to want to agree to that.

The news station also reports there's also an issue between the county and the Army Corps of Engineers on who is responsible for the bridge.

In the meantime, though, the Bushners are still slogging on an ATV to and from their dream home.

Dole recalls bagged salad over possible Listeria discovery

2012-08-23T19:59:00.023-07:00

Dole says it is voluntarily recalling 1,039 cases of bagged salad after a random sample tested positive for the Listeria bacteria.

Dole Fresh Vegetables, a division of Dole Food Company, which is based in Westlake Village, Calif., issued the statement Wednesday evening, saying no illnesses have been reported in association with the recall.

The specific product being recalled is 10 oz. Dole Italian Blend, with a "Use-By" date of Aug. 20, distributed in eight U.S. states: Florida, Alabama, North Carolina, South Carolina, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Mississippi and Virginia.

The company said the recall is in response to an "isolated instance in which a sample of Dole Italian Blend salad yielded a positive result for Listeria monocytogenes in a random sample test conducted by the North Carolina Department of Agriculture."

However, Dan Ragan, director of the food and drug protection division of North Carolina's agriculture department, said the testing did not take place in the state. He said samples were sent to his state's agriculture department as part of a regular practice through the USDA's Microbiological Data Program, a national food-borne pathogen monitoring program implemented in 2001.

Ragan said he does not know where the sample originated or where the testing took place.

A request for comment from Dole was not immediately returned.

Last year, 30 people died after being infected with one of four outbreak-associated strains of the bacteria, Listeria moncytogenes, and one ill pregnant woman had a miscarriage, the Centers for Disease Control reported. A total of 146 people from 28 states were reported to the CDC as infected.

Dole said in a statement that it was "coordinating closely" with regulatory officials.

Because the product is two days past its "Use-By" date, Dole said "it is highly unlikely that any product is still available at retail…."

But the company said, "Retailers should check their inventories and store shelves to confirm that none of the product is mistakenly present or available for purchase by consumers or in warehouse inventories."

Will Isaac hit Tampa during the Republican convention?

2012-08-23T19:59:00.022-07:00

Click on the image for Isaac's latest projected path. (Weather.com)

A day after the mayor of Tampa said he was prepared to call off next week's Republican National Convention if Tropical Storm Isaac hits the bay area as a major storm, Florida Gov. Rick Scott assured conventiongoers that "Tampa is open for business."

"We're a hospitality state," Scott said on CNN. "We do this every day."

Tropical Storm Isaac, which brought heavy winds and rain to Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands on Thursday, was expected to reach hurricane strength before reaching the Dominican Republic, Haiti and the Florida Keys.

According to the National Weather Service, Isaac's most likely projected path would take it just to the west of Tampa as a Category 1 hurricane--with winds between 75 and 85 mph--on Monday, making landfall in the Florida Panhandle sometime Tuesday. (One computer model had the storm pass right over Tampa; another had it hitting New Orleans.)

While the site of the GOP convention--the Tampa Bay Times Forum--would be within the city's mandatory evacuation zone should winds reach 96 mph, Scott urged the 50,000 people expected in Tampa to not change their travel plans.

Scott said his office conducts conference calls twice a day with state, local and Republican officials to discuss contingency plans, and that the convention organizers would ultimately make the "hypothetical" call to cancel the event.

"If something happens, we're going to be ready," Scott said. "But Florida's used to this. We're a tourism state. We're going to have a great convention."

According to Reuters, though, authorities "have not ruled out the possibility of postponing or relocating the Republican convention if the storm takes direct aim at the city on Florida's central Gulf Coast."

"Absolutely, we're prepared to call it off," Tampa Mayor Bob Buckhorn said on CNN on Wednesday. "I mean, safety and human life trump politics. I think the RNC recognizes that. The organizers, certainly Gov. Romney, recognize that."

"These officials have been working together on the convention for the past 18 months," Scott said earlier Thursday. "The possibility of a hurricane has been part of that planning process. All that's required for those plans to be activated would be for there to be a hurricane and hopefully that will not happen."

"There is no such thing as cancelling," RNC communications director Sean Spicer said on CNN's "Starting Point."

But the carefully-worded statement from convention chief William Harris--issued Thursday afternoon--leaves some wiggle room:

The Republican National Convention and the Republican National Committee, working in consultation with the Romney/Ryan campaign, are in regular contact with the National Weather Service, Governor Scott and local emergency officials in an effort to track and understand the potential impact of the storm. Governor Scott and local emergency officials have assured us that they have the resources in place to respond to this storm should it make landfall, as our primary concern is with those in the potential path of the storm. We will continue to work closely with them and federal officials to monitor the storm and discuss any impact it might have on the Tampa area and the state of Florida. We continue to move forward with our planning and look forward to a successful convention.

The storm has sustained winds of just 40 mph. "However," the National Hurricane Center said, "environmental conditions are favorable for rapid intensification, which could occur if the cyclone develops a well-defined inner core."

U.S. to weigh gay relationships in deportation cases

2012-08-23T19:59:00.021-07:00

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Amid pressure from Democratic lawmakers, Homeland Security officials reiterated Friday that a foreigner's longstanding same-sex relationship with a U.S. citizen could help stave off the threat of deportation.

Binational gay couples are eligible for consideration under a federal program designed to focus resources away from low-priority deportation cases and let officials spend more time tracking down convicted criminals, said Marsha Catron, a spokeswoman for the Department of Homeland Security.

However, the Obama administration will not automatically shelve deportation cases or process green card applications involving foreign citizens married to same-sex American partners.

Catron said Homeland Security will continue to comply with a 1996 law that prohibits the government from recognizing same-sex relationships, even as it takes these relationships into consideration when evaluating possible deportation.

The Obama administration last year said it considers the Defense of Marriage law unconstitutional and would no longer defend it in court.

Friday's statement, which builds on comments Homeland Security officials made last summer, came three days after 84 lawmakers led by House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi demanded the agency put its position in writing and disseminate it to Immigration and Customs Enforcement offices to help keep same-sex couples together.

The reassurance was first reported on Thursday by the online news site BuzzFeed. Immigrant advocates welcomed the comments but said a formal policy still is needed.

"It is significant to me because it is expressly inclusive of LGBT families," said Lavi Soloway, an immigration attorney who represents a number of same-sex couples in deportation proceedings.

Yet "as long as it's not in writing it doesn't mean that much for an individual in deportation," Soloway said.

That sentiment was echoed by Pelosi spokesman Drew Hammill, whose boss is awaiting word on whether the administration plans to recognize couples' ties in a memo or field guidance," not just public statements.

"We look forward to the written guidance that we expect would be a logical next step," Hammill said.

Homeland Security officials did not answer questions about whether a written memo would be issued.

The federal government last year began reviewing deportation cases to determine which ones should be top priority and which ones might be shelved. Government attorneys weigh factors such as a person's criminal record, family ties and community relations in making their decisions. ICE officials said at the time that long-term same-sex relationships could be included under the family ties criteria.

As of July 20, government attorneys had reviewed more than 355,000 deportation cases and determined about 6 percent qualified to be placed on hold, according to Immigration and Customs Enforcement. At least half a dozen same-sex couples who were at risk of being separated have won temporary reprieves, either from immigration judges or under the broader review.

Immigrant advocates have criticized the program for failing to help more immigrants, while gay rights advocates have continued pushing for a blanket moratorium on deportations of foreign nationals who are legally married to same-sex spouses or in long-term gay relationships.

Supporters of stricter limits on immigration have decried it as a way of circumventing Congress.

Mark Krikorian, executive director of the Washington-based Center for Immigration Studies, questioned how the Obama administration could simply contradict the 1996 law passed by Congress known as the Defense of Marriage Act.

"I just don't see how you can exercise discretion as though they're spouses if they're not spouses under federal law," said Krikorian, whose group wants more limits on immigration. "It doesn't even matter what you think about DOMA."

In this week's letter, Democratic lawmakers accused Homeland Security officials of overlooking binational same-sex couples for prosecutorial discretion — even though agency officials said almost a year ago that same-sex marriages and partnerships would be considered a positive factor in their cases.

Meanwhile, a lawsuit seeking green cards on behalf of five foreign citizens married to gay or lesbian Americans has been put on hold while the U.S. Supreme Court considers whether to take up several other cases challenging the Defense of Marriage Act.

___

Taxin reported from Orange County, Calif.

Romney energy plan aims to expand drilling on federal land

2012-08-23T19:59:00.020-07:00

Romney in New Mexico (Evan Vucci/AP)

In what his campaign billed as a major policy speech, Mitt Romney unveiled an energy plan Thursday that would give states the power to determine whether drilling and mining should occur on federal lands within their borders as part of a larger effort to increase domestic oil, coal and natural gas production and achieve energy independence by 2020.

"This is not some pie-in-the-sky kind of thing," Romney said during a speech at an oilfield services company in Hobbs, N.M. "This is a real, achievable objective."

Under current law, the federal government controls oil, coal and gas permits for federal lands. But Romney argued determination should be up to state officials, insisting individual states are in a better position to "develop, adopt and enforce regulations" on local basis than the federal government--which his campaign says has been unduly influenced by Washington politics.

A policy paper released ahead of the candidate's speech by the Romney campaign argues President Barack Obama "has intentionally sought to shut down oil, gas and coal production in pursuit of his own alternative energy agenda."

Romney said that loosening regulations on the energy industry will benefit taxpayers by lowering gas costs and reducing the cost of consumer goods, which have increased as companies pay higher energy prices. He'll argue that allowing more federal drilling would not only bring money back into the nation's budget but would result in lower energy prices that could create jobs, lower the trade deficit and increase the nation's security.

"Three million jobs come back to this country by taking advantage of something we have right underneath our feet. That's oil, and gas, and coal. We're going to make it happen. We're going to create those jobs," Romney said Thursday. "Let me tell you what else it does. It adds $500 billion to the size of our economy. That is more good wages. That's an opportunity for more Americans to have a bright and prosperous future."

The push is part of what Romney touted as an effort to achieve energy independence by 2020, a plan that also includes expanding offshore energy development along the coast of Virginia and North and South Carolina as well as approval of the Keystone energy pipeline linking Canada to the United States.

Romney's speech came amid criticism that he hasn't been specific enough about what exactly he would do as president. In a conference call ahead of the speech, a Romney aide acknowledged that some of the ideas the candidate detailed Thursday he's pitched previously on the campaign trail. But aides insisted the speech offered more details about how Romney's policies would work as part of a larger effort to improve the economy. Romney also pressed the idea that government is standing in the way of the U.S. achieving energy independence—an argument the presumptive Republican nominee has made in the past.

"The challenge in getting there is not about the resources we have. It's not about the technology we have. It's about the government we have," Oren Cass, Romney's domestic policy director, told reporters in a conference call Wednesday. "The real question is are we going to pursue the political reforms that will allow us to develop the resources to their fullest."

But the Romney campaign presented different calculations from what has been previously suggested about the impact of the candidate's proposed policies, including the impact of drilling on federal lands. A recent Congressional Budget Office report suggested that opening nearly all federal lands to drilling would yield just $7 billion in government revenue over the next decade—a vast difference from "trillions of dollars" estimated by the Romney campaign.

Asked about the disparity, Cass said the campaign was including revenues from both onshore and offshore drilling on federal lands and suggested the CBO had produced lower numbers by not including lease payments, royalties and taxes certain to be earned in coming "years and decades."

"If you keep in mind that this is something that America is going to be able to sustainably produce over years and decades, the aggregate total is much higher," Cass said.

Responding to Romney's speech, the Obama campaign accused the candidate of still not being specific enough about what his energy goals are and questioned his ties to the oil and gas industry. On Tuesday, Romney raised roughly $7 million during a fundraising swing through Texas, which included a finance luncheon with energy industry leaders.

"His energy speech today was devoid of any policy specifics or concrete steps that would realistically increase our nation's energy independence," Obama campaign spokeswoman Lis Smith said in a statement. "If anything, Romney's policies would take us backward. He wants to keep giving billions of dollars in tax subsidies to the big oil and gas companies and recklessly open new areas for drilling, but turn our back on increasing energy efficiency and developing our clean, homegrown energy sources. That's not a recipe for energy independence."

But the Romney campaign rejected criticism of Romney's ties to the energy industry and insisted his proposals would benefit all Americans.

"Unleashing those resources … the beneficiaries of that are consumers and families and workers who will get the benefit of more jobs and more affordable energy," Ed Gillespie, a senior Romney adviser, said.

Obama campaign unleashing 'the Big Dog' in battleground states

2012-08-23T19:59:00.019-07:00

President Barack Obama and former President Bill Clinton campaign together in New York in June. (Carolyn Kaste …

Do you look back fondly on Bill Clinton's time in office as an era of prosperity? President Barack Obama's re-election campaign hopes you do—because it will be unleashing the gifted politician, sometimes known as "the Big Dog," in battleground states.

"I anticipate that he'll be one of our principal surrogates in the fall," a senior Obama campaign official told several dozen reporters at a briefing held in Washington. The session, which included six top Obama campaign officials, was held on condition that they not be named.

"Obviously, President Clinton has extraordinary credibility on these issues of how you build a strong economy," the official said. "He faced some of the same forces when he was president that president Obama is facing now, the same opposition to dealing with a fiscal challenge by taxing the wealthy to pay a little more, the same opposition to the kind of investments we need to make in order to grow the economy."

His hopes for a second term weighed down by the sour economy, the current president frequently invokes Clinton in his stump speech and paints the Obama-Romney choice in November as being between Clinton's economy and George W. Bush's. And Clinton appears to have set aside any bad blood from the 2008 campaign, when Obama beat Hillary Clinton in a frequently harsh campaign. Clinton has starred in Obama campaign ads, helped Obama raise funds and defended Obama in media interviews. (It hasn't always gone perfectly. Republicans gleefully seized on Clinton's description of Romney's business record as "sterling.") Next up, Clinton will play a starring role at the Democratic convention—formally nominating Obama for re-election and defending his economic policies.

To hear the Obama campaign aides tell it, Clinton will play such as big role that the fall campaign may start to feel like an Obama/Biden/Clinton ticket. "We want as much of his time as he's willing to give. And he's been very generous so far," said the official. "He's indicated to us that he's willing to give us a significant amount of time moving forward."

Clinton's broad appeal—a July 2012 Gallup poll found 66 percent of Americans regard him favorably, against 28 unfavorably—includes many white working-class voters, a demographic Obama sometimes struggles to reach.

"He plays everywhere," said a second Obama campaign official. "You've seen his numbers, his economic message. There isn't a battleground state it doesn't play well. Bill Clinton can go anywhere."

NASA forms $1.1B partnership with private space companies

2012-08-23T19:59:00.018-07:00

The U.S. space agency wants to help private companies reach the stars without outsourcing to other countries

Though many of us dream of exploring the stars or starting a human colony on Mars, that dream is not shared by the government. If the United States is going to return to the stars, it's going to need the help of private companies — a fact NASA seems to acknowledge via its new $1.1 billion agreement to support private space craft development.

Specifically, the space agency has made funding agreements with three private companies that seek to send man into space. The Sierra Nevada corporation will receive $212.5 million, SpaceX will get $440 million, and Boeing will get $460 million. The goal, aside from going where no man has ever gone before, is to keep space-related jobs in American hands. Says NASA administrator Charles Bolden, "We have selected three companies that will help keep us on track to end the outsourcing of human spaceflight and create high-paying jobs in Florida and elsewhere across the country."

Sierra Nevada, SpaceX, and Boeing will be using the money to perform tests over the next two years in an effort to "launch crewed orbital demonstration missions to low Earth orbit" by 2015. From there, it's hoped that the companies will help provide a means to explore the solar system.

[Image credit: NASA]

This article was written by Fox Van Allen and originally appeared on Tecca

Chick-fil-A protests: Have they gone too far?

2012-08-23T19:59:00.017-07:00

It seems that a sandwich has become the target of partisan political debate. Ever since Dan Cathy, the president of chicken restaurant chain Chick-fil-A, voiced his opposition to gay marriage, opinions about the company have caused a lot of indigestion.

Adam Smith, then the CFO of a medical supply firm, created a wave of interest on the Web when he posted a video of himself berating a Chick-fil-A worker at a drive-through window in Tucson, Ariz. Smith, who said he "just couldn't stand all the hate," wasn't exactly showing his sweet side.

Smith tells the employee, who offers him free water and wishes him a nice day, "I don't know how you live with yourself and work here. I don't understand it. This is a horrible corporation with horrible values. You deserve better." Smith's employer, Vante, was not impressed, stating in a press release that Smith no longer works for the company.

Overnight, a Chick-fil-A in Torrance, Calif., was vandalized with the spray-painted message "Tastes like hate" in advance of today's "National Same-Sex Kiss Day."

Some gay activists have encouraged same-sex couples to document themselves smooching at the restaurant chain's locations.

This comes after Wednesday's Chick-fil-A Appreciation Day, organized by former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, which brought out tens of thousands to wait in long lines and, Chick-fil-A confirmed, resulted in a "record-setting day" for the business.

Mayors in Chicago, Boston, and San Francisco have rolled up the welcome mat to the chain, and in Los Angeles, Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa praised his city for its "vibrant" LGBT community.

New York City's Michael Bloomberg, on the other hand, a supporter of gay marriage, said on his radio show Friday that it is not appropriate for government "to look at somebody's political views and decide whether or not they can live in the city, or operate a business in the city, or work for somebody in the city."

Twitter was abuzz from all the activity. As helpbydonating (@ithas2besaid) noted, "If you want to protest these mayors who banned Chick-fil-A, that's one thing. But if you want to defend the constitution, defend all of it." Richard Penney (@RichardPenney) weighed in, saying, "If you don't like Chick-fil-A don't go there. If you do, go there. But banning the business because you disagree w/ the CEO? Fascist."

On the other hand, all the chatter about chicken sandwiches simply seems to be making some people hungry. Coraline Jones (@kaylacurtsinger) posted, "The more y'all keep talking about Chick-fil-A, the more I crave it."

Sometimes, a sandwich is just a sandwich.

Video: Family of four stranded at airport for six days

2012-08-23T19:59:00.016-07:00

The Saxton family spent six days at SLC Airport before getting a flight home (ABC News 4)A Virginia family spent six days stranded at Salt Lake City International Airport before a generous donor purchased them a flight back home.

"We just sit and walk around and wait for our flights," Curtis Saxton told local affiliate ABC 4. "We've been here for every flight, rolled over for every flight," said Saxton. "We're still at the bottom of that list."

Curtis Saxton and his wife Nicole Bennett, along with their 13-year-old daughter Sadee and 4-year-old son Dominic, had used a relative's buddy pass, to fly from Virginia to Utah.

Buddy passes are technically lower-end version of standby flights, meaning that the Saxtons were forced to wait until all passengers, including regular standby requests, had been seated.

And with so many Americans traveling on summer vacations, there just weren't any seats available on their return JetBlue flight. So the family was stuck at SLC Airport from Aug. 15 through Aug. 21.

Even worse, they were forced to sleep on airport benches and because of limited funds, could afford to eat only one meal per day. "There's a lot of people walking by and staring at you and kind of laughing at you," said Bennett. "It doesn't feel very good."

The family hadn't even been able to shower since the day they arrived at the airport. "You feel gross," said 13-year-old Sadee. "It's embarrassing."

The family said neither they nor their relatives could afford to purchase a ticket back to Virginia at the standard price.

However, once news of their plight was reported, donations quickly arrived. United Airlines purchased a motel room for the family and an anonymous donor purchased them a ticket back to Virginia, which they used on Wednesday morning.

Before the donations arrived, things had gotten so bad that 4-year-old Dominic began vomiting on Sunday and had to be evaluated by airport paramedics. "I have been hungry, hungry, hungry, hungry!" Dominic said.

It should be noted that JetBlue did nothing wrong here. In fact, the airline said it was without options, as it could not take away tickets from other paying passengers on flights that were already fully booked. A independent survey of airlines passengers released by J.D. Power and Associates in June ranked JetBlue as the top industry airline for customer satisfaction for North America.

Curiosity rover landing: This time in HD

2012-08-23T19:59:00.015-07:00

You've seen the $2.5 billion Mars rover Curiosity flawlessly land on the Red Planet. But you haven't seen it like this.

Folks, this is not your grandparent's moon landing video. Grainy, it's not. Instead, we've got full-resolution images, courtesy of the Mars descent imager that cataloged the landing from the jettison of the heat shield until touchdown.

It's the geek equivalent of a victory lap. The high-resolution images from NASA form this unofficial video made by visual effects producer Daniel Luke Fitch of the rover's landing. The highlight reel of high-definition images has captured the public's attention, with more than 500,000 views online so far.

And viewers just can't get enough of Mars madness, from their marriage proposals to NASA's Mohawk guy to their following Curiosity on Twitter.

In the hi-res video, the supersharp images show first the heat shield being jettisoned. Then Curiosity hovers over the planet, and you get a window seat as the surface of Mars grows larger as the craft nears the planet. Finally the rover sets down in the Gale Crater, creating a cloud of Martian dust.

For audio play-by-play, check out NASA's official hi-res video mashup from Curiosity, posted on Twitter:

Missile Defense Agency employees warned about porn on the job

2012-08-23T19:59:00.014-07:00

A top official at the government agency charged with protecting America from incoming nuclear missiles recently had to order his employees to keep their eyes on the sky and off pornographic websites they had accessed on secure computers.

As first reported by Bloomberg News, Missile Defense Agency Executive Director John James Jr. wrote in a July 27 memo that employees and contractors had potentially put the security of the MDA network at risk by visiting unauthorized websites and watching, and sharing, sexually explicit content.

"These actions are not only unprofessional, they reflect time taken away from designated duties, are in clear violation of federal and DoD [Department of Defense] regulations, consume network resources and can compromise the security of the network though the introduction of malware or malicious code," he wrote. Those found in violation could potentially lose their security clearance, be suspended or dismissed from service at the MDA, the memo said, according to Bloomberg.

MDA spokesperson Rick Lehner told ABC News the agency-wide memo "reflects standard policy used by both government agencies and private industry" and said that of the 8,000-odd employees of the MDA, "less than a half-dozen" were involved in the alleged misconduct.

"Employees should not access inappropriate Internet sites for pornography, gambling, video games and unauthorized music and video sites, to name a few. If they do, there are consequences, including possible loss of security clearances and termination," he said.

Though pornography websites have a reputation for hosting malware that can potentially infect visitors' computers, Lehner said that at no time was the MDA network compromised.

"MDA has a highly-advanced monitoring system to detect intrusions, access to inappropriate websites, viruses and malware downloads, and it worked as designed," he said.

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