David Drake

Number One: The Tri-State Tornado on March 18, 1925:
Missouri, Illinois and Indiana were all affected by the Tri-State tornado.
Death toll: 695
Injuries: 2027

Number Two: The Natchez Tornado on May 7, 1840:
The Natchez Tornado first touched down in Concordia Parish, Louisiana then followed the Mississippi River for 7 miles before hitting Natchez Mississippi.
Death toll: 317
Injuries: 109

Number Three: The St. Louis/East St. Louis Tornado on May 27, 1896:
The St Louis tornado struck the southwest end of the city of St Louis Missouri creating a path of destruction through the urban area.
Death Toll: 255
Injuries: 1000

Number Four: The Tupelo Tornado on April 5, 1936:
The Tupelo tornado first touched down near Coffeeville and skirted the center of Tupelo but destroyed residential sections of the city.
Death Toll: 233
Injuries: 700

Number Five: The Gainesville Tornado on April 6, 1936:
The Gainesville tornado was actually a pair of funnels with the smaller one hitting north of the city and the larger one heading for downtown
Death Toll: 203
Injuries: 1600

The RNC said the ad was in legal violation because its content was misleading. Asked about the prospect of legal action from Republicans in a conference call late Monday afternoon, DNC Chairman Howard Dean responded: “Let them do it.”

The 30-second spot, slated to run on CNN and on MSNBC, highlights McCain’s comment that it would be acceptable if U.S. troops remained in Iraq for 100 years. McCain, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, was talking about a peace-keeping mission, not active conflict.

Democratic Party Chairman Howard Dean said Monday that either Hillary Rodham Clinton or Barack Obama will know when it's time to drop out of the nomination race after the end of the primaries in early June.

"We want the voters to have their say. That's over on June 3," he said in an interview on ABC's "Good Morning America."

Dean, saying he was speaking from experience as a candidate for president in 2004, said he won't have to force anyone from the race.

"Either of these candidates, if it's time for them to go, they'll know it and they will go," he said. "They don't need any pushing from me. You know when to get in and you know when to get out. That's just part of the deal."

The most recent poll averages from Real Clear Politics show Indiana is a dead heat, with both candidates receiving support from 45.5% of likely voters.

[...]

Manufacturing will be a key to a Clinton victory in the Indiana primary, as 20% of all those employed statewide work in manufacturing jobs. To win the state, Barack Obama needs to capture the student vote and urban voters, [He won't be able to do this. - Drake] specifically those in Indianapolis, where 25% of all votes statewide will be cast.

[...]

Students and African American voters, however, can only take Obama so far in Indiana, a state where 86% of the electorate is white. He must also reach blue-collar workers, who account for 31% of the state’s 6.3 million residents and have recently supported Clinton.

Barack Obama has taken off the gloves in his battle to win the American presidency - and in so doing has left critics wondering whether he is not just another conventional politician grubbing for votes. [Why, yes he is, thanks for noticing! - Drake]

[...]

...it is Mr Obama who has not "got it done". He is convincingly, perhaps insurmountably, ahead in the number of states won, his share of the popular votes cast, and his tally of elected delegates. But he has yet to win over enough party grandees, the "super-delegates", to be sure of securing the nomination.

If he fails to wrest Indiana from Mrs Clinton, who is slightly ahead in the polls, his campaign fears that the remaining uncommitted super-delegates will lose faith in his ability to win and back his rival instead.

[...]

Mr Obama now exhibits irritation at his need to keep explaining himself to those voters - including the white working class, older, women and Catholics - who remain stubbornly resistant to his charms. [It's not that they are stubborn, they just recognize a huckster when they see one. - Drake]

[...]

The conservative columnist David Brooks, once an admirer, complained that he has morphed into "a more conventional politician", guilty of "the sorts of fibs, evasions and hypocrisies that are the stuff of conventional politics". The liberal commentator Paul Krugman condemned Mr Obama's reliance on the message that Mrs Clinton is unlikely to overcome his lead among pledged delegates.

Council Member Dave Thune said the proposal [to make it easier to allow outdoor consumption of alcoholic beverages] has some good attributes, but he wants to make sure it doesn't get abused.

Fifty civic boosters sounded off Thursday about downtown St. Paul.

Among the concerns mentioned: A lack of retail and nightlife, too many panhandlers loitering, some decrepit buildings, no "real" grocery store and not enough incentives for businesses to set up shop.

A Chinese primary school teacher and a beautician have filed a suit against CNN in New York over remarks they say insulted the Chinese people and are seeking $1.3 billion in compensation -- $1 per person in China, a Hong Kong newspaper reported.

The case against the Atlanta-based cable channel, its parent company Turner Broadcasting and Jack Cafferty, the offending commentator, comes after 14 lawyers launched a similar suit in Beijing alleging that Cafferty's remarks earlier this month violated the dignity and reputation of the Chinese people.

Cafferty said the United States imported Chinese-made "junk with the lead paint on them and the poisoned pet food" and added: "They're basically the same bunch of goons and thugs they've been for the last 50 years".

CNN said Cafferty was expressing an opinion about the Chinese government, but the Foreign Ministry demanded an apology and accused the network of trying to drive a wedge between the Chinese people and leadership.

The lawsuits come amid a wave of criticism in China against Western news outlets in the wake of recent unrest in Tibet and disruptions to the Beijing Olympic torch relay abroad.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) is fond of quoting a particular passage of Scripture. The quote, however, does not appear in the Bible and is "fictional," according to biblical scholars.

In her April 22 Earth Day news release, Pelosi said, "The Bible tells us in the Old Testament, 'To minister to the needs of God's creation is an act of worship. To ignore those needs is to dishonor the God who made us.' On this Earth Day, and every day, let us pledge to our children, and our children's children, that they will have clean air to breathe, clean water to drink, and the opportunity to experience the wonders of nature."

Cybercast News Service repeatedly queried the speaker's office for two days to determine where the alleged Bible quote is found. Thus far, no one has responded.

Distinguished biblical scholars, however, cast doubt on the existence of the passage.

John J. Collins, the Holmes professor of Old Testament criticism and interpretation at Yale Divinity School, said he is totally unfamiliar with Pelosi's quotation.

"(It's) not one that I recognize," Collins told Cybercast News Service. "I assume that she means this is a paraphrase. But it wouldn't be a close paraphrase to anything I know of."

Claude Mariottini, a professor of Old Testament at Northern Baptist Theological Seminary, told Cybercast News Service the passage not only doesn't exist - it's "fictional."

"It is not in the Bible," Mariottini said. "There is nothing that even approximates that."

[...]

"The quote does not exist in the Old Testament, neither in the New Testament," said the Rev. Andreas Hock, a doctor of Scripture who teaches in the Roman Catholic archdiocese of Denver's St. John Vianney Seminary.

"Even in pieces or bits, (it) cannot be found in the Old Testament," he added.

Interestingly, Pelosi has mentioned the quote before, Mariottini noted.

"In truth, (she) has used this 'passage' in many different ways, and all of those usages have nothing to do with the Bible whatsoever," he said.

Disconcerting as it may be to true believers in global warming, the average temperature on Earth has remained steady or slowly declined during the past decade, despite the continued increase in the atmospheric concentration of carbon dioxide, and now the global temperature is falling precipitously.

All four agencies that track Earth's temperature (the Hadley Climate Research Unit in Britain, the NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies in New York, the Christy group at the University of Alabama, and Remote Sensing Systems Inc in California) report that it cooled by about 0.7C in 2007. This is the fastest temperature change in the instrumental record and it puts us back where we were in 1930. If the temperature does not soon recover, we will have to conclude that global warming is over.

There is also plenty of anecdotal evidence that 2007 was exceptionally cold.

[...]

The sunspot number follows a cycle of somewhat variable length, averaging 11 years. The most recent minimum was in March last year. The new cycle, No.24, was supposed to start soon after that, with a gradual build-up in sunspot numbers.

It didn't happen. The first sunspot appeared in January this year and lasted only two days. A tiny spot appeared last Monday but vanished within 24 hours. Another little spot appeared this Monday. Pray that there will be many more, and soon.

The reason this matters is that there is a close correlation between variations in the sunspot cycle and Earth's climate. The previous time a cycle was delayed like this was in the Dalton Minimum, an especially cold period that lasted several decades from 1790.

Northern winters became ferocious: in particular, the rout of Napoleon's Grand Army during the retreat from Moscow in 1812 was at least partly due to the lack of sunspots.

That the rapid temperature decline in 2007 coincided with the failure of cycle No.24 to begin on schedule is not proof of a causal connection but it is cause for concern.

It is time to put aside the global warming dogma, at least to begin contingency planning about what to do if we are moving into another little ice age, similar to the one that lasted from 1100 to 1850.

[...]

All those urging action to curb global warming need to take off the blinkers and give some thought to what we should do if we are facing global cooling instead.

It will be difficult for people to face the truth when their reputations, careers, government grants or hopes for social change depend on global warming, but the fate of civilisation may be at stake.

In the famous words of Oliver Cromwell, "I beseech you, in the bowels of Christ, think it possible you may be mistaken."

KINSHASA (Reuters) - Police in Congo have arrested 13 suspected sorcerers accused of using black magic to steal or shrink men's penises after a wave of panic and attempted lynchings triggered by the alleged witchcraft.

Reports of so-called penis snatching are not uncommon in West Africa, where belief in traditional religions and witchcraft remains widespread...

[...]

Rumors of penis theft began circulating last week in Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of Congo's sprawling capital of some 8 million inhabitants. They quickly dominated radio call-in shows, with listeners advised to beware of fellow passengers in communal taxis wearing gold rings.

[...]

Purported victims, 14 of whom were also detained by police, claimed that sorcerers simply touched them to make their genitals shrink or disappear, in what some residents said was an attempt to extort cash with the promise of a cure.

Scientists who study the environment here, though, say disappearing moose and other changes are tangible evidence of global warming, making the region a research incubator that could improve understanding of the effects of climate change.

"Temperatures are increasing … more in the center of North America than on the edges, so it turns out that we are sitting in a sort of hot spot," says Lucinda Johnson, at the Natural Resources Research Institute (NRRI) in Duluth.

Senator Hillary Clinton has kept her presidential bid alive with a nearly 10-point victory over Senator Barack Obama in Tuesday's crucial Pennsylvania primary.

[...]

On the morning after the Pennsylvania primary, Senator Hillary Clinton summed up her feelings about her nearly 10-point win on the CBS Early Show.

"Senator, did you hear about Jimmy Carter's trip. He said he could get Hamas to negotiate?" a reporter asked Obama Monday as he ate his waffle, sausage and orange juice with Sen. Bob Casey, D-Pa., who ordered pancakes.

Obama responded: "Why is it that like I can't just eat my waffle?"

"I'm just asking.." the reporter said.

"I'm just gonna eat my waffle right now," Obama said.

Obama's waffle comments were used by the Republican Party to cast him as unwilling to answer tough questions about foreign policy issues, and held up as an example of his closed media relations style.

No wonder Obama figures Hillary will win. Diebold at work again. No paper trail at all.

Obama doesn't seem to be the candidate that Diebold will install this year, if the fascist mouthpieces have their way.

The man who is now as much part of the Hollywood Establishment as he was a political player with the Democratic Party is very careful not to upset any of his celebrity friends.

He wouldn’t dream of suggesting that their lavish jet-setting and gas-guzzling lifestyles could be reined in for the good of the environment.

When we point out that David Beckham has recently been given the dubious title of having the worst carbon footprint in history – clocking up enough air miles to fly to the moon and owning 15 gas-guzzling cars, Mr Gore shifts uncomfortably in his seat.

He knows what is coming next.

When asked what he would say to the football icon – a hero to millions – about his impact on the environment, Mr Gore refuses to be drawn.

He gives a huge belly-laugh at the notion that Posh and Becks could invest in an environmentally-friendly hybrid car such as a Toyota Prius.

He careful considers his answer before saying: “I don’t think that’s my place. I don’t want to get into personally criticising anyone.”

One hour in a Gulfstream jet burns as much fuel as driving a family car for a year.

BARACK Obama has come out swinging on the eve of the latest vote in the tortuous choice for the presidential ticket for the Democratic nomination, one that could seal the end of Hillary Clinton's fight for the nomination.

[...]

"Look, our campaign's not perfect. There've been times where, you know, if you get elbowed enough, eventually you start elbowing back."

Democratic U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi was in Minneapolis this morning to talk to Minnesota veterans.

[...]

U.S. Rep. Tim Walz, a DFLer who represents Minnesota's 1st Congressional District, organized and moderated the discussion. Walz is up for re-election this year, and Pelosi is also hosting a fundraiser for him while she's in the Twin Cities.

...began in 1982 the members all lived in an elderly housing project in Northampton, MA called the Walter Salvo House. The first group included elders who lived through both World Wars. One of our members had fought in the Battle of the Somme as a 16 year old and another, Anna Main, lost her husband in the First World War. Anna was a stand-up comic who at 88 told jokes that only she could get away with. She sang with us until she was 100.

[...]

The current performers in Young@Heart range in age from 72 to 88. There are some with prior professional theater or music experience, others who have performed extensively on the amateur level, and some who never stepped onto a stage before turning eighty. None of the current performers of Y@H were part of the original group that formed in 1982, but they have kept alive the spirit of the early pioneers and continue to push the group into glorious new directions.

“Tell me about your elite upbringing on the South Side of Chicago. How many silver spoons in your mouth?” [asked Stephen Colbert on his program].

“We had four spoons,” deadpanned Mrs. Obama during her late night talk show debut.

She added: “And then my father got a raise at the plant, and we had five spoons.”

[Obama said], raising the capital gains tax is necessary, "to make sure...that our tax system is fair and that we are able to finance health care for Americans who currently don't have it and that we're able to invest in our schools. And you can't do that for free."

But Mr. Gibson had noted that higher rates yielded less: revenue. So the news anchor tried again: "But history shows that when you drop the capital gains tax, the revenues go up?" Mr. Obama responded that this "might happen or it might not. It depends on Wall Street and how business is going."

[...]

When the tax rate has risen over the past half century, capital gains realizations have fallen and along with them tax revenue. The most recent such episode was in the early 1990s, when Mr. Obama was old enough to be paying attention. That's one reason Jack Kennedy proposed cutting the capital gains rate. And it's one reason Bill Clinton went along with a rate cut to 20% from 28% in 1997.

Either the young Illinois Senator is ignorant of this revenue data, or he doesn't really care because he's a true income redistributionist who prefers high tax rates as a matter of ideological dogma regardless of the revenue consequences.

"If you raise the payroll taxes, that's going to raise taxes on [people earning $97,500 in 2007 and is $102,000 this year," said] Gibson. Ignoring the no-tax pledge he had made five minutes earlier, Mr. Obama explained that such a tax increase was nevertheless necessary.

Along with goaltender Marc-Andre Fleury, Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin are making their case in the early running for the Conn Smythe Trophy as playoff MVP. The Penguins’ 1-2 punch is unmatched in the league.

In 2006, 738,915 Americans were arrested for simple marijuana possession -- no dealing, no associated crimes of property or violence -- according to FBI statistics.

[...]

Marijuana enforcement is clogging prisons with people for using a drug that is demonstrably safer than alcohol. That's not to say pot addiction isn't a problem and doesn't sometimes carry with it consequences for the user, from lung disease to lassitude. Marijuana should be decriminalized.

[...]

...this Sunday's annual "4/20" smoke-in on the University of Colorado campus will be participating in what is mostly a juvenile stunt. At such counterculture gatherings, held across the nation each April 20, participants get stoned in numbers sufficiently large that sensible law-enforcement agencies, such as those in Boulder, mostly let them have their fun.

[The book] "Pot Culture: The A-Z Guide to Stoner Language," [will be] released on April 20, also known as 4/20, the chosen day for everyone inclined to get together and smoke weed.

Mrs Clinton said: "If I'm not mistaken, that relationship with Mr. Ayers on this board continued after 9/11 and after his reported comments, which were deeply hurtful to people in New York and, I would hope, to every American, because they were published on 9/11, and he said that he was just sorry they hadn't done more."

Mr Obama protested: "The problem is that that's the kind of politics that we've been accustomed to. And I think Senator Clinton learned the wrong lesson from it because she's adopting the same tactics.

"What the American people want are not distractions. They want to figure out, how are we going to actually deliver on health care? How are we going to deliver better jobs for people?"

It took almost 50 minutes into the debate before the first question came that resembled something to do with policy, rather than warmed-up campaign sniping phrased as questions, and which ran the gamut from banal to inane. At the end of the debate members of the crowd appeared to be booing moderator Charlie Gibson.

The blogosphere was not happy. Not happy at all....

"In perhaps the most embarrassing performance by the media in a major presidential debate in years," began Greg Mitchell on the Huffington Post, "ABC News hosts Charles Gibson and George Stephanopolous focused mainly on trivial issues as Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama faced off in Philadelphia. They, and their network, should hang their collective heads in shame."

Early Tuesday afternoon, Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., sent an appeal over the Internet urging people to contribute to the re-election campaign of Sen. Robert C. Byrd, D-W.Va.

In less than 24 hours, more than 15,000 contributors gave $634,000 to Byrd’s campaign, according to the National Journal’s daily Internet publication “Hotline.” The average donation was about $42.25.

In Obama’s appeal, sent out by the MoveOn Political Action Committee, he wrote, “In 2006, Senator Byrd will be the target of Republicans because he stands up for what he believes. Will you join me in supporting Senator Byrd’s campaign for re-election, before a critical deadline this Thursday?”

[...]

Obama closed his Tuesday letter by stating, “A Democratic majority in the U.S. Senate would mean a real change in the priorities of Washington, but more importantly, it would provide significant change for everyday people across America.

“Remember, in order to win back the Senate majority, we need Robert Byrd.”

Just weeks after winning the Democratic U.S. Senate primary in 2004, Barack Obama was the guest of developer Antoin "Tony" Rezko at a party for a controversial British billionaire whom Rezko was trying to lure into an investment, a witness testified Monday at Rezko's corruption trial.

Stuart Levine, the government's star witness, said Obama and his wife, Michelle, were among the guests at Rezko's home on April 3, 2004, for the party honoring Nadhmi Auchi, an Iraqi-born tycoon currently appealing a fraud conviction in France.

[...]

Obama spokesman Ben LaBolt repeated what the senator has said: "Sen. Obama does not recall meeting Nadhmi Auchi at any time or on any occasion, and this includes any event that may have been held for Mr. Auchi," LaBolt said.

Nadhmi Auchi is a British billionaire businessman who was born in Iraq.

In the Sunday Times Rich List 2007 ranking of the wealthiest people in the UK he was placed 18th with an estimated fortune of £1,995 million.[1]

Nadhmi Auchi was charged along with Saddam Hussein for conspiring to assassinate Iraqi President Abdul-Karim Qasim in 1959. Qasim was injured while his bodyguard was killed; Saddam managed to flee the country. Auchi was arrested for delivering weapons to the assassins but was later pardoned by President Qasim.

Mr. Auchi is a business partner of Syrian-born businessman Antoin "Tony" Rezko, who has supported US Presidential candidate Barack Obama financially since his first run for the Illinois state senate in 1996.

[...]

Federal prosecutors allege a $10,000 contribution made by Mr. Rezko to Sen. Obama came from a $250,000 kickback.

[...]

Nadhmi Auchi graduated in Economics and Political Science from the Mustansiriyah University, Baghdad in 1967. He also worked with the Iraqi Ministry of Oil, becoming Director of Planning and Development.

[...]

Mr. Auchi is also the president of the Anglo Arab Association (AAO), which is a private non-profit making organisation, promoting the integration of British Arabs into mainstream British society, whilst retaining their identity.

Levine testified that he was at the Auchi party and saw the Obamas there as well as other political luminaries, including Lt. Gov. Pat Quinn and various cabinet officials in the Blagojevich administration. The governor was not in attendance, Levine said.

Monday's testimony from Levine was not the first time it has been suggested that Rezko may have tried to capitalize on Obama's growing celebrity in 2004 to impress potential investors in the Roosevelt Road project.

"We believe this Agreement is in both our vital national security and economic interests," the letter says. "We feel that the treaty should be considered as soon as possible and that any obstacles be quickly and amicably resolved." Good luck with that last point given Ms. Pelosi's eagerness to take orders from the AFL-CIO.

But the men and woman who signed the letter are notable for their prominence in the Clinton and Carter Administrations – which is to say when Democrats were still a free-trading party. The list includes Bernard Aronson, former Assistant Secretary of State for Inter-American Affairs, whose area of expertise included Colombia. There's also Donna Shalala, former Secretary of HHS, plus Robert Pastor, former director for Latin America on the National Security Council and nobody's idea of a right-winger.

Also Former Secretary of Defense William Cohen and former Deputy Defense Secretary John Hamre; former Congresspersons Lee Hamilton, Dan Glickman, Patricia Schroeder, Steve Solarz, Sam Gibbons and Calvin Dooley, and former Senators Robert Kerrey, Bob Graham and John Breaux.

Yes, we know: Former Members of Congress don't have to vote and face the wrath of the Teamsters. But they do know the national interest, and their three-page letter makes clear the damage Congress will do if it defeats the Colombia FTA.

Jimmy Carter and Al Gore are planning to call for Hillary Clinton to end her presidential run, according to an article published Sunday in a Scottish newspaper.

The Scotsman — the same paper that quoted Barack Obama adviser Samantha Power calling Clinton a “monster,” which resulted in her dismissal from the campaign — reported that the two politicians are teaming up because they believe it is in their party’s best interest to end the prolonged battle for the Democratic presidential nomination and unite behind Obama, who continues to maintain a lead over Clinton in number of pledged delegates.

“They’re in discussions,” a source close to Carter reportedly told the newspaper. “Carter has been talking to Gore. They will act, possibly together, or in sequence.”

According to the report, the two party elders will either meet with Clinton privately to urge that she withdraw her candidacy or they will publicly endorse Obama in the hopes that more superdelegates will follow suit.

Senator John McCain joined Senator Barack Obama on Thursday in promising to accept a novel fund-raising truce if each man wins his party’s presidential nomination.

The promises by Mr. McCain, Republican of Arizona, and Mr. Obama, Democrat of Illinois, are an effort to resuscitate part of the ailing public financing system for presidential campaigns.

[...]

“Should John McCain win the Republican nomination, we will agree to accept public financing in the general election, if the Democratic nominee agrees to do the same,” said [manager of Mr. McCain’s campaign, Terry Nelson].

A spokesman for Mr. Obama, Bill Burton, said, “We hope that each of the Republican candidates pledges to do the same.”

Mr. Burton added that if nominated Mr. Obama would “aggressively pursue an agreement” with whoever was his opponent.

Barack Obama, whose fundraising prowess has set records, appears to be paving the way to bypass the public financing system in the fall without yet spelling out his intentions.

Last year, Obama indicated he would accept public funds if his Republican opponent did as well. But as John McCain takes steps to accept the $84 million available in federal money for the general election, Obama has been hedging.

[...]

"Barack Obama publicly promised the American people that he would accept public financing if he is the nominee of his Party. Launching his campaign by going back on a promise to voters would be dishonest, and exposes his politics of hope as empty rhetoric out of a typical politician," McCain spokesman Tucker Bounds.

For the past few years, Udall has lain ill with Parkinson's disease in a veterans hospital in Northeast Washington, which is where we were heading. Every few weeks, McCain drives over to pay his respects. These days the trip is a ceremony, like going to church, only less pleasant. Udall is seldom conscious, and even then he shows no sign of recognition. McCain brings with him a stack of newspaper clips on Udall's favorite subjects: local politics in Arizona, environmental legislation, Native American land disputes, subjects in which McCain initially had no particular interest himself.

[...]

Beneath a torn gray blanket on a narrow hospital cot, Udall lay twisted and disfigured. No matter how many times McCain tapped him on the shoulder and called his name, his eyes remained shut.

[...]

A nurse entered and seemed surprised to find anyone there, and it wasn't long before I found out why: Almost no one visits anymore. In his time, which was not very long ago, Mo Udall was one of the most-sought-after men in the Democratic Party. Yet as he dies in a veterans hospital a few miles from the Capitol, he is visited regularly only by a single old political friend, John McCain. "He's not going to wake up this time," McCain said.

The radio host Randi Rhodes has left Air America, the progressive radio outlet said Thursday, ending her national syndicated show and leaving the network with a three-hour hole in its afternoon schedule.

1- What about the surge, what is your take?

2- What does it mean when the President says there will be no drawdown?

3- Will it be more of the same if the next president will be John McCain.

4- What do you think of the oil revenue and what do you make of it?

5- What do you make of the Guardian story of a deal between Iraq and the U.S. to give us wide ranging power there?

6- Which do you prefer, Jolly Ranchers or Werther's?

Evidence suggests, however, that TIZA is an Islamic school, funded by Minnesota taxpayers.

[...]

TIZA has many characteristics that suggest a religious school. It shares the headquarters building of the Muslim American Society of Minnesota, whose mission is "establishing Islam in Minnesota." The building also houses a mosque. TIZA's executive director, Asad Zaman, is a Muslim imam, or religious leader, and its sponsor is an organization called Islamic Relief.

Students pray daily, the cafeteria serves halal food - permissible under Islamic law -- and "Islamic Studies" is offered at the end of the school day.

Zaman maintains that TIZA is not a religious school. He declined, however, to allow me to visit the school to see for myself, "due to the hectic schedule for statewide testing." But after I e-mailed him that the Minnesota Department of Education had told me that testing would not begin for several weeks, Zaman did not respond -- even to urgent calls and e-mails seeking comment before my first column on TIZA.

Now, however, an eyewitness has stepped forward. Amanda Getz of Bloomington is a substitute teacher. She worked as a substitute in two fifth-grade classrooms at TIZA on Friday, March 14. Her experience suggests that school-sponsored religious activity plays an integral role at TIZA.

Arriving on a Friday, the Muslim holy day, she says she was told that the day's schedule included a "school assembly" in the gym after lunch.

Before the assembly, she says she was told, her duties would include taking her fifth-grade students to the bathroom, four at a time, to perform "their ritual washing."

Afterward, Getz said, "teachers led the kids into the gym, where a man dressed in white with a white cap, who had been at the school all day," was preparing to lead prayer. Beside him, another man "was prostrating himself in prayer on a carpet as the students entered."

"The prayer I saw was not voluntary," Getz said. "The kids were corralled by adults and required to go to the assembly where prayer occurred."

Islamic Studies was also incorporated into the school day. "When I arrived, I was told 'after school we have Islamic Studies,' and I might have to stay for hall duty," Getz said. "The teachers had written assignments on the blackboard for classes like math and social studies. Islamic Studies was the last one -- the board said the kids were studying the Qu'ran. The students were told to copy it into their planner, along with everything else. That gave me the impression that Islamic Studies was a subject like any other."

Abu Obaidah al-Masri, the militant chief believed to be a senior planner of al-Qaeda's attacks in Afghanistan, has died, US intelligence sources say.

They said they believed Masri, a major operational figure within al-Qaeda linked to attacks in the UK and elsewhere, died of "natural causes".

"The sense is that he is dead," a US official said.

A US official told the BBC that Masri had apparently died within the last two months, probably of hepatitis.

Elevated sulfur dioxide levels from Kilauea volcano have forced the closure of Hawaii Volcanoes National Park on the Big Island for a second straight day.

Superintendent Cindy Orlando says air conditions in the park have become worse.

Park officials are hopeful they will be able to reopen Thursday with tradewinds expected to blow the sulfur-laden gas away.

Officials Tuesday evacuated 2,000 people from the park, including guests and staff of the Volcano House hotel.

Outside the park, the Volcano Charter School is also closed for the second day.

Stop what you're doing and get out. That was the order from Big Island officials Tuesday, who closed Volcanoes National Park due to high levels of vog(*).

Park officials tell KGMB9 the sulfur dioxide levels were more than three times higher than what's considered acceptable, and 1,000 employees were asked to leave. Hundreds of visitors were also evacuated, and arriving visitors were turned away at the park gates.

Former Minnesota Vikings great Carl Eller was jailed Wednesday after allegedly fighting with police after being stopped for possible drunken driving.

Eller was held on suspicion of driving while intoxicated, fleeing police and assaulting a police officer.

Police Inspector Mike Martin said officers in north Minneapolis saw a SUV speed through a stop sign and gave chase. The SUV reached speeds of up to 60 mph through city streets.

Martin said the SUV didn't stop until it pulled into Eller's garage about 1 a.m. Wednesday.

Martin said the officers asked Eller to get out of the vehicle. He refused at first, but when he got out he threatened and fought with officers. They used a Taser, but Martin said it had no effect.

Eller was a member of the famed "Purple People Eaters" in his 15 years as a defensive end with Minnesota from 1964-78. He played in six Pro Bowls and all four of the Vikings' trips to the Super Bowl. He was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 2004.

Officers called for backup against the 66-year-old Eller.

When more officers arrived, they subdued Eller and took him to the Hennepin County Jail, Martin said. Eller refused to take a breath or blood test, Martin said.

[...]

One of the officers involved in the arrested was treated for a black eye and bruises.

In 2006, Eller was charged in the suburb of Golden Valley with driving under the influence. He later pleaded guilty.

Eller has acknowledged his history as a substance abuser. He became a treatment counselor and has spoken publicly to groups about the problems of chemical dependency.

[Meeks] is a "racially divisive public figure [and] stridently homophobic."

...Obama has virtually done somersaults to justify McClurkin's inclusion [in his campaign].

[...]

Obama's gay advocates obviously support him regardless of this fumble. But his gay critics are right to ask why he thinks getting homosexuals to sit at the same table with antigay and allegedly "ex-gay" Christians represents some kind of balance.

An Illinois delegate for Democratic Sen. Barack Obama resigned after using the word "monkeys" to describe black children playing in a tree, the Obama campaign said Tuesday.

[...]

The incident occurred Saturday, when two children were playing in a tree next door to Ramirez-Sliwinski's house.

She said the parents were outside supervising the children, but she went over and told them to get out of the tree because she was concerned about the boys' safety and because the small magnolia tree was being damaged.

The father of one of the boys told her it was none of her business, she told the Chicago Tribune, and "I calmly said the tree is not there for them to be climbing in there like monkeys."

[...]

One of the boys told police he was scared by her comment and a mother said she was disturbed [by her comments].

"I want to know why the governor hates the people of St. Paul."

* Mankato lost out on $975,000 to begin design of a performing arts center and women's hockey arena.

* $46.7 million for property acquisitions and classroom renovations on Minnesota State Colleges and Universities campuses.

* $16 million for a loan to the Red Lake school district for a new school.

* $6 million toward sports centers in Moorhead and Rochester.

* $5.5 million to study or plan for passenger rail routes connecting the Twin Cities to Duluth and another to Chicago.

* $5 million for a St. Paul Asian Pacific Cultural Center.

* $3 million toward planning for a Minnesota Orchestra Hall renovation.

* $400,000 for a music lending library in Chatfield.

A 56-year-old Norwegian suspected of being the pedofile "Pocket Man" was ordered held in police custody for another four weeks on Monday. He's also been charged with 15 new assaults.

Police believe the man has attacked hundreds of young boys over the past 30 years. He was initially charged formally with 11 attacks, but that's been raised to 26 as more alleged victims have come forward.

[...]

The 56-year-old, who isn't being publicly identified, was arrested at his home near Bergen in January. He's a married, affluent business owner with grown children of his own who traveled frequently and thus is suspected of sexual assaults all over southern Norway.

Like a famous scene in a Rambo movie, an Italian man said he vented his anger and frustration by shooting up shops and petrol stations around his home town. Armed with a series of rifles, the 43-year-old truckdriver recently strafed a number of garages as well as a car showroom, a photographer's studio, an insurance office, a toy shop and the local headquarters of a Communist party.

[...]

Asked why he was using his firearms for such apparently random vandalism, the man reportedly claimed: ''I suffer from depression. It's the only way I can relieve it''.

THE Pope's visit to America next week has been plunged into controversy after the Church decided that he will not address the victims of sex abuse by priests.

Groups representing thousands of victims of sexual abuse by American clergy yesterday threatened to greet the Pope with protests on his first visit to the country.

They will publish full-page newspaper ads to condemn his five-day visit because it does not include a stop in Boston, the epicentre of a scandal that has shattered the church in America.

In a meeting organized by the British Council on Friday, bloggers expressed concerns the new law on electronic information and transaction could make them susceptible to charges of defamation.

Blogger Enda Nasution said bloggers were being more careful now as the law opened up possibilities of prosecution for providing "sensitive" content about public figures and certain issues on their sites.

"Bloggers can get in trouble by just linking to a website containing defamation. In an indirect way, the law bans freedom of expression," Enda said.

A lynx has appeared in the Italian Alps for the first time in 100 years.

The authorities in Italy's South Tyrol region say the lynx, which crossed the mountains from Switzerland, does not pose a threat to livestock in the area.

[...]

Lynx were wiped out by hunters and farmers in the region in the early 20th Century. They were reintroduced in Switzerland in the 1970s.

The latest causality [of the statewide smoking ban] is the Cottage Grove bingo hall, which will close for good.

[...]

"Our players are smokers, and there is a large percentage of them that we have not seen since the ban," [said Mary Perren, gambling and bingo hall manager for the Cottage Grove Athletic Association].

Across the metro area, bingo hall managers say they are seeing a drop in revenue or have closed because of the smoking ban.

In January, someone reported that Vang's home might be on fire. There was no snow on the roof, visible condensation on the exterior and the house was hot to the touch.

Charlton Heston, who won a best actor Oscar for his starring role in the epic Ben-Hur, has died aged 84, a spokesman for his family has said.

Heston died on Saturday at his home in Beverly Hills. His wife Lydia, whom he married in 1944, was at his side.

Heston also portrayed Michelangelo, El Cid and other heroic figures in Hollywood films of the 1950s and 1960s.

He stepped down as president of US gun lobby, the National Rifle Association, in 2003, citing ill-health.

The previous year, he had revealed he had symptoms consistent with Alzheimer's disease.

[...]

He studied acting before serving for three years in the US Air Force. But back in civilian life, Heston went through hard times, while waiting for his first break.

In 1952, after working on Broadway, Heston starred as the ringmaster in the movie The Greatest Show on Earth.

Four years later, he appeared as Moses in The Ten Commandments, one of the roles which would define his career.

After the success of the science fiction film Planet of the Apes in the late 1960s, Heston turned his attention to working in the theatre.

[...]

Although later identified with traditionally conservative causes, Charlton Heston had been a vocal supporter of Martin Luther King and the 1960s Civil Rights movement.

Barack Obama is embracing anti-gun policies in the run-up to a Democratic presidential debate scheduled on the one-year anniversary of the Virginia Tech shootings.

“I am not in favor of concealed weapons,” Obama told the Pittsburgh Tribune. "I think that creates a potential atmosphere where more innocent people could (get shot during) altercations." [Yes, it would have been just terrible had a law-abiding citizen been carrying a concealed weapon to defend and protect him or herself - let alone others - at V-Tech, wouldn't it? - Drake]

These remarks break from Obama’s previous moderate rhetoric on gun control.

While campaigning in Idaho in February, Obama promised, “I have no intention of taking away folks’ guns.”

[Obama said], "a lot of law-abiding citizens use it for hunting, for sportsmanship, and for protecting their families."

...Obama is engaging in a quiet, but targeted drive to win over an important constituency that on the surface might seem hostile to his views.

The need to craft a strategy aimed at pro-gun voters underscores the potency of the issue in Pennsylvania, which claims one of the nation’s highest per capita membership rates in the National Rifle Association.

[...]

“Guns are a cultural lens through which they view candidates,” said Jim Kessler, vice president for policy at Third Way, a progressive think tank. “If you are seen as way off on that issue, then you seem way off on everything. If you are seen as OK, if the lens is clearer, then they continue to look at you and size you up on other things.”

“For Obama, who is less known and is from Chicago, a city guy and an African American, the feeling is that he is anti-gun,” Kessler continued. “By handling the Second Amendment correctly, he starts to get a hearing among these folks.”

[...]

Obama has long backed gun-control measures, including a ban on semiautomatic weapons and concealed weapons, and a limit on handgun purchases to one a month.

[...]

A two-page white paper on Obama’s website doesn’t mention his voting record. [Gee, I wonder why? Could it be because his voting record is solidly pro gun-control? - Drake]

[...]

“He will protect the rights of hunters and other law-abiding Americans to purchase, own, transport, and use guns for the purposes of hunting and target shooting,” the paper states. “He also believes that the right is subject to reasonable and common sense regulation.”

The unemployment rate hit 5.1% in March, up from 4.8% in February and the highest level since the wholesale job losses that followed Hurricane Katrina in September 2005.

The 5.4 percent rate is down from a high of 6.3 percent a year ago and stands near the 5.1 percent rate that President Bill Clinton faced when running for reelection in 1996.

March 1993 UE rate: 7.0
March 1994 UE rate: 6.5
March 1995 UE rate: 5.4
March 1996 UE rate: 5.5
March 1997 UE rate: 5.2
March 1998 UE rate: 4.7
March 1999 UE rate: 4.2

Rhodes is stunned and angry. About her employers she told me: "They are in breach of my contract and have damaged my hard won excellent reputation in the broadcast industry..."

Jane Fonda, the actress and ardent anti-Vietnam War advocate who visited North Vietnam during those hostilities, has endorsed Democrat Barack Obama for president.

"My children and their spouses are pro-Obama. My grandchildren are also pro-Obama," he said at a news conference, according to the Nigerian newspaper This Day. "As a superdelegate, I would not disclose who I am rooting for, but I leave you to make that guess."

Sen. Barack Obama said Wednesday he would give Al Gore, a Nobel prize winner, a major role in an Obama administration to address the problem of global warming.

Air America Radio, which already has enough problems, suspended afternoon host Randi Rhodes Thursday for remarks she made during an off-the-air public event in San Francisco.

Rhodes called Democratic Presidential candidate Hillary Clinton a "f------ whore," several times, in the course of a standup comedy routine built on political bits.

Her specific problem with Clinton, said Rhodes in the routine, is that she's disingenuous: "Her deal is, 'Read the fine print, a-------.' "

[...]

...Air America chairman Charlie Kireker issued a statement saying, "Air America has suspended on-air host Randi Rhodes for making inappropriate statements about prominent figures, including Senator Hillary Clinton, at a recent public appearance on behalf of Air America in San Francisco.

"Air America encourages strong opinions about public affairs but does not condone such abusive, ad hominem language by our hosts."

Kireker, a long-time Democratic party activist, has ties to the Clintons.

The suspension is "indefinite," giving Air America time to gauge public reaction. Sam Seder, who sat in for Rhodes when she was on vacation last week, also filled in today.

Rhodes was not available for comment.

Rhodes attacked Ferraro, the former vice presidential candidate [saying], “What a whore Geraldine Ferraro is, she’s such a f*****g whore.”

"Remember whose ward this is going to end up in -- it's mine. And I've got 8,000 people living downtown who don't want a bunch of puking Republican lobbyists on the streets at 4 in the morning."

The husband of U.S. Sen. Debbie Stabenow told police he used the Internet to make a date with a prostitute and paid her $150 for sex at a hotel, according to a police report.

Thomas Athans, 46, co-founder of the liberal TalkUSA Radio network [That would be "Air America." - Drake], was stopped by police who were investigating Internet-based prostitution at the hotel, according to a police report obtained Wednesday by The Associated Press under the state Freedom of Information Act.

[...]

Troy police had set up a stakeout at the Residence Inn after learning of suspected prostitution at a room there February 25, the police report said. Officers said they saw Athans enter the room February 26 and leave 15 minutes later.

They stopped Athans' car and informed him they were investigating prostitution.

"Mr. Athans informed officers that he had just met a female at the Residence Inn, where he paid $150 for sex," the report said. It said the woman performed oral sex on Athans.

Police did not bring any sex charges against him but later mailed him a ticket for driving with a suspended license.

...undercover officers investigating a possible prostitution ring in a room at the Residence Inn near Big Beaver (Road) and Interstate 75. Athans paid a 20-year-old prostitute $150 for sex in a Troy hotel but was not arrested, according to police reports obtained through a Freedom of Information Act request by The Detroit News.

The Bill Clinton who met privately with California's superdelegates at last weekend's state convention was a far cry from the congenial former president who afterward publicly urged fellow Democrats to "chill out" over the race between his wife, Hillary Rodham Clinton, and Barack Obama.

In fact, before his speech Clinton had one of his famous meltdowns Sunday, blasting away at former presidential contender Bill Richardson for having endorsed Obama, the media and the entire nomination process.

"It was one of the worst political meetings I have ever attended," one superdelegate said.

According to those at the meeting, Clinton - who flew in from Chicago with bags under his eyes [Maybe sleep deprived from being up all night snorting booger sugar? - Drake] - was classic old Bill at first, charming and making small talk with the 15 or so delegates who gathered in a room behind the convention stage.

But as the group moved together for the perfunctory photo, Rachel Binah, a former Richardson delegate who now supports Hillary Clinton, told Bill how "sorry" she was to have heard former Clinton campaign manager James Carville call Richardson a "Judas" for backing Obama.

It was as if someone pulled the pin from a grenade.

"Five times to my face (Richardson) said that he would never do that," a red-faced, finger-pointing Clinton erupted.

The former president then went on a tirade that ran from the media's unfair treatment of Hillary to questions about the fairness of the votes in state caucuses that voted for Obama. It ended with him asking delegates to imagine what the reaction would be if Obama was trailing by just 1 percent and people were telling him to drop out.

"It was very, very intense," said one attendee. "Not at all like the Bill of earlier campaigns."

Just as the dust surrounding Sen. Barack Obama’s long-term association with controversial minister Rev. Jeremiah Wright has begun to settle comes new reports of the democratic presidential hopeful’s connection to another racially divisive public figure—the stridently homophobic Rev. James T. Meeks, an Illinois state senator who also serves as the pastor of Chicago’s 22,000 member strong Salem Baptist Church.

Described in a 2004 Chicago Sun Times article as someone Barack Obama regularly seeks out for “spiritual counsel”, James Meeks, who will serve as an Obama delegate at the 2008 Democratic convention in Denver, is a long-time political ally to the democratic frontrunner.

[...]

...Meeks himself served on Obama’s exploratory committee for the presidency and been listed on the Obama's campaign website as one of the senator’s ‘influential black supporters’, but his church choir was called on to raise their voices in praise at a rally the night Obama announced his run for the White House back in 2007.

Interestingly, the Chicago Sun Times has also reported that both Meeks and Obama share a history of substantial campaign contributions from indicted real estate magnate Tony Rezko.

[...]

In the course of July 5, 2006 attack, Rev. James Meeks ranted:

"We don't have slave masters. We got mayors. But they still the same white people who are presiding over systems where black people are not able, or to be educated."

"You got some preachers that are house niggers. You got some elected officials that are house niggers. And rather than them trying to break this up, they gonna fight you to protect this white man," Meeks said in a sermon tape[.]

Perhaps of even more concern than race-baiting diatribes like these is Rev. Meeks disturbing history of antagonism towards the LGBT community.

A spring 2007 newsletter from the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) named Meeks one of the "10 leading black religious voices in the anti-gay movement". The newsletter cites him as both “a key member of Chicago's ‘Gatekeepers’ network, an interracial group of evangelical ministers who strive to erase the division between church and state” and “a stalwart anti-gay activist… [who]… has used his House of Hope mega-church to launch petition drives for the Illinois Family Institute (IFI), a major state-level ‘family values’ pressure group that lauded him last year for leading African Americans in ‘clearly understanding the threat of gay marriage.'”

The SPLC newsletter also noted that, "Meeks and the IFI are partnered with Focus on the Family, the Family Research Council and the Alliance Defense Fund, major anti-gay organizations of the Christian Right. They also are tightly allied with Americans for Truth, an Illinois group that said in a press release last year that ‘fighting AIDS without talking against homosexuality is like fighting lung cancer without talking against smoking.’"

On a more personal level, Meeks has reportedly blamed "Hollywood Jews for bringing us Brokeback Mountain" and actively campaigned to defeat SB3186, an Illinois LGBT non-discrimination bill, while serving in the Illinois state legislature alongside Obama.

[...]

But the question remains: At what point must a candidate for the highest office in the United States be held accountable for the small coterie of individuals who make up his or her inner circle and potentially bear influence on his interpretation of the constitution?

It will be interesting to see how Obama's LGBT committee will attempt to diffuse the media blitz of this sad story. The Reverend Meeks' notorious homophobia is without question and Obama's buoyant pledge of allegiance to the anti-gay minister is unmistakable.

Executives from the world's top oil companies, in a congressional hearing today, told U.S. lawmakers that competition and high costs justify the industry's opposition to taxes increases.

Representative Edward Markey, a Massachusetts Democrat, hauled in executives from the oil industry to testify on record profits and gasoline prices before his Select Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming.

The House passed a measure in February over oil-industry objections that would impose $18 billion in new taxes on oil and gas companies to pay for wind and solar projects and energy conservation measures. The industry argues that the money should go toward exploring for and producing more fossil fuels, which executives say could help bring down prices.

...it was an embarrassment for the "hundreds of thousands of employees dedicating their lives to energy...to be vilified by their own government."

"Shame on Congress for not having recognized that its own public policies are costing consumers high energy prices."

During his first run for elected office, Barack Obama played a greater role than his aides now acknowledge in crafting liberal stands on gun control, the death penalty and abortion — positions that appear at odds with the more moderate image he has projected during his presidential campaign.

The evidence comes from an amended version of an Illinois voter group’s detailed questionnaire, filed under his name during his 1996 bid for a state Senate seat.

Late last year, in response to a Politico story about Obama’s answers to the original questionnaire, his aides said he “never saw or approved” the questionnaire.

“Sen. Obama didn’t fill out these state Senate questionnaires — a staffer did — and there are several answers that didn't reflect his views then or now,” Tommy Vietor, a spokesman for Obama’s campaign, said in an e-mailed statement. “He may have jotted some notes on the front page of the questionnaire at the meeting, but that doesn't change the fact that some answers didn't reflect his views. [Sniff, sniff - I smell dog shit, do you? - Drake]

[...]

But a Politico examination determined that Obama was actually interviewed about the issues on the questionnaire by the liberal Chicago nonprofit group that issued it. And it found that Obama — the day after sitting for the interview — filed an amended version of the questionnaire, which appears to contain Obama’s own handwritten notes added to one answer.

[...]

Obama and his then-campaign manager, who Obama’s campaign asserts filled out the questionnaires, were familiar with the group, its members and its positions, since both were active in it before Obama's 1996 state Senate run.

Through an aide, Obama, who won the group’s endorsement as well as the statehouse seat, did not dispute that the handwriting was his. But he contended it doesn’t prove he completed, approved — or even read — the latter questionnaire.

[...]

Consider the question of whether minors should be required to get parental consent — or at least notify their parents — before having abortion.

The first version of Obama’s questionnaire responds with a simple “No.”

The amended version, though, answers less stridently: “Depends on how young — possibly for extremely young teens, i.e., 12- or 13-year-olds.”

By 2004, when his campaign filled out a similar questionnaire for the IVI-IPO during his campaign for U.S. Senate, the answer to a similar question contained still more nuance, but also more precision. “I would oppose any legislation that does not include a bypass provision for minors who have been victims of, or have reason to fear, physical or sexual abuse,” he wrote.

[...]

It could also provide ammunition for a line of attack quietly peddled for some time by Republicans. They allege Obama has a penchant for blaming his staff for gaffes ranging from missing a union event in New Hampshire to circulating opposition research highlighting the Clintons’ ties to India and Indian-Americans to underestimating the amount of cash bundled for his campaigns by his former fundraiser, indicted businessman Antoin “Tony” Rezko.

The Clinton campaign today accused the Obama campaign of "false advertising," claiming that a recent ad Obama released in Pennsylvania was disngenous because Obama has been the recipient of more than $200,000 from the oil and gas industry.

In the ad, Obama says, "I'm Barack Obama, and I don't take money from oil companies or lobbyists, and I won't let them block change any more."

Obama has taken $213,884 from the oil and gas industry as of Feb. 29th, according to the Center for Responsive Politics.

[...]

Just last month, Obama took more than $11,000 from individuals at Exxon-Mobil, per the center. At least 12 of those contributions came from individuals who contributed $250 each, the lowest listed donation.

[...]

Obama spokesman Bill Burton, reiterated that Obama doesn't take PAC money or money from federal registered lobbyists, and "that includes oil companies and oil lobbyists."

[...]

"I don't take PAC money,” [Obama] said this evening. “I don't take money from federal registered lobbyists. I don't want those strings attached.”

"Who are you to come here and threaten me?" Bush says in the puppet show video. "You are on my own turf, you little child, you. Get out."

The child tells Bush that he killed his father in the Iraq war, which made him an orphan.

"I have come to take revenge with this sword — revenge for my mother and my sisters," the child puppet says. "You are a criminal, Bush."

"I will kill you, Bush, because that is your fate," the child says before stabbing Bush repeatedly.

The show aired on Al-Aqsa TV on March 30.

A recent study gave evidence that cellular phone use over a period of time poses health risks far greater than those obtained from smoking, or from exposure to asbestos.

The study, conducted by Dr. Vini Khurana, suggested that "there is a significant and increasing body of evidence for a link between mobile phone usage and certain brain tumors." "It is anticipated that this danger has far broader public health ramifications than asbestos and smoking," Dr. Khurana told the Independent.

He said that his assumption is based on the fact that there are three billion people who own a cell phone these days - a number that is three times that of smokers, five million of which die each year.

Dr. Khurana added that his arguments regarding the actual dangers of cell phone use will be "definitely proven" within the next decade.

"We are currently experiencing a reactively unchecked and dangerous situation," he said, as quoted by CNN. He also pointed out the dangers of the possible "life-ending diagnosis" of brain tumors that cell phone use may result to.

[...]

Dr. Khurana is a renowned neurosurgeon who has received 14 awards in the past 16 years.

That's when David Reynard, appearing on Larry King Live, declared he was suing NEC America Corp. because its cellular phone had given his wife a fatal brain tumor.

[...]

One of these is that brain cancers, which in recent years have killed such notables as CIA director William Casey, Republican National Committee Chairman Lee Atwater and football star Lyle Alzado, are by no means unusual. Many Americans own cellular phones, and therefore a number of cellular phone users will get brain cancer just by chance.

[...]

Studies show that brain cancers suspected to have come from radiation therapy took nine to 15 years to develop.

Reynard, however, claimed he gave his wife her phone after she became pregnant and that she developed symptoms of her tumor during the same pregnancy. That gave her just a few months – not years – to develop the cancer.