UBS AG now says it had about 47,000 accounts held by Americans who didn't pay U.S. taxes on their assets, but Switzerland's biggest bank is providing the names of only 300 American clients to the U.S. government in a showdown over secrecy.
Brain-injured troops may reach 360,000
The number of US troops who have suffered wartime brain injuries may be as high as 360,000 and could cast more attention on such injuries among civilians, Defense Department doctors said yesterday.
The estimate of the number injured - the vast majority of them suffering concussions - represents 20 percent of the roughly 1.8 million men and women who have served in Iraq and Afghanistan, where blast injuries are common from roadside bombs and other explosives, the doctors said.
Former Winston Cigarettes Pitchman Dies of Throat Cancer
Alan Landers, 68, a model who posed for Winston cigarette ads in the 1960s and 1970s, has died of while undergoing treatment for throat cancer.
While some of his celebrity came from appearing in ads, still more came from his legal battles with R.J. Reynolds and other tobacco companies. Landers, born Allan Levine, claim that being forced to smoke for the ads caused his health problems. His case was scheduled for trial in April.
Alan Landers had already survived two bouts of lung cancer, and was undergoing chemotherapy and radiation for the aforementioned throat cancer. As if that wasn't enough, he also suffered from emphysema.
Obama's Middle-Class Task Force Has No Middle Class
Still, the middle class may have a better shot at making ends meet than at influencing the Middle Class Task Force. That's because no member of the Middle Class Task Force is actually middle class. While defining America's most beloved demographic group has never been an exact science, most academics agree that the term refers to anyone earning between $30,000 and $100,000 a year. (Median household income in the U.S. hovers around $50,000.) Every member of the President's task force - from Biden ($227,000) to Council of Economic Advisors chair Christina Romer ($172,000) to energy secretary Steven Chu ($191,000) - makes well over $150,000, putting them in the top 5% of wage earners.
TVNL Comment: So what's new? Welcome to America.
VIDEO: FEMA Camps Outed on Fox
During the Bush Administration, FEMA was given hundreds of millions of dollars to retrofit former military bases and other existing infrastructure so they can be used as "camps."
Not camps as in summer camps. Camps as in prison camps and perhaps even concentration camps.
One of the first thing the Obama Administration did was to legitimize their existence.
These camps, which can be found in every state in the union, currently sit empty and are intended to be pressed into service in the event of an "emergency."
Oil producers running out of storage space
As demand for crude has plummeted, the world suddenly finds itself awash in oil that has nowhere to go.
It’s been less than a year since oil prices hit record highs. But now producers and traders are struggling with the new reality: The world wants less oil, not more. And turning off the spigot is about as easy as turning around one of those tankers.
Judge tosses ex-sailor's terror-support conviction
A federal judge on Wednesday threw out one conviction against a former Navy sailor accused of passing along information about ship movements, dealing a post-mortem blow to a Bush administration that had praised the case as a success.
U.S. District Judge Mark Kravitz overturned last year's conviction of Hassan Abu-Jihaad, of Phoenix, on a charge of providing material support to terrorists, citing the language of the law. He upheld his conviction for disclosing classified national defense information.
More...
U.S. District Judge Mark Kravitz overturned last year's conviction of Hassan Abu-Jihaad, of Phoenix, on a charge of providing material support to terrorists, citing the language of the law. He upheld his conviction for disclosing classified national defense information.
More...
US Supreme Court: FDA-approved labels no legal shield
The U.S. Supreme Court ruled against the drugmaker Wyeth (WYE.N) on Wednesday, holding that pharmaceutical companies can be held liable for harm from medicines that carry warnings approved by federal regulators.
By a 6-to-3 vote in a major defeat for the pharmaceutical industry, the high court ruled that U.S. Food and Drug Administration labeling approvals do not pre-empt state laws and shield companies from damages as part of liability claims.
From 9/11 Widows: An Open Letter to Senator Patrick Leahy
At the 9/11 Commission hearings, little actual evidence was ever produced. Many individuals were not sworn in, critical witnesses were either not called to testify or were permitted to dictate the parameters of their own questioning, pertinent questions were omitted and there was little follow-up. Whistleblower testimony was suppressed or avoided all together. The National Security Agency, an intelligence agency that is responsible for the collection and analysis of foreign communications and foreign intelligence, was barely investigated at all.
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