Current Events #8

1. Current Events #8

2. After centuries of hunting and eradication, mountain lions are slowly making a comeback in the lower 48 states. But as their numbers grow, so do conflicts with people. They cross roads and get in and among houses, especially after dark. Some have been hit by cars, and they're often shot if they kill livestock. Scientists from the University of California, Santa Cruz, are running The Santa Cruz Puma Project a five-year study of mountain lion movements to find better ways of protecting the lions in the Santa Cruz Mountains and around the country. Not so Epic Cat Video http://www.npr.org/2013/12/28/257640933/on-the-trail-of-a-mountain-lion-hunters-hope-to-help

3. Polygamy, But Not Same Sex SALT LAKE CITY — In a move that cast doubt over the marriages of roughly 1,000 same-sex couples in Utah, the United States Supreme Court on Monday blocked further same-sex marriages there while state officials appeal a decision allowing such unions. The development created what Utah’s attorney general called “legal limbo” for the same-sex couples who had wed in the state in recent weeks. With the state’s ban on such unions reinstated for now, many wondered whether their window to marry in Utah had closed forever. http://www.nytimes.com/2014/01/07/us/justices-block-gay-marriage-in-utah-pending-appeal.html?_r=0

4. Only Ebony (CNN) -- China is cracking down on the illegal ivory trade. Several tons of confiscated elephant tusks and carvings were crushed in a ceremony in the city of Guangzhou on Monday -- just two months after the United States destroyed its own ivory stockpile. Conservationists have welcomed the move as a monumental shift in the government's approach to the ivory trade, and a crucial first step for China -- the world's largest ivory market -- to tackle illicit wildlife trafficking. Some 6.15 tons of ivory were destroyed on Monday -- equivalent to one-sixth of the illegal ivory confiscated worldwide in 2012 -- according to May Mei, the Chinese chief representative of wildlife protection group, WildAid, who attended the ceremony. http://www.cnn.com/2014/01/06/world/asia/china-ivory-stockpile/index.html?hpt=hp_bn2

5. Will Jack be Given Visitation Rights? A US woman who joined a plot to kill a Swedish artist whose cartoon offended Muslims has been sentenced to 10 years in prison. Colleen LaRose, 50, who dubbed herself Jihad Jane, admitted in 2011 she sought to kill Lars Vilks and recruited others to the cause. She faced up to a life term but a judge reduced her sentence in part because she co-operated with investigators. "I don't want to be into jihad no more," LaRose said at the hearing. MrVilks was targeted after he drew a cartoon depicting the Prophet Muhammad as a dog. Islamist militants in Iraq offered a $100,000 (£61,000) reward for his death, but MrVilks was never attacked. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-25630399

6. What is the Best Choice? SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — The family of a 13-year-old California girl who was declared brain dead after suffering complications from sleep apnea surgery has achieved its goal of moving the girl to a new facility for long-term care, but medical experts say the ventilator she's on will not work indefinitely. While the move ends what had been a very public and tense fight with the hospital, it also brings new challenges: caring for a patient whom three doctors have said is legally dead because, unlike someone in a coma, there is no blood flow or electrical activity in either her cerebrum or the brain stem that controls breathing. The bodies of brain dead patients kept on ventilators gradually deteriorate, eventually causing blood pressure to plummet and the heart to stop, said Dr. Paul Vespa, director of neurocritical care at the University of California, Los Angeles, who has no role in McMath's care. The process usually takes only days but can sometimes continue for months, medical experts say. http://news.yahoo.com/experts-challenges-remain-39-brain-dead-39-teen-143650086.html

7. Mayhaps Hades is Freezing Over (CNN) -- Americans in two dozen states from the Midwest to the Southeast and Northeast are shivering this week courtesy of a distorted polar vortex. The polar vortex, as it sounds, is circulation of strong, upper-level winds that normally surround the northern pole in a counterclockwise direction -- a polar low-pressure system.  These winds tend to keep the bitter cold air locked in the Arctic regions of the Northern Hemisphere. It is not a single storm. On occasion, this vortex can become distorted and dip much farther south than you would normally find it, allowing cold air to spill southward. http://www.cnn.com/2014/01/06/us/polar-vortex-explained/

8. Is Shaming Someone Bullying? Dunce caps seem like a harsh and antiquated way of making kids behave, but the public arena otherwise known as the Internet is bringing public shaming back into vogue as a means of discipline. On Sunday, a redditor called AngryCommGuy posted a picture titled "Mom Catches Daughter Cyberbullying," he says it was posted by a "surburban mom" on Facebook. The image shows a girl, who appears to be in her early teens, holding a sign and an iPod. The sign reads: "My name is Hailey. I am a kind, caring, smart girl, but I make poor choices with social media. As a punishment, I am selling my iPod and will be donating the money to the charity Beat Bullying, in hopes of changing my behavior as well as bringing awareness to Bullying. Because bullying is wrong." http://shine.yahoo.com/parenting/mom-cyber-shames-daughter-online-bullying-39-bully-192100101.html

9. Petty, but Kind of Funny TRENTON — In a remarkable day of swirling political drama, Gov. Chris Christie tried on Thursday to control the damage from revelations that his administration ordered the revenge-closings of traffic lanes at the George Washington Bridge by firing a top aide, cutting ties with a longtime political adviser and repeatedly apologizing in a nearly two-hour news conference. Sounding somber and appearing contrite, the normally garrulous Mr. Christie said he had had no advance knowledge of the lane closings and had been “humiliated” by the entire episode. http://www.nytimes.com/2014/01/10/nyregion/christie-controversy-bridge-lane-closings.html?hp&_r=0

10. “Cute” Things that Kids Say (CNN) -- The mother of an Omaha toddler is defending her son after he unleashed a slew of obscenities in an online video that has gone viral. In the video, the diapered boy is taunted and cursed at by adults, who coax him into using crude words. The African-American toddler knocks down a chair and responds to some of the comments with a middle finger salute. "He had a clean diaper, the house was clean and like they said, kids curse, every kid does it," the mother told CNN affiliate KETV in an exclusive interview. CNN does not identify juveniles in such stories. The mother is 16. http://www.cnn.com/2014/01/10/us/nebraska-swearing-toddler/index.html?hpt=hp_t2

11. Somebody’s Poisoned the Waterhole (CNN) -- Nearly 200,000 people in West Virginia awoke Friday to stark warnings about their tap water: Don't drink it. Don't cook with it. Don't even brush your teeth or take a shower in it. The reason: a chemical spill in the Elk River in the central and southwestern parts of the state. The chemical, 4-Methylcyclohexane Methanol, is not toxic but is harmful if swallowed, according to Thomas Aluise, a spokesman for the state's Department of Environmental Protection. It is used to wash coal before it goes to market. http://www.cnn.com/2014/01/09/us/west-virginia-contaminated-water/index.html?hpt=hp_t2

12. How Did the Housekeeper Feel? New York (CNN) -- The Indian government has asked the United States to withdraw an official from its embassy in New Delhi, an Indian official not authorized to speak to the media told CNN on Friday. The decision comes as DevyaniKhobragade, the Indian diplomat whose December arrest and strip search in New York strained ties between New Delhi and Washington, heads back to India. "We have asked the U.S. Embassy to withdraw an officer of her rank," the Indian official said. Khobragade's return to India from the U.S. could calm tensions between the nations. U.S. prosecutors accuse her of lying in a visa application about how much she paid her housekeeper. She was indicted this week by a federal grand jury on one count of visa fraud and one count of making false statements. http://www.cnn.com/2014/01/10/politics/us-india-diplomacy/index.html?hpt=hp_t2

13. Good News for Jobs (not the Apple guy who has passed) The recovery in the US jobs market came to a grinding halt in December as businesses added just 74,000 new jobs, the lowest rise since January 2011. The report from the US Department of Labor shocked economists on Friday who had been expecting the number to increase by at least 200,000. The report said the unemployment rate had dropped to to 6.7% in December, but the fall was explained almost entirely by people giving up on their search for work. Only 62.8% of the adult workforce participated in the jobs market in December, down 0.2 percentage points from the previous month. It was the lowest participation rate – the number of people employed or actively looking for work – since the 1970s. http://www.theguardian.com/business/2014/jan/10/us-economy-adds-74000-jobs-december

14. Everybody Needs a Hero A 15-year-old who died while tried to defend his school in Pakistan's troubled north-west from a suicide bomber has been hailed as a hero for saving the lives of many of his classmates. AitizazHasan tackled the bomber as he stood outside as a punishment for being late to school in Hangu, a town in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, on Monday. His two companions fled the scene after spotting the bomb being carried by the man, who was trying to gain access to the school, but Aitizaz grabbed the bomber. Unable to stop him from detonating his bomb, Aitizaz later died of his wounds in hospital. http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/jan/09/pakistani-boy-suicide-bomber-hero

15. Finally, A Woman Holds the Purse Janet Yellen will make history as the first woman to lead the Federal Reserve, becoming its chairwoman at a key moment for the central bank as it attempts to unwind its unprecedented efforts to boost the economy in the aftermath of the financial crisis. The Senate voted 56-26 on Monday to confirm Yellen to replace Chairman Ben Bernanke, whose term expires Jan. 31. Yellen, who has been vice chairwoman of the Fed since October 2010, is expected to begin her new post Feb. 1. While Bernanke navigated the Fed through the 2008 financial crisis and the ensuing recession during his eight year tenure, it will be Yellen’s job to manage the retreat from these policies as the economy gains strength and is better able to stand on its own. http://www.politico.com/story/2014/01/janet-yellen-senate-confirmation-federal-reserve-chairman-101800.html

16. Israel bid farewell today to the last – if perhaps most controversial – of its founding generation of leaders, former general and prime minister Ariel Sharon, who passed on after a long illness. Mr. Sharon, who devoted more than 60 years of his life to establishing, defending, and leading the state of Israel, was both loathed and lionized by Israeli Jews. That chasm is perhaps most stark on the issue of Israeli settlement in territory conquered during the 1967 Arab-Israeli war. Sharon was instrumental in expanding the Jewish presence from a few outposts to cities and communities totaling more than half a million Jews today. In what would become perhaps the most defining and controversial move of Sharon’s career, he unilaterally withdrew from the Gaza Strip in 2005, removing more than 8,000 Israeli settlers and dismantling an infrastructure of Israeli control that he had championed for decades. The images of Israeli soldiers dragging fellow Israelis out of their homes divided the country more deeply than any other government move in the past decade.  Quo Vadis? http://www.csmonitor.com/World/Middle-East/2014/0111/Israel-bids-farewell-to-Ariel-Sharon-as-it-grapples-with-his-divisive-legacy