Two days ago, astronauts on the ISS discovered some little white flakes suspiciously floating away from the station
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Monday, May 13, 2013
Watch NASA's Emergency ISS Spacewalk Live Right Now (Updating)
IRS tea party scandal unlikely to fade as Congress plans investigations
Conspiracy theories aside, there?s no evidence that the Obama White House had anything to do with Internal Revenue Service bureaucrats targeting tea party-type organizations for special tax scrutiny.
That?s despite new information that senior IRS officials knew agents were targeting such groups as early as 2011, according to a draft of an inspector general's report obtained by the Associated Press that seems to contradict public statements by the IRS commissioner.
Still, as Time political columnist Joe Klein writes this weekend, ?the absence of scandal is not the presence of competence.?
?Yet again, we have an example of Democrats simply not managing the government properly and with discipline,? Klein writes. ?This is just poisonous at a time of skepticism about the efficacy of government?. [Obama?s] unwillingness to concentrate ? and I mean concentrate obsessively ? on making sure that government is managed efficiently will be part of his legacy.?
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So far, the White House response seems a bit anemic, a bit hands-off. On Saturday, press secretary Jay Carney said the President believes government agencies should be staffed with "the very best public servants with the highest levels of integrity.?
The President ?is concerned that the conduct of a small number of Internal Revenue Service employees may have fallen short of that standard,? Carney said.
Given what?s been revealed in the inspector general?s report, such statements likely will not quell the criticism.
?It is absolutely chilling that the IRS was singling out conservative groups for extra review,? US Sen. Susan Collins (R) of Maine said on CNN?s ?State of the Union? Sunday.
?The president needs to make crystal clear that this is totally unacceptable in America,? she said. ?I think that it's very disappointing that the president hasn't personally condemned this and spoken out.?
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As first reported by the AP, in June, 2011, Lois Lerner, who heads the IRS division that oversees tax-exempt organizations, learned at a meeting that groups with "Tea Party," ''Patriot" or "9/12 Project" in their names were being flagged for additional and often burdensome scrutiny.
The following January, the criteria for flagging suspect groups was changed to, "political action type organizations involved in limiting/expanding Government, educating on the Constitution and Bill of Rights, social economic reform/movement," the IG?s report says.
About 300 applications were initially flagged for closer scrutiny, 75 of which were chosen based on names including those key words. In the end, according to the IRS, none were denied the tax-exempt status they had applied for, although some withdrew their applications.
Each year the IRS reviews as many as 60,000 tax-exempt applications from groups ranging from charities to labor unions, reports Reuters.
Such organizations can collect money from anonymous donors and spend it on advertising. But in order to get and keep their tax-exempt status, they can?t endorse a political candidate or a political party. Coinciding in part with the surge of Tea Party enthusiasm, the number of groups seeking tax-exempt status more than doubled from 2010 to 2012, to more than 3,400.
But despite the increased workload and the apparent effort to identify groups whose political activities crossed the tax-exempt line, focusing on ?tea party? and ?patriot? was bound to create a partisan firestorm.
Now, groups across the political spectrum suspect that they too might have been picked for special IRS scrutiny. BuzzFeed reports that one ?hawkishly pro-Israel? group believes that it was targeted by the IRS over its opposition to President Obama?s Israel policy.
Congressional Republicans promise a series of investigative hearings.
?While I?m glad that the IRS has apologized for this misconduct, that is simply not enough,? US Sen. Orrin Hatch (R) of Utah said Saturday. ?We need to know more. We need to know who was behind this unlawful activity, when it began, who found out about it, when they found out, and what they did or did not do to correct it.?
As Lauren French and Kelsey Snell of Politico write, ?the IRS doesn?t have many friends on a good day,? and now it seems to be ?an agency under siege, facing its worst public relations debacle in years.?
That lack of friends in Congress is bipartisan.
?We shouldn?t rush to judgment,? says Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus (D) of Montana. ?But targeting groups based solely on their political views is not only inappropriate, it is intolerable.?
The IRS inspector general?s full report is scheduled to be released this coming week.
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Source: http://news.yahoo.com/irs-tea-party-scandal-unlikely-fade-congress-plans-160512047.html
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Sunday, May 12, 2013
Women rescued in Cleveland happy to be home
This image provided by the Cuyahoga County Sheriff's office shows the Cuyahoga County Corrections Center booking photo of Ariel Castro, 52, after he was ordered to be held on $8 million bail Thursday, May 9, 2013, in Cleveland. Castro, a former school bus driver, is accused of imprisoning three young women and beating them repeatedly over a decade in Cleveland. (AP Photo/Cuyahoga County)
This image provided by the Cuyahoga County Sheriff's office shows the Cuyahoga County Corrections Center booking photo of Ariel Castro, 52, after he was ordered to be held on $8 million bail Thursday, May 9, 2013, in Cleveland. Castro, a former school bus driver, is accused of imprisoning three young women and beating them repeatedly over a decade in Cleveland. (AP Photo/Cuyahoga County)
A sign rests in front of a home Saturday, May 11, 2013, in Cleveland. Ariel Castro, who allegedly held three women captive for nearly a decade, is charged with rape and kidnapping. (AP Photo/Tony Dejak)
A missing poster still hangs on a tree at the home where Amanda Berry is staying in Cleveland on Saturday, May 11, 2013. Suspect Ariel Castro who allegedly held Berry and two other women captive for nearly a decade is charged with rape and kidnapping. (AP Photo/Tony Dejak)
CLEVELAND (AP) ? The three women allegedly imprisoned and sexually abused for years inside a padlocked Cleveland house asked for privacy Sunday, saying through an attorney that while they are grateful for overwhelming support, they also need time to heal.
Amanda Berry, Gina DeJesus, and Michelle Knight remain in seclusion, releasing their first statements since they were found May 6 when Berry escaped and told a 911 dispatcher, "I'm free now."
They thanked law enforcement and said they were grateful for the support of family and the community.
"I am so happy to be home, and I want to thank everybody for all your prayers," DeJesus said in a statement read by an attorney. "I just want time now to be with my family."
The women, now in their 20s and 30s, vanished separately between 2002 and 2004. At the time, they were 14, 16 and 20 years old.
Investigators say they spent the last nine years or more inside the home of Ariel Castro where they were repeatedly raped and only allowed outside a handful of times. Castro, 52, is being held on $8 million bond. The former school bus driver was charged with four counts of kidnapping and three counts of rape.
Prosecutors said last week they may seek aggravated murder charges ? punishable by death ? for allegedly impregnating one of his captives at least five times and forcing her miscarry by starving her and punching her in the belly.
The allegations were contained in a police report that also said Berry was forced to give birth in a plastic kiddie pool inside the home. A DNA test confirmed that Castro fathered the 6-year-old girl, who escaped the house with Berry.
After nearly a decade of being away, the three women need time to reconnect with their families, said attorney Jim Wooley.
Knight, who was the first to disappear and the last of the three released from the hospital, thanked everyone for their support and good wishes in her statement.
"I am healthy, happy and safe and will reach out to family, friends and supporters in good time."
Berry added: "Thank you so much for everything you're doing and continue to do. I am so happy to be home with my family."
The attorney said none of the women will do any media interviews until the criminal case against Castro is over. He also asked that they be given privacy.
"Give them the time, the space, and the privacy so that they can continue to get stronger," Wooley said.
The Associated Press does not usually identify people who say they are victims of sexual assault, but the women's names were widely circulated by their families, friends and law enforcement authorities for years during their disappearances and after they were found.
Donations are pouring into funds set up for the women. City Councilman Brian Cummins said $50,000 has been raised with the goal of creating a trust fund for each in hopes of making them financially independent.
Castro was represented at his first court appearance Thursday by public defender Kathleen Demetz, who said she can't speak to his guilt or innocence and advised him not to give any media interviews that might jeopardize his case.
Castro's two brothers, who were initially taken into custody but released Thursday after investigators said there was no evidence against them, told CNN that they fear people still believe they had something to do with the three missing women.
Onil and Pedro Castro said they've been getting death threats even after police decided to release them. Pedro Castro said he would have turned in his brother if he had known he was involved in the women's disappearance.
"Brother or no brother," he told CNN.
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The IRS was wrong to target the tea party. They should've gone after all 501(c)4s. (Washington Post)
Saturday, May 11, 2013
Watch Live: ISS emergency spacewalk to fix ammonia leak (Update)
Yesterday NASA reported that an ammonia leak had been discovered on the ISS. Astronauts Tom Marshburn and Chris Cassidy are embarking on an emergency spacewalk to fix the problem. NASA TV is broadcasting the walk live, and you can follow along on the somewhat safer journey past the break.
Update (3:54PM ET): Nasa has reported within the last or so that the faulty pump has been successfully replaced. The entire spacewalk took about six and half hours to complete, according to NASA's Twitter.
Filed under: Science
Source: Space.com, NASA (Twitter)
Source: http://feeds.engadget.com/~r/weblogsinc/engadget/~3/pYvHlDsy0QE/
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