Breaking News Thread

[Dr. No]

Happy Mother's Day!

[Goldeneye]

http://www.thedailybeast.com/cheats/2012/05/17/tmz-donna-summers-dies.html

TMZ reports that Donna Summer died Thursday morning after fighting cancer. Summer was reportedly trying to keep the extent of her illness under wraps while she completed a new album, though sources who saw her several weeks ago said she "didn't seem too bad." The five-time Grammy winner was known as the "Queen of Disco," and rose to superstardom in the 1970s with her hits "Last Dance," "Hot Stuff," and "Bad Girls."

[Goldeneye]

.http://worldnews.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/05/20/11778030-lockerbie-bomber-al-megrahi-dies-in-libya-after-long-battle-with-cancer?lite

By NBC News, msnbc.com and news services

Updated at 10:38 a.m. ET: TRIPOLI - The former Libyan intelligence officer convicted of the 1988 Lockerbie bombing that killed 270 people has died, his son told NBC News on Sunday. He was 60.

Abdel Baset al-Megrahi died at home after his health quickly deteriorated. "He has been suffering from cancer for a long time and God choose him," Khalid al-Magrahi told NBC.

"He was too sick to utter anything on his death bed," his brother Abdel Hakim told Reuters. "We want people to know he was innocent."

Al-Megrahi was convicted in 2001 of the bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 as it flew to New York from London. All 259 people aboard the airliner were killed and 11 others on the ground in the town of Lockerbie, Scotland, died from falling wreckage.

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Scotland freed him in 2009 on compassionate grounds because he was suffering from advanced terminal prostate cancer and thought to have months to live.

His release angered many relatives of the victims, 189 of whom were American, and the Obama administration criticized the decision.

Many speculated that a backdoor deal had been cut between the former regime of Moammar Gadhafi and the British government. With the fall of the Gadhafi regime in 2011, many in the U.S. and U.K. called on the new Libyan leaders to extradite Megrahi to serve out the remainder of his prison term, something Libya's ruling National Transitional Council refused to do.

Lockerbie relatives: 'Never thought this day would come'

The family of convicted Lockerbie bomber Abdel Baset al-Megrahi tell NBC News that he is in a coma, without medicine and near death. NBC's Stephanie Gosk reports.

Megrahi, who served as an intelligence agent during the rule of Gadhafi, denied any role in suspected human rights abuses in his home country before Gadhafi's fall and death in a popular uprising last year.

In April, Al-Megrahi's condition worsened and he was taken to a private hospital to receive a transfusion of eleven liters of blood, but subsequently felt strong enough to return home.

NBC News, msnbc.com staff and Reuters contributed to this report

[Goldeneye]

Egypt in turmoil
http://www.cnn.com/2012/06/14/world/meast/egypt-ruling/index.html

Egypt's highest court declares parliament invalid

Egypt's highest court on Thursday declared the parliament invalid, and the country's interim military rulers declared full legislative authority, triggering a new level of chaos and confusion in the country's leadership.

The Supreme Constitutional Court also ruled that a former member of President Hosni Mubarak's regime may run in a presidential election runoff this weekend.

The ruling on parliament means that it must be dissolved, state TV reported. An Egyptian constitutional law expert told CNN that following the court's decision, a political decision will be made about what steps to take next.

Parliament had been in session for just over four months.

The court found that all articles making up the law that regulated parliamentary elections are invalid, said Showee Elsayed, a constitutional lawyer.

The Supreme Council of the Armed Forces, in control of the country since Mubarak's ouster, announced that it now has full legislative power and will announce a 100-person assembly that will write the country's new constitution. The court's rulings come a day after Egypt's military-led government imposed a de facto martial law, extending the arrest powers of security forces.

[Capt. Sir Dominic Flandry]

Egypt in turmoil
http://www.cnn.com/2012/06/14/world/meast/egypt-ruling/index.html

Egypt's highest court declares parliament invalid

Egypt's highest court on Thursday declared the parliament invalid, and the country's interim military rulers declared full legislative authority, triggering a new level of chaos and confusion in the country's leadership.

The Supreme Constitutional Court also ruled that a former member of President Hosni Mubarak's regime may run in a presidential election runoff this weekend.

The ruling on parliament means that it must be dissolved, state TV reported. An Egyptian constitutional law expert told CNN that following the court's decision, a political decision will be made about what steps to take next.

Parliament had been in session for just over four months.

The court found that all articles making up the law that regulated parliamentary elections are invalid, said Showee Elsayed, a constitutional lawyer.

The Supreme Council of the Armed Forces, in control of the country since Mubarak's ouster, announced that it now has full legislative power and will announce a 100-person assembly that will write the country's new constitution. The court's rulings come a day after Egypt's military-led government imposed a de facto martial law, extending the arrest powers of security forces.

"Egypt in turmoil" is not breaking news!

It is now Sir Richard Stilgoe.

[carl stromberg]

Rodney King is dead.

[katied]

Rodney King is dead.

The worst thing?There were quite a few comments online(especially on Twiiter) asking who he was. Really? I get that at least some of those people might not have been born when that was going on, but still!

[Goldeneye]

Supreme Court up holds Obama Care Individual Mandate.
http://www.cnn.com/2012/06/28/politics/supreme-court-health-ruling/index.html?hpt=hp_t1

he U.S. Supreme Court on Thursday upheld the controversial health care law championed by President Barack Obama in a landmark decision that will impact the November election and the lives of every American.

In a 5-4 ruling, the high court decided the individual mandate requiring people to have health insurance is valid as a tax, even though it is impermissible under the Constitution's commerce clause.

[bjmdds]

Roberts can go to hell now. Another Bush crumb from his lousy regime. The ruling makes NO sense at all by Roberts. He said if you don't like the law, vote out those who put it in and repeal it but it's not up to the courts to judge whether or not a law is good or bad, except, the idiot threw out the mandate as unconstitutional and converted it to an allowed tax, yet the shmuck Ohbama said it was NOT a tax at all. This should invigorate all Americans to throw all Democrats out of Congress and throw Oh-bama out as well.

[Kristatos]

This should invigorate all Americans to throw all Democrats out of Congress and throw Oh-bama out as well.

I suspect you may have hit on the reason why they did it. They thought that there would be more advantage to the Republican Party in upholding it than in repealing it.

[bjmdds]

You really think that Nick, that Roberts thought he was helping Republicans?

[katied]

Oy..it is all over my Facebook page-every other person is talking about it!

[Dr. No]

I heard something interesting someone who watches the supreme court thinks Roberts changed his opinion last minute because he refers to Ruth Bater as destining opinion and other conservative justices as joining.

Unbelievable the court kept the mandate I though they keep the medicare provision and reject the mandate. Scary actually Obama is more and more a scary figure, there is no check on his power not any more. Just ask Arizona.

Can Arizona withhold federal tax monies until the feds actually uphold the laws? (I know you can't fight city hall but...) The federal goverment not responding to a state because of political problems is scary, heck Colorado is on fire and Obama is once again late to responding to it like he was in the gulf of Mexico BP oil disaster.

This court decision may of just given us a Mormon president. Obama Care is bad law and it helps a few but hurts most of us in the system and still does not fix the real cause of ballooning medical costs.

[Kristatos]

You really think that Nick, that Roberts thought he was helping Republicans?

I dunno. It's just a hypothesis.

[Dr. No]

You really think that Nick, that Roberts thought he was helping Republicans?

I dunno. It's just a hypothesis.

I think Roberts wants the Kennedy seat for everyone to wonder what he is going to do. His reasoning for the decision is puzzling, if the court is not supposed to stop bad laws passed by elected officials what the hell is it for?

But it is galvanizing everyone behind Romney. Plenty of democrats are upset with obama care and wish it was struck down because a lot of the consequences are going to be hard for the Dems to live with.

Whats amazing is how the repubs were able to paint the most "transparent admin in history" as lawless. High security leaks Holder's buddys investigate, withholding whatever documents on fast and furious, then try to blame bush (again), House vote Holder in contempt, the justice department refuses to prosecute holder, a series of very poor decision.

Nobody has had a decent attorney general in over 20 years. Why do these guys go for janet reno types? The admins defense on these charges is the Republican are playing politics, yes they are but so is Obama, if they had released these things earlier it would be over and done with. It successfully paints the picture for any sort of paying attention that Obama has gone Nixon on us only the left wing will looks at these things as repub trickery so ignore them.

Funny thing about Nixon he said he never did any Jack Kennedy didn't do and he was right. Also Jack and tricky dick were good friends until the election then it was politics and nothing else mattered.

[Dr. No]

The dems are claiming anyone with out health insurance is a "free rider"....ok

I didn't have health insurance on my own until we got married. And we also got real jobs at the same time too so thats part of it. Before then we didn't use or impact the healthcare system, zero sum involvement. To the Democrats I and all the other young people who did not need health insurance are "free riders" how so?

I get the future cost BS argument but it is BS. They want all the healthy people paying in and not to use the care period. Then they might have a chance for the insurance companies of making a profit (Government now included with those companies). So who are the real "free riders" here?

Sorry dems you are stuck with the label TAX that is how the court validated it and how Obama's attorneys argued for it. You just fought for and passed the largest tax increase in history and its not the 1% paying for it, all of us are going to have the government boot on our throats.

I hate the idea of my children having to buy a damned policy some day because the government says so or else.

[bjmdds]

Vote MITT Dr. No and spread the word. They also will DEMAND written statements of ALL financial activity in every household and the 5000 new IRS agents Oh-bama has hired will determine if the plan families took out is acceptable or deemed not enough and will levy a tax Screw all supporters of this crumb before they screw you and all of us. Schumer and Reid and Pelosi called the uninsured 'poor victims" before. Now, they are 'freeloaders" as Schumer describes them. You cannot make this stuff up Pelosi is a despicable, filthy rich fake, and so are all of the loathsome liberals heading up the Democratic party now.

[Goldeneye]

http://www.tmz.com/2012/07/03/andy-griffith-dies-dead/

8:15 AM -- Ron Howard ‏just went to Twitter to post a message about his friend Andy Griffith ... writing, "His pursuit of excellence and the joy he took in creating served generations & shaped my life I'm forever grateful RIP Andy."

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Andy Griffith, an icon of TV, has died ... this according to Andy's close friend, former UNC President Bill Friday.

Griffith, who became famous for "The Andy Griffith Show," passed away at his home in Manteo, North Carolina this morning.

Friday broke the news to WITN News in North Carolina.

In addition to starring in his show and the subsequent "Mayberry R.F.D.," Griffith was a Grammy award-winning southern gospel singer. Of course, Griffith also starred in the long-running series, "Matlock" and often made guest appearances in other shows, including "Dawson's Creek."

[bjmdds]

He and Barney Fife are in heaven's Mayberry with Goober.

[Kristatos]

Sad news. As a cockatiel owner, I am of course familiar with the Andy Griffith theme, mangled versions of which are the national anthem of the tiel world.