Wednesday, 15 January 2014
Air Force: 34 missile officers in cheating scandal
In all, the drug scandal encompasses 11 Air Force officers across six bases. Of the three missile launch officers involved in the drug scandal, two are at Minot Air Force Base in North Dakota and one is at Malmstrom Air Force Base in Montana.
James said those involved in the cheating scandal have lost their certification and nearly 200 missile crew members will retake the test.
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House approves government-wide $1.1T budget
The huge bill furnishes the fine print — 1,582 pages of it — for the bipartisan pact approved in December that set overall spending levels for the next couple of years. With that decision behind them, the measure sailed through the House with no suspense and little dissent — fueled additionally by lawmakers' desire to avoid an election-year replay of last fall's widely unpopular 16-day federal shutdown.
Approving the legislation "is showing the American people we actually are capable of working in a bipartisan manner," said Rep. Tom Cole, R-Okla. He praised the bill for holding down spending and said passage would be "the responsible thing to do. It's the thoughtful thing to do."
The measure was approved by a one-sided 359-67 roll call, with virtually all opposition coming from Republicans.
By its sheer size and detail, the measure had plenty for liberals and conservatives to dislike. Some Democrats said they would support it but only reluctantly, complaining that despite some increases, spending for education, health and other programs would still be too low.
"With this bill, we are waist deep in manure instead of neck deep in manure. Hooray, I guess," said Rep. Jim McGovern, D-Mass.
Reflecting those mixed emotions, Rep. Barbara Lee, D-Calif., praised the measure because she said it would "get us out of this cycle of governing by crisis." But she added that its spending for social programs was "far too low for too many people to really achieve the American dream."
The Democratic-run Senate planned to bestow final congressional approval of the legislation by the end of the week.
To keep agencies functioning while Congress votes on the legislation, the Senate by a 86-14 vote gave final congressional approval to a measure financing the government through Saturday. An earlier short-term spending measure expires after midnight Wednesday evening.
The giant bill debated Wednesday heads off an additional $20 billion in automatic cuts to the Pentagon's budget — on top of $34 billion imposed last year — and cuts to many domestic programs as well. The reductions were being triggered by a 2011 law that forced the cuts after President Barack Obama and Congress failed to negotiate budget savings.
Conservative groups like Club for Growth and Heritage Action were urging lawmakers to oppose it, but the White House urged its passage.
"We met compelling human needs. We certainly preserved national security," said Senate Appropriations Committee Chairwoman Barbara Mikulski, D-Md., chief author of the spending bill with her House counterpart, Rep. Hal Rogers, R-Ky.
The measure provided money for Obama's 2010 health care overhaul and his revamping of federal oversight of the nation's financial markets — though not as much as he requested. It continued age-old restrictions on federal financing of most abortions, but lacked new ones. Democrats also blocked GOP-sought curbs on the Environmental Protection Agency's power to regulate utilities' greenhouse gas emissions.
"It's funding Obamacare, and I pledged a long time ago I absolutely wouldn't vote for anything that has financing for Obamacare," said Rep. Phil Gingrey, R-Ga., who said he'd vote "no."
Overall, the measure provides about $20 billion more for defense and domestic programs this year than was spent in 2013, excluding the costs of war and natural disasters. Even so, it still leaves defense and domestic spending on a downward trend since 2010, a number that troubles many Democrats.
"For several years we've been cheating Americans of a number of things we should be doing for infrastructure, science research, education, to make our country stronger," said Rep. Rush Holt, D-N.J., who said he hadn't decided how he would vote.
The bill would provide nearly $92 billion for U.S. military operations abroad, mostly in Afghanistan, plus about $7 billion for disasters and other emergencies. That was just slightly less than last year's war spending but about $44 billion less than was provided in 2013 for disasters, after Hurricane Sandy ravaged the Northeast in October 2012.
One widely supported provision would roll back a reduction in annual cost-of-living increases for wounded military personnel who retire early or for their surviving spouses. That language was part of the savings included in the budget compromise by Ryan and Murray enacted last month, money that was used to help soften cuts in other programs.
Some Western lawmakers were angry that the bill would block federal payments to communities near government lands to compensate for the taxes the government is exempt from paying them. Top lawmakers promised the payment would be restored in a separate measure.
The Internal Revenue Service, a pariah agency for Republicans after revelations that it targeted tea party groups for tough examinations, would get $500 million less than last year. It also was receiving none of the $440 million extra Obama wanted so the agency could help enforce Obama's health care law, another favorite GOP target.
Democrats won extra money for Head Start's preschool programs, enough to serve another 90,000 young children. The Federal Aviation Administration would get less than Congress enacted last year, but enough money was included to avoid 2013's furloughs and hiring freezes for air traffic controllers.
The FBI won extra money, including almost twice as much to help it conduct background checks on firearms purchasers. The National Institutes of Health would get $29.9 billion, about $1 billion above last year's budget.
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"Peter Pan" proposes to "Wendy" during live stage performance
production of "Peter Pan" in Glasgow, Scotland, on Saturday the actor playing Peter Pan proposed publically
to the actress playing Wendy Darling during the finale of a live performance.
"So, ladies and gentlemen, normally this show would continue with Peter Pan watching Wendy and giving her a
kiss," Sandor Sturbl , 28, says as the production comes to a halt. "Although this is not a normal show this evening.
It's not Peter Pan looking at Wendy."
Sturbl then goes on to note that he has been dating his co-star, Jane Mary Sullivan, 22, whose stage name is Lilly-Jane Young . Sturbl notes that the performance is taking
place in her hometown and that her family is in attendance. (This production of "Peter Pan" is part of a
world tour that was in Glasgow Jan. 11-13.)
"This is not a normal show," he said. "This is the perfect moment, the perfect place."
Sturbl then pulls out an engagement ring, kneels and proposes. Young quickly says yes, and the audience bursts into loud applause as the newly engaged couple embrace
then exit the stage.
Aside from potential embarrassment involved in a public proposal, Sturbl took a pretty big risk, interrupting the end of the performance to make his proposal. But the audience and his fellow cast members could not have seemed more supportive.
It's the third high-profile proposal this week. Early today, it was reported that a man proposed while diving in shark-filled waters off the coast of Mexico.
That came just a few days after a man made a proposal while flying a jet – and performed a barrel roll to
celebrate.
Of course, when it comes to unusual or inappropriate wedding proposals, it's going to be tough to top the
Chicago man who proposed to his girlfriend after pretending that the plane he was piloting was about to
crash . Amazingly, she said yes.
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Fire at Chinese shoe factory kills 16: Xinhua Reuters
China killed 16 people and injured five, state media reported, the latest disaster to highlight China's poor
workplace safety record.
The fire broke out at the factory in Wenling in the wealthy coastal province of Zhejiang on Tuesday, the official Xinhua news agency said.
More than 20 people were rescued and the injured were all in stable condition in hospital, it said. The cause of the fire was being investigated.
China, the world's second-largest economy, has a bad record on workplace safety. Fire exits in factories, office buildings and shops are often locked to prevent workers
taking time off or stealing, or even blocked completely.
A fire at a poultry slaughterhouse in the northeastern province of Jilin in June 2013 killed 120 people. That blaze was blamed on poor management, lack of government
oversight and locked or blocked exits.
Many industrial accidents happen in the huge coal mining industry, in which hundreds die every year from
explosions, mine collapses and floods.
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‘X-Men: Days of Future Past’: New image of Wolverine and Beast, plus
Wolverine (Hugh Jackman) is sent back to the 1970s by future Professor X (Patrick Stewart) and Magneto (Ian McKellen) to stop a cataclysmic event. There, he must help young Xavier (James McAvoy) reunite with his foster sister, Raven (Jennifer Lawrence), and best pal, Erik/Magneto (Michael Fassbender). As Singer teases, "These are very big emotional stakes as well as, you know, cool giant robots and superpowers."
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‘Edge of Tomorrow’: Tom Cruise and Emily Blunt gear up for battle
Adapted from a Japanese novel, Tomorrow takes place in a not-so-distant future where an alien race is winning the war for control of Earth. A human soldier, Lt. Col. Bill Cage (Cruise), somehow adopts the aliens' ability to travel within a time loop — a power that allows him to die over and over again, each time learning more about the aliens' strengths and weaknesses. Blunt plays Rita Vrataski, a mysterious soldier who used to have the power and now offers to teach Cage how to take advantage of it.
Along with Cruise, Blunt spent many of her scenes wearing a futuristic set of armor that weighed over 70 lbs and required five crew members to take on and off. "Even though the suits were challenging, it was something that we just had to embrace," says Blunt. "Can you imagine trying to walk like you're in one of those suits and they paint it in [with CGI] afterward? You'd look stupid. I find anything that can transport you to the world very helpful as an actor."
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