New Federal Scrutiny In Wake Of NPR Grain Bin Reports : The Two-Way : NPR: "Congress, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration and the Justice Department are beginning to respond to the NPR-Center for Public Integrity Series on hundreds of persistent and preventable deaths in grain storage bins and weak enforcement by federal agencies.
Two federal officials familiar with the case say that the Justice Department is again considering criminal charges in the incident in Mt. Carroll, Illinois, in 2010, in which 14-year-old Wyatt Whitebread and 19-year-old Alex Pacas suffocated in thousands of bushels of corn. Will Piper, 20, survived but was unable to save his friends and co-workers. The owner of the grain bin, Haasbach LLC, was initially fined $555,000 but OSHA cut the fine 60 percent.
NPR/CPI obtained Labor Department documents that showed the Justice Department initially declined to file criminal charges in the case, despite multiple willful violations and what one former OSHA official called 'the worst of the worst' cases."
(Via.)
Visit NBCNews.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy
NBCNews.com video: How to be a good ally: ""
(Via.)
Newtown gunman Adam Lanza fired 155 bullets in less than five minutes, prosecutor says - Open Channel: "By Michael Isikoff, Tom Winter and Erin McClam, NBC News Adam Lanza fired 155 bullets in less than five minutes on the day he killed 20 children and six adults at Sandy Hook Elementary School, the chief prosecutor investigating the massacre said Thursday. The total included 154 fired from a Bushmaster .223-model rifle and a final bullet, fired from a Glock 10mm handgun, that Lanza used to take his own life, said Stephen Sedensky, the chief prosecutor investigating the shooting. Three Samurai swords were recovered from the Newtown, Conn., home that Lanza shared with his mother, authorities said as they released search warrants from the second-worst school shooting in American history."
(Via.)
Visit NBCNews.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy
Hardball: DOMA challenged at the Supreme Court: ""
(Via.)
Justices signal they might strike down federal marriage law - NBC Politics: "Hearing a challenge to the Defense of Marriage Act, which allows federal benefits to go only to heterosexual married couples, the Supreme Court appeared skeptical of the statute and indicated that it might strike down a section of the 1996 law. At issue in Wednesday’s oral argument was the Defense of Marriage Act, known as DOMA, passed by overwhelming margins in both houses of Congress and signed by President Bill Clinton."
(Via.)
Justices to Hear Arguments on Defense of Marriage Act - NYTimes.com: "WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court returns to the subject of same-sex marriage for a second day on Wednesday, when the justices hear arguments about the constitutionality of the federal Defense of Marriage Act of 1996."
(Via.)
Visit NBCNews.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy
(Via.)
Visit NBCNews.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy
The Last Word: Three More Senators Back Marriage Equality: ""
(Via.)
Visit NBCNews.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy
The Last Word: Three More Senators Back Marriage Equality: ""
(Via.)
Visit NBCNews.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy
Up w/ Chris Hayes: Stop-and-frisk in the NYC race for mayor: ""
(Via.)
China and Japan Spar Over War Trials, More Than 6 Decades On - NYTimes.com: "BEIJING – What would international reaction be if Angela Merkel, the German chancellor, were to publicly cast doubt on the fairness of the Nuremberg Trials, which condemned top Nazis at the end of World War II?
Something quite similar may have happened recently in Japan, where, according to media reports, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe cast doubt on the Tokyo Trials there (these found about two dozen prominent Japanese guilty of war crimes; seven were sentenced to death).
Here’s a headline from the Japan Daily Press: ‘PM Abe says WWII war crime trials were just ‘victors’ justice.’ ’
‘In a meeting of the House of Representatives Budget Committee last Tuesday, Abe said that what the world now thinks of the outcome of World War II was dictated by the victorious Allied Forces and it is only under their judgement that the Japanese were condemned,’ the Japan Daily Press article said, citing an article in The Telegraph.
World War II is still a sensitive topic not just in China but further afield in Asia, where memories of brutality by the invading Japanese Imperial Army linger and many believe that Japan, unlike Germany, has never entirely faced up to what it did. Memories may be bitterest in China, where millions died and where the government uses anti-Japanese sentiment to bolster nationalism.
"
(Via.)
Visit NBCNews.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy
The Last Word: Restraining orders and the NRA: ""
(Via.)
Cops: U.S. law should require logs of your text messages | Politics and Law - CNET News: "Silicon Valley firms and privacy groups want Congress to update a 1986-era electronic privacy law. But if a law enforcement idea set to be presented today gets attached, support for the popular proposal would erode."
(Via.)
Cops: U.S. law should require logs of your text messages | Politics and Law - CNET News: "Silicon Valley firms and privacy groups want Congress to update a 1986-era electronic privacy law. But if a law enforcement idea set to be presented today gets attached, support for the popular proposal would erode."
(Via.)
Visit NBCNews.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy
Rachel Maddow: Maryland terminates death penalty: ""
(Via.)
Mormons Change References To Blacks, Polygamy | New Hampshire Public Radio: "'I think that this new introduction to the revelation ending the priesthood ban is a major step forward in many ways because it acknowledges that the practice may have originated — it seems to me, this is how I'm reading it anyhow — as a matter of error or cultural and historical conditioning rather than as the will of God,' he says. 'And that's a fairly significant statement for the Church to make.'"
(Via.)
Visit NBCNews.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy
Melissa Harris-Perry: The rape case igniting a national conversation: ""
Visit NBCNews.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy
Visit NBCNews.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy
Visit NBCNews.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy
Melissa Harris-Perry: Intolerance: The struggle continues: ""
(Via.)
Visit NBCNews.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy
The Last Word: Gun debate may fuel rise in hate groups: ""
(Via.)
