Originally published on Fri March 23, 2012 6:40 pm
An independent review of the federal Mine Safety and Health Administration's (MSHA) enforcement at the Upper Big Branch (UBB) coal mine in West Virginia says the agency failed to spot "a number of enforcement deficiencies" at the mine which were major factors in the April 2010 explosion that took 29 lives.
Pigs take a mud bath at the De Jofrahoeve pig farm in Esch, Netherlands. Dutch farmers treat their animals with almost three times the antibiotics that their Danish neighbors use.
If Danish pigs can live with fewer antibiotics, why can't their American cousins?
It's a hot topic, especially today. Yesterday, a federal judge ordered the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to proceed with a 1977 plan to outlaw the use of certain antibiotics as growth promotion drugs.
We've known for a while that people who grow up on farms are less likely to have ailments related to the immune system than people who grow up in cities. Those include asthma, allergies, inflammatory bowel disease and multiple sclerosis.
Asians are the fastest growing racial group according to a recent report released by the U.S. Census Bureau analyzing 2000 and 2010 census figures.
For those following the nation's changing demographics that may sound surprising because we've also been hearing that Hispanics are the "fastest growing minority group."
With a new leader in North Korea, the U.S. and South Korea are watching for clues of his policies. But so far tensions have not eased along the demilitarized zone. Here, two North Korean soldiers look across at a South Korean soldier on Dec. 2.
Lt. Col. Ed Taylor speaks as he stands behind a wall of sandbags overlooking North Korea from the South Korean side of the demilitarized zone, or DMZ. Taylor commands a joint American-South Korean battalion along the frontier.
President Obama looks toward North Korea from a post on the South Korean side of the DMZ, the tense military border between the two Koreas, on Sunday. At right is U.S. Lt. Col. Ed Taylor, commander of the U.N. Command Security Battalion-Joint Security Area.
Lt. Col. Edward Taylor commands the only U.S. and South Korean battalion on the Korean Peninsula. He stands near the Korean armistice line, with North Korea behind him.
Cold winds blow through pine trees and across nearby mountains. On the horizon are guard posts and cameras. There's little movement, except for wildlife.
U.S. Lt. Col. Ed Taylor, lives and works on the Korean armistice line that has divided North and South for almost six decades. He even sleeps in a bed right next to North Korea.
"I cannot compare it to anything I've ever done. And I say that with 23 years in the Army and two deployments to Iraq," Taylor says.
Pressure had been building on President Obama for days to say something about the killing of Trayvon Martin, the Florida teenager shot to death by a neighborhood watch volunteer, and on Friday the president finally did.
And almost as soon as he did, some people suspected him of a cynical election-year attempt to appeal to black voters, judging by the reaction by some on social media and conservative sites. Martin was African American, his killer of mixed white and Hispanic parentage.
This is the second of two stories we're doing today about Harrisburg. Read the first story here.
Harrisburg is broke.
The Pennsylvania city is deep in debt. It's still spending more than it takes in. And, as David Unkovic described it to me last week, there's a cash-flow problem.
Former Solicitor General Paul D. Clement speaks during a forum at the Georgetown University Law Center on March 9. Clement will be arguing against President Obama's health care act in the Supreme Court next week.
Paul Clement is, quite simply, a walking superlative. A wunderkind who at age 34 became deputy solicitor general and then was promoted to the top spot, solicitor general of the United States, becoming the youngest person to hold that post in more than a century. Now 45, he has argued an astonishing 57 cases before the Supreme Court, more than any other lawyer since 2000. And next week, he will lead the challenge to the Obama health care overhaul, in the Supreme Court.
Joyce Wong, a pregnant 30-year-old, takes part in a January 15 protest against immigration laws that allow babies born in Hong Kong to mainland Chinese mothers to be eligible for residency, education and medical care in the territory. Hong Kong residents fear the influx of mainlanders will further burden overtaxed resources.
A girl holds a Hong Kong newspaper with an anti-mainland Chinese advertisement featuring a picture of a locust looking over the Hong Kong cityscape. The ad is one of the latest signs of Hong Kong fears that mainlanders are overrunning the territory.
A mainland Chinese tourist crosses the street carrying multiple shopping bags in Hong Kong's Tsim Sha Tsui district. Tourists from the mainland spend more money in Hong Kong than tourists from all other countries combined.
Former convener of Hong Kong's Executive Council Leung Chun-ying (left) and former Hong Kong Chief Secretary Henry Tang (shown here March 16) are the leading candidates to be Hong Kong's next leader, who will be chosen March 25 by a Beijing-selected committee.
A committee of Hong Kong's handpicked elite will select the territory's new leader this weekend after a hotly contested fight, which has left both the main front-runners tainted by scandal.
It's been 15 years since Hong Kong, a former British colony, reverted to Chinese sovereignty, yet tensions between local people and those from the mainland run deeper than ever.
Originally published on Thu June 21, 2012 11:14 am
A New York pop-rock trio with a spunky and theatrical side, fun. began when singer Nate Ruess was coming off the breakup of his long-running band The Format.
