The Obama administration on Friday announced the most wide-ranging liberalization of travel and money-sending regulations to Cuba in over a decade, making it easier for American students and religious and cultural groups to visit the Communist-ruled island.
It will still not be possible for ordinary American tourists to vacation legally in Cuba, which has been under a U.S. economic embargo for 48 years. But members of educational, cultural and religious groups will be able to get licenses for travel more readily.
Obama administration lifts some Cuba travel, money-sending restrictions
Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords shot in Arizona
Rep. Gabrielle Giffords was shot in the head by a gunman at a public event on Saturday. There are conflicting reports about whether she was killed. The Pima County, Ariz., sheriff's office told member station KJZZ the 40-year-old Democrat was killed. At least nine other people, including members of her staff, were injured.
Giffords, who was re-elected to her third term in November, was hosting a "Congress on Your Corner" event at a Safeway in northwest Tucson when a gunman ran up and started shooting, according to Peter Michaels, news director of Arizona Public Media.
Arizona orders Tuscon to end Mexican American Studies Program
The class began with a Mayan-inspired chant and a vigorous round of coordinated hand clapping. The classroom walls featured protest signs, including one that said “United Together in La Lucha!” — the struggle. Although open to any student at Tucson High Magnet School, nearly all of those attending Curtis Acosta’s Latino literature class on a recent morning were Mexican-American.
For all of that and more, Mr. Acosta’s class and others in the Tucson Unified School District’s Mexican-American program have been declared illegal by the State of Arizona — even while similar programs for black, Asian and American Indian students have been left untouched.
State historians find more errors in textbooks
A team of historians have racked up a long list of big errors in two social studies textbooks custom-written for Virginia schools. In the books published by Five Ponds Press, students will find that 12 states joined the Confederacy instead of 11, Thomas Jefferson began his presidency in 1800 instead of 1801 and the United States entered World War I in 1916 instead of 1917.
The historical inaccuracies were brought to light last month following the review of the books "Our Virginia: Past and Present" and "Our America: To 1865," both published by the Weston, Conn.-based company.
The 'Fallout' Of The CIA's Race To Get Khan
In early 2004, A.Q. Khan, the father of Pakistan's nuclear weapons program, was placed under house arrest for his role in an international nuclear trafficking network. For five years, Khan was confined to his home, after admitting that he shared nuclear secrets with countries including North Korea, Libya and Iran.
At the time, President George W. Bush declared the breakup of Khan's nuclear black market as a major victory for the United States. But in a new book about the takedown of Khan's network, two journalists argue that the United States should have acted much sooner — and when they did, it was too little, too late.
'Earmarks' to nowhere: States losing billions
Almost 13 years ago, Rep. David McIntosh, R-Ind., directed $375,000 in federal funding "to improve State Road 31" in Columbus, Ind., a city at the edge of his district.
The McIntosh "earmark" seemed routine at the time, like almost 2,000 other congressional pet projects that lawmakers inserted into the 1998 highway bill. But there was a problem: "There is no State Road 31 that travels through Columbus, only U.S. 31," says Will Wingfield, a spokesman for the Indiana Department of Transportation.
So Much for "Impartial" Justice: Antonin Scalia Attends Michele Bachmann's Tea Party
The decision by Justice Antonin Scalia to serve as a featured speaker in an event on January 5 organized by far-right Congresswoman Michele Bachmann's Tea Party-oriented "Constitutional Conservative Caucus," is just the latest in a series of actions and statements by the Justice that threaten the integrity of the federal judiciary.
A cornerstone of the American legal system is the notion that judges and justices interpret the law fairly and impartially. This fundamental principle of our democracy is undermined when Supreme Court justices serve as willing agents of a transparently political entity like the Tea Party movement, which has an aggressive legislative and judicial agenda that is directed, in part, at the Court itself.
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