Red vs. Blue Blog

TSA Uses 'Behavior' Cops to Monitor Travelers

2009-11-25T15:45:00.001-06:00

For several years, airports across the country have been using what many call "behavioral surveillance" to weed out potential hijackers by covertly examining travelers' facial expressions and body language as they go through security. Nearly 100,000 passengers were pulled aside by Transportation Security Administration behavior watchers last year. More than 3,000 "Behavior Detection Officers" will be at 161 airports nationwide over the holidays.

Link

Cops: Census Worker Committed Suicide

2009-11-25T15:41:00.002-06:00

A Kentucky census worker who was found dead in September committed suicide and staged the scene to look like a homicide, authorities said Tuesday. "Analysis of the evidence determined Mr. Sparkman's death was self-inflicted," police said in a statement.

Link

Taibbi: Why Palin's Getting Hammered

2009-11-25T15:36:00.002-06:00

"Is the media out to get Sarah Palin?" Matt Taibbi asks. "She's getting it from all angles now and that wouldn't be happening if she still had any friends in high places. ... What the people who are flipping out about the treatment of Palin should be asking themselves is what it means when it's not just jerks like us but everybody piling on against Palin."

Link

Obama Will Attend Copenhagen Climate Summit

2009-11-25T15:23:00.001-06:00

President Barack Obama will go to Copenhagen next month to participate in a long-anticipated, high-stakes global climate summit, a White House official said Wednesday. Yvo de Boer, U.N. climate treaty chief, said that "the world is very much looking to the United States to come forward with an emission reduction target and contribute to financial support to help developing countries."

Link

Climate Change Spurs Nuclear Power Boom

2009-11-25T15:20:00.002-06:00

Thirteen years since the last new nuclear power plant opened in the United States, nuclear power is emerging as perhaps the world's most unlikely weapon against climate change. From China to Brazil, 53 plants are now under construction worldwide. "It really is a question about the greater evil -- nuclear waste or climate change," said environmentalist Stephen Tindale. "But there is no contest anymore. Climate change is the bigger threat, and nuclear is part of the answer."

Link

Consumers Begin Paying Down Debt

2009-11-25T15:17:00.002-06:00

For the first time in 10 years, the national credit card delinquency rate fell from the second to the third quarter, more evidence that Americans are trying to pay down their debt as the recession continues to claim jobs.

Link

800-Passenger A380 Airliner Begins Flights

2009-11-25T15:15:00.002-06:00

The Air France Airbus A380 -- the largest airliner to ever part with the pavement -- has begun flights between Paris and New York's JFK Airport. The plane can hold 800 passengers, six bars, an electronic art gallery and cost the airline $300 million.

Link

Hadron Collider Achieves First Collisions

2009-11-25T15:12:00.001-06:00

Scientists have smashed together proton beams for the first time in the 27-kilometer Large Hadron Collider tunnel under the French-Swiss border. They hope experiments will provide clues about the origins of the universe in the coming months as the world's biggest particle collider starts moving to full power.

Link

34.5% of Young Black Males Unemployed

2009-11-25T15:09:00.002-06:00

Joblessness for 16-to-24-year-old black men has reached Great Depression proportions -- 34.5 percent in October, more than three times the rate for the general U.S. population. "Give me a chance to show that I can work. Just give me a chance," said Delonta Spriggs, 24, who is on probation for drug possession and sought job training to avoid going back to selling drugs. "I don't want to think negative. I know the economy is slow. You got to crawl before you walk.

Link

Google Upset by Racist Michelle Obama Image

2009-11-25T15:06:00.002-06:00

An offensive image of First Lady Michelle Obama photo-edited to resemble a monkey has turned up first on Google Image searches for her name, prompting the search engine giant to take out an ad distancing itself from the racist depiction. "Sometimes Google search results from the Internet can include disturbing content, even from innocuous queries," the company stated. "We assure you that the views expressed by such sites are not in any way endorsed by Google."

Link

Man 'in Coma' Conscious for 23 Years

2009-11-25T15:00:00.002-06:00

A Belgian man who doctors thought was in a coma for 23 years was conscious all along, it has been revealed. After Rom Houben was paralysed in a car crash in 1983, it took 23 years before a doctor discovered that his brain was still functioning. "I was shouting, but no one could hear me," Houben told a German magazine using a special device invented by the doctor.

Link

Sanford Faces 37 Ethics Charges

2009-11-24T14:04:00.001-06:00

Gov. Mark Sanford of South Carolina will face formal ethics charges on 37 counts of using his office for personal financial gain, according to a list of allegations issued Monday. A separate impeachment resolution also has been filed in the state legislature.

Link

Halliburton Must Pay Rape Victim $3 Million

2009-11-20T14:25:00.003-06:00

A woman who claimed she was raped in 2005 while working in Iraq for a former Halliburton subsidiary has been awarded nearly $3 million by an arbitrator to settle her case. Tracy Barker had sued U.S. contractor KBR Inc., its former parent company Halliburton and several affiliates in May 2007, claiming she was sexually attacked by a State Department employee while working as a civilian contractor in the southern Iraqi city of Basra. A federal judge in Houston had dismissed Barker's lawsuit in January 2008, ruling she had to abide by an employment agreement she signed that said any claims she made against the companies would have to be settled through arbitration and not the courts.

Link

Companies Drop Pensions, Pay Execs $350 Million

2009-11-20T14:20:00.002-06:00

Ten large U.S. companies paid senior executives a total of $350 million in the few years prior to dropping traditional pension plans for employees, a Congressional watchdog said on Thursday. Forty executives in a range of industries received the compensation in base salaries, bonuses, severance and perks in the five years before the pension plans failed, the non-partisan Government Accountability Office said in a new report.

Link

Lou Dobbs Mulls Run for Office

2009-11-20T14:17:00.002-06:00

A week after abruptly quitting his longtime job on CNN, Lou Dobbs said on Thursday he is considering career options including possible runs for the White House or U.S. Senate. "I am ruling nothing out," he said.

Link

Fox News Runs More Bogus Crowd Footage

2009-11-20T14:14:00.001-06:00

A week after admitting to running old crowd footage that exaggerated the size of a health reform bill protest, Fox News ran old footage in a report on crowds greeting Sarah Palin on her book tour. The network again claimed a "production error," but critics are asking whether the news organization is intentionally manipulating its audience.

Link

Alexandria Kerry Arrested for DUI

2009-11-20T14:11:00.000-06:00

Alexandra Kerry, 36, the daughter of former presidential candidate John Kerry, was arrested in Los Angeles early Thursday after being stopped on suspicion of driving under the influence of alcohol or drugs, police said.

Link

Dad Murders Son for Molesting Sister

2009-11-20T14:08:00.001-06:00

A 15-year-old boy who was killed by his father in an execution style killing spent the last moments of his life pleading, "No, Daddy! No!" Jamar Pinkney Jr. was shot in the head Monday by his 37-year-old father, Jamar Pinkney Sr., who allegedly made the teen strip his clothes off and kneel in a vacant lot before he was killed by a single bullet. The boy's mother, Lazette Cherry, told the Detroit Free Press that Pinkney Sr., showed up at her Highland Park, Mich., home after she told him that their son had made a startling confession. According to Cherry, the 15-year-old had admitted to having "inappropriate contact" with his 3-year-old half-sister.

Link

Jackson Slams Black Rep Over Health Bill

2009-11-20T14:05:00.002-06:00

At a Congressional Black Caucus event honoring his presidential run 25 years ago, the Rev. Jesse Jackson discussed the health reform debate and said, "You can't vote against health care and call yourself a black man." His comment referred to Rep. Artur Davis, a black Democrat from Alabama who voted against the bill.

Link

Stephanie Spielman Dies of Cancer

2009-11-20T14:01:00.002-06:00

Stephanie Spielman, the wife of former NFL player Chris Spielman, has died after a 12-year fight against breast cancer. She was 42. The mother of four, Spielman discovered a lump in her breast at age 30 during a self-exam. A charity fund that she created has raised more than $6.5 million for breast-cancer research, education and patient assistance at Ohio State University's Arthur G. James Cancer Hospital. "I know there's a reason God gave me breast cancer, and I'm supposed to do something with it," she said in 1998.

Link

1 Million Unemployed Might Lose Benefits Soon

2009-11-20T13:59:00.001-06:00

More than 1 million people will run out of unemployment benefits in January unless Congress quickly extends federal emergency aid, a nonprofit group said Wednesday.

Link

Oprah Will End Talk Show

2009-11-20T13:55:00.001-06:00

Oprah Winfrey will end her show after its 25th season wraps in 2011 and begin a new show on her cable network OWN, according to publicists for her production company, Harpo.

Link

Muslim Countries Seek Blasphemy Ban

2009-11-20T13:51:00.002-06:00

Islamic nations, led by Algeria and Pakistan, are mounting a campaign for an international treaty to protect religious symbols and beliefs from mockery essentially, a ban on blasphemy.

Link

Fiore: Learn to Speak Teabag

2009-11-20T13:48:00.002-06:00

Mark Fiore: "Finally, learning a new language doesn't have to be hard. You can be fluent in conversational Teabag in just a few short minutes."

Link

House Wants Answers on Bogus Stimulus Data

2009-11-20T13:44:00.003-06:00

Members of the House Government Reform and Oversight Committee will ask questions Thursday about faulty data on the Obama administration's Recovery.Gov web site. The site is fixing errors that appeared to show hundreds of millions of stimulus dollars were spent in nonexistent congressional districts, the Recovery Accountability and Transparency Board said Wednesday.

Link