Welcome to the Overnight News Digest
The OND is published each night around midnight, Eastern Time.
The originator of OND was Magnifico.
Current Contributors are ScottyUrb, Bentliberal, wader, Oke, rfall, JML9999 and NeonVincent who also serves as chief cat herder.
Stories and Headlines
- High court OKs in-state tuition for illegals
(06-06) 16:47 PDT WASHINGTON -- The U.S. Supreme Court rejected a challenge Monday to a California law granting college tuition discounts to high school graduates in the state, regardless of immigration status - a law that saves illegal immigrants, among others, nearly $23,000 a year at UC campuses.
The 2002 law, intended to encourage youngsters to attend college, enables illegal immigrants and out-of-state residents to pay the same lower fees as California residents if they attended high school for three years in the state and graduated.
At the University of California, in-state fees total $11,300 a year, while non-Californians pay $34,000. The savings are $11,160 a year at California State University and $4,400 a year at the community colleges.
http://www.sfgate.com/...
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- Syrian TV: Security officers killed in ambush
Government threatens to retaliate after blaming "armed groups" for the deaths of 120 officers in country's north.
Syria's state television says 120 members of the security force have been killed in the northern town of Jisr al-Shughour in an ambush by "armed groups".
The report on Monday said that security forces were on their way to the town in response to calls for help from residents, and they died in an ambush and an explosion at a post office.
"The armed groups are using weapons and grenades ... the people in Jisr al-Shughour are urging the army to intervene speedily," state TV said.
But speaking to Al Jazeera, Reem Haddad, Syria's information ministry spokesperson, said "this afternoon 40 security officers were killed, and 80 have died since Friday".
The international media is banned from covering the uprising in Syria, making it nearly impossible to verify the state-controlled media's claims.
http://english.aljazeera.net/...
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- AIDS: How close a cure? Thirty years ago today, the disease was first recognized
(New York Post) A San Francisco man seems to have been cured of AIDS after receiving an experimental bone marrow transplant in Berlin. Researchers in an international study said they found a way to prevent people with HIV from infecting their partners. And scientists in Los Angeles think they have found a way to manipulate the stem cells of people with HIV to fight the virus without drugs.
Thirty years ago today, a terrifying, strange disease seized public attention when the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced the first cases of AIDS among five gay men in Los Angeles. Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome so baffled the medical profession, it took more than a year before the disease was named and three years to determine that it was caused by the human immunodeficiency virus.
Today, more than 33 million people worldwide are infected with HIV
http://www.nypost.com/...
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- E.coli case linked to European outbreak recorded in Canada
Health officials were quick to reassure Canadians that they are at low risk for infection, after Canada's first suspected case of E. coli linked to the deadly outbreak in Europe was confirmed Monday in Ontario.
A man in the province's Peel region checked into the emergency department late last week with symptoms of diarrhea, said Andrew Morrison of the Ontario Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care. It was later determined to have been caused by the strain of E. coli that has killed more than 20 people and sickened countless others in Europe.
"He had been travelling in Germany, and returned at the end of May," Morrison said, adding that the man has since been discharged and is "doing well."
The man told Toronto-area health officials he had consumed a salad made from local produce while abroad, Morrison said, but authorities could not yet determine if the salad was the direct source.
http://www.vancouversun.com/...
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- Pelosi wants ethics investigation
"I am deeply disappointed and saddened about this situation; for Anthony's wife, Huma, his family, his staff and his constituents."
... I am calling for an Ethics Committee investigation to determine whether any official resources were used or any other violation of House rules occurred."
http://www.sfgate.com/...
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- Antiwar Republican Is No Longer Party’s Pariah
GREENVILLE, N.C. — On matters like abortion, military spending and religion, Representative Walter B. Jones seems thoroughly in tune with this conservative, staunchly Republican district in eastern North Carolina, home to the Marine Corps’ Camp Lejeune and thousands of military retirees.
On the issue of war, however, Mr. Jones has defied typecasting. An early critic of the American invasion of Iraq, he has been ostracized by the Republican leadership in Congress. And now he is emerging as a leading advocate for swiftly withdrawing American forces from Afghanistan, a position that has made him, of all things, a liberal hero.
“When you talk about war, political parties don’t matter,” he said in an interview.
...
Some foreign policy analysts now see Mr. Jones, 68; Representative Ron Paul, Republican of Texas; and a small coterie of Tea Party stalwarts as the leading edge of a conservative movement to rein in American military power — a break from the muscular foreign policy of President George W. Bush.
http://www.nytimes.com/...
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- Hoyer: House Dems Want 'significant, substantial drawdown' of US Troops in Afghanistan
(blogs.abcnews.com) Despite calls from top military commanders, including Defense Secretary Robert Gates, for a more gradual drawdown of U.S. troops in Afghanistan, House Minority Whip Steny Hoyer (D-MD) says House Democrats want to see “significant, substantial drawdown” in the region.
Speaking on ABC’s Top Line, Hoyer said that his caucus wants "to see the drawdowns begin this summer to be more significant than the numbers that were being talked about." While Hoyer is known as one of the more moderate members of the Democratic caucus, he joined 177 of his Democratic colleagues and 26 Republicans in supporting an amendment to the defense authorization bill that would have required a speedier withdrawal from the country. The amendment was defeated by a narrow 215-204 vote.
http://blogs.abcnews.com/...
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- S. Carolina Supreme Court Rules Against Governor
ATLANTA — For most of her first six months in office, Gov. Nikki R. Haley of South Carolina managed to keep a congenial, if tense, working relationship with the Legislature. At least, it was much improved from the bitter relationship between lawmakers and her predecessor, Mark Sanford.
But on Monday, Ms. Haley, who was elected on a wave of Tea Party politics, found herself at the center of a legislative standoff after she ordered a rebellious State Senate to get back to work on Tuesday morning to consider four measures that would restructure parts of the state government.
The Senate leadership responded to her executive order by asking the State Supreme Court for an injunction, saying the governor had exceeded her authority as a way to force her agenda. Late Monday, the court ruled against the governor by a 3-to-2 vote, stating that Ms. Haley’s executive order violated the Legislature’s ability to set its own schedule.
http://www.nytimes.com/...
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- Probation for former Utah employees who made ‘the list’
The Salt Lake Tribune
First published Jun 06 2011 09:55AM
Updated 1 hour ago Updated Jun 6, 2011 06:03PM
Midvale • Latino advocates on Monday condemned a deal that allowed two former state workers accused of compiling and distributing a list of allegedly undocumented immigrants to be charged, enter pleas, and sentenced on Monday.
Neither Leah D. Carson, 39, or Teresa Bassett, 59, will go to jail.
http://www.sltrib.com/...
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- High Court Turns Down Burris Appeal on Obama Senate Seat
The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday turned down appeals from Illinois Gov. Pat Quinn and former Sen. Roland Burris and let stand a legal ruling that requires the state to hold a special election whenever a U.S. Senate seat becomes vacant.
http://www.chicagotribune.com/... |
- Top Obama Economic Player to Return to University Post
WASHINGTON — Austan Goolsbee, a longtime adviser to President Obama and the only economist left on his core economic team, plans to leave as chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers by September, after a year in the job, to return to the University of Chicago.
With the recovery flagging, the White House is eager to name a successor to Mr. Goolsbee this summer and is considering several academic economists, an administration official said on Monday. The job requires Senate confirmation.
http://www.nytimes.com/...
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More News
Those tired of contemplating their navels might like the next story:
- Contemplating the pull of the ocean
(Contra Costa Times) The lure of breaking waves, shimmering blue waters and an endless horizon universally attracts people seeking the calm and renewal.
That inexplicable connection of brain and ocean was the focus of a first-of-its-kind scientific conference this week in San Francisco, at which Clark and 30 others spoke.
The connection between the ocean and the brain "is poorly studied and (a) tricky territory of discussion among scientists," said Wallace J. Nichols, a noted sea turtle biologist and research associate at the California Academy of Sciences who organized the "Bluemind Summit."
http://www.contracostatimes.com/...
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- Apple unveils iCloud to make mobile access to files easier
(06-06) 13:01 PDT San Francisco -- Apple unveiled its iCloud suite of online services on Monday, promising to host users' digital lives for free on its servers and synchronize them across devices.
The announcements at Apple's Worldwide Developer Conference in San Francisco follow similar moves to the cloud by Google and Amazon. When they become available this fall, executives said, the new software will make it easier for people to use an iPad or iPhone as their primary device.
http://www.sfgate.com/...
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- Chilean Volcano - Photos
Lightning bolts struck around the Puyehue-Cordon Caulle volcanic chain near southern Osorno city in Chile on June 5, 2011.
http://www.ibtimes.com/...
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- French media tweet and poke ban
French TV and radio presenters have been banned from mentioning social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter on air.
The country's broadcasting watchdog has ruled that doing so would break guidelines on advertising.
Stations can still talk about services without naming them, it said.
The French government is seen by many internet watchers as overly keen to regulate in relation to new media and the web.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/...
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- Antimatter atoms are corralled even longer
Scientists have succeeded in trapping atoms of anti-hydrogen for more than 15 minutes.
The feat is a big improvement on efforts reported last year that could corral this mirror of normal hydrogen for just fractions of a second at best.
The researchers tell Nature Physics journal that they can now probe the properties of antimatter in detail.
This will help them understand why the Universe is composed of normal matter rather than its opposite.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/...
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- In State Parks, the Sharpest Ax Is the Budget’s
DECEPTION PASS STATE PARK, Wash. — As the summer season gets under way, budget-strapped state parks across the country are pursuing creative and sometimes controversial solutions simply to stay open. Many are imposing steep new fees, leaning ever more heavily on volunteers and, in one ominous effort to raise money, even pushing to drill for oil and gas beneath hiking trails and picnic pavilions.
The vast majority of states have cut park financing, often significantly, since the economic downturn took full hold in 2008, and some were cutting long before that. Some parks are closing altogether; Gov. Jerry Brown of California in recent days announced plans to permanently close 70 of the state’s 278 parks this fall. Even where parks remain open, the compromises they make to do so are often uncomfortable.
“There have been lines that have been crossed that were unthinkable a couple of years ago,” said Richard Dolesh, chief of public policy for the National Recreation and Park Association.
http://www.nytimes.com/...
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- Andy Warhol Debbie Harry portrait to go under hammer
(BBC)
An Andy Warhol portrait of Blondie star Debbie Harry is expected to fetch up to £5.5 million when it is auctioned at Sotheby's in London later this month.
The 1980 work will go under the hammer on 29 June as part of a two-day auction of contemporary art.
The event will also feature works from the collection of Dave Stewart, better known as one half of the Eurythmics.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/...
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In light of the last story, I've decided to include 3 music videos.
1. Okay, purists may want to skip this one and straight to the last one, but it's so over the top, it's funny:
(Deborah Harry & Fergie performing)
2. Fancy a younger Deborah? This one's just to show that television was alway silly:
3. This one probably catches the whole Blondie thing the best:
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