Welcome to the Overnight News Digest ! We have a rotating crew of regulars and guest hosts. Founded by Magnifico and currently strong-armed by Neon Vincent!
It is noted that we each have our own style, and I would like to add that my style changes from diary to diary.
Is drug abuse fueling suicides at Hill AFB?
Hill Air Force Base’s top officer has ordered an investigation into whether prescription drug abuse may be a factor in a troubling number of suicides among base employees.
As many as three Hill workers have taken their lives in recent weeks — officials say they can confirm one suicide and are waiting for the completion of investigations into two other deaths. Those deaths follow at least three other suicides by base employees since the beginning of the year.
Last year, at least eight members of "Team Hill" killed themselves, a number which represents a rate of self-inflicted death that is significantly higher than the rate in Utah as a whole — which is already significantly higher than the national average, according to the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention.
Studies also suggest that the Beehive State is among the nation’s leaders in prescription drug abuse, and Major Gen. Andrew Busch said he wants to better understand the issues connecting the Hill employees that have killed themselves.
After 14 deaths, he wants to "understand what is going on"? Oh, Representative Bishop, when you're done with your EnviroCARE meeting, please to check out Hill AFB. You know, your human constituents.
Insurers sue Murray Energy over mine collapse
Years after a deadly collapse at Utah's Crandall Canyon mine killed six miners and three rescuers in central Utah, the financial fallout continues.
Insurance companies for a co-owner of the mine are suing the mine's operator, claiming the operators acted with "gross negligence" that caused the 2007 disaster, according to documents filed Thursday in 3rd District Court.
Six of Intermountain Power Agency's insurance firms, plus Lloyd's of London, filed the lawsuit against Ohio-based Murray Energy Corp., its Utah affiliates and a Colorado engineering company.
The lawsuit does not contain dollar figures or new allegations but blames Murray Energy for the collapse and demands that the company pay for abandoned equipment left inside the sealed mine.
Nice to know I'm not the only one still pissed off at Murray Energy.
Feds take over Arrowhead Credit Union
Federal regulators on Friday assumed control over Arrowhead Credit Union due to the institution’s deteriorating financial conditions.
The National Credit Union Administration, the federal body that oversees credit unions, placed the San Bernardino-based credit union into conservatorship to ensure its "safe and sound" operations, according to a NCUA press release.
Also:
First National Bank of Savannah fails
The First National Bank of Savannah billed itself as the solid, dependable bank.
Its tagline: "We're always here -- like the sunrise over Savannah."
The sun set on First National, however: On Friday federal regulators seized the institution, making it the ninth Georgia-based bank to fail this year and the 39th in the state to be seized since 2008.
If it's Friday, there's a bank closure. From sea to shining sea.
Iowa official: Benefits will stop for thousands
The failure of the U.S. Senate on Thursday to approve an extension of unemployment benefits means Iowans will continue to fall off the benefits rolls at a rate of 1,500 to 2,000 a week, according to the Iowa Department of Workforce Development.
Legislation extending benefits beyond the normal six months expired on June 2, and since then about 6,000 Iowans who had been receiving benefits have been terminated, said Workforce Development spokeswoman Kerry Koonce.
Republicans opposed efforts to continue paying benefits to all unemployed persons until Dec. 31, and they say the provision and others in the legislation were too expensive.
Let's hope Iowans remember who held this up when it's time to vote in November. And of course, it's dozens of times worse in California.
Expected increase in backyard fireworks shows on Fourth of July worries hospital officials in Northeast Ohio
The cancellation of community fireworks shows has helped ignite the demand for backyard displays.
Several cities across Northeast Ohio -- including Elyria, Euclid and Parma -- have dropped the July Fourth weekend shows amid tough financial times.
To fireworks' dealers, it's a boon. More residents will stay home and light up their neighborhood skies, even though in this state the use of most devices is illegal.
To hospitals, it's a problem. They fear more accidents.
Akron Children's Hospital issued a statement Friday that warned residents of backyard dangers.
Keep those fingers safe. Especially the little ones.
Mehserle breaks down during testimony at BART shooting trial
Former BART police Officer Johannes Mehserle doesn't know how his decision to use a Taser on Oscar Grant III resulted instead in his shooting a bullet into the back of the unarmed 22-year-old.
Mehserle can't remember reaching for his gun, which was located on the opposite side of his body from his Taser. He can't remember grabbing the Sig Sauer pistol and aiming it straight down toward Grant.
And, Mehserle said, he cannot remember pulling the gun's trigger.
The only thing Mehserle can remember about the moment he fatally shot the Hayward man is seeing a gun in his own hand a split second after he fired.
State's minimum wage too high, Brady says
Republican governor candidate Bill Brady said Friday that he supports lowering Illinois' minimum wage if he wins in November and the state rate remains higher than the federal one.
"For the state of Illinois to come in and micro-manage wages above the federal minimum wage is a mistake," Brady, a state senator from Bloomington, told reporters after speaking at a VFW convention.
Illinois' minimum wage will rise a quarter to $8.25 an hour on Thursday, a dollar above the $7.25 federal minimum wage that took effect last July.
Ho hum - another Republican candidate NOT loving the little people.
Migrants' children make emotional plea
It started out as a news conference by children to announce their participation in a planned demonstration in front of the White House next month to demand a halt to deportations of undocumented immigrants.
But the press briefing quickly turned into a highly emotional event with several children breaking down in tears as they described how their parents had been detained, deported or continued to live in fear of imminent immigration detention.
The more than two dozen children who gathered Thursday at the home of immigration activist Nora Sándigo in South Miami-Dade plan to travel to Washington to take part in a July 28 ``kids demonstration'' in front of the White House to demand that President Barack Obama sign an executive order suspending deportations of undocumented immigrants.
Oh now I get it - The Senate spent 8 weeks pissing around on Unemployment Extension so they didn't have to do anything meaningful on Immigration!
Palin arrives at Calif. campus amid controversy
About 100 protesters stood outside the cafeteria on the campus' leafy grounds raising up a Sarah Palin-shaped pinata and signs lettered "Spill, Baby, Spill" and "Open The Books," and chanting about school budget cuts.
The rural university, like dozens of other public colleges, has had to cut some classes and cancel several scholarships as a result of California's ongoing financial woes.
"The campus is spending thousands and thousands of dollars to hire a divisive political figure to come here. There's something wrong with that, when they've turned away people for scholarships," said Josh Esteves, a protest organizer with Valley Progressives, a local left-leaning political group.
The controversy began, iirc, with a memo found in a dumpster. Tsk tsk.
Michael Jackson portrait puts the tin in Tinseltown: pop cans, Pop art 'King of Pop' LA Times seems to have the best coverage of the anniversary of Michael Jackson's death, but I could not find one single link to everything.
What's a Michael Jackson anniversary without the dancing Filipino inmates?
Photos: Remembering Michael Jackson