Overnight News Digest, aka OND, is a community feature here at Daily Kos. Each editor selects news stories on a wide range of topics.
The OND community was founded by Magnifico.
Costco CEO joins effort to raise Maryland's minimum wage
By Eileen Ambrose
Costco and the U.S. Women's Chamber of Commerce are among more than 70 businesses and groups that support raising the minimum wage in Maryland, according Raise Maryland, a group advocating for a higher wage.
"We pay a starting hourly wage of $11.50 in all states where we do business, and we are still able to keep our overhead costs low," Craig Jelinek, Costco's president and CEO, said in a statement. "Instead of minimizing wages, we know it's a lot more profitable in the long term to minimize employee turnover and maximize employee productivity, commitment and loyalty. We support efforts to increase the minimum wage in Maryland.
Maryland's minimum wage is $7.25 per hour, the same as the federal rate. But 19 states and the District of Columbia pay more, according to Raise Maryland. The state is considering legislation that would gradually raise the minimum wage to $10 an hour by July 2015, and thereafter increase it for inflation.
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In a post-Chávez era, Miami will remain a draw for Venezuelans
By Martha Brannigan and Ina Cordle
Venezuelans have woven themselves into the fabric of South Floridaâs business community for decades, but particularly over the tumultuous 14-year reign of President Hugo Chávez.
Venezuelans have been the No. 1 foreign buyers of Miami real estate, ahead of much larger nations like Argentina and Brazil, at least since 2006 when the Miami Association of Realtors began tracking foreign sales.
They have launched numerous small businesses in the region, ranging from restaurants to import-export firms, started families and put down roots. Their prominence has prompted the nickname of âWestonzuelaââ for the city of Weston in Broward County. Doral, whose mayor hails from Venezuela, is often dubbed âDoralzuela.ââ Some 47,000 Venezuelans live in Miami-Dade County. |
Arkansas legislature overrides veto of ban on early abortions
CNN Wire Staff
The Center for Reproductive Rights and the ACLU of Arkansas say they will challenge in federal court a state ban on abortions after 12 weeks of pregnancy.
Gov. Mike Beebe, a Democrat, vetoed the bill Monday, saying it "blatantly contradicts the United States Constitution, as interpreted by the Supreme Court."
However, the Arkansas Senate voted 20-14 Tuesday to override the veto, and the House followed suit Wednesday with a 56-33 override vote.
"We intend to make it ... clear that no one's constitutional rights are subject to revision by lawmakers intent on scoring political points, and that attempts such as this to turn back the clock on reproductive rights will not stand," Nancy Northup, president and CEO of the Center for Reproductive Rights, said in a written statement. |
Curiosity sleeps as solar eruption barrels toward Mars; other missions operating normally
AP
Curiosity hunkered down Wednesday after the sun unleashed a blast that raced toward Mars.
While the hardy rover was designed to withstand punishing space weather, its handlers decided to power it down as a precaution since it suffered a recent computer problem.
âWeâre being more careful,â said project manager Richard Cook of the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, which runs the $2.5 billion mission.
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Small airports irked by removal of body scanners
Bismarck Tribune
Managers at dozens of small airports have expressed outrage at federal officials for hauling new full-body scanners away from their facilities and sending them to large hubs that haven't yet upgraded older machines criticized for showing too much anatomy.
U.S. Transportation Security Administration contractors were threatened with arrest after officials at a Montana airport said they received no notice before the workers arrived. In North Dakota, the scanners are set to be yanked from a terminal remodeled last year with $40,000 in local funds just to fit the new machines.
"We think it's silly to have installed the thing and then come back nine months later and take it out," Bismarck airport manager Greg Haug said. |
Georgia town to consider requiring residents to own guns
By David Beasley
Residents of a small Georgia town may soon be asked to keep guns in their homes, a proposal that comes as federal lawmakers argue for new limits on firearm ownership.
A city leader in Nelson, 50 miles north of Atlanta, said on Wednesday he proposed an ordinance calling on every head of household to have a gun as a way to keep crime down.
Nelson, home to 1,300 people, employs one police officer, who is only on duty at night, city councilman Duane Cronic told Reuters. When the officer is off duty during the day, residents must call local sheriff's officials if they need assistance, which he said can result in longer response times.
Cronic said his proposal is similar to an ordinance enacted by the nearby town of Kennesaw in 1982. There would be no penalty for not having a weapon, but the law would send a message to would-be criminals, he said. |
Lawyers for Gitmo prisoners decry 'alarming' conditions at camp
Michael Isikoff
Lawyers for terror suspects held at the U.S. detention facility at Guantanamo, Cuba, said Tuesday that detainees are engaged in widespread protests of conditions at the prison, including a hunger strike that may imperil their lives.
Calling the situation âalarming,â the lawyers said in a statement that some of their clients are âcoughing up bloodâ and âlosing consciousness.â A letter making similar assertions was sent earlier this week to Navy Rear Adm. John W. Smith, the commander of the Joint Task Force at Guantanamo and signed by a dozen lawyers who represent most of the detainees at Guantanamo. Â
A spokesman for U.S. military at Guantanamo  disputed the lawyersâ claims of a widespread hunger strike, saying they and their clients were merely trying to get attention and keep Guantanamo âin the news. â
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Report: Flimsy cybersecurity for US military is 'magnet to US opponents'
Anna Mulrine
The US military âcannot be confidentâ that its computer networks will continue to work in the event of a cyberattack from a reasonably competent enemy.
Whatâs more, the US militaryâs âdependenceâ on flimsy security systems âis a magnet to US opponents,â who are increasingly capable of attacking âwith potential consequences similar in some ways to the nuclear threat of the Cold War.â
Thatâs the warning out of a new 18-month study from the Pentagonâs Defense Science Board, which formed a task force to review the vulnerability of US military networks. |
Salami Suicide: Processed Meats Linked To Heart Disease And Cancer
Nancy Shute
Bacon and bologna are hardly health food. But a huge new study offers the strongest evidence yet that eating processed meat boosts the risk of the two big killers, cancer and heart disease.
A multinational group of scientists tracked the health and eating habits of bacon-loving Brits, wurst-munching Germans, jamon aficionados in Spain, as well as residents of seven other European countries â almost a half-million people in all.
They found that people who ate a lot of processed meats â more than 20 grams a day, the equivalent of one thin strip of bacon â were much more likely to die of heart attacks and stroke, and also had a higher cancer risk. The more processed meats they ate, the greater the risk |
Fossils Suggest Giant Descendants Of Modern Camels Roamed The Canadian Arctic
Eyder Peralta
Camels belong in the desert. That's what we've learned since grade school.
Today, NPR's Melissa Block talked to Natalia Rybczynski, a paleobiologist at the Canadian Museum of Nature, who tells Melissa that fossils she has unearthed tell a different story.
The fossils, found on a frigid ridge in Canada's High Arctic, show that modern camels actually come from giant relatives that roamed the forests of Ellesmere Island 3.5 million years ago. |