Welcome to the Overnight News Digest
(graphic by palantir)
The OND is published each night around midnight, Eastern Time.
The originator of OND was Magnifico.
Regular editors are ScottyUrb, Bentliberal, wader, Oke, rfall, JML9999 and NeonVincent who also serves as chief cat herder.
ADHD pill shortage pits agencies against each other
Gardiner Harris, New York Times (via sfgate)
Medicines to treat attention deficit hyperactivity disorder are in such short supply that hundreds of patients complain daily to the Food and Drug Administration that they are unable to find a pharmacy with enough pills to fill their prescriptions.
The shortages are a result of a troubled partnership between drug manufacturers and the Drug Enforcement Administration, with companies trying to maximize their profits and drug enforcement agents trying to minimize abuse by people, many of them college students, who use the medications to get high or to stay up all night.
Caught in between are millions of children and adults who rely on the pills to help them stay focused and calm. Shortages, particularly of cheaper generics, have become so endemic that some patients say they worry almost constantly about availability.
Occupy Rose Parade
latimes - The parade was punctuated this year by a demonstration by hundreds of members of the group Occupy the Rose Parade carrying signs to draw attention to their cause of income inequality. They marched at the end of the parade with an Occupy Octopus float constructed of plastic bags.
Reaction was mixed: A group of onlookers on an apartment balcony cheered and waved, while some people in the grandstands booed. One man walked past some protesters and said, "You guys had your 15 minutes."
But demonstrators were peaceful and largely ignored by the vast majority of parade-goers, many of whom spent the night camped out on air mattresses and in sleeping bags to claim coveted positions along the street.
Fewer California schools have trained librarians
Eleanor Yang Su, California Watch (via sfgate)
Fewer than 1 out of 4 schools in California is staffed with a credentialed librarian, according to the state Department of Education.
Recent figures compiled by the department show there are about 900 school librarians in the state, down from more than 1,100 two years ago.
School districts across the state have cut librarian positions to cope with budget cuts. Increasing numbers of schools are splitting one librarian between multiple campuses or relying on clerical aides or parent volunteers to keep doors open.
First of twin NASA probes reaches moon orbit
Alicia Chang, Associated Press
A NASA spacecraft fired its engine and slipped into orbit around the moon Saturday in the first of two back-to-back arrivals over the New Year's weekend.
Controllers at the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory erupted in cheers after receiving a signal that the probe is functioning and circling the moon.
Mubarak may be acquitted of charges: reports
Sydney Morning Herald - Speculation is reportedly mounting that charges against ousted Egyptian leader Hosni Mubarak could be dismissed as his trial resumes in Cairo.
Mubarak, 83, is charged with corruption and involvement in the deaths of more than 800 protesters during the uprising that toppled his 29-year regime last year.
His sons Gamal and Alaa are simultaneously on trial, as are Mubarak's former security chief and six top police commanders, charged with giving orders to kill protesters in Tahrir Square during the 18-day uprising, during which about 850 people were killed and more than 1000 injured..
EuroNews: Ailing Mubarak back in court
Change 'unsafe' law on assisted dying, says ex police chief
independent.co.uk - The law on assisted dying is "incoherent and unsafe" and must be changed, the former Metropolitan Police commissioner Ian Blair warns today, ahead of a landmark report on helping the terminally ill to take their own lives.
Lord Blair of Boughton, who spent four years as Britain's most senior police officer at the head of Scotland Yard, argues: "The law as it currently stands is failing both those whom it seeks to protect and those tasked with enforcing it."
Writing exclusively in The Independent on Sunday, Lord Blair argues the law "has not kept pace with modern life and modern science" and must be changed. He is a member of the Commission on Assisted Dying which will this week recommend significant changes to the way the terminally ill are treated and the legal threat faced by those who help them to die.
Edison would've loved new light bulb law
By David Edward Edison Sloane, Special to CNN
[C]ome January 1, when a light-bulb law setting new efficiency standards is set to take effect, it's out with those old incandescents and in with the new. My great grandfather's 100-watt incandescent will be replaced with new energy-efficient versions, including CFLs, LEDs, and -- yes -- new and improved incandescent bulbs. When better lighting is fully implemented throughout our country, we'll be saving $13 billion a year in electricity costs and we'll eliminate the need for 30 large power plants, according to the Natural Resources Defense Council, an environmental advocacy group.
And my great-grandfather wouldn't have it any other way.
For the record, Thomas Edison was a patriot, he was a futurist, and he was green. Edison's concern after the turn of the last century was with pollution and nonrenewable resources, not with freezing technological change at the level of 1879.
He wanted the Swiss to harness water power in 1911; he wanted Ford and Firestone to recognize that oil was nonrenewable but the sun was infinite and free; ... He wanted everything that today's eco-opposition want to undercut with ill-considered political posturing.
Edison would have spurned the recent sleight of hand by Congress that leaves the new lighting standard -- under the Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007-- on the books but takes away its funding for nine months. How can inventor-entrepreneurs like Edison make a profit if every time they try to make a technological advance some nut in Congress pulls the rug out from under the them and their breakthroughs?
...
He would have embraced new tough standards as a way to move our antiquated energy policies forward, helping people save money when they most need it, and reducing carbon pollution that puts our future at risk.
Syria unrest: Arab League calls for end to shooting
BBC - The Arab League secretary general has called for an end to shootings in Syria, warning snipers remain a threat.
Nabil al-Arabi said "all signs of military presence" had left the cities, with tanks and artillery removed.
Some 60 Arab League monitors are checking compliance with a peace plan, but correspondents say protesters are frustrated they cannot stop killings.
Alzheimer's: Diet 'can stop brain shrinking'
BBC - A diet rich in vitamins and fish may protect the brain from ageing while junk food has the opposite effect, research suggests.
Elderly people with high blood levels of vitamins and omega 3 fatty acids had less brain shrinkage and better mental performance, a Neurology study found.
Trans fats found in fast foods were linked to lower scores in tests and more shrinkage typical of Alzheimer's.
Venezuela offers free removal of faulty breast implants
BBC - Venezuela's government has offered to pay for the removal of breast implants feared to be at risk of rupture.
The authorities would cover the cost of the surgery for Venezuelan women but would not pay for replacement implants, Health Minister Eugenia Sader said.
Ms Sader said many implants made by French firm Poly Implant Prothese (PIP) had been imported illegally.
The French authorities have recommended that 30,000 French women have the PIP implants removed as a precaution.
Uruguay Senate votes to decriminalise abortion
BBC - The Uruguayan Senate has passed legislation to decriminalise abortion in the first 12 weeks of pregnancy.
A similar move in 2008 was vetoed by President Tabare Vasquez, but current President Jose Mujica has signalled he will sign the bill into law.
The legislation now goes to the lower house, which, like the Senate, is controlled by Mr Mujica's allies.
Opinion polls suggest a majority of Uruguayans back easing the restrictions on abortion.
'Planned 49% limit' for NHS private patients in England
By Helen Briggs Health editor, BBC News website
NHS hospitals in England will be free to use almost half their hospital beds and theatre time for private patients under government plans.
A recent revision to the ongoing health bill will allow foundation hospitals to raise 49% of funds through non-NHS work if the bill gets through Parliament.
Most foundation trusts are now limited to a private income of about 2%.
The Health Secretary says the move will benefit NHS patients but Labour claimed it could lead to longer waiting lists.
Gingrich Sends an E-Mail in Spanish, Asking for Support in Iowa
The Caucus (nytimes) - By TRIP GABRIEL
WALFORD, Iowa
Newt Gingrich promises to make English the official language of government, but on Monday he sent an e-mail appeal in Spanish asking for support at the Iowa caucuses.
With the subject line, “Ayudenos en Iowa,” the message continued in Spanish: “The Hispanic community is so important to the success of this campaign and you can make all the difference by making calls and getting the citizens of Iowa to vote on Jan. 3.’’
It asked supporters to make phone calls from home to rally voters, explaining how to log onto the campaign’s Web site. “Please note there is a choice on top where you can switch between English and Spanish, depending on the language of the person who answers,’’ the message explained.
9/11 Relatives Who Suspect Hacking Await Answers
By DON VAN NATTA Jr., nytimes
Shortly after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, relatives of some of the victims began suspecting that someone was eavesdropping on their telephones.
Some heard mysterious clicking sounds on their home and mobile phones. The fiancée of one man who died at the World Trade Center remembers listening to snippets of someone else’s conversation on her line. A husband of another victim recalls hearing somebody remotely accessing his home answering machine, which still held the final, reassuring message left by his wife shortly before the crash of Flight 93. Others say they are baffled as to how details about their loved ones appeared in British tabloids within days of the attacks.
Ten years later, their long-held suspicions aroused by The News of the World phone-hacking scandal in London, dozens of relatives of victims contacted the Justice Department. On Aug. 24, eight of them met with Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. and asked him to determine whether their privacy had been violated. As a first step, they asked him to see whether Scotland Yard had a record of their names or phone numbers among the material seized from a private investigator who hacked cellphone messages for the tabloid.
Four months later, they are still waiting to hear back and are frustrated by the Justice Department’s silence.
Panetta to Offer Strategy for Cutting Military Budget
By ELISABETH BUMILLER and THOM SHANKER
Published: January 2, 2012
(nytimes) WASHINGTON — Defense Secretary Leon E. Panetta is set this week to reveal his strategy that will guide the Pentagon in cutting hundreds of billions of dollars from its budget, and with it the Obama administration’s vision of the military that the United States needs to meet 21st-century threats, according to senior officials.
In a shift of doctrine driven by fiscal reality and a deal last summer that kept the United States from defaulting on its debts, Mr. Panetta is expected to outline plans for carefully shrinking the military — and in so doing make it clear that the Pentagon will not maintain the ability to fight two sustained ground wars at once.
Instead, he will say that the military will be large enough to fight and win one major conflict, while also being able to “spoil” a second adversary’s ambitions in another part of the world while conducting a number of other smaller operations, like providing disaster relief or enforcing a no-flight zone.
Falling Behind (nytimes editorial on minimum wage)
On Sunday, Washington became the first state to have a minimum wage above $9 an hour, $9.04 to be exact. Seven other states also had increases on New Year’s Day because they, too, adjust their minimum wages to keep pace with rising costs. In Oregon, the hourly minimum rose to $8.80; in Colorado to $7.64, with the wages in Arizona, Florida, Montana, Ohio and Vermont in between.
The federal minimum wage, however, remains stuck at $7.25 an hour. It has been so since 2009, and will stay there until Congress passes a law to lift it. Such raises are too few and far between; there have been only nine legislated increases since the first minimum wage — .25 cents an hour — was enacted in 1938.
Grant Enables Teachers to Study Native American Literature
By Richard Walker January 2, 2012 - Indian Country
Sixteen teachers will study American Indian literature at Western Washington University this summer, thanks to a $122,000 grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities.
During the five-week Summer Seminar for School Teachers, teachers will study four contemporary Native American novels: The Surrounded by D’Arcy McNickle (Métis), House Made of Dawn by N. Scott Momaday (Kiowa), Winter in the Blood by James Welch (Blackfeet/Gros Ventre), and Ceremony by Leslie Marmon Silko (Laguna Pueblo).
...
The seminar at Western is designed for full‑time teachers, librarians and administrators in grades K-12. The 16 participants selected will receive a stipend of $3,900. To apply, visit wwu.edu/neh or e-mail: neh@wwu.edu.