Latest News and Politics from the U.S. - Huffington Post [May ‘11 Series]

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So many new high-rise urban centers have sprouted across China in recent years that you can almost hear the bubble popping.Kangbashi, a city in Inner Mongolia, is the subject of Bloomberg's first video installment on these underpopulated, but investment-heavy "ghost cities." And Kangbashi is just one city in the government's larger plan to create roughly 36 million affordable apartments in the country.More...

Source: China's Ghost Cities: Could The Real Estate Bubble Burst? (VIDEO)

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In a recent column, David Brooks takes up the critical issue of "the missing fifth" -- the 20% of American men between the ages of 25 and 54 who just aren't working. Actually, in our collapsed manufacturing areas and "inner" cities, the rate of men in the prime years not working is often closer to 50%.  I have abiding admiration for the breadth and depth of David Brooks' domestic socioeconomic commentary.  He is one of the few regular commentators who has a concept of "social capital" -- which is to say, the ways that political arrangements do or don't provide the social supports and infrastructure that keep communities and people productive and even happy.  As he underscores, it is becoming almost impossible to build productive social supports -- even targeted job training -- because ever-larger billions are being usurped by health care spending.The smart thing, he urges, would be for the nation to have a debate about ways to shift money from ever-increasing "health" expenditures "toward programs that spark reinvigoration."More...

Source: Can a "Health" System Kill a Country?

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In tomorrow night's episode of Top Chef Masters, contestant Mary Sue Milliken accidentally slices off the top of her thumb, and as a result, has to toss it in the garbage.Milliken, who admits that she hadn't cut herself like that "in decades" takes the whole incident like a champ. "Oh darn it," she exclaims, as if she had just gotten a paper cut. She later assures her fellow competitors, "I'll be fine."More...

Source: 'Top Chef Masters' Contestant Cuts Off Tip Of Thumb

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WASHINGTON -- A ceremonial vote over whether to end subsidies to major oil companies failed on Tuesday, with 45 Republicans and three Democrats voting to continue the tax incentives to the five largest oil companies.Atlhough the 52-48 vote broke down mostly along party lines, Republican Sens. Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins of Maine split with the rest of the GOP to support the effort to repeal oil subsidies. Democratic Sens. Ben Nelson (D-Neb.), Mary Landrieu (D-La.) and Mark Begich (D-Alaska), voted against the bill.More...

Source: Senate GOP Votes Down Bill To End Big Oil Subsidies

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"Curiosity will conquer fear even more than bravery will."--James StephensMore...

Source: The Healing Power of Curiosity

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WASHINGTON -- Walmart, long known for its tough stance on labor, may be forced to make concessions to unions and suppliers in its bid for control of South African retail conglomerate Massmart.To help see the merger through, the companies said theywould not lay off workers for a period of two years, would honor existing union contracts and would devote about $14 million to a fund aimed at developing South African suppliers.More...

Source: Walmart In South Africa: Retail Giant May Acquiesce To Workers, Suppliers

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WASHINGTON -- President Barack Obama will announce plans Thursday to funnel billions of dollars in economic aid to Egypt and Tunisia as part of a broader effort to inject democracy into the Middle East and North Africa.Obama will unveil a massive package of economic measures, including up to $1 billion in debt relief and another $1 billion in loan guarantees, during a speech on U.S.-Middle East policy set for Thursday morning at the State Department. Other pieces of the package include a new trade partnership with the region and a fund for stimulating regional private sector investments.More...

Source: Obama Middle East Speech: President Will Announce Billions In Economic Aid to Egypt, Tunisia

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As if we needed any more evidence that pesticides are bad for human health, three independent scientific papers have provided some of the strongest evidence yet of the link between exposure to organophosphate (OP) pesticides and lower IQ levels among children.Published in the latest Environmental Health Perspectives journal, the results suggest that prenatal exposure to OPs can have a lasting and damaging effect on our children. Researchers from the University of California, Columbia University and Mount Sinai School of Medicine all found that children exposed to higher levels of OP while in the womb were likely to have lower intelligence scores by age seven than children who were not exposed.More...

Source: Pesticides and Babies Don't Mix

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I read recently of a pilot project in Washington, D.C. that hopes to incentivize workers to move closer to their place of work with the offer of $12,000. The goal, of course, is to reduce the traffic and pollution associated with commuting to work, as well as improve the quality of life of those taking part. It's a laudable goal. According to research commissioned by our company, almost 78 percent of employees in our top metro areas drive solo to work every day. Anything we can do to reduce that figure is surely a step in the right direction.This is probably not the first or only program of its kind. However, there are a number of reasons why this and other similar ones will never make a difference on a big scale. First and foremost, people who choose to live out of town do so for a reason: either they can't afford city house prices, or they prefer the (sub)urban lifestyle. $12,000 won't come close to the costs associated with living in the city center.More...

Source: Should We Be Bringing People Closer to Work, or Work to People?

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A video uploaded to YouTube purports to show a merciless attack on two ambulance drivers in Syria.In the raw footage, two men in the front seat of an ambulance are filmed while bullets rip through the windows. One man is then carried away from the ambulance by frantic bystanders.More...

Source: Syria Forces Reportedly Fire On Ambulance Staff (VIDEO)