The Ledes

Monday, October 7, 2024

CNN: “This year’s Nobel Prize in physiology or medicine has been awarded to Victor Ambros and Gary Ruvkun for their work on the discovery of microRNA, a fundamental principle governing how gene activity is regulated. Their research revealed how genes give rise to different cells within the human body, a process known as gene regulation. Gene regulation by microRNA – a family of molecules that helps cells control the sort of proteins they make – ... was first revealed by Ambros and Ruvkun. The Nobel Prize committee announced the prestigious honor ... in Sweden on Monday.... Ambros, a professor of natural science at the University of Massachusetts Medical School, conducted the research that earned him the prize at Harvard University. Ruvkun conducted his research at Massachusetts General Hospital, and is a professor of genetics at Harvard Medical School.”

The Wires
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The Ledes

Sunday, October 6, 2024

New York Times: “Two boys have been arrested and charged in a street attack on David A. Paterson, a former governor of New York, and his stepson, the police said. One boy, who is 12, was charged with second-degree gang assault, and the other, a 13-year-old, was charged with third-degree gang assault, the police said on Saturday night. Both boys, accompanied by their parents, turned themselves in to the police, according to Sean Darcy, a spokesman for Mr. Paterson. A third person, also a minor, went to the police but was not charged in the Friday night attack in Manhattan, according to an internal police report.... Two other people, both adults, were involved in the attack, according to the police. They fled on foot and have not been caught, the police said. The former governor was not believed to have been targeted in the assault....”

Weather Channel: “Tropical Storm Milton, which formed in the Gulf of Mexico on Saturday, is expected to become a hurricane late Sunday or early Monday. The storm is expected to pose a major hurricane threat to Florida by midweek, just over a week after Helene pushed through the region. The National Hurricane Center says that 'there is an increasing risk of life-threatening storm surge and wind impacts for portions of the west coast of the Florida Peninsula beginning late Tuesday or Wednesday.'”

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Public Service Announcement

Washington Post: "Americans can again order free rapid coronavirus tests by mail, the Biden administration announced Thursday. People can request four free at-home tests per household through covidtests.gov. They will begin shipping Monday. The move comes ahead of an expected winter wave of coronavirus cases. The September revival of the free testing program is in line with the Biden administration’s strategy to respond to the coronavirus as part of a broader public health campaign to protect Americans from respiratory viruses, including influenza and respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), that surge every fall and winter. But free tests were not mailed during the summer wave, which wastewater surveillance data shows is now receding."

Washington Post: “Comedy news outlet the Onion — reinvigorated by new ownership over this year — is bringing back its once-popular video parodies of cable news. But this time, there’s someone with real news anchor experience in the chair. When the first episodes appear online Monday, former WAMU and MSNBC host Joshua Johnson will be the face of the resurrected 'Onion News Network.' Playing an ONN anchor character named Dwight Richmond, Johnson says he’s bringing a real anchor’s sense of clarity — and self-importance — to the job. 'If ONN is anything, it’s a news organization that is so unaware of its own ridiculousness that it has the confidence of a serial killer,' says Johnson, 44.” ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: I'll be darned if I can figured out how to watch ONN. If anybody knows, do tell. Thanks.

Washington Post: “First came the surprising discovery that Earth’s atmosphere is leaking. But for roughly 60 years, the reason remained a mystery. Since the late 1960s, satellites over the poles detected an extremely fast flow of particles escaping into space — at speeds of 20 kilometers per second. Scientists suspected that gravity and the magnetic field alone could not fully explain the stream. There had to be another source creating this leaky faucet. It turns out the mysterious force is a previously undiscovered global electric field, a recent study found. The field is only about the strength of a watch battery — but it’s enough to thrust lighter ions from our atmosphere into space. It’s also generated unlike other electric fields on Earth. This newly discovered aspect of our planet provides clues about the evolution of our atmosphere, perhaps explaining why Earth is habitable. The electric field is 'an agent of chaos,' said Glyn Collinson, a NASA rocket scientist and lead author of the study. 'It undoes gravity.... Without it, Earth would be very different.'”

The New York Times lists Emmy winners. The AP has an overview story here.

New York Times: “Hvaldimir, a beluga whale who had captured the public’s imagination since 2019 after he was spotted wearing a harness seemingly designed for a camera, was found dead on Saturday in Norway, according to a nonprofit that worked to protect the whale.... [Hvaldimir] was wearing a harness that identified it as “equipment” from St. Petersburg. There also appeared to be a camera mount. Some wondered if the whale was on a Russian reconnaissance mission. Russia has never claimed ownership of the whale. If Hvaldimir was a spy, he was an exceptionally friendly one. The whale showed signs of domestication, and was comfortable around people. He remained in busier waters than are typical for belugas....” ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Oh, Lord, do not let Bobby Kennedy, Jr., near that carcass. ~~~

     ~~~ AP Update: “There’s no evidence that a well-known beluga whale that lived off Norway’s coast and whose harness ignited speculation it was a Russian spy was shot to death last month as claimed by animal rights groups, Norwegian police said Monday.... Police said that the Norwegian Veterinary Institute conducted a preliminary autopsy on the animal, which was become known as 'Hvaldimir,' combining the Norwegian word for whale — hval — and the first name of Russian President Vladimir Putin. 'There are no findings from the autopsy that indicate that Hvaldimir has been shot,' police said in a statement.”

New York Times: Botswana's “President Mokgweetsi Masisi grinned as he lifted the diamond, a 2,492-carat stone that is the biggest diamond unearthed in more than a century and the second-largest ever found, according to the Vancouver-based mining operator Lucara, which owns the mine where it was found. This exceptional discovery could bring back the luster of the natural diamond mining industry, mining companies and experts say. The diamond was discovered in the same relatively small mine in northeastern Botswana that has produced several of the largest such stones in living memory. Such gemstones typically surface as a result of volcanic activity.... The diamond will likely sell in the range of tens of millions of dollars....”

Click on photo to enlarge.

~~~ Guardian: "On a distant reef 16,000km from Paris, surfer Gabriel Medina has given Olympic viewers one of the most memorable images of the Games yet, with an airborne celebration so well poised it looked too good to be true. The Brazilian took off a thundering wave at Teahupo’o in Tahiti on Monday, emerging from a barrelling section before soaring into the air and appearing to settle on a Pacific cloud, pointing to the sky with biblical serenity, his movements mirrored precisely by his surfboard. The shot was taken by Agence France-Presse photographer Jérôme Brouillet, who said “the conditions were perfect, the waves were taller than we expected”. He took the photo while aboard a boat nearby, capturing the surreal image with such accuracy that at first some suspected Photoshop or AI." 

Washington Post: “'Mary Cassatt at Work' is a large and mostly satisfying exhibition devoted to the career of the great American artist beloved for her sensitive and often sentimental views of family life. The 'at work' in the title of the Philadelphia Museum of Art show references the curators’ interest in Cassatt’s pioneering effort to establish herself as a professional artist within a male-dominated field. Throughout the show, which includes some 130 paintings, pastels, prints and drawings, the wall text and the art on view stresses Cassatt’s fixation on art as a career rather than a pastime.... Mary Cassatt at Work is on view at the Philadelphia Museum of Art through Sept. 8. philamuseum.org”

New York Times: “Bob Newhart, who died on Thursday at the age of 94, has been such a beloved giant of popular culture for so long that it’s easy to forget how unlikely it was that he became one of the founding fathers of stand-up comedy. Before basically inventing the hit stand-up special, with the 1960 Grammy-winning album 'The Button-Down Mind of Bob Newhart' — that doesn’t even count his pay-per-view event broadcast on Canadian television that some cite as the first filmed special — he was a soft-spoken accountant who had never done a set in a nightclub. That he made a classic with so little preparation is one of the great miracles in the history of comedy.... Bob Newhart holds up. In fact, it’s hard to think of a stand-up from that era who is a better argument against the commonplace idea that comedy does not age well.”

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Publisher & Editor: Marie Burns


Saturday
May182013

The Commentariat -- May 19, 2013

Scott Wilson of the Washington Post: "President Obama will deliver a speech Thursday at the National Defense University in which he will address how he intends to bring his counterterrorism policies, including the drone program and the military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, in line with the legal framework he promised after taking office." CW: but can substance beat scandalmania?

Nicholas Confessore of the New York Times has a very good report on how the Cincinnati IRS office got into trouble, and the answer is -- quite innocently. ...

... Justin Elliott & Kim Barker of ProPublica have another excellent take on the makings of a mess. They also answer the question that may have been floating int the back of your mind -- why Cincinnati? ...

... CW: the real culprits here are not IRS bureaucrats but Congressional Republicans, President Obama & the Supreme Court, who have (1) cut funding for the IRS, (2) cut staffing, (3) increased the IRS workload, & (3) failed to write laws that provide clearcut guidelines. Needless to say, this was not an entirely innocent series of errors on conservatives' part; they have long tried to prove that government doesn't work by setting it up for failure. What better agency to hold up as a nest of vipers than the IRS? Naturally, Obama & Congressional Democrats fell into the GOP trap. Again. ...

     ... Update. Oh, pretty much what I said. Robert Reich on "the real IRS scandal," a short post that gets to the heart of it. ...

... But Seth Meyers & Amy Poehler are still really pissed off:

CW: Reading a Maureen Dowd column on Obama almost always makes me want to defend Obama.

At some point obstruction becomes ... treason. -- Bill Maher

James Dao of the New York Times: Members of Congress -- and more importantly, Jon Stewart -- are holding Secretary of Veterans of Affairs Eric Shinseki responsible for the huge and growing backlog of unprocessed veterans' claims for disability compensation. CW: to me, failing to process 600,000 veterans' claims is a much bigger scandal than making a few phonies sweat over their claimed "social welfare" tax exemption.

Lincoln Caplan of the New York Times: "There is little doubt, statistically, that the Supreme Court presided over by Chief Justice John Roberts Jr.has been more sympathetic to corporate interests than any court since World War II. A comprehensive study of more than 1,750 decisions from 1946 to 2011, published recently in the Minnesota Law Review, found that the Roberts court has repeatedly shielded business from lawsuits involving class actions, workplace disputes and consumer complaints.... There are few better (and more outrageous) examples of this pro-business bias than Genesis HealthCare Corp. v. Symczyk." CW: read the post. Kagan (in her dissent) lets Thomas have it, saying flat-out that the majority opinion is the product of fantasyland & bears no relation to reality. "By taking a fallacy as its premise, the majority ensures it will reach the wrong decision." The Court's conservatives are dumber than first-year law students, she implies. The decision & dissent are here (pdf). Kagan's dissent starts on the 14th page. She knows how to write!

Local News

Laura Vozzella of the Washington Post: "Thousands of Virginia Republicans on Saturday picked a slate of statewide candidates who vowed to stay true to conservative principles, resisting calls to remake the GOP message after losses in 2012. At the top of the ticket is gubernatorial hopeful Ken Cuccinelli II, the attorney general. Known for high-profile battles against 'Obamacare,' abortion and a university climate scientist, Cuccinelli stood by what detractors have called an out-of-the-mainstream agenda."

News Lede

Wall Street Journal: "Yahoo, Inc. has agreed to pay $1.1 billion for Tumblr, a six-year-old company with more than 100 million users but very little revenue...."

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Friday
May172013

The Short Life of Umbrella-Gate

An Investigative Report

President Obama & PM Erdogan of Turkey at a joint presser Thursday.

Mr. President, when it rains it pours, but most Americans hold their own umbrellas. -- Sarah Palin

Rachel Weiner of the Washington Post elaborates on conservative outrage over President Obama's elitist, unamerican activity. (The true challenge of the conservative life is that one must exist in a perpetual state of outrage. It seems likely that the only reason liberals are liberals is that they are too lazy & irresponsible to live in a constant cloud of fury and existential indignation.)

Hawaii, Birthplace of Umbrella-Gate. Not surprisingly, then-Vice President Richard Nixon began the tradition of having retainers hold the umbrellas of Presidents & presidential hopefuls. Nixon began this practice in Hawaii, of all places, a year before President Obama was allegedly born there. The obvious similarities between the Nixon & Obama scandals are stunning & incontrovertible:

Update. Contributor Dan Sheerin adds this excellent image of President Gerald Ford one-upping the guy who handed him the top job. Ford's umbrella-holding serviceman is Lt. Col. Robert Blake, a military aide with a chestful of medals. AND, as Sheerin points out, you can purchase the photo on ebay. Buy It Now for $23.88! Like Obama, Ford was hosting foreign dignitaries, among them West German President Walter Scheel. Unlike Obama, who called for the umbrellas specifically for the benefit of PM Erdogan, Ford did not bother to protect his distinguished guests from the rain. A shocking diplomatic catastrophe made all the more curious by Scheel's apparent indifference (he's smiling in the photo) to the affront. Not to mention, Col. Blake, the Umbrella Man, looks pretty content, too.

President & Mrs. Reagan greet guests while scandalously standing under an umbrella which a retainer holds:

Carrying on the grotesque tradition which Nixon & the Reagans firmly established, Reagan's successor George H. W. Bush stands beneath an umbrella held by a marine. Note how the marine has to hold his arm WAY UP because the upper-crusty Bush has placed himself on a pedestal. Not surprisingly, Bush lost his re-election bid. Later, combat veteran Sgt. Randolph C. Bumbershoot told reporters that holding an umbrella for a tall guy standing on a pedestal was the most difficult mission of his military career.

     Update: Commenter DTA1401 has assumed that Marine means "U.S. Marine." As s/he says, "those are not American military uniforms." I think Sgt. Bumbershoot is a Maltese Marine.

Campaigning in 2008, Palin's hapless running-mate John McCain stands under an umbrella which an aide is holding:

When asked why he couldn't hold his own umbrella, McCain apologized, explaining he has difficulty raising his arms as the result of injuries sustained while in captivity during the Vietnam War. But his real reason was likely a fear of looking like this:

Update. Commenter American Vet -- one of those perpetual-state-of-outrage people -- observes, "Not one picture you posted, shows any American Military Personnel holding an umbrella for any leader. Investigative report indeed, big difference." Howz this? The man to the left of Bush Pere appears to me to be an "American Military Person" as does the man to the right of Bush Fils. Each of these apparent American Military Personnel is holding an umbrella for the President. (Note also that the populist Democratic president appearing in photo with Bush I is holding his own umbrella, & perhaps coincidentally, looks like the happiest guy in the crowd):

OOPS! Palin herself is not like "most Americans" who "hold their own umbrellas":

Ever:

-30-

Comment20 Comments
Friday
May172013

The Commentariat -- May 18, 2013

The President's Weekly Address:

     ... The transcript is here.

... Christi Parsons of the Los Angeles Times: " President Obama said Friday he wanted to put more Americans to work by slashing the amount of time it takes to grant federal approval for big job-creating projects. But Obama's choice of venue for his remarks -- a Baltimore company that makes mining and pumping equipment -- provided fodder for Republicans. They noted that the company president had, just the day before, testified on Capitol Hill in support of the Keystone XL pipeline, which the Obama administration has delayed for years over environmental concerns. Ellicott Dredges President Peter Bowe said the pipeline ... would pour money into his business. 'For us, it's all about jobs,' Bowe told members of the House Committee on Small Business on Thursday." ...

... CW: this is a good example of how second-term controversies develop. Odds are that if President Obama faced a re-election bid, his crack staff would have vetted Bowe & his business and would not have sent the President to Ellicot Dredges. Whether this oopsie was the result of B-team incompetence, laziness or political staff attrition, it is representative of second-term carelessness. ...

Craig Whitlock of the Washington Post: "Two senior military officers ... Army Gen. Martin E. Dempsey, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and Air Force Gen. Mark A. Welsh III, the service's top commander ... said for the first time Friday that they were 'open' to proposed legislation that would overhaul military law in response to an epidemic of sexual assaults, acknowledging that victims lack faith in commanders to handle the problem.... A bipartisan group of lawmakers announced Thursday that they support a bill from Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.) that would force the most significant changes in military law in 30 years by giving prosecutors, instead of unit commanders, the power to open investigations into serious crimes and send the cases to trial.... The Pentagon has resisted taking such power away from military commanders.... Ten days earlier, [Welsh] testified before the Senate Armed Services Committee that he was opposed to the idea.... Although neither Dempsey nor Welsh endorsed the proposal, their comments aligned them with Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel, who has said he is willing to discuss it with lawmakers."

Brendan Nyhan, in the Columbia Journalism Review: "... media scandals are a 'co-production' of the opposition party and the press.... Reporters [should take] more responsibility for their role in creating and sustaining the media narratives that they are covering."

It's They're Obama's Watergate! Or Worse! Steve Benen makes a list of some of the nothingburgers Republicans have compared to Watergate. (Links are Benen's):

* Benghazi is "worse than Watergate." [Update: this argument comes up quite a bit.]

* The IRS controversy carries "echoes of Watergate."

* National security leaks are "worse than Watergate."

* A job offer for former Rep. Joe Sestak (D-Pa.) might be "Obama's Watergate."

* "Fast and Furious" might be "Obama's Watergate."

* Solyndra "makes Watergate look like child's play."

* The White House's relationship with Media Matters might be "Obama's Watergate." ...

... Overreach? What Overreach? Dana Milbank on "Thursday morning's circus on the east lawn of the Capitol, where Republican lawmakers gathered with tea party leaders to declare their thoughts on the IRS scandal." CW: do read the quotes. And check out Ted Cruz's "sourcing." Milbank calls Cruz the "leader of the neo-McCarthyite wing of the GOP," a moniker that is precisely accurate. ...

Gail Collins reprises Friday's Congressional hearing on the IRS in which all the members of the committee expressed outrage. CW: maybe some of them will explode. ...

... For a more detailed retelling of the hearing, here's the final effort of Jonathan Weisman & Jeremy Peters of the New York Times. Also, Republicans are expanding the IRS scandalette into an attack on -- ObamaCare! ...

... John Cassidy of the New Yorker: "If there are any conservatively minded Inspector Clouseaus out there who would like to take the probe further, I suggest you get in touch with Committee chair Dave] Camp's office, or with [Paul] Ryan's. They need your help." ...

... Nice to see AP stories like this one by Ken Thomas & Steve Peoples. I hope a lot of local newspapers pick it up: " There's an irony in the Internal Revenue Service's crackdown on conservative groups. The nation's tax agency has admitted to inappropriately scrutinizing smaller tea party organizations that applied for tax-exempt status. But the IRS largely maintained a hands-off policy with the much larger, big-budget organizations on the left and right that were most influential in the 2012 elections and are organized under a section of the tax code that allows them to hide their donors.... Karl Rove's Crossroads GPS and the Koch brothers' Americans for Prosperity were among those that spent tens of millions of dollars on TV ads and get-out-the-vote efforts to help Republicans. Democrats were aided in similar fashion by Priorities USA, made up of former Barack Obama campaign aides, and American Bridge 21st Century Foundation, an opposition research group led by a former adviser to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid." ...

... The Stupidest Part of the IRS Story. Bernie Becker of the Hill: "Steven Miller, the acting IRS commissioner, said Friday that last week's revelation that the IRS gave special scrutiny to Tea Party groups came from a planted question. Lois Lerner, an IRS official with oversight of tax-exempt groups, disclosed the scrutiny at an American Bankers Association conference last Friday after a question from a lawyer who has served on IRS advisory boards." ...

... David Kay Johnston calls on Lois Lerner to resign for multiple offenses. ...

... Garance Franke-Ruta of the Atlantic points out another lie Lerner told. ...

... Good piece by Lisa Rein & Dan Zak of the Washington Post: IRS personnel in Cincinnati -- the center of controversy -- are mystified by claims they are Nixonian political hacks out to get honest, law-abiding, tax-averse yahoos in tricorns. ...

... Nate Silver: Peggy Noonan is of the impression that the IRS is targeting conservatives for audits because she heard of four -- that's right, four -- conservatives who were audited last year. Noonan's storied "impressions" are absolute bunk. She doesn't have the barest understanding of the difference between an anecdote & statistical significance. CW: Here's the "logic": My rich Uncle Moe got audited right after he gave $2,500 to the Romney campaign. I don't vote & didn't get audited. Ergo, the IRS is targeting Republicans. So Obama can take away our guns & become dictator for life.

Greg Sargent: "Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid is increasingly focused on the month of July as the time to exercise the so-called 'nuclear option' and revisit filibuster reform, and he has privately told top advisers that he's all but certain to take action if the Senate GOP blocks three upcoming key nominations.... Reid is eyeing a change to the rules that would do away with the 60-vote threshold on all judicial and executive branch nominations." Read the whole post. ...

... Jonathan Bernstein: "... Reid is doing an excellent job at this complex game; leaking this threat now and generally upping the ante on nominations in general seems to be exactly the way to go." ...

... Kevin Drum: "I think it's unlikely that Republicans will allow [Richard] Cordray's nomination [to head the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau] to go forward, since they're blocking him mainly as a way of blocking the operation of the CFPB itself. More than likely, then, they'll call Reid's bluff. Then we'll find out just how serious he is." ...

... Justin Green of the Daily Beast: "... there's something not quite right about requiring a 3/5 majority for a duly elected President to appoint a cabinet. In a perverse way, if Republican intransigence on appointments finally persuades Reid to embrace filibuster reform on the limited scale Sargent describes, they'll have done the entire country a favor. I strongly believe in the filibuster for the legislative process. Permanent changes to law should not be able to sail through on a majority vote. But a circuit court judge and the head of the EPA are not permanent legislative decisions, and they deserve a simple majority vote." (Green favors the 60-vote rule for Supreme Court justices.)

Jed Lewison: Congressional Republicans are changing their debt-ceiling/hostage-taking strategy: now, instead of trying to convince voters that raising the debt ceiling is the end of civilization as we know it, they'll try to convince voters that their way of raising the debt limit is a must-do -- a tactic that clearly undercuts their ability to wage "economic terrorism."

Jeffrey Nugent, formerly the head of Revlon, says in a Washington Post op-ed that his wacko little brother Ted & the NRA are wrong about gun registration: "I believe strongly that expanding and improving mandatory background checks will keep a lot of people who aren't entitled to Second Amendment rights from having easy access to guns. As of today, a convicted felon can find a gun show or a private seller and buy a firearm without a background check. That loophole should be closed.... Why would responsible gun owners want to protect people who threaten not only our safety but our gun rights? The NRA has it wrong: Irresponsible gun owners are bad for everyone."

Unbelievable. No, Really. Unbelievable. Will Englund of the Washington Post: "All that low-tech equipment that Russian security officers displayed for the TV cameras after detaining Ryan Fogle, American diplomat and alleged spy, made it look as though he stepped right out of the annals of 1980s Cold War espionage. Now, the Interfax news agency is reporting that the wigs he allegedly had with him match a wig seized from Michael Sellers, a U.S. diplomat kicked out of the Soviet Union back in 1986. That wig is in the archives of the FSB, Russia's Federal Security Service.... It all looked a bit goofy. A compass? A street atlas? And the whole sequence of events is reminding some Russians of a popular Cold War miniseries here, about KGB agents dramatically thwarting Western spy plots...." ...

Local News

Rosalind Helderman & Laura Vozzella of the Washington Post: "While it's illegal for [Virginia] politicians to accept a gift in direct exchange for official acts, gifts often arrive from those who have sought or will seek some benefit from state government. In addition, the wording on the disclosure forms is so vague that it's difficult to discern any details about what the gift is for and about.... In Virginia, many members of the state legislature take gifts from people or firms with something to gain from government action. [Gov. Bob] McDonnell's predecessors, former Democratic governors Mark R. Warner and Timothy M. Kaine, took similar gifts.... But McDonnell's $19,000 gift [from the Redskins] last year was by far the largest reported by a Virginia governor in recent years." The Redskins' gift directly followed McDonnell's decision -- which was opposed by the state legislature -- to give the team $4 million of public money. Also, Virginia AG & former Kate Madison ward Ken Cucchinelli -- who is running for governor -- has taken large gifts that suggested a direct conflict-of-interest, at least one of which he failed to disclose.

Erik Eckholm of the New York Times: "A federal judge on Friday temporarily blocked enforcement of one of the country's most stringent abortion laws, an Arkansas ban on the procedure at the 12th week of pregnancy, saying the law was likely to be declared unconstitutional."

News Ledes

ABC News Denver: "Witnesses tell police a Federal Heights woman was killed when the new assault rifle she was showing to friends accidentally fired on Tuesday night. Witnesses and the husband told police the group had been drinking in the garage of the couple's home at 10024 Elliot St. when 22-year-old Anastasia Adair, a new gun enthusiast, went upstairs to a bedroom to get her recently purchased assault rifle."

AP: "Two commuter trains packed with rush-hour commuters collided in an accident that sent about 70 people to the hospital, severely damaged the tracks and threatened to snarl travel in the congested Northeast Corridor."

AP: "French President Francois Hollande has signed a law authorizing gay marriage and adoption by same-sex couples, after months of nationwide protests and wrenching debate. His signature means the first gay marriages may be celebrated in France within about 10 days. Hollande's office said he signed the bill Saturday morning, a day after the Constitutional Council struck down a challenge to the law."

AP: "North Korea fired three short-range guided missiles into its eastern waters on Saturday, a South Korean official said. It routinely tests such missiles, but the latest launches came during a period of tentative diplomacy aimed at easing tensions."

Chicago Tribune: "Siding with patients who say cannabis is the only drug that can safely ease their chronic pain, the Senate sent Gov. Pat Quinn a measure Friday that would make Illinois the 19th state to legalize marijuana for medical purposes."

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