In the largest study of its kind, researchers found that having people pray for heart bypass surgery patients had no effect on their recovery. In fact, patients who knew they were being prayed for had a slightly higher rate of complications.
[ineffective.]
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Wal-Mart opened it’s first upscale branch on March 23rd in Plano Texas. The new Wal-Mart carries upscale merchandise, such as 550-thread-count Egyptian cotton sheets, 42-inch plasma high-definition televisions and cashmere cardigan sweaters. In addition to extended product ranges, including a wine section with 1,200 different selections, some priced at up to $400 per bottle, the new Dallas Parkway supercenter will house a fresh sushi bar and a spacious WiFi-enabled coffee shop.
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In Canada, a US soldier who fled to avoid serving in Iraq is having his asylum case heard in front of an immigration board. Josh Key, who served in Iraq for eight months, said he decided to desert military service after witnessing several atrocities commited by the US military. In an interview with the BBC, Key said:
“The only people that were getting hurt was the innocent; that was innocent Iraqi people, as well as innocent soldiers.”
The government has announced the reconstruction of New Orleans’ levees will cost around $10 billion dollars – nearly three times more than originally forecast. The higher costs mean several Gulf Coast areas may not be protected when hurricane season begins in two months. Louisana Democratic Congressmember Charlie Melancon criticized the revised cost, saying: “Now all of a sudden they say they made a $6 billion mistake?” The news comes as the Bush administration announced Thursday it may take up to 25 years to repair New Orleans.
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The House blocked a measure proposed by House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi to investigate members of Congress linked to Republican lobbyist Jack Abramoff. The measure was tabled by a vote of 216 to 193.
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The Pentagon has announced it will no longer allow soldiers to wear body armor other than what is given to them as part of their army service. Thousands of soldiers and their families have turned to purchasing extra armor amid complaints they have not been equipped with adequate protection. A secret Pentagon study last year concluded that up to 80 percent of the marines who have been killed in Iraq from upper-body wounds could have survived had they been given extra body armor. The Pentagon says it is banning outside armor because of concerns soldiers are purchasing untested or insufficient gear.
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Rice admitted to “thousands” of “tactical errors” in Iraq, but maintained they had made the “right strategic decisions.” She specificed one of those as invading Iraq in the first place.
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Faded pop superstar Michael Jackson was crowned as America’s most foolish person in 2006, narrowly beating out Vice President Dick Cheney for the title.
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The $2.8 trillion budget plan was approved by the Budget Committee last night on a party-line 22 to 17 vote omits Bush’s proposed cuts in Medicare, Medicaid, crop subsidies and other politically sensitive programs, but preserves his plan to trim spending by most Cabinet agencies, including veteran healthcare.
The House committee cut the budget for medical care of veterans below even current levels for the rest of the decade. Democrats complained that would be something like a $10 billion cut after inflation and the growth in the number of veterans seeking benefits that is expected in the years ahead.
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Wal-Mart Stores has begun circulating two senior-level job postings — both in public relations — and if the language used to describe the positions is any indication, the giant discount retailer is on the P.R. equivalent of war footing.
One job includes “opposition research,” presumably into Wal-Mart’s major critics: Wal-Mart Watch and Wake Up Wal-Mart. The other requires the ability to “mobilize resources” during a “crisis situation.”
The two jobs reflect how much life has changed at Wal-Mart, which has come under withering criticism over its wages, health benefits and treatment of workers. The company barely had a public relations department in the early 1990′s, but now has a staff of dozens, including a public relations war room full of former political operatives who dispute the assertions of its opponents.
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Five former FISA court judges have urged Congress to reject the Bush administration’s argument it holds the inherent authority to conduct warrantless eavesdropping. Appearing before a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing Tuesday, the judges voiced support for a measure proposed by Repubican Senator Arlen Specter to grant the court a formal role in overseeing government surveillance.
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In response to a UN demand that Iran freeze nuclear enrichment, Iran’s chief representative to the IAEA, Ali Asghar Soltanieh, told The Associated Press that “it is impossible to go back to suspension.”
“This enrichment matter is not reversible,” Soltanieh said.
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American journalist Jill Carroll, abducted in early January by gunmen in Baghdad, was released to a Sunni Arab political party in the capital Thursday morning after 82 days in captivity.
“I was treated very well. That’s important for people to know,” she said in an interview with an Arabic-speaking questioner at the headquarters of the Iraqi Islamic Party. “They never hit me, they never even threatened to hit me. I’m just happy to be free, and I want to be with my family.”
Oral arguments began Tuesday in a case that will decide whether the Bush administration can use military tribunals to try detainees at the Guantanamo Bay military prison. Salim Ahmed Hamdan, who worked as Osama bin Laden’s driver in Afghanistan, is challenging the tribunals. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia took part in Tuesday’s hearing despite growing calls for his recusal. In a recent speech, Scalia dismissed the idea detainees have rights under the U.S. Constitution or international conventions.
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The Senate today overwhelmingly passed its first lobbying restrictions in 11 years, but the measure was so pared down that some of the biggest advocates for tightening the rules were still not satisfied. This is in part because the Senate decided not to address one of the most pressing issues – campaign finance. According to the New York Times, the bill does little to break the link between lobbyists and lawmakers’ money-raising machines. The bill steers clear of regulating the fund-raising activities of lobbyists. This will allow lobbyists to continue running political action committees for the same lawmakers they hope to influence and to peddle campaign donations to lawmakers via their clients.
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President Bush announced the resignation of Chief of Staff Andrew Card Tuesday, amid growing calls for a shake-up of key White House personnel. Card will be replaced by current budget director Joshua Bolten next month. Bolten is seen as a key insider in the Bush administration, and is unlikely to satisfy calls within the GOP for fresh thinking to address the administration’s troubles.
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More than 25,000 Iraqis have fled their homes since last month’s bombing of a holy Shiite shrine in Sammara, according to a relief agency. The International Organization for Migration says scores of shelters and tent cities are housing increasing numbers of displaced Sunni and Shiite families. Aid officials say the internal migration is only continuing.
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According to the Government Accountability Office, New Orleans has only 456 staffed hospital beds, compared with more than 2200 before Hurricane Katrina. The audit also found that some patients have waited up to two hours to be unloaded from ambulances. Patients have been placed in the emergency room because of unavailable beds. Three quarters of the medical clinics that treated low-income New Orleans residents before the storm are now closed. The audit also noted the government’s estimate for the cost to repair two Lousiana State University hospitals meets only ten percent of actual needs.
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Arab leaders meeting at the annual Arab League summit in Sudan issued a statement reiterating a four-year-old land-for-peace offer to Israel. Under the proposal, the Arab states would offer diplomatic recognition in exchange for a full Israeli withdrawal from land occupied in the 1967 war. Israel has rejected the offer.
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Prosecutors said al-Qaida conspirator Zacarias Moussaoui killed Americans on Sept. 11, 2001, by lying to federal agents weeks earlier to keep the plot secret. Defense attorneys called him an “al-Qaida hanger-on” who only dreamed he had a role in the worst terrorist attack in the nation’s history.
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