Easy Start News: 2012

Tuesday, September 25, 2012

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Tuesday, April 24, 2012

While the president stayed in Colombia, his secret service agents were out with prostitutes. During the trip, 12 agents were sent back to the United States and investigations began. Currently, of the 12 agents, 9 were fired.

The incident may have included upwards of 20 prostitutes. Prostitution is legal is some parts of Colombia. The incident became public when one of the agents had a payment dispute with a prostitute and local police enforcement stepped in.

Watch a Video Summary: YouTube channel NewsyPolitics

Wednesday, January 18, 2012

January 17, 2012

DOMESTIC: Major Websites Protest Bills by Shutting Down for a Day Major websites like Wikipedia and Reddit will participate in a blackout in protest of legislations called Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) and Protect IP Act (PIPA). These website say it will hurt them by allowing government to take down websites as they please. To raise awareness, these websites will go on blackout for 24 hours. Google has also blacked out its logo and Craigslist has posted information about the bills on its homepage.

POLITICS: Campaign Updates Latest RealClearPolitics data shows Mitt Romney leading in South Carolina with 32%, Newt Gingrich with 22%; Ron Paul and Rick Santorum tied with 14%.

DOMESTIC: 'Occupy' Protesters Throw Smoke Bomb Over White House Fence 'Occupy' protesters in Washington DC are suspected of throwing a smoke bomb over the White House fence. No arrests have been made but forces are on heightened alert.

Saturday, January 14, 2012

January 13, 2012

WORLD: Eight People Dead After Cruise Ship Runs Aground In Italy, a cruise ship has run aground, which resulted in the death of eight people and dozens injured. The crew told passengers that there were electrical failures and that all passengers should put on their safety vests, however the passengers suspected that there was something more serious than electrical failures. Many said it felt like they were on the Titanic.

DOMESTIC: Martin Luther King Memorial To Be Corrected The Martin Luther King memorial in Washington, D.C. will be corrected to more accurately reflect the meaning of a quote. The quote currently reads: "I was a drum major for justice, peace and righteousness." The quote can be easily taken out of context and can even make King sound arrogant.

POLITICS: Campaign Updates Currently in South Carolina RealClearPolitics poling shows Mitt Romney at 27%, Newt Gingrich at 22%, Rick Santorum and Ron Paul tied at 15%, all others below 10%. National poling shows the same pattern with 29%, 17%, 14%, 13%, respectively. The next debate will be sponsored by Fox News and the South Carolina Republican Party on January 16.

Thursday, January 12, 2012

January 11, 2012

WORLD: Bomb Kills Iranian Nuclear Scientist An Iranian nuclear scientist was killed in his car a motorbike hitman blew it up. This is the fifth such attach in the past two years. Iran blames Isreal and the U.S. for the attacks but states that its nuclear program will continue. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has denied any U.S. involvement.

POLITICS: Campaign Updates Mitt Romney won the New Hampshire primary, but in some ways is doing worse than 4 years ago. Ron Paul takes his message of peace and Ending the Fed to South Carolina. RealClearPolitics shows Romney at 27%, Gingrich at 17%, Santorum at 16%, Paul at 13%. South Carolina shows similar data with Romney at 29%, Gingrich at 20%, Santorum at 19%, Paul at 11%. All other candidates poll below 10%.

ENTERTAINMENT: Kelly Clarkson to Sing at Super Bowl Kelly Clarkson, winner of the first American Idol contest, will sing the national anthem at the Super Bowl this year.

DOMESTIC: Casey Anthony Was Pregnant from Party Casey Anthony, mother of Cayleee Anthony, told a psychologist in 2004 that she believes she got pregnant at a party. She says that she passed out at the party while it happened. Read more on our post from January 5, 2012 and August 12, 2011.

WORLD: Kim Jong-Il's Body to Rest in State Palace The body of Kim Jong-Il's, North Korea's former leader, will be laid to rest in the State Palace, which currently holds his father, Kim Il-Sung. Statues and memorials will also be erected and February 16, his birthday, will be dubbed "the Day of the Shining Star". Kim Il-Sung's birthday is called "the Day of the Sun".

HIGHLIGHT: Polish Prosecutor Survives After Attempting Suicide Prosecutor attempted to commit suicide after a news conference on the 2010 plane crash that killed the Polish president.

Wednesday, January 11, 2012

January 10, 2012

POLITICS: New Hampshire Results Mitt Romney gets first place, Ron Paul second. Followed by Jon Huntsman. Rick Santorum and Newt Gingrich tie around 10%, fourth place is still up for grabs with 92% reporting. Romney leads with 38%, Paul 23%, Huntsman with falling under 20% with 17%. Rick Perry did not campaign in New Hampshire and earned around 1%. Results clearly portray Mitt Romney and Ron Paul as the top tier candidates.

WORLD: Syrian President Blasts West for Uprising As one of the last nations facing an uprising as part of the Arab Spring, Syria blames the Western nations for sponsoring the uprising. President Bashar al-Assad states that the West wants to see him out of power, not so much his people.

WORLD: U.S. Navy Rescues More Iranian Sailors The U.S. Nave has rescued more Iranian sailors at see. See our post from January 6th. 6 Sailors were rescued after their vessel broke down. As these events occur, more people call for peace talks with Iran.

TECHNOLOGY: Microsoft Gives Last Presentation as CES Microsoft has decided that this year would be the last year it attends the Consumer Electronics Show (CES). CES is the most popular electronics show and Microsoft is easily the largest participant. It rents the largest space in the show room, however because of timing issues, Microsoft will no longer participate in the event. Microsoft's productions cycles, as with other companies, do not fall in line with those of CES.

DOMESTIC: Alaska Gets Hit With 15 Feet of Snow An area in Alaska was hit with 15 feet of snow and now gets ready for another blizzard. A town now has a shortage of shovels after the storm.

HIGHLIGHT: Video From The Snow Aftermath of the Snow in Alaska Watch on YouTube.

Saturday, January 7, 2012

January 6, 2012

WORLD: More Christians Killed In Nigeria Continuing from yesterday's story, where 5 Christians were killed in a church in Nigeria, the killings continued. Islamist terrorist group Boko Haram continued its rage on Christians in Northern Nigeria killing 17 people in a town hall where a Christian group was meeting. In another city, gunmen entered an church and killed 6 people.

POLITICS: Election Updates Newt Gingrich stated that if Mitt Romney became the nominee, he would be laughed at by President Obama during a TV debate. New polls show Mitt Romney in a far lead in New Hampshire, followed by Ron Paul. Ron Paul began campaigning in New Hampshire. He also criticized Rick Santorum for not being as conservative as he claims and suggested his support would cool off after learning about the programs he supported in the past.

WORLD: U.S. Navy Rescues Iranian Fishermen Captured By Pirates USS Kidd responded to a distress call by a vessel. They were aware, prior to boarding the vessel, that the captured vessel had an Iranian flag, but they are obligated to assist distressed sailors regardless of nationality. Navy personnel boarded the vessel and found 13 Iranians captured by 15 pirates, believed to be Somalian. The vessel had been captured for over a month.

WORLD: Pope Names 2 U.S. Cardinals Pope Benedict XVI named 22 new cardinals which includes two prominent American archbishops. Archbishop Timothy M. Dolan leads the Archdiocese of New York. Archbishop Edwin F. O'Brien is currently the apostolic administrator of the Archdiocese of Baltimore. Both are prominent Catholics in the U.S. and have a long history in the Catholic community.

WORLD: The Czech Republic Grants Political Asylum To Tymoshenko's Husband Oleksandr Tymoshenko, husband of Yulia Tymoshenko, was granted political asylum in the Czech Republic. The Interior Minister believes it should not effect Czech-Ukrainian relations. As referenced in our previous stories, Tymoshenko is facing a prison term for misuse of power while Prime Minister of Ukraine. She was recently transfered to a remote prison.

HIGHLIGHT: January 7th is Christmas Day for those celebrating Christmas using the Julian Calendar (Orthodox and Greek Catholic Christians) Video shows a traditional Ukrainian Christmas Eve feast, which signifies the end of 45 days of fasting.

Friday, January 6, 2012

January 5, 2012

POLITICS: Errors In Vote Counting in Iowa Caucus There are reasons to suspect some vote fraud in the Iowa Caucuses. It appears that the spread between Mitt Romney and Rick Santorum is 9 votes, not 8. This is because one county had a 20 vote mistake and another with a 21 vote mistake. While the impact seems minimal, it calls into question the accuracy of the ballots in the Iowa Caucus. The Republican party in Iowa seems careless to clarify these findings.

DOMESTIC: Casey Anthony Video Surfaces Somehow, one video from Casey Anthony's video diary surfaced on the Internet. Casey Anthony is known because of a trial in 2011 in which she was found not guilty in the death of her 2 year old daughter, Caylee. The video describes a few things, in particular a dog that she adopted and a laptop that she bought, apparently with her own money. She also talks about the web camera used to recored the video, which was a gift. The video was made in October of last year and references Casey moving somewhere else around February of this year. The video does not mention Caylee.

WORLD: Religious Civil War Possible in Nigeria On Thursday, gunmen entered into a church in northern Nigeria and killed 5 people. This came after a warning by the Islamic terrorist group 'Boko Haram' told Christians to leave the North and flee South. Nigeria is about evenly divided between Christians and Muslims. The terrorist group wants to see the North, which is currently primarily occupied by Muslims, to be fully Muslim and the South to be fully Christian. Last Christmas, the group bombed a church in the capital city which killed at least 50 people. The group is estimated to have killed 500 people in total last year. The President has declared a State of Emergency in 4 states to give police greater powers.

WORLD: Prosecution Calls for Death Penalty in Mubarak Trial The 5 person prosecution team against Egypts former president Hosni Mubarak has called for the death penalty for him and 7 people around him. Mubarak is on trial for ordering the killings of protesters. It is unlikely that Mubarak will get the death penalty in this case.

HIGHLIGHT: A super PAC which supports Ron Paul released the following mock speeches of the other candidates. All in good fun of course. Watch: Rick Santorum, Mitt Romney, Rick Perry, Newt Gingrich

Thursday, January 5, 2012

January 4, 2012

POLITICS: Iowa Caucus Results The results of the the Iowa Caucus are as follows: Mitt Romney: 24.6%, Rick Santorum: 24.5%, Ron Paul: 21.4%, Newt Gingrich: 13.3%, Rick Perry: 10.3%, Michelle Bachmann: 5%. The Caucus is not meant to determine winners, instead to determine losers. As such Mitt Romney, Rick Santorum and Ron Paul are the clear leaders in the race. Michelle Bachmann has already dropped out, and Rick Perry stated that he would take a look at the numbers overnight. Perry is staying in the race and moving on to South Carolina though.

POLITICS: Michelle Bachmann Ends Presidential Run Congresswoman Michelle Bachmann ended her presidential bid today after the low turnout she received in Tuesday's Iowa Caucus. In the Iowa Straw Poll, months earlier, Bachmann won, narrowly, to Ron Paul. Her support has clearly dropped since then. Bachmann states that she intends to continue to voice her concerns for the nation. She still focuses on making Barack Obama a one term president and repealing ObamaCare.

DOMESTIC: Detroit Reduces Hours of Police Stations Detroit, which has one of the highest crime rates out of large cities, is reducing hours of its police stations due to lack of funds in the city. Police stations were previously opened 24 hours per day. It should be noted that most people requesting police assistance use the telephone instead of walking into the station, therefore keeping the stations open at night isn't as beneficial as it sounds. Public desk hours would be 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. 100 police officers will be laid off but later rehired with a federal grant.

BUSINESS: Starbucks Raises Coffee Prices Starbucks is raising coffee prices in the Northeast and other major cities citing increased costs of coffee, milk, and fuel. Prices will increase by about 1%. As a result, Starbucks' shares rose nearly 2%.

DOMESTIC: Twin Birth Rates Double in U.S. Over Past Three Decades Birth rates for twins in the U.S. have doubled over the past decade. A third of the increase is attributed to women waiting longer to have children. Fertility treatments are said to account for a large majority of the increase. Birth rates rose in all 50 states and doubled in in Connecticut, Hawaii, Massachusetts, New Jersey and Rhode Island.

HIGHLIGHT: Watch A Recap of the Iowa Caucus Results Watch on YouTube.

Monday, January 2, 2012

January 1, 2012

Happy New Year from Easy Start News

POLITICS: Campaign Updates Ron Paul and Rick Santorum defend their electability. Mitt Romney and Ron Paul fight for top stop in Iowa caucus, Romney has hopes of breakthrough. Ron Paul addressing skeptics on Sunday talk shows where he discussed his electability. He also answered to Chris Wallace's questions about some statements in his book and argued that he is what people look for when they think of change in Washington.

WORLD: North Korea Stands Behind New Leader, Will Not Have Peace Talks With The South North Koreans were told to stand behind their new leader, Kim Jong-un, like "human shields". The state also expects prosperity and addressing the issue of food shortages in its New Year message. In the meantime, South Korean President, Lee Myung-bak, stated that he is willing to 'open the door' for better relations between the two nations so long as the new leader is sincere in the efforts. North Korea, on the other end, reassured that its policy to South Korea will remain the same under the new leadership and will never engage in discussions with them.

WORLD: Pope Calls for Peace in 2012 Pope Benedict XVI called for peace in his 2012 New Year's Day speech. He also stated that the future lies with the youth and says the youth should be educated with the message of peace. He also wants the church to be more public and has plans to visit Mexico and Cuba in March.

DOMESTIC: Occupy Wall Street Protesters Arrested 68 protesters were arrested after they dismantled barricades set up around Zuccotti Park. Lately these protests have been misguided and have targeted the President as well as candidates for unclear reasons.

HIGHLIGHT: Pope's New Year's Day Message Watch: YouTube

Sunday, January 1, 2012

December 31, 2011

Happy New Year from Easy Start News

POLITICS: Campaign Updates New polling shows that Mitt Romney and Ron Paul are still in a virtual tie in Iowa, 24% and 22% respectively. Rick Santorum has surged and is now at 15%. New Gingrich, Rick Perry, and Michell Bachmann follow with 12%, 11%, and 7%, respectively. 41% of likely caucus goers, however, say they have not ruled out changing their mind. In other news, after Kelly Clarkson endorsed Ron Paul via Twitter, her sales have risen through the roof. Read More: Reuters | Los Angeles Times | New York Daily News

DOMESTIC: Occupy Charlotte Protesters Burn American Flag In a controversial move, some Occupy Charlotte protesters burned two American flags. Since flag burning is not a crime, four men were arrested for careless use of fire, a misdemeanor. The burning has brought negative light on the group. Members of the group as well are torn on the matter. Some stated they will leave the group if the four men are not ousted from it. Others have said they will leave if they are ousted. Read More: Los Angeles Times | Fox News

DOMESTIC: Minimum Wage in Washington State Exceeds $9 Per Hour Seven states, including Arizona, Colorado, Florida, Montana, Ohio, Oregon, Vermont and Washington have laws which increase the minimum wage in their state according to inflation. Washington state is the first to surpass $9 per hour. While it may seem like entirely good news, many criticize minimum wage laws because they lead to job losses. The Federal minimum wage for the remaining states is $7.25 per hour. Read More: Coosa Valley News | Reuters

HIGHLIGHT: The World Celebrates the New Year Watch: YouTube