The situation at Japan’s damaged power plant remains ominous, though news outlets seem to disagree about the severity of the situation. The New York Times reports that the plant’s No. 3 reactor ruptured on Wednesday and is likely spewing radioactive steam. “The vessel had appeared to be the last fully intact line of defense against large-scale releases of radioactive materials from that reactor, but it was not clear how serious the possible breach might be,” writes the Times. The Wall Street Journal, by contrast, begins its coverage with talk of “setbacks,” including a radiation spike on Wednesday morning and a new fire in the nuclear complex at the No. 4 reactor. It also notes the steam rising from the No. 3 reactor and the “potential release of radiation,” before going on to point out that the levels of radiation being emitted from the plant are unlikely to pose a health threat beyond the plant. “With the troubled reactors dominating the news, developments that might have seemed dramatic in calmer times drew only brief notice,” writes the WSJ, noting that a series of aftershocks have continued to rock Japan, with two on Tuesday night and Wednesday morning registering more than 6.0 in magnitude.

Source: Wall Street Journal

Libya’s revolution is in grave danger of collapsing as Muammar Qaddafi closes in on the rebel stronghold of Benghazi, reports the Guardian. Qaddafi’s forces defeated opposition fighters in the town of Ajdabiya Wednesday, sweeping away the last line of resistance protecting the core of the rebel movement. Many rebels are preparing to fight to the death, as Western forces continue to dither over imposing a no-fly zone over the country. Terrified Libyans are now streaming out of the country, fearful of retribution should Qaddafi prevail. Meanwhile, the United States has said it wouldn’t block attempts to approve a no-fly zone over Libya in the UN, but that it’s probably too late for such measures to make a difference. Just getting the warships positioned for the no-fly zone would take a couple weeks, said administration officials. The proposal won’t be considered in the UN until late this week or early next week anyway (the weekend is apparently a no-work zone). On Tuesday, President Obama huddled with advisers to consider options such as boosting rebel forces with Qaddafi’s seized assets and scrambling Libyan government radio signals. No decision was made, however.

Source: Guardian

Get ready for more pledge drives! House Republicans are meeting today to consideration legislation that would cut federal NPR funding for good, reports TPM. The bill in question (HR 1076), is the brainchild of Rep. Doug Lamborn, R-Colo., and would permanently stop the federal government from funding NPR. The emergency move comes after a secret video by conservative muckraker James O’Keefe showed NPR Foundation president Ron Schilling calling Tea Party members “seriously racist” and suggesting that NPR might be better off without federal funding. If this assault against the dark forces behind APrairie Home Companion should fail, Lamborn has vowed to include an amendment to defund NPR in any 2011 budget deal with Democrats. A spokesman for the Rules Committee Democrats has called the bill “reactionary” and said it was being “rushed” through without undergoing customary committee hearings.

Source: TPM

The House has approved a bill Tuesday to fund the government through April 8, reports the Washington Post. This is the sixth stop-gap measure to keep the government running while lawmakers wrangle over budget cuts. It may also be the last, given waning support among Republicans and President Obama for “short-term budget fixes.” (And, one suspects, for looking ridiculous.) The House passed the $6 billion funding resolution 271 to 158, with 64 fewer “aye” votes than for the last short-term fix. While only six Republicans opposed the last stop-gap bill, 54 voted against this one. Despite the growing consensus that the procrastination must end, Republican and Democratic leaders still remain deeply divided on how to tackle the nation’s fiscal woes. “Leaders in both chambers said they recognize that they must come to a resolution on this year’s budget so they can move on to battles over the 2012 budget and the debt ceiling,” writes the Post.

Source: Washington Post

Squatters have taken over a Qaddafi London mansion to show their solidarity with Libyan rebels, reports the New Statesman. “It’s a symbolic and practical reclamation of private property that belongs to the Libyan people. It’s about their struggle,” a protester said of the $18 million pad that belongs to the dictator’s son, Saif al-Islam al-Qaddafi. “People have been arriving in support from all over the UK.” The occupiers, mostly Libyan exiles, have made the four-story marble-clad abode the headquarters of the New Free Libyan Embassy. Amid white couches and tacky candelabras (not to mention a pool, Jacuzzi, and private cinema), the occupiers watch Al-Jazeera on the flat-screen TVs in every room. The squatters have been offered bribes to leave the house, they say, but they are determined to remain. “No amount of money could make us leave this house,” said one of the twentysomething occupiers named Abdullah.

Source: New Statesman

The IRS has awarded an Enron whistle-blower $1.1 million a decade after the fraud-ridden firm collapsed, reports the Washington Post. Despite the reward, the IRS never paid the informant much attention, according to the whistle-blower’s lawyers. “If the IRS had pursued this information in 1999 when my client first informed them of these abusive tax shelters, the government might have realized the depth of Enron’s problems and perhaps taken steps that might have helped avoid a total meltdown,” a lawyer of the Washington firm Phillips & Cohen said in a news release. In addition to announcing the reward, the informant’s lawyers released the whistle-blower’s testimony before the Senate in 2004. In it, the witness said he had spent several years trying to goad the IRS into action with disappointing results. “My experience with the IRS has been extremely frustrating and discouraging,” he said. “What I have encountered is an agency that is resistant to and suspicious of confidential informants, that is, private citizens who are trying to do the right thing by coming forward and blowing the whistle on significant tax fraud.” Under federal law, whistle-blowers can collect a portion of the unpaid taxes the IRS recovers as a result of the information they provide. The IRS said privacy laws prohibited it from commenting on the case.

Source: Washington Post

A mother has filed a lawsuit against York Avenue Preschool, arguing that the $19,000-a-year institution failed to prepare her daughter for placement in an elite private elementary school. Nicole Imprescia enrolled her daughter at York in 2009, but withdrew her in her second year because she felt the school failed to provide an age-appropriate curriculum. The suit claims that York placed Imprescia’s 4-year-old daughter into a class filled with 2-year-olds who were being taught about shapes and colors rather than preparing her to take the E.R.B., an entrance exam that determines placement in New York City’s competitive private school system.  The angry mother is seeking “exemplary damages, costs and attorney’s fees.”

Source: New York Post

A 6.1-magnitude aftershock hit Japan’s city of Shizuoka at 10:31 p.m. local time, knocking out the city’s power and injuring at least two people. It had been preceded, minutes earlier, by a 5.8-magnitude tremor with an epicenter in northeast Japan. Police say that several houses suffered damage from the aftershocks, and officials have suspended high-speed rail service, according to the Telegraph. But Japan’s Ministry of Economy, Trade, and Industry reports that the nearby Hamaoka Nuclear Power Plant remains unharmed, with two of its reactors still operating. Shikuoka is located 87 miles southwest of Tokyo, near Mount Fuji, in a region noted for its seismic activity.

Source: Telegraph

Eyewitnesses tell CNN that pro-Qaddafi forces have reclaimed the Libyan town of Zuwara, entering the rebel-held outpost with tanks and artillery fire around 9 p.m. on Monday and seizing control by early Tuesday. Zuwara is to the west of Tripoli—all the rebel strongholds are in the east—and CNN adds that rebels have had some success fending off government troops moving east towards the oil port of al-Brega. The AP writes that government warplanes also have also begun bombing the rebel town of Tobruk, and are targeting the town’s fuel depots. Meanwhile, theLos Angeles Times reports that a standoff is still ongoing in Misurata, Libya’s “wealthiest and most educated city,” as rebels push back against a tightening government blockade. Journalists have not been given access to Misurata, but witnesses say that rebels have set up an interim government as pro-Qaddafi troops continue to shell the city. Back in Tripoli, NPR’s David Greene says that the mood has relaxed noticeably among government troops in the wake of all the gains. While opposition forces are leaning on the U.N. to establish a no-fly zone, Reuters notes that G-8 countries are not in a hurry. In a draft communique read by the wire service, foreign ministers warn Qaddafi that there will be “dire consequences” if he doesn’t stop killing his citizens, but don’t threaten a no-fly zone.

Source: CNN

More Hispanics showed up in the census than anticipated, with particular growth in states without established Hispanic communities. The 2010 Census showed the number of Hispanics was higher than expected in 23 of the first 33 states for which population counts were made available. “Most of the growth was in states that have fewer than 1 million Latinos and that are relatively recent destinations for large numbers of Hispanics, underscoring how Hispanics have spread to communities where they haven’t lived before,” reports the Washington Post. An analysis by the Pew Hispanic Center showed that Virginia outstripped expectations by 7 percent, while Maryland showed an 11 percent difference. Alabama experienced the most unanticipated growth, with 16 percent more Hispanics than expected. In states with established Hispanic communities such as California and Texas, the discrepancy between estimated and actual Hispanic populations varied by less than 1 percent.

Source: Washington Post

First there were eight planets (goodbye, Pluto). Could there be nine again? Scientists say data from NASA’s space telescope Wise may reveal a gas giant skulking in the outer solar system, in a far away place called the Oort Cloud, reports the Independent. Scientists have christened the potential planet Tyche, and say it is 15,000 times farther from the Sun than the Earth (if it exists at all), which may explain why we haven’t clapped eyes on it yet. Naturally the media has jumped all over the idea of a new, Jupiter-sized planet. Discover Magazine hastens to add that the star-supporting data presented by scientists, based on comet orbits warped by the phantom planet, is “interesting but unconvincing” given the small sample size in the study.

Source: The Independent

Across the country, the clip-clop of police horses is becoming an increasing rarity as departments cut their horse patrols to save money, reports the New York Times. Horses that have served for years are being laid off in Charleston, S.C., San Diego; Tulsa, Okla.; Camden, N.J.; and Boston as the Great Recession takes its toll on police budgets. Supporters of the mounted patrols say horses have no parallel when it comes to crowd-control and community outreach (animals are more fun to pet than police cars, officers say). Others contend maintaining mounted units while officers lose their jobs is indulging in a bit of Rockwellesque nostalgia the force can ill afford. In Charleston, S.C., bicycles and electric T3 scooters will replace equine steeds, saving the city $250,000 per year. The horses need not fear for their pensions, however – Napoleon, 16, and the city’s other retired horses will live out their lives with plenty of hay.

Source: The New York Times

Do you secretly want to punch slow walking people in the back of the head? You’re not alone according to Facebook, which hosts a dawdling pedestrian haters group with 15,000 members. Now, science is confirming what experience has long show: Slow walkers can prompt unparalleled, out-of-control anger. Researchers are calling it pedestrian aggressiveness syndrome, or “sidewalk rage” for short, reports the Wall Street Journal. At its worst, sidewalk rage can lead to a psychiatric condition called “intermittent explosive disorder,” aka punching people in the back of the head. Researchers have come to recognize the signs of a ragey walker – muttering, bumping into people, invading personal space and giving people the evil eye. The next step is to figure out what makes people so apoplectic, and “what that experience is like,” said a scientist at Colorado State University who studies anger and road rage. Researchers believe that anger arises when walkers perceive others to be breaking the rules of the sidewalk: If you’re slow, stay on the right; don’t block the escalator; move to the side to take a picture. When the rules of civility are broken, beware the rager’s wrath. Scientists recommend imagining the person blocking your path is lost or confused, rather than intent on ruining your day.

Source: The Wall Street Journal

Society can’t expect great art for free. That’s the thesis of Scott Turow, Paul Aiken, and James Shapiro, who contend in the New York Times that the walls of Shakespeare’s globe theatre functioned like a modern-day paywall. The ability of artists to charge for their services gave rise to a flowering age of Elizabethan wordsmiths, from Marlowe to Jonson to the bard himself. Later, in the 18^th century, Britain instituted the world’s first copyright law, swiftly followed by America’s founders in the name of “progress of science and useful arts.” In the modern age, however, piracy and the internet itself have undermined the ability of artists to make their endeavors pay, argue Turow, Aiken, and Shapiro (all members of the Authors Guild, unsurprisingly). They add that law professors who trumpet the demise of copyright as an engine of creativity ignore “centuries of scientific and technological progress based on the principle that a creative person should have some assurance of being rewarded for his innovative work.” While a comparison between the demise of copyright and Cromwell’s cultural freeze seems strained, perhaps there’s something to the central point: Without money, love’s labour’s lost.

Source: The New York Times

On Monday, an Ecuadorean judge ordered Chevron to pay a landmark $9 billion in damages for oiling pristine tracts of the Amazon rainforest, reports the New York Times. The bitterly contested case set forest tribal people against an American corporate behemoth in a legal battle that has raged for 17 years. Chevron says the decision is “illegitimate and unenforceable” and that it will appeal. While lawyers for Amazon residents celebrated the decision, experts say it may be a long time before they see any of the payout. “It might as well be Monopoly money, given all the respect that Chevron will show it,” said Ralph G. Steinhardt, professor of law at George Washington University. Chevron contends there’s a wrinkle in the David and Goliath tale, accusing plaintiffs of conspiring to extort $113 billion from the company by fabricating evidence and gaming the Ecuadorian legal system. Ironically, no one disputes that Texaco (now owned by Chevron) did in fact despoil large swaths of the Amazon rainforest in the 1970s while exploring for oil. The point at issue, according to Chevron, is whether the company should still be held responsible for the cleanup.

Source: The New York Times

Romney Beats Obama in NH Poll

New Hampshire went for Obama in 2008, but in a contemporary match-up, the president loses out to Mitt Romney 49-41. A WMUR Granite State Poll shows Obama trailing the potential Republican presidential nominee, who maintains a summer home cum campaign base midst the state’s famous lakes, reports the Boston Globe. Former Massachusetts governor Romney trounces other potential presidential contenders in the New Hampshire poll, garnering the support of 40 percent of likely Republican primary voters. Former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani was next, with 10 percent. Everyone else, including former Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty and former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, languished in the single digits. Just 5 percent of potential GOP voters said they would back Sarah Palin. Obama would obliterate the 2008 Republican VP candidate in a contest, 57-34. The Globe puts Romney’s popularity in the harbinger state down to his support amongst the state’s Rockefeller Republicans. Slate’sDavid Weigel says this is the “first poll I’ve seen in a while that has Obama losing electoral votes he won in 2008,” which might give Republican voters an incentive to “choke down a Romney candidacy.” Despite Romney’s strong showing, Republicans “have some legitimate reason to worry” about the strength of their candidate pool says FiveThirtyEight’sNate Silver. Only Huckabee and Romney are in positive territory when it comes to favorability surveys, and only weakly so.

Source: The Boston Globe

Egypt’s military has agreed to dissolve its government. What happens now? National Journal’s Yochi Dreazen says economic revitalization is critical to stability. “Political unrest is virtually certain to flare up again if the ruling military council fails to create new jobs and kick-start the country’s moribund economy,” he writes. (In fact, pay-related protests have already begun.) But that could require taking on the financial interests of the military, which owns “companies that produce everything from olive oil to washing machines, televisions, cement and even the ubiquitous Safi brand of bottled water.” Even if the country makes progress on the economic front, it still faces huge political hurdles. The military says it will maintain control of the country for six months, so elections are expected near the end of that time. Reuters might be understating things just a bit when it says that after years of political manipulation by the Mubarak regime, holding free and fair elections will be a “complex process.” And Matt Yglesias points out that six months “is a loooong time for every intelligence agency in the world to start setting up shop, bribing various people, cultivating sources, trying to rig things, etc.” Speaking of security forces, Jeff Goldberg is afraid life is about to get worse rather than better in most Middle Eastern regimes. “I’ve been worrying,” he says, “that the events in Egypt, while convincing many Arabs that they can take charge of their futures, and while convincing foreign policy realists that autocrats cannot repress their way to stability forever, have also convinced Middle East dictators not to make the same mistakes Hosni Mubarak made,” mistakes like “letting people gather in sizeable numbers in public squares in the first place.”

Source: Time

If you’re one of the lonelyhearts who will be prowling bars by yourself on Valentine’s night, the Guardian has done you the favor of combing through hundreds of studies on the science of attraction and pulled out the most helpful hints. “Scare the crap out of him and he just might make a move,” is a little nugget of wisdom based on a study which found that men who had just crossed a scary suspension bridge were more likely to hit on a female study participant than men who had crossed a more stable bridge. There are several other gems, including “you might try shouting in his right ear” (because people respond more favorably to requests that come from the right than the left) and “if you prefer ice cream, consider bringing gloves or mittens for your date” (because people associate the qualities of the person they’re speaking to with the temperatures of the things they’re holding). Science also says that a little mystery is preferable to full disclosure (women find a man more attractive when told his response to their Facebook profiles was “ambiguous” rather than positive), and, appropriately enough for February 14, people looking for love should wear red.

Source: The Guardian

You may think Lady Gaga is just famous because she loves spectacle and hates pants. But author Neill Strauss thinks there’s an element of the divine in her success. Not that the Big Guy has directly intervened on behalf of Stefani Germanotta, or Justin Bieber, or Aaron Rodgers, or any of the other celebrities who have recently given props to God for their success. Instead, he argues, the belief that one has been divinely appointed for fame and fortune in this life steels the spine and accelerates the success of famous singers, actors, athletes, and others. Strauss calls it “competitive theism,” a “self-styled spirituality that can be overlaid on any religion and has nothing to do with personal morality,” but with “the belief that God favors their own personal, temporal success over that of almost everyone else.” Strauss says this belief “is often what sets the merely famous apart from the ridiculously famous.” The competitive theists believe they were chosen (Diddy: “My faith is in God. Like, look who I’m rolling with. Look who my gang really is. My gang is God.”) But the “equally talented but slightly less famous musicians” feel like their success was a fluke, and they fade fast. “To deal with the psychological burden of becoming a household name and the attacks that come with it, it helps to be thick-skinned,” Strauss says. “It helps even more to have a sense of divine mission and to feel that, when everyone else seems to be against you, God is walking at your side.” That might explain vice presidential nominees as well as it explains Grammy nominees. 

Source: The Wall Street Journal

The Grammy Awards were rendered relevant this year by a “no frills” performance by indie outfit Arcade Fire, writes the Los Angeles Times. The Canadian group snapped up album of the year for “The Suburbs” in an upset win over Lady Gaga, Katy Perry, and Eminem in Los Angeles on Sunday. Country trio Lady Antebellum won record and song of the year for “Need You Now,” which headlined the second-biggest selling album of the year, behind Eminem’s “Recovery.” Predictably, Eminem won best rap album for his 3.4 million-copy comeback, while jazz singer Esperanza Spalding edged out teen idol Justin Bieber (amongst others) for best new artist. Lady Gaga won best female pop vocal performance and best pop vocal album for “The Fame Monster.” She peppered her acceptance speech with a few profanities, but her most talked about moment came on the red carpet, when she arrived, “incubating” in a giant egg carried by four bare-chested footmen. (Video here.) USA Today reports that Gaga was supposed to spring from her translucent T-Rex-sized embryo in front of the paparazzi outside, but a latch stuck. Without an egg-tooth, she could not hatch until her performance, when she emerged in a yellow getup. Click here for a full list of winners.

Source: The Los Angeles Times

The U.S. State Department launched a Farsi Twitter feed on Sunday to reach out to Internet-savvy Iranians, reports CNN. Its first tweet reads: “US State Dept recognizes historic role of social media among Iranians. We want to join in your conversations.” It’s not clear, however, that Iranians return the sentiment, given that the feed has only 15 followers so far. The move comes as Iranian activists attempted to arrange a protest expressing solidarity with the uprising in Egypt. While publicly paying homage to the ouster of Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak, Iranian officials have moved to suppress dissent in their own country by arresting activists after opposition leaders called for protests on Monday. Once again, the United States called out the regime, via Twitter. “Iran has shown that the activities it praised Egyptians for it sees as illegal, illegitimate for its own people,” the State Department said in its second tweet. Its third tweet reiterated the need for Iran to allow Iranians the right to protest. The Farsi feed follows on the heels of an Arabic-language Twitter launched by the State Department last week.

Source: CNN

Switzerland may cherish its neutrality, but under that peaceful exterior lies a citizenry armed to the teeth. And they mean to stay that way: Swiss voters have just spurned a referendum that would have stopped its soldiers from keeping weapons in the home and tightened up gun ownership rules for civilians. After a heated national debate, exit polls showed that 57 percent of voters stood by the army’s right to bear arms, reports the Wall Street Journal. Europeans may look down their noses at American gun culture, but the Swiss aren’t far behind the United States in firearms per capita. In fact, while the United States has largely relinquished the idea of the citizen-soldier, it remains a cornerstone of Swiss military culture, which relies upon a Minutemen-style conscripted army in place of a standing one. Yet advocacy groups have argued that the prevalence of firearms leads to increased suicides and homicides. Opponents of the referendum, including the Swiss government, said that gun laws are tight enough. The referendum was particularly unpopular in rural areas where recreational shooting is a favored pastime.

Source: The Wall Street Journal

At least 10vstate legislatures have jumped on the birther bandwagon by introducing bill requiring presidential candidates to prove they were born in the United States, reports Politico. After lengthy (and apparently tireless) rumor-mongering about President Obama’s country of birth, states such as Connecticut, Texas, Missouri and Oklahoma are looking into bills that would require presidential candidates to furnish a birth certificate or risk being kicked off the ballot In that state. Though the issue hasn’t gained much traction in the national debate, state lawmakers are still willing to entertain the conspiracy theories. “We don’t think the president was vetted, and it’s just that simple,” said Texas GOP state Rep. Leo Berman who claims he doesn’t know whether Obama is “a citizen or not.” Berman had high hopes for the bill in the state House. “My colleagues love it,” he said, adding that Democrats were likely to block the bill in the state Senate. Republican legislators in Oklahoma have also taken up the issue of proof of birth for presidential contenders. “I’ve not seen evidence one way or the other,” said state Senator Ralph Shortey who claimed the bill isn’t about Obama. “To be honest, I don’t care [if the president is a citizen]. He’s our president, and we elected him, whether he’s qualified or not.”

Source: Politico

California prison officials plan to crack down on contraband cell phones after a spate of problems involving arranged murders, extortions, and notorious killer Charles Manson, reports AP. State officials plan to test a system that would monitor all signals coming from a prison and block unauthorized calls. “If the phones didn’t work from behind bars, that would solve a lot of the problems. A lot of them wouldn’t want the phones anymore,” said a California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation spokeswoman. California Legislators are planning changes to the law that would make it easier to go after inmates using phones illegally. The issue gained notoriety after it came to light that cult murderer Charles Manson had been making calls to people across North America, despite being kept in a high-security prison. The 76-year-old was caught with a phone in 2009 and again last month.

Source: AP

Italian women took to the streets Sunday for a protest titled Se non ora, quando? (“if not now, when?”), demanding that Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi resign. The embattled prime minister’s sex scandals have damaged the standing of women in Italy, protesters say, and there’s growing frustration that he seems determined to hang on to power. Thousands of women, and some men, marched through more than 60 cities and towns chanting slogans such as, “Italy is not a brothel!” Despite the numerous scandals that have engulfed Berlusconi, who vehemently denies any wrongdoing, he still has support in Italy and his approval rating has only seen a slight drop of five percentage points, says the Daily Telegraph. Prosecutors have requested to put Berlusconi on trial immediately on accusations that he paid to have sex with underage girls, and a magistrate is now due to decide whether there is enough evidence to go forward with the trial. “If convicted, Mr Berlusconi could face up to 15 years in prison,” explains the BBC.

Source: BBC News

Dozens of people who attended a fundraiser at the Playboy Mansion have come down with a series of mysterious respiratory illnesses, and health officials are investigating. There have been complaints of respiratory problems, flu-like symptoms, and pneumonia. Many who became sick suspect they contracted legionellosis, a milder form of Legionnaire’s disease that “is caused by a bacterium that grows in warm water and can take root in hot tubs or parts of air-conditioning systems,” explains the Los Angeles Times. Some of those who became sick are blaming a fog machine that was used during the party.

Source: The Los Angeles Times