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Clock

Wrongly Convicted Colorado Man Set Free After 16 Years

Ellen Miller
Reuters
Tue, 01 May 2012 03:00 UTC
Image
© Colorado Department of Corrections/ReutersRobert "Rider" Dewey is pictured in this booking handout photo, received by Reuters April 29, 2012.
US, Grand Junction, Co. - A Colorado man wrongly convicted and sentenced to life in prison for the rape and murder of a woman found strangled with a dog leash was exonerated on the basis of new DNA evidence and set free on Monday after spending more than 16 years behind bars.

Robert "Rider" Dewey walked out of a courthouse in Grand Junction, Colorado, a free man after a judge found him innocent of the 1994 killing and said his exoneration marked a "historic day" for the state.

"Mr. Dewey spent 6,219 days of his life incarcerated for a crime he did not do," Mesa County District Judge Brian Flynn said during the brief hearing. "This is a reminder to the entire system that it's not perfect."

Flynn said prosecutors had not committed misconduct, Dewey had been represented by good defense attorneys, and an impartial jury had heard the case but added: "Despite all these things, the system didn't work."

Prosecutors announced earlier on Monday they were seeking an arrest warrant for a new suspect in the 1994 killing who was identified by DNA testing and is already serving a life sentence for a similar 1989 murder.
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Bad Guys

BP Sees a Return to Grandeur as Gulf Fishermen Reel From Disaster

Rocky Kistner
Huffington Post
Fri, 27 Apr 2012 13:09 UTC
The second memorial of the nation's worst oil catastrophe has come and gone, forever linked to Earth Day and seared into the psyches of millions of Gulf residents and fishermen. In recent weeks, the media has unleashed a torrent of stories about the devastating impacts of the nation's worst oil spill disaster; deaths, disease and deformities in the fisheries; a two-year record-setting die off in dolphin populations; medical emergencies and family health crises in coastal communities; and ongoing Congressional wrangling over tens of millions of dollars in fines needed to save and rebuild the rapidly disappearing Gulf coast.

But it won't be long before these stories fade from the consciousness of a nation once riveted by the volcanic well spewing out Louisiana crude a mile below the sea. Instead we will see more stories like this one BP published in the Alabama Press-Register last week: "After Two Years, The Grandeur of the Gulf Is Returning."
These days, we don't see oily sheens and miles of orange containment boom; we see sparkling water and clean sand, dotted with deck chairs and beach towels. On the horizon, we don't see an armada of ships skimming oil; we see fishing vessels at work gathering the day's catch. And, in the skies and on the ground, we don't see planes and large cleanup crews; we see birds and other wildlife at play.

But one thing is clear: Many of the dire predictions for the Gulf, made in the days and weeks after the accident, have not turned out to be true. Indeed, after two years of hard work alongside local, state and federal officials, the scientific community and the people of the region, substantial progress has been made. And the grandeur of the Gulf is steadily returning.
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Bizarro Earth

Exxon Mobil shuts Louisiana oil pipeline after leak

Janet McGurty and Matt Daily
Reuters
Mon, 30 Apr 2012 17:05 UTC
* 22-inch line delivers crude to Exxon Baton Rouge Refinery, 4 others

* Spill contained in immediate area around Torbert, LA

* Baton Rouge Refinery is 3rd largest in U.S.

* Exxon says no immediate impact on Baton Rouge production

Exxon Mobil Corp has shut the 160,000 barrel-per-day (bpd) North Line crude oil pipeline in Louisiana after a leak spilled 1,900 barrels of crude oil in a rural area over the weekend, affecting a conduit that supplies the nation's third-largest refinery.

The 22-inch line originates in St. James, Louisiana, and provides shippers with access to oil from the giant Louisiana Offshore Oil Port and crude from offshore platforms, according to Exxon's website.

It was unclear Monday, the second full day the North Line was shut, how long it might be down. The line pumps crude to ExxonMobil's 502,000 barrel per day (bpd) Baton Rouge, Louisiana, refinery as well as a handful of other plants.

The U.S. pipeline regulator said it had sent an inspector to investigate the leak, but has not issued any orders that would prevent Exxon from resuming operations when it is ready. The company said it had contained the oil in the "immediate area".
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Yoda

Rachel Maddow Takes on the Big Boys in the War On Women

Jason Easley
PoliticusUSA
Sun, 29 Apr 2012 20:08 UTC
Republicans tried to target Rachel Maddow in their war on women, but Maddow made history by calling out the GOP's condescending misogyny on Meet The Press.

Here is the video:


Partial transcript is below:
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Bomb

RFK Assassination: Witness claims second RFK shooter

Eric Pfeiffer
Yahoo! News
Mon, 30 Apr 2012 20:15 UTC

A key witness to the 1968 assassination of Robert F. Kennedy has retracted her official statements in the case and now claims that convicted assassin Sirhan Sirhan did not act alone.

Nina Rhodes-Hughes, 78, tells CNN that the FBI and then-California Attorney General Kamala Harris "twisted" her original statements to authorities.

"What has to come out is that there was another shooter to my right," Rhodes told CNN. "The truth has got to be told. No more cover-ups."

Rhodes' original FBI statement says she only heard 8 gunshots at the time and makes no mention of a second shooter. However, Rhodes, who was just feet away from Kennedy says she never claimed to have only heard 8 shots.
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Attention

Apartheid Israel: Tel Aviv residents protest refugees' presence

YNet
Gilad Morag
Mon, 30 Apr 2012 17:16 UTC
Residents of Shapira neighborhood hold demonstration, decide to create security squads in wake of recent firebomb attack
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Light Saber

Major British supermarket chain Co-Op boycotts West Bank settlement produce

Anshel Pfeffer
Haaretz
Sun, 29 Apr 2012 17:05 UTC
Co-op, fifth biggest supermarket chain in Britain, emphasizes it will continue doing business with companies that can guarantee none of their products come from outside the Green Line.
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Cult

US Pastor Terry Jones Burns Koran, again

Agence France-Presse
The Asian Age
Mon, 30 Apr 2012 16:38 UTC
pastor terry jones
Terry Jones
Controversial US pastor Terry Jones has burned more copies of the Koran and a depiction of the prophet Mohammed to protest the imprisonment in Iran of a Christian clergyman, The Gainesville Sun reported.

The newspaper said Jones and another pastor, who carried out their protest in front of their church in Gainesville, Florida on Saturday, demanded the release of Christian pastor Youcef Nadarkhani from an Iranian prison.
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Cult

Flashback Buy your way to Heaven! Pope brings back Catholic 'indulgences'

Jason Cochran
Daily Finance
Tue, 10 Feb 2009 16:31 UTC
Church
© Sarah Gilbert
These days, you can get a deal on anything. Even salvation! Pope Benedict has announced that his faithful can once again pay the Catholic Church to ease their way through Purgatory and into the Gates of Heaven.

Never mind that Martin Luther fired up the Reformation because of them: Plenary Indulgences are back.
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Gear

Minnesota Public Schools Forcing Kids to Eat Lunch in 10 Minutes

Alexander Brokaw
Minyanville
Mon, 30 Apr 2012 10:37 UTC
Hungry Kid
© Minyanville
Speed eating legend and Nathan's hotdog receptacle Takeru Kobayashi might have to throw in the -- imaginably very greasy -- towel, with a new generation of American children being groomed to master the fine art of stuffing face.

Mother Jones has picked up on an outrageous report out of Minnesota, where two elementary school students claim they're given a measly 10 to 11 minutes to eat lunch. 10 to 11 minutes! Let's break that down. That's one to two minutes getting served food with highly questionable nutritional content, another minute trying to squeeze a seat in at the cool-kid's table. Finally, these sixth graders are given a whopping seven minutes to socialize -- and do I dare say, enjoy themselves -- and, oh yeah, carefully chew and digest their food. School administrations might shave off another minute if they switched to edible packing, allowing students to avoid a trip to the garbage by saving their trash for an afternoon snack.

Fast eating among US students is an unfortunate nationwide norm. The School Nutrition Association, whose mission it is to educate and empower its members to provide healthy meals for children, estimates students have on average 25 minutes to eat lunch. Cost restrictions are equally as tight. Even with new federal guidelines, which provide more funding for fresh and healthful foods in cafeterias, schools have less than $3.00 per a student to spend on mealtime. That's roughly the cost of large cup of coffee at your local Starbucks.
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