In the News: Aug-20

U.S. speaks out against Iraqi special forces raid - 20 Aug 2008 at 2:58pm - ARBIL, Iraq (Reuters) - The U.S. military spoke out on Wednesday against a deadly Iraqi special forces raid on the governor's office in one of the country's most restive provinces, saying it was a "rogue operation."

Robins F-15 flight marks first historic use of synthetic fuel - 20 Aug 2008 at 2:43pm - ROBINS AIR FORCE BASE — History was made at Robins Air Force Base on Tuesday afternoon as an F-15 Eagle flew at more than twice the speed of sound using a blend of synthetic fuel.

Fla. town backs ex-principal in gay student case - 20 Aug 2008 at 2:33pm - PONCE DE LEON, Fla. -- When a high school senior told her principal that students were taunting her for being a lesbian, he told her homosexuality is wrong, outed her to her parents and ordered her to stay away from children.

Study finds minorities more likely to be paddled - 20 Aug 2008 at 11:15am - WASHINGTON -- Paddlings, swats, licks. A quarter of a million schoolchildren got them last year - and blacks, American Indians and kids with disabilities got a disproportionate share of the punishment, according to a study by a human rights group.

States throw out costly electronic voting machines - 19 Aug 2008 at 4:46pm - The demise of touch-screen voting has produced a graveyard of expensive corpses: Warehouses stacked with thousands of carefully wrapped voting machines that have been shelved because of doubts about vanishing votes and vulnerability to hackers.

Thought for the day:
Democracy is the theory that the common people know what they want and deserve to get it good and hard. -H. L. Mencken (1880 - 1956)