Friday, July 30, 2010
By Matt Cover, Staff Writer

L. Brent Bozell III, president of the Media Research Center – the parent organization of CNSNews.com

(CNSNews.com) – Conservative media watchdog L. Brent Bozell III has issued an open letter to Washington Post Executive Editor Marcus Brauchli calling on the Post to fully divulge the involvement of its employees with the controversial Journolist e-mail list.
 
Bozell, president of the Media Research Center – the parent organization of CNSNews.com – pointed out that several Post employees were members of the liberal email list. This association, he said, put the paper’s credibility and impartiality in doubt. Read more »

Friday, July 30, 2010
By Fred Lucas, Staff Writer

NEW YORK (AdAge.com) — Unilever’s Omo detergent is adding an unusual ingredient to its two-pound detergent box in Brazil: a GPS device that allows its promotions agency Bullet to track shoppers and follow them to their front doors. Read more »

The Washington Times

by Stephen Dinan

With Congress gridlocked on an immigration bill, the Obama administration is considering using a back door to stop deporting many illegal immigrants – what a draft government memo said could be “a non-legislative version of amnesty.”

The memo, addressed to U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services Director Alejandro Mayorkas and written by four agency staffers, lists tools it says the administration has to “reduce the threat of removal” for many illegal immigrants who have run afoul of immigration authorities.

“In the absence of comprehensive immigration reform, USCIS can extend benefits and/or protections to many individuals and groups by issuing new guidance and regulations, exercising discretion with regard to parole-in-place, deferred action and the issuance of Notices to Appear,” the staffers wrote in the memo, which was obtained by Sen. Charles E. Grassley, Iowa Republican. Read more »

July 29 (Bloomberg) — Oracle Corp., the world’s second- biggest software maker, was sued today by the U.S. Justice Department, which claimed the company overcharged the government on a contract worth hundreds of millions of dollars.

Oracle defrauded the government on a software contract with the General Services Administration between 1998 and 2006, according to the complaint. The company failed to give the government the same discounts it offered its most favored commercial customers, the Justice Department claims. Read more »

July 30 (Bloomberg) — Research In Motion Ltd., maker of the BlackBerry smartphone, plans to introduce a tablet computer in November to compete with Apple Inc’s iPad, according to two people familiar with the company’s plans.

The device will have roughly the same dimensions as the iPad, which has a 9.7-inch diagonal screen, said the two people who wouldn’t be identified because the plans haven’t been made public. The device will include Wi-Fi and Bluetooth wireless technology that will allow people to use their BlackBerry smartphones to connect to the Internet, the two people said. Read more »

By Mark Thomas | IRN/USA News

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev has widened the power of the Federal Security Service, giving it Soviet-era KGB powers.  Rights groups are criticizing the new law saying it could be used to stifle protests and intimidate the Kremlin’s political opponents. 

Under the new law the FSB, the main successor to the KGB, can now issue warnings or detain people suspected of preparing to commit crimes against Russia’s security.   The Kremlin says law the law is part of an effort to combat extremism and thwart terrorist attacks, however critics argue that the measures could be used to infringe the rights of opposition. Read more »

Reporting by Ben Blanchard; Editing by Sanjeev Miglani | Reuters

BEIJING (Reuters) – Chinese naval forces have carried out a series of drills in the South China Sea, the Defense Ministry said on Thursday, strategic waters which are disputed by a number of Southeast Asia countries. Read more »

By  Jim Meyers | Newsmax

Sheriff Joe Arpaio, the controversial top cop in Maricopa County, Ariz., tells Newsmax he will jail any protesters who attempt to block his jail on Thursday when provisions of his state’s tough new immigration law take effect. Read more »

By Edwin Mora | CNSNews.com

Some Mexican drug-trafficking organizations (DTOs) are involved in smuggling potential terrorists across the southwestern border, according to the Government Accountability Office.
 
“Aliens from countries of special interest to the United States such as Afghanistan, Iran, Iraq, and Pakistan (known as special-interest aliens) also illegally enter the United States through the [southwest border] region,” Richard Stana, the GAO homeland security and justice issues director, said in a report  on alien smuggling issued July 22. Read more »

By Avery Johnson, Jonathan D. Rockoff and Anna Wilde Matthews | The Wall St. Journal

Insured Americans are using fewer medical services, raising questions about whether patients are consuming less health care as they pick up a greater share of the costs. 

The drop in usage is showing up as health-care companies report financial results. Insurers, lab-testing companies, hospitals and doctor-billing concerns say that patient visits, drug prescriptions and procedures were down in the second quarter from year-ago levels. Read more »

By Dunstan Prial | FOXBusiness

So much for transparency.

Under a little-noticed provision of the recently passed financial-reform legislation, the Securities and Exchange Commission no longer has to comply with virtually all requests for information releases from the public, including those filed under the Freedom of Information Act.

Read more »

By Susan Crabtree and Molly K. Hooper | The Hill

House ethics committee chairwoman Zoe Lofgren (D-Calif.) on Tuesday disputed media reports stating she met privately with Rep. Charles Rangel to negotiate a deal with the embattled New York Democrat.

Republicans are privately threatening to derail any deal after several media accounts reported that Lofgren met with Rangel and his attorney Monday night without any GOP members of the ethics committee present. Read more »

Stormy day for Northeast

Thursday, July 29, 2010
By Fred Lucas, Staff Writer

Wednesday, July 28, 2010
By Pete Winn, Senior Writer/Editor