Actress Amanda Bynes tweeted President Obama to ask him to fire the police officer who arrested her on DUI charges, resulting in the first RidicuList spin-off.
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Post by: Anderson Cooper Filed under: The RidicuList |
Pine-Sol's spokeswoman surprises consumers with hilarious results in commercial outtakes.
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Post by: Anderson Cooper, Isha Sesay Filed under: The Shot |
Anderson Cooper talks with John King, Bill Burton, and Alex Castellanos about outside money and exit poll results in the Wisconsin recall election.
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Post by: Anderson Cooper Filed under: Raw Politics |
Mass. state Sen. Brian Joyce fights to close a school that uses electric shocks to control kids at a special-needs school.
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Post by: Anderson Cooper Filed under: 360° Interview • Autism |
Anderson Cooper and Tom Foreman discuss what the FDA report will say about an electronic shock device used on students in a special needs school.
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Post by: Tom Foreman Filed under: Autism |
CNN's Jason Carroll reports on the Jerry Sandusky child sex abuse trial. Alleged victims testifying won't be anonymous.
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Post by: Jason Carroll Filed under: Jerry Sandusky |
Anderson Cooper talks with a former CIA deputy chief about the significance of the death of Abu Yahya al-Libi.
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Post by: Anderson Cooper Filed under: 360° Interview • al Qaeda |
Reporter's Note: I write to the president every day, but I don’t divulge secrets. Not that I have any he’d be interested in, but still.
Dear Mr. President,
So your White House is being investigated over possible leaks of classified information about a secret program to slow down the Iranian nuclear program. As best I can make out, some reports appeared in the newspapers about such a program and now the FBI is looking into whether the info came from your team. The implication is that you wanted a boost in the polls, so your team slipped out some classified information to show all you are doing to keep the country safe.
Whether this is true, or a witch hunt, or something else entirely, I have no clue.
What I do know is that the culture of leaks has been way out of hand for years, and it only appears to be getting worse. Information seems to be leaked all the time for all sorts of reasons. Frankly, there are times when I’m shocked that anything can remain a secret in this town anymore.
Reports are routinely leaked ahead of time. Secret committee’s have all the integrity of a sieve. Investigators seem to like nothing better than to sit with a reporter, pour the coffee, and spill the beans. It’s ridiculous. And considering that I make my living by getting people to tell me things, you can just imagine how bad it must be.
Fundamentally, I think the issue is a lack of character among a lot of our fair city’s political denizens. I say that because I have often considered the reasons behind these leaks, and rarely is it because the public deserves or needs the information. No, in may experience, leakers usually head that way because they either want to hurt some opponent with embarrassing info, or help a friend with a positive headline. Sometimes they leak specifically to derail something they don’t like, as in: “I’m on a closed door committee considering, oh say, a secret military matter and I’m about to lose a vote; so I think I’ll just get it onto the front page of the New York Times one day before the vote to see if I can spur some public outrage to help my side.” That’s another problem of leaks. Because the leakers almost always have an agenda, they are rarely interested in leaking both sides of an issue…just the side they want out there.
So good luck with the investigation. Like I said, I have no idea what your team has or hasn’t been up to on this one, but if the investigation itself casts a little chill on D.C.’s serial leakers…whomever they may be…so much the better.
Regards,
Tom
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Filed under: Letters to the President • Opinion • President Barack Obama • T1 • Tom Foreman |
A Massachusetts school for special needs students uses a controversial method for trying to control the children's behavior. They administer electric shocks. The number of shocks and the reason for using the device is at the discretion of the Judge Rotenberg Center (JRC) staff.
JRC has students as young as 3-years-old. Their website says they've provided "very effective education and treatment to both emotionally disturbed students with conduct, behavior, emotional, and/or psychiatric problems and developmentally delayed students with autistic-like behaviors."
One graphic video, that school officials didn't want the public to see, shows Cheryl McCollins' autistic son Andre receiving 31 electric shocks in a seven hour timeframe. McCollins was distraught about the treatment and wants JRC shut down.
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Post by: Ella Chick Filed under: 360° Radar • 360º Follow • Autism |
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