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WDET News: Detroit
WDET News Articles
WDET 101.9 FM
  • November 20th Arts and Culture Calendar
    Our weekly look at concerts, exhibits, and other events happening in Metro Detroit. Produced by Amanda Le Claire and mixed by Brad Potts.  
  • Conyers Blasts Obama Over Health Care Reform
    Detroit Democratic Congressman John Conyers is calling on President Obama to take a tougher stance with lawmakers who are uncertain about voting for health care reform.    WDET’s Quinn Klinefelter has more…     Conyers has long championed both health care reform AND President Obama.    But noting the thin margin of victory in getting health care reform through the House…Conyers said on the nationally-syndicated Bill Press radio show that he feared the Obama Administration was pandering to what the Congressman calls “nutty right wing proposals…”while Conyers and his fellow Democrats simply followed suit.  “I’m getting tired of saving Obama’s can in the White House. I mean he only won by five votes in the House. And this bill wasn’t anything to write home about.”    Conyers says he is particularly saddened that the final House version of health care reform allows individual states to opt out of a publicly-operated health care plan designed to compete with private insurers.
  • Detroit City Council Passes on Strip Club Changes
         If Detroit’s strip club ordnance is going to change it won’t happen until next year at the earliest. That’s because a change in the ordinance failed to garner enough votes at the final scheduled council meeting of year. The issue is dead for now… but could be resurrected by the next council when it is seated in January.      Supporters and opponents came to the last meeting to voice their opinions. Supporters say Detroit’s adult entertainment establishments bring crime and drive down property values.      Opponents like Catherine Roy say the clubs can be positive. Roy says she has worked for almost 15 years in the strip club business. She says that’s allowed her to take care of her family’s needs and pay for her own schooling.       “I have been a licensed Cosmetologist as of August 14th and I have been actively and aggressively looking for work in my chosen profession with no luck… now student loan payments are having to be repaid. So, I’m sitting in front of you today and asking you please, not pass this ordnance which could cost me the only job that I have.”     Detroit’s adult entertainment industry employs about 7,000 people and pays $3 million in taxes to the city, annually.
  • Sheila Cockrel Defends Last Week's Walkout
         Detroit City Councilwoman Sheila Cockrel defended her decision to walk out of last week’s special council meeting.      At today’s session, Cockrel explained that she wasn’t given information on the controversial strip club ordinance until she sat down at the table and was then asked to vote on it.      After looking at the ordinance change, Cockrel says it would be damaging to the City of Detroit.       “And that any conversation about limiting constitutionally protected behavior, driving it underground, creating additional criminal activities that will have to be regulated by a strapped police department because of the personal, moral values which people a legitimate and total right to have is a fundamental violation for me of our fiduciary obligations.”       Cockrel says the adult entertainment industry in the city employs about 7,000 people and pays $3 million in taxes annually.       Cockrel says the expert attorney called forward by Council’s Research and Analysis division to talk about the proposed ordinance changes is backed by a conservative Christian Right group called that has lead similar efforts in other cities.       The ordinance died at today’s final scheduled council meeting of the year since it failed to garner enough votes.
  • Detroit Police Seize 30 Pounds Of Cocaine
    The Detroit police have seized over 30 pounds of cocaine… and more than 200-thousand dollars in cash. Officials say this case may be connected to another cocaine bust… that took place last week. Detroit Police Chief Warren Evans says dogs from the narcotics unit helped find other vehicles associated with the initial drug deal. “We developed enough to impound the vehicles because nobody came to claim them…we got a search warrant to find in one of the vehicles was a built in compartment not that come with the car but a compartment built into the car… where there were 14 kilos of cocaine that were secreted and in the other vehicle found approximately 200,000 dollars in cash… so In the last 10 days that’s about 19 kilos of Cocaine and 850,000 dollars in cash” Evans says he’s feeling good about the efforts of the narcotics unit…and the amount of drugs that this seizure will keep out of Detroit. One arrest has been made in the case. Shelby Szymanski
  • Holder Seeks Cooperation Between Metro Detroit Muslims And Federal Government
    U-S Attorney General Eric Holder told a crowd at Detroit’s Renaissance Center last night…that recent events show there remains a great need for cooperation between the federal government and Arab Americans.    WDET’s Quinn Klinefelter has more…     Holder was the keynote speaker at the first awards banquet ever held by the group Advocates and Leaders for Police and Community Trust.    The group is part of an effort by Metro Detroit Muslims and Arab Americans and federal authorities to work towards cooperation…rather than suspicion.    Holder says the recent massacre at Fort Hood Army Base…and an FBI raid in Metro Detroit that left a local Imam dead…should not replace cooperation with fear. “The dialogue between law enforcement and those in the Muslim and Arab American communities has been tested in recent weeks…by events here in Michigan and events far away. Our resolve must not waiver. We must renew our commitment to open communication…even when we disagree.”    Holder adds that the Justice Department remains committed to ending racial profiling in everything from police raids to mortgage lending practices.
  • Kilpatrick Restitution Hearing Continues
         Former Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick will be back in court next month as his restitution hearing continues.      At Wednesday’s hearing, an attorney for Compuware, the former Mayor and an FBI agent all took the stand to talk about aspects of Kilpatrick’s finances. Right now, Kilpatrick wants his monthly restitution payments reduced because he says he cannot afford them. In an earlier hearing, Kilpatrick stated that he was so removed from the household finances that he did not how much his Texas house costs to rent.      FBI Special Agent Robert Beckman says a Dallas area real estate agent told him otherwise.      “When Fielding was attempting to negotiate the terms of the lease Carlita Kilpatrick had to call Kwame Kilpatrick on the telephone before making a decision on the terms so that he could “make sure the terms were correct”.      When on the witness stand, Kilpatrick was not asked about the FBI agent’s assertion.      Another round of questions about the former Mayor’s financial health and ability to pay will take place December 7th.
  • GM Loses $1.2 Billion For Most Of Third Quarter
    General Motors is reporting a loss of $1.2 billion for the summer months.  WDET’s Jerome Vaughn has more. SOQ The loss occurred between the time the “new GM” was created in early July – and the normal end of the quarter on September 30th.  The old GM lost $2.5 billion in the third quarter of 2008. CEO Fritz Henderson says the results do indicate some progress. “Not satisfactory.  I mean…certainly much lower than what it has been – although it’s not necessarily comparable.  And certainly better than our plan going into bankruptcy.  But nonetheless it’s a loss and you cannot be satisfied with it.” GM says demand for its newer vehicles here in the U-S and strong sales in China helped the company’s bottom line. The Detroit automaker also says it will begin the process of repaying billions of dollars worth of federal loans next month.
  • November 13th Arts and Culture Calendar
    Our weekly look at concerts, exhibits, and other events happening in Metro Detroit. Produced by Amanda Le Claire and mixed by Brad Potts.  Friday November 13th City Bird Opening Party    Saturday November 14th Benefit for Chrohns and Colitus Foundation at Small's Bar   Friday - Sunday November 13th- 15th.  Windsor International Film Festival   Friday November 13th  Madison Heights Taste Festival    
  • Local Imams Condemn Ft. Hood Shooting Suspect
         The Council of Islamic Organizations of Michigan released a statement today condemning the mass shooting in Texas, last week.      Dawud Walid is Executive Director of the Michigan Chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations. He says while hate mail and some death threats have come into the community nationally but locally support has been positive.      “We have received calls of support from civic leaders and interfaith leaders who are pleading themselves to stick by the Muslim community during this hard time and to spread the message of peace in our communities and that the Muslim community should not be painted with a broad brush or dragged through the mud because of the actions of one sick individual.”      The Imams of Michigan’s Islamic community released a joint statement calling Major Nidal Hasan’s actions "treason" and "a violation of oath of service to country" as defined by the faith. At the same time, the group urges people not to jump to conclusions about the reason why Hasan opened fire.
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Anandtech Article Headlines
AnandTech Article Channel
This channel features the latest computer hardware related articles.
  • AnandTech Tests GPU Accelerated Flash 10.1 Prerelease
    Updated ATI and Intel acceleration results. Do you hate how painfully slow Flash video playback can be even on the fastest PCs? Adobe's prerelease of Flash 10.1 is about to change all of that. By offloading H.264 decode onto capable GPUs, full screen, high resolution flash video is finally possible without stuttering. Even on an Atom....
  • The Radeon HD 5970: Completing AMD's Takeover of the High End GPU Market
    With 2 Cypress chips on 1 card, today marks the day where AMD completes their takeover of the high-end video card market. It's the fastest single card on the planet for $599, and quite overclockable out of the box. Goodbye GTX 295....
  • The SSD Improv: Intel & Indilinx get TRIM, Kingston Brings Intel Down to $115
    New Update on TRIM fw.Intel and Indilinx SSDs now have TRIM support - we put it to the test. At the same time Kingston helps Intel bring SSDs to the masses with a 40GB X25-M G2 based SSD priced at $115 or $85 after rebates....
  • vApus for Open Source: Creating a virtualized stress test
    If you've been keeping up with our articles for a while, you might have picked up on vApus Mark I: the virtualized stress test we created for internal use at the Sizing Servers testlab. As detailed in Johan's article, this bench consists of 3 separate applications, all of which we are very familiar with due to extensive optimization and stress testing...
  • Core i7 Giveaway Winner, AT on Kindle, Site Redesign Preview and More
    We have a winner! We've also got AnandTech offered on Amazon's Kindle and a preview of the new AnandTech site redesign. I hint about a call to writers and a potential reader meetup in India. ...
  • AMD and Intel Settle Their Differences: AMD Gets To Go Fabless
    Today marks a monumental day in the CPU world, as AMD and Intel have settled their differences and dropped all suits against each other. The ramifications are monumental: AMD will officially go fabless...
  • AMD Unveils Bulldozer & Bobcat: 2011 Microachitectures
    Could this be AMD's comeback? It sure looks bold at a high level......
  • AMD's 2010 - 2011 Roadmaps: ~1B Transistor Llano APU, Bobcat and Bulldozer
    There's not much to talk about from a CPU standpoint with AMD in 2010, so AMD is heavily focused on 2011 and what it plans to do with its first on-die GPU in Llano. Bobcat and Bulldozer also make it back into the headlines as AMD is long overdue for another microprocessor architecture. Bobcat stands to be AMD's first competitive mobile architecture while...
  • Done for 2009: The Holiday MacBook Pro Roundup
    Over the summer we discovered that Apple's newly redesigned MacBook Pro offered battery life to die for. Approaching 8 hours of battery life on a single charge we were curious to see how the rest of the lineup fared. We won't see any new MacBook Pros until 2010, so if you're buying a new MacBook Pro read on to see the 13-inch, 15-inch and 17-inch compared....
  • The Cable Chronicles: Win7 Digital Cable Advisor Released
    As we mentioned in our previous edition of The Cable Chronicles, Microsoft and CableLabs have come to an agreement to allow the installation and use of CableCARDs on unapproved and non-OEM systems, allowing for the wider proliferation of CableCARD equipped HTPCs beyond the handful of OEM systems that CableLabs had previously approved. With Windows 7...
NPR Top News
NPR Topics: News
NPR news, audio, and news podcasts. Coverage of breaking stories, national and world news, politics, business, science, technology, and extended coverage of major national and world events.
  • Tracking A 'Missing' Man By Virtual Bread Crumbs
    Evan Ratliff eschewed his identity and picked up a new one, challenging Wired readers to find him in 30 days in a contest sponsored by the magazine. Lured by a cash price, readers mobilized online in a mad dash to locate Ratliff — who got a little too cocksure for his own good.
  • Socialite's School Brings Hope To Brazilian Slum
    Brazil's ghettos are poverty stricken and violent. But there are people fighting against the odds to turn things around for the poor children of Rio de Janeiro. Among them is an unusual apostle: a Rio socialite who founded a school for slum-dwelling children and views education as an equalizer.
  • Military Unaware Of Hasan E-Mails To Radical Cleric
    Sen. Carl Levin, the chairman of the Senate Armed Forces Committee, said there may be additional e-mails that could have tipped off law enforcement or military officials to the alleged Fort Hood shooter before the deadly rampage.
  • Feds To Drop Charges Against Blackwater Guard
    The Justice Department intends to drop manslaughter and weapons charges against one of the Blackwater Worldwide security guards involved in a deadly 2007 Baghdad shooting, prosecutors said in court documents Friday.
  • Leader Of Sears Tower Plot Sentenced To 13 Years
    Narseal Batiste, who faced a maximum of 70 years in prison, was convicted in May of conspiracy to provide material support to al-Qaida, plotting to blow up buildings and conspiracy to wage war against the U.S. Officials acknowledged the plot never got past the discussion stage and the group never acquired the means to carry it out.
  • Museum: Galileo's Fingers, Tooth Found
    Two fingers and a tooth removed from Galileo Galilei's corpse in a Florentine basilica in the 18th century and given up for lost have been found again, a Florence museum said Friday.
  • Marines Reflect On Duty, Death In Afghanistan
    When the Marines of "America's Battalion" first arrived in Afghanistan, they were eager to get into the fight against the Taliban. Now, as they wrap up their seven-month deployment — and after the loss of a dozen comrades — they see warfare in a different light.
  • Evidence-Based Medicine: Hard For Some To Swallow
    Based on studies, two panels of medical experts this week recommended fewer screening tests for breast and cervical cancer. But people don't always want to do what the data say to do.
  • Obscured By War, Water Crisis Looms In Yemen
    News from Yemen has been dominated recently by an escalating rebellion along the border with Saudi Arabia. But the country has been making news for decades because of its severe overuse of a rapidly disappearing water supply, the result of natural and political causes.
  • In Massillon, High School Football Is 'Who We Are'
    The Ohio school has a 20,000-seat stadium, a $3 million indoor practice facility and a live tiger for a mascot. Massillon teams have won 22 state championships and they're in the running for another one. It's football "sunup to sundown," the head coach says.
NPR US News
NPR Topics: U.S.
NPR coverage of national news, U.S. politics, elections, business, arts, culture, health and science, and technology. Subscribe to the NPR Nation RSS feed.
  • Tracking A 'Missing' Man By Virtual Bread Crumbs
    Evan Ratliff eschewed his identity and picked up a new one, challenging Wired readers to find him in 30 days in a contest sponsored by the magazine. Lured by a cash price, readers mobilized online in a mad dash to locate Ratliff — who got a little too cocksure for his own good.
  • Military Unaware Of Hasan E-Mails To Radical Cleric
    Sen. Carl Levin, the chairman of the Senate Armed Forces Committee, said there may be additional e-mails that could have tipped off law enforcement or military officials to the alleged Fort Hood shooter before the deadly rampage.
  • Leader Of Sears Tower Plot Sentenced To 13 Years
    Narseal Batiste, who faced a maximum of 70 years in prison, was convicted in May of conspiracy to provide material support to al-Qaida, plotting to blow up buildings and conspiracy to wage war against the U.S. Officials acknowledged the plot never got past the discussion stage and the group never acquired the means to carry it out.
  • Insurance Mandate Could Spur Walk-In Clinic Boom
    As it gets more difficult to see a primary care doctor, walk-in medical centers are picking up the slack. And if Congress succeeds in passing a nationwide health insurance mandate, the urgent care industry expects even more growth.
  • Scientist: 'Don't Give Up' On Stopping Asian Carp
    Two Asian carp species that could devastate the Great Lakes ecosystem may be a few miles from Lake Michigan. To halt their migration, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers built an underwater electric fence on a canal 20 miles south of the lake. But tests conducted by David Lodge at Notre Dame indicate that they have gotten close to the lake despite the barrier.
  • Lawsuit Adds To Tumult At 'Washington Times'
    The Washington Times has long thought to be immune from the economic forces challenging the rest of newspaper industry because of the deep pockets of its founder and owner, the Rev. Sun Myung Moon, head of the Unification Church. But the recession has taken a toll on the paper and now an apparent power struggle among Moon's sons is adding to the paper's challenges.
  • Boeing Hopes Long-Delayed Plane Takes Off In S.C.
    Boeing has moved to South Carolina from its ancestral home in the Pacific Northwest to build the 787 Dreamliner. The company will spend less on labor and receive more than $175 million in state incentives. But it will have to train a new workforce, which Boeing's Seattle unions predict may be the undoing of the Southern operation.
  • In Massillon, High School Football Is 'Who We Are'
    The Ohio school has a 20,000-seat stadium, a $3 million indoor practice facility and a live tiger for a mascot. Massillon teams have won 22 state championships and they're in the running for another one. It's football "sunup to sundown," the head coach says.
  • Chicago School Board Chief's Death Raises Questions
    Michael Scott was found shot in the head Monday, his body partially submerged in the Chicago River. The medical examiner ruled the death a suicide, but so far police have not reached that conclusion, and there's widespread disbelief among the mayor and others that Scott would have killed himself.
  • Hard Lessons From Two Mass Killings In Texas
    The Senate is conducting hearings into the recent shootings at Fort Hood — a tragedy that took place just miles from the site of a deadly 1991 attack. That episode, in which a gunman killed 23 people at Luby's Cafeteria in Killeen, Texas, reshaped how police, medical and psychological personnel respond to such tragedies.
NPR World News
NPR Topics: World
NPR world news, international art and culture, world business and financial markets, world economy, and global trends in health, science and technology. Subscribe to the World Story of the Day podcast and RSS feed.
  • Socialite's School Brings Hope To Brazilian Slum
    Brazil's ghettos are poverty stricken and violent. But there are people fighting against the odds to turn things around for the poor children of Rio de Janeiro. Among them is an unusual apostle: a Rio socialite who founded a school for slum-dwelling children and views education as an equalizer.
  • Museum: Galileo's Fingers, Tooth Found
    Two fingers and a tooth removed from Galileo Galilei's corpse in a Florentine basilica in the 18th century and given up for lost have been found again, a Florence museum said Friday.
  • Marines Reflect On Duty, Death In Afghanistan
    When the Marines of "America's Battalion" first arrived in Afghanistan, they were eager to get into the fight against the Taliban. Now, as they wrap up their seven-month deployment — and after the loss of a dozen comrades — they see warfare in a different light.
  • Obscured By War, Water Crisis Looms In Yemen
    News from Yemen has been dominated recently by an escalating rebellion along the border with Saudi Arabia. But the country has been making news for decades because of its severe overuse of a rapidly disappearing water supply, the result of natural and political causes.
  • Record Rainfall Wreaks Havoc In Britain, Ireland
    Raging floods engulfed northern England's Lake District on Friday, killing a police officer and trapping dozens in their swamped homes. In Ireland, more than 3 feet of water shut down the center of the country's second-largest city, Cork, and more than a dozen other towns and villages.
  • Peruvian Police Say Gang Killed People For Their Fat
    Police arrested three members of a gang in the Peruvian jungle that allegedly has been killing people and draining fat from the corpses to sell on the black market for use in cosmetics. Medical experts expressed doubt about an international black market for human fat, though it does have cosmetic applications.
  • Suicide Motorcycle Bomber Kills 16 In Afghanistan
    Two children and a policeman were among those killed in the blast, which wounded at least 23 others when the motorcyclist detonated the explosives in a busy city square in western Afghanistan, officials said.
  • Another Minn. Man Indicted In Missing Somalis Case
    Another man has been indicted on terrorism charges in a federal investigation into the recruitment of Minnesota Somalis to fight in Somalia.
  • European Union Selects Belgian, Briton For Top Posts
    Trade commissioner Catherine Ashton of Britain was selected as the EU's new foreign policy chief and Belgian Prime Minister Herman Van Rompuy was picked for president. Their appointments suggested the need for compromise outweighed the desire for big names like former British Prime Minister Tony Blair.
  • Police, Courthouse Targeted In Pakistan Attacks
    Two police officers were killed by a suicide bomber a day after 19 people were killed outside a courthouse in Peshawar. The bombings brought to eight the number of militant attacks in less than two weeks in the city on the Afghan border.
NPR Business News
NPR Topics: Business
Find the latest business news with reports on Wall Street, interest rates, banking, companies, and U.S. and world financial markets. Subscribe to the Business Story of the Day podcast.
  • Insurance Mandate Could Spur Walk-In Clinic Boom
    As it gets more difficult to see a primary care doctor, walk-in medical centers are picking up the slack. And if Congress succeeds in passing a nationwide health insurance mandate, the urgent care industry expects even more growth.
  • Lawsuit Adds To Tumult At 'Washington Times'
    The Washington Times has long thought to be immune from the economic forces challenging the rest of newspaper industry because of the deep pockets of its founder and owner, the Rev. Sun Myung Moon, head of the Unification Church. But the recession has taken a toll on the paper and now an apparent power struggle among Moon's sons is adding to the paper's challenges.
  • Boeing Hopes Long-Delayed Plane Takes Off In S.C.
    Boeing has moved to South Carolina from its ancestral home in the Pacific Northwest to build the 787 Dreamliner. The company will spend less on labor and receive more than $175 million in state incentives. But it will have to train a new workforce, which Boeing's Seattle unions predict may be the undoing of the Southern operation.
  • Bon Jovi Doesn't Need A Prayer To Make It On NBC
    Bon Jovi is at the top of the album charts this week, riding an unprecedented publicity push. His record label struck a deal with the conglomerate NBC Universal for an exclusive presence on their many TV networks, including appearances on Today, Inside the Actors Studio and The Tonight Show.
  • Goldman Sachs Is Into Sharing, To A Point
    Just because they're masters of the universe doesn't mean the people of Goldman Sachs don't care about their fellow man. Fairly or not, the investment bank, which reported a $3.2 billion third-quarter profit, is perceived by many as a company that places profits and political power ahead of the general good.
  • Jobless In October: A State-By-State Look
    Jobless rates rose in 29 states and the District of Columbia in October, the Labor Department reported. Rates declined in 13 states and were unchanged in eight.
  • Cash Under The Mattress
    Treasury yields briefing dipped into negative territory this week, reflecting investors' lingering concerns about the economy.
  • Sony Hopes Online Service Will Build Brand Loyalty
    Sony's new online service connecting the whole range of its gadgets to downloadable content like movies and games should help build brand loyalty, a top executive said.
  • Is Ron Paul Right About The Fed?
    Rep. Ron Paul, the Texas Republican and lifelong critic of the Federal Reserve, scored a big win on Capitol Hill by getting a House panel to pass a bill requiring new reviews of the Fed's interest-rate decisions.
  • Smoker Wins $300M Judgment Against Philip Morris
    The bookkeeper in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., won a $300 million jury verdict against the tobacco giant. Philip Morris' parent, Altria Group, called the judgment "fundamentally unfair" and said it will seek a court review.
NPR All Things Considered
NPR Programs: All Things Considered
For two hours every weekday, All Things Considered hosts Robert Siegel, Michele Norris and Melissa Block present the program's trademark mix of news, interviews, commentaries, reviews, and offbeat features.
  • Marines Reflect On Duty, Death In Afghanistan
    When the Marines of "America's Battalion" first arrived in Afghanistan, they were eager to get into the fight against the Taliban. Now, as they wrap up their seven-month deployment — and after the loss of a dozen comrades — they see warfare in a different light.
  • Insurance Mandate Could Spur Walk-In Clinic Boom
    As it gets more difficult to see a primary care doctor, walk-in medical centers are picking up the slack. And if Congress succeeds in passing a nationwide health insurance mandate, the urgent care industry expects even more growth.
  • Evidence-Based Medicine: Hard For Some To Swallow
    Based on studies, two panels of medical experts this week recommended fewer screening tests for breast and cervical cancer. But people don't always want to do what the data say to do.
  • Week In Politics Examined
    Senate Democrats hoped to have enough votes this week to pass a health care bill, Obama Cabinet officials faced hostile lawmakers on Capitol Hill and former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin's much-awaited book hit bookstores. Political analysts E.J. Dionne, of The Washington Post, and David Brooks, of The New York Times, offer their insight.
  • Scientist: 'Don't Give Up' On Stopping Asian Carp
    Two Asian carp species that could devastate the Great Lakes ecosystem may be a few miles from Lake Michigan. To halt their migration, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers built an underwater electric fence on a canal 20 miles south of the lake. But tests conducted by David Lodge at Notre Dame indicate that they have gotten close to the lake despite the barrier.
  • Lawsuit Adds To Tumult At 'Washington Times'
    The Washington Times has long thought to be immune from the economic forces challenging the rest of newspaper industry because of the deep pockets of its founder and owner, the Rev. Sun Myung Moon, head of the Unification Church. But the recession has taken a toll on the paper and now an apparent power struggle among Moon's sons is adding to the paper's challenges.
  • Health Care Concessions A Bow To Moderates
    The public option looms large in the minds of voters and certain lawmakers, but not so much in the Senate health care bill. There it limits eligibility, kicks in late, includes an opt-out provision for states, and is expected to cost more than private plans. Leaders say they had to weaken it to round up the 60 votes they need to move the bill forward. Still, its inclusion continues to jeopardize needed support for passage, because several members of the Democratic caucus adamantly oppose any public option.
  • Costs Of Prescription Drugs Spike
    Prices for brand-name prescription drugs are on the rise. In some cases, they are up by more than 8 percent despite a decline in generic drug prices. Uwe Reinhardt, a professor of economics and public affairs at Princeton University, offers his insight.
  • Boeing Hopes Long-Delayed Plane Takes Off In S.C.
    Boeing has moved to South Carolina from its ancestral home in the Pacific Northwest to build the 787 Dreamliner. The company will spend less on labor and receive more than $175 million in state incentives. But it will have to train a new workforce, which Boeing's Seattle unions predict may be the undoing of the Southern operation.
  • Letters: Hayden, Housewares, Santas
    Listeners responded to the interview about the late U.S. Sen. Carl Hayden of Arizona, to the story about the closing of a Boston-area housewares chain, and the interview about Santas and the swine flu vaccine. Robert Siegel reads from listeners' letters.
BBC Front Page
BBC News | News Front Page | World Edition
Get the latest BBC World news: international news, features and analysis from Africa, Americas, South Asia, Asia-Pacific, Europe and the Middle East.
TED Video
TEDTalks (video)
Each year, the TED (Technology, Entertainment, Design) conference hosts some of the world's most fascinating people: Trusted voices and convention-breaking mavericks, icons and geniuses. These podcasts (also available in audio format) capture the most extraordinary presentations delivered from the TED stage.
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Ars Technica
News
  • Shocker: Ars, Hollywood agree on need for ACTA openness

    MPAA head Dan Glickman sent a letter yesterday to both Senator Patrick Leahy (D-VT) and to US Trade Representative Ron Kirk in which he called for a serious US push to pass the secretive Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement. That's certainly expected—ACTA contains a host of goodies for Hollywood and the recording industry—but what came as a surprise was Glickman's irritation at various ACTA "protests" which create "apprehension over the Agreement's substance."

    He's referring to online outlets that have hoisted the anti-ACTA flag over the last year, accusing the treaty of being a pretext for ramming "three strikes" laws through without Congressional oversight or empowering Customs agents to check the contents of your iPod. Based on our reporting, neither of these items appears to be in the draft text, but the secretive nature of the negotiations and the bland, impenetrable public statements about ACTA have fueled plenty of suspicion.


  • Computerized medicine: good for quality, but not costs

    Electronic medical records and the general digitization of medical data and practices are promoted as a way to slow the rapidly inflating costs in the US healthcare system. The push for expanded medical IT has come from the top, with President Obama extolling its virtues and his administration making funding for EMR deployments part of its stimulus package. But many have pointed out that simply throwing computers at a problem isn't a solution unless the software and practices are also in place to allow the medical community to leverage the technology efficiently. A study of US hospital data suggests they may not be: computerization only had a mild impact on quality of care, and it didn't seem to alter costs in any significant manner.

    The study will appear online at The American Journal of Medicine Friday. Its authors combined three datasets that collectively track the computerization and outcomes at thousands of US hospitals. Data on the deployment of medical IT systems were obtained from an annual survey performed by the Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society. The survey contains over 20 measures of computerization, including both administrative and clinical functions.


  • Arrests made in massive, $390/hour Video Relay Service scam

    Dealing with some technology is challenging enough for the hearing-impaired without scammers taking advantage of federal dollars meant to help them. That's exactly what has happened with the Federal Communications Commission's Video Relay Service (VRS), however, and 26 people were arrested Thursday for scheming to steal "tens of millions of dollars" from the program.

    VRS was first launched in Texas in the mid-90s as a way for the deaf to communicate via telephone. A hard-of-hearing or speech-impaired person could use a video phone to dial into a VRS service equipped with sign language interpreters, who would then dial through to a hearing recipient. The interpreters would read the caller's signing over video and speak it to the recipient to help facilitate the call.


  • Microsoft settles with employee accused of stealing docs

    The litigation between Ancora Technologies, Miki Mullor, and Microsoft reached a settlement both in respect of the patent infringement claim and Microsoft's claims against Mullor, Ancora's founder and former Microsoft employee. All claims between the three parties have been resolved; they have agreed to deny any and all liability, and have released each other from all claims of the litigation, but made sure to keep the terms of the settlement as confidential. "I am pleased with this resolution and wish my friends at Microsoft's Windows division nothing but success with Windows 7 launch," Mullor said in a statement.


  • Students get discounts on Exchange-compatible Office for Mac

    College isn't cheap these days, even if you're attending public university. In that case, pretty much any discount offered to students is welcome. Microsoft's Mac Business Unit has just announced that it's offering a special discount on the full Office 2008 Business Edition for US college students, offering them a 70 percent discount off the usual retail price. Even if you're not a college student, though, the Mac BU is offering a range of "holiday" discounts on Office as well.

    Office 2008 for Mac comes in two different editions. The Home & Student Edition includes Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and Entourage, and usually sells for $149.95. The Business Edition, includes Entourage Web Services Edition, which is compatible with Exchange, as well as Document Connection for Mac, Automator actions, templates, clip art, and more; it normally sells for $399.95.


  • FCC outlines seven biggest barriers to broadband adoption

    Almost two-thirds of adults have broadband connections at home, but that's a long way from the ultimate goal: universal adoption of high speed Internet throughout the United States. Depending on which study you believe, we're everything from number 11 to 24 in international broadband penetration rankings.

    So how do we get to somewhere near number one? The Federal Communications Commission's broadband task force has identified seven "gaps" or roadblocks along the path to the Holy Grail. The document doesn't offer any specific solutions to these problems. But the analysis offers clues as to where that National Broadband Plan the Commission has to crank out by February is going.


  • Google Chrome Frame patches Microsoft-reported security bug

    This week, Google released an update to Google Chrome Frame. Version 4.0.245.1 is available and all users should be updated automatically, according to Google Chrome Releases. The release fixes issues where the plugin would not follow redirects properly, where network requests would fail randomly, and where it would freeze IE8 intermittently. What really caught our eye though, was the security fix that's included in the release, and especially who gets the credit for finding it:


  • Microsoft's problematic lack of nightly builds for IE

    After Internet Explorer 9 was officially announced this week and a few tidbits on the release were shared by Microsoft, we had the opportunity to talk to Dean Hachamovitch, General Manager for Internet Explorer, to prod him for a little more information. 

    The overriding theme for IE9, he told us, is delivering a great browser for everyone, especially for developers. The big areas Microsoft is targeting with this release are performance, interoperable standards, and text and graphics. While Hachamovitch made sure not to talk more about IE9 beyond what was already revealed at PDC09, he was quite happy to answer a few of our more general questions regarding Internet Explorer's future.


  • Chrome OS: Internet failing at PC > PC failing at Internet

    MOUNTAIN VIEW — Unless you were hiding under a rock for most of the day yesterday, you're aware by now that Google held a press event at which the search giant pulled back the curtain on ChromeOS, the OS that's really a browser (and is based on the browser that's really an OS). The search giant announced that it is open-sourcing the OS, and described in detail much of its nature and function.

    In this article, we'll recap only a few of the highlights of the announcement, because the news has been covered exhaustively elsewhere. Our main focus here is to provide some analysis and context, and to think about what ChromeOS means.


  • Tracking a mass extinction via mastodon poop

    The Younger Dryas period was an era of extinctions and ecosystem change that occurred just prior to the end of the last ice age. It's also a hot area of research right now, with some researchers suggesting that a comet or meteor struck the earth over North America, killing off megafauna like mammoths and mastodons. That prompted a response that suggested the evidence for an impact might just be a product of bad lab techniques. Now, a new study is out that tracks the decline of these giant herbivores using what the researchers term a "dung fungus." It turns out they may have been dying off well in advance of the Younger Dryas.

    The problem with figuring out cause and effect when it comes to the events of the Younger Dryas is that so many things happened in a geological blink of an eye. The planet warmed rapidly about 15,000 years ago, bringing on the catchily named Bølling-Allerød warm period. But, instead of bringing the ice age to a close, the Younger Dryas arrived, returning glacial conditions to North America for over 1,000 years. The ice age didn't truly end until about 12,000 years ago. Somewhere during this climactic rollercoaster, humans arrived in North America in significant numbers, entire ecosystems that look nothing like the modern one came and vanished again, and every mammal that weighed more than 1,000kg went extinct—fully half of the mammals over 35kg died off, in fact.
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  • Bing Censoring All Simplified Chinese Language Queries
    boggis writes "Nicholas Kristof, a New York Times journalist, is calling for a boycott of Microsoft's Bing. They have censored search requests at the request of the Chinese Government (like certain others). The difference is that Bing has censored all searches done anywhere in simplified Chinese characters (the characters used in mainland China). This means that a Chinese speaker searching for Tiananmen anywhere in the world now gets the impression that it is just a lovely place to visit."

  • Cyber Attacks On US Military Jump Sharply In 2009
    angry tapir writes "Cyber attacks on the US Department of Defense — many of them coming from China — have jumped sharply in 2009, a US congressional committee has reported. Citing data provided by the US Strategic Command, the US-China Economic and Security Review Commission said that there were 43,785 malicious cyber incidents targeting Defense systems in the first half of the year. That's a big jump. In all of 2008, there were 54,640 such incidents. If cyber attacks maintain this pace, the yearly increase will be around 60 percent. The full report (PDF) is available online."

  • RFID Fingerprints To Fight Tag Cloning
    Bourdain writes with news out of the University of Arkansas, where researchers are looking for ways to combat counterfeit RFID tags. Passive tags typically wait for a reader to transmit a signal of the appropriate strength and frequency before sending their own transmission. The scientists found that the amount of power required to trigger this varies quite a bit from one tag to the next, especially when many different frequencies are sampled. This and other physical characteristics give the tag its own "fingerprint" that is independent of the signal information stored in its memory, which the researchers say will facilitate the detection of cloned tags.

  • Try Out Chrome OS In a Virtual Machine
    itwbennett writes "Some very generous Alpha OS geeks have snagged the Chrome OS source code and compiled a version to share with the rest of us, writes blogger Peter Smith. 'The build comes in the form of a virtual machine, which means you'll need VMWare or VirtualBox running, and of course the image of Chrome OS itself. The folks at gdgt are distributing the latter, and they've set up a page with all the links you'll need. You'll need to create a gdgt account if you don't have one yet. The Chrome OS image is only a bit over 300 megs, so it's a fast download. If you need a little more handholding, TechCrunch has a step-by-step guide to getting Chrome OS installed and running using VirtualBox, and a Chrome OS torrent they link to.'"

  • iPhone Game Piracy "the Rule Rather Than the Exception"
    An anonymous reader writes "Many game developers don't think of the iPhone as being a system which has extensive game piracy. But recent comments by developers and analysts have shown otherwise, and Gamasutra speaks to multiple parties to evaluate the size of the problem and whether there's anything that can be done about it. Quoting: 'Greg Yardley confirms that getting ripped off by pirates is the rule rather than the exception. Yardley is co-founder and CEO of Manhattan-based Pinch Media, a company that provides analytic software for iPhone games. ... "What we've determined is that over 60% of iPhone applications have definitively been pirated based on our checks," he reveals, "and the number is probably higher than that." While it's impossible to estimate how much money developers are losing, it involves more than the price of the game, he says. "What developers lose is not necessarily the sale," he explains, "because I don't believe pirates would have bought the game if they hadn't stolen it. But when there is a back-end infrastructure associated with a game, that is an ongoing incremental cost that becomes a straight loss for the developer."'"

  • New Microsoft Silverlight Features Have Windows Bias
    An anonymous reader writes with this quote from a story at El Reg about an early look at the Silverlight 4 beta: "There are ... major changes to Silverlight's out-of-browser functionality, a loose equivalent to Adobe Systems' AIR runtime for Flash. Even when fully sandboxed, which means having the same permissions that would apply to a browser-hosted Silverlight applet, out-of-browser applications get an HTML control, custom window settings, and the ability to fire pop-up notifications. ... Unfortunately, some of these features are not what they first appear. The HTML control in Silverlight 4 is not a new embedded browser from Microsoft, but uses components from Internet Explorer on Windows, or Safari on the Mac, which means that the same content might render differently. The HTML control only works out-of-browser, and simply displays a blank space if browser-hosted. Clipboard support is text-only in the Silverlight 4 beta, though this could change for the full release. More seriously, COM automation is a Windows-only feature, introducing differentiation between the Mac and Windows implementations."

  • How Heavy Is the Internet?
    An anonymous reader writes "Ever wondered how much the internet physically weighs? 498,438,559,990kg, according to CNET. To reach this figure, they added together public data on the weight of every computer, server and connecting cable. To this they added 6,075,000kg of iPhones, and over 6,800,000kg of Blackberries. Finally, they added the weight of 287,524 viruses and 85 billion+ webpages."

  • Anti-Smoking Vaccine Is Nearing the Market
    eldavojohn writes "Almost 6 years ago we discussed a vaccine to help people quit smoking as it entered human clinical trials. Now it looks like the finishing touches have been put on a deal that will go into effect once phase III testing of the drug now called NicVAX is completed. NicVAX was developed by Nabi Biopharmaceuticals, who have agreed to license it to GlaxoSmithKline Biologicals; it is expected to complete phase III testing successfully. Others have fallen short of this goal, in pursuit of a smoking-cessation market expected to hit $4.6 billion worldwide by 2016. Nabi has also sold an experimental vaccine for staph infections; and in 2008 we discussed news of a cocaine vaccine."

  • iPhone Owners Demand To See Apple Source Code
    CWmike writes "iPhone owners charging Apple and AT&T with breaking antitrust laws asked a federal judge this week to force Apple to hand over the iPhone source code, court documents show. The lawsuit, which was filed in October 2007, accuses Apple and AT&T of violating antitrust laws, including the Sherman Act, by agreeing to a multi-year deal that locks US iPhone owners into using the mobile carrier. On Wednesday, the plaintiffs asked US District Court Judge James Ware to compel Apple to produce the source code for the iPhone 1.1.1 software, an update that Apple issued in September 2007. The update crippled iPhones that had been unlocked, or 'jailbroken,' so that they could be used with mobile providers other than AT&T. The iPhone 1.1.1 'bricked' those first-generation iPhones that had been hacked, rendering them useless and wiping all personal data from the device. The plaintiffs say that the source code is necessary to determine whether all iPhones were given the same 1.1.1 update, and whether it was designed to brick all or just some hacked iPhones."

  • Proton Beams Sent Around the LHC
    feldhaus writes "The BBC reports that the first beams for over one year have been successfully sent around the complete circumference of the Large Hadron Collider. Engineers do not yet have a stable circulating beam but they hope to by 0600 GMT on Saturday."

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  • GM Loses $1.2 Billion For Most Of Third Quarter
    General Motors is reporting a loss of $1.2 billion for the summer months.  WDET’s Jerome Vaughn has more. SOQ The loss occurred between the time the “new GM” was created in early July – and the normal end of the quarter on September 30th.  The old GM lost $2.5 billion in the third quarter of 2008. CEO Fritz Henderson says the results do indicate some progress. “Not satisfactory.  I mean…certainly much lower than what it has been – although it’s not necessarily comparable.  And certainly better than our plan going into bankruptcy.  But nonetheless it’s a loss and you cannot be satisfied with it.” GM says demand for its newer vehicles here in the U-S and strong sales in China helped the company’s bottom line. The Detroit automaker also says it will begin the process of repaying billions of dollars worth of federal loans next month.
  • October Auto Sales Show Slight Improvement
    U-S automakers are reporting a slight improvement in sales figures for the month of October.  WDET’s Jerome Vaughn has more. SOQ Industry analysts say the rising sales figures show the nation’s economy is slowly improving. GM’s October sales rose four percent compared to the same period last year.   That’s the automaker’s first year-over-year sales increase since January 2008. Ford saw a three percent improvement in its October sales figures.  Demand for cars and crossover vehicles showed double digit growth – while sales of SUV’s…pickups…and vans dropped. Toyota sales inched up less than one percent.  Honda sales fell roughly half a percent. Chrysler performed worst of the major automakers…with sales dropping 30 percent last month.
  • GM To Retain Opel
    General Motors has announced that it not sell its Opel division.  WDET’s Jerome Vaughn has more. SOQ GM made the announcement in a statement released at the end of the business day.  The Detroit automaker says its board of directors made the decision in light of an improving business climate – and Opel’s importance to GM’s global strategy. GM agreed in September to sell Opel to Canadian auto parts maker Magna…but  European concerns about the proposal surfaced almost immediately.   Auto analyst John McElroy says the development is significant. “It’s a real gutsy move on the part of the GM board.  And it really shows how much strategic importance they place on Opel.”  GM says it will spend about three billion euros ($4.4 billion US) to restructure Opel’s operations.  The Detroit automaker says more details on Opel’s restructuring will be released as the process develops.
  • Ford Earns $997 Million In Third Quarter
    The Ford Motor Company is reporting nearly a billion dollars in profit for the third quarter.   WDET's Jerome Vaughn has more. SOQ  Ford surprised Wall Street analysts by posting a profit of 997 million dollars.  Most had forecasted that the automaker would see a loss in the third quarter. Company officials say gains in market share, successful cost cutting efforts, and the federal “Cash for Clunkers” program led to the improved earnings. Ford even saw its North American operations show a profit again with the division earning 357 million dollars before taxes.  That’s the division’s first profit since the first quarter of 2005. The automaker says it also continued its growth in China -- with sales jumping 63 percent during the quarter. Global revenues dropped by more than two percent to just under 31 billion dollars. 
  • American Axle Earns $19.6 Million in Q3
    American Axle is reporting its first quarterly profit in two years.  WDET’s Jerome Vaughn has more. SOQ American Axle earned 19-point-six million dollars between July first and September 30th.  That compares to a loss of more than 440 million dollars in the same period of 2008. The results surpassed Wall Street analysts’ average expectations. The profits reflect a special one-time gain from the curtailment of pension and post-retirement benefits.  Officials say profits were partially offset by charges related to workforce reductions, and by extended production shutdowns at General Motors and Chrysler. GM accounted for 72 percent of the Detroit manufacturer’s sales in the third quarter. American Axle’s sales for the period rose to nearly 410 million dollars -- down more than 23 percent from the same period last year.
  • Visteon Reports Smaller 3rd Quarter Loss
    Auto parts supplier Visteon is reporting smaller losses for the third quarter of the year.  WDET’s Jerome Vaughn has more. SOQ Visteon lost 38 million dollars between the beginning of July and the end of September.  That compares to a loss of 188 million dollars for the same period last year.  It’s the third straight quarterly improvement for the company. Visteon officials credit cost-saving and restructuring efforts…for shrinking the size of the quarterly loss…despite the challenging state of the global automotive industry. Sales for the period fell nearly 18 percent – to one point seven billion dollars.  The company says demand for its parts fell in every global region it serves…except for Asia. Visteon was spun off from Ford in 2000.  The parts maker filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in May.
  • Ford Recalls 4.5 Million Trucks
    Ford is recalling four and a half million vehicles to replace a defective cruise control switch.  WDET’s Jerome Vaughn has more. SOQ The recall includes certain Ford minivans, full size vans, pickup trucks and sport utility vehicles built between 1992 and 2003.  The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration says the cruise control switch on these vehicles can leak hydraulic fluid and overheat.  That could cause the system to catch fire…even if the ignition is turned off and the trucks are parked. NHTSA says this is Ford’s eighth safety action involving cruise control switches made by Texas Instruments.   More than 10 million vehicles had already been recalled in the past decade. Ford will notify affected owners by mail.  Dealers will make repairs at no cost to consumers.
  • Commerce Secretary Brings Help To Michigan
    The U-S Commerce Secretary says Michigan is the best place in the nation to debut a new program designed to help business owners.   WDET’s Quinn Klinefelter has more…    The program is called Commerce Connect – a way to bring federal resources and contacts to bear on problems facing local entrepreneurs.   Commerce Secretary Gary Locke says the program can streamline everything from making contacts overseas…to creating a better production line. “Experts who can actually come on your shop floor and provide ideas on how to make your production line more efficient…more competitive…to make your company more viable.”    The first Commerce Connect office will be based at the Michigan Manufacturing Technology Center…in Plymouth.
  • Delphi Leaves Bankruptcy
    Auto parts supplier Delphi Corporation emerged from its nearly four-year bankruptcy today (Tues.). WDET’s Sarah Cwiek has more. The Troy-based G-M parts supplier and former subsidiary comes out of bankruptcy with less debt and fewer expenses…but also as a much smaller company. Delphi had more than 50-thousand employees in the U-S…when it filed for Chapter 11 in 2005. It emerges from bankruptcy with plans to cut its workforce to just under 13-thousand by the end of this year. The company will retain only four plants in the U-S…and plans to focus on just a few of the products in its formerly wide-ranging supply business. G-M acquired four plants and Delphi’s global steering business as part of the deal. The new Delphi will be a private company owned largely by its bankruptcy creditors…who have agreed to forgive three-and-a-half billion dollars in debt for ownership. This is Sarah Cwiek…WDET news.
  • Automakers Report Steep Sales Declines For September
    U-S automakers are reporting steep sales declines for the month of September.  WDET’s Jerome Vaughn has details. SOQ Automakers expected the lower sales figures…in the aftermath of “cash for clunkers”.  The federal program pushed many consumers to purchase cars in August – lowering demand – and shrinking vehicle inventories in September. General Motors sold more than 156-thousand cars and trucks last month That’s down 45 percent from September 2008.  Mike DiGiovanni is GM’s director of market and industry analysis. “We got caught a little bit short in September…but that shouldn’t be a problem as we replenish the inventories.”   Chrysler says its sales fell 42 percent – compared to year ago levels. Ford fared the best of the major U-S automakers – with sales falling five percent.  Both Toyota and Honda posted double digit sales declines for the month.
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