In the news...

by Cylinsier

Just a few quick thoughts on several different stories floating around in the news right now.

• The Massachusetts State Senate got a law passed allowing the Governor to appoint someone to Ted Kennedy's seat as an interim Senator until an election can be held in January to find a permanent replacement. A lot of conservatives will no doubt scoff at this move and claim it is blatantly political, pointing out what I myself noted in an earlier blog post: that this same Senate created the old law in the first place back in 2004 to protect John Kerry's potential seat vacancy from a Republican appointment. Well, the original move was blatantly and embarrassingly political, but this one is not. The law should be what they've changed it to be. The Senate does not need to have a vacant seat for such a long time. The law shouldn't have been changed in the first place but changing it again was the right thing to do.


• Scientists are optimistic about some small signs of success in an HIV vaccine. The trials are being done in Thailand and involve over 16,000 participants. Read about it here.
  


• The G-20 is underway here in Pittsburgh and so far, nothing terrible has happened. From what I can tell, the protests have been mostly under control, suffice it to say I'm not going to go up there and see for myself first hand. Apparently, one unruly group had to be dispersed with tear gas, but other than that its been basically what was expected.
  


• Scientists have found water on the moon. Obviously a surprise.
  


• Speaker Nancy Pelosi says the House is still debating on a bill they can all agree on to send to the Senate. And by "they," I mean Democrats. The Republicans are apparently officially being left out of negotiations. For the record, all currently proposed House bills include a public option.
  


• As the New Orleans rebuilding effort continues, visitors might notice more changes than just new buildings. Apparently there has been a huge influx of Latinos to the area. It seems they came to help rebuild and stayed to live and open businesses. New Orleans used to be a Spanish colony, so its somewhat fitting.
  

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