THIS IS A GREAT PIECE, AND TIMELY TOO. From the Twitter Journalism website.
Date : June 25th, 2009 Category : How To's Author : Craig Kanalley
Twitter is the great equalizer. It doesn’t matter if you have 100 followers or 10,000, you can break news. That’s because all tweets are recorded and indexed at search.twitter.com. If someone types the right keyword(s), they can find your tweet.
Breaking Tweets prides itself on giving many different types of Twitterers credit for breaking news, whether it be someone in Honduras with a dozen followers recording the first “earthquake” tweet or a news organization providing the first details of a major story.
But how do you know a tweet’s legitimate?
Here’s some methods I use at Breaking Tweets that you can try too:
1. Timestamp: Anytime something breaks with hundreds of tweets in minutes, like a natural disaster, it’s good to type various keywords and keep paging back until you find the first few tweets about the news. Unless these Tweeters are psychic, they’re probably among the first to have knowledge something’s up and they may have additional context depending on the story.
2. Contextual tweets: Immediately check the Twitter user’s page for related tweets around the tweet you found. You’d be surprised how often someone posts a follow-up tweet later or precedes the ‘breaking tweet’ with other pertinent info. This could provide additional context for the story, but it can also help verify a person, especially if they’re posting pictures or other content from the scene.
3. Authority: Check the Twitter user’s Bio. Is this a journalist? Is it a random person off the street? Is it a prankster? How about a comedian? Check their Web site or blog if they have one listed. See what you can learn about them here. It’s important to have some idea who the Tweeter is as you assess the validity of any tweet.
4. How many past tweets: Be leery of new Twitter users. If it’s one of their first tweets, it could be anybody starting an account and claiming to have info on a breaking story. The newer the account is, the more skeptical you have to be.
5. What are the past tweets: Check for context by examining the person’s Twitter stream. Go back several pages and see what they normally tweet about. Do they interact with people? Check the accounts they interact with for additional background on piecing together who this person might be. If they say they’re in Paris, are they talking about Paris a month ago? Are they tweeting in French? If not, why not? Evaluate the person and get a feel from them as best you can based on past tweets.
6. Google them: Google their Twitter name because sometimes people use a Twitter handle as their user name on other sites. See if you can find a LinkedIn page, a Facebook page and other sites that add to who these people might be. If they don’t list a full name on their Twitter page, and their user name doesn’t turn up much, you have reason to be more skeptical. The more information the person hides, the harder it is to know who they are. Likewise, the more open they are with info, the more likely they’re legitimate.
7. Check for related tweets: If someone says they heard an explosion in Lahore, what are other people in Lahore tweeting about? Check that and see if anyone else is reporting this. Chances are if a series of diverse people are tweeting about it at the same exact time — and they don’t appear related from looking at their accounts –, something’s up.
8. Talk to them directly: Send an @ reply. Start following them and try to send a direct message. Get a conversation going. Ask for more information and build a relationship as best you can. This will help you create a profile of this person and piece together their connection to the story.
These are ways that Breaking Tweets works to verify a tweet. It’s all about context, really – the person’s past tweets, other tweets that support their tweet, seeking more information about them specifically, and seeking more information about the topic. And of course the timing of the tweet is critical too. If you stay on top of the tweets and follow these sorts of steps to verify tweets, you’ll be well on your way to finding great story tips and breaking news well before traditional methods.
Thursday, June 25, 2009
Wednesday, June 24, 2009
Twitter and Revolution
Wednesday, June 24, 2009
These experts were offered today by the Institute for Public Accuracy -- Reese speaks about the irrelevancy of Twitter in mobilizing Iranian protest outside the city centers, where folx are using telephones and word of mouth to organize effectively.
Eileen talks about the lip service major media is giving to Iranian Twitter news, while ignoring similarly-Tweeted news here in the U.S., namely during the Republican National Convention last year where police used concussion bombs against demonstrators and 1,800 perople were arrested including mainstream reporters -- and 90 percent had the charges dropped later.
REESE ERLICH, http://www.alternet.org/authors/853, http://www.motherjones.com/news/outfront/2007/03/brad_pitt_and_the_girl_guerrillas.html, http://marketplace.publicradio.org/display/web/2009/06/10/pm_iran_elections
Just back from covering the Iranian election, Erlich is available for a limited number of interviews with major media. Foreign correspondent and author of "The Iran Agenda: The Real Story of U.S. Policy and the Middle East Crisis," Erlich said today: "This isn't a 'Twitter Revolution.' That description trivializes the broad mass movement that has swept Iran. It is not just the affluent of northern Tehran who are protesting. It's poorer people from southern Tehran -- who organize by plain old phone calls and word of mouth.
"The movement has gone beyond protesting election fraud and now challenges the system. Some protesters want a more moderate Islamic government, others want a return to a parliamentary system that existed in the early 1950s under Prime Minister Mohammed Mossadegh. Mossadegh headed the last democratic government in Iran, which included freedom for political parties to organize, free press and freedom of religion. It was overthrown in a CIA coup in 1953. That's why the government is cracking down so hard; it is threatened to its core.
"There's a big controversy in the U.S. about President Obama's statements on Iran. But they are largely irrelevant to the people of Iran. Given the long history of U.S. meddling in Iran, it's best that the U.S. not further intervene and [instead] let the people of Iran deal with their own government. The U.S. has a long history of sanctions [and] supporting terrorist attacks against Iran that bolster the rightwingers in Iran. The U.S. cannot and should not try to intervene in Iran's upheaval; anything the U.S. does would be counterproductive. It's much more important that Iranians receive people-to-people support in the form of rallies, marches, etc. from American grassroots groups."
EILEEN CLANCY, iwitness@iwitnessvideo.info, http://iwitnessvideo.info
Founder of I-Witness Video, Clancy has for years documented protests in the U.S. and Northern Ireland. Clancy said today: "Protesters in Iran are managing to get some video out to the broader world that challenges the official Iranian government narrative. We've seen similar efforts to expose government repression using cell phone video and the Internet in several countries including Egypt, Turkey and Burma.
"While it's fashionable right now for U.S. politicians to stick up for the peaceful protesters and citizen journalists in the streets of Iran, those sentiments ring hollow. In the U.S., protest events are typically deemed marginal events by the news media, even when extraordinary things happen there. In 2004, 1,800 people were arrested at the Republican National Convention in New York City; 90 percent had charges dismissed; the city's legal bill to date is $8.2 million and hundreds of lawsuits are pending.
"In 2008, the Republican Convention was the most repressive I've ever seen in the U.S.; police were using concussion grenades. I-Witness Video members were followed by undercover police and we were raided twice, once with guns drawn. It was clear that there was an effort to disrupt people who could get video to the broader world. Local reporters were swept up and charges were later dropped. We were actually told by the police that they were tracking us in real-time using geo-location data from our cell phones. Twitter was key for us doing our work."
These experts were offered today by the Institute for Public Accuracy -- Reese speaks about the irrelevancy of Twitter in mobilizing Iranian protest outside the city centers, where folx are using telephones and word of mouth to organize effectively.
Eileen talks about the lip service major media is giving to Iranian Twitter news, while ignoring similarly-Tweeted news here in the U.S., namely during the Republican National Convention last year where police used concussion bombs against demonstrators and 1,800 perople were arrested including mainstream reporters -- and 90 percent had the charges dropped later.
REESE ERLICH, http://www.alternet.org/authors/853, http://www.motherjones.com/news/outfront/2007/03/brad_pitt_and_the_girl_guerrillas.html, http://marketplace.publicradio.org/display/web/2009/06/10/pm_iran_elections
Just back from covering the Iranian election, Erlich is available for a limited number of interviews with major media. Foreign correspondent and author of "The Iran Agenda: The Real Story of U.S. Policy and the Middle East Crisis," Erlich said today: "This isn't a 'Twitter Revolution.' That description trivializes the broad mass movement that has swept Iran. It is not just the affluent of northern Tehran who are protesting. It's poorer people from southern Tehran -- who organize by plain old phone calls and word of mouth.
"The movement has gone beyond protesting election fraud and now challenges the system. Some protesters want a more moderate Islamic government, others want a return to a parliamentary system that existed in the early 1950s under Prime Minister Mohammed Mossadegh. Mossadegh headed the last democratic government in Iran, which included freedom for political parties to organize, free press and freedom of religion. It was overthrown in a CIA coup in 1953. That's why the government is cracking down so hard; it is threatened to its core.
"There's a big controversy in the U.S. about President Obama's statements on Iran. But they are largely irrelevant to the people of Iran. Given the long history of U.S. meddling in Iran, it's best that the U.S. not further intervene and [instead] let the people of Iran deal with their own government. The U.S. has a long history of sanctions [and] supporting terrorist attacks against Iran that bolster the rightwingers in Iran. The U.S. cannot and should not try to intervene in Iran's upheaval; anything the U.S. does would be counterproductive. It's much more important that Iranians receive people-to-people support in the form of rallies, marches, etc. from American grassroots groups."
EILEEN CLANCY, iwitness@iwitnessvideo.info, http://iwitnessvideo.info
Founder of I-Witness Video, Clancy has for years documented protests in the U.S. and Northern Ireland. Clancy said today: "Protesters in Iran are managing to get some video out to the broader world that challenges the official Iranian government narrative. We've seen similar efforts to expose government repression using cell phone video and the Internet in several countries including Egypt, Turkey and Burma.
"While it's fashionable right now for U.S. politicians to stick up for the peaceful protesters and citizen journalists in the streets of Iran, those sentiments ring hollow. In the U.S., protest events are typically deemed marginal events by the news media, even when extraordinary things happen there. In 2004, 1,800 people were arrested at the Republican National Convention in New York City; 90 percent had charges dismissed; the city's legal bill to date is $8.2 million and hundreds of lawsuits are pending.
"In 2008, the Republican Convention was the most repressive I've ever seen in the U.S.; police were using concussion grenades. I-Witness Video members were followed by undercover police and we were raided twice, once with guns drawn. It was clear that there was an effort to disrupt people who could get video to the broader world. Local reporters were swept up and charges were later dropped. We were actually told by the police that they were tracking us in real-time using geo-location data from our cell phones. Twitter was key for us doing our work."
Saturday, June 20, 2009
The Poynter Institute's Romenesko Posts Keller's Memo on David Rohde
News broke this morning that New York Times Pakistan correspondent David Rohde and his Pakistani colleague Tahir Ludin escaped after being held by the Taliban for the past seven months -- and family members credited the NYT and other major media's agreement to completely black out any coverage of the kidnapping, which they say reduced Rodhe's value as a bargaining chip and bought time for the two journalists' escape. Wild!! And welcome home, David and Tahir!
Above is a link to The Poynter's coverage.
Poynter Forums
View Forum Post
Topic: Memos Sent to Romenesko
Date/Time: 6/20/2009 12:31:12 PM
Title: NYT editor's "joyous news"
Posted By: Jim Romenesko
From: Bill Keller/NYT/NYTIMES
Sent: 06/20/2009 12:16 PM AST
Subject: [NYT Newsroom] To the Staff: David Rohde
Colleagues:
Joyous news.
Last night we got word that David Rohde had escaped from the Taliban kidnappers who have been holding him for more than 7 months. He told his wife, Kristen, that he and his translator climbed over the wall of the compound where they were being held in Pakistan, and made their way to a Pakistani military unit. They were airlifted out by the U.S. military, and after a sleep and a physical at Bagram Air Base David will be reunited with his family.
There will be many people to thank -- the family members who stayed strong throughout David's ordeal, the many people at The Times who worked for his release, officials of several governments who offered information, advice and support, and many other news organizations that agreed to keep David's case quiet until it was resolved. As journalists, we all cringe at the idea of sitting on a story, but the consensus of experts we consulted -- and the judgment of the family -- was that a storm of publicity would at best prolong David's captivity by increasing his apparent value, and could well put him in imminent danger. We have withheld information in similar cases at the request of other organizations with employees at risk.
I expect we will be besieged by understandable questions about who did what to make this happen. I hope that if any of you are probed on the subject you'll keep in mind that anything we say about our efforts to get David out -- whether authoritative or speculative -- risks becoming part of the playbook for future kidnappers.
For now, the main thing is to get David to a place where he can spend time with his family, rest and recover. When the time comes, I expect he'll have a story to tell.
Best,
Bill
View Complete Forum Topic
Above is a link to The Poynter's coverage.
Poynter Forums
View Forum Post
Topic: Memos Sent to Romenesko
Date/Time: 6/20/2009 12:31:12 PM
Title: NYT editor's "joyous news"
Posted By: Jim Romenesko
From: Bill Keller/NYT/NYTIMES
Sent: 06/20/2009 12:16 PM AST
Subject: [NYT Newsroom] To the Staff: David Rohde
Colleagues:
Joyous news.
Last night we got word that David Rohde had escaped from the Taliban kidnappers who have been holding him for more than 7 months. He told his wife, Kristen, that he and his translator climbed over the wall of the compound where they were being held in Pakistan, and made their way to a Pakistani military unit. They were airlifted out by the U.S. military, and after a sleep and a physical at Bagram Air Base David will be reunited with his family.
There will be many people to thank -- the family members who stayed strong throughout David's ordeal, the many people at The Times who worked for his release, officials of several governments who offered information, advice and support, and many other news organizations that agreed to keep David's case quiet until it was resolved. As journalists, we all cringe at the idea of sitting on a story, but the consensus of experts we consulted -- and the judgment of the family -- was that a storm of publicity would at best prolong David's captivity by increasing his apparent value, and could well put him in imminent danger. We have withheld information in similar cases at the request of other organizations with employees at risk.
I expect we will be besieged by understandable questions about who did what to make this happen. I hope that if any of you are probed on the subject you'll keep in mind that anything we say about our efforts to get David out -- whether authoritative or speculative -- risks becoming part of the playbook for future kidnappers.
For now, the main thing is to get David to a place where he can spend time with his family, rest and recover. When the time comes, I expect he'll have a story to tell.
Best,
Bill
View Complete Forum Topic
Sunday, June 7, 2009
How to Demystify an FBI File
That supercool Michael Ravnitsky posted this over on the Investigative Reporters and Editors listserv. Gotta checkit out -- just click above on HOW TO DEMYSTIFY AN FBI FILE.
Sunday, May 17, 2009
From the IPA: Interviews Available -- $96 Billion More for War
Institute for Public Accuracy -- PM Friday, May 15, 2009
The Washington Post reports today, "The House passed a bill yesterday that would provide more than $96 billion in funding for the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq through Sept. 30, as President Obama had requested, but a bloc of 51 Democrats opposed it.
"Democratic opponents are accusing Obama of the same charge they leveled against his predecessor: escalating a war without a clear exit strategy."
JO COMERFORD, jo@nationalpriorities.org
Executive director of the National Priorities Project, Comerford said today: "Each dollar spent on war in Afghanistan and Iraq is a dollar not spent on human needs here at home. For instance, taxpayers in Maryland will pay $2 billion for yesterday's House supplemental vote. For the same amount of money, they could have provided four years of health care for 75,000 people, or sent 50,000 students to four-year colleges -- for free.
"Of President Obama's initial $83.4 billion supplemental request, our analyses showed that $77.1 billion was for war and ancillary operations. Of that, we estimated that $52.7 billion was dedicated to the Iraq war for the remainder of Fiscal Year 2009. The estimated remaining $24.4 billion in war-funding is for the expanding war in Afghanistan and related operations.
"At roughly 70/30 (70 percent for Iraq and 30 percent for Afghanistan), this funding split begins departing from the 80/20 split that existed for years and is an indication of the rising costs in Afghanistan.
"To date, the cost of war approved by Congress is $830.2 billion with $657.3 billion to Iraq and $172.9 billion to Afghanistan. The $77.1 billion from the initial supplemental request brought total war spending to $907.3 billion since 2001. Should the Senate join the House in considering additional supplemental funding, total war spending could easily exceed $915 billion."
The National Priorities Project's webpage features a "cost of war" counter as well as a "trade-offs" section, which calculates the localized cost of federal spending decisions.
The Washington Post reports today, "The House passed a bill yesterday that would provide more than $96 billion in funding for the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq through Sept. 30, as President Obama had requested, but a bloc of 51 Democrats opposed it.
"Democratic opponents are accusing Obama of the same charge they leveled against his predecessor: escalating a war without a clear exit strategy."
JO COMERFORD, jo@nationalpriorities.org
Executive director of the National Priorities Project, Comerford said today: "Each dollar spent on war in Afghanistan and Iraq is a dollar not spent on human needs here at home. For instance, taxpayers in Maryland will pay $2 billion for yesterday's House supplemental vote. For the same amount of money, they could have provided four years of health care for 75,000 people, or sent 50,000 students to four-year colleges -- for free.
"Of President Obama's initial $83.4 billion supplemental request, our analyses showed that $77.1 billion was for war and ancillary operations. Of that, we estimated that $52.7 billion was dedicated to the Iraq war for the remainder of Fiscal Year 2009. The estimated remaining $24.4 billion in war-funding is for the expanding war in Afghanistan and related operations.
"At roughly 70/30 (70 percent for Iraq and 30 percent for Afghanistan), this funding split begins departing from the 80/20 split that existed for years and is an indication of the rising costs in Afghanistan.
"To date, the cost of war approved by Congress is $830.2 billion with $657.3 billion to Iraq and $172.9 billion to Afghanistan. The $77.1 billion from the initial supplemental request brought total war spending to $907.3 billion since 2001. Should the Senate join the House in considering additional supplemental funding, total war spending could easily exceed $915 billion."
The National Priorities Project's webpage features a "cost of war" counter as well as a "trade-offs" section, which calculates the localized cost of federal spending decisions.
Thursday, May 14, 2009
Fantastic reporters' resource: Al's Morning Meeting
If you don't spend lots of time at the Poynter Institute's website, you should. Al's Morning Meeting is just one reason -- check him out. I especially like his "Diggin'" posts, because I am a document junkie. As the editor's note on www.poynter.org says:
"Al's Morning Meeting is a compendium of ideas, edited story excerpts and other materials from a variety of Web sites, as well as original concepts and analysis. When the information comes directly from another source, it will be attributed and a link will be provided whenever possible. The column is fact-checked, but depends on the accuracy and integrity of the original sources cited. We will correct errors and inaccuracies when we become aware of them."
This is just from today -- there are loads on his blog, including tips and sources for covering Obama's decision to fight release of the detainee torture photos, and "Covering the Recession's Effect on Social Security, Medicare." L
Al Tompkins
Story ideas that you can localize and enterprise. Posted by 7:30 a.m. Mon-Fri.
Planting Trees on West, South Sides of Houses Can Cut Energy Costs
Posted by Al Tompkins at 3:31 PM on May. 14, 2009
My old friend Jim Sweeney spotted this and sent it to me for Al's Morning Meeting. The idea, which is about how trees can help lower the cost of summer electric bills, comes from the National Institute of Standards and Technology:
"Trees positioned to shade the west and south sides of a house may decrease summertime electric bills by 5 percent on average, according to a recent study of California homes by researchers from the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA)."
Read on for the study's findings.
CHECK AL's TWITTER FEED for nonstop story ideas throughout the day.
A dozen sites
I'm diggin'
*1. Do jockeys matter in a big horse race like this weekend's Preakness?
*2. Poynter's Steve Myers reports on the health of journalism organizations.
*3. Is the honeybee shortage a myth?
*4. Watch these multimedia projects by college students. They'll give you hope that lots of good things are to come for journalism.
5. Check out the newly released Census of Agriculture, "a complete count of U.S. farms and ranches and the people who operate them."
6. The Journalism Center on Children & Families' resource page for journalists covering child sex abuse cases.
*7. The future of fashion electronics is in clothing. Cute Circuit's "Hug Shirt," for instance, lets you "send and feel hugs to and from other Hug Shirt owning friends." There are also jackets with embedded mini-disc players, dresses that sense pollution and body scanners that help design the perfect fitting jeans.
*8. CNET has a resource page tracking the developments of Windows 7, which is to be released this year.
9. This site lets you set up an e-mail address that expires after 15 minutes.
10. Cool widgets from the government that you can use online.
11. The Dart Center for Journalism and Trauma offers tips for journalists covering the Swine flu.
12. Subsidy Scope, a searchable database of TARP transactions, links to a list of banks participating in the FDIC's Temporary Liquidity Guarantee Program.
All of my Diggin' sites are saved on Poynter's del.icio.us page.
May. 14, 2009
Covering the Recession's Effect on Social Security, Medicare
Posted by Al Tompkins at 6:48 AM on May. 14, 2009
Trustees of the Social Security and Medicare funds said this week that the recession has played hell with their finances and that both programs are heading for insolvency. We can see this problem on the horizon, but are we willing to do something about it?
Social Security will start paying out more than it takes in by 2016 -- a mere seven years from now. The program is now projected to be out of money by 2037, which is four years earlier than last predicted.
Medicare is in "much worse" shape, the trustees said. It is already paying out more than it takes in, and Medicare funds are expected to be gone by 2017, which is two years earlier than the last report forecast.
Trustees said an economic recovery won't fix things. In fact, a recovery is already built in to the bleak outlook.
May. 13, 2009
President Obama Shifts Position on Releasing Military Abuse Photos
Posted by Al Tompkins at 3:06 PM on May. 13, 2009
President Barack Obama promised a new openness in government. But Wednesday, he said he opposes the release of dozens and possibly hundreds of military photos that reportedly show prisoner abuse in facilities other than Abu Ghraib. The photos were taken in Afghanistan and Iraq.
The American Civil Liberties Union fought to have the photos released and this week, the Defense Department agreed to stop fighting the release.
Now, the White House said the president "strongly believes that the release of these photos, particularly at this time, would only serve the purpose of inflaming the theaters of war, jeopardizing U.S. forces, and making our job more difficult in places like Iraq and Afghanistan."
Read on to find out about the criticisms Obama received earlier this week for going along with the release of the photos.
"Al's Morning Meeting is a compendium of ideas, edited story excerpts and other materials from a variety of Web sites, as well as original concepts and analysis. When the information comes directly from another source, it will be attributed and a link will be provided whenever possible. The column is fact-checked, but depends on the accuracy and integrity of the original sources cited. We will correct errors and inaccuracies when we become aware of them."
This is just from today -- there are loads on his blog, including tips and sources for covering Obama's decision to fight release of the detainee torture photos, and "Covering the Recession's Effect on Social Security, Medicare." L
Al Tompkins
Story ideas that you can localize and enterprise. Posted by 7:30 a.m. Mon-Fri.
Planting Trees on West, South Sides of Houses Can Cut Energy Costs
Posted by Al Tompkins at 3:31 PM on May. 14, 2009
My old friend Jim Sweeney spotted this and sent it to me for Al's Morning Meeting. The idea, which is about how trees can help lower the cost of summer electric bills, comes from the National Institute of Standards and Technology:
"Trees positioned to shade the west and south sides of a house may decrease summertime electric bills by 5 percent on average, according to a recent study of California homes by researchers from the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA)."
Read on for the study's findings.
CHECK AL's TWITTER FEED for nonstop story ideas throughout the day.
A dozen sites
I'm diggin'
*1. Do jockeys matter in a big horse race like this weekend's Preakness?
*2. Poynter's Steve Myers reports on the health of journalism organizations.
*3. Is the honeybee shortage a myth?
*4. Watch these multimedia projects by college students. They'll give you hope that lots of good things are to come for journalism.
5. Check out the newly released Census of Agriculture, "a complete count of U.S. farms and ranches and the people who operate them."
6. The Journalism Center on Children & Families' resource page for journalists covering child sex abuse cases.
*7. The future of fashion electronics is in clothing. Cute Circuit's "Hug Shirt," for instance, lets you "send and feel hugs to and from other Hug Shirt owning friends." There are also jackets with embedded mini-disc players, dresses that sense pollution and body scanners that help design the perfect fitting jeans.
*8. CNET has a resource page tracking the developments of Windows 7, which is to be released this year.
9. This site lets you set up an e-mail address that expires after 15 minutes.
10. Cool widgets from the government that you can use online.
11. The Dart Center for Journalism and Trauma offers tips for journalists covering the Swine flu.
12. Subsidy Scope, a searchable database of TARP transactions, links to a list of banks participating in the FDIC's Temporary Liquidity Guarantee Program.
All of my Diggin' sites are saved on Poynter's del.icio.us page.
May. 14, 2009
Covering the Recession's Effect on Social Security, Medicare
Posted by Al Tompkins at 6:48 AM on May. 14, 2009
Trustees of the Social Security and Medicare funds said this week that the recession has played hell with their finances and that both programs are heading for insolvency. We can see this problem on the horizon, but are we willing to do something about it?
Social Security will start paying out more than it takes in by 2016 -- a mere seven years from now. The program is now projected to be out of money by 2037, which is four years earlier than last predicted.
Medicare is in "much worse" shape, the trustees said. It is already paying out more than it takes in, and Medicare funds are expected to be gone by 2017, which is two years earlier than the last report forecast.
Trustees said an economic recovery won't fix things. In fact, a recovery is already built in to the bleak outlook.
May. 13, 2009
President Obama Shifts Position on Releasing Military Abuse Photos
Posted by Al Tompkins at 3:06 PM on May. 13, 2009
President Barack Obama promised a new openness in government. But Wednesday, he said he opposes the release of dozens and possibly hundreds of military photos that reportedly show prisoner abuse in facilities other than Abu Ghraib. The photos were taken in Afghanistan and Iraq.
The American Civil Liberties Union fought to have the photos released and this week, the Defense Department agreed to stop fighting the release.
Now, the White House said the president "strongly believes that the release of these photos, particularly at this time, would only serve the purpose of inflaming the theaters of war, jeopardizing U.S. forces, and making our job more difficult in places like Iraq and Afghanistan."
Read on to find out about the criticisms Obama received earlier this week for going along with the release of the photos.
Tuesday, May 12, 2009
Wednesday, May 13 -- Oregon National Guard soldiers to testify on toxic chemical exposure
State Rep. Chip Shields
May 12th, 2009
MEDIA ADVISORY
Media Contact:
Eamon McCleery
503-986-1443
Kellog, Brown and Root alleged to have "disregarded and downplayed the extreme danger of wholesale site contamination" in Iraq.
HB 3480 would provide funds to Guard members who develop cancer as a result of exposure to hexavalent chromium at facility.
Hearing details:
Date: Wednesday-May 13
Time: 3:00 P.M.
Room: HR 50
Where: State Capitol Building
Salem, Ore. - Representative Chip Shields (D-N/NE Portland) announced today that the House Committee on Elections, Ethics and Rules will hear from several members of the Oregon National Guard on Wednesday, May 13 who were exposed to the toxic industrial compound hexavalent chromium while serving in Iraq.
The soldiers will be testifying in support of House Bill 3480, which would authorize the Oregon Military Department to make payments to members of Oregon National Guard who develop cancer as a result of their exposure to hexavalent chromium.
"This bill is about standing up for our soldiers and their families," said Rep Shields. "Passing this bill is a very modest recognition of their pain and sacrifice."
In 2003, Oregon and Indiana Guard Members were assigned to protect Kellogg Brown and Root (KBR) employees who were rebuilding a water treatment plant outside of Basra, Iraq. Soldiers reportedly saw large amounts of an orange-colored dust that contained hexavalent chromium on the ground and covering the pipes in the water treatment plant. Exposure to small amounts of hexavalent chromium has shown a high increase the risk of leukemia as well as lung, stomach, brain, renal, bladder and bone cancers. Three Oregon National Guard members who were exposed have already contracted cancer.
A group of Indiana Guard Members began a lawsuit against KBR in February of last year claiming the contractor "disregarded and downplayed" the seriousness of the contamination.
May 12th, 2009
MEDIA ADVISORY
Media Contact:
Eamon McCleery
503-986-1443
Kellog, Brown and Root alleged to have "disregarded and downplayed the extreme danger of wholesale site contamination" in Iraq.
HB 3480 would provide funds to Guard members who develop cancer as a result of exposure to hexavalent chromium at facility.
Hearing details:
Date: Wednesday-May 13
Time: 3:00 P.M.
Room: HR 50
Where: State Capitol Building
Salem, Ore. - Representative Chip Shields (D-N/NE Portland) announced today that the House Committee on Elections, Ethics and Rules will hear from several members of the Oregon National Guard on Wednesday, May 13 who were exposed to the toxic industrial compound hexavalent chromium while serving in Iraq.
The soldiers will be testifying in support of House Bill 3480, which would authorize the Oregon Military Department to make payments to members of Oregon National Guard who develop cancer as a result of their exposure to hexavalent chromium.
"This bill is about standing up for our soldiers and their families," said Rep Shields. "Passing this bill is a very modest recognition of their pain and sacrifice."
In 2003, Oregon and Indiana Guard Members were assigned to protect Kellogg Brown and Root (KBR) employees who were rebuilding a water treatment plant outside of Basra, Iraq. Soldiers reportedly saw large amounts of an orange-colored dust that contained hexavalent chromium on the ground and covering the pipes in the water treatment plant. Exposure to small amounts of hexavalent chromium has shown a high increase the risk of leukemia as well as lung, stomach, brain, renal, bladder and bone cancers. Three Oregon National Guard members who were exposed have already contracted cancer.
A group of Indiana Guard Members began a lawsuit against KBR in February of last year claiming the contractor "disregarded and downplayed" the seriousness of the contamination.
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