Welcome to the Overnight News Digest
(graphic by palantir)
The OND is published each night around midnight, Eastern Time.
The originator of OND was Magnifico.
Current Contributors are ScottyUrb, Bentliberal, wader, Oke, rfall, JML9999 and NeonVincent who also serves as chief cat herder.
ny times: U.S. Embassy in Syria Closes as Violence Flares
BEIRUT, Lebanon — The United States closed its embassy in Syria on Monday and withdrew its staff in the face of escalating mayhem for which American officials blamed the Syrian government’s unbridled repression of an 11-month-old uprising.
The move was another dramatic moment in a week full of them, as the confrontation in Syria turned even more violent and more unpredictable. Diplomatic efforts have largely collapsed, save for a Russian delegation visiting Damascus on Tuesday, and both the Syrian government and its opposition have signaled that each believes that the grinding conflict will be resolved only through force of arms.
For weeks, Western embassies have reduced their staffs, and on Monday Britain also recalled its ambassador for consultations.
sfgate: Ga. court overturns assisted suicide restrictions
(02-06) 14:34 PST ATLANTA (AP) --
Georgia's highest court concluded Monday that a state law restricting assisted suicides violated free speech rights, a ruling that destroyed a long-running criminal case against members of a suicide group and could reshape the state's end-of-life policy.
The Georgia Supreme Court's unanimous ruling struck down the 1994 law, which bans people from publicly advertising suicide. It was adopted by lawmakers hoping to prevent right-to-die supporters from offering their services in the state.
BBC:
Italy acts on Russia gas shortage amid Europe freeze
Italy has activated emergency measures to conserve gas supplies as freezing weather continues to grip the country and much of Europe.
Italy has been receiving reduced gas imports from Russia - one of its main suppliers - at the same time as gas consumption has soared.
...
The Russian gas giant Gazprom - which supplies about a quarter of Europe's natural gas - says it is facing greater domestic demand because of the extreme cold.
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Here are some stories excerpted from
First Nations News & Views, a new series from Native American Netroots that posts on Sundays. (Content is provided by Meteor Blades and navajo):
South Dakota May Adopt Flag with Medicine Wheel Motif
Rep. Bernie Hunhoff, one of the 24 Democrats in the 105-member South Dakota legislature, is sponsoring a bill to choose a new flag that is different from the state seal. The one he has in mind was designed Dick Termes in 1989 for the 100th anniversary of South Dakota's admission to the Union. It's flashy and contains a stylized medicine wheel inside a sunburst. Medicine wheels are also known as sacred hoops. As described in a June 2007 article in Indian Country written by Dennis Zotigh (Kiowa, Santee Dakota, Ohkay Owingeh Pueblo)
The hoop is symbolic of "the never-ending cycle of life." It has no beginning and no end. Tribal healers and holy men have regarded the hoop as sacred and have always used it in their ceremonies. Its significance enhanced the embodiment of healing ceremonies.
The best known medicine wheel is the 300-400-year-old, Indian-constructed 80-foot stone circle in the Bighorn Range in Wyoming.
Possible choice for new South Dakota flag
Termes's creation was forgotten 23 years ago. But he recently posted it on his Facebook page. And, in yet another example of how social media can turn obscurity into fame overnight, his design could soon be flying over public buildings everywhere in South Dakota. So, in a state known for the rapacity of the Indian wars fought on its soil, in the land of the Black Hills whose ownership is
still in dispute, a place where ferocious anti-Indian racism still thrives in voter suppression and a hundred other ways, a new flag may soon incorporate a Native design as an expression of what Hunhoff calls a symbol of unity.
Bison rancher Ed Iron Cloud, III (Oglala), one of three Indian representatives in the legislature, said such a flag might show unity and coexistence.
— Meteor Blades
Miranda Washinawatok
Menominee 7th Grader Suspended for Speaking Her Native Language
The student body at Sacred Heart Catholic Academy in Shawano, Wisc., is more than 60 percent American Indian and the Menominee reservation is just six miles away. Twelve-year-old Miranda Washinawatok (Menominee) was having a casual conversation with her Menominee friends, as were many other groups in their home room class while the teacher, Julie Gurta, worked on progress reports. Washinawatok, who is fluent in her native language, translated "hello" into "posoh" and "I love you" into "Ketapanen" for her friends. Gurta abruptly walked up to the group, slammed her hand onto Washinawatok's desk and said: "You are not to be speaking like that. How do I know you're not saying something bad and how would you like it if I spoke Polish and you didn't understand."
Gurta had told the group once before that they could not speak Menominee. She did not ask what the girls were saying. Later, another teacher told Washinawatok that she did not appreciate her upsetting Gurta because "she is like a daughter to me." By the time school ended Washinawatok had been informed by Assistant Coach Billie Joe Duquaine, a preschool teacher at the school, that she was suspended from the next basketball game because of an "attitude issue." Washinawatok told her mother she had not talked back, argued with Gurta or otherwise behaved badly.
According to Tanaes Washinawatok, Miranda's mother: "Miranda knows quite a bit of Menominee. We speak it. My mother, Karen Washinawatok, is the director of the Language and Culture Commission of the Menominee Tribe. She has a degree in linguistics from the University of Arizona's College of Education-AILDI American Indian Language Development Institute. She is a former tribal chair and is strong into our culture."
Washinawatok's mother and Tribal legislators Rebecca Alegria and Orman Waukau Jr. met with Principal Dan Minter and the teachers. A verbal apology was given to Washinawatok and a public apology was promised.
However, the letter sent home with students was not the agreed-upon apology to Washinawatok, the family and the Menominee Indian Tribe of Wisconsin.
Principal Dan Minter, however, instead sent students home Wednesday with a letter addressed to Sacred Heart's parents and families. In it, he apologized for allowing a "perception" of cultural discrimination to exist, but denied the reprimand and benching — which are not mentioned specifically — were the "result of any discriminatory action or attitude and did not happen as a negative reaction to the cultural heritage of any of our students." [...] Minter said the incident was the result of "a breakdown of our internal processes designed to offer protection to student, faculty, staff, volunteers and administrators."
"I regret if there was any perception by a student or family that this in any way promoted an atmosphere of cultural discrimination," he said in the letter. "If that perception was allowed to exist, then it is deeply regretted by Sacred Heart School and for that we apologize."
Sacred Heart Catholic School was established in November 1881. One hundred thirty-one years later, it is finally creating a awareness program to promote cultural diversity, which will include education for both the students and staff.
News & Views h/t to Bill in MD
— navajo
• Frybread Mockumentary Spoofs Importance of Which Tribe Makes the BEST: In the comedy More than Frybread, 22 American Indians, representing all federally recognized tribes in Arizona, convene in Flagstaff to compete for the first-ever Arizona Frybread Championship. The film has been selected to show at the Sedona International Film Festival and the Durango Independent Film Festival in 2012.
— navajo
• Tribal Identity Film Selected for Sundance: OK BREATHE AURALEE is writer/director Brooke Swaney's (Blackfeet & Salish) NYU thesis film. It stars Kendra Mylnechuk (Inuit) and Nathaniel Arcand (Cree) with music composed by Laura Ortman (White Mountain Apache). A Native identity film about an adopted woman discovering her past was selected for the Sundance Film Festival 2012.
— navajo
• Daugaard's Staff Attacks NPR Report on Indian Foster Care Scam: South Dakota Gov. Dennis Daugaard, who personally profited from placing Lakota children in non-indian foster homes calls the NPR report flawed and useless. But two members of the U.S. House of Representatives thought the NPR report was valid enough to call for an investigation.
— navajo
Be Sure to Catch the First Nations News and Viewsevery Sunday Afternoon.
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BBC: SeaWorld sued over 'enslaved' killer whales
Five killer whales have been named as plaintiffs in a court case which argues they deserve the same constitutional protection from slavery as humans.
A US judge is considering People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals' (Peta) lawsuit against SeaWorld.
It is reportedly the first time a US court has heard legal arguments over whether animals should enjoy the same constitutional protections as humans.
SeaWorld's legal team said the case was a waste of time and resources.
nytime:
Obama to Return Major Donations Tied to Fugitive
Two American brothers of a Mexican casino magnate who fled drug and fraud charges in the United States and has been seeking a pardon enabling him to return have emerged as major fund-raisers and donors for President Obama’s re-election campaign.
The casino owner, Juan Jose Rojas Cardona, known as Pepe, jumped bail in Iowa in 1994 and disappeared, and has since been linked to violence and corruption in Mexico. A State Department cable in 2009 said he was suspected of orchestrating the assassination of a business rival and making illegal campaign donations to Mexican officials.
When The New York Times asked the Obama campaign early Monday about the Cardonas, officials said they were unaware of the brother in Mexico. Later in the day, the campaign said it was refunding the money raised by the family, which totaled more than $200,000.
nytimes:
Obama Yields in Marshaling of ‘Super PAC’
WASHINGTON — President Obama is signaling to wealthy Democratic donors that he wants them to start contributing to an outside group supporting his re-election, reversing a long-held position as he confronts a deep financial disadvantage on a vital front in the campaign.
Aides said the president had signed off on a plan to dispatch cabinet officials, senior advisers at the White House and top campaign staff members to make clear to donors that they should support Priorities USA Action, the leading Democratic “super PAC,” whose fund-raising has been dwarfed by Republican groups. The new policy was presented to the campaign’s National Finance Committee in a call Monday evening and was set to be announced Tuesday.
“We’re not going to fight this fight with one hand tied behind our back,” said Jim Messina, the manager of Mr. Obama’s re-election campaign. “With so much at stake, we can’t allow for two sets of rules. Democrats can’t be unilaterally disarmed.”
nytimes:
A Bridge Built to Sway When the Earth Shakes
[The] design includes a 525-foot-tall suspension bridge tower made up of four steel shafts that should sway in a major earthquake, up to about five feet at the top. But the brunt of the force would be absorbed by connecting plates between the shafts, called shear links.
The bridge’s concrete piers are designed to sway as well, limiting damage to areas with extra steel reinforcing. And at joints along the entire span there are 60-foot sliding steel tubes, called hinge pipe beams, with sacrificial sections of weaker steel that should help spare the rest of the structure as it moves in a quake.
“At the seismic displacement that we anticipate, there will be damage,” Mr. Nader said. “But the damage is repairable and the bridge can be serviceable with no problems.”
Emergency vehicles and personnel, at the least, should be able to use the bridge within hours of a major earthquake, after crews inspect the structure and make temporary fixes, like placing steel plates over certain joints. Given that the Bay Area’s two major airports would be expected to be out of service after such a disaster, this bridge and the Benicia-Martinez Bridge, another seismically secure span about 20 miles to the northeast, would be “lifeline” structures to bring assistance to the stricken region from an Air Force base inland, said Bart Ney, a spokesman for the California Department of Transportation.
Photo: Mika O. Grondahl/The New York Times
BBC:
Trendnet security cam flaw exposes video feeds on net
By Leo Kelion Technology reporter
Feeds from thousands of Trendnet home security cameras have been breached, allowing any web user to access live footage without needing a password.
Internet addresses which link to the video streams have been posted to a variety of popular messageboard sites.
Users have expressed concern after finding they could view children's bedrooms among other locations.
nytimes:
Charges Against U.S.-Aided Groups Come With History of Distrust in Egypt
WASHINGTON — Authoritarian rulers from Caracas to Moscow and beyond have long viewed pro-democracy groups financed by the United States with deep suspicion, regularly denouncing them as meddlers or spies and sometimes harassing their workers.
But never has a government gone as far as Egypt’s, which on Monday confirmed that it intended to try 19 Americans and more than two dozen other people on charges stemming from a criminal investigation that has shocked Obama administration officials and endangered military aid.
Egyptian state media announced charges against four such nonprofit organizations that are based in Washington and that receive some United States government support. The charges include operating without licenses, “conducting research to send to the United States” and supporting Egyptian candidates and parties “to serve foreign interests.”
California not among states that OK bank settlement
New York, Nevada and Delaware joined California in holding out for better terms.
More than 40 states signed onto a proposed $25-billion settlement with major mortgage servicers over faulty foreclosure procedures, but California, New York and other key states were still not among them.
"This enables us to move forward into the very final stages of remaining work," said Iowa Atty. Gen. Tom Miller, who heads the multi-state settlement negotiations. "Federal and state officials, as well as representatives from the banks, continue to address matters that they must complete before finalizing any settlement."
Miller would not comment further.
The proposed settlement had hung in limbo most of the day as California and other key states pushed past the Monday deadline — an extension of a Friday deadline — to try to get better terms for homeowners from the nation's five major loan servicers.
Miller's decision to move forward, however, doesn't stop California and the other states from joining the agreement later.