Overnight News Digest, aka OND, is a community feature here at Daily Kos. Each editor selects news stories on a wide range of topics.
The OND community was founded by Magnifico.
Welcome to all, join us in the comment section to share a news articles and jump into the community chat.
Massive Response at NJ Port After Noises Heard in Cargo Container
By Jonathan Dienst and Brian Thompson
Homeland security authorities descended on a ship at Port Newark after U.S. Coast Guard officials heard sounds coming from a cargo container area below deck during a routine inspection early Wednesday.
Officials suspected there may have been stowaways on board, but were not certain which container was the source of the noise. Inspectors began checking containers in the morning, and the search was expected to continue overnight.
The ship, called the Ville d'Aquarius, originated in the United Arab Emirates on May 30 and stopped in ports in Pakistan, India and Egypt before arriving in the U.S.
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Stockton, Calif., tests legalities of city bankruptcies
By Dennis Cauchon and Judy Keen
The bankruptcy of Stockton, Calif., could be the crucial test case that determines whether local governments can use the federal courts to shed burdensome retirement benefits in a way that corporations often do.
The struggling city of 291,000 has been firing police, firefighters and other workers for several years to reduce payroll costs so it can pay retirement benefits and debt. The City Council and city manager decided Tuesday — with regret but little disagreement — that it cannot cut more and, instead, the knife must be taken to pension and health care benefits of former workers.
"We have used every tool in our toolkit to try to resolve our financial situation without going into Chapter 9 (bankruptcy)," says Mayor Ann Johnston. "It truly is bad that we're in this position, but it's good that we have a way to resolve our financial situation."
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Forbes ranks Des Moines 4th best place for business
By Lynn Hicks
Des Moines is the fourth best city for business and careers, says Forbes magazine.
Joining Des Moines in the top five are Provo, Utah, (No.1); Raleigh, N.C. (No. 2); Fort Collins, Colo. (No. 3); and Denver, Colo. (No. 5).
Cedar Rapids was ranked No. 33. Omaha was 11th.
Texas dominated the rankings, with five cities in the top 25, led by Dallas (No. 8). California cities make up half of the bottom 10 this year, with Modesto at No. 200.
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FDA OKs first new weight-loss pill in 13 years
By JoNel Aleccia
Federal Food and Drug Administration officials approved a new weight-loss pill Wednesday, giving the nod to Belviq used in combination with a reduced-calorie diet and exercise to combat obesity.
The Arena Pharmaceuticals drug, which also goes by the generic name lorcaserin, is one of three new potential weight-loss treatments the agency is considering and the first new weight-loss medication approved in 13 years. More than two-thirds of adult Americans are overweight or obese.
"Obesity threatens the overall well-being of patients and is a major public health concern," said Dr. Janet Woodcock, the director of the FDA's Center for Drug Evaluation and Research.
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Texas man gets 40 years after 'stand-your-ground' defense fails
By Deborah Quinn Hensel
A retired Texas firefighter convicted in the fatal shooting of an unarmed neighbor was sentenced on Wednesday to 40 years in prison, after his "stand-your-ground" legal defense failed.
Raul Rodriguez, 47, was convicted earlier this month of the 2010 murder of his neighbor, 36-year-old teacher Kelly Danaher, following a dispute about the noise level at a birthday party at Danaher's house.
Prior to the shooting in Huffman, a rural Texas community northeast of Houston, Rodriguez videotaped himself calling police and telling a dispatcher that his life was in danger and that "I'm standing my ground here.
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Black Marines Belatedly Honored
BY DANIEL LIPPMAN
A group of African-Americans who were the first blacks to join the Marine Corps were awarded the Congressional Gold Medal, a top civilian honor, in belated recognition for their service during World War II.
At a ceremony Wednesday in the Capitol's Emancipation Hall, lawmakers praised the men for stepping up to serve the country, even though they faced a segregated military and nation that didn't fully accept them.
"You were young, brave and committed to serving a country that did not yet appreciate your sacrifices," said Sen. Kay Hagan (D., N.C.).
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Alaska debris said to be from 1952 Air Force crash
Yereth Rosen
Likely wreckage of a U.S. Air Force plane that crashed into the side of an Alaska mountain 60 years ago - killing all 52 servicemen on board - has been found on a glacier miles from the point of impact, military officials said on Wednesday.
A military spokeswoman said some debris collected by a recovery team at the glacier was definitely that of the C-124 Globemaster cargo plane that crashed in November 1952, although the identification was still tentative.
"Some of the evidence positively correlates to the United States Air Force Globemaster that crashed in 1952," said Captain Jamie Dobson of the Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command, or JPAC, which specializes in recovering remains of lost military personnel.
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Google's digital glasses move out of lab and closer to reality
By Alexei Oreskovic
Google Inc expects to roll out a consumer version of its electronic eyewear that can live-stream images and audio and perform computing tasks in less than two years, though it stopped short of putting a price tag on the "smart" glasses.
Google Glass, as the technology is known, will be sold to consumers at a price "significantly" lower than the $1,500 that the company is selling it to U.S.-based software developers from early next year, Google co-founder Sergey Brin said.
Brin showed off the glasses at Google's annual developer conference in San Francisco on Wednesday, providing the most in-depth public look at the futuristic technology since Google first announced the project in April.
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Chicago City Council passes pot possession ticket ordinance
BY FRAN SPIELMAN
Most people caught in Chicago with small amounts of marijuana will be slapped with tickets instead of being carted off to jail, beginning Aug. 4, thanks to a groundbreaking ordinance approved Wednesday by an emotionally torn City Council.
Forced to choose between their desire to get more police officers on the street to stop a 38-percent spike in homicides and their fears about sending the wrong message to kids, it wasn’t even close.
The vote was 43-to-3 in favor of Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s plan to issue $250 to $500 pot tickets.
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Clasping Hands, Ex-Guerrilla and Queen Briefly Bridge a Divide
By ALAN COWELL
She wore bright green; he was somber-suited. Between them lay a gulf of history that had been beyond bridging, defined by faith and nation, hatred and loss, war and, only more recently, redemption.
Yet, in what generations on both sides had been raised to see as the most improbable of encounters, Queen Elizabeth II, Britain’s head of state, shook hands on Wednesday with Martin McGuinness, a onetime commander of the Irish Republican Army. It was hard to guess what secret thoughts they harbored behind smiles for the cameras that seemed as warm as they were ultimately inscrutable.
The setting alone, in Belfast, Northern Ireland, evoked three decades of sectarian strife that drew in the British forces, of which the queen is the nominal commander in chief, in a fight with I.R.A. guerrillas seeking a united Ireland before the Good Friday peace agreement of 1998.
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UN to hold emergency meeting on Syria as violence continues to rage
By Patrick J. McDonnell
With a new warning that strife-torn Syria confronts a “catastrophic” fate, the United Nations said Wednesday it will convene an emergency session Saturday in a bid to salvage a faltering, U.N.-brokered peace plan that has failed to halt the nation’s slide toward civil war.
US Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton agreed to participate in the “Action Group for Syria” meeting in Geneva after special US envoy Kofi Annan excluded Iran, Washington’s arch-enemy and a stalwart ally of Syrian President Bashar Assad. British officials also welcomed the Annan plan and Foreign Secretary William Hague announced he would attend the Saturday session.
The top US diplomat said Annan had devised a “political transition road map” that provides some hope for resolving the bloody conflict that is escalating into an unchecked cycle of sectarian murders, kidnappings and atrocities by both sides, according to a new U.N. report.
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