Alleged University Shooter Was Suspect in Harvard Professor Bomb Attempt

In Black Caucus, a Fund-Raising Powerhouse

Most political groups in Washington would have been barred by law from accepting that kind of direct aid from corporations. But by taking advantage of political finance laws, the caucus has built a fund-raising juggernaut unlike anything else in town.

It has a traditional political fund-raising arm subject to federal rules. But it also has a network of nonprofit groups and charities that allow it to collect unlimited amounts of money from corporations and labor unions.

From 2004 to 2008, the Congressional Black Caucus’s political and charitable wings took in at least $55 million in corporate and union contributions, according to an analysis by The New York Times, an impressive amount even by the standards of a Washington awash in cash. Only $1 million of that went to the caucus’s political action committee; the rest poured into the largely unregulated nonprofit network. (Data for 2009 is not available.)

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/14/us/politics/14cbc.html?partner=rss&emc=rss

By Sun Staff (contact)

Saturday, Feb. 13, 2010 | 1:45 p.m.

Sun columnist Jon Ralston is reporting that the Tea Party has qualified as a third party in Nevada and will have a candidate in the Senate race to battle for the seat held by Majority Leader Harry Reid.

The party has filed a Certificate of Existence but needs to get 1 percent of the electorate to vote for its candidate in November to permanently qualify, according to the report.

Ralston reported that Jon Ashjian will be the Tea Party's U.S. Senate candidate on the November ballot. Ashjian still must declare his candidacy.

http://www.lasvegassun.com/news/2010/feb/13/report-tea-party-field-candidate-battle-harry-reid/

UPDATED: Did he say no warming since 95?

Here's the BBC story on the interview with Jones and there is no reference in it to his saying there has been no warming since 1995, as reported by the Daily Mail. The statements about the Mediavel warming are accurately reported by the Mail.

But here is the text of the BBC interview from which the Daily Mail drew its statement about no warming since 1995. The first question concerns similar temperatures for three periods since 1860, and the second question is specifically about the period since 1995:

"B - Do you agree that from 1995 to the present there has been no statistically-significant global warming

"Yes, but only just. I also calculated the trend for the period 1995 to 2009. This trend (0.12C per decade) is positive, but not significant at the 95% significance level. The positive trend is quite close to the significance level. Achieving statistical significance in scientific terms is much more likely for longer periods, and much less likely for shorter periods."

Several questions later, Jones was asked by the BBC interviewer about his confidence that global warming has in fact occurred and that human activities are the case. Here is his response:

"I'm 100% confident that the climate has warmed. As to the second question, I would go along with IPCC Chapter 9 - there's evidence that most of the warming since the 1950s is due to human activity."

Note that, while Jones still affirms warming, he carefully qualifies the role of human activities - saying there is evidence, but not making a clear assertion, as he did to the temperature increase.

http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/blogs/beltway-confidential/Global-Warming-shocker-Climategate-scientist-admits-no-warming-since-1995-84337497.html

Climategate U-turn as scientist at centre of row admits: There has been no global warming since 1995

By Jonathan Petre
Last updated at 11:02 AM on 14th February 2010

• Data for vital 'hockey stick graph' has gone missing
• There has been no global warming since 1995
• Warming periods have happened before - but NOT due to man-made changes

The academic at the centre of the ‘Climategate’ affair, whose raw data is crucial to the theory of climate change, has admitted that he has trouble ‘keeping track’ of the information.

Colleagues say that the reason Professor Phil Jones has refused Freedom of Information requests is that he may have actually lost the relevant papers. 

Professor Jones told the BBC yesterday there was truth in the observations of colleagues that he lacked organisational skills, that his office was swamped with piles of paper and that his record keeping is ‘not as good as it should be’.

The data is crucial to the famous ‘hockey stick graph’ used by climate change advocates to support the theory.

Professor Jones also conceded the possibility that the world was warmer in medieval times than now – suggesting global warming may not be a man-made phenomenon.

And he said that for the past 15 years there has been no ‘statistically significant’ warming.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1250872/Climategate-U-turn-Astonishment-scientist-centre-global-warming-email-row-admits-data-organised.html

Iran's parliament speaker said that attempts by the Obama administration to quell its nuclear program will only encourage the Islamic Republic to speed up its uranium enrichment even more.

"Even if U.S. President Barack Obama dares to repeat threats of tougher sanction against us as much as 10 times, we will still be determined to pursue our enrichment program, but with a much faster pace," Ali Larijani said Thursday, according to remarks carried by the semi-official Fars News Agency.

"Whenever we make a significant breakthrough, whether it is launching a satellite into space or any other technological or scientific achievement, they quickly demonize it and claim that it is aimed at military or spying purposes," Larijani said of Western fears that Iran is developing nuclear weapons. "They can not bear to see our progress, which is why they want to keep us as an underdeveloped country."

http://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/news/81001-iran-promises-to-step-up-uranium-enrichment-with-every-white-house-protest

President Obama Signs Law Raising Public Debt Limit from $12.4 Trillion to $14.3 Trillion

February 12, 2010 3:21 PM

Behind closed doors and with no cameras present, President Obama signed into law Friday afternoon the bill raising the public debt limit from $12.394 trillion to $14.294 trillion.

The current national debt is $12.3 trillion. Check out the National Debt Clock, which tells you your share of that -- roughly $40,000 per citizen, $113,000 per taxpayer.

U. Of Alabama Shooting Suspect Also Shot Brother In Mass.

Ukraine's Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko _ apparently defeated by a narrow margin in last week's presidential vote _ ended six days of silence Saturday by saying the election had been rigged and she would challenge the result in court.

Her statement seemed to confirm analyst expectations that she is digging in for a political standoff with her rival, Viktor Yanukovych, that could delay the transfer of power.

Preliminary results from the Feb. 7 ballot gave opposition leader Yanukovych a lead of just 3.5 percentage points. International observers called the election free and fair, but no winner has been officially declared, and Tymoshenko has refused to concede defeat.

She said Saturday she had evidence of fraud and would fight the result, for which the final count is to be announced on Wednesday.

http://townhall.com/news/world/2010/02/13/tymoshenko_calls_ukraine_vote_rigged?page=full&comments=true