Palestine: US Turns on Israel to Save “Proximity Talks”

On Friday, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton bombarded the Israeli government in an interview with CNN. She said Israel’s announcement of new construction of homes in a Jewish neighborhood in East Jerusalem was “insulting” to the United States. She continued:
She had words for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as well, “He is the prime minister. Like the president or secretary of state … ultimately, you are responsible.”

State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley added: “The secretary said she could not understand how this happened, particularly in light of the United States’ strong commitment to Israel’s security.”

Then the Quartet (United Nations, U.S., Russia and European Union) condemned Israel in a statement:

Brown Bashes Obama's 'Bitter' Health Care Push

Newly arrived Republican Sen. Scott Brown of Massachusetts accused President Barack Obama and Democrats on Saturday of a "bitter, destructive and endless" drive to pass health overhaul legislation that Brown warned would be disastrous.
"An entire year has gone to waste," Brown said in the weekly GOP radio and Internet address."Millions of Americans have lost their jobs, and many more jobs are in danger. Even now, the president still hasn't gotten the message.

"Somehow, the greater the public opposition to the health care bill, the more determined they seem to force it on us anyway."

Brown himself can claim responsibility for the Democrats' failure to pass health overhaul legislation to date.

Obama spar over health plan's pet projects

President Barack Obama says he wants projects helping specific states yanked from the health care bill Congress is writing. Democratic senators, being senators, beg to differ. 

The Senate-approved health measure lawmakers hope to send to Obama soon would steer $600 million over the next decade to Vermont in added federal payments for Medicaid and nearly as much to Massachusetts.

Connecticut would get $100 million to build a hospital. About 800,000 Florida seniors could keep certain Medicare benefits. Asbestos-disease victims in tiny Libby, Mont., and some coal miners with black lung disease or their widows would get help, and there are prizes for Louisiana, the Dakotas and more states.

No Child Left Behind law in hopes

The Obama administration unveiled its plan Saturday to radically change his predecessor's No Child Left Behind law in hopes of replacing an accountability system that in the last decade has tagged more than a third of schools as failing and created a hodgepodge of sometimes weak academic standards among states.

The changes would dismantle the 2002 law championed by President George W. Bush, moving away from punishing schools that don't meet benchmarks and instead focusing on rewarding schools for progress, particularly with poor and minority students. The blueprint calls for states to adopt standards that ensure students are ready for college or a career rather than grade-level proficiency — the focus of the current law.

"Unless we take action — unless we step up — there are countless children who will never realize their full talent and potential," Obama said during a video address on Saturday. "I don't accept that future for them. And I don't accept that future for the United States of America."

The blueprint also would allow states to use subjects other than reading and mathematics as part of their measurements for meeting federal goals, pleasing many education groups that have said No Child Left Behind encouraged teachers not to focus on history, art, science, social studies and other important subjects.

Your Radio Playhouse

“This American Life” is a radio show hosted by the famous radio personality Ira Glass. The show, originally named Your Radio Playhouse is running from November, 1995 and till three episodes of the show have been aired in 2010. It is basically a non-fictional programme which chooses one particular theme for each episode and then goes to present it from different perspectives. Generally the show is divided in two to five acts and each act presents different journalistic accounts on the theme.

The content of the theme itself can vary greatly from episode to episode. The show can choose for its subject for one episode some current incident, while general social topics are regularly discussed, too. More than the choice of the subject, however, it is the approach that makes the show what it is.

The show can potentially include essays, memoirs, field recordings, short fiction, and found footage and can be an interesting collage of these different journalistic materials.

The host of the show, Ira Glass, was recently at Filene Ladd Music Hall in the Arthur Zankel Music Center to give a presentation on his journey as a journalist and a radio host.

To know more about the show, its history, previous and upcoming episodes you can visit the official website of the show at http://www.thisamericanlife.org/.

The Minnesota Twins have signed center fielder Denard Span to a five-year, $16.5 million contract

The Minnesota Twins have signed center fielder Denard Span to a five-year, $16.5 million contract extension.

The agreement was announced on Saturday and includes a $9 million team option for 2015.

Span was Minnesota's first-round draft pick in 2002. He spent several years in the minor leagues before cementing a spot on the big league roster last year. He hit .311 with eight homers, 10 triples and 68 RBIs in 145 games, while playing excellent defense in all three outfield spots.

Span became the Twins' everyday center fielder when they traded Carlos Gomez to Milwaukee in the offseason.

Kate Snow, news anchor in ABC channel is leaving ABC

Kate Snow, news anchor in ABC channel is leaving ABC and going to join another big news channel NBC. NBC authorities have confirmed this news and announced that Kate will join them as a correspondent in the program “Dateline”. Kate is working with ABC since 2003 and considered among most talented news journalist and anchor in electronics media. She got the opportunity to cover presidential campaign in 2004 and 2008 for ABC network. Kate has also worked with news media giant CNN before joining ABC, seven years back. Kate was on a role of co-anchor for ABC since 2005 in the weekend editions of “Good Morning America” most popular news program in the country. Kate was expected to get the position of news anchor in the weekday edition of this show after Diane Sawyer departed last year. Unfortunately, that position was given to Juju Chang instead of Kate by ABC.

Producer of Dateline in NBC, David Corvo said Kate has a versatile ability and apart from covering breaking news only, she can take interviews and she can write news content. As a news correspondent and anchor in NBC for Dateline, Kate will be allowed to expand her expertise in different area.

Bye Bye "Good Morning America" from Kate

Kate Snow is packing up and traded her weekend spot on ABC's Good Morning America for a post on NBC's Dateline. Her final GMA show was aired last weekend, so you won't be seeing her smiling face today on the show, according to MediaBistro. She starts on NBC later this spring.

Snow was a part of the ABC crew since she signed on as GMA's White House correspondent, then took over weekend duties when the showed started being aired on Saturdays and Sundays in 2004. Before that, she was on CNN.

There was buzz that Snow might replace GMA weekday correspondent Chris Cuomo when he left for 20/20 but the spot went to Juju Chang. Apparently there aren't any hard feelings at ABC, a spokesperson said: "Kate's done wonderful work. We think the world of her and wish her all the best."

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