March 18, 2013
Michael Bloomberg
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A judge smacked down Mayor Michael Bloomberg“s soda ban in New York City. Bloomberg vowed to appeal the decision, calling it “irresponsible not to try to do everything we can to save lives.” … The US Department of Agriculture might buy 400,000 tons of sugar to prop up the miserable industry, whose spokesmen claim prices are too low. … The White House is drawing up plans that will give the intel community full access to a database containing information about American citizens and others who bank in the US. … The Pew Research Center found that only 26 percent of Americans feel they can trust government “always or most of the time.” Hispanics (44 percent) and blacks (38 percent) showed overwhelmingly more trust in the federal government than whites (20 percent). … The Ludwig von Mises Institute discovered a letter that Warren Buffett’s father, Howard, wrote to Murray Rothbard in 1962 where Howard requested a few of Murray’s books so that his son could learn more about the free market. … Former US Rep. Gabrielle Giffords“s husband, who has been lobbying for stricter gun-control laws, was caught buying an AR-15 rifle at a gun store. … The Boston Globe and breitbart.com ran stories about Paul Krugman filing for bankruptcy without realizing their primary source was a satirical online newspaper. … NYPD officer Gilberto Valle was convicted on charges of plotting to kidnap, cook, and eat women, including his wife.
ABROAD
The world gave a round of applause to Greece, whose unemployment rate reached a record 26 percent in Q4. … Jorge Mario Bergoglio was officially elected to the papacy. Pope Francis, as he”ll be known, is the first non-European pontiff to head the Vatican in almost 1,300 years. … French lawyer Isabelle Coutant-Peyre is defending the Iranian government in its lawsuit against Hollywood for making movies such as Argo that “distort the country’s image.” Taki’s Mag reached out to her fiancé for comment, but he was busy serving a life sentence for international terrorism. … Britain and France might make a play to bypass the European Union in order to arm Syrian rebels. … Venezuela took too much time deciding whether to embalm Hugo Chávez“s body for eternal viewing, so nature decided for them. “Maduro wants to run the country, and he can”t even make sure that the president’s body is embalmed correctly,” said a doctor. … A Russian man named Aleksandr Kuptsov took four people hostage with a toy gun, demanding only a pizza and Coke before his swift arrest.
ONLINE
A Politico staffer “accidentally” added “haha” in an article about two American soldiers who died in Afghanistan. … The feds indicted Matthew Keys, a deputy social-media editor at Reuters, for allegedly feeding sensitive login credentials to the hacker group Anonymous, who later used them to deface the Los Angeles Times“ website. … The journalism industry is in a state of chaos after Google announced that it is retiring Google Reader in July. … The FBI opened an investigation into a rogue website (sporting a Soviet Union domain) that published Michelle Obama’s credit-card information. … An audio version of Bradley Manning“s military court speech was leaked onto the Internet, allegedly marking the first time the American public has heard his voice. … Veronica Mars creator Rob Thomas opened a Kickstarter campaign to pique interest in a film adaptation. Fans pledged $1M in four hours, setting a website record. The account reached $2M only six hours later. … A keyboard warrior learned an important lesson when English boxer Curtis Woodhouse, whom he had been taunting on Twitter about a recent loss, found out where he lived and live-Tweeted his trip to the kid’s house. “i am sorry its getting a bit out of hand i am in the wrong i accept that,” Woodhouse’s antagonist wrote shortly after peeing his pants.
