Would An AT&T, T-Mobile Merger Hurt Consumers?

When two big companies announce plans to merge, there’s always grumbling about what it will do to the market and especially the consumer. The Justice Department said today that it would try to block the merger of AT&T Inc. and T-Mobile USA Inc. because it would “substantially lessen competition” in the wireless market.” Some analysts [...]

Panel Finds Widespread Waste In Wartime Contracts

Waste and fraud in Iraq and Afghanistan have cost U.S. taxpayers as much as $60 billion, and the tally could grow, according to a government study released Wednesday. In its final report to Congress, the nonpartisan Commission on Wartime Contracting said lax oversight of contractors, poor planning and corruption resulted in losses of “at least [...]

Fire Conditions Still High in OK

Oklahoma remains under a high fire danger with the strong winds and drought conditions.

Latest Frontier In Reducing Childhood Mortality: Neonatal Deaths

If you want to live a long life, it’s critical to survive the first month after birth, when humans are especially vulnerable. Neonatal mortality — death within the first 28 days of birth — is getting more public health attention, as countries around the world strive to meet a United Nations goal of dramatically reducing [...]

GOP Primary Scramble Could Mean 2012 Voting Starts Early. Maybe Even In 2011.

Chaos. Crisis. And Christmas….in Keokuk, or Keene? Yes, political junkies, we’re talking about the completely-up-in-the-air 2012 Republican presidential contest calendar. On paper, it’s scheduled to kick off Feb. 6 with the Iowa caucuses, followed a week later by New Hampshire’s first-in-the-nation primary. But those of you keeping score at home would be well advised to [...]

Rumor Has It George Lucas Changed ‘Jedi’: Hey, Think Anyone Would Mind?

The rumor showed up yesterday in places like the site Badass Digest. It’s been covered at io9. Dave Itzkoff of The New York Times wrote that he’s confirmed it with Lucasfilm. What is it? The new Blu-ray editions of the Star Wars trilogy on Blu-ray won’t be out until September 16, but the controversy has [...]

‘The Debt’: History’s Burden, And A Moral Calculus

In the thriller The Debt, a triumvirate drawn from the cream of British cinema — Helen Mirren, Tom Wilkinson, Ciaran Hinds — pools formidable talent to play retired Mossad agents living off the glory of a long-ago mission. Two decades after Germany’s defeat, as the legend goes, the three brought to book a notorious Nazi [...]

A Gainsbourg Portrait, Through An Imaginative Lens

French singer, songwriter and provocateur Serge Gainsbourg was never content doing things the way they were supposed to be done. During his career, he managed to set the sexual moans of two famous actresses to music, convinced a 16-year-old singer to record a thinly-veiled paean to oral sex, and sang a duet with his own [...]

Hubble Captures Time-Lapse Videos Of Stars Being Born

The birth of star is just as traumatic as the birth of a person, only on a much larger scale. For years, astronomers have known that newly formed stars fire powerful beams of gas into space called “protostellar jets.” Because almost every young star forms these jets, astronomers have been desperate to get a better [...]

140 Mexican Schools Shut Down Amid Extortion Fears

The casino arson last week in Monterrey in which 52 people were killed really put a face on just how serious the drug violence in Mexico has become. Police believe that arson was likely the result of extortion. Today, we get news that 140 schools in the city of Acapulco will not open for the [...]