Afternoon News Bytes: April 24, 2012 | Sojourners

Afternoon News Bytes: April 24, 2012

THE HUFFINGTON POST/ASSOCIATED PRESS: Trayvon Martin Case: Bill Lee, Sanford Police Chief, Remains Under Scrutiny
While George Zimmerman is free on bail, the police chief criticized for not charging him after Trayvon Martin's slaying remains under scrutiny, as city commissioners want to wait for the results of a federal investigation to decide if they will accept Chief Bill Lee's resignation.
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THE WALL STREET JOURNAL: Stress Rises On Social Security
Social Security, which pays retirement and disability benefits to 56 million Americans, will exhaust its reserves by 2033, three years sooner than previously estimated, a new government report said Monday.
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THE WASHINGTON POST: Democrats Plan To Force Vote On Arizona Immigration Law If It’s Upheld By Court
Senate Democrats are making plans to force a floor vote on legislation that would invalidate Arizona’s controversial immigration statute if the Supreme Court upholds the law this summer.
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THE NEW YORK TIMES: U.N. Observers Prove Little Deterrent To Syrian Attacks
Syrian government forces engaged in a bloody game of cat and mouse against United Nations observers on Monday, seeming to punish cities like Hama after the monitors left for daring to protest, and adopting a low profile as the monitors visited the Damascus suburbs.
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REUTERS: Mali: From Democracy Poster Child To Broken State
Within weeks, Mali has plunged from being a sovereign democracy to a fractured territory without a state, occupied by competing rebel groups in the north while politicians and coup leaders in the south jostle for control of the capital Bamako.
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THE DAILY BEAST: The List: Accounting For The Iraqi Allies America Left Behind
Most Americans greeted the end of the Iraq War the same way they responded to the beginning of it—with a shrug and a yawn. The List, a documentary screening this week at the Tribeca Film Festival, is a timely reminder of what’s still at stake, and that the war there isn’t over for our allies just because we’ve mostly departed. In many ways, actually, it’s just begun for them, as they flee or hide from their past—from us.
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SALON/THE BROWSER: The Peace Narrative
John Gittings, the author of “The Glorious Art of Peace,” says history is usually studied and written from the perspective of war, and can look very different when viewed from the perspective of peace.
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THE CHRISTIAN SCIENCE MONITOR: Obama Slipping Among Young White Voters
Last week, a new poll suggested that Mr. Obama's support among young people, who turned out for him in record numbers in 2008, is slipping. Only 34 percent of young people between ages 18 and 24 said they were "satisfied" with the Obama presidency, and they indicated they would prefer Obama over a generic Republican by just seven percentage points, according to the poll, conducted by the Public Religion Research Institute and Georgetown University's Berkeley Center for Religion, Peace, and World Affairs. Perhaps even more significant, only 46 percent said they were "certain" they will vote in November.
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THE HUFFINGTON POST: In Chicago: Nobel Laureates And Students Defending Human Rights, One Step At A Time (OPINION)
I spent yesterday morning in the library of Chicago's Lincoln Park High School, listening to students talk about what the word "hero" means to them. This wasn't any normal school day -- in a few moments they would meet Dr. Muhammad Yunus, the father of micro-lending and 2006 Nobel Peace Prize Laureate.
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THE ATLANTIC: How Can We Fix Transportation In America? Ask A Nine-Year-Old
When it comes to creating good public policy, an academic expert told the gathering of transportation officials, think like a nine-year-old.
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