May 29 2015, 7:23 pm ET
Physicist Leon Lederman's Nobel Prize Medal Sells for $765,000
by Alan Boyle

The Nobel Prize gold medal that physicist Leon Lederman won in 1988 was auctioned off on Thursday for a winning bid of $633,335, plus a buyer's premium that brought the final price to $765,002.

...

Lederman used his share of the money from the 1988 Nobel Prize to buy a vacation cabin in Idaho — which he and his wife now use as their principal residence.

Ellen Lederman, who is 67, told AP that she and her husband have been living comfortably in retirement, but that they now face potentially costly medical bills and uncertainty following a diagnosis of dementia for the Nobel-winning physicist.

"It's terrible," she said. "It's really hard. I wish it could be different. But he's happy. He likes where he lives with cats and dogs and horses. He doesn't have any problems with anxiety, and that makes me glad that he's so content."

...

http://www.nbcnews.com/science/science-news/physicist-leon-ledermans-nobel-prize-goes-auction-block-n365671

Published on Tuesday, May 19, 2015 by Common Dreams
Rights Groups to Obama: No More Foot Dragging On Closing Guantánamo
'It is time for President Obama, and Defense Secretary Carter, to take action to transfer the 57 men still held who have already been approved to leave Guantánamo, and to release or charge in federal court those who remain'

by Sarah Lazare, staff writer

Omar Khadr—captured by the U.S. as a child, forced to endure torture, and detained 13 years, most of them at Guantánamo Bay—was recently released on bail to widespread media attention.

But on Tuesday, leading human rights groups released an open letter reminding U.S. President Barack Obama—and the world—that 122 men still languish behind bars at the infamous facility, largely without charge or trial, and the slow trickle of releases is not enough.

Addressing Obama and Defense Secretary Ashton Carter, groups including Amnesty International USA, Veterans for Peace, Reprieve, and Center for Constitutional Rights declared that the U.S. government "must act to close the prison as quickly as possible."

The missive took direct aim at one of the president's many pledges, this one made nearly two years ago, to revamp his efforts to shutter the facility.

...

http://www.commondreams.org/news/2015/05/19/rights-groups-obama-no-more-foot-dragging-closing-guantanamo

Police shoot and kill unarmed man after foot chase
Stephen Herzog, News-Leader 12:20 a.m. CST February 19, 2015

One person was killed Tuesday evening in an officer-involved shooting in northwest Springfield.

Police say Michael Steven Ireland, 31, was shot and killed by police. Police say it appears Ireland was unarmed.

According to Springfield police, officers were called to the 1900 block of West Division Street after 10 p.m. to check on "suspicious activity."

Officers arrived and attempted to contact Ireland, who then ran from the scene, police say.

...

http://www.news-leader.com/story/news/crime/2015/02/18/police-one-dead-in-northwest-springfield-shooting/23604403/

Police give evidence to prosecutors in Ireland shooting
Harrison Keegan, News-Leader 1:27 p.m. CDT April 22, 2015

Springfield police say they have turned over evidence to prosecutors for them to review in connection with a February shooting in which an unarmed man was shot and killed by a police officer.

Police spokeswoman Lisa Cox said Thursday that police are still waiting on the completed autopsy report and the final testing of physical evidence in the Feb. 17 shooting of Michael Ireland, but she said police presented their investigative reports to the Greene County Prosecutor's Office last week so that prosecutors could begin reviewing the evidence.

Prosecutors will make the determination on whether charges should be filed against the officer who shot Ireland, Andrew Bath.

...

Bath is no longer with the police department, having already resigned prior to the shooting.

...

http://www.news-leader.com/story/news/crime/2015/04/22/police-give-evidence-prosecutors-ireland-shooting/26186993/

No charges in fatal police shooting in Springfield
Posted: May 16, 2015 1:39 PM by The Associated Press

SPRINGFIELD (AP) - Greene County prosecutors say they aren't filing charges against a police officer who killed an unarmed man in February.

The Springfield News-Leader reports Prosecutor Dan Patterson said Friday he won't charge officer Andrew Bath in the Feb. 17 shooting of Michael Ireland because the shooting was legally justified. The officer says he thought the suspect was reaching for a weapon.

Patterson also says Ireland's toxicology report was positive for drugs including morphine and oxymorphone.

Ireland's stepsister Christi Stockwell said she was stunned and disappointed by the decision not to file charges.

...

http://www.komu.com/news/no-charges-in-fatal-police-shooting-in-springfield/

George W. Bush's CIA Briefer: Bush and Cheney Falsely Presented WMD Intelligence to Public
On "Hardball," Michael Morell concedes the Bush administration misled the nation into the Iraq War.
—By David Corn | Tue May 19, 2015 7:25 PM EDT


...


MATTHEWS: Well, why'd you let them get away with it?

MORELL: Look, my job Chris—

MATTHEWS: You're the briefer for the president on intelligence, you're the top person to go in and tell him what's going on. You see Cheney make this charge he's got a nuclear bomb and then they make subsequent charges he knew how to deliver it…and nobody raised their hand and said, "No that's not what we told him."

MORELL: Chris, Chris Chris, what's my job, right? My job—

MATTHEWS: To tell the truth.

MORELL: My job—no, as the briefer? As the briefer?


...


http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2015/05/michael-morell-bush-cheney-iraq-war

Family 'horrified' when nine ducklings were killed with lawnmower
By Kate Jacobson | Sun Sentinel
May 14, 2015 7:26 PM

Like any normal day, Boyd Jentzsch and his son, Kai, put out food for the family of Muscovy ducks that lived outside their Wellington home.

But on May 2 as they watched out their patio door at the mother duck and her 11 ducklings peck at their food, a lawn worker plotted a different fate for the birds, according to an arrest report.

He gunned his riding lawnmower toward the ducks, which were perched on the grass near a tree in the family's yard, and swerved his blades over them, the report stated. Inside, the family of three watched and screamed at what they had just witnessed.

"We were horrified," said Jentzsch. "I couldn't believe it was happening. It was totally disgusting."

...

http://www.sun-sentinel.com/local/palm-beach/fl-wellington-muscovy-massacre-lawnmower-20150514-story.html

Veishea ends at Iowa State; new traditions will begin with 'thoughtful approach'

Posted Aug 7, 2014 9:24 am

AMES, Iowa – Iowa State University President Steven Leath today (Aug. 7) announced his decision to permanently discontinue Veishea, supporting the recommendations of the 2014 Veishea Task Force and ending a celebration that has been overshadowed by destruction and violence over the past three decades.

“I understand that it is very sad and disappointing to see this 92-year tradition come to an end, and there may be some who are upset with this decision, but I am not going to continue to put students at risk so that we can preserve what, to many, has become a week-long party,” Leath said at a news conference. “I will not be the president who has to call a student’s parents in the middle of the night to say your child has been critically injured in another Veishea-related disturbance.”

Leath suspended Veishea 2014 in the aftermath of an April 8 late-night disturbance in Campustown. He appointed a task force, led by Senior Vice President for Student Affairs Tom Hill, to examine the celebration's future. The task force submitted its final report and recommendations to the president on July 11.

Leath acknowledged numerous changes to Veishea and attempts to prevent related disturbances since 1992 – efforts that ultimately did not succeed. Citing student safety as his No. 1 priority, a somber Leath said his decision was a difficult one, but it is the right one for Iowa State.

...

http://www.news.iastate.edu/news/2014/08/07/veisheaend

An unclear future: Evolution of Veishea from peaceful to unpredictable
By Katelynn McCollough, katelynn.mccollough@iowastatedaily.com

It could be said that 1988 was the year that started it all for Veishea.

...

“The first time that we got this wake-up call that Veishea was not the Veishea we had known since 1922 came in 1988,” said Mayor Ann Campbell, who was a city council member in 1988. “We saw the first Veishea riot, and it was a very major one.”

The 1988 Veishea celebration was marked with a full riot that included a bonfire in the middle of the street that resulted in a hole “several feet deep in the asphalt” according to ISU special collections records on the history of Veishea.

The riot was put to a stop with the help of then-head basketball coach Johnny Orr and football coach Jim Walden.

...

http://www.iowastatedaily.com/veishea/article_70904b3c-a12e-11e2-ac91-001a4bcf887a.html

Ames 2004:

Ames 2014: