NASA astronaut Mike Barratt, who made a trip to the International Space Station, came back with significant changes to his vision -- raising concerns about plans for long-duration human space flight. Barratt's retinas have microscopic folds on them and his optic nerve has flattened. "There are physiologic aspects of adaption to spaceflight we weren't seeing before," he said. The space station serves as a test bed for how humans would learn to live in space. "We really need to understand this. This is a critical point for understanding how humans adapt to spaceflight."
An evolutionary biologist in the Czech Republic believes that human brains are being affected in significant ways by Toxoplasma gondii, a parasite that can spread from cat feces to humans. Research by Jaroslav Flegr finds a link between the parasite in humans and their likelihood of car wrecks and a possible link to schizophrenia. "There is strong psychological resistance to the possibility that human behavior can be influenced by some stupid parasite," Flegr said. "Nobody likes to feel like a puppet." read more
Federal and state officials announced a $26 billion foreclosure settlement Thursday with five of the largest home lenders. Parties to the settlement include the Justice Department, Department of Housing and Urban Development and 49 state attorneys general (all but Oklahoma). At least $17 billion will go to reducing the principal owed by homeowners who are both underwater and behind on their mortgages. "No action, no matter how meaningful, is going to by itself entirely heal the housing market," President Barack Obama said.t "But this settlement is a start." read more
Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker (R) is using $26 million of its $140 million share in the national mortgage settlement to plug a state budget hole. The rest of the state's share of the $25 billion settlement will go toward helping homeowners hurt by foreclosure abuses. Walker, previously critical of using one-time money from legal settlements to balance the budget, said this was justified because the foreclosure crisis had a "direct impact on the economy."
Pentagon officials are trying to ensure that 20 upgraded 30,000-pound bunker buster bombs are battle ready, "possibly for use against Iran," Fox News reports. The Massive Ordnance Penetrator bomb is the largest non-nuclear weapon in the Air Force arsenal, but Iran's underground uranium enrichment facility may be beyond its range. Air Force Chief General Norton Schwartz publicly dismissed suggestions that the upgrades are tied to tensions with Iran.
A poll recently released by a conservative website found that 20 percent of Republicans are likely to vote for President Barack Obama. The survey, conducted by Wenzel Strategies for WorldNetDaily, showed that one in five Republicans are leaning towards or would "definitely" re-elect Obama. In contests against Mitt Romney, Rick Santorum and Newt Gingrich, Obama got more than 20 percent of support from Republicans. In a matchup with Ron Paul, 19 percent of Republicans chose the president. "[T]he bloody fight for the Republican presidential nomination -- by most estimations the nastiest GOP fight in memory -- has really hurt the images of the challengers in the eyes of both Republicans and, especially, independent voters," said pollster Fritz Wenzel.
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The Navy is naming a ship for Gabrielle Giffords (D), the retired Arizona congresswoman recovering from a 2011 gunshot wound to the head. Navy Secretary Ray Mabus unveiled a rendering of the USS Gabrielle Giffords and announced that the ship's sponsor is Roxanna Green, whose nine-year-old daughter Christina-Taylor Green was one of the six killed in the shooting that wounded Giffords. "God bless the USS Gabrielle Giffords and all who sail in her," Mabus said.
Daisy Khan: A report released this week has at last confirmed what we Muslim-Americans have long known to be true: The threat posed to US national security by the radicalization of its Muslim community is minuscule. The study, by the Triangle Center on Terrorism and Homeland Security, found that only 20 Muslim-Americans were charged with violent crimes related to terrorism in 2011, and of the 14,000 homicides recorded in the United States in that year, not one was committed by a Muslim extremist. read more
Jeffrey Zaslow, co-author of the best-seller The Last Lecture with the late Randy Pausch, and a newspaper columnist, was killed on Friday in a car crash in Michigan. Zaslow's car lost control on a snowy road and collided with a tractor-trailer. The subject of his current book, bridal shop owner Shelley Becker Mueller, told her in a phone call "he was nervous about the roads and wanted to leave so he could be home when his daughter got out of school."
A 21-year-old University of Colorado-Denver student was arrested by the Secret Service Tuesday for trying to hit Mitt Romney with a glitter bomb. Peter Smith faces up to 6 months imprisonment for "creating a disturbance, throwing a missile and an unlawful act on school property," police said. The conservative blog Colorado Peak Politics reported that Smith worked for state Senate Democrats, but was fired over the incident. read more
A proposal by Republicans in Congress would require people who claim the federal child tax credit to have Social Security numbers showing they are legal workers, a move that would save an estimated $10 billion over a decade. Illegal immigrants have been barred from other refundable tax credits, such as the earned income tax credit for lower-income workers, but a 1997 law enacting the child tax credit doesn't specifically exclude them.
The Office of Congressional Ethics (OCE) is investigating Rep. Spencer Bachus (R-Ala.), chairman of the House Financial Services Committee, over possible violations of insider-trading laws, sources told the Washington Post. OCE investigators have told Bachus they have probable cause to believe violations have occurred. This is the first time in the history of Congress a member has been investigated for insider trading. read more
The Bazooka's strip club in Kansas City has gotten around an ordinance prohibiting total nudity by having a partially clothed dancer perform in front of a video on a large screen in which she's fully nude. "It drives me to excel," said dancer Megan DiMoniet. "I just want to put on bigger, better and stronger than ever."
An American Indian tribe sued several large beer makers Thursday, claiming they knowingly contributed to alcohol-related problems on South Dakota's Pine Ridge Indian Reservation. The Oglala Sioux Tribe demands $500 million in damages for the cost of health care, social services and child rehabilitation caused by chronic alcoholism on the reservation. The lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court of Nebraska also targets four beer stores in Whiteclay, Nebr.,ska town of a dozen residents that sold nearly 5 million cans of beer in 2010. read more
A man who served 10 years in prison for stalking Madonna and was shot by her security guards at her home in 1996 has escaped a Los Angeles mental facility. Robert Dewey Hoskins, 54, "is a very psychotic man when not taking his medication and has very violent tendencies," police said. According to trial testimony, Hoskins told Madonna's bodyguard that if "he couldn't have me, he was going to slice my throat from ear to ear."
