Obama Donates Nobel Peace Prize Winnings

(Metro) President Barack Obama has announced which groups will get the $1.4 million he received for winning the Nobel Peace Prize.
He says $250,000 will go to Fisher House, a national nonprofit that houses families whose loved ones are receiving care at Veterans Administration medical centers. He will give another $200,000 to the Bush-Clinton Haiti Fund [...]

Study warns of rising inhalant abuse among children

More and more young people are abusing inhalants nationwide. Alejandra Ceja has more:

[Transcript]:
According to a National Inhalant Prevention Coalition study, the numbers are alarming. They say kids are “huffing” household substances such as aerosol sprays, nail polish, and gasoline in an effort to get high.
Pamela Hyde, head of the Substance Abuse and Mental Health [...]

Marines Investigating Jet Crash

The Marine Corps is trying to determine why a fighter jet suffered engine failures, crashing into the ocean off South Carolina and forcing the pilots to bail out. Officials say neither the pilot nor the weapons officer on the jet suffered serious injuries when they ejected late yesterday afternoon about 35 miles offshore. The Marines, [...]

Proposal to set US Education standards released

Culminating a year’s work, The National Governors Association and the Council of Chief State School Officers, released a set of proposed common academic standards today. The standards, posted on the panel’s web site, lay out the panel’s vision of what American public school students should learn in math and English, year by year, from kindergarten [...]

Breaking: Senate passes $140 billion jobs bill

(AP) – The Senate has passed legislation to give months of continued jobless checks to people who have been out of work for more than half a year and help the unemployed pay for health insurance.
The jobless aid accompanies a host of other provisions that would prevent doctors from absorbing cuts to Medicare payments and [...]

U.S. Rep. Dennis Kucinich Calls for End of War in Afghansitan

Rep. Dennis Kucinich, D-Ohio, has called for U-S troops to leave Afghanistan within thirty days or, if that is too dangerous, by a deadline at the end of the year. Kucinich’s resolution invokes Congress’s war powers act, which requires congressional approval if troops are to stay in a conflict for over three months. [...]

The Brief, 03/08/2010: Week In Review

Here’s Quyen Ngo with this week’s top news stories in your Week in Review.
Obama mentions Central Falls Firings
Rhode Island is Most Liberal
Jobless rate remains unchanged
But, US House passes Jobs bill
Good evening, I’m Quyen Ngo and here are some highlight stories of this past week.
At the start of the week, President Obama mentioned the [...]

Sarah Palin used to go to Canada for her healthcare

Alaska Governor Sarah Palin has admitted that she and her family used to go to Canada for their healthcare.
The admission came in a speech last week in Calgary. She says that it’s “kind of ironic” given Republican backlash against healthcare reform.
President Obama is pushing Congress to wrap up their reform bill by March [...]

Rhode Island recognized for fighting childhood obesity

Rhode Island is one of 15 states listed in the National Governors Association report on states combating childhood obesity.
Rhode Island’s 36 school districts have adopted “wellness policies” that promote good nutrition and physical activity.
The report praises Rhode Island’s initiative for already making big progress.
According to the NGA some 23-million American children are overweight or obese.

US Senate votes to extend unemployment benefits

The U.S. Senate last night overwhelmingly approved a bill to continue federal unemployment benefits for another 30 days.
Rhode Island’s two senators, Jack Reed and Sheldon Whitehouse, voted in favor of the bill, which passed on a vote of 78 to 19. A companion bill has already passed the House, and President Obama has indicated his [...]