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Monday, May 12, 2008

Your Morning News: 5.12.08

Posted by Josh in , , , , , , ,

Though we only got a taste of it in Indiana, the issues of voting rights and voter fraud are expected to play a big role in the upcoming elections. Lawmakers in Missouri are expected to support a proposed constitutional amendment to enable election officials to require proof of citizenship from anyone registering to vote. People in favor of the amendment say that this is an attempt to stop illegal immigrants from influencing the election. People opposed say that it could stop tens of thousands of people who are citizens but can’t prove it from voting. I don’t know really where to come down on this issue nor what points you can raise to sound witty. However, if you lived in Missouri you couldn’t vote unless you could produce an original birth certificate, naturalization papers or a passport - I personally have none of those things (though probably could get them given a few months time).

Tornadoes, Cyclones, and Earthquakes after the jump.

Tornadoes throughout the plains states left 22 dead this weekend. At this pace, we are on record to have the highest death toll due to tornadoes since they began keeping these statistics in 1950. Can you blame tornadoes on climate change? The bleeding heart in me wants to, but apparently it is more confusing than that.

Relief continues to trickle into Burma for the victims of last week’s cyclone. With the Burmese government continuing to deny visas to the majority of aid workers, political unrest is beginning to grow among refugees from the storm. The Government is focusing its attention on monitoring political opponents while the death toll has climbed to 29,000. A side note (for me anyway) to this whole tragedy is figuring out the Burma/Myanmar naming difference. I am going to go with Burma for these reasons, but feel free to tell me I am full of it.

Finally, some early breaking news off the wires is that a large earthquake has struck a central province of China. Reports are still fuzzy but it appears that the death toll is going to be quite large. Thanks to Boing Boing I actually know where the earthquake is in relation to my friends in Beijing.

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