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Round-Up: Other Newsworthy/Interesting Stories

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Illinois

[Posted by Mike Murray]

* About 60 Ill. soldiers return from Afghanistan

* Schakowsky son-in-law dies snorkeling

The son-in-law of Rep. Jan Schakowsky (D-Ill.), Michael McLaughlin, died Sunday while snorkeling near Tulum, Mexico.

I hadn’t given much thought to Eunice Kennedy Shriver, the Kennedy matriarch who died Tuesday, since a chance meeting in 1960.

* Univ. of Chicago prof to get Medal of Freedom

* Report: NASA can’t keep up with killer asteroids

That’s because even though Congress assigned the space agency this mission four years ago, it never gave NASA money to build the necessary telescopes, the new National Academy of Sciences report says. Specifically, NASA has been ordered to spot 90 percent of the potentially deadly rocks hurtling through space by 2020.

Even so, NASA says it’s completed about one-third of its assignment with its current telescope system.

NASA estimates that there are about 20,000 asteroids and comets in our solar system that are potential threats to Earth. They are larger than 460 feet in diameter - slightly smaller than the Superdome in New Orleans. So far, scientists know where about 6,000 of these objects are.

-Kinda unnerving, but I am not going to send a check to NASA anytime soon…

* Chicago Scientist Finds Evidence of High-Speed Evolution

Evolution takes place over long stretches of time: millennia and epochs. But some new research shows that animals may be changing much faster than nearly anyone thought. And those changes seem to be linked to humans.[…]

HEANEY: The implication is, these animals are changing very, very rapidly in response to changes that humans are largely responsible for. So in a sense, it’s good: they can change. But the other side of the coin is, they’re having to change.

-I am a dog lover, but I was also raised with the mentality that no dog is worth $4,000. If it can’t hunt, we just put it down and certain relatives of mine are too cheap to use a vet if you catch my drift. Maybe it’s cold blooded, but my point is that this story is ridiculous, but every other paper in IL seemed to find it news worthy. Thus, here you are…

* 5 legged puppy case heads to Chicago

The case of a puppy that used to have five legs and was saved from a Coney Island animal show is going before a court TV judge in Chicago.

* Chicago TV judge rules on 5-legged puppy case

Thanks to a Chicago TV judge, a Coney Island freak show operator is up $4,000, but he’s still down one five-legged puppy.

Judge Jeanine Pirro ruled Wednesday that freak show owner John Strong is entitled to the cash after the dog’s original owner backed out of a contract to sell the Chihuahua-terrier mix to him.

* Lincoln penny will be unveiled today

The third of four 2009 commemorative Abraham Lincoln pennies will be unveiled at 10 a.m. today at the Old State Capitol. It represents Lincoln’s professional life as an attorney in Springfield.

* White Sox pad the roster with August recruits

posted by Mike Murray
Thursday, Aug 13, 09 @ 9:00 am

Comments

Asteroids? Hook me up with a laser and I’ll blow them plus the big and little flying saucers off the screen. Same with those big Centipedes.

My college years weren’t a total waste.

Comment by wordslinger Thursday, Aug 13, 09 @ 9:19 am