Morning Media Summary

Tech:

Facebook censors, cracksdown on breastfeeding photos:
“In one of the photos that keeps getting Emma Kwasnica’s Facebook account suspended, the Montreal-based mother and breast-feeding activist is tandem nursing, with a newborn at one breast and a two-year-old at the other. Classical art and public health be damned, Facebook has censored countless breast-feeding photos for violating the company’s terms of use, a policy that has inspired more than 250,000 people to join a Facebook group called ”Hey Facebook, Breastfeeding Is Not Obscene!” Kwasnica has protested her four account suspensions by e-mailing administrators and keeps doggedly reposting photographs and organizing virtual “nurse-ins” via her Facebook group, Informed Choice: Birth and Beyond. But last month it occurred to her that the global breast-feeding community could use social media to organize real-world, offline “lactivism,” in the form of milk sharing.”

Insurers Test Data Profiles to Identity Risky Clients:
“Life insurers are testing an intensely personal new use for the vast dossiers of data being amassed about Americans: predicting people’s longevity.”

Chinese National Stole Ford Secrets Worth More Than $50 Million:
“A ten year veteran of the U.S. automaker Ford Motor Company pleaded guilty in federal court on November 17 to charges that he stole company secrets, including design documents, worth more than $50 million and sharing them with his new employer: the Chinese division of a U.S. rival of Ford’s. ”

Global Warming / Environment / Energy:

Gore: On Second thought, I was just pandering to the farm vote on ethanol:
“Why, then, did Gore spend most of the last two decades pushing for ethanol subsidies? It wasn’t because he was trying to help humanity:”

Insurance / Gambling:

Online Gambling In New Jersey Could Cause World Trade Organization Issue:
“The World Trade Organization already has a bad taste in its mouth when it comes to the Internet gambling laws in the US. On Monday, New Jersey lawmakers passed legislation that will allow licensed Atlantic City casinos to start offering online gambling to New Jersey residents and foreigners.”

Economics:

Woman who told Obama her financial fears has lost her job:
“Hart has become another casualty of the tough economy in which so many people have lost their jobs.”

Chavez responds to President Obama’s joke about visiting Venezuela, says he would ‘embrace’ president and ‘eat socialist arepas’ with him:
“During his most recent blanket television broadcast, Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez took the opportunity to embrace President Obama, inviting him to join him in the construction of a new world order.”

Are The Social Security Trust Funds A Mirage?:
“Whether you favor cutting Social Security may depend on how you view the Social Security trust funds, which currently contain $2.5 trillion for retirement benefits. That’s $2.5 trillion that, according to some people, don’t actually exist.”

Legal:

Tobacco funds are drawing scrutiny:
“In the days since Virginia’s former secretary of finance admitted that he stole $4 million earmarked for the state’s most economically depressed areas, many have begun to question whether more than $1 billion from a settlement with the nation’s largest tobacco companies has been spent properly and if the money is safe.”

Body scanner makers doubled lobbying cash over 5 years:
“The companies with multimillion-dollar contracts to supply American airports with body-scanning machines more than doubled their spending on lobbying in the past five years and hired several high-profile former government officials to advance their causes in Washington, government records show.”

Labor:

Teachers union fat cat: Shared sacrifice for thee, but not for me:
“Hey, where’s that Obama pay czar when you need him?”

TSA workers face verbal abuse from travelers:
“The American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE), the union that represents TSA workers, is urging the TSA to do more to protect its employees from abuse from airline passengers angry over the new security methods. The union reports that some members “have reported instances in which passengers have become angry, belligerent and even physical with TSOs (transportation security officers). In Indianapolis, for example, a TSO was punched by a passenger who didn’t like the new screening process,” the union said in a Nov. 17 statement posted on its website.”

Transportation/ Land Use:


High-speed rail projects land in tug of war between governors:

“When the Obama administration rolled out its initial investment to create a high-speed rail system across the U.S. in January, the program was hailed as a pivotal piece of the most significant upgrade of the nation’s transportation system since the interstate highway network.”