Republican Senator Arlen Specter (Penn.) decided earlier this week to switch parties and become a Democrat. Anxious that he would not be able to win reelection as a republican, Specter announced his decision to move across the aisle on Tuesday.
His move, along with the expected victory of Al Franken in the drawn out Minnesota Senate race, gives democrats a 60 seat, filibuster-proof majority.
Specter was the only republican Jew in the Senate.
As the swine flu outbreak continues spreading, an Israeli health official is making waves by saying the name should be changed to "Mexican" flu, because the reference to pigs is offensive to Jews and Muslims, who consider pigs unclean and forbid the eating of pork products.
As the Associated Press reports, scientists are unsure where the new virus originally emerged. The current strain of swine flu is believed to have originated in Mexico, where more than 100 people have died from it, but the virus was first identified in the USA. Scientists say there is nothing about the virus that makes it "Mexican" and worry that label would be stigmatizing.
Thoughts? Should the name change?
Asher Roth is now number one on iTunes. The white Jewish rapper from Morrisville, Pennsylvania, struck it big with "I Love College," an anthem/satirical ode to college life. It was the first hit off his debut album, Asleep in the Bread Aisle, which climbed atop iTunes rankings after it's release on Monday.
["I Love College"], which Roth calls 'satire at its finest,' has sold nearly a million copies since its release in January, and been streamed more than 36 million times on his MySpace page….
Judges at a circuit court of appeals in Ohio granted suspected Nazi war criminal John Demjanjuk a stay of removal late Tuesday night after his attorneys claimed that removing him from the United States would be harmful to his health.
The United States government filed charges against Demjanjuk in 1999 for his alleged history as a concentration camp guard, and stripped him of his U.S. citizenship. Although the U.S. has been awaiting his deportation since 2005, Demjanjuk has successfully delayed the process via a series of appeals.
Number 20 on the slideshow is a creation of Bernard Madoff's final day in his office, "Bernard Peepoff: The Game is Up" by Heather Kelly and Scott Fay of Berkeley, Calif., and Michael Mavretic of Washington D.C. Most of the dioramas are pop culture references and news stories. Tthe whole slideshow can be seen here.