ECM WORLD WATCH: NATIONAL AND GLOBAL NEWS

April 30, 2014 (San Diego’s East County)--ECM World Watch helps you be an informed citizen about important issues globally and nationally. As part of our commitment to reflect all voices and views, we include links to a wide variety of news sources representing a broad spectrum of political, religious, and social views. Top world and U.S. headlines include:

U.S.

• Supreme Court appears wary of carte blanche for cellphone searches (CS Monitor)
•  Death toll rises as twisters rip across Mississippi, Alabama (CNN)
• Obamacare enrollment extended again (The Hill)
• What’s next for Obamacare ? The Hill)
• Clippers owner Donald Sterling banned for life by NBA (CBS)
  
  Clippers sponsors jump ship (CNN)
• ADL director responds to Kerry's reported 'apartheid’ remark (Jerusalem Post)
• U.S. investigating theft of doctors' tax refunds (Reuters)
• How A Public Corruption Scandal Became A Fight Over Free Speech (NPR)
• Texas family plagued with ailments gets $3 million in first of its kind fracking judgment (CNN)

WORLD

• Hungarians march against anti-Semitism after far-right poll gains (Reuters)
•  Megacities contend with sinking land (BBC)
• Tu-95 bombers: Brits scramble jets after Russian bombers approach  (CS Monitor)
• Russia Threatens Invasion Unless Ukraine Stops Stopping Separatists (Reason)
• Pacific Island Nation Sues U.S., Others For Violating Nuclear Treaty (NPR)
• Poppies replace tourists in Egypt's Sinai desert  (Christian Science Monitor)
• On Second Day Of Mass Trial, Egyptian Judge Sentences 683 To Death (NPR)

For excerpts and links to full stories, click “read more” and scroll down.

U.S.

Supreme Court appears wary of carte blanche for cellphone searches (CS Monitor)

 The Supreme Court justices confronted a government request for the warrantless search of cellphones of individuals being arrested, even for minor crimes like jaywalking or failing to weara seatbelt.

Death toll rises as twisters rip across Mississippi, Alabama (CNN)

People in northern Mississippi and Alabama huddled in hallways and basements as a string of tornadoes ripped through their states Monday, a day after another line of storms killed 16 people to their west.

Obamacare enrollment extended again (The Hill)

Sick patients who obtained health coverage through ObamaCare's federal high-risk pool will have until June 30 to select a plan at HealthCare.gov, the Obama administration said Thursday. The special enrollment period applies to patients in the Pre-Existing Condition Insurance Plan (PCIP), a temporary, federal program designed to provide coverage to people insurers had turned away.

What’s next for Obamacare ? The Hill)

As ObamaCare enters its fifth year, big questions remain about how the law is working.

Clippers owner Donald Sterling banned for life by NBA (CBS)

Los Angeles Clippers owner Donald Sterling has been banned for life by the NBA in response to racist comments the league says he made in a recorded conversation.Commissioner Adam Silver said he would call on the owners to vote to force Sterling to sell the team, which would require approval of three-quarters of the current owners. Sterling has also been fined $2.5 million, and Silver made no effort to hide his outrage over the comments, calling them "deeply disturbing and harmful."

Clippers sponsors jump ship (CNN)

At least 12 sponsors said Monday they were dropping or suspending sponsorships with the team following allegations of racist comments by team owner Donald Sterling.

ADL director responds to Kerry's reported 'apartheid’ remark (Jerusalem Post)

Anti-Defamation League National Director Abraham H. Foxman responded Monday to reports that US Secretary of State John Kerry used the offensive term “apartheid” to warn what might become of Israel should an agreement not be reached with the Palestinians. 

U.S. investigating theft of doctors' tax refunds (Reuters)

 The U.S. Secret Service and Internal Revenue Service are investigating widespread reports that identity thieves are stealing the tax refunds of physicians, a U.S. senator said on Friday, as doctors fear a database containing their personal information has been breached.

How A Public Corruption Scandal Became A Fight Over Free Speech (NPR)

The current conservative Supreme Court majority has a well-earned reputation for protecting the First Amendment right to free speech, whether in the form of campaign spending or protests at military funerals. But in one area — the First Amendment rights of public employees — the conservative majority has been far less protective of the right to speak out. Now the court is revisiting the issue, and the result could have far-reaching consequences for public corruption investigations.

Texas family plagued with ailments gets $3 million in first of its kind fracking judgment (CNN)

When the Parr family started having serious health problems late in 2008, they had no idea it was associated with what they call "a multitude" of drilling operations that popped up near their 40-acre ranch in Decatur, 60 miles northwest of Dallas.

WORLD

Hungarians march against anti-Semitism after far-right poll gains (Reuters)

 Tens of thousands of Hungarians joined a protest march on Sunday against anti-Semitism, three weeks after the far-right Jobbik party won nearly a quarter of votes cast in a national election

Megacities contend with sinking land (BBC)

 Subsiding land is a bigger immediate problem for the world's coastal cities than sea level rise, say scientists. / In some parts of the globe, the ground is going down 10 times faster than the water is rising, with the causes very often being driven by human activity…. / "Land subsidence and sea level rise are both happening, and they are both contributing to the same problem - larger and longer floods, and bigger inundation depth of floods," Dr Erkens told BBC News.

Tu-95 bombers: Brits scramble jets after Russian bombers approach  (CS Monitor)

Dutch, British, and Danish jets scrambled Wednesday afternoon after a pair of Russian bombers approached their airspace over the North Sea.

Russia Threatens Invasion Unless Ukraine Stops Stopping Separatists (Reason)

Russia, which has for weeks stationed as many as 40,000 troops along the border, seems to want to eat its cake and have it too in this crisis. It denies any connection to or responsibility for the action of pro-Russian separatists in Ukraine while claiming to be their rightful guardian when the Ukrainian government retaliates against them. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov yesterday accused the U.S. of meddling in Ukraine and warned that Russia could invade its neighbor "in the case of direct infringement of the interests of Russia and Russian citizens."

Pacific Island Nation Sues U.S., Others For Violating Nuclear Treaty (NPR)

The Marshall Islands, the Pacific chain where the U.S. carried out dozens of nuclear tests in the late 1940s and 1950s, has filed suit in the Hague against Washington and the governments of eight other countries it says have not lived up to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty….

Poppies replace tourists in Egypt's Sinai desert  (Christian Science Monitor)

Egypt is trying to stamp out the budding opium trade in the Sinai Peninsula.

On Second Day Of Mass Trial, Egyptian Judge Sentences 683 To Death (NPR)

An Egyptian judge sentenced hundreds of people to death Monday, including the supreme leader of the Muslim Brotherhood. It is the judge's second mass-sentencing in recent weeks.