House votes to restore public TV, radio funding
Published 9:00 pm Thursday, June 23, 2005
WASHINGTON – Big Bird and National Public Radio won a reprieve Thursday as the House restored $100 million that had been proposed as a budget cut for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. The 284-140 vote demonstrated the political strength of public broadcasting. The Republican-controlled House Appropriations Committee had cut $100 million from $400 million in previously enacted support. The committee also eliminated subsidies for educational programs and technological upgrades.
California: Yahoo closes chat rooms
Internet portal Yahoo shut down its user-created chat rooms after a television series showed the online service was being used in apparent attempts to lure children for sex. A Yahoo spokeswoman would not say whether the decision was in response to a series on Houston television station KPRC that showed online discussions bearing titles such as “9-17 Year Olds Wantin’ Sex” and “Girls 12 and Under for Older Guys.” Some of Yahoo’s advertisers, including Pepsico Inc. and State Farm Insurance Cos., said Thursday they pulled their advertising because of the series.
Viagra purchased for sex offenders
California taxpayers helped pay for Viagra and other impotence drugs for at least 137 registered sex offenders in the past year, the state attorney general’s office said. An audit found that Medi-Cal, the state Medicaid agency that funds some health services programs for California’s poor, spent $2.6 million to provide 5,855 men with Viagra and similar drugs, including 137 men who were registered sex offenders, a spokesman for the attorney general said Wednesday. He did not say what the drugs for the 137 men cost.
Minnesota: Lion, tiger attack boy
A 10-year-old boy was attacked and critically injured by a tiger and a lion that were among a dozen large animals kept by a body shop owner near Little Falls, authorities said. Russell LaLa was mauled Wednesday after the animals’ owner opened the door of a cage and the tiger pushed its way out to attack the boy. While the owner was pulling off the tiger, the lion moved in and bit the boy, the sheriff said. He said the lion and tiger were euthanized Thursday. The boy was taken to Hennepin County Medical Center, where a spokeswoman said the boy’s family did not wish to be interviewed.
New York: Mafia don gets life term
Joseph Massino, who went from the New York Mafia’s last old-school don to its highest-ranking turncoat in a betrayal that rocked organized crime, was sentenced to life in prison Thursday after admitting his involvement in eight mob murders. Massino received two life sentences after he admitted ordering the slaying of Bonanno family captain Gerlando Sciascia and waived his right to appeal his conviction last year for seven other slayings. Massino, 62, dodged a potential death sentence because of his cooperation with the government.
