| Y'all come to Texas, state official tells New York gun owners Jan 17th 2013, 22:31 SAN ANTONIO (Reuters) - Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott has a message for New York gun owners: Come to Texas, and bring your guns with you. "Texas is better than New York, and New York just gave us another excuse to say that," Abbott, a Republican, said on Thursday, after ads extolling Texas appeared on several media websites. New York Governor Andrew Cuomo, a Democrat, signed sweeping gun-control legislation earlier this week expanding the state's ban on assault weapons and putting limits on ammunition capacity in the wake of last month's school shootings in Connecticut. ... |  | Lawmaker accuses New Jersey Transit of obfuscating facts on Sandy Jan 17th 2013, 22:31 (Reuters) - A senior state legislator said New Jersey Transit appears to have made a "deliberate effort to obfuscate the facts" about its preparation for Superstorm Sandy, which caused $100 million in damage to critical rail equipment. General Assembly Deputy Speaker John S. Wisniewski also questioned NJ Transit's ability to protect its rolling stock following a Reuters report that the agency had misused storm surge modeling software and failed to seek adequate guidance on its use from weather experts ahead of the storm. ... | | No deal on teacher evaluations between New York City, union Jan 17th 2013, 22:04 NEW YORK (Reuters) - New York City and its teachers union failed to reach a deal on a teacher evaluation system, making it all but certain the city will miss a midnight deadline and forsake more than $250 million in state money, Mayor Michael Bloomberg said on Thursday. The question of how best to evaluate teachers - and how cities can remove failing teachers - has sparked clashes across the country between cities and teachers unions. Just such a disagreement over evaluations was behind last year's seven-day strike in Chicago. ... | | Prosecutor defends actions after Internet activist suicide Jan 17th 2013, 22:02  BOSTON (Reuters) - The prosecutor who pursued criminal charges against Aaron Swartz, the 26-year-old Internet activist and computer prodigy who killed himself last week, has defended her actions after facing several days of harsh criticism. "There is little I can say to abate the anger felt by those who believe that this office's prosecution of Mr. Swartz was unwarranted and somehow led to the tragic result of him taking his own life," U.S. Attorney Carmen Ortiz said in a statement Wednesday night, after extending her sympathies to the family. ...
| | Chicago man gets 14 years for aiding Pakistani militant group Jan 17th 2013, 21:59  CHICAGO (Reuters) - A federal judge sentenced a Pakistani-born Chicago businessman on Thursday to 14 years in prison for providing support to an Islamic militant group blamed for the deadly 2008 Mumbai attacks. Tahawwur Rana, 52, a former Pakistani Army doctor with Canadian citizenship, had also been found guilty in June 2011 of conspiring to attack a Danish newspaper, a plot hatched by the militant group that was never carried out. ...
| | Gun restrictions have widespread public support: poll Jan 17th 2013, 21:33  WASHINGTON (Reuters) - About three-quarters of Americans surveyed support proposals to ban the sale of automatic weapons, ban high-capacity ammunition clips and expand background checks on all gun buyers, according to an online Reuters/Ipsos poll released on Thursday. Those proposals were at the heart of President Barack Obama's package of recommendations to Congress on Wednesday designed to curb gun violence after last month's elementary school shooting in Newtown, Connecticut, that killed 20 children and six adults. ...
| | U.S. drought eases in some areas, but Plains still suffer Jan 17th 2013, 20:39  (Reuters) - A series of rain showers helped ease drought conditions in parts of the United States over the last week, but drought expanded slightly in parts of the U.S. Plains, according to a report issued Thursday. Officials in north-central Oklahoma declared a state of emergency due to record low reservoir conditions and public and private interests throughout the central United States hardest hit by drought were examining measures to try to cope with ongoing drought. Roughly 58. ...
| | Report questions food stamp program's effectiveness Jan 17th 2013, 20:17 WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A report by a panel of experts released on Thursday questioned whether the government's food stamp program adequately provides for healthy diets for the more than 47 million low-income people who rely on the benefit. The report by the National Academy of Sciences found that the aid for families to pay for groceries, officially called the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program or SNAP, does not factor in many barriers to finding affordable, nutritious food by inner-city shoppers. ... | | As drought persists, many scramble to save every drop of water Jan 17th 2013, 19:23  (Reuters) - The drought that crippled many communities across the nation last year shows little sign of retreating, and the threat of persistent water scarcity is spurring efforts to preserve every drop. As the drought of 2012 creeps into 2013, experts say the slow-spreading catastrophe presents near-term problems for a key U.S. agricultural region and potential long-term challenges for millions of Americans. "Everyone is wondering whether this dry weather is the new norm ... ...
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