Rural Washington Facing Doctor Shortages: About 1 in 7 Washington residents don’t have healthcare coverage, but Obamacare is changing that. Hospitals and clinics are encouraging doctors to relocate to places where thousands are expected to gain health insurance. This is a great problem to have.
Motherfucking Big Brother, Part I: Britian’s intelligence agency is tapping the fiber optic cables that carry the Internet’s data and turning “huge volumes” over to the NSA, leaked documents from Ed Snowden reveal. Snowden boarded a plane for Moscow yesterday and could have a final destination of Venezuela or Iceland. Godspeed.
Motherfucking Big Brother, Part II: The Obama administration, before the NSA revelations, was working to implement an “Insider Threat Program” that would “require federal employees to keep closer tabs on their co-workers and exhorts managers to punish those who fail to report their suspicions.” Why is no one talking about censure or impeachment? All of this is nuts.
Droning the Olympic Coast: The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has won permission to survey offshore bird colonies with a small unmanned aircraft, which they say is less intrusive than a traditional airplane. Seagulls could not be reached for comment.
Rally for American Prisoner of War in Idaho: The Taliban may be open to a prisoner swap, so Bowe Bergdahl’s family and supporters are urging the US government to negotiate and bring their boy home. For more, check out this terrific story on Bergdahl by Michael Hastings, the journalist who died last week.
Hours Before Death, Hastings Warned Colleagues About FBI: But the FBI, in an unusual move, was quick to deny any investigation into the celebrated reporter. And we should always trust the FBI.
On Dead People, Part I: The trailer for the Steve Jobs (played by Ashton Kutcher) biopic is out. The reaction of Steve Wozniak, who is an awesome human being, is not encouraging.
On Dead People, Part II: A fellow atheist knocks Christopher Hitchens for “reducing religion to a series of criminal anecdotes.”
This kid seems like a really nice chap: