US News - News April 25, 2011

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Steve Jobs: iOS does not track; WSJ confirms tracking even if location svcs off (examiner)
Apple CEO Steve Jobs has responded in a typically terse email to an end user, claiming that iDevices don't track users. At the same time, a Wall Street Journal report indicates that the hidden location file that has been revealed to be on iDevices is updated, even if location-based services are turned off in iOS.

Lead story image (Post Tribune)
The Supreme Court rejected a call Monday from Virginia's attorney general to depart from its usual practice and put review of the health care law on a fast track.

AT&T begins selling disaster recovery 'cell tower in a suitcase' (examiner)
AT&T has announce sales of a new, portable, "cell tower in a suitcase." The device is designed to allow first responders and disaster recovery personnel to connect to cell phones, by using this device to connect to satellites and provide voice and minimal data connectivity, but at a cost that makes one wonder why they the agencies couldn't just purchase satellite phones.

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On Politics: Covering the US Congress, Governors, and the 2010 Election (content.usatoday)
Some Republicans in Congress are getting an earful back home over their votes to dramatically revamp Medicare for seniors.

Anderson Cooper offers birther investigation, talks to Donald Trump (blogs.orlandosentinel)
Donald Trump talked to the media last month. Photo credit: Timothy A. Clary/AFP/Getty Images Where was President Barack Obama born? Some people simply won't accept that Obama was born in Hawaii.

Emperor Trump Has No Clothes (thenation)
A closer look at the alleged billionaire's finances reveals bankruptcies and lawsuits. For a media that loves infotainment, the horse race, and spectacle - and has trouble tackling real policy issues and digging deep - Donald Trump is the gift that keeps on giving: all spectacle, all the time. Now he's out there on his ugly birther trip, riding it to the top of the polls amidst a GOP presidential field in disarray. And other than a few notable exceptions, the media is largely playing the role of cheering spectator for Trump's latest self-aggrandizing parade—none more so than Fox, which has treated his birtherism-based candidacy as a cause célèbre. Media Matters notes thirteen Trump appearances on the network since March 20.

The Issue is Jobs, Not Deficit Reduction (thenation)
Republicans never cared about deficit reduction when George Bush was president. And, for the most part, they don't care now -- as evidenced by broad GOP support for House Budget Committee chair Paul Ryan's plan to keep the budget out of balance until 2040 while clearing the way to begin streaming federal Social Security and Medicare and Medicaid ...

Lauren Collins on Britain's royal wedding. (newyorker)
ABSTRACT: LETTER FROM BRITAIN about the wedding of Prince William and Kate Middleton. This week, the sixty-two million subjects of the United Kingdom will mark the marriage of His Royal Highness Prince William Arthur Philip Louis of Wales, their future king, to Catherine Elizabeth Middleton. They have been told that the event will be a "people's wedding," with a buffet and homeless youth in attendance. More realistically, it will be a feudal affair.

Magnus PI: Supreme Court Hears Data Mining Case (theatlantic)
Big Pharma takes on little Vermont at the United States Supreme Court Tuesday morning in what ought to be a fascinating oral argument about the lucrative practice of corporate data mining for information about prescription drugs. In Sorrell v. IMS Health, the justices will determine under First Amendment law whether and to what extent a state may ban the use of "prescriber-identifiable data" (a.k.a "'PI') to market or promote those drugs to doctors.

The GOP's debt limit strategy (washingtonpost)
Republicans continue to tease the idea that they will not vote to raise the debt limit, as judgment day approaches and another standoff awaits. The most recent example came Sunday, when Sen. Mark Kirk (R-Ill.) suggested that Congress may not vote to raise the limit, which the country is set to hit in a few weeks time.

Republicans in Swing Districts Take Heat for Supporting Ryan's Medicare Plan (nationaljournal)
Republicans who used seniors' rage over health care changes to sweep into office last fall are now facing the same type of heat over the same issue: Modifications in Medicare and Medicaid.

I Could Support Tax Revenue Increase (newsmax)
Sen. Tom Coburn, R-Okla., says he could support a net increase in tax revenue if it there were no hikes in tax rates, in direct opposition with Americans for Tax Reform and founder, Grover Norquist, Politico reports.

Texas firefighters race against clock to beat fires (reuters)
Amount of acreage burned in Texas in 2011 is almost at the record level set in 2006Hundreds of weary firefighters were racing against the clock on Sunday, pushing back massive brush fires that have destroyed near-record swatches of Texas countryside.

NATO Airstrikes Hit Gadhafi's Libya Compound (cbn)
NATO airstrikes targeted the center of Moammar Gadhafi's seat of power early Monday, destroying a multistory library and office in his compound and badly damaging a reception hall for visiting dignitaries. The strikes destroyed a library and office and damaged a reception hall for visiting dignitaries. A security official said four people suffered mild injuries.

Laked Gitmo files reveal info about detainees | Capitol Hill Blue (capitolhillblue)
A cache of classified U.S. military documents provides intelligence assessments on nearly all of the 779 people who been detained at the Guantanamo Bay prison in Cuba. The secret documents, made available to The New York Times and several other news organizations, reveal that most of the 172 remaining prisoners have been rated as a "high risk" of posing a threat to the United States and its allies if released without adequate rehabilitation and supervision, the newspaper said.