Recently by Chris Amico
Ariz. Gunman Appears in Court on 5 Charges
January 10, 2011 | Jared Lee Loughner, the 22-year-old Arizona man accused of shooting Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, D-Ariz., and 19 others at a meet-and-greet event outside a store in Tucson, appeared in court Monday on a total of five charges, including murder, attempted murder,...
Will Presidential Nomination 'Hostage-Taking' Lead to Confirmation Reforms?
January 4, 2011 | {"chartType":"BarChart","chartName":"nominees","dataSourceUrl":"//spreadsheets0.google.com/tq?key=0AprNP7zjIYS1dEE1aG5WczZ3Sk0yNlZpMXdPR0RnX1E&range=A1%3AE6&gid=1&transpose=0&headers=1&pub=1","options":{"reverseCategories":false,"pointSize":"0","is3D":false,"logScale":false,"wmode":"opaque","title":"Comparing Obama and Bush Nominees","height":371,"isStacked":true,"mapType":"hybrid","showTip":true,"displayAnnotations":true,"nonGeoMapColors":["#3366CC","#DC3912","#FF9900","#8e7cc3","#990099","#0099C6","#DD4477","#66AA00","#B82E2E","#316395"],"dataMode":"markers","titleY":"Congress","maxAlternation":1,"titleX":"Presidential Nominees","colors":["#3366CC","#DC3912","#FF9900","#8e7cc3","#990099","#0099C6","#DD4477","#66AA00","#B82E2E","#316395"],"smoothLine":false,"width":520,"lineWidth":"2","labelPosition":"right","hasLabelsColumn":true,"legend":"bottom","allowCollapse":true,"reverseAxis":false},"packages":"corechart","refreshInterval":5} Source: New York Times Congress API You might not remember Erroll Southers. He is a former FBI agent and counter-terrorism expert, and he was President Obama's first nominee to head the Transportation Security...
After Another Snowmageddon, Ushahidi Helps New Yorkers Dig Out
December 29, 2010 | In February, a Nor'easter buried Washington, D.C., in several feet of snow, shutting down the federal government and overwhelming the city's ability to respond. In DC's Dupont Circle neighborhood, a Web developer turned to Ushahidi (which means "testimony" in...
FCC's Net Neutrality Order Released
December 23, 2010 | Two days ago, a divided Federal Communications Commission adopted rules enforcing network neutrality, the principle that all Internet traffic should be treated equally, regardless of origin. When the commission voted, it did so without releasing the actual rules publicly, as...
Divided FCC OKs Net Neutrality Rules
December 21, 2010 | FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski; Getty file photo Tuesday's Federal Communications Commission vote on new rules regulating the Internet went much as expected, with commissioners Mignon Clyburn and Michael J. Copps voting with Chairman Julius Genachowski in favor of the...
The Cases Against Julian Assange
December 14, 2010 | WikiLeaks' founder Julian Assange was freed from jail Tuesday on $310,000 bail and under strict security rules set down by a British court. Prosecution lawyer Gemma Lindfield announced prosecutors would appeal the decision to grant bail, but didn't give reasons....
WikiLeaks' Supporters Strike Sites
December 8, 2010 | WikiLeaks' supporters are striking back at those hampering the controversial site. According to the New York Times: Targets included Mastercard.com, which stopped processing donations for WikiLeaks; Amazon.com, which revoked server space from the group; the online payment service PayPal, which...
WikiLeaks Confronts More Legal, Funding and Hacker Challenges
December 6, 2010 | In the week since WikiLeaks began releasing a trove of diplomatic cables, the site has been attacked by hackers and senators, been kicked off Amazon's cloud-hosting platform, lost its main U.S.-hosted domain name but still managed to stay afloat, hopping...
WikiLeaks Stays Visible, But Is Net Closing In?
December 3, 2010 | The cat-and-mouse game between WikiLeaks and its detractors continues. The site found itself without a domain name after its registrar, EveryDNS shut down WikiLeaks.org Thursday night, saying attacks on the site were threatening other customers. More specifically, the services were...
WikiLeaks Booted by Amazon, But Site Lives On
December 1, 2010 | After a morning of spotty service, Wikileaks reported Wednesday afternoon that Amazon.com had decided to stop hosting the controversial site on its cloud platform. .bbpBox10058229002272768 {background:url(http://a3.twimg.com/profilebackgroundimages/3147857/WLHourGlass.jpg) #9AE4E8;padding:20px;} p.bbpTweet{background:#fff;padding:10px 12px 10px 12px;margin:0;min-height:48px;color:#000;font-size:18px !important;line-height:22px;-moz-border-radius:5px;-webkit-border-radius:5px} p.bbpTweet span.metadata{display:block;width:100%;clear:both;margin-top:8px;padding-top:12px;height:40px;border-top:1px solid #fff;border-top:1px solid #e6e6e6} p.bbpTweet span.metadata...
Could WikiLeaks Be Stopped?
December 1, 2010 | WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange in London on Oct. 23.; Getty photo Update, 3:30 p.m.: Wikileaks says it has been ousted from its Amazon cloud hosting. .bbpBox10058229002272768 {background:url(http://a3.twimg.com/profile_background_images/3147857/WL_Hour_Glass.jpg) #9AE4E8;padding:20px;} p.bbpTweet{background:#fff;padding:10px 12px 10px 12px;margin:0;min-height:48px;color:#000;font-size:18px !important;line-height:22px;-moz-border-radius:5px;-webkit-border-radius:5px} p.bbpTweet span.metadata{display:block;width:100%;clear:both;margin-top:8px;padding-top:12px;height:40px;border-top:1px solid #fff;border-top:1px solid #e6e6e6}...
'Don't Ask, Don't Tell' Repeal Presents Little Risk, Study Finds
November 30, 2010 | Repealing the 17-year-old law that bans gays and lesbians from serving openly in the military would do little harm to unit cohesion and troop morale, a year-long Defense Department study found. The report states: Based on all we saw and...
Digging into Wikileaks' 'CableGate'
November 29, 2010 | This weekend's massive Wikileaks document dump contains -- according to Wikileaks -- "251,287 leaked United States embassy cables, the largest set of confidential documents ever to be released into the public domain." With that in mind, here are a few...
The Many Ways to Trim a Deficit: More Debt-Cutting Proposals Unveiled
November 17, 2010 | Two more plans to cut the federal deficit and rein in debt landed Wednesday. The problem, as laid out by former Sen. Pete V. Domenici and Alice M. Rivlin, who led President Bill Clinton's budget office, is long-term debt: The...
Earmarks Everywhere: How Does Your State Stack Up?
November 16, 2010 | This interactive requires your browser to have Java installed. Click here to check if you need Java. Sen. Mitch McConnell, the Republican minority leader, won't be taking any earmarks in the next Congress. After a public debate with members...
Fiscal Commission Proposes Big Cuts, Tax Reform to Reduce U.S. Debt
November 10, 2010 | The Fiscal Commission charged with charting a path toward a balanced federal budget released a draft report Wednesday, calling for cuts to Social Security, broad changes to the tax code and cuts in spending across the ledger. This draft...
Who (Still) Doesn't Have Broadband?
November 8, 2010 | This interactive requires your browser to have Java installed. Click here to check if you need Java. High-speed Internet went mainstream in the last decade -- home access grew from 9 percent of American households in 2001 to 64...
Will Open Health Data Save Your Life?
September 8, 2010 | After one of health administrator Jim Traficant's two liver transplants, a doctor told him, "The surgery is a science. The medication is an art." Over the next few months of recovery, Traficant's body fought with his new liver. The organ...
Gov2.0: D.C. Helps Other Governments Learn to Open Up
September 8, 2010 | Among Gov2.0 advocates, Washington, D.C., is one of the major cities to watch for its efforts to provide open data to citizens and software developers as part of its civic services. It was one of the first cities to run...
Gov2.0: Challenge.Gov Aims to Make Government More User-Friendly
September 7, 2010 | Two of the most consistent themes at this week's Gov2.0 Summit is that government is bad at making the things it needs and it spends far too much on bad technology. "Think about on a daily basis whether you're booking...
At Gov 2.0 Summit, Democratizing Data Is the Watchword
September 7, 2010 | The Rundown is covering this week's Gov2.0 Summit in Washington, D.C., where a mix of technologists, activists and industry professionals have gathered to talk about methods to run governments in more open and useful manners. Gov2.0 is a catch-all term...
Attention, and Danger for U.S. Troops, Shift from Iraq to Afghanistan
August 31, 2010 | With President Obama marking the end of the U.S. combat mission in Iraq Tuesday night, and Afghanistan in the midst of a surge, here's a look back at the toll both wars have taken on American combat forces: As attention...
Beck, Palin Rally the Faithful as Other Rallies Focus on MLK Jr. Legacy
August 29, 2010 | They came looking for hope, for change, for like-minded people. They came because they didn't want to be alone. They came because of a belief that "they" (the government, politicians, someone) is taking away their freedoms. "Glenn Beck said this...
An Updated Oil Widget
August 26, 2010 | This widget is the latest version of what has long been the PBS NewsHour's SpillCam. For much of the time the Macando well was gushing into the Gulf of Mexico, we streamed live video to millions of viewers through...
Former Sen. Ted Stevens Killed in Alaska Plane Crash
August 10, 2010 | Update 5:18 p.m. | Michael Carey, a columnist for the Anchorage Daily News who has appeared on the NewsHour several times to discuss Alaska politics, offered this assessment of Stevens' career: Stevens was not a reformer. He accepted the...
Google and Verizon: Yes to Net Neutrality, But...
August 9, 2010 | The CEOs of Google and Verizon announced a joint set of net neutrality principles Monday that would enshrine in federal law the FCC's ability to regulate the Internet and enforce open access. The document primarily lays out proposed rules...
Would a Google-Verizon Deal Kill Net Neutrality?
August 5, 2010 | A report this morning says Google may be close to a deal with Verizon that would give the search giant preferred access on the service provider's networks. That news has open-Internet advocates worried and Web-watchers scratching their heads. The New...
With Gulf Well Capped, Oil Flow Rate May Remain a Mystery
July 20, 2010 | We may never know how much oil really leaked into the Gulf of Mexico. Over the weekend came news that BP may be able to keep the Deepwater Horizon well capped until two relief wells can permanently seal it....
The Oil Cap Is Holding -- Now What?
July 16, 2010 | For now, at least, there is no oil flowing into the Gulf of Mexico. That could last until Saturday, if BP carries out its well integrity test for a full 48 hours. Engineers are checking pressure inside the well...
BP Holding Back Oil, for Now; Ticker Stands Still
July 15, 2010 | News agencies report: Kent Wells, a BP PLC vice president, said at a news briefing that oil stopped flowing into the water at 2:25 p.m. CDT after engineers gradually dialed down the amount of crude escaping through the last of...
Fed to Gulf Coast Banks: Help Those Hurt by the Spill
July 14, 2010 | The Federal Reserve urged Gulf Coast banks Wednesday to help customers get through what is sure to be a tough road ahead economically due to the ongoing oil disaster. In response to this disaster, financial institutions can take measures to...
Oil Spill, Day 84: The Cap Comes Down
July 13, 2010 | BP locked down its new sealing cap -- "the 3 ram stack" -- around 7 p.m. CST last night and a new container ship connected to the ruptured Deepwater Horizon well an hour later, raising hopes that more oil --...
Oil Spill Update: Anticipation Grows That New Efforts Will Stem Flow
July 12, 2010 | Oil flowed nearly-unabated from the Deepwater Horizon's well Sunday as BP worked to replace its containment dome that had helped funnel oil to a container ship on the surface for more than a month. That new dome could let BP...
Oil Spill Update, Day 80: BP Readies New Top Hat
July 9, 2010 | BP is hoping a window of calm weather will give it time to swap out containment domes over the ruptured Deepwater Horizon well in the Gulf of Mexico. According to The Washington Post: The company plans to change caps on...
How Candid Was Kagan? Depends Who's Asking, Analysts Say
July 8, 2010 | To Sen. Patrick Leahy, Solicitor General Elena Kagan was "more forthcoming than certainly any nominee that I can recall since I've been in the Senate." But to Sen. Arlen Specter, she was far less candid: "You have followed the pattern...
Oil Spill Update: Skimming Efforts Falling Short
July 6, 2010 | Skimming efforts haven't proven nearly as effective at removing oil from the Gulf of Mexico as BP told federal regulators just before the Deepwater Horizon exploded, the Washington Post reports: In a March report that was not questioned by federal...
Are Supreme Court Confirmation Hearings Getting Longer?
July 1, 2010 | Elena Kagan is done with her testimony before the the Senate Judiciary Committee. After three days of long questions and longer statements, the solicitor general can watch the rest of her confirmation hearing for the U.S. Supreme Court from home...
Watch Kagan Confirmation Hearings Live
June 28, 2010 | Elena Kagan's confirmation hearings begin Monday at 12:30 p.m.ET, and with it a week of special coverage from the PBS NewsHour, NPR and SCOTUSBlog. Read Kagan's opening statement. Judy Woodruff and the National Law Journal's Marcia Coyle will be covering...
Allen: Underwater Robot Collision Halts Oil Capture
June 23, 2010 | BP was forced to remove the containment cap that had been capturing some of the oil gushing from the ruptured well in the Gulf, Coast Guard Adm. Thad Allen said Wednesday. A second vessel, the Q4000, is still siphoning oil...
Uncertainty Abounds as the Gulf Leak Meter Ticks Higher
June 18, 2010 | Last week, we noted that a federal panel raised the estimate of how much oil has been leaking out of the ruptured Deepwater Horizon well in the Gulf of Mexico: Working together, U.S. government and independent scientists estimate that the...
BP Begins 'Flaring' Oil in the Gulf
June 17, 2010 | BP has started flaring, or burning, some of the oil it siphons out of the ruptured Deepwater Horizon well in the Gulf of Mexico, the company reported this week. Energy giant BP PLC said it had burned 52,500 gallons of...
NOAA Launches 'One Stop Shop' for Oil Spill Data
June 14, 2010 | The federal government Monday released what it called "a one-stop shop for detailed near-real-time information about the response to the Deepwater Horizon BP oil spill" in an effort to get updates out the range of groups affected by the ongoing...
Signs of Higher Flow Rate: BP Captures 14,800 Barrels of Oil
June 8, 2010 | BP reported this morning that on Monday it captured approximately 14,800 barrels of oil from the broken well in the Gulf of Mexico, where crude has been flowing since the Deepwater Horizon rig sank on April 22. As we've done...
Adm. Allen: Gulf Oil Leak Suppressed For Now; Leak Meter Paused
May 28, 2010 | As of 8 AM today, we've frozen our Gulf Leak Meter, based on reports that the flow of oil is being held back. "They have been able to push the hydrocarbons, or the oil, down with the mud," Coast Guard...
How Much Difference Do 2,000 Barrels a Day Make for Containment Efforts?
May 17, 2010 | With BP reporting some success in siphoning off oil leaking out of the Deepwater Horizon well, we've updated our Gulf Leak Meter to reflect a slightly slowed rate of leakage. Updated May 18, 4:30 p.m. | BP now says it...
New Video, Images Show Deepwater Horizon Oil Leak in Dismal Detail
May 12, 2010 | British Petroleum has released new video and images of one of the oil leaks in the Gulf of Mexico. We aired a clip on Wednesday's PBS Newshour and our source was this video via the Joint Information Center. It...
The Tory-Lib Dem Agreement: Reading Between the Lines
May 12, 2010 | According to the coalition agreement hammered out between Britain's Conservatives and Liberal Democrats, the new U.K. government will try to set fixed terms for Parliament, maintain the country's nuclear arsenal, and trim a growing budget deficit. The full document,...
How Much Oil Has Leaked Into the Gulf of Mexico?
May 9, 2010 | Embed Code: View ticker with live video feed. Last updated 11 a.m. ET on May 27. Nobody knows for certain how much oil has leaked into the Gulf of Mexico since last month's oil rig explosion. What we do...
O'Brien of 'This Week In Space' on Obama Space 'Revolution,' Privatization
April 19, 2010 | Miles O'Brien made his second visit to NewsHour Plus to talk about the impact of President Barack Obama's speech to NASA and where the space agency's future may lead. The first NASA budget released by the administration appeared to drop...
Looking Back on Stevens' 34 Years on the Supreme Court
April 9, 2010 | In almost 35 years on the Supreme Court, Justice John Paul Stevens has handed down, and dissented from, some of the biggest legal decisions of the last generation. Stevens began his long tenure as one of the court's moderates, he...
As Hopes Dim in W.Va., Examining a Century of Mining Deaths
April 6, 2010 | The chances of survival appeared grim on Tuesday afternoon for four coal miners still missing after a massive underground mine explosion Monday in West Virginia, according to rescue officials and the mine owners. Rescue efforts at Massey Energy's Upper...
NewsHour Plus 'This Week In Space' Talk Mars and Your Ticket to the Stars
March 29, 2010 | Recent developments have moved us a bit closer to "space (flight) for the rest of us," Miles O'Brien of 'This Week In Space' tells us in his first visit to NewsHour Plus. O'Brien catches us up on Virgin Galactic's latest...
Obama and FCC Betting on Broadband as Stimulus
March 15, 2010 | <!-- _pap_embed_custom('news01s3cc0qe29',482,304,""); //--><!]]> The Federal Communications Commission and the Obama administration will unveil a plan Tuesday to broaden high-speed Internet access in the United States and encourage telecom companies to provide faster download speeds. The plan comes from a directive...
In Eastern Turkey, a California-Type Quake Kills at Least 57
March 8, 2010 | In eastern Turkey, at least 57 people are dead after a 6.0-magnitude temblor struck at 4:32 a.m. local time Monday, about 30 miles west of the city of Bingol. Despite high-profile quakes in Haiti, Chile and now Turkey, there actually...
Chile the Latest in a Decade of Deadly Quakes
March 3, 2010 | In Chile, smoke billowed from cities damaged by Feb. 27's 8.8-magnitude quake. The death toll, which stands at more than 700, is expected to rise. Six weeks ago, Haiti's capital Port-au-Prince was demolished by a 7.0 earthquake. The death...
Reactions to #HCRSummit Around the Web
February 25, 2010 | Did the health reform summit change minds? It's still hard to say. Going in, hopes for compromise were low, according to Politico: Heading into Thursday's summit, there's been a lot of talk on both sides about how they're the reasonable...
Links to Help Break Down the Budget
February 1, 2010 | The budget President Obama released Monday would spend about $3.8 trillion in the 2011 fiscal year (which actually starts this October). Here are a few ways to understand that very large number: The New York Times breaks down what would...
Clinton: Countries that Engage in Cyberattacks Should Face Consequences
January 21, 2010 | Secretary of State Hillary Clinton delivered a blunt defense of unfettered Internet access Thursday in a speech at Washington's Newseum, saying the United States will defend the right to information around the world. The speech comes in the wake of...
Scenes of Destruction in Haiti, From Above
January 14, 2010 | Images of this week's massive earthquake in Haiti are now flowing out of the country as aid workers and journalists flow in. What we have seen so far confirms the obvious: devastation is massive and widespread. Buildings collapsed. Homes...
States' Budgets Seeing Red All Over
January 12, 2010 | "The state revenue nightmare continues," says a recent report from the National Conference of State Legislatures. Almost every state is facing a budget gap. In Oklahoma, the deficit is equal to 18.5% of the total budget. In California, Gov. Arnold...
McGwire Admits to Steroid Use During Record-Setting Season
January 11, 2010 | Baseball slugger Mark McGwire admitted Monday that he was on steroids when he broke the major league single-season home run record in 1998. McGwire admitted to more than a decade of use "during a 20-minute telephone interview, his voice repeatedly...
A 'Brown v. Board' for Same-Sex Marriage?
January 11, 2010 | California's ban on same-sex marriage goes on trial in federal court today. The case, Perry v. Schwarzenegger, was brought by advocates of same-sex marriage hoping to overturn Proposition 8, which banned same-sex marriage in California with 52 percent of the...
California's Budget on the Brink, Again
January 8, 2010 | California's budget crisis has turned another page. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger declared another budget emergency and called a special legislative session Friday morning, announcing a spending plan that would cut pay for state workers, slash services and seek help from the...
Census Bureau Launches 2010 Road Tour
January 4, 2010 | The Census Bureau launched its 2010 campaign Monday and will spend $340 million on a media campaign to convince Americans to fill out and send back the decennial surveys. Millions of forms will be mailed to residences and shelters as...
Census: 308,400,408 Americans at Start of 2010
January 1, 2010 | Another year, another few million Americans. There are 2,606,181 more Americans today than there were on Dec. 31, 2008, according to the Census Bureau's annual year-end projections. That's about 0.9 percent growth for the year. Births in the coming year...
Airline Safety: An Exercise in 'Layered Security'
December 30, 2009 | The means and methodology of the Transportation Security Administration are under close review this week in the aftermath of an attempted attack on an airliner bound for Detroit. Among the techniques the TSA employs: something called "layered security." In a...
Congress OKs $290 Billion More in Government Debt
December 24, 2009 | The government will have another $290 billion to last it through February after the Senate voted today to raise the federal debt ceiling to around $12.4 trillion. The Treasury Department had warned the government would run out of cash if...
Blizzard '09 as Seen From Space
December 22, 2009 | The weekend storm that dumped more snow on Washington, DC, than the area usually sees in an entire winter was a Nor'easter, a powerful storm characterized by a strong low-pressure center that forms in the Gulf of Mexico or...
Recovery Act Spending Near You
December 10, 2009 | Thanks to our friends at ProPublica, county-by-county spending under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (aka "the Stimulus") is now mapped in our Patchwork Nation project. Some of these data come from Recovery.gov, the site that was touted to...


















