Selected News For Feb 11 – 17

This thread is for our readers to post news items that might not have gotten enough attention during the week. Articles that fit under the topic of a recent thread should be posted there.

Please don’t post pieces from popular sites like the Drudge Report. Also, avoid material from blogs and editorials unless they are truly newsworthy in their own right.

In order to make the articles as readable as possible, try to stick to the format described in the first of these weekly threads here.

As always, remember to excerpt heavily and to provide a link to the original source.