By Sandra Moon, RP Staff, on Thu Nov 17, 2011 at 10:00 AM ET
Thanksgiving is right around the corner, and while some look forward to traditional side dishes, others want to break up the monotony of the holiday meal. Here are some ideas for easy side dishes that will add some new flavor to your Thanksgiving dinner. [NY Times]
How is Congress fighting the proposal by the Obama administration to make school lunches healthier? By allowing pizza to be counted as a vegetable. [MSNBC]
If you will be hosting any vegetarians at your holiday dinner, here are some tips to make them feel welcome at the table. [Food Network]
The RP’s Recipe of the Week: Jellied Cranberry Sauce with Fuji Apple [Food & Wine]
By Artur Davis, on Thu Nov 17, 2011 at 8:30 AM ET
 When approval of Congress barely crosses the 10% Mendoza line–an old baseball slang named after a journeyman player who consistently batted .100–it’s safe to say that improving their stock portfolio should not be a major fixation for senators and representatives. Recent press reports regarding stock trading by congressmen has touched one more nerve for a public that already believes politicians operate in their own gilded, privileged world.
I am still, however, a bit torn here–not because I did the same thing (for what its worth, I never owned stocks during the time I served in Congress) and not because I think it’s a good thing to use an elected office to further personal profit. The problem I have is that the controversy, in all its unseemliness, spares us some needed introspection: about how narrow some of our financial laws are, and about what some ill-timed trades say about a larger culture that virtually all us aided and abetted.
First, the laws and their relatively limited state. The misconceptions around insider trading are extensive, even in informed circles. Its not well known, for example, that you can search the whole federal criminal code and never find the term “insider trading”; the concept is a creation of how judges and regulators have interpreted the securities fraud laws (which were written in the thirties, before E-Trade, before money markets flourished, before stocks became a middle class instrument to fund colleges and cushion retirements).
 The prevailing myth is that “insider trading” means you can’t buy or sell stocks based on “confidential information”. That’s actually wrong–the courts and regulators have focused on only one class of violations–hinging on individuals who have a specific legal or fiduciary duty to the source of the information. It’s true that you can be on the hook for criminal liability if you get information from someone that you know breached their fiduciary responsibilities–but it can be tough to prove what a trader knows about the ties between his source and the company whose confidences are being breached.
Read the rest of…
Artur Davis: On Congressional Insider Trading
By Zack Adams, RP Staff, on Wed Nov 16, 2011 at 3:00 PM ET
What your typical local news promo sounds like. [picture]
The location of your waiter is always relative. [comic]
Would you steal Hitler’s wallet? [picture]
Have you found Jesus? [comic]
Fantastic air horn prank. [picture]
Because I am a fan of both I can attest to this. [picture]
By Stephanie Doctrow, RP Staff, on Wed Nov 16, 2011 at 1:30 PM ET In United States public school cafeterias, pizza still legally counts as a vegetable. Congress blocked the Department of Agriculture’s proposed changes school lunch menus to fight childhood obesity. [NY Times]
Could women’s use of birth control pills increase men’s risk of prostate cancer? A new study suggests there’s a link, finding that countries where more women take oral contraception have higher rates of prostate cancer and prostate cancer deaths. [Time]
Here’s seven stress-busting foods and scents for when Thanksgiving preparations get to be a little too much to handle. [Huffington Post]
Check out these healthy, easy recipes that only require one pot. [Fitness]
Read about the science about Toddlers and Tiaras moms and why some parents want to live through their kids. [Psychology Today]
By RP Staff, on Wed Nov 16, 2011 at 12:30 PM ET How significant is the relationship status of a couple in their child’s development? A recent study showed children of married couples fair better in development. [Herald Sun]
A recent survey on married couples shows that marriage may be one thing that does improve with age. Older couples may be more affectionate and have better control over their emotions. [USA Today]
U.S. Housing and Urban Development Secretary Shaun Donovan announced his support for gay marriage on Tuesday. He is the only current cabinet secretary so far to show public support. Could he be a trend setter? [Metro Weekly]
By Jonathan Miller, on Wed Nov 16, 2011 at 12:00 PM ET JERUSALEM: My people — the Jewish people — have the reputation of being both opinionated and cantankerous. Israel’s founding father, David Ben-Gurion, once remarked that “for every two Jews, there are three opinions.” When his successor as Prime Minister, Golda Meir, was confronted by President Lyndon Johnson — who complained that he had to satisfy 150 million voters — Meir responded that she had to placate two million prime ministers.
So it’s been especially remarkable that my conversations this week with Israelis reveal a broad consensus of popular support for the government’s decision last month to trade more than 1000 prisoners for the safe return of just one Israeli soldier, Gilad Shalit. Indeed, Israel’s controversial prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, is surging in the nation’s public opinion polls since the prisoner swap.
How is this consensus possible? Upon first glance, the trade seemed highly imbalanced and unfair. And many analysts have complained that such a deal only encourages further hostage taking. Remember the maxim, “Never negotiate with terrorists”?
Yesterday in Jerusalem, I learned the powerful lesson why.
 The first clue came in a visit to an Immigration Absorption Center in the Jerusalem suburbs. I had the extraordinary opportunity to meet with dozens of recent immigrants from Ethiopia, a small representation of the more than 120,000 Ethiopian Jews who have emigrated to Israel in recent decades, most dramatically in two covert military operations, Operation Moses (1984) and Operation Solomon (1991). With their lives in danger due to famine and political unrest, thousands upon thousands were airlifted to Israel to enable them to begin their lives anew, free to worship their God. And in the intervening decades, Israel has spent many millions of dollars to educate, feed, clothe, shelter and prepare these immigrants for modern life.
Read the rest of…
The RP: Why did Israel Trade 1000 Prisoners for Galid Shalit? I Learned the Powerful Answer in Jerusalem
By Grant Smith, RP Staff, on Wed Nov 16, 2011 at 10:00 AM ET
Oracle’s Larry Ellison bets big on…The America’s Cup? [Forbes]
How the internet is making us both richer and more unequal. [TechCrunch.com]
Will publishers and authors extinguish the new Kindle’s “fire?” [Fortune]
Amazon’s Jeff Bezos owns the web in more ways than you think. [Wired Magazine]
By RP Staff, on Wed Nov 16, 2011 at 8:30 AM ET Our own contributing RP, Jeff Smith, once again is hitting the international public airwaves, the subject of a lengthy interview on National Public Radio on his jail experience and recovery.
Click here to listen.
By RP Staff, on Tue Nov 15, 2011 at 5:30 PM ET Collegiate athletics have an enormous presence on many college campuses across the country, and the effect continues to grow annually. See here for a list of the “Elite 50” schools, or those that rank the highest when considering both US News’ Ranking and the number of Top-15 Ranked Sports. [Stack]
College football remains a point of avid interest for many citizens across the country. Which team can claim it has the biggest fan base? Where do they live? How does that make sense? [NYTimes]
Despite the great strides that have been made for women in college athletics, there has been extensive maneuvering around equality laws. One is example is Title IX, which made discrimination against women in any aspect of education illegal. Some colleges have attempted to meet the bare minimum laid out by this law, while really maintaining their focus on male athletes. [NYTimes]
The differences between men and women’s college athletics is staggering, primarily as a result of men’s football and basketball teams. In particular, large disparities are seen between both men’s athletic expenses and revenues and women’s. [Matlab Geeks]
By Stephanie Doctrow, RP Staff, on Tue Nov 15, 2011 at 1:30 PM ET Two media legends in one article? Jerry Seinfield interviews Regis Philbin as the morning host nears retirement. [Newsweek]
Here’s a surefire sign newspapers aren’t what they used to be. As less people are subscribing to newspapers, more resources are being put into the publications’ Sunday editions. [Poynter Institute]
Did CBS give Michele Bachmann the short end of the stick in last week’s Republican presidential debate in South Carolina? She seems to think so. [CNN]
Speaking of CBS, the network is revitalizing their morning Early Show program… with Gayle King and Charlie Rose? [NY Magazine]
New findings from the Pew Research Center shows that mainstream news outlets are using Twitter… to promote their own content, and not to interact with readers. [Pew Research Center]
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