WA STATE OFFICIAL SAYS LAST NIGHT'S I-5 BRIDGE COLLAPSE INTO THE SKAGIT RIVER WAS CAUSED BY AN OVERSIZED TRUCK *

STATE PATROL CHIEF JOHN BATISTE SAYS THE TRUCK HIT AN OVERHEAD SPAN *

TWO OTHER VEHICLES WENT INTO THE WATER... THREE PEOPLE WERE RESCUED AND ARE RECOVERING *

FIVE CLIMBERS ARE MISSING AND FEARED DEAD ON THE WORLD'S THIRD-LARGEST MOUNTAIN *

THE FIVE DISAPPEARED MON ON NEPAL'S MOUNT KANCHENJUNGA *

BAD WEATHER HAS PREVENTED RESCUE EFFORTS *

THE CLIMBERS WERE LAST SEEN DESCENDING FROM THE SUMMIT AT AROUND 25,900 FT... KANCHENJUNGA IS 28,162 FEET HIGH *

EGYPTIAN SECURITY OFFICIAL SAYS 10 MALE RELATIVES KILLED A MOTHER AND HER TWO DAUGHTERS IN "HONOR KILLINGS" *

THE MEN SUSPECTED THE WOMEN OF HAVING AFFAIRS AND KILLED THEM TO PROTECT THE FAMILY'S HONOR *

THE THREE BODIES WERE FOUND IN THE NILE RIVER NEAR THE CITY OF LUXOR *

NJ GOV CHRIS CHRISTIE CUTS A RIBBON TO SYMBOLICALLY REOPEN THE JERSEY SHORE FOR THE SUMMER SEASON, SEVEN MONTHS AFTER IT WAS DEVASTATED BY MONSTER STORM SANDY *

CHRISTIE CUT THE FIVE MILE-LONG RIBBON IN SEASIDE HEIGHTS *

SANDY DID AN ESTIMATED $37 BIL WORTH OF DAMAGE IN NJ *

BRITISH SECURITY OFFICIAL SAYS SITUATION INVOLVING A PAKISTANI AIRPLANE DOES NOT APPEAR TO BE TERROR-RELATED, ALTHOUGH IT'S STILL UNDER INVESTIGATION *

BRITAIN SCRAMBLED FIGHTER JETS TO INTERCEPT A COMMERCIAL AIRLINER CARRYING SOME 300 PASSENGERS FROM LAHORE, PAKISTAN TO MANCHESTER *

PLANE WAS DIVERTED TO STANDSTED AIRPORT, OUTSIDE OF LONDON, AND TWO PEOPLE WERE ARRESTED ON SUSPICION OF ENDANGERING THE AIRCRAFT *

POWERFUL 8.3 EARTHQUAKE HITS EASTERN RUSSIA, WITH TREMORS FELT AS FAR AWAY AS MOSCOW, ABOUT 4,400 MILES WEST OF THE EPICENTER *

NO REPORTS OF CASUALTIES OR DAMAGE *

THE QUAKE WAS CENTERED IN THE KURIL-KAMCHATKA ARC, ONE OF THE MOST SEISMICALLY ACTIVE REGIONS IN THE WORLD *

SYRIAN GOVT AGREES TO ATTEND A CONFERENCE PROPOSED BY THE U.S. AND RUSSIA TO END SYRIA'S CIVIL WAR *

PRES BASHAR ASSAD'S GOVT HAS NOT ISSUED A DEFINITIVE STATEMENT ON PROPOSED TALKS, BUT A SYRIAN LAWMAKER SAYS THE GOVT PLANS TO ATTEND *

CONFERENCE IS EXPECTED TO BE HELD IN GENEVA NEXT MONTH *

FRENCH SPECIAL FORCES AND NIGER TROOPS FATALLY SHOOT THE LAST TWO TERRORISTS INVOLVED IN YESTERDAY'S TWIN ATTACK ON A MILITARY BASE AND FRENCH URANIUM MINE IN NIGER *

CREDIT FOR ATTACKS WAS CLAIMED BY AL QAEDA-LINKED MOKHTAR BELMOKHTAR, WHO COORDINATED THEM WITH MUJWA MILITANT GROUP *

NIGER HAS EMERGED AS A FIRM ALLY OF FRANCE AND THE U.S. IN THE FIGHT AGAINST AL QAEDA-LINKED GROUPS *

AFHGAN AUTHORITIES SAY TWO GUARDS AND AT LEAST FIVE ATTACKERS WERE KILLED AFTER A TALIBAN SUICIDE BOMBER AND FIVE GUNMEN ATTACKED A GUEST HOUSE OF AN INTL AID GROUP IN CAPITAL KABUL *

ATTACKS SET OFF A SHOOTOUT THAT LASTED FOR HOURS *

THE TALIBAN QUICKLY CLAIMED RESPONSIBILITY *

IT WAS THE SECOND MAJOR STRIKE IN KABUL IN JUST OVER A WK *

INTL MONETARY FUND CHIEF NAMED AS A KEY WITNESS IN AN INVESTIGATION INTO A CONTROVERSIAL PAYOFF TO A FRENCH BUSINESSMAN *

THE PAYOFF ALLEGEDLY HAPPENED WHILE SHE WAS FRANCE'S FINANCE MIN *

CHRISTINE LAGARDE SAYS THE PARIS COURT HANDED HER THE STATUS OF "ASSISTING WITNESS" IN ITS PROBE OF A $520 MIL PAYOFF TO BUSINESS TYCOON BERNARD TAPIE *

LAGARDE COULD LATER BE CHARGED IN THE CASE *

PRES OBAMA WARNS NAVAL ACADEMY GRADUATES OF THE SERIOUSNESS OF SEXUAL ASSAULT IN THE ARMED FORCES *

IN A COMMENCEMENT SPEECH FRI IN ANNAPOLIS, MD, MR OBAMA SAYS SEXUAL ASSAULT IS A CRIME THAT HAS "NO PLACE IN THE GREATEST MILITARY ON EARTH" *

SPEECH COMES IN THE MIDST OF WIDESPREAD REPORTS OF SUCH MISCONDUCT THROUGHOUT THE MILITARY *

A RECENT PENTAGON REPORT ESTIMATED UP TO 26,000 MILITARY MEMBERS MAY HAVE BEEN SEXUALLY ASSAULTED LAST YR AND THAT THOUSANDS MORE ARE UNWILLING TO COME FORWARD *

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Senator Scott Brown says “no” to Senator Ted Kennedy’s son Patrick

If you scroll back through GretaWire, you will see the first story (Feb 26 at 10:12pm) I posted about the spat that Senator Brown is having with former Rep Patrick Kennedy.  Below is an update:

Brown refuses to pull ad mentioning late Sen. Kennedy

| FoxNews.com

 

Massachusetts Sen. Scott Brown says he won’t cow to pressure from former Rep. Patrick Kennedy, whose father, the late Sen. Edward Kennedy, is being featured in a radio ad rejecting the mandate requiring religious employers to provide birth control coverage.

 

Kennedy asked the Republican senator to pull the ad claiming his father supported religious exemptions for employers and health insurers, but only on certain medical procedures, and not as a blanket exemption to deny birth control to employees.

 

“Providing health care to every American was the work of my father’s life. The Blunt amendment you are supporting is an attack on that cause,” the former congressman wrote, referring to the “conscience” exemption offered by Sen. Roy Blunt, R-Mo., in legislation facing the Senate.

 

“My father would never have supported this extreme legislation,” reads the letter obtained by The Wall Street Journal.

 

Kennedy said he appreciates Brown’s previous expressions of respect for his dad, who was known as the “Lion of the Senate,” but “do not confuse my father’s positions with your own …. misstating his positions is no way to honor his life’s work.”

 

Brown, who’s in a tough reelection battle against Democratic challenger Elizabeth Warren, told reporters on Monday that he wouldn’t take down the ad.

 

He added that he was “confused” by Kennedy’s letter because the Rhode Island Democrat appeared to share the same position as his father on the issue and co-sponsored a similar conscience exemption bill when he was in Congress.

 

In a letter to Kennedy, Brown wrote that he believed his father “did not mean to put himself on the opposite side of the church or to suggest that he would force them to accept a situation with which they could not abide.”

 

But the WSJ reports, Brown wrote that’s exactly what the mandate forces religious groups to do.

 

“I’d like to think your dad would have been working with me to find an accommodation that all sides found satisfactory,” reads the letter.