Top News Stories of the Week

By Drudge Retort

Friday, April 09, 2010 at 08:00 AM

The following stories were the biggest news events of the preceding week, according to the users of the Drudge Retort.

Court: FCC Has No Power to Regulate Net

The Federal Communications Commission does not have the legal authority to regulate Internet providers to require Net neutrality, a federal appeals court ruled Tuesday. The decision could doom one of the signature initiatives of current FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski, who announced plans to begin drafting a formal set of neutrality rules.

Posted by LeeAtwater at 03:52 PM on April 06, 2010 | 215 COMMENTS

Exxon Paid No Federal Income Tax in 2009

Think Progress: Last week, Forbes magazine published what the top U.S. corporations paid in taxes last year. "Most egregious," Forbes notes, is General Electric, which "generated $10.3 billion in pretax income, but ended up owing nothing to Uncle Sam. In fact, it recorded a tax benefit of $1.1 billion." Big Oil giant Exxon Mobil, which last year reported a record $45.2 billion profit, paid the most taxes of any corporation, but none of it went to the IRS.

Posted by danni at 08:43 AM on April 07, 2010 | 179 COMMENTS

Texas Suffers $11 Billion Budget Shortfall

The state of Texas' 2012-13 budget has a shortfall of from $11 billion to more than $15 billion. State leaders are expected to pull the trigger soon on about $1 billion in spending trims, which could include prison guard layoffs and reduced payments to doctors and other Medicaid providers.

Posted by gl0bal74 at 05:30 PM on April 05, 2010 | 168 COMMENTS

Va. Governor Revives Confederate History Month

Virginia's Republican Gov. Robert F. McDonnell, reviving a controversy that had been dormant for eight years, declared that April will be Confederate History Month in the state. The two previous Democratic governors had refused to issue the mostly symbolic proclamation honoring the soldiers who fought for the South in the Civil War. McDonnell revived a practice started by Republican governor George Allen in 1997, leaving out anti-slavery language added by Allen's successor James S. Gilmore III , another Republican.

Posted by ZombieHunter at 02:33 PM on April 07, 2010 | 157 COMMENTS

47% of Households Pay No Income Tax

About 47 percent of U.S. households will pay no federal income taxes for 2009, according to projections by the Tax Policy Center, a Washington research organization. Either their incomes were too low, or they qualified for enough credits, deductions and exemptions to eliminate their liability.

Posted by LeeAtwater at 07:53 PM on April 07, 2010 | 150 COMMENTS

Doctor Turns Away Obama Voters

A Florida doctor who considers the national health-care overhaul to be bad medicine for the country posted a sign on his office door telling patients who voted for President Barack Obama to leave. "If you voted for Obama, seek care elsewhere," the sign on Dr. Jack Cassell's door reads. "Changes to your health care begin right now, not in four years."

Posted by rightisright at 10:44 AM on April 02, 2010 | 133 COMMENTS

2,500-Word Obama Answer Taxes Questioner

Even by President Obama's loquacious standards, an answer he gave on health care Friday was a doozy. At a question-and-answer session while visiting an advanced battery technology manufacturer, Obama was asked by a woman named Doris whether it was a "wise decision to add more taxes to us with the health care" package. "We are over-taxed as it is," Doris said. Obama "spent the next 17 minutes and 12 seconds lulling the crowd into a daze," writes Anne E. Kornblut.

Posted by moomanfl at 04:30 PM on April 04, 2010 | 131 COMMENTS

Poll: Most Blame Bush for Economy

Former President George W. Bush gets more blame for the country's economic troubles than his successor or the Democrats who control Congress, according to a Harris poll out Wednesday. Thirty-one percent of the 2,344 adults surveyed said Bush deserves the most blame for a rough economy, leading the second-place Wall Street by 6 percentage points.

Posted by AMERICANUNITY at 08:34 PM on April 07, 2010 | 130 COMMENTS

500 Muslim Scholars Denounce Terrorism

Muslim scholars from around the world who met this week in Saudi Arabia's holy city Medina have denounced "terrorism" and appealed to "extremists" to repent, a statement said on Thursday. The 500 scholars condemned "all acts of terrorism wherever they take place and whoever is behind them" at a conference at the Islamic University of Medina.

Posted by Diablo at 07:30 PM on April 02, 2010 | 130 COMMENTS

Hymas: Save the Earth, Don't Have Kids

Lisa Hymas: Here's a simple truth: For an average person like me ... the single most meaningful contribution I can make to a cleaner, greener world is to not have children. Why does it feel almost audacious to articulate all of this?

Posted by rcade at 02:19 PM on April 06, 2010 | 125 COMMENTS

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