Friday, June 19, 2009

today's papers - Are we ready to TEST our Anti-Missile Shield Defenses in Hawaii. PULL!



North Korea Ready To Attack Hawaii?

By Daniel Politi

Posted Friday, June 19, 2009, at 6:43 AM ET
Iran is out of the lead slot in all of the papers, and the New York Times and Washington Post turn back to Washington infighting to warn that President Obama is losing momentum on some of his most important domestic policy initiatives due to doubts from lawmakers. The WP has a two-story lead, focusing on doubts from lawmakers about increasing the power of the Federal Reserve and the fighting that has broken out over the price tag for health care reform. The NYT also leads with health care, noting that the high cost of insuring all Americans is worrying Democrats, who are trying to find a way to either make the plan less ambitious or cut back on existing programs. The Wall Street Journal leads with news that the United States is deploying ground-to-air missile defenses to Hawaii out of fear that North Korea may soon try to fire a long-range missile in that direction. Most U.S. officials don't think a North Korean missile would actually be able to reach Hawaii, but, just in case, Defense Secretary Robert Gates says the United States is deploying a high-tech radar in the ocean near Hawaii that can track whether a missile is approaching.
The Los Angeles Times leads with the Supreme Court's 5-4 decision that makes it much more difficult for older employees to win an age-discrimination suit. For a while, courts had decided that if a worker could show age was one of the factors that led to a layoff or demotion, then the employer had to prove the decision was made for other reasons besides age. Now, the court's conservative coalition has put all the burden on proving that age was the key factor in the hands of the worker. USA Today leads with news that the percentage of Army soldiers diagnosed with alcoholism or alcohol abuse almost doubled since 2003, in what many see as yet another sign of the toll that repeated deployments to a warzone can take on servicemembers. The number of Marines who screen positive for drug or alcohol problems has also been increasing in the past few years.
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Daniel Politi writes "Today's Papers" for Slate.

He can be reached at todayspapers@slate.com.

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