Hot off the Press: The Big Game edition

Lead: "An undercover video shot by an animal rights group at an Iowa egg hatchery shows workers discarding unwanted chicks by sending them alive into a grinder, and other chicks falling through a sorting machine to die on the factory floor": http://www.desmoinesregister.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=200990901007.

According to Mercy for Animals, male chicks are of no use to the industry because they can't lay eggs and don't grow large or quickly enough to be raised profitably for meat. That results in the killing of 200 million male chicks a year.

The United Egg Producers, a trade group for U.S. egg farmers, confirmed that figure and the practice behind it.

Think about that the next time you buy eggs or chicken.

Good LAT story about the Battle for Mt. Wilson, pitting the Station Fire against firefighters trying to save the observatory and the city's TV and radio towers: http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-mtwilson3-2009sep03,0,3994284.story.

Apparently, "the iPhone is really the Hummer of cellphones." The AT&T cell network is being overloaded by iPhones, which use 10 times the network capacity of a regular celly: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/03/technology/companies/03att.html?_r=1.

"Healthcare activist bites off finger of counter-demonstrator, authorities say": http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/lanow/2009/09/health-care-activist-bites-off-the-finger-of-a-counter-demonstrator.html.

The Obama administration will be making public the names of visitors to The White House for, apparently, the first time in history: http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-whitehouse-visitors5-2009sep05,0,929179.story. I still wonder if the list will be edited before being released. Hmm.

LAT columnist Steve Harvey writes about a stretch of street in downtown LA that was used by stagecoach racers in the 1850s: http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-then6-2009sep06,0,6341904.story.

The Chinese love solar powered water heaters: http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-fi-china-solar6-2009sep06,0,7213756.story.

Health experts in the military are concerned about the safety of muscle building supplements: http://atwar.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/09/06/new-concerns-over-dietary-supplements/?ref=us. This is hella ironic: they're willing to ban certain unhealthy activities, but still wage war.

City High turns 70 this year: http://www.press-citizen.com/article/20090907/NEWS01/909070314/1079. I love that place. I'm not sure, though, why they need a helicopter to fly over the open house celebration.

An aging Catholic priest and peace advocate is in jail for trying to break into a nuclear missile silo: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/07/us/07activist.html?_r=1. I love the pic.

Oh, I found this great website (who knows how truly accurate it is): http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/. PolitiFact checks the validity of statements made by various politicians and media giants and grades them on their truthfulness. Use it. Know what's true and what's spin. Don't swallow the bullshit.

This is pretty funny. An OC lawmaker was caught on tape during a committee meeting talking about having sex with lobbyists: http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/lanow/2009/09/mike-duvall.html.

The FCC is considering legislation that will potentially double the number of low-watt radio stations: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/08/us/08radio.html?_r=1&em.