Elderly CUNY Professor Faces Death Threats from Glenn Beck Fans; Southern Sudan Votes to Secede

By Rosie Gray Sun., Jan. 23 2011 at 9:47 AM

Categories: Brooklyn, Brooklyn Problems, Caffeine Nation, Glenn Beck, International News, Link Dump, Rosie Gray

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Today, it's advisable that you stay the hell inside again: it'll be a high of 24. Get prepared for tomorrow, which won't even break 20 degrees.

Frances Fox Piven is a 78-year-old liberal CUNY professor. She's also now the recipient of death threats as a result of Glenn Beck's efforts to paint her as trying to "intentionally collapse our economic system," according to the Times. Some of the two million wackos who regularly watch Beck's show apparently took to heart that Piven was an "enemy of the Constitution," and have been making threats like the following: "Somebody tell Frances I have 5000 roundas ready and I'll give My life to take Our freedom back." And all this is originally because of an article Piven and her husband wrote in 1966. [NYT]

South Sudan's voters have chosen independence, according to provisional results from this week's referendum. 99 percent of voters voted to secede from the North. The south will probably declare independence on July 9, creating the newest country in the world. [Reuters]

Which is the least healthy borough? Statistics show that Brooklyn neighborhoods have the highest rates of diabetes-related deaths, infant mortality, and deaths from heart disease. Crown Heights had double the number of deaths from diabetes as the city average. [NYDN]

Amanda Knox, the American student who was convicted of murdering her roommate in Italy, might be getting a second chance: evidence from the case will be retested by forensic experts. Forensic people will retest the knife Knox allegedly used to stab roommate Meredith Kercher in the neck, and the bra clasp from Kercher's bra. This is all part of Knox's appeal of her 2009 conviction. [CNN]

[Rosie Gray]

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