As a follow-up to my previous post which profiled NPR's broadcast "On the Media" and its feature "Media Scrutiny Theater", I'm updating with their latest video posted yesterday. The video comments on an ad which was funded by President Obama's super PAC attacking Mitt Romney and his healthcare policy record. It exemplifies the media tactics used to manipulate public opinion.

Welcome to the blog "Reporting Live" on IVN. Here, we will host live blogs, videos, Google Hangouts, Tweet Chats, interviews, and other live reporting. Coming up soon we will be coming to you live from the Republican National Convention.  You can also look forward to live social media workshops, writing tutorials, and behind the scenes coverage from the office.

See you here soon!

Welcome to the blog "Reporting Live" on IVN. Here, we will host live blogs, videos, Google Hangouts, Tweet Chats, interviews, and other live reporting. Coming up soon we will be coming to you live from the Republican National Convention.  You can also look forward to live social media workshops, writing tutorials, and behind the scenes coverage from the office.

See you here soon!

Is it  a good idea to put floating and underground nuclear power plants in ocean water that is already heating up, when these plants need large amounts of water for cooling? Even non-nuclear inland power plants are affected by drought and lack of usable water.

During a recent heat waves, a power plant in Illinois had to shut down because it was overheating due to its cooling water intake pipe being blocked with dead fish killed by low water levels.

Members of Russian punk band, Pussy Riot were given harsh two year sentences in prison for performing street theatre critical of Russian President Vladimir Putin on the steps of a Russian Orthodox church in Moscow.

Keeping up in the digital world has arguably been a struggle for the Republican Party, more often than not coming in second to the tech-savvy ways of Democratic leaders in social media.  But things might change this year, as they unveil their Republican National Convention App, "Tampa 2012", just one week after the Democrat's release of their own mobile app.

Name: Vladimir Putin

Age: 59

Title: President of Russia

Inauguration Date: May 7, 2012

Term Length: Six years per term; up to two consecutive terms

Party: United Russia

Every Thursday our newspaper, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, publishes a column by local writer Colleen Carroll Campbell, a traditionalist Catholic who also hosts a program on the Catholic television network EWTN.

While I often find her concerns valid, I also don't wish to oversimplify Ms. Campbell's writings, but they do often come off as a list of reasons why Catholics should vote Republican.