Now some fresh pickings from the Political Grapevine:
Fabricating News?
The Associated Press is under attack for allegedly fabricating news from Iraq. The AP has quoted an Iraqi police captain named Jamil Hussein in several stories — including one describing Iraqi soldiers standing by as people were burned alive in a mosque last month. But Iraq's Interior Ministry says it has no evidence that incident happened and that captain Hussein does not exist.
Boston Herald City editor Jules Crittenden says, "the AP is making up war crimes." He describes it as "a partisan, anti-American news agency that seeks to undercut a wartime president and American soldiers in the field." The Iraqi Interior Ministry has now formed a special unit to monitor news coverage and is threatening legal action against journalists who it believes report incorrect stories.
Dear Exxon
Senators Jay Rockefeller and Olympia Snowe have written a letter urging the Exxon Mobil Corporation to abandon its funding of groups that are skeptical of science blaming global warming on human activity.
The opinion journal characterizes the letter as a "global warming gag order." The senators call Exxon Mobil's support of the Competitive Enterprise Institute and similar groups "information laundering" with an "obfuscation agenda." They compare Exxon's actions to those of the tobacco industry, accusing it of manufacturing controversy, hurting America's credibility and impeding scientific progress.
The senators say Exxon should make up for all of this by investing in what it calls "global remediation efforts."
Prayer Room
Officials at theMinneapolis-Saint Paul Airport are considering a private room for prayer and meditation — at the request of Imams concerned about the removal of six Muslim clerics from a U.S. Airways flight at the airport last month.
The men were taken off the plane after they had prayed loudly in the terminal and then took seats on the plane in a pattern that law enforcement associates with terrorism. The director of the Minneapolis facility says several airports have nonsectarian meditation rooms — including Nashville, Columbus, Ohio and Fort Lauderdale.
More Bad Stuff?
And a new report says organic chicken may actually be less nutritious and taste worse than mass-produced chicken. The International Journal of Food Sciences and Nutrition says the organic birds have lower levels of healthy omega-3 fatty acids and anti-oxidants — and have higher levels of unhealthy fat — along with up to twice as much cholesterol. Organic chicken — which can cost up to three times the amount of conventionally-produced birds — even lost in blind taste tests.London's Sunday Times reports one researcher from Scotland's Strathclyde University states, "it is safe to say that you are not getting any nutritional benefit from buying organic chicken."
—FOX News Channel's Martin Hill contributed to this report.
Get all the stories you need-to-know from the most powerful name in news delivered first thing every morning to your inbox