Newscast for Thursday, March 12, 2009

Pakistan opposition party members defy protest ban and take to the streets
Protesters in Pakistan chanted “Hooliganism is not acceptable” today during one of several cross-country protests against President Asif Ali Zardari. Demonstrators, mostly lawyers and opposition party members, defied a government ban on street rallies. FSRN’s Masror Hussain is in Islamabad with more.

Obama’s pick to head FDA faces tough job to reform agency
President Obama has tapped former New York health commissioner Margaret Hamburg to head the Food and Drug Administration. Hamburg’s background includes public health and drug research, and working as lead scientist for a group examining the public safety threat from chemical, biological and nuclear weapons. As FDA head,  Hamburg would not only need to steer a new course for the ailing agency – which has recently come under sharp criticism for its mismanagement during a recent salmonella outbreak – but she’ll also have to navigate the delicate balance between pharmaceutical companies and consumer advocates. FSRN’s Karen Miller has more.

More low power FM may soon come to a community near you
Two Senators are introducing a bill today that would greatly expand access to the radio airwaves.  It would allow the creation of hundreds of low power FM stations on the radio dial. Supporters say this year, the appetite is right for passage. FSRN’s Leigh Ann Caldwell reports.

Is there a future for ethnic press?
FSRN reported yesterday on the LA Times, and why current and former Times reporters are suing the parent Company and its CEO. The Times is one of hundreds of media outlets that have laid workers off: altogether, more than 20,000 people in the journalism industry have lost work in the past six months. Journalism’s economic crisis will affect new coverage, especially when it comes to diversity. Already, some 42 percent of newsrooms do not employ any journalists of color, according to the Boston Globe. And some ethnic media is down-sizing and even closing down operations. So what does this mean about who gets to tell stories moving forward in this current crisis?  Aura Bogado speaks with Edwin Okongo, the former editor of www.mshale.com, a newspaper for African immigrants; and now an Associate Editor at New America Media.  Also, you can click here for NAM’s new hive for hyperlocal news.

Youth serving life without parole
Connecticut’s state Supreme Court recently ruled that imprisoning juveniles for life in prison without the possibility of release is not unconstitutional. The state currently holds 13 such offenders. The U.S. is one of a handful of nations in the world that carries out this sentence, and nationally more than 2,200 inmates convicted of crimes they committed as juveniles have been sentenced to life without parole. But advocates for these young people take heart from the U.S. Supreme Court decision in 2005 banning the execution of juveniles who had been sentenced to death. In the first of a two-part series on youth incarceration, Melinda Tuhus reports from New Haven.