Transcript bYTEBoss 2-7 Iran Footage

Iran releases
footage
showing U.S.
drone
Iran says it has decoded and released
footage from a U.S. drone that it downed
more than a year ago. The black and white
aerial footage, Iran claims was from a RQ170 spy plane, was aired by Iranian news
agencies and placed on YouTube. Iran had
said it downed the drone on December 4,
2011 near Kashmar in the country's
northeast. Although the authenticity of the
video cannot yet be verified its release adds
to the controversy surrounding the drone
policy. There are questions about whether
the drone strikes are being conducted in full
compliance with the law. This is certainly a
reason why Iran opted to post the footage.
In Other News
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For the 19th year in a row, the Heritage Foundation, a conservative American think
tank, has ranked Hong Kong the freest economy in the world. Singapore was a close
second, however, followed by Australia and New Zealand. Switzerland was ranked
fifth. The U.S., which has the world's largest economy, was ranked 10th while
mainland China -- the world's second largest economy -- was ranked 136th out of
177 economies on the Index of Economic Freedom, a publication co-sponsored by the
Wall Street Journal. Countries are ranked on rule of law, regulatory efficiency, limited
government and open markets.
The U.S. Postal Service Wednesday announced it will stop delivering first-class mail
on Saturdays, expecting to save about $2 billion a year. Given the rapid rate of
decline in letter mail and the loss of revenues, this is specifically being done as a
cost-cutting move.
Driven by public opinion, Colorado and Washington State last November became the
first states in the U.S. to legalize the recreational use of marijuana. That wave of
support, it now seems clear, has reached the U.S. Congress, which on Tuesday
formally questioned the federal government’s prohibitionist drug policy in the form of
marijuana-reform bills. The Polis bill, the Ending Federal Marijuana Prohibition Act,
would call on the federal government to regulate marijuana much like it does alcohol.
Under the measure, cannabis growers would have to obtain a federal permit in states
that legalize the drug. The bill does not force any state to legalize pot, but it does
allow states that approve recreational- and medical-marijuana regulatory systems to
operate without the fear of crackdowns from the Drug Enforcement Administration
(DEA). The measure would also transfer authority to regulate marijuana from the
DEA to a renamed Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Marijuana and Firearms.