This week, readers sent us comments on social networking, health care and birth-certificate doubters.
In the FactCheck Mailbag we feature some of the e-mail we receive. Readers can send comments to editor@factcheck.org. Letters may be edited for length.
Year: 2009
Welcome to Our New Look
You might have noticed that things look a little different around here.
We’ve given the site a bit of a makeover. Some of the effects are pretty obvious, like the rotating picture gallery on our homepage. That’s where we’ll feature our newest and most-talked-about content. You can click the picture or the article title to go to the full story. And don’t worry if you didn’t click fast enough. The content will cycle back around. Or if you’re impatient,
July 28, 2009
Residential property burglaries accounted for 67.9 percent of all burglary offenses in 2007 in the U.S.
Source: FBI Uniform Crime Reporting Program
July 27, 2009
There were an estimated 2,179,140 burglaries in the United States in 2007.
Source: FBI Uniform Crime Reporting Program
July 26, 2009
Under the Fair Labor Standards Act, the minimum wage was originally 25 cents per hour on Oct. 24, 1938.
Source: Department of Labor
July 25, 2009
As of July 24, the federal minimum wage in the United States is $7.25 per hour.
Source: Department of Labor
Health Care Nostrums
The Republican National Committee has released a new Web ad about health care. The RNC has some fun with the issue, framing its ad as a parody of pharmaceutical advertisements. Warning: trying to sort out fact from fiction in this video may lead to headaches, shortness of patience, and excessive Googling. If you experience any of these side effects, we recommend consulting the FactCheck.org archives.
The ad offers the sobering fine-print side effects of "Reforma," the health care reform "drug."
July 24, 2009
On today’s date in 1897, aviator Amelia Earhart was born in Atchison, Kansas.
Source: Amelia Earhart Birthplace Museum
Obama’s Health Care News Conference
President Obama tried to sell his health care overhaul in prime time, mangling some facts in the process. He also strained to make the job sound easier to pay for than experts predict. Obama promised once again that a health care overhaul “will be paid for.” But congressional budget experts say …
Misleading GOP Health Care Claims
Republicans in Washington seem to be shifting into overdrive to keep a health system overhaul from passing Congress before the August recess. Yesterday, July 22, brought two more deceptive assaults (that we know of) on the pending bills, one from Minority Whip Eric Cantor and the other from the top GOP member of the House Immigration Subcommittee, Steve King of Iowa.
Cantor’s is in the form of a video that accuses Obama and the Democrats of being in a “reckless rush”