Happy Fourth of July 2011!

Good after­noon and Hap­py Fourth of July 2011! Here’s a quick news roundup for our nation’s two hun­dred and thir­ty fifth birthday:

• Once again, speed eater Joey Chest­nut has won the Nathan’s Famous Hot Dog Eat­ing Con­test, held annu­al­ly at Coney Island since 1916. Chest­nut man­aged to down six­ty-four hot dogs and buns in ten min­utes, almost equalling the world record he set in 2009 when he scarfed down six­ty-eight hot dogs and buns.  This is Chest­nut’s fifth straight title.
• Pres­i­dent Oba­ma had been sched­uled to go golf­ing today at Andrews Air Force Base, but the out­ing has been called off, we’ve just learned. The White House pool report attrib­ut­es the deci­sion to can­cel  to “mug­gy, over­cast skies and threat of rain”. For­tu­nate­ly, here in the Pacif­ic North­west, the skies are clear for a change, and the sun is out. The tem­per­a­ture is sup­posed to hit 70° F around much of Puget Sound today.
• More than five hun­dred new Amer­i­cans were sworn in at noon today at Seat­tle Cen­ter’s Fish­er Pavil­ion in the Eth­nic Her­itage Coun­cil’s 27th Annu­al Nat­u­ral­iza­tion Cer­e­mo­ny. We at NPI extend our con­grat­u­la­tions to each and every one of them. Con­grat­u­la­tions on becom­ing citizens!
• The New York Times reports that Joplin, Mis­souri is try­ing to observe the Fourth with­out dwelling on the dead­ly tor­na­do that struck the city over a month ago. The city’s res­i­dents were deter­mined to make this year’s Inde­pen­dence Day cel­e­bra­tions one of the biggest ever.
• Ini­tial­ly, after hack­ers broke into one of Fox Noise Chan­nel’s Twit­ter accounts ear­ly this morn­ing and post­ed a series of false tweets claim­ing that Pres­i­dent Oba­ma had been assas­si­nat­ed, the Secret Ser­vice had no com­ment. Now, how­ev­er, the Secret Ser­vice says it will inves­ti­gate the hack­ing.

Again, Hap­py Fourth. Here’s hop­ing you have a fun-filled cel­e­bra­tion today.