China’s Central Bank Cuts Interest Rates: A Sign Of Slowing Economic Growth?

China’s central bank cut interest rates for the second time in less than four months, in a fresh sign that the country’s leadership is becoming more aggressive in trying to stop the slowdown of economic growth, The Wall Street Journal reports.

The rate cut by the People’s Bank of China was announced Saturday, and it came sooner than some analysts and investors had expected.  It reflects growing worries over the world’s second-largest economy as it struggles with certain difficulties: a slumping property market, more money being sent offshore and growing risks of falling prices that, in effect, are pushing up borrowing costs for businesses.

The cut, effective Sunday, lowers by a quarter percentage point the benchmark one-year loan rate, to 5.35%, and the one-year deposit rate, to 2.5%. In a statement accompanying the announcement, the central bank singled out increasing deflationary pressure as a trigger for the move, saying that plunging commodity prices world-wide “provided room” to spur growth by lowering interest rates.

Think Progress: Official Republican Website Posts Doctored Version Of State Of The Union

According to ThinkProgress, the official website for John Boehner and the House Republicans posted a YouTube version of President Obama’s State of the Union address that cuts out comments where the President was critical of Republican rhetoric on climate change.

In the website’s “enhanced webcast” of the State of the Union speech, comments criticizing Republicans for saying they are “not scientists” when it comes to climate change are erased.

At the 43:25 minute mark, President Obama is supposed to say “I’ve heard some folks try to dodge the evidence by saying they’re not scientists; that we don’t have enough information to act. Well, I’m not a scientist, either. But you know what — I know a lot of really good scientists at NASA, and NOAA, and at our major universities. The best scientists in the world are all telling us that our activities are changing the climate, and if we do not act forcefully, we’ll continue to see rising oceans, longer, hotter heat waves, dangerous droughts and floods, and massive disruptions that can trigger greater migration, conflict, and hunger around the globe.”

However, that entire section is skipped. Obama’s comments resume with “…(C)limate change poses immediate risks to our national security. We should act like it.”

The 43:25 minute mark is not the only place where the video is incomplete. At the 44:51 minute mark, a section is missing where Obama spoke of respecting “human dignity,” prohibiting torture, and speaking out against anti-Semitism.

The section that is missing reads as follows: “As Americans, we respect human dignity, even when we’re threatened, which is why I’ve prohibited torture, and worked to make sure our use of new technology like drones is properly constrained. It’s why we speak out against the deplorable anti-Semitism that has resurfaced in certain parts of the world.”

A spokesperson for House Speaker John Boehner’s office did not immediately respond to ThinkProgress’ request for comment on whether the missing information was intentional or not.

Michigan Cop Fired For Cutting Off Detained Woman’s Weave

According to the Huffington Post, a Michigan police officer was fired after cutting the hair off a detained woman’s head.  Also, she will be getting her job back against the wishes of her department.

An arbitrator ruled that Warren Police Officer Bernadette Najor be reinstated to the suburban Detroit police force with full back pay, according to the local newspaper The Macomb Daily.

The action starts to take place at roughly the 6:15 mark.