A partial rundown of topics for Here and Now today:1:06pm: Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas is pressing ahead with his diplomatic campaign to gain full U.N. membership, brushing aside heated Israeli objections and a promised U.S. veto.1:12pm: The International Monetary Fund today downgraded its economic outlook for the U.S. by a full percentage point. The reason: the European debt crisis. Part of the problem is that American financial institutions have been placing bets (in the form of credit default swaps) on whether or not Greece and other European countries would default on its government debt, and now they could be on the hook for billions of dollars. How far could the European debt crisis spread? And why haven't regulators stepped in to give more oversight of those credit default swaps after they helped lead to the financial crisis of 2008?1:40pm: A new report reveals some disturbing findings about crops that are genetically-modified to kill bugs. Researchers at Iowa State University found that the western corn rootworm has evolved to resist the a protein that acts as an insecticide that is modified into corn seeds from Monsanto. Researchers in Illinois are seeing the same thing.1:50pm: Louisville Metro Animal Services is currently dealing with an outbreak of distemper in dogs at its facilities. The department is opening up a temporary shelter to deal with the latest outbreak. The disease is highly contagious and causes respiratory ailments, depression and loss of appetite. There have been 10 reported cases of distemper in dogs since June. We'll get an update and more info from a LMAS representative.
Brad Yost is a senior producer for LPM. Email Brad at byost@lpm.org.