Every morning, TheJournal.ie brings you nine things you really, really need to know by 9am.
1. #HEALTH CUTS: There is alarm in all the papers today over how the HSE will cut 28,00 jobs – 5,000 of them by Christmas – in a cull worth €400 million…still keep functioning. Health Minister Mary Harney is rejecting union claims that cutting one in six admin staff will affect patient care. Meanwhile the Irish Times reports that some senior managers could get packages worth €300,000 under the terms of the deal.
2. #EDUCATION CUTS: Unions are also reacting angrily to moves to change pupil teacher ratios which would result in larger classes in primary and second-level schools. Meanwhile, the Greens will back the increase in student registration fees of up to €2,500, today’s papers report.
3. #ANGLO: Anglo is seeking to recover €50 million in unpaid loans from a former director and one-time head of the bank’s Irish lending division, Tom Browne.
4. #TWO MILE VEGAS: North Tipperary County Council has given the green light to plans by the owner of the Dr Quirky’s amusement arcade to build a Las Vegas style casino, including a replica of the White House, at Two Mile Borris in Tipperary. The plans have the enthusiastic backing of independent TD, Michael Lowry.
5. #CIVILISED: “PS We’ve got your Coke.” A man has been jailed for five years after gardaí broke into his house through his kitchen window – and left him a note saying they had seized his 1.6kg stash of cocaine, the Irish Daily Star reports. The man – 25-year-old Sean Fitzgerald, of Pinebrook Vale, Clonsilla, later popped into the garda station and apologised for not being at home when they called. He’d been at a wedding, he explained.
6. #LIVING: Taking regular exercise halves your chance of developing a cold.
7. #USA: Voters are preparing to give their verdict on the Obama administration in today’s mid-term elections – pundits predict Republicans are poised to make huge gains. It’s also judgement day for Christine O’Donnell and the Tea Party movement.
8. #FRITZL: In his first press interview, Josef Fritzl boasts that he is “world famous” and “loves” the daughter he locked up and raped. He says his dream is to get out of jail alive. During her 24-year imprisonment, Elisabeth Fritzl, now 43, was raped more than 3,000 times. She gave birth to seven children.
9. #LIVING: Alcohol is more dangerous than crack or heroin, according a paper published in the Lancet. The report is co-authored by David Nutt, the former UK chief drugs adviser who was sacked last October. The study concluded that heroin, crack and crystal meth were the most harmful drugs to individuals, but alcohol, heroin and crack cocaine were the most harmful to society.
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