Rand Paul gets drone response

Sen. Rand Paul ended his quest Thursday to block a vote on the nomination of John Brennan to be CIA director after he received an answer from the Obama administration about his question on drones. Paul's decision to back down cleared the way for a final Senate vote at the Capitol Building, and the chamber confirmed Brennan in a vote that crossed party lines. In a letter to Paul Thursday afternoon, Attorney General Eric Holder said that the president does not have the authority to use a drone to kill an American not engaged in combat on U.S. soil. Bringing attention to his question, Paul led a nearly 13-hour filibuster on the Senate floor Wednesday, blocking the confirmation process for Brennan to move forward. Paul took issue with Holder's recent admission, in which he said he could envision a scenario where a drone strike would, in fact, be ordered against Americans on U.S. soil. Paul said he was disturbed by the idea that an American citizen would lose his or her rights while within the country's borders.

In Other News Pop singer Justin Bieber was checked at a London hospital Thursday night after feeling ill during a concert at the O2 Arena. Bieber felt woozy toward the end of the concert and paused the show to receive "oxygen and treatment backstage.“ Stephen Slevin's 22 months in solitary confinement in a county jail left him traumatized and physically weak, but he'll soon be a multimillionaire for his suffering. The New Mexico county that locked him up on a drunk driving charge, isolated him from other inmates and accused of essentially forgetting about him for nearly two years agreed this week to settle his lawsuit for $15.5 million. Slevin, now 59, went to jail in August 2005 as "a well nourished, physically healthy adult," but emerged with a long beard, bed sores, bad teeth and weighing just 133 pounds in June Jailers separated Slevin from other inmates because of his history of mental illness. The charges of driving while intoxicated and receiving a stolen vehicle were never prosecuted. After 22 months as a pretrial detainee, Slevin was released and the charges dismissed. He then filed suit, claiming his rights of due process were violated since he was not given a hearing before being placed in solitary confinement. Scientists seem to think dolphins call each other by name. It seems one dolphin can call another specifically by mimicking the distinct whistle of that other dolphin. Randall Wells, of the Sarasota Dolphin Research Program, worked with scientists from the University of St. Andrews in Scotland, the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute in Massachusetts, the Chicago Zoological Society and the Walt Disney World Resort, on the study of what they call "vocal copying" in dolphins. To conduct the study, the researchers listened to recordings of about 250 wild bottlenose dolphins made around Sarasota Bay from 1984 to Captive dolphins at the Seas aquarium at Disney World were also recorded. The whole vocal experience puts dolphin communication closer to that of humans than any other species. Leaders from at least 50 countries -- from Cuba to Iran -- are in Venezuela today for the funeral of Hugo Chavez.