The news feed is light tonight, possibly because it is now August, and some of our tipsters may be on holiday.

As part of a new federal program in Pennsylvania, indigent citizens are being given a free cell phone and 250 free minutes a month. This is now considered a “civil right”.

In other news, despite assurances from Brussels that Spain and Italy will not need bailing out, both countries are seeing an increase in the premium on their debt, sending them into an emergency situation.

Meanwhile, the city council of Sao Paulo, Brazil has passed a law establishing a “Heterosexual Pride Day” to be observed on the third Sunday of each December.

To see the headlines and the articles, open the full news post.

Thanks to C. Cantoni, heroyalwhyness, JP, KGS, McR, Van Grungy, and all the other tipsters who sent these in.

Commenters are advised to leave their comments at this post (rather than with the news articles) so that they are more easily accessible.

Caveat: Articles in the news feed are posted “as is”. Gates of Vienna cannot vouch for the authenticity or accuracy of the contents of any individual item posted here. We check each entry to make sure it is relatively interesting, not patently offensive, and at least superficially plausible. The link to the original is included with each item’s title. Further research and verification are left to the reader.