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A Concordia grad snapped up her second Pulitzer prize yesterday. Barbara Davidson won the feature news photography award for her photographs of LA gang violence.

Davidson works for the Los Angeles Times and was born in Montreal. She graduated from Concordia with a degree in photography and film studies. In the past, she covered events in Iraq, Afghanistan, Bosnia, and more.

She won her first Pulitzer with other members of the LA Times in 2006 for photographs of Hurricane Katrina.

The New York Times and The Washington Post also received Pulitzers. The Times won awards in international reporting and commentary, while the Post won for breaking news photography.

The Winklevoss twins aren’t giving up without a fight.

They filed an appeal on Monday of a decision telling them to be happy with the sixty five million dollar payout they negotiated. This decision was made a week ago by the ninth U.S Circuit Court of Appeals concerning a two thousand and seven settlement.

The twins are asking for a full panel of judges from the ninth Circuit to revisit the ruling. They’re arguing that the three judge panel ignored federal precedent about fraudulent settlements.

More information has surfaced since the previous mediation. They say that Facebook used an outside auditor to determine the value of shares for setting the price of stock options for employees. If that was the case, the twins would have been entitled to more stocks than they previously thought. This information would allow them to reopen their two thousand and four lawsuit.

They would have the option of appealing their case to the Supreme Court if the ninth Circuit declines a rehearing by a full panel of judges.  

It was a quieter weekend on the campaign trail as leaders were reeling off their televised debate performances earlier in the week. 

NDP leader Jack Layton’s popularity has increased since the debates. He is taking advantage of this by campaigning in Liberal strongholds in the Atlantic and Quebec. Layton claims that the NDP and Liberals’ platforms are nearly identical. The main difference being that the Liberals have been in power and have broken promises to Canadians. 

Liberal leader Michael Ignatieff and Conservative leader Stephen Harper will both be in Yellowknife Monday. Harper was in Vancouver on Sunday urging Canadians to vote in a majority Conservative government. He said it would be the only way to stop the resurgence of separatists in Quebec.

Ignatieff campaigned with former prime minister Paul Martin. They focused on the Liberals’ reputation as pioneers of the Canadian health care system. 

Bloc Quebecois leader Gilles Duceppe will be in Montreal Monday giving several speeches to members of the art and culture communities. 

Parti Quebecois leader Pauline Marois urged over 1,700 delegates to back the Bloc in the May 2 election at a PQ convention on Sunday. Marois received a 93 per cent confidence vote from Parti Quebecois members.

In international news, Japan announced a plan Sunday that would bring the crisis over  the crippled nuclear power plant under control. Tokyo Electric Power Company’s chairman said the plan included containing radiation within the reactor and eventually removing the nuclear fuel. The crisis would be under control within six to nine months, with the possibility of some residents returning home.

Tokyo Electric Power Company has failed to resolve the nuclear crisis of the Fukushima Daiichi complex, more than a month after the devastating earthquake and tsunami. In addition to reducing the levels of leaking radiation, the company is focusing on decontaminating sea water by dumping sandbags filled with minerals that absorb radioactive cesium.

Plans were also discussed for recycling water contaminated by the radiation, and removing salt from the seawater used to cool down the reactors, as it was also corroding them.

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton announced on Sunday that the US stood by Japan. The US has provided the biggest bilateral humanitarian mission ever conducted in Japan with roughly twenty thousand troops mobilized to help Japan cope with the damages and the nuclear crisis.