Top Stories
NASA Launches 10 Pounds of Plutonium…Hopefully beyond the Atmosphere
Shortly after 10 a.m. this morning at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) will launch an Atlas V rocket on a nine-month journey to Mars. On board will be the $2.5-billion Mars Scien... read more
Pepper Spray Developer Denounces Use by UC Davis Police
The criticism over UC Davis’ police dousing non-violent protesters with pepper spray has extended to the man who invented the crowd-control device.
Kamran Loghman helped develop pepper spray into a weapons-grade material while working with the... read more
Suspects in Arizona Most Likely to Die during Arrests
Apparently the spirit of old the Wild West still exists in the present-day southwestern United States.
The U.S. Department of Justice keeps track of arrest-related deaths (ARDs). Of the five states with the highest per-capita rate of ARDs, fou... read more
Leaving Iraq, U.S. Plans to Send Troops to Kuwait, Drones to Turkey and Texas
Withdrawing from Iraq has meant new missions for U.S. combat units and military hardware.
American commanders are negotiating with Kuwait to allow about 3,500 troops to redeploy to the Gulf emirate. The country already hosts 20,000 U.S. servic... read more
Foreclosure Crisis…Is the Worst Yet to Come?
The U.S. housing market may be in for yet another crush of foreclosures, according o the Center for Responsible Lending.
About 2.7 million households that took out mortgages between 2004 and 2008 have already lost their homes to foreclosure. N... read more
Scalia and Thomas Agree to Hear Challenge to Health Care Law…and Then Appear at Dinner Funded by Pfizer
U.S. Supreme Court Justices Antonin Scalia and Clarence Thomas have come under criticism for agreeing to hear the legal challenge to President Barack Obama’s healthcare law and then appearing as the featured guests of a conservative banquet that i... read more
Federal Government Backs Away From Financial Fraud Prosecutions
The U.S. Department of Justice under President Barack Obama is prosecuting fewer banks for fraud than it did under George W. Bush.
To date, the Justice Department, during the first eleven months of fiscal year 2011, has reported 1,251 new pros... read more
U.S. Murder Rate Drops to 47-Year Low
Homicides in the U.S. have fallen significantly over the past 20 years, based on the latest statistics from the Justice Department.
In 1993, there were 9.5 murders per 100,000 Americans. By 2010, that rate had been cut in half, down to 4.8—the... read more
Middle-Income Neighborhoods Disappearing in U.S. as Rich and Poor Divide
The United States is experiencing an increase in income segregation, according to a new study produced by Stanford University.
Forty years ago 65% of families were lived in middle-income neighborhoods. By 2007, that percentage had fallen to 44... read more
U.S. Set to End 20 Years of Bombing Iraq
With the withdrawal of American forces from Iraq, the United States will finally conclude the longest air war in world history.
For 20 years, beginning with the 1991 Gulf War and now ending in December, the U.S. carried out almost continuous a... read more
Number of Uninsured (and Untreated) Americans Grows
Americans are continuing to lose health insurance coverage and to struggle paying for serious medical conditions, according to two separate surveys.
A Gallup poll found the proportion of adults with no health insurance has been above 17% for t... read more
Obama Administration Pushes Ahead with $6 Billion Plutonium Lab in New Mexico
Despite lacking what critics say is a clear purpose or mission, the Department of Energy is planning to invest $6 billion in building a new plutonium facility at the nation’s leading scientific lab.
Los Alamos National Laboratory wants to have... read more
Obama Too Occupied to Listen to “Occupy” Protest Song during Summit Dinner
Chosen to perform at a dinner hosted by President Barack Obama, and attended by Chinese President Hu Jintao, Russian President Dmitri Medvedev, Prime Minister Stephen Harper of Canada, Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda and other world leade... read more
The Militarization of Your Local Police
Local law enforcement agencies in the U.S. have increasingly become more militaristic in tactics and look in response to the wars on drugs and terror.
Writing in The Atlantic, Arthur Rizer and Joseph Hartman note “a proliferation in incidents ... read more
New York Town, Unable to Trust Regulators, Tested Air Pollution Itself
Until recently, the air above the blue-collar town of Tonawanda, New York, was often a “toxic blue haze” featuring odors like ammonia, sulfur and other fumes. If left up to government regulators, townsfolk might still be wondering what the cause w... read more
CNN, FOX and CNBC Push Romney as Republican Nominee
There’s something about Mitt Romney the networks can’t get enough of. Over the last five Republican presidential debates, Romney has scored far more speaking time than his rivals, according to statistics compiled by Smart Politics. He’s logged 73 ... read more