Controversies

By Age 23, More than 40% of American Males have been Arrested Regardless of Race

It was found that 38% of white men, 44% of Hispanic men and 49% of black men wind up in jail at least once by age 23. By age 18, the numbers were lower, but still startling: 30% for black men, 26% for Hispanic men and 22% for white men. The researchers also compiled statistics for women. By age 23, 20% of blacks, 18% of whites and 16% of Hispanics were arrested at least once. read more

More Oil Spilled from Trains Last Year than in Previous 37 Years Combined

Data shows 1.15 million gallons of crude oil spilled from rail cars in 2013. That’s more than was dumped during the previous 37 years combined (800,000 gallons). A train originating in North Dakota dumped nearly 750,000 gallons of crude oil near Aliceville, Alabama, in November. North Dakota oil was onboard the train that derailed and exploded in the Canadian town of Lac-Megantic, Québec, on July 6, killing 47 people. read more

Legal Residents Claim They are Punished for Living Near Mexican Border

Another incident saw Border Patrol agents order a driver and passenger from their vehicle, and place them in wire cages while their car was searched—and all because a service dog detected something in another car. A third case involved a mother of twin six-year-old children being threatened and assaulted by agents for lawfully attempting to record a search of her vehicle following a false canine alert. read more

Federal Judge Halts North Carolina Law Requiring Abortion Doctors to Show Ultrasound 4 Hours before Procedure

Patients who had been victims of rape or incest could not have been considered exceptions to the law’s mandate directed at their doctor. The requirements of the law included placing the ultrasound directly in the woman’s line of sight, even if she chose to look away, and describing the embryo or fetus to her even if she tried not to listen. The doctor would also have been required to make available the “fetal heart tone” for the woman to hear. read more

Why do Religious Conservatives have Higher Divorce Rate? Early Marriage and Poverty

The higher rates were attributed to these states’ large concentrations of evangelical Christians, who espouse the importance of marriage over living out of wedlock. This belief frequently leads to people getting married at a young age, which can lead to divorce. Other researchers have noted that higher rates of poverty, which exist in states throughout the South, can produce strain on marital relationships, leading to their dissolution. read more

Labor Board Charges Wal-Mart with Illegally Firing and Punishing Employees

The National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) filed a consolidated complaint accusing Wal-Mart of illegally firing and disciplining nearly 70 workers. Some of the targeted employees were punished for going on strike last year, according to the pro-worker group Making Change at Walmart. The company’s illegal actions allegedly took place at 34 stores in 14 states. read more

Beyond Photo ID for Voting, Sen. Vitter Wants Photo ID to Buy Food with Food Stamps

Vitter added that food stamp costs have doubled since 2008. Alan Pyke at AlterNet wrote that SNAP fraud rates are only 1%. Deborah Weinstein, executive director of the advocacy organization Coalition on Human Needs, told the New Orleans Times-Picayune. “Senator Vitter’s proposal will be especially tough on elderly and poor people who do not have the documents needed to get their photo ID, and who will struggle even to get to the necessary offices." read more

Snowboarders Sue Forest Service over Resort’s Anti-Snowboarder Policy

Alta Ski Area, located in the mountains southeast of Salt Lake City, has barred snowboarders since the mid-1980s. The Forest Service got caught up in the litigation because most of the ski resort (85%) sits on public lands managed by the agency. Alta is one of only three ski resorts in the United States that prohibit snowboarding. But it is the only one that operates on public lands. read more

Your Text Messages May be Blind Copied to the NSA

Text message collecting is done under a powerful program labeled Dishfire, which vacuums up “pretty much everything it can,” according to documents produced by GCHQ, the UK’s spy agency. Dishfire collected an average of 194 million text messages a day in April 2011. During a typical day, the NSA could extract from text messages 800,000 financial transactions, 113,000 electronic business cards and thousands of travel and meeting details. read more

34 Air Force Nuclear Launch Officers Lose Security Clearance over Test Cheating

34 officers—also known as missileers—were involved in cheating on monthly proficiency exams that test their knowledge of firing the missiles during a crisis. One officer was charged with sending correct answers by text message to 16 of the test-takers. The other 17 were charged with having knowledge of the cheating and not reporting it, which is a violation of Air Force ethics rules. read more

Details of Medicare Payments to Doctors Finally Go Public after 35 Years

In 1979, a federal court ordered the U.S. Department of Health, Education and Welfare to not release data on how much physicians earned under the healthcare program. The information firewall began to crumble a few years later when The Wall Street Journal sued the department to have the injunction overturned. This legal challenge was successful, resulting in the injunction being lifted last year by a federal court. read more

First Case of Criminal Defendant Challenging Warrantless Spying

Mohamed Osman Mohamud of Oregon was found guilty last year of attempting to use a weapon of mass destruction at a Christmas tree lighting ceremony in Portland in November 2010. His lawyers learned in November 2013 that the Department of Justice used information from the NSA’s warrantless spying to convict him—a discovery that resulted in a delay in his sentencing. read more

Supreme Court Hands a Victory to Monsanto

The farmers took no action to incorporate Monsanto seeds into their crops, which became contaminated through the natural travel of the genetically-modified seeds from neighboring farms. This contamination occurs either from accidental seed-mixing or cross-pollination during harvest. The burden has been on the farmers to protect their crops by conducting genetic testing, establishing buffer zones, or simply giving up on planting the crop anymore. read more

Climate Change Hits Walden Pond

These days, the trees and shrubs surrounding the famed Massachusetts lake are producing leaves 18 days earlier during the spring than when Thoreau made his observation in the 1840s, according to biologists at Boston University who compared Thoreau’s unpublished notes on leaf-out times with five recent springs. read more

Justice Department Joins Rare Lawsuit against Hospital CEO for Defrauding Medicare and Medicaid

The lawsuit alleges that HMA set and enforced unrealistically high ER-to-hospital admission goals, paying bonuses to doctors with high admission rates and terminating physicians, as well as hospital CEOs and ER medical directors, who did not meet their targets. It further states that Newsome was personally involved in running the scheme. read more

Court Rules against Negative Anonymous Yelp Reviews…but only in Virginia

The online review website Yelp has been ordered by a court in Virginia to reveal the identities of individuals who posted negative reviews of a carpet cleaning company that questioned whether the reviewers were really customers. Hadeed Carpet Cleaning succeeded because Virginia law authorizes the revealing of anonymous Internet users’ real identity as long as those seeking the information can pass a six-step legal test. read more