Controversies

Paranoid Base Commander Gets Restraining Order against Protesters Who’ve Never Heard of Him

TLieutenant Colonel Earl A. Evans, the mission support group commander of the 174th fighter wing group, asked a local judge to prohibit the peace activists from not only approaching Hancock Base, but also his home and school, according to the restraining order. They also cannot communicate with Evans in any manner, including by phone or email. read more

Susan Rice Invested in Tar Sands and Keystone Pipeline

Rice holds stock valued between $300,000 and $600,000 in TransCanada, the company hoping to transport tar sands crude 1,700 miles to refineries on the Texas Gulf Coast. Additionally, Rice and her husband own at least $1.25 million worth of stock in four of Canada’s eight leading oil producers, including Enbridge, which caused the largest inland oil spill in U.S. history. read more

Lawsuit Demands that Women be Allowed to Join Combat

All the ban has done is to prevent women from receiving the accolades or opportunities for promotion afforded men who are given combat assignments, they argue. Women currently make up 14.5% of the 1.4 million troops serving on active duty and 20% of new recruits. About 280,000 women were deployed to Iraq or Afghanistan, with about 150 dying in these wars. read more

Former Republican Officials Admit to Voter Suppression Efforts and “Marketing Ploy” to Damage Democrats

“The Republican Party, the strategists, the consultants, they firmly believe that early voting is bad for Republican Party candidates,” Greer said. “It’s done for one reason and one reason only.…‘We’ve got to cut down on early voting because early voting is not good for us.’” Former Republican Governor Charlie Crist said party leaders approached him while he was in office from 2007 to 2011 about changing early voting. Again, the intent was to suppress Democrat turnout. read more

Why is Morale so Low at Dept. of Homeland Security?

Three of the seven DHS agencies whose morale is below the DHS average are ones whose employees engage in substantial contact with the public: the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and the Transportation Security Administration (TSA). read more

As Government Funding of Drug Research Stagnates, Big Pharmaceutical Companies Move in with Distorted Test Results

A Washington Post review of the 73 NEMJ articles on new drugs published over one year (August 2011 to August 2012) found that “60 were funded by a pharmaceutical company, 50 were co-written by drug company employees and 37 had a lead author, typically an academic, who had previously accepted outside compensation from the sponsoring drug company in the form of consultant pay, grants or speaker fees.” read more

Colorado Town Stands up to Fracking Industry

On Election Day, voters in Longmont—both Republicans and Democrats—approved a local measure (Ballot Question 300) that prohibits the use of hydraulic fracturing (aka fracking) to extract natural gas from beneath the earth. The new law also bans the storage and disposal of fracking-created waste. Support for the ban was indeed bipartisan, with about 63% of precincts that voted for Mitt Romney endorsing it, as well as 96% of pro-Obama precincts. read more

Atheists Challenge Kentucky Law Ordering Homeland Security to Publicize “Dependence on Almighty God”

The law states that the Kentucky Legislature has decided that, “The safety and security of the Commonwealth cannot be achieved apart from reliance upon Almighty God.” The statute further requires the state Office of Homeland Security (OHS) to “publicize the findings of the General Assembly stressing the dependence on Almighty God” by including the quote above in agency training and educational materials and on a plaque at Kentucky’s Emergency Operations Center. read more

Judge Orders Release of First Inmate under California’s New Three-Strikes Law

Prop. 36 made a major change in the original 1994 three-strikes law. It allows reduction of previously mandatory 25-to-life prison sentences for third-strikers who commit non-serious, non-violent felonies, and applied the change retroactively to those already in prison. Approximately 3,000 of the state’s 9,000 third-strikers, out of a total prison population of around 135,000, qualify for re-sentencing. read more

Michigan Bill would Give Tax Breaks for Fetuses

The state legislature currently is considering two bills that would create a tax credit for unborn fetuses that are 12 weeks or older. If the proposal becomes law, it would make Michigan the first state in the country to grant such status to the unborn. The proposal runs contrary to legislation adopted last year that eliminated a child tax credit deduction that affected 2.35 million children in Michigan. read more

Oklahoma Judge Sentences Teenager to Go to Church for 10 Years

Alred, 17, pled guilty to manslaughter after he drove his vehicle into a tree, killing a 16-year-old passenger, John Luke Dum. Alred had been drinking, but was not legally drunk. The judge gave Alred a choice: he could avoid prison as long as he was willing to attend church for ten years, as well as complete high school, train as a welder, and give up alcohol, drugs and tobacco for one year. Alred says he was happy to take church over prison. read more

Oakland Police Union Clashes with Leadership as Feds Consider Takeover

Although reform has been slow in coming, scandalous behavior has continued apace. A new $18 million radio communications system has been plagued with problems since its launch in July 2011. And last week, the Oakland City Council approved a settlement that awards $4.6 million to 39 men who were publicly strip-searched by police from 2002 to 2009. read more

Typical American Infant Exposed to 5½ Hours of Background TV a Day

African-American children aged 8 and younger were exposed to much more background TV than children of other races—338 minutes (6.5 hours) a day, compared to 217.5 minutes for white children and 148 minutes for Asian-Americans. Many researchers suggest that for the first two years of life infants thrive on interactive stimulation, and that TV viewing hurts an infant’s development because it is a passive activity rather than an interactive one. read more

Maine First State to Create Truth and Reconciliation Commission about Forced Removal of Native American Children

Between 1958 and 1967, the federally financed Indian Adoption Project caused hundreds of Native American children throughout the U.S. to be taken from their communities and put into white families through adoption or foster care. The rationale then was that by relocating the children, they would live safer and happier lives. read more

FCC Prepares to Open Top 20 Media Markets to Cross-Ownership of TV, Newspapers and Radio

Picking up where the George W. Bush administration left off, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) under President Barack Obama is attempting to allow corporations to own newspapers as well as television and radio stations in the country’s top 20 media markets. Obama and Vice President Joe Biden, while serving in the U.S. Senate, opposed FCC rules permitting media giants to control newspapers, TV and radio all in the same big-city market. read more

IRS Accused of Losing $100 Billion a Year by Allowing Politicized Churches to Remain Tax-Exempt

Another bishop, Daniel Jenky in Peoria, Illinois, compared President Barack Obama to Adolph Hitler and Joseph Stalin during a homily delivered at his cathedral. The foundation also called attention to the actions of Rev. Billy Graham, who took out an ad in The Wall Street Journal and other periodicals urging his followers to vote for candidates who opposed abortion and same-sex marriage. read more