Controversies
Federal Courts Split over Deported Immigrants Right to Reopen Cases
The 7th Circuit Court of Appeals recently joined the 6th Circuit, 9th Circuit and 4th Circuit in deciding that the Board of Immigration Appeals has jurisdiction despite an immigrant’s deportation. But the 2nd Circuit, 3rd Circuit and 11th Circuit ... read more
2010 Breaking Records for Warmest Year in 130 Years of Record-Keeping
For residents of the Northeast wondering if the extreme heat they’ve endured this summer is above normal, the answer is yes. According to experts at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), 2010 is on pace to become the warmest ... read more
FDA Panel Votes to Restrict Billion-Dollar Drug, Avandia
GlaxoSmithKline got some very bad news this week from an advisory panel to the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) when it voted to restrict the sales of Avandia, a controversial diabetes drug. Concerned about reports of the drug causing heart atta... read more
Investigators of Exxon Valdez Oil Spill See History Repeating in Gulf of Mexico
The nation’s worst oil spill disaster involved a company that cut corners to boost profits, failsafe systems that just failed, backup plans that never existed and federal regulators who were too close to industry. A summation of the current Gulf o... read more
Oakland Police Chief Threatens to Stop Responding to Burglaries and 40 Other Crimes
Unhappy with the city council’s budget cuts, the policy chief of Oakland, California, has threatened to stop sending officers in response to certain crimes. With 80 police officers laid off after the city and the local union were unable to reach a... read more
Obama More like Reagan than FDR: Bob Samuels
Conservatives can rail all they want about the liberalism of President Barack Obama, but the truth is the man in the White House is much more like GOP idol Ronald Reagan than Democratic icon Franklin Roosevelt, says Bob Samuels, president of the U... read more
Are Healthcare Workers Dying from Chemotherapy Work?
What has saved or prolonged millions of lives may also have caused thousands of deaths, according to an InvestigateWest examination into the risks of health care workers delivering chemotherapy to cancer patients.
Derived from chemicals used t... read more
Plutonium Cleanup in Washington State Could Take Millennia
It’s not out of the question that the United States might not be around long enough to see the complete cleanup of its Cold War legacy in Washington State.
Not far from the banks of the Columbia River resides the Hanford Nuclear Reservation, o... read more
Herbicide Industry Funding Studies Used by Government Regulators
While allowing the weed-killer Atrazine to be sprayed in enormous quantities throughout the United States, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has relied on scientific studies that have been mostly funded by the industry.
A review o... read more
Medical Waste a Growing Problem in Disposable Era
Hospitals and doctors’ offices throw away an enormous amount of used, and unused, medical supplies and equipment each year, prompting advocates to call on the industry to address the mountain of waste. Some medical professionals are beginning to h... read more
Three Veterans Stranded Abroad on No-Fly List
Three veterans of the U.S. military have joined with seven others in filing a legal challenge to the government’s “no fly” list which seeks to keep terrorist threats from entering the United States. Seven of the ten are U.S. citizens, two are lega... read more
46,000 Dairy Farms Closed Down in Last 10 Years
Times are especially bad for dairy farmers across the United States. About 40% of all dairy farms (or 46,000) went out of business over the last 10 years, due to falling milk prices and rising costs. Farmers went from getting $21.70 per hundred po... read more
Most Rape Kits in Illinois Never Tested
Law enforcement officials in the state of Illinois have failed to test as many as 80% of rape kits collected from women who’ve been assaulted since 1995, according to a new report from Human Rights Watch.
The human rights group gathered testin... read more
Census Response Rate up from 2000…and So Are Attacks
Census officials must have mixed feelings about this year’s national headcount. On the one hand, more Americans have filled out surveys than during the 2000 Census. On the other hand, more Americans are assaulting U.S. Census Bureau employees than... read more
Concern Grows over Long-Abandoned Wells in Gulf of Mexico
The well that has created the worst oil spill in U.S. history was soon going to be abandoned by BP when the accident on April 20 unfolded in the Gulf of Mexico. The fact that the well had been sealed with concrete for “temporary abandonment” promp... read more
Wal-Mart Spends $2 Million to Fight $7,000 Fine over Trampling Death
Following the post-Thanksgiving Day sales rush in 2008 that killed one of its employees on Long Island, NY, Wal-Mart took a number of steps to ensure that such a tragic event did not occur again at one of its stores. The retail giant also created ... read more