U.S. and the World
Voters to Decide If Porn Actors Must Wear Condoms
Voters in Los Angeles County will decide in November whether adult film actors should be required to wear condoms.
The initiative, approved for the ballot by the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors, was spearheaded by the AIDS Healthcare F... read more
Every U.S. State Now Hit by Drought Conditions
The 2012 drought has become a national phenomenon, impacting at a minimum some portion of every U.S. state and Puerto Rico.
As of July 24, the U.S. Drought Monitor reported every state in the country was experiencing “at least a small area sho... read more
Positive University Study on Fracking Was Led by a Gas Company Insider
A study from the University of Texas (UT) was heralded as an independent assessment that no link existed between hydraulic fracturing and groundwater pollution. But it turned out the report’s author was anything but independent.
The report (“F... read more
VA Must Disclose Documents on CIA, Army and Nazi Scientists Tests Using Veterans as Guinea Pigs
As part of an ongoing lawsuit against the U.S. government, a federal judge has ordered the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) to release more documents relating to Cold War-era experimentation on American soldiers.
Judge Jacqueline Scott Corl... read more
Could the Supreme Court Healthcare Decision Be Used to Weaken Clean Air Rules?
The U.S. Supreme Court’s landmark ruling on the healthcare law could be used to challenge federal environmental efforts, according to one legal scholar.
Jonathan Adler of Case Western University recently wrote that the court’s striking down of... read more
U.S. Poverty Rate Is Creeping Toward a 50-Year High
The proportion of Americans living in poverty is threatening to reach its highest level since 1965, according to numerous economists and academics. Poverty is spreading at a fast pace among the underemployed, the unemployed who have quit looking f... read more
BP Sending Gulf Coast Chefs to Olympics to Tout Louisiana Cuisine It Destroyed
In a stunning display of chutzpah, oil giant BP, whose focus on profits and “complacency on major hazards” led to the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill that spewed 205 million gallons of crude oil into the Gulf of Mexico, is sending eight Louisiana... read more
Booming Caterpillar Rewards CEO While It Punishes Workers
Just a few months after closing a manufacturing plant in London, Ontario, in order to transfer its work to a site in Indiana where workers would work for lower wages, heavy equipment manufacturer Caterpillar, Inc., is demanding that workers at its... read more
Congress Struggles to Deliver Solution to Postal Problem It Created
Unless Congress acts to fix a massive financial crisis it created, the U.S. Postal Service (USPS) will default on a $5.5 billion pension payment to the U.S. Treasury due on August 1, as well as another $5.6 billion payment due on September 30. The... read more
Court Kicks Pennsylvania “Pig in the Parlor” Out of the Fracking Game
In a “major victory” for environmental activists, Pennsylvania’s Commonwealth Court last week struck down crucial parts of the state’s controversial Act 13, thus restoring zoning authority over natural gas drilling to local governments, which had ... read more
Justice Department Keeping It All in the Family
Once again, the Department of Justice (DOJ) has been criticized for illegal hiring practices involving relatives of current employees.
The current nepotism problem was uncovered by the department’s inspector general (IG) who reported seven exa... read more
U.S. Breaks Somalia Arms Embargo It Helped Establish
Twenty years after it helped establish a United Nations arms embargo on war-torn Somalia, the United States is now violating this international effort by helping local militias fighting Al-Qaeda.
According to the UN’s Somalia Eritrea Monitorin... read more
Greenland’s Melting Ice Sheet: Ecological Disaster or Tourism Opportunity?
With much of its surface covered in ice, Greenland continues to demonstrate the effects of global warming. And that’s not all bad, as far as the enormous island’s tourism industry is concerned.
Scientists from the United States recently notice... read more
30 Years Later, California Governor Jerry Brown Restokes Water War Fears with Delta Tunnel Project
Can the critics call it the second coming of the Peripheral Canal if the conduit used to divert water around the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta for shipment to Central Valley farmers and thirsty Southern Californians . . . is a tunnel?
During th... read more
Congress Proposes Crop Insurance that Could Cost the U.S. Billions During Drought
With severe drought conditions threatening to drive up crop prices, many farmers want to expand operations onto questionable lands in the hope of making more money. To help farmers take on this risk, Congress is considering a new crop insurance pr... read more
Giant Internet Spammer Knocked Out, but It Won’t Make Much of a Difference
One of the biggest culprits of Internet spam has been shutdown by a coordinated international effort. But the victory may be fleeting, due to other troublemakers still in operation.
Grum, a botnet (a collection of security-compromised computer... read more