Controversies
Circuit Court Rules Mass Immigration Trial Pleas are Illegal
The days of federal courts in Arizona cattle-calling large numbers of illegal immigrants may be coming to an end. The Ninth Circuit appellate court in San Francisco ruled on Wednesday that Arizona’s federal judges cannot take pleas from 50 to 100 ... read more
940 Ex-Government Officials Now Lobby For Finance Industry
When banks, investment firms, insurance companies and real estate companies spend lavishly on lobbying the federal government, they make sure to hire not just any old lobbyists. Among the 940 ex-federal employees hired to promote the agendas of th... read more
Obama White House Invokes Separation of Powers in Gatecrasher Affair
In an attempt to limit the political fallout from the Salahi controversy, the White House refused to send President Barack Obama’s social secretary to Capitol Hill to testify before a congressional committee. Administration officials announced on ... read more
Republican Senators Beg Al Franken to Defend Them
In a rare turnabout on law-and-order issues it is Republicans, not Democrats, who are being labeled as soft on crime—and in fact accused of being supportive of rapists—as a result of an amendment authored by U.S. Senator Al Franken (D-MN). The leg... read more
Release of Documents Showing Timing of CIA Destruction of Torture Tapes
Destruction of the CIA tapes revealing the torture of detainees came immediately after news accounts reported the existence of secret prisons overseas, according to documents obtained by the American Civil Liberties Union. The ACLU says CIA cables... read more
Confusion and Incompetence in Immigrant Detainee System
The United States system for detaining illegal immigrants is a mess, filled with examples of unlawful arrests of citizens and legal residents by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers, according to multiple investigations from governme... read more
DuPont Sued for Covering Up 25 Years of Polluting Ohio River
DuPont has known since 1984 that its chemical plant in Parkersburg, West Virginia, was polluting local water supplies in nearby Washington County, Ohio, but did not tell local residents or do anything to correct the problem, according to environme... read more
Reservists Seek VA Health Benefits for Covert Actions
Participating in secret military operations has meant falling into a bureaucratic void for some American service members unable to draw on veterans benefits. For about 50 members of the 707th Airlift Squadron, which flew some of the first missions... read more
U.S. Public Wants Out of Afghanistan; NY Times and Washington Post Want In
Two of the nation’s most respected newspapers have expressed through their editorial pages a diametrical position from that of the general public on the Afghanistan war, according to an analysis by Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting (FAIR). A majo... read more
Elementary School Shut by Plastics Factory Pollution Seeks Damages
School officials in Addyston, Ohio, are suing a foreign-owned plastics company over cancer-causing air pollution from a local factory that forced the closure of an elementary school four years ago. Meredith Hitchens Elementary was shuttered in 200... read more
Report Details Health Consequences of Coal Mining and Energy Production
There’s no denying the importance of coal to the nation’s energy supply, providing nearly half of the electricity used by Americans. But a group of medical researchers has decided to make clear the price that the human body pays for the U.S. relyi... read more
Health Care Giants Dominate List of Justice Department Fraud Settlements
Pharmaceutical manufacturers and other health industry companies were responsible for the biggest fraud settlements obtained last year by the Department of Justice. Companies like Cephalon Inc. and Merck & Co. paid more than $1 billion combined fo... read more
U.S. Navy Prepares for Militarization of the Arctic
While hoping for a future of cooperation with other nations, the U.S. Navy is simultaneously planning for potential combat situations that may arise once global warming has melted the Arctic Ocean’s summer ice within two decades. A 35-page memo fr... read more
How AIG Uses Water to Squeeze Money from Poor Kentucky Towns
AIG, recipient of $182 billion in taxpayer dollars, is trying to squeeze money out of poor people in rural Kentucky via a local water utility. Prior to the insurance giant’s near collapse last year, which prompted Washington to step in with a hand... read more
Bear Stearns and Lehman Top Executives Profited From Sinking Ships
Contrary to conventional wisdom, the leaders of Bear Stearns and Lehman Brothers did not lose out when their firms tanked in 2008. According to researchers at Harvard Law School, the top five executives at these two former Wall Street powerhouses... read more
Is OneWest America’s Meanest Bank?
Banks are not philanthropic operations, but OneWest Bank, the recipient of $814.2 million in federal bailout funds, has managed to distinguish itself as particularly ruthless when it comes to foreclosures. In Long Island, New York, a local judge ... read more