Controversies
Spy Photos of Alaska Reveal Shrinking Ice Sheets
The Bush administration’s refusal to acknowledge the danger of global warming included withholding from the public startling satellite images of disappearing ice packs off the coast of Alaska. The photos taken several years ago by orbiting satelli... read more
Buried Sentence in Energy Bill Helps Ford, GM and Chrysler
Congressman Larry Kissell’s (D-NC) latest “Buy America” tactic has provoked anger from representatives of the European Union over a one-line amendment that requires the federal government to buy automobiles only from the Big Three car manufacturer... read more
Food Stamp Use by Military Families on the Rise
Military families outpaced the rest of the country in using food stamps last year by a considerable margin, according to the Department of Defense. From 2007 to 2008, the use of food stamps by military personnel and their dependants increased 25%,... read more
Army Admits Nerve Gas Leak Detectors in Kentucky Did Not Work for Two Years
Proper storage of deadly nerve gas agents at military facilities requires the use of monitoring devices to ensure the protection of base personnel and local communities from possible leaks. But the operators of the Blue Grass Army Depot in Kentuck... read more
New SEC Regulations Shine a Brighter Light on Board Directors and Executive Pay
Life will be getting a little harder for corporate executives and boards if the Securities and Exchange Commission adopts new rules governing compensation and other corporate procedures. Although the changes are not considered “tide-changing” in t... read more
Bill to Make Publicly-Funded Research Public
Billions of dollars in grants are awarded each year by the government to fund research, but many of the findings are not readily available to the public. This situation would change under legislation introduced by Senators Joseph Lieberman (I-CT) ... read more
Bush-Era NHTSA Hid Data on Car Cell Phone Dangers
The National Highway Transportation Safety Administration (NHTSA) buried a research study in 2003 showing the dangers of talking on cell phones while driving. After researchers compiled data indicating the growing threat to highway safety from mul... read more
Banks Refusing to Take Foreclosed Homes
Local officials in Ohio say Cuyahoga County may be at the forefront of dealing with a growing national problem of banks walking away from foreclosed homes, leaving them to decay and become nightmares for former owners or local neighborhoods. The s... read more
Lenient Sentence for Former State Senator Provokes Outrage in Pennsylvania
Former Pennsylvania Senator Vincent Fumo (D) had quite the laundry list of guilty counts against him. Obstruction of justice for destroying evidence. Stealing from a nonprofit. Using taxpayer funds to hire a private investigator to snoop on politi... read more
Navy Asks Permission to Harass Whales
Whales swimming in the Gulf of Mexico may become collateral damage from military exercises conducted by the U.S. Navy, which has asked for permission to ”incidentally harass” the mammals. The National Marine Fisheries Service is reviewing the Navy... read more
Arlington Cemetery Officer Fired for Helping Media
After serving in Iraq, public affairs specialist Gina Gray figured her new assignment handling media requests for Arlington National Cemetery would be a lot safer and easier. She thought wrong. Soon after taking over as the public affairs director... read more
Immigrant Granted Hearing after Five and Half Years Detention
After five and a half years of waiting in immigration detention, Jamaican-born immigrant Errol Barrington Scarlett has finally been granted a bond hearing by a federal judge in Buffalo, New York. The defendants, the Department of Homeland Security... read more
Obama Administration Approves Logging in Roadless Area
A ban on building roads in National Forests was disregarded by the Obama administration this week when Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack approved a plan to open up to logging a stretch of forest on Revillagigedo Island in Tongass National Forest i... read more
First Known Case of Pregnant Naval Academy Graduate
The U.S. Naval Academy reportedly graduated its first pregnant midshipman in May, even though school policy dictates women are not supposed to marry or begin families before completing their studies. Normally, pregnant midshipmen are allowed to ta... read more
Age Discrimination Claims Jump 30% in One Year
Older workers are at greater risk of being laid off because of their age in the current economic recession, the federal government and advocates warned this week at a congressional hearing. According to statistics from the Equal Employment Opportu... read more
White House Privacy Oversight Board Disappears
The Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board has had a brief, if not unwelcome, existence in the White House. Created by Congress in 2004 at the behest of the 9/11 Commission, the board was supposed to oversee the federal government’s actions o... read more