Controversies
Heading Towards Legal Marijuana: Paul Jacob
To date, 13 states (Alaska, California, Colorado, Hawaii, Maine, Michigan, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, and Washington) have adopted laws legalizing the use of marijuana for medical purposes. Most of these states ado... read more
U.S. Marshal’s Body Found in Mexico
Questions remain unanswered following the discovery of the body of Deputy U.S. Marshal Vicente Paul Bustamante. Bustamante, 48, was found dead Wednesday, March 25, in an irrigation canal in east Juárez, Chihuahua. He had multiple gunshot wounds to... read more
Driving While Tired is as Dangerous as Drunken Driving
Drowsy driving has become a growing concern among drivers and lawmakers alike and is finally beginning to receive the kind of attention that drunk driving started to receive 30 years ago. Recent studies have shown that drowsy driving causes betwee... read more
Larry Summers, Obama’s Top Economic Advisor, Made Millions from Wall Street
President Barack Obama’s pledge not to hire lobbyists in his administration has not prevented potential conflicts-of-interest for some of his key advisers. Take, for instance, Lawrence Summers. As chairman of the National Economic Council, Summers... read more
Labor Board Charges Republic Window with Anti-Union Trick
The National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) announced earlier this week that a Chicago-based manufacturing company, Republic Windows & Doors, violated national labor laws when it shut down its unionized plant and relocated operations to a non-union ... read more
An Agency in Crisis: Equal Employment Opportunity Commission
It appears the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), the federal agency responsible for making sure workers are treated fairly by their employers, spent its time during the Bush administration telling businesses, “Do as I say, not as I d... read more
Corps of Engineers and EPA Battle over Mining
A tussle has already begun within the Obama administration over its environmental policy regarding coal mining. Throughout the Appalachian states of Kentucky, Virginia, West Virginia, mountaintop mining—a controversial method of extracting coal by... read more
Were Wounded Soldiers Used as Guinea Pigs?
An investigation by the Baltimore Sun has discovered that the U.S. Army rushed the use of experimental medical treatments for troops injured in Iraq, only to recall many of the risky therapies after results showed them to be ineffective or dangero... read more
Supreme Court Considers Landmark Environmental Case
The fate of a little known lake in Alaska, and potentially the practices of the mining industry in the United States, may be decided by the U.S. Supreme Court in the coming weeks. The case involves a tiny body of water known as Lower Slate Lake, i... read more
Chinese Cyber-Spies Infiltrate Computers in 103 Countries
A vast electronic spy network, which experts believe originated in China, has infiltrated computers in more than 100 countries and stolen documents, according to two studies just released. Canadian researchers at the Information Warfare Monitor (I... read more
Obama Miles-Per-Gallon Standards Worse than Those of Bush
Environmentalists were taken aback this week when the Obama administration unveiled its proposed fuel economy standards for automobiles in 2011. The new regulations—known officially as the corporate average fuel economy (CAFE) standards for cars, ... read more
U.S. Unprepared for Bioterrorism Attack on Food Supply
A year after the 9/11 attacks, Congress decided to require the nation’s food suppliers to keep copious records of who they buy from and sell to in order to maintain a safe and healthy food chain for Americans and to minimize the risk of terrorists... read more
Undercover Agents Expose Labor Agency Favoring Employers over Low-Wage Employees
Responding to widespread reports that the agency in charge of investigating wage complaints by low-income workers was less than helpful and, indeed, tended to take the side of employers, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) conducted underco... read more
Renaming the War on Terror
An unusual controversy popped up on Wednesday when the Washington Post reported that the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) was asking federal employees to stop using the Bush administration term “Global War on Terrorism.” OMB director Peter Or... read more
Should Fort Bragg Soldiers be Punished for Killing a Private?
In an unusual case, five Fort Bragg soldiers are facing courts-martial after the death of a drinking buddy. On July 20, 2008, Pfc. Luke Brown, despite having recently completed an Army substance-abuse program, became drunk and unruly while visitin... read more
CIA Refuses to Disclose 3,000 Documents Relating to Destroyed Interrogation Tapes
In the ongoing controversy about the CIA’s destruction of 92 videotapes of potentially illegal interrogations, including 12 that depicted use of “enhanced interrogation techniques” (torture), the CIA disclosed that it has 3,000 documents relating ... read more