Controversies
Freddie, Fanny Borrowers Must Waive Right to Sue
The federal programs Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac own or guarantee 58% of all single family home loans in the United States. In November the government announced that the two institutions would be used to modify loans for hundreds of thousands of bo... read more
Surveillance Cameras Don’t Reduce Violent Crime
A recent study of surveillance cameras in San Francisco found that cameras in public places led to a significant decrease in pickpocketing, purse snatchings, and theft from automobiles and buildings. However, the cameras appear to have little noti... read more
Federal Employees Ready for Change
Every two years the U.S. Office of Personnel Management conducts a Federal Human Capital Survey, in which it asks federal employees their opinion regarding dozens of work-related matters. The vast majority of federal employees are satisfied with t... read more
Secret Court Approves Interception of Citizen Emails
This week, the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court of Review, in a rare public disclosure, released a censored version of a decision it secretly handed down last August. The court ruled that the government may intercept international calls and... read more
Guantánamo Judge Confirms Use of Torture
Susan J. Crawford, Defense Secretary Robert Gates’ pick for convening authority of military commissions, has become the first senior Bush official to refer to the treatment of a Guantánamo prisoner as torture. Mohammed al-Qahtani of Saudi Arabia w... read more
Aliens Lose Right to Challenge Deportation Based on Mistakes
Attorney General Michael Mukasey has issued a 34 page opinion (PDF), overturning a 15-year old precedent allowing illegal aliens to make appeals on the basis that their case was weakened by their lawyers’ ineptitude or errors. Immigration courts m... read more
FDA Scientists Complain to Obama about Corruption
Nine Food and Drug Administration (FDA) scientists have written to Obama’s transition team, complaining of managerial corruption abetting business interests, and calling for reform of the evaluation and approval process for new products and device... read more
New Rule Bars Strikes against GM
In the recently released details of its $13.4 billion, 3-year loan to GM, the government included a condition permitting it to call in its loan and bankrupt GM, if “any labor union or collective bargaining unit shall engage in a strike or other wo... read more
Public Could be Shut Out from 9/11 Trial
In advance of the upcoming Guantánamo trial of six 9/11 conspirators, military judge Stephen R. Henley issued a protective order on December 19th which will allow classification of any information, including that already in the public domain, that... read more
TSA Settles in Arabic T-Shirt Case
Raed Jarrar, an Iraqi-born U.S. legal permanent resident, won $120,000 in a court settlement with JetBlue and employees of the Transportation and Security Administration (TSA) after being forced to cover up his T-shirt which said in both English a... read more
Conservatives Wrong about New Deal: David Sirota
In response to conservative economists’ claims that FDR’s New Deal actually prolonged the Great Depression, two-time New York Times bestselling political commentator David Sirota reviewed detailed unemployment data (PDF) from the U.S. census to di... read more
Agencies Obstruct Transparency
The Department of Energy and the Securities and Exchange Commission (S.E.C.) have both proposed new rules to obstruct the public’s access to information guaranteed by the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA). In the midst of financial collapse and ra... read more
Why Are There No Black Senators?
With the departure of Barack Obama to the White House, the Senate will be without a single black senator, unless the Senate agrees to seat Roland Burris to replace Obama. This despite the fact that African Americans make up 12% of the U.S. populat... read more
Spying on Nuns, Bike Lane Activists, and Other Security Threats
From 2005 through late 2007, Maryland Police carried out extensive surveillance on a wide range of range of animal and human rights activist groups, including advocates of establishing bike lanes. The program began when Major Jack Simpson, a field... read more
Wildlife “Services” Spent $100 Million Killing Animals
A coalition of 110 animal rights and conservation groups including Big Wildlife, the Center for Biological Diversity, and Christians for Environmental Stewardship signed a letter (PDF) to Tom Vilsack, Barack Obama’s pick for Secretary of Agricultu... read more
Justice Department Infested with Anti-Civil Rights Bush Appointees
For eight years, the leaders of the administration of George W. Bush used a clever and effective tactic to mold the mission of the U.S. government to match their version of conservative ideology. Instead of eliminating an agency they opposed, they... read more