Archive for April, 2011

One In Four Working Baby Boomers Say They’ll Never Retire, Survey Finds

Baby boomers are starting to retire, but many are agonizing about their finances and believe they’ll need to work longer than they had planned, a new poll finds.

The 77 million-strong generation born between 1946 and 1964 has clung tenaciously to its youth. Now, boomers are getting nervous about retirement. Only 11 percent say they are strongly convinced they will be able to live in comfort.

A total of 55 percent said they were either somewhat or very certain they could retire with financial security. But another 44 percent express little or no faith they’ll have enough money when their careers end.

Full Story Here: One In Four Working Baby Boomers Say They’ll Never Retire, Survey Finds.

OPS:  …and of the remaining 3, two of them are in denial.  Bet me.

15 Facts About U.S. Income Inequality That Everyone Should Know (CHARTS)

It might have taken a near-historic recession for many Americans to notice our country’s rapidly rising levels of income inequality, but the gap between rich and poor has finally gone mainstream, with bloggers, economists and policymakers of all stripes spouting theories on why we should or shouldn’t care.

And while the debate continues over cause and consequence, that central claim has proven unshakable: the gulf between the wealth of America’s richest and poorest is widening, and few signs show any indication of it slowing.

“Economists are not sure how to fully explain the growing inequality in America,” Nobel Prize-winning economist Joseph Stiglitz writes in a new piece for Vanity Fair this week. “But one big part of the reason we have so much inequality is that the top 1 percent want it that way.”

Full Story Here: 15 Facts About U.S. Income Inequality That Everyone Should Know (CHARTS).

Federal Government Shutdown 2011: Possible Effects Of A Shutdown

With the government looking like it’s heading towards a shutdown as Friday approaches, many are wondering what exactly a shutdown would mean to them.

Based on the last government shutdown, there could be wide-reaching effects. According to AOL News, some immediate effects, such as the closing of national parks and museums, would be easily seen, while other services may only see delays.

A government shutdown occurs when a government discontinues providing services that are not considered “essential.” Typically, essential services include police, fire fighting, armed forces, utilities and corrections. Interestingly, Congress and the President are exempt from the furlough and continue to receive compensation despite the fact that other services are suspended.

Full Story Here: Federal Government Shutdown 2011: Possible Effects Of A Shutdown (PHOTOS).

Behind Closed Doors, House Republicans Cheer A Possible Shutdown

Today, President Obama will meet with congressional leaders from both parties in an attempt to hammer out a budget deal and prevent the government from shutting down at the end of this week. After initially refusing to commit to attend, House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) will show up casually late to the White House meeting.

Republican leaders have repeatedly said they don’t want the government to close its doors. “Our goal is to avoid a shutdown,” a spokesman for Boehner said this week. Rep. Hal Rodgers (R-KY) — a powerful House budget negotiator who will attend the meeting –told ABC News yesterday that Republicans in Congress are “serious about trying to prevent a government shutdown.”

Behind closed doors, however, it doesn’t appear they are all that serious:

Full Story Here: ThinkProgress » Behind Closed Doors, House Republicans Cheer A Possible Shutdown.

Paul Ryan Does Wall Street’s Bidding In Budget

House Republicans — led by House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan (R-WI) — released their 2012 budget today. The plan includes a giant tax cut for the wealthy, as well as a complete dismantling of Medicare and Medicaid.

But it also includes a gift for Wall Street, in the form of a repeal of the provisions of the Dodd-Frank financial reform law that protect taxpayers from having to bail out failed financial institutions. Here’s how the House Republicans framed their repeal effort:

Although the bill is dubbed “Wall Street Reform,” it actually intensifies the problem of too-big-to-fail by giving large, interconnected financial institutions advantages that small firms will not enjoy. While the authors of Dodd-Frank went to great lengths to denounce bailouts, this law only sustains them.

The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) now has the authority to access taxpayer dollars in order to bail out the creditors of large, “systemically significant” financial institutions. CBO’s expected cost for this new authority is $26 billion, although CBO Director Douglas Elmendorf recently testified that “the cost of the program will depend on future economic and financial events that are inherently unpredictable.” In other words, another large-scale financial crisis in which creditors are guaranteed to get government bailouts would cost taxpayers much, much more. This budget would end the regime now enshrined into law that paves the way for future bailouts.

Full Story Here: ThinkProgress » Paul Ryan Does Wall Street’s Bidding In Budget.

Bristol Palin’s Nonprofit Paid Her Seven Times What It Spent On Actual Teen Pregnancy Prevention

In 2009, Sarah Palin’s daughter Bristol joined a teen pregnancy prevention nonprofit called the Candie’s Foundation. Today, the Associated Press reported that the Candie’s Foundation released its 2009 tax information, revealing that Bristol was paid a salary of $262,500.

But a closer examination of the tax form by ThinkProgress shows that the group disbursed only $35,000 in grants to actual teen pregnancy health and counseling clinics: $25,000 to the Mt. Sinai Adolescent Health Center and $10,000 to the National Campaign to Prevent Teen Pregnancy. View a screenshot of Bristol’s exorbitant salary below:

Full Story Here: ThinkProgress » Bristol Palin’s Nonprofit Paid Her Seven Times What It Spent On Actual Teen Pregnancy Prevention.

Why Scientology’s Rehabs Are a Dangerous Scam

The Scientology-backed rehab promises addicts they can sweat out their demons in sweltering saunas. But critics charge that the organization is the devil itself.

L. Ron Hubbard, the prolific science fiction author and founder of the Church of Scientology, may have been judged “a mental case” (according to the F.B.I.) and “a pathological liar” (according to a Los Angeles Supreme Court judge), but to tens of thousands of his eager followers worldwide, the man discovered an approach to recovery that outclasses everything on offer from mainstream addiction science. Narconon is the spawn of Hubbard’s pseudoscientific notions, a detox-and-rehab enterprise that has, over more than four decades, grown into a multimillion-dollar empire that currently comprises an estimated several dozen clinics encircling the globe. Its claims of unrivaled success rates with its “100 percent natural,” “drug free” approach have kept it profitable and respectable, even as the church’s reputation has tanked. Celebrity endorsements—from the likes of “former graduate” Kirstie Alley—and a savvy internet marketing campaign haven’t hurt.

Yet according to the organization’s many critics, including friends and family of dead, damaged, or disappeared Narconon clients, the chain of rehabs is little more than a front group for the Church of Scientology. They allege that unsuspecting clients pay as much as $30,000 for “treatment” consisting of a bizarre detox process that poses serious health hazards, followed by indoctrination in Scientology masked as drug rehabilitation. By preying on people who are desperate and vulnerable—and therefore prime candidates for conversion—Narconon serves as one of the church’s main sources of revenue and recruitment. With the Scientology brand increasingly toxic—in a recent New Yorker, Lawrence Wright reported that the F.B.I. is investigating its leadership for allegedly violating human trafficking laws—the church’s survival depends more than ever on Narconon’s hold on the addiction and recovery market. (Efforts by The Fix to contact a Narconon spokesperson for comment by phone and email were not successful.)

L. Ron Hubbard was a strange candidate to emerge as the self-proclaimed scientific leader of one of the world’s largest anti-addiction enterprises. His fondness for illicit substances was well known. Yet aside from his own ingestion of a wide variety of illegal drugs including mescaline, barbiturates, and coke—described in letters written by Hubbard and his son—the exact nature of Hubbard’s “research” into addiction remains obscure. Hubbard claimed to have discovered in 1977 that the residue of L.S.D. and other “toxic” substances lingers in the body’s tissues for months and even years after use; like tiny ticking time bombs, these remnants can explode at any moment, triggering a dangerous craving or disorienting flashback that, in turn, can lead to more drug use.

Full Story Here: Why Scientology’s Rehabs Are a Dangerous Scam | The Fix.

7 tons of Radioactive Waste is Flowing into the Ocean Every Hour at Fukushima

In Japan – officials estimate that 7 tons of radioactive waste is flowing into the ocean every hour at the crippled Daiichi nuclear facility. The source of the leaking waste appears to be reactor 2. Attempts to clog the leak with cement have failed – and new attempts to plug the hole with a “junk-shot” of saw dust – chemicals, and shredded newspaper doesn’t appear to be working either.

Full Story Here: 7 tons of Radioactive Waste is Flowing into the Ocean Every Hour at Fukushima | Thom Hartmann – News & info from the #1 progressive radio show.

Abandoned Oil And Gas Wells Threaten Drinking Water, Homes Across U.S.

A version of this story was co-published with the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.

In the last 150 years, prospectors and energy companies have drilled as many as 12 million holes across the United States in search of oil and gas. Many of those holes were plugged after they dried up. But hundreds of thousands were simply abandoned and forgotten, often leaving no records of their existence.

Government reports have warned for decades that abandoned wells can provide pathways for oil, gas or brine-laden water to contaminate groundwater supplies or to travel up to the surface. Abandoned wells have polluted the drinking water source for Fort Knox, Ky., and leaked oil into water wells in Ohio and Michigan. Similar problems have occurred in Texas, New York, Colorado and other states where drilling has occurred.

Full Story Here: Abandoned Oil And Gas Wells Threaten Drinking Water, Homes Across U.S..

Issa Falsely Claims He Ended Earmark Requests Benefiting His Real Estate After Purchase

Last week, ThinkProgress broke a story revealing that Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA) placed nearly $1 million in earmarks potentially benefiting real estate property that he owns. In early 2008, Issa publicly listed a multi-million earmark improvement on West Vista Way in Vista, California. Later that year, Issa purchased a $16.6 million medical office building on the same road where he had requested an earmark. He made the purchase with the knowledge that the earmark was pending, then finalized the deal before slipping the earmark into an Omnibus spending bill.

On Saturday, Jeff McDonald at the San Diego Union-Tribune published an article about the controversy. Reached for comment, Issa’s spokesman Frederick Hill called ThinkProgres “part of a left-wing attack machine.” However, in his next statement to McDonald, Issa’s spokesman appeared to concede that the earmark represented a conflict of interest:

“Representative Issa started making requests for West Vista Way in 2006,” Hill said. “After he bought the building, he didn’t make any more requests. The allegation by Think Progress is patently false.”

Full Story Here: ThinkProgress » Issa Falsely Claims He Ended Earmark Requests Benefiting His Real Estate After Purchase.

Newly released TEPCO data provides evidence of periodic chain reaction at Fukushima Unit 1

Recent press reports have discussed the possibility that Fukushima Unit 1 may be having a nuclear chain reaction. New data released by TEPCO indicates that even though Fukushima Unit 1 was shut down during the March 11 earthquake, it appears to have “gone critical” again without human intervention. The detection by TEPCO of short-lived radioactive isotopes substantiates the existence of this inadvertent criticality.

Millions of emails exposed in major security breach

A major security breach exposed countless customer emails for a growing list of companies, including TiVo, JPMorgan Chase, Citi, Capital One, Marriott Rewards, Walgreens and more.

Epsilon, the world’s largest permission-based email marketing services company, released a statement reporting an unauthorized entry in its clients’ customer database on Friday. Email addresses and customer names were obtained. The list of client databases began with the grocery chain Krogers, but as the investigation continues, more companies are added.

Epsilon sends over 40 billion emails annually and counts over 2,500 clients, including 7 of the Fortune 10 to build and host their customer databases, reports Security Week:

Full Story Here: Technolog – Millions of emails exposed in major security breach.

Sea Turtle Deaths Mount in the Gulf

Sea turtles continue to wash ashore along the Gulf, forcing the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) to scramble and figure out what is causing the spike. Last week, the Natural Resources Defense Council and The Huffington Post were first to publish blogs about the sea turtle deaths in Mississippi.

Since then, the national media picked up the story. Last Friday, NMFS released a statement with some details about its investigation:

In the past few weeks, we’ve seen an increase in turtle strandings in the northern Gulf, primarily in Mississippi. The spring time is the typical time when turtle strandings in this region begin to increase, but the sharp increases in recent days are of concern to us….NOAA Fisheries is in contact with the states of MS and LA regarding current trawl and other fishery activity that can result in turtle by catch and mortality. In addition, tests will be done for biotoxins, such as those from harmful algae blooms, which are common in the Gulf. …All causes of death, including petroleum, will be investigated when possible based on decomposition. During a necropsy, the full GI tract is examined for product or evidence of oil ingestion. Additionally, samples are taken for PAH analysis. In addition, all turtles are being carefully examined for signs of external oiling.

Full Story Here: Rocky Kistner: Sea Turtle Deaths Mount in the Gulf.

Foreclosure crisis: Fed-up judges crack down disorder in the courts

Angry and exasperated by faulty foreclosure documents, judges throughout Florida are hitting back by increasingly dismissing cases and boldly accusing lawyers of “fraud upon the court.”

A Palm Beach Post review of cases in state and appellate courts found judges are routinely dismissing cases for questionable paperwork. Although in most cases the bank is allowed to refile the case with the appropriate documents, in a growing number of cases judges are awarding homeowners their homes free and clear after finding fraud upon the court.

Still, critics say judges are not doing enough.

Full Story Here: Foreclosure crisis: Fed-up judges crack down disorder in the courts.

DOH confirms 4 cases of dengue fever on Oahu, more pending

The Department of Health says: it’s an outbreak. There are now FOUR confirmed cases of dengue fever on Oahu – with results of 12 more suspected cases still pending. But, health officials are hoping this epidemic can be contained to small numbers.

Hawaii health officials have an all-points bulletin out for the aedes albopictus. It’s a type of mosquito that has bitten at least four adults – three from the same family, plus their neighbor – who all live in Pearl City.

“I’d sent a medical alert to all Oahu physicians, letting them know about what we were investigating and to basically heighten their awareness,” says state epidemiologist, Dr. Sarah Park.

Full Story Here: DOH confirms 4 cases of dengue fever on Oahu, more pending – Hawaii News Now – KGMB and KHNL Home.

Federal Judge Ruling: State Legislatures Do Not Have Authority To Limit Collective Bargaining Rights

A Chicago Federal Judge has ruled that state legislatures do not have the authority to limit collective bargaining rights granted by Federal law.

Last Thursday, March 31, 2011, a federal judge overturned laws enacted last year by he Illinois State Legislature to benefit the trade show and convention industries.

The suit was filed by the Teamsters Local 727 against The Metropolitan Pier and Exposition Authority.

The Illinois judge in this case, Ronald Guzman, held that:

a) collective bargaining rights cannot be overturned by governmental edict;

b) the National Labor Relations Act preempts the Legislature from dictating terms for unions.

Marvin Gittler was the attorney representing Local 727 of the Teamsters.

Here is the Case Number:

Full Story Here: Daily Kos: Federal Judge Ruling: State Legislatures Do Not Have Authority To Limit Collective Bargaining Rights.

Big Win for Labor in US Court

Judge re: McPier – No Interference in Collective Bargaining

In a ruling that has far-reaching implications for Wisconsin, Ohio, Michigan, Maine, Indiana, Iowa, and Missouri, a federal judge threw out labor law reforms at Chicago’s McCormick Place that the Illinois state legislature enacted in 2010 following supplication from the convention industry.

The ruling by U.S. District Judge Ronald Guzman affirms that collective bargaining rights cannot be overturned by governmental edict. Guzman told the Legislature “it had no business trying to interfere with collective bargaining” according to Marvin Gittler, an attorney representing Local 727 of the Teamsters.

Guzman held that the National Labor Relations Act preempts the Legislature from dictating terms for unions working at McCormick Place. This ruling is similar to the finding of The International Commission for Labor Rights, which has said, in part: The ICLR identified the right of “freedom of association” as a fundamental right and affirmed that the right to collective bargaining is an essential element of freedom of association. These rights, which have been recognized worldwide, provide a brake on unchecked corporate or state power.

Full Story Here: Judge re: McPier – No Interference in Collective Bargaining – Chicago Conservative | Examiner.com.

Our Climate Crisis Is an Education Crisis

In 2007, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) wrote, “Warming of the climate system is unequivocal, as is now evident from observations of increases in global average air and ocean temperatures, widespread melting of snow and ice, and rising global average sea level.” According to environmentalist Bill McKibben, unless we immediately begin to change course and dramatically reduce the concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, we may “lose forever the basic architecture of our planet,” with unimaginable consequences.

How well are schools equipping our students to confront the climate emergency?

Unfortunately, major social studies and science textbooks are, at best, inadequate and often propagandistic. For example, the widely used Physical Science: Concepts in Action (Prentice Hall) fails to address global warming until page 782. The few paragraphs Physical Science offers seem designed more to sow doubt than to alert students to the urgency of the issue. The section begins: “Human activities may also change climate over time.” In bold face, as the key to the section, the text tells students: “One possible climate change is caused by the addition of carbon dioxide and certain other gases into the atmosphere.” Possible? This line could have been written by the coal industry. The section continues in language dripping with equivocation: “Carbon dioxide emissions from motor vehicles, power plants, and other sources may contribute to global warming.”

Full Story Here: Editorial 25_03.

Massive Breach at Epsilon Compromises Customer Lists of Major Brands

Major Breach at World’s Largest Permission Based Email Marketing Services Company Affects Wide Range of Major Brands – List Continues to Grow

Due to the growing list of brands disclosing that they have been compromised as a result of this breach, I’m going to go ahead and tag this as a massive breach. And I only expect it to get bigger as more announcements come out from Epsilon customers.

Last night we reported on a breach at marketing services provider, Epsilon, the world’s largest permission-based email marketing provider. Initially we wrote that the breach had affected Kroger, the nation’s largest traditional grocery retailer.

It turns out that Kroger is only one of many customers affected by the breach at Epsilon.

Full Story Here: Massive Breach at Epsilon Compromises Customer Lists of Major Brands | SecurityWeek.Com.

OPS:  Add US Bank to the list too

US Embassy in Baghdad to double staff

The US Embassy in Baghdad, already the largest in the world, is expected to double its staff after American forces pull out of the country later this year.

Full Story Here: US Embassy in Baghdad to double staff – Telegraph.

OPS:  So…we’re leaving, when?

Digging the Underground Press

Richard Greenwald :-:

The Sixties’ scrappy alternative newspapers were the oxygen that kept the era’s movements going.

History books rarely speak as trenchantly to contemporary issues as John McMillian’s Smoking Typewriters: The Sixties Underground Press and the Rise of Alternative Media in America (Oxford University, February). As the cascading revolts in the Muslim world demonstrate, communication systems matter.

Communication is the oxygen of social movements, but scholars have rarely focused attention on the organs of social protest. In the 19th century, the labor and radical movements all had their own press, as did various ethnic communities, and each was vital to its cause. The medium has changed (from small magazines, to cheaply printed local community newspapers to Twitter), but the message is the same: Social movements need organic forms of communication because without it, they die.

Smoking Typewriters chronicles the pioneers of what today we call “independent media.” McMillian meticulously mines the rich archive of the alternative press to reveal these newspapers as products of their era, tied to activist communities as well as powerful personalities, and linked through ideology and more than a little hustle and business moxie. During the Sixties (the author refers to the era as the Sixties, and the decade as the ’60s) such newspapers became the lifeblood of the movement, connecting both isolated pockets of resistance and individuals to larger communities and happenings in Berkeley, Madison, Ann Arbor and New York. They told the world what was going on.

Full Story Here: Digging the Underground Press — In These Times.

Of the 1%, by the 1%, for the 1%

Joseph E. Stiglitz: :

Americans have been watching protests against oppressive regimes that concentrate massive wealth in the hands of an elite few. Yet in our own democracy, 1 percent of the people take nearly a quarter of the nation’s income—an inequality even the wealthy will come to regret.

It’s no use pretending that what has obviously happened has not in fact happened. The upper 1 percent of Americans are now taking in nearly a quarter of the nation’s income every year. In terms of wealth rather than income, the top 1 percent control 40 percent. Their lot in life has improved considerably. Twenty-five years ago, the corresponding figures were 12 percent and 33 percent. One response might be to celebrate the ingenuity and drive that brought good fortune to these people, and to contend that a rising tide lifts all boats. That response would be misguided. While the top 1 percent have seen their incomes rise 18 percent over the past decade, those in the middle have actually seen their incomes fall. For men with only high-school degrees, the decline has been precipitous—12 percent in the last quarter-century alone. All the growth in recent decades—and more—has gone to those at the top. In terms of income equality, America lags behind any country in the old, ossified Europe that President George W. Bush used to deride. Among our closest counterparts are Russia with its oligarchs and Iran. While many of the old centers of inequality in Latin America, such as Brazil, have been striving in recent years, rather successfully, to improve the plight of the poor and reduce gaps in income, America has allowed inequality to grow.

Economists long ago tried to justify the vast inequalities that seemed so troubling in the mid-19th century—inequalities that are but a pale shadow of what we are seeing in America today. The justification they came up with was called “marginal-productivity theory.” In a nutshell, this theory associated higher incomes with higher productivity and a greater contribution to society. It is a theory that has always been cherished by the rich. Evidence for its validity, however, remains thin. The corporate executives who helped bring on the recession of the past three years—whose contribution to our society, and to their own companies, has been massively negative—went on to receive large bonuses. In some cases, companies were so embarrassed about calling such rewards “performance bonuses” that they felt compelled to change the name to “retention bonuses” (even if the only thing being retained was bad performance). Those who have contributed great positive innovations to our society, from the pioneers of genetic understanding to the pioneers of the Information Age, have received a pittance compared with those responsible for the financial innovations that brought our global economy to the brink of ruin.

Full Story Here: Of the 1%, by the 1%, for the 1% | Society | Vanity Fair.

Events across across nation connect labor struggles to civil rights movement, 1968 Memphis sanitation workers strike

This year’s commemoration of Dr. Martin Luther King’s assassination in Memphis during a 1968 labor dispute has galvanized union activists and progressive forces against what they see as a wholesale assault on labor rights.

Events scheduled for today and Monday’s official 43rd anniversary have been organized by the AFL-CIO’s “We Are One” campaign and individual unions from coast to coast.

Local 1733 of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, which represented the striking sanitation workers King came to Memphis to assist, will hold its annual march to the government plaza Downtown Monday as well as events at the National Civil Rights Museum today.

Full Story Here: Events across across nation connect labor struggles to civil rights movement, 1968 Memphis sanitation workers strike » The Commercial Appeal.

Engineers fail to seal leak at Japan nuke plant

Engineers failed to seal a crack where highly radioactive water was spilling into the Pacific from a Japanese nuclear power plant incapacitated by last month’s earthquake-spawned tsunami but said a search of the site found no other leaks Sunday.

The wave has carved a path of destruction up and down the coast and is believed to have killed 25,000 people. The first deaths at the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear plant itself, though, were confirmed Sunday by the operator. A 21-year-old and a 24-year-old were believed to be conducting regular checks at the complex when the 9.0-magnitude earthquake hit March 11.

“It pains me that these two young workers were trying to protect the power plant while being hit by the earthquake and tsunami,” Tokyo Electric Power Co. Chairman Tsunehisa Katsumata said in a statement.

Full Story Here: Excite News – Engineers fail to seal leak at Japan nuke plant.

Utah rally advances ‘We Are One’ events supporting labor and civil rights on Monday

Ralliers filled the steps of the Utah State Capitol Saturday morning, showing support for organized labor and advancing Monday’s “We Are One” events across the country that will remember the April 4, 1968, assassination of Martin Luther King Jr.

Wisconsin continues to be a focal point to workers’ rights issues because of a partisan effort to curb most state workers’ collective-bargaining rights as a way of cutting wages. Similar actions followed Ohio and are on the legislative agenda in Florida as cash-strapped states look for ways to improve their bottom line.

In Utah, unions see threats from the Legislature, including the recently repealed HB 477, which would have limited the public’s access to communications involving state lawmakers.

Full Story Here: Utah rally advances ‘We Are One’ events supporting labor and civil rights on Monday | Deseret News.

April 6 Fukushima forecast shows Northwest US under threat

Animated maps of the radioactive plume emanating from Fukushima

Here it is in Close-Up

Chromodoris Fentoni, Shell-Less Snail, Discovered Off Gulf Of Mexico

A new marine species has been discovered in the Gulf of Mexico.

The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission announced Thursday the discovery of Chromodoris fentoni, a type of shell-less snail known as a nudibranch (pronounced “nu-da-brank”).

Biologists discovered the unusual creature after a fisherman donated specimens from the Gulf off Tarpon Springs to the commission and Wildlife Research Institute in St. Petersburg in 2009. Samples were then sent to the California State Polytechnic University, which verified the species had never been documented.

Full Story Here: Chromodoris Fentoni, Shell-Less Snail, Discovered Off Gulf Of Mexico.

World Autism Awareness Day: A Call to Action

Today is World Autism Awareness Day. The United Nations established this day in 2007 (Resolution 62/139) to annually raise awareness of autism as a global health crisis with particular emphasis on early diagnosis and early intervention. This is also a day to celebrate the unique talents and accomplishments of individuals living with autism in each of our communities worldwide. To commemorate the event, prominent buildings and icons in the United States and around the world — including the Empire State Building in New York City –will turn their outer lights blue on April 1 and 2.

With 1 out of 110 children diagnosed with an Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) in the United States today (a new case is diagnosed almost every 15 minutes) parents and professionals must strive to identify those children at risk as soon as possible. New research following newborns who have a sibling with ASD suggests that an infant who is later diagnosed with ASD shows evidence of developmental delays in social interaction and communication by 6-12 months of age. Early identification allows treatment to begin immediately for these children, offering the greatest potential for them to live a full and meaningful life.

Full Story Here: Ricki G. Robinson, M.D., M.P.H: World Autism Awareness Day: A Call to Action.

10 Dying U.S. Industries

The recession has caused the failure of some formidable companies, Lehman Brothers and Circuit City among them. Not only individual businesses have suffered, however. The economic woes of the last decade have preyed upon entire industries.

In a new report entitled “Dying Industries,” by Toon Von Beeck, research firm IBISWorld identifies 10 U.S. industries that have experienced severe, possibly irreversible drop-offs over the past decade, today remaining stuck in the decline phase of their business cycle.

All mentioned industries — having already experienced significant decreases in revenue over the last decade — can be expected to experience further declines through 2016. The reasons for the suffering vary by industry, but IBISWorld attributes a significant amount of industry strife to three primary factors: new technology, foreign competition and industry stagnation.

Full Story Here: 10 Dying U.S. Industries: IBISWorld.

House GOP budget to call for big changes to Medicare, Medicaid

House Budget Chairman Paul Ryan, R-Wisconsin, will unveil a highly anticipated 2012 Republican budget next week that proposes dramatic changes to political lightning rods: entitlements.

The plan, to be released Tuesday, calls for a controversial overhaul of Medicare, the health care program for seniors, and imposes deep cuts in Medicaid, which provides health benefits to low-income Americans, according to House Republican sources with knowledge of the proposal.

Starting 10 years from now, in 2021, Americans would no longer enroll in the Medicare program, but instead receive vouchers for private insurance, according to the GOP sources, who stressed anyone 55 or older now would not be affected by the change.

Full Story Here: House GOP budget to call for big changes to Medicare, Medicaid – CNN.com.

Ohio Anti-Union Law: Opponents Start Repeal Push

Opponents of an Ohio law to limit public workers’ collective bargaining rights have started gathering signatures to get a referendum on the measure.

Gov. John Kasich (KAY’-sik) signed the measure Thursday. It bans public worker strikes, eliminates binding arbitration, and restricts bargaining for 350,000 public workers.

The bill was supported by the Republican majority in the Legislature and by business groups and tea party activists, who say it’s needed to help Ohio economically. Unions and Democrats opposed it.

Full Story Here: Ohio Anti-Union Law: Opponents Start Repeal Push.

Transocean Execs Get Bonuses For ‘Best Year In Safety,’ Despite Gulf Disaster

Transocean Ltd. gave its top executives bonuses for achieving the “best year in safety performance in our company’s history” – despite the explosion of its oil rig that killed 11 people and spilled 200 million gallons of oil into the Gulf of Mexico.

The company said in a regulatory filing that its most senior managers were given two thirds of their total possible safety bonus.

Transocean noted “the tragic loss of life” in the Gulf when the rig operated by BP PLC exploded last April. But it said the company still had an “exemplary” safety record because it met or exceeded certain internal safety targets concerning the frequency and severity of its accidents, according to the filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission on Friday.

Full Story Here: Transocean Execs Get Bonuses For ‘Best Year In Safety,’ Despite Gulf Disaster.

FBI spied on little kids for days at a time, documents reveal

The digital rights advocacy group Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) announced Thursday it had discovered violations stemming from the FBI’s use of expiring provisions of the USA PATRIOT Act.

Documents obtained by the group as the result of pending Freedom of Information Act litigation suggest that abuses of surveillance powers granted by the PATRIOT Act had been flagged by the FBI.

Congress passed a bill in February that extended the roving wiretap, “lone wolf” and “library records” provisions of the PATRIOT Act until May 27. The three provisions allow authorities to conduct surveillance without identifying the person or location to be wiretapped, permit surveillance of “non-US” persons who are not affiliated with a terrorist group, and allow law enforcement to gain access to “any tangible thing” during investigations, respectively.

Full Story Here: FBI spied on little kids for days at a time, documents reveal | The Raw Story.

‘No cop in the state’ would arrest WI Senate dems

Wisconsin Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald was warned by legal representatives of three separate state agencies that ordering state troopers to forcibly return senate democrats to Madison would place his actions in a zone “outside the law”, according to the Wisconsin State Journal. The Journal has obtained memos and e-mail from Fitzgerald’s office and the office of Sergeant-at-Arms Ted Blazel through a public records request.

Fitzgerald now admits in an interview with the Journal that his efforts to compel the Democrats back to the State House were “a mess” and that when he tried to give a statewide order for law enforcement to arrest the missing lawmakers, “There was no cop in the state that would enforce it.”

It was Fitzgerald who issued the controversial “call of the House” on February 17th, when Democratic senators fled the state to avoid a vote on Governor Scott Walker’s bill curbing the collective bargaining rights of public employees. Three days after the walkout, Fitzgerald ordered state troopers to the residence of Senate Minority Leader Mark Miller, who wasn’t at home. This prompted a dialogue between Fitzgerald’s office and Wisconsin’s Legislative Council and Legislative Reference Bureau concerning the legality of the Fitzgerald’s actions.

Full Story Here: ‘No cop in the state’ would arrest WI Senate dems | The Raw Story.

Asked If Untaxed Corporations Should Pay Their Fair Share, Rep. Jeff Duncan Says Taxes Are Too High

Last Thursday, at the sparsely attended “Continuing Revolution” Tea Party rally on Capitol Hill, we spoke to a number of attendees about the growing “Mainstreet Movement” against corporate tax dodgers. As we have reported extensively, thousands of profitable corporations have exploited corporate loopholes to pay far less than their fair share of taxes. Big corporations, like Boeing, CitiGroup, Bank of America, Arch Coal, ExxonMobil, and others have managed to escape paying a single dime in corporate taxes in recent years.

We asked Rep. Jeff Duncan (R-SC) if he is concerned about corporate tax dodgers. Duncan replied that corporate taxes are actually too high. When we reminded him that many of the country’s largest and most profitable companies actually pay nothing, he was in disbelief. Eventually, Duncan conceded that he would have to “research that and get back with you”:

FANG: There’s been a liberal equivalent of the Tea Party, where folks are organizing and protesting because they don’t think that corporations are paying their fair share when we’ve got this deficit problem. To give you an example, GE, Bank of America, ExxonMobil, a lot of these big, very profitable companies haven’t paid anything in corporate taxes. Do you think those companies are paying their fair share?

DUNCAN: Sure I do. I think what we’ve got is a tax policy that needs a change that allows them to bring earnings they have in subsidiaries off shore back and invest them in this country at a lower tax rate. We are uncompetitive with the rest of the world.

Full Story Here: ThinkProgress » Asked If Untaxed Corporations Should Pay Their Fair Share, Rep. Jeff Duncan Says Taxes Are Too High.

592 American Soldiers Have Died In Afghanistan Since President Obama Announced The Surge

During the height of the Iraq war, the U.S. media paid close attention to troop deaths and fatalities, often making casualties among American soldiers leading stories in newspapers and on the airwaves. As ThinkProgress previously noted, the American press has essentially withdrawn from covering the war in Afghanistan, with the Pew Center finding that the media only devoted four percent of its coverage to the war during 2010.

Yet America remains a nation at war, and it’s important for Americans to understand the cost of its longest war in history, in Afghanistan. As ThinkProgress previously reported, the FY2011 cost of the Afghan war is $113 billion, approximately 40,000 times the cost of NPR’s federal grant money that Republicans have sought to defund and enough money to fund the employment of 1.9 million firefighters for a year.

Full Story Here: ThinkProgress » 592 American Soldiers Have Died In Afghanistan Since President Obama Announced The Surge.

The TRUE story of the Tea Party

Hartmann reads from a book written by George R.T. Hewes . The only known FIRST HAND account of the night of the Boston Tea Party 1773

How many oceans are there?

While there is only one global ocean, the seas are geographically divided into the Atlantic, Pacific, Indian, Arctic, and Southern (Antarctic) Oceans.

These five oceans are not separate bodies of water; they form one continuous oceanic mass. The boundaries between these five oceans arose over time for a variety of historical, cultural, geographical, and scientific reasons.

Full Story Here: How many oceans are there?.

Japan nuclear struggle focuses on cracked reactor pit

Japanese officials grappling on Sunday to end the world’s worst nuclear crisis since Chernobyl were focussing on a crack in a concrete pit that was leaking radiation into the ocean from a crippled reactor.

Tokyo Electric Power Co (TEPCO) said it had found a crack in the pit at its No.2 reactor in Fukushima, generating readings 1,000 millisieverts of radiation per hour in the air inside the pit.

“With radiation levels rising in the seawater near the plant, we have been trying to confirm the reason why, and in that context, this could be one source,” said Hidehiko Nishiyama, deputy head of the Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency (NISA), said on Saturday.

He cautioned, however: “We can’t really say for certain until we’ve studied the results.” <

Full Story Here: Japan nuclear struggle focuses on cracked reactor pit | Reuters.

Senate Republicans Ignoring Constitution – Weiner Schools them

April 01, 2011 C-SPAN – Video

Anthony Weiner Reads From ‘House Mouse Senate Mouse’ Children’s Book to teach Republicans about the Constitution

Vermont Single-Payer Healthcare Bill Has Momentum

NEWS ALERT FROM THE VERMONT WORKERS’ CENTER – HEALTHCARE IS A HUMAN RIGHT CAMPAIGN

Public Senate Hearing Shows Overwhelming Support For Universal Healthcare

Montpelier, VT — Statehouse — Vermonters from all over the state turned out for a major public hearing on Vermont’s new universal healthcare bill, H.202. The Vermont Senate Health & Welfare Committee held the hearing on the bill in the main chamber of the Statehouse one week after H.202 passed in the Vermont House of Representatives by a 92 – 49 vote. Over fifty Vermonters testified overwhelmingly in support of the bill and demanded bold action to begin treating healthcare as a human right, provided as a public good.

Peg Franzen, President of the Vermont Workers’ Center, testified at the event saying:

“As we go down this road, we must be guided by the plight of Vermonters who pay for the failures of this market-based system with their health – their physical and financial health. Human rights principles offer that guidance, and they are included in this bill as the foundation of our new healthcare system. Human rights principles will enable us to ensure that each step we take towards a new system is a step in the right direction, the direction of a universal, equitable healthcare system that works for all of us.”

Full Story Here: Vermont Single-Payer Healthcare Bill Has Momentum | BuzzFlash.org.

Telecom-Funded North Carolina House Votes To Gut Cheap And Fast Public Broadband

The mantra of the modern conservative movement in the United States is that the government isn’t capable of doing anything as well as the private sector. This idea is constantly perpetuated among conservative intelligentsia and as a rallying cry by conservative politicians.

Yet conservative ideology can’t explain the success of Wilson, North Carolina’s, Greenlight fiber optic broadband service. In 2008, Wilson decided that all of its residents deserve access to affordable broadband service and shouldn’t have to put up with a private monopoly. So it established its own broadband service called Greenlight, which offered speeds more than twice as fast as private competitors for a similar price. Soon, Greenlight’s success spread, as several other municipalities in the state started their own public broadband services, giving residents a public option that was cheaper and more effective than the private monopolies.

But the state’s primarily broadband monopoly, Time Warner, decided that consumers shouldn’t have this option. It organized with the other telecoms, and the sector donated over $600,000 to politicians in the state over the last election cycle. And on Monday, every single Republican in the state house along with 15 Democrats voted for a bill that severely restricts the ability of municipalities to operate their own broadband networks, including a provision that disallows them from offering services at below cost — essentially eliminating their ability to provide affordable rates to residents:

Full Story Here: ThinkProgress » Telecom-Funded North Carolina House Votes To Gut Cheap And Fast Public Broadband.

The Truth About the Economy that Nobody In Washington Or On Wall Street Will Admit:

We’re Heading Back Toward a Double Dip

Robert Reich : :

Why aren’t Americans being told the truth about the economy? We’re heading in the direction of a double dip – but you’d never know it if you listened to the upbeat messages coming out of Wall Street and Washington.

Consumers are 70 percent of the American economy, and consumer confidence is plummeting. It’s weaker today on average than at the lowest point of the Great Recession.

The Reuters/University of Michigan survey shows a 10 point decline in March – the tenth largest drop on record. Part of that drop is attributable to rising fuel and food prices. A separate Conference Board’s index of consumer confidence, just released, shows consumer confidence at a five-month low — and a large part is due to expectations of fewer jobs and lower wages in the months ahead.

Full Story Here: Robert Reich (The Truth About the Economy that Nobody In Washington Or On Wall Street Will Admit: We’re Heading Back Toward a Double Dip).

Disastrous Panama Free Trade Agreement is Likely

The Panamanian legislature is likely to approve a tax treaty with the U.S. by the end of next month, paving the way for a finalization of a bilateral trade agreement between the two countries, a member of the U.S. Trade Representative’s office said yesterday during a congressional hearing.

“I have every reason to believe they will do it before they recess,” Deputy U.S. Trade Representative Miriam Sapiro told the House Ways and Means Committee, according to Bloomberg News. “We are working very hard, and so is Panama. The ball is really in their court right now.”

The tax information sharing agreement will supposedly aid the U.S. in combating tax evasion, which Panama is notorious for. The tax agreement is necessary to corral enough votes in Congress to pass the bilateral trade pact that has been stalled since 2006.

Full Story Here: Disastrous Panama Free Trade Agreement is Likely | Economy In Crisis.

Democrats Call for More Trade Enforcement

In a letter to the White House, Democratic members of the committee praised the president’s handling of trade issues thus far into his first term, but made no bones about the fact that more could be done to protect American jobs and industries from unfair trade practices.

Democrats on the House Ways and Means Committee are urging administration officials to take a tougher stand when it come to trade enforcement, according to The Hill.

In a letter to the White House, Democratic members of the committee praised the president’s handling of trade issues thus far into his first term, but made no bones about the fact that more could be done to protect American jobs and industries from unfair trade practices.

“It is now clear that trade barriers do not simply work themselves out over time, as proponents of that outdated approach have suggested,” they wrote. “Rather, it is imperative that the U.S. government act vigorously and aggressively to address the trade barriers and defend U.S. trade rights and interests.”

Full Story Here: Democrats Call for More Trade Enforcement | Economy In Crisis.

Letter to President Obama on the Nomination of Elizabeth Warren

by Ralph Nader

April 1, 2011

Dear President Obama:

An interesting contrast is playing out at the White House these days—between your expressed praise of General Electric’s CEO, Jeffrey R. Immelt and the silence regarding the widely desired nomination of Elizabeth Warren to head the new Consumer Financial Regulatory Bureau within the Federal Reserve.

On one hand, you promptly appointed Mr. Immelt to be the chairman of the President’s Council on Jobs and Competitive, while letting him keep his full time lucrative position as CEO of General Electric (The Corporate State Expands). At the announcement, you said that Mr. Immelt “understands what it takes for America to compete in the global economy.”

Did you mean that he understands how to avoid all federal income taxes for his company’s $14.2 billion in profits last year, while corralling a $3.2 billion benefit? Or did you mean that he understands how to get a federal bailout for GE Capital and its reckless exposure to risky debt? Or could you have meant that GE knows how to block unionization of its far flung workers here and abroad? Perhaps Mr. Immelt can share with you GE’s historical experience with lucrative campaign contributions, price-fixing, pollution and those nuclear reactors that are giving people fits in Japan and worrying millions of Americans here living or working near similar reactors.

Full Story Here: Open Letter to President Obama on the Nomination of Elizabeth Warren | Common Dreams.

The Macho Men are Wrong on Social Security

Policy Without a Purpose

By DEAN BAKER

The accepted wisdom in Washington policy circles is that we have to cut Social Security if we are serious about dealing with the deficit. Before anyone rushes to shave the benefits of retirees it might be worth asking why.

By now, just about everyone has seen the charts touted by the deficit hawks showing that the cost of Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid is projected to go through the roof in the decades ahead, while the cost of everything else is more or less under control. This looks very ominous. The neat trick is that if Social Security is pulled out from the category with Medicare and Medicaid, and instead placed in the category with everything else, the chart looks almost exactly the same.

The real story is that the cost of Medicare and Medicaid are projected to go through the roof because the cost of health care is projected to go through the roof. We can put in any program – veterans benefits, Head Start, foreign aid – together with Medicare and Medicaid and show the cost of these three programs together going through the roof.

Lumping in Social Security with Medicare and Medicaid conceals the reality that the real long-term budget problem is a health care cost problem. The United States already pays more than twice as much per person for its health care as other wealthy countries. It gets little obvious benefit for this additional expense. Per person health care costs in the United States are projected to rise even further relative to both GDP and costs in other countries.

Full Story Here: Dean Baker: The Macho Men are Wrong on Social Security.

Why is the Fed Bailing Out Qaddafi?

Matt Taibbi:

Barack Obama recently issued an executive order imposing a wave of sanctions against Libya, not only freezing Libyan assets, but barring Americans from having business dealings with Libyan banks.

So raise your hand if you knew that the United States has been extending billions of dollars in aid to Qaddafi and to the Central Bank of Libya, through a Libyan-owned subsidiary bank operating out of Bahrain. And raise your hand if you knew that, just a week or so after Obama’s executive order, the U.S. Treasury Department quietly issued an order exempting this and other Libyan-owned banks to continue operating without sanction.

I came across the curious case of the Arab Banking Corporation, better known as ABC, while researching a story about the results of the audit of the Federal Reserve. That story, which will be coming out in Rolling Stone in two weeks, will examine in detail some of the many lunacies uncovered by Senate investigators amid the recently-released list of bailout and emergency aid recipients – a list that includes many extremely shocking names, from foreign industrial competitors to hedge funds in tax-haven nations to various Wall Street figures of note (and some of their relatives). You will want to see this amazing list when it comes out, so please make sure to check the newsstands in two weeks’ time.

This list became public as a result of an amendment…

Full Story Here: Why is the Fed Bailing Out Qaddafi? | Rolling Stone Politics | Taibblog | Matt Taibbi on Politics and the Economy.

OPS: The title should be: Why is the American Taxpayer bailing out Qaddafi?

Ohio’s nature-preserves office might go extinct

Budget cuts blamed; workers would move to parks division

The state office that is supposed to protect Ohio’s nature preserves will disappear July 1 if lawmakers approve the last of a series of spending cuts initiated two years ago.

The Division of Natural Areas and Preserves had as many as 30 full-time employees in 2008. The division, housed at the Ohio Department of Natural Resources, oversees 28,000 acres in 135 preserves that are refuges for plants and wildlife.

Budget cuts in 2009 reduced the staff to 10 employees. Gov. John Kasich’s proposed two-year budget would eliminate the division and send those workers to the Division of State Parks.

Full Story Here: Ohio’s nature-preserves office might go extinct | The Columbus Dispatch.

Calorie Counts Proposed For Menus, Grocery Stores And More

Like it or not, many restaurant diners will soon know more about what they are eating under new menu labeling requirements proposed by the Food and Drug Administration.

The new requirements will force chain restaurants with 20 or more locations, along with bakeries, grocery stores, convenience stores and coffee chains, to clearly post the amount of calories in each item on menus, both in restaurants and drive-through lanes. The new rules will also apply to vending machines.

The calorie counts, will apply to an estimated 280,000 establishments. Required as part of health overhaul legislation signed into law last year, they are designed to give restaurant diners information that has long been available on packaged goods cooked at home. The FDA estimates that a third of calories are consumed by eating out.

Full Story Here: Calorie Counts Proposed For Menus, Grocery Stores And More.

D.J. Bettencourt: Bishop John McCormack A ‘Pedophile Pimp’

The Republican leader of the New Hampshire House on Friday called Roman Catholic Bishop John McCormack a “pedophile pimp” who should have been led from the Statehouse in handcuffs after speaking at a rally criticizing a state budget proposal.

McCormack was among about a dozen speakers at Thursday’s rally to protest deep cuts to social services included in the House’s $10.2 billion budget. Rep. D.J. Bettencourt of Salem took issue Friday, writing on his Facebook page that McCormack had no business urging lawmakers to protect the vulnerable, given his role in the clergy sex abuse scandal in the last decade.

Before being named bishop of Manchester in 1998, McCormack served as a top aide to Cardinal Bernard Law in Boston, where the Catholic sex abuse scandal began and where he was in charge of investigating sexual misconduct allegations.

Full Story Here: D.J. Bettencourt: Bishop John McCormack A ‘Pedophile Pimp’.

Black Unemployment Rises Even As Overall Jobless Rate Drops

Two weeks.

That was the longest stretch of time Michael Seals, 58, has ever looked for work. That was the longest stretch, until now.

Seals, an Atlanta native, has watched his hometown grow from charming city to thriving metropolis — and the fortunes of many fellow African Americans grow with it. He describes himself as a man who is good with his hands, having spent nearly a decade as a supervisor at an area cabinet company. The firm specialized in outfitting kitchens and bathrooms in the high-rises that changed Atlanta’s skyline, and in the subdivisions that transformed what had been the countryside into sprawling suburbia, in places as far away as North Carolina and Tennessee.

“By 2008, the housing market here, it just plain fell out,” Seals said. “The owner came to me and said they had to cut back. That was the end of my job and the beginning of a very rude awakening.”

Full Story Here: Black Unemployment Rises Even As Overall Jobless Rate Drops.

Japan Nuclear Crisis: Radioactive Water Leaks Into Sea From Crippled Plant

Highly radioactive water spilled into the ocean off a tsunami-damaged nuclear power plant Saturday, as Japan’s prime minister surveyed the damage in a town gutted by the wave.

The Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear complex has been spewing radioactivity since March 11, when a magnitude-9.0 earthquake and ensuing wave knocked out power, disabling cooling systems and allowing radiation to seep out of the overheating reactors. Authorities said the leak they identified Saturday could be the source of radioactivity found in coastal waters in recent days.

Prime Minister Naoto Kan went to the plant and flew over the tsunami-ravaged coast soon after the wave hit, but Saturday was the first time he set foot in one of the pulverized towns.

Dressed in the blue work clothes that have become almost a uniform for officials, Kan stopped in Rikuzentakata, where the town hall is one of the few buildings still standing. All its windows are blown out and a tangle of metal and other debris is piled in front of it.

Full Story Here: Japan Nuclear Crisis: Radioactive Water Leaks Into Sea From Crippled Plant.

Rep. Graves Calls GOP’s Billions In Oil Subsidies ‘Market Manipulation;’ Forgets That He Voted To Extend Them

In February and again in March, Republicans in the House of Representatives, on a largely party-line roll call, voted to extend tens of billions in taxpayer subsidies to big oil companies. At the sparsely attended “Continuing Revolution” Tea Party rally on Thursday calling for more budget cuts, we talked to a number of attendees about their thoughts on Republicans giving so much taxpayer money away to already ultra-profitable oil companies. Rep. Sam Graves (R-MO) was among the many lawmakers to vote twice to extend over $50 billion in taxpayer subsidies to the oil companies:

– House Vote 153 on H.J.Res.44: Graves voted to extend billions in oil subsidies.

– House Vote 109 on H.R.1: Graves voted to extend billions in oil subsidies.

However, when we caught up with Graves yesterday, he said he had no idea that the vote had taken place. He didn’t seem to remember voting for them. In fact, after pressing the congressman, Graves called the idea of giving oil companies taxpayer subsidies “a manipulation of the market place”:

Full Story Here: ThinkProgress » Rep. Graves Calls GOP’s Billions In Oil Subsidies ‘Market Manipulation;’ Forgets That He Voted To Extend Them.

Thom Hartmann: Must see! The TRUE story of the Tea Party

Video: Thom Hartmann’s daily take.

Firefighters, Cops Warn Republicans Anti-Union Stance Has Consequences

Leaders from two unions known to support the Republican Party warned of serious repercussions for GOP candidates in the 2012 elections, saying the onslaught of anti-labor bills in state capitals has shifted their political allegiances.

“Our political principles are pretty straightforward. We’ll support those that support us,” Harold Schaitberger, general president of the International Association of Fire Fighters, told HuffPost. “We tend to stick with those who stick with us.”

“There is a distinct possibility that the pro-labor candidate in the next election will be looked at much more favorably than their overall record,” Chuck Canterbury, national president of the Fraternal Order of Police, told HuffPost. “The vast majority of our membership will put other issues aside.”

Full Story Here: Firefighters, Cops Warn Republicans Anti-Union Stance Has Consequences.

Steven Chu On The ‘Very Hard’ Decision To Cut Energy Assistance For Poor Households

With commodity prices rising dramatically in the past few weeks, the Obama administration on Friday offered a new variation of its defense of proposed budget cuts to a program that provides energy assistance to low-income households.

At a breakfast organized by the Christian Science Monitor, Energy Secretary Steven Chu acknowledged that the administration had made “very, very hard decisions” in proposing to decrease funding for the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program by $2.5 billion in its 2012 budget. But while President Barack Obama argued in February that lower commodity prices meant less aid was necessary, a subsequent spike has led the administration to reassess its approach to justifying the new funding levels.

On Friday, Chu argued that the administration was pursuing alternate, broader reforms to help stabilize energy prices for households.

Full Story Here: Steven Chu On The ‘Very Hard’ Decision To Cut Energy Assistance For Poor Households.

Poll: Americans favor unions over GOP governors in labor disputes

More Americans back unions over governors who are trying to curb collective bargaining rights, according to a recent poll.

The polling organization Gallup found that 48 percent, or nearly half of Americans agree more with state employee labor unions. Only 39 percent favored governors in those states.

An additional 13 percent agreed with neither or had no opinion.

The results were split along party lines. In all, 65 percent of Republicans supported governors, while 70 percent of Democrats chose unions.

Full Story Here: Poll: Americans favor unions over GOP governors in labor disputes | The Raw Story.

International midwife shortage kills 1 million women, children a year |

Over a million mothers and newborn babies are dying each year from easily prevented birth complications because of a chronic shortage of midwives across much of the developing world, a new report from Save the Children said on Friday.

In the world’s least developed countries over half of mothers give birth without any trained help — compared with only one percent in Britain — and some 2 million women face one of the most frightening days in their life entirely alone.

Some 1,000 mothers and 2,000 newborns die every day as a result. Another 350,000 trained professionals are needed to save their lives, the “Missing Midwives” report said.

Full Story Here: International midwife shortage kills 1 million women, children a year | The Raw Story.

Wisconsin GOP lawmaker complains of struggling on a $174,000 salary 

The Republican Party in Polk County, Wisconsin has demanded that video of Rep. Sean Duffy (R) complaining about his $174,000/year salary be pulled from the Internet.

Talking Points Memo reposted the clip Wednesday.

“I can guarantee you, or most of you, I guarantee that I have more debt than all of you,” Duffy said. “With 6 kids, I still pay off my student loans. I still pay my mortgage. I drive a used minivan. If you think I’m living high on the hog, I’ve got one paycheck. So I struggle to meet my bills right now. Would it be easier for me if I get more paychecks? Maybe, but at this point I’m not living high on the hog.”

Full Story Here: Wisconsin GOP lawmaker complains of struggling on a $174,000 salary | Raw Replay.

TEPCO recruiting nuclear workers for up to $5,000 per day

What would you do for $2,500 a day? How about $5,000 a day? Do you have “a passport, a family willing to let you go”, and a “willingness to to work in a radioactive zone”? Then you could have what it takes to work at the Fukushima nuclear power plant, and even become a “jumper”, a highly paid individual who rushes into a radioactive area, performs a task, and quickly returns to safety before absorbing a dangerous dose of radioactivity.

Reuters is reporting that TEPCO, the Tokyo Electric Power Company which owns the Fukushima Dai-Ichi nuclear plant, is offering workers exorbitant amounts of money in a bid to persuade them to help stabilize the reactors damaged in the March earthquake and tsunami. Some workers report being offered 200,000 yen ($2,500) a day, for what amounts to only an hour of work on the reactor.

“Ordinarily I’d consider that a dream job, but my wife was in tears and stopped me, so I declined,” said (an) unidentified worker who is in his 30s, “The working time would be less than an hour, so in fact it was 200,000 yen an hour, but the risk was too big.”

Full Story Here: TEPCO recruiting nuclear workers for up to $5,000 per day | The Raw Story.

‘Ten UN workers killed’ at Afghan Koran protest

Up to 20 U.N. workers were killed Friday when protesters overran a compound in Mazar-i-Sharif, according to Reuters. Two foreigners were said to be beheaded.

Original report continues below…

KABUL — Ten foreign UN workers were killed on Friday in an attack on the UN headquarters in the northern Afghan city of Mazar-i-Sharif by demonstrators protesting at the burning of the Koran by a US pastor, police told AFP.

“Ten (UN) people have been killed by the protesters (…) All the killed are foreigners,” police spokesman Lal Mohammad Ahmadzai said.

Full Story Here: ‘Ten UN workers killed’ at Afghan Koran protest | The Raw Story.

In 2010, CEO Pay Went Up 27% While Worker Pay Went Up 2%

Households across the country are still feeling the effects of the Great Recession, with unemployment falling very slowly, while foreclosures are still increasing, along with poverty rates and oil prices. However, one group of Americans is doing very well — corporate CEOs, whose pay is returning to pre-recession levels:

Full Story Here: ThinkProgress » In 2010, CEO Pay Went Up 27% While Worker Pay Went Up 2%.

Ohio Voters Have 90 Days To Stop Gov. Kasich’s Anti-Worker Bill

After weeks of flouting the state’s legislative rules to ram through an anti-union bill, Ohio Gov. John Kasich (R) signed the bill last night. Yet, while Kasich started this war on Ohio workers, the state’s increasingly disguntled voters have the power to end it:

Ohioans opposed to the union-neutering legislation vow to keep it from becoming law through the state’s referendum process.

Under Ohio law, opponents have 90 days from the time the governor signs the legislation to collect 231,149 signatures to get a referendum on the November ballot.

If they collect enough valid signatures from 44 Ohio counties within that time frame, the law wouldn’t go into effect until voters approved as much, assuming it won a majority of the vote in November, which now seems like a pretty big assumption.

Full Story Here: ThinkProgress » Ohio Voters Have 90 Days To Stop Gov. Kasich’s Anti-Worker Bill.

Issa’s Response To ThinkProgress Raises More Questions About His Financial Interest In $1 Million Earmark

On Wednesday, we reported that some of the earmarks Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA) had requested over the years appear have the potential to benefit Issa’s real estate empire. Yesterday, Issa responded to our article over Twitter:

Issa did not dispute the fact that his earmark could benefit his real estate property. Instead, he argued that the earmark was simply a request from a constituent. In his Tweet, Issa linked to a letter from a county government group requesting the earmarks at issue. It would be appropriate if the earmark had been requested coincidentally near property Issa already owned. Over the years, starting with fiscal year 2007, Issa had placed the West Vista Way earmark on his list of interested earmarks. However, the timeline of events shows that Issa actually purchased his $16.6 million office building with the knowledge that his own earmark next to it was finally pending:

Full Story Here: ThinkProgress » Issa’s Response To ThinkProgress Raises More Questions About His Financial Interest In $1 Million Earmark.

GOP Guts Regulation Requiring Adequate Rest For Pilots

In February 2009, Continental flight 3407, operated by Colgan Air, plunged into a suburb of Buffalo, NY, killing all 49 people on board and one person on the ground. Pilot error was named as the chief cause of the crash, and investigators focused on pilot fatigue as one of the primary problems. The co-pilot had taken a cross-country, overnight flight the day before the crash, and only slept briefly in an airline lounge before she was required to pilot the flight.

When the plane encountered an ice storm as it attempted to land in Buffalo, the pilots struggled to respond appropriately, and The National Transportation Safety Board found that their “performance was likely impaired because of fatigue.” Both pilots were heard yawning on the cockpit voice recorder.

Families of the victims channeled their grief into action in the following months, launching a 15-month campaign to convince Congress to enact a variety of pilot performance safeguards. The bill passed last summer and, among other things, required the FAA to create tougher rules aimed at controlling pilot fatigue.

Full Story Here: ThinkProgress » GOP Guts Regulation Requiring Adequate Rest For Pilots.

Rep. Marino Ditches Homeland Security Meeting To Speak To 12 Tea Party Protesters

Yesterday, ThinkProgress reported that Rep. Tom Marino (R-PA), who sits on the House Foreign Affairs’ subcommittee on Africa, wondered whether the U.S.’s intervention in Libya means we might “go into Africa next.” Libya is, of course, in Africa. Jay Leno joked last night, “You see why he’s not on the intelligence committee. Even Sarah Palin’s going ‘get a map!’”

Marino’s office scrambled to respond to our story, telling reporters that the congressman was making a distinction between our aerial bombing of Libya and the potential deployment of ground troops — a point that was not made clear in his original statement. “We are not ‘in’ Africa by any means,” a Marino spokesman said. “We do not have ground troops there and, as far as we know, there are no plans to go into Africa.” In fact, the U.S. has bases in Africa and troops on the ground.

As Marino staffers were undertaking efforts to defend their boss’s competency, they were simultaneously undermining that cause. Yesterday, “about a dozen” tea party protesters showed up outside Marino’s district office in Tunkhannock, PA. At the time, Marino, who also sits on the House Homeland Security, was participating in a hearing on the “U.S. Homeland Security Role in the Mexican War Against Drug Cartels.” Marino decided to ditch the hearing and go talk to tea party protesters instead:

Full Story Here: ThinkProgress » Rep. Marino Ditches Homeland Security Meeting To Speak To 12 Tea Party Protesters.

Anti-EPA House Votes To Let Agribusiness Dump Pesticides In Our Water

The Tea Party Congress doesn’t just hate EPA rules that protect against industry destroying our country with greenhouse pollution, mercury, coal ash, and mountaintop removal. By a veto-proof margin, the U.S. House of Representatives voted yesterday to prohibit Clean Water Act limits on pesticide pollution of lakes, streams, and rivers.

Lobbyists for industrial agriculture polluters cheered the 292-130 vote for H.R. 872, which “will amend the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide and Rodenticide Act (FIFRA) and the Clean Water Act to clarify Congressional intent and eliminate the requirement for National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System permits for applications of pesticides approved for use under FIFRA.” The California agribusiness lobby Western Farmers Association praised the “practical, bipartisan example of eliminating government regulations that needlessly increase farm business costs“:

The measure would bar the Environmental Protection Agency from requiring farmers or companies to comply with the Clean Water Act when using pesticides on or near water sources. The bill’s supporters said pesticides are adequately regulated by other laws. The bill passed 292 to 130 on Thursday. The 130 negative votes came from Democrats. Fifty-seven Democrats joined 235 Republicans in supporting the bill, which has yet to see Senate action.

Full Story Here: ThinkProgress » Anti-EPA House Votes To Let Agribusiness Dump Pesticides In Our Water.

A Two-Decade Detour into Empire

By Robert Parry: :

Twenty years ago, in spring 1991, the United States was at a crossroads that would decide the near-term fate of American democracy, but that reality wasn’t apparent to many. What was clear was that the U.S. empire was resurgent

President George H.W. Bush had just won a smashing victory in the Persian Gulf War, restoring popular support for a militaristic global agenda. The Gulf War had capped a decade of Ronald Reagan and Bush reconstructing the national consensus for foreign wars that had been shattered in the 1970s by Vietnam, the Pentagon Papers and Watergate.

Celebrating this domestic side of his military victory, Bush declared on Feb. 28, 1991, “We’ve kicked the Vietnam Syndrome once and for all.”

Reagan and Bush had achieved this success by rebuilding the walls of government secrecy and defending them with new weapons of propaganda and with an elite palace guard of national security intellectuals, known as the neoconservatives.

Full Story Here: A Two-Decade Detour into Empire.

AT&T’s secret f*cking loophole: If you want out of an Internet contract, just curse

With telecom giant AT&T rolling out limitations and additional fees on how much information its Internet users can access, it seems the company is bracing for an influx of anger.

In a little-noticed contract tweak recently, AT&T customer service representatives have been empowered to cancel the contract of any customers who behave in an abusive manner towards them.

In other words, when those top two percent of users get massive bandwidth bills at the end of May, and they call in with full-bore nerd rage, AT&T will have an easy solution: cut them off entirely, and waive the cancellation fee.

But in perhaps an unintended consequence of this move, that would also allow disgruntled users to wriggle out of their contract with what The L.A. Times called “some strategic cussing.”

Full Story Here: AT&T’s secret f*cking loophole: If you want out of an Internet contract, just curse | The Raw Story.

Montana Rep. Alan Hale Says DUI Laws Are ‘Destroying a Way of Life’

There are victims of drunken driving. And, according to one Montana legislator, there are victims of drunken driving laws.

While speaking out against a proposed bill that would make DUI laws more strict for repeat offenders, state Rep. Alan Hale, R–Basin, said drunken driving regulations hurt local businesses and are “destroying a way of life.”

“These DUI laws are not doing our small businesses in our state any good at all. They are destroying them,” he said in a speech on the state House floor. “They are destroying a way of life that has been in Montana for years and years.”

Full Story Here: Montana Rep. Alan Hale Says DUI Laws Are ‘Destroying a Way of Life’.

Update: Kapanke recall petition filed

A petition to recall Sen. Dan Kapanke has made it to Madison.

Mike Haas, a staff attorney for the Government Accountability Board, said people began gathering outside the building about 3:30 p.m.

“They’re encouraging people to honk their horns, banging their drums,” he said. “They haven’t made it to the third floor yet.”

The petition was delivered just before 4 p.m., Haas said.

Full Story Here: Update: Kapanke recall petition filed.