Mar
13
2013
In February 2008, I attended an New York University faculty meeting about the school’s plans to open a new campus in the tiny desert emirate of Abu Dhabi. I was there reporting for a New York magazine article about the first major U.S. research institution to open a complete liberal-arts university off American soil. Hoping to be a fly on the wall, I instead found myself seated at the head of the table, bombarded with …
Read more
Mar
13
2013
The Los Angeles chapter of No More Jails Coalition is taking it to the streets today, telling L.A. County supervisors Zev Yaroslavsky, Mark Ridley-Thomas, Gloria Molina, Don Knabe, and Mike Antonovich that the plan for embattled Sheriff Lee Baca to build a new women’s jail is a crazy way to spend millions of tax dollars.
“We don’t need these new jail cells, we don’t want these new jail cells, we can’t afford these new jail cells,” …
Read more
Mar
13
2013
Every member of Congress has chosen whether to sign a letter making a crucial commitment: “We will vote against any and every cut to Medicare, Medicaid, or Social Security benefits — including raising the retirement age or cutting the cost of living adjustments that our constituents earned and need.”
The Democratic Party hierarchy doesn’t like the letter. House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi has said that cutting Social Security would “strengthen” it, and President Obama’s spokespeople keep …
Read more
Mar
13
2013
Who was Kimani Gray, and why did his death send an estimated 100 people to the streets of Brooklyn last night in protest?
While the story isn’t generating a ton of national headlines yet, it has been flying around Twitter as #brooklynriot (some are now pushing the more neutral #brooklynprotest as a rival hashtag), and appears primed to develop into the latest national story surrounding police and race. With that in mind, here’s what we do …
Read more
Mar
13
2013
A powerful California lawmaker wants public college students who are shut out of popular courses to attend low-cost online alternatives – including those offered by for-profit companies – and he plans to encourage the state’s public institutions to grant credit for those classes.
The proposal expected today from Darrell Steinberg, a Democrat and president pro tem of the state Senate, aims to create a “statewide system of faculty-approved, online college courses,” according to a written statement …
Read more
Mar
12
2013
Two years ago today, floodwaters from a massive, deadly earthquake/tsunami combo in Japan knocked out cooling equipment at the Fukushima nuclear power plant, resulting in what experts were quick to deign the second-worst nuclear disaster in history (after Chernobyl), after radioactive contamination touched everything from tuna to baby formula to butterflies. The $125 billion incident precipitated an identity crisis among the world’s big users of nuclear power, particularly Germany, which was so spooked that it …
Read more
Mar
12
2013
Opponents of a copper mine worth nearly $1bn in north-western Burma have expressed outrage over a government-ordered report that said the project should continue and that refrained from demanding punishment for police involved in a violent crackdown on protesters.
The opposition leader, Aung San Suu Kyi, chaired the investigation commission behind the report, which was released late on Monday night. It could pose a problem for Aung San Suu Kyi by identifying her with the government’s …
Read more
Mar
12
2013
Dr. Corey Hebert, CEO of Blackhealthtv.com, talks with Current TV’s John Fugelsang about warnings from the World Health Organization and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that bacteria are evolving to resist our current antibiotics — and that new antibiotics are not being developed to counteract the problem. This reason for this, says Hebert, is that big pharma prefers to invest in drug research for treating lifelong conditions, such as diabetes, in order …
Read more
Mar
12
2013
Catch ya later, unspoiled beaches of Bahamian paradise. It’s been real.
Offshore oil drilling will soon be allowed in the heavenly West Indies archipelago of the Bahamas, which is made up of thousands of islands and cays off the Floridian coast. Initially, the drilling will be exploratory only — an experiment that will punch a bunch of holes in the ocean floor to see what goop lies beneath.
The Bahamas environment minister said the option of allowing …
Read more
Mar
12
2013
The Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA) roared to an all-time high on Friday wrapping up a 4-day winning streak and shrugging off grim reports of government budget cuts that are expected to slow growth. The Dow rose 67 points on the day to close at 14,397 passing the previous record set in October 2007. While Wall Street’s bulls claim that stocks are still underpriced and have further to go, wary traders are watching for any …
Read more
