May
30
2013
The Internal Revenue Service, not the most popular government agency to begin with, has been in the midst of a scatological squall for the past 3 weeks over their treatment of tea party groups. According to an agency spokesperson, organizations garnered additional scrutiny of their applications for non-profit status for having “Tea Party, Patriot, or 9/12” in the application materials. Non-profit status is granted by the IRS for “social welfare organizations” and federal law puts …
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May
30
2013
Conservative arguments against immigration reform took another blow yesterday with the release of a new study about immigrant contributions to the federal safety net. According to a new study published in the journal Health Affairs, immigrant communities contribute billions more to the Medicare Trust Fund than they use. And since the opposite is true of the U.S. born, immigrants are paying for everyone’s grandmother’s healthcare. According to the data, this will remain true for …
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May
30
2013
A polio vaccination campaign worker was shot to death in Pakistan on Tuesday, which The New York Times wasted no time in reporting. What the Times article neglected to mention was that the killing followed a CIA operation in which agents orchestrated a fake vaccination program in order to gain entry to Osama Bin Laden’s home. (The plot was based on knowledge that health workers had previously managed to enter Bin Laden’s home to administer …
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May
30
2013
California’s Gold Rush may have ended well over a century and a half ago, but there are new prospectors in town and these suits aren’t toting tattered tents and rusty old pans. Instead the new Golden State pioneers employ geologists and lease expensive extraction equipment. Yet, in many ways it is still the Wild West out here in the land of sun and sea, and many are hoping to strike it rich.
Fracking, or the act …
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May
30
2013
A long-running hunger strike by detainees at Guantánamo has worsened since Barack Obama promised action to close the controversial prison camp in a landmark speech last Thursday.
On the eve of Obama’s address, there were 103 prisoners on hunger strike, with 31 being force-fed by military authorities and one in hospital. Since then, not a single prisoner has stopped their strike, and now 36 of the detainees are being force-fed to keep them alive, with five …
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May
30
2013
A Japanese firm has stopped selling luxury pet food made from endangered fin whales, following a campaign by conservation groups.
Michinoku Farm, based in Saitama prefecture, north of Tokyo, had advertised jerky-like snacks for dogs made from North Atlantic fin whales imported from Iceland. The treats were removed from its website hours after protests from four groups, including the UK-based Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA) and the Animal Welfare Institute (AWI) in the US.
Michinoku’s president, Takuma Konno, …
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May
30
2013
LAX’s runway expansion plans were already facing legal action by community groups and even neighboring governments (Culver City, for one). Now comes the Service Employees Union United Service Workers West, which says it will file a California Environmental Quality Act challenge in court this afternoon.
The expansion, mainly a 260 foot taxiway that will split the airport’s northern runways and put air traffic just a little closer to residents in Westchester and Playa del Rey, is …
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May
30
2013
The nation’s largest private student lender, Sallie Mae, is cleaving itself into two companies — a move that will create a new home for more than $100 billion of student loans amid broad concerns from federal authorities and consumer advocates that graduates hobbled by debt are increasingly falling behind on their payments.
The overhaul by Sallie Mae is playing out as college students, facing persistent unemployment and a sluggish economy, are defaulting on their loan payments …
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May
30
2013
A group of about a 100 college students and activists gathered to protest at the annual shareholders meeting of Christiana-based Sallie Mae this morning.
As of 10:30 a.m., the group gathered outside the front gates of the company headquarters and were sitting behind a line of Delaware state troopers.
Demonstrators said they believe the nation’s largest provider of student loans has saddled recent college students with too much debt, and they also take issue with the company …
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May
30
2013
PHOENIX (AP) — A mother from Arizona has a Wednesday court appearance where her family said lawyers will question key witnesses in an attempt to prove she did not smuggle marijuana on a passenger bus.
The arrest of Yanira Maldonado, 42, has prompted outrage in the U.S. among politicians and her family members, who say she was set up when her bus was stopped at a military checkpoint last week and authorities found nearly 12 pounds …
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