May
28
2013
Brannan Vines has never been to war. But she’s got a warrior’s skills: hyperawareness, hypervigilance, adrenaline-sharp quick-scanning for danger, for triggers. Super stimuli-sensitive. Skills on the battlefield, crazy-person behavior in a drug store, where she was recently standing behind a sweet old lady counting out change when she suddenly became so furious her ears literally started ringing. Being too cognizant of every sound—every coin dropping an echo—she explodes inwardly, fury flash-incinerating any normal tolerance for …
Read more
May
28
2013
Garment workers in Cambodia, making apparel for the US shoe and sportswear company Nike, were attacked by police armed with electrified batons on Monday, marking a violent escalation in their battle to receive better ages at a factory on the outskirts of Phnom Penh, the nation’s capital city.
Approximately 3,000 workers, almost all women, had staged a sit-in on the road leading to the factory in order to demand an increase in health and living expenses …
Read more
May
28
2013
KAMPALA, May 28 – Ugandan police fired tear gas Tuesday at journalists protesting at the week-long closure of key independent media, after they reported arguments among army generals over whether the president’s son is to succeed him.
Riot police scattered around 100 journalists, their supporters and human rights activists who tried to gather outside the offices of The Daily Monitor and Red Pepper newspapers, which were closed on May 20 by armed police.
“This is a violation …
Read more
May
28
2013
(Reuters) – The government of the southwestern Chinese city of Kunming on Tuesday banned residents from protesting next week against planned chemical production at a refinery, the ban coinciding with the opening of an important trade fair.
An increasingly affluent urban population has begun to object to a China’s policy of growth at all costs, which has fuelled the economy for three decades, with the environment emerging as a focus of concern and protests.
There have already …
Read more
May
28
2013
The American Civil Liberties Union of Ohio is challenging an Ohio school district for considering a “controversial issues policy” that would require teachers to encourage discussions about creationism and conservative conspiracy theories about U.N. Agenda 21.
Springboro Community City School District’s new curriculum — part of an effort to help students think critically and learn to “identify important issues” — mandates that “[a]ll sides of the issue should be given to the students in a dispassionate …
Read more
May
28
2013
It’s no surprise to regular readers I am quite concerned about climate change. My concern on this issue is two-fold: one consists of the actual global consequences of the reality of global warming, and the other is the blatant manipulation of that reality by those who would deny it.
These two issues overlap mightily when it comes to Arctic sea ice. The ice around the North Pole is going away, and it’s doing so with alarming …
Read more
May
28
2013
U.S. Department of Justice investigators found a number of unconstitutional practices at the Escambia County Jail facility in northwest Florida that “constitute serious risks to prisoner safety,” according to the Justice Department’s findings letter. Among those problems were insufficient access to mental healthcare for the inmates, and racial segregation of black prisoners. Said the U.S. Department of Justice in a release:
Specifically, the department concluded that known systemic deficiencies at the facility, …
Read more
May
28
2013
By Ingrid Melander and Nicholas Vinocur
PARIS, May 28 (Reuters) – Europe must urgently tackle youth unemployment, the French, German and Italian governments said on Tuesday, urging action to rescue an entire generation who fear they will not find jobs.
Ministers called for a mixture of measures including helping small companies and boosting apprenticeships.
Some 7.5 million Europeans aged 15-24 are neither in employment nor in education or training, according to EU data. Youth unemployment in the EU …
Read more
May
28
2013
Walmart employees are on strike in Miami, Massachusetts and the California Bay Area this morning, kicking off what organizers promise will be the first “prolonged strikes” in the retail giant’s history. The union-backed labor group OUR Walmart says that at least a hundred workers have pledged to join the strikes, and that some workers walking off the job today will stay out at least through June 7, when Walmart holds its annual shareholder meeting near …
Read more
May
28
2013
WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama plans to nominate three judges to a critical federal court in a move that The New York Times says “will effectively be daring Republicans to find specific ground to filibuster all the nominees.”
The United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit is considered nearly as powerful as the Supreme Court and is known as a proving ground for potential high-court nominees. The three vacancies are part of …
Read more
