Pollutants in the air are known to affect brain development, but the first national study of in utero exposure and autism rates raises new concerns.

Researchers at the Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH) say that early-life exposure to pollution, including diesel particulates, mercury and lead, could contribute to a higher risk of autism disorders.

They came to that conclusion after analyzing data from a nationwide sample of 116,430 nurses participating in the Nurses’ Health Study II, …

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Well, at least Paula Deen is an honest racist. The cooking show host is currently embroiled in a million dollar lawsuit over racist behavior at her Savannah restaurant. Deen and her brother Bubba allegedly threw around the N-word and told racist and sexist jokes which, so far, she doesn’t deny. But then she said something about wanting to hire black cater waiters to act as slaves at a Southern wedding.

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Summer brings an annual invasion, in nearly every line of work, of shiny new interns. They’re eager to fill out résumés and make contacts. That’s what they get instead of money—and so they save their employers about $600 million every year, according to Ross Perlin in his book Intern Nation: How to Earn Nothing and Learn Little in the Brave New Economy. That’s why the free intern bonanza continues despite plenty of complaints that it …

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The ACLU, together with the NYCLU and CUNY’s CLEAR Project, filed a lawsuit today challenging the New York Police Department’s unconstitutional policy and practice of targeting entire Muslim communities for discriminatory and suspicionless surveillance. The NYPD’s vast religious profiling program has cast an unjustified badge of suspicion and stigma on hundreds of thousands of innocent New Yorkers, based on nothing more than their religious faith and practice. We represent civic and religious leaders, two mosques, …

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WASHINGTON, DC, June 17, 2013 – The Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) and American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) have filed a federal lawsuit on behalf of the prisoners at the East Mississippi Correctional Facility (EMCF), alleging shocking human rights violations against mentally ill and special needs prisoners by the private, for-profit facility.

Intended to provide safe and humane treatment for the state’s seriously mentally ill prisoners, EMCF is described as dangerous, filthy, and “operating in …

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On Tuesday, the House of Representatives will vote on the Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act, a measure spearheaded by Reps. Trent Franks (R-AZ) and Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) that would cut off legal access to abortion services at 20 weeks after fertilization. It represents the most restrictive abortion bill to come to a vote in either chamber over the past decade. Here’s what you need to know about this attack on women’s reproductive rights — and …

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WASHINGTON — The Senate intelligence committee chairman on Thursday vowed an effort to limit the access of government contract workers, such as Edward Snowden, to highly classified information.

Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., made the promise after senators received a closed-door briefing about the National Security Agency’s massive domestic telephone surveillance programs, which Snowden divulged to the media.

Based on information supplied by Snowden, a British newspaper reported that one program involves cellphone records. The Guardian newspaper, …

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What many Americans, including many scientists, think they know about drugs is turning out to be totally wrong. For decades, drug war propaganda has brainwashed Americans into blaming drugs for problems ranging from crime to economic deprivation. In his new book High Price: A Neuroscientist’s Journey of Self-Discovery That Challenges Everything You Know About Drugs and Society, Carl Hart blows apart the most common myths about drugs and their impact on society, drawing in part …

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OAKLAND, Calif. (CN) – A young black man claims in court that U.S. Airways had him arrested and put in a straitjacket for wearing saggy pants that showed his underwear, but not “any inappropriate parts of his anatomy.”

Deshon Marman sued the airline; 10 of its John and Jane Doe employees, including the pilot; the City and County of San Francisco and its police Officer Calvin Tom, in Federal Court.

Marmon, a former University of New Mexico …

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Data-collecting software is riling privacy and education activists.

When you were a kid and got in trouble at school, did they ever threaten to “put it in your permanent record?” That’s a scary prospect, knowing that the information could be seen forever by anyone with access to it. But what if that record had more in it than just grades and disciplinary problems? What if it included things like when your parents got divorced, or that …

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