If given the attention it deserves, an important new book is certain to make significant contributions to the public discussions of US prison policy. The author, Shawn Griffith, was released last year from Florida’s prison system at the age of 41, after spending most of his life, almost 24 years, behind bars, including seven in solitary confinement. Facing the US Prison Problem 2.3 Million Strong: An Ex-Con’s View of the Mistakes and the Solution was …

Read more

Educating yourself about empire can be a challenging endeavor, especially since so much of the educational system is dedicated to avoiding the topic or justifying the actions of imperialism in the modern era. If one studies political science or economics, the subject might be discussed in a historical context, but rarely as a modern reality; media and government voices rarely speak on the subject, and even more rarely speak of it with direct and honest …

Read more

The operators of what the authorities described as one of the world’s largest online money laundering organizations, a central hub for criminals trafficking in everything from stolen identities to child pornography, were charged in an indictment unsealed by federal prosecutors on Tuesday.

The organization, Liberty Reserve, was responsible for laundering over $6 billion over the last seven years, with millions of customers around the world, according to the indictment. Prosecutors said that the company “facilitated …

Read more

LOS ANGELES (AP) — U.S. Sen. Barbara Boxer wants the Justice Department to investigate if California utility executives deceived federal regulators about an equipment swap at the San Onofre nuclear power plant that eventually led to a radiation leak, The Associated Press has learned.

The California Democrat obtained a 2004 internal letter written by a senior Southern California Edison executive that she said “leads me to believe that Edison intentionally misled the public and regulators” to …

Read more

Three years ago, 12-year-old Fatima was “sold” into marriage to a man more than four times her age. Her father, unemployed and addicted to drugs, sold her into wedlock for about $10,500, money that he then used to buy himself a car. You might be asking yourself how this possible. The answer – because there is no minimum age of marriage law in Saudi Arabia.

But Fatima didn’t give up. With the help of Equality Now, …

Read more

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

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

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

(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

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