Sen. Brown refusing to name alleged abuser
By (UPI)
|
U.S. Senator Scott Brown says people urging him to name a camp counselor who allegedly sexually abused him "have no clue" about dealing with such an episode.
The Massachusetts Republican made the allegation about being abused by a counselor while attending a Cape Cod summer camp as a 10-year-old in his book, "Against All Odds."
But Brown has steadfastly refused to identify the camp where the alleged abuse occurred, the former counselor he alleges abused him or to provide authorities with information for a possible prosecution, The Boston Globe reported Tuesday.
|
Koran-burning pastor plans Mich. protest
By (UPI)
|
Terry Jones, the Koran-burning Florida pastor, says Detroit-area police and prosecutors are trying to silence him by demanding a $100,000 bond.
Jones plans to visit Dearborn, Mich., which has one of the biggest Muslim populations in the country, on Good Friday, The Detroit News reported. Prosecutors filed a motion Friday requesting he put up a "peace bond" and saying he could cause a riot "complete with discharge of firearms."
The Dearborn police said he should put up $100,000 to cover the cost of overtime, Jones said. He called the move unconstitutional and said he does not plan to pay.
|
Drilling Oversight Agency Faces 'Troubling' Obstacles
By Brian Naylor
|
. . .
Investigations before and after the Gulf spill found the agency quite friendly with those it regulated. In Louisiana, oil companies offered football tickets and hunting trip invitations to MMS inspectors.
Michael Bromwich has worked to end that culture of coziness. "The fact that I was brought in to take over this job, I think, signaled to people in the agency that whatever was allowed before — [is] not going to be allowed anymore."
. . .
Bromwich agrees. "We have barely 60 inspectors to cover 3,000-plus facilities in the Gulf of Mexico," he says. "If it weren't so troubling, it would be laughable."
Congress did approve more money for the agency in the last budget — just about half of what the administration requested.
|
MAP: Has Your State Banned Sodomy?
By Tim Murphy
|
Last week we reported on the debate in the Texas state legislature over whether to repeal to the state's ban on "homosexual conduct." It's been eight years since the Supreme Court officially knocked down anti-sodomy laws as unconstitutional in Lawrence v. Texas, but Texas' state legislature has thus far refused to remove the law from the books—in large part because most Texas Republicans still support it. In 2010, the state GOP made defense of the anti-sodomy statute part of its platform, calling for the state to effectively ignore the the law of the land: "We demand that Congress exercise its authority granted by the U.S. Constitution to withhold jurisdiction from the federal courts from cases involving sodomy." Gov. Rick Perry, meanwhile, dismissed the Lawrence decision as the product of "nine oligarchs in robes" (never mind that it was a 6–3 decision).
But Texas isn't the only state that's still legislating bedroom activity. . . Here's a map:
|
Family's saga highlights kinks in immigrant detention system
By Kelsey Sheehy
|
Logan Guzman likes to pretend he's a superhero. One week he's Spiderman. The next he's Batman. Whichever hero he embodies, the 4-year-old's goal is always the same: He wants to save his father.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement detained Logan's dad, Pedro Guzman, 30, in front of the family's Durham, N.C., home on Sept. 28, 2009. Logan and his mother, Emily, could only look on.
. . .
Nearly 19 months later, Pedro Guzman is still in immigration custody after multiple requests for release on bond were denied. He has two misdemeanor marijuana-possession charges from 1998 on his record. Because of that he's considered a flight risk. So he waits.
|
Opponents of climate bill far outspent environmentalists, according to Climate Shift data
By Joseph Romm
|
The data suggest opponents of the bill far outspent environmentalists during the climate bill debate of 2009 and 2010:
8-to-1 on lobbying in 2009
4-to 1 (or more) on advertising in 2009
8-to-1 in donations to candidates and Congress members in 2010 cycle
10-to-1 on independent election expenditures in 2010
I am basing those numbers on a reanalysis of data in Matthew Nisbet's discredited "Climate Shift" report.
This reanalysis, which I'll present below, was done with the help of Dr. Robert Brulle. Brulle is a leading social scientist whom Nisbet had specifically asked to review his financial analysis -- and who ultimately withdrew his name from the study in large part because Nisbet's claims that enviros held the spending edge were "contradicted by Nisbet's own data." . .
. . .
The Nieman Foundation for Journalism at Harvard described my first post as "Killing a false narrative before it takes hold." Since Nisbet's report is beyond uncitable, my goal here is provide analysis that will stand as one of the most credible analyses to cite until someone publishes a journal article.
|
Fossil fuel industries kill and injure an awful lot of their workers
By Daniel J. Weiss
|
On the one-year anniversary of the BP Deepwater Horizon oil disaster and the Massey coal mine explosion in West Virginia, we are reminded how dangerous our dependence on fossil fuels can be. A large cost of our reliance on these energy sources is the death or injury of workers in these industries. Transitioning to cleaner energy technologies such as solar and wind is safer for workers as well as better for public health, economic competitiveness, and the environment. We can take steps to make fossil fuel industries less dangerous while we transition to cleaner energy.
The toll of fossil fuels on human health and the environment is well documented. But our dependence on fossil fuels exacts a very high price on the people who extract or process these fuels. Every year, some men and women who toil in our nation's coal mines, natural gas fields, and oil rigs and refineries lose their lives or suffer from major injuries to provide the fossil fuels that drive our economy.
. . .
No workplace can ever be risk free. But efficiency and renewable energy technologies promise fewer worker injuries, illnesses, and deaths while generating power more cleanly and protecting public health. Let the transition begin. In the meantime we should adequately fund OSHA, push for comprehensive, centralized data collection and analysis to hold fossil fuel industries accountable, and strengthen unions. All these steps would go a long way toward protecting fossil fuel workers.
|
God Hates Verizon.
By sara with camera
|
After a customer service call gone wrong, I was very angry and couldn't seem to get a grip on it. I called Katherine and the plan was born. Most anyone who has lived in Topeka awhile knows about the angry corner: 17th & Gage. That's where (or across the street at 15th & Gage) Westboro Baptist Church holds their week-day 15 minute protests. You've seen the signs. God hates this and God hates that. I decided that it would be cathartic and funny if I could join in with a God Hates Verizon sign. So I did (I got about 10 minutes of protest in before the cold got to me).
|
'Wikileaks' soldier Bradley Manning moved to new prison
By (BBC)
|
. . .
At a press conference at the Pentagon on Tuesday, defence department general counsel Jeh Johnson said Pte Manning would be moved imminently to a pre-trial jail at Fort Leavenworth, in the Mid-western US state of Kansas.
Mr Johnson and other military officials said the Fort Leavenworth jail - which was opened in January - was better equipped to handle long-term pre-trial stays than the Marine Corps base at Quantico, Virginia.
Among other things, the Fort Leavenworth jail has better mental health support and, should officials permit it, better exercise facilities and more opportunities for interaction with other detainees, officials said.
|
Michigan Emergency Manager Robert Bobb Issues Layoff Notice to All Detroit Public School Teachers
By E.D. Kain
|
We’ve discussed Rick Snyder’s “Emergency Financial Manager” bill in this space previously. Now it’s time to take a look at what happens when a law like this is put into practice. In Detroit, a city that has faced decline now for several decades, Emergency Financial Manager Robert Bobb has issued a layoff notice to all 5,466 public school teachers.
. . .
What we have in Detroit is an Emergency Manager appointed by the previous governor who was facing a challenge from the School District which was frustrated by his top-down approach to school reform. That challenge was effectively crushed by the passage of Public Act 4. This same Emergency Manager was a graduate from a foundation that promotes corporate school reform and also pays around a third of his six-figure salary. The Emergency Manager has the power to break union contracts, layoff teachers, and open charter schools that benefit the same foundation that is so heavily invested in the Emergency Manager’s career.
This is nothing short of a coordinated effort between the billionaire foundations pushing school reform and Tea Party conservatives intent on slashing benefits and ending collective bargaining rights. Public schools are under assault by the forces of privatization, and public school teachers face benefit and salary cuts while the very rich are promised tax cuts. Similar efforts are underway in Florida and Wisconsin.
|
S&P adds own footnote to crisis
By Chan Akya
|
At long last, the inevitable has come to pass. Standard & Poor's, the rating agency, on Monday affirmed the credit ratings of the US but revised downward the country's outlook from stable to negative. Essentially, the move makes it likely if not altogether probable that the US will lose its prized credit rating of triple-A over the next two to three years. . .
Specifically, the question gnawing at the core of the market is the one about who exactly is affected by any S&P downgrade of the US sovereign. Is it China, with its $1 trillion of US government bonds? Of course, that is indeed one victim and one that I have long commented upon in this column. The symbiotic relationship between China and the US - supplier and borrower - has been long documented by other authors.
This is however, not the whole story. The biggest buyer of US government bonds over the past two years hasn't been China or any Middle-Eastern nation, but rather the US Federal Reserve. Yes, the same agency which is the repository of all currency printing activities in the US.
|