Immigrant families leaving Arizona because of new immigration law

Reports are surfacing around the Valley that illegal-immigrant families with school-age children are fleeing Arizona because of a new immigration law. Read more

Is Elena Kagan Too Inexperienced?

So President Obama is set to announce today that Solicitor General Elena Kagan  will be his next Supreme Court nominee. The choice doesn’t come as much surprise given all the court chatter last week, though it will be the first time since 1972 that a president has nominated someone with exactly zero judicial experience. That’s a pretty big deal, and Republicans are no doubt about to bludgeon Kagan with her inexperience. Kagan, for her part, has recently given them some help in that department. Read more

There Will Be Blood

British Petroleum’s deepwater well in the Gulf of Mexico is still gushing at least 5,000 barrels of crude oil per day, as it has for two weeks. It could become the biggest oil spill in US history. Along with killing fauna like pelicans and turtles, the oil will destroy the base of the gulf’s food chain by killing the larvae and eggs of crabs, clams, oysters, shrimp and fish, devastating the nation’s major source of seafood and one of the region’s key sources of employment. Like the Exxon Valdez disaster, the damage from this spill will last for decades.

It is catastrophic, spectacular, heartbreaking—but the BP spill is merely an extreme version of the norm, in which accidents and pollution are routine. In January a tanker collided with two barges at Port Arthur, Texas, dumping 450,000 gallons of oil into the gulf. In Ecuador, Texaco leaked 19 billion gallons of toxic wastewater and 17 million gallons of crude oil in pristine forests. Even on its very best day, our global petroleum economy is a series of violent, toxic horrors. Drilling, shipping, refining and burning oil is killing the planet—at the local level through poisoned air and water, and globally by fueling climate change. Politically the competition for oil breeds conflict and corruption, as it has in the Niger Delta. [read more…]

The Nation Editors | www. thenation.com |Posted: 05 May  2010

Pelosi steeled W.H. for health push

In the jittery days following Scott Brown’s Senate victory, Nancy Pelosi was eager to resurrect comprehensive health reform. But first, she had to get past longtime ally Rahm Emanuel, who was counseling President Barack Obama to consider a smaller, piecemeal approach. Read more

Republicans take Ted Kennedy’s seat

Republicans scored an historic victory overnight that put President Barack Obama’s agenda in jeopardy exactly a year after he took power – and which could kill his plans for healthcare reform.

A little-known Republican state legislator won Edward Kennedy’s old seat in the US Senate Read more

Shot or Not, Dead or Alive? Two Men’s Fate Lost in Chaos

A motionless body lay on the pavement. Perhaps 20 riled-up police officers milled around. On the shoulder of the road, an RTA bus was parked at a crazy angle, like a dislocated elbow. Nearby was a long white limousine, crashed into a pole.

What had we stumbled upon?

Then there were guns aimed at us, and my face was pushed against a wall. I heard lots of shouting and cursing. Read more

A health care plan so flawed even some Democrats have

From Salon.com

More than 1.5 million vets don’t have it, and 2,200 vets die every year because of it

It’s Veterans Day, and members of both parties compete to show service members the most respect. How about passing health insurance reform?

Two Harvard researchers chose today to release a study showing that 1.5 million American veterans have no health insurance, and more than 2,200 die every year Read more

America the jobless-Ron Paul wins, Timothy Geithner loses

From csmonitor.com

Frustration at how Washington has managed the ‘jobless recovery’ is turning some members of Capitol Hill against Treasury Secretary Timothy Gauthier – and in favor of a controversial measure by Rep. Ron Paul.

America is angry about the economy, and the biggest winners could just be Congress’s odd couple: Reps. Ron Paul (R) of Texas and Alan Grayson (D) of Florida… Mr. Paul, the far right former presidential candidate, and Mr. Grayson, the far left rabble-rouser who said the Republicans’ healthcare plan was for ill people to “die quickly,” are Congress’s two biggest critics of the Federal Reserve – [read more…]

By Mark Sappenfield |  Staff writer for www.csmonitor.com | Posted: 22  November  2009

Take Two Kickbacks

From motherjones.com

So your doctor says it’s time to consider that hip replacement. Trouble is, more than a dozen firms make artificial hips, and there’ve been plenty of recalls—no small inconvenience when the recalled product resides in your pelvis. So how do you know which implant—or arterial stent, or prosthetic knee joint—performs best? Can you trust your doctor’s judgment? We’ve been left jaded, after all, by the endless reports of drugmakers’ seducing physicians with golf and spa weekends, expensive gifts, and lucrative consulting contracts. Well, now that federal investigators have quietly turned their sights on the makers of medical devices—a $200 billion industry [read more…]

By Peter Stone | From motherjones.com | posted: 02 November 2009

Senate healthcare reform vote: ‘Now, the real debate can begin’

From The Christain Science Monitor

The Senate voted Saturday to open debate on its healthcare reform bill. But it was just the first of a series of difficult votes facing Democrats going forward.

Washington — With no Republican votes – and no votes to spare – Senate Democrats opened debate on historic overhaul of how the US healthcare system delivers services and how Americans pay for them. Read more

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