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Casinos Are Booming Thanks to State Governments' Need to Exploit Gambling Addicts for Revenue

Mon, 13 May 2013 00:00:00 -0700

AlterNet - By Alyssa Figueroa - May. 13 (Special Report) - Today, however, state governments work with casino managers in the name of revenue, which they justify by allotting the money to projects that are meant to enhance communities. In reality, however, governments’ partnership with casinos ultimately harms communities. Unlike other “sin taxes,” like those on tobacco, alcohol and, in the near future, possibly soda, which act to discourage destructive behavior, casino taxes are collected with the government’s encouragement, through partnership and advertising.

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Atmospheric CO2 Concentrations Surpass 400 PPM Milestone In May 9 Daily Average

Fri, 10 May 2013 00:00:00 -0700

Huffington Post - By James Gerken - May. 10 (News Report) - The milestone, hit on May 9, may be symbolic, notes Climate Central, but manmade CO2 emissions from the burning of fossil fuels continue to rise, bringing greater atmospheric warming and exacerbating the effects of climate change

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This Crater in Siberia Reveals the Future of a Globally Warmed Planet

Fri, 10 May 2013 00:00:00 -0700

Mother Jones - By Damian Carrington - May. 10 (News Report) - This story originally appeared in The Guardian . The future of a globally warmed world has been revealed in a remote meteorite crater in Siberia, where lake sediments recorded the strikingly balmy climate of the Arctic during the last period when greenhouse gas levels were as high as today. Unchecked burning of fossil fuels has driven carbon dioxide to levels not seen for 3 million years when, the sediments show, temperatures were 46 degrees higher than today, lush forests covered the tundra and sea levels were up to 40 meters higher than today. "It's like deja vu," said Prof Julie Brigham-Grette, at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, who led the new research analyzing a core of sediment to see what temperatures in the region were between 3.6 and 2.2 million years ago. "We have seen these warm periods before. Many people now agree this is where we are heading." Continue Reading ...

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Palisades Nuclear Power Plant Shut Down After Water Leaks Into Lake Michigan

Mon, 06 May 2013 00:00:00 -0700

Huffington Post - May. 06 (News) - Palisades Nuclear Power Plant in southwestern Michigan was taken offline Sunday after operators discovered a leak from a water tank. Although the tank has leaked twice in less than a year, officials say there is no immediate risk. "There is no impact on

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America Is One Bad Winter Away From A Food Disaster

Mon, 06 May 2013 00:00:00 -0700

Huffington Post - By Todd Woody - May. 06 (News Report) - Forget the plight of the polar bear for a moment and consider the coming collapse of the $30 billion honey bee economy in the US. Since 2006 honey bees responsible for pollinating more than 100 crops—from apples to zucchini—have been dying by the tens of millions.

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How Two Secretive Global Trade Deals Will Further Enrich the American Elite

Thu, 02 May 2013 00:00:00 -0700

AlterNet - By Dean Baker - May. 02 (News Analysis) - the Obama administration is pursuing two major "free trade" agreements that in fact have very little to do with free trade and are likely to hurt those without the money and power to be part of the game. The deals in questions, the Trans-Pacific Partnership ( TPP) and the US-European Union "Free Trade" Agreement are both being pushed as major openings to trade that will increase growth and create jobs. In fact, eliminating trade restrictions is a relatively small part of both agreements

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Mind-boggling infographic shows why sharks should be way more scared of you

Thu, 02 May 2013 00:00:00 -0700

Grist - By Jess Zimmerman - May. 02 (Special Report) - (see the graphic)

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2 More Grad Students Claim To Find Another Flaw In Reinhart-Rogoff Research

Tue, 30 Apr 2013 00:00:00 -0700

Huffington Post - By Mark Gongloff - Apr. 30 (News Report) - Like Scooby-Doo villains, Carmen Reinhart and Kenneth Rogoff keep getting done in by meddling kids. First, University of Massachusetts-Amherst grad student Thomas Herndon shot holes in their influential research paper, "Growth In A Time Of Debt," by pointing out several mistakes and omissions the Harvard economists had made. Now, two PhD students at the University of Missouri-Kansas City have a new paper that they say finds another flaw in that same research.

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A Desperate Situation at Guantánamo: Over 130 Prisoners on Hunger Strike, Dozens Being Force-Fed

Mon, 29 Apr 2013 00:00:00 -0700

Democracy Now - By Amy Goodman - Apr. 29 (News Report) - Lawyers for the prisoners say more than 130 men are taking part in the hunger strike, which began in February. One of the hunger strikers is a Yemeni man named Samir Naji al Hasan Moqbel. In a letter published in The New York Times, he wrote: "Denying ourselves food and risking death every day is the choice we have made. I just hope that because of the pain we are suffering, the eyes of the world will once again look to Guantánamo before it is too late."

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Monsanto's Roundup Linked to Parkinson's, Infertility and Cancers

Sun, 28 Apr 2013 00:00:00 -0700

readersupportednews.org - By Carey Gillam - Apr. 28 (News Report) - The peer-reviewed report, published last week in the scientific journal Entropy, said evidence indicates that residues of "glyphosate," the chief ingredient in Roundup weed killer, which is sprayed over millions of acres of crops, has been found in food.

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Extended Families Would Fare Poorly in New Immigration Law

Sun, 28 Apr 2013 00:00:00 -0700

New America Media - By Sunita Sohrabji - Apr. 28 (News Analysis) - As business leaders roundly cheered a sweeping immigration proposal released last week by the Senate’s “Gang of Eight,” civil rights organizations voiced concerns about the limitations the new bill would impose on extended family reunification.

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Zimbabwe lures investors to solve drought

Sat, 27 Apr 2013 00:00:00 -0700

aljazeera.com - Apr. 27 (News Report) - With Zimbabwe facing a water crisis, people in some parts of the capital Harare have gone for months without access to clean water. Now the government is trying to attract private investors to help fix the problem.

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Why Your Supermarket Only Sells Five Kinds of Apples

Fri, 26 Apr 2013 00:00:00 -0700

Mother Jones - By Rowan Jacobsen - Apr. 26 (Special Report) - Every fall at Maine's Common Ground Country Fair, the Lollapalooza of sustainable agriculture, John Bunker sets out a display of eccentric apples. Last September, once again, they covered every possible size, shape, and color in the wide world of appleness. There was a gnarled little yellow thing called a Westfield Seek-No-Further; a purplish plum impostor called a Black Oxford; a massive, red-streaked Wolf River; and one of Thomas Jefferson's go-to fruits, the Esopus Spitzenburg. Bunker is known in Maine as "The Apple Whisperer," or simply "The Apple Guy," and, after laboring for years in semi-obscurity, he has never been in more demand.

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GOP Hits Turbulence with FAA Claim

Thu, 25 Apr 2013 00:00:00 -0700

FactCheck - By Robert Farley - Apr. 25 (Fact Check) - A number of Republicans are using misleading numbers when they say the Federal Aviation Administration should cut consultants and travel before resorting to furloughs that are causing airport delays. For example, Rep. Bill Shuster, who chairs the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure, says the FAA spends “nearly $500 million … More >>

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Roundup, An Herbicide, Could Be Linked To Parkinson's, Cancer And Other Health Issues, Study Shows

Thu, 25 Apr 2013 00:00:00 -0700

Huffington Post - Apr. 25 (News) - residues enhance the damaging effects of other food-borne chemical residues and toxins in the environment to disrupt normal body functions and induce disease, according to the report, authored by Stephanie Seneff, a research scientist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and Anthony Samsel, a retired science consultant from Arthur D. Little, Inc. Samsel is a former private environmental government contractor as well as a member of the Union of Concerned Scientists. "Negative impact on the body is insidious and manifests slowly over time as inflammation damages cellular systems throughout the body," the study says.

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Resource Shock: How Resource Scarcity and Climate Change Could Produce a Global Explosion

Mon, 22 Apr 2013 00:00:00 -0700

AlterNet - By Michael T. Klare - Apr. 22 (Special Report) - Two nightmare scenarios -- a global scarcity of vital resources and the onset of extreme climate change -- are already beginning to converge and in the coming decades are likely to produce a tidal wave of unrest, rebellion, competition, and conflict.

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Are Happy Gut Bacteria Key to Weight Loss?

Mon, 22 Apr 2013 00:00:00 -0700

Mother Jones - By Moises Velasquez-Manoff - Apr. 22 (Special Report) - A few years before Super Size Me hit theaters in 2004, Dr. Paresh Dandona , a diabetes specialist in Buffalo, New York, set out to measure the body's response to McDonald's —specifically breakfast. Over several mornings, he fed nine normal-weight volunteers an egg sandwich with cheese and ham, a sausage muffin sandwich, and two hash brown patties.

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Sandra Steingraber, Others Get 15 Days in Jail for Civil Disobedience Against Gas Co.

Fri, 19 Apr 2013 00:00:00 -0700

Common Dreams - By Jon Queally - Apr. 19 (News Report) - Three upstate New York community members-cum-activists, charged with criminal trespass for blockading a gas company installation last month, were sentenced to 15 days in jail on Wednesday by a local judge in an upstate courthouse. Among those sentenced was university biology professor and author Sandra Steingraber, who delivered an impassioned statement ahead of the sentencing explaining why she was compelled to civil disobedience and why she would refuse to pay the fine levied by the judge.

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While West, Texas, Burned, Its Famous Czech Bakery Kept the Kolaches Coming

Fri, 19 Apr 2013 00:00:00 -0700

Mother Jones - By Dana Liebelson, Jaeah Lee, Tasneem Raja - Apr. 19 (News Report) - There's a Czech bakery, deli, and gas station combo in tiny West, Texas that's world-famous for serving up fruit kolaches and hot chubbies to locals and tourists driving on I-35 between Dallas and Austin, 24 hours a day, seven days a week, for the last 29 years. Last night was no exception. In the wake of the massive explosion and fire that rocked a fertilizer plant just three miles down the road, Czech Stop kept its doors open—and the kolaches coming—almost without interruption. "I rushed up there after it happened because one of my employees said the ceiling was falling in," says Barbara Schissler, president of the Czech Stop empire, who"s worked there since it opened in 1983. "One of our freelance carpenters recommended that we close the doors, but when I showed up, I saw only the ceiling tiles were buckling, so I reopened.

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No OSHA Inspections at Texas Plant in 5 Years: Are We Doing Enough to Protect Workplace Safety?

Thu, 18 Apr 2013 00:00:00 -0700

Democracy Now - By Amy Goodman - Apr. 18 (News Report) - In the wake of the deadly explosion at a Texas fertilizer plant, reporter Mike Elk of In These Times magazine joins us to discuss the plant's safety record and the troubling regulatory environment for workplaces in Texas and nationwide. The Occupational Safety and Health Administration has not inspected West Fertilizer Co. in five years, and the EPA fined the plant in 2006 for failing to have a risk management plan. Elk says OSHA is understaffed and underfunded nationwide, across all industries.

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PA Court Deals Blow to Fracking Industry and Corporate 'Privacy Rights'

Wed, 17 Apr 2013 00:00:00 -0700

readersupportednews.org - By Steven Rosenfeld - Apr. 17 (News Report) - "Whether a right of privacy for businesses exists within the prenumbral rights of Pennsylvania's constitution is a matter of first impression," wrote Washington County Court of Common Pleas Judge Debbie O'Dell Seneca late last month. "It does not."

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Republicans Have Drooled Over the Idea of Slashing Social Security for Years, and They've Found Their Ideal Partner in Obama

Sun, 14 Apr 2013 00:00:00 -0700

AlterNet - By Robert Reich - Apr. 14 (News Analysis) - The Republican leadership is already salivating over the president's proposed Social Security cut. They've been wanting to cut Social Security for years. But they won't agree to close tax loopholes for the rich.

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Elizabeth Warren Responds To Criticism Of Social Security Email

Sat, 13 Apr 2013 00:00:00 -0700

Huffington Post - By Paige Lavender - Apr. 13 (News Report) - Warren also emphasized that the email was not just about her brother, but about all Americans who rely on Social Security benefits to get by. "Let's be clear about this. Not everyone has a sister who can help," Warren said. "This is about people who work all their lives and all they've got at the end is their social security." Warren's not the only one to criticize Obama's plan, which involves a measure of inflation known as the chained Consumer Price Index, or chained CPI. Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) said Obama "owns" chained CPI, and Grover Norquist, leader of Americans for Tax Reform, called it "a Taxpayer Protection Pledge violation."

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Spinning Obama’s Budget

Fri, 12 Apr 2013 00:00:00 -0700

FactCheck - By Robert Farley - Apr. 12 (Fact Check) - Both parties are putting political spin on the deficit reduction contained in President Obama’s $3.78 trillion budget plan. Obama said his budget would cut deficits by “nearly another $2 trillion” over 10 years. Two prominent Republicans said it would only reduce deficits by about $600 billion. The question is: compared … More >>

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Great Lakes Garbage Patch Presents Major Threat To Region's Marine Life, Scientists Say

Wed, 10 Apr 2013 00:00:00 -0700

Huffington Post - By Peter Finocchiaro - Apr. 10 (Special Report) - Take a dip in the Great Lakes these days, and you might get more than you bargained for. That's because, in addition to the water, fish and plant life you might normally expect, the region's waterways are increasingly clogged with plastic debris,

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