NewsTrust - Local - Most Recent Stories: Opinion (Independent)

America's Best Bike City: Portland, OR

Sat, 26 May 2012 00:00:00 -0700

Bicycling - By Bill Donahue - May. 26 (Opinion) - Sit down, please, and take a deep belly breath now, for the truth is harsh: When a bicyclist pedals down toward the Willamette River, which divides Portland, Oregon, the waters do not part. The automobile traffic does not cease. Cars honk, and in a city obsessed with green transit, there are train rails—a gleaming cyclist’s nightmare—crisscrossing everywhere. And it rains. The sky is a brooding gray between October and May, and in winter the rain, falling as a fine, gentle mist, can be so cold that your gloves almost freeze on your handlebar. And as you near the river, you may find one of Portland’s five drawbridges raised high so a giant steel China-bound cargo ship can come churning through.

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"What We Do to the Land, We Do to the People"-- May 24 West Virginia Direct Actions Against MTR

Thu, 24 May 2012 00:00:00 -0700

The Writing Corner - By Beth Wellington - May. 24 (Opinion) - As part of Mountain Justice Summer Action Camp taking place at the Appalachian South Folklife Center near Pipestem, WV, five members of Mountain Justice and RAMPS boarded a coal barge to protest the destruction of mountains in West Virginia through Mountaintop removal, while other members and their fellow concerned activists blocked coal transport at approximately 10 a.m. on Thursday, May 24.

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Violence, USA: An Interview with Henry A. Giroux

Mon, 07 May 2012 00:00:00 -0700

truth-out.org - By Michael Slate, Henry A Giroux - May. 07 (Interview) - if you are at all concerned, if you are at all awake, in the deepest sense of being awake, and you look at the society we live in you really have got to question, what is going on in the society? How does it link to the terrible things that are going on in the world? How does this link to the fact that the world is a horror?

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Who's Buying Your Election? New FCC Ruling Requires Broadcasters to Post Data On Ad Purchases

Fri, 04 May 2012 00:00:00 -0700

AlterNet - May. 04 (Interview) - We speak with Robert McChesney, co-founder of the national media reform organization Free Press, and Justin Elliott, a reporter at ProPublica working on a project called "Free the Files," that asks people and journalists across the country to visit TV stations, acquire paper data on political ads, and then post the files online at ProPublica.org.

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More Secrets on Growing State Surveillance: Exclusive Part 2 With NSA Whistleblower, Targeted Hacker

Mon, 23 Apr 2012 00:00:00 -0700

Democracy Now - By Amy Goodman, Juan Gonzalez - Apr. 23 (Interview) - In part two of our national broadcast exclusive on the growing domestic surveillance state, we speak with National Security Agency whistleblower William Binney, and two targeted Americans: Oscar-nominated filmmaker Laura Poitras, and hacker Jacob Appelbaum, who has volunteered for WikiLeaks and now works with Tor Project, a nonprofit organization that teaches about internet security. Binney left the NSA after the 9/11 attacks over his concerns about the agency’s widespread surveillance of U.S. citizens. He describes how the FBI later raided his home and held him at gunpoint and notes there is still no effective way of monitoring how and what information the NSA is gathering on U.S. citizens, and how that data is being used. "Click here to watch part one of our special report.":democracynow.org/shows/2012/4/20 [Transcript to come. Check back soon.]

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AP Wins Pulitzer for Exposing NYPD's CIA-Linked Intel Program, Leading Widespread Spying on Muslims

Tue, 17 Apr 2012 00:00:00 -0700

Democracy Now - By Amy Goodman - Apr. 17 (Interview) - We speak with Matt Apuzzo, co-author of the Associated Press series that revealed the New York City Police Department has extensively spied on Muslim Americans not only in the tri-city area, but throughout the eastern United States. The series won the 2012 Pulitzer Prize for Investigative Reporting. Beginning last August, the AP detailed how the NYPD established a vast operation to monitor Muslim neighborhoods after the 9/11 attacks. Hundreds of mosques, businesses and Muslim student groups were investigated, monitored and, in many cases, infiltrated. Police observed and cataloged daily life in Muslim communities, from where people ate and shopped to where they worked and prayed. Police used informants, known as "mosque crawlers," to monitor sermons, even without any evidence of wrongdoing. Also falling under NYPD’s scrutiny were imams, cab drivers and food cart vendors. According to the AP, many of these operations were built with help from the CIA, which is prohibited from spying on Americans.

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HBO’s ‘Game Change’ Goes Easy on Sarah Palin, John McCain in 2008 Saga

Sat, 10 Mar 2012 00:00:00 -0800

The Daily Beast - By Michelle Goldberg - Mar. 10 (Review) - If you're a fan of Sarah Palin, or if you just haven't followed the recriminations from John McCain staffers in the wake of the 2008 campaign, you will likely find Julianne Moore's portrayal of her in the HBO movie Game Change to be sexist. It's not just the depiction of her shocking ignorance""*at one point, she has to be told that the Queen of England doesn't conduct that country's foreign policy, while at another, she is confused to hear that Saddam Hussein was not behind the September 11 attacks. She's also absurdly vain, going on the...

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What's the matter with white people?

Sun, 04 Mar 2012 00:00:00 -0800

Salon - By Joan Walsh - Mar. 04 (Opinion) - Both the right and left suddenly have a lot of complaints about white people, particularly the so-called white working class. In “Suicide of a Superpower,” Pat Buchanan describes white Americans contemptuously at times, as an endangered species obliviously collaborating in its own demise by tolerating liberal multiculturalism. Charles Murray, the man who in the 1980s blamed government for encouraging sloth and single-parenthood in the black community, is now saying the same thing about the white lower class: they’re suffering from declining wages and higher unemployment not because of a changed economy, but because they’ve come to prefer slacking and shacking up to hard work and marriage. But white rich people are a problem, too: Murray’s book “Coming Apart: The State of White American 1960-2010″ indicts the white uber-class for refusing to impose their own traditional values, which he believes are the foundation of their economic success, on their lazy, out-of-control lessers.

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The Sad Race for Bottom on the Loony Right

Tue, 28 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0800

AlterNet - By Robert Reich - Feb. 28 (Opinion) - even if they lose the presidency on Election Day they’re still likely to be in charge of at least one house of Congress as well as several state legislators and governorships. That’s a problem for the nation.

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Public-Private Partnerships In California Tackles Obesity, Hunger Epidemics

Tue, 14 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0800

Think Progress - By Guest Blogger - Feb. 14 (Opinion) - At all levels of government there has been a serious push for increasing access to food among low income households and fostering more nutritious eating habits in communities and schools. Last July, First Lady Michelle Obama and the Partnership for a Hea

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Phoenix rising: Can “the world’s least sustainable city” go green?

Mon, 13 Feb 2012 15:35:00 -0800

Grist - By Greg Hanscom - Feb. 13 - What was the most surprising thing that came out of Andrew Ross’s two-year research stint in Phoenix, Ariz.? For my money, it’s this: People who live there (weirdly) don’t expect their desert civilization to collapse around them at any moment. “One of Ne

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'You have a minute?'

Mon, 06 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0800

wbng.org - By Danielle Bradley - Feb. 06 (Interview) -

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"Gasland" Director Josh Fox Fires Back at Republicans After His Unfair Arrest

Thu, 02 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0800

AlterNet - By Ed Schultz - Feb. 02 (Interview) - Gasland director Josh Fox, ... was arrested this week, in violation of his first amendment rights, while covering a Congressional hearing on fracking. In the interview, Fox fires back at the Republicans who have been targeting him

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Why Aren’t More Arab Americans Working in Mainstream Journalism?

Tue, 31 Jan 2012 00:00:00 -0800

Columbia Journalism Review - Jan. 31 - There are anywhere between 3.5 and 5.1 million Americans of Arab descent, according to figures from the Arab American Institute, yet relatively few work in journalism full time. While meaningful estimates aren’t known, as journalism scholars that conduct demographic research in American newsrooms do not typically tally newsmakers of Arab descent, the National Arab American Journalists Association counts around 250...

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Stop Being Cynical About Corporate Money in Politics and Start Being Angry

Thu, 05 Jan 2012 18:53:00 -0800

Mother Jones - By Bill McKibben - Jan. 05 - My resolution for 2012 is to be naïve—dangerously naïve. I'm aware that the usual recipe for political effectiveness is just the opposite: to be cynical, calculating, an insider. But if you think, as I do, that we need deep change in this country, then c

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On Your Marks

Mon, 02 Jan 2012 00:00:00 -0800

otherwords.org - Jan. 02 (Cartoon) - Voter I.D. Laws

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With Over 500K Signatures Already Collected, Recall of Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker Appears Inevitable

Sat, 31 Dec 2011 00:00:00 -0800

Think Progress - By Judd Legum - Dec. 31 (Opinion) - A recall of controversial Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker now appear inevitable. In just 28 days, activists collected 507,533 signatures. Organizers have until January 17 to collect 540,208 signatures, which is equal to 25% of the state’s 2010 general election turnout. To be safe, recall advocates have set a new goal of 720,277 signatures by the [...]

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With Republic, Lost, Lawrence Lessig Takes Center Stage

Fri, 30 Dec 2011 00:00:00 -0800

Huffington Post - By John Wellington Ennis - Dec. 30 (Interview) - In this pivotal year of public uproar over the consequences of money in politics, Harvard Professor Lawrence Lessig has attracted considerably more attention to his work in devising a constitutional road map for reform.

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Let's Remember Mary C. Snow: An Open Letter to The Charleston Gazette

Wed, 21 Dec 2011 00:00:00 -0800

The Writing Corner - By Beth Wellington - Dec. 21 (Opinion) - As a lover of your newspaper, that's why I was disappointed today when I checked your archives and couldn't read more about Mary C. Snow, an educator in Kanawha County, West Virginia Schools for more than fifty years and the first African-American principal in the area.

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Republic, Lost: How Money Corrupts Congress--and a Plan to Stop It

Sat, 17 Dec 2011 00:00:00 -0800

edmaysproductions.net - By Lawrence Lessig - Dec. 17 (Speech) - In an era when special interests funnel huge amounts of money into our government-driven by shifts in campaign-finance rules and brought to new levels by the Supreme Court in "Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission-"trust in our government has reached an all-time low. More than ever before, Americans believe that money buys results in Congress, and that business interests wield control over our legislature. With heartfelt urgency and a keen desire for righting wrongs, Harvard law professor Lawrence Lessig takes a clear-eyed look at how we arrived at this crisis: how fundamentally good people, with good intentions, have allowed our democracy to be co-opted by outside interests, and how this exploitation has become entrenched in the system. Rejecting simple labels and reductive logic-and instead using examples that resonate as powerfully on the Right as on the Left-Lessig seeks out the root causes of our situation. He plumbs the issues of campaign financing and corporate lobbying, revealing the human faces and follies that have allowed corruption to take such a foothold in our system. He puts the issues in terms that nonwonks can understand, using real-world analogies and real human stories. And ultimately he calls for widespread mobilization and a new Constitutional Convention, presenting achievable solutions for regaining control of our corrupted-but redeemable-representational system. In this way, Lessig plots a roadmap for returning our republic to its intended greatness. While America may be divided, Lessig vividly champions the idea that we can succeed if we accept that corruption is our common enemy and that we must find a way to fight against it. In REPUBLIC, LOST, he not only makes this need palpable and clear-he gives us the practical and intellectual tools to do something about it.

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Sen. Bernie Sanders: Corporations Are Not People and They Shouldn't Be Allowed to Buy Our Elections | News & Politics

Sun, 11 Dec 2011 00:00:00 -0800

AlterNet - By Bernie Sanders - Dec. 11 (Opinion) - Bottom line: Corporations should not be able to go into their treasuries and spend millions and millions of dollars on a campaign in order to buy elections.

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U.S. District Attorney Goodwin: Alpha "not a life, it's not a being, it can't go to jail."

Wed, 07 Dec 2011 00:00:00 -0800

The Writing Corner - By Beth Wellington - Dec. 07 (Opinion) - Montcoal, WV. 3:27 PM on Monday, April 5, 2010. It was the worst U.S. coal-mining disaster in nearly 40 years. Twenty months ago, just across the river from Coal River Mountain on Cherry Pond Mountain near its mountaintop removal mine, Massey Energy's underground mine at Upper Big Branch exploded.

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Paramilitary Policing of Occupy Wall Street: Excessive Use of Force Amidst the New Military Urbanism

Thu, 17 Nov 2011 00:00:00 -0800

Democracy Now - By Juan Gonzalez, Amy Goodman - Nov. 17 (Interview) - We host a discussion on policing and the Occupy Wall Street movement with Chuck Wexler, director of the Police Executive Research Forum, which helped organize calls among police chiefs on how to respond to the Occupy protests, and with Norm Stamper, the former police chief of Seattle, who recently wrote an article for The Nation magazine titled "Paramilitary Policing from Seattle to Occupy Wall Street." "Trust me, the police do not want to be put in this position. And cities really need to ask themselves, is there another way to handle this kind of conflict?"

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84-Year Old Dorli Rainey, Pepper-Sprayed at Occupy Seattle, Denounces "Worsening" Police Crackdowns

Thu, 17 Nov 2011 00:00:00 -0800

Democracy Now - By Amy Goodman - Nov. 17 (Interview) - Police departments across the country are coming under criticism for using excessive force against Occupy Wall Street protesters during the past two months. In Seattle Mayor Mike McGinn apologized Wednesday, hours after an 84-year-old retired Seattle school teacher named Dorli Rainey was pepper sprayed in the face during a protest. Photographs of her moments after she was pepper sprayed went viral, showing the chemical irritant and liquid used to treat it dripping from her chin. According to Occupy Seattle organizers, a priest and a pregnant teenager were also pepper sprayed Tuesday night. Dorli Rainey joins us from Seattle. "My problem is not only with police brutality,” Rainey says. “It is with the progressively worse attitude of the police."

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Colbert Blasts Mayor Bloomberg For Occupy Wall Street Police Brutality (VIDEO)

Wed, 16 Nov 2011 00:00:00 -0800

Huffington Post - By Colbert - Nov. 16 (Comedy News) - video

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