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Latin America v. Obama: U.S. Policy on Cuba, Drug War, Economy Under Fire at Colombian Summit

Mon, 16 Apr 2012 00:00:00 -0700

Democracy Now - By Amy Goodman - Apr. 16 (News Analysis) - Historian Greg Grandin analyzes the U.S.-Colombia "free trade" deal and the deepening split between much of Latin America and Washington following the Summit of the Americas in Colombia. The summit, which was marred by a U.S. prostitution scandal, concluded Sunday without agreement on the key questions of whether Cuba should be allowed to attend the regional meetings and on the issue of the legalization of drugs. Latin American leaders said Cuba should be invited to the next Summit in Panama in 2015, but the United States and Canada dissented. Ecuador's President Rafael Correa boycotted this year’s meeting because of Cuba's exclusion. On Sunday the United States announced that a free trade agreement with host country Colombia will come into effect in May, far earlier than expected. The agreement had earlier been deferred because of Colombia's weak record on workers rights, including murders and attacks on union activists. [Transcript to come. Check back soon.]

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States Get Cash for Prisons

Thu, 15 Mar 2012 00:00:00 -0700

populist.com - By Chris Kirkham - Mar. 15 (Special Report) - Corrections Corporation of America, the nation's largest operator of for-profit prisons, has sent letters recently to 48 states offering to buy up their prisons as a remedy for "challenging corrections budgets." In exchange, the company is asking for a 20-year management contract, plus an assurance that the prison would remain at least 90% full,

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I Will Not Be Pinkwashed: Komen's Race Is For Money, Not Cure

Sun, 05 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0800

AlterNet - By Emily Michele - Feb. 05 (News Analysis) - I don’t know about you, but I would never expect directors of a charitable “non-profit” organization to make more than most doctors, lawyers, or even politicians. Their CEO and president, Hala G. Moddelmog, made $531,924, plus $26,683 in change. That's more than President Obama makes.

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How Americans really feel about drugs - Media Criticism - Salon.com

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

Salon - By David Sirota - Jan. 05 (News Analysis) - As dishonest as this kind of agitprop is, it unfortunately — but predictably — continues unabated. This is, after all, the golden era of agitprop — a moment in which wars are no longer wars, corporations are people

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Journalism in Mexico Faces Threat of Being Completely Silenced

Mon, 17 Oct 2011 00:00:00 -0700

truth-out.org - By Maria Armoudian - Oct. 17 (News Report) - Last week, members of a Mexican drug cartel slew yet another journalist for attempting to serve her community. Maria Elizabeth Macias' mutilated remains were found beside a note apparently written by the Zetas cartel in which they claimed revenge for her online exposes and criticism.

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Michele Bachmann says HPV vaccine can cause mental retardation

Fri, 16 Sep 2011 00:00:00 -0700

PolitiFact - By Angie Drobnic Holan, Louis Jacobson - Sep. 16 (Fact Check) - After criticizing Texas Gov. Rick Perry for mandating a vaccine for school girls, Rep. Michele Bachmann added some scary charges: She claimed to have just met a woman whose daughter suffered mental retardation from the vaccine, that it has "very dangerous consequences" and that it puts "little children's lives at risk." In the CNN/Tea Party Express debate in Tampa on Sept. 12, 2011, Bachmann blasted Perry for mandating a vaccine for school girls to guard against human papilloma virus, or HPV, which can cause cervical cancer. The vaccine can prevent the virus, but the virus is sexually transmitted, which makes ...

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Fact-check: CNN/Tea Party Debate

Wed, 14 Sep 2011 00:00:00 -0700

FactCheck - By Eugene Kiely, Robert Farley, Lori Robertson, Brooks Jackson, D'Angelo Gore - Sep. 14 (Fact Check) - The GOP presidential candidates debated for the second time in six days -- tossing out a variety of false and misleading claims on everything from Social Security to vaccines for sexually transmitted diseases. ...

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Columbia Spent U.S. Anti-Drug Aid on Hiding Government Ties to Drug Rings

Mon, 22 Aug 2011 00:00:00 -0700

yahoo.com - By Ujala Sehgal - Aug. 22 (News) - The U.S.-funded counterinsurgency campaign against a Marxist rebel group in Columbia was viewed as so successful that it has become a model for strategy in Afghanistan. But things were not what they seemed: the Washington Post reports that U.S. ally and former president Alvaro Uribe has been implicated in "egregious abuses of power and illegal actions," involving U.S. aid an "possibly U.S. officials" -- all under the cover of fighting drug trafficking. American cash, equipment, and training were sent to Columbia to help break up cocaine-smugglers, but were actually used "to carry out spying operations and smear campaigns against Supreme Court justices, Uribe’s political opponents and civil society groups."

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City‐wide drug testing using municipal wastewater

Fri, 01 Jul 2011 00:00:00 -0700

significancemagazine.org - By Caleb Banta‐Green, Jennifer Field - Jul. 01 (Special Report) - Drug users do not want to be identified and do not want to reply to surveys. So how do you find out how many of them there are? The answer lies below the city streets. Caleb Banta‐Green and Jennifer Field delve deep.

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On 40th Anniversary Of War On Drugs, Cops Decry Obama's Drug Policy

Thu, 16 Jun 2011 00:00:00 -0700

Huffington Post - By Lucia Graves - Jun. 16 (News Report) - On 40th Anniversary Of War On Drugs, Cops Decry Obama's Drug PolicyHuffington PostIt details the failures of the government's long battle against illegal drugs and denounces the Obama administration's current drug policies.

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New Report: U.S. Encouraged Gun Sales to Drug Cartels, 70% of Seized Mexico Guns Are From U.S.

Wed, 15 Jun 2011 00:00:00 -0700

Democracy Now - By Amy Goodman - Jun. 15 (News Report) - Some 70 percent of guns seized in Mexico from 2009 to 2010 came from the United States, according to a new report from three U.S. senators. The report finds Mexican drug cartels are arming themselves with U.S. military-style weapons and urges a strengthening of U.S. regulations to stem the flow of guns to Mexico. It comes as lawmakers are holding hearings into a once-secret government plan to encourage U.S. gun shops to sell thousands of guns to middlemen for Mexican drug cartels. The operation, called "Fast and Furious," focused on using middlemen to gain access to senior-level figures within Mexico’s criminal organizations.

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Mexican Peace Caravan Arrives in U.S. to Call for End to Deadly Drug War Policy

Wed, 15 Jun 2011 00:00:00 -0700

Democracy Now - By Amy Goodman - Jun. 15 (News Report) - A caravan of Mexican anti-violence protesters arrived in the United States over the weekend calling for a massive shift in U.S. drug policy. Mexican poet, Javier Sicilia, led the Caravan for Peace with Justice and Dignity following the brutal murder of his 24-year-old son by drug traffickers earlier this year. The caravan's demands include an end to the Merida Initiative, in which the United States provides training and support for the Mexican army in its "war on drugs." We speak to Laura Carlsen, director of the Americas Policy Program of the Center for International Policy, and play an excerpt from her interview with Sicilia as she traveled with him to document the caravan’s journey.

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American Banks 'High' On Drug Money

Sun, 12 Jun 2011 00:00:00 -0700

AlterNet - By Clarence Walker - Jun. 12 (Investigative Report) - A fraud investigator helped expose the shocking world of multi-billion dollar drug laundering by American banks and the surprising lack of oversight by the Feds. Martin Woods, an Englishman in his mid-40s, is blessed with a Sherlock Holmes instinct and demeanor. Woods is an expert at sniffing out "dirty" money passing through International Banking Systems. A police officer for 18 years and later a detective with London Metro Police Agency, Woods capitalized on his unique expertise as a fraud expert by joining Wachovia's London-based Bank in March 2005 as an anti-money laundering officer. It wasn't long after taking the job that he discovered that his own employer, one of America's leading banks, was a major player in aiding the "bloodthirsty" Mexico drug cartels to launder billions of dollars in drug money through Wachovia banks. Woods traced and identified a "number of suspicious transactions" related to Mexico-based Casa de Cambios (CDC).

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Drug War Has Failed And Governments Should Explore Legalizing Marijuana, Says Report

Thu, 02 Jun 2011 00:00:00 -0700

Huffington Post - By Jonathan M. Katz - Jun. 02 (News Report) - A new report by the Global Commission on Drug Policy argues that the decades-old "global war on drugs has failed, with devastating consequences for individuals and societies around the world." The 24-page paper will be released Thursday.

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Conflicts of Interest in Cardiovascular Clinical Practice Guidelines

Wed, 25 May 2011 00:00:00 -0700

University of Pennsylvania - By Todd B. Mendelson, MD, MBE; Michele Meltzer, MD, MBE; Eric G. Campbell, PhD; Arthur L. Caplan, PhD; James N. Kirkpatrick, MD - May. 25 (Investigative Report) - Conclusion: Conflicts of interest are prevalent in cardiology guidelines, but there seems to be a significant number of experienced experts without COIs.

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House GOP Proposal Seeks $285 Million in FDA Cuts

Tue, 24 May 2011 00:00:00 -0700

foodsafetynews.com - By Marler Clark - May. 24 (News Report) - A new budget proposal put forth by House Republicans Monday would cut the U.S. Food and Drug Administration's budget for Fiscal Year 2012 by $285 million, an 11.5 percent reduction from FY 2011, just as the agency moves to implement an ambitious new food safety law.

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Superbug Gene Found In New Delhi Water

Thu, 07 Apr 2011 00:00:00 -0700

Huffington Post - By Maria Cheng - Apr. 07 (News Report) - LONDON — A gene that can turn many types of bacteria into deadly superbugs was found in about a quarter of water samples taken from drinking supplies and puddles on the streets of New Delhi, according to a new study.

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How a Big US Bank Laundered Billions From Mexico's Murderous Drug Gangs

Sun, 03 Apr 2011 00:00:00 -0700

readersupportednews.org - By Ed Vulliamy - Apr. 03 (Investigative Report) - As the violence spread, billions of dollars of cartel cash began to seep into the global financial system. But a special investigation by the Observer reveals how the increasingly frantic warnings of one London whistleblower were ignored

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They’re Poor, Scared, Less Educated, and Left Behind: New Polling Data from Gallup on Conservatives and Red State America « SpeakEasy

Thu, 31 Mar 2011 00:00:00 -0700

AlterNet - By Chauncey DeVega - Mar. 31 (Special Report) - Using Gallup’s information, The Atlantic’s Richard Florida generated some great graphs which showed that the march of Conservatism across America is correlated with a number of variables including religiosity, poverty, education, and the income level of a given state. All in all the data is compelling. But it is not surprising. Moreover, there are also a few qualifiers to Gallup’s findings that America is becoming a more “conservative” that need to be highlighted.

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Border agents unwittingly freed suspects near border with weapons from federal sting

Thu, 24 Mar 2011 00:00:00 -0700

Center for Public Integrity - By John Solomon, David Heath, Ricardo Sandoval Palos - Mar. 24 (Investigative Report) - The episode — confirmed by the Center for Public Integrity through interviews, internal agency memos and court records — highlights major gaps in the U.S. war on Mexican gun and drug cartels: America’s frontline agencies aren’t always coordinated fully and often feel powerless to arrest suspected gun runners in the absence of tougher federal laws.

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Drug Testing Welfare Recipients in Vogue | Smart Journalism. Real Solutions. Miller-McCune.

Fri, 25 Feb 2011 00:00:00 -0800

Miller-McCune - By Emily Badger - Feb. 25 (Special Report) - Proposals to test Americans on the dole for illegal drugs seem grounded more in stereotypes and less in data.

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Which Dangerous Toxins Are in Your Pot?

Mon, 31 Jan 2011 00:00:00 -0800

Mother Jones - By Josh Harkinson - Jan. 31 (Special Report) - Your weed might be gnarlier than you think. So what's an eco-conscious stoner to do? In 2004, California organic farm inspector Chris Van Hook submitted an unusual request to the US Department of Agriculture: He wanted permission to certify a medical mar

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Weedmart: Marijuana Superstores. IPOs. Reality TV.

Wed, 26 Jan 2011 00:00:00 -0800

Mother Jones - By Josh Harkinson - Jan. 26 (Special Report) - Meet the cocky entrepreneurs at the vanguard of the pot boom.

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'Bath Salts' A Growing Drug Problem, Officials Say

Sat, 22 Jan 2011 00:00:00 -0800

Huffington Post - By Shelia Byrd - Jan. 22 (News Report) - Brown survived, but authorities say others haven't been so lucky after snorting, injecting or smoking powders with such innocuous-sounding names as Ivory Wave, Red Dove and Vanilla Sky. Some say the effects of the powders are as powerful as abusing methamphetamine. Increasingly, law enforcement agents and poison control centers say the advertised bath salts with complex chemical names are an emerging menace in several U.S. states where authorities talk of banning their sale.

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Reindeer Get High On Magic Mushrooms, Says Scientist

Fri, 24 Dec 2010 00:00:00 -0800

Huffington Post - By Carly Schwartz - Dec. 24 (Special Report) - Turns out the myth of flying reindeer might not be that far from the truth

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