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San Francisco area transit officials say they've agreed to make a $1.5 million settlement payment in the fatal shooting of a 22-year-old, Oscar Grant, by a transit police officer.
Last night President Obama addressed both Houses of Congress in the annual State of the Union Address. Click below for the full video:
Howard Zinn, an author, teacher and political activist whose book “A People’s History of the United States” became a million-selling leftist alternative to mainstream texts, died Wednesday in Santa Monica, Calif. He was 87 and lived in Auburndale, Mass.
The cause was a heart attack, his daughter Myla Kabat-Zinn said.
Published in 1980 with little promotion and a first printing of 5,000, “A People’s History” was, fittingly, a people’s best-seller, attracting a wide audience through word of mouth and reaching 1 million sales in 2003. Although Professor Zinn was writing for a general readership, his book was taught in high schools and colleges throughout the country, and numerous companion editions were published, including “Voices of a People’s History,” a volume for young people and a graphic novel.
“A People’s History” told an openly left-wing story. Professor Zinn accused Christopher Columbus and other explorers of committing genocide, picked apart presidents from Andrew Jackson to Franklin D. Roosevelt and celebrated workers, feminists and war resisters.
Even liberal historians were uneasy with Professor Zinn, who taught for many years at Boston University. Arthur M. Schlesinger Jr. once said: “I know he regards me as a dangerous reactionary. And I don’t take him very seriously. He’s a polemicist, not a historian.”
In a 1998 interview with The Associated Press, Professor Zinn acknowledged that he was not trying to write an objective history, or a complete one. He called his book a response to traditional works, the first chapter, not the last, of a new kind of history.
“There’s no such thing as a whole story; every story is incomplete,” Professor Zinn said. “My idea was the orthodox viewpoint has already been done a thousand times.”
WASHINGTON--Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.) urged climate bill supporters to strike a populist note in lobbying for a sweeping new environmental law that will reduce traditional air pollutants while also tackling global warming.
"I want you to go out there and start knocking on doors and telling people this has to happen," Kerry said during a conference hosted by labor, farming, military veteran and environmental groups. "You know if the Tea Party folks can go out there and get angry because they think their taxes are too high, for God's sake, a lot of citizens ought to get angry about the fact that they're being killed and our planet is being injured by what's happening on a daily basis by the way we provide our power and our fuel and the old practices we have. That's something worth getting angry about."
Kerry, a lead author of Senate energy and climate legislation, tried to make the case that his efforts would help curtail summertime spikes in hospital visits for childhood asthma. And he also insisted that a cap on greenhouse gases would drive private investments in new clean-energy technologies and help restart the economy.
"We need to recognize that the biggest single stimulus package in the United States of America is the energy climate change legislation," he said.
Students and community members marched from the Pittsburgh Creative and Performing Arts School to rally outside of the Mayor's office in response to the brutal beating of CAPA student, Jordan Miles. The outpouring of support is apparently so great that people were reportedly being denied entry to a 10 am City Council hearing.
Some of the protesters passed out fliers and carried handmade signs and banners critical of the lack of accountability, and the institutional violence and racism that police departments seem to thrive on. Incidents, such as the police riots during, and after the G-20 summit attract media attention, but this kind of violent misconduct is a daily feature of life in some communities.
Jordan Miles, 18 was reportedly beaten by three plainclothes cops on January 12, on Tioga Street, in the Homewood section of Pittsburgh. Miles was electrocuted with a stun gun, choked, kicked, punched, had a chunk of his hair and scalp pulled from his head, and was beaten with a tree limb that impaled his gums.
PITTSBURGH -- The photos taken by Jordan Miles' mother show his face covered with raw, red bruises, his cheek and lip swollen, his right eye swollen shut. A bald spot mars the long black dreadlocks where the 18-year-old violist says police tore them from his head.
Now, 10 days after plainclothes officers stopped him on a street and arrested him after a struggle that they say revealed a soda bottle under his coat, not the gun they suspected, his right eye is still slightly swollen and bloodshot. His head is shaved. The three white officers who arrested him have been reassigned. And his mother says she is considering a lawsuit.
"I feel that my son was racially profiled," Terez Miles said. "It's a rough neighborhood; it was after dark. ... They assumed he was up to no good because he's black. My son, he knows nothing about the streets at all. He's had a very sheltered life, he's very quiet, he doesn't know police officers sit in cars and stalk people like that."
Weekly Address: President Obama Addresses This Week's Supreme Court Decision
January 25th, 2010
by admin
President Barack Obama addresses the Supreme Court decision to further empower corporations to use their financial clout to directly influence elections and vows that "as long as I'm your President, I'll never stop fighting to make sure that the most powerful voice in Washington belongs to you."
Air America Radio, billed as a liberal alternative to Rush Limbaugh and other conservative commentators, says in a statement that it has filed for bankruptcy and ended all live programming.
The station, which once had such hosts as Al Franken and Rachel Maddow, struggled from its beginning in 2004 and had already gone through several management shake-ups, a bankruptcy and sale.
"The very difficult economic environment has had a significant impact on Air America's business. This past year has seen a `perfect storm' in the media industry generally," the company said in a statement on its website.
The New York-based network, which will continue reruns through Monday, said its "painstaking search for new investors" came close to succeeding even this week, "but ultimately fell short."
By a 5-4 decision, the Supreme Court on Thursday rolled back restrictions on corporate spending in federal campaigns. The decision could unleash a torrent of corporate-funded attack ads in upcoming elections.
"Because speech is an essential mechanism of democracy -- it is the means to hold officials accountable to the people -- political speech must prevail against laws that would suppress it by design or inadvertence," wrote Justice Anthony Kennedy for the majority.
In his dissent, Justice John Paul Stevensaccused the majority of judicial activism and attacked the use of corporate personhood in the case: "The conceit that corporations must be treated identically to natural persons in the political sphere is not only inaccurate but also inadequate to justify the Court's disposition of this case."
Republicans offered measured praise for the decision, but progressive good-government groups and Democrats responded angrily and vowed to fight back with legislation.
Politico: Supreme Court Ruling Will Allow Corporations to spend funds Supporting and Opposing Political Candidates
January 22nd, 2010
by admin
By KENNETH P. VOGEL for the Politico
Some of the of biggest special interest groups in Washington are expected to take full advantage of a Supreme Court decision Thursday enabling them to spend millions on attack ads in the 2010 midterm elections, even as the Obama administration and congressional Democrats scramble to close the gaping holes the ruling carved into campaign finance rules.
Thursday’s highly anticipated 5-4 decision in a case brought by the conservative nonprofit group Citizens United reversed decades of law restricting corporations and unions from spending their general funds on ads supporting or opposing candidates. And it left liberals and advocates for stricter campaign finance rules predicting an explosion of corporate-funded ads attacking Democrats.
“We are moving to an age where we won’t have the senator from Arkansas or the congressman from North Carolina, but the senator from Wal-Mart and the congressman from Bank of America,” said Melanie Sloan, executive director of the left-leaning watchdog group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington.
Campaign strategists and lawyers who advise corporations, unions and independent political groups on political spending also predicted a surge in ads as a result of the decision.
Ben Ginsberg, a top Republican election lawyer, predicted the decision would render “obsolete” so-called 527 groups, which helped shape the 2004 presidential election with brutal attack ads that pushed the bounds of election law.
Ads like those aired by Swift Boat Veterans for Truth attacking 2004 Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry can now be paid for more directly by for-profit or nonprofit corporations or trade groups.
In place of 527s, Ginsberg predicted an expanded role for groups set up under sections 501(c)4 and 501(c)6 of the Internal Revenue Service code, which he said require “meager disclosure requirements of their donors.”
Ginsberg also predicted the decision would be good for consultants who advise outside groups on their spending and media strategies. One Democratic consultant professed to making “tons of sales calls” after the decision, calling it an “economic recovery package” for consultants.
What many strategists and lawyers said they don’t expect to see is American International Group spending millions on ads attacking congressmen who criticized its bonuses or medical firms seeking vengeance on President Barack Obama for pushing to overhaul the nation’s health care system.
Instead, they think deep-pocketed companies seeking to target Obama or congressional Democrats will funnel their cash to existing or yet-to-be-created coalitions — such as the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the National Rifle Association, Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America or the National Association of Manufacturers — that are expected to take advantage of the new spending flexibility provided by the ruling.
In recent years, shareholders have independently challenged executives to disclose, explain and justify their participation in partisan politics. For now, that mostly includes making political donations. The scrutiny would intensify significantly if it also meant paid television advertising.
by LIZ HALLORAN FOR NPR
The recriminations began long before the votes confirmed Republican Scott Brown's stunning capture of the Massachusetts Senate seat held for nearly five decades by the late Democrat Edward Kennedy.
Brown's election Tuesday imperils Kennedy's self-described life's work of overhauling health care, a Democratic initiative the senator-elect had promised to kill during the campaign. It also instills fresh dread in a party that will face increasingly restive, anti-government voters in the fall.
Confronting the loss of their 60-vote supermajority in the Senate and repudiation in a blue state, disoriented Democrats across the country, from the White House to local party workers, spread the blame liberally.
Associated Press--In a stunning defeat, Democrat Martha Coakley lost the race to occupy the senate seat long held by liberal icon Edward M. Kennedy. Oakley congratulated Republican Scott Brown on his victory.
By AP / SAMANTHA GROSS, ALFRED de MONTESQUIOU and MIKE MELIA
(NEW YORK) — A week after a 7.0 magnitude earthquake devastated the area around Haiti's capital of Port-au-Prince, Haitian-born musician Wyclef Jean defended his charity on Monday in the wake of questions about its practices while calling on the international community to enable the evacuation of his homeland's earthquake-ravaged capital.
"Port-au-Prince is a morgue," Jean said at a Manhattan press conference, recounting how he collected the corpses of small children and adults from the festering streets on his recent trip. Tears streamed down his face as he looked into the camera, speaking to his countrymen.
Residents should be evacuated to tent cities outside Port-au-Prince to allow for aid to reach them and so cleanup can begin in earnest, Jean said, asking for help from around the world in building encampments. "We need to migrate at least 2 million people," Jean said, promising to draw on his status as one of Haiti's favorite sons to aid in such an effort. "I give you my word, if I tell them to go, they will go. But they need somewhere to go to," Jean said.
Wyclef: "We Need A State Of Emergency. There Has To Be At Least 500,000 Dead"
January 15th, 2010
by admin
Washington Post: For emergency medical teams, time and coordination are of the essence in Haiti
January 15th, 2010
by admin
By David Brown--Washington Post Staff Writer
The medical relief teams racing to help victims of the earthquake in Haiti are up against a grim biological fact: People trapped and injured are most likely to survive if rescued within 48 hours, and very few people are found alive more than six days after a disaster.
The rare people who are rescued much later often need treatment -- kidney dialysis, intensive-care nursing and cardiovascular support -- that is singularly hard to deliver in disaster zones.
Yet, the landscape of many recent natural disasters has featured not only wreckage and bodies, but also the high-tech encampments of surgical teams that arrived too late to be of much use while many more ordinary medical needs continued to go unaddressed.
by PETER ROTHBERG from NPR via the Nation
The worst earthquake in 200 years struck Haiti yesterday, causing catastrophic destruction in the hemisphere's poorest country. The quake struck near the capital of Port-au-Prince, the most densely populated part of Haiti, and thousands are feared dead. Most telephone communications throughout the country have also been destroyed complicating relief work.
The most urgent needs appear to be bandages, antibiotics, other basic medical supplies, and water tablets to prevent cholera outbreaks. The need for food and shelter is also growing especially given that these needs are severe in impoverished Haiti in the best of times.
There are numerous ways to help groups already on the ground. One of the best, Partners In Health, has been operating in the country since 1987, originally to deliver health care to the residents of Haiti's mountainous Central Plateau region. PiH now also operates clinics in Port au Prince and other major Haitian cities. With hospitals and a highly trained medical staff in place, Partners In Health is already mobilizing resources and preparing plans to bring medical assistance and supplies to areas that have been hardest hit. Donations to help earthquake relief efforts will be quickly routed to the disaster.
The women's group MADRE has also worked in Haiti for many years, supporting community-based organizations, and has activated an emergency response through its partner organization, Zanmi Lasante Clinic. The doctors, nurses and community health workers there are working to bring medical assistance and supplies to areas that have been hardest hit. MADRE's partners are expert at reaching those in crisis and stretching resources to meet the myriad needs facing Haitian women and families.
Teams from the group Doctors Without Borders were already working on medical projects in Haiti and have been treating victims of the quake since yesterday. Gifts to to the group's new Haiti Earthquake Response will support emergency medical care for the men, women, and children affected by the earthquake in Haiti.
Despite heavy damages to its own offices in Port-au-Prince, the UN relief organization UNICEF is coordinating donations of things like blankets, toothpaste, canned food and other basic staples. Call 1-800-4UNICEF or go to unicef.org for information.
And while all this relief work is saving lives, it's also critical to implore the Obama Administration to immediately authorize temporary protected status for Haitian immigrants. Tell the White House this is urgent.
Aid was tricking in slowly to earthquake-ravaged Haiti on Thursday, but the magnitude of the disaster was overwhelming the relief efforts.
Several planeloads of medics and search-and-rescue teams have landed in the devastated capital of Port-au-Prince, and as many as several thousand U.S. troops are on their way to the Caribbean nation.
But many Haitians spent their second night in a row sleeping out in the streets. Some survivors fashioned makeshift shelter by building walls of rubble to protect them from passing cars, while others continued their efforts to dig survivors out from under collapsed buildings using sledgehammers and their bare hands.
Bodies lay everywhere in Port-au-Prince: tiny children next to schools, women in rubble-strewn streets with stunned expressions frozen on their faces, men hidden beneath plastic tarps and cotton sheets.
WARNING GRAPGIC VIDEO. Haitians are piling bodies along the devastated streets of their capital after a powerful earthquake flattened buildings across the capital. (Jan. 13)
Wyclef Jean sent the following statement following the 7.0 magnitude earthquake that hit just outside Port-au-Prince, Haiti:
“Haiti today faced a natural disaster of unprecedented proportion, an earthquake unlike anything the country has ever experienced.
The magnitude 7.0 earthquake – and several very strong aftershocks – struck only 10 miles from Port-au-Prince.
I cannot stress enough what a human disaster this is, and idle hands will only make this tragedy worse. The over 2 million people in Port-au-Prince tonight face catastrophe alone. We must act now.
President Obama has already said that the U.S. stands ‘ready to assist’ the Haitian people. The U.S. Military is the only group trained and prepared to offer that assistance immediately. They must do so as soon as possible. The international community must also rise to the occasion and help the Haitian people in every way possible.”
Many people have already reached out to see what they can do right now. We are asking those interested to please do one of two things: Either you can use your cell phone to text “Yele” to 501501, which will automatically donate $5 to the Yele Haiti Earthquake Fund (it will be charged to your cell phone bill), or you can visit Yele.org and click on DONATE.
FAST FACTS: Haiti Earthquake (Jan 13 2010) (FOX)
- The 7.0 magnitude quake's epicenter hit just 10 miles west of Porte-au-Prince and its 2 million inhabitants
- 3 million people in need of emergency aid after major earthquake
- The major quake sent 33 aftershocks ranging in magnitude from 4.2 to 5.9
- The Inter-American Development Bank said it was immediately approving a $200,000 grant for emergency aid.
- Haiti has no real construction standards.
- November 2008: Following the collapse of a school in Petionville, the mayor of Port-au-Prince estimated about 60% of buildings were shoddily built and unsafe in normal circumstances.
(CNN) -- The powerful earthquake that rocked Haiti "destroyed" much of Port-au-Prince, the country's first lady reported, as the widespread devastation in the country's teeming capital came into full view Wednesday as dawn broke.
"We talked with the first lady of Haiti last night, at least our consulate general in Miami did," Raymond Joseph, Haitian ambassador to the United States, told CNN's American Morning, referring to Elisabeth Debrosse Delatour.
"And she said that she was all right and the president {Rene Preval] was all right, and most government officials were all right because this thing happened after hours, and most of the government buildings that have collapsed, collapsed after the employees were out."
But "the bad news is that she said most of Port-au-Prince is destroyed, and she's calling for some help in the form of a hospital ship off the coast of Port-au-Prince, just in the same way that the United States had helped us in 2008 after four hurricanes hit Haiti in three weeks."
The United States was the first to offer help after the 7.0-magnitude quake hit Haiti on Tuesday, Joseph said. He told reporters at the Haitian Embassy in Washington that it is crucial to assess the condition of the airport at Port-au-Prince, Haiti's capital, so aid can start coming in.
Continue to CNN to read the Full Article
The first federal trial to determine if the U.S. Constitution prohibits states from outlawing same-sex marriage got under way Monday.
The White House is inviting Americans across the country to connect directly with some of the President’s senior advisors. Through WhiteHouse.gov, these leaders will report to on their work and answer questions on where they’ve been, where they are, and what they are working on.
Every morning this week at WhiteHouse.gov, there will be a guest blog post from a senior advisor talking about the progress the Administration has made in a particular area. Then, in the afternoon, that advisor will host a live video chat with the public where you can ask anything you want, or just tune in and see what’s going on.
http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2010/01/11/where-weve-been-where-we-are-where-were-headed
Here’s the schedule:
- Monday, 3:30 EST: Carol Browner, Assistant to the President for Energy and Climate, discusses the President’s push to create the new clean energy economy.
- Tuesday, 3:00 EST: Ben Rhodes of the National Security Council discusses the President’s handling of national security and foreign policy.
- Wednesday, 12:00 EST: HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius will talk about health reform, from how far we’ve come to how reform will benefit American families and small businesses
- Thursday, TBD: The nation’s first Federal Chief Technology Officer, Aneesh Chopra, will join Norm Eisen, special counsel to the President for ethics and government reform, to talk about all the ways in which the President has changed Washington.
- Friday, 1:00 EST: Christina Romer, Chair of the Council of Economic Advisers, talks about the President’s primary focus on restoring the economy for all Americans and creating jobs for the American people.
Stop by WhiteHouse.gov to read all of the posts, join the chats, and find any updates on times.
WASHINGTON (NPR)--More than half of black males between the ages of 16 and 19 are unemployed, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. And that's only counting those seeking work. Economists say legions of other young black men — nobody knows how many — have given up looking.
Sitting in an empty classroom at the YouthBuild Charter School in Washington, D.C., Andre Johnson, 18, talks about his fruitless job search.
"I apply for jobs every day," he says. "And usually I do it online, 'cause I know before when I used to go in the stores, they used to look at me actually different and weird, and they say, 'Oh we don't have no applications or nothing,' and I never believed them."
The District has continued to lose African American residents, according to new census estimates released Thursday, while the number of whites and every other census-tracked minority has risen.
The city remains a majority African American city, though the numbers and percentage slipped in every year between 2000 and 2008. About 54 percent of the city is African American and 40 percent is white, the census figures show. At the beginning of the decade, the city was 61 percent black and 34 percent white.
Water Is the New Oil -- And That's Going to Be Bad News for a Lot of People
January 8th, 2010
by admin
Steven Solomon, author of a new book "Water: The Epic Struggle for Wealth, Power, and Civilization" (Harper Collins January 2010) writes for AlterNet about the struggle for water in the 21st Century as we see a depletion in fresh water supply and increasing drought.
Continue reading this interesting article HERE
Water is visibly showing through as a root cause of nearly every headline issue transforming the world order and planetary environment: Freshwater scarcity is a key reason why 3.5 billion people are projected to live in countries that cannot feed themselves by 2025. Earth's freshwater ecosystems are critically depleted and being used unsustainably, reported the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment, for today's 6.5 billion population much less for the 9 billion we'll be by 2050. Extreme droughts, floods, melting glaciers and other water cycle-related effects of global warming are why there'll likely be 150 million global climate refugees within a decade. Diplomats warn that 21st century conflicts will be fought over water as they were for oil in the 20th.
By R. L’Heureux Lewis for TheGrio.com
Have you heard the census is still calling us Negroes?" This sentence popped up on my Gchat window from a concerned colleague. While for many this would set off a firestorm of concern, as a sociologist, I was not surprised, confused, nor concerned. I know the census has the word Negro on it and it has for many years now. It was even on the 2000 census form, so why the big deal now?
I believe we have bigger fish to fry with the census than the use of Negro. "Like what?" you ask. How about 478 billion dollars and political representation. Yes, you read that right, large amounts of federal dollars directed at community services and boundaries for political representation are determined by the person knocking on your door asking for information about who you are and who lives with you.
WASHINGTON (AP) – The Environmental Protection Agency on Thursday proposed stricter health standards for smog, replacing a Bush-era limit that ran counter to scientific recommendations.
The new limits — which are presented as a range — will likely put hundreds more counties nationwide in violation, a designation that will require them to find additional ways to clamp down on pollution or face government sanctions, most likely the loss of federal highway dollars.
BALTIMORE (AP) -- Mayor Sheila Dixon fought back tears as she announced her resignation and thanked her staff for its loyalty and hard work. She acknowledged that she made poor choices and that she "disappointed" herself and her constituents.
What she didn't do was apologize or explain the actions that led to her downfall -- her guilty plea on a perjury charge and her earlier conviction on a misdemeanor embezzlement charge.
Dixon's resignation Wednesday ended a three-year tenure that began with promise but unraveled amid embarrassing allegations that she stole from the poor.
WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Census Bureau is launching a campaign to prod the nation's more than 300 million residents to fill out their once-a-decade census forms.
Director Robert Groves will unveil a 46-foot trailer in New York City dubbed "Mail It Back." Thirteen of the vehicles will show up at about 800 events around the country, including the Super Bowl and the NCAA Four.
Letters will be sent out in early March to notify people that the census forms will follow between March 15-17. The 10-question form is one of the shortest in the history of the census.
Those who don't fill it out can expect a follow-up post card and finally an in-person visit from a census worker.
In the Gulf Coast region, this year's census will provide the most accurate measure to date of how Hurricanes Katrina Rita affected population trends.
SEATTLE (Seattle Times)--A federal appeals court on Tuesday, finding the state's criminal justice system "infected" with racial discrimination, tossed out Washington's law banning prison inmates from voting
A federal appeals court on Tuesday tossed out Washington's law banning incarcerated felons from voting, finding the state's criminal-justice system is "infected" with racial discrimination.
Read article in its entirety HERE
The surprising ruling, by a three-judge panel of the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals in Seattle, said the law violates the 1965 Voting Rights Act by disenfranchising minority voters.
WASHINGTON (AP) – With the 2010 election year barely under way, two senators and one governor — all Democrats — ditched plans to run for re-election in the latest signs of trouble for President Barack Obama's party.
Taken together, the decisions by Sens. Chris Dodd of Connecticut andByron Dorgan of North Dakota as well as Colorado Gov. Bill Rittercaused another bout of heartburn for Democrats as they struggle to defend themselves in a sour political environment for incumbents, particularly the party in charge.
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