A government agency is currently weighing a controversial proposal to allow a biotechnology company to plant up to 3,200 acres of rice genetically modified to treat diarrhea.
Published: Friday, April 27, 2007
Reported By: Megan Tady
Section: Environment and Health
Topics: Health / Safety, Environment / Ecology, Business
As stolen identities undercut the assets and privacy of Americans, public-interest groups say the White House’s new strategy to combat identity theft ignores core challenges of securing data in the Digital Age.
Published: Friday, April 27, 2007
Reported By: Michelle Chen
Section: Civil Liberties and Security
Topics: Science / Technology, Privacy / Surveillance, Business, Law Enforcement / Prison System
Environmentalists are calling for a boycott of bottled water in an effort to reduce the use of fossil fuels, protect the environment and protect local drinking supplies.
Published: Thursday, April 26, 2007
Reported By: Shreema Mehta
Section: Environment and Health
Topics: Environment / Ecology, Business, Health / Safety
Small periodicals across the country will see their mailing costs swell thanks to new postage rates written by a major media conglomerate and adopted by the US Postal Service.
Published: Wednesday, April 25, 2007
Reported By: Megan Tady
Section: U.S. News
Topics: Media, Business
In reaction to a surge in home foreclosures, an anti-poverty group is attempting to organize low-income people to push for changes to the nation’s lending laws.
Published: Wednesday, April 25, 2007
Reported By: Shreema Mehta
Section: Work and Money
Topics: Poverty / Class Issues, Business, Social Movements / Activism
Fresh ties are budding between public universities and a leading oil company, seeding fears that industry is profiting from climate-change research at the expense of scientific integrity.
Published: Tuesday, April 24, 2007
Reported By: Michelle Chen
Section: Environment and Health
Topics: Energy, Environment / Ecology, Science / Technology, Education / Schools
Privacy advocates are attempting to thwart a merger between Google and an online marketing agency, fearing the deal could further erode Internet users’ privacy.
Published: Monday, April 23, 2007
Reported By: Megan Tady
Section: Civil Liberties and Security
Topics: Privacy / Surveillance, Science / Technology, Business
In light of news that government regulators have neglected their duties to review pharmaceutical commercials, their proposed fix involves crawling even deeper into bed with drugmakers.
Published: Friday, April 20, 2007
Reported By: Shreema Mehta
Section: Environment and Health
Topics: Health / Safety, Business, Media
It took four years for Taco Bell’s parent company to agree to demands that the restaurant take responsibility for the wages and working conditions of migrant laborers who pick its tomatoes. It took another two years for McDonald’s to accept a similar deal.
Published: Thursday, April 19, 2007
Reported By: Kari Lydersen
Section: Work and Money
Topics: Social Movements / Activism, Agriculture, Business, Immigration / Refugees
Accusing a retail giant of wriggling out of over $2 billion in taxes, a watchdog group is pointing to a loophole in certain states that lets huge companies pay rent to themselves.
Published: Wednesday, April 18, 2007
Reported By: Michelle Chen
Section: Work and Money
Topics: Business, Economy, Law / Courts, Politics / Legislation
Environmentalists are reacting to a proposal to slaughter some sea lions in order to save the few salmon they in turn kill, pointing to deadly dams as the elephant in the room.
Published: Tuesday, April 17, 2007
Reported By: Shreema Mehta
Section: Environment and Health
Topics: Animal Rights, Environment / Ecology, Energy
In an early round of bureaucratic wrangling, Michigan environmental officials have withdrawn their proposal to allow a sulfide mine in a relatively untouched part of the state.
Published: Monday, April 16, 2007
Reported By: Kari Lydersen
Section: Environment and Health
Topics: Environment / Ecology, Social Movements / Activism, Business
As the science of tiny particles seeps into commercial markets, controversy is swelling over whether the nanotechnology industry can be trusted to regulate itself.
Published: Monday, April 16, 2007
Reported By: Michelle Chen
Section: Environment and Health
Topics: Environment / Ecology, Health / Safety, Politics / Legislation, Science / Technology
Although homeless people, community organizers and academics say the best way to end homelessness is to increase affordable housing, Los Angeles politicians’ most visible response to the city’s crisis has been a police crackdown on homeless people.
Published: Friday, April 13, 2007
Reported By: Jessica Hoffmann
Section: Work and Money
Topics: Poverty / Class Issues, Law Enforcement / Prison System, Politics / Legislation
A report released this week documents a dramatic increase in greenhouse-gas emissions in the United States since 1990.
Published: Friday, April 13, 2007
Reported By: Megan Tady
Section: Environment and Health
Topics: Environment / Ecology, Energy
This year, Californians will live alongside over half a million pounds of newly hidden toxic waste, thanks to recent changes in the national system for reporting releases of hazardous chemicals.
Published: Thursday, April 12, 2007
Reported By: Michelle Chen
Section: Environment and Health
Topics: Environment / Ecology, Business
Prisoners who allege being raped, beaten and otherwise mistreated have for years faced an additional burden: limited access to US courts. Now civil-rights groups are renewing efforts to undo litigation "reform" imposed on the nation’s incarcerated population.
Published: Wednesday, April 11, 2007
Reported By: Michelle Chen
Section: Civil Liberties and Security
Topics: Law Enforcement / Prison System, Law / Courts, Politics / Legislation
Dubbing them the Wall Street Seven, some environmentalists are putting pressure on major financial institutions for financing power plants that emit the most greenhouse gases.
Published: Wednesday, April 11, 2007
Reported By: Megan Tady
Section: Environment and Health
Topics: Environment / Ecology, Energy, Social Movements / Activism
While new rules will make it easier for some felons to regain certain rights they lost when convicted, civil-rights activists say the process is still far from libertarian.
Published: Tuesday, April 10, 2007
Reported By: Michelle Chen
Section: Civil Liberties and Security
Topics: Elections / Democracy, Race / Racism
A federal agency is accusing FedEx Home Delivery of cracking down on employees’ attempts to organize in Massachusetts by harassing workers, threatening firings and monitoring employees’ activities.
Published: Tuesday, April 10, 2007
Reported By: Shreema Mehta
Section: Work and Money
Topics: Labor Issues
A so-called "nuclear renaissance" is budding in New Mexico with the construction of a major uranium-processing facility, but activists are waging a legal challenge in an attempt to stem the industry’s resurgence.
Published: Friday, April 6, 2007
Reported By: Michelle Chen
Section: Environment and Health
Topics: Energy, Environment / Ecology, Corporate Globalization
President Bush is poised to install someone watchdog groups call an "anti-regulatory extremist" to a powerful government position.
Published: Friday, April 6, 2007
Reported By: Megan Tady
Section: Environment and Health
Topics: Politics / Legislation, Health / Safety, Environment / Ecology
Congress is set to reauthorize a Food and Drug Administration act that critics say gives drug companies too much influence over the agency, leading to hasty approvals of new drugs.
Published: Thursday, April 5, 2007
Reported By: Shreema Mehta
Section: Environment and Health
Topics: Health / Safety, Politics / Legislation, Business
Twenty years after a landmark report documented environmental racism in the United States, new evidence shows that toxic waste is still being disproportionately dumped on communities of color.
Published: Thursday, April 5, 2007
Reported By: Megan Tady
Section: Environment and Health
Topics: Race / Racism, Environment / Ecology
The Maryland state senate recently passed a bill that would allow the nationwide popular vote – instead of the Electoral College – to determine presidential elections. The bill has been passed on to the state’s House of Representatives.
Published: Monday, April 2, 2007
Reported By: Shreema Mehta
Section: U.S. News
Topics: Elections / Democracy
In response to corruption on Capitol Hill and the ballooning costs of running for federal office, public-interest groups and some lawmakers are pushing for a system of government-financed congressional election campaigns.
Published: Monday, April 2, 2007
Reported By: Catherine Komp
Section: U.S. News
Topics: Elections / Democracy
As the US Forest Service pursues a logging plan for the Tongass National Forest, conservationists are pushing for different economic priorities in Alaska.
Published: Friday, March 30, 2007
Reported By: Michelle Chen
Section: Environment and Health
Topics: Environment / Ecology, Science / Technology, Economy, Business
Lawmakers introduced a bill last week that would give back millions of workers the right to join unions.
Published: Friday, March 30, 2007
Reported By: Megan Tady
Section: Work and Money
Topics: Labor Issues, Politics / Legislation
As the Department of Energy wraps up a nationwide tour to collect public feedback on a nuclear energy program, environmentalists are urging the government to abandon the plan.
Published: Thursday, March 29, 2007
Reported By: Megan Tady
Section: U.S. News
Topics: Energy, Military / War
The latest round of legislative proposals to address waste from the agricultural industry would continue to give government breaks to factory farms, despite critics’ arguments that the large-scale operations are unnecessarily harmful to the environment.
Published: Thursday, March 29, 2007
Reported By: Shreema Mehta
Section: Environment and Health
Topics: Agriculture, Environment / Ecology, Animal Rights
