News Items

  • Election Reforms: Falling short

    WASHINGTON — Proponents of progressive election reform gave cautious approval to the recent report issued by a commission assigned to investigate the improvement of federal elections. Many critics, however, point to several obstacles that remain in the way of free and fair elections throughout the United States. The report, issued by the National Commission on Federal Election Reform headed by former Presidents Jimmy Carter and Gerald Ford, was presented to President Bush. Among its recommendations are provisions regarding increases in equipment standards and stepped-up federal funding for the administration of elections.

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  • Son of Star Wars: Another arms race?

    WASHINGTON — Reports emerging from the Pentagon about plans to test a “Space Bomber” are drawing accusations that the U.S. government is attempting to engage in another arms race. The bomber, a spacecraft reportedly capable of destroying targets on the other side of the globe within 30 minutes, is a key component of Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld’s plan to modernize U.S. weaponry. The satellite is currently under production by NASA and Lockheed Martin, a leading military contractor. Pentagon claims that the bomber can cause greater and deeper ground damage from a virtually unassailable height have many critics questioning it as…

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  • ExxonMobil: Facing a boycott

    ExxonMobil, one of the biggest corporations on the planet, is now facing a boycott spearheaded by activist groups protesting the company’s policies at home and abroad. The boycott was launched by PressurePoint, a grassroots organization looking to “take real action on climate change and corporate influence,” according to Chris Doran, campaigns director for the group. “The U.S. government’s climate change policy is the ExxonMobil policy,” Doran says. “What sort of democracy do we have when one company can buy off our political process for its own gains?” ExxonMobil is a charter member of the Global Climate Coalition, an influential industry…

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  • Beyond the Ford-Firestone Uproar: Critics blast lack of regulation, accountability in SUV safety

    WASHINGTON – Recent congressional hearings probed the accountability of Ford and Firestone in many incidents where car or tire malfunctioned, causing injury or death. The hearings also questioned the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, the federal government’s chief regulator of automobile safety, and its role in providing the public with adequate information. While the blame-placing among corporate executives and congressional subcommittees occurred on Capitol Hill, several analysts decried the lack of accountability being demanded of the corporations involved. Joan Claybrook, president of Public Citizen, pointed to a lack of regulation of sport utility vehicles and rollover standards.

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  • NEWS BRIEFING WITH LAWRENCE SUMMERS, SECRETARY OF THE TREASURY RAYMOND OFFENHEISER, PRESIDENT, OXFAM

    Questions from IPA appear below in bold HEADLINE: NEWS BRIEFING WITH LAWRENCE SUMMERS, SECRETARY OF THE TREASURY RAYMOND OFFENHEISER, PRESIDENT, OXFAM DEBT RELIEF TO POOR COUNTRIES AND OXFAM EDUCATION NOW AWARD INTRODUCTION: MARTA ARIAS LOCATION: NATIONAL PRESS CLUB, WASHINGTON D.C. BODY:

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  • Ten Real Reasons To Impeach Clinton

    We all seem to have lost our sense of proportion. Why are the political leaders of the United States and the major media talking of impeaching Bill Clinton for lies about sex, surely not the most important sins of his administration? If Clinton is to be impeached, why do it for frivolous reasons? I can think of at least ten reasons to impeach him, for acts far more serious than his dalliance with Monica Lewinsky or his lies to Kenneth Starr. I am speaking of matters of life and death for large numbers of people. 1. Clinton approved, very early…

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  • Autopsy Of A Disaster: The U.S. Sanctions Policy On Iraq

    For a shorter version of this timeline, click here. Myth: The Sanctions Will be Lifted When Iraq Complies with the U.N. Inspections April 3, 1991: U.N. Security Council passes Resolution 687 which states that upon “the completion by Iraq of all actions contemplated in” specific paragraphs of the resolution, “the prohibitions against financial transactions … shall have no further force or effect.” The paragraphs cited have to do with weapons inspections. Other paragraphs in the resolution have to do with “return of all Kuwaiti property seized by Iraq” and Iraqi liability for losses and damage resulting from Iraq’s occupation of…

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  • Drone Assassination: Inconvenient Facts

    Author Laurie Calhoun says, “We have been assured by President Biden that Ayman al-Zawahiri was killed alone, and no one else was injured by the strike, not even his family. What a curious claim to make, given that family members were considered fair game for attack throughout the ‘war on terror.'”

  • Pelosi “Playing with Fire” Regarding China

    James Bradley, author of many bestsellers concerning U.S. policy in the Pacific and Asia says, “Pelosi is indeed ‘playing with fire’ as Xi says… military conflict regarding Taiwan will happen if the U.S. government starts or provokes it.”

  • 77 Years After Hiroshima, Public “Shockingly Oblivious” to Threat of Nuclear War

    Co-founder of the Hiroshima/Nagasaki Peace Committee of the National Capital Area, John Steibach says, “The public is shockingly oblivious to the threat of global nuclear war. This is the most dangerous period, even exceeding the Cuban missile crisis.”

  • Health Advocates Say “We Can’t Fail” to Accurately Frame Monkeypox

    Days after the World Health Organization declared monkeypox a global emergency, the U.S. has reported more than 3,000 confirmed cases of the virus. The Biden administration is likely to follow the WHO’s lead by the end of the week in a move that would expand the nation’s ability to respond to the virus.

  • Healthcare Companies Fighting Drug Price Reform

    New reporting shows that Republican lawmakers are working behind closed doors to “tank” the Inflation Reduction Act’s drug-pricing provisions. Public Citizen advocate Steve Knievel says that Democrats “should do what they can now––full stop.” 

  • Big Tech’s “Corporate Welfare” and $1 Trillion Spent on Stock Buybacks

  • Amazon Acquires One Medical, Expanding the Company’s “Data-opoly”

    Amazon announced last week it would buy primary health care provider One Medical for nearly $4 billion. Maurice Stucke, a professor of antitrust and privacy law, says that the concern here is not that major companies “are getting the same data but more of it… the concern is that they’re getting another important piece of…

  • AIPAC Targeting Pro-Israeli Jewish Congressman

    Ronald Aronson says that AIPAC’s targeting of Rep. Andy Levin is because of his proposed Two-State Solution Act, something which has been neglected “except as a shibboleth to which lip service must be given to undercut accusations of ‘apartheid.'”

  • Democrats Keeping Greens Off Ballot in North Carolina

    Legal counsel for the Center for Competitive Democracy, Oliver Hall condemns the North Carolina State Board of Elections for failing to attest the North Carolina Green Party as a new political party.

  • Researchers Learning More About the Neurological Effects of Long Covid

    Recent research is shedding light on how SARS-CoV-2 “readily forms aggregated protein clumps that look very similar to amyloid deposits seen in the brains of people with neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s.”

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