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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  • Indian Government Targets Independent Media Outlet

    “I believe The Wire and the progressive, upstanding, and fearless journalism it exemplifies will emerge stronger thanks to the lessons learned from this serious setback.” N. RAM, [email protected]

  • “Anti-Vaccine Aggression”

    Peter Hotez talked to the Institute for Public Accuracy about how––although deaths more or less halted in highly vaccinated communities after May 1, 2021––in undervaccinated places like Texas and in other parts of the southern U.S. and mountain West states, “the deaths had just begun.” 

  • Nukes in Finland Would Violate NPT: Legal Expert

    The United States positioning its nuclear weapons in Finnish or Polish territories would violate the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty – warns professor of law as Euroweekly reports governments looking to engage in “nuclear sharing”

  • Nuclear Netanyahu

    “Latest exit polls show resounding victory for Netanyahu’s far-right coalition: anywhere from 61 to 62 seats. He will form the most extremist government in Israeli history. This means that his most violent allies, Bezalel Smotrich and Itamar Ben-Gvir will demand ministerial posts

  • Supreme Court Attack on Affirmative Action: The Irony of Clyde Ferguson

    Professor of Law notes the irony of the Supreme Court targeting Harvard’s affirmative action program while the Harvard-based scholar Clyde Ferguson, his mentor, conceived of affirmative action.”

  • Biden’s Nuclear Posture Review “Pouring Gas on the Fire”

    “President Harry Truman, a Democrat, oversaw the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Russia and other would-be superpowers have increasingly modeled their own national security policies (and their economies) on the U.S. With festering nuclear flashpoints in Ukraine, Taiwan, the Korean Peninsula, South Asia, and the Middle East”

  • Latino Adults at Higher Risk of Socioeconomic Impacts from Long Covid

    A statewide survey of Latinos in Colorado has found that nearly one-fourth of Latinos in the state are suffering from long-term Covid symptoms. Advocates say that the next step is to “rethink the definition of disability.”

  • “Huge Disparities in Paxlovid Use”

    New data shows racial and ethnic disparities in outpatient treatment of Covid-19 with Paxlovid: Black patients were prescribed the drug 36 percent less often than white patients, while Hispanic patient use was 30 percent lower compared to non-Hispanic patients.

  • Teach-In on Nuclear Crisis and Lessons from Past Crises

    “The world is again on the verge of nuclear war”, says expert Steinbach who is organizing an online teach-in tonight at 7 p.m. ET on the current nuclear crisis featuring several nuclear experts.

  • Republicans Dying at Higher Rates Since Vaccine Rollout Began

    The National Bureau of Economic Research found that significantly more Republicans than Democrats have died from Covid-19 since the initial vaccine rollout in 2021. 

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