As prime minister, Veiga in 1992 oversaw the creation of a new constitution and flag for the country. He also began to bring in private investment to the nation that is heavily dependent on foreign aid and remittances to keep its economy going. Veiga was known for moving his cabinet ministers around and sometimes firing them to keep from developing a power base from which they could challenge him. In 1998, Veiga was injured in a plane crash that killed one of his bodyguards.   read more

As the presidency of George W. Bush draws to a close, it is worth reviewing one of the lowlights of media coverage of the Bush II era. In 2006, FAIR: Fairness & Accuracy In Reporting, compiled a list of quotes from media pundits about the Iraq War...   read more

At the 2008 Super Bowl in Phoenix, Joseph Band, a longtime attorney for the United States Marshals Service who moonlighted as a sports statistician for Fox Sports, arranged, with permission from superiors, to use a Marshals Service vehicle to brin...   read more

Barack Obama has shown a reluctance to address the issue of possible crimes committed by President Bush and his administration. In this context, the office of John Conyers, chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, has issued a 487-page report (P...   read more

Susan J. Crawford, Defense Secretary Robert Gates’ pick for convening authority of military commissions, has become the first senior Bush official to refer to the treatment of a Guantánamo prisoner as torture. Mohammed al-Qahtani of Saudi Arabia w...   read more

The U.S. deficit is doing its best impression of Jamaican sprinter Usain Bolt, racing to set new records with little visible effort. Last year’s record-setting annual budget deficit of $454.8 billion has already been broken by fiscal year 2009’s f...   read more

The United States spends at least $52.4 billion a year on nuclear weapons-related expenses. According to a report by the Carnegie Endowment, of this total, 56% ($29 billion) goes to operating, maintaining and upgrading the U.S. nuclear arsenal. On...   read more

Highlighting the catastrophic failure of the U.S.’s rebuilding efforts in Afghanistan, the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction Report (PDF) (page 38), shows that of $512.9 million allocated to Medical clinics from 2002-2008, o...   read more

Lisa Jackson, the first African American to lead the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), is faced with the task of restoring morale to an agency whose scientific advisers and staff were often overruled by the Bush administration on issues rangi...   read more

Jane Lubchenco, one of the nation’s most prominent marine biologists, has devoted much of her career to encouraging scientists to become more engaged in public policy debates, and is a vocal proponent of curbing greenhouse gases linked to global w...   read more

A collection of 160 bills making its way through the Senate may possibly bestow the nation’s highest level of environmental protection on over 2 million acres of public land, the largest act of wilderness preservation in 25 years. The bill will al...   read more

Author and libertarian talk show host Neal Boortz has berated President-elect Obama’s proposed stimulus plan, writing, “He is proposing to use the occasion of an economic crisis to provide cover for increased government spending that he’s been pro...   read more

You might think that with financial luminaries like Hank Paulson (former Goldman Sachs CEO) in charge of the Treasury Department, the government would need little outside help in determining how best to allocate bailout funds. Yet from October thr...   read more

Attorney General Michael Mukasey has issued a 34 page opinion (PDF), overturning a 15-year old precedent allowing illegal aliens to make appeals on the basis that their case was weakened by their lawyers’ ineptitude or errors. Immigration courts m...   read more

The Office of Legal Counsel (OLC), the relatively unknown arm of the Justice Department (DOJ) with the vitally important job of defining the legal limits of executive power, released a number of previously classified legal opinions regarding the w...   read more

Although Larry Flynt’s attempt to secure $5 billion in bailout money may have been little more than a comedic ploy, it raised the question of who exactly is receiving government funds, and why they deserve it. Cerberus Capital Management, a premie...   read more

Nine Food and Drug Administration (FDA) scientists have written to Obama’s transition team, complaining of managerial corruption abetting business interests, and calling for reform of the evaluation and approval process for new products and device...   read more