Controversies
USDA Report: Apples Most Often Contain Pesticides; Onions Safest
An apple a day can keep the doctor away, as long as it’s not heavily contaminated with pesticides.
America’s second most popular fresh fruit (behind bananas) is nearly always sold with some amount of farm chemicals on it, according to the En... read more
Charged with Murder for Taking Cocaine or Trying Suicide While Pregnant
Rennie Gibbs faces a possible mandatory sentence of life in prison for taking cocaine while pregnant, because a prosecutor in Mississippi insists the drug use caused the stillborn death of her baby.
Gibbs, who was 15 when she became pregnant... read more
Navy Has Too Many Sailors, Plans to Force Early Retirement
Thousands of sailors soon will be forced ashore permanently, once the U.S. Navy decides who to discharge into the ailing civilian economy.
Because of the weak job market, fewer sailors have been leaving the service. Only 28% are leaving afte... read more
Georgia’s Harsh Immigration Law Leaves Crops Rotting in Fields
Fed up with the presence of illegal immigrants in their state, lawmakers in Georgia recently adopted legislation intended to drive such individuals “back home.”
In the process of doing so, politicians have crippled Georgia’s largest economic... read more
Cities Do Broadband Internet Better than Telecoms
Tired of expensive and poor service, cities across the United States have taken to investing in their own high-speed Internet services and dumping those offered by private telecommunications companies.
More than 50 cities own fiber networks ... read more
Tyson Foods Paid Penalty for Bribery, but No Executives Charged (As Usual)
Tyson Foods, one of the world’s largest suppliers of chicken, pork and beef products, recently paid a multi-million dollar fine to the U.S. government for bribing foreign nationals. But no company officials were singled out for blame or prosecut... read more
Court-Ordered Freedom for Guantánamo Prisoners Stops at D.C. Court of Appeals
Getting out of Guantánamo and going free is no longer a possibility for many detainees even after they have won legal battles in lower federal courts.
Those victories have repeatedly been overturned by the United States Court of Appeals for ... read more
Fannie and Freddie Regulator Ignored Dozens of Fraud Complaints
After witnessing the implosion of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) didn’t bother to take action on numerous complaints against the taxpayer-owned mortgage finance giants over a two-year period.
According ... read more
In Danger of Prison for Bidding at a Natural Gas Auction as a Protest
Tim DeChristopher, convicted of fraudulently bidding on oil and gas leases to protest the exploitation of natural resources on public lands, will find out next month just how long he might have to serve in prison.
U.S. District Judge Dee Ben... read more
Wrongly Convicted in Illinois Spent Total of 926 Years in Prisons While Real Criminals Killed 14
When the criminal justice system in Illinois convicted the wrong person, innocent people collectively lost hundreds of years of freedom—while the real culprits went on to commit nearly a hundred new crimes, including murders and rapes.
A joi... read more
212,000 U.S. Veterans Have Traumatic Brain Injuries
After nearly a decade of fighting a two-front war, the United States is faced with caring for more than 212,000 veterans suffering from some form of traumatic brain injury (TBI).
The vast majority of these cases originated in the U.S. Army, ... read more
Supreme Court Takes a Step Closer to Debtors’ Prison
States are not obligated to provide free legal counsel in civil courts when it comes to child support cases, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled this week, setting off cries from civil rights groups that said the decision could move the country closer ... read more
Obama Administration Extends Ban on Uranium Mining Near Grand Canyon
Much to the joy of environmentalists, the Obama administration is considering a 20-year ban on uranium mining near the Grand Canyon.
The Department of the Interior imposed a two-year moratorium in 2009 on uranium mining around the Grand Cany... read more
Ethanol Drives a 92-Year-Old Poultry Business to Bankruptcy
After more than 90 years in business, Allen’s Family Foods of Seaford, Delaware, is filing for bankruptcy, done in by skyrocketing corn prices via ethanol manufacturing.
Allen’s packs 8 million pounds of poultry a week. But with so much of t... read more
Fukushima Nuclear Cleanup Workers Had to Bring Own Protective Gear
Disaster preparation at Japan’s crippled nuclear power plant was so poor that workers had to bring protective gear from miles away and an emergency manual from distant buildings, according to a new report.
The report, released Tokyo Electric... read more
Obama Administration Fights Use of WikiLeaks Documents to Defend Guantánamo Prisoners
A defense attorney representing a Guantánamo prisoner has requested the admittance of classified documents published by WikiLeaks as evidence at his client’s military trial. The documents, known as “detainee assessments,” were released to the me... read more