Controversies
Nationalize Wall Street: Les Leopold
Author Les Leopold has given up on government regulation of big banks. It no longer makes sense for “$100,000 a year civil servants” to try to keep watch over “$100 million dollar a year bankers” who can afford an “army of financial engineers to o... read more
U.S. Ports and Borders Still Vulnerable to Terrorism
Seven years and $3 billion later, the Department of Homeland Security is still relying on technology at U.S. ports and border crossings that can’t distinguish bananas from a nuclear bomb being smuggled into the country. By now, federal officials w... read more
Major Fraud in Disabled Vets Small Business Program
Soldiers returning home from war with disabilities are entitled to special access to government contracts if they want to start their own business after leaving the military. But getting these contracts can be difficult if the government bungles t... read more
Justice Department Orders Guantánamo Lawyer to Delete Blog Post
The government giveth, and the government taketh away. That’s what attorney H. Candace Gorman found out while representing Guantánamo detainee Abdul Hamid al-Ghizzawi, a Libyan baker married to an Afghan woman who was captured in Afghanistan short... read more
House Committee Moves to Limit Big Bank Speculation
Up until five years ago banks were limited to how much debt they could carry versus the amount of cash they had on hand. But after the Securities and Exchange Commission, led by Bush appointee and former Republican Congressman Christopher Cox, did... read more
Turmoil at USDA
Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack has a lot of angry employees on his hands. The head of the U.S. Department of Agriculture began reorganizing staff in October, which included downgrading the positions of chief information officer and chief financ... read more
Don’t Joke About Obama Dying: David R. Stokes
David Stokes is no fan of President Barack Obama. The only way the conservative Virginia pastor would vote for Obama is if his opponent was “Harry Reid, or Boss Tweed.” Stokes is convinced that “the president and his advisors have a socialist bent... read more
Since Government is Lax at Regulating Misleading Ads, Companies Turn to Lawsuits
White space. That’s why AT&T recently sued Verizon in civil court…because a Verizon advertisement showed a U.S. map of its competitor’s wireless coverage areas. The abundance of white space on the map implied that AT&T’s cell phone program failed ... read more
FBI Still Working on 108 Civil Rights Murder Cold Cases
More than 100 unsolved murders from the Civil Rights era are still under investigation by the FBI, although officials are encountering numerous obstacles to closing the cases. Since the FBI launched its Civil Rights-Era Cold Case Initiative in 200... read more
No More Consecutive Terms: Roger Schlesinger
Thomas Jefferson and the other founding fathers had no idea that modern elections would devolve into the multi-million dollar monstrosities they are today, requiring lawmakers to spend inordinate amounts of their time campaigning and raising cash.... read more
Federal Judge Holds Army Corps Responsible for Katrina Flooding
Victims of Hurricane Katrina won their first battle against the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers on Wednesday when a federal judge in New Orleans ruled the government was liable for faulty maintenance that allowed flooding in St. Bernard Parish and th... read more
Boeing Shareholders Sue Over Hidden Flaws in 787
Boeing is facing a lawsuit for concealing structural defects in its new 787 Dreamliner, causing its stock price to plummet once the truth got out. Shareholders of the aircraft manufacturer are claiming the company misrepresented test results of th... read more
Dramatic Increase in Weed-Killer Use in U.S.
Since the introduction of biotech versions of corn, soybeans and cotton on American farms in the mid-1990s, farmers are spraying less pesticide on their fields. That’s the good news. But, with the planting of genetically-engineered crops resistant... read more
Lower Medicare Age and Help Primary Care Doctors: Marcia Angell
The House health care reform plan will do little to curb medical costs or significantly reduce the number of uninsured Americans, writes Harvard Medical School professor Marcia Angell. Substantial changes need to be made to the plan before the Se... read more
In House Health Debate, 42 Representatives Used Same Lobbyist Talking Points
Political cartoonists have long characterized Washington politicians as puppets of special interests, but the recent revelation about the influence of lobbyists for Genentech during the health care debate demonstrates the joke can be all too real.... read more
Bush Administration Ignored Warnings of Organized Crime Medicare Fraud
Federal officials in charge of preventing fraud in the billion-dollar Medicare program ignored dozens of warnings of criminal activity during the Bush administration, according to investigations by the Associated Press and U.S. Senator Charles Gra... read more