Controversies
Why Has Supreme Court Cut its Work Load in Half?
From approximately 8,000 appeals, the U.S. Supreme Court hears about 80 cases a year. This is barely half of what the high court used to hear in the 1980s, when the average yearly workload was 150 cases. Yale’s law school recently conducted a conf... read more
Medicare For All (a.k.a. Single-Payer) Won’t Work: Deane Waldman
“Medicare-for-All,” touted by liberals who want a government-run solution, is not the answer to the nation’s health care crisis, argues physician Deane Waldman. First of all, the existing Medicare program, unlike Medicaid, was never intended to be... read more
FBI Closes New Orleans Bridge in Continuing Investigation of Katrina-Related Shootings
FBI agents combed the Danziger Bridge in New Orleans on Saturday looking for evidence related to the shooting of six individuals by local police only days following Hurricane Katrina. Two people were killed and another four wounded during the inci... read more
Federal Reserve Refused to Heed Banks’ Abusive Mortgage Practices
The warning signs were there, nearly 10 years before the housing crash, but officials at the Federal Reserve ignored them. In Chicago, where subprime mortgages were handed out to minority communities on the city’s south and west side, community gr... read more
Toxic Exposures Up; Health Inspections Down
Deadly exposure to harmful chemicals and other fatal workplace conditions now represents the eighth leading cause of death in the United States, according to the advocacy group PEER (Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility). This problem... read more
Americans Don’t Need Health Care Reform: Janice Shaw Crouse
There’s a reason why the United States doesn’t need health care reform—Americans don’t want it. According to conservative activist Janice Shaw Crouse, polls show that 90% of people in the United States are satisfied with their health care coverage... read more
In Breakthrough Case, Judge Rules Maid Can Sue Kobe Bryant for “Personal Insult”
While throwing out part of the lawsuit, a California judge recently ruled that Kobe Bryant’s former housekeeper can continue her case on grounds of “personal insult” to which Bryant’s wife, Vanessa, subjected Maria Jimenez. Orange County Superior ... read more
Insurance Company Settles Claim for Discriminating against Atheists
GuideOne Mutual Insurance didn’t see any problem with offering special benefits to god-fearing consumers, but atheists and agnostics, not to mention the federal government, sure did. The Department of Justice sued GuideOne in federal court in Kent... read more
KFC Accused of Knowingly Selling Carcinogenic Chicken
No point in getting the grilled chicken at KFC because it’s just as unhealthy as the battered-and-fried kind, according to the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine. The doctors group has sued KFC in a San Francisco Superior Court on gro... read more
FDA Overruled Scientists after Pressure from New Jersey Congressmen
Never before in the history of the Food and Drug Administration has it publicly questioned its approval process, or admitted a regulatory decision was influenced by politics, or accused a former commissioner of questionable conduct, according to T... read more
Gay-Friendly Corporations on the Rise; Chevron Perfect, Exxon Fails
The Great Recession of 2008-2009 did nothing to slow the advance of corporate America becoming friendlier towards gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender individuals. According to the Human Rights Campaign Foundation’s annual ranking of businesses,... read more
Anti-Acorn Bill Can Also Hit Major Defense Contractors
Congress’ swift reaction to the ACORN controversy could wind up having widespread consequences for the military industrial complex. Legislation adopted to strip ACORN of its federal funding was so broadly written that it could apply to any governm... read more
Drug Industry’s Blue Dog Friend
When Democratic Congressman Mike Ross of Arkansas and his wife sold their pharmacy business to a local chain two years ago, they received substantially more for the property than its assessed value, according to an investigation by ProPublica and ... read more
Bush and Obama Wrong about Faith-Based Initiatives: Allen Hunt
Government has no place in helping religious organizations, according to radio host and former Methodist pastor Allen Hunt, who objects to the policies of both President Barack Obama faith-based initiatives and those of his predecessor, President... read more
No Prosecutions on Wall Street
Where is the poster child of last year’s financial meltdown? Unlike previous economic crises, the 2008 Wall Street disaster has to yield any prosecutions of those responsible for playing fast-and-loose with the nation’s fiscal life-blood. The Grea... read more
Humana Investigated for Using Misleading Scare Tactics
Humana, one of the nation’s leading health insurers for Medicare patients, is now under investigation by the federal government for allegedly trying to scare seniors into opposing the health care reform plan. After learning of a company mailer tha... read more