Top Stories
Congress on Track to Set Do-Nothing Record
If lawmakers on Capitol Hill wanted to encapsulate the current session of Congress in a t-shirt slogan, they could go with: Support your party and don’t compromise.
The highly partisan environment in Washington has resulted in the most “do-n... read more
U.S. Gains First Openly Gay General
The U.S. Army achieved a milestone last week when it promoted its first openly gay officer to the rank of general.
Tammy Smith, a veteran of the Afghanistan war, was officially promoted to brigadier general in a ceremony that featured her wife... read more
WikiLeaks Whistleblower Calls for Dismissal of Charges Against Him for Cruel and Unusual Detention
The attorney representing Private Bradley Manning has filed a motion calling for the military to dismiss all charges against his client, whose constitutional rights were violated during his pretrial confinement. Manning is accused of giving thousa... read more
CBO Says Drilling on Federal Land Won’t Net Much Money or Energy
It turns out that the slogan “drill, baby, drill” ought to be “nil, baby, nil.” According to two recent reports by the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office,(CBO) opening all federal land to oil and gas drilling — including the Arctic National ... read more
UN Calls on U.S. to Halt Biofuel Production as Drought Devastates Corn Crop
With the drought of 2012 — already the worst in the U.S. since the 1950s — expected to cause dramatically smaller corn and soybean crops, the United Nations Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO) has called on the U.S. to suspend the use of corn... read more
U.S. Finally Cleaning Up Some of Its Agent Orange Mess in Vietnam
More than 50 years after it first sprayed Agent Orange in Vietnam, the U.S. government has started a program to help clean up a small portion of the contamination it caused during the war.
The Obama administration plans to spend $43 million ov... read more
NRC Shelves New Plant Licenses as It Ponders What to Do About Waste
After years of warnings by environmentalists to do something about the radioactive waste piling up at nuclear power plants around the country, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) has stopped issuing any licenses for new and existing reactors w... read more
Segregation Returns to U.S. . . . Income Segregation
Segregation is back in the United States, thanks to the growing problem of income inequality.
Increasingly, neighborhoods in American cities are becoming segregated from one another by differences in household earnings, according to a new stud... read more
Medicaid Providers Receive Billions in Reimbursements Despite Owing Back Taxes
Tax cheats have been collecting billions of dollars from Medicaid as a result of the federal government’s failure to cut off contracts with medical providers owing the Internal Revenue Service (IRS).
The Government Accountability Office (GAO) ... read more
Bipartisan Senate Bill Would Crack Down on Pentagon Contractors
Republican Senator Tom Coburn of Oklahoma is leading a bipartisan effort to impose a stick-and-carrot method of getting the Department of Defense to clean up its books and crack down on defense contractors.
The proposed legislation would punis... read more
U.S. Has Secret Pact to Aid Syrian Rebels
Regardless of President Barack Obama’s public declarations that the U.S. will not provide arms to Syria’s rebels, the White House has approved a secret order authorizing support for those seeking to depose dictator Bashar al-Assad.
The order, ... read more
Is Michael Phelps the Greatest Olympian in History?
Because I am the president of the International Society of Olympic Historians, a lot of people have been asking me if I think Michael Phelps is the greatest athlete in Olympic history. The short answer is that he is one of the greatest, but not ... read more
When Republicans Collide: Islamaphobe Takes on Tea Partier in Tennessee
Republican voters in Tennessee’s 6th Congressional District decided this week to keep Tea Partier and Congresswoman Diane Black as their party’s nominee, even though she was accused by her GOP rival of not being anti-Muslim enough.
In the Repu... read more
Judge Tells Big Tobacco Oversight by Courts and FDA Isn’t Either/Or
Like it or not, the tobacco industry will continue being monitored and regulated by both the federal courts and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), according to the U.S. Appeals Court in Washington.
Cigarette makers filed motions to end co... read more
Contractors with Criminal Histories Fall Through Government Database Cracks
The Department of Justice has been doing a lousy job of informing other federal agencies about companies that have broken the law and are supposed to be barred from contracting work.
According to the department’s inspector general (IG), the Bu... read more
First Case of Professor Prosecuted for Accidental Death of Research Student
The prosecution of a Southern California college professor could have far-reaching effects on other universities and laboratory faculty.
Professor Patrick Harran and the University of California Regents were charged last year with three counts... read more