Top Stories
Biracial Babies on the Rise
More Americans had biracial children last decade compared to the previous 10-year period, according to statistics released by the U.S. Census Bureau.
Of the 3.5 million children born in 2009, about 7% were of two or more races. At the end of t... read more
Treasury Dept. Fails to Implement Two-Thirds of Post-Bailout Recommendations
When the George W. Bush administration bailed out Wall Street four years ago, it created the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) and a special inspector general (SIGTARP) to advise the Department of the Treasury on the rescue. It turns out, thoug... read more
Obama Gives Up Fight to Restrict Child Labor on Non-Family Farms
Fourteen-year-old best friends Jade Garza and Hannah Kendall of Sterling, Illinois, looking forward to starting high school, were just trying to earn some money by working for Monsanto during the summer of 2011, when they were electrocuted in a fa... read more
House of Representatives Considering Bill to Weaken Oversight of Nuclear Weapons Labs
Just eight days after the leak of a government report detailing waste and other problems at the Department of Energy (DOE)’s nuclear weapons labs, the House Armed Services Subcommittee on Strategic Forces approved legislation that would actually w... read more
Is New Cyber Security Bill (CISPA) An End-Run around Privacy Restrictions?
Legislation intended to combat cyber threats may itself become a threat to civil liberties. On Thursday, the House of Representatives passed the Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act (CISPA) by a vote of 248 to 168.
The act would allow... read more
Big Banks Take Aim at Low-Income Americans with Hidden Fees
Restricted from gouging many of its middle-class customers because of the Dodd-Frank financial reform law, banks have focused on hitting low-income Americans with new, exorbitant fees.
Financial institutions are taking advantage of customers w... read more
Obama Has Authoritarian Powers Bush Could Only Dream Of
Barack Obama campaigned in 2008 as a civil libertarian, a former professor of Constitutional Law who promised to close the military prison at Guantánamo, Cuba, undo the unconstitutional excesses of the Bush administration’s “War on Terror” and sto... read more
Net Migration from Mexico to U.S. Comes to a Halt
The net flow of immigrants from Mexico to the United States has ended, with just as many, if not more, people now heading south than north.
From 2005 to 2010, about 1.4 million Mexicans moved from the U.S. to Mexico. This total was twice the n... read more
In Landmark Ruling, Death Penalty Cancelled Because of Racial Bias
Using a new law intended to end racial discrimination in sentencing, a judge in North Carolina threw out the death sentence of an African-American man convicted of murder 18 years ago.
Judge Greg Weeks of Cumberland County Superior Court concl... read more
Doug and Jeff v. Goliath: County Clerks Sue Big Banks for Avoiding Mortgage Recording Fees
Doug Welborn, state district court clerk of Baton Rouge, and Jeff L. Thigpen, register of deeds in Guilford County, North Carolina, are doing what millions of recession-weary Americans wish they could do: they are suing large banks and mortgage co... read more
Here’s Who’s Buying Drones: Are Local Cops Watching You from the Sky?
Are the police using unmanned drones, like those used against terrorists in places like Pakistan and Yemen, to conduct surveillance of your community from the sky? Since 2006, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has issued about 700 to 750 “... read more
Hollywood Studios Lose World’s First Major Ruling on Downloading of Copyrighted Material
Film industry executives lost their first major international court case involving piracy and copyright infringement, when Australia’s highest court unanimously ruled against them.
The Australian Federation Against Copyright Theft (AFACT), rep... read more
Sunday Morning Interview Subjects 70% Republican, even though Only 29% of Americans Are
Gauging from the partisan guests appearing on Sunday morning talk shows, it would seem the country has gone Republican—a political party with which less than 30% of Americans identify.
An eight-month study (June 2011 through February 2012) of ... read more
Obama Administration Exempts 85% of Energy Derivatives Traders from Regulation
On Wednesday, the Obama administration dramatically scaled back its oversight of financial institutions that deal in the $700 trillion derivatives market.
Following the passage of the Dodd-Frank reform law, the Securities and Exchange Commissi... read more
Senate Republicans Block Debate on Popular Proposal to Raise Taxes of Super-Rich
Senate Republicans this week blocked the passage of President Barack Obama’s plan for raising taxes on the wealthy, even though polls show a majority of GOP respondents support such legislation.
The “Paying a Fair Share Act” (aka the Buffett R... read more
Treasury Dept. Wording Could Exclude Millions from Health Care Benefits
As many as four million Americans could wind up without health care benefits if a new federal rule is implemented as interpreted by the Treasury Department, warned consumer advocates, doctors and Democratic lawmakers.
Under the healthcare refo... read more