Top Stories
Judge Rules CIA Can Withhold Info about Illegal Methods
A federal judge has backed CIA efforts to conceal information about treatment of detainees, even if the suppressed records contain details about illegal activity on the part of the intelligence agency.
U.S. District Judge Alvin Hellerstein rul... read more
Health Insurance Companies Still Fighting New Law
The fight may be over in Congress involving healthcare reform, but it is still being waged at the regulatory level in many states as insurance companies seek to include various overhead expenses under the heading “patient welfare.”
The new fed... read more
Latest to Lose Jobs…Prisoners
Federal prison officials have eliminated thousands of jobs for inmates over the past two years to help close a $65 million budget gap. Described as one of the largest cutbacks in the 75-year history of the Federal Prison Industries
(FPI), the lay... read more
Judge Temporarily Halts Destruction of Century-Old Dam in Oregon
Environmentalists have been pushing for the removal of old dams on Western rivers and streams to make it easier for salmon to migrate upstream. But a lawsuit filed in Oregon claims just the opposite—that the tearing down of the century-old Gold Ra... read more
Florida Leads Watchdog List of Unethical Candidates
Sunshine is aplenty in Florida, where candidates for Congress are getting a little light shone on them as part of CREW’s list of Crooked Candidates 2010. The watchdog group (aka Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington) decided to scou... read more
More No-Show Witnesses in Oil Rig Explosion Probe
Federal officials have had a difficult time getting BP and Transoecan witnesses to testify before hearings held in New Orleans that are designed to determine the causes of the Deepwater Horizon accident in the Gulf of Mexico.
To date, nine wi... read more
Obama Education Plan Backfires: Popular Principal Removed to Make Way for Stimulus Money
For someone who lost her job because of President Barack Obama’s education plan, Joyce Irvine is being a really good sport about her situation. But that doesn’t come as a surprise to those who know the Vermont elementary school principal who has w... read more
Only One of Three Americans Know that Bush, Not Obama, Signed Bank Bailout
America’s short-term memory troubles have been both a blessing and a curse for President Barack Obama. On the downside is the fact that only 34% of Americans seem to know that the government’s bailout of banks in 2008 was enacted under the Bush ad... read more
Hiring Revives…on Wall Street
Job opportunities are looking up these days…if you’re a broker or investment banker. While most American industries continue to offer little in the way of new employment, Wall Street is hiring.
New York securities firms have added nearly 2,00... read more
Most Americans Want Afghanistan Pullout Deadline; Congress Says No
A strong majority of Americans believe the war in Afghanistan is going badly and want Washington to establish a timetable for bringing home U.S forces. But despite negative opinions about the war among voters, Congress continues to oppose setting ... read more
Deep in the Gulf of Mexico, Natural Gas Reaches 100,000 Times Normal Level
BP’s oil disaster is threatening to choke off the oxygen in some portions of the Gulf of Mexico as a result of too much natural gas having leaked from the broken well. Scientists have found natural gas levels accumulating at a rate of 100,000 time... read more
U.S. Government Aid to Haiti: Out of Sight, Out of Mind
Two percent. That’s how much of the aid promised by the United States that so far has been given to earthquake-ravaged Haiti, according to Washington Post columnist Dana Milbank.
“Only 2 percent of promised reconstruction aid has been deliver... read more
Gay Republican Lawsuit on Gays in Military Goes to Trial
While the Obama administration continues to decide how and when to end the military’s anti-homosexual policy, the U.S. Department of Justice is defending “don’t ask, don’t tell” against a lawsuit brought by gay Republicans.
The Log Cabin Repub... read more
Obama Administration Cracks Down on Employers of Illegal Immigrants
Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) under the Obama administration is employing a quieter approach to going after illegal immigrants employed in the United States. Instead of conducting high-profile raids of factories, farms and other busine... read more
Obama Administration Caters to Big Coal by Refusing to Call Largest Coal Region a Coal Region
Tired of the cheap deal enjoyed by mining companies, environmentalists are suing the Department of the Interior over the federal designation of the nation’s largest coal-producing region.
WildEarth Guardians claims that the Powder River Basin,... read more
BP is Too Big to Punish
Despite causing the biggest oil spill in U.S. history, BP is still doing business as usual with the Department of Defense, supplying 80% of the fuel for the American military. Although most of the contracts for the fuel sales were signed before th... read more