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Sam Knight - page 53

Sam Knight has 859 articles published.

Judge Dismisses Suit Against Credit Card Giants Who Cut Off Wikileaks After Lawmakers’ Pleas

A federal judge in Northern Virginia ruled that a foreign company cannot sue MasterCard and Visa for violations of antitrust laws simply because high-ranking lawmakers in 2010 and 2011 successfully urged them to cut off the flow of money to Wikileaks. Alexandria District Judge Gerald Bruce Lee last week said allegations made by DataCell, an Icelandic tech firm, had no standing under the Sherman Act because the companies did not move in concert to restrain marketplace competition. Lee ruled that the conspiracy described by the plaintiffs… Keep Reading

Senate to Investigate T.P.P. Influence on “Heartless” State Human Trafficking Report

The Senate Foreign Relations Committee is investigating the State Department to probe the impact of political influence on this year’s annual human trafficking report. Senior Republican and Democratic members of the committee made plans for the inquiry publicly at a hearing on Thursday. They called the department’s 2015 Trafficking in Persons report into disrepute, and stressed concerns that Malaysia benefited from a questionably favorable grade specifically to smooth the passage of the Trans-Pacific Partnership. Citing a Reuters article published Monday which chronicled unprecedented amounts of meddling by… Keep Reading

S.E.C. Republican: Pay Ratio Rule “Saul Alinskyan”

Ignorance isn’t only bliss: it’s maintaining the integrity of financial capitalism, according to a Republican member of the Securities and Exchange Commission. In casting a vote against the final CEO pay ratio disclosure rule approved by the SEC on Wednesday, Commissioner Michael Piwowar said the regulation “unambiguously harms investors” and described the push for it as “no surprise to anyone familiar with the use of Saul Alinskyan tactics by Big Labor and their political allies.” “Nearly fifteen years ago, Big Labor supporters published a book… Keep Reading

Obama: G.O.P. Iran Policy Would Bring Global Economic, Military Catastrophe

President Obama claimed that worldwide economic disruptions could occur if Congress rejects the Iran deal and the US unilaterally imposes penalties on Tehran for maintaining a nuclear program. Laying out his case for the agreement while giving a speech at American University in Washington, Obama described the accord as being backed by a global sanctions regime that will start “unraveling” if the US goes it alone. A solo attempt to snuff out widely-accepted energy programs only in Iran, the President said, could force the US government “to cut off countries… Keep Reading

Warren: Education Department “May Have Misled The Public” On Student Lender Probe

Democratic senators hit out at the Department of Education for exonerating a suspect student loan giant that does billions in business with the federal government. Sens. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) and Patty Murray (D-Wash.) on Tuesday called the investigation that led to the department’s rosy findings on Navient “quite extraordinary,” noting its scope paled in comparison to prior federal probes of the company that last year led to heavy fines and refunds. The trio made the charges in a letter to the department’s… Keep Reading

War on Drugs Casualties Mount: More State Prison Deaths Than Ever in 2013

More state prisoners died in the US two years ago than ever before, according to an annual Justice Department report released Tuesday. The Bureau of Justice Statistics study found that 3,479 inmates died in state penitentiaries in 2013—a four percent year-over-year increase that pushed the mortality rate up to an all-time high of 274 per 100,000. Driving the increase was the ongoing aging of the prison population caused by the War on Drugs. The BJS study found that those aged 55 and older accounted for 56.5… Keep Reading

China Dodges Worst Human Trafficking Grade Amid State Dept. Meddling “Not Previously Known”

China was spared the worst rating in the State Department’s annual report on human trafficking thanks to the efforts of political appointees. Career experts working on the paper recommended that the largest exporter of commodities to the US be downgraded to “Tier 3,” but they were ignored by “senior American diplomats,” according to a report published Monday night by Reuters. The analysis was one of fourteen on “strategically important countries” influenced by administration officials, the wire service noted. While disputes are common between the nominally independent… Keep Reading

Group Fighting Admin for Arctic Drilling Info Amid Obama’s “Most Important Step” on Climate Change

President Obama this week is expected to unveil a historic green initiative by announcing Monday that his administration will take new steps to restrict power plants’ carbon emissions. But the president’s status as a friend of the environment is being challenged by a non-profit that has been stonewalled in its bid for information about another historic move—the administration’s decision to allow oil companies to drill in the Arctic. The group, Public Environment Employees for Responsibility, filed litigation last week to compel an office within the Department… Keep Reading

Actually, The T.P.P. Would Screw Tobacco Companies, According to Thom Tillis

Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.) on Thursday said that the US Trade Representative is currently working to enshrine “discriminary [sic] treatment of tobacco” in the Trans Pacific Partnership—a claim that runs counter to the myriad lawmakers and public interest groups who have said the TPP will undermine anti-smoking initiatives. The senator from the tobacco-producing state leveled the charge on the floor of the Senate on Thursday in a speech that painted some of America’s most notorious corporate citizens as an oppressed class. “It’s ironic that the… Keep Reading

Special Watchdog Says Afghans Even Less Ready to Lead, as Obama Withdrawal Plan Under Attack

Key Afghan institutions became less competent throughout this year, a US government watchdog warned on Thursday. Afghan National Defense and Security Forces are “less capable than last quarter,” the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction noted in a regular report. It also remarked that The Pentagon has downgraded its outlook on the expected capabilities of the Afghan Ministries of Interior and Defense by the end of next year. The assessment has come not long after prominent American military officials suggested that President Obama will strongly… Keep Reading

“Why Aren’t We Seeing Riots in The Streets?” U.S. Senator Thinks Debt Is Causing Disturbances in Greece, Should Cause Them Here

A United States Senator suggested on Wednesday that high levels of sovereign debt should be causing tumult in the US, advancing a highly questionable theory about the ongoing economic crisis in Greece. Touting a graph showing debt per capita to be higher in the US than it is in Greece, Senate Foreign Relations subcommittee chair Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) asked at a hearing why there hasn’t been unrest and instability at home comparable to that which has gripped the embattled Mediterranean country. “How we are getting… Keep Reading

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