A NEWS CO-OP IN DC SO YOU DON'T HAVE TO BE

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Sam Sacks - page 75

Sam Sacks has 859 articles published.

U.S. Formalizes Relations With Havana, Pivots Away From Covert Action Against Castro

The US and Cuba took a significant step toward normalizing diplomatic relations, one day after the man who had become the face of semi-covert US efforts to destabilize Cuba resigned. “We will end an outdated approach that for decades has failed to advance our interests,” President Obama said on Tuesday, announcing a series of actions his administration is taking to sunset Washington’s five-decades old Cuba isolation strategy. Those policies include the establishment of a US embassy in Havana, high-level exchanges between the two governments, and… Keep Reading

Hanford Nuclear Cleanup is Critically Flawed, GAO Warns

A government watchdog threw shade at the Department of Energy over its plans to clean up the Hanford nuclear site – home to one of the biggest radioactive messes in the world. The Government Accountability Office said on Tuesday that the DOE’s proposal to clean up the 500 billion gallons of waste produced by the Washington-based facility is riddled with flaws. That refuse is stored at the Manhattan Project-built center in 177 underground tanks – many of which are now leaking. The Department’s plan is… Keep Reading

Obama Trades Wall Street Volatility for Six Months of “Certainty”

On Tuesday, the White House again whispered into the wind its displeasure with the provision tucked into a government spending bill that will deregulate the derivatives market. “The White House strongly opposes it and doesn’t think it’s a good idea,” spokesperson Josh Earnest told reporters. Nevertheless he assured everyone that “once the White Has receives [the bill], the president will sign it.” “We’ll get it done in order to avoid a government shutdown,” he added. Sound reasoning, except a government shutdown was never in the… Keep Reading

FCC’S Own Data Warns Against Market Consolidation

Before Comcast and Time Warner merge in a move decried by consumer advocates, the companies will need to get approval from the Federal Communication Commission. That could be hard to obtain, in light of new data released by the FCC that undermines the case for further market consolidation. On average last year, cable television subscribers in markets with more than a single provider paid less, had a smaller rate of increase in their bills, and received more channels than subscribers in areas where there was… Keep Reading

As Airlines Hoard Cash, Senator Calls for Investigation Into the Sky Barons

Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) wants the Department of Justice to open an investigation into the nation’s airliners over rising ticket prices, but according to a government watchdog the problem is less about competition and more about corporatism. “At a time when the cost of fuel is plummeting and profits are rising, it is curious and confounding that ticket prices are sky-high and defying economic gravity,” Sen. Schumer said in a press release on Monday. At $55.91 a barrel, oil is at its lowest price since… Keep Reading

Feds Used Fear to Justify Spying, New Docs Reveal

Court documents declassified by the Department of Justice and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) show how the government relied on fear and false promises to gain a top secret court’s approval for the post-9/11 surveillance dragnet program. “[They] seek to use our own communications infrastructure and laws against us, as they secrete agents into the United States, waiting to attack at a time of their choosing,” wrote then-Attorney General Alberto Gonzales to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISC) in December 2006,… Keep Reading

Snowden Talks Reform, Torture, And Return to US

Edward Snowden popped-up via video-link from an undisclosed location in Russia on Friday to talk surveillance reform efforts in Congress, the so-called Torture Report, and his chances of returning to the US. He spoke to a CATO conference on surveillance, privacy, and civil liberties, and he said Congress is mostly taking “baby steps” toward reform and that nothing so far “really solves the problem.” “We really need to think more broadly about the kind of society we want to live in,” he said during a… Keep Reading

Justice Department Bad at Punishing Misbehaving Attorneys, GAO Report Says

The Department of Justice has come under fire for aggressively investigating whistleblowers, journalists, and internet activists like Aaron Swartz, but a government watchdog said the agency lacks concern about actual malfeasance committed by its own. The Government Accountability Office said in a report released Thursday that the department’s Office of Professional Responsibility (OPR), which collects, investigates, and punishes its misbehaving lawyers, lacks transparency and doesn’t “ensure that attorneys found to have engaged in misconduct serve the discipline imposed upon them.” The oversight agency discovered that… Keep Reading

Senators Fail to Stop NSA Power Grab

Despite rhetoric about reining in the National Security Agency, privacy-minded Senators sat on their hands this week as a provision to dramatically expand the agency’s authority to spy on Americans was quietly ushered through Congress. The new provision gives Congressional approval, for the first time, to spying activities carried out under Executive Order 12333 – a breathtakingly broad authority to conduct foreign surveillance that’s also known to collect enormous amounts of data belonging to Americans. “Congress codified the status quo, which happens to be an… Keep Reading

Living on a College Campus Makes You Less Likely to Report Rape

A special report issued Thursday by the Justice Department confirmed what is common knowledge among those who don’t think “feminist” is a derogatory term. Women—particularly those who live on college campuses—tend to report sexual assault to police at alarmingly low rates. The study, which looked at the experience of 18-24 year old women between 1995 and 2013, found that only 20 percent of sexually assaulted college students went to the police. The proportion of non-student survivors who report attacks was 32 percent. Non-students were also… Keep Reading

Watchdog Goes After Medical Debt Problem, Offers Little Relief

Millions of Americans with medical debt are being treated unfairly by credit ratings agencies, and subsequently have their livelihoods hindered, according to a government report published Thursday. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) blamed “complexity” and a “lack of transparency” for the growing prevalence of medical debt, which now accounts for more than half of all individual obligations reported to national credit ratings agencies. The bureau also found that 20 percent of those with a credit score, or 43 million Americans, have some sort of… Keep Reading

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