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

Author

Sam Sacks - page 77

Sam Sacks has 859 articles published.

With Help of CBO, Right Wing Think Tank Downplays Climate Change

A right wing think tank accused climate change activists of pushing a “disastrous” agenda, one week after receiving a briefing from a non-partisan government agency that whitewashed the economic impacts of a rapidly warming planet. The Hoover Institute, a Stanford University think tank, released a report this week that lent credence to science denialism and promoted a “balanced approach” to climate change. It decried “global-warming alarmists” who want “to precipitously abort our use of fossil fuels.” “Doing so,” the report claims, “would be economically disastrous”… Keep Reading

DOJ Gave Cleveland Police Millions While Finding Civil Rights Abuses

The Justice Department gave millions of dollars in grant money to the Cleveland police while it was investigating the force for repeated civil rights abuses. The department’s Civil Rights Division announced Thursday that it discovered the city’s police repeatedly “using unreasonable force in violation of the Fourth Amendment” after conducting a two-year long investigation. But as the Justice Department was compiling an exhaustive list of the cops’ abuses, it was funneling lucrative grant money into the force’s coffers. In September, the Cleveland Division of Police… Keep Reading

Spy IG Informed White House of Potential Privacy Abuse

Over the span of six months between 2013 and 2014, the intelligence community’s inspector general conducted more than two-dozen investigations and informed the White House that it’s looking into claims about a spying database that “improperly included US persons’ data.” The probe was revealed by a Freedom of Information Act request filed by the Federation of American Scientists’ Steven Aftergood. Aftergood’s query compelled the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) to hand over a redacted semi-annual report documenting the inspector general’s activities between… Keep Reading

Friday Deadline Looms for NSA’s Phone Dragnet

The National Security Agency’s warrantless telephone metadata collection will end tomorrow if President Obama declines to reauthorize the program. The administration must seek approval from the top secret Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court every 90 days to continue the bulk call record collection. The last court order was issued on Sept. 11. Since the program was revealed last June by journalists working with former NSA contractor Edward Snowden, it has sparked a debate across the country about the government’s surveillance capabilities. A federal judge last December… Keep Reading

NFL Produces Rare Episode of Corporate Indignation from Lawmakers

Congress took a stand on Friday against corporations abusing their government benefits and violating the public trust. Well, it took a stand against one corporation, anyway. They “receive tremendous assistance, huge benefits from the Congress,” said Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) during a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing. “But that doesn’t give them the right to abuse this privilege,” he added. “The government certainly shouldn’t endorse abusive behavior. The public benefits come with a public trust.” Senator John McCain, was so fed up with corporate abuse, he… Keep Reading

Top Nuclear Regulator “in Violation of the Law,” Says US Senator

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission was blasted by members of the Senate environment committee for failing to implement safety recommendations made after the Fukushima meltdown. The NRC leader was even accused by Senators of breaking the law. “More has to be done,” Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.), the committee chair, told the NRC commissioners testifying at Wednesday’s hearing. At one point, Boxer had her staff hold up a large chart listing each of the 12 safety recommendations proposed by the NRC itself in 2011, after an earthquake… Keep Reading

Senate Negotiates Away Guantanamo Closure Provision

When the House and Senate Armed Services Committees released their new defense spending authorization bill this week, it was missing a key provision on closing the military prison in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. In hammering out the agreement, lawmakers stripped out a measure that would have given President Obama the authority to transfer Guantanamo prisoners to the United States as long as it was in-line with US national security interests and addressed public safety risks. Senate Armed Services Chairman Carl Levin (D-Mich.), who was responsible for… Keep Reading

GAO Warns of Threat to Internet, FCC Balks

Companies are likely to change the way their customers pay for internet service in the future, which could hinder access, innovation and network security, the Government Accountability Office warned on Tuesday. The GAO criticized the FCC for a “lack of understanding” on the issue, and said that regulatory inaction could harm the public. What has the GAO concerned is a move by internet service providers to change the way it bills to usage-based pricing or UBP. While most mobile internet consumers face usage based pricing… Keep Reading

GOP Rep Optimistic About TPP Fast Track; Calls Doubters “Dead Wrong”

Rep. Kevin Brady (R-Texas) refuted a recent Huffington Post story alleging that infighting within the Republican Party could derail a sweeping trade deal known as the Trans-Pacific Partnership, or TPP. “I think they’re dead wrong,” Rep. Brady said on C-SPAN’s Washington Journal on Wednesday. “We’re going to have very strong support among House and Senate Republicans for this.” He claimed that it’s up to the president to show leadership and get Democrats on board. White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest told reporters on Wednesday that… Keep Reading

With Guantanamo, Obama Exposes His War Power Hypocrisy

The doctrinaires of the current administration have led us to believe that the president’s war powers stretch across all oceans and lands with one exception: a tiny little enclave in Cuba known as Guantanamo Bay, which hosts the world’s most notorious and expensive prison. This week, more US bombs landed in Syria. Thirty airstrikes hit the city of Raqaa on Monday night alone, according to the London-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. As of mid-November, the US military had already launched more than 1,000 strikes… Keep Reading

Afghanistan: Another Contractor State Boondoggle

Over $125 million in State Department funds to contractors assisting the US mission in Afghanistan is lost and might never be recovered. An Inspector General report published Monday found that State failed to properly oversee the deals because it didn’t follow its own guidelines. “The Department did not consistently meet Federal and Department contract management and closeout requirements,” the study concluded, referring to the avalanche of deals cut to rebuild Afghanistan. A third of contract files reviewed were lost or destroyed. Among the contract files… Keep Reading

1 … 75 76 77 78 79
Go to Top