As soldiers stream home from Iraq and Afghanistan, the biggest charity inside the U.S. military has been stockpiling tens of millions of dollars meant to help put returning fighters back on their feet, an Associated Press investigation shows.
Between 2003 and 2007 — as many military families dealt with long war deployments and increased numbers of home foreclosures — Army Emergency Relief grew into a $345 million behemoth. During those years, the charity packed away $117 million into its own reserves while spending just $64 million on direct aid, according to an AP analysis of its tax records.
Army charity hoards millions
Nationalization: Code Word for Banker Takeover
It is now a mantra in the corporate media — the only way to fix the banking system is to “nationalize” the banks. “A touchy word has entered the public debate about the future of America’s economy.
“Simply put: Nationalizing ailing banks means the government would tell bank execs to take a hike, and then oversee taxpayer dollars as they course through the banking sector’s veins,” writes Kelley. “When all is well, perhaps after selling assets and operations to new private investors, the government then steps back and lets a newly regulated bank sector float on its way.”
Big Pharma Quietly Hikes Drug Prices 100 Percent or More
Without any fanfare, pharmaceutical companies have been raising the prices of many of their drugs by 100 percent or more, according to a study conducted by researchers from the University of Minnesota.
The researchers investigated cases in which drugs had their prices increased by 100 percent or more in a single cost adjustment, finding that drug companies had done so for 26 products in 2006.
Super Healing Foods
Everyone these days is looking for the magic pill that will help with weight loss, improve immunity, increase memory, help the heart, or fight off cancer. Unfortunately, there is no such thing. But wouldn`t it be exciting to know that these benefits can be achieved through eating superfoods that might be in your kitchen right now? Including these superfoods (foods that have a high nutrient content that have a positive effect on health) in your diet can affect your health today and for years to come.
Obama administration tries to kill e-mail case
The Obama administration, siding with former President George W. Bush, is trying to kill a lawsuit that seeks to recover what could be millions of missing White House e-mails.
Two advocacy groups suing the Executive Office of the President say that large amounts of White House e-mail documenting Bush's eight years in office may still be missing, and that the government must undertake an extensive recovery effort. They expressed disappointment that Obama's Justice Department is continuing the Bush administration's bid to get the lawsuits dismissed.
TVNL Comment: How is that for "change?"
Why so many Holocaust films now, and for whose benefit?
The near-simultaneous appearance of all these movies is to some degree a coincidence, but it throws into relief the curious fact that early 21st-century culture, in Europe and America, on screen and in books, is intensely, perhaps morbidly preoccupied with the great political trauma of the mid-20th century.
The number of Holocaust-related memoirs, novels, documentaries and feature films in the past decade or so seems to defy quantification, and their proliferation raises some uncomfortable questions. Why are there so many? Why now? And more queasily, could there be too many?
Julie Christie: ‘I feared Bush would unleash a wave of sadism - he did’
But even throughout these wilderness years, Julie Christie has never felt so dislocated from the world that she could ignore its horrors. Her campaigning record reads like a history of human rights abuses over the last 40 years.
This week she was back again highlighting Britain’s role in the alleged torture of a British resident held at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
Kucinich: Who Told SEC to "Stand Down" on Stanford Probe?
Chairman of the Domestic Policy Subcommittee, Congressman Dennis Kucinich (D-OH) today sent a letter to Ms. Mary Schapiro, Chair of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) requesting documents that could reveal which government agency told the SEC to "stand down" rather than take enforcement action against the Stanford Group in October 2006 as has been reported by the New York Times.
Recent media reports have indicated that the SEC was aware of improprieties at Stanford Financial Group as early as October 2006, but withheld action at the request of another government agency.
TVNL Comment: At the "request" or due to an "order?" Big difference, no matter how you look at it.
Psoriasis Drug Raptiva Tied to Brain Infection
The FDA today issued a public health advisory about reports of a rare brain infection in people using the psoriasis drug Raptiva.
According to the FDA, there have been three confirmed and one possible case of progressive multifocal leukoencephalopathy (PML) in people taking Raptiva; three of those people died.
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