Friday, Nov 14th
Last update09:26:32 AM GMT
Seeking to break a deadlock on a high-profile reform bill, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid has moved to force a Senate vote on legislation to bar insider trading by lawmakers and staff.
Reid and McConnell want to move forward on the House version of the legislation. Two significant provisions were dropped by the lower chamber, angering some Democratic and Republican lawmakers in both chambers. The House also expanded the bill to cover executive branch agencies.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture sparked the ire of hydrofracking opponents Tuesday, when it reversed its plans to require rural housing loans on properties with gas drilling leases to comply with the extensive environmental review required under the National Environmental Policy Act.
Josh Fox, director of the hydrofracking documentary “Gasland,” was quick to take issue with the USDA's change of heart.
Dan Magder recently gave up a top job with private equity firm Lone Star Funds to strike out on his own and become a landlord.
He's joining a growing list of big and small investors who see fat profits to be made in renting out foreclosed homes, especially now the U.S. government is moving ahead with a trial project to sell big pools of single-family homes that Fannie Mae currently owns in some of the hardest-hit housing markets.
Today is the ninth anniversary of the devastating saturation bombing, by the US, of Baghdad, a city that was home to nearly 6 million Iraqis . This strategy, labeled SHOCK and AWE, was designed to rapidly overwhelm the Iraqis so that they could not possibly mount a defense against the terrifying might of the US military.
What followed was the illegal, immoral, and horrific invasion of Iraq, a nation that never at any time had posed a threat to the United States. The next eight years of senseless war were based on a series of lies created and repeated by the Bush/Cheney regime and its PNAC members. These lies were designed to convince the American people that Saddam Hussein was an imminent threat to their lives.
The Idaho Senate on Monday approved a measure requiring women seeking abortions to undergo an ultrasound before ending a pregnancy, joining a number of states passing ultrasound measures to discourage abortions.
The bill now heads to the state House of Representatives, where it was expected to pass. Idaho's Republican Governor, C.L. "Butch" Otter has not yet said whether he would sign the bill into law and a spokesman declined to comment on Monday.
Explosions rocked four cities across Iraq today, including a bombing near the Foreign Ministry in Baghdad where the annual Arab League summit is due to be held next week.
A total of 27 people were killed and 161 wounded in the explosions in the capital as well as in Kirkuk, Salaheddin, Karbala, Hilla and Ramadi, according to Health Ministry and police officials. The highest toll was in Karbala, where 13 people were killed and 58 others wounded, Health Ministry local spokesman Jamal Mehdi said in a telephone interview.
The fourth annual report released today Monday March 19 2012 by the UNHCR has criticized the involvement of Israel, the Palestinian Authority and the de-facto authorities in the Gaza Strip in human rights violations and abuses. The report focused on and exposed the Israeli practices against Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. The report covers the period from December 1 2010 until November 15 2011.
The fourth annual report of the Commissioner on the situation of human rights in Palestine and other occupied Arab territories ” the number of cases documented by UNHCR indicate that the IDF most often uses live ammunition against unarmed Palestinians”.
The discovery of radioactive tissue boxes at Bed, Bath & Beyond Inc. (BBBY) stores in January raised alarms among nuclear security officials and company executives over the growing global threat of contaminated scrap metal.
As U.S. and European leaders tackle the proliferation of weapons-grade uranium or plutonium in countries like Iran and North Korea, industries are confronting the impact of loose nuclear material in an international scrap-metal market worth at least $140 billion, according to the Brussels-based Bureau of International Recycling. Radioactive items used to power medical, military and industrial hardware are melted down and used in goods, driving up company costs as they withdraw tainted products and threatening the public’s health.
“If the American economic system is set up to reward risk takers, what happens when the majority of Americans are no longer willing to take risks?” said David Bowers, managing director of Absolute Strategy Research, a London-based investment consultancy that commissioned the research.
Fairness was the biggest perceived flaw in the economic model – only 20 per cent of Americans said it “distributes wealth and income fairly”. Majorities said the US system did not provide equal opportunities for everyone or reward people for their hard work and skill.
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