In the latest escalation of an increasingly bitter labor battle, Verizon Communications Inc. has been telling union members it will suspend basic health-insurance and medical benefits on Aug. 31 for all workers still on strike at that time.
Verizon issued the threat in letters sent to 45,000 workers, who walked off the job to protest proposed cuts to their benefits that the telecommunications company says are necessary to stem a sales decline in its traditional wireline business.
Verizon to suspend basic health-insurance and medical benefits for strikers
Oxygen May Have Existed Undersea 300 Million Years Before Its Atmosphere Debut: MIT Scientists
Oxygen may have been present on Earth 300 million years before it was breathed into the atmosphere, scientists concluded from a new research.
Researchers from Massachusetts Institute of Technology discovered evidence that small aerobic organisms could have evolved to survive on extremely low levels of the gas in undersea "oxygen oases," keeping a low profile in the oceans before its debut in the atmosphere.
Must-Reads: The Late, Great Molly Ivins on Rick Perry
As Texas Gov. Rick Perry embarks on his Obama-bashing, evangelical-courting, tea party-outdoing campaign for the presidency, we miss Molly Ivins more than ever.
The late and celebrated liberal columnist was known as a writer of sparkling political commentary infused with a trenchant wit and copious shots of zero-bullshit humor. She was the consummate Texan, a ferocious populist critic of the American right wing, and a sorely missed Mother Jones contributor. Here's the C-SPAN footage of Ivins speaking at a Mother Jones fundraising event in 1992:
For first time, foreign worker's child born and educated in Israel to be deported
In an unprecedented move, the Interior Ministry announced Tuesday that it intends on deporting a four-year-old girl, the daughter of a foreign worker, who was born and educated in Israel.
Israel's Population and Immigration Authority on Tuesday arrested the girl and her mother, originally from the Philippines, who are currently in a holding facility in Ben-Gurion International Airport, ahead of their deportation from the country.
Drug shortages set to reach record levels
Hospitals are running out of drugs used in everything from cancer to surgery, anesthesia and intravenous feeding, according to the Food and Drug Administration.
So far this year, 180 drugs have been in short supply. Virtually all U.S. hospitals say they've been affected, and 82% say the problem has delayed care for patients, says the American Hospital Association.
Although drugmakers say they're doing everything they can to relieve the shortages, some health care experts say they see no end in sight.
$360M lost to insurgents, criminals in Afghanistan
The U.S. military estimates that $360 million spent on combat support and reconstruction contracts in Afghanistan has ended up in the hands of people the American-led coalition has battled for nearly a decade: the Taliban, criminals and local power brokers with ties to both, The Associated Press has learned.
The losses, measured over the past year by a special task force assembled by Gen. David Petraeus, underscore the challenges the U.S. and its international partners face in overcoming corruption in Afghanistan. A central part of the Obama administration's strategy has been to award U.S.-financed contracts to Afghan businesses to help improve quality of life and stoke the country's economy.
True cost of Afghan, Iraq wars is anyone's guess
When congressional cost-cutters meet later this year to decide on trimming the federal budget, the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq could represent juicy targets. But how much do the wars actually cost the U.S. taxpayer? Nobody really knows.
Yes, Congress has allotted $1.3 trillion for war spending through fiscal year 2011 just to the Defense Department. There are long Pentagon spreadsheets that outline how much of that was spent on personnel, transportation, fuel and other costs. In a recent speech, President Barack Obama assigned the wars a $1 trillion price tag.
US Releases CIA Documents on Bay of Pigs Invasion
Newly declassified U.S. documents show a CIA operative accidentally fired on friendly pilots during the 1961 Bay of Pigs invasion of Cuba.
The documents also show U.S. officials authorized limited use of napalm on military targets and to protect the invasion's beachhead area.
21 Books The Ruling Elite Doesn't Want You to Read
The sole purpose of COINTELPRO was to destroy individuals and groups perceived as threats to the status quo in the United States. COINTELPRO was “officially” ended in 1971—although it never really ended. After the 911 attacks, the government went at it again, but this time with a scared and more dumbed-down complicit public. Exactly forty-six days after the towers came crumbing down Bush signed the USA Patriot Act. This virtually eliminated restrictions on law enforcement agencies' ability to search telephone, e-mail communications, medical, financial, and other records. What we used to consider illegal eavesdropping is now reclassified as something else -- an emergency. According to an official DOJ report, the use of “emergency”, warrantless requests to ISPs for customer communications content has skyrocketed over 400% in a single year. No outrage, no accountability. The majority of people are now more concerned about how to feed their families; civil liberties will just have to take a back seat until things improve.
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