Headlines for May 20, 201020 May 2010BP Oil Spill Enters Loop Current as Leak Estimate Rises, Dissident Dems Help Stall Financial Reform Bill, Dodd Abandons Effort to Weaken Derivatives Measure, Anti-Reform Derivatives Lobbyists Outnumber Pro-Reformers 11 to 1, Foreclosures, Missed Payments at Record Levels, Top Scientific Body Endorses Carbon Tax, Mothers of Jailed US Hikers Arrive in Iran, WikiLeaks Founder Has Passport Revoked in Australia, Activist for Displaced Slain in Colombia, Penn Urges Haiti Aid, Haitian Protesters Call for Prval’s Resignation, Obama Hosts Caldern, Criticizes Arizona Law, Second-Grader Cites Mother’s Plight in Questioning First Lady on Deportation, GOP Senate Nominee Paul Opposes Enforcing Civil Rights Act at Private Businesses
Family of Slain 7-Year-Old Aiyana Jones Files Lawsuit Against Detroit Police19 May 2010In Detroit, a funeral will be held on Saturday for Aiyana Jones, the seven-year-old girl who was shot dead by police while she was sleeping in her own home. On Tuesday, a lawyer for the Jones family filed a pair of lawsuits against the Detroit police for the killing that has sparked outrage in the Motor City. The attorney, Geoffrey Fieger, says video of the incident shows police opened fire before they had entered the house. We speak to Ron Scott of the Detroit Coalition Against Police Brutality and the Rev. Jesse Jackson. [includes rush transcript]
In “Mini-Super Tuesday” Primaries, Defeats for Party Establishments on Both Sides of the Aisle19 May 2010For Democrats, thirty-year Senate veteran Arlen Specter lost his bid for reelection in Pennsylvania, while Arkansas Senator Blanche Lincoln now faces a runoff vote against Lieutenant Governor Bill Halter. In Kentucky, Tea Party candidate Rand Paul easily beat Secretary of State Trey Grayson in the state’s Republican race. We hear from Katrina vanden Heuvel of The Nation magazine, the Reverend Jesse Jackson of the Rainbow/PUSH Coalition, Alexis Simendinger of the National Journal, and Will Bunch of the Philadelphia Daily News. [includes rush transcript]
Headlines for May 19, 201019 May 2010Specter Loses Penn. Democratic Primary, Oil from BP Disaster Reaching Louisiana Marshes, Footage Undermines BP Claims on Containing Oil, GOP Blocks Proposal to Raise Oil Spill Liability, Violence Erupts After Thai Military Raid on Red Shirts, US Submits Draft Proposal on Iran Sanctions, Taliban Fighters Attack NATO Base; US Toll Passes 1,000, 3 Arizona Protesters Face Deportation, Dodd Proposes Weaker Derivatives Provision, Protesters Rally at NY Offices of JPMorgan Chase, GOP Rep. Souder Resigns over Extramarital Affair, Anti-Mountaintop Removal Activists Held on $100,000 Bail
In “Mini-Super Tuesday” Primaries, Defeats for Party Establishments on Both Sides of the Aisle19 May 2010For Democrats, thirty-year Senate veteran Arlen Specter lost his bid for reelection in Pennsylvania, while Arkansas Senator Blanche Lincoln now faces a runoff vote against Lieutenant Governor Bill Halter. In Kentucky, Tea Party candidate Rand Paul easily beat Secretary of State Trey Grayson in the state’s Republican race. We hear from Katrina vanden Heuvel of The Nation magazine, the Reverend Jesse Jackson of the Rainbow/PUSH Coalition, Alexis Simendinger of the National Journal, and Will Bunch of the Philadelphia Daily News. [includes rush transcript]
Family of Slain 7-Year-Old Aiyana Jones Files Lawsuit Against Detroit Police19 May 2010In Detroit, a funeral will be held on Saturday for Aiyana Jones, the seven-year-old girl who was shot dead by police while she was sleeping in her own home. On Tuesday, a lawyer for the Jones family filed a pair of lawsuits against the Detroit police for the killing that has sparked outrage in the Motor City. The attorney, Geoffrey Fieger, says video of the incident shows police opened fire before they had entered the house. We speak to Ron Scott of the Detroit Coalition Against Police Brutality and the Rev. Jesse Jackson.
Headlines for May 19, 201019 May 2010Specter Loses Penn. Democratic Primary, Oil from BP Disaster Reaching Louisiana Marshes, Footage Undermines BP Claims on Containing Oil, GOP Blocks Proposal to Raise Oil Spill Liability, Violence Erupts After Thai Military Raid on Red Shirts, US Submits Draft Proposal on Iran Sanctions, Taliban Fighters Attack NATO Base; US Toll Passes 1,000, 3 Arizona Protesters Face Deportation, Dodd Proposes Weaker Derivatives Provision, Protesters Rally at NY Offices of JPMorgan Chase, GOP Rep. Souder Resigns over Extramarital Affair, Anti-Mountaintop Removal Activists Held on $100,000 Bail
Yo Soy El Army: US Military Targets Latinos with Extensive Recruitment Campaign18 May 2010In addition to the racial profiling encouraged by Arizona?s controversial anti-immigrant law, the Hispanic community in this country is the target of a different kind of profiling, as well: the military?s targeting of Latino recruits. We get a report from independent media activist and community organizer Marco Amador of Producciones Cimarrn and the Center for Community Communications and the Big Noise media collective. [includes rush transcript]
Yo Soy El Army: US Military Targets Latinos with Extensive Recruitment Campaign18 May 2010In addition to the racial profiling encouraged by Arizona?s controversial anti-immigrant law, the Hispanic community in this country is the target of a different kind of profiling, as well: the military?s targeting of Latino recruits. We get a report from independent media activist and community organizer Marco Amador of Producciones Cimarrn and the Center for Community Communications and the Big Noise media collective.
On “Mini-Super Tuesday,” 3 Senate Primaries Could Mark Bellwether for Midterm Elections18 May 2010It’s Mini-Super Tuesday, the biggest primary day of the 2010 election cycle. All eyes are on three key Senate primaries: Democratic incumbent Arlen Specter vs. Congress member Joe Sestak in Pennsylvania; two-term Democratic incumbent Blanche Lincoln vs. Lieutenant Governor Bill Halter in Arkansas; and on the Republican side, Secretary of State Trey Grayson vs. political newcomer Rand Paul in Kentucky. We speak to leading pollster Nate Silver of the polling analyst site FiveThirtyEight.com. [includes rush transcript]
Debating the Crisis in Thailand: Is Red Shirt Movement a Genuine Grassroots Struggle, or Front for Ousted Ex-PM, Billionaire Tycoon?18 May 2010In Thailand, the government has rejected an offer by anti-government protesters to enter talks after a bloody week in Bangkok that has left at least thirty-eight protesters dead. Some fear the standoff could lead to an undeclared civil war. The protesters are mostly rural and urban poor who are part of a group called the UDD, the United Front for Democracy Against Dictatorship, more commonly known as the Red Shirts. We host a debate between Giles Ji Ungpakorn, a Thai dissident living in exile in Britain who supports the Red Shirt movement; and Philip Cunningham, a freelance journalist who has covered Asia for over twenty years.
Headlines for May 18, 201018 May 2010Tar Balls in Florida Keys, Oil Plumes Raise Fears of Wider Spill, MMS Official Steps Down, 5 US Troops Among 18 Killed in Afghan Bombing, Supreme Court Issues Rulings on Teen Sentencing, Jailing Sex Offenders, US Downplays Iran Deal, Vows Continued Sanctions Effort, Study: Pentagon Falsely Claimed Missile System Success, Attorney: Video Contradicts Police Claim in Home Raid Killing of 7-Year-Old, Staffers at Rhode Island Public School to Keep Jobs, Civil Rights Groups File Suit over Arizona Immigration Law, 3 Undocumented Immigrants Risk Deportation in Protest for DREAM Act, Following Boycott Calls, Elvis Costello Cancels Israel Concerts, Barred by Israel, Chomsky to Deliver West Bank Lecture by Video Feed, Mothers of Jailed US Hikers Head to Iran, Report: Blumenthal Falsely Claimed to Have Served in Vietnam
Student Strike at University of Puerto Rico Enters 28th Day17 May 2010In Puerto Rico, an ongoing strike by students at the University of Puerto Rico is coming to a head. Riot police have surrounded the main gates of the university’s main campus and are trying to break the strike by denying food and water to students who have occupied the campus inside. The strike began nearly four weeks ago in response to budget cuts at the university of more than $100 million. On Thursday, a mass assembly of more than 3,000 students voted overwhelmingly to continue the strike. The next day, riot police seized control of the main campus gates. We go now to Puerto Rico, inside the occupied campus at the university.
Afghans Protest Deadly Nighttime Raid: “If the Americans Do This Again, We Are Ready to Shed Our Blood Fighting Them”17 May 2010Mourners continued to gather on Saturday in the small farming village of Koshkaky, in eastern Afghanistan’s Nangarhar province, where an early Friday morning raid by US and Afghan Special Forces left eight people dead. The military issued a statement saying that their forces came under attack, and in the firefight a Taliban subcommander and seven militants were killed. They reported that no civilians were harmed. But residents here tell a different story. Independent journalist Rick Rowley of Big Noise Films was at the scene and filed this report. [includes rush transcript]
Denied Entry: Israel Blocks Noam Chomsky from Entering West Bank to Deliver Speech17 May 2010On Sunday afternoon, Noam Chomsky was stopped by Israeli border guards at the Allenby Bridge border crossing from Jordan. After over three hours of questioning, Chomsky’s passport was stamped with “Denied Entry.” He was scheduled to deliver a lecture at Bir Zeit University near Ramallah and was scheduled to meet with Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad. No reason was initially given for the decision, but the Interior Ministry later told Israeli newspaper Ha’aretz that officials were now trying to get clearance from the Israel Defense Forces. Noam Chomsky joins us now from Amman, Jordan. [includes rush transcript]
Headlines for May 17, 201017 May 2010Iran-Turkey Nuclear Fuel Deal Reached, 35 Die in Thailand in Bangkok Clashes, BP Works to Contain Oil Spill, Large Oil Plumes Found in Gulf of Mexico, Obama Calls Testimony of Oil Execs “A Ridiculous Spectacle”, Israel Blocks Noam Chomsky from Entering West Bank, Military Running Private Spy Network in Afghanistan and Pakistan, Detroit Police Kill 7-Year-Old Girl in Her Own Home, Euro Hits Four-Year Low, 20 Killed in Attack on Somali Parliament, Spanish Judge Garzn Suspended over Franco Probe, Report Blames Sri Lankan Military on Mass Slaughter, Episcopal Church Ordains Lesbian Bishop, Massey Energy Facing Criminal Probe, First Arab American Wins Miss USA 2010 Pageant
40 Years Ago: Police Kill Two Students at Jackson State in Mississippi, Ten Days After Kent State Killings14 May 2010Four decades ago, on May 4, 1970, four students were killed at Kent State University when National Guardsmen opened fire on hundreds of unarmed students at an on-campus antiwar rally. The killings received national media attention and are still remembered forty years later across the country. But the media has largely forgotten what happened just ten days after the Kent State shootings. On May 14, 1970, local and state police opened fire on a group of students at the predominantly black Jackson State College in Mississippi. In a twenty-eight-second barrage of gunfire, police fired hundreds of rounds into the crowd. Two were killed and a dozen injured. We speak with Gene Young, a former student at Jackson State who witnessed the shooting. [includes rush transcript – partial]
Arizona Students Protest New Law Banning Ethnic Studies Classes14 May 2010Just three weeks after signing a highly controversial anti-immigrant bill that orders police officers to stop and interrogate anyone they suspect is an undocumented immigrant, Arizona Governor Jan Brewer has signed a new law banning ethnic studies in Arizona public schools. The law could shut down a popular Mexican American studies program in the Tucson school district. It will also affect specialized courses in African American and Native American studies. In response, students have taken to the streets to voice their opposition to the bill. On Wednesday, fifteen people, most of them students, were arrested protesting the law at the state offices of education in Tucson. [includes rush transcript]
Headlines for May 14, 201014 May 2010Scientist: 70,000 Barrels of Oil May Be Leaking Every Day in Gulf, Sen. Murkowski Blocks Effort to Increase Liability Cap for Oil Firms, Senators Propose Permanent Ban on Offshore Drilling in Pacific, Interior Dept. Sued over Offshore Drilling Permitting Process, Three Pakistani Men Detained in Times Square Bombing Probe, Report: Defense Intelligence Agency Running Secret Prison at Bagram, War in Afghanistan War Now More Costly than Iraq, NATO Accused of Killing Civilians in Nighttime Raid, Thai Troops Open Fire on Anti-Government Protesters, Protests in Ecuador Force Delay in Vote on Controversial Water Bill, EPA Unveils Rules to Regulate Greenhouse Gas Emissions, 8 Arrested in NYC Protesting Obama’s AIDS Policies, Hip-Hop Artist Pitbull Cancels Phoenix Concert
Probe Uncovers Strip Searches, Chains and Racism at California Prisons13 May 2010In California, a controversy is escalating over claims of abusive and racist treatment in the state prison system. Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and state senate leaders announced this week they are backing a full-scale investigation of alleged racism and cruelty by guards at the High Desert State Prison in Susanville. Officials said the move came in response to a two-part expos published Sunday and Monday by the Sacramento Bee. The Bee investigation found evidence of brutality, cruelty and corruption by correctional officers at a special behavior modification unit at the prison. Prisoners describe strip-searches in a snow-covered exercise yard, as well as guards who assaulted prisoners, tried to provoke attacks between inmates, and spread human excrement on cell doors. Charles Piller is the investigative reporter at the Sacramento Bee who broke the story. [includes rush transcript]
Greenpeace v. Center for American Progress: A Debate on the Kerry-Lieberman Climate Bill13 May 2010After many months of debate and delay, on Wednesday Senators John Kerry and Joe Lieberman unveiled a 987-page draft of a climate and energy bill that aims to cut emissions, reduce oil imports, and create energy-related jobs. President Obama welcomed the bill in a statement noting that the massive oil leak in the Gulf of Mexico provided another reason to “redouble our efforts to reform our nation?s energy policies.” But several environmental groups have criticized the legislation. We speak with Phil Radford of Greenpeace USA and Joseph Romm of the Center for American Progress’s blog ClimateProgress.org. [includes rush transcript]
25 Years Ago: Philadelphia Police Bombs MOVE Headquarters Killing 11, Destroying 65 Homes13 May 2010Today marks the twenty-fifth anniversary of a massive police operation in Philadelphia that culminated in the helicopter bombing of the headquarters of a radical group known as MOVE. The fire from the attack killed six adults and five children and destroyed sixty-five homes. Despite two grand jury investigations and a commission finding that top officials were grossly negligent, no one from city government was criminally charged. MOVE was a Philadelphia-based radical movement that was dedicated to black liberation and a back-to-nature lifestyle. It was founded by John Africa, and all its members took on the surname Africa. We hear from Mumia Abu-Jamal and speak with Ramona Africa, the only adult survivor of the bombing.
Headlines for May 13, 201013 May 2010Federal Criminal Probe of Wall Street Banks Expands, New York Probes Eight Banks over Duping Ratings Agencies, Sen. Dorgan Criticizes Efforts to Reform Wall Street, Report: Owner of Oil Rig Seeks to Limit Liability to $27M, BP Releases 30-Second Video of Oil Spill, Obama Addresses Rise of Civilian Casualties in Afghanistan, Withdrawal of US Combat Troops from Iraq Delayed, Spanish Prosecutor Seeks Arrest of 13 CIA Agents in Rendition Case, Obama Admin Urges Court to Reject Maher Arar Lawsuit, Ex-Bush Admin Attorney Advises Arizona Offices on Detecting Immigrants, 15 Arrested in Tucson Protesting Arizona Law Banning Ethnic Studies, Anti-Gay Activist Resigns Post After Holiday with Male Escort, Laura Bush Voices Support for Gay Marriage and Abortion Rights, Maryland Law Places Restrictions on Military Recruiters, Record 575,000 Stopped & Frisked in NYC in 2009
Glenn Greenwald v. Lawrence Lessig: A Debate on Elena Kagan’s Supreme Court Nomination12 May 2010If confirmed, the fifty-year-old Elena Kagan would be the Court?s youngest member. She would become the fourth female Supreme Court justice in US history and the third on the Court?s current bench. She would also be the first justice in nearly four decades without any prior judicial experience. Kagan’s nomination has divided progressives in part because so little is known about her judicial views. Her nomination sparked a heated debate between two noted legal commentators: Harvard Law professor Lawrence Lessig and constitutional law attorney and Salon blogger, Glenn Greenwald. Greenwald first appeared on Democracy Now! last month making his case against Kagan’s nomination. On Monday, he was interviewed on The Rachel Maddow Show. Right after Greenwald, Rachel Maddow interviewed Lawrence Lessig, who criticized some of Greenwald’s comments. This led to them both penning articles online yesterday criticizing each other and defending their position on Kagan’s nomination.
As Gulf of Mexico Oil Spill Spreads, BP, Halliburton and Transocean Executives Deflect Blame for Spill at Senate Hearings12 May 2010As thousands of gallons of oil continue to spew daily from a damaged well in the Gulf of Mexico, representatives from BP, Transocean and Halliburton were grilled by lawmakers in back-to-back hearings on Capitol Hill Tuesday. Industry executives from all three corporations began with prepared testimony that involved blaming each other for the explosion and deflecting responsibility for the unfolding environmental and economic disaster. We air excerpts and speak with marine biologist Rick Steiner. For the past week he has been working at the site of the oil spill and on the Louisiana coast, where he collected several samples of the oil washing up ashore. [includes rush transcript]
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