Skin Deep: Online Cosmetics Safety Database Rates 62,000+ Beauty Products21 Jul 2010We speak with Jane Houlihan, vice president for research at the Environmental Working Group and the creator of Skin Deep, an online cosmetics safety database. The database provides safety ratings for more than 62,000 products on the market and receives about one million hits per month.
Headlines for July 21, 201021 Jul 2010Probe Reveals BP Knew of Problems Ahead Deepwater Horizon Rig Explosion, British PM Rejects Calls for Inquiry into BP’s Role in Release of Lockerbie Bomber, Democrats Break GOP Filibuster on Unemployment Aid Bill, Senate Committee Backs Kagan Supreme Court Nomination, USDA Reconsiders Firing of Black Official over NAACP Speech, US Announces New Sanctions Against North Korea, Report: US Forces Step Up Presence in Pakistan, Afghan Soldier Kills Two US Military Trainers, Obama Praises International Conference on Afghanistan, Ex-Head of MI5: Iraq War Increased Threat of Terrorism in Britain, Pentagon to Rescind Rules on Journalists at Gitmo, Two Utah State Workers Lose Jobs for Creating List of Undocumented Immigrants, Oakland Approves Plan for Large Marijuana Production Plants, Palestinian Guilty of Rape after Consensual Sex with Israeli Jew
Prosecutors Charge White Man for Racially Motivated Shooting in Post-Katrina New Orleans20 Jul 2010Nearly five years after Hurricane Katrina, federal prosecutors have charged a white man with federal hate crimes for his role in the racially motivated shooting of three black men in the aftermath of the storm. The five-count indictment accuses Roland Bourgeois of plotting to defend his Algiers Point neighborhood in New Orleans from “outsiders” including African Americans and shooting and seriously wounding three men who were walking toward a temporary evacuation center. [includes rush transcript]
Gulf Coast Residents Outraged that Money Earned on Cleanup Might Be Subtracted from $20 Billion Claim Fund20 Jul 2010Gulf Coast residents are outraged by a recent announcement that the $20 billion government-administered claim fund will subtract money cleanup workers earn by working for the cleanup effort from any future claims. Fund administrator Kenneth Feinberg says the ruling will apply to anyone who participates in the Vessels of Opportunity program, which has employed hundreds of Gulf Coast residents left out of work because of the spill. It’s seen as an effort to limit the number of lawsuits against BP. We speak with independent journalist Dahr Jamail.
EPA Whistleblower Accuses Agency of Covering Up Effects of Dispersant in BP Oil Spill Cleanup20 Jul 2010With BP having poured nearly two million gallons of the dispersant known as Corexit into the Gulf of Mexico, many lawmakers and advocacy groups say the Obama administration is not being candid about the lethal effects of dispersants. We speak with Hugh Kaufman, a senior policy analyst at the EPA’s Office of Solid Waste and Emergency Response and a leading critic of the decision to use Corexit.
US & G8 Funding Cuts for AIDS “Will Be Counted in Human Lives” – Stephen Lewis Blasts Obama, Rich Nations over AIDS Policy20 Jul 2010A major international conference on global AIDS policy is underway in Austria this week, and there appears to be a growing rift over funding by rich nations. On Sunday, hundreds of people marched through the conference halls demanding rich nations meet their pledges to ensure universal access to AIDS treatment. We go to Vienna to speak with Stephen Lewis, the former special envoy for HIV/AIDS in Africa and co-founder of AIDS-Free World. “It’s almost beyond the capacity of the mind to cope with that George Bush seemingly was more engaged in the battle against HIV than Barack Obama,” says Lewis. [includes rush transcript]
Headlines for July 20, 201020 Jul 2010Karzai: Afghan Forces Will Take Control of Security By 2014, Rocket Fire Forces Diversion of Ban Ki-Moon’s Plane, NATO Chief: US & NATO Underestimated Scale of Afghanistan Mission, Senate Democrats Hope to Break GOP Filibuster over Jobless Benefits, White House Confirms Seepage and Leaks Near BP Well, Obama and British PM Cameron to Meet at White House, Marathon Oil Opens New Deepwater Well in Gulf, US National Guard to Arrive on Mexican Border on Aug. 1, US-Made Grenades Used in Mexican Drug War, Afro-Colombian Activist Assassinated, Homeless Pastor Dies in Denver Police Custody After Being Tasered, Maryland Man Could Face 16 Years in Jail for Videotaping Traffic Stop, Olympia Food Co-Op to Boycott Israeli Goods, Israeli Soldier in Tom Hurndall Killing Released Early, Climatologist Stephen Schneider, 65, Dies
Social Security Under Attack: Cuts Proposed, Higher Retirement Age Suggested19 Jul 2010The attacks on Social Security have steadily intensified in the past few months. House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer recently called for a higher retirement age, and House Minority Leader John Boehner suggested raising the retirement age to seventy. Meanwhile, President Obama’s bipartisan eighteen-member commission dealing with the nation’s public debt is due to come out with a report in November that is expected to recommend cuts to Social Security. We speak with Dean Baker of the Center for Economic and Policy Research. Watch Part II Here.
Tim Shorrock Asks Why It Took the Washington Post So Long to Investigate the US Intelligence System19 Jul 2010“With all due respect to the Washington Post—and Dana Priest and Bill Arkin are very good reporters—we have to ask, why did it take them seven years to do this story?” says Tim Shorrock, an investigative journalist and author of Spies for Hire: The Secret World of Intelligence Outsourcing. “Anyone who’s been covering intelligence or national security in Washington knows that intelligence has been privatized to an incredible extent.”
“Top Secret America” Washington Post Investigation Reveals Massive, Unmanageable, Outsourced US Intelligence System19 Jul 2010An explosive investigative series published in the Washington Post today begins, “The top-secret world the government created in response to the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, has become so large, so unwieldy and so secretive that no one knows how much money it costs, how many people it employs, how many programs exist within it or exactly how many agencies do the same work.” Among the findings: An estimated 854,000 people hold top-secret security clearances. More than 1,200 government organizations and nearly 2,000 private companies work on programs related to counterterrorism, homeland security and intelligence in 10,000 locations. We speak with one of the co-authors of the series, Bill Arkin. [includes rush transcript]
Headlines for July 19, 201019 Jul 2010Oil Seep Discovered Near Ruptured Well, Gulf Coast Workers to Have Cleanup Pay Deducted from Claims, At Least 45 Killed in Iraq Suicide Bombing, Report: Karzai to Unveil 2014 Withdrawal Deadline, Amidst Clinton Visit, Pakistani Military Accused of Extrajudicial Killings, Netanyahu in 2001: US “Won’t Get in the Way” of Israeli Expansionism, Rich Nations Urged to Meet Pledges at Opening of Global AIDS Conference, Study: Half the World’s Poor Live in South Asia, Obama Chides Republicans on Unemployment Deadlock, AIG Agrees to $725M Settlement in Fraud Suit, Couple Sentenced on Cuba Spying Conviction, NY Limits “Stop and Frisk” Database, Southwest Workers Union Member Critically Injured in Shooting Attack, Warning Issued to Top Texan Appeals Court Judge , Mandela Honored on 92nd Birthday, US Citizen Remains on No-Fly List After Returning Home, Appeals Court Upholds Sentence for Gitmo Whistleblower, Fmr. West Virginia Aide Appointed to Fill Byrd’s Senate Seat
Civil Rights Attorney Lynne Stewart Resentenced to 10-Year Term—Nearly Five Times Her Original Sentence16 Jul 2010The civil rights attorney Lynne Stewart’s sentence was increased Thursday after an appeals court ruled that two years and four months of prison time was too light. Stewart was found guilty in 2005 of distributing press releases on behalf of her jailed client Sheikh Omar Abdel-Rahman, also known as the “Blind Sheikh.” We play excerpts of Lynne Stewart’s last broadcast interview before she was jailed in November and speak to independent journalist Petra Bartosiewicz.
The Food Bubble: How Wall Street Starved Millions and Got Away With It16 Jul 2010While Goldman Sachs agreed to pay $550 million to resolve a civil fraud lawsuit filed by the SEC, Goldman has not been held accountable for many of its other questionable investment practices. A new article in Harper?s Magazine examines the role Goldman played in the food crisis of 2008 when the ranks of the world?s hungry increased by 250 million. We speak to Harper’s contributing editor Frederick Kaufman. [includes rush transcript]
Goldman Sachs Settles Civil Fraud Case for $550M—Less Than It Reportedly Expected, and With No Admission of Criminal Wrongdoing16 Jul 2010Goldman Sachs has agreed to pay $550 million to resolve a civil fraud lawsuit over selling a mortgage investment that was established to fail. While the SEC hailed the $550 million settlement as the largest in Wall Street history, many outside analysts questioned why the government didn?t demand more. Investors responded favorably as Goldman Sachs shares jumped by five percent in late trading, adding far more to the firm?s market value than the amount it will have to pay in the settlement. We speak to Matt Taibbi of Rolling Stone. [includes rush transcript]
Headlines for July 16, 201016 Jul 2010BP Stops Oil Spill for First Time Since April, Senate Approves Financial Reform Bill, Goldman Settles Fraud Case over Mortgage Investments, 21 Killed in Iran Suicide Bombing, Poll: 62% Say War Going “Badly”, Record US Soldier Suicides in June, US Has Delivered None of Pledged Aid Money to Haiti, France Threatens Legal Action over Haiti Reparations Hoax, Argentina Legalizes Same-Sex Marriage, Suspect Charged in Algiers Point Shooting, BP Cleanup Worker Describes Lax Safety Conditions, Activists Shut Down West Virginia Coal Mine, Iroquois Lacrosse Team Denied Entry to Britain, Ex-Bush Official: CIA Used Unauthorized Torture Techniques, Lynne Stewart Resentenced to 10-Year Term
“They Have Terrorized Our Community”: Anti-Immigrant List Targets Latinos in Utah15 Jul 2010An anonymous group has distributed a list that is spreading terror and outrage among the Latino community in Utah. The list includes names, addresses, workplaces, phone numbers, birth dates and, in some cases, Social Security numbers of some 1,300 people that the group alleges are undocumented. The list was sent to law enforcement officials, state lawmakers and the media, and urges that those on the list be immediately deported. All the names are Latino, and they include over 200 children and the due dates for six pregnant women. We speak to Tony Yapias of Proyecto Latino de Utah. [includes rush transcript]
“Tea Party in Sonora”: Ken Silverstein of Harper’s Says Arizona is Laboratory for Radical GOP Policies15 Jul 2010A new article by Harper’s Magazine Washington editor Ken Silverstein argues that Arizona has become a laboratory not just for immigration policy, but a broad range of issues. It’s a place, he writes, where the Tea Party is arguably the ruling party, and should the Republicans retake nationwide power, “the country might start to resemble the right-wing desert that Arizona has become.” [includes rush transcript]
Study: Global Warming to Bring Increased Heat Waves to US15 Jul 2010Following last week’s record-breaking East Coast heat wave, a new study by Stanford University climate scientists says as global warming continues, such heat waves will be increasingly common in the future. The study found exceptionally long heat waves and other hot events could become commonplace in the United States in the next thirty years, posing serious risks to agriculture and human health. [includes rush transcript]
Himalayan Glaciers Melting Faster Than Anywhere Else in World; Impact Could Devastate Over 1 Billion People15 Jul 2010We look at the impact of climate change in the Himalayas region in Asia, where scientists are warning glaciers are receding faster than anywhere else in the world, with the potential to devastate over a billion people. The Himalayan glaciers have been described as the water towers of Asias as they provide a key source of water to ten major Asian river systems. We speak to the prominent Indian scientist and glaciologist Syed Iqbal Hasnain.
Headlines for July 15, 201015 Jul 2010BP Halts Containment Test for Consecutive Day, Oil Smears Hundreds of Birds in Gulf Nesting Area, BP to Deduct Spill Costs from Tax Payments, 8 US Troops Killed in Afghanistan, Iranian Scientist Returns Home as Report Claims CIA Payment of $5M, Gaza-Bound Libyan Aid Ship Docks in Egypt, Rwanda Opposition Leader Found Dead, US Details Nuclear Arsenal Plans, Survey: Despite Earnings Boost, Most Firms Won’t Increase Hiring, Foreclosures Expected to Top 1 Million This Year, Fmr. Insurance Exec Tapped to Implement Healthcare Law, Philip Morris Using Child Labor in Kazak Tobacco Fields, Ex-Police Officer Avoids Jail in Bicycle Assault Case, Supporters Rally on Eve of Lynne Stewart Resentencing
“When Everybody Comes and Has a Solution for Haiti, It Only Creates a Problem” – Sister Mary Finnick on Recovery Efforts14 Jul 2010Sister Mary Finnick, the director of Matthew 25 House in Port-au-Prince, is critical of the stalled recovery efforts in Haiti. “When everybody comes and has a solution for Haiti, it only creates a problem,” Sister Mary says. “A lot of people are coming from the United States, but they are doing the work the Haitian people should be doing. I would say, ‘send the money you paid for your ticket to supplement a family so that the members could do the work that you were going to do when you were here.’”
Rape in the Camps: Lacking Security, Women Organize to Protect Themselves14 Jul 2010Something that gets lost in all the coverage of the Haiti earthquake is how people on the ground organize in the face of adversity. Rape and violence against women has become increasingly widespread in the tent camps across Haiti. While Haitian police and UN forces have done little, women on the ground are organizing to protect themselves. We spoke with Malia Villard Appolon, coordinator of KOFAVIV, the committee of women for survival. [includes rush transcript]
Land Ownership at the Crux of Haiti’s Stalled Reconstruction14 Jul 2010Six months after the earthquake, many Haitians told us they have seen little in terms of recovery efforts despite the billions of dollars in aid pledged from around the world. At the heart of the matter is the issue of land ownership. We speak with journalist Kim Ives of Haiti Libert. In his latest article, he writes the way the Interim Commission to Reconstruct Haiti is dealing with the issue of land “is the Haitian equivalent of the US bank bailout.” [includes rush transcript – partial]
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