Sean Hannity's Ties to Michael Cohen Reveal his Complete Lack of Journalistic Ethics
Aldous Pennyfarthing, Daily Kos | AlterNet.org | 2018-04-16
Looking back, it's stunning that the host didn't reveal his conflict of interest. | Sean Hannity isn't a journalist, but he plays one on TV. But even if you're just pretending at something (like being a fireman or an astronaut), you should still follow the most fundamental rules of that profession. For instance, kids playing policeman shouldn't shake down their elderly neighbors for protection money and free Werther's Originals. Well, Sean Hannity has been a very naughty boy. As many news outlets just reported, Barry Zuckerkorn Lionel Hutz Michael Cohen is Hannity's fugging lawyer, and so maybe he should have mentioned that when he spewed this warmed-over gibbon shite last week: April 10, 2018: The president's longtime personal attorney, Michael Cohen, had his home, his hotel and, of course, his office raided by the FBI over $130,000 payment as the personal attorney of Donald Trump. . .
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GAO: EPA Violated Spending Law on Pruitt's Privacy Booth
Staff | Truthdig: Expert Reporting, Current News, Provocative Columnists | 2018-04-16
The Government Accountability Office says the Environmental Protection Agency ran afoul of federal spending laws by buying a $43,000 soundproof booth for Scott Pruitt to make private calls in his office. | The post GAO: EPA Violated Spending Law on Pruitt's Privacy Booth appeared first on Truthdig: Expert Reporting, Current News, Provocative Columnists.
truthdig.com/articles/gao-epa-violated-spending-law-on-pruitts-privacy-booth/
New Study Shows Young People in Polluted Cities Are at Greater Risk for Alzheimer's
Olivia Rosane, EcoWatch | AlterNet.org | 2018-04-16
The study is not the first to suggest that air pollution is a risk for the brain, especially in children. | A study has found that living in cities with high air pollution puts children and young adults at risk for Alzheimer's and suicide, The University of Montana reported Friday. University of Montana researcher Dr. Lilian Calderón-Garcidueñas was part of a team that looked at the autopsies of 203 residents of Mexico City, which has daily ozone and particulate matter levels above U. S. Environmental Protection Agency ( EPA) standards. The subjects they studied ranged in age from 11 months to 40 years, and the researchers found signs of Alzheimer's in 99. 5 percent of them, including in less-than-a-year-old babies. "Alzheimer's disease starting in the brainstem of young children and affecting 99. 5% of young urbanites is a serious health crisis," the abstract of the. . .
feeds.feedblitz.com/~/539634650/0/alternet
How the US Occupied the 30% of Syria Containing Most of its Oil, Water and Gas
Whitney Webb | MintPress News | 2018-04-16
While gaining control of key resources for partitioning Syria and destabilizing the government in Damascus, the U.S.' main goal in occupying the oil and water rich northeastern Syria is aimed not at Syria but at Iran. | The post How the US Occupied the 30% of Syria Containing Most of its Oil, Water and Gas appeared first on MintPress News.
How the US Occupied the 30% of Syria Containing Most of its Oil, Water and Gas
France: Bill Could Undermine Asylum Seekers' Rights
Human Rights Watch | Human Rights Watch News | 2018-04-16
(Paris) — A bill before the French Parliament on immigration and asylum could jeopardize access to protection and should be revised, Human Rights Watch said today. The National Assembly will examine the bill in the week of April 16, 2018, and the Senate in May. | Tents are seen at a makeshift migrant camp on a street near the metro stations of Jaures and Stalingrad in Paris, France, October 28, 2016 | © 2016 Reuters | "Under the guise of providing a more effective asylum system, the bill includes a series of measures that would diminish access to protection," said Bénédicte Jeannerod, France director at Human Rights Watch. "The few — albeit significant — positive measures in the bill cannot hide the concerns it raises for people who were at risk in their…
www.hrw.org/news/2018/04/16/france-bill-could-undermine-asylum-seekers-rights
Workers Struggles: Asia, Australia and the Pacific
WSWS | World Socialist Web Site | 2018-04-14
The Odisha tanker drivers are employed by contractors for the state-owned oil corporations and are only paid about $US115 per month.
www.wsws.org/en/articles/2018/04/14/labo-a14.html
Hanford's Toxic Avengers: Department of Energy Suppresses Deadly Nuclear-Cleanup Flaws
Joshua Frank | counterpunch.org | 2018-04-13
Your tax dollars are on the line. The DOE is set to extend a contract to Washington River Protection Solutions (WRPS) for another year at the Hanford Nuclear Site, despite numerous allegations of misconduct since the company won the initial contract for $7.1 billion in 2008. Below is an investigative report that appeared in Seattle Weekly…
counterpunch.org/2018/04/13/hanfords-toxic-avengers-department-of-energy-suppresses-deadly-nuclear-cleanup-flaws/
In the Ruins
John Davis | counterpunch.org | 2018-04-13
I am not left alone in the blackened, fire scorched chaparral on the north-eastern fringe of California's Thomas Fire. Life is stirring in the wild hills, still partly dark with rain-washed ash, and, where the decomposed sandstone is exposed, oxidized to a sickly orange-brown. The soil is naked and unaccustomed to the light. Closer to…
counterpunch.org/2018/04/13/in-the-ruins/
Australian media stokes fears of Chinese military base in Vanuatu
WSWS | World Socialist Web Site | 2018-04-13
The escalating propaganda war is another sign of deepening tensions across the Asia Pacific that threaten to embroil the entire region into a major war.
www.wsws.org/en/articles/2018/04/13/vanu-a13.html
Amnesty International urges governments to make the Global Compact on Refugees fit for the future
Amnesty International | 2018-04-13
Mid-way through UN-led consultations with member states to agree a Global Compact on Refugees, Amnesty International urges governments to ensure the Compact will be an ambitious, inclusive and visionary plan that will mandate action and deliver results for effective refugee protection.
Amnesty International urges governments to make the Global Compact on Refugees fit for the future
Israel and Palestinian Occupied Territories: New testimonies show Israeli deportations putting Eritrean and Sudanese asylum-seekers at risk in Uganda
Amnesty International | 2018-04-13
Israel has continued to deport Eritrean and Sudanese asylum-seekers to Uganda until at least January 2018, Amnesty International revealed today, despite statements by the Ugandan government that no agreement had been in place with Israel to receive them. New research by the organization shows that, once in Uganda, deported asylum seekers have not received papers, are without legal protection and remain vulnerable to exploitation, despite written assurances from Israel they would be protected.
Colombia: Authorities must guarantee effective protection of women human rights defenders
Amnesty International | 2018-04-13
Following the killing of Doris Valenzuela, Colombian human rights defender, in Murcia, Spain, on 11 April, Erika Guevara Rosas, Americas Director at Amnesty International, said: | "It is with great sadness that we received the terrible news of the death of the brave human rights defender Doris Valenzuela, who was forced to leave Colombia due to a lack of guarantees for her and her family's safety, and who sadly died in Spain as a result of gender-based violence. | "It is unacceptable that women defenders continue to suffer double violence: for being activists and for being women, with that violence often coming from those closest to them. It is imperative that the Colombian state guarantee effective protection of women human rights defenders through differentiated measures with a gender perspective, so that cases like that of Doris do not happen again." | …
www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2018/04/colombia-autoridades-deben-garantizar-la-proteccion-efectiva-de-mujeres-defensoras-de-derechos-humanos/
Parkland teacher arrested for leaving loaded gun in public toilet
RT | RT US News | 2018-04-12
A teacher at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, the site of the February shooting that claimed 17 lives, has been arrested for leaving his loaded pistol in a public toilet, where a homeless man later fired it. …
www.rt.com/usa/423978-police-arrest-parkland-teacher/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=RSS
Why Did the EPA's Scott Pruitt Suppress a Report on Corruption in Oklahoma?
Sharon Lerner | The Intercept | 2018-04-12
An audit released this week found evidence of corruption in how contracts were awarded at the Tar Creek Superfund site in Oklahoma. Gary Jones, the state auditor and inspector who wrote the report, submitted it to then-Oklahoma Attorney General Scott Pruitt back in January 2014. But Pruitt inexplicably refused to release it. | Pruitt's successor, Mike Hunter, had also refused to release the report since he began serving as attorney general after Pruitt left the job in February 2017 to become administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency. But on Monday, facing a lawsuit demanding the release of the audit, Hunter changed his mind. | The audit, which looked into wrongdoing by a trust set up by the state to buy homes in two lead-contaminated towns in the Superfund site in the northeast corner of the state, found "considerable circumstantial evidence that…
theintercept.com/2018/04/12/scott-pruitt-oklahoma-superfund-audit-suppression/
Trump Escalates Already-Deadly U.S. Border Policies, Ordering National Guard to Mexican Border
Democracy Now! | 2018-04-05
A new wave of troops could soon be deployed to the U.S.-Mexico border, even as border crossings by undocumented immigrants are at their lowest levels since 1971. The move comes as a caravan of Central American migrants and asylum seekers in Mexico has prompted a series of threats from President Trump. Meanwhile, The Wall Street Journal reports the Trump administration is requesting that the U.S. military build walls for at least one military base along the U.S.-Mexico border. We go to Tucson, Arizona, for an update from Todd Miller, a border security journalist and author of "Storming the Wall: Climate Change, Migration, and Homeland Security."
www.democracynow.org/2018/4/5/trump_escalates_already_deadly_us_border
How the Wireless Industry Convinced the Public Cellphones Are Safe & Cherry-Picked Research on Risks
Democracy Now! | 2018-04-05
Ninety-five out of every 100 American adults owns a cellphone today. And worldwide, three out of four adults now have cellphone access. The wireless industry is one of the fastest-growing on Earth, raking in annual sales of $440 billion in 2016. But are cellphones safe? A new investigation by The Nation suggests that's a question that cellphone giants prefer you don't ask. We speak with Mark Hertsgaard, The Nation's environment correspondent and investigative editor. His report, co-authored with Mark Dowie, is headlined "How Big Wireless Made Us Think That Cell Phones Are Safe."
www.democracynow.org/2018/4/5/how_the_wireless_industry_convinced_the