Colin Todhunter (2018-05-18). Dangerous Liaison: Industrial Agriculture and the Reductionist Mindset. counterpunch.org Food and agriculture across the world is in crisis. Food is becoming denutrified and unhealthy and diets less diverse. There is a loss of biodiversity, which threatens food security, soils are being degraded, water sources polluted and depleted and smallholder farmers, so vital to global food production, are being squeezed off their land and out of farming. A minority of the global population has access to so much More

Sharon Lerner (2018-05-18). The EPA's "Leadership Summit" on PFOA Pollution Will Exclude Victims and Community Groups. theintercept.com Kristen Mello wasn't invited to the Environmental Protection Agency's upcoming " National Leadership Summit" on PFOA, PFOS, and other PFAS chemicals. For most of her life, Mello, a member of Westfield Residents Advocating For Themselves, drank water contaminated with the chemicals that are going to be discussed at the meeting. At least six compounds in this class seeped into local drinking water from firefighting foam used at the Air National Guard base in her hometown of Westfield, Massachusetts. Mello and several of her immediate family members have developed some of the health problems associated with the chemicals, including thyroid disease, ulcerative colitis, and liver problems. While most people in the United States have been exposed to PFAS, Westfield is one of the growing number of communities to learn they've had an especially high dose of the chemicals as the…

Janine Jackson (2018-05-17). 'Most Americans Say They Want Protections for the Open Internet'. fair.org Janine Jackson interviewed Tim Karr about the fight for net neutrality for the May 11, 2018, episode of CounterSpin. This is a lightly edited transcript. | Media…

Hunter, Daily Kos (2018-05-17). This Republican Congressman Seriously Suggested Sea Levels Are Rising Because of Falling Rocks. alternet.org "Every time you have that soil or rock or whatever it is that is deposited into the seas, that forces the sea levels to rise [. . . ]" | One of the worst duties of being a top-level American scientist or researcher is that you get summoned before House Republicans so they can explain why, in their minds, the entire collected research that you and tens of thousands of others have participated in is probably wrong because of Shit They Just Made Up. It might help to imagine Woods Hole Research Center President Philip Duffy as having wandered into a local bar, and Alabama Rep. Mo Brooks as a sloshed-out-of-his-mind patron regaling him with Drunk Guy ideas about the real causes of sea level rise. For example, says Brooks, maybe it's not thermodynamics or melting ice sheets causing our oceans to rise, Maybe it is. . .

AlterNet (2018-05-17). Watch the Racist Lawyer Who Attacked Spanish Speakers in NYC Cafe Literally Run from NBC Reporter. alternet.org This is the best video you'll see all day. | Aaron Schlossberg, the New York City attorney who has reportedly been filmed at least three times making bigoted attacks on strangers, is finally facing a bit of justice. The lawyer is no longer welcome at his own office building, where security told the press he'd be booted from the premises if he showed his face. Now that his identity is known, reporters understandably have some questions. Schlossberg isn't answering them. NBC News received an unintentionally hilarious response when Schlossberg was about to face some tough questions on the street. Spoiler alert: He bolted like a professional sprinter. Watch the video below. The lawyer who threatened to call immigration enforcement on workers at a Manhattan cafe earlier this week sprinted away from an NBC News reporter earlier today t. co/BCsW1WSWDG pic. twitter. com/rb5A6XZBXF— NBC New York (@NBCNewYork)

David Dayen (2018-05-17). An Equifax and Facebook Lawyer Will Now Run the FTC's Bureau of Consumer Protection. theintercept.com In a rare party-line vote, the FTC appointed a corporate lawyer who has represented Uber, Equifax, Facebook, and a jailed payday lender to a top job.

Ryan Grim (2018-05-16). Qatari Investor: Michael Cohen Asked Me for a Million Dollars. theintercept.com In the blink of a Michael Avenatti tweet, Ahmed al-Rumaihi has suddenly found himself internet-famous. It began on Sunday evening, when the attorney for adult film star Stormy Daniels posted a screenshot of video footage from Trump Tower's lobby, recorded on December 12, 2016. | Viral speculation followed, with online detectives identifying al-Rumaihi, the former head of a $100 billion wing of the Qatari sovereign wealth fund, in the image and linking him to a Russia-Qatar deal to sell a portion of the oil company Rosneft, which had been referenced in the Steele dossier, a set of raw intelligence reports compiled by former British spy Christopher Steele. | From there, Slate took over, headlining a piece late Monday night: "Michael Cohen's Meetings With Michael Flynn and a Qatari Diplomat Might Be the Key to Unlocking the Steele Dossier."

RT (2018-05-11). Trump's environment czar Pruitt in trouble over ethics. rt.com The head of the Environmental Protection Agency, Scott Pruitt, who is under scrutiny for his lavish spending habits at taxpayers' expense, must answer to ethics concerns, the White House has said.
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