Critics of Bayou Bridge Pipeline in Louisiana Decry State & Company Surveillance of Protesters.
Democracy Now! | 2018-03-13
In Louisiana, newly disclosed documents reveal a state intelligence agency regularly spied on activists opposing construction of the Bayou Bridge pipeline, which would carry nearly a half-million barrels of oil per day across Louisiana's wetlands. The documents show the Louisiana Governor's Office of Homeland Security and Emergency Preparedness regularly drafted intelligence memos on anti-pipeline activists, including a gathering of indigenous-led water protectors who've set up a protest encampment along the pipeline's route. Other newly revealed documents show close coordination between Louisiana regulators and the company building the pipeline, Energy Transfer Partners. This comes just one week after a U.S. district judge in Baton Rouge ordered a temporary injunction against construction of the Bayou Bridge pipeline in order to "prevent further irreparable harm" to the region's delicate ecosystems, while court challenges proceed. For more, we speak with Pastor Harry Joseph of the Mount Triumph Baptist Church. We also speak with Pamela Spees of the Center for Constitutional Rights and Anne Rolfes, founding director of the Louisiana Bucket Brigade.
www.democracynow.org/2018/3/13/critics_of_bayou_bridge_pipeline_in

In Ruling Called "Victory for Everyone Who Breathes," Federal Judge Says Scott Pruitt Violating Clean Air Act.
Truthout Stories | 2018-03-13
Scott Pruitt, administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency, speaks at the 2017 Concordia Annual Summit at the Grand Hyatt New York on September 19, 2017, in New York City. (Photo: Riccardo Savi / Getty Images for Concordia Summit) | Resulting in what environmentalists called a "victory for everyone who breathes," a federal district court in California on Monday ruled that President Donald Trump's Environmental Protection Agency is violating the law by not implementing crucial smog protection guidelines mandated under the Clean Air Act. | According to Judge Haywood Stirling Gilliam Jr. of the federal District Court for the District of Northern California, EPA chief Scott Pruitt broke the law by not listing areas in the country that are failing to comply with air pollution standards — a violation of "his nondiscretionary duty under" the federal law — and gave him until…
www.truth-out.org/news/item/43821-in-ruling-called-victory-for-everyone-who-breathes-federal-judge-says-scott-pruitt-violating-clean-air-act

Senate Democrats Are Just Openly Antagonizing Their Progressive Base Now.
Sophia Tesfaye, Salon | AlterNet.org | 2018-03-13
A "Bank Lobbyist Act" threatens to tear the party asunder ahead of the 2018 mid-terms. | A dozen Senate Democrats are threatening to torpedo any semblance of a unified economic message from the opposition party ahead of this fall's midterm elections, trampling over the fiercest progressive voices in the party to do so. "I don't think a bill like that is good for anybody in America," warned Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass. , on NBC's "Meet the Press" on Sunday, referring to a Republican effort to roll back rules meant to prevent a repeat of the financial crisis that struck 10 years ago. Warren is the Senate's strongest consumer protection advocate, elected in 2012 in a crusade against big Wall Street bailouts. Democrats in the Senate joined the Republican majority to end debate on an amendment to a broad financial deregulation package late Monday, advancing the. . .
feeds.feedblitz.com/~/532232558/0/alternet

In Texas, Teachers and Students Already Pack Heat in Classrooms. Is This Where the Nation Is Headed?
Truthout Stories | 2018-03-13
The deep problems with Texas' programs provide a cautionary tale. (Image: andrea crisante / Shutterstock) | President Trump's seemingly improbable proposal to arm and train teachers to intercept school shooters actually isn't such a fantasy: In Texas, such programs already exist. Their shortcomings provide a cautionary tale for the rest of the country.The deep problems with Texas' programs provide a cautionary tale. (Image: andrea crisante / Shutterstock) | President Trump's seemingly improbable proposal to arm and train teachers to intercept school shooters actually isn't a fantasy: In Texas, two such programs already exist — and their shortcomings provide a cautionary tale for the rest of the country. | Just after the massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut, the state passed the 2013 Protection of Texas Children Act, allowing police to deputize up to one teacher or staffer as a…
www.truth-out.org/news/item/43815-in-texas-teachers-and-students-already-pack-heat-in-classrooms-is-this-where-the-nation-is-headed

Notes on Terminology.
Paul Street | counterpunch.org | 2018-03-13
Climate Crisis, Not "Climate Change" My next-to-last CounterPunch essay ("Someone Tell a Reporter: the Rich Are Destroying the Earth") elicited a smart criticism from a senior scientist:…
counterpunch.org/2018/03/13/notes-on-terminology/

Trump Attacks Earth, Resistance and Innovation.
Mel Gurtov | counterpunch.org | 2018-03-13
In 1992, 1700 scientists from around the world signed a "World Scientists' Warning to Humanity. The statement argued that "human beings and the natural world are on a collision course," and urged immediate, dramatic to reverse the trend. Last fall the statement was updated. This "second notice" has now been signed by 20,000 experts. As you would…
counterpunch.org/2018/03/13/trump-attacks-earth-resistance-and-innovation/

Palestinian Prime Minister Escapes Injury in Gaza Bombing.
Staff | Truthdig: Expert Reporting, Current News, Provocative Columnists | 2018-03-13
JABALIYA, Gaza Strip — A roadside bomb on Tuesday struck the convoy of the Palestinian prime minister during a rare visit to the Gaza Strip, causing no serious injuries but throwing an already troubled reconciliation process between rival factions into deeper turmoil. | Prime Minister Rami Hamdallah had just arrived from his West Bank headquarters to attend a ribbon-cutting ceremony for a new water-treatment plant when the bomb went off. Although there was no claim of responsibility, Palestinian officials accused Gaza militants of trying to assassinate Hamdallah. Gaza's ruling Hamas group denied involvement. | The blast took place at a time of deadlock in reconciliation efforts between Hamdallah's Fatah party and Hamas, which has controlled Gaza since ousting Fatah forces in 2007. It also cast a shadow over a special White House meeting where international donor nations were set to discuss the dire…
truthdig.com/articles/palestinian-prime-minister-escapes-injury-gaza-bombing/

From North Dakota to Puerto Rico, Controversial Security Firm Profits From Oil Protests and Climate Disasters.
Alleen Brown | The Intercept | 2018-03-12
TigerSwan, the mercenary security firm that worked to suppress the NoDAPL movement, is promoting its disaster response efforts in Houston and Puerto Rico. | The post From North Dakota to Puerto Rico, Controversial Security Firm Profits From Oil Protests and Climate Disasters appeared first on The Intercept.
theintercept.com/2018/03/12/tigerswan-dapl-private-security-climate-disaster-response/

Singapore: Reject Sweeping Public Order Bill.
Human Rights Watch | Human Rights Watch News | 2018-03-12
A general view of the Parliament House in Singapore June 2, 2016. | © 2016 Reuters | (New York) — Singapore's proposed public order law would further empower the government to repress freedom of assembly and speech, Human Rights Watch said today. The government should revise the Public Order and Safety (Special Powers) bill, introduced in Parliament on February 27, 2018, to ensure that protection of public safety does not violate fundamental rights. | "The Singaporean government's history of persecuting dissenting voices makes the proposed public order law particularly frightening," said Brad Adams, Asia director at Human Rights Watch. "Public protests are not a threat that justify the wholescale repeal of basic rights." | While international law permits government restrictions on certain rights for reasons of national security or public order, they…
www.hrw.org/news/2018/03/12/singapore-reject-sweeping-public-order-bill

Rising anger over aid delays in Papua New Guinea's catastrophic quake disaster.
WSWS | World Socialist Web Site | 2018-03-12
The humanitarian crisis resulting from the earthquake exposes the inadequate response of the PNG and Australian governments.
www.wsws.org/en/articles/2018/03/12/pngq-m12.html

Global Warming and Climate Instability: One Last Chance to Save Ourselves.
Richard Gale | Global Research | 2018-03-12
The year 2017 was a record-breaking year for extreme weather and environmental catastrophes since records started to be kept in the 19th century. The Arctic experienced temperatures up to 70 degree F above normal. | Many countries were baked in unusual …
globalresearch.ca/global-warming-and-climate-instability-one-last-chance-to-save-ourselves/5631803

Fixing Global Warming is Bigger Than Paris '15.
Robert Hunziker | counterpunch.org | 2018-03-12
The worldwide effort to harness, slow down, lessen, reduce, remove the threat of global warming is epitomized by the Paris '15 climate accord. This agreement calls for nations of the world to implement plans to slow down greenhouse gas emissions, specifically CO2 from fossil fuels, and to take other remedial actions necessary to hold global temps below 2 ∞C but preferably 1.5 ∞C relative to the start of the industrial revolution over 200 years ago.
counterpunch.org/2018/03/12/fixing-global-warming-is-bigger-than-paris-15/

New Evidence of Africa's Systematic Looting, From an Increasingly Schizophrenic World Bank.
Prof. Patrick Bond | Global Research | 2018-03-12
Featured image: Nchanga copper mine, Zambia (Source: Wikimedia Commons) | A brand new World Bank report, The Changing Wealth of Nations 2018, offers evidence of how much poorer Africa is becoming thanks to rampant minerals, oil and gas extraction. Yet …
globalresearch.ca/new-evidence-of-africas-systematic-looting-from-an-increasingly-schizophrenic-world-bank/5631738

Massive Protest in British Columbia as Thousands March to Stop Kinder Morgan Pipeline.
Truthout Stories | 2018-03-11
Harriet Prince, 76, of the Anishinaabe tribe, marches with Coast Salish Water Protectors and others against the expansion of Texas-based Kinder Morgan's Trans Mountain pipeline project in Burnaby, British Columbia, Canada on March 10, 2018. (Photo: Jason Redmond / AFP / Getty Images) | You can fuel thoughtful, authority-challenging journalism: Click here to make a tax-deductible donation to Truthout. | Disregarding an injunction won by the pipeline company a day before the planned protest, thousands of people marched in Burnaby, British Columbia on Saturday to protest the expansion of a Kinder Morgan tar sands pipeline and export terminal that First Nations and climate justice campaigners say would threaten local waterways, erode Indigenous rights, and increase planet-warming carbon emissions. | #protecttheinlet and #stopKM. Go home to Texas, #KinderMorgan. We don't want you here. #cdnpoli #waterislife #blackfish…
www.truth-out.org/news/item/43808-massive-protest-in-british-columbia-as-thousands-march-to-stop-kinder-morgan-pipeline

Massive Protest in British Columbia as Thousands March to Stop Kinder Morgan Pipeline.
Truthout Stories | 2018-03-11
Harriet Prince, 76, of the Anishinaabe tribe, marches with Coast Salish Water Protectors and others against the expansion of Texas-based Kinder Morgan's Trans Mountain pipeline project in Burnaby, British Columbia, Canada on March 10, 2018. (Photo: Jason Redmond / AFP / Getty Images) | You can fuel thoughtful, authority-challenging journalism: Click here to make a tax-deductible donation to Truthout. | Disregarding an injunction won by the pipeline company a day before the planned protest, thousands of people marched in Burnaby, British Columbia on Saturday to protest the expansion of a Kinder Morgan tar sands pipeline and export terminal that First Nations and climate justice campaigners say would threaten local waterways, erode Indigenous rights, and increase planet-warming carbon emissions. | 10,000 walk behind Grand Chief Stewart Phillip and leaders from across Turtle Island to #protecttheinlet and #stopKM. Go home…
www.truth-out.org/news/item/43808-massive-protest-in-british-columbia-as-thousands-march-to-stop-kinder-morgan-pipeline

At New Health Office, Civil Rights Mean Doctors Can Say No to Patients.
Truthout Stories | 2018-03-11
At Truthout, we refuse to subject you to ads or "sponsored content" — we believe in producing journalism with integrity. If you agree, please support us with a donation today! | The Trump administration is embarking on a sweeping effort to redefine civil rights in health care, with critics accusing the Department of Health and Human Services of sidestepping the rights of patients to soothe a far smaller constituency: conservative nurses, hospitals and other caregivers. | The department's Office for Civil Rights (OCR) has been greatly strengthening and expanding protections for health care providers who have religious- or conscience-based objections to procedures such as abortion. By way of explanation, officials cite 36 complaints OCR received from, or on behalf of, those working in the health care system from President Donald Trump's election through early January of alleged affronts to religious beliefs…
www.truth-out.org/news/item/43797-at-new-health-office-civil-rights-means-doctors-right-to-say-no-to-patients

Noam Chomsky and Danny Glover Condemn U.S. and Canada Over Venezuela Sanctions .
April M. Short, AlterNet | AlterNet.org | 2018-03-11
Chomsky and Glover are among 154 signatories asking the U. S. and Canada to reconsider the sanctions. | After the U. S. and Canada imposed sanctions on Venezuela's socialist government Friday, Noam Chomsky and Danny Glover joined 154 signatories in an open letter to Washington and Ottawa condemning the sanctions. The letter explains that the sanctions will worsen political tensions and make life harder for Venezuela's poor and urges the governments to reconsider. "Sanctions merely complicate efforts by the Vatican, Dominican Republic, and other international actors to mediate a resolution to the deep polarization in Venezuela," the letter states. While the letter points to an attempt by the U. S. and Canada to topple Venezuela's leadership, Venezuelan president Nicolas Maduro has said he believes the sanctions are part of an international right-wing conspiracy intended to remove him and take control of the OPEC nation's oil. . .
feeds.feedblitz.com/~/531817494/0/alternet

Meet the Democratic 'Dirty Dozen' Working to Gut Financial Reforms.
Marshall Auerback, AlterNet | AlterNet.org | 2018-03-10
This act of regulatory vandalism highlights everything that is corrupt about our political system. | As if to maximize the possibility of another major financial crisis, the Trump administration and the GOP have recently been busy undercutting the limited safeguards established a decade ago via Dodd-Frank. The latest example of this stealth attack on Wall Street reform is the Economic Growth, Regulatory Relief, and Consumer Protection Act, appropriately sponsored by Republican Senator Mike Crapo of Idaho, chairman of the Senate Banking Committee. Appropriate, because this is literally a "crapo" bill. It provides a few "technical tweaks" to Dodd-Frank in the same way in which protection payouts to organized crime provide businesses with "insurance" against property damage. In reality, it is an act of regulatory vandalism, which highlights everything that is corrupt about our political system. We have grown to expect no less from. . .
feeds.feedblitz.com/~/531464506/0/alternet

Trump's Freaky Week: Tough-Guy Tariffs, a Porn Star and a Strange Bromance with North Korea.
Andrew O'Hehir, Salon | AlterNet.org | 2018-03-10
Trickster demon Donald Trump had one hell of a week. | If Donald Trump had been sent to Earth by a malicious deity to expose human hypocrisy in its many forms, like a trickster demon out of the mythological past, I'm not sure he could be doing a better job. Indeed, that might be a more convincing explanation than any others we have available, and it conforms neatly with Neil deGrasse Tyson's 50/50 proposition that our universe is actually a computer simulationdesigned by a superior civilization. This week alone we have seen Trump reintroduce tariffs — a seemingly antique mechanism viewed with dread by both economists and history students — halfway admit to having cheated on his current wife with a porn star, and agree in principle to a summit meeting with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un. None of those things. . .
feeds.feedblitz.com/~/531633848/0/alternet

Toxic Coal Ash Is Being Dumped in Puerto Rico, Which Already Suffers Worst Drinking Water in the Nation.
Truthout Stories | 2018-03-09
Even before Hurricane Maria struck the island nearly six months ago, the majority of Puerto Rico's residents lived with water that violated health standards set by the US law. Since the storm, residents say the situation has only gotten worse. Among the sources of potential water contamination are mountains of coal ash generated by a coal-fired power plant owned by a private company called AES. For years, residents have demanded the company stop dumping toxic coal ash into their community, saying the waste is poisonous to their health and the environment. We speak with Mekela Panditharatne, a lawyer with the Natural Resources Defense Council who just returned from the island and wrote an op-ed in The Washington Post headlined "FEMA says most of Puerto Rico has potable water. That can't be true." | TRANSCRIPT | AMY GOODMAN: I want to bring in…
www.truth-out.org/news/item/43795-toxic-coal-ash-being-dumped-in-puerto-rico-which-already-suffers-worst-drinking-water-in-the-nation

Toxic Coal Ash Being Dumped in Puerto Rico, Which Already Suffers Worst Drinking Water in the Nation.
Democracy Now! | 2018-03-09
Even before Hurricane Maria struck the island nearly six months ago, the majority of Puerto Rico's residents lived with water that violated health standards set by the U.S. law. Since the storm, residents say the situation has only gotten worse. Among the sources of potential water contamination are mountains of coal ash generated by a coal-fired power plant owned by a private company called AES. For years, residents have demanded the company stop dumping toxic coal ash into their community, saying the waste is poisonous to their health and the environment. We speak with Mekela Panditharatne, a lawyer with the Natural Resources Defense Council who just returned from the island and wrote an op-ed in The Washington Post headlined "FEMA says most of Puerto Rico has potable water. That can't be true."
www.democracynow.org/2018/3/9/toxic_coal_ash_being_dumped_in

Trump, risking trade war, signs off on steel and aluminium tariffs.
WSWS | World Socialist Web Site | 2018-03-09
Trump's tariff announcement expresses the turn by the United States to the types of protectionist measures that characterised the 1930s Great Depression.
www.wsws.org/en/articles/2018/03/09/trad-m09.html

Trump's Travesty of Protectionism.
Michael Hudson | counterpunch.org | 2018-03-09
Trump's series of threats this week was a one-two punch. First, he threatened to impose national security tariffs on steel and aluminum, primarily against Canada and Mexico (along with Korea and Japan). Then, he suggested an alternative: He would exempt these countries if they agree to certain U.S. demands. | But these demands make so little economic sense that they should be viewed as an exercise in what academia used to call power politics. Or in Trump's world, Us versus Them, a zero-sum game in which he has to show that America wins, they lose.
counterpunch.org/2018/03/09/trumps-travesty-of-protectionism/

Trump's Monumental Betrayal: Public Antiquities Gutted for Oil Industry.
TRNN | The Real News Network | 2018-03-09
Not only did Trump shrink the Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante national monuments, but the president's announcement came on the heels of one of the rarest finds of Triassic-period fossils, in an area which will now be excluded from protection…
therealnews.com/idirect.php?i=21308

Fukushima: A Human-Made Disaster Brought on by Bad Faith.
John Laforge | counterpunch.org | 2018-03-09
"Nearly seven years after the triple reactor meltdowns, this unique nuclear crisis is still underway," Greenpeace International's Shaun Burnie wrote in a blogpost last December. The word "unique" is an understatement but true. The March 11, 2011meltdowns are the world's first combined earthquake-tsunami-reactor catastrophe. Moreover, while other power reactors have run out-of-control, melted down and…
counterpunch.org/2018/03/09/fukushima-a-human-made-disaster-brought-on-by-bad-faith/

What the Earth Would Look Like if All the Ice Melted.
CP Editor | counterpunch.org | 2018-03-09
counterpunch.org/2018/03/09/what-the-earth-would-look-like-if-all-the-ice-melted/

The Trump Admins Dubious Attempts to Link Terrorism to Immigration.
Arnold Isaacs | MintPress News | 2018-03-09
When you see an immigrant or a foreign visitor, especially from a Muslim country, should your first thought be that you might be looking at a possible terrorist? | Clearly, that's how the Trump administration wants Americans to react. It was the message in the president's first address to Congress a year ago, when he declared that "the vast majority of individuals convicted of terrorism and terrorism-related offenses since 9/11 came here from outside of our country." At that time, he urged that the U.S. immigration system be reshaped because "we cannot allow a beachhead of terrorism to form inside America." | There's a misleading omission in Trump's formulation, though: homegrown fanatics have killed many more Americans on U.S. soil than foreign-born terrorists have. | The disparity grows much wider if you include mass killings carried…

The Trump Admins Dubious Attempts to Link Terrorism to Immigration

Coast Guard Responders Harmed by Chemicals Used to Clean Up BP Deepwater Oil Spill, Research Shows.
Tristan Baurick | Global Research | 2018-03-08
Featured image: Coast Guard Petty Officer 3rd Class Ryan Leonard watches oil and gas flare during the 2010 BP Deepwater Horizon oil disaster. (Coast Guard photo by Petty Officer 1st Class Matthew Belson) | For thousands of Coast Guard members who …
globalresearch.ca/coast-guard-responders-harmed-by-chemicals-used-to-clean-up-bp-oil-spill-research-shows/5631370

Elizabeth Warren Refuses to Let Democrats Off the Hook for Their Latest Cave to Wall Street.
Jake Johnson, Common Dreams | AlterNet.org | 2018-03-08
"The fight over the Bank Lobbyist Act isn't over yet. " | Thanks to the help of 16 Senate Democrats and Sen. Angus King (I-Maine), a Wall Street deregulation measure disguised as a "community banking" bill is barreling toward passage–but Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass. ) vowed Wednesday to not let the bill sail through without forcing votes on a series of amendments aimed at showing Americans whose side their lawmakers are really on. "The fight over the Bank Lobbyist Act isn't over yet," Warren wrote on Twitter, unveiling 17 amendments that, if approved, would uphold strict oversight of big banks and shield consumers from Wall Street fraud and abuse. "I'm not going to roll over and play dead for the big banks. "First introduced last November by Sen. Mike Crapo (R-Idaho), the officially named "Economic Growth, Regulatory Relief, and Consumer Protection Act" ( S. 2155). . .
feeds.feedblitz.com/~/531173070/0/alternet

Home-Grown Reactionaries, Not Russians, are Greatest Threat to Our Elections.
Jesse Jackson | counterpunch.org | 2018-03-08
This past weekend, we once again gathered in Selma, Ala., to commemorate "Bloody Sunday," the March 7, 1965, march across the Edmund Pettus Bridge that was savagely put down by police. That march — and the march from Selma to Montgomery that followed under federal protection — helped galvanize public support for the Voting Rights…
counterpunch.org/2018/03/08/home-grown-reactionaries-not-russians-are-greatest-threat-to-our-elections/

There's a Looming 'Existential Threat' to New Orleans That Should Frighten Every Sane American.
Reynard Loki, AlterNet | AlterNet.org | 2018-03-08
A proposed $210 million gas-fired power plant is on the frontlines of a national battle against fracking. | With the New Orleans city council set to vote Thursday on the future of Entergy's new fracked gas power plant–a $210 million gas-fired peaking power plant in New Orleans East–filmmaker/activist Josh Fox is calling on concerned citizens to stand up and join what he called in a recent email a "crucial fight for environmental justice. " He described the proposed plant, which would expose residents to many of the same health risks as living next to fracking wells, as "an existential threat" to New Orleans. "There is no city in the United States more vulnerable to the immediate effects of climate change," Fox writes.
feeds.feedblitz.com/~/530964074/0/alternet

There's a Looming 'Existential Threat' to New Orleans That Should Frighten Every Sane American.
Reynard Loki, AlterNet | AlterNet.org | 2018-03-08
A proposed $210 million gas-fired power plant is on the frontlines of a national battle against fracking. | health risks as living next to fracking wells, as "an existential threat" to New Orleans. "There is no city in the United States more vulnerable to the immediate effects of climate change," Fox writes. "The facts are simple: If climate change gets worse, there is no more New Orleans. Rising seas threaten to overtake the levees, and the extreme storms we saw in 2017 make Katrina look like a walk in the park. You would think that doing anything that makes climate change worse would be impossible for city government to do, but that is exactly what the New Orleans City Council are in the process of doing. ""Mayor-elect Latoya Cantrell must vote as well," he notes. "We need these council members to understand that they. . .
feeds.feedblitz.com/~/530964074/0/alternet

US Army Docs: Plan to 'Dethrone' Putin for Oil Pipelines May Provoke WW3.
Nafeez Ahmed | MintPress News | 2018-03-08
A US Army document concedes the real interests driving US military strategy toward Russia: dominating oil pipeline routes, accessing the vast natural resources of Central Asia, and enforcing the expansion of American capitalism worldwide. | The post US Army Docs: Plan to 'Dethrone' Putin for Oil Pipelines May Provoke WW3 appeared first on MintPress News.

US Army Docs: Plan to ‘Dethrone’ Putin for Oil Pipelines May Provoke WW3

8 Ways You Can Help Women's Rights.
Jane Arscott, The Conversation | AlterNet.org | 2018-03-07
Yes, we still need to protest this crap. | International Women's Day 2018 marks a pivotal moment for women's rights, according to the United Nation's Secretary General, Antonio Guterrez. In the entertainment industry, at workplaces, on social media, and in the streets women demand an end to oppression and discrimination, and zero tolerance for sexual assault and harassment. Historical and structural inequalities that long flourished now lie exposed. Guterrez's acknowledgement that gender equality and the empowerment of women and girls is the unfinished business of our time resounds around the world. Women's equality is among the most persistent human rights challenges of the last several generations. Globally, almost a third of the work women do is in agriculture. Much of the work is labour intensive, and poorly paid, with inadequate labour rights protection. Last year International Women's Day was the largest event. . .
feeds.feedblitz.com/~/530932632/0/alternet

Activists Storm Washington, Demanding Protection for All Immigrants.
Truthout Stories | 2018-03-07
"We walked with the same resilience and strength that our community demonstrates in fighting for our right to stay in the US," says Maria Duarte, a Dreamer with Movimiento Cosecha. Duarte and Omar Cisneros, her fellow organizer and US-born ally, discuss their march from New York City to Washington, DC, and the steps they are taking to hold Congress — especially Democrats — accountable for not acting to protect immigrants.An immigration activist wears butterfly wings during a protest March 5, 2018, on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC. (Photo: Alex Wong / Getty Images) | Stories like this are more important than ever! To make sure Truthout can keep publishing them, please give a tax-deductible donation today. | Welcome to Interviews for Resistance. We're now more than a year into the Trump administration, and activists have scored some important victories in those…
www.truth-out.org/opinion/item/43759-activists-storm-washington-demanding-protection-for-all-immigrants

What Colorado's Informed People Want!
Wendell G Bradley | counterpunch.org | 2018-03-07
On Oil Operators' Exploration and Production (E&P) This activity has, historically, been permitted with little regard for either public health and safety, or protection of the environment. The Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission (COGCC) has seen its role largely as a promoter of the industry. Recently, this position of the COGCC was challenged in…
counterpunch.org/2018/03/07/what-colorados-informed-people-want/

Administration Sues California Over State Sanctuary Laws.
Staff | Truthdig: Expert Reporting, Current News, Provocative Columnists | 2018-03-07
WASHINGTON–The Trump administration on Tuesday sued to block California laws that extend protections to people living in the U.S. illegally, the most aggressive move yet in its push to force so-called sanctuary cities and states to cooperate with immigration authorities. California officials remained characteristically defiant, vowing to defend their landmark legislation. | The Justice Department argued a trio of state laws that, among other things, bar police from asking people about their citizenship status or participating in federal immigration enforcement activities are unconstitutional and have kept federal agents from doing their jobs. The lawsuit named as defendants the state of California, Gov. Jerry Brown and Attorney General Xavier Becerra. | "I say, bring it on," said California Senate President Pro Tem Kevin de Leon, a Los Angeles Democrat who wrote the sanctuary state bill. | It is the latest salvo in an escalating…
truthdig.com/articles/administration-sues-california-state-sanctuary-laws/

Mountains of Nuclear Waste Just Keep Growing.
Staff | Truthdig: Expert Reporting, Current News, Provocative Columnists | 2018-03-07
Nuclear waste has been an intractable problem since nuclear power was invented more than 50 years ago, and for many countries it is becoming an ever more expensive and politically embarrassing issue. | Not that politicians would admit this: many still argue that nuclear power is an answer to climate change, forgetting that they are passing the waste buck to future generations. | To those in power the solution to the waste problem is always just around the corner, conveniently just beyond their term of office. But the history of the industry over the last four decades, across the globe, is of dozens of failed schemes. | Currently the United States, France and the UK are yet again wrestling with the problem of repeated failed attempts to find a solution, as scientists warn that continued neglect of the issue is…
truthdig.com/articles/nuclear-waste-mountains-just-keep-growing/

Indigenous and Rural Women Conserve Mother Earth and Empower Their Communities.
Truthout Stories | 2018-03-07
Women's rights and gender equality are crucial for not just women, but also for their communities and the environment. Increasing women's leadership in natural resource management, for example, is not only beneficial for biodiversity but also increases livelihood opportunities for women, thus improving their ability to plan for their families and resulting in positive outcomes for their communities.On this International Women's Day, we bring you a photo essay about Indigenous and rural women and their innate connection to nature. Women's rights and gender equality are crucial for not just women, but also for their communities and the environment. Women play a key role in the conservation of biodiversity and forests. A growing body of evidence shows that increasing women's leadership in natural resource management and governance is not only beneficial for biodiversity but also empowers women, increases their livelihood opportunities, improves their ability…
www.truth-out.org/opinion/item/43778-indigenous-and-rural-women-conserve-mother-earth-and-empower-their-communities

Injustice At Sea: the Irradiated Sailors of the USS Reagan.
Linda Pentz Gunter | counterpunch.org | 2018-03-07
"Coverage of the USS Ronald Reagan has been astoundingly limited," wrote Der Spiegel in a February 2015 story. Since then, nothing much has changed. The German magazine was referring to the saga of the American Nimitz-class nuclear-powered aircraft carrier whose crew pitched in to help victims of the March 11, 2011 Tsunami and earthquake in Japan, then found themselves under the radioactive plume from the stricken coastal nuclear reactors at Fukushima. Since then, crew members in eye-popping numbers have come down with unexplained illnesses — more than 70 and still counting. Some have died. And many are suing.
counterpunch.org/2018/03/07/injustice-at-sea-the-irradiated-sailors-of-the-uss-reagan/

Fukushima Fallout: the Irradiated Sailors of the USS Ronald Reagan.
Linda Pentz Gunter | MintPress News | 2018-03-07
Coverage of the USS Ronald Reagan has been astoundingly limited, wrote Der Spiegel in a February 2015 story. Since then, nothing much has changed. | The German magazine was referring to the saga of the American Nimitz-class nuclear-powered aircraft carrier whose crew pitched in to help victims of the March 11, 2011 Tsunami and earthquake in Japan, then found themselves under the radioactive plume from the stricken coastal nuclear reactors at Fukushima. Since then, crew members in eye-popping numbers have come down with unexplained illnesses — more than 70 and still counting. Some have died. And many are suing. | The USS Reagan was part of Operation Tomodachi, a U.S. armed forces mission involving 24,000 U.S. service members, and numerous ships and aircraft bringing aid to the victims of the tsunami and earthquake. | On January 5, 2018, a federal…

Fukushima Fallout: the Irradiated Sailors of the USS Ronald Reagan

The Current Onset of Climate Tipping Points.
Andrew Glikson | counterpunch.org | 2018-03-07
As extreme temperatures, the rate of sea ice melt, the collapse of Greenland glaciers, the thawing of Siberian and Canadian permafrost and increased evaporation in the Arctic drive cold snow storms into Europe and North America, and as hurricanes and wild fires affect tropical and semi-tropical parts of the globe, it is becoming clear Earth…
counterpunch.org/2018/03/07/the-current-onset-of-climate-tipping-points/

Ohio Gas Well Was Spewing Methane Pollution Three Weeks After Blowout.
Truthout Stories | 2018-03-07
Nearly three weeks after an initial explosion and blowout, an environmental group's infrared camera found that methane was still spewing from a wellhead on an oil and gas drilling pad in rural Ohio. The accident, which displaced about 100 people and spewed toxic chemicals, is being compared to the massive natural gas leak in California's Aliso Canyon that drew national attention to the climate impacts of methane. Workers gained control of the well Wednesday morning.The XTO Methane disaster. (Screenshot: Earthworks) | This Truthout original was only possible because of our readers' ongoing support. Can you make a monthly donation to ensure we can publish more like it? Click here to give. | An oil and gas drilling pad where a fiery explosion led to the evacuation of about 100 people in Ohio's Belmont County last month was still spewing raw…
www.truth-out.org/news/item/43768-ohio-gas-well-is-still-spewing-methane-pollution-three-weeks-after-blowout

Trump Will Attend Private Dinner with Billionaire Members of Super PAC Supporting His Campaign.
Noor Al-Sibai, Raw Story | AlterNet.org | 2018-03-07
The dinner raises legal questions in addition to the obvious ethical problems. | President Donald Trump is set to dine tonight with billionaires in a private mansion in Washington D. C. 's ritzy Georgetown neighborhood — many of whom are key members of America First Policies, a pro-Trump super PAC that formerly employed the vice president's chief of staff. CNN reported Wednesday afternoon that the dinner is being held at the Georgetown residence of Bush 43 White House counsel Boyden Gray, and will be attended by America First Policies' president Brian Walsh along with billionaire oil tycoon and GOP megadonor Harold Hamm. America First Policies, CNBC revealed in an investigation last week, is not only a newly-founded political action committee aimed at promoting Trump's agenda, but also is "conducting a large-scale polling operation that appears designed to benefit the president. " Election law experts. . .
feeds.feedblitz.com/~/531040184/0/alternet