Loan Scandal Costs Wells Fargo $1 Billion; None of Fine Goes to Victims
Staff | Truthdig: Expert Reporting, Current News, Provocative Columnists | 2018-04-20
The banking giant will pay $500 million to the U.S. Treasury and $500 million to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau's civil penalties fund. | The post Loan Scandal Costs Wells Fargo $1 Billion; None of Fine Goes to Victims appeared first on Truthdig: Expert Reporting, Current News, Provocative Columnists.
truthdig.com/articles/loan-scandal-costs-wells-fargo-1-billion-none-of-fine-goes-to-victims/

Our Greatest Threat Is the Hardest to Act Upon
Staff | Truthdig: Expert Reporting, Current News, Provocative Columnists | 2018-04-20
"No Immediate Danger: Volume One of Carbon Ideologies" | "No Immediate Danger: Volume One of Carbon Ideologies" | Purchase in the Truthdig Bazaar | A book by William T. Vollmann | A decade ago, the environmental philosopher Timothy Morton invented a new word: hyperobject. It describes something so "massively distributed in time and space relative to humans" that it eludes our understanding. The best example of a hyperobject is climate change. Its scale confounds our perception. It is everywhere-"viscous," as Morton has it–and yet it is hard to see directly. Its implications are so great that they verge on unthinkable. | William T. Vollmann's new book, "No Immediate Danger," tussles with the comprehension-defying nature of climate change. It is a 600-page amalgam of scientific history, cultural criticism, mathematical experiments, risk-benefit analyses of energy production and consumption, and diaristic meanderings through radiation-festooned…
truthdig.com/articles/our-greatest-threat-is-the-hardest-to-act-upon/

Earth Day 2018: Ending Plastic Pollution in the Oceans, Land and Our Bodies
Truthout Stories | 2018-04-20
This Sunday more than a billion people will celebrate Earth Day. This year's theme: ending plastic pollution by Earth Day 2020. Of the nearly 300 million tons of plastic sold each year, about 90 percent ends up in landfills, in the oceans — and in our bodies. Part of the focus will be microplastics, those small bits of plastic that are seemingly everywhere. We speak to Marcus Eriksen of the 5 Gyres Institute, who has led 20 expeditions around the world to research plastic marine pollution, and Priscilla Villa of the #BreakFreeFromPlastics movement. | TRANSCRIPT: | AMY GOODMAN: This Sunday more than a billion people will celebrate Earth Day. This year's theme: ending plastic pollution by Earth Day 2020. Of the nearly 300 million tons of plastic sold each year, about 90 percent ends up in landfills, in the oceans — and…
www.truth-out.org/news/item/44229-earth-day-2018-ending-plastic-pollution-in-the-oceans-land-and-our-bodies

Economic Update: Why People Struggle With the System
Truthout Stories | 2018-04-20
This week's episode provides updates on the teachers' strikes, how capitalism abuses Facebook and how colleges reward privilege and reproduce it. We also discuss Shell Oil knowing for 50 years that fossil fuels contribute to global warming and how Sinclair Broadcasting traps its employees. Finally, we interview Rob Robinson on water as human right as opposed to a commodity for corporate profit. | Download the show | To see more stories like this, visit Economic Update: Your Weekly Dose of Revolutionary Economics | To listen in live on Saturdays at noon, visit WBAI's Live Stream | Economic Update is in partnership with Truthout.org | Your radio station needs Economic Update! If you are a radio station, check this out. If you want to hear Economic Update on your favorite local station,…
www.truth-out.org/news/item/44219-economic-update-why-people-struggle-with-the-system

The Bayer-Monsanto Merger Is Bad News for the Planet
Truthout Stories | 2018-04-20
Two new studies from Europe have found that the number of farm birds in France has crashed by a third in just 15 years, with some species being almost eradicated. The collapse in the bird population mirrors the discovery last October that over three quarters of all flying insects in Germany have vanished in just three decades. Insects are the staple food source of birds, the pollinators of fruits, and the aerators of the soil. | The chief suspect in this mass extinction is the aggressive use of neonicotinoid pesticides, particularly imidacloprid and clothianidin, both made by German-based chemical giant Bayer. These pesticides, along with toxic glyphosate herbicides (Roundup), have delivered a one-two punch against Monarch butterflies, honeybees and birds. But rather than banning these toxic chemicals, on March 21st the EU approved the $66 billion merger of…
www.truth-out.org/opinion/item/44233-the-bayer-monsanto-merger-is-bad-news-for-the-planet

Why Marijuana Fans Should Not See Approval for Epilepsy Drug As a Win for Weed
The Conversation | AlterNet.org | 2018-04-20
Healing, but no high? | A Food and Drug Administration panel recommended approval of a drug made of cannabidiol on April 19 to treat two types of epilepsy. The FDA is expected to decide in June whether to accept the panel's 13-0 recommendation to approve Epidiolex, which would would become the first drug made of cannabidiol, a compound in the cannabis plant, to gain approval from the FDA. While the panel's unanimous decision is not binding, the action will no doubt heighten public debate about the use of cannabidiol, medical marijuana, medical cannabis and hemp oil. Should cannabidiol, or CBD, or marijuana be legalized for medical purposes? What is the evidence that these products are beneficial? Are these products safe to use? Those who support the use of marijuana for recreational or medicinal purposes might have found the timing of the. . .
feeds.feedblitz.com/~/540548190/0/alternet

Showing "Total Disregard for Indigenous Rights and Public Wishes," Trump Moves to Open Alaska Wildlife Refuge to Drilling
Truthout Stories | 2018-04-20
Support from readers keeps Truthout 100 percent independent. If you like what you're reading, make a donation! | Demonstrating a " total disregard for Indigenous rights and public wishes," the Trump administration on Friday moved to expedite oil and gas exploration in previously protected lands in Alaska. | The Interior Department published a notice in the Federal Register announcing a public comment period and plans to draft an environmental impact statement for creating a leasing program for the coastal plain of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR). The filing follows legislation to enable the program that was tacked on to the tax law Republicans forced through Congress last year. | In response, critics who have spent several months fighting the drilling efforts expressed worries about how drilling will impact the region's native people as well as…
www.truth-out.org/news/item/44225-showing-total-disregard-for-indigenous-rights-and-public-wishes-trump-moves-to-open-alaska-wildlife-refuge-to-drilling

Earth Day 2018: Ending Plastic Pollution in the Oceans, Land & Our Bodies
Democracy Now! | 2018-04-20
This Sunday more than a billion people will celebrate Earth Day. This year's theme: ending plastic pollution by Earth Day 2020. Of the nearly 300 million tons of plastic sold each year, about 90 percent ends up in landfills, in the oceans–and in our bodies. Part of the focus will be microplastics, those small bits of plastic that are seemingly everywhere. We speak to Marcus Eriksen of the 5 Gyres Institute, who has led 20 expeditions around the world to research plastic marine pollution, and Priscilla Villa of the #BreakFreeFromPlastics movement.
www.democracynow.org/2018/4/20/earth_day_2018_ending_plastic_pollution

Of Animals and Bees and Flowers Wild as Earth Day Nears
DAMK | Global Research | 2018-04-19
Nature cheers us. Animals can be powerful, beautiful, sleek, graceful. A field of wild flowers chanced upon can take our breath away. Wordsworth so moved by 'a host of golden daffodils' put pen to paper, and we are richer for …
globalresearch.ca/of-animals-and-bees-and-flowers-wild-as-earth-day-nears/5636851

Global Warming's Impact on Ocean Currents to Amplify Sea Level Rise
TRNN | The Real News Network | 2018-04-19
A new study shows that the Atlantic's currents have weakened due to global warming and are closer to catastrophic collapse than any time in the last 1,600 years, which could cause rapid sea level rise on the East Coast of North America. One of the study's lead authors explains…
therealnews.com/idirect.php?i=21606

Justin Trudeau Vows to Bail Out Profitable Oil Company, Kinder Morgan
TRNN | The Real News Network | 2018-04-19
Canada's Prime Minister Justin Trudeau sees the Kinder Morgan threat to abandon its pipeline project as a threat to the country's national interest and is now mobilizing local governments to maintain the project, says TRNN's Dimitri Lascaris…
therealnews.com/idirect.php?i=21600

Iraq: ISIS Suspects' Homes Confiscated
Human Rights Watch | Human Rights Watch News | 2018-04-19
(Beirut) — Iraqi security officers are denying immediate relatives of suspected Islamic State (also known as ISIS) members security clearance to reclaim homes being occupied or to seek compensation, Human Rights Watch said today. Security forces have also destroyed or confiscated some property. Such acts, based only on family relationships to ISIS suspects rather than individual security determinations, are a form of collective punishment. | Graffiti that reads "Daesh (ISIS)," marks the home of relatives of an ISIS member in a west Mosul neighborhood, Iraq. | © 2018 Private | "These families deserve the same protections that Iraqi courts provide to all citizens," said Lama Fakih, deputy Middle East director at Human Rights Watch. "Courts should be the guarantors against discrimination that will only further sectarian divisions in the country and delay needed…
www.hrw.org/news/2018/04/19/iraq-isis-suspects-homes-confiscated

#FreeSiwatu: Pregnant Black Detroit Activist Jailed for Standing Her Ground & Protecting Her Family
Democracy Now! | 2018-04-18
An environmental activist and young black mother in Detroit may be forced to give birth behind bars, after standing her ground during a frightening encounter. Since she was 15 years old, Siwatu-Salama Ra has fought for environmental justice. She campaigned against the Marathon oil refinery and the Detroit Renewable Power trash incinerator. She represented Detroit at the Paris climate summit. She's also worked to engage kids and educate young mothers about nutrition. Now, at age 26, Siwatu has been sentenced to a mandatory two years in prison, following an incident in which she brandished her unloaded–and legally registered–handgun while defending her mother and 2-year-old daughter. She was sentenced last month to two years in prison even though she is scheduled to give birth in June. We speak to two of her attorneys and Patrisse Khan-Cullors, co-founder of Black Lives Matter.
www.democracynow.org/2018/4/18/freesiwatu_pregnant_black_detroit_activist_jailed

Animals Deserve Protection From Abuse
Christopher Dale | The Progressive — A voice for peace, social justice, and the common good | 2018-04-16
In protecting animals, we also protect ourselves.
progressive.org/op-eds/animals-deserve-protection-from-abuse-180416/

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

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

A Standing Rock on the Border?
Tim Vanderpool | The Progressive — A voice for peace, social justice, and the common good | 2018-04-06
A desert tribe, tormented by border patrol, pushes back against Trump's wall.
progressive.org/dispatches/a-standing-rock-on-the-border-wall-180406/