Featured

News You Might Have Missed

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Important but underreported news from around the world — and your own backyard
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QUOTED: “Nowhere I have been have they done a commendable job. They [oil companies] go through like Sherman going through Georgia.” –New Mexico rancher Bob Jones, on his state’s lawsuit against the federal government to prevent oil drilling(Story #10, below).  – – – – – – – – – –
TOP STORIES
[o1] “Pope ‘obstructed’ sex abuse inquiry”
[o2] “Bush’s most radical plan yet”
[o3] “Brussels reporter loses battle to protect sources”
WORLD
[o4] “Serbia: More Mackatica body burning revelations”
[o5] “New Zim information minister to review media approach”
[o6] “British exam papers to be marked in India”
[o7] “U.S. firm eyes Labrador sites”
NATION
[o8] “In war’s name, public loses information”
[o9] “Detroit-area Jews, Arabs plan to invest in Palestinian territories”
OIL & GAS POLITICS
[10] “State sues BLM over Otero Mesa”
[11] “Hybrids could pay more gas tax”
HEALTH
[12] “Lawmakers part with locks of hair – all in the name of science”
[13] “Debate over family leave”
[14] “Probe of ill workers cited to expose flaws”
OCEAN RESOURCES
[15] “Seabed supplies a cure for global warming crisis”
[16] “Crystals may be sunken energy treasure”
[17] “Japan researchers look to seaweed in fight against global warming”
VIEWPOINT
[18] “There’s torture in my zeitgeist”

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TOP STORIES
Top
[o1]
“Pope ‘obstructed’ sex abuse inquiry”
Guardian (U.K.), April 24, 2005
Two Texans say Cardinal Ratzinger’s order to keep sex abuse investigations secret prevented them from bringing charges. [o2]
“Bush’s most radical plan yet”
Rolling Stone, April 21, 2005
A budget provision would permit a presidential “Sunset Commission” to analyze — and terminate — any federal agency or program.

Democracy

The Activist Judiciary

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Martin Leatherman, Newsdesk.org

With Representative Tom DeLay calling for the dismantling and rearranging of the courts, and three contentious federal judicial nominations up for confirmation, judicial activism is again in the spotlight. The conflict has its roots in the 1803 Supreme Court case Marbury v Madison, in which Justice John Marshall established the power of judicial review for American jurists. His ruling enables the courts to overturn legislation that is deemed contrary to the Constitution, a precedent that solidified the role of the judiciary as a separate but equal entity in federal government. Now, Republican members of Congress, saying that the courts have exceeded their mandate, have begun to push for more control. According to the Associated Press, DeLay has been investigating several ways of doing this.

Featured

News You Might Have Missed

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Important but underreported news from around the world — and your own backyard
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QUOTED: “If you had an English DJ saying ‘faggot’ and ‘fudge packers,” don’t tell me the FCC wouldn’t get on their butts. I guarantee you the same words in English would bring a higher fine. We want parity on this issue, and this is not parity.” –Lisbeth Melendez Rivera is fighting Spanish-American talk radio’s abusive treatment of Hispanic gays and lesbians. (Story #11, below)
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TOP STORIES
[o1] “Emerging nations moving away from IMF, World Bank”
[o2] “Barbaric images for sale”
[o3] “New immigration plan to clear backlog”
WORLD
[o4] “Botswana: gov’t to retain ‘draconian’ law”
[o5] “Anger as Israeli soldier cleared over journalist’s shooting”
[o6] “Rich or poor, cancer is nation’s biggest killer”
[o7] “Resignation boost for Iraq war protester’s election bid”
[o8] “Nepal Maoist leader rules out peace talks”
NATION
[o9] “Supreme Court rejects California’s case vs.

Culture

FOCUS: Peak Oil

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Martin Leatherman, Newsdesk.org
Are the days of cheap oil over? With prices soaring above $50 a barrel, the world is beginning to take the peak oil theory seriously. The Hubbert Peak Theory, developed in 1956 by geophysicist M. King Hubbert, is casually called the peak oil theory. It says oil and fossil-fuel production will soon reach a peak and then rapidly decline, driving prices up. In 1956 Hubbert predicted that production would peak in the United States in the late 1970s, which it did.

Science

Genetically Engineered Food: Safety Research

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Read the main article. Although the FDA does not conduct safety testing on genetically engineered foods, research is ongoing throughout the world, and not always free of controversy. The following is a brief overview:
–Food-safety researcher Dr. Arpad Pusztai reported in 1998 that rats fed genetically engineered potatoes at a British lab developed immune system deficiencies and stunted growth. After announcing his findings, Pusztai was suspended by the lab at which he worked. Other independent researchers supported his conclusions.

Culture

FDA Critics Cite Biotech Food Safety

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[Sidebar: Biotech Food Safety Research]
By Robert Mullins, Newsdesk.org
Stymied by legal setbacks and a lack of public interest, critics of genetically engineered foods expressed impatience with the federal Food and Drug Administration for putting its regulatory foot down on pharmaceuticals such as Vioxx and Bextra, but keeping its hands off biotechnology. While the FDA must approve pharmaceuticals before they are sold, and regulates them once they hit the market, it requires only voluntary consultations with food and biotech corporations about the safety of any genetically engineered foods they want to sell. James Maryanski, biotechnology coordinator for the FDA’s Center for Food Safety and Nutrition, said that this is consistent with the agency’s mandate. Medicines are newly created products combining different chemicals and other ingredients to treat diseases, and so must be pre-tested for possible side effects, he said, while genetically engineered food crops are still just plants, and therefore “generally recognized as safe.” “[T]he foods we eat today are all derived from crops we’ve had for centuries,” Mr. Maryanski said.

Featured

News You Might Have Missed

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Important but underreported news from around the world — and your own backyard
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QUOTED: “The testimony that has been delivered in a shroud of secrecy may lead to a more explosive political scandal than either of our countries has seen since Nixon. And we’re left to learn about this from Americans.” — Canadian lawyer James Rossiter on a U.S. blogger’s posting of banned “Adscam” testimony from a political corruption trial. (story #o8, below)
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TOP STORIES
[o1] “U.S. cash goes down the drain in Iraq”
[o2] “Killing Fields deal sparks anger”
[o3] “No Social Security number? No big deal under emerging loan programs”
STUDENT ACTIVISM
[o4] “Harvard divests from PetroChina stock”
[o5] “WU students refuse chancellor’s ultimatum”
[o6] “UC protest forces military recruiters to leave job fair”
CENSORSHIP
[o7] “Malaysian bloggers take a beating”
[o8] “U.S. blogger thwarts Canadian gag order”
[o9] “Iran bans parliamentary reporter”
[10] “AP calls criticism of Pulitzer win for photos ‘deeply offensive'”
[11] “China blocks Internet comments on the pope”
NATION
[12] “OSHA issued warning about dangerous ventilation stack in 1992”
[13] “California NAACP endorses same-sex marriage bill”
[14] “Pendulum begins swing away from death penalty”
ENVIRONMENT
[15] “CDC report criticizes plan to dump nerve-agent waste in Delaware River”
[16] “Labels on fish give shoppers the whole story”
[17] “Gas-thirsty cars imperil U.S., conservative ex-officials warn”
[18] “Chinese farmers riot over crop poisoning”
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TOP STORIES
Top
[o1]
“U.S. cash goes down the drain in Iraq”
Los Angeles Times, April 10, 2005
Thousands of dollars spent on Iraq’s sewage and electrical plants have gone to waste due to poor Iraqi management.

Science

FOCUS: Overfishing — Local to Global

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Jodi Wynn & Newsdesk.org staff
According to the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization, overfishing is leading to a humanitarian and ecological crisis. The report finds that over 70 percent of fish species are being caught at a rate faster than they reproduce, leading to the near-depletion of many commercial fish stocks. In the U.S., the National Marine Fisheries Service reported that 92 percent of domestic fish stocks are overexploited, but can recover if well managed. With more than 200 million people worldwide depending on fishing for a living, and 2.5 billion relying on fish for food, the U.N. said that declining fish stocks will affect “food security and economic development” as well as social welfare and underwater ecosystems.
The FAO also predicts that within ten years fish stocks will be further depleted by growing human populations. The New Zealand fisheries minister expressed fears that post-tsunami relief efforts could “create the conditions for overfishing and resource depletion, particularly where these problems were already occurring.”

Featured

News You Might Have Missed

By |

Important but underreported news from around the world — and your own backyard
 – – – – – – – – – –
QUOTED: “Sudan doesn’t have a mechanism to show that there can and will be accountability for these crimes.” — State Department spokesman Richard Boucher, on the unexpected U.S. support of International Criminal Court trials for Darfur suspects. (Story #9, below.)
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TOP STORIES
[o1] “Analysis points to election ‘corruption'”
[o2] “Protesters demand police ‘spy files'”
[o3] “Egypt reins in democratic voices”
MEDIA
[o4] “Filipino journalists face brutal death squads”
[o5] “UK journalists in Zimbabwe arrest”
[o6] “Pope’s parting message for media”
WORLD
[o7] “Honduras bars gays from marriage and adoption”
[o8] “Landless Brazilians occupy farms”
[o9] “War-crimes vote ‘difficult decision'”
[10] “Chlorine-affected villagers resettled”
MINORITY TEACHERS
[11] “Schools intensify hunt for minority teachers”
[12] “Big-city life draws away new teachers”
AD MARKETING
[13] “T may install TV network to raise funds”
[14] “Marketers tap chatty young teens, and hit a hot button”
ENVIRONMENT
[15] “Closed military bases can leave behind pollution problems”
[16] “Peru’s Doe Run smelter poisoning children – NGOs”
VIEWPOINT
[17] “The Pentagon’s secret stash”
[18] “The next chapter in the Patriot Act”
[19] “NPR’s white noise”

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TOP STORIES
Top
[o1]
“Analysis points to election ‘corruption'”
Akron Beacon Journal (OH), April 1, 2005
Ohio election officials dismissed a statistical analysis suggesting vote discrepancies were due to inaccurate counting. [o2]
“Protesters demand police ‘spy files'”
Florida Today, March 22, 2005
Florida police took surveillance photos of a small group of anti-Bush protesters who now want to see their records. [o3]
“Egypt reins in democratic voices”
Christian Science Monitor, March 28, 2005
Hosni Mubarak’s promise of democratic reform is belied by his government’s crackdown on a radical political group.

Democracy

Focus: Uganda — ‘A War Against Children’

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Jodi Wynn, Newsdesk.org
Since the Lord’s Resistance Army was formed in 1987, approximately 20,000 children in Acholiland, a region in northern Uganda, have been abducted and 1.6 million people displaced. “I feel frightened, I feel very afraid, I have returned only once to my real home,” Charles Ojok, who was abducted at age 14 on his way to school, told the BBC. Jan Egeland, a Humanitarian Affairs official for the United Nations, visited Northern Uganda in 2003 and was “shocked” by what he found. “This is above all a war against children. They are abducted, abused and violated,” he said in a press release.