The Federal Bureau of Investigation may have played a much more extensive role in the National Security Agency’s unwarranted surveillance program than previously thought, according to newly declassified government documents. Since 2009, the FBI has been gathering raw intelligence data without warrants on foreign surveillance targets—secretly collecting emails and phone numbers through the NSA’s controversial […]
On the fifth anniversary of the Supreme Court’s Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission decision, which unleashed a scourge of dark money and unlimited corporate spending in U.S. elections, a coalition of reform-minded organizations gathered on Wednesday to promote several key pieces of legislation aimed at countering the influence of big money in politics. In […]
William Schabas, the head of a United Nations war crimes inquiry into Israel’s 50-day military assault on Gaza last summer, announced his resignation on Monday, citing mounting and “malicious” attacks from Israel, which has vigorously opposed the probe. Analysts say that Schabas’ premature departure, which comes just a month before the commission’s findings are slated […]
The Wisconsin State Senate passed so-called ‘right-to-work’ legislation late Wednesday night, against a backdrop of protests from those saying the bill represents pay cuts for working people and a direct attack on organized labor. After nearly eight hours of debate, the bill passed the Senate 17 to 15, with all Democrats and one Republican voting […]
As leaders of the Syriza-led government of Greece participate in high-stakes meetings with their European creditors in Brussels on Monday, New York Times columnist and Nobel Prize-winning economist Paul Krugman is among those urging the so-called Troika negotiators—representing the IMF, the European Central Bank, and the European Commission—to do what is right by giving Athens […]
New reporting that members of the United Nations Security Council are moving to foster the development of a pending nuclear agreement between leading world powers and Iran over the nation’s nuclear program has sent U.S. lawmakers opposed to a peaceful settlement with the Middle Eastern nation into orbit. On Thursday, the Reuters news agency said […]
Standing on dry grass in an area that would typically be covered by at least several feet of accumulated snow in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada mountains on Wednesday, California Governor Jerry Brown on Wednesday announced his approval of emergency measures, including mandatory water restrictions, designed to help the nation’s largest state cope with […]
Following a damning investigation by the Desert Sun last month which revealed that Nestlé had been using a long-expired permit to pipe and transport water from a national forest in drought-ridden California, activists are slamming the U.S. Forest Service’s promises to make an investigation into the company a priority. An investigation is an insufficient consequence—and […]
In his race to Fast Track the controversial Trans-Pacific Partnership “free trade” deal, U.S. President Barack Obama made a stop at the Oregon headquarters of Nike, a large multinational with notoriously poor labor standards, to promote the behemoth pact. The irony was not lost on the dozens of protesters who greeted Obama outside the Portland […]
Despite the health and safety concerns of local residents, Japan’s Sendai nuclear power station on Wednesday was granted final regulatory approval to restart its operations, meaning it is now poised to be the first such facility to reopen since the industry was halted nation-wide following the Fukushima meltdown in 2011. Asia One reports that Japan’s […]