Advocates Mourn 1000th Legal Injection
ATLANTA – The State of Ohio executed death row inmate Marvallous Keene, 36, on Tuesday, July 21, 2009, marking the 1,000th time in the United States that the government has killed a prisoner by lethal injection.
Podcast #105: Minimum Wage Not Enough
On this episode, President Obama fires back against Republican obstructionism of health reform. The minimum wage goes up July 24th to $7.25 per hour. And we play excerpts of a recent interview with Dan Kovalik a United Steelworkers union staffer who traveled to Honduras earlier this month to observe pro-democracy protests against the military coup.
Light at the End of the Unemployment Line? (July 23)
A disappointing unemployment report earlier this month that saw the loss of 467,000 jobs in the month of June and a rise in the unemployment rate to 9.5 percent, has caused predictions of a nearing economic turnaround to fall flat in recent months.
'Violence of Capitalism' Under Fire
In the ruthless enterprise culture typical of Chinese business, workers' rights are at the center of heated debate across the country after an employee at an iPhone factory killed himself because a prototype phone went missing.
Treating Addiction Can Prevent HIV
Alcohol and drug addiction are major drivers of the HIV/AIDS epidemic in many parts of the world, but for political and ideological reasons, scientists and clinicians have tended to shy away from this area of HIV research, while governments and donors have been reluctant to fund programs targeting addicts.
The Moon: Promise or Threat?
The beginning of the week was the fortieth anniversary of the successful outcome of the Apollo project to put a man on the Moon. (And doesn’t it make those of us who watched it live on TV feel old?)
Cost of Health Care Reform: Wails of Indignation from the Right
In recent weeks we have been treated to wails of pain and indignation regarding the cost of government subsidized health care from our elected representatives. Most frequently the most plaintive cries are from those senators and representatives who show no compunction about large appropriations for foreign military adventures and who show total disregard for the taxpayers’ subsidies of executive salaries and bonuses.
Notes on Jubilee: Solve the Financial Crisis with Debt Cancellation
The credit system had become vastly over-extended. The ratio of virtual bank money to real money had become unsustainable. Either the state had to resort to the printing press to create more $ and £, or the virtual money had to be canceled. The alternative to quantitative easing, was the Jubilee — the general forgiveness of all debts.
Lonesome Hobo Economics: Should the bankers be hanged?
Should the bankers be hanged? Their reckless betting of other people's money turned a cyclical economic crisis into a near meltdown not seen since the Great Depression.
Health Reform More Urgent Than Ever
Families are in desperate need of health reform, President Obama said in remarks at the Children's National Medical Center in Washington DC, July 20. In his statement, after meeting with the hospital's administrators, doctors and nurses, the President also warned against Republican obstructionism on health reform.
