Dispatches From The War On Women: Prosecuting Failed Pregnancies
Bei Bei Shuai, the woman being prosecuted by the state of Indiana for feticide after her daughter died following Shuai’s failed suicide attempt while 8 months pregnant, rejected a plea deal from prosecutors that would have dropped the murder charge Shuai faces. The fact that prosecutors refuse to negotiate away the feticide charge but will negotiate the murder charge proves this is a political prosecution. Never before has a pregnant woman been charged under Indiana’s feticide laws because that is not the harm they were intending to remedy.
Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli may have refused to sign on to new abortion regulations because he doesn’t think they go far enough.
Is the battle over funding Planned Parenthood in Indiana going to be the first real legal test to come from the Affordable Care Act?
Dated July 17, 1943, a letter from Henry Nishizu, at the time a resident of the Heart Mountain Relocation Center, Wyoming. Posted by our colleagues at the National Archives at Riverside during May’s observance of Asian-Pacific American Heritage Month.
Idle Farm Equipment of Japanese Internees
While Japanese-Americans were held in internment during World War II, much of their property stayed behind. To aid in food production, the United States Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) War Board decided to make much of the idle farming equipment in California available for public sale. The internee would be reimbursed at what the USDA War Board deemed to be fair market value. In this letter, Henry H. Nishizu declines the Board’s request to sell his equipment, stating that he had already committed the use of the farming machines to friends. He then writes,
“As an American, I do not feel right by remaining here in the center at the cost of the tax-payers money. When our government is helping us to relocate and thus actively become engaged in helping the shortage of man-power, I feel Relocation Center is now place for loyal Americans to stay and do nothing.”
The letter is part of a series of case files related to the Idle Farming Equipment of Japanese Internees, created by the Orange County, CA USDA War Board from 1941-1948. The records are held at the National Archives at Riverside.
Observing Asian-Pacific American Heritage Month
To pay tribute to the many generations of Asian-Pacific Americans that have enriched our nation’s history, the National Archives at Riverside will be highlighting some of our holdings relating to Asian American history in our region (Southern California, Arizona, and Clark County, NV), including records relating to enforcement of the Chinese Exclusion Act, records relating to Japanese internment and relocation, and many more.
For more information about Asian-Pacific Heritage Month, see http://asianpacificheritage.gov/
Source: riversidearchives
Former Monsanto Employee Exposes Fraud
his week the Food Nation Radio Network interviewed former Monsanto employee Kirk Azevedo about his concerns with the leading biotech company’s practices, a timely interview as the battle over genetically engineered (GE) food regulation continues on a state, national, and international scale.
Azevedo graduated with a biochemistry degree from California Polytechnic State University and started working for the chemical industry doing research on Bt (or Bacillus thuringiensis) pesticides. Around 1996, he became a local market manager for Monsanto, serving as a facilitator for GE crops for the western states. He explained to Food Nation Radio how he had assumed that California cotton that was genetically engineered for herbicide resistance could be marketed as conventional California cotton (to get the California premium) since the only difference between the two, he believed, was the gene Monsanto wanted in the crop. However, one of Monsanto’s Ph.D. researchers informed Azevedo that “there’s actually other proteins that are being produced, not just the one we want, as a byproduct of genetic engineering process.” This concerned Azevedo, who had also been studying protein diseases (including prion diseases such as mad cow disease) and knew proteins could be toxic. When he told his colleague they needed to destroy the seeds from the GE crop so that they aren’t fed to cattle, the other researcher said that Monsanto isn’t going to stop doing what it’s been doing everywhere else.
Azevedo recalls his disillusionment:
I saw what was really the fraud associated with genetic engineering: My impression, and I think most people’s impression with genetically engineered foods and crops and other things is that it’s just like putting one gene in there and that one gene is expressed. If that was the case, well then that’s not so bad. But in reality, the process of genetic engineering changes the cell in such a way that it’s unknown what the effects are going to be.
Azevedo has since left the chemical industry and now calls for the enforcement of GE labeling laws. In California, such a law will appear on voter ballots in the upcoming November election asProposition 37 – the first of its kind, if passed (although no labels would be required for livestock that feed on GE crops). Supporters of GE labeling predict the California rule, which would require labels on most foods containing GE ingredients, could influence food labeling throughout the country.
Not so great news on the national front, however. The U.S. House agriculture committee passed its version of the proposed Farm Bill this week that includes attached provisions severely weakening USDA’s oversight of GE crops. Not only does the bill provide backdoor approval for any new GE crop before meaningful environmental review, but it also protects the biotech industry from lawsuits brought by organic farmers whose crops are contaminated by GE crops through “genetic drift.” According to the Center for Food Safety, “all requirements of the National Environmental Policy Act or Endangered Species Act would be banned, even if a crop approval would harm protected species.”
If that isn’t unsettling enough, news that the European Union is proposing to drop its “zero-tolerance” policy regarding untested GE ingredients in food really takes the cake. This would be a significant change from its usual reputation of far surpassing the United States in holding industry accountable:
The new proposal would allow GM ingredients into the food supply in levels below a certain threshold. This echoes a decision made last year to allow GM crops to be used in animal feed below certain concentration levels. Why this recent “change of heart”? Opponents of GM crops note that the dropping of the zero-tolerance policy is due to pressure from the U.S. government, the World Trade Organization (WTO), and the biotech industry (arguably led by Monsanto).
Perhaps it’s not too much of a surprise, given the evidence of Washington’s aggressive promotion of GE crops abroad and even threats of retaliation against dissenting countries. Even so, Azevedo’s words of caution regarding the unknown health effects of Monsanto’s and other biotech companies’ creations make these deregulatory efforts very disconcerting. Our government representatives should be heeding Azevedo and biotech whistleblowers who put public and environmental health before Big Ag interests.
Sarah Damian is New Media Associate for the Government Accountability Project, the nation’s leading whistleblower protection and advocacy organization.
Source: mainstreamrevolution
Sex and power inside “the C Street House”
The Family likes to call itself a “Christian Mafia,” but it began 74 years ago as an anti-New Deal coalition of businessmen convinced that organized labor was under the sway of Satan. The Great Depression, they believed, was a punishment from God for what they viewed as FDR’s socialism. The Family’s goal was the “consecration” of America to God, first through the repeal of New Deal reforms, then through the aggressive expansion of American power during the Cold War. They called this a “Worldwide Spiritual Offensive,” but in Washington, it amounted to the nation’s first fundamentalist lobby. Early participants included Southern Sens. Strom Thurmond, Herman Talmadge and Absalom Willis Robertson — Pat Robertson’s father. Membership lists stored in the Family’s archive at the Billy Graham Center at evangelical Wheaton College in Illinois show active participation at any given time over the years by dozens of congressmen.
similar to the buddhist concept of developing oneself for the benefit of all beings
Kenguru: the car you have all been waiting for
- Environmentally friendly – completely GREEN car delivering long awaited mobility solution for wheelchair users
- Driven directly from a wheelchair – access is via the rear-opening tailgate and steering is by motorbike style handlebar (joystick option will be available in time)
Your own wheelchair is secured within the car by an interlocking device - The current design allows parking rear end to the pavement for easy access and it is an ideal solution to drivers who only undertake journeys to local shops and services
- Because of its weight the Kenguru is classified as a scooter and therefore only a scooter driver’s licence is required to drive Kenguru
10 Countries That Are Rapidly Losing Faith In Capitalism
Are the workers of the world uniting? Not exactly, but a lot of them sure are mad.
A significant number of people around the world have lost faith in capitalism since the beginning of the Great Recession, according to a new survey by Pew Research Center. While U.S. love for the free market has dipped only slightly — 3 percent over five years — other countries like Mexico, Spain, Italy and the U.K. are growing disillusioned at a faster rate (h/t MSNBC).
Certainly in the many nations struggling with the eurozone crisis, such as Spain and Italy, it’s not hard to see where such sentiments originate. Spain, whose banks will likely receive billions in bailout funds, has seen confidence in free markets drop to 47 percent from 67 percent just five years before. The drop in Italy has been comparable.
It’s not just Europe either. Pakistan, Japan and Mexico have all seen significant drops as well. So if not capitalism, then what? That answer is anyone’s guess.
[how about democratic socialism?] [the link also includes a slideshow of protestors from the ten countries]
Olympic weightlifter Sarah Robles is literally the strongest woman in America, but she is barely getting by — she lives on $400 a month — because she doesn’t have the backing of a major company.
Nike recently launched their “Voices” campaign, which honors great female athletes — women who run, box and play basketball. Why not a woman who lifts weights?
Tell Nike to step up — give Sarah a living wage, and give girls all different types of role models to look up to.
SUCCESS: SHE NOW HAS A SPONSOR! Solve Media told us our story inspired them to sponsor Sarah:Solve Media CEP Ari Jacoby: “It pained me to see someone at the top of her game working for what amounts to a few hundred dollars a month.
She’s the very best of the best, poised to end a 12-year medal drought in her sport. And she’s living this way because it’s her ultimate dream to represent her country and achieve greatness in the sport that she loves.”
Major News Networks finally link climate change to extreme weather events
“ABC World News, NBC Nightly News, and CBS Evening News all covered a new report from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) linking extreme weather events to climate change. The New York Times, CNN, and many other media outlets reported on it, too.”
Great read from WRI on shifting priorities at news networks reporting on climate change.
(via socialuprooting)
Source: climateadaptation
