CDC isnt the only agency protecting health and safety thats strained. The shutdown has forced the federal Mine Safety and Health Administration to halt its regular mine safety inspections, which it normally conducts at each of the nations underground mines every three months. The lack of inspections is coming under scrutiny after three mine workers…
Category: Security
Experts begin destroying Syrias chemical weapons arsenal
A team of international experts began the process of destroying Syria’s chemical weapons on Sunday, according to the United Nations. The group consists of international inspectors from the Netherlands-based watchdog Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons along with a U.N. team. Under their supervision, “Syrian personnel used cutting torches and angle grinders to destroy or disable a range of items,”…
UN Inspectors On Syria: Clear And Convincing Evidence Chemical Weapons Were Used On Large Scale
The inspectors report said “the environmental, chemical and medical samples we have collected provide clear and convincing evidence that surface-to-surface rockets containing the nerve agent sarin were used … in the Ghouta area of Damascus” on Aug. 21. “The conclusion is that chemical weapons have been used in the ongoing conflict between the parties in…
Obama May Have Played Us All And Won–That Is Leadership
In one chess match the President was able to make the rank and file Republicans seem like doves, the neocons look reckless, the Tea Party wing seem like flip flopping buffoons all while potentially shutting down Syria’s use of chemical weapons without firing a shot or dropping a bomb. The Right Wing would have none…
U.S., Russia Reach Deal – Syrian Weapons May Be Destroyed In Less Than A Year
After days of intense negotiations, the United States and Russia reached agreement Saturday on a framework to secure and destroy Syria’s chemical weapons by mid-2014 and impose U.N. penalties if the Assad government fails to comply. The deal, announced by U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov in Geneva, includes…
With the World Watching, Syria Amassed Nerve Gas
Now, as President Obama confronts enormous difficulties in rallying a reluctant Congress and a skeptical world to punish the Syrian government with a military strike over what is said to be its apparent use of deadly nerve agents last month, he appears to be facing a similar challenge to the one that allowed the Assads…
Nine facts about terrorism in the United States since 9/11
It’s the 12th anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. Both Washington D.C. and New York City are commemorating the occasion with ceremonies this morning. And this seems like an apt time to go back through the history of terrorist attacks in the United States and see how things have changed since Sept. 11. First,…
Why the Push for Syrian Intervention Is About More Than Just Assad
This is the dilemma facing Obama today. If the United States cannot extricate himself from the geopolitical imperatives posed by Iran’s continuing threat to Israel, Saudi Arabia, and the safety of Persian Gulf oil supplies, it cannot extricate itself from the turmoil in Syria. Because a failure to confront Assad’s excesses could be viewed as…
Chinese hackers access major weapons systems: Washington Post
Chinese hackers have gained access to designs of more than two dozen major U.S. weapons systems, a U.S. report said on Monday, as Australian media said Chinese hackers had stolen the blueprints for Australia’s new spy headquarters. Citing a report prepared for the Defense Department by the Defense Science Board, the Washington Post said the…
Alex Wagner: IRS, AP, and Benghazi
Here’s a good segment from NOW with Alex Wagner about the latest so-called scandals with a nice summary at the beginning.
Anti-government extremist groups reach record levels, say experts
The number of American “patriot” extremist groups has reached a record level, according to a new study, and experts are warning of a wave of anti-government violence. A report released Tuesday by the Southern Poverty Law Center counted 1,360 “patriot” extremist groups in 2012 — up by 7% from 2011. The study defines patriot groups…
Cornell NYC Techs Alarming Ties to the Israeli Occupation
When Community Board 8, which represents Roosevelt Island and the Upper East Side of Manhattan, met last November, Cornell representatives described the campus as an engine of job growth, entrepreneurship and technological innovation for New York City. Despite the marketing, many Roosevelt Island residents had reservations about the proposed campus. Some raised concerns about the…
Guantnamo Hearings Reveal Chaos at Camp Justice
At issue this week were defense lawyers claims that intelligence and security surveillance measures have violated the sacrosanct principle of attorney-client privilege, obstructing their ability to effectively represent the accused. In late January, courtroom audio feed – which runs on a 40-second delay to media and observers seated behind Plexiglass – was abruptly cut off…
Congress Is Trying to Kill Internet Privacy Again
House lawmakers have reintroduced a bill that civil liberties groups say would destroy the right to Internet privacy as we know it. An earlier version of the Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act, or CISPA pdf, passed the House back in April 2012; it died quickly under threat of presidential veto and widespread protest from…
As Part Of Lockdown Drill, School Fires Off Blanks In The Halls
Students at a high school in Illinois experienced a uniquely terrifying school shooting drill on Wednesday. Instead of conducting a regular school lockdown, Cary-Grove High School administrators simulated gunfire by shooting off blanks in the hallways while students locked their classroom doors, pulled the curtains, and hid. The drill, understandably, upset some parents in the…
Study: The U.S. has had one mass shooting per month since 2009
Congress is in the midst of a heated debate over gun control and how best to tamp down on gun violence. And mass shootings like the one that tore through Sandy Hook Elementary School last December are a huge part of that discussion. So how much do we actually know about mass shootings and the…
California School District Spent $14,000 on New Semi-Automatic Colt Rifles
When the public school students of Fontana, Calif., returned to classes in January, something had changed about their schools. Specifically, the Fontana Unified School District had filled on-campus safes with $14,000 in new Colt 6940 semi-automatic rifles for its 14 police officers. The high-powered, long-distance rifles will only be used in “extreme emergency cases.” As…
Clinton angrily defends handling of Benghazi attack
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on Wednesday angrily defended her handling of the September 11 attack on the U.S. mission in the Libyan city of Benghazi and denied any effort to mislead people. The attack by armed militants that killed U.S. Ambassador Christopher Stevens and three other Americans threatens to stain Clintons legacy as secretary…
Charts: 247,131 Fatal Shootings in 8 Years
That’s a lot of bodies—247,131 to be exact. A lot of blood and grief and funerals. A lot of families devastated. But the price is far higher than this, really. Because we tend to count the bodies but seldom think much of the bodies ruined, the human potential destroyed, the teenagers relegated to wheelchairs, the…
To Stop Shootings, Americans Focus on Police, Mental Health
Americans are most likely to say that an increased police presence at schools, increased government spending on mental health screening and treatment, and decreased depiction of gun violence in entertainment venues would be effective in preventing mass shootings at schools. Americans rate the potential effectiveness of a ban on assault and semi-automatic guns as…