Israel is seeking to bring dozens of church-run schools under government control, a move that community leaders have warned will curb the last vestiges of educational freedom for the country’s large Palestinian minority. Most of the 47 schools, which are among the highest-achieving in Israel, were established by Christian orders more than 100 years ago, before Israel’s creation in 1948. …
Organic Under Attack: Report Exposes Big Food’s Tobacco-Style PR Blitz – Lauren McCauley
Remember that recent blog post you read about the popularity of genetically modified foods? Or the economics expert on the news who questioned if paying the price of organic food was ‘worth it’? According to a new report, these views were very likely the product of a public relations blitz by Big Food and Big Ag firms, that are actively …
Affordable Housing Crisis Grows Across the Country as Apartment Rents Skyrocket By Steven Rosenfeld
On Monday, New York City took a dramatic step that highlights just how out of control rental housing costs have become in the Big Apple and in many cities nationwide. For the first time, New York froze [3] rents for one-year leases on a million rent-stabilized apartments. “Today’s decision means relief,” Mayor Bill de Blasio told [4] reporters. “We know tenants have been forced to make …
Norway is the best place to be a mother, researchers say. Find out what they’re doing right! by Sandy J. Duncan
Norway has been named the world’s best place to be a mother in an annual report released by Save the Children. Save the Children is an independent organization dedicated to helping children throughout the world and has been producing the State of the World’s Mothers report for 13 years now. The rating system takes into consideration factors such as the overall health …
The war on drugs has reached into the womb – and threatens abortion rights – Jessica Valenti
What does the war on drugs have to do with the war on abortion? More than you’d think: the anti-choice movement has been successfully using drug laws to give fetuses legal personhood rights for years. Today, 18 states consider drug use while pregnant to be child abuse – a standard that not only punishes pregnant women who need help, but that has …
EuroZone Profiteers: How German and French Banks Helped Bankrupt Greece – Pratap Chatterjee
Alexis Tsipras, the prime minister of Greece, has called a national referendum this Sunday to call the bluff of the European Union and International Monetary Fund who are trying to force his country to accept severe austerity in return for effectively rolling over much of the countries’ debt. Today Greece owes its creditors €323 billion ($366 billion), some 175 percent of the country’s …
How Israel Weaponized Water by LAITH SHAKIR
California is in the midst of one of the worst droughts in the state’s history, prompting Governor Jerry Brown to declare a water “state of emergency.” Ordinary Californians are bearing the brunt of this disaster. While the governor has imposed restrictions to reduce residential water consumption, businesses in the fields of agriculture and hydraulic fracturing have been largely exempt. Brown’s …
Goldman Sachs Doesn’t Have Clean Hands in Greece Crisis By Pam Martens and Russ Martens
Are Goldman Sachs executives Lloyd Blankfein, Gary Cohn and Addy Loudiadis losing any sleep over elderly pensioners waiting outside shuttered banks in Greece, desperately trying to obtain their pension checks to pay their rent and buy food? Are these Goldman honchos feeling a small pang of conscience over the humiliation by creditors of this once proud country? Perhaps Blankfein, who …
McKibben to Clinton: 5 Reasons environmentalists distrust you; and what you can do about it by VL Baker
FIVE REASONS ENVIRONMENTALISTS DISTRUST YOU1)Climate change has not been your issue. 2)You were terrible on Keystone .Even before the State Department began its review of the project, you said you were “inclined” to approve it. That’s been your last public word on the project, but your team performed an intellectually corrupt review of the plans, your campaign bundlers landed rich lobbying …
Addiction is not a disease: A neuroscientist argues that it’s time to change our minds on the roots of substance abuse – LAURA MILLER
The mystery of addiction — what it is, what causes it and how to end it — threads through most of our lives. Experts estimate that one in 10 Americans is dependent on alcohol and other drugs, and if we concede that behaviors like gambling, overeating and playing video games can be addictive in similar ways, it’s likely that everyone …