New data from the highly secretive arm of the U.S. Agriculture Department known as Wildlife Services reveals it killed more than 2.7 million animals during fiscal year 2014, including wolves, coyotes, bears, mountain lions, beavers, foxes, eagles and other animals deemed pests by powerful agricultural, livestock and other special interests. Despite increasing calls for reform after the program killed more than 4 million …
WHY ARE PRESCHOOLERS TAKING ANTIPSYCHOTIC DRUGS?
A small number of American preschool children on Medicaid are using psychotropic drugs, including antidepressants, mood stabilizers, and medications for attention-deficit disorder, despite limited evidence they are safe or effective. “Because we don’t have indications in our data, it is not entirely clear why these children are receiving psychotropic drugs,” says lead author Lauren Garfield, who was a postdoctoral research associate …
Religious Fanaticism Is a Huge Factor in Americans’ Support for Israel – Glenn Greenwald,
new poll from Bloomberg Politics contains a finding that, if you really think about it, is quite remarkable: Almost half of all Americans want to support Israel even if its interests diverge from the interests of their own country. Only a minority of Americans (47 percent) say that their country should pursue their own interests over supporting Israel’s when the two choices collide. It’s the ultimate violation …
The Retro Future – John Michael Greer
Is it just me, or has the United States taken yet another great leap forward into the surreal over the last few days? Glancing through the news, I find another round of articles babbling about how fracking has guaranteed America a gaudy future as a petroleum and natural gas exporter. Somehow none of these articles get around to mentioning that …
Will Washington Kill Us All? – Paul Craig Roberts
Did you know that Washington keeps 450 nuclear ICBMs on “hair-trigger alert”? Washington thinks that this makes us “safe.” The reasoning, if it can be called reason, is that by being able to launch in a few minutes, no one will try to attack the US with nuclear weapons. US missiles are able to get on their way before the …
The “Fight for $15″ and the Return of the Vanishing Worker – Richard Eskow
On April 15, perhaps as you’re reading these words, working people in 200 American cities will rally for a $15 base wage and the right to form a union. Solidarity demonstrations are planned in more than 30 cities on six continents, and have already taken place in Switzerland, the Philippines, South Korea, New Zealand, and Japan. The “fight for $15” matters …
SENIOR VOLUNTEERS WARD OFF BRAIN ‘SHRINKAGE’
The memory center in the brains of seniors who volunteered in public schools for two years maintained their size, rather than shrinking as part of the normal aging process, report researchers. The findings suggest that retirees who take part in meaningful social activity can prevent shrinkage in their brains’ memory centers and avert age-related cognitive problems. In men, the researchers found, the …
‘Warm blob’ in Pacific Ocean linked to weird weather across the US
The one common element in recent weather has been oddness. The West Coast has been warm and parched; the East Coast has been cold and snowed under. Fish are swimming into new waters, and hungry seals are washing up on California beaches. A long-lived patch of warm water off the West Coast, about 1 to 4 degrees Celsius (2 to …
Putting The Real Story Of Energy And The Economy Together – Gail Tverberg
What is the real story of energy and the economy? We hear two predominant energy stories. One is the story economists tell: The economy can grow forever; energy shortages will have no impact on the economy. We can simply substitute other forms of energy, or do without. Another version of the energy and the economy story is the view of …
Saudi Arabia’s Other War Against Its Own People – ERIC DRAITSER
The Saudi war on Yemen has understandably come to dominate the headlines since it began in late March 2015. The international scope of the conflict – nominally including the participation of nearly a dozen Gulf countries – coupled with the obvious political and geopolitical implications, all but assured that nearly all mention of Saudi Arabia in the news would be …