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ALTERNATIVE NEWS: Real, non-corporate news that will inform and educate you about what is happening in the world, the United States, and sometimes, in state and local news. Comes out Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday or Sunday, with occasional special editions at other times.

POSTED 02/04/12

Occupy the Super Bowl: Indiana’s New Anti-Union Law Sparks Protest at Sport’s Biggest Spectacle. "Earlier this week, Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels signed a so-called 'right to work' measure into law that critics say will result in lower wages and diminished collective bargaining rights. Indiana workers have received the backing of the National Football League Players Association, which has called 'right to work' 'a political ploy designed to destroy basic workers’ rights' "
democracynow.org/2012/2/3/occupy_the_super_bowl_indianas_new

Iran: Only Half the Story. A history of Israel and the bomb, drawn mostly from Seymour Hersh's book, The Samson Option. truthdig.com/report/item/iran_only_half_the_story_20120202/

War on Iran? Most American, Israeli Citizens Oppose. commondreams.org/headline/2012/02/03-1

Obama’s Support for Natural Gas Drilling "A Painful Moment" for Communities Exposed to Fracking. "Last week, President Obama called the United States 'the Saudi Arabia of natural gas' in a speech about boosting domestic energy production." Interviewed: John Fenton, farmer who lives near Pavillion, Wyoming and Josh Fox, director of the documentary film, Gasland. democracynow.org/
2012/2/2/obamas_support_for_natural_gas_drilling

The Democrats Who Unleashed Wall Street and Got Away With It | Robert Scheer. "That [Lawrence Summers] and Bill Clinton, the president he served as treasury secretary, can still get away with disclaiming responsibility for our financial meltdown is an insult to reason." (Ed.: that, even afterwards, he was selected as one of Obama's top economic advisers is still worse.) truthdig.com/report/
item/the_democrats_who_unleashed_wall_street_and_got_away_
with_it_20120202/

The Deal That Saved Detroit (and Banned Strikes) | Laura Sanders.
The credit given Bush in this article not withstanding, there is a dark side to the deal that the Obama administration made. commondreams.org/view/2012/02/03-1

ACLU Suit Demands Release of US Government's 'Assassination Memos' commondreams.org/headline/2012/02/02-4

5.6 Million Americans Switched Banks in Last 90 Days>
/readersupportednews.org/news-section2/320-80/9758-56-million-americans-switched-banks-in-last-90-days

POSTED 02/02/12

Activists: Drop Monsanto Lobbyist as FDA 'Food Safety' Czar | Samantha Bonar, LA Weekly. "Tipping off the current anti-Taylor campaign is his alleged practice of going after small raw-milk producers, including the Amish, while letting large factory farms responsible for huge food-borne illness outbreaks go scot-free." Also, the case of the agricusiness man responsible for the samonella egg
contamination ... /readersupportednews.org/news-section2/312-16/9745-activists-drop-monsanto-lobbyist-as-fda-food-safety-czar

Gasland' Film Director Arrested at US Capitol Hearing. "Republicans Bar Filming of Fracking Hearing." commondreams.org/headline/2012/02/01-4

Scientists: Dolphins in the Gulf of Mexico Dying 'At an Alarming Rate'.
" 'Unusual Mortality Event' contradicts BP's portrayal of health of Gulf ... Scientists say an unusually high number of dead dolphins have been washing up on the shores." commondreams.org/headline/2012/01/31-6

The Ongoing War on Iran | Parick Cockburn. "The origin of the present crisis was the moves last November and December by the neoconservatives in the US, Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud Party and the Israel lobby in Washington to impose sanctions on Iranian oil exports and Iran’s central bank. These are very much the same people who targeted Iraq in the 1990s. ... " counterpunch.org/2012/01/31/the-ongoing-war-on-iran/

Going Backwards: Self-Guided Bullets Unveiled. " ... self-guided bullet for small-caliber, smooth-bore firearms that could hit laser-designated targets at distances of more than a mile." commondreams.org/headline/2012/01/30-8

How the Stimulus Revived the Electric Car | Michael Grabell. [Ed.: and how the electric car is also dying on the vine, in part because people are not buying them, partly due to uncertainties about re-charging stations on trips. Government, which is still investing heavily in the frontier of new weapons has (apparently) not made any investment or planned any in either the placement of re-charging stations or the mapping of the ones that are there ... ] propublica.org/article/how-the-stimulus-revived-the-electric-car

POSTED 01/31/12

Republicans to Link Keystone Pipeline to Highway Bill | Kim Dixon and Paul Simao, Reuters. "Republican lawmakers will try to force the Obama administration to approve the Canada-to-Texas Keystone XL pipeline by attaching it to a highway bill that Congress will consider next month, ... " /readersupportednews.org/news-section2/312-16/9698-republicans-to-link-keystone-pipeline-to-highway-bill

The Man Behind Gingrich's Money | Mike McIntire and Michael Luo, The New York Times. Sheldon Adelson is on the Board at AIPAC and closely aligned with Netanyahu. He also denies that the Palestinians are a people, Originally appeared in the NY Times, no less. /readersupportednews.org/news-section2/318-66/9683-focus-the-man-behind-gingrichs-money

Huge Protest in Pakistan Against US Drone Attacks | "Over 100,000 Pakistanis rallied in Karachi Friday afternoon to protest US drone strikes on their country. The demonstrators also demanded that the Pakistani government continue the blockade on the NATO supply route to Afghanistan." commondreams.org/headline/2012/01/28-1

Upcoming: Day of Mass Action to Stop War on Iran (antiwar.com)
"Let the whole world see that we will not let the U.S. rain death, destruction and devastation onto yet another country and further inflame a dire situation in the Middle East." /readersupportednews.org/news-section2/306-10/9706-day-of-mass-action-to-stop-war-on-iran

Dying Honeybees: It Was the Insecticides All Along | Jeanne Roberts, Celsias. "With news that the U.S. honeybee population has been so devastated that some beekeepers will qualify for disaster relief dollars, comes a report from Purdue University that one of the causes of honeybee deaths is - as long suspected - neonicotinoids."
/readersupportednews.org/news-section2/312-16/9659-dying-honeybees-it-was-the-insecticides-all-along

Two privacy threats reported by wired.com/threatlevel/: New Mobile-Phone Privacy Law Proposed: wired.com/threatlevel/2012/01/new-mobile-phone-privacy-law-proposed/ plus FDA Accused of Spying on Whistleblowing Employees: wired.com/threatlevel/2012/01/fda-spying-on-workers/

Beyond 'Greener Capitalism': Activists Call for Global Day of Justice
"A UN report urges needs for more 'sustainable development' but civil society groups push for a deeper transition." commondreams.org/headline/2012/01/30-0


POSTED 01/28/12 (Weekend Edition for 01/28-29/12)

Two attacks on net freedom developing: FBI Wants New App to Wiretap the Internet. " 'Scraping' social network postings including Facebook and Twitter" commondreams.org/headline/2012/01/26-3

ACTA, Secret Censor Tool Worse Than SOPA and PIPA. ACTA is "the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement," and has nothing to do with the counterfeiting of paper money, which is the usual use of "counterfeiting," but with new "legal standards of intellectual property enforcement." /readersupportednews.org/news-section2/316-20/9647-acta-secret-censor-tool-worse-than-sopa-and-pipa

Then there's Twitter. Twitter Enables Censorship, Boycotts Begin.
"Reversing its position and heading down a slippery slope."
commondreams.org/headline/2012/01/27-4

The Shadow Banking System: A Web of Financial Fraud | Ellen Brown. Not only fraud, but it's much larger than the legit banking system. But, this about the portion dubbed the "repo market," and has to do with a kind of "insuring" of accounts larger than the $250,000 max the FDIC covers. commondreams.org/view/2012/01/27-3

The Iranian oil embargo blowback | Pepe Escobar (source: Asia Times) Europeans will be compelled to buy oil at higher prices"; that is, Europe "will be compelled to buy Iran's oil indirectly and through intermediaries". campaigniran.org/casmii/index.php?q=node/12099

Adbusters Issues New Call to Action: Occupy Chicago for G8/NATO Summit. "We’ll go there with our heads held high and assemble for a month-long people’s summit … we’ll march and chant and sing and shout and exercise our right to tell our elected representatives what we want … the constitution will be our guide." commondreams.org/headline/2012/01/26

The State of Our Disunion: A Globalizing Private Sector, A Government Overwhelmed by Corporate Money | Robert Reich. "Who should have the primary strategic responsibility for making American workers globally competitive – the private sector or government? This will be a defining issue in the 2012 campaign. One thing missed here:
Government is also "hollowed out," by the huge growth in contractors,
across the board, who often have jobs not only paying more, but also supervisory capacity over actual government employees.
/pdamerica.org/news/item/85-the-state-of-our-disunion-a-globalizing-private-sector-a-government-overwhelmed-by-corporate-money


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