Monthly Archives: June 2016

Whistleblower: EPA Officials Covered Up Toxic Fracking Emissions for Years

‘The cover-up has allowed the industry to dig in for years of delay in cutting emissions—at the worst possible time’

By Nika Knight, staff writer for Common Dreams. Published 6-9-2016

$Fracked gas flaring at a fracking well near the Pawnee National Grassland in northeastern Colorado. (Photo: WildEarth Guardians/flickr/cc)$

Fracked gas flaring at a fracking well near the Pawnee National Grassland in northeastern Colorado. (Photo: WildEarth Guardians/flickr/cc)

Why has the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) failed to take adequate action against disastrous, climate-warming methane emissions from the fracking industry?

An environmental watchdog alleges that the answer may be a years-long, systematic cover-up of the true data surrounding these toxic emissions.

That cover-up, the group says, was at the hands of at least one EPA researcher who accepted payments from the oil and gas industry. Continue reading →

5 Ways George Orwell’s 1984 Has Come True Since It Was Published 67 Years Ago

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By Claire Bernish. Published 6-8-2016 by The Anti-Media

United States — It’s debatable whether George Orwell surmised the ominous threat of totalitarianism that inspired him to pen the dystopic vision, 1984, would extend worldwide and resurface nearly seven decades after its publication. But the novel’s apt description of a world on end have undoubtedly come to pass.

Innumerable examples evidence how 1984 would better be described as a dark portent than a fascinating read, but one thing — the political language dubbed Newspeak, employed by the ruling government, Ingsoc — seems to have served as an instruction manual for the American empire. Continue reading →

#BlackLivesMatter makes some people angry. Isn’t that good?

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A new wave of activism is rooted in a different spiritual tradition to the civil rights movement of the 1960s.

By Alexis Buchanan. Published 6-7-2016 by openDemocracy

NYC action in solidarity with Ferguson. Mo, encouraging a boycott of Black Friday Consumerism. Photo via Wilimedia Commons

NYC action in solidarity with Ferguson. Mo, encouraging a boycott of Black Friday Consumerism. Photo via Wikimedia Commons

Black Lives Matter (BLM) began in 2014 as a hashtag after the acquittal of George Zimmerman in the Trayvon Martin case and evolved into a social movement. Since its inception, it has grown to 28 chapters in over 17 states in the USA, and one international chapter in Toronto. There’s no denying that the movement wants to disrupt the status quo, and that makes some people angry. They have shut airports and stopped Black Friday sales with their protests against police brutality.

BLM have also interrupted several events on the current US Presidential campaign trail, including Hillary Clinton in February of 2016 and Bernie Sanders last year. And everyone has seen the violence that has erupted at Donald Trump events where Black Lives Matters protestors clashed with his supporters. BLM are described by some political candidates as a “mob,” or as “trouble,” or as “disgraceful.”

Continue reading →

Three Years After Snowden, Bipartisan Coalition Demands Congress End Warrantless Spying

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“The Snowden leaks caused a sea change in the policy landscape related to surveillance,” writes watchdog, from the recent passage of the USA Freedom Act to the coming showdown in Congress over Section 702.

By Lauren McCauley, staff writer for Common Dreams. Published 6-6-2016

“There can be no renewal of Section 702 unless warrantless surveillance of Americans’ private lives is stopped,” declared bipartisan coalition End702. (Photo: Gage Skidmore/cc/flickr)

Three years ago on Monday, the world was shattered by news that the United States was conducting sweeping, warrantless surveillance of people, heads of state, and organizations across the globe.

To mark the anniversary of those revelations, brought forth by a then-unknown contractor working for the National Security Administration (NSA), a coalition of public interest groups have launched a new campaign fighting for the expiration of the law that the government claims authorizes its mass spying. Continue reading →

Company Apologizes for Oil Train Disaster It Acknowledges Was Inevitable

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“We’re playing Russian roulette. I think the industry is perfectly willing to put a gun to our heads and risk our lives for the sake of making money. It is abundantly clear this enterprise is unsafe, unsustainable and they don’t know how to manage it.”

By Jon Queally, staff writer for Common Dreams. Published 6-5-2016

Mosier, 6-3-2016. Photo: Paloma Ayala via Columbia Riverkeepers

As crews continue efforts to contain an oil sheen on the Columbia River and assess the environmental impact of a derailment and resulting fire on Friday, a spokesperson for the oil-by-train company behind the disaster issued an apology to the community of Mosier, Oregon on Saturday.

“I want to apologize to the community,” Union Pacific spokesperson Raquel Espinoza said at a news conference. “This is the type of accident we work to prevent every day.” Continue reading →

Families of Death Squad Victims Allowed to Sue Chiquita Executives

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U.S. judge permits federal lawsuit against corporate executives for funding far-right paramilitary group in Colombia

By Nika Knight, staff writer for Common Dreams. Published 6-3-2016

“Chiquita poured $1.7 million between 1997 and 2004 into the outlawed far-right paramilitary group AUC,” observed TeleSur, “which operated as a death squad in Colombia.” (Photo: Mike Mozart/flickr/cc)

In what supporters described as “a victory for accountability for corporate crimes,” a U.S. judge ruled in favor of allowing Colombians to sue former Chiquita Brand International executives for the company’s funding of a paramilitary group that murdered plaintiffs’ family members.

“Chiquita poured $1.7 million between 1997 and 2004 into the outlawed far-right paramilitary group AUC,” observed TeleSur, “which operated as a death squad in Colombia.” Continue reading →

‘Hoop After Hoop’: How Gulf Coast States Are Playing Politics with Women’s Health

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“It’s just plain irresponsible for politicians to keep forcing doctors to go court just to ensure that they can provide the care that women need.”

By Deirdre Fulton, staff writer for Common Dreams. Published 6-3-2016

John Bel Edwards. Photo:YouTube

Women on the Gulf Coast continue to face concerted attacks on their right to healthcare, as Louisiana passed new abortion restrictions this week and the ACLU sued Alabama over several recently enacted, draconian laws.

On Tuesday, Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards (D) signed into law a bill banning the abortion procedure known as “dilation and evacuation” or D&E—which women’s health experts say is the safest and most common method of abortion for women in their second trimester of pregnancy. Continue reading →

These Four People Were Sued for $30 Million for Trying to Stop a Toxic Landfill

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‘The Constitution prevents companies from using lawsuits to silence their critics,’ says ACLU

By Deirdre Fulton, staff writer for Common Dreams. Published 6-2-2016

Benjamin Eaton, Mary B. Schaeffer, Esther Calhoun, and Ellis B. Long were sued by a corporate landfill owner for $30 million after speaking out against the hazardous dump on Facebook. (Photo: ACLU)

After being sued for $30 million by a corporate landfill owner for “speaking their truth in order to protect their community,” four residents of Uniontown, Alabama—a poor, predominantly Black town with a median per capita income of around $8,000—are fighting back.

On Thursday, the ACLU asked a federal court to dismiss the defamation lawsuit against Esther Calhoun, Benjamin Eaton, Ellis B. Long, and Mary B. Schaeffer—all members of the community group Black Belt Citizens Fighting for Health and Justice. Continue reading →

‘Illegitimate’ Request Denied: GOP Gets Middle Finger for #ExxonKnew Ploy

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Refusing to submit to House inquiry, environmental groups question whether committee is “operating properly” or just acting out a “partisan effort to protect fossil fuel companies.”

By Lauren McCauley, staff writer for Common Dreams. Published 6-1-2016

“If companies publicly denied climate change while knowing all along how dangerous it was, they should be held accountable,” said Greenpeace executive director Annie Leonard. (Image: Exxonknew.org)

Environmental groups that have become targets of a Republican-led effort to insulate ExxonMobil against accusations of fraud and climate science suppression dug in a bit deeper on Wednesday by refusing to submit to a Congressional inquiry on the matter.

As Common Dreams previously reported, House Republicans with the Committee on Space, Science and Technology sent a letter (pdf) on May 18th to 17 attorneys general and eight environmental organizations—including 350.org, Greenpeace, and the Union of Concerned Scientists—claiming their #ExxonKnew effort amounted to a violation of climate deniers’ First Amendment rights and demanding that they submit communications related to state investigations into Exxon Mobil. Continue reading →

Walmart, Gap, H&M Called Out for Global Worker Exploitation and Abuse

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Three years after Rana Plaza collapse, labor violations still rampant, reports find

By Nadia Prupis and Deirdre Fulton, staff writers for Common Dreams. Published 5-31-2016

The 2013 Rana Plaza disaster killed more than 1,100 people. (Photo: Jaber Al Nahian/flickr/cc)

Some of the world’s biggest retailers, including Walmart, Gap, and H&M, have failed to improve workplace safety three years after the Rana Plaza factory collapse in Bangladesh killed more than 1,100 people and turned a spotlight on dangerous labor conditions faced by some of the world’s poorest workers.

A series of new reports released Tuesday by the Asia Floor Wage Alliance, a coalition of rights groups and trade unions, finds that tens of thousands of laborers in Bangladesh are still making garments in buildings without proper fire exits, while pregnant workers in Indonesia and India face discrimination and wage theft. Continue reading →

Occupy World Writes

The Movement Continues – Globally

Monthly Archives: June 2016

Whistleblower: EPA Officials Covered Up Toxic Fracking Emissions for Years

‘The cover-up has allowed the industry to dig in for years of delay in cutting emissions—at the worst possible time’