Today, Senate Republicans voted unanimously against legislation to close the pay gap between women and men. The Senate voted 58-41 against allowing debate on the Paycheck Fairness Act, which would help end discriminatory pay practices against women. It had already passed the House.
More than 45 years after passage of the Equal Pay Act, the pay gap shockingly persists with women still earning on average 77 cents to every man’s dollar. According to the National Women’s Law Center, “This persistent pay gap translates to more than $10,000 in lost wages per year for the average female worker.” The gap is even worse for women of color: African-American women earn 61 cents and Latinas earn 52 cents for every dollar a white non-Hispanic man earns.
Senate Republicans Vote Unanimously Against Bill To Help Guarantee Fair Pay For Women
Senator Rockefeller: Eliminating MSNBC, Fox News ‘Would Be a Big Favor to Political Discourse’
In a U.S. Senate hearing about the retransmission consent laws, Senator Jay Rockefeller (D-WV) said that getting the FCC to step in and take some sort of action against Fox News Channel and MSNBC “would be a big favor to political discourse; to our ability to do our work here in Congress; and to the American people, to be able to talk with each other and have some faith in their government and, more importantly, in their future.”
Israeli government documents show deliberate policy to keep Gazans at near-starvation levels
Documents whose existence were denied by the Israeli government for over a year have been released after a legal battle led by Israeli human rights group Gisha. The documents reveal a deliberate policy by the Israeli government in which the dietary needs for the population of Gaza are chillingly calculated, and the amounts of food let in by the Israeli government measured to remain just enough to keep the population alive at a near-starvation level. This documents the statement made by a number of Israeli officials that they are "putting the people of Gaza on a diet".
This release of documents also severely undermines Israel's oft-made claim that the siege is "for security reasons", as it documents a deliberate and systematic policy of collective punishment of the entire population of Gaza.
Guantanamo detainee cleared of all but one of the 286 charges
The first former Guantanamo detainee to be tried in a civilian court has been found not guilty on all but one of the 286 charges in the 1998 bombings of two US embassies in Africa.
A federal jury handed down the verdict on Wednesday to Ahmed Ghailani, a Tanzanian national who had been accused of conspiring in the car bomb attacks in Kenya and Tanzania that killed 224 people.
Antimatter atom trapped for first time, say scientists
Antimatter atoms have been trapped for the first time, scientists say.
Researchers at Cern, home of the Large Hadron Collider, have held 38 antihydrogen atoms in place, each for a fraction of a second.
Antihydrogen has been produced before but it was instantly destroyed when it encountered normal matter. The team, reporting in Nature, says the ability to study such antimatter atoms will allow previously impossible tests of fundamental tenets of physics.
As Bloomberg Fought Sodas, School Chancellor Nominee Sat on Coke Board
By her own account, Cathleen P. Black, Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg’s choice to be the next New York City schools chancellor, has had almost no experience with the public education system.But for nearly 20 years, she played an influential role in a company that did: Coca-Cola.
As America awoke to a national obesity epidemic and schools tried to rid their hallways of sugary drinks, Coca-Cola emerged as the biggest and most aggressive opponent of the scientists, lawmakers and educators who tried to sound the alarm.
Accountability for Torture (in Britain)
The contrast could not be more distressing. The British government has decided to pay former detainees at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, tens of millions of dollars in compensation and conduct an independent investigation into its role in the mistreatment of prisoners.
The United States still operates the Guantánamo camp, with no end in sight. None of the truly dangerous terrorists there have been brought to justice, while many prisoners are still held who never should have been. The government not only refuses to come clean on this ignoble history, but it is covering up the Bush administration’s abuses by denying victims a day in court.
Up for audit: 'Checkbook journalism' and the news groups that buy big stories
At first it was only supermarket tabloids like the National Enquirer that did it. While the "respectable" media shunned the practice, the Enquirer developed a long and proud tradition of "checkbook journalism," paying sources for such sensational exclusives as a photo of Elvis Presley in his coffin or "revelations" about Donald Trump by his ex-housekeeper.
But thanks to heightened competition for the next big "get," journalism's Thou-Shalt-Not-Pay commandment has lately been taking a beating. News and gossip sites that paid for information have broken some of the biggest and most sensational recent stories. TV news divisions have joined in, spurring an arms race to buy big stories.
Class Warfare Jeopardizing American Workers' Security
Warren Buffett once said:
"There's class warfare, all right, but it's my class, the rich class, that's making war, and we're winning," Obama's deficit-cutting agenda the latest battle.
"Is cutting the public debt really an objective economic necessity, or is it actually a deeply political stance, reflecting the interests of the business and financial elites?"
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