Reset the Net; World Environment Day, Carbon Caps, Climate Change, Denialists, Fracking, Coal; Ecology; Water; GMO

Reset the Net

• Snowden sounds call to action for Reset the Net web protest
• Reset the Net protest kicks off with massive net support
• Google Joins 'Reset the Net' With Encryption Tool

World Environment Day

• Let the exploitation begin: Ecuador issues drilling permits for untouched corner of the Amazon—""'The world has failed us,' President Rafael Correa said of his abandoned conservation effort." Salon
• Congressmen Defend Repairing Oil Pipes With Trash Bags And Duct Tape
• Business Lobby Tries to Frighten America About Clean Energy, Fails Utterly
• Tony Abbott raises eyebrows after linking WWII D-Day memorial with policies on mining and carbon taxes
• Crowdscrounging pennies to support Canada's most important environmental research
• Hundreds of scientists to Canada PM: Pipeline report 'deeply flawed'
• Federal appeals court says British Petroleum must face fines for gulf oil spill
• France experiments with paying people to cycle to work

Carbon Caps

• Ahead of power plant push, Obama ties climate change to health hazards
• President Obama gets serious on climate change—"With new greenhouse gas emissions regulations, the U.S. is finally a world leader on this important topic."
• China plan to cap CO2 emissions seen turning point in climate talks
• Obama's 'War on Coal' Is Worth Fighting—"The proposed new E.P.A. regulations won’t stop climate change, but they could open the way to a truly meaningful international effort."
• Sorry Rand Paul, Not Only Is The EPA Carbon Rule Legal, It's Mandated By Law
• Get Ready For More False Claims By Big Polluters
• EPA administrator says rule critics 'crying wolf' to protect interests
• EPA policy reflects true cost of coal
• A huge majority of Americans support regulating carbon from power plants. And they're even willing to pay for it.

Climate Change

• 'Cosmos' recap: Climate change is explained in 'The World Set Free' LATimes
• Republican witness admits the expert consensus on human-caused global warming is real
• Prince Charles: reform capitalism to save the planet—"A 'fundamental transformation of global capitalism' is needed in order to tackle climate change, the Prince of Wales has said."

Denialists

• Neil deGrasse Tyson Explains How Republicans Blew It on Climate Change—"The host of Cosmos dishes on our warming planet, why science is 'trending' in our culture, and the meaning of a groundbreaking science TV experiment."
• Climate science is a hoax: Big Oil, GOP, God say so—"Commentary: 30 million Americans dismiss all warnings of deadly disaster."
• The House Science Committee Spent Today in a Climate Change Denial Echo Chamber
• Congress Tells Scientists IPCC Climate Report "Not Science"
• New Ad Looks At All The Ways GOPers Deny Climate Change Science
• John Boehner: 'I'm Not Qualified To Debate The Science Over Climate Change'
• GOP science deniers threaten U.S. national defense
• Canadian Weather Forecasters Forbidden From Discussing Climate Change

Fracking

• Former Energy in Depth Spokesman John Krohn Now at U.S. EIA Promoting Fracking
• Inside a Hollywood Hit Job: How Sting Artist James O'Keefe Tried to Set His Latest Trap – And Got Stung Himself—"Sting artist James O'Keefe says anti-fracking filmmaker Josh Fox is one of his latest victims. But Fox says his own secret tape reveals O'Keefe's true methods."
• North Carolina: House approves fast-track 'fracking' bill—And cops and firefighters could soon be charged for disclosing fracking chemicals.
• David Cameron's house 'fracked' by protesters
• Texas homeowner vents methane from water well, sets it on fire—You don't need no stinkin' regulations.

Coal

• A bogus claim that electricity prices will 'nearly double' because of clean coal technology WaPo
• Rural NC sites become dumping grounds for unwanted coal ash
• Deutsche Bank rules out funding for controversial Abbot Point coal terminal
• Idemitsu admits it hired contractors in coal spies operation

Ecology

• Study: Species disappearing far faster than before
• Monarch butterfly decline linked to spread of GM crops—"Milkweed essential to monarchs in decline because of herbicides used with genetically modified crops."
• Chinese man sentenced for smuggling rhino horns
• Zambian Park Ranger in Charge of Law Enforcement Shot Dead
• Rhino poacher killed in Kaziranga

Water

• World Bank wants water privatized, despite risks
• California Cuts Water to Some Farms and Cities
• A Bloody War for Water in Mexico
• Seven states running out of water

GMO

• West Australian organic farmer loses court fight against GM neighbour
• Monsanto Protection Act Signed By Obama, GMO Bill "Written By Monsanto" Signed Into Law
• N.Y. Assembly committee backs GMO labels
• Vermont governor signs GMO food labeling into law—Monsanto set to sue.

Fat Tuesday, Food Fight, GMO; Obamacare, Bill of Health, Private Sector, Doing Harm, Virus, Cigs; Brain

Fat Tuesday

• Where Does Obesity Come From?—"We think poverty makes people obese and that obesity makes people poor. It's harder to understand exactly why."
• Five myths about obesity—"Are our diets or our genes to blame?" WaPo
• Obesity is a risk factor for serious flu complications, Kalamazoo College students warned
• Slim, unfit men are 'less likely' to suffer heart attacks than fit obese men
• Frozen yoghurt and other deceptively unhealthy foods that are making you fatter
• 'Fat is good': the message from a man who swapped sugar for bacon and eggs—"A new documentary makes startling claims about what is and is not healthy for us, challenging received wisdom."
• Science teacher loses almost 40 pounds on 'McDonald's diet'—"Ninety days of Mickey D's for breakfast, lunch and dinner but with strict daily nutritional limitations of 2,000 calories and trying to stay close to the recommended dietary allowances for nutrients like carbohydrates, proteins, fat calories and cholesterol."

Food Fight

• The war against butter is over. Butter won.
• How Gatorade turned water into 'the enemy of performance'
• "Expired" food is good for you: A supermarket exec's bold business gamble—"Trader Joe's' former president wants to sell you the food that other stores throw out. Will it work?" Salon
• Parents, experts decry junk food marketing in schools
• Food Marketing in 2014 Will Be Ugly—Are food corporations living up to 'responsible marketing' promises?

GMO

• Top U.S. court refuses to hear appeal of Monsanto seed case
• Maine becomes second state to require GMO labels WaPo
• A Lonely Quest for Facts on Genetically Modified Crops—"When a bill to ban genetically engineered crops on the island of Hawaii was introduced, doubts nagged at Greggor Ilagan, a councilman, about what the risks were, if any, of the crops." NYT

Obamacare

• Ignore the Republicans: Obamacare Is Doing Fine
• Despite what the critics say, Obamacare is working WaPo
• Desperate, last-ditch effort for Obamacare haters fails—"A federal judge's ruling suggests Obamacare foes are either dishonest or unable to read." Salon
• Obamacare's a "Bailout" Now? Conservative Critics Are Getting Desperate
• Senate Candidate Claims IRS is Training "Brown Shirts" to Enforce Obamacare Using Assault Weapons
• Health-insurance sign-ups by young adults are off pace seen as key to new law's success WaPo
• Medicaid is Obamacare’s biggest success. But neither side wants to talk about it. WaPo
• Nearly 6 in 10 in Georgia favor Medicaid expansion
• Obama administration to end contract with CGI Federal, company behind HealthCare.gov WaPo
• Insecure healthcare.gov allowed hacker to access 70,000 records in 4 minutes

Bill of Health

• New Data Show How Hospitals Rip You Off
• Patients' Costs Skyrocket; Specialists' Incomes Soar—"Patient costs have risen as doctors have become more entrepreneurial, protecting their turf through lobbying by medical societies and increasing revenues by offering new and more lucrative procedures." NYT
• Why I Had to Close My Preventive Healthcare Clinic

Private Sector

• Novartis may be involved in another clinical study—"The Japanese arm of Swiss-based drug maker Novartis is suspected of having involved its sales staff in a clinical study of a new drug."
• NHS patient data to be made available for sale to drug and insurance firms—"Privacy experts warn there will be no way for public to work out who has their medical records or how they are using it."
• Health Canada library changes leave scientists scrambling—"Main Health Canada research library closed, access outsourced to retrieval company."

Doing Harm

• $62M awarded to woman who lost legs after surgery
• Montreal: Woman claims she was told to leave hospital and province for requesting English service
• Turkey passes controversial medical aid bill—"Bill that makes it crime for doctors to provide emergency first aid without government authorisation comes into force."

Virus

• 'Golden age' of antibiotics 'set to end'
• Botulinum Toxin type H- the Deadliest Known Toxin With no Known Antidote Discovered
• Pakistan polio workers shot dead in Karachi
• HIV-Positive Student Secretly Filmed Self Having Unprotected Sex With At Least 31 People
• S.Korea steps up measures to contain bird flu
• This Incredible Map Shows All The Infections That Vaccines Could Have Prevented

Cigs

• Have cigarettes become more addictive?
• China, world's leading tobacco user, moves to ban indoor public smoking
• Chicago votes to ban e-cigarettes

Brain

• Body Atlas Reveals Where We Feel Happiness and Shame
• Supercomputer takes 40 mins to calculate a single second of human brain activity
• Heavy drinking tied to faster mental decline in middle-aged men, study finds—"The study of about 5,000 British civil servants found that over a decade, the added decline was the equivalent of about two extra years of aging for a combined measure of mental abilities like reasoning, and about six years for memory."

ENDA, Marriage Equality, LGBT; Obamacare; Abortion and Birth Control; Health Issues, Gone Viral; Food Scares, GMO, Monsanto; Pollution, China

ENDA

• Senate Invokes Cloture On LGBT Workplace Protections Bill—"The Senate voted Monday night to advance the Employment Non-Discrimination Act, granting workplace protections to LGBT people, by a margin of 61-30."
• Boehner Opposes ENDA, Quashing Hopes In The House
• Apple's Tim Cook Is Right, Anti-Gay Policies Hurt The Economy
• U.S. Bishops Urge Senate To Protect Religious Freedom To Discriminate Against Gays
• ENDA, explained WaPo

Marriage Equality

• 'Kids React To Gay Marriage' In New Video From The Fine Brothers
• Republicans need to pay attention to this poll on gay marriage in South Carolina WaPo
• Illinois: House could vote on gay marriage this week, with boost from Madigan—UPDATE: It passed!
• First 'gay divorce' attempted in Kentucky
• Southern National Guards tell Hagel to take a hike on gay troop spouse IDs
• Irish deputy PM pushes for gay marriage referendum date
• Australia: High Court challenge to gay marriage will be heard before ACT ceremonies

LGBT

• Mike Michaud: Yes, I am gay. 'But why should it matter?'
• One of Idaho's Most Popular Republican Governors Comes Out in Support of LGBT Rights
• GOP Congressional Candidate Told Gay Citizens to Go "Back to California"—"…and he could win."
• Isaiah Smith, Gay Teen Who Ripped Out Bible Pages, Suspended By Texas School
• Eminem defends gay slurs: 'I think people know my personal stance on things'
• New Jersey Couple Suing for the Right to Turn Their Gay Son Straight
• Pasta maker Barilla tries to make amends after chairman's anti-gay remarks

Obamacare

• Latest GOP Myth: Obamacare Will Make Your Grandma Die of Cancer—"Call it the "throw anything at the wall to see what sticks" strategy."
• Obamacare "victim" now says loss of previous health plan may be "a blessing in disguise"—"Dianne Barrette was the media's go-to example of an Obamacare victim -- until she found out all of her options." Salon
• For consumers whose health premiums will go up under new law, sticker shock leads to anger WaPo

Abortion and Birth Control

• Oklahoma Supreme Court Rules Abortion Law Unconstitutional—Which the Supreme Court has upheld.
• In Reversal, Court Allows Texas Law on Abortion NYT
• VA GOP's Attorney General Nominee Wanted Women To Report Miscarriages To Police Or Face Jail Time
• Trick-Or-Treaters In Albuquerque Got Anti-Abortion Propaganda Along With Their Candy
• Obamacare Birth Control Mandate Struck Down By Appeals Court

Health Issues

• J&J to pay $2.2B to settle marketing allegations—"Johnson & Johnson has agreed to pay more than $2.2 billion to resolve criminal and civil allegations that the company promoted powerful psychiatric drugs for unapproved uses in children, seniors and disabled patients, the Department of Justice announced on Monday."
• Suicide Rate Climbs by 30 Percent in Kansas as Government Slashes Mental Health Budgets
• Castro Valley: Janitor steps up when center's license is revoked
• Don't let religious beliefs impede kids' care: doctors—"Pediatricians and child abuse agencies should step in when parents' religious beliefs keep kids from getting necessary medical care, doctors said Monday."
• NYC votes to raise cigarette buying age to 21

Gone Viral

• Pakistan polio outbreak puts global eradication at risk
• At least 22 people suspected of having polio in Syria
• 'Virgin cure': Three women killed to 'cure' Aids
• Churchgoers possibly exposed to hepatitis A through communion
• Hunting the Nightmare Bacteria—"FRONTLINE investigates the rise of deadly drug-resistant bacteria."

Food Scares

• Herbal Supplements Are Often Not What They Seem—"A study using DNA testing offers perhaps the most credible evidence to date of adulteration, contamination and mislabeling in the herbal supplement industry." NYT
• Sugar is 'addictive and the most dangerous drug of the times'—"Soft drinks should carry tobacco-style warnings that sugar is highly addictive and dangerous, a senior Dutch health official has warned."
• Vets, pet owners demand to know: Why can't FDA solve jerky treat mystery?

GMO

• Food giants pour millions into defeating Washington GMO label measure
• Washington could be the first state to require labels on GMOs. Here are the stakes. WaPo
• Kauai GMO Bill Vetoed By Mayor
• Environmentalists lining retailers up against GMO salmon
• Mexico Bans GMO Corn

Monsanto

• Tester strips protection for genetically modified crops from debt-ceiling bill—The so-called "Monsanto Protection Act".
• Brazilian judge rules in favour of farmers against Monsanto
• India: Monsanto will face bio-piracy case

Pollution

• 25 students in coma after inhaling industrial fumes
• Montana, feds to seek damages from Exxon spill
• Coal industry's go-to law firm withheld evidence of black lung, at expense of sick miners

China

• China smog emergency shuts city of 11 million people
• With Winter Ahead, Can China’s Smog Get Anything But Worse?—"As Chinese cities begin to fire up their central heating systems, which often rely on coal, residents worry about the impact on air quality." NYT
• One Artist Plans to Suck Pollution Out of Beijing's Skies

Workers and Wage Slaves, Occupational Hazards; Economy, Inequality, Class War, Monsanto; Financial Troublemakers; Homes for the Taking: Liens, Loss and Profiteers; Syria, NSA Spying

Workers and Wage Slaves

• Companies lay off thousands, then demand immigration reform for new labor—Why pay fair wages when you can get overseas workers on the cheap?
• Most U.S. Workers Likely to Lose Out from Proposed Trans-Pacific Trade Agreement, Report Finds
• Indiana judge finds right-to-work unconstitutional—"A Lake County judge has determined Indiana's right-to-work law violates a provision in the state constitution barring the delivery of services 'without just compensation.'"
• Majority of U.S. Workers Say Job Doesn't Require a Degree—"Even four in 10 working college grads say their work doesn't require a degree."
• Teen employment hits record lows, suggesting lost generation
• One more reason it's crap to be a waiter in America—"The IRS is cracking down on tips – again. Why go after billionaires when you can squeeze more out of servers?"
• Jobs, Debt And Home Prices Since The Crisis, In Five Charts

Occupational Hazards

• Washington DC Mayor Vincent Gray Vetoes Living Wage Bill—"In explaining his veto Gray said the bill was not a 'true' living-wage bill because it would only raise minimum wage for a small fraction of DC's workforce, only affecting a handful of retailers whose stores are supermarket-sized or larger and whose workforces are not unionized."
• Agency: Firms can't only use debit cards to pay—"Federal regulators say companies cannot require employees to receive their pay on debit cards, citing complaints from workers of high and unexpected fees on the cards."
• Pay is delayed for 40,000 federal workers
• Lake County to terminate dozens of older-than-65 employees
• Canada: Intern's Death After Overnight Shift Sparks Outcry—"The sudden death of a 22-year-old Alberta practicum student, who crashed while driving home after being made to work long hours, has his loved ones pushing for laws to protect unpaid interns from exploitation."

Economy

• Revealed: The Secret Koch Group That Gave Conservatives $236 Million In 2012
• Elizabeth Warren Calls Supreme Court Right-Wing, 'Pro-Corporate'—A "subsdiary of big business."
• Boehner Seeking Democrats' Help on Fiscal Talks—"As Speaker John A. Boehner sought a deal to avert a government shutdown and raise the debt ceiling, a bloc of Republicans demanded a delay in the federal health care law, which the White House called 'a nonstarter.'" NYT
• Columnist calls out PolitiFact for covering up Scott Walker's debt problem
• 10 Ways America Has Come to Resemble a Banana Republic

Inequality

• Income gap between rich and poor is biggest in a century
• Tired Of Inequality? One Economist Says It'll Only Get Worse
• Years after recession, many in U.S. still struggling, polls show
• Krugman: Rich Man's Recovery—"While the great majority of Americans are still living in a depressed economy, the rich at the very top are doing just fine." NYT
• Recovery for the Rich, Recession for the Rest

Class War

• Mindlessly Gutting Food Stamps—"House Republicans blame the needy for the lingering costs of recession." NYT
• The wealthy 'make mistakes', the poor go to jail—"I left my Wall Street trader job and began photographing drug addicts in NYC. These two worlds have entirely different rules."
• Exposing How Donald Trump Really Made His Fortune: Inheritance from Dad and the Government's Protection Mostly Did the Trick
• How Wal-Mart’s Waltons Maintain Their Billionaire Fortune
• Billionaire's Hit-and-Run Crash Leaves Single Mom With $4K Bill

Monsanto

• 'Monsanto Protection Act' quietly extended by Congress
• Monsanto, DuPont pour millions into GMO fight
• Daily Show: Monsanto & Seed Patent Laws—"Aasif Mandvi learns that greedy farmers have threatened the livelihood of Monsanto's heroic patent attorneys."

Financial Troublemakers

• In fiery speech, Warren calls for limiting size of banks
• The Case Against Larry Summers
• This is a complete list of Wall Street CEOs prosecuted for their role in the financial crisis
• The jerks got away with it! 5 years after economic collapse, they’re still smiling—"Five years ago this week, titans of finance wrecked the American economy. Here's why they're still happy as ever." Salon
• Morgan Stanley CEO Gorman Says Chance of Another Financial Crisis Near Zero
• Banks Warned Not to Flout $25 Billion Foreclosure Deal—"[R]egulators say lenders may be flouting the spirit of the deal by repeatedly asking for additional paperwork from borrowers seeking loan modifications and then foreclosing while treating the applications as incomplete."
• Despite Big Bank Threats, City Approves 'Eminent Domain for the People'—"Richmond, Calif. approves measure to seize 'underwater homes' in order to write-down mortgages and save homeowners."

Homes for the Taking: Liens, Loss and Profiteers

• Left with nothing—"Too old, too tired and not enough money to fight. The District sold their small debts to investors, now their homes are gone for good.
• Suspicious bidding—"Unusual bidding at D.C. tax auctions went undetected: With thousands of homes on the line, the city's tax sales have been undermined by unusual bidding."
• Mistakes put homes in peril—"D.C. tax office mix-ups put homes in peril. Agency sells hundreds of liens by mistake, even after bills are paid."
• D.C. officials want changes to tax lien practices but ignored earlier calls for reform—"Mayor Vincent C. Gray (D) and a key D.C. Council member said they would pursue emergency legislation next week to reform the practice after learning about it Sunday in an investigative report published in The Washington Post. But both Gray and council members were warned 16 months ago..."
• Tax lien sales canceled after Post investigation; Gray calls for reforms—Another feather in the cap for the WP.

Syria

• US-Russia Reach Agreement on Syria Weapons
• The US: world's policeman or schoolyard bully?—"Ever since 9/11, it seems America's just been itching for a fight – and any Muslim country will do. Really, who acts like this?."
• Malala Raising $500 Million For Syrian Refugees

NSA Spying

• Judge Urges U.S. to Consider Releasing NSA Data on Calls NYT
• Jesse Kline: The NSA's undemocratic push toward a digital surveillance state
• NSA gets data from Germany’s domestic security agency - reports

Environment and Politics, Keystone XL, Energy and Pollution, What the Frack; Climate Change; Amazon, Ecology, Not Meant to Bee, Monsanto; Food Insecurity, Running Out of Water; Surveillance and Privacy

Environment and Politics

• House GOP takes our environment hostage—"Republicans intend to slash the federal Environmental Protection Agency's budget by as much as a third."
• House Votes To Block Light Bulb Efficiency Standards
• House GOP Cuts Funding for Lead Removal in Half
• Arizona: APS seeks higher bills for new solar customers—"Arizona Public Service Co. is proposing charging customers who install rooftop solar panels $50 to $100 or more a month to cover the cost of maintaining the power grid."
• Why Do Protesters Against Egregious Environmental and Financial Misconduct Get Arrested, But Not Corporate Perpetrators?

Keystone XL

• State Department Admits It Doesn't Know Keystone XL's Exact Route
• John Boehner Lies And Won't Tell America About His Personal Investment in Keystone XL
• Barack Obama expresses reservations about Keystone XL pipeline project

Energy and Pollution

• Canada: The Alberta Oil Sands Have Been Leaking for 9 Weeks
• Louisiana Agency Sues Dozens of Energy Companies for Damage to Wetlands NYT
• Halliburton to Plead Guilty to Destroying Evidence in Gulf Oil Spill
• Tokyo Electric Power Company admits Fukushima leaking radioactive water into Pacific Ocean
• Flipside: China cancels $6 billion uranium plant after protest

What the Frack

• Fracking's Latest Scandal? Earthquake Swarms—"Turns out that when a barely regulated industry injects highly pressurized wastewater into faults, things can go terribly wrong."
• Ninety Percent of Pennsylvanians Want Fracking Companies to Reveal Toxic Chemicals
• Fracking research: What's behind EPA's abandoned studies?
• George Osborne unveils 'most generous tax breaks in world' for fracking—"Environmental groups furious as chancellor sets 30% rate for shale gas producers in bid to enhance UK energy security."
• Ohio lawmakers who oppose fracking tax have gotten lots of money from frackers

Climate Change

• The North Pole Has Melted. Again
• Climate Change 'Climate of Fear': Reporter Blows Whistle on Reuters—"The media giant's hostility to covering global warming extends all the way from top editors to low-level bureacrats, whistleblower reveals."
• Google hosts fundraiser for climate change denying US senator
• Voters think Republican climate dissenters are 'ignorant, out of touch or crazy,' bipartisan poll finds
• "Ridiculous pseudo-science garbage": Meet the GOP's environment leaders!—"How do the 8 Republicans who sit on the Senate Environment Committee feel about climate change? We break it down." Salon
• Insurance Industry, Republicans Split on Climate Change
• Democrats looking to build support for new climate change action

Amazon

• Brazil's Army Moves To Protect Indigenous Awá Tribe By Halting Illegal Logging
• Amazon deforestation up sharply, group says
• Pope Speaks out on Amazon During Brazil Trip—"Pope Francis took on the defense of the Amazon and the environment near the end of his weeklong trip to Brazil, as he donned a colorful Indian headdress Saturday and urged that the rainforest be treated as a garden."

Ecology

• US colonel caught smuggling carved ivory from Kenya
• Elephant tusks are the new blood diamonds—"African insurgencies are now using illegal ivory to fund their activities across the continent." Salon
• Poachers Kill Two Kenya Wildlife Service Officers
• Blue and beaked whales affected by simulated navy sonar, new studies show
• Philippines finds huge hoard of endangered species
• RCMP investigating trespassing complaint after 'damning' video reveals 'neglectful' conditions at Alberta zoo—"The owner of a beleaguered private zoo in Alberta says people who secretly shot a behind-the-scenes video of his cages and animals are nothing but domestic terrorists." Yeah right.
• China hit by largest-ever algae bloom
• U.S. drops unarmed bombs on Great Barrier Reef

Not Meant To Bee

• Scientists discover what's killing the bees and it's worse than you thought
• Scientists confirm: Pesticides kill America's honey bees
• Oregon Bans Pesticides Following Major Bee Deaths
• Elmwood, Ontario apiarist devasted at sudden loss of more than 600 hives
• Blast from the Past: Decline of bees forces China's apple farmers to pollinate by hand

Monsanto

• Monsanto to withdraw EU approval requests for new GMO crops
• Dutch City of Rotterdam Bans Monsanto Glyphosate Roundup Herbicide
• 79 Monsanto teen workers hospitalized after being crop dusted
• Another win for Monsanto: US raises allowable levels of company’s pesticide in crops
• Monsanto Seeks to Control World's Food

Food Insecurity

• A hungry world: Lots of food, in too few places
• Chipotle becomes first U.S. restaurant chain to try and rid menu of GMO foods
• Cal-Maine to Pay $28 Million to Settle Egg Antitrust Litigation—"Sodexo Inc. filed suit against the nation's largest egg trade group--including Cal-Maine--and certain egg farmers alleging they conspired to limit domestic supply by killing hens under the pretext of treating the remaining animals more humanely by giving them more cage room, according to a report by the Los Angeles Times in January 2011." WSJ

Running Out of Water

• Parched New Mexico Reservoir Reveals Effects of Prolonged Drought
• China's Coal-Fired Economy Dying of Thirst as Mines Lack Water
• Pakistan's new big threat isn't terrorism—it's water

Surveillance and Privacy

• Holder's Letter to Moscow: We Won't Torture or Kill Snowden—Note: Water-boarding still isn't considered torture, as Sean Hannity has yet to determine.
• Edward Snowden better off in Russia than US, his father says
• NSA surveillance program has had compliance problems, intelligence official says
• Resisting the surveillance state—"George W. Bush and Dick Cheney spent eight years choking personal privacy to within an inch of its life. After they were done, Barack Obama showed up, expressed heartfelt sympathy and stood on its throat. But despite their efforts, it isn't quite dead. Last week, it showed definite signs of life." Chicago Times
• Edward Snowden's not the story. The fate of the internet is—"The press has lost the plot over the Snowden revelations. The fact is that the net is finished as a global network and that US firms' cloud services cannot be trusted."

Snowden, Surveillance and Privacy; Workers and Wage Slaves; Politics and Economy; Public-Private Partnerships, Uncharitable; Wall Street and Financial Institutions; Corporations; Monsanto; Plane Fare

Snowden

• NSA leaker Snowden on flight to 'third country' via Moscow with WikiLeaks help—So much for extraditing him from Hong Kong.
• Edward Snowden: Shooting the messenger?—"Mainstream media in the US seems to be more interested in the character of the leaker than in the content of the leak."
• Petition to pardon Edward Snowden passes 100,000 signatures, forcing White House response—Non-response more like it, but at this least this continues to keep up awareness.

Surveillance and Privacy

• US spies on Chinese mobile phone companies, steals SMS data: Edward Snowden—"The US government is stealing millions of text messages in their hacking attacks on major Chinese mobile phone companies, Edward Snowden has told the Post."
• Amid NSA spying scandal, the gloves are off for EU's justice chief—"No longer is the EU standing for U.S. lobbying and policy pushing. The EU's Justice Commissioner Viviane Reding is back in the trenches. The gloves are off, and she's fighting back."
• Bill Clinton on NSA: Americans need to be on guard for abuses of power by US—"Former president tells Scottish audience there needs to be accountability and transparency when surveillance is used."
• Pelosi booed at Netroots while defending espionage charges against Snowden
• Google handed over years of e-mails belonging to WikiLeaks chatroom admin—A secret warrant was used to get them.
• NSA surveillance: don't underestimate the extraordinary power of metadata—"President Obama has reassured US citizens that 'nobody is listening to your calls', but it's not the content of conversations that intelligence agencies crave."
• There's a New Fascism on the Rise, and the NSA Leaks Show Us What It Looks Like—"The power of truth-tellers like Edward Snowden is that they dispel a whole mythology carefully constructed by the corporate cinema, the corporate academy and the corporate media."
• Tradeoff—"The stupidest framing of the controversy over ubiquitous surveillance is that it reflects a trade-off between 'security' and 'privacy.' We are putting in jeopardy values much, much more important than 'privacy.'"

Workers and Wage Slaves

• Graphics worker: 'The shouting of the bankers resembled constant gunfire'—"A woman working night shifts in graphics for a major bank, talks of the systematic abuse and poor conditions she faced."
• Former intern: Don't step on us
• Disabled workers paid just pennies an hour – and it's legal
• How I Got Fired from the Job I Invented
• Round Lake village residents in uproar over library employee's firing—"The tiny village is in an uproar, Mayor Dixie Lee Sacks said, over the firing of a well-liked veteran library employee who closed the library 40 minutes early last week, without permission, because of the threat of tornados in the area."
• Firing of Five Walmart Strikers Condemned by Rep. Ellison: 'Completely Unjust and Illegal'
• Laws fail to protect pregnant women who need special accommodations on the job

Politics and Economy

• Poll: Congress' new level of awfulness—"Asked about a list of institutions in American society, only 10% of those questioned in a Gallup survey released Thursday say they have confidence in Congress. That's down three percentage points from last year, and according to their release, 'this is the lowest level of confidence Gallup has found, not only for Congress, but for any institution on record.'"
• Sanders: We must not accept this economic 'new normal'—"Yes, the economy is improving, but too many Americans are being left behind, while the rich keep getting richer."
• Big Lie: America Doesn't Have #1 Richest Middle-Class in the World...We're Ranked 27th!—"America is the richest country on Earth. We have the most millionaires, the most billionaires—and a increasingly poor 'middle class.'"
• Decline and fall: how American society unravelled—"Thirty years ago, the old deal that held US society together started to unwind, with social cohesion sacrificed to greed. Was it an inevitable process – or was it engineered by self-interested elites?"
• Rising US wealth doesn't generate spending surge

Public-Private Partnerships

• State legislators' ties to nonprofit groups prove fertile ground for corruption—"New York scandals reveal unsavory pattern of 'quid pro quo' links between lawmakers and 'charities.'"
• Leaker's Employer Is Paid to Maintain Government Secrets—"Booz Allen Hamilton has become one of the largest and most profitable firms in the United States almost exclusively by serving one client: the government." NYT
• The Great Farm-Bill Ripoff—"A confusing clutter of programs that pay farmers not to farm, reward them for undue risk, write checks to rock stars and Rockefellers, give special treatment to certain crops without rationale, and ladle out welfare to the wealthy while ignoring those on the margins." To everyone's surprise, the Farm Bill goes down in flames.
• Scott Walker Plans To Sell Off Many Of Wisconsin's University Buildings, Prisons
• How Tea Party Favorite Rick Scott Helped Cook Up a Sweetheart Deal for His Florida Friends
• Residents of Blue Mound, a small North Texas town, upset with water veto—"The town's water is provided by a private company...." and Gov. Perry's veto made sure it stayed that way despite the town having "considerably higher water rates than the town's neighbors"
• Flipside: Attempted Land Grab Ends With Voters Booting Entire City Council

Uncharitable

• America's 50 worst charities rake in nearly $1 billion for corporate fundraisers
• Why is Nancy Brinker still CEO of the Susan G. Komen foundation?
• Lax IRS Oversight Fostered Costly Charity Scams

Wall Street and Financial Institutions

• The Last Mystery of the Financial Crisis—"It's long been suspected that ratings agencies like Moody's and Standard & Poor's helped trigger the meltdown. A new trove of embarrassing documents shows how they did it."
• Obama Rewards Wall Street Again, Thwarts Reform By Sacking Gensler
• A Wall Street regulator’s race against time—"Can Gary Gensler finish the most important piece of financial reform before he’s out?"
• Wall Street is winning the long war against post-crash regulation—"Feeble as it was, Dodd-Frank was a high point of reining in abuses. Thanks to financial lobbying, it's business as usual."
• Credit Unions Fight Back against Big Banks—...and the lobbying efforts "that would strip them of their tax-exempt status."
• UK's Co-op Bank agrees to £1.5 billion 'bail-in' rescue plan
• 6 Unbelievable Ways the Big Banks Are Scamming You—"Five years since the crash, the big banks continue to screw over their customers.:
• Fox commentator paid $50,000 to tout stock
• Ex-Enron CEO Jeff Skilling to leave prison early—"In seeking to reduce the sentence, the government had emphasized that $40 million in restitution, currently held up as Skilling pursued appeals, would be released to victims."
• Depositing a Little Common Sense into the Law—"Did you know that small business owners can be prosecuted for making repeated cash deposits of under $10,000?"

Corporations

• Sen. Warren Blasts Pro-Corporate Trend of Federal Courts—"[Y]ou will end up with a Supreme Court that's a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Chamber of Commerce."
• In Major Blow To Consumers, Supreme Court Protects Mega-Corporations From Liability
• McConnell: 'Absurd' to ban corporations from having same rights as 'people'
• California To Wal-Mart: Enough! No More Taxpayer Subsidized Profits For You
• Criminal charges laid against Nestle Canada, other companies for chocolate price fixing
• Business Leaders Urge President to Allow G8 to Close Corporate Tax Loopholes
• Flipside: Marlins Park Is Satisfyingly Empty

Monsanto

• Appeals Court Makes Monsanto Promise Not To Sue Organic Farmers
• Monsanto Turns To Blackwater For Increased Security, Intelligence And 'Infiltrate Activist Groups'
• Monsanto snubs Puerto Rico Senate

Plane Fare

• Ryanair plans to put only one toilet on planes in latest scheme to slash fares
• Oof! Airline Fees Rise Yet Again: At Least $200 to Change a Flight
• Give them an inch and they take $773,074,040

World Environment Day, Pollution, Ecology, Animal Cruelty, Food Insecurity, Monsanto; Tiananmen

World Environment Day

• Exxon CEO: 'What Good Is It To Save The Planet If Humanity Suffers?'—What good is humanity if the planet goes haywire?
• Feds Must Analyze Oil Spill Dispersant Effects on Wildlife
• WSJ Editorial Board Member: NYC Bike-Share Program Has 'Begrimed' Best Neighborhoods
• Facebook mogul Sean Parker ordered to pay $2.5M after wedding in coastal zone
• Think.Eat.Save—Reduce your footprint.

Pollution

• Wal-Mart pleads guilty to charges of dumping hazardous waste in California
• New documents show Exxon knew of dangerous contamination from their Arkansas tar sands spill, yet claimed area was "oil free"
• Oil spill sullies river in Ecuador

Ecology

• Seven rhinos killed by poachers in Kenya's bloodiest week
• Turtle conservationist shot dead 'by poachers' on Costa Rica beach—"Jairo Mora Sandoval, 26, died just weeks after posting a Facebook plea for police help with turtle-egg thieves."
• Brazil rainforest deforestation leads to seed shrinkage

Animal Cruelty

• USDA's Watchdog Reveals "Egregious" Hog Slaughter Conditions
• Chinese Meat Firm With Terrible Food Safety Record Buys The Largest Pork Producer In The U.S.
• Canada set to ban lifelong confinement of pigs in small cages 67

Food Insecurity

• Horsemeat scandal: Dutch trader Willy Selten arrested—"A Dutch meat wholesaler, Willy Selten, has been arrested for allegedly selling 300 tonnes of horsemeat as beef, officials say."
• Death on the Nile—"As Ethiopia diverts the river to build a dam, we examine the impact on water supply for Egypt's growing population."
• Rule on Serving Olive Oil Stirs Ridicule and Anger in Europe NYT
• Disgusting Photo Appears To Show A Taco Bell Employee Licking Food
• Flipside: Large German Bank Quits Agricultural Commodities Speculation

Monsanto

• Worldwide March Against Monsanto, GMOs Draws Crowds In 436 Cities
• Monsanto gives up fight for GM plants in Europe
• Hungary: Monsanto appeals against destruction of corn
• Japan Halts Some U.S. Wheat Imports on Gene-Altered Crops
• S. Korea Joins Japan Blocking Monsanto Modified Seed
• Kansas Farmer Sues Monsanto After Discovering Unapproved GM Wheat In Field
• Monsanto can't explain how GMO wheat survived

Tiananmen

• Thousands Rally in Hong Kong in Tinanmen Square Anniversary NYT
• Photos from Hong Kong's 2013 Tiananmen Vigil
• China bans all references to 'Big Yellow Duck' in lead up to Tiananmen Square anniversary

Fat Tuesday; Big Pharma, Bill of Health; Health Issues; Mental, Psych; Sleep; Food Insecurity

Fat Tuesday

• Social Media Sites Fight "Thinspo"—"Instagram and other websites take aim at content that triggers or promotes eating disorders."
• Modelling scouts target anorexia patients
• Goodbye To The King Size: Mars To Downsize Candy Bars In 2013
• Airbus Is Installing Special Big Seats For Fat People — And Shrinking All Other Seats
• People in the South are not so fat after all -- and they lie less
• Vietnam bans short, fat Hanoi traffic police
• Are Happy Gut Bacteria Key to Weight Loss?

Big Pharma

• Big Pharma Company Jacks Up Price of Overdose Life Saver by 1100%: Now, More People Will Die
• Big Pharma made $711 bln overcharging seniors and disabled
• FDA Let Drugs Approved on Fraudulent Research Stay on the Market
• Why Chemotherapy That Costs $70,000 in the U.S. Costs $2,500 in India—"By rejecting patent applications, developing countries have kept down the costs of much-needed medications. Can they continue to do so without harming efforts to develop new drugs?"
• U.S. consumers pay more for drugs

Bill of Health

• About the Obamacare 'train wreck'
• The Reason Health Care Is So Expensive: Insurance Companies
• Inside India's 'No-Frills' Hospitals, Where Heart Surgery Costs Just $800

Health Issues

• Checks Find Unsafe Practices at Compounding Pharmacies—"Federal regulators said they had found problems like black particles floating in vials, rust and mold in clean rooms and improper air flow at about 30 compounding pharmacies." NYT
• Why Dr. Kermit Gosnell's Trial Should Be a Front-Page Story—"The dead babies. The exploited women. The racism. The numerous governmental failures. It is thoroughly newsworthy."
• Man dies after pea trapped in lung diagnosed as cancer—"An English family grieving over a man's death has lashed out at doctors after they confused a pea in his lung for a cancerous tumour."

Mental

• Obama budget includes $235 million in new mental health spending
• Nevada buses hundreds of mentally ill patients to cities around country
• Mentally ill patients in Indonesia held in chains

Psych

• News is bad for you – and giving up reading it will make you happier—"News is bad for your health. It leads to fear and aggression, and hinders your creativity and ability to think deeply. The solution? Stop consuming it altogether." In related... news: Breaking News is Broken.
• TV Is Heroin Crossed With Hypnosis
• Cognitive Vulnerability to Depression Can Be Contagious—Misery loves company.
• Patient people mull over future rewards

Sleep

• Sleep: Everything You Need To Know
• The end of sleep?—"New technologies are emerging that could radically reduce our need to sleep - if we can bear to use them."
• Is sleep the new sex?—"When we we aren't doing it, we're talking about it. But we also love to boast about how little we need." Salon
• Can you train yourself to get by on less sleep?
• Why teenagers really do need an extra hour in bed
• Less sleep leads to more eating and more weight gain, according to new CU-Boulder study
• Study: Listening to Certain Sounds Seems to Improve Sleep—"Participants played 'pink noise' that was synchronized to their brain rhythms slept more deeply and had increased memory retention."
• Clicky noises may help you memorize during sleep
• What Is Paradoxical Intention?
• Rural risk for sleep disorder Scots
• Spain Holds First Annual Siesta Championship

Food Insecurity

• The Privatization of Water: Nestlé Denies that Water is a Fundamental Human Right
• How Monsanto Went From Selling Aspirin to Controlling Our Food Supply—"Monsanto controls our food, poisons our land, and influences all three branches of government."
• Judge: Iowa State U. Must Shield 'Pink Slime' Data—"A judge has blocked Iowa State University from releasing documents about food safety research conducted for the beef-processing company that makes the product dubbed 'pink slime' by critics." NYT
• What government tests found in your meat—"When you shop for turkey burgers for dinner tonight, you may be buying more than meat for your dinner. A federal investigation found 'Superbugs' in meat test."
• The Curse of Fertilizer—"If we don't watch out, agriculture could destroy our planet. Here's how to grow all the food we need with fewer chemicals."
• Horsemeat scandal: Minister urged to reveal Sodexo supplier
• Mislabelled fish slip into Europe's menus

BP; Energy Sector Censorship, Ag-Gag; Food Security; Corporate Misconduct; Environment; Pollution; Ecology

BP

• After Three Years, BP Is Finally Headed to Court
• Justice Department deal reduces BP's Deepwater Horizon fine by $3.4bn
• BP to Government: $21 Billion Fine is 'Excessive'—"Oil giant says it would rather go to court than continue negotiations."

Energy Sector Censorship

• Exxon, You Can't Silence Us: A Public Letter
• Hush, Doctors: Gas industry gags physicians
• Shale Gas Industry Brings PSYOPs and Spy Ops to Poland

Ag-Gag

• 'Ag-Gag' Bill Introduced in Illinois—"Criminal charges sought for false accusations of animal mistreatment."
• Ind. bill would make undercover video at farms illegal
• Five More States Consider 'Ag Gag' Laws To Silence Factory Farm Whistleblowers

Food Security

• Deutsche Bank Is Caught In A Spiral Of Lies—"The latest involves misleading parliament about the causes of food price inflation."
• Halve meat consumption, scientists urge rich world—"UN study says horsemeat scandal exposed dark side of cheap meat and shows how farming practices destroy natural world."
• Horsemeat scandal's origin lies in the heart of our economic model

Corporate Misconduct

• Prosecutors crack 'systematic egg fraud'—"Prosecutors are investigating around 200 German egg farmers suspected of falsely labelling their produce as organic or free-range, in what has been described as fraud on a massive scale."
• Monsanto guilty of chemical poisoning in France
• Oxfam reveals global food firms' gaping ethical shortfalls—"The charity finds Nestlé, Mars and Coca-Cola fail to protect farmers, local communities and the environment."

Environment

• State lawmaker defends bike tax, says bicycling is not good for the environment—"You would be giving off more CO2 if you are riding a bike than driving in a car." Oy.
• Environment Canada hits alleged polluters with warnings instead of prosecutions
• Chinese environmentalist beaten after calling on official to swim in polluted creek
• Quote of the Day: Frying the Planet is OK as Long as We Protect it From Asteroids
• US scientists report big jump in heat-trapping CO2
• This Cheat Sheet Will Make You Win Every Climate Argument
• Australia: NT govt to fight recycling law challenge—"The Northern Territory government says it will pull no punches in fighting a lawsuit by drinks giants against its cash-for-containers scheme."

Pollution

• Japanese take action against Chinese smog—"Residents will be urged to stay indoors if the level of toxic smog from China gets too high."
• The most shocking photo of Beijing air pollution I've ever seen
• Where Is the Worst Air in the World?—"Beijing gets a lot of attention for its pollution, but it's nowhere near the top of the list."

Ecology

• African lions – the killer kings in mortal danger from man and sham medicine—"Lion populations have fallen by 68% in just 50 years – from 100,000 to 35,000 today. What can be done to protect them?"
• Notorious figure in animal smuggling beyond reach in Laos—Essentially beyond the law. NYT
• Google must drop ivory adverts say campaigners
• Japanese turn against whaling
• Indian man single-handedly plants a 1,360-acre forest—"Jadav Payeng turned a barren sandbar in northern India into a lush new forest ecosystem."