Progressive News Feeds

A group of over 100 doctors who specialize in chronic myeloid leukemia (CML) published a detailed editorial in the medical journal Blood on Friday that slams pharmaceutical companies for jacking up cancer medication prices to unaffordable degrees. The open letter also calls for immediate reform to help patients access drugs that mean the difference between life and death for millions of Americans. The doctors argue that, despite the creativity and innovation involved in creating cancer drugs, pharmaceutical companies still charge far more than they are objectively worth, knowing that patients have no other choice than to pay the prices they dictate.

Tags: color-stop0-05, culture, economy, health, industry, media, public-health, science, tweets

By Shiva Polefka Today, Saturday, April 20th, marks the third anniversary of the explosion aboard BP’s Deepwater Horizon oil rig that killed 11 workers and set off the largest accidental spill in the oil industry’s history. The ruptured Macondo well spewed nearly 5 million barrels of crude oil over the course of the summer, ultimately fouling more than 1,000 miles of Gulf of Mexico coastline and bringing the vast fishing and tourism industries of the region to a standstill, before the Macondo well was finally sealed and “ killed ” on September 19, 2010

Tags: archives, articles, chemicals, climate-change, economy, environment, health, industry, lgbt, obama, thinkprogress, tweets

Fox News campaigned against New York City fast food workers who are striking to secure higher wages by attacking their work ethic and pushing falsehoods about the minimum wage that they are paid. On April 4, hundreds of fast food workers in New York City walked out of their workplaces, striking against their current wage of $7.25 an hour and pushing to be paid a livable wage of $15 an hour. The New York Times reported that many of the striking workers “say they can barely get by on the $7.25, $8 or $9 an hour that many receive.” On April 5, Fox & Friends co-host Brian Kilmeade responded to the strike by claiming that the minimum wage many fast food workers are paid was never supposed to be a “career wage” and if workers wanted to earn more, they need to get an additional job or work harder in order to earn a pay raise or promotion

Tags: co-host-steve, feeds, friends, industry, lower-wage-jobs, media, minimum, policy-research, recession, the nation, workplaces

The Environmental Protection Agency will review 20 flame retardants used in common household items, in response to mounting research linking these chemicals to cancer, neurological damage and other health effects. The EPA will conduct risk assessments on four of the chemicals under the existing Toxic Substances Control Act, legislation that the agency acknowledges needs to be reformed in order to better protect Americans from toxic chemicals. The chemicals are used to increase a material’s resistance to fire and are present in a host of items, including mattresses, furniture, electronics, clothing and food .

Tags: #abortion, action, author, diseases, environment, food, health, industry, lgbt, thinkprogress

On the heels of his failed effort to combat rising rates of obesity by banning the sale of large sugary drinks , New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg is tackling a new public health initiative : dissuading Americans, and especially youth, from purchasing tobacco products. Bloomberg is pushing a proposal that would ban stores from displaying cigarettes , which would make New York the first city in the nation to attempt to curb smoking by keeping tobacco products out of sight. The initiative wouldn’t prevent stores from advertising cigarettes or displaying the prices of their products — but it could significantly change the atmosphere in the city’s small corner stores.

Tags: author, climate, industry, new york city, planned parenthood, public-health, the nation, tobacco industry, yahoo

Last month, I was on a panel with someone who kept kept saying “current renewables” were inadequate to address the climate problem and what we needed to do is invest in ”future renewables.” By that he meant increased research and development, of course, and not continued aggressive deployment. I began my comments with this metaphor: “There’s no useful intellectual distinction between ‘current’ and ‘future’ renewables

Tags: author, climate progress, countries, economy, energy, global-warming, health, industry, media, weather

By Kiley Kroh After a year full of mishaps and failures in its quest to drill for oil off the coast of Alaska, Royal Dutch Shell announced today that it would not pursue exploratory drilling activity in the Arctic Ocean this year.  The decision comes as the Obama administration nears the end of its high-level, 60-day review of Shell’s troubled Arctic drilling program, which was announced on January 8. Last year was fraught with problems for Shell as the company attempted the first Arctic offshore exploratory drilling activity in decades. Technical failures, permit violations, struggles with the harsh and unpredictable Arctic conditions, and warnings from a wide range of voices all combined to discredit the company’s claims that such operations could be carried out safely and responsibly

Tags: carbon, global-warming, industry, insurance, lgbt, oil-spill, pollution, thinkprogress, tweets, video

Hospitals would need to check the immigration status of uninsured patients under a new bill introduced by an Arizona lawmaker. Rep. Steve Smith’s (R) H.B

Tags: #abortion, america, children, feeds, health, immigrant, industry, mexico, politicians, victims, yahoo

By Susan Casey-Lefkowitz via NRDC’s Switchboard New research confirms what we have heard time and again from the industry itself: the proposed  Keystone XL tar sands pipeline will be a direct cause of an increase in  tar sands oil development . More tar sands oil taken out of the ground means more dangerous pollution that hurts our climate and health. And, this new research also shows that tar sands will cause even more climate pollution than we previously thought due to the impacts of the high carbon byproduct petroleum coke.

Tags: australia, congress, earth, environment, facebook, industry, science, security

Many readers asked when  Language Intelligence would be available as an audiobook. Turns out Podium Publishing liked it so much, they did the job with a terrific reader  Drew Birdseye , who narrates lots of audiobooks. You can download all 4 hours and 19 minutes of it on Amazon or iTunes

Tags: australia, climate, congress, industry, ipod, itunes, jesus, politics, power, president, science, tweets