Progressive News Feeds

WASHINGTON – July 19 – The Los Angeles Times reports today: “More than 400 inmates at four California prisons are in the third week of a hunger strike to protest long, punitive stays in isolation cells. … “Inmate advocates say thousands of inmates have joined the strike, which began July 1. Many are beginning to [...]

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WASHINGTON – July 19 – If this year’s winners of the Xtreme Eating Awards are any indication, the overfeeding of America seems likely to continue unabated at the nation’s chain restaurants. The dishonorees, unveiled in the current edition of the Center for Science in the Public Interest’s Nutrition Action Healthletter, include burgers topped with pork [...]

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WASHINGTON – July 19 – Planned Parenthood today hailed the Institute of Medicine (IOM)’s recommendation on including prescription birth control as a women’s preventive health service, which would be covered without co-pays by new insurance plans under the Affordable Care Act.  If adopted by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), the policy [...]

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WASHINGTON – July 19 – By walking away from every negotiation – from the Deficit Commission to the Biden Commission to direct talks with the President – Republicans have made it clear that they place politics above responsibly solving the country’s budget challenges. Now they have introduced their extreme “Cut, Cap and Balance” proposal. This [...]

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WASHINGTON – July 19 – Nancy Keenan, president of NARAL Pro-Choice America, praised a panel of medical experts for recommending that health-insurance plans cover a full range of Food and Drug Administration (FDA)-approved contraception at no cost. The federal health-care law requires health plans to cover—at no cost—certain preventive-health services that are specific to women. [...]

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WASHINGTON – July 19 – Sarita Gupta, Executive Director of Jobs with Justice, testified this morning during the National Labor Rights Board during their two-day hearings, supporting the proposed NLRB rules changes of the procedure for union representation elections.  Under the current rules, union elections are often postponed for months, years, and sometimes never happen [...]

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CAMBRIDGE, MA – July 19 – Moments ago, Aaron Swartz, former executive director and founder of Demand Progress, was indicted by the US government. As best as we can tell, he is being charged with allegedly downloading too many scholarly journal articles from the Web. The government contends that downloading said articles is actually felony [...]

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WASHINGTON – July 19 – A group of leading economists, including five Nobel Laureates in economics, today publicly released a letter to President Obama and Congress opposing a constitutional balanced budget amendment.  The letter outlines the reasons why writing a balanced budget requirement into the Constitution would be “very unsound policy” that would adversely affect [...]

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WASHINGTON – July 19 – As Republicans and President Barack Obama continue to discuss solutions to the U.S. budget crisis, a new report proposes innovative solutions to unemployment and the economic crisis. The report, “How to Liberate America from Wall Street Rule,” by the New Economy Working Group, proposes a revolutionary six-part agenda for ending [...]

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WASHINGTON – July 19 – On Monday, the Federal Communications Commission issued an official notice of Free Press’ complaint that Verizon’s blocking of tethering apps violated the terms of the company’s C-Block spectrum license. The FCC’s action requires a written response from Verizon to the merits of the complaint. Prior to yesterday’s action, communications with [...]

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