Undernews: September 296, 2012

Suit charges organ donor network pressured hospitals to declare patients brain dead

NY Post - The New York Organ Donor Network pressured hospital staffers to declare patients brain dead so their body parts could be harvested and even hired “coaches” to train staffers how to be more persuasive, a bombshell lawsuit charged. The federally funded nonprofit used a “quota” system, and..

Convicted TSA agent says theft from passengers is common
ABC News - A convicted TSA security officer says he was part of a "culture" of indifference that allowed corrupt employees to prey on passengers' luggage and personal belongings with impunity, thanks to lax oversight and tip-offs from TSA colleagues. "It was very commonplace, very," said Pythias Br..

A consultant tries to praise Todd Akin
St Louis Today - A consultant for embattled Senate candidate Todd Akin compared Republican attacks on Akin to the 1993 federal siege of cult leader David Koresh. St "I’ve expressed this to Todd as my client for a while now, I’ve expressed it to him directly,” Akin consultant Kellyanne Conway said i..

There's something happening here
Steven Ashby, Chicago Tribune - Teachers go on strike in Chicago and Lake Forest. Chicago symphony musicians walk out. Machinists walk picket lines in Joliet, and Wal-Mart warehouse workers stop working in Elwood. Gov. Pat Quinn gets chased from the state fair by angry government workers, and talk ..

If something about the Iran debate sounds familiar, here's why
Washingtons Blog - In 2002, for example, Israeli prime minister Netanyahu helped convince the American Congress that Saddam was making weapons of mass destruction The CIA admits that the U.S. overthrew the secular, moderate, suit-and-tie-wearing, Democratically-elected prime minister of Iran..

Robber barons to meet in Cayman Islands
TPM - Former President George W. Bush will deliver a keynote address at the Cayman Alternative Investment Summit in early November. Sir Richard Branson, the British billionaire entrepreneur, will also deliver a keynote address.

Obama cabinet members don't obey information law
Bloomberg - Nineteen of 20 cabinet-level agencies disobeyed the law requiring the disclosure of public information: The cost of travel by top officials. In all, just eight of the 57 federal agencies met Bloomberg’s request for those documents within the 20-day window required by the Act. “When it c..

Judge throws out nearly 100 Chicago protest charges
First Amendment Center - A judge tossed out charges against 92 Occupy protesters arrested in a Chicago park last October, severely criticizing what the city had proudly held up as a better way for dealing with demonstrations. Cook County Associate Judge Thomas Donnelly ruled that the city’s curfew ..

Why Clinton's welfare "reform" wasn't
Greg Kaufmann, Nation - President Clinton signed welfare reform into national law [in 1996], replacing the AFDC cash assistance program with Temporary Assistance to Needy Families.... Today, it is very difficult for women to use education to count towards their TANF work requirement. Instead, most ..

Illegal wiretapping soared under Obama
ACLU - Justice Department documents reveal that federal law enforcement agencies are increasingly monitoring Americans’ electronic communications, and doing so without warrants, sufficient oversight, or meaningful accountability. The documents, handed over by the government only after months of lit..

Employers far less interested in long term jobless
Huffington Post - The authors of a new National Bureau of Economic Research study sent 12,000 fake resumes to real online postings for jobs in 100 U.S. cities in 2009. In each resume, the fake job candidate had been out of work anywhere from one month to three years. It turned out that the longer t..

Catholic bishop warns Democratic voters that they're going to hell
People for the American Way - The Roman Catholic Bishop of Springfield, Illinois, is warning that the Democratic Party has endorsed “intrinsic evils” and consequently, voters who back Democratic candidates have put their eternal salvation at risk. In the Catholic Times , the official newspaper of t..

Big trend in news audience
CNET - The Internet is continuing to erode TV, radio, and newspapers as the source of news for Americans. According to the latest Pew Research Center survey covering the changing news landscape, the proliferation of mobile devices and social networks is accelerating the shift to online news consump..

Marriage equality case hits federal appeals court

Best law suit of the week
Juggalos - Everyone remembers back in August at the 2012 Gathering of the Juggalos when Violent J and Shaggy 2 Dope announced to the ‘Los and ‘Lettes that they would be suing the FBI because Juggalos were unjustly called a gang in its 2011 National Gang Threat Assessment. They said they would be fi..

What Sheldon Adelson is up to when he's not writing checks to Mitt Romney
Richard Brennerman - The Pangea, a nightclub in Singapore’s Marina Bay Sands casino, offers the Asia’s most expensive libation, garnished with a one-carat diamond. It’s just the sort of thing you might expect from a resort owned by Las Vegas mogul and militant Ziocon Sheldon Adelson, the man bankro..

Sheil Bair zaps Geithner in new book
Huffington Post - Former financial regulator Sheila Bair says that Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner was primarily concerned with shoring up Citigroup and other banks in his response to the financial crisis, rather than holding those banks accountable. Bair went on a media tour on Tuesday to prom..

Two large firms plan to dump health inflation costs on employees
Wall Street Journal: Two big employers are planning a radical change in the way they provide health benefits to their workers, giving employees a fixed sum of money and allowing them to choose their medical coverage and insurer from an online marketplace. Sears Holdings Corp. and Darden Restaurants..

The story so far
Sam Smith The election poll numbers are improving but actual turnout remains a key issue. Here are a few hints on how to make it better: • Non profit groups dealing with issues of progressive concern should make sure all their members vote. They have the addresses, the emails and the phone numbers...

One good reason Adelson is backing Romney with millions
Hufington Post - In August, The New York Times wondered aloud what the rest of the political world wanted to know: Does Sheldon Adelson's effort to put Mitt Romney in the White House have anything to do with the federal criminal investigation into his company's business practices? The Times editori..

We are the 95%
NY Times - We have unique data from a 2008 national survey by the Cornell Survey Research Institute that asked Americans whether they had ever taken advantage of any of 21 social policies provided by the federal government, from student loans to Medicare. These policies do not include government ac..

1985 video shows Romney pushing Bain not a company builder but harvesting them for profit
Mother Jones - Mother Jones has obtained a video from 1985 in which Romney, describing Bain's formation, showed how he viewed the firm's mission. He explained that its goal was to identify potential and hidden value in companies, buy significant stakes in these businesses, and then "harvest them at..

Alternative news update
GOP Star Mia Love Fires Back at "Anchor Baby" Story Romney Gives a Shout-Out to Donors Linked to Fraud Scheme BPA From Cans Messes With Your Ovaries NEW ROMNEY VIDEO: In 1985, He Said Bain Would "Harvest" Companies for Profits Why are Conservation Groups Advocating Logging Public Forests? Obviously..

Who really builds it

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