By David Underhill – MOBILE, Ala. – The tank farms became a hot potato, singeing any official who touched them. Residents near sites for new or expanding tank farms fired complaints at the city’s planning commission, which readily tossed the heated hassle to the city council. A majority poised to pass a moratorium on construction…
Monthly Archives: March 2015
The ‘iEverything’ Economy May Require the Redistributional Imperative
By Robert Reich – It’s now possible to sell a new product to hundreds of millions of people without needing many, if any, workers to produce or distribute it. At its prime in 1988, Kodak, the iconic American photography company, had 145,000 employees. In 2012, Kodak filed for bankruptcy. The same year Kodak went under,…
Spring Has Been Ordered, But Like Everything Else, You Have to Wait for It
NASA Asteroid Hunter Spacecraft Images Now Available to Public
Millions of images of celestial objects, including asteroids, are now available to the public online from NASA’s Near-Earth Object Wide-field Survey Explorer (NEOWISE) spacecraft. “NEOWISE is a vital asset in NASA’s program to find objects that truly represent an impact hazard to Earth,” Lindley Johnson, program executive for the Near-Earth Object Observation Program at NASA…
Ted Cruz for President?
Eschew Obfuscation – By Michael Douglass – Rafael Edward Cruz is running for president. Boy howdy. By all accounts Ted Cruz is bright and formidable. Heâs a powerful speaker. His academic accomplishments are impressive. His career trajectory just prior to politics is downright imposing. Thereâs a certain charisma in a Bob Dole meets Pee Wee…
Charter School Movement About Tax Breaks, Not Helping Kids
The Palestinian-Israeli Two-State Solution was Dead Anyway
By Nicholas Sheppard – Newly re-elected Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has tried to walk back his declaration, made late in the contentious political campaign, that no Palestinian state would be established on his watch. His new assertion appeared to do nothing to assuage an irate Obama Administration, and his initial remarks, designed to encourage…
East Coast Versus West Coast: The Best Place to be a Snowbird
New NASA Mission Launched to Study Environmental Changes on Ocean Health
NASA is beginning work on a new satellite mission that will extend critical climate measurements of Earth’s oceans and atmosphere and advance studies of the impact of environmental changes on ocean health, fisheries and the carbon cycle. Tentatively scheduled to launch in 2022, the Pre-Aerosol Clouds and ocean Ecosystem (PACE) mission will study Earth’s aquatic…
Earth Shaking News: Google Publishes Paper Considering Ranking Websites Based on Accuracy
You Are Now Looking at The Most Accurate News Website in the World – The Big Picture – By Glynn Wilson – Finally, some positive earth shaking news from Webland, and the implications are simply staggering. It means you are now looking at the most accurate news Website in the world, and Google is about…
The Conundrum of Corporation and Nation
By Robert Reich – The U.S. economy is picking up steam but most Americans aren’t feeling it. By contrast, most European economies are still in bad shape, but most Europeans are doing relatively well. What’s behind this? Two big facts. First, American corporations exert far more political influence in the United States than their counterparts…
After Selma: From White Sheets to Spreadsheets
By Greg Palast – I hate to spoil a happy ending. The movie “Selma,” like this week’s commemorations of Martin Luther King Jr.’s march from Selma, Ala., 50 years ago, celebrates America’s giant leap from apartheid. Half a century ago Alabama state troopers and a mob of racist thugs beat African-Americans and others as they…
After Selma, What’s Next for Black America?
By Donald Watkins – This weekend marks the 50th Anniversary of the Selma-to-Montgomery march. I did not attend the celebratory events this weekend. I am still deeply troubled by the fact that todayâs civil rights movement has morphed into an endless cycle of commemorative events and celebratory parties consisting mostly of photo opportunities. This would…
President Obama Speaks in Selma on the 50th Anniversary of the Bloody Sunday March
Citizen Four: Ed Snowden is No Traitor
Will the 2016 Democratic Nominee Take on Moneyed Interests?
By Robert Reich – Itâs seed time for the 2016 presidential elections, when candidates try to figure out what they stand for and will run on. One thing seems reasonably clear. The Democratic nominee for President, whoever she may be, will campaign on reviving the American middle class. As will the Republican nominee â although…
A Chance to Support Art in Mobile and Agent Orange Victims in Vietnam
MOBILE, Ala. — Here’s a chance to support art, music and the victims of Agent Orange in Vietnam. There will be a special live music fundraiser at Gallery 450 on Dauphin Street Friday the 13th that promises to steel the show for the monthly Art Walk for March. What sparked this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for Alabama…
Fewer Americans See China’s Economic Power as a Critical Threat to US Interests
By Jeffrey M. Jones – Forty percent of Americans still regard “the economic power of China” as a critical threat to the vital interests of the United States, although that is down from 52 percent in 2014 and 2013, according to the latest Gallup poll on the subject. Since last year, Americans have shifted more…