Frustration is growing among US Mayors as they struggle to deal with budget cuts while the federal government continues to spend over $2 billion a week in Afghanistan. Their call to "bring the war dollars home" could have an enormous impact in the effort to rebuild in America, spur job creation and support education throughout the country.
http://www.alternet.org/news/151336/will_u.s._mayors_vote_against_war/?utm
I didn't even realize there was a Nixon in government these days but this one, Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon, had the political courage to veto a voter ID law passed by the state's conservative legislature. Correctly pointing out that the law requiring state-issued ID would discriminate against seniors and those with disabilities among others, Nixon said that disenfranchisement of certain classes of people was unacceptable.
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2011/06/17/986245/-Missouri-Gov-Jay-Nixon-vetoes-voter-suppression-law?utm
Efforts by the Japanese government to limit information on radiation contaminated produce and drinking water are ongoing as we are continually getting after-the-fact updates on details from the nuclear catastrophe at Fukushima and increased radiation levels in the environment from the authorities. Radioactive sludge from Fukushima has been burned by incinerators in Tokyo and tests from those areas confirm contamination levels comparable to those in Fukushima Prefecture where the nuclear meltdowns occurred.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/david-wagner/report-from-tokyo-reading_b_876470.html
Nuclear Never Safe - Greenpeace Pressures US Regulators
http://www.greenpeace.org/usa/en/news-and-blogs/campaign-blog/nuclear-never-safe/blog/35323
Due to the fact that new homes can be classified as 'green' if they reduce energy consumption by sealing off leaks to outside air, most of these homes completely miss the goal of promoting a healthier environment because they continue to be built with a vast array of toxic materials that release toxins in the home. It's more effective to use toxin-free materials when building a new home than to focus exclusively on the energy conservation aspects promoted by builders looking to jump on the 'green' bandwagon.
http://www.NaturalNews.com/032733_green_home_indoor_air_quality.html
The GOP demonstrates its utter disregard for public welfare by voting to strip $87 million from the new food safety law, which seeks to implement more vigorous inspections of domestic and imported food products. Such blind devotion to the food industry and its lobbyists is astounding.
http://thinkprogress.org/economy/2011/06/17/247461/house-gop-food-safety-self-polices/
CNN just came out with an editorial suggesting that raw milk and vegetable juices be banned as an e coli threat, even though these foods have rarely ever been the culprits in disease outbreaks. The author fails to examine the open questions about the source of the current e coli outbreak but effectively defends the scientific basis of health benefits related to raw foods and urges an easing of restrictions on nutrient-rich foods.
http://www.grist.org/food-safety/2011-06-16-dont-ban-raw-milk-europe-e-coli-outbreak-cnn-food-borne-illness
The Wisconsin Supreme Court, with a conservative majority of 4-3, recently overturned a lower court ruling that had barred the implementation of Governor Walker's anti-collective bargaining law. That disgraceful legislation, enacted without the required two hours of public notice, has now taken effect. The bombshell development is that the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court accused the majority jurists of "fudging the facts" to reach a decision they had already decided they wanted to make. This sort of thing is exceedingly rare and is further indication that the turmoil in Wisconsin is far from over.
http://blogs.forbes.com/rickungar/2011/06/15/the-wisconsin-supreme-court-crisis-far-more-serious-than-the-ruling-on-walkers-anti-collective-bargaining-law/
