Smokey the Bear thought he smelled a fire in the woods. But as he approached the clearing and saw a giant derrick jutting out into the sky, he realized that what his nose had picked up was the scent of hydrocarbons. It was another piece of evidence that the increasingly widespread method of oil and gas extraction known as fracking was poisoning the environment that he and his human friends depend on. He decided something must be done.
At least that’s the way that artist, Occupy Wall Street veteran and environmental activist Lopi LaRoe sees it. But last week she received a letter threatening her with jail time and thousands of dollars in fines for enlisting Smokey to the anti-fracking cause.
Forest Service seeks to silence Smokey the Bear over fracking
Mark Sanford defeats Elizabeth Colbert Busch
Republican Mark Sanford has defeated Democrat Elizabeth Colbert Busch in South Carolina’s 1st Congressional District special election. The victory caps a dramatic comeback by the scandal-tinged former governor, whose political career was left for dead four years ago when he was caught lying about an extramarital affair.
With three quarters of precincts reporting, Sanford led 54 percent to 45 percent for Colbert Busch, and the Associated Press called the race.
Obama warns on US military sexual assaults
President Barack Obama has said sexual harassment and assault will not be tolerated in the US military. His spoke as figures showed reported sexual assaults in the US military rose from 3,192 to 3,374 in 2012.
But as many attacks go unreported, officials estimate the total number of sexual assaults stands at 26,000, up from 19,000 last year. It comes after the officer tasked with stopping sexual crimes in the US Air Force was charged with sexual battery.
Willie Jerome Manning, Mississippi Death Row Inmate, Granted Last-Minute Stay Of Execution
Manning’s case has gained considerable media attention as his execution date approached. Manning, who is black, was convicted in 1994 by a white-majority jury of killing white Mississippi State University students Jon Steckler and Tiffany Miller in 1992. He was convicted despite there being no physical evidence linking him to the crimes while an inmate who claimed Manning confessed to the crimes later recanted his testimony.
Liberal Groups Begin Facebook Ad Boycott Over Zuckerberg's Big Oil Lobbying
A bunch of liberal advocacy groups — including MoveOn.org, CREDO, Presente.org. Sierra Club, Democracy for America — have pulled their ads from Facebook in protest of the company's lobbying arm, FWD.us, which has also supported the building of a gas pipeline from Alaska to the lower 48 U.S.
The economic impact of the boycott will be negligible to Facebook. But that's not the point.
It's the third recent set of unintended political consequences that Facebook has stumbled over since it launched FWD.us, its lobbying arm.
CIA selects new head of clandestine service, passing over officer tied to interrogation program
A CIA officer who was the first woman to lead the agency’s clandestine service, but was also closely tied to the agency’s interrogation program, will not get to keep that job as part of a management shake-up announced Tuesday by CIA Director John O. Brennan.
The woman had served as director of the National Clandestine Service on an interim basis over the past two months and was seen by many in the agency as a front-runner to keep the post, which involves overseeing the CIA’s spying operations around the world.
Irish pardon deserters who joined Britain in WWII
The Irish government said Tuesday it is pardoning nearly 5,000 men who deserted its armed forces to fight for Britain during World War II, an episode of history that brought shame and embarrassment to neutral Ireland.
Justice Minister Alan Shatter said a bill pardoning the men — mostly posthumously — and apologizing to their families would be introduced and passed into law Tuesday. The move comes a year after he issued an official state apology to the men, who because of a government blacklist suffered job discrimination and loss of pension rights at war's end, condemning their families to poverty.
18 dead in gas tanker explosion near Mexico City
Officials did not rule out the possibility the death toll could rise more as emergency workers continued sifting through the charred remains of vehicles and homes built near the highway on the northern edge of the metropolis.
Florida women play key role in emergency birth-control case
The long and sweeping movement to broaden access to emergency contraception — which may culminate soon in girls and women of all ages having over-the-counter access — has been led, in part, by a group of Florida grassroots activists — students, mothers, daughters.
The original lawsuit against the U.S. Food and Drug Administration calling for all restrictions to be lifted on the so-called morning-after pill has nine plaintiffs, most of whom have deep Florida roots, their journey starting at the University of Florida in Gainesville. Five of the plaintiffs attended UF; one of those, Candi Churchill, grew up in Cooper City; their attorney, Andrea Costello, who also attended UF, is from North Miami.
Page 17 of 882
