June 2011
65 posts
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867 journalists have been killed since 1992, when the Committee to Protect Journalists began keeping records.
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1 in 10 children lives with grandparent
The number of U.S. children living with at least one grandparent in their homes increased 64 percent between 1991 and 2009, according to a U.S. Census Bureau report released yesterday.
There were 7.8 million children living with at least one grandparent in 2009, up from 4.7 million in 1991. Such family arrangements were most common among black and Hispanic children but have risen most ...
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WatchAndrew Rossi directed the documentary “Page One” about the inner workings of the New York Times and the tension between new and old modes of journalism. He speaks with the Center for Investigative Reporting about making the movie and the role investigative journalism plays in society.
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Holy Batphone! New app identifies bats by sound
Except for Antarctica, bats live on every continent of the world.
Yet, despite their nearly universal presence, researchers remain in the dark about many aspects of their biology.
To fix that, a team of British bat researchers have developed the ultimate batphone: iBats.
It’s an iPhone and Android app that can be used to identify and geolocate bats.
All the user has to do is point his or her...
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“There are believed to be 11 million undocumented immigrants in the United...”
– From Jose Antonio Vargas’ piece “My Life as an Undocumented Immigrant” in the New York Times. In the piece Vargas, a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist, reveals that he is an undocumented immigrant.
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“In our drunken, over-funded stupor, we asked for and got funding for equipment...”
– A former Seattle-area emergency manager writing this week on the billions in federal homeland security grants that Washington began rapidly awarding to state and local governments after the Sept. 11 hijackings. Eric Holdeman’s online remarks appeared just as a major national conference on the grants...
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Will federal officials move against California's...
As soon as today, Attorney General Eric Holder is expected to release a letter clarifying the Justice Department’s policy toward the 15 states that have approved medical marijuana laws.
Of particular importance to California is whether federal authorities will tolerate states, cities or counties licensing and regulating commercial marijuana growing and distribution.
Above, listen to...
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WatchThe Price of Sex is an award-winning documentary about young Eastern European women who’ve been drawn into a netherworld of sex trafficking and abuse. In a web extra, the above video examines how sex trafficking works.
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Watchofficialssay:
Gov. Chris Christie, a New Jersey Republican, responding to a constituent who asked him why he felt it was fair to cut funding for public schools when he sends his children to private schools.
His answer: “Hey Gail, you know what? First off, it’s none of your business. I don’t ask you where you send your kids to school. Don’t bother me about where I send mine.”...
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The Christian Science Monitor: Pakistani teen... →
csmonitor:
Arshad Khan is one of countless young boys recruited by a network of Taliban commanders. His story highlights the challenge ahead for Pakistani authorities in ending the war on terror.
Khan gave up his aspiration to become a suicide bomber shortly after he barely survived a drone attack in…
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“We wanted this child to have everything. That’s why we worked this hard. That’s...”
– Han Zongyuan of Mengxi Village in China describes his feelings after being told that his 3-year old daughter had “absorbed enough lead to irreversibly diminish her intellectual capacity and harm her nervous system.” His daughter and over 300 other adults and children were poisoned by...
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For distant Alaska town, TSA security screeners... →
ageofperil:
It’s the busiest airport in the world. Well, if you’re judging by the ratio of federal security screeners to actual airline travelers. Just one Alaska Airlines flight departs each day from the small Gustavus Airport in Alaska, and that flight, like every other into and out of the United States, must be kept safe from terrorism.
The Transportation Security Administration awarded...
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“Pakistan’s top military spy agency has arrested some of the Pakistani informants who fed information to the Central Intelligence Agency in the months leading up to the raid that led to the death of Osama bin Laden, according to American officials.” via New York Times
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Americans living longer but still falling behind...
Americans are living longer than ever before, but compared with the healthiest nations in the world, their life expectancy is shorter and falling behind.
The average American man in 2007 could expect to live 75.6 years, and a woman 80.8 years, according to research released today by the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation at the University of Washington. But between 2000 and 2007, more...
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A European Union panel has approved the appointment of a special prosecutor to probe allegations of organ trafficking and other abuses linked to former commanders of the Kosovo Liberation Army, including current prime minister, Hashim Thaci.
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World News: American Students Don't Know American... →
NYT
American students are less proficient in their nation’s history than in any other subject, according to results of a nationwide test released on Tuesday, with most fourth graders unable to say why Abraham Lincoln was an important figure and few high school seniors able to identify China as the North Korean ally that fought American troops during the Korean War.
Over all, 20 percent of...
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Apples top environmental group's list of...
Hopefully, you’re a fan of onions, corn and pineapple – and not so sweet on apples, celery and strawberries.
That’s because the Environmental Working Group, a Washington, D.C.-based advocacy group, released its annual Shopper’s Guide to Pesticides in Produce.
According to its research, apples, celery and strawberries are covered with toxic pesticides, while onions, corn and pineapple are ...
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Can the Wikileaks wannabes turning up online... →
From homeland security reporter G.W. Schulz
ageofperil:
Not exactly, says the Electronic Frontier Foundation. Two news organizations have launched copycat Wikileaks sites where anonymous persons who want to blow the whistle on waste, fraud and abuse can do so by uploading documents that describe scandalous conduct without the source of that information being revealed. The sites are ...
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“Journalism is for the young. Young people who go into journalism as a calling...”
– Gay Talese (via thedeadline)
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“We are going to bring new people in no matter who wins the next election, and I...”
– Republican Congressman Dan Lungren of California speaking to two senior homeland security officials at a 2008 hearing on the protection of mass gatherings. (via ageofperil)
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WatchThousands of Iranians took to the streets in 2009 as part of the Green Movement to protest a disputed presidential election. The government crackdown that followed included some women being imprisoned, tortured and raped. This report, which the Center for Investigative Reporting co-produced with PBS NewsHour, shares some of their stories.
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“I was an ordinary person and a student who was detained for no reason.
That...”
– “Leila”, whose name has been changed to protect her identify, is an Iranian woman who says she was beaten, raped, and tortured after being detained by police in 2009. Tune in to tonight’s PBS NewsHour for her full story and visit our website for a full transcript of her interview.
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WatchPBS NewsHour and the Center for Investigative Reporting mark the two-year anniversary of Iran’s “Green Movement” with an exclusive report about the government crackdown that followed the disputed presidential election. The video above is a preview of part of the segment. “Samira” is an Iranian rapper who, like other women in the country, uses the musical format as a means of revealing...
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You thought airport security couldn't be more of a... →
ageofperil:
A New Jersey man was sentenced to 30 months in prison June 7 for his role in a conspiracy to steal cash from travelers as they passed through security gates at the Newark Liberty International Airport.
The former Transportation Security Administration supervisor pleaded guilty to accepting…
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“From the very first meeting that led to the creation of the Chauncey Bailey...”
– Robert Rosenthal, executive editor of the Chauncey Bailey Project and head of the Center for Investigative Reporting, responding to the news that former Your Black Muslim Bakery leader Yusuf Bey IV had been convicted of three counts of murder for ordering journalist Chauncey Bailey and two other men...
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californiawatch:
The Sacramento Bee reports: “The amount of trash hauled to landfills has dropped to its lowest level since the state began keeping track in 1989, according to preliminary figures compiled by the Department of Resources Recycling and Recovery. California now has enough landfill space to last nearly 50 years.”
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Insured disaster losses reach $10 billion as... →
ageofperil:
Even a slight gust of wind from Mother Nature later this year during hurricane season could shove us past the total amount paid out in 2010 by private insurers for storm damage.
So much destruction has befallen the United States with June hardly upon us that it seems inconceivable the National Flood Insurance Program could absorb much more. It’s already billions of dollars in...
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Nation's elite no longer permitted to conceal... →
ageofperil:
Over the strenuous objections of business-aviation companies and their wealthy patrons, federal regulators have decided that America’s rich and famous cannot hide from public scrutiny details of their whereabouts on private aircraft.
The who, what, where and when of business jets ferrying corporate chieftains and other public figures will become available in data systems that...
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250 Pounds of Palin Email to Be Released Friday →
Sarah Palin’s long-awaited and much-debated trove of emails from her time as Alaska governor will be released in Juneau at 9 a.m. local time on Friday. It will be your classic document dump—sort of. Boxes full of the 24,199 pages of emails will be available at the door of the governor’s office for 3¢ a page (along with handtrucks for reporters to wheel them to their cars), reports MSNBC’s...
