Is Big Biotech waging an international campaign to discredit researchers who study the dangers of genetically modified organisms? Tyrone Hayes is one among many scientists now inquiring into the long-term impacts of chemicals and biotechnological products being produced, mostly, by huge multinational conglomerates and released, increasingly, throughout the world environment. Proponents of these chemicals and […]
Posted inNational Security
Anti-Terror Database Got Show at White House
Note: This story is based in part on reporting by O?Harrow for his forthcoming book, to be published in January by Free Press and supported by the Center for Investigative Reporting. One day in January 2003, an entrepreneur from Florida named Hank Asher walked into the Roosevelt Room of the White House to demonstrate a […]
Posted inMoney and Politics
Courting Big Business
Is the Bush White House using the courts as another way to pay back special interests? When President Bush nominated William G. Myers III for the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco in May 2003, judicial experience apparently wasn’t a factor in the choice. Myers has spent little time in the courtroom […]
Posted inEnvironment
Polluting Ships in California Ports Shielded from Accountability
For years, California has led the nation in the war on air pollution. The state’s emission standards for cars and trucks are among the toughest in the country. But the large commercial ships that travel up and down the California coast pose a growing threat to air quality. In this radio report, heard on 23 […]
Posted inEnvironment
Troubling Tales on the High Seas
Aging oil tankers with little oversight are environmental time bombs In the second week of December, an aging Russian oil tanker called the Hero of Sebastopol left the Latvian port of Ventspils to traverse a well-traveled route toward Singapore. Chartered by Pasadena-based Westport Petroleum, the Hero passed through the Baltic Sea into the narrow straits […]
Posted inMoney and Politics
Also Turned Away
Forty-four states in the United States today bar people with mental illnesses from voting. Apart from laws affecting felons, these are the last overt voting restrictions on the books for citizens over 18. The exclusionary laws typically used in most states apply to those found to be “mentally incompetent” by the court and then placed […]
Posted inMoney and Politics
Whose Vote Counts?
Millions of Americans are routinely stymied when attempting the most basic right of our democracy – casting a vote. In the radio documentary “Whose Vote Counts?,” CIR associate reporter Rebecca Perl investigates how citizens are legally denied or left out of the voting process. In an important election year, an estimated 10 million votes (or […]
Posted inMoney and Politics
Clark Worked for Ark. Data Firm: Acxiom Role Part of Surveillance Debate
Retired Gen. Wesley K. Clark helped an Arkansas information company win a contract to assist development of an airline passenger screening system, one of the largest surveillance programs ever devised by the government. Starting just after the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks, Clark sought out dozens of government and industry officials on behalf of Acxiom […]
Posted inNational Security
U.S. Backs Florida’s New Counterterrorism Database: ‘Matrix’ Offers Law Agencies Faster Access to Americans’ Personal Records
Police in Florida are creating a counterterrorism database designed to give law enforcement agencies around the country a powerful new tool to analyze billions of records about both criminals and ordinary Americans. Organizers said the system, dubbed Matrix, enables investigators to find patterns and links among people and events faster than ever before, combining police […]
Posted inNational Security
Surveillance Proposal Expanded
A passenger-screening system designed to help capture terrorists could also be used to target people suspected of violent crimes, under a proposal approved by Department of Homeland Security officials. Previously, government officials said the surveillance system known as CAPPS II would be used only to target potential terrorists and their allies — limits intended to […]