Business on THE ENVIRONMENTALIST

Children v. Dirty Business

2012-04-12T12:03:00.001-07:00

by William S. BeckerOn May 11, a group of children will face off against the Obama administration and the National Association of Manufacturers for the latest round of a David vs. Goliath battle in federal court.The kids filed a lawsuit last year against the administration, arguing that common law requires governments to protect critical natural...

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Plowshares for Security in the Pacific Northwest

2012-03-19T11:21:00.002-07:00

by William S. Becker Swords into PlowsharesWhile the nation's attention has been focused on ending one war (Afghanistan) and avoiding another (Iran), a different idea about national defense has been circulating lately among some of America's thought leaders. The idea is this: National defense isn't only about containing foreign threats; it's...

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Bloomberg Investigation Uncovers Koch Industries Sales to Iran

2011-10-03T01:08:00.000-07:00

Bloomberg Markets has written a bombshell expose of Koch Industries that is bound to resound through the Brothers' vast conglomerate as much for the platform -- a normally staid financial publication -- as for the information contained therein. "A Bloomberg Markets investigation has found that Koch Industries -- in addition to being...

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The Non-Mandated Society: Why Obama's Mortgage Programs Fail

2011-03-31T23:55:00.000-07:00

by Janet Ritz To expect banks to care about Americans over their global shareholders is asking banks to become 'persons' rather than corporate persons. When programs come from Washington as guidelines rather than mandated, banks use them to maximize profits at the expense of those the initiatives are meant to help. That would seem a harsh...

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Poor No More! Or That 'Hard-Working Middle Class'

2011-02-23T13:47:00.000-08:00

by Sherman Yellen Protest in Wisconsin, 2011When have you last heard the term "hard-working poor" coming from any politician? Probably not in the past decade. Nobody is a member of the working poor anymore. Everyone is a member of the over-worked, over-taxed, hard-working middle class. That includes those making $25,000 a year as a Wal-Mart store...

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Republican Budget Proposal Guts International Climate Funding

2011-02-15T00:56:00.000-08:00

by Jake Schmidt Wind Ranch in Texas - Photo: Billy Hathorn The House Republican budget proposal would gut key programs to help the US tap into the growing global demand for clean energy technologies, reduce the carbon pollution from the loss of tropical forests, and help developing countries adapt to the impacts of global...

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Oil Spill Commission Assigns Blame for BP Disaster

2011-01-06T01:59:00.000-08:00

by The Environmentalist Staff The National Commission on the BP Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill has released a chapter from their final report due on January 11, 2011. In the chapter, which is blunt in its assessment, they assign primary blame for the disaster to mismanagement by BP, Halliburton, Transocean, and the lack of proper regulatory...

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Obama's Tax Deal: Leaving out the 99ers is a 2012 Mistake

2010-12-11T13:19:00.000-08:00

by Janet Ritz Unemployed or know someone out of work? Relieved the president's tax deal will provide thirteen months of continued unemployment benefits? Sorry to burst your bubble, but not all the unemployed promised a thirteen month authorization of benefits in exchange for the Bush tax cuts will receive those benefits for thirteen months. ...

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The White House Answers Questions About 99ers (Video)

2010-11-29T14:57:00.000-08:00

by Janet Ritz Breadline Depicted at FDR MemorialMonster.com recently called for the unemployed and those who support them to submit questions to the White House. I've followed the plight of the 99ers, people who've lost jobs through no fault of their own and who have exhausted their benefits, and have become increasingly concerned at the treatment...

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Frontline's THE SPILL: A joint investigation into BP

2010-10-26T23:07:00.000-07:00

Frontline has teamed with ProPublica to investigate BP's history of safety problems and cost-cutting measures that led to the greatest environmental disaster in U.S. history. The video covers the years of safety issues and prior deaths that show a pattern of violations and concern for the future. The full report and rest of the video are...

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Coal River Mountain Redux

2010-10-23T21:01:00.000-07:00

Dr. James Hansen Below is an update to the Coal River Mountain story that I described earlier in an e-mail, in an op-ed, and in "Storms of My Grandchildren". Mike Roselle, of Climate Ground Zero in West Virginia, has an op-ed regarding his upcoming trial in Raleigh County, West Virginia. He was arrested for trespass while protesting blasting near...

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The Plight of the Bumblebee

2010-10-15T09:56:00.000-07:00

by Janet Ritz With all the focus on the disappearance of the honeybee, there has been little discussion about the plight of the bumblebee, one of the hardest workers in the wild world of agriculture, despite this warning issued by the National Academy of Sciences October 2006. That focus may now change as word comes from scientists that at...

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President Obama's Vision for the Economy (Video)

2010-09-09T04:48:00.000-07:00

President Obama gave a defining speech on the economy where he drew a line in the sand between his policies and those of Rep. John Boehner (R-OH), calling out the congressional minority leader eight times for obstruction, while he defined his own economic vision. It was a statement of policy and the moment when the president stood up against...

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President Obama's Labor Day Speech (Video)

2010-09-07T11:52:00.000-07:00

President Obama kicked off the 2010 midterm election season with a rousing Labor Day speech in Milwaukee at the annual Laborfest event. The speech is notable for its focus on green and infrastructure jobs and for its tone, which shows a more direct approach to the ongoing obstruction by special interests of programs the president has proposed to...

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Nationwide Egg Recall: Recall expands to more than half a billion eggs (LIST)

2010-08-21T15:26:00.000-07:00

The recall from U.S. factory farms has expanded to more than half a billion eggs. The recalled lots (list below) are confirmed to have been tainted with Salmonella and have sickened more than one thousand people. The enormity of the contamination has renewed concerns about the dangers of factory farming: Dr. Marion Nestle of the department...

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Top Investment Fund Chairman on Climate Change: Grantham Says Buy It

2010-07-25T16:16:00.000-07:00

by Janet Ritz Jeremy Grantham, Chairman of the Board of Grantham Mayo Van Otterloo (GMO), a Boston-based asset management firm, one of the largest managers of such funds in the world, has written in his quarterly letter: Conspiracy theorists claim to believe that global warming is a carefully constructed hoax driven by scientists desperate for …...

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BP's Bob Dudley Responds to Viewers' Questions in Online PBS Interview

2010-07-01T19:21:00.000-07:00

PBS Newshour's Ray Suarez interviewed BP's chief of Gulf Coast restoration Bob Dudley with questions and video sent in via YouTube from around America. In one piece of news from the interview, Dudley said the company is exploring "at least two options to divert the flow" of oil if the relief wells fail to kill the blown-out well. Two...

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Live Video Feed of the Gulf Oil Disaster

2010-05-29T17:30:00.001-07:00

Following pressure from Representative Edward J. Markey (D-MA) and other members of Congress, BP has released a live video feed of the damaged underwater well that is gushing oil into the Gulf of Mexico. The feed may be slow or freeze at times -- or may go to other content without warning. The video picture switches off and on...

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Home: the Movie

2010-05-15T17:06:00.000-07:00

In 2009, the French PPR Group, originally known as Pinault-Printemps-Redoute, which represents brands such as Gucci, Yves St. Laurent, Sergio Rossi, Boucheron, Bottega Veneta, Alexander McQueen (50%), Stella McCartney (50%), Puma (60%), and more, backed the release of a stunning film entitled "Home," which tells the story of humanity's rise and...

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What's the True Cost of Photocopy Paper?

2010-02-22T16:12:00.000-08:00

by Joanna Benn They say the pen is mightier than the sword, but is it mightier than the chainsaw? Plans are being finalized this summer for a massive controversial logging operation on the Indonesian island of Sumatra to satisfy the ever increasing demand for pulp, paper and palm oil. This is no small concession. It is a 33,600-hectare operation...

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'Too Big to Fail' Fallout on Capitol Hill

2009-11-19T05:27:00.000-08:00

by Janet Ritz Rep. Brad Sherman (D-CA) intends to introduce an amendment to the proposed House Financial Services Committee "Too Big to Fail" bill that will require large banks to fund their own insurance against failure. This came after smaller banks and economists raised concerns that the requirements for the smaller banks to pay into the fund...

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Murder by Mortgage: Foreclosed and Prepared to Die

2009-09-07T14:34:00.000-07:00

by Sherman Yellen It seems I’ve known Molly* forever, at least for the fifty six years that I have been married to my wife. My wife had met Molly in High School where they suffered the terrors of Mme Farley’s French class together. They became close friends: Molly, the fashionable but flighty odd girl, too tall, too talkative, and too needy, and...

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What Health Care Reform Means to the Middle Class (Hint: Jobs)

2009-07-22T22:02:00.000-07:00

by Janet Ritz President Obama, at his Wednesday press conference, talked about the job-loss impact of rising healthcare costs on the middle class. But why the middle class? This recession has hit construction workers, young people, other demographics. It's because the middle class -- and by extension, the overall economy that relies on the...

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Will Walmart's drive toward sustainability work?

2009-07-17T13:03:00.000-07:00

by Janet Ritz Walmart, the world's largest retailer, announced this week that they are planning to put green/sustainability labeling on all of their products within the next five years. Walmart today announced plans to develop a worldwide sustainable product index during a meeting with 1,500 of its suppliers, associates and sustainability...

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Obama's Farm Team

2009-07-09T13:24:00.000-07:00

by William S. Becker Members of the Obama Administration have embarked on a “listening tour” in rural America this summer, but let’s hope the visits involve more than listening. This is a moment for the Administration’s top officials to engage farmers, ranchers and rural residents in a robust exchange of ideas about their role in a new...

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