BY ST. JOHN BARNED-SMITH In Paraguay, there are 230 Peace Corps volunteers, ma o meno. That group is expected to rise to 300 or so in the coming year as Pres. Obama is pumping a lot more money into the agency as a whole. Peace Corps in Paraguay is also one of the biggest programs in the country – only Ukraine has more volunteers. Within the 230, 49 are in my “G” or training group. We will be working in three different sectors – Health and Sanitation (mine), Early Education, and Urban Youth. The Health and Sanitation group has about […]
I Wanted A Public Option But All Got Was This T-Shirt
THE ATLANTIC: The signing ceremony for the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act on March 23rd was supposed to be a winning moment for President Obama. Unfortunately for the President, his historic victory after a 14-month legislative battle was momentarily overshadowed by Vice President Biden’s accidentally audible profanity. Many Americans were put off by the gaffe, a purportedly inappropriate slip during such a historic moment. Others were nonplussed. President Obama laughed off the comment, telling reported he wished he’d said it himself. Nobody issued an apology. A week later, the Democratic National Committee is trumpeting Biden’s gaffe in commemoration of […]
KEYSTONE AWARDS: Pimping Our Ride
[Illustration by ALEX FINE] The winners of the Pennsylvania Newspaper Association 2009 Keystone Awards were just announced and we are proud to report that Phawker honcho Jonathan Valania’s PW cover story on the ACORN fiasco (see below) has won first place for NEWS FEATURE STORY. Wish we could say that ACORN made out as well. For those Phawker readers that are NOT ink-stained wretches, understand that the Keystone Awards are sorta the statewide Grammys for journalism, so this is kind of a big deal. Congrats to all the other PW, CP and Philly media types that won. You can see […]
PAPERBOY: Slow-Jamming The Alt-Weeklies
BY DAVE ALLEN Like time, news waits for no man. Keeping up with the funny papers has always been an all-day job, even in the pre-Internets era. These days, however, it’s a two-man job. That’s right, these days you need someone to do your reading for you, or risk falling hopelessly behind and, as a result, increasing your chances of dying lonely and somewhat bitter. That’s why every week PAPERBOY does your alt-weekly reading for you. We pore over those time-consuming cover stories and give you the takeaway, suss out the cover art, warn you off the ink-wasters and steer […]
NEWS CLUES: Like A Flash Mob Of Truth
15-Year-Old Arrested For Selling 7-Year-Old Stepsister For Gang Rape TRENTON, N.J. – Police raided a New Jersey public housing complex Thursday where officials say a 7-year-old girl was gang raped, and arrested 27 people on outstanding warrants. Trenton Mayor Doug Palmer said the pre-dawn sweep of Rowan Towers was planned before the girl’s attack. He said police hope the arrests will lead to tips that help them find those who assaulted the girl, otherwise the arrests were unrelated to the case. “This is only the beginning,” Palmer said. “We’re not going to rest until that area is cleaned up so […]
Judge Rules That NSA Spying Program Is Illegal
NEW YORK TIMES: A federal judge ruled Wednesday that the National Security Agency’s program of surveillance without warrants was illegal, rejecting the Obama administration’s effort to keep shrouded in secrecy one of the most disputed counterterrorism policies of former President George W. Bush In a 45-page opinion, Judge Vaughn R. Walker ruled that the government had violated a 1978 federal statute requiring court approval for domestic surveillance when it intercepted phone calls of Al Haramain, a now-defunct Islamic charity in Oregon, and of two lawyers representing it in 2004. Declaring that the plaintiffs had been “subjected to unlawful surveillance,” the […]
IN DENIAL: Koch Industries Has Spent Nearly $50 Million To Refute Climate Change Science
GREENPEACE: Billionaire oilman David Koch likes to joke that Koch Industries is “the biggest company you’ve never heard of.” But the nearly $50 million that David Koch and his brother Charles have quietly funneled to climate-denial front groups that are working to delay policies and regulations aimed at stopping global warming is no joking matter. Charles G. Koch and David H. Koch have a vested interest in delaying climate action: they’ve made billions from their ownership and control of Koch Industries, an oil corporation that is the second largest privately-held company in America (which also happens to have an especially […]