PR NEWSWIRE: NEW YORK, July 2 — An unforeseen and surprising beneficiary of the Economic Stimulus Plan, a plan that George Bush contends will “boost our economy and encourage job creation,” has surfaced this week. An independent market-research firm, AIMRCo (Adult Internet Market Research Company), has discovered that many websites focused on adult or erotic material have experienced an upswing in sales in the recent weeks since checks have appeared in millions of Americans’ mailboxes across the country. According to Kirk Mishkin, Head Research Consultant for AIMRCo, “Many of the sites we surveyed have reported 20-30% growth in membership rates […]

BLOOMBERG NEWS: Colombian troops freed French-Colombian hostage Ingrid Betancourt and three U.S. citizens held by the country’s biggest guerrilla group, Defense Minister Juan Manuel Santos said. ”They are healthy and free,” Santos told reporters in Bogota today. ”This is unprecedented, and will pass into history.” Troops freed a total of 15 hostages, some held for more than 10 years by the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, after infiltrating the group’s leadership, Santos said. Colombian agents convinced leaders of the FARC, as the rebel group is known, to put all the hostages in a single location, where they were retaken from […]

THE INDEPENDENT: It seems unthinkable, but for the first time in human history, ice is on course to disappear entirely from the North Pole this year. The disappearance of the Arctic sea ice, making it possible to reach the Pole sailing in a boat through open water, would be one of the most dramatic – and worrying – examples of the impact of global warming on the planet. Scientists say the ice at 90 degrees north may well have melted away by the summer. “From the viewpoint of science, the North Pole is just another point on the globe, but […]

NEW YORK TIMES: The Supreme Court ruled Thursday that Americans have a right to own guns for self-defense and hunting, the justices’ first major pronouncement on gun rights in U.S. history. The court’s 5-4 ruling struck down the District of Columbia’s 32-year-old ban on handguns as incompatible with gun rights under the Second Amendment. The decision went further than even the Bush administration wanted, but probably leaves most firearms laws intact. The court had not conclusively interpreted the Second Amendment since its ratification in 1791. The amendment reads: ”A well regulated militia, being necessary to the security of a free […]

HUFFPO: Journalists in Washington, D.C. got a chance to take a crack at Chief Obama Campaign Strategist David Plouffe Wednesday during a briefing he delivered at the DNC on the state of the general election race. The overriding theme of his address was confidence. Outlining the campaign’s top priorities, Plouffe told reporters that, in addition to feeling good about their chances to hold onto the 252 electoral votes won by John Kerry in 2004, the campaign believes it has the financial resources, organizing strength, and candidate appeal that will help them contest over a dozen battleground states that together boast […]

BLOOMBERG: A divided U.S. Supreme Court slashed the $2.5 billion punitive damage award against Exxon Mobil Corp. for the 1989 Valdez oil spill to $507.5 million, ending a 19-year legal saga over the worst such disaster in U.S. history. The justices, voting 5-3, said the original award, which would have been increased by more than $2 billion with accrued interest, was excessive under federal maritime law. The $507.5 million figure is equal to the economic damages that a trial judge determined were suffered by thousands of Alaskan commercial fishermen involved in the case. ASSOCIATED PRESS: The Supreme Court has struck […]

Dear Jonathan, The House passed a version of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) last week that included retroactive immunity to the telecom companies that conspired in Bush’s warrantless wiretapping program. And now, as the bill heads to the Senate, it looks like we have one last chance to stop this massive erosion of the rule of law. Thankfully, we have a few champions, like Russ Feingold and Chris Dodd, who look poised to fight this to the very end, but they can’t do it alone. They need both strong support from progressive senators and the vote of those senators […]

THE GUARDIAN: James Hansen, one of the world’s leading climate scientists, will today call for the chief executives of large fossil fuel companies to be put on trial for high crimes against humanity and nature, accusing them of actively spreading doubt about global warming in the same way that tobacco companies blurred the links between smoking and cancer. Hansen will use the symbolically charged 20th anniversary of his groundbreaking speech (pdf) to the US Congress — in which he was among the first to sound the alarm over the reality of global warming – to argue that radical steps need […]

DAILY KOS: In addition to more practical steps, President Carter made symbolic gestures toward saving energy. He began to give his speeches to the nation wearing a sweater to show that the White House thermostat had been turned down. He installed a wood stove in the living quarters of the White House. He had a set of solar water heating panels installed on the White House roof. For the period of 1973 to 1980, the United States refused to walk the 9/11 highway. Rising energy prices lead the charge for near run-away inflation, and the economy wandered in and out […]