Many questions remain about the bizarre results of a June 8 Democratic primary election for one of South Carolina’s US Senate seats, including the use of electronic voting machines vulnerable to hacking and manipulation.
Attendees at the memorial Sunday expressed their sorrow, their support for the families and friends of those who were killed, and anger at Massey Energy and federal and state regulators.
The Upper Big Branch mine in Montcoal, West Virginia—where 29 miners died April 5—has outsize importance in the industry. It produces top-quality, high-value metallurgical (or coking) coal, used for steel production.
On October 23, International Paper announced the closure of three plants, resulting in the loss of 1,600 jobs. Most devastating is the spring 2010 closure of an enormous mill in Franklin, Virginia, which will result in 1,100 job cuts.
The State Department has said that the administration will not sign an international treaty banning the use of land mines, which cause thousands of civilian causalities every year.
Democrats are continuing a nationwide effort to drum up support for the Obama administration’s health care proposals through a series of town hall meetings being held nationwide.
This massive contraction in trade is shown in the falling revenues and increasing layoffs of global transport companies. Across the world, ships, airplanes, trucks, and railroad equipment with no cargo to carry are being stored or scrapped.
The combined impact of declining corporate sponsorship and drastic government budget cuts is producing a genuine calamity for arts organizations in the US.
The Labor Ready temp agency in Virginia offered $7.55 an hour for day laborers to work the inauguration festivities in Washington DC—picking up trash and horse manure in freezing cold weather for long hours.
On December 3 nearly 100 nations signed the Convention on Cluster Munitions Treaty, which bans the production, stockpiling and use of cluster munitions. The US, Israel and other major military powers refused to sign the agreement.
Cluster weapons have been used by at least 20 nations and organizations, but the countries making most use of them have been the US, Israel, the UK and the Soviet Union-Russia.
Ohio State University President E. Gordon Gee is the highest paid public university president, hauling in more than $1.3 million last year in salary. Twelve more public university presidents take in more than $700,000 annually.
On Friday afternoon a Metrolink commuter train had a deadly head-on collision with a Union Pacific freight train in Chatsworth, California, north of Los Angeles. At least 25 were killed and 135 injured in the collision, making it the worst US rail disaster since 1993 and among the deadliest of the last half-century.
More than 2,600 workers at Volvo Trucks North America in Dublin, Virginia, are in their second week of a strike over unfair labor practices. Striking workers at the New River Valley assembly plant are represented by United Auto Workers (UAW) Local 2069. While both the Volvo and the UAW have declined to state the specific reasons for the strike, workers told World Socialist Web Site reporters that healthcare, safety and job security were their main concerns.
Democratic Congressman Dennis Kucinich has announced to his supporters in Iowa that if he does not reach the 15 percent threshold of votes needed to proceed to the second round of nominating the party’s presidential candidate, he “strongly encourages” them to vote for Senator Barack Obama. This further underscores the cynical and deceptive nature of Kucinich’s campaign and his supposedly leftist, antiwar stance.
On Thursday, New Orleans police attacked demonstrators attempting to gain entrance to a city council meeting scheduled to discuss and vote on the destruction of 4,500 units of public housing. The proposed demolition is part of the effort to utilize the devastation wrought by Hurricane Katrina in 2005 to bring about permanent demographic change in New Orleans, aimed at preventing the return of poor and primarily black residents.
The following is the fourth part in a series of articles on the second anniversary of the Hurricane Katrina disaster. Part one, “New Orleans—A city in social and economic distress,” was posted on August 29. Part two, “New Orleans: a scene of devastation and blight,” was posted on August 31. Part three, “New Orleans levees still not rebuilt,” was posted on September 1. Part four, “The Katrina gold rush—profiteering and the Gulf Opportunity Zone” was posted on September 5.