Readers pick Assange as Person of the Year, TIME picks Zuckerberg
Wikileaks founder Julian Assange is TIME Magazine's Person of the Year for 2010. The controversial founder of WikiLeaks, Julian Assange, has won an online vote to be TIME Magazine's Person of the Year. The annual online vote asks readers to choose the most influential person, people or things from the previous year. Readers voted a...U.S. sues school over denial of Muslim pilgrimage
WASHINGTON — The federal government sued a suburban Chicago school district Monday for denying a Muslim middle school teacher unpaid leave to make a pilgrimage to Mecca that is a central part of her religion. In a civil rights case, the department said the school district in Berkeley, Ill., denied the request of Safoorah Khan on...Obama’s shift on Israeli settlements
As Obama caves in, settlements are no longer of key relevance to the Mideast peace talks. With divergent views on settlements, the Israeli Prime Minister and the Palestinian Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu delivers a speech during a business conference in Tel Aviv December 13, 2010. Netanyahu hailed on Monday a U.S....
Zionists don’t control Congress?
December 18th, 20100 Zionists don't control Congress? AIPAC drafts resolution against declaration of Palestinian statehood, U.S. House passes it unanimously Washington (PNN) — In a vote of 435-0 on Wednesday, the U.S. House of Representatives approved a resolution opposing a unilateral declaration of statehood by Palestine and...Senate Foreign Relations Committee approves professional exchange program with Muslim countries
WASHINGTON — The Senate Foreign Relations Committee this week passed legislation written by Chairman John Kerry (D-MA) to establish a professional exchange program between the United States and Muslim-majority countries. The International Professional Exchange Act will help build professional capacity, strengthen civil society, and...Senate Delays DREAM Act After House Passage
WASHINGTON —The potential passage of the DREAM Act has been delayed in the United States Senate after passing in the House of Representatives by a vote of 216-198 a day earlier on December 8. Senators voted to defer a decision on the morning of Thursday, December 9 on the act, which would help give a path to citizenship for illegal...Study finds Arabic to be fastest-growing foreign language for U.S. university learning last year
WASHINGTON — Arabic was the fastest-growing foreign language for U.S. university study last year, with enrollments growing by more than 46 percent compared to 2006, a study released Wednesday showed. Besides English, Arabic leapfrogged Latin and Russian to land in eighth place on the most studied language list, which has been compiled...
From DREAM to nightmare, deportations soar in U.S.
December 4th, 20100 NEW YORK — While the U.S. Congress idles on the passage of the DREAM Act, immigrants here face ever harsher treatment. The rate of deportations has increased by 1,200 percent since 1990, from 30,000 per year then to a staggering 360,000 under the Barack Obama administration. These numbers, taken from a recent study by the New York...Nearly 2 million Americans lose unemployment checks
About two-million Americans began losing their extended unemployment paychecks on Dec.1 leaving them jobless and with no source of income just before the holidays according to the Associated Press. Several Americans are protesting the paycheck cuts and encouraging the U.S. Congress to act fast and extend unemployment benefits. About 40...Poll shows Americans prefer to holiday shop online
A poll conducted Nov. 19-22 by Zogby International shows 63 percent of Americans say they prefer doing all their holiday shopping online instead of shopping at local malls, and 64 percent plan on making holiday purchases online this year. In recent years 86 percent have made online holiday gift purchases. A third prefer to do their...Poll: 61% of Americans oppose body scanners
The recent implementation of full-body scans and aggressive pat-downs by the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) is opposed by 61% of voters (out of 2,032 likely) polled from Nov. 19 to Nov. 22 by Zogby International Polling in Washington, D.C. In addition, 52% of those polled believe the enhanced security measures will not...Reports show DREAM Act benefits economy
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is expected to hold a vote on the DREAM Act in a few weeks. The DREAM Act is a bipartisan initiative that would allow about two-million undocumented students to earn citizenships by attending college or serving in the military. According to a report from UCLA's North American Integration and Development Center...Obama’s approval rating drops to 39 percent in poll
President Obama's approval rating among Americans has declined to 39 percent, the lowest in his presidency, according to a poll conducted by Zogby International. The President's support from Democrats continues to slide. Obama is only one point ahead of Sarah Palin and trails Mitt Romney, Jeb Bush and Newt Gingrich. The percentage of...Founder of Libertarian Party dies
On Nov. 21, David F. Nolan, one of the founders of the Libertarian Party, died suddenly in Tucson, Arizona. Nolan was 66-years-old. The Libertarian Party was founded by Nolan and some of his colleagues in Denver on Dec. 11, 1971. This year, Nolan ran as a Libertarian Party candidate for U.S. Senator in Arizona against incumbent...
Political prisoners in America
November 22nd, 20100 U.S. activists face new repression as political prisoners fight for justice For decades the United States government has attempted to criminalize work in the Palestinian community in support of their national liberation cause. But in recent years this repression has increased dramatically. The Electronic Intifada spoke with the......
Health and privacy concerns dog airport body scanners
November 22nd, 20100 NEW YORK (IPS) – Privacy advocates called on the U.S. Transportation Security Administration (TSA) Tuesday to end its controversial new initiative of whole-body scans and enhanced pat-downs of airline passengers, calling the program "dangerous to health, ineffective and unconstitutional." Led by consumer advocate Ralph Nader, a...New America Media celebrates 40th anniversary
SAN FRANCISCO — Over 400 people attended the Anniversary Reunion Party of Pacific News Service/New America Media to honor four decades of alumni of PNS and NAM and their youth programs. The party, marking a coming together of old and new — a "media fusion" as one guest called it — as journalists from the first two decades heard...AIPAC officials admit lack of policy on classified info, porn viewed in office
WASHINGTON (JTA) — AIPAC officials acknowledged in depositions that the organization only recently adopted a stated policy forbidding the receipt of classified information. The depositions also produced claims regarding the viewing of pornographic materials on office computers. The depositions are part of a brief filed earlier this...American Muslims foil terror threats
NEW YORK — A new report on violent extremists in the United States finds that terrorism plots by non-Muslims greatly outnumber those attempted by Muslims, and that American Muslim communities helped foil close to a third of al Qaeda-related terror plots threatening the country since Sep. 11, 2001. The report comes from the Muslim......
Multi-billion-dollar arms deals could haunt U.S.
UNITED NATIONS (IPS) — When the Shah of Iran, a strongly pro-U.S. ally, was ousted from power after the Islamic Revolution in 1979, the stridently anti-U.S. regime of Ayatollah Khomeini that captured power also inherited a military bonanza: billions of dollars worth of state-of-the-art weapons provided by the United States. The U.S....New airport pat-downs called invasive, humiliating
WASHINGTON — CAIR this week issued a travel advisory for airline passengers who may be subjected to new Transportation Security Administration (TSA) "enhanced pat-downs" that many of those who undergo the procedure describe as invasive and humiliating. The advisory comes after two of the nation's largest pilots' unions urged......
The myth of American pressure
Recent reports that the Obama administration offered Israel a series of incentives to continue its limited ten-month moratorium on settlement building have sparked an outcry among Palestinians and their supporters. Although the concessions for halting the construction of new settlements for only 60 days are unprecedented, Washington's...Ford invests $850 million in new jobs
As part of a commitment to rebuild the Michigan economy, Ford Motor Company plans to invest $850 million into Michigan between 2011 and 2013, which will create over 1,200 new jobs, and allow the company to undertake new fuel saving projects. One of the projects Ford will be working on is the engineering and production of six-speed......
