"Sahil Kapur" - GOP welfare bill mostly harms poor children: hunger-relief group

http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2011/03/28/republicans-target-poor-children-in-anti-union-fight-hunger-relief-group/

By Sahil Kapur

Monday, March 28th, 2011 -- 3:40 pm

WASHINGTON – A hunger-relief group expressed deep concerns with a House GOP bill that would cap spending on food stamps, fearing it would target the least well-off and disproportionately harm children.

"We're very concerned that the food stamps provisions take us in exactly the wrong direction given the economic climate and the increased food security needs of Americans," Lisa Davis, vice president of policy at Feeding America, told Raw Story.

The bill, H.R. 1135, was introduced by Republican Reps. Jim Jordan (OH), Tim Scott (SC), Scott Garrett (NJ), Dan Burton (IN), and Louie Gohmert (TX). Its aim, in part, is "to provide an overall spending limit on means-tested welfare programs."

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"Eric W. Dolan" - ‘Anonymous’ briefly knocks Warner Bros. Records’ website offline

http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2011/03/28/anonymous-knocks-warner-bros-records-offline/

By Eric W. Dolan

Monday, March 28th, 2011 -- 6:41 pm

In protest of a lawsuit against the file-sharing company LimeWire, the decentralized community of hacktivists known as "Anonymous" briefly knocked the website of Warner Bros. Records Inc. offline on Monday.

Warner Bros. Records and 12 other record companies are seeking $400 billion to $75 trillion in damages from LimeWire after the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) won a court battle with creators of the software over claims of copyright infringement.

The Warner Bros. Records' website was targeted by a distributed denial of service (DDoS) attack Monday as part of an online campaign known as "Operation Payback."

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"Fred Tasker" - Non-ionizing radiation: Is it the friendly type?

http://www.miamiherald.com/2011/03/27/2138586/non-ionizing-radiation-is-it-the.html

Hold a portable radio up to your ear, spin the dial and count how many stations – AM and FM – you can get. Consider that all those radio waves are going straight through your head.

Make a cellphone call, and ponder that a radio signal powerful enough to reach a tower a mile away is being generated within an inch of your highly valued gray matter.

Stand before an old, leaky microwave oven. Or under a high-voltage power line. Or really close to your TV screen. Snuggle up to a space heater. Get nabbed by a sneaky cop with a radar gun.

All that radiation is going through you.

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"IBTimes" - President Obama stresses on education beyond tests

http://www.ibtimes.com/articles/127956/20110329/president-obama-school-education-standardized-tests-learning.htm

By IBTimes Staff Reporter | March 29, 2011 4:10 AM EDT

An excessive focus on tests within schools could actually make students lose interest in education and teach them less about the things that are important, says President Barack Obama.

In a meeting with students and parents at a town hall hosted by the Univision Spanish-language television network at Bell Multicultural High School in Washington, D.C., President Obama was vocal about his belief that fewer standardized tests and less rigid measures of performance beyond students' test scores could be more effective in raising the bar in the country's education.

A report in the Associated Press quotes Obama as saying that policymakers should decide on a single standardized test, that could be administered in less pressurizing scenarios and preferably once in a few years, rather than annually. "All you're learning about is how to fill out a little bubble on an exam and little tricks that you need to do in order to take a test and that's not going to make education interesting," said the president, adding that it was unlikely that young people would do well in something that they find boring.

The president even cited the instance of a test administered to his daughters and recommended such tests that actually intend to bring out the areas of strengths and weaknesses in the students, making it easier for teachers to identify the required areas of focus.

Obama also supported the use of technology in classrooms.

Read more: http://www.ibtimes.com/articles/127956/20110329/president-obama-school-education-standardized-tests-learning.htm#ixzz1HzDzfCIC



“Wisconsin Reporter” - Chief's resignation not the end of VA problems

Wisconsin Reporter

March 29, 2011

http://www.leadertelegram.com/news/daily_updates/article_65628387-61be-5afe-ad27-d206577c44fd.html

The resignation of Ken Black, the embattled secretary of the Wisconsin Department of Veteran Affairs, is just the start of necessary fixes to the inefficient, mismanaged agency, veterans said Monday.

"I'm not trying to create a monster out of an individual," said John Hoeft, commander of the Wisconsin Disabled American Veterans, adding, "As an individual, (Black) and I are very good friends. As a secretary, he and I had our differences in terms of the goals ... for the DVA."

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“EM” - EarthTalk: Does mining pollute our water supplies?

THE ENVIRONMENTAL MAGAZINE

March 28, 2011

http://www.miamiherald.com/2011/03/28/2137780/earthtalk-does-mining-pollute.html

Dear EarthTalk: I understand that, among mining's other problems, like providing climate-warming coal and endangering miners' lives, it is also a serious water polluter. Can you enlighten?

- Richard Moeller, Salt Lake City, Utah

Mining disasters have grabbed a lot of headlines of late, but mines pose another insidious threat that tends to get little press attention: pollution of the nearby environment which, in turn, threatens the health of the people who live nearby. Environmentalists are particularly concerned about water pollution from mines.

Mining operations use large amounts of fresh water to process recovered ore; the resulting mine effluent is typically a stew of hazardous acid-generating sulfides, toxic heavy metals, waste rock impoundments and water - and it is often deposited nearby in large free-draining piles where it can pollute land and water supplies for decades to come. When this waste water drains into local streams and aquifers, it can kill living organisms and render formerly pristine local waters unsafe to swim in or drink.

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“Marcia D. Greenberger” - Repeal of Health Care Law Would Jeopardize Women's Economic Recovery

Marcia D. Greenberger

March 23, 2011

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/marcia-d-greenberger/womens-already-tenuous-ho_b_839157.html

Women may be the ones who make health care decisions for their families, but when it comes to being able to afford health insurance for themselves or pay their medical bills, it's women who take a serious shellacking.

Women are more likely than men to skip preventive care because of the high costs, have trouble paying their medical bills, and be underinsured. The Affordable Care Act, signed into law one year ago this week, was designed to change all that -- and it is already having an enormously positive impact on millions of women and their families. But court challenges and Congressional efforts to repeal or take away funding for the landmark legislation, should they succeed, will compromise women's health and weaken their already tenuous hold on the fragile economic recovery. These efforts must not succeed.

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4 Biggest GOP Lies About Jobs

House Majority Leader Eric Cantor was in the Bay Area on March 21 (specifically, at Stanford’s Hoover Institute where he could surround himself with sympathetic Republicans) to tell this whopper: “Cutting the federal deficit will create jobs.”

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Joe Bageant, 1946-2011

After a vibrant life, Joe Bageant died yesterday following a four-month struggle with cancer. He was 64. Joe is survived by his wife, Barbara, his three children, Timothy, Patrick and Elizabeth, and thousands of friends and admirers. He is also survived by his work and ideas.

According to Joe's wishes, he will be cremated. His family will hold a private memorial service.

http://www.joebageant.com/joe/2011/03/joe-bageant-1946-2011.html

The Biggest Threat Facing the Country Today Is Fast Creeping Ignorance

I am old enough to remember the days when what Americans were told to fear most was "Creeping Communism." There were even hearings. There was a blacklist. There were arrests and even a couple of executions. In the end all communism turned out to be creeping toward was its own extinction.

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