July 15, 2006

Safety concerns on the trains they run dominated the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen’s conference in Las Vegas in late June. Topping the list were railroads’ plans to cut the crew members per train down to one and the issue of transportation of nuclear waste.

Plumbers local unions in Memphis, Tenn., and Northwood, Ohio, have endorsed HR 676, legislation introduced by Rep. John Conyers (D-Mich.) that would implement a single-payer health care system in the U.S.

Following up on a May 2004 report, the “U.S. Commission for Assistance to a Free Cuba” issued an update that appeared on the State Department web site on June 20, but was not unveiled publicly until July 10. The commission, headed by Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, is but the latest incarnation of U.S. government’s longstanding campaign to overthrow the island’s socialist government.

The 2006 World Cup has ended. Italy is world champion, France is second and Germany is third. No other world sporting event is truly an international tournament like soccer’s World Cup.

Cuba and winds of change
Is Gitmo closing or just moving to Afghanistan?
Standing for what’s right
Dellums and health care
Yucca Mountain dirty bomb?
Paris Commune monument

On a recent visit back to New Orleans I looked out onto Lake Pontchartrain. A dry breeze lifted the water into waves that shimmered in the sun: beautiful, despite the filthy floodwater the lake had devoured. Everything about the city is sad, including the beautiful parts that remain, because they make the loss of the rest of it so obvious.

On June 7, congressional Republicans launched their latest assault on the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB) when a House Appropriations subcommittee voted to cut $115 million from its budget. The cuts would affect PBS, NPR and other noncommercial media like Pacifica Radio.

The people on the other end of the line all sound so young and cheery. “NSA Public and Media Affairs, how can I help you?” the young woman says. “I’d like to know if the NSA has copies of my phone records,” I reply.

The World Health Organization (WHO) has reported that Iraq, with a population of about 26 million, in the year 2000 had a total of 195,374 new cases of cancer and 126,677 cancer deaths, most of them children.