Nov. 10, 2007

Just weeks ago, a proposed ballot initiative by far-right Republicans with links to presidential candidate Rudy Giuliani seemed dead, after efforts to put it on California’s June primary ballot imploded amid secretive financial maneuvering by its supporters. Now, like Freddy Krueger in “Nightmare on Elm Street,” it’s back!

The new crisis in Pakistan demonstrates the hypocrisy of Bush administration saber-rattling against Iran, foreign policy analysts say.

Less than a week after Chrysler workers barely approved a concessionary contract, the company’s Nov. 1 announcement that it will slash 10,000 hourly jobs, 1,000 salaried jobs and 40 percent of its contracting jobs rocked plant floors across the country. This job-slashing offensive is on top of 13,000 job cuts Chrysler announced last February, bringing the total layoffs to one-third of its workforce.

For every two people detained in immigration enforcement operations, one child is left behind, according to a recent report, “Paying the Price: The impact of Immigration Raids on America’s Children,” released by the National Council of La Raza and the Urban Institute.

WASHINGTON — The Senate defied President Bush, Nov. 2, and approved for a third time a new version of the SCHIP children’s health care program by a 64-30 vote. Meanwhile, House leaders struggled to win over enough Republicans to pass the measure with bipartisan support in the face of yet another veto threat.

WASHINGTON — Defenders of the Bill of Rights called on the U.S. Senate, Nov. 6, to reject Michael Mukasey, President Bush’s choice to replace the disgraced Alberto Gonzales for U.S. attorney general. They cited Judge Mukasey’s evasive answers on whether waterboarding — the practice of repeatedly bringing a prisoner to the point of drowning — is torture, suggesting that he will continue Gonzales’ practice of trashing the Constitution to satisfy Bush’s drive for total power.

CHARLESTON, W.Va.: Protest demands hate crime charge
HOUSTON: Commit a racist act, lose your job
EVANSVILLE, Ind.: Voters ‘step up’ to halt climate change
ATLANTA: Majority of Southern students are poor

NEW ORLEANS — It’s back to school time every fall all across America: you pack their lunches and send the kids off to school. Unless you live here. Two years after Katrina tore through the mouth of the Mississippi, a New Orleans parent, after running an obstacle course that can take many months, is only sometimes able to place his or her child in a school.

Only 15 minutes before Earl Wesley Berry was to be executed by lethal injection in Mississippi’s Parchman state prison, the U.S. Supreme Court issued a stay of execution. The high court has recently blocked three executions.

On Oct. 12, India’s Congress Party threw in the towel. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and the leader of the United Progressive Alliance, Sonia Gandhi, said they would step back from the U.S.-India nuclear deal.