The inadequacies of charter schools have been confirmed by many recent studies. Even CREDO [3], which is part of a conservative think tank funded by the pro-privatization Walton Foundation, recently found that in comparison to traditional public schools “students in Ohio charter schools perform worse in both reading and mathematics.” Another recent CREDO study [4] of California schools reached mixed results, with charters showing higher …
Farewell to America: Why I am Glad I’m Leaving the US – Gary Younge
For the past couple of years the summers, like hurricanes, have had names. Not single names like Katrina or Floyd – but full names like Trayvon Martin or Michael Brown. Like hurricanes, their arrival was both predictable and predicted, and yet somehow, when they landed, the effect was still shocking. We do not yet know the name that will be …
Are the data underlying the US dietary guidelines flawed?
U.S. government-issued dietary recommendations continue to evolve over time. In a special article published in Mayo Clinic Proceedings, an obesity theorist and cardiovascular health researchers claim that the main source of dietary information used by the U.S. Government’s 2015 Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee (DGAC) is scientifically flawed because the underlying data are primarily informed by memory-based dietary assessment methods (M-BMs) (eg, …
How front groups posing as grassroots campaigns do the dirty work for Agribusiness – Martha Rosenberg
How did the California Right to Know Genetically Engineered Food Act (Proposition 37), get defeated in 2012 despite the state’s high level of food awareness of activism? How did a ban on the sale of large soft drinks in New York City fail the same year despite such drinks’ complete lack of nutritional value and links to obesity? Welcome to the world of food …
Militarizing Ourselves Toward a New Dark Age – Robert C. Koehler
“What struck me” journalist Christian Parenti said in a recent Truthout interview, referring to the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, “was the fact that these local towns and states around the region were sending the only resources they had to New Orleans: weapons and militarized gear. “After 30 years of the War on Drugs and a neoliberal restructuring of the state at the …
War Threat Rises As Economy Declines – Paul Craig Roberts
The defining events of our time are the collapse of the Soviet Union, 9/11, jobs offshoring, and financial deregulation. In these events we find the basis of our foreign policy problems and our economic problems. The United States has always had a good opinion of itself, but with the Soviet collapse self-satisfaction reached new heights. We became the exceptional people, …