By Michael Traugott/The Conversation

Pollsters are trying their best to track public opinion about the House Democrats’ decision to initiate an impeachment inquiry against President Donald Trump.
Currently, it is doubtful the required two-thirds of the Senate, now controlled by Republicans, would vote to convict Trump. But senators’ votes could change by the time they receive the articles of impeachment from the House.
That is why tracking the changes in the president’s support in the polls is so important. Members of Congress will factor in what the public thinks as well as their own assessments of the president’s behavior.
For a variety of reasons, these are difficult measurements to make. As with all polling, the results depend to some extent on who is polled, what they are asked and when.

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Posted on October 14, 2019

By Cynthia Hooper/The Conversation

The Russians are calling it Ukrainegate.
“I never thought I’d say it, but CNN is right,” remarked one pundit on Russia 1, the country’s most-watched television station. “The person who wins in this situation is Putin.”

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Posted on October 11, 2019

By The World Organization Against Torture

President Donald Trump has nominated Marshall Billingslea, a man who openly advocated for the use of torture, to lead the human rights policy of the United States. This is deeply wrong in principle, and in practice puts both victims of torture and those defending them at increased risk.
The undersigned, members of the global SOS-Torture Network of the World Organization Against Torture (OMCT), urge U.S. senators to reject Billingslea’s confirmation.

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Posted on October 10, 2019

By The United Nations Assistance Mission In Afghanistan

KABUL / GENEVA – A United Nations special report, which examines the impact on civilians of United States’ airstrikes on alleged drug-processing facilities on 5 May 2019 in Afghanistan, determines that the operation caused a large number of civilian casualties. The report also examines the legal framework applicable to this incident.
In June 2019, the UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA), together with representatives of the Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission, conducted a site visit to areas impacted by the strikes in Farah province’s Bakwa district, as part of its extensive fact-finding into the 5 May incident.
The UN verified 39 civilian casualties, among them 14 children and one woman, from multiple airstrikes on more than 60 sites that the United States Forces-Afghanistan (USFOR-A) identified as drug-production facilities in Bakwa district and in parts of the neighbouring Delaram district of Nimroz province.

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Posted on October 9, 2019

By James Murphy/The Hechinger Report

I recently sat down with a family trying to decide whether to apply “early decision” to a super-selective school their son was unlikely to get into or instead to use the option at a less selective school they feared would be a waste because, What if he could get in there during the regular decision cycle? When I suggested he just apply to the school he really wanted to attend, they looked at me like I was too naive to cross the street on my own.
Lots of families will be having similar confounding conversations this fall. Correction: Lots of wealthy families will. The research on early-decision plans shows that the practice tends to provide a leg up to students who already own all the ladders.

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Posted on October 8, 2019

By Jake Pearson/ProPublica

As two of the most prolific political donors in the Donald Trump era, billionaires Richard and Elizabeth Uihlein have supported the president’s “America First” agenda.
Elizabeth, the president of their shipping supplies company, recently wrote to customers: “Personally, I am an American first. I care about American jobs.”
But when it comes to business, their company has sought special visas for foreign workers – going so far as to sue the government to secure one at the same time federal officials implemented the president’s more stringent immigration policies.

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Posted on October 7, 2019

By Paul Kiel/ProPublica

The IRS audits the working poor at about the same rate as the wealthiest 1%.
Now, in response to questions from a U.S. senator, the IRS has acknowledged that’s true but professes it can’t change anything unless it is given more money.

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Posted on October 3, 2019

A widow (Meryl Streep) investigates an insurance fraud, chasing leads to a pair of Panama City law partners (Gary Oldman and Antonio Banderas) exploiting the world’s financial system. Steven Soderbergh directs.

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Posted on October 2, 2019

By The Office Of Inspector General

The City of Chicago Office of Inspector General has completed an audit of the Chicago Department of Public Health’s air pollution enforcement which finds that gaps in the Department’s approach to inspections and violations increases the risk of excessive emissions that harm the public and the environment.
Due to insufficient staffing and a lack of written guidance on how to prioritize the highest-risk facilities for inspection, CDPH met its internally set goals for the frequency of air-quality inspections less than half of the time between 2015 and 2017.

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Posted on September 24, 2019

By Steven Harkins/The Conversation

Climate breakdown threatens the lives of us all. Scientific research has suggested that we are in the process of a “mass extinction” event that could lead to “biological annihilation” on a large scale. Records indicate that population decay and the rapid extinction of a large number of vertebrates in recent years amount to “a massive anthropogenic erosion of biodiversity and of the ecosystem services essential to civilization.”
Studies find that 97% of published climate scientists agree that climate change is driven by human activity. If the scientific predictions are correct, much of human society is in grave danger though our own actions. So, why isn’t climate change the biggest news story in the world?

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Posted on September 23, 2019