A new report released last week by the Internal Displacement Monitoring Center (IDMC) shows that a whopping 32.4 million people were forced to flee their homes last year, and 98% of that displacement was due to climate and weather related events. While displacement occurred disproportionately in Asia and Africa, rich countries were also affected – and there were particularly high numbers in the U.S.
Spy Games: It appears the Justice Department’s surveillance of The Associated Press was not an isolated incident. According to an article in The Washington Post, the DOJ spied on Fox News reporter James Rosen in connection with a 2009 investigation into a North Korea leak, tracing his phone records, tracking his comings and goings from the State Department through security badge access records and obtaining a warrant to search his personal emails.
The investigations ensnaring the White House have unified the Republican Party, energized a political base shattered by election losses and given common purpose to lawmakers divided over a legislative agenda.
President Obama found himself in the unusual position on Monday of echoing GOP outrage over revelations that the Internal Revenue Service targeted Tea Party groups, while slamming his adversaries for creating “a sideshow” for reviving a long simmering imbroglio over his administration’s response to last year’s attack on a U.S. diplomatic post in Libya.
Gay rights groups criticize decision not to add same-sex protections to immigration bill
A decision by Senate Democrats not to add protections for same-sex couples to a landmark immigration reform bill has angered gay rights advocates and put the White House on the defensive over whether President Obama will insist on the provision going forward.
Girl Arrested and Expelled From High School Over Gay Relationship
Earlier this school year, Florida’s Sebastian River High School senior Kaitlyn Hunt began a relationship with a fellow classmate, a 15-year old girl. This past February, soon after her 18th birthday, she was arrested and charged with two felony counts of lewd and lascivious battery on a child 12–16 years of age.
In Guantanamo, Have We Created Something We Can’t Close?
The crisis at the Guantanamo Bay detention camp keeps growing in size and intensity. According to the military’s own count, 100 of the 166 men held in the prison there are now on hunger strike, and the 27 most in danger of dying are being force-fed.