19 Aug 2015

Citigroup To Pay $180 Million For Latest Fraud

On August 17, Citigroup agreed to pay $180 million to settle charges from the SEC that two of the megabank’s hedge funds defrauded investors. According to the SEC, Citigroup’s hedge funds “made false and misleading representations to investors” about how risky investing in the funds were.

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19 Aug 2015

Did Advanced Correctional Healthcare Staff Falsify Records After Inmate Death?

In a federal lawsuit filed in April, the relative of a deceased inmate blames his wrongful death on a private inmate healthcare company and a for-profit inmate transportation company. The lawsuit accuses Advanced Correctional Healthcare and Prisoner Transport Services of neglecting and even mocking the serious medical needs of William Weintraub, PhD, as he died a slow and painful death from a perforated ulcer, shackled in the back of a crowded van.

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19 Aug 2015

4 Million Muslims Killed In Western Wars: Should We Call It Genocide?

It may never be possible to know the true death toll of the modern Western wars on the Middle East, but that figure could be 4 million or higher. Since the vast majority of those killed were of Arab descent, and mostly Muslim, when would it be fair to accuse the United States and its allies of genocide?

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19 Aug 2015

US Army Punishes Chelsea Manning for Expired Toothpaste & LGBTQ Literature

After a four-hour disciplinary board hearing, the United States Army has punished Chelsea Manning for possessing books and magazines having to do with LGBTQ and political issues. The Army has also punished her for having an expired tube of toothpaste and for brushing food off the table and refusing to talk to a guard after she was accused of misconduct. For these actions, the Army imposed 21 days of recreational restrictions.

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18 Aug 2015

4,000 Prison Inmates Fighting California Wildfires For $2 Per Day

With wildfires blazing throughout the parched Western United States, the state of California has found a novel, though ethically questionable, way to save money on the state’s safety budget: Send state prisoners to work on the frontlines fighting forest fires for $2 per day. About 4,000 low-level felons from California’s state prisons are fighting the fires, operating out of so-called “conservation camps.”

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18 Aug 2015

Attorneys for Guantanamo ‘Forever Prisoner’ Urge Review Board to Approve Release

Attorneys for Guantanamo Bay prisoner Mohammed Kamin asked the Periodic Review Board during a hearing to approve his release. Kamin is an Afghan who has been detained at the military prison for over eleven years. He is currently not charged with any crime, however, he is one of a number of forever prisoners, who President Barack Obama’s administration has designated for indefinite detention. In April 2008, Kamin was charged with “material support for terrorism.” A convening authority subsequently withdrew the charge against him 2009, and a federal court later ruled “material support” was not a valid offense triable by a military commission.

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18 Aug 2015

Report: Cost Of Financial Crisis Reached $20 Trillion

Last month, the nonpartisan financial reform organization Better Markets put out a report claiming that the total cost for the 2008 financial crisis and resulting recession reached$20 trillion. The number comes from an estimate of how much of a toll the crash put on the gross domestic product with high unemployment/underemployment and the hollowing out of the middle class through foreclosures, deferred education, and bankruptcies.

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18 Aug 2015

Rikers Island Visitor Beaten By Guards For Being Gay

A lawsuit filed in federal court last week alleges guards on Rikers Island brutally beat a man visiting his longtime partner at the Eric M. Taylor Center because he is gay. Thomas Hamm argues he was “denied access to public accommodations and services on the basis of his actual and/or perceived sexual orientation, suffered serious physical injuries, and was deprived of his liberty.”

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18 Aug 2015

Maryland Judge Rules Public Has Right To Information On Dangerous Oil Trains

A Maryland judge ruled on August 14 that the public has a right to information provided to the state’s Department of Transportation by railroad companies about dangerous trains carrying crude oil. Judge Lawrence Fletcher-Hill rejected CSX and Norfolk Southern’s arguments that the information needed to be kept secret because it contained “confidential commercial information,” “trade secrets,” or information which could be useful to terrorists.

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17 Aug 2015

Justice Department: Appeals Court Wrong to Revive Lawsuit Brought by Immigrants Abused After 9/11

The Justice Department has requested a federal appeals court revisit and reverse its decision to revive a lawsuit against former Justice Department officials, who allegedly violated the rights of Arab or Muslim immigrants when they were detained in the immediate months after the September 11th terrorist attacks.

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