May 3, 2012

Planned job cuts up 7% in April

WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) -- Planned job cuts rose 7.1% to 40,559 in April, according to outplacement firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas. That's also 11.2% higher than April 2011. Year-to-date, planned job cuts are up 9.8%. Last month's job cuts were led by the education sector, where school districts continue to be under pressure to cut costs amid massive state and local budget deficits, the report said.


http://www.marketwatch.com/story/planned-job-cuts-up-7-in-april-challenger-2012-05-03

May 3, 2012

The Corporate Hijacking of America’s Land-Grant Universities

from Civil Eats:



The Corporate Hijacking of America’s Land-Grant Universities

May 3rd, 2012
By Tim Schwab


If you live in the United States, you’re never far from a land-grant university. There are more than 100 of these institutions, which go by names like Texas A&M, Iowa State University and the University of California.

This system of schools was initiated in 1862 with lofty goals in mind—elevating agriculture to the realm of science, offering the common citizen access to higher education, and pursuing research that helps farmers improve their fields and fatten their hens. The program was a major success, providing invaluable research that was freely shared with farmers, which revolutionized American agriculture.

Unfortunately, today these public institutions are increasingly serving private interests, not the public good. Hundreds of millions of dollars are now flowing from corporate agribusiness into the land-grant university to sponsor buildings, endow professorships and pay for research. One land-grant university, South Dakota State, is headed by a man who sits on Monsanto’s board of directors.

The influence this money purchases is enormous. Corporate money shifts the public research agenda toward the ambitions of the private sector, whose profit motivations are often at odds with the public good. It strips our public research institutions of the time, resources and independence needed to pursue public-interest research that challenges the status quo of corporate control over our food system or that offers farmers alternative agricultural systems to monocultures and factory farms. ...............(more)

The complete piece is at: http://civileats.com/2012/05/03/the-corporate-hijacking-of-america%E2%80%99s-land-grant-universities/

May 3, 2012

This Saturday, march to end the insane War on Weed (300+ cities worldwide)

http://globalcannabismarch.com/Home_Page.php





History of the
MILLION MARIJUANA MARCH

After 44 years of smoke-ins, rallies, pot festivals and demonstrations throughout America a lot of progress has been made in cannabis reform. There is still much more to do. With the dedication of a handful of cannabis activists and the momentous support of Cures-Not-Wars (NYC), a new direction was formed. Hundreds of thousands of have now marched together in hundreds of cities over the last decade.

The Global Cannabis March is an annual rally held at different locations across the planet. It refers to cannabis related events that occur on the first Saturday in May or thereabouts and may include marches, meetings, rallies, concerts, festivals and information tables. The march originated out of the 5th AVENUE POT PARADE in NYC. After ATLANTA, NYC & ANN ARBOR formed and promoted the 1st INTERNATIONAL MARIJUANA DAY, the idea for promoting a truly GLOBAL demonstration came to fruition.

The founding organizer since 1998, Dana Beal and his group CURES NOT WARS, along with other supporters from Cannabis Culture Magazine, High Times Magazine, C.A.M.P., Coalition for the Abolition of Marijuana Prohibition and now hundreds of cannabis reformers/organizers worldwide are promoting marches and events in their own cities.

The Million Marijuana March was born. ..............more at: http://globalcannabismarch.com/WE_CAN_DO_THIS_.html

May 3, 2012

Toronto's Mayor chases a reporter

from the Toronto Star:



Rob Ford chased and confronted a Toronto Star reporter who was on public property near his home while working on a story about the mayor’s bid to buy adjacent parkland.

“Daniel Dale was on public property; he was never on Ford’s property,” said Toronto Star spokesman Bob Hepburn. “He was following up on a story when Ford came out of his house, off his property, and cornered Daniel, yelling at him. The mayor had his fist cocked, yelling at him to drop his cellphone and tape recorder, which Daniel did.”

Ford spoke to reporters outside his Etobicoke home around 10 p.m. and admitted to chasing Dale, but accused him of snapping photos outside while standing on cinder blocks.

“You know, it’s over the top. You may not agree with my politics, don’t start taking pictures of my family,” Ford said of his long-standing conflict with the newspaper. “My wife’s home, my kids are home.” ...................(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.thestar.com/news/article/1172186--mayor-rob-ford-chases-and-confronts-toronto-star-reporter?bn=1

May 3, 2012

Quebec’s Maple Spring: Many outsiders don’t get that the free tuition idea has deep roots here

from NOW Toronto:





Quebec’s Maple Spring
Many outsiders don’t get that the free tuition idea has deep roots here

By Jesse Rosenfeld


Montreal – As 180,000 students continue their 12-week strike against tuition increases, and police respond with concussion grenades, pepper spray, batons, kettling and mass arrests, Quebec’s major city is becoming ungovernable.

What was a fairly routine student strike has turned into what many are calling the Maple Spring.

Day after day, protesters wearing signature swatches of red cloth clog the streets of Montreal’s downtown chanting anti-capitalist slogans. A minority has responded to police aggression by trashing government offices and corporate windows, building barricades and ripping up concrete to heave onto police lines.

This week, CLASSE, the main coalition of student unions, rejected Premier Jean Charest’s attempt to defang the surging movement by spreading the tuition increase over seven years instead of five. Hours after the offer, thousands of protesters in a boisterous nighttime demo condemned it as an “insult.” .................(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.nowtoronto.com/news/story.cfm?content=186572

May 3, 2012

WTFF? Dept. of HHS backs an abstinence-only sex ed program in S. Carolina

from Mother Jones:



Thought "abstinence only" education was a thing of the past, at least at the national level? Looks like it's still part of the officially sanctioned curriculum from the US Department of Health and Human Services for teen pregnancy prevention.

The HHS Office of Adolescent Health lists the Heritage Keepers Abstinence Education as one of the 31 "evidence-based programs" that "met the effectiveness criteria" for preventing teenage pregnancy. RH Reality Check flagged its inclusion on Tuesday, noting that the program was quietly added to the list sometime in April. The program is based in South Carolina and focuses on schools in the state.

The Heritage program is aimed at middle and high schoolers and advocates abstaining from sex until marriage. Heritage Community Services, which created the curriculum, describes its programs as "a logic model that addresses the risky behavior of adolescents from the perspective of changing the behavior that is causing the problem rather than dealing with the consequences of the risky actions."

The HHS fact sheet on the program lists five different sections, on topics like "sexual abstinence" and "family formation." The "STD Facts" section "discusses how to refuse sex in different settings." Students are also taught a "four-step plan for resisting sexual activity," and provided with "role-playing exercises to help students practice it." In other words, don't count on learning anything along the lines of what young people should do if they are having sex. There's no talk about condoms or birth control. And if you're gay, forget about it. ...................(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.motherjones.com/mojo/2012/05/abstinence-only-education-alive-and-well-hhs

May 3, 2012

The Rebirth of May Day’s Message

from Consortium News:



The Rebirth of May Day’s Message
May 3, 2012

Since the rise of Ronald Reagan in the 1980s, America’s rich have been on a roll, with their tax rates slashed by more than half and a concentration of both wealth and power at the top, a restoration of an earlier time of inequality and exploitation, as Lawrence S. Wittner recalls.

By Lawrence S. Wittner


Many people might be surprised to learn that the May Day celebrations that occurred around the world Tuesday were born more than a century ago out of a struggle by American workers for the eight-hour day.

The late 19thCentury was a particularly hard and brutal time for working people in the United States. The rise of giant corporations fostered accelerated exploitation of workers in the interests of profit by the wealthy few.

In the new, giant factories, it was common for workers to labor from 60 to 80 hours a week. Many workers had a six-day workweek, but a seven-day workweek was the standard for steel mills, oil refineries, paper mills, and other highly mechanized plants.

The industrial accident and death rate soared to new heights — not only thanks to new, dangerous machines and the use of child labor, but because of worker exhaustion. In 1881 alone, an estimated 30,000 American railway workers were killed or injured on the job. ...................(more)

The complete piece is at: http://consortiumnews.com/2012/05/03/the-rebirth-of-may-days-message/

May 3, 2012

United Airlines: Another corporate crybaby that loves the free market -- until competition emerges

(Bloomberg) United Continental Holdings Inc. (UAL)’s grip on Houston, home to its busiest hub, is under attack from Southwest Airlines Co. (LUV)

Southwest wants to build an international terminal at Houston’s secondary airport, casting itself as a monopoly-buster that will serve Mexico, the Caribbean and Latin America. United says that dividing such flights in Houston threatens the city’s main gateway, George Bush Intercontinental Airport.

Both carriers covet overseas travelers, who typically pay the highest fares. For United, the world’s largest airline, keeping those fliers lends urgency to its defense of a market it dominates. For Southwest, the biggest discounter, pulling some of those passengers to its base at the city’s No. 2 airport would help boost profit.

“United risks sounding like a bully that’s trying to squelch new competition,” said Henry Harteveldt, an Atmosphere Research Group LLC analyst in San Francisco. “The big question is, what does Houston feel is the best use of their money and what’s best for the community?” ...............(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-05-03/united-fights-southwest-in-texas-to-keep-grip-on-busy-hub.html

May 3, 2012

LEAVE RUPERT ALONE !!!

(Bloomberg) Rupert Murdoch’s executive friends have come out in defense of the media magnate this week after a U.K. parliamentary committee published a report saying he wasn’t fit to run an international corporation.

Real estate developer Donald Trump, billionaire Barry Diller and Jacob Rothschild, an investment banker who helped Murdoch buy the now-defunct News of the World tabloid more than 40 years ago, are among executives who sent out statements supporting the 81-year-old chief executive officer of News Corp. (NWSA)

Murdoch and his son James were censured in a parliamentary report May 1 over the way they handled a hacking and bribery scandal at News Corp.’s U.K. newspapers. The Culture Media and Sport Committee said Murdoch “turned a blind eye” to what was going on at his businesses. The scandal has led the company to shutter the News of the World, and police have arrested about 45 people as part of probes into hacking and bribery.

“We shouldn’t forget that he made a unique contribution to media in this country,” said Rothschild, a British baron who served on the board of British Sky Broadcasting Group Plc (BSY), the U.K.’s biggest pay-television operator in which News Corp. owns 39 percent. “He created a new industry in this country, a pay- television industry,” said Rothschild, the co-founder and chairman of J Rothschild Capital Management. Murdoch also saved the U.K. newspaper industry, he said. .................(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-05-02/murdoch-s-friends-offer-support-after-u-k-condemnation.html

May 3, 2012

Robert Scheer: Imitation Outrage: Faking Concern for the Chinese Masses

from truthdig:



Imitation Outrage: Faking Concern for the Chinese Masses

Posted on May 2, 2012
By Robert Scheer


Let’s stop jacking the Chinese around. We do not care a whit now—nor have we ever cared—about their human rights or any other aspect of their lives as long as they satiate our unbridled appetites. To pretend otherwise is to deny centuries of exploitative history in which the West drugged the Middle Kingdom and plundered it for its resources and cheap labor while obliterating any sign of popular resistance to our imperial sway.

From the Opium Wars to the contemplation of using nuclear weapons to bomb China back to the Stone Age because of our differences with it over Korea and Vietnam, the response of the West has been one of brute intimidation. Never have we been willing to acknowledge that China, for all of its immense contradictions, upheavals, sufferings and errant ways, represents the most complex and impressive example of national history.

Instead we intrude upon China in fitful moments of pique or treat it as a plaything. Who owns China? That was the question that marked the first period of U.S. involvement, when we joined other Western imperialists in carving up China into economic zones. And then came the bitter argument in the U.S. in the late 1940s and the ‘50s about “Who lost China?” Now Americans find themselves preoccupied with how best to exploit China’s amazing economic prowess while feigning interest in the well-being of its people.

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton performed the expected diplomatic dance around the latest flare-up of pretend concern, involving a blind lawyer suddenly made world-famous when he escaped from house arrest in rural China. The fact that Chen Guangcheng was targeted by Chinese authorities because of his opposition to his nation’s oppressive population control policies added the United States’ “pro-life” lobby to the army of morally subjective China watchers. Now if we can get the pro-lifers to care about the human rights of fetuses after birth, the condition of the millions of severely exploited Chinese workers who float U.S. consumption and our national debt just might stand a chance of improvement. ...............(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/immitation_outrage_faking_concern_for_the_chinese_masses_20120503/