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Democrats Should Hold U.S. Senate Majority This Year
Science Test Shows U.S. Students Still Lack Skills National tests to measure science knowledge among eighth-graders show slight improvement compared with two years ago, but one-third of all students still lack a basic understanding of the physical, life and earth sciences, according to a federal study made public Thursday. The tests showed that black and Hispanic students had made slightly more progress than white students, making a small dent in persistent achievement gaps between the racial groups. Low Student Loan Rates Stuck in Limbo After Bill Stalls in US Senate Europeans Vote No on Austerity, For Government Spending Voters in France and Greece redrew Europe's political map Sunday in a powerful backlash against the German-led cure for the region's debt crisis: painful austerity. In France, voters swept Francois Hollande into the nation's highest office, ejecting President Nicolas Sarkozy and bringing the Socialists back to the Elysee Palace for the first time in 17 years. Along with Germany's Angela Merkel, the blunt-talking Sarkozy was a chief architect of Europe's push to restore confidence in the euro through tough fiscal discipline. In contrast, Hollande vowed to focus on economic growth, arguing that the singular emphasis on spending cuts has weighted down Europe with recessions and soaring unemployment. Would Be Al-Qaida Bomber Was a CIA Informant? The CIA had al-Qaida fooled from the beginning. Last month, U.S. intelligence learned that al-Qaida's Yemen branch hoped to launch a spectacular attack using a new, nearly undetectable bomb aboard an airliner bound for America, officials say. But the man the terrorists were counting on to carry out the attack was actually working for the CIA and Saudi intelligence, U.S. and Yemeni officials said. The dramatic sting operation thwarted the attack before it had a chance to succeed. Feds to List Diamondback Rattlesnake as a Threatened Species? The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service announced Wednesday it wants feedback on whether to list the eastern diamondback rattlesnake as a threatened species so it can designate critical habitat areas for the venomous creature under the Endangered Species Act. |
In Case You Missed It
Featured Political Stories, Photos and Videos Federation of Teachers President Kicked Out of House Charter School Hearing Alabama to Pay Convicts Prevailing Wages, but Outlaw Them for Construction Workers? Republicans in the Alabama House of Representatives voted to move two bills out of committee this week that would outlaw the state government and any local government from establishing prevailing wages for skilled work on public works projects as required by federal law under the Davis-Bacon Act of 1931 on one hand, but provide prevailing wages for convicts working for private industry on the other. AFL-CIO Challenges Radical Republican Legislative Agenda Republican Legislators Push Charter Schools to Privatize Public Education Fact Checking Republican Rick Santorum on Campaign Trail in Birmingham Conservative Christian Rick Santorum, the former Pennsylvania Senator who is now running for the Republican nomination for president, took the stage at the Alabama Theater Monday night before the state's primary vote on Tuesday and told one lie after another to the fired up crowd of Republicans who want nothing more than to unseat President Barack Obama in November. Fact Checking Republican Newt Gingrich Selma-to-Montgomery March No Celebration of the Right to Vote This Year MONTGOMERY, Ala. -- There was not supposed to be a major anniversary march this year to commemorate Bloody Sunday on March 7, 1965. It is only the 47th anniversary of that groundbreaking event in civil rights and American political history that led to the passage of the Voting Rights Act that year. Plans are in the works for a big event on the 50th anniversary in 2015. But even though black voters, union leaders and members, women and Hispanic groups were all heartened by the election of the first African-American president in U.S. history in 2008, that has not stopped an all out assault on voting rights, labor rights, immigrant rights and yes, human rights, by Republican politicians across the country. So organizers decided the crisis was so great this year, especially in Alabama, that they had better get together and do a march this year. Protesters Descend on Statehouse in 'One Alabama' Rally Senator Richard Shelby Answers Ethics Question Federalist Society Hears From Conservative Voter Suppression Expert Who Should the People of Alabama's Sixth Congressional District Trust? There is evidence that Senator Scott Beason is not such a great businessman himself and is seeking to become one of those "career politicians" he likes to rail against. An investigation into Beason's business activities shows he may need his $50,000 a year legislative salary just to feed his family and make ends meet, because he is not such a successful businessman. According to financial disclosure forms filed with the Alabama Ethics Commission, Beason has never made more than $50,000 in a single year combined from his family renovations business, his public relations firm or a Planet Smoothie franchise he was a partner in on Birmingham's Southside in Five Points South. Sources say the Planet Smoothie went out of business in recent years and left unpaid rent behind. According to mandatory forms filed with the Alabama Ethics Commission and the Secretary of State's office, Beason disclosed interest in Southside Smoothie LLC from 2003-2011. He is listed as the "owner/operator" of the business. Consumer Watchdog Makes Appearance in Birmingham Why Working People Vote Against Their Economic Interests Why do working class people in the South so frequently vote against their own economic self-interest? In answering the question a little more than 20 years after his book came out, retired Auburn History professor Wayne Flynt said some things you will never see reported by any newspaper or television news station in Alabama. Featured Labor Stories, Photos and Videos
Labor Heavy Hitters On the Ground in Alabama's Immigration Battle Heavy hitters from American labor are now on the ground taking a special interest in Alabama due to the growing controversy surrounding the state's draconian immigration law. An AFL-CIO sponsored delegation of union leaders actively engaged in the struggle for civil and human rights recently spent a day in Birmingham and Pelham getting a first-hand view of the law's impact by hearing from local community leaders and undocumented workers. Alabama Miners Shut Down Coal Production, 1000 Rally in Birmingham BIRMINGHAM, Ala. - The United Mine Workers of America declared a day of mourning on Monday and shut down all coal production for the entire state of Alabama to protest the anti-union budget cutting policies of the new Republican governor and GOP-controlled legislature. Daryl Dewberry's army of mine workers from District 20, covering most of the Southeast, packed the house with their signature camouflage T-shirts at the "We Are One" rally at Boutwell Auditorium. VIDEO: United Mine Workers Shut Down Coal Production The Big Picture: Long Live Organized Labor in America Featured Environmental Stories, Photo Essays and Videos Van Camping Along Highway 64 in the Birthplace of Conservation Sitting in a camp chair in front of the computer by the French Broad River, one of those rare stretches of water that flows north -- from the Eastern Continental Divide through the Appalachian Mountains to Tennessee -- I witnessed a true optical illusion, without the need of a magician or a television set. Slide Show Video: Wild South Mountain Excursion 2012 Slide Show: Wild South Oscar's 2011 Wild South Roosevelt-Ashe Society 2011 'Green Oscars' Standards for Mercury Pollution from Power Plants Unveiled
When the British Petroleum corporation issued a press release announcing that the multinational behemoth would commit $1 billion for Gulf Coast restoration projects, every news organization in the world ran a story about it. But where were the reporters and editors asking the tough questions, such as: Is the $1 billion enough? What is the plan for restoration? What does the company and the government plan to restore? Unanswered Questions Remain on the State of the Gulf Coast Riki Ott Speaks at Orange Beach Public Health Forum Robin Young, Like Thousands on the Gulf, Suffered 'BP Crud' Wherever disaster strikes, there's always an associated crud. There was the Exxon Valdez Crud. The Nine Eleven Crud. The Katrina Cough, and then the TVA coal ash cough. Now, along the entire coast of the Gulf of Mexico, there is the BP Crud, afflicting workers and the general population from Louisiana to Florida. Air Quality Along the Coast Raises Questions Watchdogging BP Video: Oil Giant Restricts Press Access to Alabama Beach BP's Oil Spill Will Have Major Environmental Impacts on the Gulf of Mexico Interior Department Permitted Deep Horizon Without Impact Study Ken Salazar, a former Senator and Attorney General of Colorado, was confirmed by the U.S. Senate as the 50th Secretary of the Interior on Jan. 20, 2009 by President Barack Obama. Less than three months later, on April 6, 2009, the British Petroleum company was granted a permit for the Deepwater Horizon, the deepest oil well ever dug in the Gulf of Mexico -- without an Environmental Impact Study as required by the National Environmental Policy Act. The Minerals Management Service, an agency of the Department of the Interior charged with regulating the oil and gas industry, has been ensconced in a ethics scandal in recent months for cozying up to the oil and gas industry. The agency granted BP a "categorical exclusion" to NEPA on the basis of three reviews of the area, which concluded that a massive oil spill was "unlikely," according to government documents. Gulf Oil Slick One: A Glynn Wilson Video Featured Nature Stories, Photos and Videos Secret Vistas: A Film About the Lake Chinnabee Campground Click Here or on the Image to Check Out the Archive on the Birds of Alabama
Alabama has been known as the "Yellowhammer State" since the Civil War. The yellowhammer nickname was given to the Confederate soldiers from Alabama when a company of young cavalry soldiers from Huntsville, under the command of Rev. D.C. Kelly, arrived at Hopkinsville, Kentucky, where Gen. Forrest's troops were stationed. The officers and men of the Huntsville company wore fine, new uniforms, whereas the soldiers who had long been on the battlefields were dressed in faded, worn uniforms. On the sleeves, collars and coattails of the new calvary troops were bits of brilliant yellow cloth. As the company rode past Company A, Will Arnett cried out in greeting "Yellowhammer, Yellowhammer, flicker, flicker!" The greeting brought a roar of laughter from the men and from that moment the Huntsville soldiers were spoken of as the "yellowhammer company." The term quickly spread throughout the Confederate Army and all Alabama troops were referred to unofficially as the "Yellowhammers." When the Confederate Veterans in Alabama were organized they took pride in being referred to as the "Yellowhammers" and wore a yellowhammer feather in their caps or lapels during reunions. A bill introduced in the 1927 legislature by Representative Thomas E. Martin, Montgomery County, was passed and approved by Governor Bibb Graves on September 6, 1927, making it the state bird. The tradition extends to the University of Alabama, where the famous Rammer Jammer Yellowhammer cheer has been around for decades. It bas banned in 2003, but students voted overwhelmingly at Homecoming 2005 to bring it back. The Rammer Jammer was an old campus magazine at Alabama, and the yellowhammer is the state bird. |
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