Politics

by Jacob G. Hornberger

Last December a 60-year-old American citizen was taken into custody in Havana by Cuban authorities. The man, Alan Phillip Gross, who resides in Potomac, Maryland, is suspected of being a spy for the CIA.

Read more: Conservatives Love Castro’s Judicial System

By Mary L. G. Theroux

The current $350 million ad campaign for the 2010 Census, including the much-maligned $2.5 million Super Bowl spots, urges individuals to “Tell your story.” The Census Bureau is particularly eager for minorities and illegal immigrants to do so, as they are traditionally believed to be the most undercounted.

Read more: Census Data Not So Confidential After All

The government of the province of Ontario delivered a throne speech on March 8 and what was not in the speech is perhaps more significant than what they said. What was not in the speech was plans to meld four large and lucrative corporations that are owned by the taxpayers of Ontario into one large entity to be up for grabs for the private sector. According to the Toronto Star, these are Ontario Power Generation, Hydro One, the Ontario Lottery and Gaming Corporation, and the Liquor Control Board of Ontario. The latter, the largest booze seller on the planet. 

Read more: His Master's Voice

When President Obama announced last August that he would address American schoolchildren in a nationwide televised speech, the Right went bananas. August, of course, was the height of the health-care controversy, and conservative leaders and media commentators imagined that Obama was going to make an overt pitch for his quest for government control over medicine and medical insurance, as well as other areas of the economy.

Read more: Obama’s Message to Schoolchildren

And its effects on language, health, politics, and the environment

Nearly 24 years later, Chernobyl is still a dirty place, a dirty word.

Chernobyl has almost surely killed hundreds of thousands of people, perhaps already it is more than a million.  And over time, it will kill many more.  In fact, many estimates are that the vast majority who will be killed or harmed by Chernobyl were not even born at the time of the accident.

Read more: The Chernobyl catastrophe