Offering asides, recommended links, blogworthy quotations, and more, In Brief is the Northwest Progressive Institute's microblog of world, national, and local politics.
I am grateful to Senator Schatz, Senator Whitehouse and Senator Boxer – and many other Senators who will join this climate change debate tonight – for standing up to the deniers. It’s time to stop acting like those who ignore this crisis – the oil baron Koch brothers and their allies in Congress – have a valid point of view.
— Excerpt from Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid’s remarks kicking off the all-night-long Senate session to raise awareness of the climate crisis.
No one should be allowed to deny the existence of global warming until they’ve visited the Athabasca Glacier. The above image shows the marker that denotes where the glacier was in 1982. (Photo: Maggie Tacheny)
CPAC welcomes the convicted and accused
This year’s Conservative Political Action Conference, which wrapped up over the weekend, featured a parade of men convicted and charged with crimes ranging from perjury and obstruction of justice to money laundering.
Vive Dessins: ”Catfish”
Report: Use of public transit in U.S. reaches highest level since 1956
The American Public Transportation Association announced in its annual report that more Americans rode buses, trains, and subways in 2013 than in any year since 1956. Some 10.65 billion passenger trips were taken on mass transit throughout the year, beating the previous record of 10.59 billion in 2008. Ridership is up thirty-seven percent since 1995.
Our governor may not like the president, but this is not about the president… It’s about providing health coverage for 240,000 Louisianans who work forty or fifty hours a week, but still make too little to qualify for assistance in the new marketplace — and too much to qualify for Louisiana’s current Medicaid.
— Louisiana Senator Mary Landrieu, criticizing Republican Governor Bobby Jindal for refusing to agree to expand Medicaid in the Pelican State.
Washington Catholics reflect on first year of ‘people’s pope’
The Seattle Times’ Lornet Tornbull checks in with local Catholics to gauge how their attitudes towards the church have changed in the year since Francis became pontiff following the surprise resignation of Benedict XVI.
Coal miners say they were surveilled, harassed after making safety complaints
The Huffington Post chronicles the legal trouble that miners like Kentuckian Reuben Shemwell have found themselves in after filing safety discrimination complaints with federal regulators. Shemwell, a man of principle and courage, has continued to identify health and safety concerns at the mine where he works, operated by Armstrong Coal Company.
The Seattle Sounders won their home opener today against Sporting Kansas City thanks to Clint Dempsey and Chad Barrett, who teamed up to score the game’s only goal in the final minute. The Sounders next play Toronto FC at CenturyLink Field on March 15th at 1:30 PM. The match will be broadcast on Q13 FOX and NBCSN.
The United States Navy announced today it is sending an Arleigh Burke-class destroyer and a P-3C Orion aircraft to aid in the search for MH370, the Malaysian Airlines flight that mysteriously disappeared while enroute to Beijing, China.
I had reported these clearly problematic programs to more than ten distinct officials, none of whom took any action to address them.
— Edward Snowden, explaining that he raised concerns over ten times internally before choosing to leak any information during testimony to the European Parliament. Snowden’s remarks were released today.
Russian forces reportedly seize Crimea military base
A Ukranian military base in the port city of Sevastopol has been seized by forces thought to be Russian, or at least pro-Russian, according to news services in Ukraine. About one hundred Ukranian troops had been ordered to man the base prior to Russia’s seizure of the Crimean peninsula.
DOJ’s lead antitrust official won’t review Comcast/Time Warner Cable deal
The New York Times reports that William J. Baer, the head of the Department of Justice’s antitrust division, will not participate in the department’s review of Comcast’s proposed acquisition of Time Warner Cable because he previously worked for General Electric’s NBCUniversal prior to its purchase by Comcast.
We don’t need [federal law] forcing pizza places to tell us how many calories there are in our pizza, do we really want to know? I’m not sure about you, but I don’t even want to know how many calories are on my pizza. When I eat my Häagen-Dazs ice cream, I want to enjoy those 1,292 calories and all 100 grams of fat in one sitting.
— South Carolina Republican Tim Scott, stupidly decrying a provision of the Patient Protection Act that was written to ensure nutrition information is available to restaurant-goers. The provision has yet to be implemented.
Darrell Issa apologizes to Elijah Cummings, skirts censure
California Republican Darrell Issa, the wealthiest member of Congress and the chairman of the House Government Oversight Committee, said today he has apologized to Elijah Cummings for preventing him from speaking during yesterday’s public hearing. Issa apologized after Democrats offered a resolution to the House to reprimand Issa for his appalling behavior and abuse of power.
The Majority Report’s Sam Seder gives his take on yesterday’s travesty of a public hearing by the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee. Chairman Darrell Issa, a California Republican, had summoned former IRS official Lois Lerner’s to appear before the committee. Issa made sure that he would be the only one allowed to question Lerner by adjourning the hearing before the ranking Democrat, Elijah Cummings, was able to ask any questions. When Cummings protested, Issa gave the order to cut off his microphone, and walked out.
President Putin’s fiction: Ten false claims about Ukraine
The United States Department of State debunks several of the recent claims Vladimir Putin has made to justify Russia’s occupation of the Crimean Peninsula, which was ceded to Ukraine during the 1950s.
The speed of decisions at The Sun often cause lapses of judgment… I personally made lots of mistakes.
— Disgraced News of the World editor Rebekah Brooks, testifying in her own defense at the trial over crimes she and other News Corporation employees allegedly committed when she ran Murdoch’s U.K. tabloids.
In Brief is authored by the staff, board, and contributors of the Northwest Progressive Institute, a netroots powered strategy center working to raise America's quality of life through innovative research and imaginative advocacy.
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