Amnesty International is out with a new report on the death penalty – showing that only 20 out of the 198 nations worldwide carried out executions last year – the United States is one of those nations. We’re also the only Western democracy to still use the death penalty. The United States ranked fifth in the world in executions in 2011 – behind nations with upstanding human rights records like China, Iran, Saudi Arabia, and Iraq.&nbsp

Today kicks off three straight days of oral arguments before the Supreme Court over the constitutionality of Obamacare. If the court ends up siding with the right-wing state Attorneys General who are in the pocket of the for-profit health insurance industry, then 50 million Americans will lose access to healthcare.

Not to mention – 17 million children will be denied insurance coverage because of pre-existing conditions –

Brazil is going to great lengths to protect its commons. Seventeen executives, including American citizens, working with Chevron and oil rig contractor Transocean have been charged with crimes against the environment in Brazil after an oil spill off the coast poured about three thousand barrels of oil into Brazilian waters last November. If found guilty – the corporate executives could face up to 31 years in prison.

The Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas is out with its annual report on America’s banking industry – and the numbers are shocking. Currently – only 5 banks control more than half of all the industry’s assets. That’s right – the top 5 banks in America own 52% of all the wealth in the finance sector. To put that in perspective – in 1970 – the top 5 banks controlled only 17% of the industry’s assets. Not only that – the total wea

Putting aside the Republican's war on women for a moment – a new report from the National Women’s Law Center reveals that health insurance companies are charging women in American an extra billion dollars annually, and it's just good old fashioned gender discrimination. The report finds that the practice of for-profit health insurers charging women more than men for identical coverage is widespread – and states are doing little to stop the

Republicans in Congress unveiled their vision for America today – and if they succeed, the 99% of us are condemned to live like serfs. House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan, himself a multimillionaire, released his blueprint budget for fiscal year 2013 – which includes massive cuts to food stamps, student loans, Medicaid, and Social Security. The budget also dismantles Medicare as we know it – transforming an insurance progr

Hundreds of demonstrators returned to Zuccotti Park in lower Manhattan on Saturday to celebrate the six-month anniversary of the movement. But as the sun went down, the peaceful crowd was once again broken up by NYPD officers. In all – 74 people were arrested, and there were widespread allegations of police brutality against peaceful demonstrators. One woman was taken to the hospital after appearing to suffer a seizure.

The largest online protest in the history of the Internet may have derailed SOPA and PIPA earlier this year – but major entertainment corporations like the Recording Industry Association of America and the Motion Picture Association of America are still coming after you. With the help of Internet Service Providers like Comcast, Verizon, and AT&T – tabs are being kept right now on people who are sharing copyrighted material online.

After a U.S. soldier snapped, and massacred 16 Afghan civilians – including nine children – Afghan President Hamid Karzai called for all NATO troops to be pulled out of rural areas. That could throw a wrench in the US exit strategy, which depends on handing Afghanistan over to NATO and Afghan Security Forces by 2014.

Former Goldman Sachs Executive Director Greg Smith recently resigned from the banking giant, and today in a New York Times op-ed blew the whistle on what he called a “toxic and destructive” environment within the bank. Smith writes, “I believe I have worked here long enough to understand the trajectory of its culture, its people and its identity.

Food prices have increased 4.4% in the last year – nearly twice as much as all other consumer goods. And a new study out of the New England Complex Systems Institute argues that Wall Street speculators are the ones driving up the price this year – just like they did in 2008 – when a billion people around the planet were pushed to the brink of starvation, and unrest and food riots swept the globe.

The new study forecasts anothe

The dogs of war were released in Afghanistan more than a decade ago – and are now out of our control. News broke this week of a murder spree in Afghanistan’s Kandahar province committed by at least one US soldier against Afghan civilians. Reuters reports that as many as 3 American soldiers, who appeared to be drunk, opened fire in a small village at around 2am Sunday morning – shooting dead 16 civilians – including nine children.

When Republicans talk about killing off the EPA – they’re also talking about killing American jobs. Despite right-wing talking points that environmental regulations are “job-killers” – a new analysis by the Economic Policy Institute finds just the opposite – regulations are ACTUALLY job creators. EPI estimates that as many as 135,000 net jobs will be created by 2015 thanks to new EPA regulations.

Governor Scott Walker and his Republican buddies in the state legislature passed a radical voter ID law last year that could disenfranchise tens of thousands of eligible voters in the Badger state. Recognizing that – Dane County Judge David Flanagan blocked the law from going into effect – calling it “extremely broad and largely needless.”

Judge Flanagan went on to say that, “irreparable harm is likely to occur in the absence