Headlines

Local News
Bryan-College Station Economy Effected by Recession

According to an article in the Bryan-College Station Eagle, the area's economic index fell to 117.5 last month from 118.2 in September, according to a report compiled by Karr Ingham, an Amarillo-based economist. Ingham's study is conducted through a partnership between Commerce National Bank and The Eagle. Retail sales declined 16 percent in October compared to October 2008, and automobile sales fell 21.6 percent during the same time frame. The value of all construction is down significantly for the year, totaling slightly more than $178 million to date compared to more than $422 million for the same months in 2008. Despite being down year over year the unemployment rate fell to 6 percent in October from 6.5 percent in September.

Texas Politics
Governor Perry Leads Texas Fight Against Climate Bill

While the U.S. Senate considers a climate bill aiming to dramatically slash air pollution linked to global warming, Texas Governor Rick Perry and other Republican leaders in the state that leads the nation in greenhouse gas production are watching closely and objecting loudly. Perry claims it would cripple the vibrant Texas economy and the heavy-polluting oil, gas and chemical industries it depends on. The governor plans to keep up his campaign against legislation he claims would lead to massive job cuts, industries fleeing overseas and more expensive energy for everyone. The U.S. House narrowly passed the measure in June, with the Texas delegation voting against it 23-9, and a similar version is facing a tough fight in the Senate. Each bill would cut emissions significantly by 2020, with a “cap and trade” system allowing companies to buy and sell permits to release limited amounts of heat-trapping gases. Texas leads the nation in industrial pollution and has more oil refineries, chemical manufacturing plants and coal-fired power plants than any other state.

Foreign Policy
Rumsfeld Decision Let Bin Laden Escape

Osama bin Laden was "within the grasp" of US forces in late 2001 but escaped because then-defense secretary Donald Rumsfeld rejected calls for reinforcements, a hard-hitting US Senate report says. Raw Story reports that the report, set for release Monday, is intended to help learn the lessons of the past as President Barack Obama prepares to announce a major escalation of the conflict, now in its ninth year, with up to 35,000 more US troops. It points the finger directly at Rumsfeld for turning down requests for reinforcements as Bin Laden was trapped in December 2001 in caves and tunnels in a mountainous area of eastern Afghanistan known as Tora Bora.

Environment
Maryland Coal Ash Landfill Leaks Trigger Lawsuit Threat

According to the Environmental News Service, concerns about toxics discharged from an unlined coal ash waste dump in suburban Washington, DC have prompted four environmental groups to give formal notice that they intend to sue Mirant MD Ash Management, LLC and Mirant Mid-Atlantic, LLC Corporation of Atlanta, Georgia for Clean Water Act violations in Maryland. Defenders of Wildlife, Sierra Club, Chesapeake Climate Action Network, and Patuxent Riverkeeper claim the Mirant companies are violating the Clean Water Act by failing to comply with the terms of the discharge permit at the Brandywine Coal Combustion Waste Landfill in Brandywine, Maryland. Pointing to a March 2009 report from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency which established that disposal of coal combustion waste in unlined landfills and surface impoundments is hazardous to human health, the groups say the waste discharges pose unacceptably high risks of cancer and diseases of the heart, lung, liver, stomach, an other organs. The Brandywine Coal Combustion Waste Landfill receives fly ash and bottom ash from Mirant's coal-fired Chalk Point Power Plant, the largest power plant in Maryland.

Health Care
Children Still Falling Through the Cracks

While most HIV-positive people in the Western world can gain decades of good health thanks to increasingly effective drug regimens, in the developing world, nearly a third of children born with HIV are still dying before their first birthday. Half will die before their second birthday, and an overwhelming three-quarters do not make it to age five, according to the latest U.N. figures. At a recent panel discussion on children with HIV hosted by the United Nations children's agency UNICEF as part of the 20th anniversary of the Convention on the Rights of the Child, activists and public health experts stressed the need for accessibility, appropriate testing and follow-up care. UNICEF's Fourth Stocktaking Report on Children with AIDS, to be released Nov. 30, notes that progress that has been made – for example, 45 percent of mothers with HIV now receive antiretroviral (ARV) drugs during pregnancy, compared to a scant 10 percent in 2004.

Immigration
Secure Communities Turns Immigrants into Criminals

This month the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) celebrated one year of Secure Communities. New American Media reports the program, which checks the immigration status of detainees in jails by comparing their booking information to DHS’ databases, is dangerously misnamed since it actually endangers rather than improves community security. In its press release, DHS gloated that it “identified more than 111,000 criminal aliens in local custody during its first year.” The department hailed the program as an effective way of deporting “dangerous criminals that pose a threat to public security.” DHS includes people simply “charged” with a crime in its definition of “criminal aliens.” People are labeled criminals before they are given a chance to defend themselves in court. Under Secure Communities, people are put into deportation proceedings even if they are innocent of criminal charges or if the arrest was simply a pretext to check a person’s immigration status. The lack of due process sets the stage for racial profiling without any real consequences for abusive police agents.

Reproductive Rights
Baltimore City Hall Pregnancy Center Bill Passes

According to WJZ Channel 13, the Baltimore City Council made a landmark decision concerning pregnancy centers, a decision that could impact cities across the country. Just three council members voted "no" to the limited pregnancy center bill. It requires all pregnancy centers that do not offer abortion information to post signs in English and Spanish to that effect. If the mayor signs the legislation, they'd be required to put up a sign in the waiting room making it clear they don't offer the service. Supporters of this legislation say it's about truth in advertising for women in Baltimore. But those with pro-life groups say this is specifically to give a bad name to centers that don't support abortion. Planned Parenthood has advocated the bill, citing nationwide research of women getting censored information at these centers.

Women’s Issues
New Pap Smear Test Guidelines: Start Later, Have Fewer

Medical experts are revising the advice given women on cancer screenings. According to the US News and World Report Women are now being told that they should get their first screening for cervical cancer -- including a Pap test -- at age 21. The recommendation appears in guidelines released this week by the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists. And, rather than have an annual Pap test, most women need to be screened every other year or less, depending on their age, the guidelines say. The recommendations come on the heels of a similar advisory on breast cancer screening, issued Nov. 16 by a government panel of experts, the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force. Those guidelines suggest that the average woman need not have a mammogram to screen for breast cancer until age 50 and, after that, should have the test every other year rather than annually.

GLBT Issues
Charleston Passes GLBT Nondiscrimination Ordinances

The Advocate reports that the Charleston, South Carolina city council passed two ordinances this week that together prohibit discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity in housing and public accommodations. The vote makes Charleston the second municipality in the state to pass such ordinances with protections for LGBT people, following Columbia. The ordinances were presented to the mayor’s office in August by the Alliance for Full Acceptance, SC Stonewall Democrats, SC Log Cabin Republicans, the American Civil Liberties Union, and South Carolina Equality.

Race and Racism
Research Finds Black Women More Likely to Go Unnoticed and Unappreciated

According to an article in Miller-McCune, new research finds black women are more likely to go unnoticed and unappreciated than black men or whites of either gender. A just-published study suggests black women experience "a qualitatively different form of racism" that contributes to them not being "recognized or correctly credited for their contributions." On an unconscious level, African-American females are "treated as interchangeable and indistinguishable from one another. Researchers concluded that these studies provide evidence of black women's relative invisibility, at least among college-age white samples on a predominantly white campus.

This Week on Information Underground

This week on Information Underground our guest is Shawn Williams, Texas A&M graduate and publisher of the blog Dallas South. Shawn is a frequent contributor to Pegasus News, is a member of the AfroSpear and Texas Progressive Alliance, and has written guest editorials in the Dallas Morning News and other Texas newspapers. Out topics of conversation will include the future of media and journalism, the role that people of color have played in journalism, and how the media covers race and racism.

Listen to Information Underground on 89.1FM KEOS on Sundays from 5-6pm after Tavis Smiley, for all the alternative news, politics, and commentary that you don’t hear in the mainstream media. To listen to Information Underground online and to listen to past episodes visit Information Underground on BlogTalkRadio. Tune in every week to hear headlines, interviews, and political and social thought to the Left of College Station.

This Week on Information Underground

This week on Information Underground the guest co-host in the studio will be Shelly Blair, the co-host of Fair and Feminist that airs every Sunday after Information Underground on 89.1FM KEOS from 6-7pm. Our topics of conversation will include the health care debate, Shelly’s research on human trafficking, and we will be taking listeners phone calls.

Listen to Information Underground on 89.1FM KEOS on Sundays from 5-6pm after Tavis Smiley, for all the alternative news, politics, and commentary that you don’t hear in the mainstream media. To listen to Information Underground online and to listen to past episodes visit Information Underground on BlogTalkRadio. Tune in every week to hear headlines, interviews, and political and social thought to the Left of College Station.

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