By Glynn Wilson – The United States Supreme Court upheld the authority of the Environmental Protection Agency to regulate the air pollution from coal-fired power plants on Tuesday in a ruling that is being hailed as a major victory for the environment but a political setback for the Obama administration. The 6-to-2 ruling upholds the…
NASA’s Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer and Spitzer Space Telescope have discovered what appears to be the coldest “brown dwarf” known — a dim, star-like body that, surprisingly, is as frosty as Earth’s North Pole. Images from the space telescopes also pinpointed the object’s distance to 7.2 light-years away, earning it the title for fourth closest…
By Glynn Wilson – MOBILE, Ala. — While many local and state governments across the country are joining the federal government in turning away from the development of fossil fuel production in favor of clean, renewable energy to fight climate change due to global warming and create the good, high paying jobs of the future,…
Delays Vote for Two More Weeks – By Glynn Wilson – MOBILE, Ala. — The Mobile City Council heard debate for three hours at Government Plaza on Earth Day about whether to overturn the Planning Commission’s approval of Walter Energy’s Blue Creek Coal handling terminal along the city’s riverfront, but the only vote was to…
By Glynn Wilson – GULF SHORES, Ala. — What appears to be a juvenile bald Eagle now watches over a nest in a tall pine tree in Gulf State Park. The bald eagle is America’s national bird. It grew close to becoming extinct in the 20th century due to DDT chemical poisoning of their egg…
By Glynn Wilson – Now that the Alabama Legislative Session of 2014 is safely over and Governor Robert Bentley is virtually assured of winning the Republican Party’s primary in June without any tea party opposition from the far right, Bentley’s office finally released the water management plan report being sought by environmental groups for the…
By Robert Reich – We’re in a new gilded age of wealth and power similar to the first gilded age when the nation’s antitrust laws were enacted. Those laws should prevent or bust up concentrations of economic power that not only harm consumers but also undermine our democracy — such as the pending Comcast acquisition…
Mildred: Hey Johnny, what are you rebelling against? Johnny: Whadda you got? – The Wild One, 1953 – Eschew Obfuscation – By Michael Douglass – I used to be young and idealistic. Now I have no idea what to make of it. It’s not even policy or ideology anymore. It’s dogma fueled brinkmanship. Or, it’s…
FAIRHOPE, Ala. — Images from Earth Day 2014 along Mobile Bay showoff a beautiful spring day and a carefree attitude this area needs as a break from the disasters in the news from the BP Oil Spill to the tar sands and crude pipelines through their sole source of fresh drinking water and a historic…
Saturday, April 19, 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. – Hundreds of people from across Alabama, Mississippi and the Panhandle of Florida will be heading to the the Fairhope Pier parks in Fairhope, Alabama Saturday, April 19 to attend the state’s largest Earth Day festival. “This unique all-day free event is filled with family-friendly fun, including…
Coming Clean By Michael Brune Choose Wisely… We all make choices, and some turn out better than others do. But the choices we end up regretting the most are usually the ones we make against our better judgment. Both individually and collectively, we humans seem uniquely capable of acting as our own worst enemy. We…
The uninsured rate among adults aged 18 and older in the states across the country that have chosen to expand Medicaid and set up their own exchanges in the health insurance marketplace has declined significantly this year, meaning more U.S. citizens are being covered by private health care insurance than ever before, improving the economy…
By Robert Reich – Momentum is building to raise the minimum wage. Several states have already taken action. Connecticut has boosted it to $10.10 by 2017, the Maryland legislature just approved a similar measure, Minnesota lawmakers just reached a deal to hike it to $9.50. A few cities have been more ambitious — Washington, D.C.…
What Shall We Do With the Social and Political World? – The Big Picture – By Glynn Wilson – It took about 10,000 years of human existence and increasing knowledge for scientists to say definitively they proved that the universe is infinite and always expanding. When will political conservatives in the U.S. finally admit that…
By Robert Reich – What does the Supreme Court’s “McCutcheon” decision this week have to do with today’s jobs report, showing 192,000 new jobs for March? Connect the dots. More than five years after Wall Street’s near meltdown the number of full-time workers is still less than it was in December 2007, yet the working-age…
Editorial Analysis – The United States Supreme Court continued the pro-Big Business conservative Republican majority’s drive to remove Legislative Branch limits on political money, effectively granting unlimited rights to rich people and corporations to continue polluting American politics with their vast riches built up mainly during the Bush years. The high court struck down the…
National Labor Relations Board to Begin Hearings on Workers Complaint Against Mercedes April 7 – By Glynn Wilson – BIRMINGHAM, Ala. — Union workers and members of the public who understand the important role organized labor plays in public affairs across America will be watching to see what happens when the National Labor Relations Board…
The Big Picture – By Glynn Wilson – Watching a brain unravel is a terrible thing. So is watching a state and a country go down the drain, along with the ideals that created it. It is torture not only for the person who experiences the onset of dementia or Alzheimer’s Disease but also the…
Whom Do You Serve? Thoughts on Local Government and Dirty Industries – By Brad Nolen – MOBILE, Ala. – We the people of Mobile have long been organized to safeguard and promote the flourishing of our fair community. And part and parcel to this organization we’ve put together was the hiring of a city councils,…
By Glynn Wilson – America’s youth are running from the radical conservatism of the Republican Party and choosing to call themselves Democrats in greater numbers than ever before, according to the latest Gallup poll on the subject. Young adults — those between the ages of 18 and 29 — have typically aligned themselves with the…
