Researcher: Amanda Peterson University: St. Cloud State University Faculty Evaluator: Julie Andrzejewski Islam Siddiqui is appointed to be chief of agricultural negotiator in the office of the U.S. trade representative. A former pesticide lobbyist and part of a pesticide trade group that lobbies to weaken environmental laws. He wants to ensure the perpetuation of pesticide [...]

The biggest human rights scandal in years is developing in Colombia. The largest mass grave unearthed in Colombia was discovered by accident last year just outside a Colombian Army base in La Macarena, a rural municipality located in the Department of Meta just south of Bogota. The grave was discovered when children drank from a [...]

The U.S. Navy is planning to begin an immense push to defend national security, potential undersea riches, and other maritime interests. The department of the Navy has developed a five year plan of action to expand the U.S. Navy fleet operations into the Arctic. They believe that by the year 2030, the Arctic Ocean will [...]

The largest U.S subsidies to fossil fuels are attributed to tax breaks that aid foreign oil production, according to research done by the Environmental Law Institute in partnership with the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars. The study, which reviewed fossil fuel and energy subsidies for Fiscal Years 2002-2008, reveals that the lion’s share of energy [...]

In an explicit attempt to hide Washington’s military objectives in South America, a U.S. Air Force document submitted to Congress in May 2009 was modified and re-published on November 16, 2009. The original Air Force document dated May 2009 outlined the importance of the military base in Palanquero, Colombia to enable “full spectrum military operations” in South America. The original military [...]

Tar sands crude is causing massive environmental degradation in Canada and results in significantly more greenhouse gas emissions claims environmental and native groups who  are challenging U.S. State Department issuance of a permit for a multibillion-dollar pipeline. The US State Department issued a Presidential Permit to Enbridge Energy, Ltd. for the Alberta Clipper - a 1,000-mile/1,607-kilometer crude oil pipeline that will run between Hardisty, [...]

The Trident Submarine Base in Bangor, WA will soon initiate a program to use both dolphins and sea lions in an effort to heighten security.  An announcement by the Navy acknowledges that the animals will be used to stop divers and swimmers from breaching the surrounding waters.  Bottlenose dolphins are more than capable of locating [...]

The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) reports that “more than 3 million people–one in every three Haitians–were severely affected by the earthquake, of whom 2 million need regular food aid. Over 1.1 million people are homeless, many of them still living under sheets and cardboard in makeshift camps. The government of Haiti estimates [...]

The Copenhagen Climate Change Conference ended in a large controversy because of a meeting which was held and attended by only 26 of the 192 countries in attendance. These countries in attendance, which happen to be the more wealthy and powerful, consisted of the U.S., Russia, Japan, Germany, the UK, France, China, India, Brazil, South Africa, and others such as Ethiopia, [...]

Professor David Ray Griffin, a former professor at California’s Claremont School of Theology, suggests that Osama Bin Laden has been dead and the U.S. and British Governments have been covering it up to support the war on terror.  He says that Bin Laden died on December 13, 2001 of kidney failure or a kidney related [...]