Archive - Mar 23, 2009

• Taxpayers buy up toxic assets
• Big boxes suggest alternative to EFCA
• Israeli police crack down on Arab cultural event
• Small protests mark Iraq War anniversary
• Ward Churchill take University of Colorado to court over his firing

• Court orders FDA to allow underage girls access to emergency contraception
• Another newspaper drops the “paper” from its service
• Workers protest the need to get permission to protest
• Home sales up in February
• Report says British data collection deeply flawed
• US Supreme Court hears double jeopardy matter
• UNITE HERE dissidents join forces with SEIU

The Treasury Department announced plans to buy up troubled assets that are clogging the financial markets. The Treasury Department will partner with private investors to purchase the bad assets, in the latest plan to spend taxpayers’ dollars to stimulate the markets and repair the economy.  FSRN’s Leigh Ann Caldwell reports that the taxpayers will be, once again, doing the heavy lifting.

Three big-box companies are proposing what they call an alternative to the Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA) – legislation that would make it easier for unions to organize workers. While big business has long opposed the legislation, they haven’t created an alternative yet. Now, Whole Foods, Starbucks and Costco have formed the “Committee for a Level Playing Field for Union Elections”, and are offering a proposal that they say will improve union access to employees – although the Committee still opposes EFCA. Aura Bogado speaks with Eileen O’Connor, the attorney for the law firm Orrick, representing the Committee for a Level Playing Field.

Anti-war activists marked the sixth anniversary of the start of the Iraq war with protests in major cities throughout the United States. Demonstrations weren't as numerous or as large as in years past, but a continuing peace movement sent a message to the Obama Administration to change US military policies: from sending more troops to Afghanistan to selling weapons and beyond. Today we bring you sounds from two of these protests - taking place on opposite sides of the country with Africa Jones and Karen Miller

A group of independent human rights experts is calling for accountability in Israel's recent attack on Gaza - which killed nearly 1500 people, wounded some 6,000 and made an estimated 80,000 homeless. The group released a 43-page report today outlining atrocities committed during the 3-week long conflict. The UN's Olivier De Schutter, one of the report’s authors, suggests that major human rights violations may have occurred. In one incident documented in the report, an 11-year old boy was used as a human shield by Israeli soldiers. Meanwhile, in the West Bank, Israeli police forces cracked down on an Arab cultural event. Several were arrested. FSRN's Ghassan Bannoura reports.

Former professor Ward Churchill has taken his battle over free speech and academic freedom to a Denver court, where a trial is under way questioning the University of Colorado’s grounds for his dismissal. After Churchill’s essay on 9-11 sparked national controversy, Colorado’s governor and the university’s president called for Churchill to be removed. Although he wasn't fired for his essay, Churchill was eventually terminated for academic misconduct. But he’s filed a civil lawsuit against the university, and now a jury of eight people will decide whether Churchill is guilty of academic misconduct or whether the university violated his right to free speech by using those allegations as an excuse to fire him. Blake Wesley reports from Denver.