NOW LIVE ON WhoWhatWhy
Surveillance and Oppression We Can Believe In
by DonkeyHotey and Dan Engelke
Sometimes, pictures speak louder than words. With evidence the Obama Administration is the most tight-lipped ever, here’s a picture to complete the story. DonkeyHotey and Dan Engelke show you the score.
In Tsarnaev Trial, Prosecutors Turn Hostile Toward Own Witness
by Joanne Potter
Prosecutors in the case against Dzhokhar Tsarnaev turned hostile toward their own witness once it became clear her findings didn’t support their allegations of murder. Joanne Potter unpacks the strange reversal.
Boston Marathon Bombing Trial: Live Updates and Unvarnished Analysis
by The WhoWhatWhy Team
The prosecution presents marathon bombing victims, the FBI testifies about a still-unseen “smoking gun” video, and the case of the black backpacks arises again.
WHO
Banks Struggle to Unload Oil Loans
Is oil the next big bubble? If the difficulties facing Citigroup, Goldman Sachs Group, UBS and other big banks is any indication, the canary atop the oil rig is already gasping for breath. They are looking at tens of millions of dollars in losses on loans made to energy companies in just the last year. The idea was to package the loans into products and sell them to investors. Sound familiar? Whatever happens, banks have already scooped up $31 billion in fees from loans made to energy companies over the last five years.
Mall of America Security Catfished Activists, Documents Show
Catfishing is the practice of pretending to be someone else on Facebook or other social media to attract and engage an unwitting target. And that’s exactly what the Mall of America did to local Black Lives Matter organizers in the Bloomington, Minnesota, area. Yeah, you read that correctly. Not the United States of America … the Mall of America! Their security “forces” used catfishing to create dossiers of potential protesters seeking a retail boycott in the wake of Ferguson unrest. Mall of America’s new motto: Monkey see, monkey do.
Israel’s Netanyahu, Softening Pre-Election Statement, Reopens Door to Palestinian State
It took Bibi less than 24 hours to break his iron-clad campaign promise to the right-wingers who elected him. On MSNBC, Bibi did a 180 degree spin and said he seeks a two-state solution. Maybe this turnabout has something to do with the White House flirting with an end-run around him in the UN to support a Palestinian state, or with growing speculation that Israel’s long-standing “American shield” may finally be dropped.
WHAT
Life Under ISIS: How Militants Overthrew the City of Hit in Less than 24 Hours
Patrick Cockburn used the first-hand account of an Iraqi named Faisal to paint a bleak picture of life under the Islamic State in Iraq. After years of sanctions and then U.S. occupation, Iraqi cities toppled by ISIS with relative ease are now enduring water shortages, education grinding to a halt and totalitarian micromanagement of daily life. Faisal told The Independent that although some do join ISIS for ideological reasons, many join out of economic necessity.
Atlanta is number one! Unfortunately, it is number one in inequality with the top 5% earning 19.2 times what the bottom 20% did in 2013. In 2013, the national average was 9.3 times. For large cities, it was 11.6 times. Runners-up include San Francisco (17.1 times), Boston (15 times) and Miami (14.8 times).
WHY
Two Months In and 2015 Is Record Warm
President Obama signed an executive order cutting federal greenhouse gas emissions by 40% over the next decade. And it couldn’t come too soon. Last year was the hottest ever on record, but 2015 is already on track to cook 2014’s goose! Although Sen. James Inhofe (R-OK) brandished a snowball pulled from one of the East Coast’s heavy storms in a bizarre attempt to disprove climate change, the aggregate data shows January and February are the hottest ever for those winter months.
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