Articles by: Lauren McCauley

Critics Shocked By Trump Admission on Comey

Critics Shocked By Trump Admission on Comey

While it’s hard to keep up with the shifting reports of how the decision to fire FBI Director James Comey came about, President Donald Trump on Thursday admitted to directly asking the former head of law enforcement if he was under investigation—a move many said presented a shocking conflict of interest. “A dinner was arranged, I think he asked for[Read More…]

by 12/05/2017 3 comments World
Commander-in-Chief Trump Drops ‘Mother of All Bombs’ on Afghanistan

Commander-in-Chief Trump Drops ‘Mother of All Bombs’ on Afghanistan

Commander-in-Chief Donald Trump unleashed one of the most powerful U.S. bombs—the 20,000 pound GBU-43, known as “the mother of all bombs”—on Afghanistan on Thursday, the Pentagon has confirmed. The MOAB, which stands for massive ordinance air blast, reportedly struck an Islamic State (ISIS) tunnel complex in Nangarhar province. According to the Department of Defense statement, “the strike was designed to[Read More…]

by 14/04/2017 1 comment World
Chanse Zavalla, 22, left, and O'Shea Spencer, 20, right, stand in front of the remains of a hogan structure, set on fire ahead of the U.S. Army Corp of Engineer's deadline to leave the Oceti Sakowin protest camp on February 22, 2017 in Cannon Ball, North Dakota. (Photo: Stephen Yang/Getty Images)

DAPL Opponents Vow to ‘Rise’ From Ashes of Oceti Sakowin and Keep Fighting

As the Army Corps of Engineers forcibly evicted the last of the remaining water protectors from the Oceti Sakowin protest camp on Thursday, Indigenous opponents of the Dakota Access Pipeline (DAPL) made it clear that their expulsion would not be the end of the fight. “Our hearts are not defeated. The closing of the camp is not the end of[Read More…]

Under Cover Of Christmas, Obama Establishes Controversial Anti-Propaganda Agency That Threatens Press Freedom

Under Cover Of Christmas, Obama Establishes Controversial Anti-Propaganda Agency That Threatens Press Freedom

In the final hours before the Christmas holiday weekend, U.S. President Barack Obama on Friday quietly signed the 2017 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) into law—and buried within the $619 billion military budget (pdf) is a controversial provision that establishes a national anti-propaganda center that critics warn could be dangerous for press freedoms. The Countering Disinformation and Propaganda Act, introduced[Read More…]

by 27/12/2016 1 comment World
An important message for President-elect Donald Trump. (Photo: Speak Your Mind/Julian Koschorke/cc/flickr)

Internal Memo Sparks Fears Of Climate ‘Witch Hunt’ Under President Trump

President-elect Donald Trump’s Energy Department transition team has reportedly been asking for the names of civil servants that have worked on environmental policies under President Barack Obama, sparking fears of a coming “climate purge” by the incoming Trump administration. A “document circulated by the Energy Department,” first reported by Bloomberg Thursday and later by Politico, lists 65 questions posed by[Read More…]

by 11/12/2016 1 comment Climate Change
Indeed, "There is No Planet B." (Photo: theverb.org/cc/flickr)

Forget Paris, Scientists Say ‘Radical Change’ Only Way To Stay Below 2 Degrees

To much fanfare, global leaders have agreed to tackle the climate crisis by ratifying theParis climate agreement, but a group of esteemed scientists is warning that current pledges to reduce emissions are far from sufficient and, in fact, put the world on track to reaching the dangerous 2°C climate threshold by 2050. “The pledges are not going to get even[Read More…]

by 01/10/2016 2 comments Climate Change
July 2016 was "the warmest month of any in a data record that can be extended back to the nineteenth century," according to the U.K.-based Copernicus Climate Change Service (CCCS). Hot enough to fry an egg, they say. (Photo: Jen/cc/flickr)

The Earth Just Experienced The Hottest Month On The Books

On Monday it was confirmed that the Earth has broken an ominous climate milestone amid a wave of troubling records: July 2016 was the hottest recorded month—ever. According to new NASA data, the global mean surface temperatures last month were 0.84° Celsius (1.51° Fahrenheit) above average and was the warmest July in their data set, which dates back to 1880.[Read More…]

by 16/08/2016 1 comment Climate Change
The Key Haven trial would run for between six and 22 months and the company said it could release anywhere from 20 to 100 GMO mosquitoes per person on the island. (Photo: stevenw12339/cc/flickr)

Amid Zika Scare, FDA Clears Way For GMO Mosquito Trial In Florida

In a move that public health advocates are calling “irresponsible and frightening,” the U.S. Food and Drug Association on Friday cleared the experimental release of genetically modified mosquitoes in Key Haven, Florida. Pivoting off of the recent news that there is an outbreak of the mosquito-borne Zika virus that has infected over a dozen people in Miami’s Wynwood neighborhood, the[Read More…]