News

By Ashley Curtin

While pesticide residue is continuously detected in conventional-grown produce, the Environmental Working Group recently revealed The Clean Fifteen for 2013. The study determined 15 fruits and vegetables that were the “least likely to test positive for pesticide residue,” according to the EWG’s website, to help consumers confidently purchase healthier food.Read more »

By THE NEW YORK TIMES

At a gala on Monday night Barbra Streisand will receive the Film Society of Lincoln Center’s Chaplin Award for lifetime achievement. The society cited in particular her work on “Yentl,” the first movie to credit a woman as director, writer, producer and star, along with other big-screen turns behind the camera (“Prince of Tides” and “The Mirror Has Two Faces”) and in front of it (“Funny Girl” and “For Pete’s Sake”).

Before the gala Ms. Streisand answered readers’ questions, and hundreds took to the ArtsBeat blog to declare their affection and post their queries.Read more »

By Katherine Paul and Ronnie Cummins, Organic Consumers Association.Read more »

WASHINGTON

SENATORS say they fear the N.R.A. and the gun lobby. But I think that fear must be nothing compared to the fear the first graders in Sandy Hook Elementary School felt as their lives ended in a hail of bullets. The fear that those children who survived the massacre must feel every time they remember their teachers stacking them into closets and bathrooms, whispering that they loved them, so that love would be the last thing the students heard if the gunman found them.Read more »

By THE EDITORIAL BOARD

For 45 senators, the carnage at Sandy Hook Elementary School is a forgotten tragedy. The toll of 270 Americans who are shot every day is not a problem requiring action. The easy access to guns on the Internet, and the inevitability of the next massacre, is not worth preventing.Read more »

By David Biello, Scientific American

The Keystone XL Pipeline would move enough tar sands oil to result in another 181 million metric tons of greenhouse gases entering the atmosphere yearly. A new report prepared by environmental group Oil Change International (OCI) analyzes what the climate change impacts of the proposed pipeline might be.Read more »

By Joseph E. Stiglitz, The New York Times

LEONA HELMSLEY, the hotel chain executive who was convicted of federal tax evasion in 1989, was notorious for, among other things, reportedly having said that "only the little people pay taxes."

As a statement of principle, the quotation may well have earned Mrs. Helmsley, who died in 2007, the title Queen of Mean. But as a prediction about the fairness of American tax policy, Mrs. Helmsley's remark might actually have been prescient.Read more »

I was very saddened to hear of Allison Waldman's passing Monday. She had been struggling bravely for many years to beat cancer.

I knew Allison over the years as a very good writer and a kind and loyal fan of mine who created and wrote "The Barbra Files" magazine and "The Barbra Streisand Scrapbook"... she was always wonderful to me. She was dedicated to the accuracy of the news she conveyed, and she shaped her stories with great style.Read more »

As the world burns, a new movement to reverse climate change is emerging - fiercely, loudly and right next door

by BILL MCKIBBEN

It got so hot in Australia in January that the weather service had to add two new colors to its charts. A few weeks later, at the other end of the planet, new data from the CryoSat-2 satellite showed 80 percent of Arctic sea ice has disappeared. We're not breaking records anymore; we're breaking the planet. In 50 years, no one will care about the fiscal cliff or the Euro crisis. They'll just ask, "So the Arctic melted, and then what did you do?"Read more »

By Harvey Wasserman

The bitter battle over two stricken southern California reactors has
taken a shocking seismic hit.

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission has ignored critical questions from
two powerful members of Congress just as the Government Accountability
Office has seriously questioned emergency planning at the San Onofre
nuclear plant.
At a cost of some $770 million, Southern California Edison and its
partners installed faulty steam generators at San Onofre Units 2 and 3
that have failed and leaked.Read more »

By Elizabeth Warren, Reader Supported News

My brother David has always had the special spark in our family.

Like our two older brothers, David served in the military. When he got out, he started a small business - and when that one didn't work out, he started another one. He couldn't imagine an America where he wasn't living by his wits every single day.

Year after year, my brother paid into Social Security. He never questioned it. He figured he was paying so that he - and a lot of other people - could have a secure retirement.Read more »

Following her dazzling North American tour of 2012, BARBRA STREISAND LIVE! will visit Europe this summer for five exclusive engagements with additional dates and venues to be announced soon.

Read more »