Blog Posts By Duane Shank

Sudan. “On Monday, the administration unveiled a new policy in Sudan, outlining an effort that officials said was aimed at ending the mass human suffering there, promoting a definitive peace and preventing Sudan from serving as a haven for terrorists.” Israel. “UN human rights investigator Richard Goldstone has rejected Israel's claim that the peace process would be harmed by his report on the offensive in Gaza.” India. “Indian companies, long dependent on hand-me-down technology from developed nations, are becoming cutting-edge innovators as they target one of the world's last untapped markets: the poor.” Quote of the day. “We’ve spent the last few decades shoveling money at the rich like there was no tomorrow. We abandoned the poor, put an economic stranglehold on the middle class and all but bankrupted the federal government — while giving the banks and megacorporations and the rest of the swells at the top of the economic pyramid just about everything they’ve wanted.” Bob Herbert op-ed column, "Safety Nets for the Rich." (New York Times)

Swine Flu. People who do not believe in vaccinating children have found fuel for their arguments in the swine flu vaccine. Immigrations Enforcement. A controversial federal program that deputizes state and local law enforcement agents to catch illegal immigrants is expanding under the Obama administration, despite changes announced this summer intended to curb alleged racial profiling and other police abuses. Afghan Elections. An investigation of allegedly fraudulent ballots in Afghanistan's troubled election has reduced President Hamid Karzai's portion of the vote to about 47 percent, an outcome that will trigger a runoff between him and his closest competitor, according to officials familiar with results. Quote of the Day. “Where are these people going to work? They did not think this through.” -- Maria Diaz, a 13-year employee at the Highways and Transportation Department in Puerto Rico, in response to Gov. Luis Fortuno's plan to decrease the territory's $3.2 billion deficit by eliminating more than 20,000 public sector jobs. (New York Times)

Health Care. After months of relentless courting and suspense, Senator Olympia J. Snowe, Republican of Maine, cast her vote with Democrats on Tuesday as the Senate Finance Committee approved legislation to remake the health-care system and provide coverage to millions of the uninsured. Nobel Prize. In a rare public defence of a process normally shrouded in secrecy, four of the Nobel peace prize jury's five judges have spoken about a selection they said was both merited and unanimous. Global Hunger. The UN's annual report on global food security confirms that more than one billion people -- a sixth of the world's population -- are undernourished. Quote of the Day. "Obviously, if you are wiping with 80-proof alcohol, you are probably being about as safe as you can be. Germs don't like ... a high volume of alcohol." Very Rev. Steve Lipscomb, dean of Grace Episcopal Cathedral in Topeka, Kan., which has begun wiping its Communion chalices with vodka-soaked gauze after each parishioner takes a sip in an effort to combat the H1NI virus. (Los Angeles Times)

Health Care. After months of collaboration on President Obama's attempt to overhaul the nation's health-care system, the insurance industry plans to strike out against the effort on Monday with a report warning that the typical family premium in 2019 could cost $4,000 more than projected. Gay Rights. Tens of thousands of gay-rights activists marched Sunday in Washington to show President Obama and Congress that they are impatient with what they consider piecemeal progress and are ready to fight at the federal level for across-the-board equality. Climate Change -- Africa. African leaders have said the continent will need $65 billion to deal with the effects of global warming and called for the support of rich nations. Quote of the Day. "Churches are very soft targets and very vulnerable to attack from terrorists and other homegrown, disgruntled individuals. Unfortunately, most religious leaders are living in denial." Pastor Ken Pagano, who resigned last month at the New Bethel Church in Louisville, Ky. to co-found the International Security Coalition of Clergy to focus on Second Amendment and church-security issues. (Washington Times)

Health Care. The Senate Finance Committee legislation to revamp the health-care system would provide coverage to 29 million uninsured Americans but would still pare future federal deficits by slowing the growth of spending on medical care. Iran. The first death sentence for participation in Iran’s post election protests was handed down on Monday, an Iranian reformist website has reported. Darfur. An African Union panel is due to hand over a report aimed at finding a peaceful solution to the conflict in Sudan's Darfur region. Former South African President Thabo Mbeki led the inquiry and will deliver his findings to the AU in Ethiopia. Quote of the Day. "Culture and religion inform every decision about health, illness, disease and care, about true caring, about who can live, about the measure of quality in a life, about when suffering begins and how it ends. We bring our full selves to every bedside." Dawn Seery, head of the Methodist Healthcare System in San Antonio, on the role of hospital ethics committees in assisting families making end-of-life decisions. (USA Today)

Death Penalty. Those questions are at the heart of a heated Eighth Amendment constitutional debate about cruel and unusual punishment raging in Ohio. And the debate is spilling over onto the national scene. Health Care. As Democrats prepare to take up health-care legislation on the floor of the Senate and the House, they are facing tough choices about two competing priorities. They want people to pay affordable prices for health insurance policies, but they want those policies to offer comprehensive health benefits. Pakistan. Steps by the United States to vastly expand its aid to Pakistan, as well as the footprint of its embassy and private security contractors there, are aggravating an already volatile anti-American mood as Washington pushes for greater action by the government against the Taliban. Quote of the Day. "I'm dazed. I'm dazed but thrilled. It's starting to sink in." Elizabeth H. Blackburn of the University of California at San Francisco, who along with Carol W. Greider of Johns Hopkins University and Jack W. Szostak of Harvard Medical School was awarded the 2009 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for research showing how cells protect their genes as they divide repeatedly throughout an organism's life. It was the first time two women shared the prize. (Washington Post)

Asian Earthquake & Typhoon. Rescue workers in the earthquake-devastated Indonesian city of Padang have been stepping up the hunt for survivors in the rubble of collapsed buildings, although hopes of finding many of the hundreds missing still alive are beginning to fade. Unemployment. U.S. employers cut a deeper-than-expected 263,000 jobs in September, lifting the unemployment rate to 9.8 percent, according to a government report on Friday that fueled fears the weak labor market could undermine recovery from a prolonged recession. Afghanistan. The top U.S. commander in Afghanistan staunchly defended his emphasis on stabilizing the country with a troop-intensive counterinsurgency strategy, arguing Thursday that reducing U.S. aims in the nation would be "short-sighted." Quote of the Day. "There are just not enough jobs for older people. They have no choice but to go on Social Security." Richard Johnson, senior fellow at the Urban Institute, explaining last year’s record 19% increase in the number of retired workers collecting Social Security. (USA Today)

Afghanistan. Stepping into an intensifying debate in Washington, the new head of NATO said Monday that more allied troops are needed in Afghanistan to help train the country's security forces. Poverty Rising. Poverty rose in the West and Midwest last year, as slowdowns in housing and manufacturing sent more families below the poverty line, according to a Census Bureau report released Tuesday. Honduras. The de facto government backed off Monday from its attempt to shut down protests and limit free speech after congressional leaders warned that they would not support the measure. Quote of the Day. "We have more people than ever coming here thinking they'd never ever be here." Amy Ginsburg, executive director of Manna Food Center in Montgomery County, MD, speaking of families who had never asked for help before -- many of them former middle-class residents now unemployed or facing foreclosure. (Washington Post)

Guantanamo. When Brig. Gen. Michael Lehnert established the facility, humane treatment of prisoners was a top priority. He discusses how that principle fell out of favor in the seven-plus years since he left. G20 Summit. President Obama will announce Friday that the once elite club of rich industrial nations known as the Group of 7 will be permanently replaced as a global forum for economic policy by the much broader Group of 20 that includes China, Brazil, India and other fast-growing developing countries. Iran. The head of Iran’s Atomic Energy Organization confirmed for the first time on Friday that Iran was building a "semi-industrial enrichment fuel facility," designed to produce nuclear fuel that it had not previously announced to international authorities, the semi-official ISNA news agency reported. Quote of the Day. "People laugh at metal detectorists. I’ve had people go past and go, ‘Beep, beep, he’s after pennies.’ Well no, we’re out there to find this kind of stuff, and it is out there.” Terry Herbert, a British amateur treasure hunter who found a buried cache of 1,500 pieces of intricately worked gold and silver probably dating from the seventh century. (New York Times)

Health Care. In a bid to attract liberals and unify Democrats on his healthcare overhaul bill, Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus (D-Mont.) on Tuesday proposed to boost subsidies for financially strapped people who would be required to buy insurance. Climate Change. For a man known for his diplomatic reserve, the UN secretary general, Ban Ki-moon, was unusually upfront about his frustration with the pace of talks for a treaty to stop global warming yesterday. "The world's glaciers are now melting faster than human progress to protect them -- or us," he said at the opening session of his climate change summit. Afghanistan. President Obama is exploring alternatives to a major troop increase in Afghanistan, including a plan advocated by Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. to scale back American forces and focus more on rooting out Al Qaeda there and in Pakistan. Quote of the Day. "Every Census has its controversy because the stakes are so high. We're up to the challenge." Steve Jost, Census associate communications director, on the upcoming 2010 Cenus. (USA Today)

Climate Change. After months of almost single-minded focus on health care, President Obama is about to shift the White House spotlight to global warming -- first with a speech to the United Nations in New York on Tuesday, then later in the week at the G-20 economic conference in Pittsburgh. Afghanistan. The top U.S. and NATO commander in Afghanistan warns in an urgent, confidential assessment of the war that he needs more forces within the next year and bluntly states that without them, the eight-year conflict "will likely result in failure." Israel. The UN nuclear assembly has called for Israel to open its nuclear facilities to UN inspection and sign up to the non-proliferation treaty. Quote of the Day. "We are here for the music and it is a message of peace and unity, not only for Cuba, but for the entire region." Colombian singer Juanes, who organized a Peace without Borders concert in Revolution Square, Havana, attended by an estimated one million people on Sunday. (BBC)

Health care. A year-long effort by senators to draft a bipartisan overhaul of the nation's health-care system on Wednesday yielded the only congressional proposal that would extend coverage to millions of uninsured Americans while making good on President Obama's pledge not to add "one dime" to budget deficits. Obama and race. President Obama has long suggested that he would like to move beyond race. The question now is whether the country will let him. Global poverty. The global recession is expected to push 89 million more people into extreme poverty by the end of 2010, the World Bank said Wednesday as it called on the leaders of the 20 largest economies to engage in "responsible globalization." Quote of the day. “People say to us, ‘Oh, I grew up with your music,’ and we often say, sotto voce, ‘So did we.’” Folksinger Mary Travers of Peter, Paul and Mary, who died yesterday at 72. (New York Times)

Children in prison. After murders committed by juveniles spiked in the early 1990s, states toughened laws, making the United States the harshest nation in world in the legal punishment of children, according to a recent study. Green energy. With the most diverse array of alternative energy potential of any state in the nation, Hawaii has set out to become a living laboratory for the rest of the country, hoping it can slash its dependence on fossil fuels while keeping the lights on. Iran. The US and Iran are to hold their first face-to-face talks in three decades after the European Union struck a deal to resume nuclear negotiations. Quote of the day. “We don’t need the news that comes from TV. This is news we care about, and it comes fast enough for us." Ohio Amish farmer Karl Yoder on The Budget, a newspaper that has served as the main source of news for Amish communities since 1890. (Los Angeles Times)

Poverty growing. The early impact of the worst recession since the 1930s pushed median incomes down, forced millions more people into poverty and left more Americans without health care in 2008, according to new annual survey data from the U.S. Census Bureau. Global warming. The Obama administration’s senior negotiator on global warming warned Thursday that developed and developing nations remained deeply divided in talks on reducing greenhouse gases and that time was running out before United Nations treaty negotiations in December. UN women "super-agency." The general assembly was set to ratify the new agency – which would have a budget of around $1bn and consolidate four existing bodies that deal with women's issues – before its current session concludes on Monday. But Egypt, Cuba, Sudan and Iran have mounted a last-minute campaign to delay ratification. Quote of the day. “We used to be able to use 9/11 as a touchstone. The students recognized it as an event they lived through and that affected the way that they lived. Now we view it as an opportunity to have a historical discussion.’’ Robby Chisholm, senior program director for history and social studies for Boston public schools. (Boston Globe)

Health Care. While the month of August clearly knocked the White House back on its heels, as Congressional town hall-style meetings exposed Americans’ unease with an overhaul, the uproar does not seem to have greatly altered public opinion or substantially weakened Democrats’ resolve. Sotomayor Officially Takes Court Seat. Justice Sonia Sotomayor officially took her seat as the Supreme Court's 111th member Tuesday in a tradition-filled ceremony witnessed by President Obama, Vice President Biden, and scores of lawmakers, judges, family members and friends. Global hunger. Eliminating the millions of tons of food thrown away annually in the U.S. and U.K. could lift more than a billion people out of hunger worldwide, experts claim. Quote of the day. “What comes out of my blog is the experiences of a soldier right in the middle of all of this. I think that people need to hear from us, more than they need to hear from the big whigs. War has a cost, and that cost is paid by soldiers.” An Army specialist nicknamed "Mud Puppy" explaining his blog from the 10 months he spent in Afghanistan. (New York Times)

Moral standards in policy. Susan Pace Hamill, law professor at the University of Alabama Law School, is running for a house seat in the state of Alabama. ... "I believe the process through which government makes all policy should be premised on central moral and ethical standards," said Hamill in a press release. Unemployment. The pace of U.S. job losses hit a one-year low last month but the unemployment rate jumped to a 26-year high of 9.7 percent, the government said on Friday in a report showing a slowly improving labor market. Health care politics. With President Obama poised to give a health-care address Wednesday before a joint session of Congress, administration officials promised that he will deliver a detailed prescription for reform despite the risks of spelling out exactly where he stands. Quote of the day. "We all die, and we want to do so with the most dignity and most control. It seemed a no-brainer. And it spares our children from making those decisions." Barbara Frank, a retired teacher in LaCrosse WI, where nearly everyone of a certain age has an advance-care directive, a pioneering program that became the impetus for the “end-of-life-provision” in health care legislation now infamously called “death panels.” (Washington Post)

Health care. Recent town-hall uproars weren't just about health care. They were also eruptions of concern that the government is taking on too much at once. Civil Rights. Seven months after taking office, Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. is reshaping the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division by pushing it back into some of the most important areas of American political life, including voting rights, housing, employment, bank lending practices and redistricting after the 2010 census. Afghanistan. The top U.S. commander for Afghanistan called the situation there "serious" but salvageable, in a sobering assessment issued Monday that is expected to pave the way for a request for more American troops, funds for Afghan forces and other resources. Quote of the day. "It was one of the primary reasons I moved here. I couldn't afford health care in the United States. … To me, this is the best system that there is." Judy Harvey of Prescott Valley, who now lives in Alamos, Sonora, on why American retirees are moving to Mexico. (USA Today)

Burma. "Jim Webb, who arrived on Friday, will be the highest ranking U.S. official to meet the [Prime Minister] in a decade." Egyptians-Somali Pirates. "Fishermen held in Puntland since April break free in boats after overpowering their captors." Death Panels. "Rumors that President Obama’s health care plans would create 'death panels' began with some of the same media outlets that helped defeat President Clinton’s health care plan."

Health care. “President Obama began a personal effort Tuesday to reclaim momentum for his health-care initiative with a direct rebuttal of what he called 'scare tactics,' rumors, and misrepresentations.” Death penalty. “North Carolina on Tuesday became only the second state — the other is Kentucky — with a law that allows murder suspects and death-row inmates to try to prove racial bias was behind a prosecutor's decision to seek the death penalty or a jury's decision to impose it.” Pakistan. “Pakistan’s nuclear facilities have come under attack from the Taliban and other groups, and there is a 'genuine' risk that militants could seize weapons or bomb-making material, an article published in a West Point research group’s newsletter said.” Quote of the day. "If you don't have an idea that materializes and changes a person's life, then what have you got? You have talk, you have research, you have telephone calls, you have meetings, but you don't have a change in the community." Eunice Kennedy Shriver, founder of Special Olympics, 1921-2009. (USA Today)

Attacks against homeless people. “With economic troubles pushing more people onto the streets in the last few years, law enforcement officials and researchers are seeing a surge in unprovoked attacks against the homeless, and a number of states are considering legislation to treat such assaults as hate crimes.” Afghanistan. “In the first ever unauthorized dispatch from an officer on the frontline, one young [British] Captain offers a brutally honest account of life in Afghanistan, revealing the pain of losing comrades, the frustration at the lack of equipment, and the sense that the conflict seems unending and, at times, unwinnable.” Iran. “Iran's police chief admitted yesterday that protesters who were arrested after June's disputed presidential election had been tortured while in custody in a prison in southwest Tehran. But he denied that any of the detainees had died as a result.” Quote of the day. "My best guess is that increasingly in these rich countries, the benefits of greater development are flowing more to women. Women have more education, and because they have more education and skills they probably find it easier to take a year off and have a baby and pay for the additional costs, and then get back into the labor force." Shripad Tuljapurkar, a biology and population studies professor at Stanford University, on new research that economic prosperity may not be linked to an inexorable decline in fertility. (Washington Post)

Darfur. “The Obama administration's Sudan envoy is facing growing resistance to a suggestion he made recently to civilians displaced from Darfur that they should start planning to go back to their villages.” Kenya. “Hillary Rodham Clinton began a major trip to Africa on Wednesday by publicly urging Kenya, a strategic U.S. ally, to move faster to resolve tensions lingering from a disputed 2007 election that precipitated the country's worst crisis since it gained independence.” Immigration. “The Obama administration intends to announce an ambitious plan on Thursday to overhaul the much-criticized way the nation detains immigration violators, trying to transform it from a patchwork of jail and prison cells to what its new chief called a 'truly civil detention system.'” Quote of the day. "I call on humanity to support this sensible and achievable goal. Let us each do our part in this common journey, and thereby ensure that there will be no more victims such as those we honor today." U.N. secretary general, Ban Ki-moon, calling for complete nuclear disarmament on today’s 64th anniversary of the bombing of Hiroshima. (Guardian)

Bill Clinton in North Korea. “Former President Bill Clinton arrived in North Korea Tuesday, state media reported, in an effort to gain the release of two American journalists who were arrested in March and have been in the North's custody ever since.” Afghanistan. “Little more than three weeks before the presidential election, problems that include insecurity and fears of fraud are raising concerns about the credibility of the race, which President Obama has called the most important event in Afghanistan this year.” Darfur-Sudan. “After years of worldwide outrage over suffering in Darfur, the Obama administration will soon launch a new policy that could soften some longtime U.S. sanctions against the Sudanese government implicated in the large-scale killings and displacement of African tribespeople.” Quote of the day. "Cyclists need to be treated with respect and not surprise." Dan Grunig, executive director of Bicycle Colorado, on a new state law requiring cars to give at least a 3-foot buffer when passing cyclists. Several other states have passed similar laws. (USA Today)

Gates & Crowley at White House. “They did not link arms, and there were no public apologies. But a subdued meeting over beers on the White House patio last evening appeared to achieve President Obama’s goal of encouraging a deeper dialogue on race between Harvard professor Henry Louis Gates Jr. and Cambridge police Sergeant James Crowley.” Food safety. “The House approved the first major changes to food-safety laws in 70 years Thursday, giving sweeping new authority to the Food and Drug Administration to regulate the way food is grown, harvested and processed.” Afghanistan. “Afghanistan is notorious as the world's leading producer of opium and heroin, most of it shipped to Europe. Less well-documented is the country's own addiction epidemic. As many as a million Afghans, mostly men but increasing numbers of women, are addicted to heroin or opium.” Quote of the day. "We're not going to just be chanting, 'Yes we can! Yes we can!' We are going to put the pressure on discussing the details." Jorge Mujica, an immigration advocate in Chicago, on efforts to move forward with efforts for immigration reform. (Associated Press)

Sotomayor nomination. “President Obama’s nominee to the Supreme Court, Judge Sonia Sotomayor, moved closer to taking her seat on Tuesday as the Senate Judiciary Committee overwhelmingly approved her nomination and sent it on to the full Senate.” Food stamps. “More retailers are accepting food stamps, as a record number of consumers are turning to government aid to pay for groceries. Nearly 39 million people received food stamps — now known as Electronic Benefit Transfers — in April 2009.” Executions in China. “China plans to reduce the number of death sentences it hands out each year to 'an extremely small number' and to reserve executions for only the most serious offenders.” Quote of the day. "Our takeaway is that even going into the recession, the economic outlook for a lot of families was dire. There was a flattening of the median income, and the poverty level was creeping up year after year." Laura Beavers, national coordinator of the Annie E. Casey Foundation’s “Kids Count” annual assessment of children from low-income families, on this year’s report. (Washington Post)