Afternoon News Bytes: March 22, 2012 | Sojourners

Afternoon News Bytes: March 22, 2012

BLOOMBERG: Obama’s Speedy Keystone Review Won’t Accelerate Cushing Pipeline
President Barack Obama’s promise to expedite review of the southern leg of TransCanada Corp. (TRP)’s Keystone XL pipeline won’t speed up the timeline for the project, which already is slated to start construction as soon as June.
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THE HUFFINGTON POST: Under-Reported: Man-Bites-Dog Story Of Global Poverty
Oh wow! -- a media storm over the great Goldman Sachs being disavowed by one of its own in an Op-Ed article (in the New York Times) that became, controversially, a news story. Overtaken only by a storm over a semi-journalistic public radio show (This American Life) disavowing one of its own episodes attacking the great Apple, Inc.
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MOTHER JONES: "We Are All Trayvon Martin": Photos And Video From The Million Hoodie March
Hundreds of protesters gathered in New York City Wednesday for the "Million Hoodie March," a memorial of sorts for Trayvon Martin—the teenager gunned down by a neighborhood watch volunteer in the Orlando, Florida suburb of Sanford.
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SLATE: Big Neighbor Is Watching
The Department of Justice announced an investigation Monday into the February killing of Florida teenager Trayvon Martin. George Zimmerman, a self-appointed captain of an unregistered neighborhood watch, confronted and fatally shot the teenager 70 yards from his father’s house. Do neighborhood watch programs decrease crime rates?
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THE NATION: Do We Need Government To Fight Discrimination?
Fighting discrimination requires setting standards for both individual and collective behavior, educating everyone about those standards and ultimately creating some consequence for violating them. This young woman’s question implied that a society can generate compliance with such standards through volunteerism, an individual embrace of colorblind or gender-neutral ways of dealing with neighbors, students and employees.
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THE ATLANTIC: How The Other Half Saves: Financial Planning On $2 A Day
In 2005, something remarkable happened in the United States that hadn't occurred in 70 years. Americans spent all of our money. The personal savings rate that year dipped below zero for the first time since the early 1930s. For every $100 the Americans made, we spent $100.50, reaching into our savings or taking on more debt to buy expensive items like homes (this was the tip of the housing bubble) and cars.
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YAHOO NEWS/AFP: Ugandan Girls Trafficked For Sex
Sitting at a table in a run-down bar on the edge of Ugandan capital Kampala, Stella Kobusingye stares into the distance as she recalls the tangle of lies and deceit that led to her sex-slavery ordeal.
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THE NEW YORK TIMES: The New Globalist Is Homesick
ACCORDING to a recent Gallup World Poll, 1.1 billion people, or one-quarter of the earth’s adults, want to move temporarily to another country in the hope of finding more profitable work. An additional 630 million people would like to move abroad permanently.
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THINK PROGRESS: Robert Gates: Attacking Iran Would Be A ‘Catastrophe’
Iran hawks and the GOP presidential candidates like Rick Santorum, Newt Gingrich and Mitt Romney have been slow to acknowledge the inherent dangers of U.S. and/or Israeli military strikes on Iran’s nuclear facilities while members of President Obama’s cabinet have made the case that sanctions and diplomatic pressure are the best strategy for deterring Iran from pursuing a nuclear weapon.
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THINK PROGRESS: Obama Says He's Added Pipeline 'To Encircle Earth And Then Some'
As gasoline prices continue to rise, President Obama on Thursday pushed back on attacks from Republicans that he is blocking the Keystone XL pipeline and is against drilling, arguing his administration has added enough new oil and gas pipelines to "encircle the Earth and then some."
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REUTERS: Soldiers Say They Have Seized Power In Mali
Renegade soldiers said they seized power in Mali on Thursday and ordered its borders closed, threatening to reignite instability in a Saharan region shaken by the conflict in Libya.
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