THE EU'S GROWING IMPACT ON AMERICAN BUSINESS AND CONSUMERS The four general areas highlighted below are significant in terms of their direct impact on the ability of American companies to conduct business and sell their products in the European market. 1. Environmental protection. Example: There is a wide array of EU directives that regulate and enforce high standards of environmental

protection.

HOW MAJORITY RULE WORKS IN THE U.S. SENATE The press and political leaders often say that a three-fifths majority is needed to pass a bill. That's incorrect, but more and more it is working out that way. Longtime journalist Lawrence Meyer explains and spells out how dissenting senators, conceivably representing no more than 12 percent of the population, can stymie legislation. LOCAL PHONE CHARGES HAVE SOARED SINCE THE BREAK-UP OF AT&T This is simply not true. In New York City, for example, local phone service prices have increased a whopping 426 percent since the break up of AT&T in 1983, even though there’s been a dramatic decrease in the costs of offering service, from massive staff cuts to cuts in construction. It seems no regulator has been interested in protecting

the

A B-52 WITH SIX ARMED NUCLEAR MISSILES FLEW OVER THE U.S According to the Washington Post (" In Error, B-52 Flew Over U.S. With Nuclear-Armed Missiles ," Josh White, September 6, 2007), "The Stratofortress bomber, based at Minot Air Force Base in North Dakota, was transporting a dozen Advanced Cruise Missiles to Barksdale Air Force Base in Louisiana on Aug. 30. But crews inadvertently loaded

half of

HOW THE BABY BELLS AND THE GOVERNMENT DESTROYED How the Baby Bells and the government destroyed competition for DSL, long distance and local phone service ASK THIS | April 13, 2006. Customer advocate Bruce Kushnick, in the second of a series on telecommunications, writes that reporters should be asking why the promised era of competition to lower prices and bring broadband to America never materialized. HOW MUCH DOES AN ACTIVE DUTY SOLDIER COST PER YEAR, AND Its auditors made an educated guess that, in FY04, the all-volunteer military was costing, when averaged out, $112,000 a year for every trooper and officer on ac­tive duty. The cost has gone way up since 2004 because Congress and the Pentagon have heaped more money on the military to save it. Of the 1.4 million military men and women on

active

FEWER EMERGENCY ROOMS BUT MORE PATIENTS Fewer emergency rooms but more patients. In recent years several hundred emergency departments (EDs) closed around the U.S., while the total number of patient visits soared. A 2008 study showed waits to see the ED physician increased 36% between 1997 and 2004. The government's answer: cut funding for urban hospitals, where waits are

longest.

HUNGER, ALMOST ELIMINATED IN THE 70’S, IS NOW WIDESPREAD Hunger, almost eliminated in the 70’s, is now widespread. The United States is the only western industrial democracy that lets millions go hungry, including many above the poverty line, and the problem is

getting worse. Dr.

NIEMAN WATCHDOG > ABOUT US > CONTRIBUTOR > GALIT LIPA Galit Lipa is a supervising attorney at the Mills Criminal Defense Clinic of Stanford Law School, an organization devoted primarily to representing individuals facing life imprisonment under California’s Three Strikes Law. Lipa was most recently a deputy public defender at the Contra Costa County Office of the Public Defender. WHAT IF THE CASEY ANTHONY JURY HADN'T BEEN SEQUESTERED? The court of public opinion, shaped by sensational, damning press accounts, found this young Florida woman to be a horrid person, guilty as charged in her two-year-old daughter’s death. The jury, sequestered and not subject to the vicious coverage, acquitted her. Writer Keith Long thinks the jury got it right, and says justice was done despite the media’s accounts. THE EU'S GROWING IMPACT ON AMERICAN BUSINESS AND CONSUMERS The four general areas highlighted below are significant in terms of their direct impact on the ability of American companies to conduct business and sell their products in the European market. 1. Environmental protection. Example: There is a wide array of EU directives that regulate and enforce high standards of environmental

protection.

HOW MAJORITY RULE WORKS IN THE U.S. SENATE The press and political leaders often say that a three-fifths majority is needed to pass a bill. That's incorrect, but more and more it is working out that way. Longtime journalist Lawrence Meyer explains and spells out how dissenting senators, conceivably representing no more than 12 percent of the population, can stymie legislation. LOCAL PHONE CHARGES HAVE SOARED SINCE THE BREAK-UP OF AT&T This is simply not true. In New York City, for example, local phone service prices have increased a whopping 426 percent since the break up of AT&T in 1983, even though there’s been a dramatic decrease in the costs of offering service, from massive staff cuts to cuts in construction. It seems no regulator has been interested in protecting

the

A B-52 WITH SIX ARMED NUCLEAR MISSILES FLEW OVER THE U.S According to the Washington Post (" In Error, B-52 Flew Over U.S. With Nuclear-Armed Missiles ," Josh White, September 6, 2007), "The Stratofortress bomber, based at Minot Air Force Base in North Dakota, was transporting a dozen Advanced Cruise Missiles to Barksdale Air Force Base in Louisiana on Aug. 30. But crews inadvertently loaded

half of

HOW THE BABY BELLS AND THE GOVERNMENT DESTROYED How the Baby Bells and the government destroyed competition for DSL, long distance and local phone service ASK THIS | April 13, 2006. Customer advocate Bruce Kushnick, in the second of a series on telecommunications, writes that reporters should be asking why the promised era of competition to lower prices and bring broadband to America never materialized. HOW MUCH DOES AN ACTIVE DUTY SOLDIER COST PER YEAR, AND Its auditors made an educated guess that, in FY04, the all-volunteer military was costing, when averaged out, $112,000 a year for every trooper and officer on ac­tive duty. The cost has gone way up since 2004 because Congress and the Pentagon have heaped more money on the military to save it. Of the 1.4 million military men and women on

active

FEWER EMERGENCY ROOMS BUT MORE PATIENTS Fewer emergency rooms but more patients. In recent years several hundred emergency departments (EDs) closed around the U.S., while the total number of patient visits soared. A 2008 study showed waits to see the ED physician increased 36% between 1997 and 2004. The government's answer: cut funding for urban hospitals, where waits are

longest.

HUNGER, ALMOST ELIMINATED IN THE 70’S, IS NOW WIDESPREAD Hunger, almost eliminated in the 70’s, is now widespread. The United States is the only western industrial democracy that lets millions go hungry, including many above the poverty line, and the problem is

getting worse. Dr.

NIEMAN WATCHDOG > ABOUT US > CONTRIBUTOR > GALIT LIPA Galit Lipa is a supervising attorney at the Mills Criminal Defense Clinic of Stanford Law School, an organization devoted primarily to representing individuals facing life imprisonment under California’s Three Strikes Law. Lipa was most recently a deputy public defender at the Contra Costa County Office of the Public Defender. WHAT IF THE CASEY ANTHONY JURY HADN'T BEEN SEQUESTERED? The court of public opinion, shaped by sensational, damning press accounts, found this young Florida woman to be a horrid person, guilty as charged in her two-year-old daughter’s death. The jury, sequestered and not subject to the vicious coverage, acquitted her. Writer Keith Long thinks the jury got it right, and says justice was done despite the media’s accounts.

NIEMAN WATCHDOG

A new direction for the Nieman Watchdog Project The Nieman Watchdog Project has changed course. As of August 27, 2012, Watchdog stories will find a new home in Nieman Reports, the publication that has documented the most important shifts in journalism for the past 65 years.Niemanwatchdog.org will remain online as an archive of important watchdog articles from the past eight years. A WATERGATE LESSON: SECRET MONEY MEANS PAYOFFS, BRIBES AND A Watergate lesson: Secret money means payoffs, bribes and extortion. Some are comparing today’s secret campaign contributions with those in the Watergate scandal. Barry Sussman describes the criminal money fraud in the early Nixon years and concludes that, bad as it was, the problem is much worse now. The newest wave of massive, secret MR. PRESIDENT, WILL YOU ANSWER THE QUESTION? The question should be simple and direct enough so that everyone, including the president, understands precisely what is being asked -- and so that if the president doesn't answer it, it's clear to everyone that he has chosen to avoid it. Consider one modest example of what not to do, from Bush's Nov. 4 news conference. WHAT IF THE CASEY ANTHONY JURY HADN'T BEEN SEQUESTERED? The court of public opinion, shaped by sensational, damning press accounts, found this young Florida woman to be a horrid person, guilty as charged in her two-year-old daughter’s death. The jury, sequestered and not subject to the vicious coverage, acquitted her. Writer Keith Long thinks the jury got it right, and says justice was done despite the media’s accounts. MORTON MINTZ ON THE COLLAPSE OF CONGRESSIONAL OVERSIGHT Morton Mintz on the collapse of Congressional oversight SHOWCASE | May 02, 2005. A personal account by the longtime investigative reporter and adviser to this Web site on his experience with Congressional oversight, how it should work, and how Congress and the 8 QUESTIONS ABOUT ONLINE PRIVACY Proxy services and tools to obfuscate the identities of those online and their activity are growing in number. Tools like Tor have been developed to protect privacy and prevent network surveillance. Recent announcements by companies like Mozilla, with their Track Me Not tool, indicate that it is good public relations to allow online users a

modicum of privacy.

HOW A SUPERPOWER CAN END UP LOSING TO THE LITTLE GUYS How a superpower can end up losing to the little guys COMMENTARY | March 23, 2007. A Harvard scholar explores the implications of his recent research on asymmetric conflicts, which shows that strong actors are losing to the weak more and more often over time, and gleans some important lessons about the United States and Iraq. A MARINE GENERAL FINDS RETIREMENT PAYS VERY NICELY A Marine general finds retirement pays very nicely SHOWCASE | December 15, 2009. USA Today weighs into a case of what it calls ‘profiting from access,’ laying out how one retired general has possibly made more than a million dollars in the past six years from the military aside from his pension, not including income from military

contractors.

WHY DID THE MEDICAL ESTABLISHMENT ALLOW PHARMA'S 12-YEAR Why did the medical establishment allow Pharma's 12-year bone scam? Creating a phony need, getting treatment of it Medicare-reimbursable – and greatly increasing the danger of esophageal cancer and other serious health problems. Women are in NINE STORIES THE PRESS IS UNDERREPORTING -- FRAUD, FRAUD Nine stories the press is underreporting -- fraud, fraud and more fraud ASK THIS | October 20, 2010. From liars' loans to liars' liens, the financial and foreclosure crisis has been one big story of banks defrauding their customers -- a vast criminal enterprise. THE EU'S GROWING IMPACT ON AMERICAN BUSINESS AND CONSUMERS The four general areas highlighted below are significant in terms of their direct impact on the ability of American companies to conduct business and sell their products in the European market. 1. Environmental protection. Example: There is a wide array of EU directives that regulate and enforce high standards of environmental

protection.

HOW MAJORITY RULE WORKS IN THE U.S. SENATE The press and political leaders often say that a three-fifths majority is needed to pass a bill. That's incorrect, but more and more it is working out that way. Longtime journalist Lawrence Meyer explains and spells out how dissenting senators, conceivably representing no more than 12 percent of the population, can stymie legislation. LOCAL PHONE CHARGES HAVE SOARED SINCE THE BREAK-UP OF AT&T This is simply not true. In New York City, for example, local phone service prices have increased a whopping 426 percent since the break up of AT&T in 1983, even though there’s been a dramatic decrease in the costs of offering service, from massive staff cuts to cuts in construction. It seems no regulator has been interested in protecting

the

HOW THE BABY BELLS AND THE GOVERNMENT DESTROYED How the Baby Bells and the government destroyed competition for DSL, long distance and local phone service ASK THIS | April 13, 2006. Customer advocate Bruce Kushnick, in the second of a series on telecommunications, writes that reporters should be asking why the promised era of competition to lower prices and bring broadband to America never materialized. A B-52 WITH SIX ARMED NUCLEAR MISSILES FLEW OVER THE U.S According to the Washington Post (" In Error, B-52 Flew Over U.S. With Nuclear-Armed Missiles ," Josh White, September 6, 2007), "The Stratofortress bomber, based at Minot Air Force Base in North Dakota, was transporting a dozen Advanced Cruise Missiles to Barksdale Air Force Base in Louisiana on Aug. 30. But crews inadvertently loaded

half of

HOW MUCH DOES AN ACTIVE DUTY SOLDIER COST PER YEAR, AND Its auditors made an educated guess that, in FY04, the all-volunteer military was costing, when averaged out, $112,000 a year for every trooper and officer on ac­tive duty. The cost has gone way up since 2004 because Congress and the Pentagon have heaped more money on the military to save it. Of the 1.4 million military men and women on

active

FEWER EMERGENCY ROOMS BUT MORE PATIENTS Fewer emergency rooms but more patients. In recent years several hundred emergency departments (EDs) closed around the U.S., while the total number of patient visits soared. A 2008 study showed waits to see the ED physician increased 36% between 1997 and 2004. The government's answer: cut funding for urban hospitals, where waits are

longest.

HUNGER, ALMOST ELIMINATED IN THE 70’S, IS NOW WIDESPREAD Hunger, almost eliminated in the 70’s, is now widespread. The United States is the only western industrial democracy that lets millions go hungry, including many above the poverty line, and the problem is

getting worse. Dr.

A MARINE GENERAL FINDS RETIREMENT PAYS VERY NICELY A Marine general finds retirement pays very nicely SHOWCASE | December 15, 2009. USA Today weighs into a case of what it calls ‘profiting from access,’ laying out how one retired general has possibly made more than a million dollars in the past six years from the military aside from his pension, not including income from military

contractors.

WHAT IF THE CASEY ANTHONY JURY HADN'T BEEN SEQUESTERED? The court of public opinion, shaped by sensational, damning press accounts, found this young Florida woman to be a horrid person, guilty as charged in her two-year-old daughter’s death. The jury, sequestered and not subject to the vicious coverage, acquitted her. Writer Keith Long thinks the jury got it right, and says justice was done despite the media’s accounts. THE EU'S GROWING IMPACT ON AMERICAN BUSINESS AND CONSUMERS The four general areas highlighted below are significant in terms of their direct impact on the ability of American companies to conduct business and sell their products in the European market. 1. Environmental protection. Example: There is a wide array of EU directives that regulate and enforce high standards of environmental

protection.

HOW MAJORITY RULE WORKS IN THE U.S. SENATE The press and political leaders often say that a three-fifths majority is needed to pass a bill. That's incorrect, but more and more it is working out that way. Longtime journalist Lawrence Meyer explains and spells out how dissenting senators, conceivably representing no more than 12 percent of the population, can stymie legislation. LOCAL PHONE CHARGES HAVE SOARED SINCE THE BREAK-UP OF AT&T This is simply not true. In New York City, for example, local phone service prices have increased a whopping 426 percent since the break up of AT&T in 1983, even though there’s been a dramatic decrease in the costs of offering service, from massive staff cuts to cuts in construction. It seems no regulator has been interested in protecting

the

HOW THE BABY BELLS AND THE GOVERNMENT DESTROYED How the Baby Bells and the government destroyed competition for DSL, long distance and local phone service ASK THIS | April 13, 2006. Customer advocate Bruce Kushnick, in the second of a series on telecommunications, writes that reporters should be asking why the promised era of competition to lower prices and bring broadband to America never materialized. A B-52 WITH SIX ARMED NUCLEAR MISSILES FLEW OVER THE U.S According to the Washington Post (" In Error, B-52 Flew Over U.S. With Nuclear-Armed Missiles ," Josh White, September 6, 2007), "The Stratofortress bomber, based at Minot Air Force Base in North Dakota, was transporting a dozen Advanced Cruise Missiles to Barksdale Air Force Base in Louisiana on Aug. 30. But crews inadvertently loaded

half of

HOW MUCH DOES AN ACTIVE DUTY SOLDIER COST PER YEAR, AND Its auditors made an educated guess that, in FY04, the all-volunteer military was costing, when averaged out, $112,000 a year for every trooper and officer on ac­tive duty. The cost has gone way up since 2004 because Congress and the Pentagon have heaped more money on the military to save it. Of the 1.4 million military men and women on

active

FEWER EMERGENCY ROOMS BUT MORE PATIENTS Fewer emergency rooms but more patients. In recent years several hundred emergency departments (EDs) closed around the U.S., while the total number of patient visits soared. A 2008 study showed waits to see the ED physician increased 36% between 1997 and 2004. The government's answer: cut funding for urban hospitals, where waits are

longest.

HUNGER, ALMOST ELIMINATED IN THE 70’S, IS NOW WIDESPREAD Hunger, almost eliminated in the 70’s, is now widespread. The United States is the only western industrial democracy that lets millions go hungry, including many above the poverty line, and the problem is

getting worse. Dr.

A MARINE GENERAL FINDS RETIREMENT PAYS VERY NICELY A Marine general finds retirement pays very nicely SHOWCASE | December 15, 2009. USA Today weighs into a case of what it calls ‘profiting from access,’ laying out how one retired general has possibly made more than a million dollars in the past six years from the military aside from his pension, not including income from military

contractors.

WHAT IF THE CASEY ANTHONY JURY HADN'T BEEN SEQUESTERED? The court of public opinion, shaped by sensational, damning press accounts, found this young Florida woman to be a horrid person, guilty as charged in her two-year-old daughter’s death. The jury, sequestered and not subject to the vicious coverage, acquitted her. Writer Keith Long thinks the jury got it right, and says justice was done despite the media’s accounts.

NIEMAN WATCHDOG

A new direction for the Nieman Watchdog Project The Nieman Watchdog Project has changed course. As of August 27, 2012, Watchdog stories will find a new home in Nieman Reports, the publication that has documented the most important shifts in journalism for the past 65 years.Niemanwatchdog.org will remain online as an archive of important watchdog articles from the past eight years. A WATERGATE LESSON: SECRET MONEY MEANS PAYOFFS, BRIBES AND A Watergate lesson: Secret money means payoffs, bribes and extortion. Some are comparing today’s secret campaign contributions with those in the Watergate scandal. Barry Sussman describes the criminal money fraud in the early Nixon years and concludes that, bad as it was, the problem is much worse now. The newest wave of massive, secret MR. PRESIDENT, WILL YOU ANSWER THE QUESTION? The question should be simple and direct enough so that everyone, including the president, understands precisely what is being asked -- and so that if the president doesn't answer it, it's clear to everyone that he has chosen to avoid it. Consider one modest example of what not to do, from Bush's Nov. 4 news conference. A MARINE GENERAL FINDS RETIREMENT PAYS VERY NICELY A Marine general finds retirement pays very nicely SHOWCASE | December 15, 2009. USA Today weighs into a case of what it calls ‘profiting from access,’ laying out how one retired general has possibly made more than a million dollars in the past six years from the military aside from his pension, not including income from military

contractors.

AMERICA'S SECRET EMPIRE OF DRONE BASES America's secret empire of drone bases. COMMENTARY | October 17, 2011. Nick Turse writes that these bases -- some little more than desolate airstrips, others sophisticated command and control centers -- are the backbone of a new American robotic way of war. This article originally appeared on TomDispatch.com. WHAT IF THE CASEY ANTHONY JURY HADN'T BEEN SEQUESTERED? The court of public opinion, shaped by sensational, damning press accounts, found this young Florida woman to be a horrid person, guilty as charged in her two-year-old daughter’s death. The jury, sequestered and not subject to the vicious coverage, acquitted her. Writer Keith Long thinks the jury got it right, and says justice was done despite the media’s accounts. 8 QUESTIONS ABOUT ONLINE PRIVACY Proxy services and tools to obfuscate the identities of those online and their activity are growing in number. Tools like Tor have been developed to protect privacy and prevent network surveillance. Recent announcements by companies like Mozilla, with their Track Me Not tool, indicate that it is good public relations to allow online users a

modicum of privacy.

MORTON MINTZ ON THE COLLAPSE OF CONGRESSIONAL OVERSIGHT Morton Mintz on the collapse of Congressional oversight SHOWCASE | May 02, 2005. A personal account by the longtime investigative reporter and adviser to this Web site on his experience with Congressional oversight, how it should work, and how Congress and the HOW A SUPERPOWER CAN END UP LOSING TO THE LITTLE GUYS How a superpower can end up losing to the little guys COMMENTARY | March 23, 2007. A Harvard scholar explores the implications of his recent research on asymmetric conflicts, which shows that strong actors are losing to the weak more and more often over time, and gleans some important lessons about the United States and Iraq. WHY DID THE MEDICAL ESTABLISHMENT ALLOW PHARMA'S 12-YEAR Why did the medical establishment allow Pharma's 12-year bone scam? Creating a phony need, getting treatment of it Medicare-reimbursable – and greatly increasing the danger of esophageal cancer and other serious health problems. Women are in

NIEMAN WATCHDOG

A new direction for the Nieman Watchdog Project The Nieman Watchdog Project has changed course. As of August 27, 2012, Watchdog stories will find a new home in Nieman Reports, the publication that has documented the most important shifts in journalism for the past 65 years.Niemanwatchdog.org will remain online as an archive of important watchdog articles from the past eight years. THE EU'S GROWING IMPACT ON AMERICAN BUSINESS AND CONSUMERS The four general areas highlighted below are significant in terms of their direct impact on the ability of American companies to conduct business and sell their products in the European market. 1. Environmental protection. Example: There is a wide array of EU directives that regulate and enforce high standards of environmental

protection.

HOW MAJORITY RULE WORKS IN THE U.S. SENATE The press and political leaders often say that a three-fifths majority is needed to pass a bill. That's incorrect, but more and more it is working out that way. Longtime journalist Lawrence Meyer explains and spells out how dissenting senators, conceivably representing no more than 12 percent of the population, can stymie legislation. LOCAL PHONE CHARGES HAVE SOARED SINCE THE BREAK-UP OF AT&T This is simply not true. In New York City, for example, local phone service prices have increased a whopping 426 percent since the break up of AT&T in 1983, even though there’s been a dramatic decrease in the costs of offering service, from massive staff cuts to cuts in construction. It seems no regulator has been interested in protecting

the

A MARINE GENERAL FINDS RETIREMENT PAYS VERY NICELY A Marine general finds retirement pays very nicely SHOWCASE | December 15, 2009. USA Today weighs into a case of what it calls ‘profiting from access,’ laying out how one retired general has possibly made more than a million dollars in the past six years from the military aside from his pension, not including income from military

contractors.

A B-52 WITH SIX ARMED NUCLEAR MISSILES FLEW OVER THE U.S According to the Washington Post (" In Error, B-52 Flew Over U.S. With Nuclear-Armed Missiles ," Josh White, September 6, 2007), "The Stratofortress bomber, based at Minot Air Force Base in North Dakota, was transporting a dozen Advanced Cruise Missiles to Barksdale Air Force Base in Louisiana on Aug. 30. But crews inadvertently loaded

half of

FEWER EMERGENCY ROOMS BUT MORE PATIENTS In recent years several hundred emergency departments (EDs) closed around the U.S., while the total number of patient visits soared. A 2008 study showed waits to see the ED physician increased 36% between 1997 and 2004. The government's answer: cut funding for HOW THE BABY BELLS AND THE GOVERNMENT DESTROYED How the Baby Bells and the government destroyed competition for DSL, long distance and local phone service ASK THIS | April 13, 2006. Customer advocate Bruce Kushnick, in the second of a series on telecommunications, writes that reporters should be asking why the promised era of competition to lower prices and bring broadband to America never materialized. HOW MUCH DOES AN ACTIVE DUTY SOLDIER COST PER YEAR, AND Its auditors made an educated guess that, in FY04, the all-volunteer military was costing, when averaged out, $112,000 a year for every trooper and officer on ac­tive duty. The cost has gone way up since 2004 because Congress and the Pentagon have heaped more money on the military to save it. Of the 1.4 million military men and women on

active

8 QUESTIONS ABOUT ONLINE PRIVACY Will the U.S. follow Europe's lead in establishing strict online privacy rules? Or will powerful interests have their way and maintain the status quo? Darren Hayes, a Pace University expert in computer security, poses questions that should come up before, during, or after a Senate Commerce Committee hearing into the topic.

NIEMAN WATCHDOG

A new direction for the Nieman Watchdog Project The Nieman Watchdog Project has changed course. As of August 27, 2012, Watchdog stories will find a new home in Nieman Reports, the publication that has documented the most important shifts in journalism for the past 65 years.Niemanwatchdog.org will remain online as an archive of important watchdog articles from the past eight years. THE EU'S GROWING IMPACT ON AMERICAN BUSINESS AND CONSUMERS The four general areas highlighted below are significant in terms of their direct impact on the ability of American companies to conduct business and sell their products in the European market. 1. Environmental protection. Example: There is a wide array of EU directives that regulate and enforce high standards of environmental

protection.

HOW MAJORITY RULE WORKS IN THE U.S. SENATE The press and political leaders often say that a three-fifths majority is needed to pass a bill. That's incorrect, but more and more it is working out that way. Longtime journalist Lawrence Meyer explains and spells out how dissenting senators, conceivably representing no more than 12 percent of the population, can stymie legislation. LOCAL PHONE CHARGES HAVE SOARED SINCE THE BREAK-UP OF AT&T This is simply not true. In New York City, for example, local phone service prices have increased a whopping 426 percent since the break up of AT&T in 1983, even though there’s been a dramatic decrease in the costs of offering service, from massive staff cuts to cuts in construction. It seems no regulator has been interested in protecting

the

A MARINE GENERAL FINDS RETIREMENT PAYS VERY NICELY A Marine general finds retirement pays very nicely SHOWCASE | December 15, 2009. USA Today weighs into a case of what it calls ‘profiting from access,’ laying out how one retired general has possibly made more than a million dollars in the past six years from the military aside from his pension, not including income from military

contractors.

A B-52 WITH SIX ARMED NUCLEAR MISSILES FLEW OVER THE U.S According to the Washington Post (" In Error, B-52 Flew Over U.S. With Nuclear-Armed Missiles ," Josh White, September 6, 2007), "The Stratofortress bomber, based at Minot Air Force Base in North Dakota, was transporting a dozen Advanced Cruise Missiles to Barksdale Air Force Base in Louisiana on Aug. 30. But crews inadvertently loaded

half of

FEWER EMERGENCY ROOMS BUT MORE PATIENTS In recent years several hundred emergency departments (EDs) closed around the U.S., while the total number of patient visits soared. A 2008 study showed waits to see the ED physician increased 36% between 1997 and 2004. The government's answer: cut funding for HOW THE BABY BELLS AND THE GOVERNMENT DESTROYED How the Baby Bells and the government destroyed competition for DSL, long distance and local phone service ASK THIS | April 13, 2006. Customer advocate Bruce Kushnick, in the second of a series on telecommunications, writes that reporters should be asking why the promised era of competition to lower prices and bring broadband to America never materialized. HOW MUCH DOES AN ACTIVE DUTY SOLDIER COST PER YEAR, AND Its auditors made an educated guess that, in FY04, the all-volunteer military was costing, when averaged out, $112,000 a year for every trooper and officer on ac­tive duty. The cost has gone way up since 2004 because Congress and the Pentagon have heaped more money on the military to save it. Of the 1.4 million military men and women on

active

8 QUESTIONS ABOUT ONLINE PRIVACY Will the U.S. follow Europe's lead in establishing strict online privacy rules? Or will powerful interests have their way and maintain the status quo? Darren Hayes, a Pace University expert in computer security, poses questions that should come up before, during, or after a Senate Commerce Committee hearing into the topic. NIEMAN WATCHDOG > SHOWCASE SHOWCASE. Investigative reporter and innovator Chuck Lewis taped interviews with journalists who played a role in some of the biggest stories of the past 60 years – national ‘moments of truth,’ as Lewis calls them. The result, ‘Investigating Power,’ is a tribute to good reporting and a reminder of how powerful the press can be when

it

THE ROLE OF EVERYDAY CITIZENS IN HOMELAND SECURITY The role of everyday citizens in homeland security. Instead of just fueling public fears, the government could actually strengthen public resilience, writes James Forest, who teaches terrorism studies at West Point. Last in a series about homeland security. Q. FEWER EMERGENCY ROOMS BUT MORE PATIENTS In recent years several hundred emergency departments (EDs) closed around the U.S., while the total number of patient visits soared. A 2008 study showed waits to see the ED physician increased 36% between 1997 and 2004. The government's answer: cut funding for AMERICA'S SECRET EMPIRE OF DRONE BASES America's secret empire of drone bases COMMENTARY | October 17, 2011. Nick Turse writes that these bases -- some little more than desolate airstrips, others sophisticated command and control centers -- are the backbone of a new American robotic way of war. HUNGER, ALMOST ELIMINATED IN THE 70’S, IS NOW WIDESPREAD Hunger, almost eliminated in the 70’s, is now widespread. The United States is the only western industrial democracy that lets millions go hungry, including many above the poverty line, and the problem is

getting worse. Dr.

FRUSTRATION IN THE ARMY OFFICER CORPS -- THE UNTOLD STORY Frustration in the Army officer corps -- the untold story. COMMENTARY | July 03, 2008. Army officers are tremendously stressed out, for a lot of obvious reasons. But they don't like complaining to reporters. A retired Army colonel looks at the pressures created by fighting two wars at the same time – and suggests a few ways members of the MR. PRESIDENT, WILL YOU ANSWER THE QUESTION? The question should be simple and direct enough so that everyone, including the president, understands precisely what is being asked -- and so that if the president doesn't answer it, it's clear to everyone that he has chosen to avoid it. Consider one modest example of what not to do, from Bush's Nov. 4 news conference. HOW MUCH DOES AN ACTIVE DUTY SOLDIER COST PER YEAR, AND This is the prediction of retired Marine Maj. Gen. Arnold Punaro, a fully certified expert on military manpower. He was the longtime aide for former Senate Armed Services Chairman Sam Nunn, D-Ga. Punaro himself chaired the Commission on the National Guard and Reserves, which issued a report last year on how those forces should be transformed. He was also on Pres­ident Obama’s short list for SHIFTING THE HEALTH INSURANCE BURDEN Burton—speaking "as an individual"—essentially agreed. Universal health insurance would have "a profound effect" not just on the supermarket industry but "on nearly all collective bargaining," Burton told me. Nonunion companies "virtually never" provide health care of the same quality as that provided by unionized competitors, thus

creating

WHY DID THE MEDICAL ESTABLISHMENT ALLOW PHARMA'S 12-YEAR Why did the medical establishment allow Pharma's 12-year bone scam? Creating a phony need, getting treatment of it Medicare-reimbursable – and greatly increasing the danger of esophageal cancer and other serious health problems. Women are in Explore Harvard's Nieman network Nieman

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A new direction for the Nieman Watchdog Project The Nieman Watchdog Project has changed course. As of August 27, 2012, Watchdog stories will find a new home in Nieman Reports , the publication that has documented the most important shifts in journalism for the past 65 years. Niemanwatchdog.org will remain online as an archive of important watchdog articles from the past eight years. In addition, the Watchdog Project will be supporting a new Nieman Fellowship and expanding its programming on accountability journalism. Announcement about Nieman Watchdog's new direction Nieman Watchdog editor Barry Sussman's goodbye column

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