1
U.S.
Energy Secretary Optimistic on Obama’s Plan to Reduce Emissions
Ernest J. Moniz said the plan that President Obama outlined this week is achievable with some new programs and better management of existing ones, at least for the short term.
2
Style
Could Brothers and Sisters Share a Cabin at Camp?
I’m trying to find out whether my son and daughter are the only siblings who are unhappy not to be able to share a cabin at camp.
3
Health
A Label Calls Attention to Obesity
The American Medical Association has finally labeled obesity a disease, not just a risk factor for other disorders.
4
Opinion
Future of Catholic Schools
Rachel Moreno of Notre Dame writes that there is reason for hope, not despair.
5
Arts
Museums Faulted on Restitution of Nazi-Looted Art
Critics assert that museums have backtracked in recent years on returning art to the heirs of Jews whose property was seized by the Nazis.
6
Opinion
An Orphan Jackpot
Combine ill-thought-out government incentives with a misguided corporate tax system and what do you get? A blockbuster drug.
7
Arts
Billy Crystal Reads for an Audience, Prompting Laughter and a Surprise
When Billy Crystal read selections from his forthcoming book on Thursday night, the audience was expecting an evening of laughs. They got them — but they also got something they were not expecting.
8
U.S.
Farmers Look to New Ways of Irrigating in a Drought
Amid strict limits on the water farmers can pump, a project in the Texas Panhandle aimed at showing farmers how to use less irrigation water is being closely watched.
9
World
Former Mexican Governor Gets 11 Years for Taking Drug Bribes
Mario Villanueva Madrid, the former governor of the Mexican state of Quintana Roo, could only serve part of his sentence, but he faces 22 years of additional prison time in Mexico.
"The Mexican authorities first began investigating Mr. Villanueva while he was governor. Days before his term ended in 1999, he disappeared,
but was caught two years later in Cancún, where he was convicted on
organized crime and corruption offenses, imprisoned and then extradited
in 2010 to the United States, which had indicted him in 2001.
Federal prosecutors in Manhattan said he had more than $17 million in a
number of American accounts that had been seized, including one at
Lehman Brothers."
10
Business Day
Hepatitis Threat Forces Another Frozen Fruit Recall
The Food and Drug Administration has identified frozen pomegranate seeds contaminated with Hepatitis A, part of the same shipment that caused a recall of frozen berries earlier this month.
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N.Y. / Region
A Mellower ‘Mr. Negative,’ but Still Passionate About Free Expression
Norman Siegel, who led the New York Civil Liberties Union from 1985 to 2000, remains a defender of free speech, no matter how unpopular a group and its opinions may be.
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N.Y. / Region
Port Authority to Consider Bus Terminal Renovation
The 63-year-old hub, used by 225,000 travelers a day, is at once sprawling and cramped.
13
Business Day
Horse-Butchering Plan Gains as U.S. Agrees to Inspect
The Department of Agriculture said it would provide the legally required services to a plant in New Mexico and probably to two others.
14
Opinion
The Gospel According to 'Me'
In the New Age worship of the “authentic” self, personal well-being has become the primary goal of human life.
15
Business Day
State Auditor Warns That France Must Cut Spending
Structural spending cuts “on the order of’’ 13 billion euros are needed in 2014 and 15 billion euros more in 2015, a report by the French Court of Auditors stated.
16
Business Day
Journalism, Even When It’s Tilted
The question of who is a journalist is important, partly because when it comes to divulging national secrets, the law grants journalists special protections that are afforded to no one else.
17
U.S.
Local Officials Asked to Help on Health Law
The White House is recruiting local officials to promote and carry out President Obama’s health care law in states like Texas and Florida where governors are hostile to it.
18
Opinion
The Future of Voting Rights
After the Supreme Court ruling, the country must raise its voice to demand equality at the ballot box.
19
Opinion
Poor, Little Motherless Child
I feared being the child identified chiefly by her misfortune.
20
U.S.
A Celebrity Chef Appeals to a Legacy of Black Forgiveness
African-American Christians, drawing on both the Jesus narrative and the civil rights movement, have become well-practiced at forgiving their racist tormentors.The Republicans of the Supreme Court
"Monday, July 1, 2013
"In order to fully understand what the five
Republican appointees on the Supreme Court have been up to when they
make decisions that affect our democracy, as they did last week on
voting rights, you need to understand what the Republican Party has been
up to.
The modern GOP is based on an unlikely
coalition of wealthy business executives, small business owners, and
struggling whites. Its durability depends on the latter two categories
believing that the economic stresses they’ve experienced for decades
have a lot to do with the government taking their money and giving it to
the poor, who are disproportionately black and Latino.
The real reason small business owners and
struggling whites haven’t done better is the same most of the rest of
America hasn’t done better: Although the output of Americans has
continued to rise, almost all the gains have gone to the very top.
Government is implicated, but not in the way
wealthy Republicans want the other members of their coalition to
believe. Laws that the GOP itself championed (too often with the
complicity of some Democrats) have trammeled unions, invited outsourcing
abroad, slashed taxes on the rich, encouraged takeovers, allowed
monopolization, reduced the real median wage, and deregulated Wall
Street.
Four decades ago, the typical household’s
income rose in tandem with output. But since the late 1970s, as these
laws took hold, most Americans’ incomes have flattened. Had the real
median household income continued to keep pace with economic growth it
would now be almost $92,000 instead of $50,000.
Obviously, wealthy Republicans would rather
other members of their coalition not know any of this — including,
especially, their role in making it happen. Their nightmare is
small-business owners and struggling whites joining with the poor and
the rest of the middle class to wrest economic power away. So they’ve
created a convenient scapegoat in America’s minority underclass, along
with a government that supposedly taxes hardworking whites to support
them.
This is where the five Republican appointees to the Supreme Court have played, and continue to play, such an important role.
First, wealthy Republicans have to be able to
spend as much money as possible to bribe lawmakers to do their bidding,
tell their version of history, and promulgate several big lies (the
poor are “takers not makers," government keeps them “dependent," the
wealthy are “job-creators" so cutting their taxes creates more jobs,
unions are bad, regulations reduce economic growth, and so on).
The five Republicans on the Supreme Court have obliged by eviscerating campaign finance laws. Their 2010 decision in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission,
along with the broad interpretations given it by several appellate
judges (also Republican appointees), has opened the money floodgates.
Second, wealthy Republicans want to quietly
reduce the impact of any laws that might limit their profits, even
though they may help struggling whites as consumers or employees. The
easiest way to execute this delicate maneuver is to make it harder to
sue under such laws.
Here, too, the five Republicans on the Court
have been eager to oblige by tightening requirements for class actions
and limiting standing to sue. In their recent Comcast Corp. v. Behrend
decision, for example, they threw out $875 million in damages that a
group of Philadelphia-area subscribers had sought from the cable giant,
reasoning that the subscriber plaintiffs hadn’t proven they constituted a
“class" for the purpose of a class action.
Third and finally, wealthy Republicans want
to minimize the votes of poor and minority citizens – and further
propagate the myth that these people are responsible for the economic
problems of struggling whites – through state redistricting and
gerrymandering, voter-identification requirements at polling stations,
and the use of almost any pretext to purge minority voters from voting
lists.
The five Republicans on the Court obliged
last week by striking down a section of the 1965 Voting Rights Act that
sets the formula under which states with a long history of
discrimination must ask the federal government or a judge for approval
before changing their voting procedures.
The significance of Shelby County, Alabama vs. Holder
was made plain Thursday when the Court effectively nullified two cases
involving Texas voter laws by sending them back to lower courts to
reconsider in light of Shelby. One was a voter identification
requirement, enacted in 2011, that a federal judge had rejected on
grounds that it imposed a disproportionate burden on lower-income
people, many of whom are minorities. The other was a redistricting plan,
also rejected by a federal court, in part because it would block
minorities from gaining a majority vote in almost all districts.
But now both are effectively reinstated, as are the efforts of several other states to suppress votes.
Supreme Court justices are appointed for life
in order to ensure their independence from politics. But when it comes
to the core political strategy of the Republican Party, the five
Republican appointees are, in effect, an extension of the GOP. "
1
Opinion
An Orphan Jackpot
4
World
Former Mexican Governor Gets 11 Years for Taking Drug Bribes
Mario Villanueva Madrid, the former governor of the Mexican state of Quintana Roo, could only serve part of his sentence, but he faces 22 years of additional prison time in Mexico.
5
Crosswords/Games
Camels in Amsterdam
Can you crack this camel challenge from the 2012 Dutch Mathematical Olympiad?
10
Business Day
Hepatitis Threat Forces Another Frozen Fruit Recall
The Food and Drug Administration has identified frozen pomegranate seeds contaminated with Hepatitis A, part of the same shipment that caused a recall of frozen berries earlier this month.
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16
Magazine
The Suicide Detective
A Harvard researcher’s quest to predict who will act on their self-destructive impulses.
17
World
Florida Family and 4 Others Missing at Sea Off New Zealand
Rescuers were searching the waters between Australia and New Zealand for a schooner carrying three members of an American family and four other people after their boat went missing.
18
Business Day
The Chatter for Sunday, June 30
Notable quotes from business articles that appeared in The New York Times last week.
19
Business Day
Golden Parachutes Are Still Very Much in Style
Despite years of public outcry, chief executives who leave big companies often still receive millions in exit packages.
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