Think Progress

Under the Radar

ENVIRONMENT -- HEALTH ORGANIZATIONS REJECT EPA'S LAX AIR QUALITY RULES: The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is updating air-quality rules for both coarse and fine particulate matter. "Fine particulates" -- dust, dirt, soot, smoke, and liquid droplet particles found in the air -- are the "nation's deadliest pollutant," according to the American Lung Association. Exposure to fine particulates is tied to premature death, lung disease, asthma attacks, heart attacks, and other health effects. Business associations are urging the EPA to reject stricter regulations, while environmental groups are criticizing the administration's attempts to provide exemptions for agriculture and mining sources of particulate matter. But one important group that was silent last time the EPA updated the air quality rules in 1997 is now weighing in: the American Medical Association (AMA). Clean Air Watch notes that a number of AMA lobbyists are close to the Bush administration. But the physicians' organization has spoken out against the EPA, calling particulates a "national public-health problem" and urging the agency "to adopt tougher standards than proposed."

INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS -- WORLD GROWING HOSTILE TO REFUGEES: The United Nations refugee agency, the UNHCR, has issued a new report stating that the number of refugees worldwide is at a 25-year low, but also warning that nations are using "the issue of terrorism to legitimize the introduction of restrictive asylum practices and refugee policies.” The report continues, “This has led to a tendency to criminalize migrants. �€? The rise of xenophobia and fear of asylum seekers in many countries...has led to a tendency to see refugees not as victims but as perpetrators of insecurity." Growing numbers of displaced people who fall outside the protections of the U.N. Refugee Convention -- an estimated 175 million -- are facing precarious futures amid increased security threats, growing intolerance and dips in donations, said Antonio Guterres, the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees. "Everyone that needs to be protected, should be protected," Guterres said, promising sweeping reforms in the U.N. agency to tackle the growing problems of displaced people.

SECRECY -- PENTAGON SEEKS BROAD FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT EXEMPTION FROM WMD DOCUMENT REQUESTS: The Federation of American Scientists reports that the Department of Defense "is seeking a broad new exemption from the Freedom of Information Act for unclassified information relating to weapons of mass destruction." The Pentagon has proposed legislation that lays out its plans: "Examples of such information could include...formulas and design descriptions of lethal and incapacitating materials; maps, designs, security/emergency response plans, and vulnerability assessments for facilities containing weapons of mass destruction materials." The proposal is "puzzling because most such information, including that which is not classified, is already exempt from the FOIA." But the proposed language is so broad, says the National Security Archive's Meredith Fuchs, that it could "potentially sweep everything related to any chemical facility into the exemption. There is nothing in here that explicitly protects the public's need to know some things about these facilities, e.g. violations of the law, lack of required certifications or licenses." Fuchs suggests the language should be narrowed to be "focused on what they actually are trying to protect, which I think is vulnerability information DOD learns of regarding private facilities."

Think Fast

A new consumer report finds that in California, "corporate markups and profiteering are responsible for spring [gas] price spikes, not rising crude costs or the national switchover to higher-cost ethanol, as the oil industry claims."

Rep. Chris Cannon (R-UT) has proposed an amendment to the Higher Education Act that would allow private Christian colleges to legally reject students merely based on their sexual orientation.

“Despite more than four years of legislation, executive orders and presidential directives,” a Government Accountability Office report finds that the Bush administration has "yet to comprehensively improve sharing of counterterrorism information."

35%: President Bush's approval rating, which "slipped for the third consecutive month and remains near the lowest mark of his presidency, according to a new Harris Interactive poll."

Intel on the internets. “The new Open Source Center (OSC) at CIA headquarters recently stepped up data collection and analysis based on bloggers worldwide.” OSC Director Douglas Naquin: “A lot of blogs now have become very big on the Internet, and we're getting a lot of rich information on blogs that are telling us a lot... people [are] putting information on there that doesn't exist anywhere else.”

Though U.S.-funded power and sanitation plants sit unfinished or unutilized, there's "one U.S. construction effort in Iraq that's right on schedule": the $592 million U.S. embassy, which will be the size of about 80 football fields.

In 2005, the median executive compensation package among the nation's 100 largest companies soared 25% to $17.9 million, dwarfing the 3.1% average gain by typical U.S. workers.

"The brand-name drug industry is aggressively working to keep blockbuster drugs widely used by the elderly from being sold in cheaper generic versions when their patents expire.” The roadblocks could cost seniors and the Medicare system $23 billion in potential savings. Meanwhile, Pfizer beat forecasts and earned over $4 billion in profits last quarter.

Why immigration reform isn't enough: "Acknowledging immigration's impact on low-skilled workers is not a call to close U.S. borders. ... Rather, it is recognition that, as with aspects of trade, we need to offset the harm that tends to concentrate on those who are already most vulnerable to economic change."

And finally: 欢迎访问星å·?克ä?­å›?ç?‘ç«™ (Or, if you prefer, "Welcome to Starbucks."): "If I were not serving in this office, I would certainly prefer to go into one of the coffee shops run by Starbucks," said Chinese President Hu Jintao yesterday during his visit in Seattle.