MSM gave huge stories short shrift in wall-to-wall election coverage

With elections dominating mainstream media, crucial stories are landing at other ports. Truthout.org does a great job of landing an amazing number of stories and opinion that reveal profound changes afoot. Take a look…

Could Preservation Have Averted Burma Disaster?
Ben Block reports for the Worldwatch Institute: “As the floodwaters of Cyclone Nargis began to recede from Burma’s low-lying Irrawaddy Delta this week, at least one regional leader was quick to note that this […] disaster could have been partially prevented through coastal preservation.”

Utah Mine Disaster Was Avoidable, Report Says
Ian Urbina for The New York Times writes, “The general manager and possibly other senior staff at the Crandall Canyon Mine near Huntington, Utah, where nine miners died in August 2007, hid information from federal mining officials that could have prevented the disaster and should face criminal charges, according to a Congressional investigation whose results were released Thursday.”

The Truth Behind Drug Ads
Lisa Stark, Tom Shine and Kate Barrett report for ABC News: “Today, lawmakers took aim at drug ads during a Capitol Hill hearing, questioning whether ads for pharmaceutical drugs are marketing or educational tools, or downright deceptions.”

Conyers Subpoenas Addington in Torture Probe
Reuters reports: “US Vice President Dick Cheney’s chief of staff was subpoenaed on Wednesday to testify in a congressional probe of the administration’s treatment and possible torture of enemy combatants.”

US Army’s “Stop-Loss” Orders Up Dramatically Over Last Year
Julian E. Barnes reports for The Los Angeles Times: “The number of soldiers forced to remain in the Army involuntarily under the military’s controversial ’stop-loss’ program has risen sharply since the Pentagon extended combat tours last year, officials said Thursday.” And, Gregg Zoroya reports for USA Today: “More than 43,000 US troops listed as medically unfit for combat in the weeks before their scheduled deployment to Iraq or Afghanistan since 2003 were sent anyway, Pentagon records show.”

Defying Bush, House Passes Broad Housing Bill
David Stout reports for The New York Times: “House Democrats defied a veto threat from President Bush on Thursday as they approved a broad housing bill that would provide up to $300 billion in federally insured loans to refinance the mortgages of debt-strapped homeowners.”

Crude Jolt for US as Iran Scraps Oil Trade in Dollar
The Economic Times reports: “With Iran, the world’s fourth-largest oil producer, shifting its crude trading to the euro and the yen, instead of the US dollar, treasury managers feel that this could well be the first challenge to the US dollar’s dominance as currency of global trade.”

Latin America: Food Summit Declares Regional Emergency
Jose Adan Silva reports from Managua, Nicaragua, for Inter Press Service: “The presidential summit on ‘Food for Life’, held in Nicaragua, has ended with 16 Latin American countries agreeing to produce more food and sell it at low prices through strategic alliances, amid criticisms of free markets and capitalism.”

Bernard Maris | Long Live Expensive Gas, SUV-Killer
At Marianne 2, writer and journalist Bernard Maris sees the rise in gas prices as an opportunity to restore transport modes that are less bulimic than trucks and SUVs to the fashion of the times.

The New York Times | The Lucrative Art of War
The New York Times writes: “Congress is finally moving to shut one of the more egregious forms of Iraq war profiteering: defense contractors using offshore shell companies to avoid paying their fair share of payroll taxes. The practice is widespread and Congressional investigators have been dispatched to one of the prime tax refuges, the Cayman Islands, to seek a firsthand estimate of how much the Treasury is being shorted.”

Iraqi Military Orders Sadr City Residents to Evacuate
Leila Fadel, of McClatchy Newspapers: “Iraqi security forces, after more than 40 days of intense fighting, on Thursday told residents to evacuate their homes in the northeast Shiite slum of Sadr City and to move to temporary shelters on two soccer fields. The military’s call indicated the possibility of stepped-up military operations and came as Iraqi security forces raided a radio station run by backers of Shiite cleric Muqtada al Sadr. In the southern port city of Basra, militants launched rockets that struck a coalition base, killing two contractors and injuring four civilians and four coalition soldiers.”

Sari Gelzer | The Soldiers Project: Mental Health Care Confidential
Sari Gelzer, of Truthout: “The significant numbers of returning service members and veterans who are in need of mental health care have recently been put into the spotlight by a RAND Corporation report, which found approximately 300,000 men and women who served in Iraq and Afghanistan suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) or major depression. However, psychiatrist and psychoanalyst Dr. Judith Broder did not need to hear statistics four years ago to realize the wars being fought in Iraq and Afghanistan were going to have a profound psychological impact on returning troops.”

Hezbollah Gunmen Seize Control of Beirut Areas
The Associated Press: “Shiite opposition gunmen seized control of several Beirut neighborhoods from Sunni foes loyal to the US-backed government on Friday as sectarian clashes reminiscent of Lebanon’s bloody 15-year civil war raged in the capital. At least 11 people have been killed and more than 20 wounded in three days of street battles and gunfights, security officials said.”

UN Says 1.5 Million People Affected by Burma Storm
Aung Hla Tun, of Reuters: “The United Nations estimated 1.5 million people have been ’severely affected’ by the cyclone that swept through Myanmar, as the United States expressed outrage with the country’s junta over delays in allowing in aid.” Also, Andrew Buncombe, of The Independent UK: “Despite the obvious suffering, massive devastation and pressing need for urgent action, the Burmese authorities were continuing to insist yesterday that everything was under control. On the front page of the New Light of Myanmar - a state-run government publication - was a picture of the Prime Minister, Thein Sein, handing over 20 television sets and 10 DVD players as part of the ‘relief’ operation. This, in a region where there has been no electricity since the 130mph storm struck.”

Top Clinton Aide Says Race Will End in June
Scott Martelle and Bob Drogin, of The Los Angeles Times: “As talk swirled this morning over when Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton should end her quest for the Democratic presidential nomination, her campaign chairman predicted the party would have a presumptive nominee in June and, if it’s not Clinton, she would campaign for Sen. Barack Obama. The comments by Terry McAuliffe seemed aimed at persuading superdelegates and Democratic Party leaders that Clinton would not hurt party unity by pressing her campaign through the final June 3 primaries in Montana and South Dakota.”

Hinchey Calls Blue Dog Behavior “Absolutely Shameful”
Daniel W. Reilly, of The Politico: “Rep. Maurice Hinchey (D-N.Y.) issued a stern rebuke to a group of fellow House Democrats on Thursday, saying that the behavior of the fiscally conservative Blue Dog coalition was ‘absolutely shameful,’ after the group revolted on Wednesday over the cost of veterans’ educations benefits in a war funding measure, delaying consideration of the $183 billion supplemental spending bill. ‘It is absolutely shameful that members of the Blue Dog coalition would vote to take this country into Iraq on false intelligence and lies, repeatedly vote to fund the disastrous military occupation of that country, but choose to turn their backs on the brave members of our armed forces by refusing to support an expansion of education benefits for them when they come home,’ Hinchey said in a statement.”

Special Counsel Shut Down Probe of Siegelman Case
Ben Evans writes for The Associated Press, “The US Office of Special Counsel last year shut down a previously undisclosed investigation into the federal prosecution of former Alabama Governor Don Siegelman, according to an internal memo made public Wednesday.”

Violence Escalates Between Sunni and Shia in Beirut
Allegra Statton and Elizabeth Stewart for The Guardian UK report, “Clashes between Shia supporters of Hezbollah and Sunni backers of the Lebanese government intensified today, turning some neighborhoods of Beirut into battlegrounds.”

Dems Rip EPA for Axing Official
Jennifer A. Dlouhy writes for Hearst Newspapers, “Democratic senators lambasted the Environmental Protection Agency on Wednesday for ousting its top administrator in the Midwest after she pressured Dow Chemical to clean up dioxin-contaminated soil in Michigan.”

More Choice for Women Means More Sustainability
A report from The Worldwatch Institute says: “Unwanted childbearing is a greater demographic force than the desire for large families, and may have been for centuries, suggests Robert Engelman, vice president at the Worldwatch Institute, in his new book, ‘More: Population, Nature, and What Women Want.’”

Arizona’s Solar Aspirations in Peril
Faye Bowers writes for The Christian Science Monitor: “The sun shines 325 days a year in Arizona, on average, and some here see that as the state’s biggest energy asset. But fledgling efforts to turn Arizona into the solar capital of the world depend on making the initial investment in new energy plants affordable - something that could become much more difficult, perhaps even impossible, if a federal tax credit for solar projects expires at the end of the year as scheduled.”

Bill Extends US Labor Law to Marianas
The Associated Press reports: “Workers in the Mariana Islands will receive the protection of US labor law under a bill signed Thursday by President Bush. Debate over whether to extend federal labor and immigration law to the Marianas, in the northwestern Pacific, had been sullied by reports of sweatshop labor and past associations with the lobbying scandal surrounding Jack Abramoff, whose firm was hired by the islands to oppose the changes.”

Nicaragua: Working for Safety Despite Abortion Ban
Karim Velasco writes for RH Reality Check about how groups are ensuring the health of Nicaraguan women despite a ban on therapeutic abortion: “Besides the importance of drawing a legal strategy to challenge the ban on constitutional grounds, it is necessary to think of the consequences and challenges that this ban is already bringing to public health.”

Judge Orders EPA to Hurry on Carbon Monoxide
Bob Egelko for The San Francisco Chronicle, reports: “The Bush administration has violated legal deadlines for updating the nation’s clean-air standards on carbon monoxide, a federal judge in San Francisco has ruled.”

FBI Withdraws Digital Library’s National Security Letter
Paul Elias reports for The Associated Press: “A nonprofit digital library has successfully fought an FBI attempt to seize information about one of its users, and is calling on other groups to challenge government agencies attempting to obtain online customer information without a judge’s order.”

Russ Feingold | Government in Secret
Sen. Russ Feingold (D-Wisconsin), a member of the Senate Intelligence and Judiciary Committee, writes for The Los Angeles Times: “The Bush administration recently announced it will allow select members of Congress to read Justice Department legal opinions about the CIA’s controversial detainee interrogation program that have been hidden from Congress until now. But as the administration allows a glimpse of this secret law - and it is law - we are left wondering what other laws it is still keeping under lock and key.”

US Evangelicals Call for Step Back From Politics
Ed Stoddard reports for Reuters: “A group of US evangelical leaders called on Wednesday for a pullback from party politics so that followers would not become ‘useful idiots’ exploited for partisan gain.”

Sara Robinson | Outright Barbarism vs. the Civil Society
The Campaign for America’s Future’s Sara Robinson writes: “I live in a nice place. I mean that literally. It took some getting used to. After 20 years in Silicon Valley, where people put a premium on being direct and to the point, have no time to waste on small talk or personal sharing, and will call a stupid idea stupid to your face, moving to Canada required a whole lot of gearing back on that brusque American aggressive-in-your-face thing. The humbling fact was: We had to learn to mind our manners.”

Helen Thomas | A Picture Worth a Thousand Words
Helen Thomas writes for Hearst Newspapers: “Some readers resented The Washington Post for publishing an Associated Press photograph of a critically wounded Iraqi child being lifted from the rubble of his home in Baghdad’s Sadr City ‘after a US airstrike.’ Two-year-old Ali Hussein later died in a hospital. As the saying goes, the picture was worth a thousand words because it showed the true horrors of this war.”