Coal union boosts giving to Democrats as hopes dim for industry revival

By Timothy Gardner and Grant Smith; editing by Richard Valdmanis and Steve Orlofsky 29 October 2018 WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The top U.S. coal miners union has put a larger share of its campaign donations behind Democrats ahead of the 6 November 2018 elections than in 2016, as dimming hopes for a coal industry revival led […]

In Europe, Good Samaritans who help migrants find themselves in court – “If we don’t help our neighbors, we lose our humanity”

By Saphora Smith 28 October 2018 (NBC News) – Norbert Valley was surprised to see police show up at a Sunday morning service at the evangelical church in Switzerland where he is pastor. He was even more perplexed when the officers told him he had broken the law by allowing a migrant who did not […]

What migrants displaced by the Dust Bowl and climate events can teach us

By Francesca Paris 20 October 2018 (NPR) – The World Bank predicts climate change could create as many as 143 million “climate migrants” by 2050. The result would be a mass migration twice as large as the number of refugees in the world today.Though the size of potential displacement is unprecedented, the relationship between migration […]

Impoverished farm town is left behind in California – “We’re in the Appalachians of the West”

By Brian Melley 19 October 2018 HURON, California (AP) – A rooster signals the start of the day as workers wearing sombreros and ball caps emerge from the shadows and shuffle past boarded-up businesses in this tiny farm town. They converge on a dimly lit dirt lot outside Panaderia de Dios, a bakery sweetening the […]

Mexicans shower the migrant caravan with kindness, tarps, tortillas, and medicine – “Today it’s them. Tomorrow it could be us.”

By Joshua Partlow 26 October 2018 PIJIJIAPAN, Mexico – Everything Pedro Osmin Ulloa was wearing, from the black felt shoes with the gold buckles to the shimmery blue button-down, was as new to him as he was to Mexico.The 30-year-old Honduran corn farmer and dogged sojourner in the migrant caravan was dressed head-to-toe in donated […]

Opioid crisis: Incalculable pain and a $1 trillion hit to the U.S.

By Irina Ivanova 24 October 2018 (CBS News) – President Donald Trump is set Wednesday to sign another bill that aims to stem America’s opioid crisis. It comes as overdose deaths from the drugs have continued to surge. Roughly 70,000 people died from overdoses last year, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, […]

The shocking numbers behind America’s opioid epidemic – “The hard truth is that, unless bold action is taken, the opioid epidemic is projected to claim nearly 500,000 lives over the next decade”

By Nick Routley 13 October 2018 (Visual Capitalist) – Drug overdoses are the leading cause of death for Americans under the age of 50, who are now more likely to die from a drug overdose than from car accidents or firearms. The United States has the dubious distinction of having the highest percentage of drug-related […]

The “Everything Bubble”: Analyst who predicted the 2008 crash warns of bubble brewing in U.S. household wealth

By Barbara Kollmeyer 18 October 2018 (MarketWatch) – Much has been made about how much wealth is sloshing around in U.S. households and the significance of that fact. Our call of the day pulls no punches as it warns that all of that oft-referenced increase in affluence has been artificially inflated by the Fed, which […]

Honduran migrant caravan grows to 4000 as U.S. border crossings spike

By Julia Ainsley and Abigail Williams 17 October 2018 WASHINGTON (NBC News) – A caravan of migrants fleeing Honduras has grown to 4,000 and the Mexican government has sent an additional 500 federal police to its border with Guatemala in anticipation of their arrival, according to U.S. government documents obtained by NBC News.Part of the […]

UN report shows climate change causing “dramatic rise” in economic losses – “The next one that is going to hit us with an explosion is heatwaves”

10 October 2018 (UN News) – Climate-related and geophysical disasters such as earthquakes and tsunamis have killed 1.3 million people over the last 20 years and left a further 4.4 billion injured, homeless or in need of emergency assistance, UN experts said on Wednesday.The findings [pdf], published by the UN Office for Disaster Risk Reduction […]

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