Journalism Archives - Page 73 of 118 - Kit O'Connell: Approximately 8,000 Words

Trolling Her Way To The White House?: Clinton-Linked PAC Launches $1M Campaign Against Trump & ‘Bernie Bros’

Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton speaking with supporters at a "Get Out the Caucus" rally at Valley Southwoods Freshman High School in West Des Moines, Iowa. (Wikimedia Commons / Gage Skidmore)

May 10, 2016

Kit

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Trolling Her Way To The White House?: Clinton-Linked PAC Launches $1M Campaign Against Trump & ‘Bernie Bros’

Posted in Archive, Journalism, and MintPress News

Hillary Clinton is taking her battle for the White House to social media, as a new super PAC linked to her campaign prepares to spend big to participate in online flame wars.

Correct the Record will help Clinton’s supporters “push back on online harassment,” according to a statement recently published on the organization’s website. The campaign, which claims to have a budget of over $1 million, will specifically target “attackers on social media platforms like Twitter, Facebook, Reddit, and Instagram.”

Evan Halper, a reporter for the Los Angeles Times, suggested the campaign “seems to have been inspired by some of the Internet’s worst instincts.”

FBI & DOJ Defend Secrecy Of WikiLeaks Investigation In 113-Page Court Filing

Julian Assange in the Ecuadorian Embassy in London on Aug. 18, 2014. (Wikimedia Commons / Cancillería del Ecuador)

May 9, 2016

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FBI & DOJ Defend Secrecy Of WikiLeaks Investigation In 113-Page Court Filing

Posted in Archive, Journalism, and MintPress News

The FBI and Justice Department filed a massive court document earlier this year that defends their refusal to release files from their WikiLeaks investigations.

The 113-page filing, dated March 15, contains dozens of pages of court cases which support their argument that they can’t be forced to release any details about their investigations of WikiLeaks, U.S. Army whistleblowerChelsea Manning, or what the government calls Manning’s “alleged civilian co-conspirators,” which are likely to include figures like WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange.

WikiLeaks shared the document in a tweet on May 3:

UPDATE: Uber & Lyft Cease Operations In Austin After Voters Reject Record-Breaking Electoral Campaign

In this June 15, 2013 photograph, a car with a pink Lyft "mustache" attached drives through San Francisco's Russian Hill neighborhood. (Flickr / Spiros Vathis)

May 6, 2016

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UPDATE: Uber & Lyft Cease Operations In Austin After Voters Reject Record-Breaking Electoral Campaign

Posted in Archive, Austin, Journalism, and MintPress News

Two big corporations with almost limitless bank accounts are bent on circumventing local law by buying a municipal election, according to their opponents.

Facing new regulations from the Austin City Council, Uber and Lyft, the popular ride-booking apps, brought the battle to the ballot box, launching a campaign to pass Proposition 1. Both drivers and paid petitioners canvassed widely for the issue last year, collecting thousands of signatures in order to trigger the election.

Based on the most recent electoral filings, Uber and Lyft have sunk over $8 million into Ridesharing Works For Austin, their joint PAC urging voters to vote in favor of Prop 1, the sole item on the ballot in the special election. By contrast, two smaller PACs opposed to the resolution, Our City Our Safety Our Choice PAC and Austin Unites, have raised less than $100,000 combined.

The election comes after months of negotiations between the City Council and the corporations, according toDelia Garza, a City Council member from Austin’s District 2. “Every time we tried to solve an issue they’d bring up, they’d move the ball,” she told MintPress News.

Vision 2030: Saudi Arabia Takes Desperate Measures To Break Its ‘Oil Addiction’

Employees of Saudi Arabia's ARAMCO and Bechtel International drill for oil in Kuwait in 1950. (Flickr / David Foster)

May 2, 2016

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Vision 2030: Saudi Arabia Takes Desperate Measures To Break Its ‘Oil Addiction’

Posted in Journalism, and MintPress News

As oil prices grow more unstable, Saudi Arabia is facing a future of upheaval and economic collapse.

In October, the International Monetary Fund published a report in October, forecasting the collapse of the Saudi economy by 2020. Last week, Prince Mohammed Bin Salman unveiled the “Vision 2030” plan, a desperate attempt to break what he called the country’s “oil addiction,” according to Reuters.

“The Saudi government is reeling from the plunge in crude oil prices, which left it with a nearly $100 billion shortfall last year. Petroleum accounts for roughly 80 percent of the kingdom’s annual budget,” Maria Gallucci noted in an April 25 analysis of the plan for International Business Times.

The plan calls for the country to sell a stake in Aramco, its publicly-owned oil company, in an international public offering some are predicting could top $2 trillion.

It also outlines other significant changes to the economy, including reforms to employment and immigration law and redirecting the nation’s resources toward new sources of income such as the tourism and the defense industries.

US Debates The Draft’s Future As House Committee Votes To Include Women

A female soldier with the Minnesota National Guard buttons her chin strap before heading out on a mission on May 13, 2006 in Iraq. (Flickr / Minnesota National Guard)

April 29, 2016

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US Debates The Draft’s Future As House Committee Votes To Include Women

Posted in Journalism, and MintPress News

The House Armed Services Committee voted on Wednesday to require women to register for the draft.

Virtually all men living in the United States between the ages of 18 and 25 are required to register with the Selective Service System within 30 days of their 18th birthday. However, amid calls for the military to open all jobs to all genders, some have argued that the draft should also become more inclusive.

Duncan D. Hunter, a Republican representative from California, filed an amendment to the annual defense authorization bill that would also require women to register with the Selective Service, the government agency which maintains records of who is eligible for military conscription.

“Right now the draft is sexist,” he said, according to The Washington Post on April 28.

WikiLeaks’ On Panama Papers: ‘Everything Censored By Default’

Julian Assange, photographed by the ocean on March 20, 2010. (Flickr / Espen Moe)

April 29, 2016

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WikiLeaks’ On Panama Papers: ‘Everything Censored By Default’

Posted in Archive, Journalism, and MintPress News

WikiLeaks took to Twitter to criticize what the organization describes as the continued “censorship” of the Panama Papers archive by the organizations and reporters who control the contents of the leak.

The massive archive of 2.6 terabytes of financial data leaked from Panama-based law firm Mossack Fonseca is controlled by German newspaper Süddeutsche Zeitung, the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists, and hundreds of journalists who have been selected to write about the archive’s contents.

The Panama Papers exposed the efforts the world’s wealthiest people, including more than a dozen world leaders, take to hide their earnings from tax authorities. The release caused upheaval in Iceland’s governmentand protests in the United Kingdom.

A growing number of international authorities are demanding access to the archive, according to German broadcaster Deutsche Welle, including a German finance minister and representatives of the U.S. Justice Department. But ICIJ’s director told DW last week that they would reject these and all similar requests.