Stories written by Adrianne Appel
Adrianne Appel has written for IPS since 2006 about U.S. domestic issues, including the environment, politics and economics. Formerly a politics reporter in Washington, D.C., she now reports from Boston. In 2010 she was awarded a Knight Science Journalism Fellowship.

There are 10,000 home foreclosures a week in the United States. Credit: Respres

ECONOMY-US: Bailing Out a Boat Full of Holes

The U.S. Treasury's bonanza from Congress to hand out 700 billion dollars to Wall Street is not what the country needs to right its shaky economy, many independent experts say.

SCIENCE: Smart Slime and Cola Spermicides – It's Ig Nobel Time

If you always thought there was something oddly intelligent about that slime slithering across your garden, you can rest assured that your hunch is supported by award-winning scientific research.

ECONOMY-US: “Sweetened” Bailout Goes Back to the House

The bailout bill passed by the U.S. Senate Wednesday is nearly the same Wall Street giveaway as its original, critics say - except that it now includes 100 billion dollars more in tax giveaways and pet projects for lawmakers' home districts.

ECONOMY-US: Bush Plan Down but Not Out

Leading U.S. lawmakers and the cabinet of Pres. George W. Bush met behind closed doors Tuesday to strategise a way to win more votes for their 700-billion-dollar plan to bail out Wall Street, a plan that met with stunning defeat in the U.S. House on Monday.

A woman protests on Wall Street, Sep. 25, 2008. Credit: leesean/flickr

ECONOMY-US: Bailout for Whom?

U.S. lawmakers and the George W. Bush administration are continuing their closed-door meetings through the weekend to try and fashion a softer 700-billion-dollar deal for Wall Street that will appeal to citizens angry at the prospect of the mega-corporate bailout.

ECONOMY-US: Critics See Bailout as Massive Blank Cheque

U.S. activist networks have shifted into high gear to protest the secretive 700-billion-dollar plan to bail out Wall Street, which they say is unfair to average citizens and a giveaway to banks.

RIGHTS-US: Death Row Activist Prepares New Appeal

Mumia Abu-Jamal rallied thousands of protesters in the U.S. city of Denver last week who were calling for the release of U.S. political prisoners.

DEATH PENALTY-US: D-Day Approaching for Overflowing Death Row

A high-level California commission has sounded the death knell for the state's "dysfunctional" death penalty system, calling for an infusion of hundreds of millions of dollars or the closing down of the state's death chamber.

DEATH PENALTY-US: Exonerations Speed Change of Mind

After more than a decade of DNA tests, appeals and waiting on death row, Texas prisoner Michael Blair is likely to be exonerated soon, further undermining public confidence in the infallibility of the U.S. death penalty system.

DEATH PENALTY-US: Catch-Up Wave of Executions Feared

Anti-death penalty activists are bracing themselves for a wave of executions across the U.S. after the state of Georgia moved swiftly to end the life of William E. Lynd following the Supreme Court's ruling that lethal injection was not a violation of the constitution.

DEATH PENALTY-US: Court Says, &#39Pay Up – Or Let Live!&#39

After eight years and millions of dollars spent, New Mexico has decided to quit pursuing two death penalty cases when lawmakers ducked away from voting additional money for court-appointed defence lawyers.

CLIMATE CHANGE-US: Governors Unite to Cut Emissions

U.S. state governors say they are fed up with the George W. Bush administration's foot-dragging on climate change and will go ahead - and around - the White House to reduce greenhouse gases.

Mumia Abu Jamal Credit: freemumia.org

RIGHTS-US: Court Rules No Death Row for Mumia Abu Jamal

A federal court has ruled that Mumia Abu Jamal, known the world over in the fight against the death penalty, be taken off death row for the 1981 murder of Philadelphia policeman Daniel Faulkner.

Jacqueline Grebmeier in her Arctic gear. Credit:

WOMEN’S DAY: Science No Longer a Boy’s Club

In 2001, Dr. Henrietta Edmonds made a startling discovery during a rare expedition in the frozen arctic: Smoky, particulate-rich plumes of hot water swirled 3,000 metres under the ice - a sign of hydrothermal vents on the sea floor - and lots of them.

Some trout populations fell by a third after estrogen was introduced into the water. Credit: pxlpusher

ENVIRONMENT: Household Chemicals Wreaking Havoc in Fish

When people take their daily doses of birth control pills, antidepressants and antibiotics, fish are being dosed too.

SCIENCE: Deposing the Tyranny of English

For scientists around the world, it is publish - in English - or perish.

SCIENCE-US: Top Scientists Want Research Free From Politics

Leading U.S. scientists called on Congress Thursday to make sure the next president does not do what they say the George W. Bush Administration has done: censor, suppress and falsify important environmental and health research.

RIGHTS-US: Execution Moratorium May Outlive High Court Ruling

The U.S. Supreme Court is unlikely to outlaw lethal injection, the United States' main form of execution, when it rules on a test case this spring, but many states may continue their de facto moratoriums well into the future, amid ongoing legal battles about the issue in their own state courts.

CLIMATE CHANGE-US: Wildfires Rekindle Global Warming Debate

The massive wildfires that roared and twisted their way through southern California in 2007 are a glimpse of what a future of global warming may hold, scientists say.

HIV/AIDS protesters march in New York in 2006. Credit: Kaitlyn Tikkun

WORLD AIDS DAY: Racism, Gov&#39t Apathy Fuel U.S. Epidemic

The United States has slashed the AIDS death rate among white and wealthy U.S. citizens, but the disease continues to ravage the black community at full force, leaders say.

Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu  Credit: Gitgat

POLITICS: Desmond Tutu Likens Israeli Actions to Apartheid

South African Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu compared conditions in Palestine to those of South Africa under apartheid, and called on Israelis to try and change them, while speaking in Boston Saturday at historic Old South Church.

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