MIGRATION-US: Profiling Persists Despite Revamped Guidelines

A three-day widely publicised immigration raid by the Maricopa County Sheriff's Office left the city of Mesa like a ghost town. Small businesses closed. Workers stayed home to avoid being pulled over and questioned for documents.

U.S.: Sky’s the Limit for Bank Fees

Banks bailed out with U.S. taxpayer money, like Wells Fargo and U.S. Bancorp, are raking in money by charging 150 percent interest and more on short-term, payday loans to people with no savings, consumer advocates say.

U.S.: Levee Uncertainty Weighs on Katrina’s Displaced

Today, the population of New Orleans is still about 175,000 people fewer than it was before Hurricane Katrina hit four years ago next month. Along with concerns about jobs and housing costs, the city's vulnerability to flooding has weighed heavily on the minds of many evacuees, many of whom have not returned.

ENVIRONMENT: Monsanto, Dow Stacking the Deck, Critics Say

The most complex genetically engineered corn (maize) yet has been approved for use next year in Canada and the United States without its potential health and environmental risks being investigated, anti-biotech activists charged Wednesday.

U.S.: Das Camp-ital – Kids Overthrow Bosses on ‘Capitalism Day’

Workers at a munitions factory in Almosnino walked out last Wednesday, joining an anti-war protest nearby. The combined strikers and protesters later stormed the factory after a scuffle with police who were trying to arrest a crowd that was blocking a truck from leaving the factory.

U.S.: Four Years Post-Katrina, Levee Protection Still Elusive

Four years after Hurricane Katrina, there have been some significant improvements to the levees of New Orleans. However, even with work scheduled to be completed in 2011, advocates say the U.S. government has left the standard of protection at dangerously low levels.

U.S.: Better Balance Between Climate and Military Spending Urged

Despite its conviction that climate change represents a serious threat to national and global security, the administration of President Barack Obama has proposed spending one dollar on addressing the challenge for every nine dollars it intends to spend on the U.S. military, according to a new report by the left-leaning Institute for Policy Studies (IPS).

CORRECTED REPEAT*/RIGHTS-US: Byzantine World of Immigration Detention

Duarnis Perez, a native of the Dominican Republic, became a U.S. citizen at 15 when his mother was naturalised. But he didn't know that meant he was also a citizen. He thought he was an illegal immigrant, and so did the authorities.

ECONOMY-US: Trillions to Banks as Taxpayers Left in the Dark

The U.S. Federal Reserve and U.S. Treasury have doled out trillions in taxpayer dollars to banks and corporations and now the boom may be falling on what lawmakers say is a shroud of secrecy that surrounds their actions.

POLITICS-US: Obama Wins Big Victory on Defence

In a signal victory for President Barack Obama and Defence Secretary Robert Gates, the U.S. Senate voted Tuesday evening to end production of an advanced fighter jet that many independent military analysts have long considered a wasteful boondoggle.

RIGHTS-US: Byzantine World of Immigration Detention

Duarnis Perez, a native of the Dominican Republic, became a U.S. citizen at 15 when his mother was naturalised. But he didn't know that meant he was also a citizen. He thought he was an illegal immigrant, and so did the authorities.

U.S.: New, Old Weapons Systems Never Die

In what is shaping up as one of the most consequential battles of his six-month-old presidency, Barack Obama finds himself in the trenches alongside his former Republican rival, Sen. John McCain, fighting hard to end production of an advance fighter jet that much of the defence establishment considers a wasteful boondoggle.

POLITICS-US: Sotomayor Poised Amid Senatorial Jousting

On Tuesday, the first full day of questions from members of the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee considering the confirmation of Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor, was remarkable mainly for the softball questions asked by her Democratic supporters and the snarky, "gotcha" questions posed by her Republican opponents.

POLITICS: Top Pastor Catches Flak for Reaching Out to U.S. Muslims

Pastor Rick Warren would never be described as laid back. However, since delivering the invocation at President Barack Obama's inauguration in late January, he's been somewhat on the down low.

POLITICS-US: Smooth Sailing for High Court Nominee

In what many Congress-watchers see as Washington's version of Kabuki Theater, the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee Monday began its hearings on the confirmation of Judge Sonia Sotomayor to be the first Latina associate justice of the Supreme Court and only the third woman ever to be nominated to the nation's highest court.

FILM: Shattering the Myth of “Agrarian America”

"How is it that you can buy a 99-cent cheeseburger but not even a head of broccoli?" wonders Michael Pollan, author and co-narrator of the new documentary "Food, Inc.".

RIGHTS-US: Ex-Prisoners Face Bleak Job Market

"You write about human rights. Why don't you write about this man?" asked Agha Saleh, an old acquaintance of this writer who runs an internet café in Jackson Heights, a Queens neighbourhood heavily populated by immigrants from South Asia and Latin America.

LABOUR-US: Senate Divided Over Bill to Boost Unions

Since its initial proposal in 2007, the Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA) has been a divisive bill, passing in the House but not in the Senate. Now, the bill's original author, Senator Tom Harkin of Iowa, is working on a compromise that he hopes will pass.

ECONOMY-US: Congress Pushing for Federal Reserve Audit

A majority of the U.S. House of Representatives is now in support of a historic bill by Republican lawmaker Ron Paul to audit the Federal Reserve (the Fed), the privately run central bank that sets monetary policy for the United States.

RIGHTS-US: Obama to Approve Indefinite Detentions

As President Barack Obama struggles with the political backlash from a Congress determined to keep Guantanamo terrorism suspects out of the U.S., his administration is reportedly preparing an executive order that would give him authority to hold prisoners indefinitely without trial, according to weekend media reports.

U.S.: House Passes Controversial Climate Legislation

Amid furious lobbying on both sides, the U.S. House of Representatives narrowly approved landmark legislation Friday designed to reduce the nation's greenhouse emissions that contribute to global warming 17 percent below 2005 levels by 2020 and 83 percent by 2050.