DEATH PENALTY-US: ‘Volunteers’ Skipping Long March to Death

In the first four months since the U.S. Supreme Court signaled executions may continue on the country's 3,200-strong death row, at least two inmates will have jumped the queue after convincing judges that they were competent to drop their appeals and seek speedy executions.

HEALTH-US: Unions, Groups Coalesce For Universal Coverage

A coalition of over 100 national and local organisations representing labour unions, doctors, nurses, women, small businesses, religious groups, racial minorities, and think tanks has launched a new campaign in 53 U.S. cities to demand quality, affordable health care for every United States citizen.

THEATRE-US: Desegregating Schools, Then the Supreme Court

As Sen. Barack Obama prepares to accept the Democratic presidential nomination at a 75,000-seat football stadium in Denver, Colorado next month, a play on New York's Broadway takes audiences back to another iconic and groundbreaking figure in U.S. civil rights history.

ENVIRONMENT-US: Funding Questions Dog Everglades Clean-Up

Environmentalists in Florida are excited over the state's planned 1.75-billion-dollar buyout of 187,000 acres of land owned by the United States Sugar Corporation as part of a restoration of the vast Everglades wetlands, although many of the details of the deal remain sketchy.

POLITICS-US: In Search of a Legacy, Bush Looks to the Past

Before 9/11, before the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, before the suspension of habeas corpus, before the administration's tardy and shameful response to Hurricane Katrina, before cronies and Republican congressional leaders were dropping like flies, before former administration operatives were writing unflattering tell-all books, before Dick Cheney said "So?" in response to a question about public opinion being firmly against the administration, before the Valerie Plame affair, before gas prices were nearly five dollars a gallon, before housing foreclosures hit record numbers, and before his approval rating dipped to all-time lows, there was President George W. Bush's faith-based initiative.

ECONOMY: Dismal Picture for U.S. Workers

U.S. companies are shedding workers in numbers not seen for nearly six years, and there seems little hope of a turnaround any time soon.

ECONOMY: Little Comfort in U.S. Manufacturing Spurt

An unexpected spurt in manufacturing activity is doing little to dispel the gloom that envelopes the U.S. economy midway through the year.

BOOKS-US: All Doughnuts Lead to the Pentagon

U.S. defence spending in recent years has either matched or exceeded the military budgets of the rest of the world combined. Presented with that fact, the next logical question is, where is all the money going? The answer is simple: Everywhere.

ECONOMY-US: Private Jets Targeted as Symbols of Inequality

Crusaders against inequality are accusing the private jet set of flying high at the expense of the environment, the national air traffic system, and lower-class taxpayers.

ECONOMY-US: Lenders Scramble as Foreclosures, Criticism Pile Up

Top U.S. lenders, faced with public and political ire over a rising flood of foreclosures, have announced stepped-up efforts to help troubled borrowers.

Q&A: “I Tell People How the Death Penalty Is Actually Practiced”

For over 20 years, Sister Helen Prejean, a Roman Catholic nun, has worked to educate the public about the death penalty. She has been spiritual adviser to eight death row inmates, turning her experience visiting one into the best-selling book, "Dead Man Walking". In 1995, the book was made into a film starring Susan Sarandon, winning the actress an Oscar for her performance.

THEATRE-US: Welcome to the Machine

"The Adding Machine" (1923) and "Top Girls" (1983) are separated by 60 years, but both used stylised techniques to portray workers as willing slaves of capitalism. That system has destroyed them, but they haven't the consciousness to know it. And they absorb attitudes that are racist and sexist.

RIGHTS-US: California Says, "We Do"

On Monday evening, with all the Bay Area local television stations and some of the national news networks on hand, Del Martin and Phyllis Lyon, two longtime gay rights activists, (re)married at City Hall in San Francisco, California.

CANADA: Apology Must Be Backed By Action, Native Leaders Say

In a long-sought acknowledgement of the federal government's role in creating Canada's racist residential school system as part of its cultural assimilation policies, Prime Minister Stephen Harper delivered a formal apology to Canadian First Nations in the House of Commons in Ottawa last week.

ENVIRONMENT-US: "Water Is Alive, It Hears Our Words"

Native Americans and others completed a 10-day "Walk for the Water" this week along the Chattahoochee River, which some estimates say will dry up completely by 2025 due to pressure from the rapidly growing city of Atlanta.

RIGHTS-US: Despite Legal Blow, Taser Use by Police to Expand

Taser International, the manufacturer of conducted energy weapons known as stun guns or Tasers, is once again implicated in deaths caused in part by deployment of the weapon.

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.

POLITICS-US: McCain’s Judicial Plans in Lockstep with Bush

While it isn't as eye-catching as the latest reports from Iraq and Afghanistan, or as headline-grabbing as rapidly escalating gas prices and the growing number of housing foreclosures, and few voters cast their ballot based on it, the judicial appointments of whomever wins the U.S. presidency in November will have long-lasting ramifications for the country.

ENVIRONMENT-US: As Climate Bill Dies, Greens Express Hope

While Republicans succeeded Friday in effectively killing major bipartisan legislation in the U.S. Senate to cut greenhouse emissions that contribute to global warming, environmental groups expressed hope that the three days of debate on the measure have set the stage for success next year after the November elections.

CANADA: Safe Injection Site Mired in Political Squabble

The Canadian government has decided to appeal a British Columbia Supreme Court decision allowing North America's first supervised injection site, the facility known as Insite in Vancouver's Downtown Eastside neighbourhood, to remain open without a federal government exemption.

POLITICS: Obama Victory Resonates in Race-Conscious U.S.

"Tonight I can stand here and say that I will be the Democratic nominee for the president of the United States of America," Sen. Barack Obama told a crowd of supporters in St. Paul, Minnesota Tuesday, bringing an effective close to a 16-month Democratic primary process.