Pennsylvania prosecutors, twice rejected in their efforts to impose the death penalty on Mumia (in 2001 and 2008), may have found new support in the U.S. Supreme Court. It appears that the court’s delay in ruling on the validity of Mumia’s original execution sentence was due to its decision to grant oral arguments in the Ohio case of Smith v. Spisak, a case that might re-write or reinterpret the nation’s laws to make it easier to obtain jury verdicts calling for execution. The Court heard Ohio prosecutor’s arguments for Spisak’s execution on October 13, 2009. A ruling is expected in the year ahead.

Threee venomous spiders reside in the United States: the  Hobo Spider; Black Widow; and Recluse Spider. Fall is traditionally a big Hobo Spider season. Rather than being afraid of the unknown, get some facts on this spider.

The last remaining partners in the construction of the Big Stone II coal-fired power plant announced yesterday that they would not continue the project. They proposed a 500 to 600 megawatt expansion of an existing coal burning power plant located near Milbank, South Dakota. The expansion would have been built on the shores of Big Stone Lake, headwaters to the Minnesota River, near the Minnesota border.

Paramilitary repression and police brutality continue unabated on both sides of the U.S.-Mexico border three years after the assassinations of Lorenzo Sampablo Cervantes in Oaxaca, Mexico and Fong Lee in Minneapolis, MN

By Steven Renderos & Sylvia González, November 1, 2009

 Fourteen Reasons to Reject Corporate Options for Health Care

 If a Critical Mass of the public actually knew what the Health Care Brouhaha involved, Liberals and Conservatives would unite in opposing current and planned policies.    Imagine....

 1) Private insurers are businesses that must grow. Their inclusion in any national program guarantees endless cuts in service, and endless hikes in costs to the public.

2) Private insurers, being businesses, have motive and duty to provide as little service as possible at the highest price possible. This is an adversarial situation with the public.