Swedish designers who fight for brand-name recognition in the notoriously hard-to-crack fashion business tell The Local’s Victoria Hussey about the importance of the Swedish Rookies Award. … Read More
Protect your sources: Australia’s WikiLeaks Party calls for journalism shield law
“Only a uniform shield law covering the whole Commonwealth is acceptable,” WLP spokespersons Cassie Findlay and Sam Castro said. “Government agencies, at federal, state and local level, are increasingly gaining powers to obtain information about individual citizens.”The proposed law is the WLP’s first major policy announcement since it was formed as part of WikiLeaks founder Assange’s bid to become an Australian senator in the September 2013 elections in Victoria State.The WLP plans to compete for Senate seats in Victoria, New South Wales and Western Australia in the September 14 election, with Assange running for one of the six Senate seats being contested in Victoria. Findlay and Castro explained that journalists need to have an “unhindered access” to their sources so they could expose corruption, waste and incompetence. “Uniform shield laws legislated by federal parliament are the answer. That is what we stand for and that is what we will fight for if elected. Effective national shield laws go hand-in-hand with uniform whistle-blower laws, particularly covering media disclosures,” the spokespersons added.The move is WLP’s challenge to proposed federal whistleblower laws, which they say fail to protect those who expose corruption or government crimes: “The proposed laws are not only unsatisfactory, they are a clumsy attempt by the major parties to protect themselves from embarrassing scrutiny.”In March 2011, the Australian Senate introduced federal shield laws that recognize circumstances in which journalists do not have to reveal their sources. However, they do not apply to public service whistleblowers, the Australian reported. Court suppression order against whistleblowers have continued after the laws were adopted, mainly in Victoria State, where 270 orders were issued last year.The WikiLeaks Party submitted its registration to the Australian Electoral Commission in April and has secured over 1,000 fee-paying members, more than double the 500 members required for registration.Assange, who has been holed up in London’s Ecuadorian Embassy since June 2012, is preparing for a tough remote campaign. If elected Australian Senator, Assange still might not be physically present at the Australian Senate if he remains trapped in the embassy. Assange’s running mate could sit in for the WikiLeaks founder if he wins the race but is unable to leave the embassy, where he claimed asylum in a bid to avoid extradition to Sweden, where he is wanted for questioning on sexual assault allegations.British authorities have vowed to detain him if he sets foot outside of the embassy, in light of the European Arrest Warrant issued against him.The founder of the whistleblowing website believes that once extradited to Sweden, he could then be re-extradited to the United States, where according to his lawyers he is likely to face trial and possibly even the death penalty for WikiLeaks’ release of thousands of classified US diplomatic cables. … Read More
CIA workers intimidated into silence over Benghazi attack – report
“If you are going to take away somebody’s job or living then it’s a threat,” said Victoria Toensing, one of the officials’ attorneys to Fox. She did not describe how the intimidation occurred but stressed that it was done in a “very subtle way.” She went on to stress that her client had invaluable information to share with Congress regarding the attack that killed the American Ambassador Christopher Stevens and three of his aides last September. Moreover, Toensing signaled that her client also had information about the days following the attack and the way in which it was dealt with by US intelligence.“What the State Department has to do is clear the lawyer for the information to come out. So even if my client is a witness they will only get half a story,” Toensing stated. She hinted that other employees had not come forward with their testimonies because they were afraid of the consequences. She described it as “frightening” that cooperating with congressional investigators could end a career in one fell swoop. Republicans have repeatedly attacked the Obama Administration’s handling of the attack on the diplomatic mission in Benghazi, alleging security lapses in the run up to the incident and attempts at a cover-up. The president addressed the claims on Tuesday during a press conference, maintaining that he was aware of no such reports of intimidation among CIA employees.”I’m not familiar with this notion that anybody’s been blocked from testifying,” President Obama said. The State Department echoed the president’s words, stating it was unaware of any requests of security clearance for private attorneys for employees. “The State Department would never tolerate or sanction retaliation against whistleblowers on any issue, including this one,” deputy agency spokesman Patrick Ventrell said. Obama’s government has always maintained it treated the incident with the utmost transparency. There have been eight hearing into the matter thus far, as well as a testimony from former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in January. Conjecture has been rife since the attack in September over whether or not the White House had information in advance on Benghazi. The Obama Administration initially insisted that it was a knee-jerk reaction to an inflammatory American-made video, ‘Innocence of the Muslims’, which sparked protests across the Muslim world. However, it was later suggested that the attack may have been orchestrated by an affiliate of Al-Qaeda and it was labeled as an act of terrorism rather than a spontaneous reaction to the video. An independent inquiry from The Accountability Review Board concluded that the State Department was woefully unprepared for the attack on the consulate and that failures in leadership and management had led to the blunder. The probe stopped short at personally blaming Clinton. Clinton’s private emails to former presidential aide Sidney Blumenthal regarding the Benghazi attack were leaked to RT in March by a hacker using the alias ‘Guccifer’. … Read More
Chicago low-wage workers go on strike
Employees from retail and food services abandoned their shifts to march in the Chicago Loop, demanding an hourly minimum of $15 and the right to unionize without intimidation.“They say we’re low-skilled workers, but we’re helping generate billions of dollars in profits,” Chris Thomas, a Nike store employee, told the Huffington Post. “We’re not trying to get rich. We just want fair pay for our hard labor.”Employees earning Chicago’s minimum wage of $8.25 per hour say they struggle to pay their bills, feed their families, or pay their rent. Many full-time workers have been forced to seek out poverty assistance, such as food stamps and rental assistance.Wednesday’s rally in downtown Chicago was an attempt to bring attention to the men and women who struggle to get by in low-paying industries. Low-wage work accounts for more than half of the country’s new jobs created since the recession, while upper-and middle class jobs have declined.Meanwhile, corporations, shareholders and executives have seen their profits rise, while wages remain the same for low-skilled workers.Although Thomas, 25, has worked for Nike for years, he only makes $10 per hour and can’t afford to move out of his parents’ home. He says the atmosphere in the Nike store he works at creates a false impression of the life Americans face in Chicago.“Tourists come into our store from all around the world, and they see this exterior: it looks so glamorous,” he said. “The management creates a relaxed atmosphere. We come to work in shorts and running shoes. But things just ain’t what they seem. It’s really hard in Chicago.”Some business were forced to close down on Wednesday, due to staff shortages as a result of the strike. Organizers of the group Action Now said strikers included employees of McDonald’s, Subway, Sears, Dunkin Donuts, Victoria’s Secret and Macy’s.The “Fight for $15” campaign played a major role in organizing the rally and encouraged attendees to demand a higher minimum wage and the right to unionize.“Fight for $15 seeks to put money back in the pockets of the 275,000 men and women who work hard in the city’s fast-food and retail outlets but still can’t afford basic necessities,” the group wrote in a press release. “If workers were paid more, they’d spend more, helping to get Chicago’s economy moving again.”Wednesday’s strike closely mirrors the strike that occurred in New York City on April 4, when about 400 restaurant workers walked off their jobs and demanded a $15 hourly minimum. New York’s minimum wage is $7.25 an hour, which is a dollar less than that in Illinois.“They don’t even appreciate the work that I do,” Chicago-based Dunkin Donuts worker Esly Hernandez told MSNBC, referring to his employers. “They don’t even say thank you. They treat you like you’re a robot.” … Read More
Australia’s WikiLeaks Party submits registration, hails ‘optimistic’ poll
The WikiLeaks Party attracted more than double the 500 members required for registration – 1,300 supporters in the three weeks since it opened for membership on March 30.The party is submitting its registration to the Australian Electoral Commission just after a favorable poll emerged in the Australian media saying 26 percent of voters would vote for Assange.The research – conducted by UMR Research, the Labor Party’s pollster – is based on 1,000 Australian voters’ online answers to the question of whether they would vote for WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange and the WikiLeaks Party.The number of those who said they would exceeds the 14-percent threshold a party needs to run for the Australian Senate. The lowest response, 18 percent, came from the state of Western Australia, and the highest, 36 percent, came from New South Wales. In Victoria State, where Assange is running, 23 percent of poll participants said they would vote for the WikiLeaks Party.However, the polling agency cautioned party supporters against euphoria, as the actual voting results for the WikiLeaks Party will likely be lower than those in their research. They also advised that Assange’s long-distance Senate bid would be hard-fought. ”If he runs a clever campaign he will have a good chance of winning the last, sixth Senate seats,” UMR managing director John Utting said, according to the National Times.The poll came days after a much less optimistic forecast was published by Nielsen which questioned 1,400 Australians and found that 15 percent would vote for the WikiLeaks Party and Assange. The results were published a week ago.”I think [Assange's] candidacy looks credible from these numbers but I still think, on those numbers, it would be a very big ask to win,” Nielsen pollster John Stirton said, according to the Sydney Morning Herald. ”He’s in the ballpark of the support he needs but he’s got to convert every single one… and I think that’s highly unlikely.”Sitting in the Ecuadorian Embassy in London, Assange said he is aware of the differing poll figures giving him anywhere from 15 to 27 percent support, and is preparing for a tough remote campaign. “I don’t want to underestimate the difficulties of being in this situation. But WikiLeaks has certain abilities in using the Internet, certain understanding on how to project the information on the Internet. So we’ll see whether that works,” Assange told RT. Another factor could work in Assange’s favor in his race: Australia has a ‘preferential’ electoral system allowing voters to cast ballots for multiple candidates in order of preference. The system sometimes allows candidates with as little as 2 percent of primary preference votes to win elections.The WikiLeaks Party is expected to unveil other candidates to represent it in key races in New South Wales and Western Australia. Assange’s running mate in Victoria has also not yet been identified.Assange’s running mate could sit in for the WikiLeaks founder if he wins a Senate seat but is still unable to leave the Ecuadorian embassy in London, where he has been holed up since June 2012 after claiming asylum in a bid to avoid extradition to Sweden, where he is wanted for questioning on sexual assault allegations.The founder of the whistleblowing website believes that once extradited to Sweden, he could then be re-extradited to the United States, where according to his lawyers he is likely to face trial and possibly even the death penalty for WikiLeaks’ release of thousands of classified US diplomatic cables. … Read More
Sister of Newtown victim: I am “disgusted and disappointed in our Senate”
Carlee Soto, whose sister Victoria was a teacher at Sandy Hook Elementary and was killed in the mass shooting at the school, told CNN that she was “disgusted and so disappointed in our Senate” after they voted to reject a common sense gun reform bill that has widespread public support.”They should be ashamed… They are supposed to be there for us, and speak for us. Who were they speaking for today?,” she said of the Wednesday vote.More here:Continue Reading… … Read More
Sister of teacher killed at Newtown shooting ‘disgusted’ by Senate
Carlee Soto, whose older sister Victoria was killed in the tragic Newtown mass shooting, said Wednesday she was “disgusted” to witness the Senate reject universal background checks. “If they were to lose a loved one to a horrific tragedy like we did, they would feel the same way…
