FEATURING CAROLINE COX – A new study on the effectiveness of a labeling law in California has found that such regulations actually work. Anybody living in California has likely noticed Proposition 65 warning labels. They’re seen inside parking garages and even on coffee beans and are the result of a ballot initiative that passed in 1986 requiring that companies put warning labels on products that could contain significant amounts of chemicals known to cause cancer.

The study published this week in the Journal for Environmental Health found that hazardous lead content found in chili and tamarind candies, as well as in faux-leather purses declined significantly over several years. Both those types of products were known to have high lead contamination.

Caroline Cox, Senior Scientist with the Center for Environmental Health and leads the CEH’s research on toxic exposure.

News reports have emerged about the extensive length of the Special Counsel’s report on election 2016 wrongdoing. The New York Times on Thursday morning cited named sources from the Justice Department confirming that Robert Mueller’s report is more than 300 pages long. The length – akin to that of an average book – calls into question the succinct 4-page summary made public by Attorney General William Barr. Meanwhile 9 House Republicans are calling on California Representative Adam Schiff to resign as chair of the House Intelligence Committee for daring to claim that there is evidence of President Donald Trump colluding with Russia. Representative Mike Conaway of Texas wrote a letter that he read out loud, saying, “The findings of the special counsel conclusively refute your past and present exertions,” despite not having seen the entire report.

Acting Interior Secretary David Bernhardt is facing questioning from the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee on Thursday ahead of a confirmation vote to make his position permanent. The Democrats on the committee are calling into question Bernhardt’s recent past as an oil industry lobbyist. As Interior Secretary Bernhardt oversees hundreds of millions of acres of public land and coastlines. He would be replacing Ryan Zinke who resigned in disgrace over ethics scandals. During his committee hearing on Thursday a woman in the audience sitting behind Bernhardt quietly donned a green monster mask which activist and environmental organizations are identifying as, “a swamp monster,” – perhaps a statement about the influence of industry lobbyists in government. President Trump had promised to “drain the swamp,” as a candidate but has only filled the swamp with as many business insiders as possible. Democratic Senator Ron Wyden questioned Bernhardt on Thursday morning at a committee hearing.

A federal judge in Washington DC has blocked work requirements for Medicaid recipients in Kentucky and Arkansas. Both those states are headed by Republicans who have tried to reshape the Medicaid program as per Trump’s vision. In the case of Kentucky, Judge James E. Boasberg slammed the Department of Health and Human Services for the, “arbitrary and capricious,” work requirements, and also criticized the department for assuming that the Medicaid law enacted by Congress allowed the HHS Secretary to feel, “so unconstrained, nor that the states are so armed to refashion the program Congress designed in any way they choose.” In the case of Arkansas, the judge’s decision according to the Washington Post, “strips away the federal basis on which that state added work requirements last June that apply to more than 115,000 poor and working-class Arkansans under a part of Medicaid, known as Arkansas Works.” There are half a dozen states where Medicaid work requirements have been proposed and the judge’s decision could have an impact on those.

President Trump, in a brief tweet early Thursday morning decided seemingly unilaterally that Empire...

FEATURING JAMES HICKS – Drivers working for the ridesharing companies Uber and Lyft held a 25-hour strike in Los Angeles starting on March 25th protesting Uber’s decision to cut driver pay yet again. The significance of the strike date and length is to reflect the massive size of Uber drivers’ pay cut by a quarter.

Meanwhile in San Francisco on the same day drivers protested outside an investor meeting in preparation for Lyft’s public offering. Both Uber and Lyft are preparing to launch IPOs as their value balloons into the tens of billions of dollars.

Drivers say they won’t tolerate the poverty-level wages working for tech companies that have capitalized on turning workers into “independent contractors.”

James Hicks, a rideshare driver and organizer with Rideshare Drivers United.

FEATURING T.V. REED – All great social movements for change have been infused with artistic expression. The art of social movements reflect the issues, causes, and impacts with a clarity that speeches and statistics simply cannot. The civil rights movement had song, the black power movement had theatrical style, the feminist movement had poetry, the Chicano movement had murals, the American Indian movement had film.

T. V. Reed, manages the web matrix culturalpolitics.net. His recent books include Digitized Lives: Culture, Power and Social Change in the Internet Era. His new book is called ‘The Art of Protest: Culture and Activism From the Civil Rights Movement to the Present’.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell for the second time blocked a resolution calling for the release of the full Special Counsel’s report on 2016 election wrongdoing to the public. The resolution, sponsored by Democrat Dianne Feinstein, mirrors the one that the House had earlier passed 420 to 0. McConnell on Monday blocked a similar resolution in the Senate. He justified his actions saying, “I have consistently supported the proposition that his report ought to be released to the greatest extent possible, consistent with the law,” echoing what Attorney General William Barr has said about releasing a cherry-picked version of the report in the next few weeks. McConnell also essentially admitted that releasing the entire report could politically hurt the President, saying, “I think we should be consistent in letting the special counsel actually finish his work and not just when we think it may be politically advantageous to one side or the other.” Republicans and Trump have characterized the Mueller report as completely exonerating Trump of all charges of collusion with Russia and of obstructing justice, but then opposed releasing the actual report.

The Senate on Tuesday voted down the Green New Deal resolution, which McConnell had forced a vote on without any debate or discussion. The final vote, of 57-0 reflected Democrats voting “present” instead of “no,” a strategy that House Democrat Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez encouraged. Ahead of the vote Republican Senator Mike Lee of Utah attempted to make light of the Green New Deal by showing a photo of a rifle-toting Ronald Reagan riding a Velociraptor. He then suggested that the solution to climate change was to get married and have babies. Congresswoman Ocasio-Cortez who has introduced the House version of the resolution tweeted in response, “If this guy can be Senator, you can do anything.” The New York Times published an op-ed on Wednesday by a data scientist concluding that, “People Actually Like the Green New Deal.”

The Boeing corporation is facing Congressional scrutiny on Wednesday with several committee hearings in the wake of two deadly crashes of their 737 Max 8 aircraft within 6 months. In additional to Boeing executives facing questions, Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao is having to answer to lawmakers about the regulatory oversight duties of the FAA and the relationship between Boeing and the US government. Republican Senator Ted Cruz in an interview on CNBC on Wednesday attempted to explain Congress’ inquiry into the Boeing crashes and what the Congressional committee hearings would focus on.

In other news, President Donald Trump on Tuesday reportedly told his fellow Republicans at a private lunch that he felt there was too much federal aid going to the Hurricane ravaged Puerto Rico. According to the

FEATURING MARIA ARMOUDIAN – It has been just over 10 days since the horrific attacks against mosques in Christ Church, New Zealand that resulted in 50 deaths. The world stood horrified at the carnage that a Donald Trump-loving white supremacist wreaked on the normally safe city. Unlike the US, gun violence is not very common in New Zealand. But in an increasingly globalized world where messages of violence and hate travel at lightning speed on the internet, the Christ Church attack hit close to home.

How New Zealanders reacted, and especially how their leaders responded to the violence stood in stark contrast to the US. Rather than offer meaningless, “thoughts and prayers,” Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern donned a hijab and showed up in the midst of the Muslim Community and mourned with them. Leaders moved immediately to ban all assault rifles. Non-Muslims surrounded mosques, offering their protection at prayer time.  

Maria Armoudian, hosts a radio show on KPFK called Scholar’s Circle, Senior lecturer at The University of Auckland, author of two books, Kill the Messenger: The Media’s Role in the Fate of the World, and, Reporting from the Danger Zone. 

FEATURING JONATHAN KARMEL – When fatal plane crashes, mass shootings, or terrorist attacks take place, they make major headlines and sow fear in the public. But what most of us don’t realize is that we have a much greater risk of injury and death in the workplace than we do while flying. The US government has spent billions on counter-terrorism measures, and comparably little on making our workplaces safer. Yet hundreds of Americans die in the workplace each year and tens of thousands are injured.

Now, a new book, harkening back to Upton Sinclair’s The Jungle, lays bare the overlooked dangers that lead to injuries and deaths in the American workplace that are often preventable.

Jonathan Karmel, attorney with expertise in labor and employment law, a Fellow of the College of Labor and Employer Lawyers, and co-chair of the American Bar Association’s Occupational Safety and Health Committee. His new book is called Dying to Work: Death and Injury in the American Workplace.

UPDATED: Democratic lawmakers are pushing for the Justice Department to release the entire Special Counsel’s report on 2016 election wrongdoing to the public as early as next week. The chairs of six House committees sent a letter to Attorney General William Barr demanding that he release the entire report by April 2nd. The House already voted to release the report. But in the Senate, where Republicans still hold a majority, Lindsey Graham, the chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee, called instead for an investigation into who started the probe against Trump in the first place. On Tuesday morning White House counselor Kellyanne Conway told reporters that, “The Mueller investigation is the gold standard,” which is exactly the opposite of what Trump cabinet members and the President himself had been saying for more than a year. Later in an interview on PBS NewsHour Conway continued to praise the Special Counsel’s work. 

In other news, Empire star Jussie Smollett, who had been at the center of a controversy around allegations that he faked a hate crime against himself has been exonerated. Smollett’s attorneys announced on Tuesday morning in Chicago that Cook County prosecutors have dropped all charges against the actor in a story that captured headlines for weeks. Chicago Police Superintendent Eddie Johnson had accused Smollett of exploiting the pain of racism to promote his career. Smollett’s attorney Patricia Brown Holmes lashed out at Chicago police saying, “We have nothing to say to the police department, except to investigate charges and not try their cases in the press, but to allow matters to be investigated, allow the state to investigate and to bring charges, and not to jump ahead and utilize the press to convict people before they are tried in a court of law.” Chicago Mayor Rahm Emmanuel slammed prosecutors for dropping all charges. Actor Jussie Smollett spoke to reporters on Tuesday morning after all charges against him were dropped.

The state of Oklahoma has reached a massive $270 million settlement with Purdue Pharmaceuticals and the Sackler family which owns the company, over its role in the opioid crisis. State prosecutors have been pursuing lawsuits against Purdue, Johnson & Johnson and Teva Pharmaceutical Industries over their role in the thousands of deaths that have resulted from opioid use in Oklahoma. The settlement with Purdue will apparently fund an initiative at Oklahoma State University in Tulsa to study the treatment of opioid addiction and pain management. Lawsuits against the other two companies will continue separately. Purdue still faces lawsuits from other states and the federal government and is considering possibly filing for bankruptcy.

The state of Utah has just passed a wide-ranging law to ban most abortions after 18 weeks of gestation, making it one of the harshest anti-abortion law in the nation. Utah Governor Gary Herbert signed the bill into law late Monday despite protests from the ACLU of Utah that it was unconstitutional. The new law, which will face legal opposition before it goes into effect in May, is one of several anti-abortion laws in the state that already makes it difficult f...

FEATURING RON FEIN – After nearly two years of investigations, the Special Counsel’s office, headed by Robert Mueller III, is finally closing down. Mr. Mueller’s final report, which was so heavily anticipated by so many, was submitted to the Attorney General’s office as per the Special Counsel’s regulations with no new indictments announced. Within hours, Attorney General William Barr, who has only been in his position for a few weeks, sent a 4-page summary of the Mueller report to Congress.

According to Barr’s summary, Mueller concluded that there was no collusion with Russia in the 2016 election and made no determination one way or another of whether the President attempted to obstruct justice. Barr also quoted the actual Mueller report on the issue of obstruction of justice: “while this report does not conclude that the president committed a crime, it also does not exonerate him.”

Trump has proclaimed that the report completely exonerates him. News reports are touting the end of the probe as a victory for Trump and as a damper on prospects of impeachment. But Democrats are demanding that the entire Mueller report be made public. More than a dozen state Attorneys General have also made such a demand.

Ron Fein, Legal Director of Free Speech for People, and a constitutional lawyer who previously served as Assistant Regional Counsel in the US EPA. He is the co-author with John Bonifaz and Ben Clements of the book The Constitution Demands It: The Case for The Impeachment of Donald Trump.

FEATURING SUAN ABULHAWA – At least half a dozen Democratic Presidential contenders are skipping this year’s AIPAC conference. Senators Bernie Sanders, Kamala Harris, and Elizabeth Warren, as well as Peter Buttigieg, Beto O’Rourke, and Julian Castro, are among those apparently boycotting the annual conference of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee. The exodus came after the liberal group Moveon.org called on Presidential contenders not to attend.

Attending the AIPAC conference signals unconditional support for Israel, and has long been a bipartisan celebration of the US’s close alliance with the nation. But this year there appear to be cracks in the consensus that Israel can do no wrong.

Meanwhile newly elected Congresswoman Ilhan Omar of Minnesota spoke at the CAIR-LA banquet over the weekend in Southern California. Omar has become a lightning rod for right-wing pro-Trump and pro-Israel groups over her criticism of Israel. Her speech was met with hundreds of protesters denouncing her as anti-Semitic.

Susan Abulhawa, novelist and activist, founder of Playgrounds for Palestine, and author of My Voice Sought the Wind and Mornings in Jenin. Her writings have appeared in the New York Daily News, the Chicago Tribune, the Christian Science Monitor, the Philadelphia Inquirer, and Al Jazeera, among others.