The Environmental Defense Fund released a report on the eve of Earth Day “that suggests implementing a cap-and-trade program to cut greenhouse gas emissions would not slow the U.S. economy or cost jobs, contradicting a report released recently by a group of manufacturers that oppose a climate change bill.” Overall, the report says that “the economy would continue to grow at an average clip of 3 percent.”
69 percent: Americans who disapprove of the job Bush is doing. “The approval rating matches the low point of his presidency, and the disapproval sets a new high for any president since Franklin Roosevelt.”
Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) has doled out numerous favors to Arizona millionaire Donald Diamond, the New York Times reports, including authorizing the Interior Department to pay Diamond $23 million for Arizona ranch property valued at about $5 million. “Mr. Diamond and his family have given more than $55,000 to Mr. McCain’s campaigns” and Diamond has raised $250,000 for McCain’s presidential race so far.
At least two dozen detainees at Guantanamo Bay and elsewhere “say they were given drugs against their will or witnessed other inmates being drugged.” The allegations have resurfaced since the release this month of a 2003 Justice Department memo by John Yoo “that explicitly condoned the use of drugs on detainees.”
In a speech last night at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, Defense Secretary Robert Gates “said he believes Iran is ‘hell bent’ on acquiring nuclear weapons,” but warned that “another war in the Middle East is the last thing we need and, in fact, I believe it would be disastrous on a number of levels.” Despite his warning, Gates said he “favors keeping the military option against Iran on the table.”
“For the first time since the Spanish influenza of 1918, life expectancy is falling for a significant number of American women.” “This is a story about smoking, blood pressure and obesity,” said Majid Ezzati, of the Harvard Initiative for Global Health, a co-author of the study.
Today marks Equal Pay Day. The average woman “would have had to work from Jan. 1, 2007, until today to earn as much as the average man did by the end of last year.” Led by Sen. Barbara Mikulski (D-MD), senators now are pushing for passing of the Fair Pay Restoration Act (S. 1843), which would establish “a reasonable time period for workers to challenge pay inequity.”
According to Pentagon records, “the Army has accelerated its policy of involuntary extensions of duty” — known as “stop-loss” — “to bolster its troop levels, despite Defense Secretary Robert Gates’ order last year to limit it.” Since May 2007, “the number of soldiers forced to remain in the Army rose 43% to 12,235 in March.” The Army has said it needs the “stop-loss” policy to continue well into 2009.
U.S. households “spent more than $100 billion on gasoline during the first quarter of this year, more than double the $40 billion spent in the same period just six years ago,” according to a new Consumer Federation of America survey. Sixty percent of Americans say that rising gasoline prices have caused them hardship.
And finally: Being president “really takes its toll.” Pop Photo has designed a feature mimicking the “ravages of time” and allowing people to “see how the current candidates would fare after a term in the Oval Office.” Full results here.
What did we miss? Let us know in the comments section.
Previous in TP Politics
By clicking and submitting a comment I acknowledge the ThinkProgress Privacy Policy and agree to the ThinkProgress Terms of Use. I understand that my comments are also being governed by Facebook, Yahoo, AOL, or Hotmail’s Terms of Use and Privacy Policies as applicable, which can be found here.