Democracy Now! Friday, May 7, 2010

Today's Headlines

• BP Oil Slick Reaches La. Shores
• U.S. Imposes 3-Week Freeze on New Offshore Drilling Permits
• Labor, Civil Rights Groups Urge Arizona Boycott
• Senate Defeats Amendment to Break Up Banks
• Study: Americans “Bombarded” With Cancer Causes
• Pentagon Bans 4 Reporters from Gitmo Trials
• Fmr. Guatemalan Soldier Involved in 1982 Massacre Arrested in Florida
• Greek Lawmakers Approve New Austerity Measures
• Burmese Opposition Party Dissolves
• 2 Palestinian Civil Rights Activists Jailed
• Biden Urges EU to Provide Passenger, Financial Data
• Filmmaker Ordered to Hand Ecuador Footage to Chevron
• Ohio Police Raid Home of Foreclosure Activist

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  Juan Gonzalez: Big Banks Making a Bundle On New Construction as Schools Bear the Cost

  “Wealthy investors and major banks have been making windfall profits by using a little-known federal tax break to finance new charter-school construction,” Democracy Now! co-host Juan Gonzalez write in the New York Daily News. “The program, the New Markets Tax Credit, is so lucrative that a lender who uses it can almost double his money in seven years.”

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  Government Exempted BP from Environmental Review

  Newly-released documents show government regulators exempted BP from a comprehensive environmental review of the project that resulted in the spill. The Minerals Management Service granted BP a “categorical exclusion” from a full review before approving the project just over a year ago. We speak with Kieran Suckling, executive director of the Center for Biological Diversity.

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  Lieberman, Brown Proposal to Strip Terror Suspects of U.S. Citizenship is “Constitutional Buffoonery,” Says Attorney

  Independent Senator Joseph Lieberman of Connecticut and Republican Senator Scott Brown of Massachusetts introduced a measure Thursday to strip Americans charged with terrorism of their U.S. citizenship. We speak with Shayana Kadidal, senior attorney at the Center for Constitutional Rights who says the proposal is “constitutional buffoonery.”

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  “Mom: A Celebration of Mothers from StoryCorps”

  It’s mother’s day on Sunday. We pay tribute to mom’s everywhere with award-winning radio producer Dave Isay, editor of the new book, “Mom: A Celebration of Mothers from StoryCorps.” Isay is the founder of StoryCorps, one of the largest oral history projects in US history.