Thursday, April 8, 2010
Documents: Review of Major U.S. Court Rulings on Enemy Combatant Detentions
The U.S. Congressional Research Service has just issued a useful new report, Judicial Activity Concerning Enemy Combatant Detainees: Major Court Rulings. It reviews all rulings of the Supreme Court and some lower-court decisions regarding Al Qaeda and Taliban suspect detainees. Thanks to Secrecy News, a bulletin of the Federation of American Scientists, for publicizing this great resource.
Awards: IRE Winners
An investigation into how outdated U.S. legislation is failing to protect drinking water and a massive analysis of Florida's real-estate collapse are two of the winners of the 2010 Investigative Reporters and Editor awards. Congratulations to the winners! The stories are an excellent model for other journalists and give lots of ideas for investigations in our own communities.
Unfortunately, for some odd reason, the site doesn't include links to the actual stories, most of which are freely available on the Web. Catch up to 2010, IRE! :) What would DigiDave say? You have to Google the story title to read the actual piece - although the IRE site does include short descriptions to give you an idea if it'll be of further interest.
TAGS: awards
Wednesday, April 7, 2010
Interesting: Why Poland Rejected H1N1 Vaccine
Pharmaceutical companies and governments came under fire at a hearing into the H1N1 flu and vaccine conducted in Paris by European parliamentarians this week, reports the Center for Medical Consumers in this interesting item. The star of the hearing was Dr. Ewa Kopacz, Poland's health minister, who disclosed the secretive and unusual contract terms pharmaceutical firms imposed on governments to sell them the H1N1 flu vaccine.
Poland refused to do a mass vaccination of its citizens because of the onerous terms and doubts about the vaccine's safety, Kopacz said. The country wound up with relatively low flu rates compared to other countries, the item says.
The contract for the vaccine required Poland to pay two to three times more than for regular seasonal flu vaccines, even though the technologies to produce them are the same, Kopacz said. As well, Poland would have had to sign a contract absolving the drug-maker of responsibility for vaccine injuries, she said. Other countries, including Canada and the U.S., agreed to such terms. Click the tag links below for more coverage at this site on H1N1 and the flu vaccine. Also, see these blog posts (here, here and here).
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