Investigations: Torture Survivors, Families Expected to Launch Tidal Wave of Lawsuits

Get ready for a tidal wave of lawsuits from Gitmo detainees and families of those killed in U.S. detention facilities, say legal experts cited in this item from the Washington Independent, accompanied by a rather striking graphic. Back in 2006, the non-profit Detainee Abuse and Accountability Project documented 330 cases in which “U.S. military and civilian personnel are credibly alleged to have abused or killed detainees” in detention centers at Guantanamo Bay, Iraq and Afghanistan.

TAGS: torture, Guantanamo, civil rights, lawsuit, 9/11, investigations

Investigations: Black, Native Kids Spanked Twice As Often in School

Huge racial disparities exist among the 220,000 American kids who were paddled at least once in the 2006-07 school year, says this eye-opening AP item about a practice that many parents don't even know their children are subjected to. While more than 100 countries worldwide have banned paddling in schools, including all of Europe, in the U.S., African American students are more than twice as likely to be paddled, according to a new study cited in the AP story. Native Americans were also more than twice as likely to be paddled, and special education students were also more likely to be paddled. Punishments for the kids, aged 3 to 19, were for everything from chewing gum and violating dress codes to fighting.

Parents also have limited recourse, said Alice Farmer, the author of the study (see the full report here), which was done jointly by Human Rights Watch and the American Civil Liberties Union. "One of the things we've seen over and over again is that parents have difficulty getting redress, if a child is paddled and severely injured, or paddled in violation of parents' wishes," she said.

TAGS: civil rights, children, race, investigations

Investigations: Merck Vaccine Campaign Paid Doctors, Nurses $4,500 Per 50-Minute Talk

Hundreds of U.S. doctors and nurses were signed up as unofficial spokespeople and paid $4,500 for each 50-minute talk they gave to other medical professionals as part of a marketing campaign by pharmaceutical giant Merck & Co. to promote its cervical-cancer vaccine Gardasil, says this in-depth New York Times report. Many of the professionals were also paid for attending Merck advisory board meetings. The efforts have broken new ground in pharmaceutical marketing and earned Merck plaudits at the 2008 Pharmaceutical Advertising and Marketing Excellence awards. Meanwhile, controversy about cervical-cancer vaccines hasn't abated despite the muscular marketing campaign, the Times story says.

TAGS: pharma, drugs, investigations, vaccines