News & Public Affairs

Author Chris Hedges Says Corporations Are Destroying The American Dream

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Tags: Chris Hedges, Joe Sacco, Days of Destruction Days of Revolt, Immokalee, farmworkers, middle class, corporations, WMNF, Rob Lorei

Good morning, welcome to Radioactivity. I’m Rob Lorei. On the first part of the program this morning- an interview with Pulitzer Prize winning reporter Chris Hedges. For almost 20 years he covered conflicts in Central America, the Middle East, Africa and The Balkans. He’s written a number of best selling books including Death of the Liberal Class and War is a Force that Gives Us Meaning.

His latest book is DAYS OF DESTRUCTION DAYS OF REVOLT (NationBooks) . He and illustrator Joe Sacco ta...

Mitt Romney to heckler: "Corporations are people" listen

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Tags: Mitt Romney, C-SPAN, Iowa caucus, corporations, corporate personhood, Social Security

Are corporations people? Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney seems to think so. In a campaign stop at the Iowa State Fair Thursday Romney was questioned by an audience member whether he would take Social Security out of the debt-reduction debate since it doesn’t contribute to the national debt.

"We have to make sure the promises we make are promises we can keep. And there are various ways of doing that. One is we can raise taxes on people. That's not the way..."

(crowd): "...

Live report from progressive rally in Tampa against corporations shirking taxes listen

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Tags: taxes, progressives, income tax, war, corporations, corporate taxes, offshore tax havens

Federal Income Tax returns are due today. But many progressives feel that an undue proportion of taxes go toward war and not enough goes to important social priorities. A group Fight for Florida is organizing about a dozen tax day protests across the state including one at this hour in downtown Tampa. Our reporter Janelle Irwin is live on the scene in front of downtown’s Bank of America. Janelle, tell us who is there and what they’re saying.

Fight for Florida

Giant corporations pay little or no federal taxes

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Tags: taxes, federal taxes, corporations, Boeing, Pfizer, Exxon Mobil, Apple, Bank of America, Wells Fargo, Cayman Islands, patents, tax havens

On part two of today's Radioactivity an interview with Chuck Collins who is a senior scholar at the Institute for Policy Studies where he directs the Program on Inequality and the Common Good. He is co-author of "The Moral Measure of the Economy" and with Bill Gates Sr. of "Wealth and Our Commonwealth: Why America Should Tax Accumulated Fortunes.

Collins recently wrote the piece "Pay Up, Corporate Tax Dodgers," which states: "Instead of cutting state and fed...

Pharmacist on hunger strike against prescription giant Medco listen

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Tags: pharmeceutical industry, Medco, hunger strike, corporations

Around half of all Americans are on prescription drugs. Many insurance companies now make patients get them filled by mail instead of the pharmacy down the street. Mail-order drug giant Medco fills more than one million of these each week. Such high demand may be putting potentially hazardous pressure on the pharmacists who process prescription orders. One former employee of Medco’s Tampa facility is staging the ultimate protest to expose what he’s calling unethical practice.

Rajendra Bhat...