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Dolls, car seats, party hats and others pose dangers to public health.

from AlterNet

"Over 5000 children’s products contain toxic chemicals linked to cancer, hormone disruption and reproductive problems, including the toxic metals, cadmium, mercury and antimony, as well as phthalates and solvents. A new report by the Washington Toxics Coalition and Safer States  reveals the results of manufacturer reporting to the Washington State Department of Ecology. 

"Makers of kids’ products reported using 41 of the 66 chemicals identified by WA Ecology as a concern for children’s health. Major manufacturers who reported using the chemicals in their products include Walmart, Gap, Gymboree, Hallmark, H & M and others. …"

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Organizer says defying gun ban is "an act of civil disobedience."

from ThinkProgress

"Almost 900 people are RSVPed for a July 4th march on Washington, DC where protesters plan to carry loaded rifles. In DC, openly carrying guns is against the law. But the organizer of the event, libertarian radio host Adam Kokesh, says the march is an act of 'civil disobedience' that attempts to prove gun advocates’ point in the 'SUBTLEST way possible.'

"The event’s Facebook invitation describes the march as a nonviolent demonstration, 'unless the government chooses to make it violent':

"This is an act of civil disobedience, not a permitted event. We will march with rifles loaded & slung across our backs to put the government on notice that we will not be intimidated & cower in submission to tyranny. We are marching to mark the high water mark of government & to turn the tide. This will be a non-violent event, unless the government chooses to make it violent. Should we meet physical resistance, we will peacefully turn back, having shown that free people are not welcome in Washington, & returning with the resolve that the politicians, bureaucrats, & enforcers of the federal government will not be welcome in the land of the free. …"

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Fact-finding mission reveals most companies don't appreciate corporate responsibility on human rights.

from truthout

"A United Nations expert group is warning that too many gaps remain in implementing new safeguards among businesses based in the United States, both in terms of their domestic and international operations, to ensure the protection of human rights of workers and communities affected by those operations.

"Two members of the UN Working Group on Business and Human Rights wrapped up a 10-day fact-finding mission to the United States this week, at the end of which they released initial observations. Ultimately, these will be expanded upon and finalised for presentation to the UN Human Rights Council in June 2014.

“'With a few exceptions, most companies still struggle to understand the implications of the corporate responsibility to respect human rights,' Puvan Selvanathan, the current head of the Working Group and one of the two members on the US trip, said at the end of the mission. 'Those that do have policies in place, in turn, face the challenge of turning such policies into effective practices.' …”

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Only a few candidates are of aboriginal descent.

from the Georgia Straight

"More than 60 years after being granted the right to vote provincially, Natives are underrepresented in BC’s electoral life. It’s indicative of the prevalent cynicism about government, says Ron Peters, a Tsimshian running for MLA in Coquitlam–Burke Mountain.

“'There’s an almost endless list of reasons why a lot of aboriginal people are extremely mistrustful of government,' Peters told the Georgia Straight in a phone interview. 'And it’s a matter of whether you believe that there are constructive things that can be done from within government or whether you think the most effective route is simply to oppose government.'

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Privately brokered IPAC rate affects $379 trillion interest rate market.

by  Matt Taibbi

Conspiracy theorists of the world, believers in the hidden hands of the Rothschilds and the Masons and the Illuminati, we skeptics owe you an apology. You were right. The players may be a little different, but your basic premise is correct: The world is a rigged game. We found this out in recent months, when a series of related corruption stories spilled out of the financial sector, suggesting the world's largest banks may be fixing the prices of, well, just about everything.

You may have heard of the Libor scandal, in which at least three — and perhaps as many as 16 — of the name-brand too-big-to-fail banks have been manipulating global interest rates, in the process messing around with the prices of upward of $500 trillion (that's trillion, with a "t") worth of financial instruments. When that sprawling con burst into public view last year, it was easily the biggest financial scandal in history — MIT professor Andrew Lo even said it "dwarfs by orders of magnitude any financial scam in the history of markets."

That was bad enough, but now Libor may have a twin brother. Word has leaked out that the London-based firm ICAP, the world's largest broker of interest-rate swaps, is being investigated by American authorities for behavior that sounds eerily reminiscent of the Libor mess. Regulators are looking into whether or not a small group of brokers at ICAP may have worked with up to 15 of the world's largest banks to manipulate ISDAfix, a benchmark number used around the world to calculate the prices of interest-rate swaps.

Interest-rate swaps are a tool used by big cities, major corporations and sovereign governments to manage their debt, and the scale of their use is almost unimaginably massive. It's about a $379 trillion market, meaning that any manipulation would affect a pile of assets about 100 times the size of the United States federal budget….

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