\n Democracy Now!

In Tight Midterms Facing Low Turnout, Colorado's Senate Race\nCould Decide Who Controls Congress

As we broadcast from Denver, Colorado, we examine how the\nstate's U.S. Senate race in the upcoming midterm election could\nshape who controls Congress. Republican candidate Cory Gardner and\nDemocratic incumbent Mark Udall are neck and neck in the polls.\nGardner is a two-term congressman and son of a tractor salesman who\nhas attacked Udall's support of the Affordable Care Act and close\nfamily political ties. Meanwhile, Udall has accused Gardner of\nbeing too far to the right, especially in his previous support for\nColorado's \"personhood\" ballot measures, which declared that rights\nbegin at conception. Outside groups have poured millions of dollars\ninto the campaigns. We look at the Gardner-Udall contest -- and\nother key issues in the midterm election -- with Mike Littwin, a\nlongtime Denver Post political columnist who now writes for The\nColorado Independent.

In Historic Police Brutality Case, Family of Homeless Denver\nPastor Killed in Custody Awarded $4.6M

As Denver faces a string of police brutality cases, a federal\njury has awarded a historic $4.6 million in damages to the family\nof a homeless preacher killed while he was in the booking area of\nthe Denver jail. Marvin Booker died after he was grabbed and then\npiled on by a team of officers who handcuffed him, put him in a\nchokehold and tasered him. The coroner ruled his death a homicide,\nbut prosecutors declined to charge the deputies involved, and\nDenver Sheriff Department officials never disciplined them, saying\nBooker could have harmed someone and that force was needed to\nrestrain him. The case highlights a history of alleged misconduct\nby the police department, and has added momentum to calls for\nreform both locally and nationwide in the aftermath of calls for\njustice in the killing of unarmed teenager Michael Brown by an\nofficer in Ferguson. We are joined by two guests: Rev. Reginald\nHolmes, pastor of the New Covenant Christian Church/Alpha and Omega\nMinistries, who has been a leading voice calling for law\nenforcement accountability, and Susan Greene, editor of The\nColorado Independent and longtime reporter formerly with The Denver\nPost.

Headlines for October 17, 2014

WHO Lists 15 African Countries Threatened by Ebola; Jamaica\nImposes Travel Ban, Obama Opposes Travel Ban, But Leaves Wiggle\nRoom; Could Name Ebola \"Czar\", Head of Dallas Hospital Apologizes\nfor Duncan Treatment, Nurse's Ebola Infections, U.S. Continues\nKobani Bombardment for 3rd Day, Syrian Kurds Seek American Weapons;\nU.S. Continues Talks with Turkey, String of Bombings Kills at Least\n36 in Baghdad, Israeli Forces Fatally Shoot Palestinian Boy in\nOccupied West Bank, Venezuela Wins Seat on United Nations Security\nCouncil, Jobless Benefit Claims Hit 14-Year Low, Obama Admin Taps\nACLU Lawyer to Head Justice Dept. Civil Rights Division,\nPennsylvania Lawmakers Approve Prisoner Censorship After Speech by\nMumia Abu-Jamal, Biden's Son Discharged from Navy Reserve over\nCocaine Use

Abortion as a Social Good: Author Katha Pollitt Pens New\nVision for Pro-Choice Movement

We look at a book out this week that offers a new vision for\nthe pro-choice movement. In \"Pro: Reclaiming Abortion Rights,\"\nNation columnist Katha Pollitt dissects the logic behind the\nhundreds of abortion restrictions enacted over the past few years\nand shows that, at their core, they are not about safety, but about\ncontrolling women. In order to reverse the tide of eroding access,\nPollitt concludes, the pro-choice movement must end the\n\"awfulization\" of abortion. She writes, \"I want us to start\nthinking of abortion as a positive social good and saying this out\nloud.\"

A Little Shout of Joy: Supreme Court Lets Abortion Clinics\nReopen, Easing Crisis of Access in Texas

Texas abortion clinics shuttered by a recent court ruling\nhave been allowed to reopen after the U.S. Supreme Court blocked\npart of an anti-choice law that would have required abortion\nclinics to meet the standards of hospital-style surgery centers.\nEarlier this month, the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals allowed the\nrule to take immediate effect, essentially gutting access to\nabortion overnight. Thirteen clinics were forced to close, leaving\njust eight in all of Texas. The latest Supreme Court ruling will\nallow the clinics to continue providing care while the appeals\ncourt considers the law. At least eight have reportedly already\nopened their doors again. Texas previously had more than 40\nclinics, but many remain closed under another of the law's\nprovisions which requires abortion providers to obtain admitting\nprivileges at a nearby hospital. In its decision Tuesday, the\nSupreme Court also blocked that requirement as it applies to two\nclinics in the isolated communities of El Paso and McAllen. We are\njoined by Amy Hagstrom Miller, CEO of Whole Woman's Health in\nMcAllen, the only abortion clinic open south of San Antonio. It\nwill begin seeing patients again on Friday.

An Unprofitable Disease: In the Political Economy of Ebola,\nWho Lives and Who Dies?

We look at the political and economic circumstances of the\nspread of Ebola with science writer Leigh Phillips, who calls for a\nsocialization of pharmaceutical research and production. Phillips\nsays that using revenues from profitable drugs to subsidize\nresearch for unprofitable drugs would reduce the costs of vaccines\nand their development. He also argues the decimation of the\nhealthcare infrastructure is linked to the same free market\npolicies and austerity measures pushed by Western countries and the\nInternational Monetary Fund that impoverished the West African\ncountries where the Ebola outbreak has occurred. \"We need to begin\nto ask whether capitalism itself is not pathogenic,\" says Phillips,\nwhose recent article for Jacobin magazine is \"The Political Economy\nof Ebola.\"

A U.S. Nurse Witnesses Ebola's Ravages in Sierra Leone, Where\nHorrific Conditions Claim Lives Daily

As the infections of two Dallas nurses fuel concerns about\nEbola in the United States, the death toll in West Africa is\napproaching 5,000. The World Health Organization has warned there\ncould be up to 10,000 new Ebola cases per week in the coming\nmonths, up from the current 1,000. We are joined by Michelle Dynes,\na nurse and epidemiologist at the Centers for Disease Control and\nPrevention who has returned from Sierra Leone. Dynes spent the past\nseveral weeks responding to the Ebola epidemic in the country's\nKenema district. \"It's a strange situation to see that much pain\nand suffering and not be able to provide a hug, or comfort,\" Dynes\nsays.

Headlines for October 16, 2014

CDC Allowed Dallas Nurse Aboard Flight Before Ebola\nDiagnosis, Head of Dallas Hospital Set to Apologize for Ebola\nHandling, Official Death Toll from Ebola Nears 5,000 in West\nAfrica, Pentagon: Hundreds of ISIS Fighters Killed in U.S.-Led\nStrikes, U.S.-Led Coalition Hits Kobani Area with Most Strikes of\nSyria Campaign, Envoy: U.S. to Build New Syrian Rebel Force Outside\nof FSA, CIA Study Warned of U.S. Failures in Propping Up Rebel\nForces, U.N.: Funding Shortfall Forces Cut to Afghan Food Aid,\nArkansas Supreme Court Overturns Voter ID Law, $4.6 Million Awarded\nto Family of Homeless Pastor Who Died After Denver Police Beating,\nWrongfully Convicted Prisoner Championed by \"Hurricane\" Carter\nFreed After 29 Years, Feminist Critic Cancels Utah Lecture After\nThreat of Shooting Massacre

Mexico's Missing Students: Were 43 Attacked by Cartel-Linked\nPolice Targeted for Their Activism?

Protests continue in the southern Mexican state of Guerrero\nover the disappearance of 43 teachers' college students missing for\nmore than two weeks following a police ambush. More than 20 police\nhave been detained and accused of collaborating with a drug gang,\nGuerreros Unidos, that has ties to the city's mayor, who has fled.\nFears over the students' fate have escalated following the\ndiscovery of 10 mass graves. But on Tuesday, Mexican Attorney\nGeneral Jesús Murillo said DNA tests showed none of the 28 bodies\ntested so far belong to the missing students. \"This particular\nattack reflects … decades of criminalization of these schools, and\na situation where in the current Mexican government it is really\nhard to tell where the state begins, and where drug cartels end,\"\nsays Tanalís Padilla, associate professor of Latin American history\nat Dartmouth College, who is writing a book on the history of rural\nnormal schools in Mexico. Padilla says the schools offer education\nto low-income students unserved by the public school system, and\nhave a legacy of political radicalism that has prompted political\ncrackdowns in the past. We are also joined by Valeria Hamel, an\nactivist and law student at Mexico City, where students have\nlaunched a 48-hour strike, calling for the students to be returned\nalive. \"These students were politically involved in their\ncommunities, so that makes us think this is political,\" Hamel\nsays.

Infected Workers, Slow Deployment, No Vaccines: Ebola\nResponse Shows Pitfalls of Privatized Health

Although the rate of new Ebola infections has slowed in some\nareas, the World Health Organization says it would be premature to\nread that as a success. New WHO projections suggest there could be\nbetween 5,000 and 10,000 new cases a week by December. The head of\nthe United Nations Mission for Ebola Emergency Response told the\nU.N. Security Council that the steps implemented by the\ninternational community are not enough to halt the advance of the\nfatal disease. \"This is an international humanitarian and health\ncrisis,\" says Lawrence Gostin, university professor and faculty\ndirector at the O’Neill Institute for National and Global Health\nLaw at Georgetown University. Gostin says privatized healthcare has\nundermined the U.S. response to Ebola, with a lack of available\nvaccines and access to proper care. \"Much of our innovation is\ndriven by the private sector, and from their point of view, Ebola\nwas not a predictable disease and those who got Ebola were too poor\nto pay for it.\" We are also joined by Karen Higgins, co-president\nof National Nurses United.

As Second Dallas Nurse Diagnosed with Ebola, Are U.S.\nHospitals Failing Healthcare Workers?

As a second healthcare worker at Dallas' Texas Health\nPresbyterian Hospital tests positive for Ebola after caring for\npatient Thomas Eric Duncan, the Centers for Disease Control has\nidentified what it calls a \"large group\" of other workers who may\nstill be at risk. Ebola patients are also being treated at the\nNebraska Medical Center and the Beth Israel Deaconess Medical\nCenter in Boston, but so far no workers there have contracted the\nvirus. This comes as the country’s largest nurses union, National\nNurses United, says hospitals across the country are largely\nunready to take in Ebola patients and have failed to adequately\ntrain healthcare workers and provide necessary protective gear. In\na conference call Tuesday, the union's co-president Deborah Burger\nsaid nurses at the Dallas hospital described having to use medical\ntape to secure openings in their flimsy garments, and were worried\nthat their necks and heads were exposed as they cared for a patient\nwith explosive diarrhea and projectile vomiting. We are joined by\nthe co-president of National Nurses United, Karen Higgins, who\nworks as an intensive care unit nurse in Boston, and hear from\nDemocracy Now! co-host Juan González, who reports on the nurses'\nconcerns in his latest column for the New York Daily News.

Headlines for October 15, 2014

WHO: Growing Ebola Infections Could Bring 10,000 New Cases\nper Week, 2nd Texas Nurse Diagnosed with Ebola; CDC Admits Slow\nResponse, U.N.: ISIS Advance Displaces over 180,000 from Iraqi Town\nof Heet, Obama Talks \"Long-Term Campaign\" with Defense Chiefs from\nAnti-ISIS Coalition, White House Walks Back Claim of Agreement on\nTurkey Bases, Texas Abortion Clinics to Remain Open After Supreme\nCourt Overturns Anti-Choice Measures, Appeals Court Restores Texas\nVoter ID Law for November Election, Hong Kong Police Make Largest\nNumber of Arrests Since Protests Began, Nigerian Protesters Mark\nSix Months Since Schoolgirls' Kidnapping, U.S. Military Contractor\nKilled, Another Wounded in Saudi Arabia Shooting, Report: U.S. Hid\nInjuries of Soldiers Wounded by Western-Supplied Chemical Weapons\nin Iraq, Police: Ballistic Evidence Implicates St. Louis Man Shot\nDead by Officer, Chicago Teachers Union President Has Brain Tumor,\nWon't Pursue Mayoral Bid

James Risen on NSA Whistleblower Edward Snowden: He Sparked a\nNew National Debate on Surveillance

New York Times investigative reporter James Risen faces jail\ntime if he refuses to name a whistleblowing source, but he insists\nthe actual whistleblowers, including Edward Snowden, are \“much more\ncourageous that we reporters are.\" Risen won a Pulitzer Prize for\nhis reporting about warrantless wiretapping of Americans by the\nNational Security Agency. \"We revealed the framework for … how the\nBush administration turned the NSA on the American people,\" Risen\nsays. He argues Snowden revealed that \"under Obama and in the years\nsince we had first written about it, the American people had become\nmuch more of an online citizenry … as a result, the NSA had grown\ndramatically in their ability to watch the online presence of\nAmericans.\"

James Risen Prepared to \"Pay Any Price\" to Report on War on\nTerror Amid Crackdown on Whistleblowers

We spend the hour with veteran New York Times investigative\nreporter James Risen, the journalist at the center of one of the\nmost significant press freedom cases in decades. In 2006, Risen won\na Pulitzer Prize for his reporting about warrantless wiretapping of\nAmericans by the National Security Agency. He has since been\npursued by both the Bush and Obama administrations in a six-year\nleak investigation into that book, \"State of War: The Secret\nHistory of the CIA and the Bush Administration.\" Risen now faces\nyears in prison if he refuses to testify at the trial of a former\nCIA officer, Jeffrey Sterling, who is accused of giving him\nclassified information about the agency's role in disrupting Iran’s\nnuclear program, which he argues effectively gave Iran a blueprint\nfor designing a bomb. The Obama administration must now decide if\nit will try to force Risen’s testimony, despite new guidelines\nissued earlier this year that make it harder to subpoena\njournalists for their records. Risen's answer to this saga has been\nto write another book, released today, titled \"Pay Any Price:\nGreed, Power, and Endless War.\" \"You cannot have aggressive\ninvestigative reporting in America without confidential sources --\nand without aggressive investigative reporting, we can’t really\nhave a democracy,\" Risen says. \"I think that is what the government\nreally fears more than anything else.\" Risen also details\nrevelations he makes in his new book about what he calls the\n\"homeland security-industrial complex.\"

Headlines for October 14, 2014

ISIS Advances in Iraq, Syria; 180,000 Flee Town of Heet,\nReport: Iraqi-Backed Shiite Militias Executing Civilians, Turkey\nDenies It Agreed to Let U.S. Use Bases, Afghan Villagers Say NATO\nAirstrike Killed 7 Civilians, U.S. Air Force Questioned for\nSpending $486M on Planes for Afghanistan, Then Reducing Them to\nScrap, Pentagon Outlines National Security Risks of Climate Change,\nScores Arrested in Wave of Actions on Final Day of \"Ferguson\nOctober\", CDC Reconsiders Ebola Prevention Steps After Nurse Falls\nIll, Guerrero, Mexico: Gov't Building Set Alight in Protest over 43\nMissing Students, Gunmen Kill Activist During Live Radio Show in\nSinaloa, Mexico, Catalonia to Hold Unofficial Poll on Independence\nfrom Spain, Vatican Document Shows Softening of Anti-LGBT Stance,\nAlaska Becomes 30th State with Marriage Equality, British Lawmakers\nVote to Recognize Palestine as a State, Oklahoma Delays Executions\nDue to Drug Shortage, Komen Breast Cancer Charity Under Fire for\nPartnering with Fracking Firm, Philippines: U.S. Marine Held on\nNavy Ship After Murder of Transgender Woman

Campaigners Call for \"One Fair Wage\" to Help End Sexual\nHarassment for Tipped Restaurant Workers

A new report finds up to 90 percent of women working\nrestaurant jobs that depend on tips have experienced workplace\nsexual harassment. More than 70 percent of tipped workers are\nwomen, and female restaurant workers are especially vulnerable to\nharassment in states where tipped workers earn a federal minimum\nwage of $2.13 per hour. Today, just seven states require employers\npay a regular minimum wage before tips. We speak with Saru\nJayaraman, co-director and co-founder of Restaurant Opportunities\nCenter United, which has released a new report, \"The Glass Floor:\nSexual Harassment in the Restaurant Industry.\" Jayaraman is\ndirector of the Food Labor Research Center at University of\nCalifornia, Berkeley, and is the author of \"Behind the Kitchen\nDoor.\" We also speak with restaurant worker, Ashley Ogogor, and\nwith former waitress, Eve Ensler, the award-winning playwright and\nauthor of The Vagina Monologues. She helped create V-Day, a global\nmovement to stop violence against women and girls, and the One\nBillion Rising campaign, which is now in its third year.

Socialist City Councilmember on Nobel Prize Winner Malala\nYousafzai: \"Socialism is the Only Answer\"

We speak to Socialist Seattle City Councilmember Kshama\nSawant about the awarding of the Nobel Peace Prize to Pakistani\neducation activist Malala Yousafzai, who has expressed support for\nsocialism. In 2012, Yousafzai was shot in the head by a Taliban\ngunman who boarded her school bus, but she survived and continued\nto campaign for the rights of girls to go to school. While she was\nrecovering in England, she sent a message to a meeting of Pakistani\nMarxists in Lahore that \"I am convinced Socialism is the only\nanswer and I urge all comrades to take this struggle to a\nvictorious conclusion. Only this will free us from the chains of\nbigotry and exploitation.\" \"I think she's right on the mark,\"\nSawant responds. \"All the places which have been the target of\nbrutal imperialism from the West … where is the solution to all of\nthis? The only solution can be on the basis of rejecting\ncapitalism.\" Sawant also comments on the Indian child labor rights\nKailash Satyarthi, who was jointly awarded this year's Nobel Peace\nPrize with Yousafzai.

Seattle Marks Indigenous Peoples' Day Amid Calls to End\nFederal Holiday Celebrating Columbus

Today marks Columbus Day, a federal holiday to commemorate\nthe arrival of Christopher Columbus to the so-called \"New World\" in\n1492. But the holiday has long evoked sadness and anger among\nNative Americans, who object to honoring a man who opened the door\nto European colonization, the exploitation of native peoples, and\nthe slave trade. Last Monday, the Seattle City Council unanimously\nadopted a resolution to celebrate the second Monday in October as\nIndigenous Peoples' Day at the encouragement of indigenous\nactivists -- joining many other cities and states with non-Columbus\nDay holidays. \"We're making sure that we acknowledge the absolute\nhorrors of colonization and conquering that happened in the\nAmericas at the hands of the European so-called explorers, and\nColumbus was one of the primary instigators,\" says Socialist City\nCouncilmember Kshama Sawant, one of the sponsors of the resolution\nto celebrate Indigenous Peoples' Day. She is a member of Socialist\nAlternative, a nationwide organization of social and economic\njustice activists.

Ferguson October: Thousands March in St. Louis for Police\nReform & Arrest of Officer Darren Wilson

Since the killing of unarmed black teenager Michael Brown two\nmonths ago, protesters in Ferguson, Missouri, have defied a\nmilitarized crackdown and taken to the streets to call for the\narrest of police officer Darren Wilson, who shot him. Their efforts\nhave made Ferguson the ground zero for the movement against police\nbrutality and racial bias. Democracy Now! was there this weekend\nwhen thousands of people traveled to St. Louis to take part in\n\"Ferguson October,\" four days of action calling for justice in\nBrown’s case and the reform of police practices nationwide.\n\“Everybody that we know and love is held accountable for breaking\nthe law,\” says activist and actor Jesse Williams, star of the TV\nshow, \“Grey’s Anatomy.\” \“So those who break the law, if they happen\nto be wearing a blue shirt with a button-up that we paid for, they\nshould probably be held accountable also.\” We hear from residents\nof St. Louis, and from many of the protesters who traveled to\nFerguson from around the country. \“Everybody here is representing a\nfamily member or someone that’s been hurt, murdered, killed,\narrested, deported,\” notes Richard Wallace, with the Chicago\nWorkers’ Collaborative. Over the weekend, 17 people were arrested\nin a sit-in at a gas station near the St. Louis neighborhood of\nShaw, where protests have broken out since last week when police\nfatally shot Vonderrit Myers, an 18-year-old African American.\nPolice say Myers fired at them and that they recovered a gun at the\nscene. But his family claims he was unarmed, holding only a\nsandwich he had bought minutes before. On Sunday night, Myers'\nparents led a march to Saint Louis University, where they held a\nfour-minute moment of silence for their son. Ferguson October\norganizers say more nonviolent civil disobedience is planned for\ntoday.

Headlines for October 13, 2014

Nurses Protest Inadequate Policies After Dallas Nurse\nContracts Ebola, NIH Director: Budget Cuts Prevented Ebola Vaccine,\nLiberian Health Workers Call Strike After 95 Die of Ebola, Turkey\nAllows Use of Bases by U.S. Forces, Anbar Province Said to Be on\nVerge of Falling to ISIS, ISIS Releases Third Video of British\nHostage, U.S. Drone Strikes Kill 8 Near Afghan-Pakistani Border,\nDonors Pledge $2.7 Billion for Gaza Reconstruction, Thousands Join\n\"Ferguson October\" Protests Against Police Shootings, Hong Kong:\nProtest Opponents Tear Down Barricades, Bolivia: President Evo\nMorales Wins Third Term, Brazil: Environmentalist Silva Backs\nPro-Corporate Candidate Neves, In Less-Reported Remarks, Nobel\nWinner Malala Yousafzai Backs Socialism, Opposes Drone Strikes,\nTexas: Abortion Providers Report Surge in Calls, Wait Times After\nCourt Ruling, Former NSA Director: Government Shouldn't Pursue\nJournalist James Risen, New Jersey: 7 High School Football Players\nArrested for Sexual Assault

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