Link: http://topics.nytimes.com/top/opinion/editorialsandoped/oped/columnists/paulkrugman/index.html

Well, it seems that Republicans are going all in on the idea that a big reason we have high unemployment is that unemployment benefits reduce the incentive to seek work. Aside from the sheer cruelty, it’s really bad economics, but whatever.

Link: http://www.economyincrisis.org/content/us-stocks-falter-following-last-weeks-rise

Stocks ended the week with a bang at the Friday closing bell. The NASDAQ led the charge with a 1.48 percent (34.04 points) gain, followed closely by the S&P 500 (1.40 percent, 15.72 points). The Dow Jones Industrial Average tagged along further behind, but it still gained 1.16 percent (122.06 points) on the day.

Link: http://www.economyincrisis.org/content/long-term-unemployment-despair

While many observers cheered the fact that the unemployment rate remained steady at 9.7 percent in February, taking it as a sign that job creation could be right around the corner, others were quick to point out there are still millions of Americans suffering through long-term unemployment who will have a difficult time getting back on their feet even when the economy recovers.

Link: http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2010/03/08

For the first time since the dinosaurs disappeared, humans are driving animals and plants to extinction faster than new species can evolve, one of the world's experts on biodiversity has warned. Conservation experts have already signalled that the world is in the grip of the "sixth great extinction" of species, driven by the destruction of natural habitats, hunting, the spread of alien predators and disease, and climate change. However until recently it has been hoped that the rate at which new species were evolving could keep pace with the loss of diversity of life.

Link: http://www.truthout.org/the-new-jim-crow-how-war-drugs-gave-birth-a-permanent-american-undercaste57462

Ever since Barack Obama lifted his right hand and took his oath of office, pledging to serve the United States as its 44th president, ordinary people and their leaders around the globe have been celebrating our nation's "triumph over race." Obama's election has been touted as the final nail in the coffin of Jim Crow, the bookend placed on the history of racial caste in America.

Link: http://www.truthout.org/report-from-cambodias-garment-factories57458

Meet the international working class - the faceless laborers that likely had a hand in stitching together your mid-range jeans, your jaunty parka or your favorite silky smooth T-shirt: They are super giggly and sharing snacks in the back of a converted military pickup truck over their lunch break.

Link: http://rawstory.com/2010/03/palin-god-wrote-palm-hand/

Admits she used to 'hustle over the border' to 'get health care from Canada'. Sarah Palin has a message for critics of her crib-notes during February's Tea Party keynote speech: God did it too. At a fundraiser on Friday for the Ohio Right to Life group, Palin assailed the media for getting "all wigged out about that" and claimed they're attacking her because they "couldn't argue the content" of the words.

Link: http://www.alternet.org/economy/145942/finance_superstars_talk_about_the_massive_fraud_in_our_economic_system

Last Wednesday, I attended a conference initiated by the Roosevelt Institute on the financial mess, called Make Markets Be Markets. The conference's speakers included people with experience on Wall Street, the banking industry, government and academia; Nobel Prize-winning economist Joe Stiglitz, Elizabeth Warren, and other luminaries who have offered an alternative and reformist narrative to our recent financial crisis. At two and half hours, it was relatively short, giving each speaker the opportunity to make their points and providing a sharp focus. One underlying theme of the event was fraud, the great elephant in the room, that neither the press or our government officials acknowledge, though it is a fundamental element to the financial crisis and its solutions.

Link: http://www.redress.cc/americas/pjballes20100308

Paul J. Balles says the US “has not only become the world's major power, it has become the world's sickest warrior state”. He calls on humanitarians to reject the double standards set by warmongers, on the clergy to stop preaching sanctimonious sermons and on teachers to teach a zero tolerance policy for self-righteous warriors.

Link: http://www.businessweek.com/news/2010-03-08/failed-banks-may-get-pension-fund-backing-as-fdic-seeks-cash.html

The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. is trying to encourage public retirement funds that control more than $2 trillion to buy all or part of failed lenders, taking a more direct role in propping up the banking system, said people briefed on the matter.

Link: http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5gkPFIC1wrQ-L7QiPDPFt0IQLXVygD9EABRHG0

With the fate of his signature legislative initiative far from certain, President Barack Obama is taking his last-ditch push for health care reform on the road. In a speech Monday in Philadelphia, Obama will try to persuade the public to back his plan to remake the nation's health care system, while also urging uneasy lawmakers to cast a "final vote" for a massive reform bill in an election year.

Link: http://www.paltelegraph.com/palestine/west-bank/4655-israel-oks-new-settlement-in-west-bank

A day after the Palestinians agreed to resume peace talks with Israelis, Israeli occupation authorities authorized the construction of 112 new apartments in the West Bank despite a promise to slowdown settlement building. Word of the new construction in the Beitar Illit settlement came while the U.S. is trying to salvage peacemaking as Washington's special envoy to the Middle East, George Mitchell, is also meeting with Israeli and Palestinian leaders.

Link: http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=50577

Charlene Paul and her baby stand in front of her house, next to Athlone Training Stadium, which is to be demolished. While South African parliamentarians attended a swanky pre-International Women’s Day celebration at Cape Town’s International Convention Centre, a group of destitute women in decaying Kewtown, just seven miles away, worried about looming homelessness.

Link: http://click.icptrack.com/icp/relay.php?r=34587598&msgid=511866&act=Y54Z&c=283016&destination=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.gilad.co.uk%2Fwritings%2Fanthony-lawson-it-was-the-right-decision.html

With Anthony Lawson around who needs the Chilcot Inquiry? The art of questioning performed here by Lawson is not presented at the Iraq Inquiry. In Britain 2010, war criminals are yet to be challenged.

Link: http://www.independent.org/newsroom/article.asp?id=2744

The current $350 million ad campaign for the 2010 Census, including the much-maligned $2.5 million Super Bowl spots, urges individuals to “Tell your story.” The Census Bureau is particularly eager for minorities and illegal immigrants to do so, as they are traditionally believed to be the most undercounted.

Link: http://www.thomhartmann.com/2010/03/08/why-are-we-the-only-stupid-industrialized-country-in-the-world/

The postal service this week announced it would be cutting as many as 30,000 jobs through attrition - using hiring freezes as workers retire or quit. According to American Postal Workers Union president William Burrus, cutting the U.S. Postal Service delivery to five days a week would be the beginning of the demise of the Post office.

Link: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/09/business/09pension.html?ref=us

States and companies have started investing very differently when it comes to the billions of dollars they are safeguarding for workers’ retirement. Companies are quietly and gradually moving their pension funds out of stocks. They want to reduce their investment risk and are buying more long-term bonds.