Back From Vacation: Tuesday Links

The Angry Progressives are back from vacation today with a big set of links. And we're excited that these particular news items focus on issues that have been important to us from the start, from (among others) healthcare and the phramaceutical industry's dominance over U.S. policy; stem-cell research and the potential for the creation of massive amounts of new jobs and economic development; corruption in the Bush Adminstration; and progress being made on the living wage and sustainable communities fronts.

• Senators who raised millions of dollars in campaign donations from pharmaceutical interests secured industry-friendly changes to a landmark drug-safety bill. Republican Senators have also effectively killed a measure that would have let Americans buy prescription medicines from foreign suppliers, which sponsors said could have saved consumers billions of dollars. By a 49-40 vote, senators approved a provision requiring the government to certify that imports are safe -- a step the Bush administration is unlikely to take. The amendment, offered by Thad Cochran (R-Miss.), was seen as a major victory for the pharmaceutical industry.

• The Kansas Board of Education repealed sex education policies enacted last year, the latest move by the moderate majority to undo efforts by conservatives when they dominated the board.

• Democratic Governor Deval Patrick proposed that Massachusetts invest $1 billion in the biotechnology industry and challenge California as a hub for stem-cell research.

• Four officials who helped oversee a federal reading program for young students have pocketed significant sums of money from textbook publishers that profited from the $1 billion-a-year initiative, a Democratic congressional report disclosed yesterday.

• The Pentagon has placed unprecedented restrictions on who can testify before Congress, reserving the right to bar lower-ranking officers, enlisted soldiers, and career bureaucrats from appearing before oversight committees or having their remarks transcribed.

• Gov. Martin O’Malley of Maryland signed the nation’s first statewide living wage bill , giving fresh momentum to a movement that seeks to raise wages through legislation.

• A legislative committee endorsed a bill that would require retailers to pay for an economic impact study before they can build big stores in Maine communities.

• Former President Bill Clinton announced agreements with drug companies to lower the price of so-called "second-line" AIDS drugs for people in the developing world and to make a once-a-day AIDS pill available for less than $1 a day.

• A slice of this year's surplus oil revenues in Alaska would go to communities around the state under legislation that moved out of the Senate Finance Committee.

• Native Hawaiian bills, one dealing with self-government and another with housing, moved a step closer yesterday to a debate before the full Senate.

• And finally, there's comedy, there's high comedy, and then there's Tom Delay giving a political seminar in which ethics are discussed.