Prisoner release the basis for renewed Israel-Palestine peace talks and other morning reads

July 20, 2013 9:43 AM Prisoner release the basis for renewed Israel-Palestine peace talks and other morning reads

By Samuel Knight

Good morning, sunshine!

Here is some news you can use. Or just read.

*To meet a prerequisite for the resumption of peace talks, Israel has agreed to release ?heavyweight [Palestinian] prisoners who have been in jail for tens of years? but ?will not yield on other central issues,? according to Haaretz.

A settlement construction moratorium remains out of the question, and no preliminary guarantees are to be made with regard to a future Palestinian state?s borders.

*An appellate judge ruled that the federal government can pursue its civil case against defense contractor KBR. The litigation centers around employees of the Houston based firm having solicited kickbacks from subcontractors.

*China?s state run news agency reported that a wheelchair bound man set off a bomb at Beijing International Airport at 6:24 p.m. local time. His was the only injury.

*Prompted by the Guardian?s reporting, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence told the paper that a Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court has renewed the NSA?s trawling of Verizon Wireless metadata.

The Feds might not be able to ?hear you now,? Verizon customers, but they?ll know where you are, who you?re calling, and how long your phone conversations are.

Which is rather disturbing ? for obvious reasons ? if you?re either a national security journalist, or just simply like hard-hitting nat sec muckraking.

*Workers walked off the job at a McDonalds in Manhattan and at a Dunkin? Donuts in Chicago yesterday to protest a lack of air conditioning amid an overwhelming heat wave.

According to Josh Eidelson, writing for Salon, the stoppage in New York occurred after an employee fainted and was attended to by paramedics - after being abused by her manager and ordered back to work while vomiting in a bathroom, no less.

After the story broke, In These Times? Mike Elk reported that ?no federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) rule?exists to protect workers against heat stroke?despite the fact that National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health proposed a such a rule to OSHA 40 years ago, in 1972.?

Samuel Knight is a freelance journalist living in DC and a former intern at the Washington Monthly.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/washingtonmonthly/rss/~3/Jk3uJaWoBJI/prisoner_release_the_basis_for045932.php

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