Washington, DC—(ENEWSPF)—May 12, 2015. Yesterday, the Departments of Health and Human Services, Labor and the Treasury issued guidance to clarify consumers’ right to coverage of preventive services without copay under the Affordable Care Act. This includes coverage of contraception. Ilyse Hogue, president of NARAL Pro-Choice America, released the following statement:[Read More…]

Washington, DC–(ENEWSPF)–May 11, 2015.  Over the weekend, Congresswoman Tammy Duckworth authored an OpEd in the Chicago Sun Times discussing the need for airports to accommodate breastfeeding mothers. Full text is below: OpEd: Airports fail to accommodate breastfeeding mothers Last November, I experienced one of the greatest joys of my life:[Read More…]

“This is just cynical partisan politics … it’s a phony deal,” says Audubon CEO David Yarnold NEW YORK–(ENEWSPF)–May 11, 2015.  Responding to news that the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management today approved Shell’s exploration plan for drilling in the Arctic Ocean this summer, ignoring concerns raised by conservation groups, the National[Read More…]

WASHINGTON–(ENEWSPF)–May 11, 2015 – The Interior Department today approved Royal Dutch Shell’s Chukchi Sea exploratory drilling plans, clearing the way for its drilling rigs to operate off Alaska for the first time since 2012 – when one Shell rig had to be scrapped after running aground off Kodiak Island and another incurred[Read More…]

Washington, D.C. —(ENEWSPF)–May 11, 2015.  Nidhi Thakar, Deputy Director of the Public Lands Project at the Center for American Progress, released the following statement today on the close of the comment period for the U.S. Department of the Interior rulemaking on coal royalty valuation, ONRR-2012-0004-0024. The practice of companies selling[Read More…]

WASHINGTON, D.C. –(ENEWSPF)—May 11, 2015. The Department of the Interior gave conditional approval of Shell’s revised Exploration Plan for oil and gas drilling in the Chukchi Sea, pending receipt of drilling permits from the Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement and authorizations under the Marine Mammal Protection Act. Compared to[Read More…]

ANCHORAGE, Alaska—(ENEWSPF)–May 11, 2015.  The Department of the Interior announced today that it has approved Shell’s plan for exploratory oil drilling in Alaska’s Chukchi Sea this summer. The Center for Biological Diversity’s Alaska Director Rebecca Noblin issued this statement in response: “It’s deeply troubling to see the Obama administration give[Read More…]

Store employee Josh Kelly checks the condition of used records at Vintage Vinyl Records on April 14, 2015. SOURCE: AP/Mel Evans Washington, D.C. — Center for American Progress Economist Michael Madowitz released the following statement today after the Bureau of Labor Statistics issued its April 2015 employment figures. Follow Madowitz on Twitter[Read More…]

WASHINGTON —(ENEWSPF)–May 7, 2015.  On Thursday morning, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit ruled that Section 215 of the Patriot Act does not authorize some of the sweeping surveillance programs the NSA and other intelligence agencies use. The judges rejected the government’s argument that Section 215 is[Read More…]

WASHINGTON, D.C.–(ENEWSPF)–May 7, 2015 – The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), the nation’s largest Muslim civil rights and advocacy organization, today welcomed a ruling by a federal appeals court that the National Security Agency’s (NSA) ‘dragnet’ collection of Americans’ phone records is illegal under the USA Patriot Act’s amendment of[Read More…]