News briefs – Oct. 6, 2010
Wal-Mart plans to buy South African retailer
Wal-Mart announced its plans to buy South African retailer Massmart Holdings on Sept. 27. Massmart is one of the largest distributors of goods on the African continent. It is also the leading retailer of basic foods in the region and operates in 13 countries.
South African labor unions have expressed concern in the selling of what they call, “key strategic national companies” to Wal-Mart, a company that is “notoriously anti-union and anti-workers rights, and an affront to workers rights wherever they operate around the world.” Wal-mart has made a preliminary offer of $4.8 billion.
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Governor vetoes university transparency bill
Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger vetoed SB330, a bill that would have made the California’s public university foundations’ information publicly accessible. The foundations are non-profit enterprises that manage an estimated $1.6 billion across dozens of campuses. Schwarzenegger said the bill could have endangered the privacy of anonymous donors.
Recent cases involving the mixing of public and private funds in the California education system, have critics saying there should be more transparency with the foundations’ records.
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High court refuses to hear case against NSA
Supreme Court sides with National Security Agency
The Supreme Court will not make the National Security Agency divulge information on whether it has records of warrentless wiretapping of lawyers representing Guantanamo Bay inmates.
On Oct. 4 the court refused to hear Wilner v. National Security Agency, an appeal from Thomas Wilner and other detainee lawyers.
The group of attorneys filed a Freedom of Information Act request with the NSA asking for information regarding warrentless wiretapping carried out under the Terrorist Surveillance program, which they argued violated their attorney-client privilege.
This upheld the lower court’s decision that FOIA does not apply to information that may be sensitive to national security.
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Study shows teenagers practice safe sex
Study shows teenagers practice safe sex
Indiana University’s Center for Sexual Health Promotion released a study that says teenagers are more likely to have safer sex than adults.
The study was done through an online survey taken by nearly 6,000 people between the ages of 14 and 94. It revealed that 80 percent of adolescent boys and 60 percent of adolescent girls use condoms. This is twice the amount of young adults, and four times the number of people over the age of 40 who use protection.