"It used to be the most beautiful place on Earth. I thought that I'd die down there." The wistful words of Mike Schaff crackle through the co-pilot headphones as he banks his single-propeller plane to make one last circle over the small jumble of homes and canals deep in the verdant bayou country of Louisiana that he has called home all his life.

(This is a repeat of a Gus article on climate change and the dangerous denialists...)

Bulga’s residents thought they had won a victory against a mine expansion which seemed sure to decimate their tiny Hunter Valley town. And then the government arrived to help.

It was the tiny town that hit back. And won.

Some schools in Australia are preaching the message that students can ‘overcome’ their same-sex attraction.

Densely populated and slightly old-fashioned, the suburb of Toongabbie sits right in the middle of Sydney’s western suburban mass.

Former senior Labor ministers Michael Costa, Tony Kelly and Joe Tripodi are to be embroiled in a fresh investigation by the Independent Commission Against Corruption which has launched another fully-fledged graft inquiry into the former minister Eddie Obeid.

Yes, the government can search your email, chats, searches, attachments. Snowden's most shocking leak yet reveals America's National Security State.

from Crikey ….

You better be careful blowing the whistle - new laws have holes.

Tony Abbott's latest speech confirms fact-checking in federal politics remains a faraway fantasy.

At a time when good faith would seem pretty important, the man who would be Australia's leader frequently makes statements contradicted by the evidence.

The companies robbing the world, and why it finally matters.

It is more truly global than the “global war on terrorism”, more quixotic than the global war on the drug trade, and vastly more costly than either of these.

She was capering for the TV cameras outside Buckingham Palace. Mid-forties at a guess, loyally smothered in Union Jacks, grinning through a mouthful of those National Health teeth that suggest a picket fence hit by a car.

I have known my postman for more than 20 years. Conscientious and good-humored, he is the embodiment of public service at its best. The other day, I asked him, “Why are you standing in front of each door like a soldier on parade?”

from politicoz ....