* Senate Passes Healthcare Overhaul Bill * Air Strike in Yemen Kills 30 * Obama: Disappointment over Climate Talks is Justified * Goldman Sachs Faces Probe over Betting on Housing Market Crash * AIG Executives Refuse to Return Bonuses * UN Security Council Imposes Sanctions on Eritrea * Energy Dept to Announce Billions in Nuclear Reactor Loan Guarantees * New York City Calls for Ban on Gas Drilling in Upstate Watershed * Chevron to Pay $45 Million in Gas Drilling Royalty Settlement * Israeli Organ Harvesting Scandal Revealed * West Bank Activist Arrested for Displaying Israeli Tear Gas Canisters * Ecuador Revokes License for Indigenous Radio Station * Crusading Sports Journalist Lester Rodney, 98, Dies
* Healthcare3 Senate Passes Healthcare Overhaul, Compromise with House Bill Looms
In a rare Christmas Eve session, the Senate passed its sweeping healthcare reform legislation this morning by a vote of 60 to 39, along party lines. The $871 billion Senate bill must now be reconciled with the House bill after Congress reconvenes in January. We speak with Trudy Lieberman, contributing editor to the Columbia Journalism Review, and Rep. Raul Grijalva (D-AZ), co-chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus. [includes rush transcript] * Iceraids3 The Nation: Immigration Agents Holding US Residents in Unlisted, Unmarked Facilities
The Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency is holding an untold number of people in secretively maintained detention facilities all over the United States. That’s according to an explosive report that’s the cover story of the latest issue of The Nation magazine. They also report that ICE agents regularly impersonate civilians and rely on other illegal tricks to arrest longtime US residents who have no criminal history. We speak with the author of the two-part investigation, Jacqueline Stevens. [includes rush transcript] * Gaza_victory3 Gaza Freedom March Planned for One-Year Anniversary of Israeli Assault
This weekend marks that one-year anniversary of the start of Israel’s three-week assault on the Gaza Strip that killed some 1,400 Palestinians and thirteen Israelis. To mark the occasion, a group of over nearly 1,400 individuals from over forty countries around the world are aiming to break the siege of Gaza and participate in a nonviolent march inside Gaza alongside thousands of Palestinians. We speak with Hedy Epstein, an eighty-five-year-old Holocaust survivor who is taking part in the march, and Medea Benjamin, co-founder of CODEPINK and part of the coordinating committee of the Gaza Freedom March. [includes rush transcript]