Selections from the October 15, 2013 issue

COVER/Deena Shanker
Chicken is killing the planet

EDITORIAL
Death Panel’s last stand?

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR 

RURAL ROUTES/Margot McMillen
Lawmakers outlaw UN, welcome agribusiness

DISPATCHES
GOP chairman eyes Medicare cuts;
New report sees lower costs under Obamacare;
Why are 47M Americans on food stamps?;
Safety net programs kept 40M out of poverty;
Immigration reform looks dead;
Pope attacks global capitalism;
Pig farms, manure fertilizers tied to MRSA infections;
Plummeting sales force Walmart to increase workforce;
Labor Dept. extends wage protection to home care;
World Food Prize to be occupied;
Sometimes a pox on just one house will do;
Still recovering from the bungling of George W. Bush & Co.;
Senate race splits Wyoming GOP;
Appeals court overturns DeLay conviction;
Gun study finds: More guns, more murder ...

GENE NICHOL
Continuing the judicial assault on democracy
NORMAN SOLOMON
Next step for peace in Syria — Stop ‘lethal aid’

BOB BURNETT
The Obama doctrine

GRASSROOTS/Hank Kalet
News deserts

HEALTH CARE/Joan Retsinas
Ignoring the pumphandles

SAM URETSKY
Government helping people take care of people
WAYNE O’LEARY
The tax Wall Street fears

JOHN BUELL
Double or nothing

MARTY KAPLAN
Most depressing brain finding ever

DON ROLLINS
Seamus Heaney, wartime poet

BOOK REVIEW/Seth Sandronsky
Women prisoners resist

ROB PATTERSON
A new look at old friends

POPULIST PICKS
Origins of Oz; Mt. Rushmore; Delbert & Glen

and more ...