How Sarah Palin says she would have dealt with the oil spill, why white people in Santa Monica are dodging immigrant police, and why the EPA is after the Amish.

On a regular basis, Truthdig brings you the news items and odds and ends that found their way to Larry Gross, director of the USC Annenberg School for Communication. A specialist in media and culture, art and communication, visual communication and media portrayals of minorities, Gross helped found the field of gay and lesbian studies.

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SIGNS OF DEMI-SEMITISM Because coverage of Jewish issues is so biased in the media, you are probably not aware of a J Street poll this spring of American Jews that found they had a more favorable opinion of Obama, Biden, Hillary Clinton, and the Democratic Party than they do of Netanyahu or Rabin.

If You Can’t Beat Them, Brand Them The security firm formerly known as Blackwater is looking for new ownership, announcing Monday it is pursuing a sale of the company that became renowned and reviled for its involvement with the U.S. government in Iraq and elsewhere.

EPA Officials Target Amish Farmers With simplicity as their credo, Amish farmers consume so little that some might consider them model environmental citizens.

Palin Claims She Could Have Handled Oil Spill Former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin said President Barack Obama’s acknowledgment that he hasn’t directly spoken to BP’s chief executive shows it “bodes well to have some sort of executive experience before occupying the Oval Office.”

Harvard’s Fake-Harvard-Credit Business I’ve gotten a few e-mails today complaining about the use of the word “fake” in my latest Chronicle column: “Harvard has the opposite of a brand deficit. It has a brand surplus. The name is so strong that Harvard can run a side business selling fake Harvard credits and nobody bats an eye.”

U. of California Tries Just Saying No to Rising Journal Costs The University of California system has said “enough” to the Nature Publishing Group, one of the leading commercial scientific publishers, over a big proposed jump in the cost of the group’s journals.

Improving Sidewalk Traffic in NYC

Judge Walker’s Amazing Questions for Closing Argument There was big news yesterday in California about “the trial of the century.” Judge Vaughn Walker today issued a series of questions … for the parties to the federal Prop. 8 trial that began in January and was put on by Ted Olson and David Boies and colleagues and defended by the oxymoronic “Protect Marriage” proponents of Prop. 8.

Sorry, You’re Being Deported to Europe

How the Washington Post’s Ombudsman Thinks Labor Protests Should Be Covered The Service Employees International Union (SEIU) organized protests in Maryland at the homes of several bank executives, along with follow-up rallies in Washington, D.C., at bank branches and offices.

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