The West Virginia water contamination incident seems to get progressively worse, despite the state’s governor telling residents to drink water at their own risk; meanwhile, the U.S. government won’t let Israel expand its exports to China. These discoveries and more below.

On a regular basis, Truthdig brings you the news items and odds and ends that have 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.

Oh, By the Way, Says Freedom Industries, There Was a Second Chemical Leaking From That Tank Federal and state investigators learned today that an additional chemical that wasn’t previously identified was in the tank that leaked on Jan. 9 at the Freedom Industries tank farm just upstream from West Virginia American Water’s regional drinking water intake.

W. Virginia Gov on Drinking the Water: ‘It’s Your Decision…I’m Not a Scientist’ The ban has been lifted on all of West Virginia American Water’s customers to use and drink their water.

Learning from the Defeat of Monsanto in Córdoba The multinationals can be defeated only if there exists a powerful social movement, supported by a significant portion of the population.

Netanyahu vs. the Spooks Right-wing Israeli politicians like to boast about their country’s famed intelligence service, but they’ve gotten good at ignoring it when it tells them things they don’t want to hear.

Washington Gets in the Way of Israel’s High-Tech Exports to China Israel’s efforts to expand economic ties with China are being stymied by the United States.

More Competition for Online Certificate Students An online course provider will this spring introduce bundles of courses created by top-tier universities that can be completed for certificates.

Esquire’s Astoundingly Homophobic ‘Looking’ Review Expects Gay Men to Be ‘Mincing’ HBO’s “Looking,” which debuted over the weekend, was extremely unusual — a program about and created by gay men.

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