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Underbuzzed

Even in the dog days of news-summer, a lot of stories don't get the attention they should. Here's my handful of Underbuzzed stories for today.

Even in the dog days of news-summer, a lot of stories don't get the attention they should. Here's my handful of Underbuzzed stories for today. Add your own in the comments!


  • One of the things that pissed off colonial Americans was debtors' prisons. Well, they're back. If you lose your job and suffer catastrophic health expenses, you might go to prison. Paging Charles Dickens.
  • Next time a Republican (other than Rep. Walter Jones or Sen. John McCain) tells you that Wall Street is manipulating prices, tell 'em about Coca-Cola. First we had Starbucks and Hershey's and Virgin Air accusing speculators of running up gas prices. But this is so much better. Coke is accusing Goldman Sachs of cornering the aluminum market. So basically, we're now at a point where Goldman Sachs is jacking up prices on cocoa beans and sugar, jacking up prices on the fuel needed to transport them and jacking up prices on the aluminum used to package them as soda. And they're doing it by owning the actual warehouses the aluminum is stored in. So they're on the speculative end and on the physical end now. Anyone else feel the circle closing on us?
  • And while an overseas commodities exchange is actually doing something about Goldman Sachs running up the price of gas, US regulators are barely getting started.
  • Y'know those over-regulatory Washington bureaucrats we free ourselves from when we cut the EPA's budget? Turns out you're screwing your local government's ability to do things like maintain your sewers. Almost like Washington is connected to the rest of the country.
  • Our planet's oceans are on the brink of the worst mass extinction in millions of years. Anyone doing anything about it?
  • What happens when a Republican governor is given a free hand by Republican legislators to see whether implementing pure Republican ideology can create jobs? Not a whole lot.

That's what caught my eye today. Share your own choices in the comments!

Follow Senior Producer Jonathan Larsen (@jtlarsen) on Twitter