Citizen Cartwright

New effort to focus politics on the facts

As "we tumble around inside this washing machine full of acid suds we call today’s political process," Face the Facts USA says it's working to "separate the trash from the truth."

Led by Frank Sesno, director of George Washington University’s School of Media and Public Affairs and former CNN reporter, the mission of Face the Facts is to deliver "provocative facts about big issues to help Americans debunk myths, hold better conversations, get involved, and make choices as smarter citizens."

This week's big economic events

The Federal Reserve is due to announce on Wednesday and the European Central Bank on Thursday whether they will do more to stimulate economic growth.

The July jobs report will be released Friday by the Labor Department.

If not gun control, bullet control?

The alleged Colorado shooter was able to buy 6,000 rounds of ammunition over the Internet in a relatively short period of time.

So while there's little interest in new gun control action in Congress, Sen. Frank Lautenberg, D-N.J., and Rep. Carolyn McCarthy, D-N.Y., are planned legislation to make it more difficult to buy that many bullets that quickly.

Computer game to help depressed teens

In the SPARX video game being finalized for release, teenagers adopt a warrior avatar and blast negative thoughts with fireballs while trying to save the world from sinking into a mire of pessimism and despair.

Also in the news

Syrian forces intensifying assault on Aleppo

Haqqani network poses risk to U.S.-Pakistan relations

Japanese utility behind nuclear disaster gets $12.8 billion bailout

Massive blackout strikes India for second day

House, Senate negotiators pushing new round of sanctions against Iran

Postal Service braces for default of $5.5 billion payment as Congress deadlocks

Moderate Ohio GOP Rep. Steve LaTourette to retire

Arizona 20-week abortion ban upheld by judge

Study: Drinking moderate amount of alcohol is a social lubricant

The lessons from Iraq, Afghanistan

Ryan Crocker, departing ambassador to Afghanistan and "one of the pre-eminent American diplomats of the past 40 years," according to The New York Times, has this advice for policymakers:

— Don't forget the law of unintended consequences.

— Recognize the limits of America’s actual capabilities.

— Understand that getting out of a conflict once you're in often can be dangerous and as destructive for the country as the original conflict.

Jihadists' bigger role in Syria

Foreign fighters with sympathies or links to al Qaeda are part of the opposition, The New York Times and Al Jazeera report.

Warning of cyberattacks

Attacks against infrastructure increased seventeenfold from 2009 to 2011, says Gen. Keith Alexander, head of the National Security Agency and the U.S. Cyber Command.

“Destructive cyberattacks against critical infrastructure are coming,” he says. Yet on a scale of 1 to 10, U.S. preparedness for a large-scale attack is “around a 3.”

Alexander says computer-based espionage against the industrialized world amounts to “the biggest transfer of wealth in history” because “adversaries have gone into our companies and taken intellectual property … what other countries are doing are stealing the next generation of [our] capabilities.” 

While Alexander didn’t name any countries, China and Russia have been cited by government officials as the biggest culprits — a charge they deny.

Climate skeptic changes his mind

Global warming is happening, and greenhouse gas emissions caused by human activity are the main cause, says Richard Muller, a professor of physics at the University of California at Berkeley, a former MacArthur Fellow and co-founder of the Berkeley Earth Surface Temperature project.

Muller wrote about his "total turnaround" in an op-ed piece in Saturday's New York Times.

The Berkeley project was "heavily funded" by the Charles Koch Charitable Foundation, which, along with its libertarian petrochemical billionaire founder Charles Koch, has a "considerable history" of supporting groups that deny climate change, says the Los Angeles Times.

Also in the news

U.S. construction projects in Afghanistan challenged in inspector general’s report

Romania's president survives impeachment vote

Economic growth slowed in second quarter as consumers pulled back

Senate committee's report on for-profit colleges condemns costs, practices

Scalia steps up health-care ruling criticism, says Constitution permits some gun control

Cheney: Choosing Sarah Palin for vice president was ‘a mistake’

Doctor shortage likely to worsen with health care law

Food-borne illnesses not declining, CDC says