Think Progress

HEALTH CARE -- FDA AUTHORIZES 'PLAN B' FOR 17-YEAR-OLDS WITHOUT A PRESCRIPTION: The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) will allow 17-year-olds to obtain the "morning after" birth control pill, also known as "Plan B," without a doctor's prescription. An unnamed FDA official said the government will comply with a judge's order last month that overturned a Bush administration policy restricting access to the drug. U.S. District Judge Edward Korman "ruled in a New York lawsuit that Bush administration appointees let politics, not science, drive their decision to allow over-the-counter access to the pills only for women 18 and older." Korman ordered the FDA to provide unrestricted access to the emergency contraception medication to 17-year-olds and "to evaluate whether all age restrictions should be lifted." "This issue served as a clear example of the agency being taken off track, and it highlighted the problems FDA was facing in many other areas," said Susan Wood, the agency's former top women's health official who resigned in 2005 over delays in issuing a decision. However, conservatives say the FDA should have challenged Korman's decision. "This decision is driven by politics, not what is good for patients or minors," said Wendy Wright, president of Concerned Women for America. "Parents should be furious at the FDA's complete disregard of parental rights and the safety of minors."

CIVIL RIGHTS -- DISCRIMINATION AGAINST HISPANICS ON THE RISE IN THE SOUTH: A new study from the Southern Poverty Law Center documents the rise of hate crimes and anti-immigrant discrimination against Hispanics in the South. The report "Under Siege: Life for Low-Income Latinos in the South," surveyed 500 low-income Hispanics, both legal residents and undocumented immigrants. It found that regardless of citizenship status, Hispanics are victims of wage theft, worker abuse, sexual abuse, and racial profiling. The report found that 41 percent of Hispanics reported wage theft -- being denied payment for a job they completed. Eva San Martin, "an advocate working in New Orleans," described an incident of wage theft: "The contractor raised his shirt and showed he had a gun -- and that was enough. He didn't have to say any more. The worker left." Another trend Martin observed is "amigo shopping," in which Latinos working as day laborers are attacked and robbed on the street because it is known that they have to carry cash since they cannot open bank accounts. Further, the SPLC found that more than 300 "nativist extremist" groups have been formed since 2005, attributed mostly to the immigration debate, which has "gained currency in large part because talk radio and television news programs trusted by the public have provided a platform...for fueling anger and hate against Latinos." Indeed, the report writes, "Latinos are targeted for harassment by racist extremist groups, some of which are directly descended from the old guardians of white supremacy."

RADICAL RIGHT -- CHENEY PRAISES TEA PARTIES AS 'HEALTHY' AND HOPES THAT THEY'LL HAVE AN 'IMPACT': Earlier this week, Fox News' Sean Hannity asked Vice President Cheney to give his "overall analysis" on where President Obama is "taking the country economically." "Well, I'm very concerned about it," replied Cheney before heaping praise onto the anti-Obama tea parties held last week. "I thought the tea parties were great," he said. He then expressed his view that it would be a "healthy" development if the demonstration of conservative "grassroots" opinion had an "impact" on the debate in Congress. Cheney's praise for the supposedly popular support for tea parties is surprising considering his contempt for public opinion while in office. As vice president, Cheney dismissed the opinion of far more Americans when they disagreed with his administration's continued occupation of Iraq. During one interview, Cheney was asked to respond to the fact that "two-thirds of Americans" felt that the Iraq war was not worth fighting. Cheney responded, "So?" The interviewer asked, "You don't care what the American people think?" "No," Cheney said. Similarly, on Feb. 15, 2003, millions of people across the globe, including up to 375,000 in New York City alone, protested the impending invasion of Iraq. President Bush, whom Cheney has praised for not making policy "based on public opinion polls," dismissed the protesters as "a focus group." According to Fivethirtyeight.com's Nate Silver, roughly 300,000 people across the country participated in the tea parties. Apparently this was enough to convince Cheney that maybe public opinion should "have an impact" on policy.

Last year, FBI Director Robert Mueller told Vanity Fair that he did not "believe" that there had been a case where "any attacks had been disrupted because of intelligence obtained through the coercive methods." John Miller, a spokesman for Mueller, confirmed that position to the New York Times on Tuesday, saying, "The quote is accurate."

A new AP/Gfk poll shows that, "for the first time in years, more Americans than not say the country is headed in the right direction." Forty-eight percent of Americans say the country is on the right track while 44 percent said the country is headed in the wrong direction. The right track number is up from 40 percent in February, 35 percent in January and just 17 percent in October, 2008.

General Motors (GM) announced yesterday that it will "temporarily close most of its U.S. factories for up to nine weeks this summer because of slumping sales and growing inventories of unsold vehicles." The closings will likely be "staggered between mid-May and the end of July," and may affect "15 of GM's 21 North American car and truck assembly plants, most of them in the USA."

As of 8 A.M. this morning, more than 16,000 of you have taken action to urge Congress to begin impeachment hearings against Jay Bybee. Thanks for your support.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) was briefed about the Bush administration's torture program while she served as the ranking Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee in 2002. She insists that "the lawmakers were told only that the C.I.A. believed the methods were legal -- not that they were going to be used." Yet, the ranking Republican at the time, Porter Goss, "recalls a clear message that the methods would be used."

Federal Energy Regulatory Commission Chairman Jon Wellinghoff told reporters yesterday that "no new nuclear or coal plants may ever be needed in the United States." Wellinghoff's position goes beyond other Obama administration officials, "who have strongly endorsed greater efficiency and renewables deployment but also say nuclear and fossil energies will continue playing a major role."

The IMF released a report yesterday finding that the "global economy will most likely contract this year for the first time since World War II." The report projects a 1.3 percent decline in global economic activity and a 2.8 percent contraction in the U.S. in 2009, but expects growth to resume in 2010.

ABC News's George Stephanopoulos was granted an interview this week with Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Stephanopoulos writes that the two of them engaged in "some spirited exchanges, as you might imagine, on the nuclear talks, the Holocaust, and who's really to blame for the breakdown in U.S.-Iran relations."

And finally: What would Joseph Wilson do? That's the question that actor Sean Penn has been asking himself in preparation for his role as the ambassador in the upcoming movie about the Valerie Plame leak scandal. Penn has reportedly "spent considerable time at the Wilsons' home in Santa Fe so the actor can study Wilson, his personality, his mannerisms and inflection. ... Penn is so determined to perfectly capture his character that he has even been wearing Wilson's cufflinks."