• Congress Delays Medicare Payment Cuts to Doctors
• Builders Look for Ways to "Green" Homes and Offices
• EPA Library Focusing on New Chemicals Will Not Reopen
• The First New Palestinian Town in More Than 40 Years Has Been Given the Go-Ahead
• The First Los Angeles Social Forum Focuses on Immigration

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Congress Delays Medicare Payment Cuts to Doctors

The Bush administration has agreed to delay Medicare payment cuts for doctors. To the dismay of physicians, patients, and insurance companies, the cuts were supposed to go into effect today. As FSRN's Leigh Ann Caldwell reports, this is the not the first time the President and Congress have had to step in and delay payments to the program.

Builders Look for Ways to "Green" Homes and Offices

How green is your home? How about your office? The buildings we live in consume almost half of all the energy we use in this country. With the price of gas, attention has shifted to fuel-efficient vehicles lately, but transportation accounts for only about half as much energy use as buildings. So what can we do to green the places we work and live? FSRN's Tanya Snyder toured a green building to find out the answer.

EPA Library Focusing on New Chemicals Will Not Reopen

In 2006, the Bush Administration began systematically closing the libraries of the Environmental Protection Agency. These libraries, scattered throughout the United States, held the official records of the Agency, contained one of the most comprehensive collections on new pesticides and chemicals in the world and are used by lawyers, scientists and the general public. By 2007, the newly elected Democratic Congress put a stop to the closures, and ordered that the libraries be restored. But as of now, it appears the agency's new chemical library will not be reopened. Jes Burns spoke to Jeff Ruch, the Executive Director of Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility, to find out the current status of the library system.

The First New Palestinian Town in More Than 40 Years Has Been Given the Go-Ahead

A new Palestinian town has just been given the go ahead in the West Bank – it will be the first one to be built there since Israel moved in more than forty years ago. And the first planned community there that is not a Jewish settlement. A developer has just secured the funding, although it has not yet completed the plans or received final approvals. Already thousands of customers have registered, emphasizing the Palestinian need for affordable housing. Irris Makler spoke to the developer Bashar al Masri in Ramallah who says this is an idea that's time has come.

The first Los Angeles Social Forum focuses on immigration

The Los Angeles Social Forum convened for the first time this weekend. Inspired by the World Social Forum, grassroots activists from around Southern California converged on the USC campus to discuss the gamut of progressive causes. With the recent nation-wide attention given to the issue of immigration, organizers placed a special focus on legal strategies to defend undocumented immigrants from detention and deportation. Dan Fritz files this report from KPFK.