Earlier this week, Michigan's Department of Natural Resources and Environment (DNRE) awarded Dow Corning its "Neighborhood Environmental Partners Program Award." The award was created "to recognize facilities and their community partners who have worked together on environmental and natural resource projects to improve the local environment in their communities." Dow Corning, based in Midland, Michigan, was given this award for creating a recycling program at its facility that employs mentally handicapped individuals. While this effort is admirable, Dow Corning's environmental record is far from praiseworthy.

Iraq's Ministry of Interior recently released a civilian casualty count for the month of July. Their report accounted for the lost lives of 535 Iraqis, making this past month the most violent since June 2008. This escalation in violence can be attributed in part to a situation which Jeremy Scahill, writer of the ground breaking novel, Blackwater: The Rise of the World's Most Powerful Mercenary Army and correspondent for Democracy Now! explains as an unstable country. Iraq is as "unstable as it has ever been," Scahill says. "They [Iraqis] can't form a government. The vast majority of people don't have consistent access to potable water, to electricity, to gasoline... Iraq is a disaster right now."