HUFFINGTON POST 05/21/15 By Michael Shank It’s official. The Department of Homeland Security has placed me on a travel watch list. Every time I travel abroad, I now have “SSSS”, which stands for Secondary Security Screen Selection, on my boarding documents. That means I get an extra rigorous full-body screening, […]
THE GUARDIAN 12/18/14 By Michael Shank and US Rep Mike Honda Holding out for winter rain or implementing short-term fixes won’t fix California’s water crisis. We need action on the state, federal and international level Between power outages, deluging rains, flash floods, mudslides and record droughts, California is quickly becoming […]
PEACEBUILDER 12/04/13 By Andrew Jenner In 2006, the United Nations General Assembly replaced its Commission on Human Rights – the organization’s main body dedicated to protection of human rights – with the reorganized and renamed UN Human Rights Council (HRC). As UN decisions and deliberations tend to be, it was […]
WASHINGTON POST 08/02/13 By Michael Shank That the Federal Bureau of Investigation, or any other entity for that matter, thinks we can defeat terrorism through an advertising campaign has no clue about how to undermine extremism, let alone prevent, manage, or transform violence. Yet, the FBI took out bus ads […]
THE HILL 06/05/13 By Hill Staff Friends Committee on National Legislation, a Quaker public interest firm, has hired Michael Shank as a lobbyist to focus on foreign policy issues, including climate change, global poverty, and U.S. military and nuclear weapons policy. Shank most recently worked as Rep. Mike Honda’s (D-Calif.) […]
PHILADELPHIA INQUIRER 01/12/12 By Michael Shank and US Congressman Michael Honda (D-CA) Homicide, other violent crimes, incarceration, policing, and guns are costing this country hundreds of billions of dollars, and millions of jobs, every year. According to conservative estimates by the Institute for Economics and Peace, if the United States […]
SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE 12/17/09 By Michael Shank I was not in America feasting on pumpkin pie on Thanksgiving. I was in Afghanistan during the Muslim holiday of Eid, also a day to give thanks. Landing in Kabul , I wondered what there was to be thankful for. Poverty plagued the […]
SAN JOSE MERCURY NEWS 12/12/2009 By Michael Shank Wrapping up a whirlwind tour in Afghanistan, I am overwhelmed with what I found and how far afield it is from Washington’s thinking. Many congressional delegations come to Kabul but rarely experience on-the-ground realities. The way I could guarantee a raw look […]