Jo Erickson

Jo Erickson is a Mint Press investigative journalist and producer specializing in criminal and social justice as well as politics. She worked as the BBC’s News and Current Affairs Producer, breaking the news of the 2011 London riots while also covering African affairs and human rights. She has been published in The Guardian, The Daily Mirror and various U.K. publications. She has worked as an undercover journalist and filmed documentaries for the BBC exposing crime and terrorism. Contact Jo at [email protected] .

Expiring Tax Deductions Prompt Talk Of Tax Reform

Without congressional action to extend state and federal tax deductions, 11 million taxpayers will lose $17 billion.

Jo Erickson
By Jo Erickson
Deductions and tax reform

As the year ends nine federal tax provisions will expire, causing some to pay more in state and local sales taxes. Most critics agree that state and federal taxes need an overhaul, but in which direction? In recent years, the issue of state and federal taxes has been hijacked by partisan politics. Tea party champion Grover Norquist and his

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Dubious Police Use Of Lethal Force Looms Over The Nation

Three fatal police shootings in Texas should compel the country to examine the use of excessive force by police.

Jo Erickson
By Jo Erickson

Last week’s fatal police shooting near a San Antonio campus of an unarmed student highlights yet again the national issue of the use of excessive force among police. The deadly encounter occurred after University of Incarnate Word campus police pulled over 23-year-old Robert Cameron Redus at his apartment complex for allegedly speeding and driving

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EU Applies Pressure On Israel Through Trade Restrictions

While small in scope, the EU’s territorial applicability clause may affect the population of Jewish settlements, which now sits at about 520,000.

Jo Erickson
By Jo Erickson

 The European Union is quietly pushing for a resolution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, making it clear to Israel that Jewish settlements on Palestinian land are not a part of the state of Israel under international law, and as such any business with Jewish settlements are a violation of EU law. The EU dealt a harsh blow to Israeli settlement

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Whistleblower Exposes Enbridge Coverup

This is the second part of the America’s Oil Epidemic series.

Jo Erickson
By Jo Erickson

This film commissioned by MPN shows the shocking dangers of an oil spill to people and animals health. It exposes how people have been misled and continued to eat contaminated fish and how Enbridge is using local landfills to dispose of toxic oil waste. Whistleblower and activist John Bolenbaugh exposes dirty tricks, lies and cover-up of oil

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World Mourns Mandela, But Fight To End Apartheid In Israel Continues

Mandela championed the Palestinian cause to end to the systemic discrimination of Palestinians in Israel.

Jo Erickson
By Jo Erickson

The death of Nelson Mandela, South Africa's first black president, has sparked a global outpouring of grief and affection from presidents to prime ministers, to protesters and people on the streets of South Africa. Mandela, the freedom fighter, prisoner and South Africa's symbol of the struggle against racial oppression, died at the age of 95. His

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Booming Opium Trade Props Up, Plagues Afghanistan

The illicit opium trade has propped up the nation’s fragile economy for years, but it comes with a heavy price in the form of conflict and drug addiction.

Jo Erickson
By Jo Erickson

As Secretary of State John Kerry negotiates with NATO and foreign ministers in hopes of persuading Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai to let international troops remain in the war-torn country beyond 2014, is the U.S. also concerned with Afghanistan’s booming opium trade?  Despite years of U.S. and United Nations’ intervention, Afghanistan’s

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Scientific Journal Bows To Monsanto Over Anti-GMO Study

The reason for the retraction wasn’t that the study was fraudulent, or it contained fabricated data, but rather because the study is inconclusive.

Jo Erickson
By Jo Erickson

A row has erupted over the sudden retraction of a French scientific study that claimed to have found tumors and other problems in rats fed genetically modified maize and exposed to a common, associated herbicide. In a complete change of heart, the journal Food and Chemical Toxicology is distancing itself from Professor Gilles-Eric Seralini’s

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