Welcome! "The Evening Blues" is a casual community diary (published Monday - Friday, 8:00 PM Eastern) where we hang out, share and talk about news, music, photography and other things of interest to the community.
Just about anything goes, but attacks and pie fights are not welcome here. This is a community diary and a friendly, peaceful, supportive place for people to interact.
Everyone who wants to join in peaceful interaction is very welcome here.
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Hey! Good Evening!
This evening's music features blues musician and leader of the Memphis Jug Band Will "Son Brimmer" Shade. Enjoy!
Will Shade + Charlie Burse - Kansas City Blues
“We've got to face the fact that some people say you fight fire best with fire, but we say you put fire out best with water. We say you don't fight racism with racism. We're gonna fight racism with solidarity.”
-- Fred Hampton
News and Opinion
Walter Scott's shooting wasn't just a coincidence. America was built on racism
Walter Scott’s death – and Trayvon’s, Michael’s, Tamir’s and Eric’s, all of whom became so familiar to us in death that we refer to them by first name only – is the end of the promise of America. It’s the decay of whatever moral infrastructure we have left as a nation; it’s confirmation of the ugly truth that a nation, conceived in slavery and once dedicated to the proposition that not all men are created equal, will allow that divide to long endure.
So many white people, satisfied that they are on the right side of justice in the face of law enforcement, this week watched video footage of an unarmed black man getting shot in the back while fleeing from a white police officer and thought merely, “Well, that’s terrible”. “That’s terrible” is not enough. It has never been enough, but as the number of black men murdered by police escalates to numbers beyond reprehensible, beyond coincidental, watching another supposed citizen of this free country shot down with no regard for his humanity ought to elicit more than audible regret. ...
The officer, Michael Slager, who shot and killed Scott has been charged with murder, but that is not enough either, because we all know after this last year that if Slager had not been caught on camera, there would be no murder charge – and in truth, he may never be convicted, despite the video footage. As sure as we are black, the last year portends that there will be yet another prone black body soon enough over which we can express the “appropriate” amount of outrage.
But for those of us left alive, it’s no less damning to see white people evince a palpable sense of discomfort at the actions of the killers, to righteously condemn “those” white people – the police, racists – as to watch others defend them. This is not about “good” white people and “bad” white people: this is systemic, and it is ingrained and it cannot be rooted out by declaring that it’s due to the actions of one bad apple, or even one tree of them.
As Video Exposes Walter Scott Police Killing, Why Is the Man Who Filmed Eric Garner’s Death in Jail?
Bystander Who Filmed Horrifying Footage: 'Officer Just Shot Him in the Back'
Speaking with news outlets for the first time, witness says victim did not have possession of Taser as officer initially claimed
As the footage itself sends shockwaves across a nation already engaged in an elevated debate about race and the scourge of endemic police violence, the man who shot the horrifying cell phone video of an unarmed man being gunned down by a police officer in South Carolina has come forward to explain what else he saw as the events unfolded before him last Saturday. ...
Though the video [warning: graphic] shows the fatal shots, Santana also told NBC what he witnessed before he turned his camera on.
"Before I started recording, they were down on the floor. I remember the police [officer] had control of the situation," Santana said. "He had control of Scott. And Scott was trying just to get away from the Taser. But like I said, he never used the Taser against the cop."
"As you can see in the video, the police officer just shot him in the back," Santana added. "I knew right away, I had something on my hands."
In fact, Santana said in a subsequent interview—this one on MSNBC's All In with Chris Hayes—that he was so afraid of what the repercussions for him might be that he considered "erasing the video" from his cell phone.
"I felt that my life, with this information, might be in danger. I thought about erasing the video and just getting out of the community, you know Charleston, and living some place else," Santana said. "I knew the cop didn't do the right thing."
After Cop’s Shooting of Unarmed Walter Scott Caught on Video, New Calls for Body Cameras on Police
Michael Slager radioed in Taser claim six seconds after firing at Walter Scott
Analysis of police audio synced with video raises further questions about whether officers performed any CPR on Walter Scott after he was shot eight times
The police officer who shot Walter Scott radioed in to claim that Scott had “grabbed my Taser”, six seconds after firing his final shot, despite video suggesting the unarmed man was not in possession of the stun gun at any point, a Guardian analysis has shown.
Syncing police scanner audio with a shocking video – the eyewitness footage out of South Carolina which led to officer Michael Slager being charged with murder – raises further questions about whether either of two officers on the video performed any CPR on Scott as was previously claimed by police.
Analysis of the police radio shows Slager, the officer who shot at Scott eight times, making the radio call announcing the shots and alleging the Taser seizure, sounding frantic and breathless at the same time as he walks slowly towards Scott’s body.
“Shots fired. Subject is down. He grabbed my Taser,” the scanner audio from Slager states.
He reaches the body, handcuffs Scott who has his head down to the floor and walks back to the area where it appears an object was dropped and picks up an item from the ground.
At this point a second officer, now identified as Clarence Habersham, arrives on the scene and radios in. Slager then walks back towards the body and radios in stating: “I need to secure my vehicle”. At this point – over a minute after the last shot is fired – neither officer appears to have performed CPR on Scott.
Slager then walks and drops the item, which some have speculated is a Taser, next to Scott’s body.
Bystander Who Filmed Police Shooting Incident Says 'He Never Used Taser Against The Cop'
Police killing videos shock the world. So why do white Americans still trust cops?
Videos taken by smartphones, dashboard cameras and CCTV are increasingly capturing incidents of police violence. But public trust has remained steady – and starkly divided along racial lines
A 20- to 30-point confidence gap has separated black opinion and white opinion about US policing since the early 1990s, according to Gallup data. The data was last published in June 2014 – before some of the most high-profile police killings caught on video, including Garner’s death, with the haunting last words “I can’t breathe”, at the hands of the New York police department in July.
The gap in confidence in police between black and white poll respondents was measured at only 9 points in 1981, but by 1993 – two years after the King beating that sparked riots in Los Angeles – it had grown to 24 points. In 1995, 91% of white respondents in polling conducted by Gallup said they had “a great deal” or “quite a lot” of confidence in police. The number for black respondents was 65%.
A gap in opinions about police ran along income lines, too, with a 13-point spread between the top 20% of earners and the bottom 20%, according to Gallup. ...
Even before the Garner killing, the gap in confidence in police expressed by white people and black people was at an all-time high of 27 points. In June 2014, 58% of white respondents said they had “a great deal” or “quite a lot” of confidence in police, while only 31% of black respondents said so.
Los Angeles County settles for $5.3m in 2012 fatal police shooting lawsuit
Los Angeles County will pay $5.3m to settle a wrongful death lawsuit brought by the family of an unarmed man killed by sheriff’s deputies in 2012.
The family of Jose de la Trinidad, 36, a father of two, sued the county after two Los Angeles sheriff’s deputies shot and killed him after he fled from a traffic stop. In documents provided to the Los Angeles County board of supervisors, deputies said they still believed the shooting was warranted because they thought Trinidad had a gun. ...
Arnoldo Casillas, the family’s attorney said the prosecutor “failed in every respect in regards to her duty to prosecute” when she chose not to bring charges against the officers. ...
De la Trinidad was shot and killed on 10 November 2012, after a car he was riding in lead deputies on a brief chase after two officers attempted to pull the car over, documents provided to the board members say. Police said they believed de la Trinidad, a passenger in the car driven by his brother, was passed a handgun when they first approached the car, before it pulled away.
Deputies were led from El Segundo Boulevard to 122nd Street, where the car came to a stop and de la Trinidad quickly got out and hid behind another car, his brother driving away. Deputies said they believed he was reaching in his waistband for a gun to shoot them when they opened fire, according to settlement documents.
How St. Louis Police Robbed My Family of $1000
On a late spring evening eight years ago, police pulled over my mother’s 1997 Oldsmobile Aurora, in the suburb of St. Ann, Missouri, as she raced to pick up a relative from St. Louis’s Lambert International Airport. “Do you know why I stopped you?” the officer asked. “No I don’t,” my mother answered. The police charged her with speeding, but she did not receive a mere ticket. Instead, an officer ran my mother’s name and told her that since she had failed to appear in court for driving without a license, there was a six-year-old warrant out for her arrest. “I just started crying. I couldn’t believe it,” my mother said. The police arrested her and hauled her off to St. Louis County Jail, where authorities eventually allowed her one phone call, which she placed to my stepfather. He said, shaking his head, “I was surprised because I knew she didn’t have no warrants.”
St. Ann is one of the more notorious cities in the county when it comes to traffic violations, and in my mother’s case, the city’s finest, quite simply, fucked up. As it was, my mother had no warrant; the police confused her with another woman who shared her name — sans the middle initial. ...
The woman with whom my mother was mistaken bore, in her mugshot, a striking resemblance to my mother. ... But at the time my mother phoned my stepfather, neither of them knew about the blunder, so he set off for Clayton, the tony suburb where the county jail sits, with the intention of bailing his partner out. ... “I got there,” my stepfather said, and “they said she wasn’t there. They said they couldn’t find her.” My mother, who has 10 children, was lost. Lost because the county jail had not processed her. Lost because the county’s system was too inept to prevent or correct such a slip-up. Lost in just the latest example of how little black lives matter within the country’s criminal justice infrastructure.
After two days, with the help of a relative who worked for the city government, he found her at the city jail. Amazingly, she was still being mistaken for someone else, and so she was forced to pay $1,000 for the fines of the other woman. ... Although authorities eventually acknowledged the identity mix-up, my family’s money was never returned. ...
When Mommy was disappeared by the police, I was away from home, but certainly no less furious. Her defeatist attitude and resignation about it all still stings eight years later. She is, by far, the strongest person I know. And yet that strength, which I grew up admiring, and which I have sought to replicate in adulthood, could not protect her when she encountered the police. Her strength was absent as she sat behind bars for two days, and it did not prevent St. Louis’s authorities from stealing her $1,000.
Tom Cotton says war against Iran would only take a few days
Senator Tom Cotton said in a radio interview Tuesday that eliminating Iran's nuclear facilities would only take “several days” of US airstrikes.
“Even if military action were required — and we certainly should have kept the credible threat of military force on the table throughout which always improves diplomacy — the president is trying to make you think it would be 150,000 heavy mechanized troops on the ground in the Middle East again as we saw in Iraq. That's simply not the case,” Cotton said on the Family Research Council's Washington Watch program. ...
He continued to say that making a deal would be “wishful thinking” and similar to “a child's wish for a pony,” while military action against Iran would not drag out like the Iraq War but would closer resemble 1998’s four day-long Operation Desert Fox.
Iranian president calls for Yemen ceasefire
Iran’s president, Hassan Rouhani, has called for an end to air strikes in Yemen by Saudi Arabia and Arab allies as the US said it would not “stand by” as Tehran destabilised the region.
The televised comments followed the US secretary of state, John Kerry, and the United Arab Emirates foreign minister, Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed al-Nayahan, both accusing Iran of meddling in Yemen.
Rouhani said the Saudi-led campaign was a “mistake” and warned that it would not succeed, citing the example of Syria and Iraq. “You learned that it was wrong. You will learn, not later but soon, that you are making mistake in Yemen, too.”
He called for a ceasefire in Yemen to allow for a ceasefire and broad-based talks on resolving the crisis. “A great nation like Yemen will not submit to bombing. Come, let us all think about ending war. Let us think about a ceasefire,” he said. “Let us accept that the future of Yemen will be in the hands of the people of Yemen, not anyone else.”
The Collapse of the Obama Doctrine: Yemen War as an Opportunity?
To suggest that the United States policies in Yemen was a ‘failure’ is an understatement. It implies that the US had at least attempted to succeed. But ‘succeed’ at what? The US drone war had no other objective aside from celebrating the elimination of whomever the US hit list designates as terrorist. ...
For a long time, the US seemed invulnerable to what even Yemen analysts admit is a intricate subject to understand, let alone attempt to explain in a straightforward manner. The US drones buzzed overhead independent from all of this. They ‘took out’ whomever they suspected was al-Qaeda affiliate. President Barack Obama was even revealed to have approved of a ‘secret kill list’, and agreed to consider counting casualties in such a way that “essentially designates all military-aged males in a strike zone as military combatants.” ...
But the US continued with its war unabated, arming whomever it deemed an ally, exploiting regional differences, and promoting the power of al-Qaeda in ways that far exceeded their presence on the ground. It saw Yemen as a convenient ‘war on terror’, enough to give Obama the tough persona that American voters love about their presidents, without the high risk of military quagmires like the ones that his predecessor, George W. Bush, created in Iraq and Afghanistan. ...
Yet while indirect military involvement is consistent with the Obama war doctrine, the US could still stand to lose. Sure, Obama can counter his Republican critics – stalwart supporters of Israel, thus strongly opposing to any Iran deal – by military engaging Iran from a distance in a useless Yemen war. That said, if the US allies fail to achieve a quick victory, which unlikely anyway, the US would have one of two options: to disown its allies (who are already infuriated by the US double speak on Iran) or to get pulled into an unwinnable war that cannot be lost.
Third of fighters in Yemen are children, says Unicef
Children make up a third of fighters in the armed groups in conflict-wracked Yemen, according to a UN official, who also issued a warning about malnutrition levels in the country.
“We are seeing children in battle, at checkpoints and unfortunately among [those] killed and injured,” Julien Harneis, Unicef’s representative in Yemen, said during a stop in Geneva. ...
Even when they are not on the frontlines in the conflict, children are particularly vulnerable, Harneis said. Unicef has confirmed that at least 77 children have been killed and 44 others injured since 26 March, and Harneis said the true toll was likely to be far higher.
“There are children dying in bombings in the north … and by very intense battles in Aden and Daleh. All of the parties to the conflict are to blame,” he said.
In addition to the violence, already high malnutrition levels in Yemen are expected to soar. “We are going to see a spike in malnutrition in coming weeks. Unfortunately, that is something we are sure of,” Harneis said.
Isis militants just three miles away from Syrian President Assad’s seat of power in Damascus
Isis is now just five kilometres away from the Syrian President's Presidential Palace after militants invaded a sprawling Palestinian refugee camp in Damascus.
The extremist group and members of the al-Qaeda affiliate Jabhat al-Nusra are believed to have taken control of up to 90 per cent of the Yarmouk camp, where over 18,000 mostly Palestinian men, women and children remain trapped.
Both groups have fought fiercely against each other in the past but appear to be working together during the Yarmouk assault. Nusra said in a statement it is taking a neutral stance, according to Reuters.
French media groups hold emergency meeting in wake of Isis hacking attack
The French culture minister has called an urgent meeting of media groups to assess their vulnerability to hacking after the television network TV5Monde was taken over by individuals claiming to belong to Islamic State, blacking out broadcasts and hacking its websites and Facebook page. ...
For three hours on Wednesday night, between 10pm and 1am, all broadcasts were brought down in a blackout by hackers claiming allegiance to Isis. The hackers were able to seize control of the television network, simultaneously hacking 11 channels as well as its website and social media accounts.
The hackers posted documents on TV5Monde’s Facebook page purporting to be the identity cards and CVs of relatives of French soldiers involved in anti-Isis operations, along with threats against the troops.
“Soldiers of France, stay away from the Islamic State! You have the chance to save your families, take advantage of it,” read one message on TV5Monde’s Facebook page. “The CyberCaliphate continues its cyberjihad against the enemies of Islamic State,” the message added.
TV5Monde had regained control of its social networks by 2am on Thursday but said television broadcasts were likely to take hours, if not days, to return to normal. On Thursday morning, the station had restored its signal but was still only able to broadcast pre-recorded material.
The network’s director general, Yves Bigot, said its systems had been severely damaged by the unprecedented attack. He said hacking on this scale would have needed weeks of preparation. ...
It is likely the hackers gained entry into the corporate network of TV5Monde, which would then have given them access to the channel’s camera and broadcast control systems, allowing them to take the station offline.
Ukraine Appoints Top Fascist to Key Military Advisory Post
Failed fascist presidential candidate Dmytro Yarosh has been appointed to a top military advisory position in Ukraine this week, with officials saying he will serve as a link between the military and ultra-nationalist volunteer battalions in the civil war. ...
Yarosh’s party, the Right Sector, was formed by various fascist and neo-Nazi factions in the Maidan protests. A spokesman for the Right Sector is now bragging that with Yarosh’s appointment the party will be funded directly by the Defense Ministry.
Yarosh is also on an Interpol wanted list since July, following a request by Russia, which has charged him with incitement to terrorism for the comments about the gas pipelines.
Putin: Greece hasn't asked Russia for bailout
Greek PM Alexis Tsipras calls for EU to work with Russia
The Greek prime minister, Alexis Tsipras, has called for a “reset in relations” between Russia and the EU on the second day of a visit to Moscow that is being viewed with suspicion in Europe.
Speaking at the Moscow State Institute of International Relations on Thursday, he told students: “Only together with Russia are we able to build a new architecture of security in Europe.”
His words echo those of the Kremlin, which has long called for a new security alliance in Europe that would include Russia. Most EU countries, however, see Russia as part of the security problem rather than the solution, especially after the events in Ukraine over the past year. The Greek prime minister’s trip has worried many in the EU, who suspect the Kremlin of trying to create divisions within the alliance.
After meeting the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, in the Kremlin on Wednesday, Tsipras dismissed criticism of his trip, reminding Europe that Greece is a sovereign country free to pursue whatever alliances it wishes.
In Moscow, Tsipras has been welcomed with open arms, and was given an ancient Greek Orthodox religious icon as a gift by Putin. Sergei Naryshkin, the speaker of Russia’s lower house of parliament, accused Washington of trying to draw “new dividing lines” in Europe during his meeting with Tsipras on Thursday. Naryshkin thanked the Greek leader warmly for his visit, and praised Greece for standing up for itself. He said: “US foreign policy is proving destructive for many countries in many corners of the world, where it creates zones of chaos. Look at north Africa, the Middle East, and now even in Europe, in our brotherly land of Ukraine.”
U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Criticizes Solidarity of Latin American Countries for Venezuela
Miguel Tinker Salas says the U.S. plan to destabilize and isolate Venezuela has backfired as most Latin American states resent the interference and threats against Venezuela
Credit agencies dropping claims that they are 'independent', Harvard finds
The world’s top credit agencies are dumping claims that their research is “independent” in a shift that follows accusations of bias and allegations that their faulty ratings helped trigger the worst financial crisis in living memory.
According to a soon-to-be-released academic paper from Harvard Business School, McGraw Hill’s Standard & Poor’s and Moody’s, the two largest ratings agencies, have all but culled claims about the independence of their research from the documents they must file with the US’s top financial watchdog, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). ...
In February S&P paid $1.5bn to resolve lawsuits over its rosy ratings for mortgage securities that turned toxic in the run-up to the 2008 financial crisis. In its complaint the Justice Department said S&P had delayed updates to its systems and weakened its criteria in a desire to gain more business from the investment banks that issued the securities.
S&P unsuccessfully sought to have the case thrown out arguing statements about independence and objectivity highlighted by the federal government as alleged fraudulent misrepresentations were corporate “puffery” and not meant to be taken at face value by investors. Judge David Carter called the argument “deeply and unavoidably troubling”. ...
In its 10-K filings for years 2004-2011, McGraw Hill “asserted multiple times in each filing that they provided independent credit ratings or words to that effect”, according to the paper. In 2012 McGraw Hill dropped the modifier “independent” before mentions of “credit ratings” and but continued to describe itself as providing “independent” ratings benchmarks. In 2013’s McGraw Hill described itself as an “independent provider” of credit ratings and benchmarks, “distancing the claim of independence from the nature of its ratings entirely and moving it to the nature of the firm”, the authors report. “Nowhere in the 2012 or 2013 form 10-K filings did McGraw Hill claim that they provided independent credit ratings or any words to that effect.”
Channeling MLK's 'Beloved Community,' Vigils Call for Robin Hood Tax
A broad coalition that includes registered nurses, organized labor, AIDS activists, college students, and clergy members on Wednesday staged vigils outside of Congressional offices across the country calling on lawmakers to pass a 'Robin Hood Tax' in order to reverse the country's "crippling inequality."
"Inequality in health, still rampant hunger, homelessness and poverty, all critical causes of Dr. King’s life, continue to devastate far too many families," said registered nurse Deborah Burger, co-president of National Nurses United, which took part in the protest. "We need the Robin Hood Tax to protect our health, our families, our communities, and our nation."
The Robin Hood Tax Campaign supports a bill introduced last month by Rep. Keith Ellison (D-Minn.) saying it reflects King's idea for a "beloved community," and is calling on lawmakers to follow suit.
The legislation, known as the "Inclusive Prosperity Act" (HR. 1464), would raise billions of dollars by taxing Wall Street transactions including the sale of stocks, bonds and derivatives. The tax imposed would be 0.5 percent on stocks, 0.1 percent on bonds, and 0.005 percent on derivatives or other investments.
What happens to leftists who try to raise the minimum wage “too much”?
The Democrats try to punish them, or discredit them and compromise away their proposals Naturellement. Two examples, first Seattle, Washington:
Mayor Ed Murray is expected to release his plan to raise Seattle’s minimum wage as soon as today. No matter what happens in the $15 wage debate, Seattle City Councilmember Kshama Sawant has already won.
If the Seattle City Council passes a $15 wage in the coming months (as appears likely), Sawant will appropriately get credit for coming out of nowhere to commandeer the city’s political agenda.
$15.00! Sawant got the workers “too much!” So what do the Democrats do? Run a candidate against Sawant, of course! Black Agenda Report:
Kshama Sawant helped lead a multi-year effort to raise the minimum wage in Seattle. The CEO of Seattle’s Urban League, [Pam Banks,] a longtime political insider with great fundraising connections wants to run for local office. Apparently there are no neoliberal pension-cutting Democrats for her to go after in Seattle, and no neolithic Republicans worth dethroning either.
The number one and only target of Banks’ campaign for office will be the socialist, because she knows things. Pam Banks knows that while you can never have too many Republicans or Democrats in office, even one socialist is way too many. CEO Banks knows that while you can never have too many corporate funded politicians, even one elected official that doesn’t take the corporate cash makes everybody else feel nervous and look bad. … Banks knows that any run against a socialist incumbent will be well funded by forces who already call the League, and her, their good friend. They just might not be friends of the people of Seattle.
Second example, Portland, Maine, where the Greens started an initiative for $15.00. Then this happened:
Under Portland mayor [Brennan’s] proposal, the minimum wage would initially increase from the current $7.50 to $9.50 an hour, with additional increases scheduled over the next few years.
Again, $15.00! Those darn Greens are trying to get the workers “too much!” Green state chair Asher Platts met with Brennan (sorry, Faceborg):
I saw the mayor of Portland today, he seemed really upset at the #?15now campaign for overshadowing his more moderate min wage proposal.
What was odd, was when I explained to him that we supported any work to raise the wage, and that our campaign does him a favor by making his proposal look more moderate, and explained how with negotiations you always ask for more than you expect and compromise your way back, he said, “maybe that’s how you negotiate Asher, but that’s not how I negotiate.”
Which I was confused about, because… the definition of negotiation….
I guess he’s right though, that’s not how Democrats like him negotiate– they start conceding everything to their opponent and work their way backwards from there.
Hellraiser Preview
Sherman, set the time machine for tomorrow's Hellraisers Journal which will feature a report on the Chicago Teamsters Strike: patrol wagons guard trucks as "Both Sides Hurl Gage of Battle."
Tune in at 2pm!
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Anti-abortion battleground broadens as US states fight on 'non-medical' grounds
Two arch-conservative states in the American Bible belt have this week formed a new “non-medical” front in the battle over reproductive rights, with laws that sharply restrict a method routinely used to perform second-trimester abortions.
Anti-abortion politicians crafting and passing the new restrictions in Kansas and Oklahoma have reactivated a broader state-by-state campaign, mirroring similar efforts to outlaw abortion at 20 weeks in over a dozen states across the country – even though they crumbled almost immediately among Republicans at the federal level.
Doctors call the laws “deeply disturbing”, and pro-choice advocates have quickly dismissed them as downright unconstitutional. ...
A report by the Guttmacher Institute last year found more than 200 anti-abortion measures enacted across 30 states over the last three years. Twenty-two states adopted 70 different restrictions in 2013 – by contrast, just 189 abortion restrictions were enacted during the entire previous decade, based on data from 2001 to 2010. The pace of anti-abortion restrictions introduced in the so-called “laboratories of democracy” - state legislatures - since then, it appears, has only increased.
The Evening Greens
Fracking Boom Accompanied by Rise of Silent, Deadly Carcinogen in Homes
Researchers in Pennsylvania have discovered that the prevalence of radon, a radioactive and carcinogenic gas, in people's homes and commercial buildings that are nearer to fracking sites has increased dramatically in the state since the unconventional and controversial gas drilling practice began in the state just over a decade ago.
Both odorless and tasteless, radon is a naturally-occurring gas released from bedrock minerals beneath the ground and is found in millions of homes across the country. However, in a study published Thursday in the journal Environmental Health Perspectives, scientists compared the results of state-wide radon testing in Pennsylvania to find a significant correlation between unusually high levels of the deadly gas in some buildings (mostly residential homes) and the proliferation of fracking in certain areas of the state. ...
According to its summary, the study "found a statistically significant association between proximity to unconventional natural gas wells drilled in the Marcellus shale and first floor radon concentration," especially during summer months. Though radon is often thought of as seeping up through basement floors, the researchers explain that airborne radon can also enter homes through open windows. After smoking, prolonged exposure to radon gas is considered to be the second-leading cause of lung cancer in the United States.
Two Teenagers Are Suing the Oregon Government Over Climate Change
In Oregon, two teenagers, Kelsey Juliana and Olivia Chernaik, have taken the state to court, accusing it of failing to act to protect public resources for the future. A judge heard arguments in that case this week after an Oregon appeals court allowed the case to move forward last summer. The pair is backed backed by the environmental group Our Children's Trust, which has filed similar suits in five other states. ...
The bulk of the roughly 400-plus lawsuits related to climate change are filed by industry players challenging environmental regulations, according to the Sabin Center for Climate Change Law at Columbia University Law School. The Sabin Center's director, Michael Gerrard, told VICE News that the novel tack taken by Our Children's Trust — which argues that the atmosphere should be declared a public trust to be protected — faces some big hurdles in court.
"The most important obstacle is a question of separation of powers — whether it's the role of the courts to be setting the limitations on greenhouse gases, or whether that's a job for Congress, the EPA, and the state environmental agencies," Gerrard said. ...
Patrick Parenteau, a law professor at Vermont Law School told VICE News the Oregon case might have a better chance than earlier cases of producing a breakthrough, since the plaintiffs are demanding that state officials produce an accounting of what public resources are at risk.
"That in my mind would be a breakthrough. If the court actually orders the state to do something specific to address climate change, that would be a big step forward," he said.
Countryside Near London's Gatwick Airport Might Be Hiding Billions of Extra Barrels of Oil
There could be 100 billion barrels of oil under the ground near London's Gatwick Airport, according to a small exploration company.
Analysis by UK Oil & Gas Investments (UKOG) on a well drilled at Horse Hill, southern England, found that there could be as much as 158 million barrels of oil per square mile in the area — though the organization admit that only a small percentage of that is actually recoverable. ...
In a statement sent to VICE News, Greenpeace UK chief scientist Doug Parr said: "To gleefully rub your hands at a new fossil fuel discovery you need to turn the clock back to the 19th century and ignore everything we have learnt about climate change since."
Parr added: "We already have more than enough coal, oil, and gas reserves to fry the planet. Dotting the English countryside with drilling rigs and pipelines to squeeze the last drop of oil out of Britain doesn't make any sense. It's time we uncoupled our economy from the dangerous roller-coaster of fossil fuels and invested in the clean technologies that can provide safe and cheap energy for decades to come."
Prof. Jay Famiglietti – When In Drought
Devastating Drought Has 200,000 People in Madagascar on the Brink of Starvation
Widespread crop failure caused by an ongoing drought in southern Madagascar has left as many as 200,000 people — including 40,000 children — on the brink of starvation, according to the World Food Program (WFP).
The UN's food assistance branch first identified "an acute food crisis" in Madagascar in March, and the situation has reportedly worsened in the weeks since. Hunger is a recurring issue in the island nation off the southeast coast of Africa. The country is prone to cyclones, flooding, and other natural disasters, and a lack of rain in late 2014 and early 2015 led to the current crisis.
A tropical storm that made landfall in the island's north in March caused heavy rains and flooding that killed dozens of people and displaced thousands. The country's south has remained dry, however, with the drought that began in October 2014 devastating crops.
Blog Posts of Interest
Here are diaries and selected blog posts of interest on DailyKos and other blogs.
What's Happenin' Is On Hiatus
DEA Global Surveillance Dragnet Exposed; Access to Data Likely Continues
Chevron Whistleblower Leaks 'Smoking Gun' in Case of Ecuadorian Oil Spill
None of the world’s top industries would be profitable if they paid for the natural capital they use
John Oliver, Edward Snowden, and Unconditional Basic Income
It get's better? Not fast enough, not here and not now
A Little Night Music
The Memphis Jug Band - On The Road Again
The Memphis Jug Band - Cocaine Habit Blues
Memphis Jug Band - Stealin' Stealin'
Memphis Jug Band - Insane Crazy Blues
Memphis Jug Band - He's In The Jailhouse Now
Memphis Jug Band - Move That Thing
Memphis Jug Band - Peaches In the Springtime
The Memphis Jug Band - K.C. Moan
The Memphis Jug Band - Got A Letter From My Darlin
It's National Pie Day!
The election is over, it's a new year and it's time to work on real change in new ways... and it's National Pie Day. This seemed like the perfect opportunity to tell you a little more about our new site and to start getting people signed up.
Come on over and sign up so that we can send you announcements about the site, the launch, and information about participating in our public beta testing.
Why is National Pie Day the perfect opportunity to tell you more about us? Well you'll see why very soon. So what are you waiting for?! Head on over now and be one of the first!
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