Author Archives: 0df53x21

No rules governed tank that leaked coal-cleaning poison into W.Va. river

by 0df53x21 Posted on February 11, 2014

No rules governed tank that leaked coal-cleaning poison into W.Va. river

By

The National Guard

The National Guard delivered emergency water supplies in West Virginia after Freedom Industries ruined the regular water supplies.

The Jan. 9 spill of as much as 10,000 gallons from a steel tank next to the Elk River didn’t just poison water supplies relied upon by 300,000 West Virginians. It revealed holes in state and federal safety rules big enough to drive hazmat-loaded trucks through.

The tanks that Freedom Industries uses to store chemicals at its facility in Charleston are more than 50 years old, and company officials knew that chemicals were being stored in them in ways that did not meet industry or EPA standards.

Environmental consultants audited storage drums for the company late last year, but never inspected the drum that leaked and contaminated water supplies. Its contents — a toxic, little-understood coal-cleaning stew of 4-Methylcyclohexane methanol and something the company calls stripped PPH – were considered nonhazardous under federal law. Still, if anybody had cared to check, they would have discovered that a leak from the aging drum could flow straight through gravel and cinder blocks and into the river.

That’s according to congressional testimony by Rafael Moure-Eraso, chair of the U.S. Chemical Safety Board.

State of West Virginia

Here are the holes in Freedom Industries’ leaky tank.

“While there are laws prohibiting polluting to waterways with a spill, there are not really any clear, mandatory standards for how you site, design, maintain, and inspect non-petroleum tanks at a storage facility,” Moure-Eraso told the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee during a hearing on Monday. “Under existing state and federal laws these tanks, including tank 396, were not regulated by the state or federal government.”

You probably want some kind of an explanation from Freedom Industries about its sloppy chemical-storing practices. But bad luck, because its officials skipped the hearing, even though it was held right in Charleston. The Huffington Post reports:

Freedom Industries, which owns the storage facility that leaked chemicals into the Elk River, did not have any representatives at a hearing of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee held in the state capital Monday morning. The company’s president, Gary Southern, had been invited to testify. …

“The one empty seat … belongs to the one entity at the epicenter of all this,” said Rep. Nick Rahall (D-W.Va.), “the one who totally blew it.” …

A representative for Freedom Industries referred questions on the company’s absence at the hearing to its lawyer, Paul Vey. Southern did not attend the hearing, Vey said, “simply because the company is relatively small and we are focused exclusively on remediation of the spill.”

And you probably want to know whether the water supplies are now safe. Again — bad luck. There’s no straight answer. That’s partly due to the fact that so little is known about the chemicals that spilled.

“That’s in a way a difficult thing to say because everyone has a different definition of safe,” state safety official Letitia Tierney told representatives when she was asked whether the water is now safe.

Meanwhile, ThinkProgress reports that West Virginians have begun receiving exorbitant water bills — the price of flushing poisonous water out of their plumbing systems. West Virginia American Water has promised discounts to help residential customers meet the costs of flushing 500 gallons of water apiece. But those discounts have been missing from recent bills.


Source
CSB Testimony from Transportation and Infrastructure Field Hearing on Charleston, WV Chemical Spill, U.S. Chemical Safety Board
The Company Behind West Virginia’s Chemical Spill Skips Congressional Hearing, The Huffington Post
Still No Answer if Water is Safe, WSAZ

John Upton is a science fan and green news boffin who tweets, posts articles to Facebook, and blogs about ecology. He welcomes reader questions, tips, and incoherent rants: johnupton@gmail.com.

Find this article interesting? Donate now to support our work.Read more: Business & Technology

,

Politics

See original article:

No rules governed tank that leaked coal-cleaning poison into W.Va. river

Posted in Anchor, FF, GE, LAI, LG, ONA, solar, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , | Comments Off on No rules governed tank that leaked coal-cleaning poison into W.Va. river

New Jersey’s Largest Paper on Christie Endorsement: "We Blew This One"

by 0df53x21 Posted on February 10, 2014

Mother Jones

<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC “-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN” “http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40/loose.dtd”>

Last fall, New Jersey’s largest paper, the Newark Star-Ledger, endorsed Gov. Chris Christie for reelection. Parts of its admittedly reluctant endorsement read more like a takedown. For instance:

The property tax burden has grown sharply on his watch. He is hostile to low-income families, raising their tax burden and sabotaging efforts to build affordable housing. He’s been a catastrophe on the environment….The governor’s claim to have fixed the state’s budget is fraudulent. New Jersey’s credit rating has dropped during his term, reflecting Wall Street’s judgment that he has dug the hole even deeper.

The peculiar statement left many people scratching their heads (including Rachel Maddow, who mocked it at length on her MSNBC show). Why, they wondered, would the paper endorse a candidate it held in such low esteem? Now, following the Christie administration’s George Washington Bridge scandal and other damning accusations, the paper is backing away from its choice. Editorial page editor Tom Moran and the editorial board admitted in Sunday’s Star-Ledger that they made a mistake by endorsing Christie. In their words:

An endorsement is not a love embrace. It is a choice between two flawed human beings. And the winner is often the less bad option.

But yes, we blew this one…We knew Christie was a bully. But we didn’t know his crew was crazy enough to put people’s lives at risk in Fort Lee as a means to pressure the mayor. We didn’t know he would use Hurricane Sandy aid as a political slush fund. And we certainly didn’t know that Hoboken Mayor Dawn Zimmer was sitting on a credible charge of extortion by Lt. Gov. Kim Guadagno.

Interestingly, despite his flaws, the authors won’t rule out endorsing him again one day.

Continue Reading »

See original article here:  

New Jersey’s Largest Paper on Christie Endorsement: "We Blew This One"

Posted in Anchor, FF, GE, LAI, LG, ONA, PUR, Radius, Uncategorized, Venta | Tagged , , , , , , , | Comments Off on New Jersey’s Largest Paper on Christie Endorsement: "We Blew This One"

Eight more U.S. coal generators bite the dust

by 0df53x21 Posted on November 18, 2013

Eight more U.S. coal generators bite the dust

By

JHP

The Paradise Fossil Plant in Kentucky will shut down two of its three coal-burning units.

The Tennessee Valley Authority plans to shut down eight of its coal-burning generating stations in Alabama and Kentucky. Board members of the federally owned utility agreed to the plan last week, reacting to changing market conditions and federal environmental rules. The move will reduce coal generation by 3,300 megawatts in the two states.

The decision is being seen as a blow to the local coal industry, but a boon for the region’s air quality. Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell (Ky.) met with TVA’s CEO in a bid to dissuade the utility from shuttering coal plants, but to no avail. Enviros, meanwhile, cheered the development.

Absent from the seemingly positive news, however, is any mention of renewables. Wind and solar farms are being built across the country, but TVA said it’s hoping to turn to natural gas and nuclear power to help it plug the gaps created by its abandonment of coal.

The Wall Street Journal reports:

Forty years ago, the TVA got more than 80% of its power from coal. Today coal accounts for 38%, a number that is dropping fast as a drilling boom in the U.S. pushes down the price of natural gas, the fuel that competes with coal for power generation.

When the TVA is done with its announced coal-plant retirements, only 33 of its 59 coal units will remain in service. Some of those are still under review, said TVA spokesman Duncan Mansfield. …

The company said that continuing to run the plants would risk noncompliance with new mercury rules coming into effect.

TVA leaders weren’t happy about the decision, but they can see the writing on the wall: Coal power is dying in the U.S. “This is a personal nightmare for me,” one board member told the Associated Press. “But I must support what I believe to be in the best interest of TVA’s customers.”


Source
In Blow to Coal, TVA to Shut 8 Units, The Wall Street Journal
Largest US public utility votes to close six coal-powered plants in Alabama, The Associated Press

John Upton is a science fan and green news boffin who tweets, posts articles to Facebook, and blogs about ecology. He welcomes reader questions, tips, and incoherent rants: johnupton@gmail.com.

Find this article interesting? Donate now to support our work.Read more: Climate & Energy

From:  

Eight more U.S. coal generators bite the dust

Posted in ALPHA, Anchor, FF, G & F, GE, ONA, Paradise, solar, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , | Comments Off on Eight more U.S. coal generators bite the dust

Is America’s Biggest Liquor Racket About to Go Out of Business?

by 0df53x21 Posted on August 12, 2013

Mother Jones

<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC “-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN” “http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40/loose.dtd”>

Whiteclay, Nebraska, sells more beer per capita than any town in America. In 2009, the most recent year for which we have statistics, the four liquor stores in the town of about a dozen full-time residents sold 4.6 million cans of beer. Or roughly 383,333 cans per person. Or 1,009 cans of beer per resident, per day. But the beer isn’t being consumed by the residents of Whiteclay. The town’s economy is built on the flow of booze two miles across the South Dakota border into the Oglala Sioux Pine Ridge reservation, where the sale and possession of alcohol has been illegal for more than a century. On Tuesday, the residents of Pine Ridge will hold a referendum on whether to put Whiteclay out of business.

Activists in Pine Ridge and their allies have tried for years to shut down Whiteclay. For the most part, those efforts have focused on the creation of a dry buffer zone that would extend across into Nebraska (the reservation ends at the state line). Congress had mandated the 50-mile buffer upon creation of the reservation in 1889, but in 1904, the liquor lobby successfully persuaded President Theodore Roosevelt to eliminate that buffer by executive order (which may have not been legal). Lawmakers could have extended the buffer on their own but chose not to, and despite repeated requests, no administration in Washington has been willing to consider reversing Roosevelt’s order.

Tuesday’s vote would lift the prohibition on beer sales in Pine Ridge entirely (hard liquor would still be prohibited), and put the tribe in charge of sales, the profits from which it could invest in things like alcoholism treatment centers. The theory is pretty straightforward, and consistent with the idea behind repealing prohibition everywhere else: the current legal structure has only served to enrich distributors in Whiteclay while doing nothing to curb addiction. With eight out of 10 households on the reservation (which has a population of somewhere between 18,000 and 40,000) impacted by alcoholism, it’s hard to imagine legalization making things much worse.

Or maybe it’s not. The success of the measure is no sure thing, with a number of powerful opponents, such as tribe president Bryan Brewer, opposing legalization on the grounds that it would bring the worst of Whiteclay to the community’s doorstep. If the referendum passes, one opponent told the Rapid City Journal, “we would have a Whiteclay in every district in this reservation.”

Link:  

Is America’s Biggest Liquor Racket About to Go Out of Business?

Posted in FF, GE, LG, ONA, Uncategorized, Venta | Tagged , , , , , | Comments Off on Is America’s Biggest Liquor Racket About to Go Out of Business?

A Pitch to Add Ivory to the Agenda as Obama Meets His Chinese Counterpart

by 0df53x21 Posted on June 7, 2013

green4us

Index Astartes: Codex Astartes – Games Workshop

The Codex Astartes details the doctrine of the Space Marine Chapters, compiled and written by the Primarch of the Ultramarines, Roboute Guilliman. While not every Chapter follows the Codex completely, it lays the foundation for their organisation and tactics. About this series: The Adeptus Astartes are genetically engineered warriors, created by the Emperor […]

iTunes Store
Iyanden – A Codex: Eldar Supplement – Games Workshop

For thousands of years, the Eldar of Iyanden have sailed through the sea of stars, defending the galaxy’s eastern rim from the threat of Chaos. They have won great victories, but have known terrible tragedy also; what was once the most populous of craftworlds is now but a shadow of its former glory. This supplement to Codex: Eldar allows you to ta […]

iTunes Store
Codex: Eldar – Games Workshop

Codex: Eldar is your comprehensive guide to wielding the deadly warhosts of the Craftworld Eldar upon the battlefields of the 41 st Millennium. This volume details the craftworlds of the Eldar, and the different types of army they field. The Eldar embody excellence in the arts of war, from their psychic might to their deadly aircraft, and their ranks co […]

iTunes Store
Warhammer 40,000 Altar of War: Eldar – Games Workshop

Altar of War missions provide all the information required to play games inspired by the battlefield tactics of the different Warhammer 40,000 armies. This book contains six brand-new missions which you can use instead of the Eternal War missions in the Warhammer 40,000 rulebook if you or your opponent has an Eldar army. These battles sho […]

iTunes Store
Inside of a Dog – Alexandra Horowitz

The bestselling book that asks what dogs know and how they think, now in paperback. The answers will surprise and delight you as Alexandra Horowitz, a cognitive scientist, explains how dogs perceive their daily worlds, each other, and that other quirky animal, the human. Horowitz introduces the reader to dogs’ perceptual and cognitive abilities and then draw […]

iTunes Store
How to Paint Citadel Miniatures: Eldar – Games Workshop

The deadly skimmers, skilled Aspect Warriors and valiant Guardians of the Eldar craftworlds fight a constant battle for the survival of their very species. In this Army Workshop, the talented Studio army painters demonstrate how to paint a varied selection of Eldar miniatures using the Citadel paint range. Example miniatures featured in this extensive painti […]

iTunes Store
How to Raise the Perfect Dog – Cesar Millan & Melissa Jo Peltier

From the bestselling author and star of National Geographic Channel’s Dog Whisperer , the only resource you’ll need for raising a happy, healthy dog. For the millions of people every year who consider bringing a puppy into their lives–as well as those who have already brought a dog home–Cesar Millan, the preeminent dog behavior expert, says, “Yes, […]

iTunes Store
The Art of Raising a Puppy (Revised Edition) – Monks of New Skete

For more than thirty years the Monks of New Skete have been among America’s most trusted authorities on dog training, canine behavior, and the animal/human bond. In their two now-classic bestsellers, How to be Your Dog’s Best Friend and The Art of Raising a Puppy, the Monks draw on their experience as long-time breeders of German shepherds and as t […]

iTunes Store
Trident K9 Warriors – Michael Ritland & Gary Brozek

As Seen on “60 Minutes”! As a Navy SEAL during a combat deployment in Iraq, Mike Ritland saw a military working dog in action and instantly knew he’d found his true calling. Ritland started his own company training and supplying dogs for the SEAL teams, U.S. Government, and Department of Defense. He knew that fewer than 1 percent of […]

iTunes Store
The Honest Life – Jessica Alba

As a new mom, Jessica Alba wanted to create the safest, healthiest environment for her family. But she was frustrated by the lack of trustworthy information on how to live healthier and cleaner—delivered in a way that a busy mom could act on without going to extremes. In 2012, with serial entrepreneur Brian Lee and environmental advocate Christopher Gavigan, […]

iTunes Store

Continue reading – 

A Pitch to Add Ivory to the Agenda as Obama Meets His Chinese Counterpart

Posted in alternative energy, Citadel, eco-friendly, FF, G & F, GE, Monterey, ONA, solar, solar power, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | Comments Off on A Pitch to Add Ivory to the Agenda as Obama Meets His Chinese Counterpart

Connecticut Senate passes GMO-labeling bill

by 0df53x21 Posted on May 23, 2013

Connecticut Senate passes GMO-labeling bill

By John Upton

Shutterstock

Is this corn genetically modified? Connecticut lawmakers think you have the right to know.

Does your mouth water at the thought of corn that’s engineered to produce a poison that kills insects? If not, Connecticut might be the place for you.

The state’s Senate on Tuesday overwhelmingly passed legislation that would require food manufacturers to label products that contain genetically engineered ingredients such as GM corn. The bill sailed through on a 35-1 vote, and now moves to the state House.

From the Connecticut Post:

Speaker of the House J. Brendan Sharkey [D] wants to support legislation that would require the labeling of products that contain genetically modified organisms.

But he’s not sure whether the House will approve the version approved in the state Senate late Tuesday night that would depend on three nearby states to approve similar legislation by July of 2015.

Sharkey, in an interview near the House podium around the time the Senate was approving the bill, said his majority caucus met behind closed doors earlier in the day to discuss the controversial measure.

“The caucus confirmed my own sense that obviously we want to do something,” Sharkey said. “My concern all along has been the question of whether Connecticut should put itself out on its own, requiring this labeling and whether that puts us at an economic disadvantage being the first and only state to do this.”

Unlike 64 other countries, the U.S. lacks any labeling laws for GMO food (though Americans who want to avoid it could do so by buying certified organics). Some countries outright ban GMOs — officials in Hungary just burned 1,000 acres of Monsanto’s genetically engineered corn after new crop-testing regulations led to its discovery.

So lawmakers in Connecticut, Vermont, and elsewhere are trying to take matters into their own hands, pushing forward with state-level labeling legislation. Bills in both of those New England states are cautious, setting long timeframes for the start of a ban and including caveats based on whether other states adopt similar laws. That caution is a response to fears of lawsuits from the powerful food and ag industry, which opposes GMO labeling.

From the Hartford Courant:

“I’m concerned about our state going out on its own on this and the potential economic disadvantage that could cause,” House Speaker Brendan Sharkey said. “I would like to see us be part of a compact with some other states, which would hopefully include one of the bigger states such as New York.” …

Even if the bill passes the House and is signed into law by Gov. Dannel P. Malloy [D], it would not take effect until at least three other states pass similar legislation. GMO labeling legislation is pending in more than a dozen states.

The Center for Food Safety reports that legislation in Maine is also moving forward:

In addition to the Connecticut victory, [on Tuesday] Maine’s GE food labeling bill passed through the state’s Agriculture Committee — a major hurdle — which voted 8-5 in favor of their labeling bill. The bill passed the state Assembly earlier this month.

“Both of these victorious votes show the power of the voice of consumers, who through their vocal and powerful demand for GE food labeling, are finally getting their state lawmakers to listen and take action,” said Rebecca Spector, west coast director of Center for Food Safety.

All of this action has some Monsanto backers nervous. Rep. Steve King (R-Iowa) recently inserted an amendment into the Farm Bill that would forbid states from requiring labels on GMO foods.

John Upton is a science fan and green news boffin who

tweets

, posts articles to

Facebook

, and

blogs about ecology

. He welcomes reader questions, tips, and incoherent rants:

johnupton@gmail.com

.

Find this article interesting? Donate now to support our work.Read more: Business & Technology

,

Food

,

Politics

Also in Grist

Please enable JavaScript to see recommended stories

Visit link:  

Connecticut Senate passes GMO-labeling bill

Posted in alo, Anchor, FF, G & F, GE, LG, ONA, organic, solar, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , | Comments Off on Connecticut Senate passes GMO-labeling bill

How Far-Right Activists Like E.W. Jackson Took Over the Virginia GOP

by 0df53x21 Posted on May 22, 2013

Mother Jones

<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC “-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN” “http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40/loose.dtd”>

After dropping the last two presidential elections and the last three US Senate races, Virginia Republicans had good reason for optimism heading into this fall’s elections: Terry McAuliffe, the former Democratic National Committee chair who bragged about nearly missing his child’s birth so he could party with a gossip columnist, is at the top of the Democratic ticket. Things should be looking up for the Virginia GOP. Instead, the party’s activists have resisted calls for moderation and swerved hard to the right quicker than you can say transvaginal ultrasound.

Ken Cuccinelli, the Republican party’s nominee for governor, once cited Martin Luther King Jr. as justification for his argument that sexual relations between two people of the same gender should be illegal. E.W. Jackson, the party’s nominee for lieutenant governor, believes that gays are “degenerate” and “spiritually darkened” and will eventually destroy America. Mark Obenshain, the party’s nominee for attorney general, recently attempted to require women to contact the police within 24 hours of a miscarriage.

The immediate cause is obvious. Virginia Republicans don’t select their executive ticket via primary. Instead, they chose their slate last Saturday at a one-day nominating convention packed with grassroots activists. Jackson, a Baptist preacher who finished in the low single digits in last year’s US Senate primary, was able to win on the first ballot by virtue of well-received speech typified by lines like, “I am not an African-American, I am an American!”

“Conventions are not representative of the party,” says Tom Davis, a former Republican congressman from Northern Virginia, referring to Jackson’s nomination. “When you get a convention, this is what you get.”

Continue Reading »

More:

How Far-Right Activists Like E.W. Jackson Took Over the Virginia GOP

Posted in Bragg, FF, GE, ONA, Uncategorized, Venta | Tagged , , , , , , | Comments Off on How Far-Right Activists Like E.W. Jackson Took Over the Virginia GOP

America’s 10 Worst Prisons: Walnut Grove

by 0df53x21 Posted on May 13, 2013

Mother Jones

<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC “-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN” “http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40/loose.dtd”>

The youth prison’s record on rape was the worst “of any facility anywhere in the nation.” Richard Ross, Juvenile-in-Justice

Part 9 of an 11-part series.


#1: ADX (federal supermax)


#2: Allan B. Polunsky Unit (Texas)


#3: Tent City Jail (Phoenix)


#4: Orleans Parish (Louisiana)


#5: LA County Jail (Los Angeles)


#6: Pelican Bay (California)


#7: Julia Tutwiler (Alabama)


#8: Reeves Country Detention Complex (Texas)


#9: Walnut Grove Youth Correctional Facility (Mississippi)

Read the complete introduction to our 10 Worst Prisons project.

Serving time in prison is not supposed to be pleasant. Nor, however, is it supposed to include being raped by fellow prisoners or staff, beaten by guards for the slightest provocation, driven mad by long-term solitary confinement, or killed off by medical neglect. These are the fates of thousands of prisoners every year—men, women, and children housed in lockups that give Gitmo and Abu Ghraib a run for their money.

While there’s plenty of blame to go around, and while not all of the facilities described in this series have all of the problems we explore, some stand out as particularly bad actors. We’ve compiled this subjective list of America’s 10 worst lockups (plus a handful of dishonorable mentions) based on three years of research, correspondence with prisoners, and interviews with criminal-justice reform advocates concerning the penal facilities with the grimmest claims to infamy.

We will roll out the final contenders this week, complete with photos and video. Number 9 is a corporate-run facility where children allegedly have been subjected to a heartrending pattern of brutal beatings, rapes, and isolation.

Walnut Grove Youth Correctional Facility (Leake County, Mississippi)

Number of prisoners: Capacity 1,450 (actual population in flux)

Who’s in charge: (current) Lawrence Mack, warden; (former) George Zoley, CEO, the GEO Group; Christopher B. Epps, commissioner, Mississippi Department of Corrections

The basics: Efforts are underway to clean up and clear out Walnut Grove Youth Correctional Facility, which one federal judge called “a cesspool of unconstitutional and inhuman acts” visited upon children as young as 13. For years, the kids at Walnut Grove were subjected to a gauntlet of physical and sexual assaults, and psychological abuse including long-term solitary confinement. All of this took place under the management of private prison conglomerate the GEO Group.

Check out photographer Richard Ross’ Juvenile-in-Justice project, with stories from youth facilities all over America. (And don’t forget his awesome photo book.)

The backlash: Evidence gathered for a report by the Justice Department and a lawsuit by the ACLU and Southern Poverty Law Center “paints a picture of such horror as should be unrealized anywhere in the civilized world,” Federal District Judge Carleton Reeves wrote in a 2012 court order. The court found that conditions at Walnut Grove violated the Constitution, not to mention state and federal civil and criminal laws. Guards regularly had sex with their young charges and the facility’s pattern of “brutal” rapes among prisoners was the worst of “any facility anywhere in the nation” (court’s emphasis). Guards also were deemed excessively violent—beating, kicking, and punching “handcuffed and defenseless” youths and frequently subjecting them to chemical restraints such as pepper spray, even for insignificant infractions.

The guards also sold drugs on site and staged “gladiator-style” fights. “It’d be like setting up a fight deal like you would with two dogs,” one former resident told NPR. “They actually bet on it. It was payday for the guards.” Said another: “A lot of times, the guards are in the same gang. If the inmates wanted something done, they got it. If they wanted a cell popped open to handle some business about fighting or something like that, it just pretty much happened.” Kids who complained or tried to report these incidents faced harsh retribution, including long stints in solitary.

Judge Reeves wrote that the state had turned a blind eye to the prison company’s abuses: Walnut Grove’s charges, “some of whom are mere children, are at risk every minute, every hour, every day.” In accord with a court decree, the facility’s youngest residents have been moved to a state-run juvenile facility, and Mississippi canceled its contract with GEO—which still runs some 65 prisons nationwide. The contract was handed over to another private prison company, Management and Training Corporation, which also has been a target of criticism for advocates of criminal justice reform.

Also read: “The Lost Boys,” about what happens when you put kids in an adult isolation facility.

Watch: Local news report on a protest by Walnut Grove parents.

Coming tomorrow: An island prison where guards allegedly “use unlawful, excessive force with impunity.”

Read more: America’s 10 Worst Prisons index page.

Research for this project was supported by a grant from the Investigative Fund and The Nation Institute, as well as a Soros Justice Media Fellowship from the Open Society Foundations. Additional reporting by Beth Broyles, Valeria Monfrini, Katie Rose Quandt, and Sal Rodriguez.

From: 

America’s 10 Worst Prisons: Walnut Grove

Posted in FF, GE, ONA, Uncategorized, Venta | Tagged , , , , , , , | Comments Off on America’s 10 Worst Prisons: Walnut Grove

Here’s How the Rifle That Just Killed a 2-Year-Old Girl Is Marketed for Kids

by 0df53x21 Posted on May 1, 2013

Mother Jones

<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC “-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN” “http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40/loose.dtd”>

On Tuesday, inside a rural Kentucky home, a five-year-old boy accidentally shot and killed his two-year-old sister. The boy had been playing with a .22 caliber single-shot Crickett rifle made and marketed for kids. The children’s mother was reportedly outside the house when the shooting took place, and apparently didn’t know that the gun contained a shell.

“Just one of those crazy accidents,” said the Cumberland County coroner, according to the Lexington Herald-Leader.

Clearly the issue of parental responsibility is at the center of this tragedy. But against the backdrop of the Newtown massacre and ongoing national debate over regulating firearms, it also points back to the big business of guns—including how the industry profits from products aimed at children.

The Pennsylvania-based maker of Crickett rifles, Keystone Sporting Arms, markets its guns with the slogan “My First Rifle.” They are available with different barrel and stock designs, including some made in hot pink to appeal to young girls.

Business has boomed since the company’s inception in 1996, according to its website. In its first year, it had four employees and produced 4,000 rifles for kids; by 2008 it had greatly expanded its operations, with 70 employees and an output of 60,000 rifles a year. KSA’s site states that its goal is “to instill gun safety in the minds of youth shooters and encourage them to gain the knowledge and respect that hunting and shooting activities require and deserve.”

But a visit to the “kids corner” page reveals a gallery of photos that some people might find unsettling:

Then again, KSA’s approach to arming America’s tykes may be no more disturbing than the post-Newtown boom in bulletproof backpacks and school clothes.

Source article:  

Here’s How the Rifle That Just Killed a 2-Year-Old Girl Is Marketed for Kids

Posted in FF, GE, ONA, Uncategorized, Venta | Tagged , , , , , | Comments Off on Here’s How the Rifle That Just Killed a 2-Year-Old Girl Is Marketed for Kids

At Supreme Court, Marriage Equality Foes’ Best Argument Is That They’re Losing

by 0df53x21 Posted on March 26, 2013

<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC “-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN” “http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40/loose.dtd”>

More Mother Jones coverage of gay rights and marriage equality


The Anti-Marriage Equality Movement Meets on the Mallâ&#128;&#148;and Tries to Think Happy Thoughts


At Supreme Court, Marriage Equality Foes’ Best Argument Is That They’re Losing


Here Are the 7 Worst Things Antonin Scalia Has Said or Written About Homosexuality


Which Politicians Supported Gay Marriage and When?


The Supreme Court’s Big Gay-Marriage Week, Explained


VIDEO: The 5 Most Comically Bad Anti-Gay Ads, Ever


Mac McClelland on Gay Rights in Uganda


Gay by Choice? The Science of Sexual Identity


Gay by Choice? Yeah, What If?

On Tuesday, the Supreme Court heard oral arguments in the first of two marriage equality cases, and the best argument the chief defender of California’s ban on same-sex marriage could muster was that his side would ultimately lose.

Americans’ understanding of marriage is “changing and changing rapidly in this country, as people throughout the country engage in an earnest debate over whether the age-old definition of marriage should be changed to include same sex couples,” argued Charles Cooper, who represented Californians supporting Proposition 8, California’s ban on same-sex marriage. He was trying to convince the justices that Prop 8 does not violate the constitutional rights of same-sex couples. In doing so, though, he acknowledged that acceptance of same-sex marriage rights is galloping forward, and he argued that the Supreme Court should allow that process to continue without interference from the Supreme Court. In other words, Californians whose marriage rights were taken from them at the ballot box should wait patiently for the country to evolve as quickly as ambitious Democratic politicians. (On Wednesday, the court will hear a challenge to the Defense of Marriage Act, which bans federal recognition of same-sex marriages performed in states when they are legal.)

It’s never a good idea to predict the results of a Supreme Court case based on oral arguments, and the strongest presentation at the Court isn’t always the one that wins. But from his first, hoarse remarks, it was clear that Cooper had walked into the heat of battle lightly armed. An experienced litigator who served in the Reagan-era Justice Department, Cooper took up the defense of California’s Proposition 8 after state officials declined to back the law in court. He was supposed to argue that California had a legitimate interest (other than simple bigotry) in banning same-sex couples from getting married, but he had difficulty finding one.

Continue Reading »

Mother Jones
Continue reading – 

At Supreme Court, Marriage Equality Foes’ Best Argument Is That They’re Losing

Posted in FF, GE, ONA, Uncategorized, Venta | Tagged , , , , , , , | Comments Off on At Supreme Court, Marriage Equality Foes’ Best Argument Is That They’re Losing