Author Archives: Dedra Temores

Donald Trump Is Now Way Out Ahead of Ted Cruz

by Dedra Temores Posted on April 14, 2016

Mother Jones

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Two days ago—two!—I posted a Pollster chart showing that Ted Cruz had nearly caught up to Donald Trump on a national level. This was based on polling through April 6, and today we have polling results through April 11. Look what’s happened:

Yikes! The head-to-head between Trump and Cruz has gone from 39-38 to 53-25. Trump now has a 28-point lead over Cruz, about as big as any he’s had since the beginning of the year.

Maybe this is just a temporary spike—or, then again, maybe April 6 was the temporary spike. Either way, this is an extraordinary amount of movement for an aggregate measure in just five days. Did something happen on April 6 that I missed?

UPDATE: Sam Wang says this spike is just the effect of one high-end-of-the-range poll (NBC/SurveyMonkey) and one super-high poll (YouGov). I don’t expect aggregates to move so strongly based on just one or two polls, but it looks like he’s right. Those two polls by themselves added 27 points to Trump’s lead. So I guess there’s no need to panic just yet.

Source:  

Donald Trump Is Now Way Out Ahead of Ted Cruz

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Chevron creates its own news outlet for a poor city that it pollutes

by Dedra Temores Posted on March 24, 2014

Chevron creates its own news outlet for a poor city that it pollutes

By

Daniel Arauz

Don’t expect to hear what these folks think in the pages of the

Richmond Standard

.

Big Oil’s influence on corporate media has American news outlets shamefully shirking climate coverage. But oil companies won’t be satisfied by merely controlling the national news. In the poor Californian city of Richmond, where Chevron wants to upgrade a polluting refinery that is wont to explode, the oil giant has started an online newspaper.

The Richmond Standard is a hyperlocal journalism site launched in January with the hallmarks of a typical Patch site (before said service was dumped by AOL): minimally reported stories about local crime, public meetings, and sports, told with the inverted-pyramid style of traditional news writing.

But the Standard is not your typical, well-intentioned but underfunded local reporting initiative; it’s a Chevron propaganda rag that’s run and written by the company’s flacks. The San Francisco Chronicle delves into the ethics of such an initiative:

The idea of the nation’s second-largest oil company funding a local news site harkens back to an era of journalism when business magnates often owned newspapers to promote their personal financial or political agendas. Now that mainstream newspapers are struggling to survive, online news sites are testing ways to fund their operations, said Edward Wasserman, dean of the UC Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism.

But the idea of a company sponsoring news in a community where it operates still poses problems, he said.

“The tradition of press independence — even though in many times it’s more aspirational than real — is nevertheless a cornerstone principle,” Wasserman said. The Standard “is a different model. It’s clearly meant as a community outreach effort, so it’s born in an ethically challenged area.”

The Standard claims to be Richmond’s first “community-driven daily news source” since prior to 1990, yet Wasserman’s school runs Richmond Confidential — a rival site that frequently covers Chevron. The Standard has a “Chevron speaks” section, which has so far been used to introduce the website (which it says could “blaze the trail for a new model of corporate-sponsored, community-generated news”), and to criticize negative press coverage of its plans to upgrade the refinery. But the positive coverage of Chevron and its refinery also spills into the “News” section.

Chevron’s San Francisco-based PR consultants poached colorful crime reporter Mike Aldax away from the San Francisco Examiner late last year, hiring him to work as an account manager and to write Richmond Standard’s articles. A Chevron spokesperson described the writer as “independent,” but a recent tweet reminds us that Aldax’s loyalties lie with his client:

“Richmond residents are not going to be fooled — they know where we’re coming from,” Aldax said. “The onus is on me to provide information that’s factual and accurate.”

Note that Aldax doesn’t say anything about “balance.” As the Chronicle points out, Aldax didn’t quote activists who oppose the refinery upgrade in a recent story about the project’s “robust” environmental impact report.

Perhaps we can look forward to more such ventures in other communities where Chevron operates. The Ecuador Standard, anyone?


Source
New Chevron website covers Richmond news, San Francisco Chronicle

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.

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We’re Still at War: Photo of the Day for October 23, 2013

by Dedra Temores Posted on October 23, 2013

Mother Jones

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Marines with 3rd Battalion, 7th Marine Regiment, patrol near Forward Operating Base Musa Qala, Helmand province, Afghanistan, Oct. 19, 2013. The Marines of 3/7 patrolled to reduce enemy activity in the area. U.S. Marine Corps photo by Lance Cpl. James Mast /Released.

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We’re Still at War: Photo of the Day for October 23, 2013

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Supreme Court will hear big clean-air case

by Dedra Temores Posted on June 26, 2013

Supreme Court will hear big clean-air case

By John Upton

Rainforest Action Network

Beware, neighbors.

It’s been a week of refreshing news for fans of unpolluted air. As Barack Obama on Tuesday was calling for greenhouse gas limits on power plants, clean air advocates were also celebrating a decision by the Supreme Court to hear an important case on power-plant pollution.

The EPA’s Cross-State Air Pollution Rule was designed to cut down on life-threatening power-plant pollution that blows across state borders. It called for reductions of sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxide emissions at power plants in 28 states in the eastern U.S. The rule would mostly affect coal power plants, the dirtiest of America’s electricity plants. The EPA and supporters of the rule have said it would save tens of thousands of lives every year.

But owners of dirty power plants and some of the states in which they operate argued in court that the rule goes farther than the EPA is allowed to go under the Clean Air Act’s “good neighbor” provision.

Last August, the notoriously conservative U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit ruled 2-1 in favor of the power plant companies, striking down the EPA’s rule.

But now the Supreme Court will hear the case and could reverse the circuit court’s ruling. From Reuters:

At the request of the administration, the American Lung Association and environmental groups, the [Supreme Court] justices will revisit an appeals court ruling that invalidated the Cross-State Air Pollution rule, which the EPA implemented to enforce a provision of the Clean Air Act.

Oral arguments and a decision are due in the court’s next term, which starts in October and ends in June 2014.

“The decision vaults the Cross-State Air Pollution Rule into the top five Clean Air Act cases heard by the Supreme Court,” said John Walke of the Natural Resources Defense Council.

The ultimate ruling on this case won’t generate as much press as the Supreme Court’s heartening gay-marriage decisions, or disheartening Voting Rights Act decision, but it could save a lot of lives.

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.

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Friday Cat Blogging – 21 June 2013

by Dedra Temores Posted on June 21, 2013

Mother Jones

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We’re back to quiltblogging this week. Unfortunately, Marian is gone and I forgot to ask for deets about the quilt. So I’m just going to say that it’s….um, a patchwork quilt. It kinda reminds me of this. In other cat news, my sister draws my attention to a cat running for mayor in the Mexican city of Xalapa. His slogan: “Tired of voting for rats? Vote for a cat.” The head of Veracruz’s electoral institute is not amused. “It is important to vote for the registered candidates,” she implores. “Please.” However, since Xalapa’s cat looks a lot like Inkblot, I think he’s well qualified. Vota por un gato!

UPDATE: OK, I have the scoop. This a Charm Square Quilt. Apparently, 5-inch squares of fabric are called “charm squares,” and this quilt was made from a package of charm squares. So there you have it.

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Friday Cat Blogging – 21 June 2013

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Should America export its fracked gas? Why greens say no.

by Dedra Temores Posted on May 7, 2013

Should America export its fracked gas? Why greens say no.

By John Upton

Dominion

Cove Point, built as a natural gas import terminal, destined to be a natural gas export terminal.

Frackers already contaminate America’s groundwater, make people sick, produce radioactive waste, and contribute to earthquakes. Processing and moving the natural gas that they produce leads to nasty spills and deadly explosions. And cheap natural gas makes it harder for renewable energy to compete.

But, hey, at least almost all of that cheap fuel is being used by Americans in America, right?

That may not continue to be the case. The Obama administration is poised to rule on a slew of applications to export natural gas to other countries through hulking industrial terminals dotted along U.S. coasts. Over the weekend, Obama appeared to reveal his hand on the issue, forecasting that the U.S. would likely become a net gas exporter by 2020, reports The Financial Times.

According to the newspaper, administration officials fear that a restriction on natural gas exports, as is being sought by American environmentalists and manufacturers, would send a bad signal about the country’s support for free trade.

Environmentalists fear that allowing such exports would exacerbate the fracking boom, harm the environment along the routes of new natural gas pipelines, and cause pollution and industrial accidents at natural gas export terminals. (The manufacturers aren’t worried about any of that; they just want to keep the cheap gas to themselves.)

One such export terminal is planned at Cove Point, Md., along the shores of Chesapeake Bay and close to the vast Marcellus Shale natural gas reserves. Dominion, the energy company that owns the facility, received federal permission in 2011 to export gas through the terminal to certain countries. Now it is seeking permits needed to liquefy natural gas there before loading it onto tanker ships. Like other planned natural gas export hubs, Cove Point was built to receive imported natural gas, back before America’s fracking boom took hold, and now it’s being converted into an export hub.

The Sierra Club, Earthjustice, and other environmental groups jointly filed documents [PDF] on Friday calling on the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to conduct a thorough environmental review of Dominion’s proposal.

From a press release issued by the groups:

The coalition argues the development of this terminal in Lusby, MD would result in major damage to the Chesapeake Bay, coastal forests, and the local economy, which currently support more than a trillion dollars in economic activity from the seafood and tourism industries. …

Major concerns include a substantial increase in ship traffic of huge — and potentially explosive — LNG [liquefied natural gas] tankers on the Bay and to Cove Point, as well as the risks posed by dumping billions of gallons of wastewater into this large and complex estuary, made up of a network of rivers, wetlands, and forests.

Residents of nearby Myersville, Md., meanwhile, object to Dominion’s plans [PDF] to install a large natural gas compressor inside their town.

The issue of natural gas exports is scheduled to be debated today during a House Energy and Commerce subcommittee hearing. From The Hill:

The House hearing on Tuesday will touch on 20 proposals under Energy Department (DOE) review that would green light exports to nations that lack a free-trade agreement with the United States.

Such deals face more administrative scrutiny, as federal law requires them to be in the national interest. Democrats have urged the department to exercise caution, fearing approving too many will cause domestic prices to spike.

Meanwhile, energy-hungry foreign governments — including those in Japan and India — have lobbied the White House to promptly approve applications for exports.

Some lawmakers have accused President Obama of slow-walking the decisions. They fear the United States will miss out as countries such as Australia and Canada rush into the market.

So stay tuned on this one. The damage that fracking causes in America could soon be exacerbated, for the good of the world. And for the good of the energy industry.

John Upton is a science aficionado and green news junkie who

tweets

, posts articles to

Facebook

, and

blogs about ecology

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

johnupton@gmail.com

.

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Should America export its fracked gas? Why greens say no.

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Alabama man feeds the homeless by teaching them to grow their own food

by Dedra Temores Posted on April 24, 2013

green4us

Inside of a Dog – Alexandra Horowitz

A fresh look at what goes on inside the minds of dogs “that causes one’s dog-loving heart to flutter with astonishment and gratitude” (The New York Times Book Review)—from a cognitive scientist with a background at The New Yorker. As one of the millions of dog owners in America, Horowitz is naturally curious to learn what her dog thinks about and knows. And […]

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Trident K9 Warriors – Michael Ritland & Gary Brozek

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 all working dogs had what it takes […]

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Death From the Skies – Games Workshop

Death from the Skies is your guide to launching aerial might into the skies of the 41 st Millennium. This volume contains the rules for 11 flyers to use in your games of Warhammer 40,000, including units for use in Space Marines, Blood Angels, Black Templars, Grey Knights, Imperial Guard, Orks, Necrons and Dark Eldar […]

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The Heirloom Life Gardener – Jere And Emilee Gettle

Tired of genetically modified food every day, Americans are moving more toward eating natural, locally grown food that is free of pesticides and preservatives—and there is no better way to ensure this than to grow it yourself. Anyone can start a garden, whether in a backyard or on a city rooftop; but what they need to truly succeed is The Heirloom Life Garde […]

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World of Warcraft: Dawn of the Aspects: Part III – Richard A. Knaak

A Simon & Schuster eBook. Simon & Schuster has a great book for every reader. […]

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Codex: Tau Empire – Games Workshop

Codex: Tau Empire is your comprehensive guide to unleashing the might of the Tau upon the battlefields of the 41 st Millennium. This volume introduces the four Tau castes, the Ethereals, and their mercenary allies. This dynamic race has begun its Third Sphere Expansion, setting forth into the stars to grow the borders of their burgeoning empire and bring the […]

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Don’t Throw It, Grow It! – Deborah Peterson

Magic and wonder hide in unexpected places — a leftover piece of ginger, a wrinkled potato left too long in its bag, a humdrum kitchen spice rack. In Don’t Throw It, Grow It! Deborah Peterson reveals the hidden possibilities in everyday foods. Peterson, former president of the American Pit Gardening Society, shows how common kitchen staples — pits, nuts […]

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Train Your Dog Positively – Victoria Stilwell

Victoria Stilwell, positive reinforcement dog trainer and star of the hit Animal Planet TV show, It’s Me or the Dog , explains how to use her force-free, scientifically-backed training methods to solve common canine behavior problems. Victoria Stilwell, America’s favorite no-nonsense trainer, has rehabilitated some of the world’s […]

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World of Warcraft: Dawn of the Aspects: Part I – Richard A. Knaak

THE AGE OF DRAGONS IS OVER. Uncertainty plagues Azeroth’s ancient guardians as they struggle to find a new purpose. This dilemma has hit Kalecgos, youngest of the former Dragon Aspects, especially hard. Having lost his great powers, how can he—or any of his kind—still make a difference in the world? The answer lies in the distant past, when savage beasts cal […]

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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 […]

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Originally from – 

Alabama man feeds the homeless by teaching them to grow their own food

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Jihad and Tamerlan Tsarnaev

by Dedra Temores Posted on April 22, 2013

Mother Jones

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Andrew Sullivan argues that the Boston bombings orchestrated by Tamerlan Tsarnaev were clearly an act of Islamic jihad:

One reason the Miranda rights issue is not that salient is that the evidence that this dude bombed innocents, played a role in shooting a cop, shutting down a city, and terrorizing people for a week is overwhelming and on tape. And yes, of course, this decision to commit horrific crimes may be due in part to “some combination of mental illness, societal alienation, or other form of internal instability and rage that is apolitical in nature.” But to dismiss the overwhelming evidence that this was also religiously motivated — a trail that now includes a rant against his own imam for honoring Martin Luther King Jr. because he was not a Muslim — is to be blind to an almost text-book case of Jihadist radicalization, most likely in the US.

….We see the sexual puritanism of the neurotically fundamentalist. We have his YouTube page and the comments he made in the photography portfolio. To state today that we really still have no idea what motivated him and that rushing toward the word Jihadist is some form of Islamophobia seems completely bizarre to me.

Please. Just stop this. What we know about Tamerlan Tsarnaev is that he was (a) Muslim and (b) enraged about something. Was he enraged, a la Sayyid Qutb, about the sexual libertinism of American culture? Was he enraged about perceived American support for Russia against Chechen rebels? Was he enraged about American wars in Iraq and Afghanistan? Was he acting on orders from a foreign terrorist group?

We don’t know yet. Yes, there’s plainly evidence of his growing Islamic extremism over the past three years. But if there’s anything we’ve learned over the last week, it’s that jumping to conclusions on this stuff is foolish. Our natural curiosity isn’t a good enough reason to rush to judgment about Tsarnaev’s motivations. Just wait. There’s no harm in it. We’ll find out soon enough.

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Jihad and Tamerlan Tsarnaev

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Tea Party Smells Blood In Immigration Fight

by Dedra Temores Posted on April 19, 2013

Mother Jones

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Glenn Thrush and Reid Epstein report on one of the reasons that gun legislation failed in the Senate yesterday:

In the end, [] moderates and conservatives in the upper chamber said they simply couldn’t deal with a flurry of progressive issues at once — from gay marriage to immigration to guns….One senator told a White House official that it was “Guns, gays and immigration — it’s too much. I can be with you on one or two of them, but not all three.”

Some are taking this to suggest that voting against the gun bill gives conservatives a little more room to maneuver on immigration. So the silver lining here is that all the no votes on guns might mean a few more yes votes on immigration. Ed Kilgore is skeptical:

I wouldn’t put much reliance on the idea that the demise of Manchin-Toomey is a blessing in disguise for progressives or for those still pining for a “bipartisan breeze” in Washington. For one thing, to continue the propitiation metaphor, the “base” is a jealous god, which views every act of ideological “betrayal” as sufficient to justify primary excommunication or primary challenges. For another, this fresh demonstration that “the base” has the power to compel party discipline on guns (only three Republicans joined former Club for Growth president Pat Toomey in the end) will make the desire to impose it on other subjects seem much more practicable. And third, to focus on the next issue coming up in the Senate, it’s never been clear to me that the obsessive desire to find a way to detoxify the GOP among Latino voters–which is the elite factor driving the interest of Beltway Republicans in immigration reform–is shared that widely among hard-core conservative activists, who are more likely to think that insufficient ideological rigor continues to be the party’s biggest problem.

I agree. Think about it from a liberal perspective. When the repeal of DADT passed in 2010, did we all breathe a sigh of relief and decide to give Democrats a pass on other legislation? Not a chance. On gay issues in particular, it simply convinced us that we were on the right side of history and that now was the time to push even harder than ever. On other issues, it didn’t make much difference at all.

The same is true of the tea partiers. Winning produces energy, not apathy. Having smelled victory in the gun fight, they’re now even more determined that they can win the immigration fight too. This was always going to be a very tight battle, and so far nothing has changed that.

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Tea Party Smells Blood In Immigration Fight

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Did Keysone XL Contractor Hide Its Conflict of Interest?

by Dedra Temores Posted on April 9, 2013

Mother Jones

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The environmental consulting firm hired to evaluate the impacts of the Keystone XL pipeline should have been barred from working on the project, according to a group of environmentalists. On Monday, representatives from 13 environmental organizations asked State Department’s Inspector General to investigate whether the firm’s previous relationships with TransCanada should have qualified as a conflict of interest.

As my colleague Andy Kroll reported last month, three staff members employed by the environmental consulting firm hired to produce the report, Environmental Resources Management (ERM), had previously worked for TransCanada (the company that wants to build the 1,600-mile pipeline). Within the past three years, ERM has also worked for oil companies that could stand to benefit from the pipeline. The bios of those staffers had been redacted from the background documents posted online.

The organizations sent a letter to Secretary of State John Kerry and Harold Geisel, the deputy inspector general of the State Department, on Monday calling for an investigation into whether this constitutes a conflict of interest, and whether ERM was not transparent on that conflict. The letter’s authors point to the conflict of interest statement that ERM provided in its supporting documents (see page 42 here), which asks the company, “Within the past three years, have you (or your organization) had a direct or indirect relationship (financial, organizational, contractual or otherwise) with any business entity that could be affected in any way by the proposed work?” ERM responds:

(X) No. ERM has no existing contract or working relationship with TransCanada.

The letter argues that this is misleading; the questions asks about the “past three years,” while the response addresses a “current or working relationship.” The groups write:

The State Department Contracting Officer should have flagged these inconsistencies on ERM’s Organizational Conflict of Interest questionnaire, when he/she reviewed ERM’s proposal.
Because this was not flagged, we are calling for the State Department Inspector General to pursue an investigation into how the Contracting Officer overlooked these discrepancies on ERM’s documents, and given these incomplete statements, whether ERM is a “responsible party” under the Federal Acquisition Regulation.

Original article: 

Did Keysone XL Contractor Hide Its Conflict of Interest?

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