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North Dakota Passes Ban on Abortions After 6 Weeks of Pregnancy

by Sheeritwern Posted on March 15, 2013

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The North Dakota legislature approved the most restrictive abortion laws in the United States on Friday, cutting off abortion access as early as six weeks into a pregnancy. The bill, HB 1456, makes it illegal for doctors to perform an abortion if a heartbeat is detectable in the fetus—something that can happen as little as six weeks after conception. It passed the Senate by a vote of 26 to 17, and will now head to the desk of Republican Gov. Jack Dalrymple.

North Dakota lawmakers have been considering a variety of anti-abortion bills. While this wasn’t their most extreme option—another bill would have outlawed all abortions, period—it does mean that North Dakota now has the most restrictive abortion law in the country. This comes just over a week after Arkansas claimed the crown for most restrictive abortion laws, passing a twelve-week ban.

The law will almost inevitably be challenged in court, as it takes a clear shot at Roe vs Wade‘s protection of a right to an abortion up until the point the fetus is viable. But legal groups challenging state restrictions have a lot on their hands as states undertake what Cecile Richards, the president of Planned Parenthood, called a “state-by-state race to the bottom on women’s health” in an email after the North Dakota vote.

Mother Jones
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North Dakota Passes Ban on Abortions After 6 Weeks of Pregnancy

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Dozens get sick after dining at world’s best restaurant

by charlenedean Posted on March 11, 2013

Dozens get sick after dining at world’s best restaurant

By John Upton

Renée S

Fancy-pants restaurant made its fancy-pants customers sick.

A tasting menu at Danish restaurant Noma, consistently named among the world’s best, costs $250 a head — not including wine.

For at least 63 people who dined there last month, a generous helping of vomiting and diarrhea was on the house.

Danish food authorities faulted the famous restaurant for failing to protect its diners after one of its workers fell ill last month, apparently spreading gastroenteritis to dozens of its big-spending customers. The initial emailed report of the illness was ignored for four days by restaurant staff.

Noma is accustomed to basking in food industry glory. It has been crowned the world’s top restaurant on the San Pellegrino World’s 50 Best Restaurants list three times, for example. Now it is wallowing in a new kind of spotlight. From The Guardian:

In a statement Peter Kreiner, Noma’s managing director, told Danish newspapers: “It is a matter that affects us all deeply, and which we are really sorry about.”

The restaurant recognised that internal procedures had not been good enough and said an email from the employee reporting the sickness had not been seen.

He also said the faulty [hot water] tap [identified by investigators] had been fixed by a plumber straight after the inspection and that the restaurant had changed its procedure around staff emails to avoid any future delays.

Kreiner said the restaurant was co-operating with health authorities and organising customer compensation.

The restaurant’s chefs are known for experimenting with such unusual ingredients as ants and fermented grasshoppers, Reuters tells us. Perhaps now its managers will experiment with promptly reading their emails.

John Upton is a science aficionado and green news junkie who

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Dozens get sick after dining at world’s best restaurant

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Obama doubles size of California marine sanctuary, adorable otters rejoice

by Myrna Posted on December 20, 2012

Obama doubles size of California marine sanctuary, adorable otters rejoice

By Susie Cagle

President Obama has proposed that more than 2,700 square miles off the coast of Northern California be added to the national marine sanctuary system, which would protect the area from oil and gas drilling permanently. It would be the biggest addition to the 40-year-old system in 20 years, doubling the total protected sanctuary area. The otters are so excited you guys.

mike baird

From the San Jose Mercury News:

“This is a matter of economic common sense. Jobs and livelihoods hang in the balance,” [said Rep. Lynn Woolsey (D)]. “No one is going to vacation on the Sonoma coast if they are looking at oil derricks.”

I like her logic, even though lots of people vacation along the California coast within view of all kinds of offshore drilling equipment. (Ahem, Santa Barbara.)

In recent months, Woolsey, who is retiring from Congress on Jan. 3, urged Obama to use his executive authority to create a new national monument along the scenic Sonoma coast. Obama, however, stopped short of creating a monument, opting instead to use the NOAA administrative process, which triggers public hearings in Northern California early next year, along with detailed environmental studies. It is expected to take up to two years to finalize …

“This is one of the crowning achievements of the coastal protection movement in California,” said Richard Charter, a senior fellow with the Ocean Foundation in Washington, D.C. “This is a permanent ban on offshore drilling, forever, at a time when Congress has not been particularly interested in conservation.”

The Sierra Club said, “President Obama gave Californians and all Americans a tremendous gift today.” But this is particularly great news for nature, which would really prefer to do whatever the hell nature wants.

While Northern California’s coastal sea otters are poised to get an expanded sanctuary, earlier this week Southern California’s otters got some good news too. The federal government is officially abandoning its effort to keep otters near a remote island — an effort that resulted in most of the otters dying — and will now let them float free. From the San Francisco Chronicle:

“Trying to tell a marine mammal to stay on one side of an imaginary line across the water was a dumb idea,” said Steve Shimek, executive director of the Otter Project.

Shimek said the otters’ new freedom will help restore the coastal ecosystem of Southern California (near those offshore drilling operations, natch).

From KPCC:

Otters are good for kelp forests. And kelp forests, called the “redwoods of the sea,” are home to hundreds of species valuable to a biologically diverse coastal ecosystem.

Things are looking up for this Christmas, Ma and Emmett Otter!

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Obama doubles size of California marine sanctuary, adorable otters rejoice

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