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Facebook Cracks Down on Illegal Gun Sales

by NestorHPOM Posted on March 5, 2014

Mother Jones

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Facebook has officially decided that it doesn’t like shady gun deals. On Wednesday, the social-sharing behemoth announced significant policy changes aimed at policing gun trafficking on its platform: The company will delete posts that offer to buy or sell guns without background checks, block users under the age of 18 from viewing gun listings, and require all gun pages and groups to prominently refer to laws governing gun sales. Facebook will also apply controls to its photo-sharing subsidiary Instagram, which has also grown as an outlet for gun trafficking.

The move comes after weeks of pressure spearheaded by Moms Demand Action, the grassroots advocacy group formed after the Sandy Hook massacre that recently merged with Michael Bloomberg’s Mayors Against Illegal Guns. Moms Demand Action says it drew more than 230,000 supporters for a petition urging Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg and Instagram CEO Kevin Systrom to deal with the issue. “Our campaign showed how easy it is for minors, felons and other dangerous people to get guns online,” founder Shannon Watts said in a statement. “We are happy that these companies listened to American mothers and we believe these changes are a major step toward making sure people who buy or sell guns on their platforms know the law, and follow it.”

GunSellerz/Facebook

Exactly how Facebook will go about enforcing the new policies is unclear, and it remains to be seen how effectively the company will be able to control such activity on its pages. But at a minimum these changes—which also allow Facebook users to flag suspicious posts—should help diminish the opportunity for kids and felons to acquire firearms.

Yet, would-be criminals may simply flock elsewhere, as there remains at least one major social-sharing site where such deals can easily go down: Reddit. As we were the first to report back in January, Reddit hosts thousands of for-sale listings for military-style assault rifles, semi-automatic handguns, high-capacity magazines, and other weaponry. The site appears to be particularly ripe for dubious gun deals, because most of its users operate anonymously—and because, as a company official confirmed to us, Reddit does not track the gun transactions on its site and has no idea whether they are conducted legally. That didn’t stop the company from granting its users permission to engrave Reddit’s official logo on assault rifles.

Moms Demand Action says that it plans to keep pressuring companies to act in the interest of gun safety, though according to a spokesperson the group has had no conversations with Reddit yet.

via Reddit

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The 9 Most Important Recommendations From the President’s NSA Surveillance Panel

by GenevieveKunkel Posted on December 18, 2013

Mother Jones

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The report of the president’s NSA review panel is out. It has a grand total of 46 recommendations. Here are the most interesting ones:

  1. Phone records should be stored privately, not by the government. If the NSA needs phone records, it should get a warrant for them. Like a subpoena, the warrant should be “reasonable in focus, scope, and breadth.”
  2. More broadly: “As a general rule and without senior policy review, the government should not be permitted to collect and store mass, undigested, non-public personal information about US persons for the purpose of enabling future queries and data-mining for foreign intelligence purposes.”
  3. The FBI should no longer be allowed to issue National Security Records on its own. NSLs should be issued only if a warrant is approved. Nondisclosure orders should be more restricted; should last no more than 180 days; and should not prevent the target of the NSL from challenging its legality in court.
  4. Generally speaking, companies that are ordered to produce information should be allowed to “disclose on a periodic basis general information about the number of such orders they have received, the number they have complied with, the general categories of information they have produced, and the number of users whose information they have produced in each category.”
  5. Surveillance of non-US persons “must be directed exclusively at protecting national security interests….and must not be directed at illicit or illegitimate ends, such as the theft of trade secrets or obtaining commercial gain for domestic industries.”
  6. If a US person is inadvertently surveilled, that information cannot be used as evidence in any court proceeding.
  7. The NSA should be headed by a civilian. Leadership of the NSA should be separated from leadership of the military’s Cyber Command.
  8. “Congress should create the position of Public Interest Advocate to represent the interests of privacy and civil liberties before the FISC.” In addition, more FISC decisions should be declassified.
  9. The government should commit itself to stop trying to undermine public encryption standards.

These are useful recommendations, especially 1, 2, 3, 6, and 8. Recommendation 7 is already a dead letter, since President Obama has said he plans to keep dual-hatted leadership for the NSA and Cyber Command.

How much of this will survive the president and Congress? I’d like to say I’m optimistic, but I’m not, really. These recommendations are useful but modest, and I suspect that Congress will whittle them down even more. Stay tuned.

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The 9 Most Important Recommendations From the President’s NSA Surveillance Panel

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Here’s why privatizing food inspection might not be the greatest idea

by BenjamingBolton Posted on October 21, 2013

Here’s why privatizing food inspection might not be the greatest idea

By

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An unlikely killer.

The U.S. government has been getting out of the food-inspection game in recent decades, replaced by a for-profit inspection industry that’s rife with conflicts of interest. The risks of that arrangement became evident with America’s deadliest food-borne disease outbreak in almost a century.

In 2010, Primus Group food auditors visited a Colorado melon farm run by brothers Ryan and Eric Jensen. The company told the farming brothers how to install a new cooling system. In 2011, the inspectors returned and gave the flawed new system, which violated federal guidelines, a “superior” safety report.

Within a year, 33 cantaloupe consumers had died painful deaths after being infected with Listeria monocytogenes, a type of bacteria that was harbored by the brothers’ fruit. Federal investigators concluded that the installation of the new cooling system was a fatal flaw.

After four generations, the brothers’ farm has been sunk by lawsuits filed by victims and their families. Now the Jensens are striking back against the flawed inspection system with a lawsuit of their own. The Denver Post reports:

The lawsuit filed against Primus Group, a food auditing company based in California, is rare — even in an industry in which favorable audits have preceded the most notorious national food outbreaks.

It’s the second time in a month the listeria cantaloupe case has set a precedent in the food safety industry. In September, the Jensen brothers were charged with federal misdemeanors for introducing adulterated food into the market — the first time in two decades food producers were charged with misdemeanor, unintentional acts.

The Jensens are expected to plead guilty in federal court in Denver on Tuesday.

“It sent a pretty big ripple effect in the food industry,” said food safety attorney Bill Marler of Seattle, who is representing dozens of victims in lawsuits against the Jensen brothers. “It’s certainly gotten people’s attention.”

Let’s hope it gets the attention of federal lawmakers and the Obama administration.


Source
Colorado melon farmers sue inspector who gave them “superior” rating, The Denver Post

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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Koch brothers hire lobbyists to fight carbon tax, save poor and old people

by agerere567 Posted on August 1, 2013

Koch brothers hire lobbyists to fight carbon tax, save poor and old people

By Grist staff

Charles and David Koch really, really don’t want a carbon tax.

Carbon-tax proposals are going nowhere in Congress, but the Koch brothers aren’t taking any chances.

A few non-office-holding Republicans and a few actual-office-holding Democrats are calling for a carbon tax, but the current Congress would never pass one, and even the Obama administration has said it doesn’t want one.

Still, a grandstanding Republican representative, Steve Scalise of Louisiana, is pushing a House resolution declaring that “a carbon tax would be detrimental to the United States economy” and “to American families and businesses,” and that it would “fall hardest on the poor, the elderly, and those on fixed incomes.” (Never mind that many carbon-tax proposals are designed specifically to ease burdens on low-income Americans. Facts are not of interest here.)

The billionaire oil-mogul Koch brothers — who’ve convinced many politicians to sign a “No Climate Tax Pledge” — have now hired a gang of lobbyists to push Scalise’s pointless resolution, The Hill reports.

Just how would a tax on carbon pollution hurt American families and businesses? Well, it might take a bite out of the Koch family’s coffers and the Kochs’ businesses.

Still, the Kochs really are concerned about the poor. In fact, Charles Koch is pushing his own plan for lifting people out of poverty; one key component is eliminating the minimum wage.

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Our statement in response to Rep. Sensenbrenner’s misguided legislation

by Posted on April 11, 2013

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Our statement in response to Rep. Sensenbrenner’s misguided legislation

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The bill introduced by Rep. Jim Sensenbrenner (R-WI) ignores the long track record of successful, rigorous testing that E15 has undergone. What the bill is clearly geared toward, however, is promoting the interest of oil companies looking to retain control over America’s fuel options.

E15 is the most tested renewable fuel in history and to suggest otherwise ignores a wealth of facts. In multiple tests, E15 has been put through the paces in more than 6 million miles of testing. The results of these tests were so satisfactory that E15 is used in NASCAR vehicles – high-performance racecars that can top 200 miles an hour – have opted to use E15.

The reality is that E15 provides options to Americans and the choice to power their cars with clean and renewable fuel. Unfortunately, Rep. Sensenbrenner’s legislation would limit that choice by favoring the oil industry over hardworking American families and businesses.

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Two new bills aim to save California farmland from rampant sprawl

by gorso6 Posted on April 3, 2013

Two new bills aim to save California farmland from rampant sprawl

By Susie Cagle

California’s super-productive farmland is being overrun by development projects. Sprawly exurban housing development and even solar projects threaten to gobble up all the Golden State’s arable land. As of 2007, California was home to more than 25 million acres of cropland, but that’s shrinking by more than 1 percent each year, according to the American Farmland Trust.

All’s not lost, though: Two proposed bills could give a boost to California agriculture big and small, and potentially change the way the Golden State develops over the coming years.

First up: The Urban Agriculture Incentive Zone Act, AB 551. This would set up an optional program for counties to give residents breaks on their property taxes so long as they’re using the land to grow food. “One of the biggest obstacles to expanding urban agriculture within California is access to land. This legislation provides an incentive to private landowners to make more land available for urban agriculture, while at the same time enabling them to do so at a lowered cost, which is especially critical for the viability of commercial urban farms,” according to San Francisco based urban think tank SPUR.

For non-city dwellers, the California Farmland Protection Act, AB 823, packs a much bigger punch. The bill would require that developers protect one acre of farmland for every acre they build on, either by buying it themselves or bankrolling the purchase by another entity.

From the bill:

Dependent on land and natural resources, California agriculture is uniquely vulnerable to global warming. Global warming poses a serious threat to California agriculture with rising temperatures, constrained water resources, increases in extreme weather events, reduced winter chilling hours, and rising sea levels.

California agriculture is also uniquely positioned to provide climate benefits by reducing greenhouse gas emissions. Research funded by the State Energy Resources Conservation and Development Commission’s Public Interest Energy Research program found that an acre of irrigated cropland emits 70 times fewer greenhouse gas emissions than an acre of urban land.

This bill wouldn’t just protect farms: It’s also an incentive to build more densely in a state that’s had a long history of serious suburb love. Save California farmland and grow its cities, all in one fell swoop? Yes, please.

Susie Cagle writes and draws news for Grist. She also writes and draws tweets for

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Outliers – Malcolm Gladwell

by Kyung Wilhoite Posted on March 19, 2013

READ GREEN WITH E-BOOKS

Outliers

The Story of Success

Malcolm Gladwell

Genre: Psychology

Price: $7.99

Publish Date: November 18, 2008

Publisher: Little, Brown and Company

Seller: Hachette Digital, Inc.


In this stunning new book, Malcolm Gladwell takes us on an intellectual journey through the world of &quot;outliers&quot;–the best and the brightest, the most famous and the most successful. He asks the question: what makes high-achievers different? His answer is that we pay too much attention to what successful people are like, and too little attention to where they are from: that is, their culture, their family, their generation, and the idiosyncratic experiences of their upbringing. Along the way he explains the secrets of software billionaires, what it takes to be a great soccer player, why Asians are good at math, and what made the Beatles the greatest rock band. Brilliant and entertaining, OUTLIERS is a landmark work that will simultaneously delight and illuminate.

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Outliers – Malcolm Gladwell

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Minnesota mayor doesn’t see why he can’t also run a sand-mining advocacy group

by h0rt67bx11 Posted on February 12, 2013

Minnesota mayor doesn’t see why he can’t also run a sand-mining advocacy group

By Philip Bump

dougtone

An auditorium in Red Wing, Minn.

Congratulations, Dennis Egan, on your new job as executive director of the Minnesota Industrial Sand Council, an organization that advocates for the industrial use of sand, particularly in fracking. But, while we have your ear, maybe we should talk about your other job as mayor of Red Wing, Minn.

From the Minneapolis Star-Tribune:

At an intense City Council meeting attended by about 50 people who applauded the harshest rebukes of the mayor, two City Council members directly asked Egan to resign as mayor or step down as executive director of the Minnesota Industrial Sand Council. He steadfastly refused either option, saying he has no conflict of interest that can’t be managed on a case-by-case basis by recusing himself from city action on sand-mining issues.

“I deeply care about Red Wing,” said Egan, who was elected in November to a four-year term before he went to work for the sand council.

In an AP article, the honorable mayor notes that he signed a ban on frack sand mining in the city before he took the second job with the advocacy group. Interestingly, the prospect of sand mining in Red Wing is not the only point of concern for the city council. Again from the Star-Tribune:

Council President Lisa Bayley said Egan’s post with an industry that has encountered public opposition in its plans to expand sand-mining operations in Minnesota has taken a negative toll on the city and could hurt economic development.

You catch that? The argument Bayley is making is that people dislike sand mining so much in Minnesota that Egan’s position puts the city of Red Wing in a bad light. I’m not privy to the political relationship between Egan and Bayley (though I gather it’s not great), but that’s a remarkable argument. The taint of industrial fracking.

All of this was avoidable.

Egan said it wasn’t reasonable for the council to ask him to resign, partly because he is a professional consultant and lobbyist and the sand council is only his latest client.

Red Wing elected a lobbyist to be its mayor. Guys, I don’t want to tell you how to live your lives, but maybe that’s the first thing you need to fix.

Hat-tip to Midwest Energy News.

Philip Bump writes about the news for Gristmill. He also uses Twitter a whole lot.

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Minnesota mayor doesn’t see why he can’t also run a sand-mining advocacy group

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If named secretary of defense, Chuck Hagel will leave Chevron’s board

by oks23po Posted on January 30, 2013

If named secretary of defense, Chuck Hagel will leave Chevron’s board

By Philip Bump

secdef

Chevron board member Chuck Hagel.

A spot of good news: If Chuck Hagel is confirmed as defense secretary, he will resign his seat on the board of Chevron. While it seems likely that the oil company would prefer he remain, helping guide its strategy as he simultaneously made determinations about the deployment and structure of the largest military in the history of the world, others disagreed.

From The Wall Street Journal:

Chuck Hagel will shed hundreds of thousands of dollars of stock in Chevron Corp. CVX -0.46% and private equity firm McCarthy Group LLC if the Senate confirms him to be the next defense secretary, according to his financial disclosure. …

Mr. Hagel’s assets were valued between $2.9 million and $6.1 million in total. … In addition to his stock holdings, Mr. Hagel earned $116,000 in director fees from Chevron and between $5,001 and $15,000 in dividends.

In addition to divesting Chevron and McCarthy holdings, Mr. Hagel said he would resign his positions with both firms and 25 other entities.

Why? “One conservative outside group, the American Future Fund, said that the Chevron holdings could have posed a potential conflict of interest because of the company’s fuel contracts with the Pentagon.” Oh, right. The massive conflict of interest. Thanks for pointing that out, conservative outside group.

Once Hagel resigns from Chevron’s board, he will forget all about the company’s priorities and its ongoing arguments for expanding the use of its products in the military. He will not fall back on the many discussions he had as a compensated member of the board and as a shareholder in the company when determining how the military should operate.

Leaving Chevron in the same unhappy position in which Halliburton found itself after its CEO Dick Cheney resigned to become vice president.

Philip Bump writes about the news for Gristmill. He also uses Twitter a whole lot.

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