Tag Archives: monday

These frackers have the nerve to call L.A. leaders “appallingly irresponsible”

by Jesus44Ccz Posted on March 21, 2014

These frackers have the nerve to call L.A. leaders “appallingly irresponsible”

By

Shutterstock

Nobody wants to be called “appallingly irresponsible,” but it’s especially galling when the insult comes from the fracking industry.

Members of Los Angeles City Council, which may soon impose a moratorium on fracking, this week proposed that the city work with the U.S. Geological Survey and other scientists to determine whether a 4.4-magnitude quake on Monday was linked to nearby hydraulic fracturing. Fracking practices have been linked to earthquakes in other parts of the country.

“It is crucial to the health and safety of the City’s residents to understand the seismic impacts of oil and gas extraction activities in the City,” three lawmakers wrote in a motion that they introduced on Tuesday.

Earthquakes happen all the time in California. Monday’s temblor was deeper than most fracking industry–induced earthquakes, though it was attention-grabbing because it occurred in an area not normally known for quakes. And it struck mere days after a trio of nonprofits warned in a report that the fracking sector could trigger earthquakes in California.

So it seems reasonable that L.A. lawmakers would want scientists to look into the issue. But frackers are not known to be reasonable people. The Western States Petroleum Association reacted vehemently to the insinuations and to the proposed scientific research. Its president, Catherine Reheis-Boyd, denied any industry links to Monday’s earthquake, and decried the council members as “appallingly irresponsible.”

“It does not surprise us that the handful of extremist environmental organizations that are attempting to shut down all oil and gas production in Southern California and beyond would attempt to make an entirely unfounded connection between hydraulic fracturing and the earthquake,” Reheis-Boyd wrote in a statement. “But when three members of the Los Angeles City Council make similar statements, despite an overwhelming amount of scientific and other evidence that contradicts their assertions, it is time for responsible leaders to say, ‘Enough.’”

Thanks very for the lecture on responsibility, frackers, but we’re still more interested in what scientists have to say on the question.


Source
Oil industry group: ‘Irresponsible’ to link L.A. quake, fracking, Los Angeles Times
WSPA Responds to Claims Los Angeles Earthquake Was Related to Hydraulic Fracturing, Western States Petroleum Association

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

,

Climate & Energy

,

Politics

Visit site: 

These frackers have the nerve to call L.A. leaders “appallingly irresponsible”

Posted in Anchor, FF, G & F, GE, Keurig, LAI, ONA, solar, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , | Comments Off on These frackers have the nerve to call L.A. leaders “appallingly irresponsible”

The Story Behind That Radio Station Heroically Playing Nelly’s "Hot in Herre" For Three Days Straight

by ElissaBarfield Posted on March 18, 2014

Mother Jones

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

Over the weekend, Latino Mix 105.7, a Univision-owned radio station in San Francisco, captured the hearts and lazy imagination of the internet. “There once was a film called Life is Beautiful about Nelly’s ‘Hot in Herre‘ being looped on a radio station for 24 straight hours and now that movie has come to life,” gushed Gawker. (Life is Beautiful is actually a movie about the Holocaust and the enduring love of family.) In the widely covered stunt, the station started playing “Hot in Herre” sic around 3 p.m. PST on Friday and then just… kept going. The song wasn’t taken off repeat until Monday evening, shortly after 5 p.m. PST. “San Francisco radio station Latino Mix FM 105.7 has been doing its best to torture Bay Area listeners,” the San Jose Mercury News reported on Monday.

“Hot in Herre” (click here for lyrics) was a smash-hit song for St. Louis rapper Nelly in 2002. It was described as “the perfect summer jam” by People. It’s a song so inextricably tied to the early Bush era that you can read about US Marines singing it as they moved into combat in Iraq. (This moment, from journalist Evan Wright’s book Generation Kill, was recreated in the HBO miniseries of the same name.) The song was featured in a 2012 Super Bowl ad starring Elton John as a tyrannical but violently overthrown king.

Continue Reading »

View the original here – 

The Story Behind That Radio Station Heroically Playing Nelly’s "Hot in Herre" For Three Days Straight

Posted in Anchor, FF, GE, LAI, LG, ONA, organic, Radius, Uncategorized, Venta | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , | Comments Off on The Story Behind That Radio Station Heroically Playing Nelly’s "Hot in Herre" For Three Days Straight

I see London, I can’t see France : Paris bans cars, makes transit free to fight air pollution

by Micheal Bay Posted on March 17, 2014

Paris bans cars, makes transit free to fight air pollution

By

Evan Bench

Air pollution is about as romantic as wilted flowers, chapped lips, and corked wine, so the record-setting smog that has settled over the City of Love in the past few days is definitely dampening the mood.

Unseasonably warm weather has triggered unprecedented air pollution levels in Paris. Over the weekend, the city responded by offering free public transportation and bike sharing. (Similar measures were taken throughout nearby Belguim, which also reduced speed limits.) But that wasn’t enough to fix the problem, so Paris and 22 surrounding areas are taking more extreme steps, banning nearly half of vehicles from their roads.

Private cars and motorcycles with even registration numbers will be barred from the streets on Monday. Unless the air quality improves quickly and dramatically, odd registration numbers will be banned from the roads on Tuesday. Electric vehicles and hybrids will be exempted, as will any cars carrying at least three people. About 700 police officers will be stationed at checkpoints, handing out $31 (€22) fines to violators.

Agence France-Presse reports that Paris has tried the approach before:

Ecology Minister Philippe Martin said he understood the “difficulties, the irritation and even anger” over the move, adding: “But we just had to take this decision.”

Martin said similar measures in 1997 “had yielded results”, adding that he hoped that the number of vehicles on the roads would be “significantly lower” on Monday, without giving a figure.

Trains and buses will remain free while the car restrictions are in place, giving Parisians yet more public places where they can nuzzle and talk excitedly about government policies until the ugly smog burns off.


Source
Polluted Paris prepares for partial car ban, Agence France-Presse
Paris offers free public transport to reduce severe smog, BBC

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

Source article – 

I see London, I can’t see France : Paris bans cars, makes transit free to fight air pollution

Posted in Anchor, FF, GE, LG, ONA, solar, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | Comments Off on I see London, I can’t see France : Paris bans cars, makes transit free to fight air pollution

Fracking halted at Ohio site following earthquakes

by EliasSodeman Posted on March 13, 2014

Fracking halted at Ohio site following earthquakes

By

Shutterstock

Fracking began at a well in rural eastern Ohio last month. On Monday, parts of the surrounding Mahoning County started shaking, prompting state officials to shut down the operation, fearing it was responsible for what could be an unprecedented string of earthquakes linked to natural gas extraction.

Four earthquakes with magnitudes as high as 3 were felt Monday in Poland Township and in the village of Lowellville, sparking the immediate shutdown order. Another earthquake struck on Tuesday. Ohio oil and gas inspectors have been visiting the fracking site at the Carbon Limestone Landfill in Lowellville this week, trying to figure out whether it was responsible for the temblors.

“Out of an abundance of caution,” a state official said, “we notified the only oil and gas operator in the area and ordered them to halt all operations until further assessment can take place.”

Links between earthquakes and the disposal of wastewater by frackers have been well established in recent years. The use of a single injection well, into which frackers were pumping their polluted wastewater at high pressure, was linked to 167 earthquakes around Youngstown, Ohio, in 2011 and 2012, prompting the state to put an end to its use.

If the recent string of Mahoning County earthquakes is found to have been caused directly by fracking, it would be the first such confirmed case.


Source
ODNR sends inspectors to examine earthquake site, 21 WFMJ
Fracking halted near small quakes, The Columbus Dispatch

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

,

Climate & Energy

Read this article: 

Fracking halted at Ohio site following earthquakes

Posted in Anchor, FF, GE, ONA, PUR, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , | Comments Off on Fracking halted at Ohio site following earthquakes

The Ukraine-Russia Crisis in 26 Nail-Biting Numbers

by Donekola Posted on March 4, 2014

Mother Jones

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

Update: On Tuesday, President Vladimir Putin harshly criticized Ukraine’s new leadership, calling the crisis an “unconstitutional coup.” He said that Russia is not planning to annex Crimea and he would leave it up to citizens in the region to determine their future. He did not take the option of using military force off the table and said it would be used as “a last resort.”

Last month, the world’s eyes turned to Russia to see if President Vladimir Putin could manage to get hotel showers ready in time for the Sochi Olympics. Just a few weeks later, Putin once again has the international community waiting in suspense, but for a very different reason. The world is waiting to find out if Russia will launch a full-scale armed assault on Ukraine. After months of anti-government protests in Ukraine—sparked by President Viktor Yanukovych’s rejection of a European Union trade deal—the rubber-stamp Russian parliament authorized Putin to send military forces into Ukraine on March 1. The action is reportedly being undertaken to protect the Russian population in the Crimean Peninsula, where, conveniently, Russia also has strong economic and political interests.

As Putin shoots spitballs into the faces of Western leaders—who, remembering the Cold War, aren’t expected to take much action in response to the crisis—Ukraine is mobilizing forces, preparing to take on a military that is far better equipped than its own. The Obama administration has declared that it is prepared to enact sanctions and come up with other consequences if Russia continues to move forward; European Union leaders are having an emergency summit Thursday. Here’s what you need to know about the ongoing crisis, in 26 numbers:

Update: $1 billion: US loan guarantees that Secretary of State John Kerry has promised Ukraine’s new government.

6,000: The number of Russian ground and naval forces that have entered the Crimean Peninsula of Ukraine, according to US officials. (On Monday, Ukrainian officials told the UN Security Council that the number was higher, reaching 16,000.)

500,000: The number of anti-government protesters who flooded Ukraine’s capital, Kiev, in December to demand the ousting of Yanukovych. Anti-government protests have since been held in the cities of Dnepropetrovsk, Odessaâ&#128;&#139;, and Kharkivâ&#128;&#139;, according to the Washington Post. Thousands of protesters marched in Moscow on Sunday in support of Russian incursion, and there have also allegedly been pro-Russia protests in many Ukrainian cities. (According to the New York Times, some of these may be staged by Russian “protest tourists” and Kiev officials say that Moscow is behind pro-Russia demonstrations in Ukraine.)

â&#128;&#139;13: The number of websites blocked by the Russian government because they had links to the Ukrainian anti-government protest movement. Russia’s internet monitoring agency accused them of “encouraging terrorist activity.”

$75 million: The amount ousted Ukrainian President Yanukovych allegedly spent building his mansion in 2012.

$115,000: The amount Yanukovych allegedly spent on a statue of a wild boar.

Less than $500: The average monthly income in Ukraine.

24 percent: The percentage of people across Ukraine who report Russian as their native language. In Crimea, that number rises to about 60 percent. According to the Brookings Institution, most Ukrainians speak and understand both Ukrainian and Russian.

845,000: The number of total armed forces in Russia. Ukraine has 129,950 troops, according to the International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS) and the BBC, which notes that there is no chance of NATO assisting Ukraine militarily.

40: The age cap for men in Ukraine who have been called to defend the country as part of Ukraine’s universal male conscription. According to Reuters, Ukraine will “struggle to find extra guns or uniforms for many of them.” (Ukrainian women don’t have the same obligation to serve.)

221: The number of combat aircraft owned by Ukraine, along with 17 combat vessels. Russia has 1,389 combat aircraft and 171 combat vessels, according to the BBC and IISS.

80 percent: The percentage of Russian gas exports to Europe that travel through Ukraine. Europe relies on Russia to supply 40 percent of its imported fuel. A regional expert told the New York Times that the primary gas pipelines passing through Ukraine supply Germany, Austria, and Italy. The global price of crude oil has risen 2 percent since the crisis began.

$60 billion: About the amount that Russian companies lost in a day after the Moscow stock market fell 10.8 percent on Monday, in wake of the crisis. The Central Bank of Russia has sold over $10 billion in US dollar reserves in order to revive the value of the Russian ruble.

37: The number of rubles needed to match the US dollar on Monday as the currency nose-dived in wake of the crisis.

8,500: The number of nuclear weapons that Russia has, according to a January 2014 report put out by the Ploughshares Fund. The United States has 7,700 nuclear weapons.

6: The number of Republican lawmakers who have criticized President Obama for how his administration has handled the crisis: Sens. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), John McCain (R-Ariz.), and Bob Corker (R-Tenn.), and Reps. Mike Rogers (R-Mich.) and Tom Cotton (R-Ark.)

0: US lawmakers who have suggested the United States send troops into Ukraine.

Taken from:  

The Ukraine-Russia Crisis in 26 Nail-Biting Numbers

Posted in alo, Anchor, Citizen, FF, GE, LAI, LG, ONA, Radius, Uncategorized, Venta | Tagged , , , , , , , | Comments Off on The Ukraine-Russia Crisis in 26 Nail-Biting Numbers

Big polluters tell Supreme Court they’re worried for Chinese restaurateurs

by Gaberilla Eve Posted on February 25, 2014

Big polluters tell Supreme Court they’re worried for Chinese restaurateurs

By

Thomas Hawk

The country’s worst climate polluters don’t want to have their carbon dioxide emissions reined in by the federal government. They’ve already tried and failed to convince the Supreme Court that the Clean Air Act doesn’t apply to CO2. So in court on Monday, they claimed to be worried that the EPA could, theoretically, crack down on CO2 produced by everything from Dunkin’ Donuts stores and Chinese restaurants to high school football games. And that would be crazy, so the EPA’s authority to regulate CO2 should be curbed.

The attorney representing conservative states, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, and major polluters argued before the Supreme Court that the Obama administration erred when it set up a regulatory framework under the Clean Air Act for stationary sources of carbon dioxide, deciding to regulate emissions from major polluters like power plants and factories but not from tens of millions of small operations. The conservative coalition contends that a correct interpretation of the law should see smalltime polluters subjected to the same rules as big polluters — which everyone agrees would be absurd. So the polluters’ attorney told the Supreme Court that Congress should be called on to set new CO2-pollution rules — that it shouldn’t be up to the EPA to decide who is and who isn’t subject to such rules.

The Clean Air Act dictates that facilities need permits from the EPA if their air pollution exceeds 100 tons a year, or 250 tons in some cases. But, as The Christian Science Monitor explains, “The problem with these thresholds when applied to a greenhouse gas (like carbon dioxide) is that greenhouse gases are emitted at much higher volumes than traditional air pollutants. One hundred tons per year of sulfur dioxide is the rough equivalent of 100,000 tons per year of carbon dioxide, experts say.” So the EPA set a higher threshold. For CO2 pollution to be regulated under the Clean Air Act, the EPA decided that a polluter must pump out more than 75,000 or 100,000 tons a year.

The New York Times reports on some of the absurdity from Monday’s hearing:

Jonathan F. Mitchell, the solicitor general of Texas, which challenged the regulations along with other states, said a faithful interpretation of the statute would require that its permit requirements be imposed “on the corner deli or the Chinese restaurant or a high school building.” …

Justice Breyer and Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. wondered if the law might reach high school football games.

Why are polluters so focused on these trivialities? As Grist’s Ben Adler explained, these hardcore global warmers had attempted to convince the court to hear a variety of more far-reaching challenges to the government’s regulation of carbon dioxide, but the vast majority of those challenges were rejected. Pretending to care about a hypothetical EPA crackdown on climate-changing Chinese restaurants and local sporting events is the best shot these guys have left.

The Times reports that at Monday’s hearing “the justices seemed divided along ideological lines over whether [the EPA’s approach] was a sensible accommodation or an impermissible exercise of executive authority.” A ruling in this case, called Utility Air Regulatory Group v. EPA, is expected in June.


Source
For the Supreme Court, a Case Poses a Puzzle on the E.P.A.’s Authority, The New York Times
Supreme Court takes up challenge to Obama and the EPA, The Christian Science Monitor
Carbon Copy: Understanding What Is, and Is Not, At Stake in the Latest Supreme Court Climate Case, NRDC’s Switchboard

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

,

Climate & Energy

,

Politics

Link: 

Big polluters tell Supreme Court they’re worried for Chinese restaurateurs

Posted in alo, Anchor, FF, G & F, GE, LAI, LG, ONA, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , | Comments Off on Big polluters tell Supreme Court they’re worried for Chinese restaurateurs

Uganda’s President Signs Extreme Law That Has Led to Calls to Kill, Burn, and Beat Gays

by MaribelClifford Posted on February 24, 2014

Mother Jones

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

Brushing aside protests from Western leaders and human rights organizations, Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni signed the country’s draconian anti-gay bill into law Monday. The measure increases the penalty for homosexuality, which was already illegal, to life in prison in some cases. It also includes a raft of other harsh provisions, as Human Rights Watch explains:

The “attempt to commit homosexuality” incurs a penalty of seven years as does “aiding and abetting” homosexuality. A person who “keeps a house, room, set of rooms, or place of any kind for purposes of homosexuality” also faces seven years’ imprisonment. Because the law also criminalizes the “promotion” of homosexuality, there are far-reaching implications beyond the increase in punishments for same-sex sexual conduct…Public health promotion and prevention efforts targeting “at risk” groups might have to be curtailed, and health educators and healthcare providers could also face criminal sanction under the same provision.

During the signing ceremony at his official residence outside the capital, Kampala, Museveni blamed the rise of gay culture in Uganda on “arrogant and careless Western groups that are fond of coming into our schools and recruiting young children into homosexuality and lesbianism” and claimed that some were doing so for “mercenary reasons—to get money—in effect homosexual prostitutes.”

Gay rights activists say the climate for gays in Uganda has already deteriorated drastically since the bill passed the Ugandan parliament in December. According to Frank Mugisha, the executive director of Sexual Minorities Uganda, the nation’s primary gay rights group, police are rounding up 30 to 40 suspected homosexuals each week. In some cases, simply being unmarried and spending time in the company of people of the same gender is enough to arouse police suspicion. Mugisha also says that the bill’s passage has also brought a surge in anti-gay vigilantism and that religious leaders in the suburbs surrounding Kampala have been calling for gays to be killed or burned over the public address systems. “The situation is extremely worrying,” Mugisha says. “We are living in fear.”

Maria Burnett, a senior Africa researcher for Human Rights Watch, believes Uganda may see more anti-gay violence now that the bill is officially law. “When political leaders stir up hate,” she says, “it can look like a tacit approval of this kind of mob violence.” Burnett also stressed that the measure’s passage was part of a “broader pattern of clawing back basic human rights, such as freedom of association and freedom of expression, in Uganda.”

The White House sounded a similar note in a statement late Monday morning: “As President Obama has said, this law is more than an affront and a danger to the gay community in Uganda, it reflects poorly on the country’s commitment to protecting the human rights of its people and will undermine public health, including efforts to fight HIV/AIDS. We will continue to urge the Ugandan government to repeal this abhorrent law and to advocate for the protection of the universal human rights of LGBT persons in Uganda and around the world.”

For more on the roots of Uganda’s anti-gay law, see Mac McClelland’s “The Love that Dares.”

Link to original:

Uganda’s President Signs Extreme Law That Has Led to Calls to Kill, Burn, and Beat Gays

Posted in Anchor, FF, GE, LAI, LG, ONA, PUR, Radius, Uncategorized, Venta | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | Comments Off on Uganda’s President Signs Extreme Law That Has Led to Calls to Kill, Burn, and Beat Gays

Teachers Striking in the Town Where Mother Jones Is Buried

by lqr8rg5rr Posted on December 11, 2013

Mother Jones

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

Mary Harris “Mother” Jones, after whom Mother Jones is named, was a prominent labor leader in the late 1800s and early 1900s. When her long life came to an end, Mother Jones—”grandmother of all agitators”—was buried in Mt. Olive, Illinois, alongside miners whose rights she fought for. This week, teachers in Mt. Olive are striking, too. Tuesday marked the second day of their strike for higher salaries and better benefits.

The Mt. Olive board of education offered the 39 teachers in the district a 2 percent increase in their salaries this year, as well as an increase of 2 percent per year during their last four years to help them prepare for retirement, according to the local Fox news station, KTVI. The teachers want a 4.5 percent pay hike now, and a 6 percent annual increase for their final four years. Teachers told KTVI that they agreed to forgo raises in their last contract in exchange for larger salary increases this time around, but the town didn’t keep its promise. “We feel that when you make a promise you need to keep it,” Marcia Schulte, a kindergarten teacher who runs the teachers’ union, told KTVI Monday. “That’s what we need to teach the kids.” She added that last year, the administration and support staff got a six percent raise, while teachers haven’t gotten a salary bump since 2009.

The teachers are also upset that the board wants to subject new hires to a different pay raise scale that would make their salaries increase more slowly. The teachers’ last contract expired in August, and ongoing union contract negotiations since then have left issues unresolved.

The school district superintendant Patrick Murphy told KTVI that reduced aid from the state and lower school enrollment means that the district has to shrink its budget.

All 39 teachers went on strike Monday morning. On Monday night, union members and administrators negotiated until 1:00 a.m., but no progress was made.

The teachers will not meet again with the administration until next week, and they’ll likely continue striking until then. Meanwhile, they have Mother Jones‘ words to keep them company. “Pray for the dead,” she was known to say, “and fight like hell for the living.”

Continue reading:  

Teachers Striking in the Town Where Mother Jones Is Buried

Posted in alo, FF, GE, LG, ONA, Uncategorized, Venta | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | Comments Off on Teachers Striking in the Town Where Mother Jones Is Buried

PETA’s Solution to Plan B Weight Limits? Go Vegan, Fatties

by SanfordTomlinso Posted on December 2, 2013

Mother Jones

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

Last week, when Mother Jones reported that some popular emergency contraceptive pills may not work in women weighing more than 176 pounds, many reporters and commentators immediately interpreted this as bad news for women who are “fat” or “obese.”

And it wasn’t just Rush Limbaugh making that assumption. Annie-Rose Strasser at ThinkProgress did the yeoman’s work of rounding up media coverage that said the news affected “overweight” or “obese” women and found that CNN, NPR, The Guardian, and The Examiner were all offenders.

Reporters are wrong to suggest that the limits of Plan B and similar emergency contraceptives affect only women who are overweight. The CEO of HRA Pharma, a French company that is changing the labels on its emergency contraceptive pills to warn women of weight limits, told Mother Jones that the pill’s efficacy is linked to weight—not body mass index, an obesity measure. In other words, the weight limit would equally affect a tall woman whose weight is in what doctors consider a healthy range and a shorter, overweight woman. Amanda Marcotte points out at RH Reality Check that a six-foot-plus woman who weighs 176 pounds will fall far short of fitting the medical definition of “obese.”

Yet on Monday, a major advocacy group seized on the notion that women who can’t effectively use Plan B are simply too fat. People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals launched a campaign Monday, pegged to Mother Jones‘s reporting, that encourages women to lose weight with vegan diets and “regain control over their reproductive lives.” In a press release, PETA announced that the program, “Plan V” will promote a vegan diet as a “Plan B lifeline for overweight women.”

Continue Reading »

See the article here: 

PETA’s Solution to Plan B Weight Limits? Go Vegan, Fatties

Posted in FF, GE, LG, ONA, Uncategorized, Venta | Tagged , , , , , , , , | Comments Off on PETA’s Solution to Plan B Weight Limits? Go Vegan, Fatties

Tax-Free Internet Sales May Finally Be a Thing of the Past

by MiltonREGwamjz Posted on December 2, 2013

Mother Jones

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

Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos announced on 60 Minutes last night that Amazon would someday make home deliveries via propeller-driven drones. Will this actually ever happen? I don’t know, but I suspect that Bezos doesn’t really care. Today, everyone is talking about Amazon drones, which means they’re talking about Amazon. Mission accomplished.

However, it turns out that today brings much more important news for online retailers. Tacocopters may make for amusing conversation, but sales taxes mean a lot more for the bottom line:

The Supreme Court on Monday declined to get involved in state efforts to force online retailers such as Amazon.com to collect sales tax from customers even in places where the companies do not have a physical presence….All but five states impose sales taxes, and an increasing number have passed legislation to force online retailers such as Overstock and eBay to begin collecting those taxes from customers.

….As is its custom, the court gave no explanation for turning down petitions from Amazon and Overstock.com to review a decision by New York’s highest court to uphold that state’s 2008 law requiring sales tax collections.

Seattle-based Amazon has no offices, distribution centers or workforce in New York. But the New York Court of Appeals said Amazon’s relationship with third-party affiliates in the state that receive commissions for sending Web traffic its way satisfied the “substantial nexus” necessary to force the company to collect taxes.

Happy Cyber Monday! As it happens, Amazon pretty much caved in on this issue a year ago, but this is still an important non-ruling. It almost certainly means that every other state will fairly quickly follow the lead of California and New York, and it means that every other online retailer will have to start collecting state sales taxes too.

At a guess, this might also spur Congress to pass national legislation governing online sales taxes. Republicans have resisted this since it would effectively raise taxes on consumers, but if that’s going to happen anyway then it might be worthwhile to at least harmonize the treatment of companies across all 50 states. It could even be a chance to put some modest limits on internet sales taxes, which might actually count as a tax reduction in Republican eyes. Who knows? But certainly national legislation has a slightly brighter outlook today than it did yesterday.

Source: 

Tax-Free Internet Sales May Finally Be a Thing of the Past

Posted in Cyber, FF, GE, LG, ONA, PUR, Uncategorized, Venta | Tagged , , , , , , , , | Comments Off on Tax-Free Internet Sales May Finally Be a Thing of the Past