I am very confused because this article appears on page B1 of my printed paper today.
So why the replay? Just fill up space instead of following up with something new, huh? I feel like a kid buying a package of baseball cards who just found a double in the same pack!
Incidentally, it is not in the web version.
I'll drink deeply this time even though it is slowing me down:
More than a decade after Massachusetts lawmakers passed sweeping legislation to reduce the amount of mercury released into the environment, state regulators have yet to enforce the law.
I'll bet when it was passed there was a big fanfare and photo-op with all of them smiling and telling you how great they are and how much they care so much about you!
I guess they are all too busy spewing greenhouse gases regarding the alleged climate change to care about mercury in the environment (or lead in the water, for that matter).
You know, when you have laws you don't enforce and laws you do enforce, that's tyranny. The arbitrary whim of the state to enforce this, not enforce that. That isn't democracy, freedom, or any of the myths you were taught about this state and country.
As a result, the manufacturers of millions of fluorescent light bulbs, one of the main sources of the toxic metal, have avoided millions of dollars in fees and fines, and little has been done to increase the state’s recycling rate for mercury, also found in batteries, automotive parts, and thermometers and thermostats.
I bring the stuff to the town dump and they tell me what shed to put it in.
????????
I'll bet those missing millions would have helped plug that half-billion budget hole, too.
The long delay has outraged lawmakers and environmental advocates, who say industry lobbyists have stymied the 2006 law. They also blame budget cuts at the Department of Environmental Protection, the agency charged with implementing the law, which has struggled with a growing workload and a significantly diminished staff.
That's odd because Baker has been stocking that agency with political cronies, as do all governors. The DEP, MBTA, and Probation office are famous for it (that's why Ma$$achu$etts has so many laws that are enforced). That's one reason among many as to why the state budget is a horrid me$$.
“It’s very distressing and disturbing that this has taken so long,” said state Senator Marc Pacheco, a Taunton Democrat and a chief proponent of the legislation. “I don’t remember a case where it has taken this long to get something done.”
The law, the Mercury Management Act, has languished since its passage. Three years ago, in a compromise designed to break the impasse, Pacheco sponsored a controversial amendment that reduced its financial burden on manufacturers of fluorescent bulbs — rescinding at least $5 million in fines levied against the industry and eliminating the requirement that they substantially increase recycling rates.
Instead, some 40 companies that sell the bulbs in Massachusetts would be required to pay $300,000 to the state each year through 2024 to promote mercury recycling. Environmental advocates criticized the changes as a giveaway to an industry that had fought the original law, but the amendment passed.
Still, state officials never issued the updated rules, leaving the law unenforced.
What a bunch of MFers, huh?
Lobbyists for the lightbulb industry acknowledge meeting with state officials to discuss the law, but they couldn’t explain the delay.
Officials in Governor Charlie Baker’s administration declined to be interviewed about why the regulations have not been issued and denied a Globe request for the latest draft regulations, saying they’re exempt from public records laws as “deliberative process materials.”
Pffft!
I'm surprised they didn't cite state security and terrorism.
In a written response, state officials said they expect to form a “stakeholder working group” this summer and issue draft regulations this year. It typically takes at least another six months after that for rules to take effect.
Delaying the recreational marijuana law was far more important to them, and now you know you will have another six months to wait once they figure out how they want to regulate it.
And how much mercury is going to leech into the groundwater during this time?
The delay has risks. Mercury enters the environment through coal-fired power plants and the burning of discarded products that contain mercury, in addition to fluorescent bulbs. From landfills and dumps, mercury can leach into groundwater.
And what does that do to fetus and kids? Aren't women warned off too much tuna because of mercury levels?
Over the years, state studies have found elevated mercury levels in lakes and ponds, making many freshwater fish unsafe to eat. Even minuscule amounts can cause serious health consequences for consumers of fish.
Oh, no, now I have to throw back my star-encouraged free catch!
Power plants, however, have cut emissions and manufacturers have reduced the amount of mercury in their products, so its levels have been declining. A 2014 state study found that mercury pollution in Massachusetts had dropped by around 90 percent since the 1990s.
The recycling of thermostats, for example, has increased since 2000, but thermostats represent a relatively small source of mercury.
OMFG!!!!!!
State officials say they have no way of tracking precisely how much mercury is being released into the environment, complicating their regulations.
But they know how much carbon is out there.
PFFFFFFFFFT!
As for why the mercury management program is delayed, “I don’t know what happened,” said Mark Kohorst, a spokesman for the National Electrical Manufacturers Association, which represents fluorescent bulb manufacturers. “When Baker took office, he set new priorities. I’m not sure why they haven’t gotten around to these particular regulations.”
He defended his group’s opposition to the initial mercury law, saying it relied on “unobtainable targets.”
“The whole thing was crazy, and the Legislature realized that,” Kohorst said. “The state realized that there was no accurate way to compute a recycling rate.”
Environmental advocates, however, have urged officials to emulate Maine and Vermont, which require manufacturers to offer consumers financial incentives for recycling and fine those that don’t meet specific targets.
They’ve also urged the state to rebuild the depleted staff at its environmental agencies. Over the past decade, as the Department of Environmental Protection shed nearly a third of its employees, enforcement actions for serious violations dropped by more than half.
(Blog editor just shakes head; this an excu$e for more patronage)
Among those who left the department in recent years was John Reinhardt, a senior official who until two years ago oversaw its mercury management program.
“There has been an enormous loss of experience,” he said.
You have to make way for new political cronies!
The 2006 law required the state to assign three agency staffers to oversee mercury management. But that never happened, and when he left in 2015, he was never replaced, he said.
So the STATE is in VIOLATION of the LAW?
So who is bringing the LAWSUIT, and WHY ARE WE OBLIGATED TO OBEY THEM??
Reinhardt attributed part of the delay to an executive order issued by Baker that required all state agencies to review their regulations to ensure they didn’t exceed federal mandates.
I'm sure Democrats had something to say about that at the weekend gathering, 'eh?
He and others at the agency submitted draft mercury regulations to their supervisors the month before Baker assumed office. The rules would have required companies to pay fees based on how many fluorescent bulbs they sold.
But nothing was done.
“The draft regulations went to the commissioner’s desk, and it was like they went into a black hole,” Reinhardt said.
State officials said Baker’s regulatory review hasn’t delayed the law from taking effect.
Kohorst, the industry lobbyist, said the manufacturers have done their best to educate contractors and consumers about the need to recycle products with mercury, but the responsibility for that ultimately falls to the state, he said.
Scott Cassel, chief executive of the Product Stewardship Institute, a consumer advocacy group in Boston, said the industry has saddled the state with the costs of curbing mercury pollution.
But that doesn’t excuse the state from enforcing the law already on the books, he and others said.
“It’s just ridiculous — egregious — that it has taken this long,” said Elizabeth Saunders, director for Clean Water Action in Massachusetts....
With all the chemicals in the water, who feels like getting outraged?
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At least Louisiana is putting tax money into healthy things.
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Now for the rest of the garbage:
Islamic State claims responsibility for the London attacks
Top right hand corner lead.
Inside you will find Confusion, panic, and heroism in the heart of London and After attack in Britain, Trump feuds with London’s mayor along with some flights out of Logan leading my Metro section. Sorry for tuning it all out, but I'm no longer devoting valuable time to these mind-f*** psyops and agenda-pushing pieces of staged propaganda. Until proven otherwise, they are all to be considered staged and scripted fictions or crisis drill false flags gone live. That's SOP procedure going forward, and an odd reversal of Murphy's Law.
Above-the fold lead feature:
"They’re restaurants on wheels, churning out everything from pan-seared dumplings to juicy porchetta sandwiches for the city’s hungry lunchtime crowds, but food trucks, which are proliferating at a rapid pace around Boston, are more likely to be temporarily shut down for serious health violations than their brick-and-mortar counterparts, a Boston Globe review of 2016 city health records found. A recent E. coli outbreak that shuttered several food trucks operated by the Chicken & Rice Guys has raised questions about whether these movable feasts are as safe as traditional restaurants....."
So how is your appetite now?
Related: Lunch Break
Also see: Oxford man sets record by eating 36 pepperoni rolls
Ah, the celebration of gluttony in the face of famine.
About lunch time now?
"Sunday’s polls could have a major impact on Cambodia’s political landscape ahead of the 2018 general election....."
Sorry. That was for later.
And as we enter the paper ($till holding that door) there is a strange stench that is vaguely familiar. I'm wondering why it is there at all (so where is he jetting to today, anyway?).
Related: Donald Trump; Paris Accord Withdrawal In the Hands of Next President
So all the pre$$ attention, smoke, sound, and fury regarding the last week was just what we thought it was.
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Speaking of stinkers, he's my A2 national lead. Going to be a tough climb for him to regain his reputation (wasn't Fat Albert from Philly and didn't Bill go to Temple?). Maybe that train has already left the station:
"A New York City plainclothes police officer managed to fire his service weapon even as he was being dragged by a driver in a stolen car for more than two city blocks, police said Sunday. In Laredo, Texas, police said three police officers were wounded by gunfire Saturday during a shootout with a murder suspect at a convenience store after the fatal shooting of his girlfriend....."
Related: Boston police remember the year’s lost officers
They will teach you how to handle a gun in Tennessee, and how ironic that a warship will be named after the poster-girl for gun control.
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"Iraq paramilitary troops take strategic town west of Mosul" Associated Press June 04, 2017
BAGHDAD — Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis. deputy head of Popular Mobilization Forces, said the advance is a significant achievement in the US-backed operation to retake Mosul, which was launched in October. The town, near the Syrian border, is considered one of the important supply lines for ISIS through Syria.
The Iran-backed PMF — an umbrella group of mostly Shi’ite militias also known as Hashed al-Shaabi in Arabic — has largely operated since October west of Mosul, trying to cut ISIS supply lines.
Islamic State militants are steadily losing territory to US-backed Iraqi forces in the battle for Mosul, the country’s second-largest city. The Sunni extremists are increasingly turning to insurgency-style terror attacks to distract attention from their losses.
Iraqi troops are pushing ISIS fighters out of their last strongholds. Iraqi commanders say the offensive, which recently entered its eight month, will mark the end of the Islamic State caliphate in Iraq, but concede the group will likely increase insurgent attacks in the wake of military defeats.....
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"Syrian troops pound Daraa after rebel attack" by Philip Issa Associated Press June 05, 2017
BEIRUT — Syrian government forces pounded parts of the southern city of Daraa with air strikes and artillery fire, activists reported Sunday, one day after rebels attacked government positions in the southern city.
Much of Daraa has been reduced to rubble and the two sides are exchanging fire through the shells of buildings, according to footage released by Syrian military media and the Al Qaeda-linked Abaa News Agency over the weekend.
Al-CIA-Duh has a New$ Agency that is considered credible?
Local opposition activist Ahmad al-Masalmeh recorded 90 missile and bomb strikes by government forces by the afternoon. Syrian military media footage showed clouds of smoke and dust rising over the city.
At least 31 fighters have been killed in the clashes since late Friday, with fatalities distributed nearly evenly between the two sides, according to the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitoring group.
The fighting has underscored the frailty of the ‘‘deescalation’’ agreement brokered by Russia, Turkey, and Iran one month ago. The three powers are supposed to guarantee cease-fires across four zones in Syria, including Daraa. Russia said it would delineate the four zones by Sunday, but no announcement was made.
Earlier in the weekend, rebels, including Al Qaeda-linked fighters, attacked government and allied positions in the city’s Manshiyeh district.
‘‘The regime sent 200 of its men to Manshiyeh yesterday. The fighters were afraid of an operation, so they attacked first,’’ Masalmeh said.
Applying the Bush Doctrine of Preemption, I see.
Casualties could not be independently verified, but a rebel operations room said several Hezbollah fighters had been killed. The Lebanese militant group has deployed thousands of its fighters to Syria in support of President Bashar Assad’s forces.
Elsewhere in Syria on Sunday, the US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces reported capturing a third dam from Islamic State militants on the Euphrates River in the north as they approached Raqqa, the de facto capital of ISIS.
The SDF said the group would launch its battle for Raqqa ‘‘within days.’’
The Kurdish-led group, which aims to establish an autonomous zone along the Turkish border, is an alliance of Kurdish and Arab fighters.
SDF commanders said they captured the Baath Dam on Sunday morning, renaming it Freedom Dam. The hydroelectric facility lies about 10 miles upstream of Raqqa, where Islamic State’s operations in Syria are based.
Spokesman for the Kurdish YPG militia, a unit of the SDF, said fighters were searching nearby villages for mines and shoring up their defensive lines.
The SDF now hold all three major dams along the Euphrates, after gaining control of Syria’s largest dam last month.
With air strikes and help from special forces of the US-led coalition, the SDF have been encircling Raqqa, which Islamic State has used a center for planning attacks abroad.
The operation to storm the city will start in a few days, the group said on Saturday. The Raqqa assault would further undermine the militant group’s self-declared caliphate, as it faces defeat in Mosul, Iraq.
Just time enough for the U.S.-created, funded, and directed terrorists to get out of town and live to fight another day somewhere else.
ISIS still controls parts of Syria’s eastern desert and most of Deir al-Zour province.....
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"Abbas halts monthly stipends for Hamas ex-inmates" by Fares Akram Associated Press June 05, 2017
GAZA CITY — Dozens of Hamas activists once imprisoned by Israel did not receive their support payments this month from the group’s political rival, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, a Gaza-based official said Sunday.
Abbas is under pressure from the United States and Israel to halt monthly payments to thousands of current and former prisoners who were held for actions linked to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Israel claims the stipends encourage terrorism, while Palestinians say they are welfare payments.
By now even the Palestinians have seen that Abbas is nothing but a Zionist agent, and the view is reflected in his poll numbers.
It was not clear whether the missing money transfers meant Abbas decided to stop the payments to some of the formerprisoners. A spokesman for his West Bank-based autonomy government was not immediately available for comment Sunday.
In the past, Abbas was reluctant to halt the payments, fearing a popular backlash. Support for prisoners is a Palestinian consensus issue, despite the political split between Hamas, which rules the Gaza Strip, and the West Bank-based government of Abbas’s Fatah movement.
You know, after the hunger strike ended the Globe never fed me another meal.
Abdelrahman Shadid, who runs a Hamas-linked prisoner advocacy group in Gaza, said dozens of former prisoners from Hamas had not received their salaries as scheduled.
‘‘The prisoners went to the banks today and found no salaries in their accounts,’’ he said. ‘‘We are waiting to hear from the bank officially tomorrow to see if this is a salary stop.’’
Shadid said those affected had been released in 2011 when Hamas traded an Israeli soldier for more than 1,000 prisoners held by Israel. Among those who didn’t receive their stipends was only one from Fatah, and the rest were from Hamas, Shadid said.
Israel has imprisoned hundreds of thousands of Palestinians at one time or another since it captured the West Bank, Gaza Strip, and East Jerusalem in the 1967 Mideast war.
Truthfully, though, there is more of focus on AmeriKan torture in my Zionist War Daily, if there is any at all.
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Meanwhile, what is going on in Manila stinks to high heaven!
"Manila casino attacker was a gambling addict, police say" by Richard C. Paddock New York Times June 05, 2017
MANILA — The man who set fire to a Manila casino last week, killing 37 people, was not a terrorist but a heavy gambler who was deep in debt and had lost his job, police and relatives of the man said Sunday.
The man, identified as Jessie Carlos, 42, was a Filipino, a father of three, and a former employee of the Philippines Department of Finance who was banned in April from entering casinos, at his family’s request, because of his gambling addiction, authorities said.
I am surprised the ma$$ media isn't blaming Trump.
“As we always maintained, this was not an act of terrorism,” a police spokesman, Oscar Albayalde, said at a news conference.
The Islamic State claimed responsibility for the Friday attack at Resorts World Manila, in which dozens died of smoke inhalation.
To which statement are they referring there?
But President Rodrigo Duterte and Philippine police officials denied that, saying the motive had been robbery. They noted that the attacker, though armed with an assault rifle, had not attempted to cause maximum casualties by firing at fleeing casino patrons.
Family members of Carlos also attended the news conference , where they asked the victims’ relatives for forgiveness.
“My son was a good person, but changed after he started going to casinos,” his mother, Teodora Carlos, said tearfully.
Oh. So glad the state legislooters legalized those money-laundering dens of organized crime.
Police identified Carlos as the man seen in security videos of the attack, setting fires in the casino’s gaming rooms and stealing more than $2 million worth of gambling chips. The videos were made public Saturday, but the assailant had not then been identified.
Nearly all of the 37 people who were killed had taken refuge in a small room in the VIP section of the casino and died from smoke inhalation, Albayalde said. More than 70 others were injured as 1,200 customers and employees fled the hotel in panic.
If so, that is a tragic consequence of this mind-f*** psyop but I'm sure it means nothing to the psychopathic globe-kickers arranging all this.
After Carlos was wounded in an exchange of gunfire with security guards, he broke into a hotel room on the fifth floor, set fire to the room and shot himself, police said.
Dead men tell no tales.
Investigators discovered Carlos’ identity early Sunday, after interviewing the taxi driver who had picked him up near his home and driven him to the casino.
Albayalde said Carlos had lost his job at the Finance Ministry for not disclosing required financial information. He owed more than $80,000, Albayalde said. He said Carlos was estranged from his family.
Albayalde described Carlos as mentally unstable. “You are no longer in your right mind when you are addicted,” he said.
Exempt greed for money from that equation, thank you.
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As for Venezuela, a nation engulfed in violent political protests and economic chaos..... you might have missed that.
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"His status as Beacon Hill insider ultimately helped him beat out a female finalist with a more diverse cultural background and a stronger academic portfolio....."
Now you know where the Globe stands on the debate.
Did you see who cares so much for the kids? Yup, none other than Larry Summers, wow.
So to what prep school did he go?
"Several dozen members of the African-American and Hispanic student group staged a sit-in at the principal’s office Thursday, after a hastily called school assembly by administrators earlier in the day failed to address the students’ concerns. Last week’s protests at Exeter are the most recent instances of racial concerns at schools in New England; last month, Milton Academy students staged sit-ins to protest what students describe as racism. The protests at Exeter come at the end of a school year in which administrators disclosed that credible allegations of sexual misconduct had been made against four former staff members....."
Maybe you would like to take a peek?
Also see:
Urban College graduates follow non-traditional path to success
Rally for refugees slated Tuesday in Brookline
At the Temple Sinai.
Any other great ideas?
Suspect arrested in Chinatown murder
Looks like they have been outfoxed.
1 man dead, 2 injured in Springfield nightclub shooting
3 arrested after shots fired at Rhode Island home
31-year-old in critical condition after Saturday night shooting in Providence
Man dies after crashing into telephone pole while fleeing police in Haverhill
Police investigate theft of 250-pound anvil from garden
None of my bu$ine$$.
"GM is making a big wager, shedding overseas operations while investing $600 million this year in self-driving cars and other advanced technologies. It spent $1 billion on Cruise Automation, a startup that developed the driverless technology powering Barra’s ride in San Francisco. It is a perilous challenge — balancing the demands of a global auto business with an aggressive push into expensive high-tech models — that has already claimed victims. Last month, Ford Motor ousted its CEO, Mark Fields, aiming to send a signal that it could keep pace, but GM is making a case that it can be a leader in the auto industry of both today and tomorrow....."
The challenge will be to make a car doesn't stall out in the middle of travel.
"The world economy will pick up speed this year and next, helped by steadier commodity prices and a pickup in global trade, the World Bank predicts.....
Just ignore what is going on in England and Bain.
Americans spent a record amount on diamonds last year that helped offset contractions in China and India. The United States has been a bright spot for the industry as wage growth, job creation, and a strong stock market help boost consumption...."
That's odd because I was told Tiffany had a horrible holiday $ea$on.
Yeah, it's gone beyond mixed messages to outright dog$h**.
"Wonder Woman" conquered milestones and movie myths at North American theaters, where the Patty Jenkins-directed superhero film powered its way to a $100.5 million debut this weekend and became the biggest blockbuster ever directed by a woman. Starring Gal Gadot as the Amazonian warrior princess, "Wonder Woman" is the rare — and most successful — female-led film in an overwhelmingly male superhero landscape. Last week's top film, "Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales," slid dramatically to $21.6 million in its second week. It landed in third place, behind Fox's "Captain Underpants: The First Epic Movie," which opened with $23.5 million...."
Just something I picked up at the jewelry store, and the Globe had no comment(?).
That means Pirates dropped more than 50%, doesn't it?
UPDATES: Five people killed in shooting at Orlando business
Been a cool and wet June so far, and did you see who will be filling her bosom full of tax loot?
