"Tainted bottled water is being sold at supermarkets throughout New England" by David Abel Globe Staff, July 29, 2019
Nearly a month after spring water from a Haverhill company was found tainted with toxic chemicals, its gallon-sized jugs are still stocked on supermarket shelves across New England, despite a health advisory from state health officials that pregnant women, nursing mothers, and infants should not consume the water.
Last month, as officials in New Hampshire were completing new standards to reduce exposure to per- and polyfluoroalkyl chemicals, part of a national push to tighten their regulation, they decided to conduct a random sampling of bottled water sold at supermarkets in the state, something rarely done.
The results showed that water from Spring Hill Farm Dairy in Haverhill had sharply elevated levels of the human-made chemicals, known as PFAS, which have been linked to kidney cancer, low-infant birth weight, and a range of diseases.
Some chemicals were found at levels four times higher than New Hampshire’s new standards for safe drinking water.
That water has been sold for years, under different in-house brand names, at Whole Foods, CVS, Stop & Shop, Market Basket, Roche Brothers, and elsewhere . It has also been sold by Cumberland Farms and Garelick Farms. Most of the brands cite the farm on their labels.
Gee, they were poisoning us over there.
After the New Hampshire Department of Environmental Services alerted their counterparts in Massachusetts to the elevated concentrations, the Massachusetts Department of Public Health issued a “consumption advisory” earlier this month on its website, alerting pregnant women, nursing mothers, and infants not to drink or cook with the company’s water, but health officials didn’t require the stores to warn their customers or issue a recall for the water, although some have done so voluntarily.
“Given our new health-based standards for drinking water, we wouldn’t recommend that anyone in the public drink this water,” said Jim Martin, a spokesman for the New Hampshire Department of Environmental Services.
Officials at Spring Hill Farm defended their decision to continue selling their water.
“There is no reason to do a recall,” said Nancy Sterling, a company spokeswoman, noting that there’s no such legal requirement. She also emphasized that the chemical levels in the water were within federal guidelines.
PFAS, called “forever chemicals” because they never fully degrade, were developed in the 1930s as nonstick and waterproof coatings and have since been used in products such as flame retardants, pans, pizza boxes, clothing, and furniture.
Ground-water wells on military installations have been shown to contain high levels of the chemicals, often as a result of a firefighting foam used on the bases. In Massachusetts, the chemicals have been found in levels that exceed federal guidelines in public water supplies in Ayer, Barnstable, Mashpee, and Westfield.
That means the fireman are getting ill.
The chemicals have also been found in the public water supplies in Danvers, Harvard, and Hudson, but more than half of the state’s municipalities have not had their drinking water tested for the chemicals, according to data from the state Department of Environmental Protection. Many more private wells have not been sampled, and until New Hampshire conducted its recent tests, there has been little to no government sampling for PFAS in bottled water, which has fewer testing requirements than public water supplies.
“People think that if a product is on the shelves, it’s safe. That is simply not true,” said Kyla Bennett, director of Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility in New England and a former EPA scientist. “In this country, toxic chemicals are treated like people who have committed crimes: innocent until proven guilty.”
The lobbying loot is a good mix for chemical companies, and what this report shows is authority, regulators, and government care more about commerce than they do your health or the environment. It's an underplayed issue, in favor of preconceived and contrived agendas.
She urged Massachusetts and other states to require that bottled water companies test for PFAS and disclose the results on their labels. Bottled water is now mainly regulated by the Food and Drug Administration, which doesn’t mandate that companies test for the chemicals.
“Until Massachusetts comes up with a protective regulatory standard, there really isn’t anything else that can be done,” Bennett said.
Federal and state environmental officials have been considering whether to adopt stricter limits for PFAS compounds. Massachusetts now requires that new public water supplies be tested for six PFAS chemicals before they’re connected to residents’ homes, but a state survey last year of the 181 state-permitted bottled water companies that sell their products in Massachusetts found that just three are testing for the chemicals.
While the toxins found at Spring Hill Farm were far higher than New Hampshire regulations now allow for the two most common PFAS chemicals, Massachusetts public health officials noted that they remain within current acceptable levels in the Bay State.
“Although test results did not indicate an acute threat to public health, DPH issued the advisory out of an abundance of caution,” said Ann Scales, a spokeswoman for the Department of Public Health. “Once tests confirm that PFAS has been reduced or removed, DPH will remove the consumption advisory for this label.”
In New Hampshire, officials said they have no legal basis to compel a recall or demand their supermarkets alert their customers.
“We don’t have that authority,” Martin said.
You are thirsting and they are arguing legal semantics.
Officials at Spring Hill Farm, which last week installed a new filtration system in an effort to eliminate the chemicals, initially said that the cause of the contamination was likely external, such as machinery. They later said that chemicals were found at the water’s source, even as they continued to distribute the water.
Okay. Now the question is, what is poisoning the aquifer?
Any fracking going on over there?
Sterling, the company’s spokeswoman, said the farm spent $100,000 on the filtration system “because they want their customers to have the best possible product.”
She said the FDA has tested the company’s water and it has “met all the standards.” FDA officials did not respond to messages seeking comment. New Hampshire’s new rules are far more stringent than the federal guidelines.
Sterling said the company has alerted its customers to the contamination and noted that the Massachusetts advisory is “only for women who are pregnant or lactating or infants,” but scientists and public health advocates say the chemicals pose a broader risk.
They base this on a study published last year where Harvard and the EPA reached that conclusion.
Officials at Market Basket, which labels the bottles Market Basket Spring Water, said they have removed the company’s water from its shelves but are open to selling its newly filtered water.
“Market Basket has been monitoring the situation,” said Justine Griffin, a company spokeswoman.
CVS has halted shipments of water from Spring Hill Farm, which it has sold under the label “Ice Canyon,” but the water remains on the shelves at other supermarkets, including Stop & Shop and Whole Foods. Whole Foods officials declined to comment.
At Stop & Shop, which sells the water from Spring Hill under the Acadia label, officials said they take the issue “very seriously.”
“We know our customers expect clean, safe products,” said Jennifer Brogan, a spokeswoman, but the water, which has an expiration date good for another two years, remains stocked on their shelves.....
Those damn unions, but at least they have eliminated plastic bags in Connecticut along with lots of jobs at the local after the strike.
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The worst part is it gives you the shits something fierce.
Related:
"The manmade chemicals, known as PFAS, are widespread and have been used for decades in products such as flame retardants, pans, pizza boxes, clothing, and furniture, but research in recent years has shown that the per- and polyfluoroalkyl chemicals are dangerous at very low concentrations. They have been linked to testicular and other cancers, low-infant birth weight, and a range of diseases....."
But it is carbon and climate change that is the greatest environmental threat.
Related:
"In 2014, three Israeli artillery shells slammed into a UN school in Gaza crowded with some 3,300 people; the shells, which Israel said came in response to mortar fire nearby, killed 17 people," and there is still grief and a demand for justice for the child of Gaza and Flint.
"After distributing contaminated water, Haverhill company decides to close water operations" by David Abel Globe Staff, August 2, 2019
A Haverhill company announced Friday that it is closing down its water operations, more than a month after its spring water was found to have been tainted with toxic chemicals.
The decision came after state officials said that Spring Hill Dairy Farm was removing all of its gallon-sized jugs and other bottled water from supermarket shelves across Massachusetts. The water has been sold for years throughout New England, under different in-house brand names, at Whole Foods, CVS, Stop & Shop, Market Basket, Roche Brothers, and elsewhere.
The water, which was found to have elevated levels of per- and polyfluoroalkyl chemicals, known as PFAS, led the state Department of Public Health to issue a health advisory earlier this month that warned pregnant women, nursing mothers, and infants not to drink or cook with the water.
PFAS, also known as “forever chemicals,” have been linked to kidney cancer, low-infant birth weights, and a range of diseases.
“The deluge of unwarranted attention on our company, when PFAS is clearly a national problem with thousands of contributors, has made it impossible for us to keep operating,” Harold Rogers, one of the owners of the company, wrote in a letter to his customers Friday. “There have been many challenges over the years to doing business in Massachusetts. This past month has convinced us that, for our company, the negatives have come to outweigh the positives.”
Kind of spit in their face, didn't he?
The decision comes just days after the Globe reported that the water remained on supermarket shelves across New England despite the state health advisory. The advisory was issued after New Hampshire regulators discovered that the 117-year-old company’s water had been found to exceed the state’s new standards for the human-made chemicals.
Company officials insisted that the company is not recalling the water. In a statement that remained on its website Friday afternoon, the company officials wrote: “All bottles on shelves are in full compliance with current state and federal regulations. The advisory applies only to pregnant and lactating women and infants. If state or federal regulators believed there was a danger to the general public then they would not have issued an advisory which applies only to a very small segment of the population,” but Ann Scales, a spokeswoman for the Department of Public Health, said agency officials are “pleased the company is working with its customers to remove the products from store shelves.”
The company has “confirmed to the Department of Public Health that all products produced prior to July 22 have been voluntarily pulled from store shelves in Massachusetts and that products produced after July 22 . . . have been or are in the process of being removed from shelves,” she said in a statement.
The company installed a new filtration system that day, she said.
Can they write that off?
Neither the state nor the federal government has any laws or rules that compel a bottler to recall water that exceeds health standards for PFAS. Public health officials in Massachusetts, who said they had issued the health advisory “out of an abundance of caution,” said there was nothing the state could do to compel a recall.
It's second on the list of life's necessities, and I know I read somewhere that managing water is the government’s “most important policy challenge,” and yet Ma$$achu$etts fails yet again.
The Environmental Protection Agency has no legally binding regulations on PFAS chemicals, but it recommends that municipalities alert the public if the two most common PFAS chemicals reach 70 parts per trillion. Massachusetts uses the same limit for five of the chemicals. One part per trillion is about as much as a grain of sand in an Olympic-size swimming pool.
Are you sure it isn't radioactive?
Both the EPA and Massachusetts are considering making those limits more stringent, and scientists and public health advocates say the chemicals pose a broad risk in even small amounts.
WOW!
In a study published last year, Harvard University researchers concluded that children should not consume water with concentrations of the chemicals greater than 1 part per trillion, calling the health risks “greatly underestimated.”
New Hampshire’s new rules advise residents not to drink water that exceeds 15 parts per trillion for one of the most common PFAS chemicals, and 12 for another.
Parts per trillion? How do you measure that?
New Hampshire found that concentrations of those chemicals exceeded 19 and 49 parts per trillion, respectively, in the water from Spring Hill. The total amount of PFAS in some of the bottled water exceeded 137 parts per trillion.
Also Friday, authorities in Vermont’s Department of Environmental Conservation told the Associated Press that they were working with Spring Hill and its distributors to ensure the water is removed from Vermont stores.
Where are they going to dump it because..... you know.
“The company is out of business and no longer shipping water anywhere,” said Avigail Kosowsky, a company spokeswoman.
Public health advocates had urged the company to remove the water from shelves and called on the states to do more to alert the public about the tainted water.
“This illustrates yet another negative impact of the production and use of PFAS in diverse products with a myriad of unintended consequences,” said Elsie M. Sunderland, a professor of environmental chemistry at Harvard.
Look at them dancing around where the PFAs come from, products that have been around for years.
Company officials initially said that the cause of the contamination was probably external, such as machinery. They later said that chemicals were found at the water’s source, even as they continued to distribute the water.
They also said the Food and Drug Administration, which regulates bottled water, had inspected the plant and found that Spring Hill had “met all the standards.” Nancy Sterling, another spokeswoman for Spring Hill, later said that the FDA did not test the water.
In his letter to customers, Rogers blamed the media, as well as changing government regulations, for his decision to close.
“The continued adverse media focusing on you, our customers, as well as fluctuations in regulations and levels among different states and the federal government, and more to come in the future, is of concern to our very small business,” he wrote. “For these reasons, we didn’t want to cause you any more uncertainty or undue attention and shall close our business.”
Rogers said he informed his more than 30 employees of the company’s decision to close.
So that is how many the Globe put out of work.
“It was with great sadness and a heavy heart,” he said.
Sterling, a spokeswoman for the company, said that only the water operations will be shutting down. “The family farming operation will continue,’’ she said.
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The Globe hasn't taken a sip since, and what is that stench coming from the river?
"Bill would form state panel to study, make plan to clean up sewage in Merrimack River" by Alyssa Lukpat Globe Correspondent, August 6, 2019
Massachusetts officials are working to assemble a commission to study the health of the polluted Merrimack River and come up with a plan to clean the water, state Senator Diana DiZoglio said.
The Merrimack River, which flows from Franklin, N.H., to Newburyport, is polluted with millions of gallons of sewage. About 500,000 people in Massachusetts get their drinking water from the river, according to the United States Environmental Protection Agency.
Your literally drinking shit, but it is the bottled water on the shelves with its parts per trillion that is the problem!
Is it even safe to drink bottled water, because that is what they give you when the water is bad!
“We have families who are going out, especially during summer months, to enjoy the Merrimack River,” DiZoglio said. “We need to make sure families are protected and aware of sewage running into the river. They do not know before they go into [the] water, and that’s really unacceptable.”
The river has been dirtied by combined sewer overflows for years, DiZoglio said. During heavy rainstorms, sewers overflow with rainwater and flow into the Merrimack.
Now you know why there are dead fish in the river.
A bill, cosponsored by Methuen’s DiZoglio, would assemble a Merrimack River District Commission to study the health of the river and propose guidelines to clean up the 117-mile-long river, DiZoglio said. The committee would have one year, beginning in January 2020, to make recommendations to clean the river. “The commission will examine the overall state of health of the Merrimack and examine ways to improve and restore the water quality,” DiZoglio said.
Meanwhile, the sewage rises past your nose and mouth (I wonder how many parts per trillion is the sewage).
The 15-person commission, which would include state officials and environmentalists, would meet about once a month, the state senator said. The bill would also establish an advisory panel of local officials.
Will they, or will they just skip the meetings?
“We are going to have discussions with all local stakeholders, all the way from New Hampshire to Newburyport,” DiZoglio said. “The goal is to highlight the overall impact of the Merrimack River on our region and the vitality and economic sustainability of our region.”
The Massachusetts Senate passed the bill Monday. It will be made law if approved by Governor Charlie Baker and the Massachusetts House. The governor allocated $50,000 to fund the commission, said Nicholas Pangakis, a legislative aide and policy adviser in DiZoglio’s office.
Five cities get their drinking water from the river: Lowell, Methuen, Andover, Tewksbury, and Lawrence, according to the EPA. Methuen extensively purifies its water because of the pollution in the river, Methuen Mayor James P. Jajuga said.
“I think it would go a long way for consumers to know that they’re drinking without having to go through a process. It’s a quality of life issue that I think would have a beneficial impact on not only Methuen, but the entire region,” Jajuga said.
It sure is, and a health issue, too!
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I swear to God, the American people are slowly being turned into Palestinians by our para$itic Jewish controllers.
Hey, at least you have a weather app that alerts you when it’s about to rain. Had they had one at Woodstock it would have put out the fire.
"Flooded Mississippi River a threat as hurricane season heats up" by Jeff Martin and Janet McConnaughey Associated Press, August 14, 2019
NEW ORLEANS — The river that drains much of the flood-soaked United States is still running higher than normal, menacing New Orleans in multiple ways just as the hurricane season intensifies.
For months now, a massive volume of water has been pushing against the levees keeping a city mostly below sea level from being inundated. The Mississippi River ran past New Orleans at more than 11 feet above sea level for a record 292 days, dropping below that height only Monday.
I wonder what the water levels do to the sewage, and what we have here is the tail-end coverage of the record spring flooding due to record snowfall and cold in the Midwest. Much of the farm belt has been underwater during the growing season, and its just now finally dropping. It is one of the great underreported stories of the year. Again, real problems and concerns are subordinate and submerged in favor of contrived agendas pushed for $elf-$erving rea$ons.
‘‘That ultimately could undermine the levee as well and cause a breach or a failure,’’ said Cassandra Rutherford, assistant professor of geotechnical engineering at Iowa State University.
The federal agency that maintains the levees is aware of the risks, but Ricky Boyett, spokesman for the New Orleans office of the US Army Corps of Engineers, said the corps is confident that South Louisiana river levees are in great condition, with improvements made since 2011.
‘‘If there’s a silver lining going into hurricane season with the river this high for this long, we’re entering the hurricane season having done 200 inspections of the levee since February,’’ Boyett said.
Inspectors were looking for parked barges, stuck debris, or other potential trouble, such as tire ruts or damage from feral hogs on grassy surfaces. They also looked for water seeping through, and for sand boils — spots where water tunneling below a levee seems to bubble out of the ground.
Concrete mats armor underwater areas likely to be eaten away by the river’s current, Boyett said. Sand boils get ringed with sandbags until the water pressure on both sides equalizes, stopping the flow, and because some permanent repairs can’t be made during high water, dangerous seepage gets stopgap coverage: About 63,000 large sandbags have been used since March on one 300-foot-long seepage area upriver of Baton Rouge, he said.
Even so, experts who study flowing water say there’s a risk the river could rise above the tops of some levees in the New Orleans area, if a hurricane pushes enough storm surge up the swollen river. The city’s levees held the river back in the great flood of 1927 and haven’t been topped since then, Boyett said.
A Category 4 hurricane striking the Louisiana coastline can produce a 20-foot storm surge, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration says; however, that surge’s size at New Orleans, more than 100 winding river miles up from the coast, would be reduced by the Big Muddy’s push seaward.....
They have a ‘‘really heightened concern this year,’’ regarding another Katrina!
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Good thing the water is receding:
"A quarter of world’s population faces extreme stress as water supplies ebb, study says" by Somini Sengupta and Weiyi Cai New York Times, August 6, 2019
BANGALORE, India — Countries that are home to one-fourth of Earth’s population face an increasingly urgent risk: the prospect of running out of water.
From India to Iran to Botswana, 17 countries are currently under extreme stress, meaning they are using almost all of the water they have, according to World Resources Institute data published Tuesday.
Many are arid countries to begin with. Some are squandering what water they have. Several are relying too heavily on groundwater, which they should be replenishing and saving for times of drought.
And what water is there is full of poisons.
In those countries are several big, thirsty cities that have faced acute shortages recently, including São Paulo; Chennai, India; and Cape Town, which in 2018 narrowly beat what it called Day Zero — the day when all its dams would be dry.
“We’re likely to see more of these Day Zeros in the future,” said Betsy Otto, who directs the global water program at the World Resources Institute. “The picture is alarming in many places around the world.”
Climate change heightens the risk. As rainfall becomes more erratic, the water supply becomes less reliable. At the same time, as the days grow hotter, more water evaporates from reservoirs, just as the demand for water increases.
Good thing a lot of places have had wet springs and summers, huh?
Water-stressed places are sometimes cursed by two extremes. São Paulo was ravaged by floods a year after its taps nearly ran dry. Chennai suffered fatal floods four years ago, but now its reservoirs are almost empty.
Mexico City is drawing groundwater so fast that the city is literally sinking. Dhaka, Bangladesh, relies so heavily on groundwater for both its residents and its water-guzzling garment factories that it now draws water from aquifers hundreds of feet deep. Chennai’s thirsty residents, accustomed to relying on groundwater for years, are finding there’s none left. Across India and Pakistan, farmers are draining aquifers to grow water-intensive crops like cotton and rice.
It's funny they should mention them because for the second day in a row, no article regarding Kashmir, and no mention of the low-yield GMOs being forced on them, either.
Today, among cities with more than 3 million people, 33 of them, with a combined population of over 255 million, face extremely high water stress, the institute’s researchers concluded, with repercussions for public health and social unrest.
The stakes are high. When a city or a country is using nearly all of the water available, a bad drought can be catastrophic. After a three-year drought, Cape Town in 2018 took extraordinary measures to ration what little it had left in its reservoirs. That crisis only magnified a chronic challenge: Cape Town’s 4 million residents compete with farmers for limited water.
Likewise, Los Angeles. Its most recent drought ended this year, but its water supply isn’t keeping pace with galloping demand — and its penchant for backyard swimming pools doesn’t help.
Well, that means no fires this year, and watch how quickly my pre$$ gets out of the pool and towels off!
For Bangalore, a couple of years of paltry rains revealed how badly the city has managed its water. The many lakes that once dotted the city and surrounding areas have been built over or filled with the city’s waste. They can no longer be the rainwater storage tanks they once were, and so the city must venture farther and farther away to draw water for its 8.4 million residents, and much of it is wasted along the way.
Maybe they should collect their own.
A lot can be done to improve water management, though. First, city officials can plug leaks in water distribution systems. Wastewater can be recycled. Rain can be harvested and saved for lean times. Lakes and wetlands can be cleaned up, and old wells restored, and farmers can switch from water-intensive crops, like rice, to less-thirsty crops like millet.
“Water is a local problem and it needs local solutions,” said Priyanka Jamwal, a fellow at the Ashoka Trust for Research in Ecology and the Environment in Bangalore.....
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Okay, New York Times, thanks.
Back to promoting the wars now, right?
I wonder what they have done to the water supply in some of those nations.
Also see: Water quality woes are common at Mass. beaches, new report says
Oh, yeah, the oceans are polluted, too.
Good thing state is looking after the kids:
"Child deaths under state’s watch fall, but new data raise more questions" by Kay Lazar Globe Staff, July 29, 2019
The number of children dying while under the state’s watch has fallen to its lowest level in the past five years, according to new data from the Baker administration, but child advocates say the information raises as many questions as it answers.
It's a damage control pre$$ release!
The new numbers — released in response to a request from the Globe after three deaths — show 34 children died in the past fiscal year, from July 2018 through June, down from 48 the previous year, and 52 in 2015, but beyond that, the Department of Children and Families, which has faced criticism from advocates for a lack of transparency, could provide few details, including how many of the 34 died as a result of neglect or abuse. The department said it is still reviewing that data.
Why are any children dying in state custody?
The department did say that eight of the children who died were in state custody, which typically means they were in foster care or a group home, but it was unable to say how that number compared with years past.
Without more details, advocates said, it’s unclear how to interpret the decline in the number of child deaths after increases the past two years.....
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I'm having a deja vu as lawmakers seek to bolster child health services:
Massachusetts House Speaker Robert DeLeo.(Elise Amendola/AP)
"State watchdog seeks to simplify complex health care system — and save money" by Priyanka Dayal McCluskey Globe Staff, July 29, 2019
The tedious administration of health care — the paperwork, the phone calls, the clunky computer systems — costs billions of dollars annually in Massachusetts alone.
It would be better if they didn't have to do it all.
So tedious taking care of you, citizen, in that I'm told is the greatest state in the greatest country in the world.
What is with the insulting elitist assholes who write for the Globe?
That complexity is now the focus of a state watchdog agency. The Massachusetts Health Policy Commission is studying the state’s labyrinthine system of doctors, hospitals, government agencies, and insurance companies to devise recommendations for slashing costs.
This as they hand out how much more corporate welfare to Hollywood, et al?
Another commission to study things, huh, and what makes you think this state watchdog -- ha, ha, ha, ha -- is any different than the RMV, MBTA, DCF, our any other political patronage program in this state?
The repercussions extend far beyond the back office: In addition to raising costs, administrative complexity can contribute to workplace burnout and frustrate or even disrupt care for patients.
Single payer! Single payer!
That will clear a lot of it up!
“We’re really focused on the administrative processes . . . that ultimately do not provide value to the patients,” said David Seltz, executive director of the commission, which monitors health care spending.
It's called $pinning wheels. Everybody knows what is the problem.
“The goal in trying to reduce this administrative expense is that we free up resources at these institutions so that they can reinvest into better patient care,” he said.
Or hand out administrative bonuses.
The effort — expected to continue for at least several months — is not without controversy. Not all factions of the state’s big health care industry agree on what counts as administrative complexity or waste, and even when they acknowledge problems, change can be slow.....
It's called a waiting room, while Dr. Maryanne C. Bombaugh, president of the Massachusetts Medical Society, and Dr. Ashish Jha, a professor at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health and author of the JAMA study, said “I bet no one is going to be completely thrilled with it, but it will move the ball forward. We should be lowering spending.”
Looks like rationing to me.
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Related:
"With an eye on improving and expanding health care services offered in rural and otherwise underserved areas, a commission established in this year’s state budget will dive into issues surrounding the licensing process for medical professionals trained in other countries. One of the more than 100 outside sections in the $43.3 billion budget Governor Charlie Baker signed into law on Wednesday creates a 23-member commission of government and health care officials, giving them just under two years to report on “strategies to integrate foreign-trained medical professionals into rural and underserved areas in need of medical services.” The commission’s recommendations and any proposed legislation to carry them out are due to be filed with the Legislature by July 1, 2021. The panel will be specifically tasked with making recommendations around licensing regulations that may pose “unnecessary barriers to practice” for foreign professionals; changes to the state’s licensing requirements; and opportunities to advocate for corresponding changes at the national level (SHNS)."
At least there is hope at the synagogue!
Look, up in the sky:
"22 communities at high risk from mosquito-borne virus; Mass. to spray insecticide" by Maria Lovato Globe Correspondent, August 6, 2019
The danger of Eastern equine encephalitis being spread by mosquitoes in a section of Southeastern Massachusetts has risen to a level that will require aerial insecticide spraying this week.
Really?
The state Department of Public Health has designated 20 communities as high risk. Spraying will occur in targeted areas in Bristol and Plymouth counties beginning Thursday, authorities said. EEE has been found in 164 samples this year, about half from species of mosquito capable of spreading the virus to people.
No human or animal cases of EEE have been detected so far in Massachusetts this year. The last human case in the state occurred in 2013.
OMG!
No cases in the last six years, but they need to spray!
This is providing cover for what they are really doing; either that, or they need to dump chemicals so the companies can make more.
I sure hope none of it is going into the water supply!
Here is what you need to know about Eastern equine encephalitis.
Yeah, the pre$$ is going to tell us what we need to know.
PFFFFFT!
What is EEE?
It is a serious and potentially fatal disease that can be spread from mosquitoes to other animals and humans. Those under the age of 15 are particularly at risk, according to the Department of Public Health.
The virus is rare, and the last case of a human infection in Massachusetts was in 2013, officials said. During the last two outbreaks, the first from 2004 to 2006 and the second from 2010 to 2012, 22 humans were infected.
Anybody die, because we are agin looking at a mountain being made out of a molehill while mountains are ignored.
However, a high risk of the occurrence of human cases is present this year, the Department of Public Health said. This is because there are an abundance of infected mammal-biting mosquitoes, and environmental conditions are optimal for mosquito breeding.
State officials say the month of August is when the chance of infection from the virus peaks.
What will the spraying involve?
The insecticide Anvil 10+10 will be sprayed from an airplane for several days from dusk until midnight, officials said.
Anvil 10+10 is made from sumithrin, a chemical that is used to kill mosquitoes and rapidly decomposes and deactivates when exposed to light and air, officials said. Piperonyl butoxide is also used in Anvil 10+10 to enhance the sumithrin.
The aerosol droplets from the spray kill mosquitoes on contact in the air. It is registered by the US Environmental Protection Agency and used regularly in 10 other states, the Department of Public Health said.
The EPA says sumithrin can be used for mosquito-control programs without posing unreasonable risks to human health when applied according to the label. It will not affect the water supply and will be sprayed at night when bees are most likely to be in their hives and fish are least likely to be near the surface of pools, state officials said. Still, residents can choose to reduce exposure by staying indoors, keeping pets inside, and covering outdoor fish ponds, officials said.
Well, they partly answered my question. What's an unreasonable risk anyway? How many parts per trillion?
Yeah, it won't affect the water supply but they have to spray it at night when the fish aren't near the surface, and it's a reasonable risk but stay inside.
The schedule and length of the aerial sprayings is dependent on the weather and the insecticide’s effectiveness. The Department of Public Health and Department of Agricultural Resources are encouraging residents to check the Massachusetts government’s website for updates.
Do they really need to do this?
How can we avoid mosquito bites?
Residents in the affected areas can protect themselves by staying inside from dusk to dawn, the peak mosquito hours, applying insect repellent, repairing screens in doors and windows, protecting pets, and draining standing water, officials said.....
Oh, the messages are so mixed I can' see through the haze of the insecticide.
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Related:
Plymouth County man tests positive for Eastern equine encephalitis in first Mass. case since 2013
I stand corrected.
Also see:
Crystal Lake closed for swimming due to algae
Don't let the dog drink it, either, and never mind the oil spills.
{@@##$$%%^^&&}
Time to take to the high seas:
"Sailing to America: Teen to bring her climate activism to US" by David Keyton and Frank Jordans Associated Press, July 29, 2019
STOCKHOLM — Greta Thunberg, the Swedish teenager whose social media-savvy brand of eco-activism has inspired tens of thousands of students in Europe to skip classes and protest for faster action against climate change, said Monday that she plans to take her message to America the old-fashioned way: by boat.
The 16-year-old tweeted that she’ll sail across the Atlantic aboard a high-tech racing yacht, leaving Britain next month to attend United Nations climate summits in New York in September and Santiago, Chile, in December.
Thunberg told The Associated Press ahead of her announcement that she spent months trying to figure out how to travel to the United States without using planes, which she has long shunned because of their high greenhouse gas emissions. Cruise ships are also notoriously big polluters.
The Pentagon is the biggest polluter of all, but at least the kid is shining the light on the hypocrisy boo the elite. It's the my-$hit-don't-$tink $yndrome.
Thunberg plans to take a year off from school to keep raising awareness of climate change and pressuring world leaders to step up efforts to curb global warming.
Since starting her ‘‘school strikes’’ in August 2018, the daughter of an actor and an opera singer has appeared before policymakers at last year’s UN climate conference in Poland and harangued business and political leaders at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. She also met with Pope Francis, who praised Thunberg’s efforts and encouraged her to continue campaigning.
I guess I would feel better if she wasn't being exploited as a tool by the globalists responsible for the problem, those who seek to make money of climate change.
Although little-known in the United States, Thunberg has arguably become the figurehead for a new generation of European eco-activists worried that they’ll suffer the fallout from their parents’ and grandparents’ unwillingness to take strong actions to combat climate change.
Just don't drink the water!
Thunberg has spearheaded a change in the climate debate in Europe largely because her activism resonated with so many children, said Greenpeace Germany executive director Martin Kaiser.
‘‘She has read all the science,’’ he said. ‘‘That gives her a lot of credibility. She has motivated a whole generation in Europe to learn about climate change.’’
Waving the kid at us while promoting the $cience.
Her visibility has made Thunberg a target for those who reject the overwhelming consensus among scientists that climate change is being driven by man-made emissions of greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide, released by the burning of fossil fuels. ‘‘I don’t care about hate and threats from climate crisis deniers,’’ she said. ‘‘I just ignore them.’’
I say let the banks save us!
As well-intentioned as the girl is, she has bought all the propaganda and is being used as a tool.
When the pre$$ starts hollering conspiracy theorists and deniers, you know they are losing.
Thunberg said she’s unsure how her message will be received in the United States, where there’s broad opposition to the kind of radical measures scientists say are required to limit global warming by the end of the century compared with preindustrial times.
She wants to send us back to preindustrial times, huh?
Okay. I'm fine with an agrarian society, since I pretty much live in one.
Better shut down the war machine.
Thunberg wouldn’t rule out meeting with President Trump, who wants the United States to withdraw from the landmark 2015 Paris climate accord, but appeared doubtful such an encounter would happen because she thinks it would be ‘‘just a waste of time.’’
Like blogging about what is in the Bo$ton Globe.
‘‘As it looks now, I don’t think so, because I have nothing to say to him,’’ she told the AP. ‘‘He obviously doesn’t listen to the science and the scientists. So why should I, a child with no proper education, be able to convince him?’’
The print version docked in port, but the web version kept sailing:
Aside from attending a summit hosted by UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on the sidelines of the global body’s annual assembly on Sept. 23, Thunberg plans to take part in several climate protests in New York. The British band The 1975s has released an album with a short essay by Thunberg set to music. It ends with her declaring ‘‘it is now time for civil disobedience. It is time to rebel.’’
Thunberg stressed that she rejects violence, citing her school strikes for climate as the kind of action she backs. Last week she deleted a tweet showing her wearing a T-shirt with the slogan ‘‘Antifascist All Stars,’’ after some accused her of supporting far-left extremists. ‘‘You can rebel in different ways,’’ she said. ‘‘Civil disobedience is rebelling. As long as it’s peaceful, of course.’’
Another pre$$ buzzword of late.
After New York, Thunberg intends to travel to the annual UN climate conference in December, held in Chile this year, with stops in Canada, Mexico, and other countries along the way, traveling by train and bus. The yacht she’ll be crossing the Atlantic with is a far cry from the Viking ships that first brought Scandinavians to America. The 60-foot Malizia II is fitted with solar panels and underwater turbines to generate zero-carbon electricity on board.
Who outfitted her with a yacht?
Thunberg will also be accompanied on the two-week journey by a filmmaker, her father, Svante, and Pierre Casiraghi, the grandson of Monaco’s late Prince Rainier III and American actress Grace Kelly. ‘‘I haven’t experienced anything like this before,’’ Thunberg said, a giggle breaking her normally serious demeanor. ‘‘I think this will be a trip to remember.’’
The elites are promoting, that's great.
Thunberg will be setting a very high bar for the activists and leaders from outside the Americas who are attending the UN climate conferences, almost all of whom are likely to be coming by plane. ‘‘I’m not saying that people should stop flying,’’ she said. ‘‘I’m just saying it needs to be easier to be climate neutral.’’
Then all flights are grounded, per Green Deal.
--more--"
Related:
Woman dies after sailboat and motorboat collide off Newport
"Around 2:45 p.m. Sunday, a couple driving a powerboat plowed into Sandra Tartaglino’s vessel in Narragansett Bay, killing the experienced 60-year-old sailor. The state’s Department of Environmental Management is investigating the incident and expects to release a preliminary report this week. According to the department’s spokesman, “alcohol was not a factor” in the crash....."
It should be a murder charge since the boat was unsafe, but at least he e-mailed his response to inquiries from the Globe as to what makes a predator tick.
Meanwhile, we hope the week ahead will be storm free.
Time to slow down and watch out for the windmill!
"The blockbuster auction for offshore wind leases that wrapped up Friday should leave few doubts: The industry has finally arrived in New England. Three developers backed by major European energy companies paid a record $405 million to gain access to 390,000 acres of federal waters nearly 20 miles south of Martha’s Vineyard and Nantucket. These firms will each pay $135 million to the federal government for the rights to build massive windmills in their respective slices of the ocean....."
Of course, the "the dangerous heat here last week, the last month in Europe, and the last two months in India and Pakistan, should remind everyone, once again, of the urgent need for action on climate change."
Dangerous heat grips wide stretch of the South and Midwest
In Alabama and Tennessee, high school football coaches were adjusting practice schedules while the impact of football on global warming remains undiscussed by the pre$$.
July was Earth’s hottest month on record, beating or tying July 2016
Please stop it! Every month is the hottest it's ever been.
Massive heat wave puts Greenland on track for record melt
I'm told "Greenland has already lost a total of 250 billion tons of ice from a combination of melt runoff and low total snowfall earlier in the season, and that’s enough to sustain the global population’s water intake for more than 40 years."
I'm told "Greenland has already lost a total of 250 billion tons of ice from a combination of melt runoff and low total snowfall earlier in the season, and that’s enough to sustain the global population’s water intake for more than 40 years."
"Loss of Arctic sea ice may not be causing cold winters in US, Asia after all, study finds" by Andrew Freedman Washington Post, August 14, 2019
For the past several years, one of the most hotly debated questions in climate science has been determining exactly how rapid Arctic warming, and associated sea ice loss, is affecting the weather thousands of miles away, in parts of the United States, Europe, and Asia.
Numerous studies that have focused on Arctic warming and cold mid-latitude winters, in a configuration known as the ‘‘warm Arctic, cold continents’’ pattern, have generally concluded that sea ice loss at the top of the world is instigating a chain reaction throughout the atmosphere, altering the weather thousands of miles away. Such studies do this by looking at statistical patterns, finding strong correlations between Arctic warming and unusual mid-latitude weather, such as the polar vortex winter of 2013-2014, yet other studies using computer models and physical science data have been unable to match these results, instead finding that either flaws exist in the computer models or sea ice may not be having such a large influence beyond the Arctic itself......
In other words, they have no idea and everything they are claiming as fact is based on unreliable computer models.
It's like the old saying: garbage in, garbage out.
--more--"
Related:
Alaska’s summer heat has been ‘basically off the charts’
It's one for the books.
"According to specialists, previously too-wet-to-burn parts of the Pacific Northwest face an increasing risk of significant wildfires because climate change is bringing higher temperatures, lower humidity, and longer droughts. ‘‘The only thing that’s keeping it from going off like a nuclear bomb is the weather,’’ said Chris Dicus, a California Polytechnic State University San Luis Obispo professor and head of the Association for Fire Ecology, which studies wildfires....."
For crying out loud!
Well, at least we know nuclear bombs are manmade and bad for the environment!
I don't preclude the possibility of weather weapons or arson, either.
If you want to cool off, go have an ice cream and pray it doesn't melt in your hand:
"Environmental groups and one of France’s largest labor unions called Monday for a containment shield and other safety measures to ensure decontamination work at Notre Dame Cathedral does not expose workers and residents to unsafe levels of lead. The Paris regional administration suspended the job of removing hazardous substances from the fire-ravaged Paris cathedral last month under pressure from labor inspectors concerned about health risks for workers. The administration had said that when the lead-removal work resumed, stricter safety procedures, new equipment and allowing much fewer workers inside at a time would ‘‘prevent any release of polluting elements to the outside,’’ but representatives from environmental groups and the CGT union said at a news conference Monday they don’t think the government safeguards go far enough. They asked for a regularly updated chart showing the level of lead in the air. Labor and environmental groups are also pushing for the creation of a medical center to monitor firefighters, workers and residents. Paris Deputy Mayor Anne Souyris said updated measurements of lead levels are set for release on Tuesday. The decontamination work is scheduled to resume Wednesday, starting with the square in front of Notre Dame and adjacent streets, Souyris said. Hundreds of tons of lead that was in Notre Dame’s spire and roof melted during the April 15 fire, which came close to destroying the cathedral. Lead levels remain elevated at some spots inside and in the soil of the adjacent park and forecourt, according to the Paris regional health agency. Those areas have been closed to the public since the fire. The environmental activists and union officials said they want a containment shield built over Notre Dame to keep more lead from being released into the atmosphere. ‘‘For the efficiency of the decontamination measures within the area, it is absolutely necessary that the site is confined,’’ said Annie Thebaud-Mony, co-founder of health and environment group Henri Pezerat. Notre Dame rector Patrick Chauvet acknowledged that lead can escape into the environment from a big hole in the cathedral’s roof but ruled out building a containment shield before the decontamination work resumes. Paris authorities ordered new checks of schools and day-care centers in the Notre Dame neighborhood and recommended blood tests for children under age 7 and pregnant women who live nearby. Children are especially vulnerable to health problems from lead poisoning and exposure."
In addition to not drinking the water, and what we are looking at here in retrospect is France's 9/11. The cathedral full of poisons had to come down like the asbestos-filled WTC towers. The rubble of France's shock to the soul is just as toxic.
"Health officials in Paris said Wednesday that a young boy needs medical monitoring because tests conducted after the Notre Dame Cathedral fire showed that he was at risk of lead poisoning. The child doesn’t need treatment yet, the Regional Health Authority said in a statement Tuesday. Checks are being conducted to determine whether the lead came from the April 15 fire or another source. The child’s school, near the cathedral, was closed in July due to high lead levels found on its grounds. A total of 162 children have been tested for lead in Paris after hundreds of tons of lead in Notre Dame’s spire and roof melted in the blaze. Sixteen of those were deemed to be just short of being ‘‘at risk.’’ The results ‘‘show, on the one hand, the need to keep cleaning to limit the risk of exposure of the children to lead and, on the other hand, the importance of extending blood tests,’’ the health authority said. Authorities in June recommended blood tests for children under 7 and pregnant women who live near Notre Dame."
More and more am I skeptical of the official story there, and you can forget about the kids (btw, you treat lead poisoning. Damage done):
"Several stones fell from the vaulted ceiling of fire-ravaged Notre Dame after last month’s European heat wave, a French official said Wednesday, urging renewed stabilization efforts to prevent further damage to the iconic Paris cathedral. The Culture Ministry official said the stones crumbled after temperatures reached a record 108.7 degrees Fahrenheit in Paris in late July. The official said heat quickly dried out the mortar that was holding the ceiling stones in place. The damage is ‘‘not serious’’ but the 12th-century cathedral remains at risk of further damage — and possible collapse, said the official, who was not authorized to be publicly named according to ministry policy. The vaulted ceiling is particularly fragile after the April fire destroyed the massive lead-and-wood roof that kept the cathedral’s overall structure stable. The ceiling vaults are also among the many features that make Notre Dame a treasure of world heritage and testament to medieval ingenuity. The chief architect of France’s historic monuments warned last month about the danger from exceptional heat to the water-logged masonry."
It was cheap cement?
They ran for the cafe where Sarah Levy commiserates with her customers over global environmental challenges.
"Air conditioners worked overtime — and sucked more energy — as Bostonians suffered through the hottest month on record in July. Now, imagine what will happen as temperatures continue to rise worldwide in coming decades, and people and businesses struggle to keep cool. A new study says climate change will further increase the demand for energy, on top of the growth in demand already expected because of population growth and economic development. Even if the world’s climate didn’t change, global energy demand in 2050 is projected to be two to three times larger than it is today, according to the study, which was published in the journal Nature Communications....."
At least the AC is powered by natural gas, and here is a primer on methane in the form of cow flatulence.
"The fight to save the seas from plastic waste may mean the end for mini bottles of shampoo and other toiletries that hotel guests love to stuff into their luggage, and there is little doubt that public awareness of the problem of plastic waste has been swelling amid alarming forecasts that there could be more plastic than fish in the oceans by 2050."
It only really became a problem when Asian nations said they would no longer be a western garbage dump and started shipping the recyclables back.
"A top customs official in Cambodia said Tuesday that a local company that illegally imported almost seven dozen shipping containers of plastic waste from the United States and Canada has been ordered to pay a fine of nearly $260,000, and will face criminal charges if the waste is not sent back to its countries of origin before Aug. 24. The July 16 discovery of the waste came a few days after Prime Minister Hun Sen declared at a Cabinet meeting that Cambodia is not a dumping ground for any kind of waste and does not allow the import of any kind of plastic waste or other recyclables. The cross-border disposal of waste became a major regional issue after China, previously its main destination, barred imports of almost all foreign plastic waste early last year. Waste shipments shifted to other countries such as Indonesia, Thailand, and Malaysia, which in turn also started rejecting shipments....."
Another reason for the trade war and Hong Kong destabilization, no doubt.
The oil-based plastic waste is the real climate change challenge preventing a thousand flowers from blooming.
{@@##$$%%^^&&}
The Globe's lead roar to begin this week:
"Trump weakens Endangered Species Act, which saved the bald eagle, grizzly, and others" by David Abel Globe Staff, August 12, 2019
In its latest effort to overhaul the nation’s environmental laws, the Trump administration on Monday disclosed sweeping changes to the Endangered Species Act, a landmark conservation law that over five decades has allowed the federal government to protect imperiled species such as the bald eagle, humpback whale, and whooping crane.
The changes, for the first time, would allow federal officials to assess the economic costs of saving a species, although the law still does not allow costs to be a factor in determining whether to grant a species protection. The new rules also prohibit consideration of the impact of climate change on whether to list a species as endangered. They’re also likely to reduce the number of animal habitats, which are threatened throughout the country by development, critics say.
The move was widely criticized by conservation groups and drew a swift response from Massachusetts Attorney General Maura Healey, who joined her counterpart in California in announcing that they intended to challenge the rules in court. In a conference call with reporters, Healey and others denounced the new rules as “illegal, arbitrary, and capricious.”
I wish she would pay attention to all the corruption in the state instead of all the political grandstanding.
In a statement, officials from the Department of Interior said the changes to the 45-year-old law would increase its “transparency and effectiveness” and “bring the administration of the act into the 21st century.”
“The best way to uphold the Endangered Species Act is to do everything we can to ensure it remains effective in achieving its ultimate goal — recovery of our rarest species,” Interior Secretary David Bernhardt said in a statement. “An effectively administered act ensures more resources can go where they will do the most good: on-the-ground conservation.”
The new rules, which do not require congressional approval, are expected to take effect next month.
The changes come just three months after a United Nations report warned that more than 1 million plants and animals face extinction throughout the world, mainly because of climate change and development. That rate of loss is the highest on record, the report found.
“As we face the unprecedented threat of a climate emergency, now is the time to strengthen our planet’s biodiversity, not to destroy it,” said California Attorney General Xavier Becerra. “By rolling back the Endangered Species Act, the Trump administration would be putting a nail in our coffin — all for the sake of boosting the profits of those putting these species at risk in the first place.”
Healey credited the act with helping to increase piping plover populations in Massachusetts.
What if they were coming back anyway? Cycle of nature. The rabbits come and go around here, etc.
I'm not saying we should be wiping out animals, far from it; however, once again we have an agenda-pu$hing tug on the heartstrings by the pre$$ in an attempt to pu$h forward.
You know, if they really cared about animals and extinction they would be pushing veganism. The wholesale murder and slaughter of industry is ignored, with the war machine an even more perverse form of it.
Vikki Spruill, president of the New England Aquarium, said the act is directly responsible for “restoring whales, seals, and sea turtles to Massachusetts’ coastal waters.” “With extinction rates skyrocketing globally and the impacts of climate change on vulnerable wildlife populations unknown, we need a strong, vigorous [Endangered Species Act], not a weaker one,” she said.
Then why not make it a local issue like the water?
Other endangered species in the region have not fared as well. North Atlantic right whales, which were hunted nearly to extinction until whaling was banned in the 1930s, now number little more than 400 — down by about 20 percent since 2010.
I will be going down with them soon enough.
“Iconic species like the North Atlantic right whale are part of our heritage and deserve all possible protections in the face of the many threats to their continued existence,” said Erica Fuller, a senior staff attorney at the Conservation Law Foundation in Boston. “Any attempt to gut one of the public’s most revered statutes, especially in the face of the most recent UN report, demonstrates a lack of respect for both past and future generations.”
OH, MAN!
So according to her, no species ever can go extinct even if it is through evolution and even if the whales are endangered more by ships than anything else.
That's a tall order, preserving every single species on Earth, and I have the feeling the next one to be extinct may be man -- by his own hand, thanks to the psychopaths in power and their mouthpiece media.
--more--"
Related:
"Despite strong opposition from environmentalists and others, the federal Environmental Protection Agency announced this past week that it had reauthorized the use of spring-loaded poison devices known as “cyanide bombs” to kill coyotes, foxes, and other animals that prey on livestock. The devices, officially called M-44s, have been used continuously for more than four decades by Wildlife Services, a program within the US Department of Agriculture. When a predator stumbles across one of these devices, a capsule containing sodium cyanide, a highly toxic pesticide, is ejected into its mouth....."
That is the ruling class answer to everything. Kill it.
The next day, the story was my National lead:
"States sue Trump administration over rollback of Obama-era climate rule" by Lisa Friedman The New York Times, August 13, 2019
WASHINGTON — A coalition of 29 states and cities on Tuesday sued to block the Trump administration from easing restrictions on coal-burning power plants. The move could ultimately limit how much leverage future administrations would have to fight climate change by restricting a major source of Earth-warming pollution.
The lawsuit, led by New York’s attorney general, Letitia James, argued the Environmental Protection Agency had no basis for weakening an Obama-era regulation that set the first-ever national limits on carbon dioxide pollution from power plants.
That rule, the Clean Power Plan, required states to implement plans to reduce carbon dioxide emissions by 2022, and encouraged that to happen by closing heavily polluting plants and replacing those energy sources with natural gas or renewable energy. Carbon dioxide released into the atmosphere is a major contributor to global warming because it traps the sun’s heat.
Methane 25x worse, but a by-product of shale fracking and natural gas production. Hmmm.
The lawsuit — by 22 states and seven cities including Massachusetts, California, Colorado, Wisconsin, North Carolina, Chicago, and Miami — is the latest swing of the legal pendulum in a long-running dispute over how to regulate emissions from coal plants.
Previously, Republican-led states and industry groups had sued to stop Obama’s Clean Power Plan from going into effect, and won a reprieve when the Supreme Court in 2016 temporarily blocked the Obama administration from imposing changes.
The new challenge, filed in the US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia, argues that the Trump administration’s replacement, known as the Affordable Clean Energy rule, ignores the EPA’s responsibility under the law to set limits on greenhouse gases. It maintains that the new rule would actually extend the life of dirty and aging coal-burning plants, promoting an increase in pollution instead of curbing it.
It is a legal battle that could again go all the way to the Supreme Court. This time, if justices ultimately decide in favor of the Trump administration and find the Clean Air Act does not allow the government to direct broad changes to the nation’s energy deployment, it could permanently weaken the United States’ ability to tackle its contributions to global warming.
“It would have a devastating effect on the ability of future administrations to regulate greenhouse gases under the Clean Air Act,” said Richard L. Revesz, a professor at New York University who specializes in environmental law. “It would essentially make it extremely difficult to regulate greenhouse gases effectively,” he said.
Conveniently left out of it all is the Pentagon pollution and emissions.
Unlike the Obama-era Clean Power Plan, the Trump rule does not cap greenhouse gas emissions. Instead it leaves it up to states to decide whether, or if, to scale back emissions and pick from a menu of technologies to improve power plant efficiency at the facility level.
Under the Clean Air Act, the EPA is required to use the “best system of emissions reduction.” The Obama-era options included switching to cleaner energy sources like gas, solar, or wind; putting a price on carbon dioxide emissions; or using technology that could capture and store carbon dioxide rather than releasing it into the atmosphere. The Trump administration rule, by contrast, focuses solely on new efficiency measures for individual plants.
Andrew Wheeler, the administrator of the EPA, argued that the Obama administration had overreached its authority with its rule and that the Trump administration’s plan was legally defensible. Obama’s Clean Power Plan was suspended by the Supreme Court in 2016 after challenges from 28 Republican-led states and several major industry organizations.
Those groups said Obama’s plan was unduly burdensome to utilities and too costly for consumers.....
That last part can bring down a government. After water, fuel is life.
--more--"
Related photographs on same page:
A pallet of bottled water is delivered to a recreation center on August 13, 2019 in Newark, New Jersey. Residents of Newark, the largest city in New Jersey, are to receive free water after lead was found in the tap water. It was reported over the weekend that lead levels in some areas of the city were still not safe and the city has begun distributing bottled water for cooking and drinking (Spencer Platt/Getty Images).
It's worse than Flint.
President Donald Trump speaks as he views construction during a visit to Shell's soon-to-be completed Pennsylvania Petrochemicals Complex on Tuesday, Aug. 13, 2019, in Monaca, Pa. From left are Energy Secretary Rick Perry; Gretchen Watkins, president of Shell Oil company; Hilary Mercer, vice president of Shell Pennsylvania Chemicals; Environmental Protection Agency administrator Andrew Wheeler and Charles Holliday, chairman of the board of directors for Royal Dutch Shell. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh)
Same day: Federal regulators approve sale of Pilgrim nuclear plant
Newark was buried at the bottom of page A6 today:
"Lead crisis in Newark grows, as bottled water distribution is bungled" by Nick Corasaniti and Corey Kilgannon New York Times, August 14, 2019
NEWARK, N.J. — A growing crisis over lead contamination in drinking water gripped Newark on Wednesday as tens of thousands of residents were told to drink only bottled water, the culmination of years of neglect that has pushed New Jersey’s largest city to the forefront of an environmental problem afflicting urban areas across the nation.
WTF?
Urgent new warnings from federal environmental officials about contamination in drinking water from aging lead pipes spread anxiety and fear in some of Newark’s poorest neighborhoods, but the municipal government’s makeshift efforts to set up distribution centers to hand out bottled water were hampered by confusion and frustration.
The intensifying worry about the safety of Newark’s drinking water has raised comparisons to Flint, Mich., where dangerous levels of lead led to criminal indictments against state and local officials and forced residents to rely on bottled water.
All the criminal cases were later thrown out.
The lead crisis in Newark, a city of 285,000 people, had been brewing for years, but escalated sharply over the weekend after federal officials issued a scathing letter warning about the safety of the drinking water and urging city officials to take more aggressive steps.
Residents who had been reassured for months by city leaders that the problem was being addressed were left reeling.
What, they lied to you?
Newark had long denied that the city had a widespread problem with its drinking water, only to reverse course last fall and give away tens of thousands of water filters, but recent tests have shown that the filters were not properly removing lead.
But they are telling the truth on the agenda-pushing climate change stuff!
Like Flint, many of the neighborhoods affected by concerns over the drinking water are predominantly African-American and low income.
I don't hear anyone hollering racist!
On Wednesday, the governor of New Jersey, Philip Murphy, toured one of the water distribution centers, underscoring the severity of the problem.
“It’s a right, not a privilege, to have clean safe water and we are committed to that,” Murphy said.
If they were committed to it, it wouldn't be a problem!
What a lying sack of shit!
Web version left on the faucet:
The state and city want “to get this as right, as fast as we can,” the governor said, calling on federal officials to help. “We take this very seriously. We want to be out ahead of this.”
Look at the sewage coming out of his mouth.
Standing in long lines, residents expressed anger and fear over how wide-reaching the problem really was. Many said their anxiety over the water adds to the challenges the city already faces — from poverty to drugs. “We’re ducking bullets, we’re ducking and dodging bullets every day,” said Nafessah Venable as she stood outside a recreation center with her young son. “We can’t even take our kids out to play. Now we’ve got to worry about water? Water is a necessity for life. How can we survive without clean water? It’s tragic, and it’s very mind-boggling to wonder what the future holds in terms of the water system.
Just ask the Asians or Africans.
Newark’s antiquated plumbing system has long carried a threat of leached lead. “They were in denial for a long period of time,” said Erik Olson, the senior director for health programs at the National Resources Defense Council, which filed a lawsuit against the state and the city last year, accusing them of violating federal safe drinking water laws. “It’s been a slow response, but they’re finally coming around to realizing that they do have a serious problem, and that’s a good thing.”
Yaaaaaay!
The recreation center was one of four distribution points set up by the city to hand out water. Some people waited an hour to get their allotted two cases. Adding to the frustration, officials also turned away some people, telling them they were not eligible for free water because they did not live in an area identified as having elevated lead levels.
“When you get up there, they tell you you’ve got to be from a certain area to get the water,” said Leslie Holmon, a Newark grandmother, “but they didn’t tell you that on the news.” She added, “They’ve got these seniors standing out here for nothing.”
On Friday, the EPA urged officials to provide bottled water to residents with lead pipes as soon as possible. “We are unable at this time to assure Newark residents that their health is fully protected when drinking tap water filtered through these devices,” the EPA said in a letter, referring to the PUR filters issued by the city.
--more--"
I guess we will see if the coverage dries up.
Now to the birds and the bees:
"If city leaders in Ocean City, N.J., have their way, the days of pesky seagulls grabbing fries from beachgoers will be over and everyone will have hawks, falcons, and owls to thank. The city, population around 11,000, is a popular summertime destination, but as at many resort areas, seagulls in Ocean City can get annoying. The gulls become ‘‘dependent on an unnatural supply of food stolen from people on the boardwalk and beach,’’ Jay Gillian, the city’s mayor, said in a statement. Gulls are known for swooping in and grabbing leftovers from trash cans or french fries straight from a person’s bucket. To try to get the gulls to leave the beach area, Ocean City officials said they’ve hired a company — East Coast Falcons — to bring in falcons, hawks, and owls that will scare away the gulls. Gulls typically leave an area and deem it unsafe at the sight of raptors. Officials said they believe their abatement program is one of the first for a seashore town along the East Coast."
Make way for ducklings:
Ducks in the Charles River (File photo)
"It was a most surprising case for the police: An endangered bird may have attacked two men in a forest, they attacked and killed the bird, and a crowd attacked the two men. Less surprising, alcohol was involved. Now, with the body of a western capercaillie as evidence, authorities in southwestern Germany are trying to determine what happened. Two young men, both drunk, took a shortcut through the woods Saturday and encountered the bird and beat it with a bottle, according to police in Titisee-Neustadt, the Black Forest village where the incident occurred. They later said they were merely defending themselves from the capercaillie, which is roughly the size of a large chicken. It is increasingly rare in Western Europe and listed as endangered in Germany. After witnessing the death of the bird from afar, several people in a group of about 10 punched, kicked, and poured beer over the two men."
They attacked the bird because it was gay.
"Makin’ a splash: There’s a humpback whale in Boston Harbor" by Travis Andersen Globe Staff , August 6, 2019
City officials work mightily to boost tourism in the summer, but they’d have a whale of a time getting a current Boston Harbor guest into a suite at the Four Seasons.
That’s right: There’s a humpback whale in the harbor, and it’s enjoying the local cuisine, according to a statement released Monday by the New England Aquarium.
“A young humpback whale has been feeding at the mouth of Boston Harbor over the last three days,” the statement said. “The un-named 18-20 month old is the 2018 calf of an adult female named Whirlygig,” and even though it’s young, Whirlygig’s precocious child has struck out on its own.
“The 30-33 foot long youngster would have been weaned by its mother last autumn and has probably been on its own since early this year,” the statement said. “The good news is that this juvenile humpback, still of unknown gender, is feeding successfully at the mouth of Boston Harbor on schools of menhaden, also known locally as pogies. The news of concern is that it is doing so in the middle of the shipping channels into Boston’s busy port.”
While the aquarium may be concerned, the intrepid humpback’s got no qualms about snacking near a big barge.
“[T]his young, acrobatic whale can be seen feeding alongside one of the dredge barges that is deepening the shipping channel,” the statement said. “The whale has been spotted each of the last three days by the New England Aquarium Whale Watch vessels between the Boston Harbor Light and Graves Light to the north. It has mostly been seen feeding but also napping or what is called logging.”
Whales have hit the harbor before.
Last summer, the US Coast Guard sent out a warning to mariners to be cautious of whales that had been seen feeding and splashing around the harbor.
Boston Harbor Cruises breathlessly documented that whale visitation via Twitter.
“Have you heard the news? There’s a humpback whale in Boston Harbor!,” the company tweeted last summer.
In Monday’s statement, the aquarium said whales in the harbor were once a rarity. But since 2013, “it has become a near annual occurrence happening about once per year and always with young, inexperienced humpbacks. In August of last year, a different young humpback spent a day deep into the harbor swimming just off of South Boston.”
So what gives?
“[W]hale behavior is usually mostly influenced by food availability,” the statement said. “Over the last two summers, large schools of menhaden (pogies) have been in residence from the South Shore to N.H. Many videos have been posted of humpbacks feeding close to shore.”
Also, the statement said, the phenomenon is linked to conservation efforts dating back to the 1970s.
“Humpbacks will also now occasionally enter Boston Harbor, because the water quality has so dramatically improved since the 1990’s clean-up that large schools of migratory fish spend much of the mid to late summer here,” the statement said.
The aquarium said it’s not known how long the humpback will remain in Hub waters. But in the meantime, the organization reminds boaters to share the ocean.
“[T]he Aquarium asks recreational boaters to slow speeds and post a bow watch when at the mouth of the harbor,” the statement said. “Propeller injuries can disfigure and even kill large whales. If any whale is sighted, boaters should cut engines and enjoy the magnificent sight until the whale clears the area. Boaters should not pursue whales.”
If they’re so inclined to take a longer look at these majestic creatures, Bostonians just have to take a quick drive down Route 6.
“America’s only whale feeding sanctuary is at the tip of Cape Cod,” the statement said. “In a three hour trip from downtown Boston, anyone can see the largest animals to ever live on Earth. Few cities in the world have that luxury and wonder at their doorstep.”
Call us Ishmael.
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Related:
"Watch out for the whales. The fisheries division of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration for the New England region on Friday tweeted out that “Humpback #whales are showing up all along our coasts! Please keep everyone safe and follow the law by giving them space to behave naturally.” North Atlantic right whales need even more room....."
Just watch out for sharks while swimming.
Meanwhile, the net hauled up some green crabs and tuna, while "warming waters south of Cape Cod have decimated the region’s lobster fishery, but it’s an ambitious effort to fight climate change that has lobstermen like Lanny Dillinger concerned for their livelihoods......"
Then he will just have to catch salmon for food, and leave Maine to fend for itself (did we mention it was the first day of winter? Time to meditate on things):
"Biological oceanographer Sonia Batten experienced her light-bulb moment on the perils of too many salmon three years ago as she prepared a talk on the most important North Pacific seafood you’ll never see on a plate: zooplankton. Zooplanktons nourish everything from juvenile salmon to seabirds to giant whales, but as Batten examined 15 years of data collected by instruments on container ships near the Aleutian Islands, she noticed a trend: Zooplankton was abundant in even-number years and less abundant in odd-number years. Something was stripping a basic building block in the food web every other year, and just one predator fit that profile. ‘‘The only thing that we have in this whole area with an up-and-down, alternating-year pattern is pink salmon,’’ said Batten of Canada’s Marine Biological Association. Pink salmon are wildly abundant in odd-number years and less abundant in even-number years. They comprise nearly 70 percent of what’s now the largest number of salmon populating the North Pacific since last century, but an increasing number of marine researchers say the voracious eaters are thriving at the expense of higher-value sockeye salmon, seabirds, and other species with whom their diet overlaps. In addition to the flourishing wild populations of pink salmon, Alaska hatcheries release 1.8 billion pink salmon fry annually, and hatcheries in Asian countries contribute an additional 3 billion-plus fish. ‘‘We’re putting too many mouths to compete with the wild fish out there,’’ said Nancy Hillstrand, owner of a fish processing company near Homer, Alaska, who has been lobbying Alaska wildlife authorities to reduce hatchery output. A 2018 study estimated 665 million adult salmon in the North Pacific. Pink salmon dominated at 67%, followed by chums at 20% and sockeye at 13%. Salmon abundance since the late 1970s has been enhanced by favorable ocean conditions but hatcheries account for 15% of the pinks, 60% of the chums, and 4% of the sockeyes. State regulators say they have no evidence that the ocean has reached its carrying capacity for hatchery fish, which rewarded Alaska commercial fishermen with sales averaging $120 million for 2012 through 2017. They are loath to seek a reduction in hatchery output because of the economic, societal, and cultural value of the fish. ‘‘The program has been successful and continues to provide benefit to Alaskans,’’ said Bill Templin, chief fisheries scientist for the Alaska Department of Fish and Game, but scientists who don’t have a connection to the department take a different view. Alan Springer, professor emeritus at the Marine Science Institute at the University of Alaska Fairbanks, sees detrimental effects in seabirds whose diets overlap with pink salmon. ‘‘There’s a finite amount of what they eat out there,’’ he said. Springer co-wrote a 2014 paper published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences that noted reproduction of tufted puffins and kittiwakes nose-dives in years of pink salmon abundance. A 2018 paper in the same journal linked years of abundant pink salmon with mass mortalities of short-tailed shearwaters. ‘‘We looked for other potential drivers in the environment,’’ Springer said. ‘‘We couldn’t find any.’’ Greg Ruggerone, president of Natural Resources Consultants in Seattle, began analyzing pink salmon interactions with sockeye salmon in 2009 when the sockeye population collapsed in British Columbia’s Fraser River. Sockeye returns fell when pink salmon were abundant, he said, and the sockeye were 1 pound smaller in those years. The results, Ruggerone said, suggest ‘‘there is this link between sockeye salmon and pink salmon related to competition for food.’’ A University of Washington study published in Nature Ecology & Evolution concluded that climate warming is creating favorable conditions for sockeye living in fresh water for Alaska’s Bristol Bay, allowing them to grow faster in lakes and leave for the ocean after one year instead of two, said lead author Timothy Cline; however, competition from wild and hatchery salmon — both pinks and chums released by Japan — delayed sockeye maturation and kept them in salt water an extra year. ‘‘There’s pretty consistent evidence coming out in the last decade that we are at or near that carrying capacity, and it’s starting to have impacts on growth and survival of salmon all over,’’ he said. The state of Alaska is nearing the end of a 12-year study looking at the proportions of hatchery fish that swim into streams, said Templin, chief fisheries scientist. The state is not studying whether hatchery pink salmon are thriving at the expense of sockeye, Chinook salmon, seabirds, or other ocean residents, he said, noting that correlations do not indicate causes. Changing ocean conditions may affect various species differently and make one of them better able to survive, Templin said. He’s not ready to recommend a reduction in hatchery output because of the economic, societal, and cultural value of hatchery fish. Ruggerone would like to see rigorous debate on the pros and cons of releasing billions of hatchery salmon, especially pinks. ‘‘There’s really no other species in the ocean that we are aware of that we have data that can explain these biennial patterns that we see,’’ he said. If it’s not pink salmon causing problems in other species, Springer said, state scientists should suggest what is. ‘‘We’re not making this stuff up,’’ he added."
At least one species isn't going extinct.
"Grasshoppers are storming Las Vegas — and showing up like a rainstorm on weather radar. Radar footage from the National Weather Service shows two masses: one a rainstorm north of Las Vegas and another a host of living organisms above the city, Weather Service meteorologist Clay Morgan told The Washington Post. Anyone who’s been dealing with the swarm of insects descending on Las Vegas over the last week can guess the culprit. Unusually wet weather earlier this year has spurred the massive migration of grasshoppers stopping by Nevada’s biggest city on their way north, experts say. The area has seen more rain in six months than the roughly 4.2 inches it typically gets in a year. The pallid-winged grasshoppers, common in the desert, aren’t dangerous: They don’t bite or carry disease, Nevada state entomologist Jeff Knight told reporters last week, but the insects, which may stay around for several weeks, have fascinated residents and tourists. Photos and videos have captured thick streams of the light-hungry bugs illuminated at night......"
Yeah, the plague of locusts is no problem, but the rain is for it is cooler.
Related:
A man tries to catch locusts while standing on a rooftop as they swarm over the Huthi rebel-held Yemeni capital Sanaa on July 28, 2019. Mohammed HUWAIS / AFP
A boy holds desert locusts caught while swarming the sky over the Huthi rebel-held Yemeni capital Sanaa on July 28, 2019. Mohammed HUWAIS / AFP
Spraying doesn't help?
"Bayer proposes paying $8 billion to settle roundup cancer claims" by Jef Feeley, Joel Rosenblatt and Tim Loh Bloomberg News, August 9, 2019
Bayer AG is proposing to pay as much as $8 billion to settle more than 18,000 US lawsuits alleging its Roundup herbicide causes cancer, according to people familiar with the negotiations.
An agreement, which could take months to work out, would ease investor pressure over massive litigation exposure that the German drug and chemical giant took on with its purchase of the weedkiller’s maker, Monsanto Co. The fallout has erased more than $30 billion in market value, prompted an unprecedented shareholder vote of no confidence in the company’s management, and fueled speculation about a breakup.
Although Bayer floated paying $6 billion to $8 billion to resolve current and future cases, plaintiffs’ lawyers want more than $10 billion to drop their claims, the people said, asking not to be identified because the talks are private. How to compensate consumers who have yet to be diagnosed with illness is a sticking point, and there’s no guarantee the two sides will come to terms anytime soon, they added.
Bayer spokesman Tino Andresen declined to comment on any settlement talks.
Reports that a $6 billion to $8 billion settlement proposal has been discussed are “pure fiction,” said Kenneth Feinberg, a mediator called in by US District Judge Vince Chhabria in San Francisco, who is overseeing cases consolidated in federal court.
Oh, they called in the cover-up $pecialist to make the $ilence payments.
“There have been absolutely no discussions to date of dollars or what the compensation would be for a global resolution” of the cases, Feinberg said in an interview Friday.
Bayer’s lawyers and attorneys for former Roundup users are in ongoing talks, based in New York City, aimed at hammering out an accord to resolve all current cases and any future cancer claims filed over the world’s top-selling weedkiller, people familiar with the discussions said.
I don't know why they are worried. The judges simply slash the amount awarded by the juries.
The negotiations have advanced to the point that Bayer and plaintiffs’ lawyers asked two judges in St. Louis to push back cases set for trial starting soon, the people said. Bayer’s chief executive officer, Werner Baumann, said at the end of July that he would consider a “financially reasonable” settlement, after the company’s shares slumped amid a surge of new cases.
Major investors — such as US-based billionaire Paul Singer’s Elliott Management Corp. — have been urging Bayer to drop its defend-at-all-cost approach to the suits and consider a settlement. Elliott disclosed in June that it has a $1.3 billion stake in Bayer.
Bayer insists that Roundup is safe. The US Environmental Protection Agency on Thursday issued guidelines for products containing the herbicide’s active ingredient, glyphosate, saying it will no longer approve labels claiming that it’s known to cause cancer. California listed the substance as a carcinogen under its Proposition 65 toxic warnings law two years ago.
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Related: Final Round Up
Spraying doesn't help?
"Bayer proposes paying $8 billion to settle roundup cancer claims" by Jef Feeley, Joel Rosenblatt and Tim Loh Bloomberg News, August 9, 2019
Bayer AG is proposing to pay as much as $8 billion to settle more than 18,000 US lawsuits alleging its Roundup herbicide causes cancer, according to people familiar with the negotiations.
An agreement, which could take months to work out, would ease investor pressure over massive litigation exposure that the German drug and chemical giant took on with its purchase of the weedkiller’s maker, Monsanto Co. The fallout has erased more than $30 billion in market value, prompted an unprecedented shareholder vote of no confidence in the company’s management, and fueled speculation about a breakup.
Although Bayer floated paying $6 billion to $8 billion to resolve current and future cases, plaintiffs’ lawyers want more than $10 billion to drop their claims, the people said, asking not to be identified because the talks are private. How to compensate consumers who have yet to be diagnosed with illness is a sticking point, and there’s no guarantee the two sides will come to terms anytime soon, they added.
Bayer spokesman Tino Andresen declined to comment on any settlement talks.
Reports that a $6 billion to $8 billion settlement proposal has been discussed are “pure fiction,” said Kenneth Feinberg, a mediator called in by US District Judge Vince Chhabria in San Francisco, who is overseeing cases consolidated in federal court.
Oh, they called in the cover-up $pecialist to make the $ilence payments.
“There have been absolutely no discussions to date of dollars or what the compensation would be for a global resolution” of the cases, Feinberg said in an interview Friday.
Bayer’s lawyers and attorneys for former Roundup users are in ongoing talks, based in New York City, aimed at hammering out an accord to resolve all current cases and any future cancer claims filed over the world’s top-selling weedkiller, people familiar with the discussions said.
I don't know why they are worried. The judges simply slash the amount awarded by the juries.
The negotiations have advanced to the point that Bayer and plaintiffs’ lawyers asked two judges in St. Louis to push back cases set for trial starting soon, the people said. Bayer’s chief executive officer, Werner Baumann, said at the end of July that he would consider a “financially reasonable” settlement, after the company’s shares slumped amid a surge of new cases.
Major investors — such as US-based billionaire Paul Singer’s Elliott Management Corp. — have been urging Bayer to drop its defend-at-all-cost approach to the suits and consider a settlement. Elliott disclosed in June that it has a $1.3 billion stake in Bayer.
Bayer insists that Roundup is safe. The US Environmental Protection Agency on Thursday issued guidelines for products containing the herbicide’s active ingredient, glyphosate, saying it will no longer approve labels claiming that it’s known to cause cancer. California listed the substance as a carcinogen under its Proposition 65 toxic warnings law two years ago.
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Related: Final Round Up
I think you are better off with a dog or cat:
"A Massachusetts man has been ordered to permanently stop operating an unlicensed and unsanitary pet shop out of his home and to pay more than $480,000 in penalties and damages for selling sick and dying puppies. Attorney General Maura Healey announced Monday that a judge had entered a default judgment against Heath Morse, of Shrewsbury, barring him from ever selling dogs in the state. The state sued Morse in November. The authorities say that from 2016 until October he sold more than three dozen bulldog puppies for thousands of dollars each. More than a quarter of them ultimately died, many within days of purchase, and customers paid thousands in veterinary bills to treat or euthanize sick dogs."
"Wildlife specialists say better safety monitoring and stricter wildlife polices have helped the tiger population grow to its largest in about two decades. “Once the people of India decide to do something, there is no force that can prevent them from getting the desired results,” Prime Minister Narendra Modi said at a news conference Monday announcing the figures, but as the number of tigers has increased, so have the human-tiger conflicts in India, a country of 1.3 billion. India has created nearly two dozen tiger reserves in the past decade, but many are surrounded by villages. As development projects shrink the space separating humans and tigers, the animals are spilling out of reserves in search of prey — wild pigs, cattle, and sometimes people. Prerna Singh Bindra, a conservationist and author of “The Vanishing: India’s Wildlife Crisis,” said the country needs “a sound strategy” to avoid human-animal conflicts. “Forests are being fragmented,” she said. “We are saying yes to about 98 percent of development and other projects in protected areas. If we keep cutting habitats, this tiger utopia is going to come crashing down.”
They are being squeezed as non-vegetarian food grows more popular in India.
Founder of India’s largest coffee chain disappears
He went missing after allegedly signing a letter that apologizes for his failures and accuses tax officers of harassment.
"Fishermen on Wednesday found the body of the founder of India’s biggest coffee chain in a river, two days after he disappeared, police said. V.G. Siddhartha purportedly wrote a letter indicating he was anxious about pressure from banks, investors and the tax authorities. Siddhartha, 60, had left Bangalore on Monday and left his car near a bridge in Dakshina Kannada district in Karnataka state. He told his driver to wait, saying he was going for a walk near the bridge. When he didn’t return for two hours, the driver notified police, police officer Sasikant Senthil said. He leaves behind Coffee Day Enterprises, a coffee shop chain with more than 1,500 stores across India with revenue of $630 million in 2017-18. It also has outlets in Austria, the Czech Republic, and Malaysia, according to the chain’s website."
Kind of a Dr. David Kelly situation.
I guess he won't be spilling any secrets.
"Indian investigators are probing possible links between a prominent ruling-party politician and a car crash that has left a 19-year-old woman battling for her life after she accused him of rape. The federal Central Bureau of Investigation opened a case Wednesday to look into murder and conspiracy allegations against Kuldeep Sengar, a lawmaker from the governing Bharatiya Janata Party. The teenager was critically injured in a suspicious car crash Sunday. On June 4, 2017 the teenager accused Sengar of raping her in 2017 when she approached him for a job. She said he threatened to kill her family if she spoke of it to anyone. The case grabbed attention in April 2018 when the woman tried to immolate herself outside the state chief minister’s home to protest police inaction."
He should have just got a divorce.
Btw, what ever happened to that moon shot?
"North America will experience a black moon Wednesday night, a phenomenon that only occurs once every couple of years, said Nick Ferreri, the planetarium fellow at the Museum of Science. A moon is referred to as a black moon when it is the second new moon of the month. Sometimes, the lunar cycle does not match up with the calendar months, causing this occurrence, Ferreri said. While it has an intriguing name, the unique moon will probably disappoint backyard skygazers. Like other new moons, it will not be very visible on Earth. “We refer to a moon as a black moon when you can’t see any of the moon’s face lit by the sun,” Ferreri said. The moon goes through phases, starting with a new moon, which is dark. The moon waxes until it becomes a full moon, when the moon’s surface is fully illuminated, then wanes until it becomes a new moon again."
Also see: 3 more new worlds discovered by MIT-developed satellite
Maybe you can find the Good Life on one.
NEXT DAY UPDATE:
NOAA Data Confirms July Was Hottest Month Ever Recorded
Whatever, New York Times.
I'm so sick of the pile of spew.
