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Business
- 
Government
- 
Politics
- 
2008
Election - 
Family
- 
Health
- Safety
- 
Environment
- 
Air
- 
Water
- 
Soil
- 
Labor
- Animal
- Farmers
- 
Energy
- Transportation
- 
Automakers
- Consumer
- 
History
- "Business
Lobby Presses Agenda Before ’08 Vote." ... "Business
lobbyists, nervously anticipating Democratic gains in next year’s elections,
are racing to secure final approval for a wide range of health, safety,
labor and economic rules, in the belief that they can get better deals
from the [Republican President] Bush administration than from its successor."
... "Hoping to lock in policies backed by a pro-business administration,
poultry farmers are seeking an exemption for the smelly fumes produced
by tons of chicken manure. Businesses are lobbying the Bush administration
to roll back rules that let employees take time off for family needs and
medical problems. And electric power companies are pushing the government
to relax pollution-control requirements." ... "The Federal Register typically
grows fat with regulations churned out in the final weeks of any administration.
But the push for such rules has become unusually intense because of the
possibility that Democrats in 2009 may consolidate control of the White
House, the Senate and the House of Representatives for the first time in
14 years." ... "At the Transportation Department, trucking companies are
trying to get final approval for a rule increasing the maximum number of
hours commercial truck drivers can work. And automakers are trying to persuade
officials to set new standards for the strength of car roofs — standards
far less stringent than what consumer advocates say is needed to protect
riders in a rollover." ... "At the Interior Department, coal companies
are lobbying for a regulation that would allow them to dump rock and dirt
from mountaintop mining operations into nearby streams and valleys." ...
"Some of the biggest battles now involve rules affecting the quality of
air, water and soil." (1, 2)
-By Robert Pear -NYTimes
California
- Air
- Environment
- 
Enforcement
- Government
- Auto
- Makers
- 
Global
- Planet
- 
Climate
- "California
sues EPA over emissions: The state seeks to force
the agency to move more quickly on its request to enforce tough regulations."
... "California sued the federal government today, demanding that the [Republican
President Bush led] U.S. Environmental Protection Agency act now to give
the states the power to enforce tough regulations on automakers in the
fight against global warming." ... "The U.S. Supreme Court cleared the
way last summer for the EPA to approve state regulations to limit emissions
of greenhouse gas from automobile tailpipes. But no action has been forthcoming."
... "The EPA has said it will act on the state's request by year's end,
but today's move was a major assault on the federal government's perceived
lack of action on what many national and world leaders consider the No.
1 threat to the planet." -By Marc Lifsher
-LAtimes
California
- 
Wildfire
- Politics
- Government
- 
Military
- Weather
- Winds
- "Aircraft
sat as California wildfires took hold." ... "As wildfires
were charging across Southern California, nearly two dozen water-dropping
helicopters and two massive cargo planes sat idly by, grounded by government
rules and bureaucracy." ... "How much the aircraft would have helped will
never be known, but their inability to provide quick assistance raises
troubling questions about California's preparations for a fire season that
was widely expected to be among the worst on record." ... "It took as long
as a day for Navy, Marine and California National Guard helicopters to
get clearance early this week, in part because state rules require all
firefighting choppers to be accompanied by state forestry "fire spotters"
who coordinate water or retardant drops. By the time those spotters arrived,
the powerful Santa Ana winds stoking the fires had made it too dangerous
to fly." ... "The National Guard's C-130 cargo planes, among the most powerful
aerial firefighting weapons, never were slated to help. The reason: They've
yet to be outfitted with tanks needed to carry thousands of gallons of
fire retardant, though that was promised four years ago."
-AP via -CNN
US
- Government
- Global
- Climate
- Politics
- 
Human
- Health
- Environmental
- 
Science
- 
Food
- Water
- Air
- "Scientists
Denounce Global Warming Report 'Edits': Public Health
Experts Say Edits Represent Censoring of Science." ... "Environmental and
public health experts overwhelmingly denounced editing by the White House
of a federal health agency head's testimony to Congress Tuesday. Significant
deletions were made from the testimony, concerning global warming and the
potential impact on human health." ... "The original, unedited testimony
presented to Congress by Dr. Julie Gerberding, director of the Centers
for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and obtained by ABC News was 14
pages long, but the White House Office of Management and Budget edited
the final version down to a mere six pages." ... "Scientists and public
health organizations called the move "frustrating," "terrible" and "appalling."
The edits essentially deleted all sections that referred to climate change
as a public health concern -- including the risks of increased food-borne
and waterborne diseases, worsening extreme weather events, worsening air
pollution and the effect of heat stress on humans." ... ""Dr. Gerberding
is the lead of the premiere public health agency in the U.S.," said Kim
Knowlton, a science fellow on global warming and health at the National
Resources Defense Council in New York. "It's shocking that she was not
allowed to say in a public discussion some of these vital details." ...
""One has to wonder why was this is so threatening to the White House.""
(1, 2,
3)
-By Raja Jagadeesan, M.D. and Carla Williams
-ABCNEWS.com
Transportation
- Auto
- Industry
- Environmental
- Air
- 
Law
- Enforcement
- Politics
- Los
Angeles - CA
- "E-mails
show DOT chief fought state on emissions: Official
lobbied against letting California enforce own standard for tailpipe exhaust."
... "U.S. Secretary of Transportation Mary Peters, with the knowledge of
the [Repuublican President Bush] White House, directed a behind-the-scenes
effort to block California's request for its own, more stringent tailpipe
emission standard, according to documents released Monday by a congressional
committee." ... "A trail of e-mails show Peters prodding her staff this
spring to persuade members of Congress and state governors to oppose California's
request, now pending with the Environmental Protection Agency, to enforce
its own standards. To contact members, DOT staffers used a list of congressional
districts with auto facilities provided by the auto industry." ... "Secretary
Peters "asked that we develop some ideas A.S.A.P. about facilitating a
pushback from governors (esp. D's) and others opposed to piecemeal regulation
of emissions, as per CA's waiver petition," Jeff Shane, Peters' undersecretary
for policy, told staffers in a May 22 e-mail about the California request.
"Esp. D's" meant "especially Democrats."" ... "In another e-mail, a DOT
staffer told Peters' chief of staff that Marty Hall, chief of staff at
the White House Council on Environmental Quality, was "OK with (the secretary)
making calls" to lobby Congress." ... "The e-mails were released Monday
by [California Democratic Representative] Rep. Henry Waxman, chairman of
the House Oversight Committee. Waxman, a Los Angeles [California] Democrat,
said the documents, along with interviews with Hall and other staffers,
showed that "the administration is trying to stack the deck against California's
efforts to regulate greenhouse gas emissions from motor vehicles" and that
"political considerations — not the merits of the issue" — will determine
EPA's decision." ... "California is allowed under the Clean Air Act to
set its own emissions standards if it secures a waiver from the EPA. At
least 11 other states are waiting to adopt the California standard, designed
to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 30 percent from new models in 2016,
which has made this a major environmental issue." -By
Frank Davies -MNG
via -MercuryNews
Weather
- Disaster
- 
Texas
- Federal
- Money
- Wind
- Land
-
- 
Florida
- "Humberto
claims 1 in East Texas." ... "Hurricane Humberto
claimed the life of an Orange County man as the storm blasted East Texas
with winds up to to 85 miles an hour this morning." ... "Today, [Texas
Republican Governor] Gov. Rick Perry declared Jefferson, Orange and Galveston
counties disaster areas, clearing the way for federal funds after Humberto
developed from a tropical depression into a Category 1 hurricane in just
more than 12 hours." ... "Humberto didn't exist until late Wednesday afternoon,
and wasn't even a tropical storm until almost midday, strengthening from
a tropical depression with 35-mph winds to a hurricane with 85-mph winds
in just 18 hours, senior hurricane specialist James Franklin said at the
National Hurricane Center in Miami [Florida]." ... ""To put this development
in perspective, no tropical cyclone in the historical record has ever reached
this intensity at a faster rate near landfall. It would be nice to know,
someday, why this happened,'' Franklin said." -By
Kevin Moran and Harvey Rice with contributions by Eric Berger, Carol Christian,
Anne Marie Kilday, and Dale Lezon -AP
-Chron
Global
- Climate
- Science
- Air
- Water
- US- 
Russia
- 
Alaska
- "Scientist
Measures an Overlooked Greenhouse Gas." ... "Alaska
scientist Katey Walter studies an aspect of climate change that has been
largely overlooked: methane emissions." ... "Methane is a greenhouse gas
that is 23 times more powerful than carbon dioxide, which means it is much
more efficient at trapping heat. As a result, methane feeds into a loop
of global warming." ... "Thawing Yields More Methane." ... "As global
temperatures rise, permafrost thaws. Ponds and lakes form in the depressions
left behind by melting chunks of ice in the ground. In the bottoms of ponds
and lakes, bacteria feed on the carbon that previously had been frozen
underground and burp it out as methane." ... "And because methane emissions
from lakes haven't been carefully studied, scientists worry that projections
for global warming could be far worse than currently estimated." ... "Walter,
who teaches at the University of Alaska in Fairbanks, says that methane
is being released from lakes in the far north — Alaska, Siberia [Russia],
elsewhere — at a far greater rate than anyone has estimated." -By
Melissa Block with contributions by Art Silverman
-NPR/News
China
- Environmental
- Health
- Politics
- Air
- Land
- Water
- Coal
- Weather
- Science
- Industrial
- History
- International
- 
South
Korea - 
Japan
- USA
- California
- Los
Angeles - 
EU
- Sports
- Children
- "As
China Roars, Pollution Reaches Deadly Extremes."
... "No country in history has emerged as a major industrial power without
creating a legacy of environmental damage that can take decades and big
dollops of public wealth to undo." ... "But just as the speed and scale
of China’s rise as an economic power have no clear parallel in history,
so its pollution problem has shattered all precedents. Environmental degradation
is now so severe, with such stark domestic and international repercussions,
that pollution poses not only a major long-term burden on the Chinese public
but also an acute political challenge to the ruling Communist Party. And
it is not clear that China can rein in its own economic juggernaut." ...
"Public health is reeling. Pollution has made cancer China’s leading cause
of death, the Ministry of Health says. Ambient air pollution alone is blamed
for hundreds of thousands of deaths each year. Nearly 500 million people
lack access to safe drinking water." ... "Chinese cities often seem wrapped
in a toxic gray shroud. Only 1 percent of the country’s 560 million city
dwellers breathe air considered safe by the European Union. Beijing [China's
capital] is frantically searching for a magic formula, a meteorological
deus ex machina, to clear its skies for the 2008 Olympics." ... "Environmental
woes that might be considered catastrophic in some countries can seem commonplace
in China: industrial cities where people rarely see the sun; children killed
or sickened by lead poisoning or other types of local pollution; a coastline
so swamped by algal red tides that large sections of the ocean no longer
sustain marine life." ... "China is choking on its own success. The economy
is on a historic run, posting a succession of double-digit growth rates.
But the growth derives, now more than at any time in the recent past, from
a staggering expansion of heavy industry and urbanization that requires
colossal inputs of energy, almost all from coal, the most readily available,
and dirtiest, source." ... "China’s problem has become the world’s problem.
Sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxides spewed by China’s coal-fired power plants
fall as acid rain on Seoul, South Korea [capital], and Tokyo [Japan's capital].
Much of the particulate pollution over Los Angeles [California, USA] originates
in China, according to the Journal of Geophysical Research." (1, 2,
3,
4,
5,
6)
-By Joseph Kahn and Jim Yardley
-NYTimes
Government
- Environmental
- Health
- Science
- Politics
- Children
- Air
- Safety
- Hurricane
Katrina - Emergency
- Manufactured
- 
Homes
- Construction
- 
Louisiana
- California
- Lawmakers
- "FEMA
Suppressed Health Warnings for Workers, Katrina Victims:
Agency Rejected Environmental Testing on Formaldehyde Gas Levels." ...
"The Federal Emergency Management Agency [run by the Republican President
Bush administration] has suppressed warnings from its own Gulf coast field
workers since the middle of 2006 about suspected health problems that may
be linked to elevated levels of formaldehyde gas released in FEMA-provided
trailers, lawmakers said today." ... "Committee Chairman [California Democratic
Representative] Henry L. Waxman (D-Calif.) called FEMA's bureaucratic neglect
of storm victims "sickening."" ... "Nearly 5,000 pages of documents turned
over to the committee "expose an official policy of premeditated ignorance,"
Waxman charged. "Senior officials in Washington didn't want to know what
they already knew, because they didn't want the legal and moral responsibility
to do what they knew had to be done."" ... "In May, FEMA said its own tests
of 96 new trailers near Baton Rouge [Louisiana] last September and October
found formaldehyde at 1.2 parts per million, but levels dropped to 0.3
parts per million after four days of ventilation. FEMA said that is the
accepted threshold used by the Department of Housing and Urban Development
for its manufactured homes." ... "But Mary C. DeVany, an occupational health
and safety engineer advising the Sierra Club, testified that that exposure
limit of 0.3 parts per million is 400 times greater than the normal limit
for year-round exposure set by the CDC-affiliated Agency for Toxic Substances
and Disease Register. It is also three times the daily exposure limit recommended
by the National Institute on Occupational Safety and Health, she said."
... ""This misapplication and skewing of scientific results is at best
unethical and grossly misrepresents and attempt to minimize the adverse
health effects being experienced by thousands of travel trailer residents,"
DeVany said." ... "Formaldehyde is a common wood preservative used in construction
materials such as particle board, plywood, glue, curtains, molded plastic
and countertops." ... "The chemical can cause vision and respiratory problems.
It has been linked to higher rates of asthma, bronchitis and allergies
in children with long-term exposure." (1, 2,
3)
-By Spencer S. Hsu -WashingtonPost
California
- Air- Environment
- Legislation
- Industry
- Global
- Climate
- "State's
global warming fight claims two air-quality officials."
... "The messy departure of the chairman and executive director of California's
Air Resources Board, if nothing else, reflects the extremely intense, largely
clandestine struggle in the state capitol over how [California Republican
Governor] Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's much-ballyhooed anti-global warming
crusade is to be implemented." ... "Schwarzenegger says he fired ARB Chairman
Robert Sawyer last week because the veteran energy researcher was moving
too slowly on cleaning up the San Joaquin Valley's dirty air. But Sawyer
and ARB Executive Director Catherine Witherspoon, who resigned Monday,
have a far different version, one that rings truer. They contend that Schwarzenegger's
chief of staff, Susan Kennedy, and other aides wanted them to slow down
on implementing anti-global warming legislation passed last year." ...
"On Monday, in an interview with Fresno Bee reporter E.J. Schultz, Witherspoon
called the administration's rationale a "cover-up" and added, "The real
reason for firing him [Robert Sawyer] . . . was climate change policy."
She said, "The day-to-day orders that we receive from the governor's office
are to do less, to delay, to not burden industry."" -By
Dan Walters -MercuryNews
California
- Air
- Environment
- Business
- Politics
- Los
Angeles - "Schwarzenegger
pressured air-quality board, Democrats charge." ...
"[California Democratic] Assembly Speaker Fabian Nu`ñez on Monday
called for an investigation into whether the [California Republican Governor
Arnold] Schwarzenegger administration has wrongly interfered with the state's
air resources board as it begins to develop new air emission standards."
... "Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has traveled around the globe touting the
state's unprecedented emissions law, AB 32, which was passed amid worldwide
fanfare last year as he sought re-election. But critics now contend that
the governor may have pressured the board to slow down implementing the
new rules to appease business interests." ... ""The administration is interfering
with CARB's [California Air Resources Board] ability to implement the laws
of California, and to say I'm troubled is an understatement," said Nu`ñez,
a Los Angeles Democrat who co-sponsored the legislation. "We're going to
get to the bottom of this. We want to know if CARB was being manipulated
by the administration . . . and to what extent those left in charge of
the air resources board are committed to fully implementing AB 32 to the
letter of the law."" -By Steven Harmon
-MercuryNews
Dick
Cheney - Special
Report - Government
- 
Terrorism
- Torture
- Economy
- Environment
- Air
- Water
- Food
- 
Animal
- Politics
- "Angler:
The Cheney Vice Presidency." ... "Dick Cheney is
the most influential and powerful man ever to hold the office of vice president.
This series examines Cheney's largely hidden and little-understood role
in crafting policies for the War on Terror, the economy and the environment."
New
York
- Terrorism
- Air
- Environment
- Police
- "Health-related
Sept. 11 death raises questions, confusion." ...
"Police Detective James Zadroga died of respiratory disease at age 34,
more than four years after he worked hundreds of hours in the [New York,
New York] ground zero cleanup." ... "As family members of ground zero workers
who died after breathing in the toxic dust from the collapsed World Trade
Center push to have their names included on the official list of victims,
Zadroga's father plans to ask the city to review his son's case." ... "A
New Jersey medical examiner has ruled his son's 2006 death to be "directly
related" to his work at ground zero and exposure to toxic dust from the
collapsed World Trade Center." ... "A New York attorney [Felicia Dunn-Jones]
who died of lung disease months after the terrorist attack was declared
a homicide victim and added to the death toll Wednesday, prompting confusion
among Sept. 11 family members about what distinguished this death from
the scores of others attributed to the aftermath of the attack." -By
Amy Westfeldt -AP
via -Newsday.com
Rudolph
Giuliani - Election
2008 - New
York
- Emergency
- Police
- Firefighter
- Workers
- Air
- Health
- Terrorism
- Families
- "Mystique
of 'America's Mayor' Tarnished: 9/11 Firefighters,
Families Protest Giuliani's Rise." ... "The mystique of "America's mayor"
shows signs of fraying." ... "The nation's largest firefighters' union
is planning to send out 280,000 videotapes attacking former New York Republican
Mayor Rudolph Giuliani [and 2008 election Presidential candidate] and his
pre-9/11 record -- including his decision to place New York City's emergency
operations center in the World Trade Center before Sept. 11, 2001." ...
"In recent months, families of 9/11 victims have planted themselves outside
Giuliani fundraisers, and several critical books and documentaries have
been released." ... "Reports have emerged sharply questioning Giuliani's
response to the 9/11 attacks, with critics portraying a bullying mayor
who, in his zeal for a quick cleanup, brushed aside health concerns about
the air at ground zero." ... "And Giuliani's former emergency management
director, Jerome Hauer, is now a prominent Giuliani critic, questioning
the former mayor's handling of the turf wars that divided the police and
fire departments before 9/11." ... ""In terms of preparedness, response
and leadership, Rudy fell down," said Jeff Zack, a spokesman for the International
Association of Fire Fighters, which is preparing the video for distribution
to its members." ... ""Rudy has created an image of himself that he likes
to expand upon: that he's the hero of 9/11," Zack said. "And it's not true,
especially from the point of view of the firefighters who lived through
that day and the families of those who died on that day."" (1, 2,
3,
4)
-By Rick Klein -ABCNEWS.com
New
York
- Terrorism
- Air
- Environment
- Police
- Firefighters
- Workers
- Lawsuit
- "For
the First Time, New York Links a Death to 9/11 Dust."
... "New York City’s chief medical examiner, Dr. Charles S. Hirsch, has
for the first time directly linked a death to exposure to dust from the
destruction of the World Trade Center." ... "In a letter made public yesterday,
Dr. Hirsch said that he was certain “beyond a reasonable doubt” that dust
from the twin towers contributed to the death of Felicia Dunn-Jones, 42,
a civil rights lawyer who was engulfed on Sept. 11 as she ran from her
office a block away from the trade center." ... "She later developed a
serious cough and had trouble breathing, and she died five months after
the terrorist attack." ... "Her name will be added to the official list
of World Trade Center victims, and the official number of people who died
as a result of the attack on the twin towers will be increased to 2,750."
... "The medical examiner’s decision also could be cited as supporting
evidence in the federal lawsuits filed against the city by thousands of
firefighters, police officers and recovery workers who say they were injured
by breathing the dust during the 10-month cleanup." -By
Anthony DePalma -NYTimes
Rudolph
Giuliani - Election
2008 - Politician
- New
York
- Terrorism
- Disaster
- Money
- Government
- Construction
- Firefighters
- Workers
- Air
- Environment
- Science
- Health
- 
Safety
- Enforcement
- Lawsuit
- "Ground
Zero Illnesses Clouding Giuliani’s Legacy." ... "[2008
election Republican Presidential candidate and former New York City Mayor
Rudolph Giuliani] Administration documents and thousands of pages of legal
testimony filed in a lawsuit against New York City [New York], along with
more than two dozen interviews with people involved in the events of the
last four months of Mr. Giuliani’s administration, show that while the
city had a safety plan for workers, it never meaningfully enforced federal
requirements that those at the site wear respirators [at the World Trade
Center cleanup]." ... "At the same time, the administration warned companies
working on the pile that they would face penalties or be fired if work
slowed. And according to public hearing transcripts and unpublished administration
records, officials also on some occasions gave flawed public representations
of the nature of the health threat, even as they privately worried about
exposure to lawsuits by sickened workers." ... "“The city ran a generally
slipshod, haphazard, uncoordinated, unfocused response to environmental
concerns,” said David Newman, an industrial hygienist with the New York
Committee on Occupational Safety and Health, a labor group." ... "City
officials and a range of medical experts are now convinced that the dust
and toxic materials in the air around the site were a menace. More than
2,000 New York City firefighters have been treated for serious respiratory
problems. Seventy percent of nearly 10,000 recovery workers screened at
Mount Sinai Medical Center have trouble breathing. City officials estimate
that health care costs related to the air at ground zero have already run
into the hundreds of millions of dollars, and no one knows whether other
illnesses, like cancers, will emerge." ... "From the beginning, there was
no doubt that Mr. Giuliani and his team ruled the hellish disaster site.
Officials from the Federal Emergency Management Agency, the Army Corps
of Engineers and the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, all
with extensive disaster response experience, arrived almost immediately,
only to be placed on the sideline. One Army Corps official said Mr. Giuliani
acted like a “benevolent dictator.”" ... "Despite the presence of those
federal experts, Mr. Giuliani assigned the ground zero cleanup to a largely
unknown city agency, the Department of Design and Construction. Kenneth
Holden, the department’s commissioner until January 2004, said in a deposition
in the federal lawsuit against the city that he initially expected FEMA
or the Army Corps to try to take over the cleanup operation. Mr. Giuliani
never let them." ... "Records show that the city was aware of the danger
in the ground zero dust from the start. In a federal court deposition,
Kelly R. McKinney, associate commissioner at the city’s health department
in 2001, said the agency issued an advisory on the night of Sept. 11 stating
that asbestos in the air made the site hazardous and that everyone should
wear masks." ... "Much has been said and written about Christie Whitman,
then the Environmental Protection Agency administrator, and her statement
a week after the towers fell that the air in New York was safe. But even
then, the air above the debris pile was known to be more dangerous than
the air in the rest of Lower Manhattan." ... "Whatever they were saying
publicly about the safety of the air, Mr. Giuliani and his staff were privately
worried. A memo to Deputy Mayor Robert M. Harding from his assistant in
early October said that the city faced as many as 10,000 liability claims
connected to 9/11, “including toxic tort cases that might arise in the
next few decades.”" ... "The warning did not lead to a crackdown on workers
without respirators. Rather, a month later, Mr. Giuliani wrote to members
of the city’s Congressional delegation urging passage of a bill that capped
the city’s liability at $350 million." (1, 2,
3)
-By Anthony DePalma -NYTimes
Kansas
- Greensburg
- Tornado
- Vehicles
- Police
- "Kansas
Tornado Death Toll Rises: 11 Deaths Now Reported
After Injured Police Officer Taken Off Life Support." ... "Search and rescue
operations continued Tuesday in Greensburg [Kansas], where emergency responders
have struggled to determined if any of its 1,600 residents are missing
because many are staying with friends or relatives rather than in shelters."
... "The 1.7-mile-wide, Category F-5 enhanced tornado, with wind estimated
at 205 mph, destroyed about 95 percent of this farming town Friday." ...
"The government's response to the disaster was
undermined by ongoing National Guard deployments to the Middle East,
[Kansas Democratic Governor] Gov. Kathleen Sebelius said." ... ""I don't
think there is any question if you are missing trucks, Humvees and helicopters
that the response is going to be slower," Sebelius said. "The real victims
here will be the residents of Greensburg, because the recovery will be
at a slower pace."" -AP
via -CBSNews
Kansas
- Tornado
- Disaster
- US
- National
Guard - 
Iraq
- "Deadly
Kansas Tornado; Town Wiped Out." ... "The plains
states are recovering after a weekend of violent weather. Tornadoes left
10 people dead in Kansas, 9 of those from a twister Friday that nearly
destroyed the entire town of Greensburg [Kansas]." ... "[Kansas Democratic]
Governor Sebelius says that the situation is being made even harder by
the absence of Kansas National Guard soldiers and equipment due to the
war in Iraq." ... ""Not having the the National Guard equipment which used
to be positioned in various parts of the state to bring immediately is
really going to handicap this effort to rebuild.""
-KTTC.com
California
- Air
- Law
- Climate
- Politics- LA
- "Calif
Legislature passes bill to cut greenhouse gases."
... "The California Assembly on Thursday approved, as expected, a bill
to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in the state to 1990 levels by 2020."
... "The state Senate earlier in the day approved the measure, which was
forged by a compromise reached Wednesday between the legislature's Democratic
Party leadership and Republican Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger." ... "Only
one Republican assemblymember, Shirley Horton of San Diego, voted for the
measure, which passed 46-31. Not one Republican in the state Senate voted
for Assembly Bill 32, which was sponsored by Assembly Speaker Fabian Nunez,
D-Los Angeles." -By Mark Golden
-MarketWatch
Mississippi
- Hurricane
Katrina - Homeowner
- Disaster
- Business
- Wind
- Water
-Weather
- "Katrina
storm surge damage not covered by homeowners insurance, judge rules."
... "A federal judge ruled Tuesday that an insurance company's policies
do not cover damage from wind-driven water in a decision that could affect
hundreds of upcoming cases related to property damage from Hurricane Katrina."
... "U.S. District Judge L.T. Senter Jr. ruled that a Mississippi Gulf
Coast couple cannot collect damages from storm surge caused by Katrina
because Nationwide Mutual Insurance's policies do not cover wind-driven
water damage." ... "Senter Jr. said Paul and Julie Leonard of Pascagoula
could be compensated for damage that they could prove was caused by high
winds." ... ""This reading of the policy would mean that an insured whose
dwelling lost its roof in high winds and at the same time suffered an incursion
of even an inch of water could recover nothing under his Nationwide policy,"
he wrote." -AP
via -USATODAY
Fuel
- Air
- Health
- Environment
- Law
- "EPA:
Special Fuels Not to Blame for Costs: EPA Report
Concludes 'Boutique' Fuels Not Culprit in Climbing Gas Prices As Bush Has
Suggested." ... "Facing growing public outrage over soaring gasoline prices,
Bush ordered the study on April 25 in a speech in which he attributed high
gas prices in part to the growth of special fuels." ... "But the task force
found otherwise, according to its report to be released possibly as early
as Friday." ... "According to a late draft, obtained Thursday by The Associated
Press, the task force concludes that suggestions of a connection between
boutique fuels and supply or price concerns cannot be supported." ... "The
state-required fuels "have served an important role" in helping states
meet federal air quality standards, the report said, and will be equally
important in meeting future clean air requirements." (1, 2)
-By H. Josef Hebert -AP
via -ABCNEWS.com
Emergency
- Air
- 
West
Virginia - Labor
- "Mine
blast survivor says some men's air packs didn't work."
... "The sole survivor of the Sago Mine explosion says some of the emergency
air packs his fellow miners carried didn't work." ... "In his most detailed
account of the Jan. 2 blast, Randy McCloy describes in a letter how four
miners sought to share emergency air supplies with others trapped in the
mine when it appeared theirs malfunctioned." ... "In the letter, McCloy
refers to the emergency air packs, called self-contained self-rescue devices,
as "rescuers."" ... "Federal and state officials said the air packs, which
were tested after the blast, were functional." -By
Emily Bazar -USATODAY
New
York
- Air
- Environment
- Science
- Government
- Terrorism
- Law
Enforcement - "Official:
9/11 Health 'Warning'." ... "The government's point
man on Sept. 11 health programs said he is worried that an autopsy linking
a retired detective's death to recovery work at ground zero may be a warning
sign of other life-threatening cases." ... "Dr. John Howard also said it
will take time to determine whether there is a scientific link between
deaths and exposure to toxic dust. Some epidemiologists have said it will
take 20 years or more to prove such a link."
-AP-CBSNews
James
Inhofe - Corporate
- Government
- Environmental
- Science
- Politics
- 
Okla
- US
- Global
- Planet
- Climate
- Air
- Legislation
- "Senator
Inhofe's Climate Of Confrontation." ... "The Reverend
Richard Cizik is an evangelical Christian and a die-hard Reaganite. So
he was surprised that a closed-door meeting called late last year by conservative
[Oklahoma Republican] Senator James Inhofe (R-Okla. [Republican-Oklahoma])
was all about Cizik's evil deeds. Inhofe called Cizik, government affairs
chief at the National Association of Evangelicals, a liberal wolf in sheep's
clothing. "I sat there with my mouth open," recalls a meeting participant."
... "Cizik's sin? He believes that climate change is a growing problem,
and that Christians have a duty to protect the planet by cutting emissions
of greenhouse gases. In contrast, Inhofe, the chairman of the Senate Environment
& Public Works Committee, has famously derided global warming as a
"hoax." He has been on the offensive against those he considers heretics.
That has left business in doubt about the regulatory environment." ...
"Seeking Tax Records:" ... "Last year, Inhofe demanded six years
of tax and membership records from two groups of state and local air-pollution
control officials after they testified that his proposed clean air legislation
was too weak. On [February] Feb. 7, the day before evangelicals kicked
off a campaign for carbon controls, Inhofe sent a preemptive letter to
senators asserting "there is, in fact, no movement in that direction" among
evangelicals. Now he is requesting information on all employees and projects
at the National Center for Atmospheric Research. Inhofe is "using the power
of government and the power of office to threaten," says Donald Kennedy,
editor-in-chief of Science." - By John Carey
-BusinessWeek
Government
- Climate
- Fuel
- Air
- Ice
- Environment- Science
- Politics
- "Rewriting
The Science." ... "As a government scientist, James
Hansen is taking a risk. He says there are things the White House doesn't
want you to hear but he's going to say them anyway." ... "Hansen is arguably
the world's leading researcher on global warming. He's the head of NASA's
top institute studying the climate. But this imminent scientist tells correspondent
Scott Pelley that the Bush administration is restricting who he can
talk to and editing what he can say. Politicians, he says, are rewriting
the science." ... "Asked if he believes the administration is censoring
what he can say to the public, Hansen says: "Or they're censoring whether
or not I can say it. I mean, I say what I believe if I'm allowed to say
it."" ... "What James Hansen believes is that global warming is accelerating.
He points to the melting arctic and to Antarctica, where new data show
massive losses of ice to the sea." ... "Those human changes, he says, are
driven by burning fossil fuels that pump out greenhouse gases like CO2,
carbon dioxide. Hansen says his research shows that man has just 10 years
to reduce greenhouse gases before global warming reaches what he calls
a tipping point and becomes unstoppable. He says the White House is blocking
that message." (1, 2,
3)
-Produced By Catherine Herrick and Bill Owens
-60
Minutes -CBSNews
US
- Iraq
- Emergencies
- Weather
- Water
- Wind
- Fire
- "Bush
Policies Are Weakening National Guard, Governors Say."
... "Governors of both parties said Sunday that Bush administration policies
were stripping the National Guard of equipment and personnel needed to
respond to hurricanes, floods, tornadoes, forest fires and other emergencies."
... "In a recent report, the Government Accountability Office, an investigative
arm of Congress, said that "extensive use of the Guard's equipment overseas
has significantly reduced the amount of equipment available to governors
for domestic needs."" ... "Since 2003, the report said, the Army National
Guard has left more than 64,000 pieces of equipment, valued at more than
$1.2 billion, in Iraq. The Army has not kept track of most of this equipment
and has no firm plans to replace it, the report said." -By
Robert Pear -NYTimes
New
York
- Police
- Air
- Environment
- Terrorism
- "Tale
Of The 'Walking Dead'." ... "Last month, James Zadroga,
a 34-year-old New York City police detective, died of a respiratory disease
he contracted during rescue and recovery operations at Ground Zero — the
site of the Sept. 11 terrorist attack on the World Trade Center." ... "Shortly
after finishing his rescue and recovery work at the World Trade Center,
Zadroga developed a chronic cough, shortness of breath and acid reflux.
He was plagued by nightmares and headaches. Within months, he needed oxygen
tanks, antibiotics and steroid injections on a regular basis." ... "More
than four years after hijackers rammed passenger jets into the twin towers,
at least a dozen people who worked at Ground Zero have died of diseases
attributed to the witch's brew of deadly chemicals and toxic substances
that filled the air at the disaster site." ... "Thousands of other Ground
Zero workers are suffering from serious respiratory ailments. The victims
include police officers, firefighters, construction workers and even immigrant
laborers. Some call these forgotten men and women the "walking dead.""
... "Estimates vary, but tens of thousands of workers and residents have
reported some lingering effects from Ground Zero exposure. Of the roughly
70,000 people currently enrolled in Mount Sinai's World Trade Center health
study, more than 60,000 suffer some kind of respiratory problem." (1, 2,
3)
-By Stephen Smith
-CBSNews
New
York
- Terrorism
- Government
- Environmental
- Air
- Health
- Science
- Politics
- Noteworthy
- People
- "Judge
Blasts EPA Ground Zero Appraisal." ... "A judge attacked
former Environmental Protection Agency chief Christine Todd Whitman for
reassuring Manhattan residents soon after the 2001 terrorist attacks that
the environment was safe to return to homes and offices while toxic dust
was polluting the neighborhood." ... ""No reasonable person would have
thought that telling thousands of people that it was safe to return to
lower Manhattan, while knowing that such return could pose long-term health
risks and other dire consequences, was conduct sanctioned by our laws,"
U.S. District Judge Deborah A. Batts wrote, calling Whitman's actions "conscience-shocking.""
... "The EPA's internal watchdog found the agency, at the urging of White
House officials, gave misleading assurances there was no health risk from
the dust in the air after the towers' collapse." ... "Quoting a ruling
in an earlier court case, the judge said a public official cannot be held
personally liable for putting the public in harm's way unless the conduct
was so egregious as "to shock the contemporary conscience."" ... "Given
her role in protecting the health and environment for Americans, Whitman's
"reassuring and misleading statements of safety after the Sept. 11, 2001
attacks are without question conscience-shocking," Batts said." ... "The
judge said Whitman knew that the collapse of the buildings released tons
of hazardous materials into the air that would have endangered the public
and yet she encouraged residents, workers and students to return to the
area." (1, 2)
-AP via -CBSNews
GOV
- Air
- Water
- Health
- Politics
- Business
- 
Kentucky
- "A
fight over easing rules for reporting toxic emissions:
The EPA plan would help small businesses reduce paperwork." ... "Gracie
Lewis is on a crusade to save the Toxics Release Inventory, a trove of
federal pollution data vital to helping her - and activists nationwide
- win community battles for cleaner air and water." ... "Until a couple
of years ago, Mrs. Lewis was at her wits' end over the stew of chemical
odors wafting into her home from nearby factories in the industrial heart
of Louisville, Ky. [Kentucky], a neighborhood known as "Rubbertown."" ...
"Though she still smells them today, the city now has a plan for beating
back toxic emissions, in part because of TRI data gathered annually by
the Environmental Protection Agency, she says. With those crucial numbers
in hand, she and other activists can ferret out companies releasing harmful
chemicals. "Once we smell it, we call the odor hot line," she says." ...
"But that ability to check the numbers may be changing as the EPA mulls
over whether to lower the TRI reporting requirements. Small businesses
have welcomed the proposal because it eliminates extra paperwork. But Lewis,
environmentalists, and first responders have become part of a vocal national
backlash since the changes were first proposed in September. These groups
argue they would lose vital data and would not be able to hold polluters
accountable." -By Mark Clayton -CSMonitor
World
- Climate
- Air
- Ice
- Science
- History
- "Greenhouse-gas
levels highest for 650,000 years: Climate record
highlights extent of man-made change." ... "Current levels of greenhouse
gases in the atmosphere are higher than at any time in the past 650,000
years, say researchers who have finished cataloguing air bubbles trapped
for millennia inside Antarctic ice. The record, which extends back over
the past eight ice ages, shows that today's concentrations of carbon dioxide
and methane far outstrip those in the past." ... "The researchers studied
air bubbles preserved in ice drilled from the Antarctic ice sheet as part
of the European Project for Ice Coring in Antarctica (EPICA). The ice core
represents a logbook of the state of the world's climate [...] and goes
back 210,000 years further than previous records." -By
Michael Hopkin -Nature
Hurricane
Rita - Texas
- Louisiana
- Wind
-Oil
- "Hurricane
Rita May Hit Land in the Gulf Coast Within Two Days."
... "Hurricane Rita, the third-most- intense storm ever recorded in the
Atlantic basin, may hit the Gulf Coast as soon as tomorrow night. The Category
5 storm is more powerful than Hurricane Katrina when it slammed Louisiana
last month to become the most expensive U.S. natural disaster." ... "Rita,
with winds of 175 mph (280 kmh) is expected to reach land sometime ``Friday
night through Saturday morning,'' said Chris Landsea, a meteorologist with
the National Hurricane Center. Hurricane conditions are possible in the
next 36 hours along the coast between Port Mansfield, Texas, to Cameron,
Louisiana, the center said on its Web site." ... "About 52 percent of 134
[oil] rigs and 57 percent of 819 manned [oil] platforms in the Gulf of
Mexico were evacuated, the Minerals Management Service said on its Web
site." ... "The Texas Gulf Coast has seven of the 13 largest U.S. [oil]
refineries." -By Vivek Shankar -Bloomberg
Hurricane
Rita - Texas
- Louisiana
- Wind
- Transportation
- "Texans
flee from Rita: Category 5 storm churning toward
Gulf Coast." ... "Residents in southeast Texas and coastal Louisiana scurried
to get out of the way of Hurricane Rita, a Category 5 hurricane expected
to hit the Lone Star State this weekend." ... "The National Hurricane Center
said at 4 p.m. that the storm has intensified and now packs maximum sustained
winds of 165 mph (265 kph)." ... "Around Houston, the fourth most populous
city in the United States, interstates and highways are clogged with traffic
as residents rush to leave." ... "Houston Mayor Bill White urged the residents
in areas at risk for storm surge and those living in mobile homes to "begin
making their evacuation plans."" -Contributed to by
Deborah Feyerick and Barbara Starr -CNN
-
-
-
-
- "Thousands
flee from typhoon Nabi: Floods, landslides paralyze
southern Japan." ... "A powerful typhoon pummelled southwestern Japan with
torrential rain and high winds on Tuesday, causing floods and landslides,
paralysing transport and prompting officials to tell more than 100,000
people to flee their homes." ... "The typhoon, named Nabi, meaning "butterfly"
in Korean, was moving north at 30 km an hour (19 mph) but was forecast
to swing east and beat a path up the Japan Sea coast, bringing rain and
strong winds to western Japan and parts of South Korea before hitting the
northernmost main Japanese island of Hokkaido." ... "More than 1,300 mm
(51 inches) of rain had fallen in some parts of Kyushu in 24 hours, public
broadcaster NHK said." -Reuters
via -CNN
Louisiana
- Mississippi
-
- Sports
- Architecture
- "Katrina
batters roof of Superdome: Worst of storm still to
come for Mississippi." ... "Hurricane Katrina flogged Louisiana's southeastern
shore Monday morning with sustained winds in excess of 135 mph as it moved
inland, the National Hurricane Center said." ... "New Orleans, braced for
a catastrophic direct hit from the powerful Category 4 storm, hunkered
nearly 10,000 people in its mammoth Superdome, but Ed Reams of CNN affiliate
WDSU reported that the structure has begun leaking as the winds damaged
the roof letting daylight and rainwater in the darkened arena." ... "National
Guard troops moved people to the other side of the dome. Others were moving
beneath the concrete-reinforced terrace level."
-CNN
Louisiana-
- "Katrina
Plows Into Gulf Coast." ... "Hurricane Katrina turned
slightly to the east before slamming ashore early Monday with 145-mph winds,
providing some hope that the worst of the storm's wrath might not be directed
at New Orleans [Louisiana], but forecasters warned that the venerable,
below-sea-level city would be pounded throughout the day and a potential
15-foot storm surge could still cause extensive flooding." ... "Katrina
weakened overnight to a Category 4 storm and turned slightly eastward before
hitting land about 6:10 a.m. CDT east of Grand Isle near the bayou town
of Buras." (1, 2)
-AP -CBSNews
Louisiana
-
- "Category
5 Katrina heads to Gulf Coast: 'Once in a lifetime'
storm has New Orleans [Louisiana] in her sights. Heavy winds will pick
up tonight. Panhandle worries." ... "With a Category 5 hurricane bearing
down on his below-sea-level city, Mayor C. Ray Nagin made what pleas he
could to his fellow citizens to flee and then left it in the hands of a
higher power." ... "Nagin ordered a mandatory evacuation for the city's
485,000 residents and opened the Superdome as a shelter of last resort,
bluntly warning those who stayed that they would be at the mercy of Katrina's
high winds, 28-foot storm surge and 15 inches of rain that threatened to
overwhelm the city's protective levees." (1, 2)
-AP via -Newsday.com
Alabama
- Florida
- Louisiana
-
- "Katrina
now Category 4 storm: Hurricane warning for Morgan
City, Louisiana to Alabama-Florida border." ... "Hurricane Katrina was
packing winds of up to 145 mph early Sunday as it approached the U.S. Gulf
Coast, the National Hurricane Center said." ... "The National Hurricane
Center said Katrina -- now a Category 4 storm -- could announce its Monday
arrival with tropical storm-force winds Sunday night." ... "At 10 p.m.
(11 p.m. ET) Saturday the hurricane center issued a hurricane warning from
Morgan City, Louisiana, to the Alabama-Florida border, an area that includes
New Orleans. A warning means that hurricane conditions are expected within
the warning area within the next 24 hours." -Contributed
to by David Mattingly, Susan Candiotti, Jacqui Jeras and Rob Marciano -CNN
Florida-
-
- "Florida
Prepares for Katrina as Storm Strengthens (Update2)."
... "Tropical Storm Katrina headed toward the southeastern Florida coast
today and may intensify into a hurricane before coming ashore tomorrow
morning." ... "Because Katrina is moving slowly, it will have time to dump
as much as 15 inches of rain on some parts of the state, National Hurricane
Center spokeswoman Jennifer Pralgo said." ... "``Our main concern is not
the usual wind, it's rain because of the amount of rain predicted to fall,''
Lynn Norman, spokeswoman for Miami-Dade County, said in a telephone interview."
-By Heather Burke -Bloomberg
PA
- 
IL
- Tennessee
-
- 
-
- "3
states suing Pentagon to stop Air Guard relocations."
... "Pentagon proposals to relocate some Air National Guard aircraft have
infuriated governors who say the federal government cannot reassign Guard
units without their permission." ... "Among the states that object, Pennsylvania,
Illinois and Tennessee have sued in federal court to stop the Pentagon
from moving aircraft and personnel to other states. The Base Realignment
and Closure Commission has gotten legal opinions, including one from the
Justice Department, saying it can take the action, although its own general
counsel says it cannot." -By Martha T. Moore
-USATODAY
-
-
- Autos
- 
-
-
- Homes
- "Bush
Signs Massive Energy Bill Into Law." ... "In the
near term, the new legislation will extend daylight-saving time, give tax
breaks to drivers who buy cars with fuel-efficient technologies and try
to jump-start the construction of new nuclear power plants." ... "Environmental
groups and other opponents say the bill amounts to a gift to energy companies
that does nothing new to promote renewable energy." ... "The measure funnels
billions of dollars to energy companies, including tax breaks and loan
guarantees for new nuclear power plants, clean coal technology and wind
energy." ... "For consumers, the bill would provide tax credits for buying
hybrid gasoline-electric cars and making energy-conservation improvements
with better windows and appliances in new and existing homes." -By
Nedra Pickler -AP
via -Guardian.co.uk
- 
- Florida
-
-
- "Deadly
storm lashes Haiti." ... "A bridge collapsed into
a river swollen by Hurricane Dennis' fierce winds and rain Thursday, killing
at least four people in southwestern Haiti as the storm lashed Caribbean
coastlines." ... "The winds approached 135 miles per hour and it grew to
a Category 4 as the hurricane sideswiped Jamaica and headed straight for
Cuba." ... "The southern Florida peninsula was expecting severe conditions
within 36 hours, and Gov. Jeb Bush declared a state of emergency." -By
Stevenson Jacobs -AP
via -StarTribune.com
- North
Carolina -
-
-
-
- "D.C.
Scare Puts Alert System to the Test: Washington's
Terror Alert System Put to the Test by Plane Scare; Ridge Praises Quick
Response." ... "The terror alert system in the nation's capital was put
to the test by a small plane that flew within three miles of the White
House [Wednesday, May 11th], leading to the frantic evacuation of government
buildings." ... "Alert levels at the White House and Capitol were raised
to their highest state Wednesday when the Cessna 152 crossed into restricted
air space and failed to respond to a Homeland Security helicopter scrambled
to stop it. Military jets fired four warning flares at the single-engine
aircraft, which was carrying a pilot and a student pilot flying from Pennsylvania
to North Carolina, before it turned away from the national landmarks."
(1, 2,
3)
-By Lara Jakes Jordan, Mark Scolforo, Erin Gartner
and Mark Sherman -AP
via -ABCNEWS.com
-
-
- Robots
- "Robot
aircraft to take videocam into battle: A flying video
camera could soon be part of a soldier's field gear--just the sort of thing
you need if you want to know whether there's someone around the corner
with a grenade launcher." ... "Electronics giant Honeywell is testing the
Micro Air Vehicle, a flying robot with two cameras that deliver live video
feeds to soldiers on the ground. Designed for the Defense Advanced Research
Projects Agency, it stands about 17 inches tall on its landing gear and
can be carried in a backpack." -By Michael Kanellos
-CNETNews via -ZDNetNews
Millennium
Ecosystem Assessment
-
-
-
- -
-
-
- Animals
- Millennium
Ecosystem Assessment
- "Human
damage to Earth worsening fast-report." ... "Humans
are damaging the planet at an unprecedented rate and raising risks of abrupt
collapses in nature that could spur disease, deforestation or "dead zones"
in the seas, an international report said on Wednesday." ... "The study,
by 1,360 experts in 95 nations, said a rising human population had polluted
or over-exploited two thirds of the ecological systems on which life depends,
ranging from clean air to fresh water, in the past 50 years." ... "Ten
to 30 percent of mammal, bird and amphibian species were already threatened
with extinction, according to the assessment, the biggest review of the
planet's life support systems." -By Alister Doyle
-Reuters
via -AlertNet.org
/Newsdesk
-
-
-
-
-
- Secrets
- "New
EPA Mercury Rule Omits Conflicting Data: Study Called
Stricter Limits Cost-Effective." ... "When the Environmental Protection
Agency unveiled a rule last week to limit mercury emissions from U.S. power
plants, officials emphasized that the controls could not be more aggressive
because the cost to industry already far exceeded the public health payoff."
... "What they did not reveal is that a Harvard University study paid for
by the EPA, co-authored by an EPA scientist and peer-reviewed two other
EPA scientists had reached the opposite conclusion." ... "That analysis
estimated health benefits 100 times as great as the EPA did, but top agency
officials ordered the finding stripped from public documents, said a staff
member who helped develop the rule. Acknowledging the Harvard study would
have forced the agency to consider more stringent controls, said environmentalists
and the study's author." (1, 2)
-By Shankar Vedantam -WashingtonPost
-
-
-
- Air
- "Plans
to harness the wind divide the moors: Some Scots
see turbines as costly blight." ... "Sarah Burchall had always liked the
idea of wind energy. "I thought: It's renewable and it's clean, part of
the lifestyle I'd chosen to live," said Burchall, an earthy woman who farms
here in the blustery hills of southern Scotland." ... "But that idyllic
view changed drastically last April, when Scottish Power announced plans
to open an industrial-strength wind farm, with more than 100 thrumming
400-foot-high, or 120-foot, wind turbines, in the Ae Forest across from
her home." ... ""I could accept this if this was really about clean energy,
but it's not," said Burchall, who has organized a local group called Trees
Not Turbines. "This is all about business. It's an enormous imposition
on the community, and we feel helpless because of the amount of money that's
at stake."" ... "Advocates say that the turbines can be absorbed by Scotland's
vast landscapes." ... "Behind aesthetics run serious scientific divisions
about the ability of wind technology to produce power and reduce greenhouse
gases." -By Elisabeth Rosenthal
-IHT.com
- "Eight
Found Dead Day After Ill. Twisters." ... "Searchers
with shovels and buckets pulled eight bodies Wednesday from the rubble
of a [Utica, Illinois] tavern where residents had gathered to seek shelter
from a twister that flattened the century-old building." ... "Mayor Fred
Esmond said several people from a nearby trailer park had congregated in
the basement of the Milestone Tap on a night when dozens of twisters tore
through the Midwest. Nine people were removed alive from the ruins of the
country-western-themed watering hole." ... "The twister cut a wide swath
of destruction in this small town 90 miles southwest of Chicago, turning
homes and businesses into piles of brick and splintered wood" -By
Don Babwin -AP
via -Guardian.co.uk
-
-
-
-
- "White
House Seeks to Soften Mercury Rules." ... "The Bush
administration is working to undo regulations that would force power plants
to sharply reduce mercury emissions and other toxic pollutants, according
to a government document and interviews with officials." ... "The Nov.
26 document makes the case that the Environmental Protection Agency, under
President Bill Clinton, misread the Clean Air Act's requirements and that
there are less onerous ways to reduce the emissions." -By
Eric Pianin -WashingtonPost
-
-
- "14
states fight EPA maneuver that weakens Clean Air Act."
... "More than a dozen state attorneys general yesterday sought to block
the federal government from implementing a rule change they argued would
lead to more air pollution from the nation's power plants." ... "They want
to block the EPA's loosening of Clean Air Act regulations that would allow
older power plants, refineries, and factories to modernize without having
to install expensive pollution controls. "If these rules go into effect
even temporarily," said New York state Attorney General Eliot Spitzer,
"utilities will get the green light to spew forth pollution and violate
the clear meaning of a statute that has for decades protected the quality
of the air that we breathe."" -By Devlin Barrett
-AP via -Boston/Globe
