No Community is Prepared for Major Oil-By-Rail Accident, Senate Hearing Told

From: DeSmogBlog 

Just as you aren’t supposed to try to put out an oil fire in your kitchen with water, you aren’t supposed to try to put out a crude oil fire with water either. But in Lac-Megantic, Quebec, that is all firefighters had for the first two days of battling the catastrophic oil-by-rail fire last July.

 

The fire burned until 8,000 gallons of firefighting foam finally arrived from Toronto, an eight-hour drive away. Forty-seven people were killed in the accident.

This lack of foam not only makes the job of first responders impossible when fighting these crude oil fires — it also greatly increases the environmental damage. While the Lac-Megantic firefighters were using water, they were helping the oil flow into the nearby lake and river. One and a half million gallons of oil were spilled.

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Breaking: $3 Million Jury Verdict in Texas Fracking Nuisance Case

From:  DeSmogBlog

Brendan DeMelle

A jury in Dallas, TX today awarded $2.925 million to plaintiffs Bob and Lisa Parr, who sued Barnett shale fracking company Aruba Petroleum Inc. for intentionally causing a nuisance on the Parr's property which impacted their health and ruined their drinking water.

The jury returned its 5-1 verdict confirming that Aruba Petroleum “intentionally created a private nuisance” though its drilling, fracking and production activities at 21 gas wells near the Parrs' Wise County home over a three-year period between 2008-2011.

Plaintiffs attorneys claimed the case is “the first fracking verdict in U.S. history.”   MORE

 

Bundy Ranch: DoD Approved Drone Strike? OathKeepers Evacuating?

From:  Freedom Outpost 

COMMENT - Now, we will be checking to see what contractors provided the technologies in the drone which will be used. 

by  Dean Garrison April 28, 2014

 

Last week, we printed a short article with a report from a concerned Patriot in Bunkerville. The gentleman was concerned that a mole was in their midst and seeking to turn supporters against each other. The latest report I got was that, whether a mole is present or not, paranoia seems to be setting in rapidly. Paul Joseph Watson reported last week that some idiots were taking to twitter to suggest a drone strike on the Bundy Ranch. Who would have thought that we would be seriously talking about that this week? 

 

Again, I am going to keep my source secret until given the green light. The man I have been talking to is somewhat high profile and giving any clue of who he is might cause him problems. Here is the latest email I received: 

Things at camp bundy are deteriorating quickly. Bundy has taken charge of things, or his bodyguard Ryan. They are now running oathkeepers out and bringing in militia to train under the "Bundy Flag". Oathkeepers received a call 2 nights ago telling them there was an imminent drone strike and to clear out. Turns out they were bringing militia in as they left. A couple of fist fights actually broke out and weapons were drawn.

1 of 2 things is happening. The spook inside this thing is trying to break apart the biggest most organized "militia" on the scene or Cliven Bundy is trying to form an army for whatever reason.

MORE

Major Fracking Company to Reveal All ‘Trade Secret’ Chemicals Used in Drilling Process

From:  EcoWatch 

Center for Health, Environment & Justice | April 28, 2014 12:52 pm

Making little more than a splash in the news a major hydraulic fracturing supplier, Baker Hughes, has announced it will be releasing a list of all the chemicals used during fracking. The news of the disclosure is nothing short of groundbreaking, as the chemical mixture used in most fracking operations has been a secret covetously kept by the oil and gas industry for decades.

Photo courtesy of Shutterstock

According to USA Today, “The shift comes a month after a U.S. Energy Department task force recommended changes to improve transparency at FracFocus, where companies can voluntarily report the chemicals they use. The Energy Department’s March report found that hat 84 percent of the wells registered on FracFocus invoked a trade secret exemption for at least one chemical.” 

FracFocus is a site set up by “industry and state water regulators after Wyoming enacted the nation’s first fracking disclosure law in 2010. Since then, 17 other states have followed suit.” The site has receive notable criticism, namely its allowing of companies to remove specific chemicals citing them as trade secrets. And in a U.S. Energy Department Task Force report released in March, roughly 84 percent of fracking wells registered to the site have invoked trade secret exemption for at least one chemical.  MORE

Wealthy Corporate CEOs Behind Fake Anti-Fracking Ads

From:  DeSmogBlog 

Anne Landman

The online version of the Post Independent, the local daily newspaper in heavily-drilled Garfield County, Colorado, is prominently displaying black-and-white banner ads that read, “Blowing the Lid off Fracking Colorado.

 

 Readers are led to believe the ads are anti-fracking, but click on them and you're taken to a pro-fracking website, JobCreatorsNetwork.com, that boasts about all the wonderful jobs and economic benefits that drilling and fracking create. 

 

Members of Job Creators Network include the wealthy CEOs of major companies like Home Depot, Whole Foods Market, Staples and Best Buy. Members also reportedly have ties to groups like the Cato Institute and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.   MORE

 

 

Mayflower: Deadly Tornado Sweeps Through Arkansas Town That Endured ExxonMobil Tar Sands Pipeline Spill in 2013

From:  DeSmogBlog

by Steve Horn 

On March 29, 2013, ExxonMobil's Pegasus tar sands pipeline ruptured in Mayflower, Arkansas, sending hundreds of thousands of gallons of diluted bitumen (“dilbit”) pouring down the town's streets.

Now, just over a year after the massive spill, devastation has come to Mayflower and neighboring towns again, this time in the form of a lethal tornado. On the evening of April 27, the twister destroyed huge pockets of the town of just over 2,300 citizens in a wholesale manner, with 14 confirmed dead and likely many more still not counted.

“Sadly, we don't expect it to stay at 14,” tweeted Arkansas Governor Mike Beebe. At least 10 died in Faulkner County alone, which houses Mayflower, according to the Arkansas Department of Emergency Management.  MORE

IWW Environmental Unionist Caucus protests Koch Bros, Chevron, and Crude by Rail

From:  Examiner

Karen Hansen

The IWW Environmental Unionist Caucus announced they will protest the Koch Bros PetCoke Facility today Monday, April 28 in Pittsburg; the Chevron Refinery tomorrow Tuesday, April 29 in Richmond; and Crude by Rail at the Union Pacific’s Ozal Train Yard in St. April 30 Martinez, Calif.

Union organizer and environmental activist Elliot Hughes released a statement this morning that his organization would be taking several direct actions over the next 3 days to orchestrate a general strike of the poor, the unemployed, and the working class. “Our goal is the liberation of the people on the planet that is our home. With the increasing amount of industrial disasters, we cannot wait any longer because the health and safety of all workers of the world is on the line.”

Hughes furthered that, "We must reclaim our lives and the land from the ruling class that oppress us every moment. I call on the workers of the world to form a united front and spend this next year to prepare for a global general strike. We build strike support in the form of self-sufficiency and mutual aid, as well as sharing our skills and trades with all. From guerrilla gardening and land reclamation to wildcat strikes and workplace take overs there are many ways to abolish wage slavery and live in harmony with the earth."  MORE

The Good Friday Spill: Mayflower, Arkansas

From:  Bold Nebraska

By Mary Anne Andrei - April 18, 2014

 

Photo by Mary Anne Andrei

“I know everybody in Mayflower,” says Linda Lynch of her hometown in Arkansas. It seems almost possible. A bedroom community for Little Rock some 20 miles down I-40, Mayflower is a town of barely 1,600 with just one shopping center—a grocery store, a Dollar Store, and a Subway. In such a small town, Linda insists that she would have heard about an oil pipeline if any knew about it. But when she retired from her career as a paralegal and moved here from North Little Rock, no one cautioned that her daughter-in-law’s property on Snuggs Circle was a stone’s throw from an ExxonMobile right of way, much less that the company had reversed the flow of the 20-inch pipeline in April 2006, in order to carry tar sands crude from western Alberta to the refineries in Port Arthur, Texas. 

So Linda had her trailer moved in and started volunteering at the food pantry across the road at the Mayflower Full Gospel Pentecostal Church of God, where her son and his family already attended church. Once a week, she met up with fellow congregants in the squat cinderblock building behind the church to pack food boxes and distribute to needy families. On Good Friday of last year, Linda planned to go to the fellowship hall to make corsages to give the children to wear on Easter Sunday. She called her daughter-in-law, Barbara, and caught her at the Dollar Store buying ribbons. Barbara told Linda she would meet her at the church about four o’clock.

Photo by Mary Anne Andrei

But when Linda pulled up to the church about an hour later, she says she “smelled something,” something terrible in the air outside, and called Barbara back to ask about the odor. Barbara told her that the fumes had already permeated the shopping center and she had heard someone say a gas line had ruptured. But it didn’t smell like gas, Barbara said, and by now the parking lot outside the Dollar Store was crowded with emergency vehicles. She wasn’t sure how long it would take her to get home.  MORE

The Koch Attack on Solar Energy

From:  The New York Times

SundayReview | Editorial

By THE EDITORIAL BOARDAPRIL 26, 2014

Continue reading the main story

At long last, the Koch brothers and their conservative allies in state government have found a new tax they can support. Naturally it’s a tax on something the country needs: solar energy panels.

For the last few months, the Kochs and other big polluters have been spending heavily to fight incentives for renewable energy, which have been adopted by most states. They particularly dislike state laws that allow homeowners with solar panels to sell power they don’t need back to electric utilities. So they’ve been pushing legislatures to impose a surtax on this increasingly popular practice, hoping to make installing solar panels on houses less attractive.

Oklahoma lawmakers recently approved such a surcharge at the behest of the American Legislative Exchange Council, the conservative group that often dictates bills to Republican statehouses and receives financing from the utility industry and fossil-fuel producers, including the Kochs. As The Los Angeles Times reported recently, the Kochs and ALEC have made similar efforts in other states, though they were beaten back by solar advocates in Kansas and the surtax was reduced to $5 a month in Arizona.  MORE

Sheriff Mack at the Bundy Ranch

 

In our last newsletter we stated that Sheriff Mack was traveling with some others to offer support to the Bundy family at their Ranch in Nevada. OK, actually there was one place where we mistakenly said 'Brady' instead of 'Bundy' and believe us, our web guy heard from you about that one. Nothing this significant ever happened on an episode of 'The Brady Bunch'.  But we digress.  Here is Richard Mack's firsthand account of what occurred at the BUNDY Ranch.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~     

The Bundy Siege Report:

As previously reported, I went to the Bundy Ranch last weekend. I was accompanied by my son Jimmy, Wendy Larchick (a lawyer) and her father Gale (a retired police officer). We all drove together from Mesa, Az to Bunkerville, NV. As we neared "ground zero" we became frustrated by the horrible stop-and-go traffic. While sitting on the I-15 freeway I received a call from one of our CSPOA members who had arrived the day before. He was on the front lines of the 150 or so crowd of men and women who were marching towards the makeshift BLM corral to free the Bundy cattle. Come what may, he and the others were determined to set the cattle free. This CSPOA member was a 15-year law enforcement veteran and understood the gravity of the situation in which he had voluntarily placed himself.

Over the phone he said, "Sheriff, these agents are going to kill us. At first, they threatened to arrest us, but now they are threatening to shoot us. There is no question in my mind, they are going to kill us. Please, just tell my wife that I love her." He abruptly hung up and I sat in my truck stunned. I told the others in the vehicle with me what he had said, and they suggested I put on my emergency blinkers and go around the stalled traffic on the right side shoulder. I did exactly that. Several highway patrol units were doing the same thing and heading to the exact place we were. The entire situation appeared worse than bleak.

When we arrived, we were met by Stewart Rhodes of Oath Keepers and we went into the ranch area with him and another driver in a 4x4 pickup. As we approached the scene we could tell that no shooting had occurred. The word was out that the BLM and their hired mercenaries were leaving. No one really knew why. My CSPOA contact said the military weaponry was there, the shooters were ready and had given warnings of the impending attack and then suddenly, they stood down without explanation. Some said the Clark county sheriff brokered a deal with them, after stating for weeks that he had "no authority to interfere." Others had stated that the women up at the front of the marchers had forced the would-be shooters to back off. Others said it was just a miracle. In fact, quite a few said that!

There were approximately 600 to 700 supporters surrounding the area where the cows were now being set free. I was asked to help with crowd control as some of the hero cowboys and cowgirls were worried that too many people near the cattle might spook them and cause a stampede. The crowd totally cooperated. As the captive cattle came out and trotted along the ravine just under the I-15 overpass, a feeling of reverence swept over the entire crowd. You could have heard a pin drop on the desert sand! It was among the most sacred, solemn, patriotic moments of my life. Most had tears swelling in their eyes or rolling down their cheeks. As the last animal crossed over to freedom, we all started hugging each other. My son hugged me with tears in his eyes and the rest of us, mostly total strangers, embraced as the spirit of liberty overwhelmed us. I imagine we felt the same as the Founding Fathers did when they knew they had been spared by the hand of God against overwhelming odds.  

When Media Dogs Attack

After we rode back to the stage location several reporters asked me for an interview. My heart was still full and my eyes still moist. I told them about the brave women who were there at the Bundy Ranch, putting themselves in harm's way for freedom and the Bundys. The women had indeed put themselves in front with the men and I was trying to honor them for their bravery. I remembered how, in the car on the way over, Wendy Larchick had told me that she planned to go to the front. Clearly, if the feds had started shooting everybody in the crowd would have been killed, just like with Waco and Ruby Ridge. Please remember that my main purpose in going to this location (and at all events I speak at) was to see that we remain strong yet peaceful, and that we don't escalate to violence! I don't want to see anybody get shot; man or woman, protestor or fed!

Anyway, on one of the interviews I did, I said "we strategized" to put the women in the front (referring to my casual conversation with Wendy in the car where we discussed this as a possibility), and before I knew it, the scent was picked up by the thirsty dogs of the mainstream media.  And you know, once those dogs get a hold of you, they're trained to never let go! Almost immediately we started getting REALLY angry calls and emails from CSPOA members and others.

Those who have been willing to listen to the whole story seemed to understand, but I have been rather shocked (and a little disappointed) to find out that many people who had heard me speak, who I had met, who believed in our cause strongly enough to donate from their own pockets, would suddenly and viciously turn on us like that because of one comment blown out of proportion in the press.  But such is the nature of mass media, and such is the paranoia they nurture to cause members of the freedom/conservative/constitutional/patriot movement to turn on one another and completely forget what we're fighting for. (Considering the hundreds of times I've been recorded, it's a wonder there's not more of this nonsense floating around out there!)

Anyway, in case you're still on the fence about this whole affair, let me make it perfectly clear that putting the women at the front was was never planned by anyone. The women just did it because they knew it needed to be done, and they were not afraid. Not at any time did the Bundy family, the CSPOA or any of the Oath Keepers make any suggestion to use women as shields or to put them in front, and children were never mentioned at all. I did not even see any children at the scene, yet many of the commentaries on my statements say that I said to 'put the women and children at the front.' 

I am impressed with all the women who participated that day and what they did in their brave stand for liberty. I want to give them credit for a peaceful resolution in a volatile life-and-death situation. We would not have made it without them!  I feel horrible about any comment I made that sounded as though we intended to use women as shields. I want nothing to detract from that precious patriotic moment.

I need to also say that there have been many, many people who have written letters of support to us and who have donated generously to the Bundy Ranch Fund.  In fact, the supporters far outweigh the detractors.  We're inserting an especially nice letter in the next section, with permission.

Thanks to your generous donations, so far CSPOA has sent the Bundys over $5,000 and paid for over $7500 in food and supplies. We also paid for the hotel rooms for about 15 people, including the state reps and senators from the AZ legislature.

I wish each of you had been there to witness this amazing and miraculous event. I also recommend that you go there for yourselves and meet this wonderful family on your own. The Bundys are great people and would enjoy meeting each one of you. Personally, I have never met such a faithful, loving, united, prayerful, and utterly Christian family in my life!

Thanks to you all for your support and prayers! I am sure we will have to maintain a presence there for months to come. 

Sheriff Mack (Ret)

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 

We want to see YOU at the Bundy Ranch.  We can't afford to pay your way to get here, but we will use whatever donations we receive to assist those who come in some small way.  The more support we show in numbers, the more seriously they will take us.  If you are not able to attend, please consider donating to a special fund we have set up for this cause. For those of you who can't make it and would like to help CSPOA and Oath Keepers pay for this huge undertaking, please contribute whatever you can.

Donate to the Bundy Ranch Fund

A Letter of Support 

Dear Mr. Mack,

 

I have been a member of the Constitutional Sheriffs and Peace Officers Association since January 2013. In December of 2012, I had the privilege of talking with you over the phone about your outstanding work. Since then, my admiration of your organization, as well as the many honorable officers who proudly associate themselves with it, has grown exponentially.

 

The efforts of CSPOA in defending the Constitution of the United States, protecting the rights of citizens, and the proper education of officers across the country is all the reason I need to be a supporter. However, every time I see this organization actively stand behind the courageous efforts of its members and other Americans who find themselves harassed by federal bullies, it only makes me more proud to be a member!

 

In 1770, Edmund Burke, in Thoughts on the Present Discontents, wrote: "When bad men combine, the good must associate; else they will fall, one by one." And so, given our turbulent times... associate, I must. Still, I believe there is an urgent need for every American to do more, something that stands as a testament of commitment to those who stand loyal to liberty and the defense of our unalienable rights. As a former Marine and Texas Private Investigator who assisted law enforcement and county prosecutors in evidentiary matters, son of a mother who was a Deputy Sheriff and U.S. Air Marshall and a father who served his country with distinction in WWII, I understand the consequences that can befall our country if we don't have enough good people willing and ready to do their duty. Needless to say, without men and women of strong character - like members of CSPOA - the prospects for America would be more dire. 

 

It is the solemn responsibility of every officer of the law to serve his community with the utmost reverence for the Constitution. The CSPOA is the only national organization of its kind I am aware of that has a mission statement expressly representing this kind of ethos as an undeviating matter of standard operating procedure, rather than mere public relations hype. Given this, I am proud to now step up to the plate in 2014 and support CSPOA as a Life Member.

 

Godspeed! And thanks for all you do!

 

Sincerely,

 

Jack E. Jackson

(CSPOA - Life Member/Deputy)

Air Pollution and Hydraulic Fracturing: Better Monitoring, Planning and Tracking of Health Effects Needed in Texas

From:  University of Texas at Austin 

March 27, 2014

AUSTIN, Texas — A review by a University of Texas at Austin researcher highlights the rapid proliferation of gas industry operations in urban areas and questions whether state and federal air pollution regulatory programs are well designed to ensure health and safety. The review recommends increased government monitoring, health impact studies and regulation of air pollution.

The findings by Rachael Rawlins, faculty member in the UT Community and Regional Planning Program in the School of Architecture, were recently published in the Virginia Environmental Law Journal. They were based on a comprehensive review and analysis of air quality monitoring, regulation and health effect studies of hydraulic fracturing on the Barnett Shale in Texas.

The Barnett Shale is home to the most intensive hydraulic fracturing and gas production activities ever undertaken in a densely urbanized area. The Barnett Shale includes the Dallas/Fort Worth area, where thousands of oil and gas wells have been drilled in and around neighborhoods.  MORE

Wall Street’s secret pension swindle

From: Salon 

 by David Sirota

A lack of transparency is allowing financial firms to make high-risk investments with your retirement funds 

Leonardo DiCaprio in "The Wolf of Wall Street" 

 

In the national debate over what to do about public pension shortfalls, here’s something you may not know: The texts of the agreements signed between those pension funds and financial firms are almost always secret. Yes, that’s right. Although they are public pensions that taxpayers contribute to and that public officials oversee, the exact terms of the financial deals being engineered in the public’s name and with public money are typically not available to you, the taxpayer. 
 

To understand why that should be cause for concern, ponder some possibilities as they relate to pension deals with hedge funds, private equity partnerships and other so-called “alternative investments.” For example, it is possible that the secret terms of such agreements could allow other private individuals in the same investments to negotiate preferential terms for themselves, meaning public employees’ pension money enriches those private investors. It is also possible that the secret terms of the agreements create the heads-Wall-Street-wins, tails-pensions-lose effect — the one whereby retirees’ money is subjected to huge risks, yet financial firms’ profits are guaranteed regardless of returns.

North Carolina exemplifies the latter problem. In a new report for the union representing that state’s public employees, former Securities and Exchange Commission investigator Ted Siedle documents how secrecy is allowing financial firms to bilk the Teachers’ and State Employees’ Retirement System, which is the seventh largest public pension fund in America.  MORE

Baltic states lead push to cut Russia gas reliance

From:  AP 

By DAVID McHUGH and LIUDAS DAPKUS , Associated Press

 

Apr. 25, 2014 10:03 AM ET

 

VILNIUS, Lithuania (AP) — Later this year, a ship the size of an aircraft carrier will arrive at Lithuania's port of Klaipeda on the Baltic Sea. The 300-meter (984-foot) vessel is not a warship, but a floating natural gas import terminal — aptly named "Independence" — that will be key to the Baltic region's plan to reduce its reliance on Russia's energy supplies.

Uncredited

This Jan. 26, 2014 photo provided by Hoegh LNG on Tuesday, April 22, 2014 shows Hoegh's gas vessel 'Independence' during her sea trial. Later this year, the giant ship will slide up to Lithuania’s Baltic port of Klaipeda. The 390-meter (1,300 foot) vessel is bigger than the largest aircraft carrier, but it’s not a warship. The floating natural gas terminal will play a key role in the Baltic region’s struggle to lessen its energy dependence on Russia. 

 

(AP Photo/Hoegh LNG)

APImages.com More photos »

 

The countries in this northeastern corner of the European Union are among the most dependent on Russia to keep their homes warm and industries running. The three Baltic nations of Latvia, Estonia and Lithuania get all their gas from Russia and lack connections to the wider European pipeline system that would allow them to import from elsewhere. Poland meets 70 percent of its energy needs with Russian supplies.

As a result, the states, which still have fresh memories of domination by Moscow during the Cold War, have been among the swiftest countries in Europe to act to reduce that dependence.

Moscow's use of gas supplies as a means of putting pressure on Ukraine — like the Baltics, once part of the Soviet Union — has driven new urgency into projects to diversify energy supplies in the region, even as the full 28-member EU has struggled to come up with a united approach.  MORE

Report: President Obama will reject the Keystone XL pipeline

From:  MSNBC

The Ed Show 

It's no longer a matter of if, but when. Sources at Rolling Stone report that Pres. Obama has already decided to reject the controversial Keystone XL Pipeline. Ed Schultz, Tom Genung, and Wizipan Little Elk discuss.

VIDEO

Drought Now Covers 100% of California

From:  The Atlantic 

Alexis C. Madrigal Apr 24 2014, 2:20 PM ET

 

 And the snowpack is melting quickly, too.

 

  

 

 California's drought has finished its conquest of the state: 100 percent of the land here is now in a drought condition, and 96 percent of it is in a severe, extreme, or exceptional drought.
"This week marks the first time in the 15-year history of the USDM that 100 percent of California was in moderate to exceptional drought," writes NOAA's Richard Heim in a drought monitoring report.

It's gotten this bad, despite March's decent rains.

And the state's hydrological conditions might be worse than they look here. MORE

National Wildlife Federation sues for release of tar sands documents

e

The Portland Pipe Line operation in South Portland.

2013 Press Herald File Photo/John Ewing

From:  Portland Press Herald 

By Whit Richardson wrichardson@pressherald.com
Staff Writer

The nonprofit group is seeking a 2008 letter detailing a plan Portland Pipe Line Corp. had to reverse the flow of its Portland-Montreal pipeline to carry tar sands to Maine.

The National Wildlife Federation has filed a federal lawsuit in an attempt to force the U.S. Department of State to release documents pertaining to the potential reversal of an oil pipeline to carry so-called tar sands crude oil from Montreal to South Portland’s waterfront.

The federation filed the lawsuit in U.S. District Court in Vermont on Wednesday, according to a news release from the federation.

Jim Murphy, the federation’s senior counsel, claims the State Department has failed to comply with a Freedom of Information Act request made nearly two years ago for documents that would shed light on plans that the pipeline’s owner, Portland Pipe Line Corp., may have to reverse its pipeline.

“State Department has had two years to follow the law and help ensure the public is educated about the oil industry’s plans to run risky, climate-disrupting tar sands through New England,” Murphy said in a prepared statement. “Our patience is exhausted. This information is critical and it must be provided.”

MORE

Public Banking in Pennsylvania: The Second American Revolution

From:  Public Banking Institute 

by Mike Krauss, Pennsylvania Public Bank Project

Home to Ben Franklin and the first and successful public bank in America. Home to the Liberty Bell, Independence Hall, Washington’s Crossing and Valley Forge, Pennsylvania has long been called the Keystone State, owing to its central role in the birth of the American democracy.  To this day it is a “battleground” state in presidential elections.

Now, the Keystone State is stepping up to help make pubic banking and American history.  Formed just after the Public Banking Institute, the Pennsylvania Project is leading the way.

From the first, PA Project determined not to try for a state bank bill in the legislature, but instead to focus on municipal and county public banks, building broad support for a state public bank to follow.
 
First out of the gate was the small City of Reading, population about 88,000 and described in the New York Times in early 2012 as the poorest city in America. But newly elected Mayor Vaughn D. Spencer saw a different future. Two of his aides traveled to the first PBI national conference in Philadelphia, in April 2012, and there met with PBI and PA Project leaders.  Read more...

Jimmy Carter Slams Koch Brothers and ‘Unpleasantly Successful’ Climate Denial Campaign

From:  EcoWatch

by Brandon Baker

A former U.S. president provided some strong words regarding climate change this week while speaking at the Paris Institute of Political Studies (Sciences Po).

Jimmy Carter referenced not only the fight against time we’re all in when it comes to climate-related impacts, but also the fight against those who are funding climate denial. The 39th president called out the Koch brothers, oil magnates who between 1997 and 2011 donated more than $67 million to organizations with anti-climate agendas. 

Jimmy Carter says there is no reason not to react to climate change. Photo credit: The Elders/Flickr Creative Commons

“The Koch brothers are pouring hundreds of millions of dollars into every political campaign to support candidates that will support their position,” Carter said, according to Responding to Climate Change. “The struggle for the hearts and minds of the general public, especially young people, is intense and is going on today, sometimes without their knowledge.”  MORE

60% Of China's Underground Water Is Too Polluted To Drink

From:  Business Insider

Agence France Presse

Sixty percent of underground water in China which is officially monitored is too polluted to drink directly, state media have reported, underlining the country's grave environmental problems. 

 

Water quality measured in 203 cities across the country last year rated "very poor" or "relatively poor" in an annual survey released by the Ministry of Land and Resources, the official Xinhua news agency said late Tuesday.

Water rated "relatively" poor quality cannot be used for drinking without prior treatment, while water of "very" poor quality cannot be used as a source of drinking water, the report said.

Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/60-of-chinas-underground-water-is-too-polluted-to-drink-2014-4#ixzz2zmeoXcZB