Submitted by Quest-News-Serv... on Fri, 03/11/2011 - 06:42.
A powerful tsunami spawned by the largest earthquake in Japan's recorded history slammed the eastern coast Friday, sweeping away boats, cars, homes and people as widespread fires burned out of control. Tsunami warnings blanketed the entire Pacific, as far away as South America, Canada, Alaska and the entire U.S. West Coast.
Submitted by Lee Batdorff on Thu, 03/10/2011 - 23:20.
I've long been troubled by the fact that corporations are endowed the rights of "natural persons." It is unjust to human beings who are not corporate officers that a corporation can absorb responsibility for the actions of individuals who are corporate offices. Correct me if I'm incorrect on this. My understanding is that the personal liability of individuals in corporate leadership is covered by the corporation in many cases.
Submitted by Norm Roulet on Thu, 03/10/2011 - 13:20.
U.S. Commerce Department Announces Launch of i6 Green Challenge to Promote Clean Energy Innovation and Economic Growth
U.S. departments of Agriculture, Commerce and Energy, along with the Environmental Protection Agency and the National Science Foundation, support entrepreneurship initiative
WASHINGTON – The U.S. Commerce Department’s Economic Development Administration (EDA) and its Office of Innovation and Entrepreneurship today announced the opening of its $12 million i6 Green Challenge in partnership with the U.S. departments of Agriculture and Energy, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the National Science Foundation, and Commerce’s National Institute of Standards and Technology and U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.
EDA will award up to $1 million to each of six teams around the country with the most innovative ideas to drive technology commercialization and entrepreneurship in support of a green innovation economy, increased U.S. competitiveness and new jobs. Its partner agencies will award more than $6 million in additional funding to i6 Green winners.
Submitted by Norm Roulet on Thu, 03/10/2011 - 03:44.
Wherever you live in America, there should be some near-by gathering, event, public meeting or celebration in support of Hemp History Week - May 2nd-8th 2011 - and if there isn't, you may help organize one in your community. Check their website for planned events - and how to organize events - and do it ASAP, as events registered by March 15th may get hemp product samples to distribute, and that is worth hustling-for.
The sponsors and supporters of Hemp History Week include Vote Hemp, the Hemp Industry Association, and leading hemp manufacturers, natural foods retailers, celebrities, farmers, historians and hemp advocates. "Hemp History Week is all about celebrating the goodness of hemp", and that is something all these organizers and millions of other people are working hard to make legal in every state across America - like New Mexico is succeeding with this week - to making hemp agriculture legal in America and worldwide, as is the mission of Vote Hemp and other advocacy organizations, large and small.
Cleveland Sees Plunge in Population, reports the Wall Street Journal today, announcing: "A larger-than-expected exodus from Cleveland during the past decade shrunk the city's population by 17% to about 397,000, according to U.S. Census data released Wednesday." That's right, Cleveland's population has crashed below the 400K floor for the first time since around the start of the 20th Century, which triggers all sorts of unsustainable, shrinking, un-re-imaginable financial and political realities for leadership and citizens here.
Perhaps the only silver lining is that this proof of Cleveland political and leadership failure will have a significant price of leaders' heads. From the Wall Street Journal:
Political observers said the decline could tilt the balance of political power in one of America's most hotly contested swing states.
"Ohio is expected to lose two congressional districts, and this big decline in Cleveland suggests that both could come out of northeastern Ohio," a Democratic stronghold, said John Green, a University of Akron political-science professor.
Submitted by Quest-News-Serv... on Wed, 03/09/2011 - 12:07.
WASHINGTON — The U.S. military is too white and too male at the top and needs to change recruiting and promotion policies and lift its ban on women in combat, an independent report for Congress said Monday.Seventy-seven percent of senior officers in the active-duty military are white, while only 8 percent are black, 5 percent are Hispanic and 16 percent are women,
In the wake of a felony conviction and the jailing of an Akron, Oh. parent for sending her two children to a neighboring predominantly White school district with the hope of getting them a better education, the Rev. Al Sharpton is calling on Ohio Republican Gov. John Kasich to push the state legislature to comply with a longstanding mandate by the Ohio Supreme Court to revise its unconstitutional system of funding public education.
That mandate was issued nearly 14 years ago when the Ohio Supreme Court ruled in the state's landmark constitutional case of DeRolph. vs State of Ohio that its system of funding education partially through property taxes is unconstitutional. In its unprecedented decision Ohio's high court said that the state legislature's current school funding method has created property rich and property poor school districts to the detriment of poor children, and in violation of the requirement of Ohio's Constitution that the state legislature provide equal access to a “thorough and efficient” education for all of Ohio's children.
“Yes,” said Sharpton to the question of whether Kasich should lead the charge for the state legislature to comply with the Ohio Supreme Court's mandate to revise its inequitable system of funding education, a question posed by the DeterminerWeekly.Com and the Kathy Wray Coleman Online News Blog.Com during a press conference on Thursday.
Cuyahoga County Court of Common Pleas Judge Daniel Gaul, on probation himself for six months after the Ohio Supreme Court found him guilty of ethics violations last Oct., is asking a Black college girl to apologize to the White male Cleveland Fifth District police officers that White neighbors said beat her unnecessarily and called her nigger.
Gaul will sentence Rebecca Whitby, 25, March 8 at 10 am.
Attached is New Mexico House Bill 565 (.pdf - 214 kb), and below is the press release announcing INDUSTRIAL HEMP BILL RECEIVING SUPPORT FROM NM LEGISLATORS - the House Agriculture and Water Resources Committee has passed Bill HB 565 relating to agriculture: Providing for licensing, growing, selling and processing of “Industrial Hemp - Santhica”.
House Bill No. 565 is sponsored by Raye Begaye (D-NM 4th District ), NM State Representative 7th term: Vice Chair; House Agriculture and Water Resources Committee; Concurrent Jurisdiction for Tribes, Nations, Pueblos and the State of New Mexico.
The progess of this bill was announced by Ray Begaye - from their press release: "House Bill 565 passed the agriculture committee by a vote of 8-l this past Monday. The bill will go to the Judiciary Committee and then onto the Floor of NM legislature. House Bill 565 upon passage will stimulate the New Mexico economy with producers, processors, manufacture, and growers."
New Mexico Industrial Hemp Coalition Contacts are Bernice Muskrat, Attorney at Law and CFO for The Native International Solutions, Inc. - Bernicemuskrat [at] yahoo [dot] com - 575-759-4412... and Gloria Castillo, President; New Mexico Hemp Commission - gjc777 [at] gmail [dot] com - 505-554-5476. They are taking donations through the non-profit Rural Coalition to support these efforts.
They are each and all to be congratulated!!
Among the reasons New Mexico passed this bill, from their Press Release about NMHB 565 and industrial hemp:
Submitted by Norm Roulet on Tue, 03/08/2011 - 12:34.
I just received an email from the EPA announcing it "updated its database that helps Americans understand the health and environmental impacts of electricity generation" and now provides a useful public interface - "Power Profiler is a user friendly online application that uses eGRID data to show air emissions information and the type of electricity generation, such as coal or nuclear, in various regions of the country.By simply entering a zip code and selecting a utility, users can learn more about where their electricity comes from and what impact it has on air quality and the environment."
Submitted by Norm Roulet on Tue, 03/08/2011 - 10:28.
Good morning,
The state of the American education system today is unacceptable. As many as one quarter of American students don’t finish high school. We've fallen to ninth place in the proportion of young people with college degrees. The quality of our math and science education lags behind many other nations.
For the sake of the next generation, and America's economic future, this has to change.
Lakewood, OH—Beck Center for the Arts presents The Underpants, Steve Martin’s contemporary adaptation of a turn-of-the-century satire by German Expressionist Carl Sternheim, on the Mackey Main Stage, April 1 through 23, 2011. Show times are 8 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays and 3 p.m. Sundays. The performance on Saturday, April 9 is sold out for a private event.
In The Underpants, Martin brings his comic genius and sophisticated literary style to Sternheim’s classic 1910 farce. His hilarious version opened Off-Broadway in 2002 to critical acclaim. The New York Times called the show “laugh-out-loud funny” and the Village Voice said it was “hilarious and bawdy.”
Submitted by Norm Roulet on Mon, 03/07/2011 - 20:07.
Energy Department Announces New Advance in Biofuel Technology
Highlights Opportunity to Reduce America's Oil Dependence and Create Jobs in Rural America
March 07, 2011
U.S. Energy Secretary Steven Chu today congratulated a team of researchers at the Department's BioEnergy Science Center who have achieved yet another advance in the drive toward next generation biofuels: using bacteria to convert plant matter directly into isobutanol, which can be burned in regular car engines with a heat value higher than ethanol and similar to gasoline. This research is part of a broad portfolio of work the Department is doing to reduce America's dependence on foreign oil and create new economic opportunities for rural America.
Submitted by Norm Roulet on Mon, 03/07/2011 - 19:40.
This update contains solicitations for renewable energy generation, renewable energy certificates, and green power as a courtesy to our subscribers. Unless otherwise noted, these requests for proposals and solicitations are neither supported nor endorsed by the U.S. Department of Energy, Green Power Network.
March 31, 2011 Dayton Power and Light Company (DP&L) RFP seeking qualified solid biofuel materials for use at two of its generating stations for the next three years to meet Ohio RPS requirements. DP&L will consider contracts for quantities starting in the 4th quarter of 2011 and in the years 2012-2014. Questions due by March 23, 2011.
Submitted by Norm Roulet on Mon, 03/07/2011 - 18:59.
EPA Awards $32 Million to Understand Health Impacts of Air Pollution
WASHINGTON -- The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has awarded $32 million to fund four new Clean Air Research Centers at universities conducting cutting edge air pollution research. The research will focus on the impacts of air pollution mixtures on people’s health. It is important to understand the health risks associated with exposure to multiple air pollutants because people are exposed to more than one pollutant at a time.“These centers are critical to understanding how to improve air quality and protect Americans’ health from complex mixtures of air pollutants,” said Dr. Paul Anastas, assistant administrator for EPA’s Office of Research and Development. “The centers will focus on important scientific questions remaining in air research.”
Submitted by Norm Roulet on Mon, 03/07/2011 - 18:44.
Winter 2011 Issue of Energy Matters Now Available
Energy Matters, the quarterly newsletter for the U.S. Department of Energy's Industrial Technologies Program (ITP), provides in-depth articles to help industry professionals save energy, reduce costs, and increase productivity.
Cleveland Foodnotbombs regrets that as a group, we will not be serving on Public Square this Sunday and it might take as long as one month until we are able to return to regular food distribution. During this time we will also not be distributing food within the shelters. This will be an unprecedented break of serving for the group but it is necessary so that we can reestablish our donation supplies of food to distribute and move into a new kitchen location. Cleveland Foodnotbombs has been serving consistently at Roadway and Superior for almost the last year, every Sunday between 5 and 7pm. This winter was especially difficult because of a lack of resources to distribute, let alone the inhospitable weather.
