Other Happenings
Melamine in Milk: Tiny Gold Particles Help Researchers Find Protein Impostor
ScienceDaily (Apr. 2, 2010) - University of Miami assistant professor in the College of Engineering, Na Li and her collaborators have developed a fast, economical and easy method to detect melamine in milk.
Melamine is the compound found in contaminated pet food and in tainted dairy products from China in 2007 and 2008 respectively. The laced dairy products were responsible for sickening thousands of people, especially children. The situation caused recalls of Chinese dairy products all over the world.
Monitoring melamine-tainted products continues to be a worldwide concern. Melamine is an industrial substance commonly used in plastics and fertilizers. Since Melamine is high in nitrogen, when added to foods it can make the products appear higher in protein value during standard testing. However, when ingested, the chemical can cause serious health problems and in some cases death.
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Energy Crops Impact Environmental Quality, Review Finds
ScienceDaily (Apr. 5, 2010) - Crop residues, perennial warm season grasses, and short-rotation woody crops are potential biomass sources for cellulosic ethanol production. While most research is focused on the conversion of cellulosic feeedstocks into ethanol and increasing production of biomass, the impacts of growing energy crops and the removal of crop residue on soil and environmental quality have received less attention. Moreover, effects of crop residue removal on soil and environmental quality have not been compared against those of dedicated energy crops.
In the March-April 2010 issue of Agronomy Journal, published by the American Society of Agronomy, Dr. Humberto Blanco reviewed the impacts of crop residue removal, warm season grasses, and short-rotation woody crops on critical soil properties, carbon sequestration, and water quality as well as the performance of energy crops in marginal lands. The review found that crop residue removal from corn, wheat,and grain sorghumcan adversely impact soil and environmental quality. Removal of more than 50% of crop residue can have negative consequences for soil structure, reduce soil organic carbon sequestration, increase water erosion, and reduce nutrient cycling and crop production, particularly in erodible and sloping soils.
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Can China Eat Enough Asian Carp to Save the Great Lakes?
Midwest fish company to begin exports this week
That's one solution being tossed around as officials try to keep Asian carp out of the Great Lakes and protect the region's water quality and $7 billion fishing industry. The voracious invasive species has already overwhelmed the Illinois and Mississippi Rivers, providing plenty of opportunity for fishermen to aid in the fight and make a buck to boot.
But the bony fish has been a tough sell to American diners, who prefer plumper varieties that are easy to fillet. So this week, Big River Fish Corp. in Pearl, Illinois, will ship 40,000 pounds of Asian carp to China, where it's considered good eating instead of an environmental menace.
"It'll be the first of many shipments," says Ross Harano, the international marketing director at Big River. Since invading the Mississippi River basin after escaping from Southeastern aquaculture farms, the Asian carp has been crowding out catfish and other carp that the local fishing industry traditionally relies on. Big River has managed to do a fairly brisk business selling Asian carp to U.S. companies that produce gefilte fish -- about 2 million pounds worth last year. Another Illinois distributor, Schafer Fisheries in nearby Thompson, has also been exporting Asian carp to Israel (although that market has recently hit the skids due to tariff issues).
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MCDONNELL: SLAVERY WASN'T 'SIGNIFICANT' ENOUGH TO BE INCLUDED IN MY CONFEDERACY PROCLAMATION:
Last week, Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell (R) "quietly declared April 2010 Confederate History Month," calling on Virginians to, among other things, "understand the sacrifices of the Confederate leaders, soldiers and citizens during the period of the Civil War." Notably absent from the proclamation, however, is any mention of slavery. McDonnell explained yesterday that he did not reference slavery because he focused on the issues that he "thought were most significant for Virginia." Neither of Virginia's previous two governors, Democrats Mark Warner and Tim Kaine, declared a Confederate History Month. Republican governor Jim Gilmore, who served from 1998-2002, did issue such proclamations but acknowledged slavery as "one of the causes of the war" and a practice that "degraded the human spirit" and "is abhorred and condemned by Virginians."
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Larry Summers and Carol Browner say Obama won't budge on placing a price on global warming pollution
Summers: Comprehensive bill "is an absolutely crucial priority for the president" in 2010
UPDATE: Summers entire, amazing speech, "The Economic Case for Comprehensive Energy Reform," is reposted below.
White House aides Larry Summers and Carol Browner insisted that the administration was willing to bend on several key issues, including the mechanism for pricing carbon and increased domestic energy exploration. But both said the president would not budge when it comes to placing a first-ever price on domestic greenhouse gas emissions.
E&E News PM (subs. req'd) reported on the remarks from both the director of Obama's National Economic Council and Obama's chief climate aid. In a forum sponsored by Google, Browner said of the bipartisan Senate effort of Lindsey Graham (R-SC), John Kerry (D-MA), and Joe Lieberman (I-CT):
"I think it's fairly safe to assume they'll end with an economywide program, so you'll get all of the sources of emissions, but they may be using slightly different tools for different sectors," Browner said....
"We're very clear we want comprehensive legislation," Browner said. "Every now and then, you'll hear talk of an energy-only bill. We think that'd be unfortunate."
The Hill expanded on Summers' remarks:
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Federal Judge in Louisiana Hands Down First Chinese Drywall Verdict
A Louisiana federal judge awards seven families $2.6 million for home damages caused by defective drywall; Chinese manufacturer ordered to pay total remediation costs, including repairing interior damage to wires and appliances
A federal judge in New Orleans has ordered a Chinese manufacturer to pay seven Virginia families a total of $2.6 million for damages to their homes attributed to drywall problems. The decision is certain to impact pending lawsuits filed by thousands of homeowners around the country whose residences were badly damaged by leeching sulfur from inferior-grade drywall imported from China.
The Chinese drywall - used by many builders in recent years as a cheaper alternative to American-made product - has been linked to a host of problems by homeowners around the country, including corroded electrical wiring, appliance outages, rotting walls and personal belongings, as well as ill health caused by the acrid sulfur fumes. Many of the damaged homes are in Florida, Virginia and throughout the Gulf region, where builders used the cheaper Chinese drywall to construct new homes following Hurricane Katrina and other storms.
U.S. District Judge Eldon Fallon of the Eastern District of Louisiana apportioned damages to seven Virginia families and is expected to rule again on another case involving a New Orleans homeowner whose post-Katrina residence was badly damaged by Chinese drywall. Another trial is scheduled to begin in early June on behalf of additional homeowners in the Gulf region.
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Most Barnett Shale facilities release emissions
Plumes of toxic, smog-causing chemicals from Barnett Shale natural-gas operations are so common that inspectors find them nearly every time they look, a Dallas Morning News examination of government records shows.
What's more, the inspectors have rarely looked.
Hundreds of pages of documents obtained by The News under federal and state open-records laws, plus other reports and studies, reveal a pattern of emissions of toxic compounds, often including cancer-causing benzene, from Barnett Shale facilities.
More than 90 percent of the gas-processing plants, compressor stations and wells that agencies have examined with leak-detecting infrared cameras since 2007 were lofting otherwise invisible plumes of chemicals. In the most recent surveillance late last year, every facility checked was emitting pollution.
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Former instructor to file suit
A former Web instructor, who taught green building courses for San Diego State's College of Extended Studies, is filing a lawsuit against SDSU because of a contract dispute.
Harry Applin said he plans to sue both SDSU and Construction Experts, Inc., alleging that he did not receive payment for work he had completed.
Applin said he developed three courses for SDSU's Green Building Construction program but did not receive payment for the third course he developed. Applin also said he did not get paid for teaching one of the online classes, which was taken by 15 SDSU students.
SDSU contracts the program out to CEI, which then hires instructors to develop and teach courses. According to Applin, CEI has refused to pay him for his services.
"If CEI doesn't pay, what do I do?" Applin asked. "San Diego State is the one who's got all the money, and CEI refuses to pay, so I have no other choice but to sue San Diego State because they are the ones who have hired CEI and CEI broke the contract."
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Government Spending
Budget deficits are rapidly becoming a focal point of mainstream political discourse, in large part due to the significant increases in federal spending under President Obama's administration.
Republicans are highly critical of such spending, and an offshoot of the conservative movement, the Tea Party, has made the elimination of deficits one of its primary goals. This isn't to suggest Democrats aren't at all concerned with deficits. Their concerns are more with long-term debt than short-term deficits. The Obama administration is, more or less, following Keynsian economic principles of fiscal policy: spend more when the economy is doing poorly (to get the economy moving), and spend less when it is doing well. Because the economy was doing extraordinarily poorly when Obama took office, his policies involved spending much more than normal.
Ironically, up until President Obama's administration, all increases in the national debt as a percentage of GDP since WWII came under Republican administrations:
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Heritage Touted RomneyCare, Key Elements Of Health Reform Heritage Now Opposes
The Heritage Foundation, one of the leading conservative think tanks - which has historically provided many of the policy ideas for the Republican Party, Republican administrations, and Republicans in Congress - has aggressively attacked President Obama's efforts to reform health care in America. In addition to providing academic voices in the media to knock reform, Heritage has churned out blog posts and reports denigrating reform legislation for various reasons. And in recent days, Heritage has scrambled to mobilize a repeal effort of health reform, calling the law "intolerable."
But before Democrats took up the mantle of reforming health care on the national level, Heritage experts boosted former Gov. Mitt Romney's (R-MA) health reform plan in the Bay State. In numerous pieces posted on the Heritage website before 2008, Heritage took a markedly different approach to health reform than it does now:
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Senate Republicans Block Over 100 Bills That Have Strong Bipartisan Support
Much has been made about Senate Republicans' abuse of the filibuster, which has skyrocketed in recent years. But less attention has been devoted to how Republican obstruction has held up hundreds of other important pieces of legislation, many of which passed the House with overwhelming majorities and strong bipartisan support.
Because the way the Senate operates allows the legislative calendar to be consumed by extended debate, Republicans' obstruction does not just hold up the immediate bill in question - it also holds up every other important piece of legislation waiting to be considered, and prevents the Senate from considering legislation that it would otherwise be inclined to pass.
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