INSIDE SCIENTOLOGY
The Story of America’s Most Secretive Religion
By Janet Reitman
444 pp. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. $28.

RENDER UNTO ROME
The Secret Life of Money in the Catholic Church
By Jason Berry
420 pp. Crown Publishers. $25.

We do not need these books to tell us that money and religion make for a poisonous combination. But it is of some interest to see that ancient truth confirmed in both a church as relatively new as Scientology and one as ancient as Roman Catholicism. Even religious leaders develop a certain swagger when they know they are backed by bundles of cash. When a French court fined Scientology nearly a million dollars, one of its officials shrugged that off as ‘chump change.

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Imprelis, a new herbicide, was touted as eco-safe. But trees in the Twin Cities and around the country are dying.
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Janet DaPrato holds the leaves of a Norway spruce that started withering a month after a worker applied the herbicide Imprelis in her yard, in Columbus, Ohio, July 14, 2011. The recently approved herbicide, widely used by landscapers because it was thought to be environmentally friendly, has emerged as the leading suspect in the deaths of thousands of trees on lawns and golf courses across the country.

Todd Schwarzrock had his lawn treated for weeds in May. Weeks later the grass around his Maple Grove home looked good. But some of his trees didn’t.

Needles on a 35-foot white spruce on the corner of his lot apparently died. The lower branches on a Colorado blue spruce turned brown. A couple of smaller evergreens showed damage, too.

Schwarzrock’s lawn had been sprayed with Imprelis, a new, supposedly environmentally friendly herbicide from Dupont. Lauded as a biggest-in-decades advancement, it showed effectiveness against weeds such as creeping charlie. Schwarzrock, chief financial officer of Rainbow Tree Care, had Imprelis applied by the firm’s lawn care unit.

Evergreens around the Twin Cities area are now showing twisting and distorted […]

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These last few days for gas drilling news in New York as been critical and a new level of urgency has been reached as the country watches how New York defines and decides its fate, the future of its famous unfiltered water supply, and communities in the directly impacted regions, whether for or against drilling are forging ahead to determine their immediate future and that for future generations.

It’s coming down to Home Rule and self-determination as a way to protect municipalities from fracking. As the Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) releases New Recommendations for Drilling in New York explained in the Supplemental Generic Environmental Impact Statement (SGEIS) released a few days ago, environmental groups, like Catskill Mountainkeeper are calling for a statewide ban and municipalities organize to decide the fate of their towns.

One of the important and positive points in the otherwise very problematic and potentially dangerous draft, combined with a governor apparently wanting to surge forward with gas extraction is this: ‘Local Land Use & Zoning: Applicant must certify that a proposed activity is consistent with local land use and zoning laws. Failure to certify or a challenge by a locality would trigger additional DEC review before […]

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WASHINGTON — An impasse between the GOP-controlled U.S. House and the Democrat-controlled Senate over cuts to the Essential Air Service program for rural communities has resulted in a partial shutdown of the Federal Aviation Administration, which regulates the nation’s air transit system.

In Michigan, the impasse means the halt of $36.4 million in airport projects throughout the state, including critical runway and terminal upgrades. The Great Lakes State will also see an unspecified number of FAA employees furloughed until the two legislative chambers can resolve their differences.

Fliers shouldn’t notice a difference when taking to the skies since the nation’s air traffic controllers are considered essential and aren’t among some of the estimated 4,000 FAA employees who are out of work because of the shutdown, though controllers’ paychecks could be delayed.

Some travelers may actually get a boost to their bottom lines, too, since the FAA will be unable to collect taxes while the agency’s revenue and spending functions remain unauthorized through Congress.

The agency has been operating on a series of continuing resolutions for months, but dual policy battles between the split House and Senate were brought to a head this week as broader talks between the two parties continued raging over raising […]

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Climate change poses a major threat to future peace and security, a senior UN official has warned. Achim Steiner from the UN Environment Program said climate change would also ‘exponentially

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