A new report on Mississippi’s sex education programs highlights how disastrous the state’s approach to teen sexuality has been over the past decade. The report, produced by the Sexuality Information and Education Council of the United States (SIECUS), notes that Mississippi has consistently had some of the worst sexual health indicators in the country. The state has the second highest rate of teen pregnancies, the second highest rates of gonorrhea and chlamydia infections, and the seventh highest rate of HIV infections.

Proponents of abstinence-only programs typically claim that teaching kids medically accurate information about their bodies will convince them to start having more sex, assuming that young adults need to be protected from sexually explicit content that could corrupt their innocence. But Mississippi throws a wrench into that logic.

Even though teens have been shielded from what might be deemed ‘inappropriate” sex ed content, SIECUS found that kids in the Magnolia State are actually having sex earlier and more frequently than the national average. Predictably, they’re also much less likely to know how to avoid unintended pregnancies:
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Sexuality Information and Education Council of the United States
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Sexuality Information and Education Council of the United States

This dynamic […]

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Bee health crisis warnings are growing as the condition known as ‘Colony Collapse Disorder” has started to spread from the domesticated honey bee population to the wild bumble bee population, threatening an essential link in the food pipeline. Since most fruits and vegetables are pollinated by bees, a catastrophic collapse in the bee population could presage serious food shortages around the world. Now, according to a report in the journal Nature, the blight that may be responsible for the bee health crisis is spreading into the bumble bee population, previously thought immune to be immune to the condition.

Bumble bees are responsible for pollinating 90 percent of the wild flowers that maintain the ecological balance in the woodlands. The collapse of the bumble bee population could have an even more devastating effect than a collapse in the domestic honey bee because domesticated varieties can be repopulated from uninfected stock. That opportunity does not exist in the wild bumble bee population.
Bee Health Crisis

What a dead hive looks like

First identified in 2006, colony collapse disorder signified a major increase in a long-known phenomenon known as ‘hive death” or ‘disappearing bee syndrome,” in which stable, productive hives died suddenly […]

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WASHINGTON (AP) – The number of U.S. farms is declining even as the value of their crops and livestock has increased over the past five years, a government census of American agriculture released Thursday says.

The survey, taken every five years, shows there were a total of 2.1 million farms in the United States in 2012, down a little more than 4 percent from 2007. That follows a long-term trend of declining numbers of farms.

Also, farmers are getting older – the average age was 58.3 years. But Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack points to a bright spot: a small rise in the number of farmers between 25 and 34 years old.

Vilsack says the boost in the number of younger farmers is partly due to increased interest and government support for locally grown foods and a thriving export market. Many younger farmers work at smaller operations, where the boom in the farm economy and a rising consumer interest in where food is grown have helped them.

That boom has been good to all of farm country: According to the survey, the market values of crops, livestock and total agricultural products were all at record highs. Farms in the United States sold almost $395 billion […]

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DENVER – Colorado’s legal marijuana market is far exceeding tax expectations, according to a budget proposal released Wednesday by Gov. John Hickenlooper that gives the first official estimate of how much the state expects to make from pot taxes.

The proposal outlines plans to spend some $99 million next fiscal year on substance-abuse prevention, youth marijuana-use prevention and other priorities. The money would come from a state 12.9 percent sales tax on recreational pot. Colorado’s total pot sales next fiscal year were estimated to be about $610 million.

Retail sales began Jan. 1 in Colorado. Sales have been strong, although exact figures for January sales won’t be made public until early next month.

The governor predicted sales and excise taxes next fiscal year would produce some $98 million, well above a $70 million estimate given to voters when they approved the pot taxes last year. The governor also includes taxes from medical pot, which are subject only to the statewide 2.9 percent sales tax.’Our policy of not banking marijuana-related businesses and not lending on commercial properties leased by marijuana-related businesses is based on applicable federal laws,” Wells Fargo spokeswoman Cristie Drumm told the Post.

Washington state budget forecasters released a projection Wednesday for that […]

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The evidence is mounting that natural gas has no net climate benefit in any timescale that matters to humanity. In the real world, natural gas is not a ‘bridge” fuel to a carbon-free economy for two key reasons.shutterstock_46586884

First, natural gas is mostly methane, (CH4), a super-potent greenhouse gas, which traps 86 times as much heat as CO2 over a 20-year period. So even small leaks in the natural gas production and delivery system can have a large climate impact – enough to gut the entire benefit of switching from coal-fired power to gas.

Sadly as a comprehensive new Stanford study reconfirms, ‘America’s natural gas system is leaky.” The news release explains:

A review of more than 200 earlier studies confirms that U.S. emissions of methane are considerably higher than official estimates. Leaks from the nation’s natural gas system are an important part of the problem.

Second, natural gas doesn’t just displace coal – it also displaces carbon-free sources of power such as renewable energy, nuclear power, and energy efficiency. A recent analysis finds that effect has been large enough recently to wipe out almost the entire climate benefit from increasing natural gas use in the utility sector if the […]

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