Sandy Dechert , - CleanTechnica
Stephan: I think this is good news at several levels. It will help service men and women to transition into 21st century civilian jobs, it will give the transition out of carbon energy a boost, and it will create a new constituency base to support solar.
President Obama at Hill Air Force Base in Utah.
The sun shone bright on a major US military installation in Utah Friday morning as President Barack Obama announced that Hill Air Force Base, which hosts Material Command’s 75th Air Base Wing, would take part in a new “Solar Ready Vets” program. At ten bases, a joint program from the Departments of Energy and Defense will help personnel leaving the military transition to solar careers. It’s part of a major national initiative to train 75,000 workers in solar by 2020.
Project leaders modeled the new program after pilot runs of Solar Ready Vets earlier this year at Camp Pendleton in California, Fort Carson in Colorado, and Naval Station Norfolk in Virginia. The former service members will train to size and install solar panels, connect electricity to the grid, and interpret and comply with local building codes. They may then become installers, sales representatives, and system inspectors, or enter other solar-related careers.
As one of DOE’s 16 Climate Action Champions, Salt Lake City […]
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Josh Harkinson, - Mother Jones
Stephan: Microbes in our soil and microbes in our guts although rarely discussed exert an enormous influence on the health of everything. Part of what is wrong with food additives and the toxins used in industrial agriculture is their effect on the health of our microbes. This story tells a part of the story and it may surprise you.
The sewage of fat cities like Little Rock and Toledo is easy to distinguish from that of skinny ones like Denver and San Diego.
Credit: Shutterstock photo collage
If someone were to ask you what distinguishes skinny cities from fat ones, you might think of the prevalence of fast-food joints, the average length of automobile commutes, or the relative abundance of parks and jogging trails. But there’s also another, more underground factor: their sewage.
Researchers with the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee collected raw sewage samples from the intakes of municipal wastewater treatment plants in 71 cities around the country. Their results, published last month in mBio, the American Society for Microbiology’s open-access journal, showed that the microbial content of that sewage predicted each city’s relative obesity with 81 to 89 percent accuracy.
The finding actually isn’t all that surprising, says lead author Ryan Newton, a visiting professor at UWM’s School of Freshwater Sciences. Other studies
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Paul Lewis, - The Guardian (U.K.)
Stephan: I have been thinking about this article for two days. After you read it you will see why. First, of course, the difference in attention each killing attracted, how much more awareness was focused on the dog than the woman. It says something about us as a society. Second, what this story tells us about how we value impaired human life. And, third, How very poorly trained American police are. This is a nation of 319 million people. It follows that a certain percentage are mentally, physically, or addictively off the rails. Why, then, doesn't it follow that our police are trained to deal with this?
The woman discussed here was sadly impaired, no question. But her knife was what used to be called pocket knife size. I don't have the sense people carry pocket knives anymore. But two police should have been able to handle a deranged woman with a pocket knife sized blade without killing here.
Shane and Jeanetta Riley on their wedding day
Credit: Riley family
Arfee, in a photo posted to the Facebook page ‘Justice for Arfee’.
Credit: Facebook
Two fatal police shootings unfolded within 14 hours, both in lakeside towns in the same corner of north-west Idaho.
The first victim was Jeanetta Riley, a troubled 35-year-old pregnant woman, shot dead by police as she brandished a knife outside a hospital in the town of Sandpoint. Her death barely ruffled the tight-knit rural community, which mostly backed the officers, who were cleared of wrongdoing before the case was closed.
The second shooting, in nearby Coeur d’Alene, sparked uproar. There were rallies, protests, sinister threats against the officer responsible, and a viral campaign that spread well beyond the […]
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Luke Brinker, Deputy Politics Editor - Salon
Stephan: The states are laboratories and here is the latest on Republican Governor Sam Brownback's Randian policies in Kansas. They are a disaster almost everyone agrees and yet the voter response has been one of apathy. The people of Kansas voted for their own destruction, it is happening, and they are as docile as sheep.
Governor of Kansas Sam Brownback
Credit: AP Photo/Charlie Riedel
Two weeks after the utterly delusional Gov. Sam Brownback proclaimed in a radio interview that Kansas’ experiment in supply-side economics was “working,” the latest batch of numbers from the Sunflower State further put the lie to the utterly delusional governor’s assertion.
State figures released Tuesday showed that tax revenue came in $11.2 million below expectations in March, the latest in a string of lower-than-expected tax receipts.
Lawmakers must fill a $344 million revenue shortfall by June, and Brownback has moved to plug Kansas’ fiscal hole by slashing education funding, gutting the state’s pension fund, and cutting infrastructure. Additionally, the governor has proposed new sales taxes, which disproportionately impact the poor, in order to proceed full steam ahead with his income tax cuts for corporations and the wealthy.
While personal income tax revenue was above expectations last month, the Topeka Capital-Journal reports that revenues from oil and gas, sales, and corporate income taxes were well short of what analysts had projected, […]
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Phillip Smith, Drug Reporter - Alternet (U.S.)
Stephan: I see stories of police brutality or corrupt venality almost every day. It is an important trend but I do not want it to take over SR. So I was looking for a compendium report, and came across this concerning just the War of Drugs. It gives an accurate depiction and catches the tone of the situation, which has become a real problem in the United States.
Credit: Shutterstock
In Fresno, California, the Fresno deputy police chief was arrested last Thursday as part of a federal drug conspiracy investigation. Deputy Chief Keith Foster, 51, went down after a year-long undercover investigation by the FBI and BATF. Few details are known except for the charges: possession and distribution of heroin, oxycodone, and marijuana. He has been placed on administrative leave.
In Chattanooga, Tennessee, a Catoosa County sheriff’s deputy was arrested last Thursday after an acquaintance called police to say he had stolen prescription drugs from him. Deputy Joshua Wilson is charged with possession of hydrocodone and tramadol, unauthorized distribution of a controlled substance, and violating the oath of an officer. He had the drugs in his vehicle when he was pulled over in a traffic stop.
In Prescott Valley, Arizona, a former Prescott Valley Police commander was arrested last Thursday on charges he was stealing drugs discarded by the public […]
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