1986 through 2021 Chicago was making the same mistake.

It is time to take environmental justice seriously. It is just too bad that RMG didn't care about the well-being of the people. The reason RMG put a scrap yard shredder in Southeast Chicago is that it is the only place in the city where no one usually cares about pollution, particulates, and cancer.

STOP CAUSING DEATHS TO PEOPLE!

May 7, 2021
By Michael Hawthorne

Chicago - Under pressure from the Biden administration, (click here) Mayor Lori Lightfoot on Friday indefinitely delayed making a final decision about a proposed scrap shredder in one of the nation’s most polluted areas.

Lightfoot directed the Chicago Department of Public Health to conduct a more thorough investigation of environmental health risks in low-income, largely Latino and Black neighborhoods on the Southeast Side, where Ohio-based Reserve Management Group wants to shred cars and other metallic waste after closing a similar facility on the wealthy, predominantly white North Side.

The mayor stepped in after Michael Regan, the new administrator of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, reminded Lightfoot the Southeast Side already ranks among the nation’s worst areas in various pollution categories the EPA relies on to determine where it should focus its attention.

Heavily industrialized neighborhoods along the Calumet River are scarred by 250 polluted sites actively monitored by federal and state authorities, Regan noted Friday in a letter to Lightfoot. More than 75 companies on the Southeast Side have been investigated for Clean Air Act violations since 2014 alone.

RMG has largely completed construction of its new shredder and scrap yard on the ruins of the former Republic Steel mill, within sight of George Washington High School near Avenue O and 116th Street. But RMG needs a city permit before it can begin shredding flattened cars, used appliances and other metallic junk — a valuable commodity for companies that make steel from recycled scrap...

The bottom line is no longer profit over people, it is an end to the dangers of living in a capitalist country where politicians grovel for any kind of jobs just to say they improved the economy. Who cares if there is a scrapyard on the Southeast side of Chicago so long as it makes the election look good!

March 15, 1986
By Casey Bukro

Chicago - A new look at a survey of the Chicago (click here) area`s industrial Southeast Side disclosed an unusually high death rate among white men and women for three types of cancer, the Illinois Public Health Department reported Friday.

Dr. Robert Spengler, epidemiology chief for the department, said ''What we`re looking at here is not an epidemic (of cancer) as of today,'' but the latest study does indicate ''excess deaths'' for lung, bladder and prostate cancers compared with the rest of the City of Chicago.

Environmental activists who have been clamoring for more attention to environmental hazards on the Southeast Side say they will push for follow-up action to the report.

''This supports the concerns the community has been raising for the last several years,'' said Dr. Robert Ginsburg, research director for Citizens for a Better Environment in Chicago. ''There are health problems out there. This is another piece of evidence that supports our concerns.''

The new study is a re-analysis of a 1983 study, which found cancer ''hot spots'' in six Southeast Side area communities: Pullman, South Deering, East Side, West Pullman, Hegewisch and the suburb of Riverdale.

Both studies were done at the request of the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency, which has been criticized for failing to protect residents from dangerous environmental exposures in air, water and soil....

One national park does not make all the environmental problems right. One national park is only the beginning.

November 12, 2014
By Lori Rotenberk

The historic Pullman neighborhood, (click here) perched on the southeast side of Chicago, is a textural patchwork of industry and humanity. Take a walk through the community and you’ll find shuttered steel mills and railroad tracks intertwined with small, brick rowhouses. On warmer days, there are garden walks and alley parties. The residents here — Hispanics, blacks, and whites, both poor and middle class — are among the most diverse in the city.

Although Pullman has ridden many waves of change, it breeds resilience. Its 4,000 residents, less than half than in its heyday, have cobbled together lives amid the neighborhood’s rough-hewn beauty. Bent on busting crime, they watch each other’s backs.

“It’s quiet,” says artist Ian Lantz, 38, who moved to the neighborhood two years ago from Los Angeles. “It lacks pretension. I [first] saw it in the wintertime and found it gorgeous — it looks like a Hollywood back lot.”...

Ron Fonger has been one of the most dedicated journalists to the Flint Water Crisis.

Seven years have passed since the beginning replacement of water pipes in Flint. Ron Fonger recaps the issues still outstanding, including the trials of the men that caused the deaths and injury to so many.

April 25, 2021
By Ron Fonger

Flint - Seven years after the city’s water source was switched, (click here) triggering the Flint water crisis, the fallout continues to cast its pall.

While the city expects to close out three major water infrastructure projects related to the water crisis, including the final phase of a pipe replacement program, this year, other reminders of the man-made emergency linger with no clear end in sight.

Although a partial settlement of civil lawsuits filed on behalf of Flint residents could be approved later this year, the cases are continuing against defendants that have so far refused to settle their cases, including the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency....

The cowards of the GOP can't help but cannibalize themselve.

It sorta reminds me of the Salem Witch Trials. The Republicans just need that smoking pyre of flesh and they will be right at home.

May 7, 2021
By Jessie Balmert

Columbus - The Ohio Republican Party's (click here) leaders called on Rep. Anthony Gonzalez to resign for voting to impeach former President Donald Trump, a stunning rebuke of one of their own.

On Friday, the party's governing board called on Gonzalez, R-Rocky River, to resign in a divided vote. They also voted to censure Gonzalez and nine other members of Congress for "their votes to support the unconstitutional, politically motivated impeachment proceeding against President Donald J. Trump," according to the resolution.

Gonzalez was one of 10 Republicans who voted to impeach Trump for inciting the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol, which left five people dead. He is the third to be censured for the vote by his state party, following Wyoming Rep. Liz Cheney and South Carolina Rep. Tom Rice....

While in Florida, there should be an investigation into DeSantis roll in the corruption to end a repeat election.

March 17, 2021
By Greg Allen

A GOP political operative (click here) is being charged with paying a sham candidate to run for Florida State Senate and unseating the incumbent Democrat. Democrats are calling for a new election.

To Miami now, where Democrats are calling for a new election following the arrests of two men charged with manipulating a state Senate race. Prosecutors say a Republican operative misled voters by recruiting a candidate with the same last name as the incumbent and then paid him to run. NPR's Greg Allen reports.

GREG ALLEN, BYLINE: In Florida and some other states, recruiting ghost or shadow candidates is a well-known political strategy. Katherine Rundle, the state attorney in Miami-Dade County, has seen it before. She says it's always used against an existing officeholder....

Remember how DeSantis didn't care about keeping Floridians safe so much as insuring profits from Spring Break? Well, his lack of real leadership is causing hardship.

Norwegian Cruise Lines is looking for a new homeport. Seriously, now. They need a place where the government doesn't interfere in their corporate policies. Miami is out as far as Norwegian is concerned. Cities along the Gulf of Mexico need to put a bid into Norwegian to win their homeport status.

May 7, 2021
By Hannah Sampson

Port of New Orleans (click here)

One of the world’s largest cruise companies (click here) is ready to send its ships out of Florida if the state prohibits it from requiring passengers to be vaccinated.

Miami-based Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings has said it intends to require 100 percent of passengers and crew to be fully vaccinated to sail. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) issued an executive order in March barring businesses from requiring proof of vaccinations. He signed that order into state law on Monday.

“That’s an issue,” Norwegian CEO Frank Del Rio said during an earnings call this week. He said the company has been in talks with the governor’s office, and his legal experts believe the vaccination requirement falls under federal and not state law.

“But at the end of the day, cruise ships have motors, propellers and rudders, and god forbid we can’t operate in the state of Florida for whatever reason, then there are other states that we do operate from,” he said. “And we can operate from the Caribbean for ships that otherwise would’ve gone to Florida.”...

Then President Biden wonders why the fight against the virus never seems to end. Here is part of the reason. The country, in a popular vote, threw Trump out for the reasons that were all too obvious and part of that is the poor handling of the SARS-CoV-2 crisis. There is still that lingering stench of Trump within the GOP even after an insurrection.

May 6, 2021
By Cindy Krischer Goodman

Florida’s Department of Health (click here) has reported a new coronavirus variant of concern in the state, a mutation of the highly contagious variant first discovered in Brazil.

So far, two cases of the variant known as P2 have emerged in Florida, in a 74-year-old man in Broward County and a 51-year-old woman in Duval County. The variant has a slightly different sequence than the P1 strain, which in Brazil has been found to be more likely to re-infect people who have already had COVID-19 compared to the original virus....

The variants must be contained. That means the CDC and HHS at the federal level must put demands on Florida's counterparts to end the spread of the variants. The federal authority needs to assert the protection of the people when states are poorly lead like Florida. The USA DOJ must provide the federal authority the capacity to protect the people in the absence of scientific principles. If these variants aren't contained there will be many people sick and dying all over again. Bring charges to the irreverent governors that are placing economics before the lives of citizens. What is the USA suppose to do, forget it needs able body people to work it's economy and protect it from harm? Someone in Washington, DC needs to step up to end this willful negligent homicide.

There they are all in their glorious hatred of a black man.

Appendix Table 1 (click here)

There is more crime committed by White People than any other ethnic division in the country.

That report came out in January 2021. Title "Race and Ethnicity of Violent Crime and Arrestees, 2018 (click here)

Minorities in the USA get a bad rap because of visual acuity or the lack there of. The fact of the matter is there are more White People in the USA committing crimes and they are leading the number of violent crimes. The highest number of those raping and sexual assault are White People.

May 7, 2021
By Amy Forliti and Michael Balsamo

The Minneapolic Four violated George Floyd's civil rights. All those incidenets of minority citizens running into bad cops are civil rights violations. They are also human rights violations.

Minneapolis — A federal grand jury (click here) has indicted the four former Minneapolis police officers involved in George Floyd’s arrest and death, accusing them of willfully violating the Black man’s constitutional rights as he was restrained face-down on the pavement and gasping for air.

A three-count indictment unsealed Friday names Derek Chauvin, Thomas Lane, J. Kueng and Tou Thao.

Specifically, Chauvin is charged with violating Floyd's right to be free from unreasonable seizure and unreasonable force by a police officer. Thao and Kueng are also charged with violating Floyd’s right to be free from unreasonable seizure, alleging they did not intervene to stop Chauvin as he knelt on Floyd's neck. All four officers are charged for their failure to provide Floyd with medical care....

The American Jobs Plan has not passed the US Congress.

Why is that consequential? The answer is in the April Jobs Report. It's is there. I guess the US Congress can't read.

April 1, 2021
By Jim Probasco

President Joe Biden’s nearly $2.3 trillion American Jobs Plan, (click here) unveiled Wed., March 31, 2021, proposes a multi-trillion-dollar infrastructure and jobs investment over eight years, paid for with what the administration calls a “Made in America Corporate Tax Reform Plan,” over the next decade and a half.

The biggest chunk, $1.3 trillion, would go toward infrastructure spending on two fronts, transportation and community. The balance, more than $980 billion, would involve investments in R&D, workforce development, manufacturing, and eldercare.

What follows is a breakdown of proposed spending before negotiations between Republicans and Democrats begin in earnest....

Currently, there is 43 percent of the unemployed that are chronically unemployed. There is nothing that different about the April's Job Report. 

May 7, 2021

...The number of long-term unemployed (click here) (those jobless 

for 27 weeks or more), at 4.2 million, was essentially unchanged in 

April but is 3.1 million higher than in February 2020. 

These long-term unemployed accounted for 43.0 percent of the 

total unemployed in April. (See table A-12.)...

In South Carolina and Montana, there seem to be a lot of lazy opportunists on the unemployment rolls. It is nothing but further victimization of the unemployed and it is in the case of South Carolina racism.

South Carolina has ended the federal unemployment payments of $300 per week.

South Carolina (click here)All:6.7%White:5.7%Black:9.7%Hispanic:NAAAPI:NA

For all those lazy folks in Montana and South Carolina, there will be less incentive to stay on unemployment. That is just plain, ole, White Trash that won't go to work because they have it too good on unemployment.

MontanaAll:5.9%White:5.3%Black:NAHispanic:NAAAPI:NA
So sure is the Montana Governor that there is no chronicly unemployed in his state, he is ending the federal $300 per week and instead providing a work bonus. That spells lazy, lazy, lazy all over it.
...Beginning June 27, (click here) unemployed workers in the state will no longer receive $300 in weekly extra benefits funded by the federal government through Sept. 6.

The state will launch a new program to give bonuses to unemployed workers who return to work....

Yes, indeed. People on unemployment are just generally lazy, no-good people. They understand money though when it is waved under their noses.

...“Montana is open for business again, but I hear from too many employers throughout our state who can’t find workers. Nearly every sector in our economy faces a labor shortage,” Gianforte said in a statement....

It is called Job Training that comes in the Biden Job's Bill which hasn't passed Congress to develop those training programs for jobs of the future.

How did I ever guess that both the Montana and South Carolina governors are Republicans. That is the opinion of Republican Governors, that people on unemployment are not good people. They are lazy and have to be provided an incentive to MAKE THEM WORK!

Get out the whips and dogs if necessary!  Heck those dogs haven't been feed for at least a week. That oughta do it.

Yes, indeed. Republicans know how to win over American sentiment, through hate and fear. Works well for them.

Unemployed men and women have families and they need those federal dollars to make ends meet. Those receiving those monies can challenge the State's bad attitude in court to return the monies owed them. If necessary, the unemployed, especially the chronically unemployed, should demand their governors begin training programs so they can fulfill their hopes of the American Dream. 

I am really grateful Merrick Garland is the Attorney General. We will finally have a competent DOJ that can win trials.

Civil Rights are going to be a huge issue going forward. Georgia passed draconian election and voting laws and now Florida is up to the same tricks. Only DeSantis is also committing censorship with the media because the announcement of the election and voting changes occurred with a single audience, Fox News. Of course, Fox could put an end to preferential treatment, but, they don't. Censorship is a red flag for investigation.

May 6, 2021

By Stephanie Becker and Chandelis Duster

The Justice Department  (click here) on Wednesday issued a warning in the Republican-run Arizona Senate-ordered audit of the 2020 election ballots, saying the audit could be in violation of federal voting and civil rights laws.

The warning comes amid scrutiny over the audit of nearly 2.1 million ballots from Arizona's largest county, Maricopa, where election officials previously found no evidence of widespread voter fraud or other issues during the state's 2020 presidential election. The review -- which perpetuates the falsehood that the election was stolen from former President Donald Trump -- has been decried by both Maricopa County's Board of Supervisors, which is majority Republican, and the Arizona secretary of state, who is a Democrat. The results of the election have long been certified by the secretary of state.

Pamela Karlan, principal deputy assistant Attorney General for the Civil Rights Division of the Department of Justice, warned Senate President Karen Fann, a Republican, in a letter obtained by CNN that turning over election materials to audit contractor Cyber Ninjas -- a Sarasota, Florida audit contractor hired by the GOP-controlled Arizona Senate -- could be a violation of the Civil Rights Act of 1960. Karlan also wrote in the letter that there are "at least issues of potential non-compliance with federal laws enforced by the Department."...

While Trump was in office, the GOP wanted to end the federal government.

Shown Here:

Introduced in House (01/03/2017)

Tax Code Termination Act (click here)

This bill terminates the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 after December 31, 2021, except for self-employment taxes, Federal Insurance Contributions Act (FICA) taxes, and railroad retirement taxes. A two-thirds majority vote in Congress is required to change such termination date.

The bill declares that any new federal tax system should be a simple and fair system that: (1) applies a low rate to all Americans, (2) provides tax relief for working Americans, (3) protects the rights of taxpayers and reduces tax collection abuses, (4) eliminates the bias against savings and investment, (5) promotes economic growth and job creation, and (6) does not penalize marriage or families.

The new federal tax system must be approved by Congress in its final form by July 4, 2021.

The Republicans are not competent practitioners of democracy. These bills to defund the federal government by eliminating the tax code and replacing with a national sales tax is out of the question. The budget runs on what the federal government requires, not by how much tax was collected.

Introduced in Senate (01/03/2017) (click here) 

Fair Tax Act of 2017

This bill is a tax reform proposal that imposes a national sales tax on the use or consumption in the United States of taxable property or services in lieu of the current income and corporate income tax, employment and self-employment taxes, and estate and gift taxes. The rate of the sales tax will be 23% in 2019, with adjustments to the rate in subsequent years. There are exemptions from the tax for used and intangible property, for property or services purchased for business, export, or investment purposes, and for state government functions.

Under the bill, family members who are lawful U.S. residents receive a monthly sales tax rebate (Family Consumption Allowance) based upon criteria related to family size and poverty guidelines.

The states have the responsibility for administering, collecting, and remitting the sales tax to the Treasury.

Tax revenues are to be allocated among: (1) the general revenue, (2) the old-age and survivors insurance trust fund, (3) the disability insurance trust fund, (4) the hospital insurance trust fund, and (5) the federal supplementary medical insurance trust fund.

No funding is authorized for the operations of the Internal Revenue Service after FY2021.

Finally, the bill terminates the national sales tax if the Sixteenth Amendment to the Constitution (authorizing an income tax) is not repealed within seven years after the enactment of this bill.

This is the insurrection US House Republican members are backing by denying Liz Cheney her status.

The Confederate Flag which is the icon of White Supremacists was everywhere. You can't love your country and hate Rep. Liz Cheney. It is not possible that two truths exist.

 

The Trump Party are anti-constitutionalists.

There is no way a political party can live under the facts of Trump's relationship with Russia during the 2016 elections and afterward and still oust Liz Cheney from leadership. Steve Scalise is a white supremacist. There isn't anything else to say, there is a movement within the Republican Party that wants to destroy the US Constitution.

May 5, 2021
By Chris Cillizza

Two things have become very, very clear over the last 24 hours: (click here)

1. Wyoming Rep. Liz Cheney is likely to be removed as the third-ranking Republican in House leadership -- as soon as next week when the House reconvenes.

2. New York Rep. Elise Stefanik is the preferred replacement for Cheney in leadership, with House Minority Whip Steve Scalise (Louisiana) now publicly supporting the Cheney-for-Stefanik swap.

These two developments are quite clearly related -- and revealing.

Every word she states is based in the facts of the insurrection. Any Republican that sees her as a threat to the party is wrong and the most extremist of the party.

Both cannot be true. The DOJ today plainly stated the relationship with Russia existed clearly with the Trump administration and it's election campaign. That cannot be true and at the same time, Rep. Cheney is wrong about her words. Both cannot exist. The extremist members of the GOP are following the wrong path to protect our democracy. Putin is still having a clear effect on the GOP. 

With Voting Rights under attack, it looks like the Three-Fifths Compromise is at work again.

May 4, 2021
By Rick Rojas

Nashville - The Three-Fifths Compromise, (click here) an agreement reached during the negotiations in 1787 to create the United States Constitution, found that, for the purposes of representation and taxation, only three-fifths of a state’s enslaved people would be counted toward its total population. It is regarded as one of the most racist deals among the states during the country’s founding.

Yet in a speech in the Tennessee General Assembly on Tuesday, one representative defended the compromise, arguing that it was “a bitter, bitter pill” that was necessary to curtail the power of slaveholding states and that helped clear the way to ending slavery — remarks that were rebuked by critics, including Black colleagues, as insulting and demeaning.

“By limiting the number of population in the count,” the state representative, Justin Lafferty, a Republican from Knoxville, said on the House floor, participants in the Constitutional Convention “specifically limited the number of representatives that would be available in the slaveholding states, and they did it for the purpose of ending slavery — well before Abraham Lincoln, well before the Civil War.”...

Justin Lafferty went on to explain away the idea of a Five-Third slave population count in order to secure US Representatives to the US House was a racist act; by stating it lead to the end of slavery. Well, if that were the case, it sure took a long time to make the switch in the USA from slave to citizen. 

The assault on voting rights needs to be seen for what it is, a power grab that ELIMINATES the rights of minorities by OBSTRUCTING voting opportunity.

The Fourteenth Amendment originally passed July 9, 1868. 

All persons born or naturalized in the United States and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside. No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.

The Thirteenth Amendment abolished slavery.

Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction.

However, slavery was illegal in the thirteen original colonies in 1776. This is a really good analysis of the Thirteenth Amendment and slavery in general when it came to the rights of citizens.

By Jamal Greene and Jennifer Mason McAward

Slavery is America’s original sin. (click here) Despite the bold commitment to equality in the Declaration of Independence, slavery was legal in all of the thirteen colonies in 1776. By the start of the Civil War, four million people, nearly all of African descent, were held as slaves in 15 southern and border states. Slaves represented one-eighth of the U.S. population in 1860....

The 15th Amendment to the US Constitution reiterates the rights of all citizens.

The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude.

These three Amendments to the USA Constitution are the framework to end slavery in the USA. Why is it today, there is so much racism in our society and government?

"... previous condition of servitude" may be grounds to end the obstruction of former prisoners to vote. Being incarcerated and the definition as "servitude" was defined clearly in the 13th Amendment. The words are clearly written to make exceptions to incarceration as "...except as a punishment for crime...." There is a clear understanding that incarceration is defined in the US Constitution as involuntary servitude. Therefore the words in the 15th Amendment are even more clear when realizing the constitutional language of servitude. When prisoners are released from incarceration for any reason they are no longer in involuntary servitude and any previous servitude is not to abridge their right to vote.

There isn't anything difficult about this. The day prisoners walk out of prison or jail a free person, they have the right to vote. PERIOD! 

The words of the 13th, 14th and 15th Amendment to the USA Constitution is clear. There is nothing to be in the way of voting, except time in incarceration. But, once that incarceration ends there is nothing that should obstruct their return to full citizen rights, including voting. 

Prison is used as a financial tool for the states, including that once a prisoner has served his or her time there are still bills to pay and until those bills are paid, there is no return to full citizen rights. That is unconstitutional. The use of prisons as a means of raising monies to the state's treasury has to end, especially, where it prevents the return of voting rights.

When a judge hands down a sentence, there are fines to be paid. There is no order by any judge to assign the cost of prison to the prisoners and their families. There should never be any such assignment by a judge because it is unconstitutional to assign the cost of incarceration that prevents voting rights.

Congress needs to address the abliity of the DOJ to hide it's proceedings.

Attorney General Garland needs to assist Congress in drafting legislation that will end these secretive practices in the DOJ.

It is all fine and good to have the political discussions this news spawns, but, there needs to be something done about the ability of the DOJ to carry on unlawfully in secret. I know there is a lot to be said about ethics, but, the ability of the DOJ to carry out secret political agendas is out of the question. There needs to be someone, like the Inspector General, that screams bloody murder over law-breaking within the department itself.

This cannot be allowed to exist at all anywhere in the USA government or any state or local government either.

The professions are supposed to police themselves with state organizations that remove licenses and bring about fines for unethical practices, but, there is every indication professional organizations were made mute during the Trump years. Nothing they did or stated mattered.

This news from Judge Jackson is alarming in the worst possible way. The DOJ under the direction of Bill Barr, then Attorney General, conducted itself in a corrupt and illegal way that undermined even the investigation of the relationship Russia had with the Trump campaign. I don't care if the meetings were haphazard, the nexus existed and it has to be put to an end.

What is even more disturbing is the fact the transfer of power to a new president was met with real challenges. The State of Georgia had it not been for the Secretary of State could have been corrupted and lost to the electoral count. Vice President Pence, if it had been someone else, could have effected the actual electoral count. The fact that the insurrection even occurred, let alone resulted in violence at the US Capitol which actually did delay the electoral vote count; are all factors the Congress must address to prevent such problems from manifesting again. 

Perhaps, stenographers need to be assigned to the Attorney General that records every word spoken in meetings and then submitted to the Inspector General and/or an Inspector General assigned to record and evaluate the Attorney General's decisions. 

There must be a way of policing the DOJ that removes the ability to maintain a veil of secrecy to undermine the USA Constitution. The DOJ must be prohibited from acting as an adjunct to the President's political agenda. The DOJ must retain the right to prosecute the Executive Branch for unlawful acts while in office.

May 4, 2021
By William S. Schmidt

...The department (click here) had argued that the memo was exempt from public records laws because it consisted of private advice from lawyers whom Mr. Barr had relied on to make the call on prosecuting Mr. Trump. But Judge Jackson, who was appointed by President Barack Obama in 2011, ruled that the memo contained strategic advice, and that Mr. Barr and his aides already understood what his decision would be....

Citizen Arborists. It is a great program. The benefits outweigh any costs.

May 3, 2021
By Morgan Greene

When Shirley Rounds Davis (click here) moved to her home on the Far South Side decades ago, she could see a maple tree through the window. Over the years, she watched it grow.

“And the birds would come,” Davis said. “In the morning, they would wake me up, and my children too, they’d wake us up with their song in the morning.”...

...Davis is one of many Chicagoans caring for the trees that make up the regional canopy coverage, which has increased by 2% since 2010, according to a new tree census from the Morton Arboretum. But that finding comes with some caveats....

...The canopy across Cook, DuPage, Kane, Kendall, Lake, McHenry and Will counties increased overall, from about 157 million trees and shrubs in the region in 2010 to 172 million today, a 2% increase bringing regional canopy coverage to 23%, according to findings from the census. Chicago has about 4 million of the trees, with the other 168 million in the seven-county region....

IT is not the only job of the future.

Grow tree stewards (click here) of the future by inspiring creativity and learning at the many education programs just for youth at The Morton Arboretum.

The EPA is correct in bring "no tolerance" to hydrofluorocarbons.

May 3, 2021
By Lisa Friedman

Washington - The Environmental Protection Agency (click here) on Monday moved to sharply cut down on the use and production of powerful greenhouse gases used in refrigeration and air-conditioning, part of the Biden administration’s larger strategy of trying to slow the pace of global warming.

The first significant step taken by the E.P.A. under President Biden to curb climate change, the proposed regulation focuses on hydrofluorocarbons, a class of man-made chemicals that is thousands of times more potent than carbon dioxide at warming the planet....

...But the speed with which the E.P.A. crafted language and moved forward with the proposed regulation is unusual and underscores the urgency that the Biden administration is placing on climate change, said Francis Dietz, vice president for public affairs at the Air-Conditioning, Heating and Refrigeration Institute, a trade group.

These ozone-replacing gases should have been under control a long time ago to prevent global warming. President Biden is moving quickly to do all the work no one else bothered doing. These gases should not exist in manufacturing anywhere on Earth.

The list cannot stop here. The next biggest offender is methane. It has to be brought under control, including capping wells and ending leaks. Has to happen.

The EV (electrical vehicle) market MUST TAKE PRECEDENT. There was a report I read that said the USA will run out of gasoline this summer. No surprise. Peak oil was in 2005. No one bothered to tell the public they are living with gas engine cars and trucks on borrowed time. 

It is time for a major shift in personal transportation to EV. There are going to be people that fall off the car market altogether. What are they going to do about work and commuting? This is a major paradigm shift that will cause unemployment simply because people can't get to work. They bought the dream of living in suburbia. Wrong-way to go. 

For two decades I have advocated high-speed rail from coast to coast. Where is it? Anyone take that seriously? The only city in the country that has bothered to support living in the Burbs, is Boston. They have a commuter rail that most people working in Boston can take not far from their homes. Where has everyone been?

There needs to be more extensive mass transit. Any working American should have the option of getting on a bus to travel to the rail service.

Time to get real and only 100 days in office and Biden's EPA is moving quickly in the right direction.

Just a drop in to say hello.

Medina Spirit won the Kentucky Derby. Where did he get the speed and endurance?

Great Grandparents. 

Storm Cat

AP Indy

Unbridled

They are all great horses themselves, but, when one considers Seattle Slew and Bold Reasoning who was sired by Bold Ruler at Clairborn Farms; I would have bought the colt in a heartbeat, too.

Medina Spirit has some of the finest thoroughbred blood lines, including the fact Secretariat was sired by Bold Ruler. Bold Ruler wasn't much of a racehorse, but, he was a heck of a daddy.

If one is going to follow Medina Spirit, his career may very well follow that of Seattle Slew. Little known horse bought fairly cheaply at an auction, but, delivered a 1000 times his price.

The only other sire that turns my head is Princequillo.

When it comes to breeding Thoroughbreds,(click here) the wise money generally goes with the tried and true within the box of fashionable bloodlines. The wiser money will look outside the box and, once in a while, find gold where no one else would consider looking. Princequillo is one such Thoroughbred. He was like this his entire life....

It is always the "Rags to Riches" stories that make the greatest sires. Isn't he a beauty and his strength as a sire still holds true today. You can still find him in the lineage somewhere.

If it weren't for the horse, the trainer is nobody.

Sunday Night will be delayed.

Thank you for your interest.

The GOP is reining in the rude.

Guinea pigs for a radically modified radiaition scan. This scan was never approved by the FDA.

April 28, 2021
By Paul Egan

Stebbins, 22, of Mount Morris, is visibly pregnant and said she had not thought about any potential risk until later when her mother raised the issue.

Ms. Stebbins is not supposed to have to worry about being exposed or having her unborn child exposed to radiation. She is not a physician. Ms. Stebbins is supposed to be protected from GROSS MALPRACTICE.

First, Flint residents were exposed to toxic lead. (click here)

Now, there are concerns many could be exposed to harmful radiation through bone scans as they seek to document their exposure to lead and secure their shares of a $641.25 million settlement of civil lawsuits arising from the Flint water catastrophe.

Dr. Mona Hanna-Attisha, the Flint pediatrician who helped expose the 2014 lead poisoning of the city's drinking water supply, is among those raising concerns about the use in Flint — through arrangements made by plaintiff attorneys — of a portable bone scanner that its manufacturer says is not designed for use on humans....

..."It is not an approved practice by any global regulatory agency or professional body," Reynolds said. Instead, "it is being promoted by misinformed attorneys" as part of an "unauthorized/unsupervised research project, masquerading as an accepted medical procedure, as a condition for compensation to claimants."...

This isn't misinformation. It is however gross legal malpractice.

National Research Council (US) Committee on Measuring Lead in Critical Populations.

Washington (DC): National Academies Press (US); 1993.

The purpose of this chapter (click here) is to discuss analytic methods to assess exposure to lead in sensitive populations. The toxic effects of lead are primarily biochemical, but rapidly expanding chemical research databases indicate that lead has adverse effects on multiple organ systems especially in infants and children. The early evidence of exposure, expressed by the age of 6–12 months, shows up in prenatal or postnatal blood as lead concentrations that are common in the general population and that until recently were not considered detrimental to human health (Bellinger et al., 1987,1991a; Dietrich et al., 1987a; McMichael et al., 1988). As public-health concerns are expressed about low-dose exposures (Bellinger et al., 1991a,1987; Dietrich et al., 1987a; McMichael et al., 1988; Landrigan, 1989; Rosen et al., 1989; Mahaffey, 1992), the uses of currently applicable methods of quantitative assessment and development of newer methods will generate more precise dosimetric information on small exposures of numbers of sensitive populations....

Well, if Genesee County doesn't have the vaccine for the public, what good is a strategy?

23 April 2021

By Jiquanda Johnson

Nearly a dozen people sit in on a Zoom call (click here) on a Wednesday afternoon for what they call a “publications” meeting – one similar to many others held daily in Flint, Michigan, as community partners collaborate for the sake of public health.

In essence, it’s a meeting bringing organizations together to help strategize on how to get the word out about Covid-19 vaccinations.

Like the rest of Michigan, Flint is seeing steep increases in Covid-19 numbers.

“My city is on fire. Covid-19 is on fire,” said Debra Furr-Holden, director of the Flint Center for Health Equity Solutions (FCHES) and associate dean for public health integration at Michigan State University, as she talks about new efforts to reduce Covid numbers....

...Now the coronavirus pandemic is wreaking renewed havoc in the city as a wave of new infections struck Michigan just as much of the rest of the country seemed to be recovering. Numbers of positive cases in Flint are steadily increasing and the pandemic has not made it easy to get information out to a community struggling with various communication gaps. It is a fresh crisis, but it is also one that multiple local activists and community leaders are seeking to combat....

Can't imagine why everyone is upset, can you? A year ago...

A security guard at a Family Dollar store in Flint, Michigan, was shot and killed after a confrontation with the family of a woman he had told to leave the store because she wasn’t wearing a face mask. (Three people, including the woman’s mother, were charged with first-degree murder.) Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer said the state’s stay-at-home order would remain in place for two more weeks; her statement came on the same day that President Donald Trump tweeted that she should “make a deal” with protesters who gathered at the state Capitol a day earlier, some carrying assault weapons.

April 29, 2021

By Craig Mauger

Lansing — Robert Gordon, (click here) Michigan's former health director who abruptly resigned on Jan. 22, said he made the decision after Gov. Gretchen Whitmer told him it was time to go in a "new direction."

Gordon revealed the comment at the beginning of a Thursday morning state House Oversight Committee hearing. The Republican-controlled panel subpoenaed Gordon last week to appear before the panel. GOP lawmakers voiced concerns that the $155,606 separation agreement Whitmer's administration reached with Gordon violated a constitutional provision barring "extra compensation" paid to any public officer after the person's "service has been rendered."...

April 30, 2021

By Sarah Rahal

The first case of the India variant of COVID-19 (click here) has been identified in Clinton County north of Lansing, Michigan Department of Health and Human Services spokesman Bob Wheaton told The Detroit News Friday.

The new variant, B.1.617, was initially detected in India in October with two mutations, E484Q and L452R, according to the World Health Organization....

April 30, 2021

Washington – The U.S. will restrict travel from India (click here) starting on May 4, the White House said Friday, citing a devastating rise in COVID-19 cases in the country and the emergence of potentially dangerous variants of the coronavirus.

White House press secretary Jen Psaki said President Joe Biden’s administration made the determination on the advice of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention....

Why is it that Genesee County does not have adequate vaccines for COVID-19? Flint is in Genesee County. I am fairly certain other areas of Michigan have sufficient vaccines.

April 26, 2021

By Dan Bondy

Flint - According to the Michigan Health and Hospital Association, (click here)  the number of children in Michigan being hospitalized with COVID-19 is growing.

The Association reports hospitalization rates for children to increase three hundred and eleven percent between February nineteenth and April twentieth....

...The report also says the number of children hospitalized with severe covid-19 symptoms hit a high of 70 across the state last week.

The report says, on average there are 1,500 pediatric covid cases diagnosed each day.

April 29, 2021

By Craig Mauger

Lansing — Gov. Gretchen Whitmer (click here) announced a plan Thursday to tie the future of COVID-19 restrictions in Michigan to the percentage of residents who get their first dose of the coronavirus vaccine.

The Democratic governor described the "MI Vacc to Normal" plan as the state's way out of the pandemic, which has been tied to more than 17,400 deaths in Michigan and spurred limitations on gatherings and businesses for more than a year.

Under the new four-phase plan, the Whitmer administration will begin easing restrictions two weeks after 4.5 million residents, or 55% of the adult population, receive their first dose. She said her administration will lift a requirement for remote work when it's feasible....

So, let me get this right. Whitmer has a plan to lift restrictions on movement within Michigan after 55 percent of adults are vaccinated. Which 55 percent is that because Genesee County will have restrictions lifted without much of a hope of 55 percent of their citizens being vaccinated. Where did the 55 percent come from anyway?

I WOULD THINK the 55 percent of vaccinations is in the cities, right? That is where transmission is most likely to happen. Cities where there are many more people per square mile than rural areas. Where is the 55 percent coming from? Will it actually end the spread of SARS-CoV-2 in Michigan? Heck, no!

Immunizations (click here)

Due to the current recommendations of social distancing and the COVID-19 pandemic, the Immunization Department is appointment only, no walk-ins are available at this time.

Please call (810) 237-4569 or 810-237-4540 for an appointment, you will be asked a few questions on recent travel and current health status.

A bipartisan US Senate recognizes the poor condition of the country's water supply.

30 April 2021

By Cornell University

Jerel Ezell (click here) is a mixed methods researcher‚ currently enrolled in the sociology doctoral program at the University of Chicago. He is a graduate of Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health (M.P.H., 2010), where he had his first experience in the housing sector working at New Destiny Housing Corporation, a nonprofit which develops supportive, sustainable housing for low-income survivors of domestic violence...

...The Senate has approved a bipartisan, (click here) $35 billion bill to upgrade the country’s water infrastructure, a measure that would clean up the nation’s water supply.

Jerel Ezell is professor of Africana studies and an expert in health disparities and social inequality in post-industrial communities. Ezell has worked on city infrastructure challenges in Flint, Michigan and his new research shows that five years after the beginning of the Flint water crisis, 29% of residents had associated PTSD symptoms, with higher rates observed among Black residents.

Ezell says:

“This rare moment of bipartisanship is welcome, and this bill takes a small, but important, step in acknowledging the importance of clean water as a basic human right. However, while this legislation will do a good deal to address some of the long-standing technical issues plaguing our national water supply, infrastructure upgrades alone will not motivate communities who are used to limited water potability to use it.

“This bill must be reinforced by earnest public engagement and education campaigns on water consumption, particularly in low-income and racial/ethnic minority communities like those in Flint, Michigan which have routinely been subjected to poor tasting water that has been unsafe to drink or bathe in and at times disastrous for their health.”...

Ashley Babbitt’s family has no basis for a lawsuit

Ashley Babbit was an insurrectionist that destroyed the people’s property and then attempted to enter a chamber to bring harm to members of Congress.

It was a lynch mob and she was a member of that group of people. In any video of the incident the crowd is yelling, “ He’s got a gun, he’s got a gun.” She went through the broken glass anyway. Was she wearing a bulletproof vest or not? They aren’t good at close range. The gun the agent was using looked like a 9 mm. 9 mm are effective against body armor.

The agent involved has been exonerated. He was acting according to his training. This isn’t a racist issue. This was a government agent doing his job. As soon as Ashley was shot the crowd started to disperse because they became scared. The agent did his job and saved lives.

Ashley Babbitt’s family has no basis for their lawsuit.