This Blog is created to stress the importance of Peace as an environmental directive. “I never give them hell. I just tell the truth and they think it’s hell.” – Harry Truman
(I receive no compensation from any entry on this blog.)
Groundhog Punxsutawney Phil (click here) climbs on the top hat of his handler after
predicting an early spring during the 127th Groundhog Day Celebration at
Gobbler's Knob on Feb. 2, 2013 in Punxsutawney, Pa.
...The closest the game has come to coinciding with Groundhog Day was in
2009, when the just-down-the-road Pittsburgh Steelers defeated the
Arizona Cardinals 27-23 in the Super Bowl, the night before Phil's
forecast....
Looks like the Seahawks are having a good day. Hope everyone enjoyed the commercials. It is going to be a 'Miracle Second Half," I just know it.
From the Washington Post. Democratic
candidates, like Wendy Davis, can bring income inequality to the people
in a sound example of how children are experiencing a new form of
segregation.
This actually can work to the benefit those children. If a school has predominantly poor children, special attention can be paid to their needs. Not just food and a good school nurse, but, special learning environments that improve self-esteem and prepare them for higher education and/or a trade. Parents can be brought into the picture to help create a home environment encouraging homework, good behavior and safe living conditions. So often these families believe they have to settle for crumbs.
I can't think of a better issue to illustrate clearly the adverse outcomes of the income inequality gap.
Low-income students made up at least half the public school student
population in 17 states in 2011, a marked increase from 2000, when four states topped 50 percent.
Lindsay Layton October 19, 2013
A majority of students in public schools throughout the American
South and West are low-income for the first time in at least four
decades, according to a new study that details a demographic shift with broad implications for the country.
The analysis by the Southern Education Foundation,
the nation’s oldest education philanthropy, is based on the number of
students from preschool through 12th grade who were eligible for the
federal free and reduced-price meals program in the 2010-11 school year....
The massive rock narrowly missed a farm house, destroyed a barn, and stopped in a vineyard at the property in Ronchi di Termeno. A second giant boulder detached during the landslide stopped behind the house. The family living there was unharmed in the incident, on 21 January....
The second boulder is behind the house and blocking a road. Those are some kind of pictures. All these rocks need is a tipping point and they are no longer at rest. When they are posed at the top of a hill and a home is at the bottom of that hill, there should be some serious considerations as to the final resting place of those rocks. Gravity, you know. There is a new profession, "Geological Surveyor for Home Sales."
"We unearth all previous land disturbances, including current hydraulic fracturing in the region. We deliver real time present data and guarantee your home from being crushed by boulders, sinking into liquefaction and acknowledge active fissures. No guarantees with hurricanes or tornadoes, but, we can provide insight to nearby glacial ice that might result in complete inundation of your homestead with Human Induced Global Warming. Think about it. Mother Earth has never before been so friendly."
At first glance if there are many problems within NJ Transit and the Port Authority there needs to be a review of policies and procedures and how one man, namely David Wildstein, can disregard them. How did this happen? There were obvious problems with Wildstein's leadership that didn't show up until something went radically wrong.
Superstorm Sandy demanded expert leadership to prevent disaster. Then the lane closing at Fort Lee showed what Governor Christi stated, "...complete stupidity..."
Sunday, October 6, 2013 The Record
WHEN CHRIS Christie has your back (click here) you don't need to sweat the details of
ensuring that a third of the state's rail fleet isn't sitting in
flood-prone areas prior to a storm of unprecedented severity. And that
is good for James Weinstein.
Meeting
The Record's editorial board Thursday, the governor defended the
executive director of NJ Transit. Saying he had complete confidence in
Weinstein, Christie said that an underling at NJ Transit authorized the
ill-fated placement of rail equipment prior to Superstorm Sandy without
sending the decision up the chain of command. Christie said the employee
was demoted, but not fired because of civil service rules that
prohibited termination.
As
far as The Record has been able to determine, there are no civil
service employees at NJ Transit. We are willing to accept that the
governor may have simply misspoken about civil service rules as opposed
to something else, such as union protections. That noted, the governor's
explanation of what happened at NJ Transit prior to Sandy remains
lacking in detail.
Let
us be clear: In the days prior to and after Sandy, Christie's priority
had to be – and it was – ensuring that the loss of life would be low to
zero if possible, and limiting the damage to Shore communities. On that
score, Christie was flawless. Weinstein was not....
If
an underling had the ability to move or keep rail equipment in
flood-prone areas without vetting up the chain, there is something very
wrong with that chain....
...If
an underling was responsible for the placement of rail equipment – a
third of the entire NJ Transit fleet – someone has to be responsible for
managing that underling and allowing him to run roughshod over
established policies. A chain is only as strong as its weakest link. We
continue to believe that the weakest link is not some underling, but NJ
Transit's executive director, James Weinstein. This is not personal; it is a demand for public accountability.
In addition to this, the media is losing credibility. It was the media that insisted Wildstein and Christie were high school buddies, even after the Governor denied it right from the beginning of the Fort Lee problem. Now, Governor Christie has focused on Mr. Wildstein in high school; according to the media the Governor is being petty to distance himself from from the issue. Now, either the media considers Mr. Wildstein a close high school friend of the Governor and stand behind that view of the world or they simply stop flip flopping on the topic at their pleasure in order to maintain control of the Governor's image.
Either there is a reason for the Governor to address this or not.
Up to the mention of high school and Mr. Wildstein in a recent memo there was a close friendship between them according to the media which would compel the Governor to address that misinformation in the memo. Which is it? A clarifying understanding of the high school relationship or pettiness? If it is pettiness then the media has no credibility.
Seismologist Dr. Elizabeth Cochran discusses research showing that injection wells from fracking and gas and oil production likely causing an uptick in U.S. earthquakes
How many studies have to be conducted before the denial stops?
Dr. Cochran works with the United States Geological Survey. She is addressing important issues with long term effects on Americans. She isn't lying. Her work is published and credible.
(AKA "How to avoid liability regardless of it's truth.")
07/01/2013
...Stray gases
The natural presence of stray gases in drinking-water wells and in
rivers and streams in some areas of the US is not a recent phenomenon,
as anecdotes from long-time residents have confirmed. In
addition to such references, historical US Geological Survey studies
documented the presence of methane in Pennsylvania aquifers before
development of the Marcellus shale. More recently, researchers have conducted large-scale studies to
characterize the presence and concentrations of stray gases in
drinking-water wells. A study of 1,700 water wells in Susquehanna County
found dissolved methane to be ubiquitous in lowland valley groundwater
wells, with detectable methane concentrations in more than 78% of these
wells. This finding underscores the importance of
determining the presence of stray gases in the area of interest before
drawing conclusions about the origin of gases in a drinking-water well....
Have wells and water supplies tested for any and all characteristics BEFORE the lousy companies start their drilling. Have it documented. It is not cheap and the federal EPA doesn't get involved until after the fact. If at all possible have the water pre-tested. Quite frankly, it should be a requirement placed on the drilling companies before they start. Landowners should not have the burden of paying for pre-drilling testing.
This table is so very precious. Basically, the landowner conducted all the pollution with household substances. Aren't they amazing? Any excuse will do. No integrity. NO honesty. Why do I hold the opinion of this industry that I do? One guess. Let's put it this way, the industry has no scruples.
And not only do landowners pollute their own water, they underhandedly manipulate the water so that the turbidity looks like pollution. These landowners are criminal in their treatment of these wonderfully magnificent companies
There is a saying that strongly applies here, "It takes one to know one."
Any 'outlier' means that the results are UNUSUAL. That simply indicates the testing has to be conducted again to find out if the same result occurs.
Even the US EPA are a bunch of criminals, did you know that?
Lab analysis
For metals, both filtered and unfiltered water samples are typically
analyzed. EPA adopted this approach to analyzing water samples collected
from residential wells in Dimock, Pa.An analytical list
generally includes volatile organic compounds (VOCs), semivolatile
organic compounds (SVOCs), total and dissolved metals, ethylene glycol,
acidity, alkalinity, total dissolved solids (TDS), chloride, pH, diesel
and gasoline-range organics (DRO and GRO), MBAS, and total petroleum
hydrocarbons (TPH). Coliform bacteria analysis may be important to
determine it the sampled water well is affected by a nearby septic tank,
runoff, or any other bacterial source.
The above are all STANDARD testing for water. The standards used by the US EPA are established law. They cannot be manipulated.
Safe Drinking Water Act (SDWA) (click here) SDWA was originally passed by Congress in 1974 to protect public health
by regulating the nation's public drinking water supply. The law was
amended in 1986 and 1996 and requires many actions to protect drinking
water and its sources: rivers, lakes, reservoirs, springs, and ground
water wells. (SDWA does not regulate private wells which serve fewer
than 25 individuals.) For more information see:
The only concern with some property owners is the aspect of the law in which private well are not regulated. HOWEVER. The standards within the SDWA apply to private wells, too. Drinking water is drinking water. People are people. The reason the regulations is limited to wells serving over 25 individuals is cost to the state and federal government. But, the standards apply to all US drinking water. The water should always be tested by an independent and/or state authority before drilling begins. Duplicity is always a good idea and the company should never conduct the testing ever due to possible lawsuits and conflict of interest. But, the company should bear the cost.
It is also important to coordinate with the laboratory to make sure
the analytical results are reliable. For example, the draft report of
EPA sampling conducted in Pavilion, Wyo., highlighted that glycols were
detected in domestic wells using gas chromatography with flame
ionization detection (GCFID; EPA Standard Method 8015).
8015 is a standard method practiced by private testing labs. This isn't a test that ONLY the EPA uses to manipulate outcomes. These tests are scrutinized in private industry as well.
At least 67 analytes (click here) can be tested by ALS - Columbia using EPA Method 8015B. Please contact us for all available analytes which can be tested by EPA Method 8015B.
Glycol analysis, however, using liquid chromatography with tandem mass
spectroscopy (LC/MS/MS) failed to replicate these glycol detections.
These contradictory analytical results could lead to misinterpretation
of the groundwater data. Liquid chromatography with tandem mass
spectroscopy (LC/MS/MS) is used primarily in the pharmaceutical industry. Any industry, not just the petroleum industry, can't simply go about doing their own thing. The tests regarding public safety are tested and approved by authorities. Basic human interaction with their environment isn't going to change unless the environment changes. This is fairly rock solid stuff the EPA trusts to establish PRINCIPLED practices to protect citizens.
Metabolomics
December 2006, Volume 2, Issue 4, pp 197-219
M. Stobiecki,, A. Skirycz,, L. Kerhoas, P. Kachlicki, D. Muth,, J. Einhorn, B. Mueller-Roeber ...We demonstrate the applicability (click here)of LC combined with UV diode array
or/and mass spectrometric detectors for the unambiguous identification
and quantification of flavonoid conjugates isolated from Arabidopsis thaliana leaves of different genotypes and grown in different environmental conditions....
Hydraulic fracturing has come into it's current state of application in the past 12 to 15 years. Previous to that it was remotely practiced. But, methane is methane. That has been standard since the beginning of time. That goes for any other chemicals found in industrial practices. They are fairly well established. They are compounds or mixtures of elements from the periodic table. Finding them in water isn't rocket science at all.
Liquefaction is caused by water pressure due to the movement of rock during earthquakes. They are massive pressures. It is the water movement that results in added destruction of surface rock. Repeated quakes only increase the occurrence of high water pressure on surface rock, therefore, increase the possibility of land subsidence. Land subsidence indicates land instability. It can also result in flood plains and loss of land in communities suitable for housing development.
...The experiments on heterogeneous specimens showed that during the
shaking water pressure builds up underneath the seam of silt and creates
an upward flow of high gradient, which causes the silt seam to crack. A
delayed liquefaction in the upper soil mass is observed to occur
following the hydraulic fracturing of the silt seam. The experiments
also show the significant role of the duration of shaking on the delayed
liquefaction of upper layer.
The University of Nevada, Reno’s
Seismological Laboratory reported the first quake, a 3.1-magnitude
temblor, about 8:30 a.m. Tuesday about 9 miles north-northeast of
Virginia City.
A second quake was reported at 11 p.m.
Wednesday. This one, at magnitude 3.0, hit about 8 miles north-northeast
of Virginia City. A third quake, at magnitude 2.6, hit at 2:25 a.m.
Thursday. That was followed Thursday by one at magnitude 3.1 at 2:32
a.m., at magnitude 3.0 at 3:22 a.m. and at magnitude 2.6 at 3:42 a.m.
All hit about 8 miles north-northeast of Virginia City.
A magnitude-2.1 quake hit at 12:42 p.m. in the same area....
Jeri Chadwell, Nevada Media Alliance Submitted by Nevada Media Alliance Thu, 05/30/2013 - 5:15pm ...Several Committee members (click here) raised concerns about the potential risks
associated with fracking. Assemblywoman Dr. Heidi Swank expressed her
concern that fracking might lead to an increase in earthquakes in the
state, referencing a swarm of earthquakes in Arkansas that experts have
said may be attributable to fracking activities. Assemblywoman Leslie
Cohen voiced her own concerns about the amount of water that would be
required to run a fracking operation and asked Enos to give the
Committee an idea of how much water would be used....
By
MICHAEL POWELL Published: October 10, 2013 ...The 43-count grand jury indictment (click here) read like a primer in small-town
abuse of power. It accused Sheriff Deborah Trout of hiring deputies
without conducting proper background checks, and making employees sign
loyalty oaths. Her deputies, the indictment charged, threatened one of
their critics and manufactured fake police badges for a prominent donor
to Gov. Chris Christie....
This is the same stuff that is occurring with Fort Lee. Fort Lee was a lousy situation that is probably connected with the development of land currently out of reach. I think someone was tired of waiting for the development given the state's employment deficit and high tax rate. There is no crime there.
I have my own theory of this entire intrigue, which is far less interesting than any exploitation otherwise.
Part of the Hunterdon issue is that the acting prosecutor was being replaced with a permanent county prosecutor. It was all happening at the same time and realizing the AG appoints county prosecutors it was normal for him to review the current cases pending as a transition was taking place. The AG would have briefed the incoming prosecutor.
July 2010 (click here)
Acting County Prosecutor Dermott O’Grady announces that the case against
Trout and her staffers is under review by the state Attorney General’s
Office Division of Criminal Justice and could be dismissed. In August,
the AG’s Office takes charge of the case and on Aug. 23, Superior Court
Judge Paul Armstrong agrees to dismiss the charges
after Deputy Attorney General Christine Hoffman tells him that she had
reviewed the case and found “legal and factual deficiencies” in the
indictments. The same day, Governor Chris Christie names Anthony P.
Kearns III as Hunterdon County Prosecutor to replace interim prosecutor
O’Grady.
I know those stating they have a grievance against the Christie administration sincerely believe that, but, no one can overlook the fact the governor was a former US Attorney. He was also successful. I am sure he set certain standards for cases that came through the AG's office.
It comes down to how the state and county was spending their money. If prosecutions were costing more than they were going to achieve in severity of the crime the cases were tossed. That is SOP.
The practice of law is far different than what the average person views as justice. The injustice of civil suits is always painful, but, the reality often is there isn't much that can be done in the way of prosecution.
In the case of Hunterdon, most of the charges would be mitigated as superfluous in the proceedings of the pre-trial lawyering. Unless there was sincere crime committed and there seems to be none of that. The charges surround mischief, albeit, astounding mischief, but, it resolves down to abuse of power that amounted to nothing. The entire mess probably would have resulted in fines. The sheriff was wrong for the job. Just that simple.
I think the exploitation of that media in creating a circus achieved it's goal, didn't it? The people that were elected are now gone. That was the purpose, wasn't it?
Chris Christie is a Republican in a state where Democrats primarily rule. If the Democrats could prevent him from achieving his objectives they would do it. No different than what is occurring in the US House. The difference between the US House and the NJ Democrats is that US House is actually due to stupid rules and very insufficient leadership that prevent passage of important things like the national debt ceiling.
NJ Democrats are very savvy folks. I like them. They stand for good values and they fight the good fight, but, all this gossip is basically not going to achieve what they are looking for. They need to concentrate on improving employment, working with the federal government to move Sandy Aid along and find ways to reduce the high tax rate in NJ.
Impeachment of the Governor is most likely not going to happen. Mr. Wildstein is still the ultimate decision maker and even if the Governor thought attempting to push things along in Fort Lee was a good idea, that is nothing but hubris. Unless there are charges handed down, the idea impeachment is a possibility is also hubris.
The Democrats need to get to work on the tough issues while protecting the unions, pensions and cash reserves in the treasuries of the cities and towns. The Democrats have to do the hard work and bring the state better outcomes. That is what is important. The other issues are a matter of prosecutors sifting through what is crime and what is not. Some of this is politics and that is not a crime. I am not an expert and have no desire to be; but, as an amateur I think it best for everyone to move on and take care of the people of New Jersey.
There are people hurting in NJ. While this is all interesting and a distraction to their problems, it is not solving them.
Governor Christie on Saturday at a Super Bowl event in Times Square. He declined
to comment on allegations that he knew of the George Washington Bridge
lane closures.
Saturday, February 1, 2014 Last updated: Sunday February 2, 2014, 12:33 AM
BY
SHAWN BOBURG
AND
JOHN REITMEYER
STAFF WRITERS
The Christie administration (click here) launched a fierce counterattack Saturday on the
credibility of a former ally who a day earlier had alleged the governor
knew about lane closures at the George Washington Bridge as they were
happening in September.
“Bottom line — David Wildstein will do and say anything to save David Wildstein,” read a copy of an email, obtained by The Record and sent to the governor’s friends and supporters.
The
attack, a sharp departure from Christie’s defensive posture on Friday,
was presented in a blistering rundown of negative comments made about
Wildstein in newspaper stories — even pointing to a reported dispute
Wildstein had as a teenager with a high school teacher....
-
See more at:
http://www.northjersey.com/news/GWB_scandal_Christie_issues_scathing_counterstrike_against_Wildsteins_accusations.html#sthash.p8xeUShU.dpuf
