Ohio, Pennsylvania and Florida are the states with the most toxic air pollution from coal and oil power plants, according to a new report by an environmental advocacy group.
The Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) used Environmental Protection Agencydata to rank the top 20 worst states for air pollution from power plants.
According to the report, half of all air pollution from industrial sources in theUnitedStates comes from coal- and oil-fired power plants.
Overall, U.S. power plants emitted 771 million pounds of toxic chemicals in 2009, with the electric sector responsible for 49 percent of all industrial toxic air pollution that year, or 382 million pounds. [Top 10 Alternative Energy Bets]
Accounting for 12 percent of U.S. industrial air pollution, Ohio's power plants emitted 44.5 million pounds of harmful chemicals in 2009. For comparison, the 20th ranked state, Iowa, was responsible for just 1 percent of U.S. industrial air pollution, or 2.5 million pounds of harmful chemicals.
The researchers also looked specifically at mercury air pollution, finding Ohio and Pennsylvania also took the top two spots in this measure.
The EPA is attempting to revise its public health protections to make its Mercury and Air Toxics standard stricter, but lawmakers including House Energy and Commerce Committee chair Fred Upton (R-MI) have vowed to block the new measures.
DENVER — Police are trying to identify a gang of men who are beating couples with baseball bats and robbing them in downtown Denver. Denver police spokesman Sonny Jackson said there have been two attacks, each involving the robbery of a couple leaving restaurants or bars at closing time. Just before 2 a.m. on July 16, a couple was walking home from a restaurant-bar near East 10th Avenue and Pennsylvania Street when they were surrounded by a group of men, according to a police report.
Two men wielding baseball bats hit the man and woman in the head, “causing major bruising and swelling,” the report said. Then a robber grabbed the woman’s purse. The man and woman were transported to Denver Health Medical Center for treatment, police said.
DENVER — Black gangs roaming downtown Denver often vented their hatred for white victims before assaulting and robbing them during a four-month crime wave, according to interviews and court records obtained by 7NEWS.
“I hate you f—ing white people,” said a black woman in a large group of black men, according to the victim who was beaten up as he and three buddies left a LoDo bar after midnight on Aug. 30.
“F—- you, white boys,” the woman added,
“They just swarmed you,” said the man who curled up on the ground to shield his face. “You basically just had to protect yourself and hope they didn’t kill you.”
The victim, who suffered bruised ribs and a cut head, said he was protected by a padded motorcycle jacket. He asked that his name be withheld for his safety.
A couple dozen arrest warrant affidavits unsealed Friday offer chilling insights into the 26 racially-motivated “blitz attacks,” which stretched from July 17 to Nov. 17.
One unidentified suspect told police “that the members of his gang earn status in the gang by beating up ‘white dudes,’” according to court records. He added that the gangs targeted “drunk white guys,” exiting bars and nightclubs in the entertainment district. The suspects allegedly bragged about knocking out white victims with one punch to the head. Victims lying on the ground were “stomped” and even tossed through glass windows. In the more than two dozen attacks, victims’ injuries included a skull fracture as well as broken noses and eye sockets when they were blindsided by punches that often knocked them unconscious. One man was so savagely attacked that he was hospitalized in a coma for a while, police said.
Several of the 35 young male and female suspects arrested by police
On June 26 near 1000 Broadway, a couple was in an alley near their vehicle when a group of men walked up and “assaulted them with a baseball bat and demanded money,” a police report said. The robbers grabbed the woman’s purse and ran to a waiting car, police said.
The attackers are “not nice people,” Jackson said.
Police describe the attackers as four to five black men, ages 18 to 21 years.More at Source
In The USA And European Countries Your Asking To Give Money In Case You Haven’t Noticed We Have Many Of The Same Issues: War, Drought, Hunger, and Financial Issues Of Our Own! shera~
NAIROBI, Kenya – Parts of southern Somalia are suffering from famine, a U.N. official said Wednesday, and tens of thousands of Somalis have already died in the worst hunger emergency in a generation.
The Horn of Africa is suffering a devastating drought compounded by war, neglect and spiraling prices. Some areas in the region have not had such a low rainfall in 60 years, aid group Oxfam said.
“Desperate” Somalia famine puts 11M at risk
The U.N. needs $300 million in the next two months, said Mark Bowden, the U.N.’s top official in charge of humanitarian aid in Somalia. The last time conditions were this bad was in 1992, when hundreds of thousands of Somalis starved to death. That famine prompted intervention by an international peacekeeping force, but it eventually pulled out after two American Black Hawk helicopters were shot down in 1993.
Hunger in the United States 35.5 million people (including 12.6 million children) experience hunger or the risk of hunger. This is roughly 10.9 percent of the 301 million people in the U.S. (July 2007 estimate) 4.0 percent of U.S. households (11.1 million people, including 0.43 million children) experience hunger. Some families skip meals, eat too little, or go a whole day without food. 1 out of every 8 households in the United States has reduced the quality of its diet to utilize money elsewhere (rent, clothing, day care). 6.9 percent of U.S. households (24.4 million people, including 12.2 million children) are at risk of hunger. In 2007, an average of 26.5 million people participated in the Food Stamp Program each month (8.8 percent of the U.S. population). In 2006, requests for emergency food assistance increased 7 percent. Of those requesting emergency food assistance, 48 percent were members of families with children, and 37 percent of adults requesting assistance were employed. America’s Second Harvest, the nation’s largest network of food banks, reported that an estimated 24 to 27 million people turned to its agencies in 2006.
Somalia is facing its worst food security crisis in the last 20 years,” Bowden said. “This desperate situation requires urgent action to save lives.”
Famine is officially defined as when two adults or four children per 10,000 people die of hunger each day and a third of children are acutely malnourished. In some areas of Somalia, six people are dying a day and more than half of children are acutely malnourished, Bowden said. Prices of staple foods have increased 270 percent over the last year.
On Wednesday, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said the U.S. will give another $28 million, on top of the $431 million in assistance it has given to the Horn of Africa this year, which Clinton said was simply “not enough.”
Britain has pledged $145 million in the past two weeks — about 15 percent of what is needed — and the European Union pledged around $8 million, with more expected in coming days. Spain has promised nearly $10 million and Germany around $8.5 million but Oxfam said France has so far not pledged any more money and Denmark and Italy have said no significant new sums are available.
“There is no time to waste if we are to avoid massive loss of life,” Equiza said in a statement. “We must not stand by and watch this tragedy unfold before our eyes. The world has been slow to recognize the severity of this crisis, but there is no longer any excuse for inaction.”
Some donors, like the U.S., have expressed fears that aid might be diverted byIslamist groups.
ANIMAL WELFARE/TAKE ACTION/VIDEO) OHIO — An Ohio man is accused of sexually assaulting a female dog whom he recently adopted from a shelter along with two other dogs and possibly even a horse. Bestiality is not illegal in the state of Ohio, so the man is charged with only two misdemeanor counts of animal cruelty. While this man obviously needs psychiatric care of some sort, so do most sexual predators of the human kind. Nothing takes advantage of an animal’s innocence more than this crime, so let’s treat it like a real crime.
This case inspired a petition to protect animals by making bestiality a felony in Ohio. The petition needs signatures, so please sign it and spread the word! —Global Animal
Peter Bower of Shelby, Ohio, was arrested on May 18th, 2011, and charged with two counts of animal cruelty after allegations that he had sex with three companion dogs and possibly a horse owned by a local equestrian center. KAIT 8 News reported that during a police search of his home, photos of Bower having sex with animals were discovered, as well as online postings of his acts found on his computer. Authorities also found a book on bestiality and a plastic, blowup sheep. Another scary detail is that Bower advertised dog walking and sitting services in his neighborhood and at his local animal shelter.
Despite the absolute heinousness of these alleged actions, Bower is only facing misdemeanor charges, as Ohio has no first-offense felony animal cruelty laws, nor any separate laws specifically prohibiting the sexual assault of animals. But this case has gained much attention and has led some to act. “If this had been a child, there would have been an uproar about it,” concerned citizen Joyce Fields told the Mansfield News Journal. “There isn’t much difference because this pet didn’t accept or consent to what he was doing.” Fields has started a petition, along with a local animal advocacy group, seeking to expressly outlaw the sexual assault of animals. Fields hopes that Ohio will pass a law to coincide with the 36 other states that already have laws prohibiting such acts, separate from other forms of animal cruelty. Response to the action has been swift, as State Rep. Jay Goyal has said recently that his office is already working on a draft of such legislation.
Fields also started an additional petition in which she seeks to bar Bower from owning or interacting with any animals, and she will present it to the prosecutors and judge at Bower’s pretrial hearing on July 18th. In addition, authorities are looking into whether charges can be brought against Bower for disseminating pornography.
Death by ignorance: Of Economic Stupidity: "The United States is the richest nation on earth.Why do we deem it necessary to borrow money?This question is probably late in coming, we ha..."
PARSONS, TN – Wednesday, July 13, 2011, marks three months since West Tennessee nursing student, Holly Bobo, was seen being led away from her family’s home in Darden. Friends and family are expanding their search, taking the hunt for Holly across the nation.
A new campaign, launched this week, will help them do just that. Decals are being placed on the back of trucks that travel around the country. The stickers have a new picture of Holly and read “Help! Please bring me home!”
The first trucking company to place the decals on their trailers is C&P Leasing, which is located in Parsons. A friend of Holly’s family came up with the idea. Others are paying for the signs to be donated to more trucking companies.
“I will be taking them myself,” says family friend D-Lynn Burton, ”and placing them to make sure they are going on big trucks that actually travel as far as I can get someone to travel.”
“That is our main objective,” says Kyla Whitsitt, ”to get her face out there, her story out there, her info out there so people might see her and recognize her.”
Who’d have guessed that a relative of carrot and Queen Anne’s lace could sterilize goats and scar the faces of children?
This season’s floral horror tale may be found in E.O. Torriero’s fine article aboutHeracleum mantegazzianum, a.k.a. Giant Hogweed. With blooms big around as doilies and stems stout at sewer pipes, the plants grow to be 15 feet tall. Acquisitive gardeners of a century ago are to be forgiven their eagerness to bring this flowering giant back home, but in doing so they opened a Pandora’s box of lacerating problems.
Silje Frøysaa from Kristiansand, Norway was working in her garden last year when she noticed an exceptionally large weed making its way into her neatly hoed rows.
Going to work on the plant with one of her garden tools, she pulled it out of her garden, threw it into the woods and didn't think much about it.
Within two days she had second degree burns on both of her arms. She went to a dermatologist who told her the plant was Hogweed and its sap destroys all UV protection qualities in the skin which causes it to burn easily in the sun.
She now has dark scars and is at an elevated risk of acquiring skin cancer. Business Insider reported on the plant's New York invasion Tuesday, listing all the symptoms of contact. Silje saw the story, emailed the picture and described her encounter.more
Giant hogweed makes an impressive appearance because of its height, and the size of the leaves and flower clusters. But it may spell trouble for people who are sensitive to the plant sap, a clear and watery fluid. The combination of sap on the skin and exposure to sunlight can produce painful, burning blisters within 24-48 hours. Contact with the plant sap can also result in purple or black scars.
What should I do if I come in contact with giant hogweed?
If you are exposed to the plant sap, wash it off immediately and avoid sunlight. Using sunscreen on affected areas may help prevent further reactions from occurring when outside. Call your doctor for any severe reactions. He or she may prescribe a steroid cream to relieve swelling or inflammation. For skin irritation, wet dressings or compresses soaked in an aluminum acetate mixture (your pharmacist can help you find this) may offer relief.
How do I know giant hogweed when I see it?
Giant hogweed looks a lot like some other plants, which may also cause skin reactions, such as wild parsnip. It can be as tall as 15 feet, with leaves spanning 2-5 feet. It has a thick green stem with purple areas. The stem, leaf and flower stalks are hairy. It has small white flowers in big clusters, looking like Queen Anne's Lace. In late summer, small green fruit that quickly turns brown replaces the flowers. Giant hogweed seeds are easily windblown or carried by water and spread to new areas. It grows in rich, moist soils along roadside ditches, stream banks, tree lines and wooded areas.
Can I remove the giant hogweed?
Do not mow, cut or weed whack the plant, as it will just send up new growth and put you at risk for being exposed to sap – the same kind of thing that would happen with poison ivy or sumac. Seek advice from professional plant control specialists about management options. If you must touch giant hogweed, wear disposable rubber gloves, a long-sleeved shirt and pants. If you get sap on your clothes or body, wash it off.
Thank you Stacie for posting about this and drawing my interest to look further into this and put this together! jlh~
