EPA "pollution diet" starves agriculture: farm group

Farm Bureau Challenges E.P.A. on Chesapeake Pollution
Todd Heisler/The New York Times The Federal Government is working in areas like this farm in Lancaster County, Pa., to limit the runoff of chemicals that pollute Chesapeake Bay. In late December, the Environmental Protection Agency put the six states in the Chesapeake Bay’s 64,000-square-mile watershed on a “Pollution diet,” requiring steep cuts in the urban and farm runoff that has left the health of the bay in perilous shape. The enhanced regulations are to be enforced by the...

Farm group: Chesapeake Bay plan could ruin farmers
ATLANTA (AP) - The nation's largest farm lobbying group says a federal plan meant to keep Pollution from running into the Chesapeake Bay could ruin agriculture in the area. American Farm Bureau Federation President Bob Stallman said Sunday that his group is preparing a Lawsuit over plans announced by the Environmental Protection Agency, which he says threaten to "starve agriculture" out of the Chesapeake Bay watershed. Speaking at a national Farm Bureau convention, Stallman said farmers suppor...

Farm Bureau sues EPA over Chesapeake Bay cleanup
Farmers' groups are suing the Federal Government in Pennsylvania over a Chesapeake Bay clean-up plan, saying its Pollution standards aren't legally enforceable. The American Farm Bureau Federation and the Pennsylvania Farm Bureau filed the complaint against the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency in Federal Court in Harrisburg on Monday, calling the recently enacted standards flawed in several respects. The Lawsuit says states, rather than the EPA, have the authority under the Clean Water Act t...

Farm group: Chesapeake Bay plan could ruin farmers
The nation's largest farm lobbying group says a federal plan meant to keep Pollution from running into the Chesapeake Bay could ruin agriculture in the area. American Farm Bureau Federation President Bob Stallman said Sunday that his group is preparing a Lawsuit over plans announced by the Environmental Protection Agency, which he says threaten to "starve agriculture" out of the Chesapeake Bay watershed. Speaking at a national Farm Bureau convention, Stallman said farmers support Clean Water. Bu...

Let's Read the Constitution Day! - verse 3
In this verse, we come to the first "didacted" section of the Constitution; that is, the first part that was superceded by a subsequent amendment... ~ Representatives and direct Taxes shall be apportioned among the several States which may be included within this Union, according to their respective Numbers, which shall be determined by adding to the whole Number of free Persons, including those bound to Service for a Term of Years, and excluding Indians not taxed, three fifths of all othe...

Closed dental company works to transfer patients
CONCORD, N.H. -- A national dental chain that ran out of money and closed its offices around the country says it is finalizing agreements in numerous states to transfer patients to other dentists. Citing cash flow problems, Allcare Dental and Dentures shut down operations in 14 states last week. In a message posted online Monday, the company said it hopes to have a number of agreements signed in the next few days to transfer patient records. Some agreements already are in effect for patients i...

Closed dental company works to transfer patients
A national dental chain that ran out of money and closed its offices around the country says it is finalizing agreements in numerous states to transfer patients to other dentists. Citing cash flow problems, Allcare Dental and Dentures shut down operations in 14 states last week. In a message posted online Monday, the company said it hopes to have a number of agreements signed in the next few days to transfer patient records. Some agreements already are in effect for patients in Iowa and parts of...

Arizona Ranks 15th in Number of Handgun Murders
New evidence continues to surface about the circumstances surrounding Saturday's tragic shooting in Tucson, Arizona, where Arizona Democratic Rep. Gabrielle Giffords was a Victim of a shooting outside a Grocery Store where she had been meeting with constituents. Six victims have died as a result of the attack, with another 14 wounded, including Giffords. Among the facts now known are that the suspect, Jared Loughner, legally purchased the Glock semiautomatic Handgun used in the Murders at a st...

Chesapeake Bay report: Still in trouble
The Chesapeake Bay Foundation recently released its annual report on the state of the bay, and the news is still pretty grim. The nonprofit said the bay is showing "encouraging" signs of rebounding, but is still in critical condition. Out of 100 possible points, the bay got a grade of 31, "which means it is still a system dangerously out of balance," the report said. Pennsylvania bore two noteworthy mentions in the report. The good news: The state continues to lead the efforts to restore forest...

The EPA's War on Energy
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has proposed rules on greenhouse gas Regulations that could mean a reduction in economic production of up to $290 billion in 2011 and another $300 billion in 2014, says one environmental law expert. Peter Glaser, a Washington D.C. attorney who specializes in energy and environmental law, said studies from the business community estimate losses in 2011 and 2014 that rival this country’s economic meltdown in the Fourth Quarter of 2007 when Wall Stree...

Globes coral reefs suffer second worst bleaching on record during 2010
In October, marine scientists said the Southeast Asia and Indian Ocean bleaching “may prove to be the worst such event known to science.” NOAA pointed out in November that As the “Rainforests of the sea,” Coral Reefs provide economic services — jobs, food and Tourism — estimated to be worth as much as $375 billion each year. The former chief scientist of the Australian Institute of Marine Science wrote in December, “The end is in sight for the world’s coral

The next big thing: a carbon swap bank
Could swapping Carbon Emissions rather than trading them reduce Climate Change? Australian researchers have suggested that nations should abandon the concept of Carbon Emissions trading in favor of a carbon swap bank that might lead to genuine reductions in the amount of Carbon Dioxide greenhouse gas entering the atmosphere and so provide a mechanism for reducing climate change. Details of the carbon swap bank are outlined in the journal Interdisciplinary Environmental Review. Carbon emissions t...

Selenium update: Is WVDEP stopping or stalling?
We’ve asked before here on Coal Tattoo whether the West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection is stopping selenium Pollution or stalling efforts to force compliance with existing water quality standards. Well, here’s what agency officials have done in their latest legal maneuver on selenium … you decide what WVDEP is up to. Back between Christmas and New Year’s the WVDEP’s lawyers filed in court a proposal to settle a Lawsuit they had filed against Inter...

US bumblebees in 'alarming' decline
Grim outlook for 'important pollinators' US researchers have announced that numbers of four species of Stateside bumblebees have declined to the point of extinction, and have fingered a pathogen genus thought to be responsible for a similar collapse in honeybee populations worldwide as a contributory cause. A team led by Sydney Cameron of the University of Illinois conducted a three-year survey of eight species at 382 sites across 40 states, comparing the resulting data with 73,000 historical...

Answers: The House's New Republican Class
1. Wisconsin Republican Sean Duffy spent a season on which reality show? C. The Real World 2. What state does Republican Ben Quayle, son of former Vice President Dan Quayle, represent in Congress? A. Arizona 3. In an unsuccessful bid for Georgia Governor, what did Republican Austin Scott do in 2009 to draw attention to his campaign? B. Walk 1,000 miles across the state 4. Which Republican is filling the seat held for the past 28 years by West Virginia Democrat Alan Mollohan? D. David McKinley ...

First Comes the Deal Announcement, Then Comes the Lawsuit
Yahoo! Buzz The Mergers-and-acquisitions market is heating up again, meaning a welcome uptick in long weekends for an increasing number of deal lawyers. But the boomlet is leading to more work for an enterprising group of plaintiffs’ lawyers who are filing suits following the announcement of deals claiming shareholders are being shortchanged. Click here for the WSJ story on the trend, from Dionne Searcey and me. The numbers show that the suits are on the upswing. The number of Lawsuits fil...

Ohio AG DeWine makes state 21st to challenge 'Obamacare' in FLA fed court case
"Our Constitution provides for a Federal Government of significant, but defined and limited powers," DeWine said in a prepared statement. "By ignoring the constitutional limits on federal power, the healthcare law tramples on the rights of Ohio's citizens. We need to defend the checks and balances that our Constitution creates through its divisions of power and protect the people of Ohio from this huge federal overreach." DeWine's announcement today is a stark change from the Democrat he beat in...

HCR plaintiffs reply to 'anticipated' defense motions
The two New Jersey Activists who filed a Lawsuit against the healthcare-reform bill today filed a lengthy reply affidavit to support their motion for summary judgment against any possible counterargument, and also formally requested an oral hearing. Nicholas E. Purpura and Donald R. Laster Jr, who have been suing the Federal Government (Purpura et al. v. Sebelius et al., docket no. 3:10CV-04814-GEB-DEA) alleging that the massive healthcare-reform bill (HR 3590) is Unconstitutional on fifteen sep...

CAIR wins partial court victory vs. Schlussel
Over the weekend, Schlussel renamed the identically-named organization she created last year from Council on American-Islamic Relations to Council of American-Israeli Relations to head off a Legal Battle with the national Islamic group. Because of her action, U.S. District Judge Avern Cohn today declined to issue a Restraining Order against Schlussel. But Cohn refused CAIR’s request to order Schussel to stop using CAIR in several Internet Domain Names ...

Supreme Court declines to hear 5th Circuit climate suit
Supreme Court declines to hear 5th Circuit climate suit The U.S. Supreme Court today denied the petition of mandamus from plaintiffs who in Comer v. Murphy Oil Co. had sued energy companies and manufacturers for contributing to Global Warming, which strengthened Hurricane Katrina, which worsened property damage in Mississippi, so pay up. (Order List) This is the suit that ran such a strange course through the lower courts. U.S. District Court Judge Louis Guirola, Jr., of the Southern District ...

Federal Charges in the Shootings
The Times has posted the Criminal Complaint filed by the U.S. attorney’s office in Arizona. It charges two counts of murdering, and three counts of attempting to Murder, federal officals. Specifically, Count One alleges the Attempted Murder of Rep. Gabrielle Giffords; Counts Two and Three allege the murders of legislative aide Gabriel Zimmerman and chief Federal Judge John M. Roll, respectively; and Counts Four and Five allege the attempted murders of legislative aides Pamela Simon an...

Fiji Water Sued for Greenwashing
— Flickr/Magpie372. Despite selling, you know, water, Fiji Water is not the most transparent corporation. The company, the subject of a groundbreaking investigative feature we ran in 2009, is now the target of a Lawsuit for deceptively marketing itself as "carbon-negative." A US District Court class-action suit filed by a Newport, California, firm on behalf of a Santa Ana woman named Desiree Worthington accuses Fiji Water of using a practice known as "forward crediting"...;

Claim Chowder
By contrast, the piece of crap report issued on April 7 is a sweeping indictment of Conservatives. And the intent is clear. As the two spokespeople I talked with on the phone today made clear: They both pinpointed the recent “economic downturn” and the “general state of The Economy” for stoking “rightwing Extremism.” One of the spokespeople said he was told that the report has been in the works for a year. My b.s. detector went off the chart, and yours will, t...

Manchin: Gun Imagery in Politics Doesn't Cause Madmen to Kill
Get alerts when there is a new article that might interest you. There's as much evidence that Sarah Palin's map of "targeted" House districts inspired the Arizona shooter as there is that the killer was inspired by Joe Manchin's "shoot the cap-and-trade bill" ad. That is to say: None. Manchin shouldn't need to explain his ad any more than Palin needs to explain her map, but for what it's worth, here's the West Virginia senator's defense: In a statement to RealClearPolitics, Manchin, who served a...

GOP All Set To Wimp Out On EPA?
A key Republican is already laying the groundwork for the 112th Congress' surrender on the EPA's climate rules. More surprising is the complicity of a Tea Party group. Rep. Fred Upton, the chairman-designate of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, co-authored an op-ed in today's Wall Street Journal with the promising title, "How Congress Can Stop the EPA's Power Grab." Now that we face the prospect of flagrantly illegal, arbitrary, expensive and pointless Regulation of Greenhouse Gases by t...