When it comes to coal-fired power plants, cleaner air means something else gets dirtier. Nearly one-third of the nation’s electricity is produced in states that exempt coal combustion wastes from some or all solid waste regulations.
But because every pound of pollution kept out of the air ends up in the solid waste stream, the pollution control methods in the stacks only made the problem on the ground worse. The solid waste consists of fine and dusty flyash, a gravelly, gray material called bottom ash, and the relatively benign glassy clinkers or boiler slag. The stack scrubbers that pull sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxide out of the smoke create perhaps the most malignant material, called scrubber sludge. All of that was typically piled up near the plant, where it could blow into the air, or get washed into an arroyo, or leach into the ground.
— "Coal's other mess," High Country News
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Ever wonder why the Republicans have such a problem with Secretary of State Mark Ritchie's mailing lists? Naomi Wolf, author of The End of America: Letter of Warning to a Young Patriot, has been studying the history of fascist shifts and does not like what she's seeing in America.
Americans have this very wrong idea about what a closed society looks like. Many despots make it a point to try to hold the elections, but they're corrupted elections. Corrupted elections take place all over the world in closed societies. Ninety-nine percent of Austrians voted yes for the annexation by Germany, because the SA were standing outside the voting booths, intimidating the voters and people counting the vote. So you can mess with the process.
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At least fascists of old had to rely on informants or send a thug to follow you around. Today, the E911 data from a cell phone carried by a target can allow it to be located to within about 30 feet.
But the Washington Post says the secret warrants required for criminal surveillance are being granted without probable cause.
In some cases, judges have granted the requests without requiring the government to demonstrate that there is probable cause to believe that a crime is taking place or that the inquiry will yield evidence of a crime. Privacy advocates fear such a practice may expose average Americans to a new level of government scrutiny of their daily lives.
"Law enforcement has absolutely no interest in tracking the locations of law-abiding citizens. None whatsoever," [Justice Department spokesman Dean] Boyd said. "What we're doing is going through the courts to lawfully obtain data that will help us locate criminal targets, sometimes in cases where lives are literally hanging in the balance, such as a child abduction or serial murderer on the loose."
Which sounds remarkably like the arguments for waterboarding.
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As we head toward the year-end, it's time for the Department of Revenue to send a few warning shots over the heads of taxpayers.
According to a news release, Keith Dean Johnson and Shirley Mae Johnson of Shoreview face charges for allegedly claiming residency in South Dakota to avoid paying income taxes in Minnesota. Johnson claimed he and his wife have been South Dakota residents since November 1998, but tax records from Ramsey County show the Johnsons as owners of a property in Shoreview that has been receiving homestead residential classification since 1992.
According to the Johnson's federal returns, the couple had income between the years 2001 and
2006 exceeding $1 million.
Under
the "183-day rule," spending more than six months in Minnesota and
maintaining a residence in the state requires filing a Minnesota
individual income tax return.
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