Coal industry pays fake activists $50 to wear pro-coal shirts at public hearing

By Rebecca Leber



Apparently unable to find real activists, the coal industry paid astroturfers $50 to wear pro-coal T-shirts at an Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) hearing yesterday.

The EPA hearings, held in Chicago and Washington, D.C., were focused on the agency’s first-ever carbon standards for new power plants. The industry has adamantly opposed these standards, as well as standards on mercury — a pollutant that even Sen. James Inhofe (R-Okla.) admits is harmful.

This year, coal is throwing around its weight by spending tens of millions of dollars on media advertising and political contributions.

more
http://grist.org/coal/coal-industry-pays-fake-activists-50-to-wear-pro-coal-shirts-at-public-hearing/

The Depressing Rise of People Robbing Banks to Pay the Bills

Despite inflation decreasing their value, bank robberies are on the rise in the United States. According to the FBI, in the third quarter of 2010, banks reported 1,325 bank robberies, burglaries, or other larcenies, an increase of more than 200 crimes from the same quarter in 2009. America isn't the easiest place to succeed financially these days, a predicament that's finding more and more people doing desperate things to obtain money. Robbing banks is nothing new, of course; it's been a popular crime for anyone looking to get quick cash practically since America began. But the face and nature of robbers is changing. These days, the once glamorous sheen of bank robberies is wearing away, exposing a far sadder and ugly reality: Today's bank robbers are just trying to keep their heads above water.

Bonnie and Clyde, Pretty Boy Floyd, Baby Face Nelson—time was that bank robbers had cool names and widespread celebrity. Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, Jesse James, and John Dillinger were even the subjects of big, fawning Hollywood films glorifying their thievery. But times have changed.

In Mississippi this week, a man walked into a bank and handed a teller a note demanding money, according to broadcast news reporter Brittany Weiss. The man got away with a paltry $1,600 before proceeding to run errands around town to pay his bills and write checks to people to whom he owed money. He was hanging out with his mom when police finally found him. Three weeks before the Mississippi fiasco, a woman named Gwendolyn Cunningham robbed a bank in Fresno and fled in her car. Minutes later, police spotted Cunningham's car in front of downtown Fresno's Pacific Gas and Electric Building. Inside, she was trying to pay her gas bill.

The list goes on: In October 2011, a Phoenix-area man stole $2,300 to pay bills and make his alimony payments. In early 2010, an elderly man on Social Security started robbing banks in an effort to avoid foreclosure on the house he and his wife had lived in for two decades. In January 2011, a 46-year-old Ohio woman robbed a bank to pay past-due bills. And in February of this year, a Pennsylvania woman with no teeth confessed to robbing a bank to pay for dentures. "I'm very sorry for what I did and I know God is going to punish me for it," she said at her arraignment. Yet perhaps none of this compares to the man who, in June 2011, robbed a bank of $1 just so he could be taken to prison and get medical care he couldn't afford.

more

http://www.good.is/post/the-depressing-rise-of-people-robbing-banks-to-pay-the-bills/

Accusations that climate science is money-driven reveal ignorance of how science is done

by John Timmer - May 24 2012


One of the unfortunate memes that has made repeated appearances in the climate debate is that money isn't just influencing the public debate about science, but it's also influencing the science itself. The government, the argument goes, is paying scientists specifically to demonstrate that carbon dioxide is the major culprit in recent climate change, and the money available to do so is exploding.

Although the argument displays a profound misunderstanding of how science and science funding work, it's just not going away. Just this week, one of the sites where people congregate to criticize mainstream climate science once again repeated it, replete with the graph below. That graph originated in a 2009 report from a think tank called the Science & Public Policy Institute (notable for using the serially confused Christopher Monckton as a policy advisor).

The report, called "Climate Money: The climate industry: $79 billion so far—trillions to come" (PDF) and prepared by Australian journalist Joanne Nova for the Science & Public Policy Institute, claims to show how money has distorted climate science. There are several aspects to this argument, but we'll start with the money itself.

more

http://arstechnica.com/science/2012/05/accusations-that-climate-science-is-money-driven-reveal-ignorance-of-how-science-is-done/

"As god is my witness, I thought Hot Dogs Could Fly"

Helicopter Dumps Hot Dogs Over Detroit



Look, up in the sky! It’s a bird, it’s a plane, it’s…a hot dog? Yes, 955 of them of them to be exact. In honor of the landmark American Coney Island restaurant’s 95th anniversary, the restaurant teamed up with Detroit station 95.5 to host a hot-dog hoarding contest at Detroit’s Hype Athletics Facility Wednesday morning.

According to American Coney Island Restaurant owner Grace Keros, 955 hot dogs weigh about 140 lbs. That’s 140 lbs of processed meat. Or as Seros affectionately corrects, “hundreds of specialty seasoned Coney Dogs.”

Who couldn’t pass that up?

About 100 Coney-aficionados flocked to the open field that the restaurant had rented to participate in a stuffing contest. Twenty-five of them then rushed around the field trying to stuff as many of the hot dogs on their person as they could in 95 seconds, stuffing them in their pockets, shirts, and who knows what other orifices.

more

http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/lifestyle/2012/05/helicopter-dumps-hot-dogs-over-detroit/

Friday TOON Roundup 3- the rest

Rights



Economy




God

Friday TOON Roundup 2- Election

Friday TOON Roundup 1 - Fbook fallout

Luckovich 3 for 3 this week- "I'm with stupid"

United Airlines drops early boarding for families with children

Brouhaha boils over early boarding for babies


For example, United now offers special early boarding to those who have paid for its new Explorer credit card. They also offer early boarding to their best customers, such as Global Services or 1K members, or Star Alliance partners with status. Then there are those who’ve actually paid significantly more than everyone else on the plane for business or first class seats. United also offers early boarding to military in uniform and passengers using wheelchairs or crutches.
Until now, it’s allowed families with children to board early, too. Well, during summer travel season, families traveling with children can comprise half the passengers on the plane. (Flown to Orlando lately? You’ll see…)
So by the time “general boarding” starts, the plane is almost full– and nearly all the precious overhead bin space it taken. It’s crazy…and it irritates United’s best customers… those who have paid more for their tickets, or shown their loyalty as elite leve members of Mileage Plus.

rest of article and video

http://blog.sfgate.com/cmcginnis/2012/05/24/brouhaha-boils-over-early-boarding-for-babies/?tsp=1

Toon: Side effect of too much Lead