kpete
kpete's JournalTourists Flock To Colorado, Where Crime Is Down and Marijuana Is Up
Tourists Flock To Colorado, Where Crime Is Down and Marijuana Is Up
By Chris Roberts Tue., Apr. 15 2014 at 10:23 AM
Worldwide acclaim and fanfare greeted the unveiling of the world's first marijuana vending machine in Colorado yesterday. It was big news (somehow, putting weed behind glass in a box was so popular and lucrative it took several years to happen) -- but even bigger news should be that the machine hasn't been robbed yet.
In Denver, the biggest city in the country to experiment with marijuana legalization, crime has dropped in the three months since pot stores for adults opened Jan. 1, according to reports in PolicyMic and elsewhere.
That's good news for Denver, as it's due for a tourist influx in the next few days. The city is this weekend hosting the High Times Cannabis Cup -- and it's full-on full-melt madness, with as many as 100,000 people expected for the Sunday smokeout in front of the state Capitol building.
Hotel bookings are up 73 percent for the 4/20 weekend, and the "bud-and-breakfasts" that were supposed to be Humboldt's and Mendocino's are now opening up in Boulder.
................
http://blogs.sfweekly.com/thesnitch/2014/04/tourists_flock_to_colorado_whe_1.php
Up To 1,000 Times More Methane Released At Gas Wells Than EPA Estimates, Study Finds
Source: Think Progress
An analysis of a number of hydraulic fracturing sites in southwestern Pennsylvania has found that methane was being released into the atmosphere at 100 to 1,000 times the rate that the Environmental Protection Agency estimated. The study, published Monday in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, found that drilling operations at seven well pads emitted 34 grams of methane per second, on average, much higher than the EPA-estimated 0.04 grams to 0.30 grams of methane per second.
The researchers, who were attempting to understand whether airborne measurements of methane aligned with estimates taken at ground level — the method commonly used by the EPA and state regulators — flew a plane over the region of the Marcellus Shale for two days in June 2012.
“The researchers determined that the wells leaking the most methane were in the drilling phase, a period that has not been known for high emissions,” reported the Los Angeles Times. “Experts had thought that methane was more likely to be released during subsequent phases of production, including hydraulic fracturing, well completion or transport through pipelines.”
Methane (CH4), the chief component of natural gas, makes up about nine percent of the country’s greenhouse gas emissions. It is a super-potent greenhouse gas — especially during the first 20 years after it enters the atmosphere when it traps around 86 times as much heat as CO2. So even small leaks in the natural gas production and delivery system can have a large climate impact — enough to gut the entire benefit of switching from coal-fired power to gas.
Read more: http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2014/04/15/3426697/methane-vastly-underestimated/
Emptywheel: "Well Known White Supremacist" Frazier Glenn Miller Linked To Spokane MLK Parade Bomber
This morning, Marcy Wheeler has posted a piece at her Emptywheel blog that, for lack of a better phrase, simply blows me away, in terms of what it reveals about the truly down-and-twisted, institutionalized, racist nature of our surveillance state. In her post, we learn that white supremacist and Overland Park, Kansas shooter Frazier Glenn Miller (who's been all over law enforcement's supposed radar for decades) was directly communicating with Spokane MLK Parade bomber Kevin Harpham to the point, as noted by "...HuffPo’s Ryan Reilly, while he was still at TPM. Back in 2012, Reilly interviewed Miller about his contacts with Kevin Harpham, the MLK bomber. As Reilly notes, Federal prosecutors had used Harpham’s contacts with Miller to argue for harsher sentencing."
“Keep your chin up and stay strong,” Miller wrote in a letter dated March 14, telling Harpham that he and other members of an online white supremacist forum believed he’d “been set up.”
[snip]
Federal prosecutors used Miller’s jailhouse letter and Harpham’s response — in which he said he might have Miller screen individuals as he looked for “someone to house sit for a while” – as one of the factors that “supports the imposition of a sentence that will maximize the time the Defendant is incarcerated and subject to judicial oversight.”
Evidently Harpham’s lawyers soon informed him it probably wasn’t a good idea to be sending letters to a well-known white supremacist while in jail accused of a hate crime, as he didn’t respond to any of Miller’s follow up letters.
“He’s kind of let me know he doesn’t want anything to do with me,” Miller said. “It’s not in his self interest to associate with me, and I can understand that, can’t you?”
http://talkingpointsmemo.com/muckraker/harpham-s-white-supremacist-prison-pen-pal-thinks-mlk-parade-bomber-was-set-up
http://www.emptywheel.net/2014/04/15/the-terror-networks-and-the-hate-criminals/
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2014/04/15/1292180/-Wheeler-Well-Known-White-Supremacist-Frazier-Glenn-Miller-Linked-To-Spokane-MLK-Parade-Bomber
Something everyone should know on Tax Day
Happy tax day. Here's why do the richest 1% pay a much lower tax rate than the rest, and what can you do about it:
https://www.facebook.com/RBReich
If you earn a billion dollars a year, do you get your own tax exemption? Take a guess.
Happy tax day. Here's why do the richest 1% pay a much lower tax rate than the rest, and what can you do about it:
https://www.facebook.com/RBReich
The Hedge Fund Managers Tax Break: Because Wall Streeters Want Your Money
This rules your world
This rules your world. Want some? Too bad.
The coming of tax day provides a great opportunity for everyone to focus on their favorite tax break, and there are many from which to choose. However for all the sneaky and squirrelly ways that the rich use to escape their tax liability, none can beat the hedge fund managers’ tax break. This is the way the rich tell the rest of us, because they are rich and powerful, the law doesn’t apply to them.
The hedge fund managers’ tax break, which is also known as the carried interest tax deduction, is different from other tax breaks in that it has no economic rationale. With most other tax breaks there is at least an argument as to how it serves some socially useful purpose. That is not the case with the hedge fund managers’ tax break. This is simply a case where the rich don’t feel like paying taxes and are saying to the rest of us, “what are you going to do about it?”
MORE:
http://www.truth-out.org/opinion/item/23074-the-hedge-fund-managers-tax-break-because-wall-streeters-want-your-money
O'Reilly And Hume Talk About How Much Obama Has Benefited From Being Black
"You know, it's -- this is a tough question to pose. But if Barack Obama had been a young white senator from Illinois, I think probably Hillary Clinton would have defeated him. Is that unfair to say?" O'Reilly asked.
Hume agreed and said that Obama has received the "benefit of the doubt" more than he would have if he were white. And he said that the march toward equality produced an unfortunate trend.
"Look, one of the effects the great success of the Civil Rights movement, which was certainly a just cause, was that overwhelmingly Americans agree that blacks and other minorities should be treated equally in this country, they want to see blacks get ahead, and the effect of that is that being called a racist or labeled a racist, particularly if it's successful, is one of the worst things that can happen to you in America," Hume said.
"So it places a real weapon in the hands of those who would use it, particularly of those who would use it unscrupulously, which I think we've seen in the cases of some."
VIDEO & more:
http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/brit-hume-bill-oreilly-obama-holder-race
'I wish we hadn't tagged it #Obamacare .....'
https://twitter.com/TheObamaDiary/statuses/455711549441585154
"If you have a Boehner lasting more than 23 years, seek immediate medical attention."
ok, the guy is a wing nutBut this is funny
"If you have a Boehner lasting more than 23 years, seek immediate medical attention."
-- A new ad from J.D. Winteregg (R), who is challenging Speaker John Boehner in next month's Ohio congressional primary.
http://politicalwire.com/archives/2014/04/15/bonus_quote_of_the_day.html
http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2014/04/14/tea-party-candidates-electile-dysfunction-ad-claims-boehner-has-gone-limp/
Texting driver on cyclist she struck: "I just don't care"
Texting driver on cyclist she struck: "I just don't care"
Rob Beschizza at 6:48 am Tue, Apr 15, 2014 • 2 •
A woman in Australia was fined $4500 and lost her driver's license for 9 months after pleading guilty to dangerous driving Monday. According to The Standard, she struck the cyclist at 7:20 p.m. near Koroit, Victoria, having used her phone 44 times during the short drive from Warrnambool. Most striking, though, is what Kimberly Davis told investigators.
The cyclist suffered a spinal fracture which required surgery and placement in a spinal cage at Melbourne’s Austin Hospital. He was originally told he could be left a paraplegic and spent three months recovering.
http://www.standard.net.au/story/2219242/i-just-dont-care-texting-p-plate-driver-hits-cyclist/
http://boingboing.net/2014/04/15/texting-driver-on-cyclist-she.html
Profile Information
Member since: Fri Sep 17, 2004, 03:59 PMNumber of posts: 72,038
