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From SeeingBlack.com The 411
The Obama administration has moved a step closer to regulating greenhouse gases. On Monday, the Environmental Protection Agency said six gases, including carbon dioxide and methane, endanger the environment and public health. The move would allow the EPA to take action against the gases without needing congressional approval. The EPA says it will now draft regulations to curb the emissions under the Clean Air Act. EPA administrator Lisa Jackson announced the move in Washington. EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson: “Today’s action is a step towards enduring, pragmatic solutions to the enormous challenge of climate change. It is a step towards innovation, investment and implementation of technologies that reduce harmful emissions.” Report: 20% of US Water Treatment Systems Violate Clean Water Act The New York Times is reporting over 20 percent of the nation’s water treatment systems have violated the Safe Drinking Water Act over the last five years. More than 49 million people get their drinking water from the systems. While every single violation was reported, regulators took action in less than six percent of cases. The disclosure comes ahead of a Senate hearing today on enforcement of water safety laws. The EPA is expected to soon unveil new regulations for overseeing the nation’s water systems. But critics have questioned their effectiveness because the EPA is still run by many officials who ignored the old regulations. Activists Open Alternative Climate Summit The news follows the opening day of the global climate summit here in Copenhagen. On Monday, environmental activists opened a parallel summit billed as the global civil society counterpart to the climate talks. Addressing the Klimaforum’s opening session, the Canadian author and activist Naomi Klein called for climate reparations to developing nations and stressed the urgency of a grassroots environmental movement. Naomi Klein: “We have to somehow offset the carbon we emitted coming here. How do we do it? We do it, or we try to do it, by using this incredible space, this historic convergence, to build the kind of global mass movement that will never ever let our leaders get away with this kind of criminal negligence again. That is our task, my friends. It is awesome and fearsome. Think of it as the mother of all carbon offsets.” Obama to Attend High-Level Talks at Copenhagen Summit The largest climate summit in history opens today here in Copenhagen. Thousands of delegates and more than 100 world leaders are expected over the next two weeks as negotiations are held to replace the 1997 Kyoto Protocol. Achim Steiner of the UN Environment Programme said he expects the conference will result in a binding agreement. Achim Steiner: “For those who claim that in Copenhagen a deal is impossible, they are simply wrong. You have a world summit taking place now with over 100 heads of government and heads of state coming. This is not a negotiating session; this is a meeting to complete a negotiation process that has lasted for over two years and is meant to end in a deal.” The White House has bolstered hopes of a climate deal with the announcement President Obama will attend the talks on the summit’s last day. Obama had initially planned to visit Copenhagen this Wednesday before accepting the Nobel Peace Prize in Oslo. But Obama will now be present as dozens of heads of state try to reach an agreement. The top UN official for the Copenhagen conference, Yvo de Boer, said he hopes Obama will hear the demands of developing nations. Yvo de Boer: “I’m happy that he’s coming towards the end of the conference, together with other heads of state and government. I think it’s important for him to interact with them. I think it’s especially important for him to hear the concerns of small island developing nations, the countries that are most vulnerable to the impacts of climate change.” Poorer nations have widely criticized the US for its stated pledge of reducing greenhouse emissions by around 17 percent of 2005 levels, which amounts to around four percent of the world standard of 1990 levels. The world’s top scientific body on global warming, the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, has called on developed countries to cut emissions by between 25 to 40 percent of 1990 levels. Official Jobless Rate Drops to 10% The nation’s official unemployment rate has fallen to ten percent, down from 10.2 percent in October. Speaking at the White House Friday, President Obama said the change signifies an improving economy. President Obama: “There are going to be some months where the reports are a little better, some months where the reports are worse, but the trend line right now is good. The direction is clear. When you think about how this year began, even before I was sworn in, and we were losing 700,000 jobs a month—a month—today’s report is a welcome sign that there are better days ahead.” Despite the drop, labor economists have put the real unemployment rate at around 17 percent when factoring in the underemployed and those who have stopped trying to find work. Comcast Reaches Deal for Majority Stake in NBC Universal The nation’s largest cable television company Comcast has struck a deal to buy a majority stake in the television and movie giant NBC Universal from General Electric. If approved, the merger would give Comcast control of the NBC network, the Spanish-language Telemundo, cable channels including MSNBC, dozens of local television stations and the Universal film studio. Media democracy advocates have widely criticized the merger. Jeff Chester, head of the Center for Digital Democracy: “This is a real political litmus test for the Obama administration. Frankly, they should just have their FCC and their Department of Justice, or FTC, say no to this deal. There’s nothing in the Comcast-NBCU mega-deal that will benefit the public interest, consumers or competitors. The Obama administration has a chance now to put its foot down and say ‘no more media consolidation in the United States.’” Self-Proclaimed FBI Informant Claims He Spied on Mosques In California, a judge has lifted a seal on court documents allegedly detailing how the FBI recruited an informant to spy on several mosques. The alleged spy, Craig Monteilh, is seeking $10 million in damages from the FBI, which he says never fully paid him for his work. Texas Prisoner Executed Despite Claims of Mental Retardation In Texas, a forty-four-year-old man was executed Thursday despite arguments he was too mentally impaired to be put to death. Test scores have shown the prisoner, Bobby Woods, had an IQ at or below seventy, the cutoff point for mental retardation. Woods was killed by lethal injection less than an hour after the Supreme Court refused to halt his execution. Rep. Thompson Accused of Using Hearing to Gain Donations Democratic Congress member Bennie Thompson of Mississippi is facing accusations he held a hearing on financial regulation to pressure credit card companies to give him campaign donations. The March hearing marked the first time Thompson’s House Homeland Security Committee had ever taken up credit card issues. Thompson’s staff members have reportedly told congressional ethics investigators they feared he was trying to secure donations. The Washington Post reports Thompson collected $15,000 in credit card industry and lobbyist donations within weeks of the hearing. Thompson has never followed through on a threat to impose tighter security standards that would have cost the credit card industry millions of dollars. Morales Wins Sweeping Re-Election In Bolivia, President Evo Morales has been re-elected in a landslide victory. Unofficial results show Morales won Sunday’s vote with 63 percent. Voters also gave his Movement Toward Socialism party a majority in both houses of the Bolivian Congress. Morales ran on a platform of continuing to expand indigenous rights and redistribute wealth from Bolivia’s natural gas resources. Speaking before thousands of voters, Morales hailed his victory as a rebuke of imperial power. Bolivian President Evo Morales: “The victory in Bolivia is not just for Bolivians. I want to tell you, with much respect to Bolivians, that this victory is, at its base, a just acknowledgment. It is dedicated to the people and anti-imperial government.” Chilean Singer Victor Jara Honored With Public Burial And in Chile, the protest singer Victor Jara has been given a public burial thirty-six years after his murder. Chilean military forces tortured and killed Jara days after the US-backed overthrow of the elected president Salvador Allende. Jara’s hands were smashed so he could no longer play guitar before he was shot over forty times. On Friday, Jara’s widow Joan Jara led a funeral procession of thousands of mourners. Joan Jara: “This strange funeral for Victor, thirty-six years after his death, is an act of love, of grief for all of our dead. We know that here among this multitude, there are many families that suffer the same pain that our family suffers.” A former army conscript was recently charged with Jara’s murder. Chilean prosecutors are still searching for two former army officers said to have led Jara’s torture and killing. Musician Stevie Wonder Named UN “Messenger of Peace” And the music legend Stevie Wonder has been named a United Nations “messenger of peace.” Wonder, who is blind, will focus on people with disabilities. Stevie Wonder: “It is truly an honor, beyond any that I have ever imagined would happen in a lifetime, to be able to be pinned and given the opportunity to spread the message of ‘love is truly in need of love today.’” Click here to post a comment. Click here to view all our blogs and discussion groups, where you can comment on any news stories or post your own news. Read and search hundreds of news stories on SeeingBlack.com's 411 Channel. Do you shop at Amazon? Please shop through our link and support SeeingBlack.com! © Copyright by SeeingBlack.com |
