সোমবার, ৩১ ডিসেম্বর, ২০১২

Dickinson Press' Top 10: No. 1: Booming ND Oil Patch

When does an oil boom become an oil industry? Some would say when the needed infrastructure catches up with record-breaking oil production in western North Dakota.

All year, infrastructure needs like roads, pipelines and housing have dominated headlines right alongside lead stories of the tens of thousands of jobs created and the hundreds of million in tax revenues due to oil activity here.

The governor?s proposed $12.8 billion budget for the coming 2013-15 biennium includes $300 million to convert two-lane highways into four-lane ones, starting with U.S. Highway 85 between Watford City and Williston, plus $142 million to help counties and townships repair truck traffic-damaged roads. Under the budget, many new state positions would be added, including more highway patrol troopers, petroleum engineers and inspectors for monitoring drilling and well sites.

In 2012, the term ?fracking? overtook ?climate change? in Google searches, the word ?Bakken? became a hot marketing tool, an LA production company sought oil workers for a planned reality TV show and journalists from both coasts and beyond descended on the area to report on the stories of low unemployment rates and fastest-growing U.S. population here in our midst.

The skyrocketing use of natural gas to produce electricity was projected in the state, even as gas flaring estimates of 30 percent with a loss of $100 million wasted were reported.

New state regulations related to oil production took effect last spring, though not without controversy. Industry groups such as the North Dakota Petroleum Council called many of the changes ?costly and onerous,? but state officials with the Oil and Gas Division said ?tough rules? are necessary to ensure the integrity of wells for the next 30 years.

The new rules include requiring companies to disclose chemicals used in hydraulic fracturing, banning the dumping of liquid wastes into an open pit, except in cases where the oil well is less than 5,000 feet, increasing the bond requirement from $20,000 to $50,000 for oil wells.

A preliminary report on hydraulic fracturing was released late in the year by the EPA; industry analysts said the report shed little light on what the agency will recommend in its final report, due out in 2014.

The purpose of the study is to assess the potential impacts of hydraulic fracturing on drinking water resources, if any, and to identify the driving factors that may affect the severity and frequency of such impacts; wells in Dunn County and the Killdeer area are among the seven sites included in the congressionally-mandated study.

Editor?s Note: This is the last story in The Dickinson Press? top 10 stories of the year. Previously on the list:

2: Western ND roads get dangerous

3: Crew camps grow in popularity

4: Rocky year for DSU

5: Tragedy in New Town

6: Small western ND cities see economic, housing boom

7: Rents double, triple; housing construction industry taking off

8: Dry conditions lead to months-long burn bans, wildfires

9: Property tax bill shot down, Heitkamp beats Berg in election

10: Controversy with Stark County Sheriff Clarence Tuhy

Tags: top 10,?oil,?news,?dickinson

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Source: http://www.thedickinsonpress.com/event/article/id/64300/

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Obama: U.S. has good leads on who carried out Benghazi attacks

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States has some "very good leads" about who carried out the attacks in Benghazi, Libya, that killed four Americans including the U.S. ambassador in September, President Barack Obama said in an interview broadcast on Sunday.

Obama told NBC's "Meet the Press" that the United States would carry out all of the recommendations put forward in an independent review of the September 11 attack on the U.S. mission in Benghazi in which Ambassador Christopher Stevens was killed.

"We're not going to pretend that this was not a problem. This was a huge problem. And we're going to implement every single recommendation that's been put forward," Obama said in the interview, referring to security issues identified in the review.

"With respect to who carried it out, that's an ongoing investigation. The FBI has sent individuals to Libya repeatedly. We have some very good leads, but this is not something that I'm going to be at liberty to talk about right now," he said.

The interview was conducted on Saturday.

(Reporting by Jeff Mason; Editing by Will Dunham)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/obama-u-good-leads-carried-benghazi-attacks-140643502.html

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Chase Holland Interviews George Saunders | The Clever Title: The ...

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Source: http://theclevertitlebookreviews.blogspot.com/2012/12/chase-holland-interviews-george-saunders.html

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রবিবার, ৩০ ডিসেম্বর, ২০১২

School cafeterias join fight against childhood obesity | Seattle ...

FoodBy Eric Whitney, Colorado Public Radio

Kathy Del Tonto started cooking school food 30 years ago in the?Montrose?school district at the foot of Colorado?s San Juan Mountains. Back then, the cafeteria workers made everything from scratch.

?My first kitchen that I managed was a little country school out south of town, and we made our own ketchup and everything,? she says.

But times changed. Families started eating more fast food, and processing companies started offering schools fast-food kinds of choices.

The companies would take the food that the U.S. Department of Agriculture gives to schools, turn it into chicken nuggets and other processed items kids want, and then send it to cafeterias ? for less than cooking it on site would cost.

Del Tonto went along with it. ?By doing processed food you can cut your labor because you don?t have to do the hard cooking, or you?re just reheating and that kind of thing,? she explains.

Increasingly, though, the?movement?to reduce childhood obesity by improving what kids eat in school has changed the game. It means schools are now required to serve more fresh fruits and vegetables.

And there?s a movement within the movement that promotes the retro notion of cooking meals from scratch. And that takes a change in the hearts and minds of those behind the lunch line.

Mike Shethar, a chef from Boulder, Colo., wants Del Tonto and all other cafeteria workers onboard. He says with a little training, food staff can cook the food on site.

?I ask them if they cook chicken at home and they?re like, ?Of course I cook chicken at home,? and I say, ?Is it difficult?? ?No, I do it all the time,? ? says Shethar. ?And so I think about transferring the love you give your food at home ? why shouldn?t it be in the schools??

LIveWellDespite the rap that it?s more expensive to cook, Shethar believes it can be done for the same price as having the food processors do it. Shethar travels around Colorado with a group called?LiveWell Colorado, which teaches districts like Del Tonto?s how to switch to more healthful food. Think of it as a boot camp for the lunch lady set.

At first, Del Tonto was not pleased.

?I didn?t like somebody coming in and telling me I was doing it wrong. We were giving kids what they loved. We had huge lunch counts; they were happy. Nobody was complaining,? she says.

That was two years ago. Del Tonto was in charge of food for all 11 schools in her district, and she had them serving processed foods almost exclusively.

But by the end of the school food training, she was a changed woman.

?When I sat there in that classroom and knew the obesity rate had increased 30 percent, when I saw photos of kids and knowing that that generation doesn?t have the life expectancy that their parents [have] ? as a mom, that?s a shock-and-awe moment,? she says. ?I remember thinking in my head, if it?s not me, who?s it gonna be that?s going to take that on? And if not now, when??

Two years later, Del Tonto?s schools have switched from mostly processed foods to making 95 percent of what kids eat from scratch.

But it wasn?t easy. It required training staff members, educating them about healthful eating, and lots of repetition to get the kids to make the more healthful choices.

LocalHealthGuide:?Seattle School meals to feature more fruits, vegetables and whole grain foods

Those challenges, and others, are more than most schools want to take on, says Joe Pawlak, a school?food industry analyst. It takes money, new equipment and retraining cafeteria staff. Del Tonto?s school had?financial help.

Del Tonto remains committed to serving nearly all meals in her schools cooked from scratch. She says lunch ladies feel better serving things they?ve made themselves.

?Just knowing the love and the care we put in that food, hoping that it makes a difference for some of those kids.?

This story is part of a collaboration?between?NPR,?Colorado Public Radio?and?Kaiser Health News.

This article was reprinted from?kaiserhealthnews.org?with permission from the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation. Kaiser Health News, an editorially independent news service, is a program of the Kaiser Family Foundation, a nonpartisan health care policy research organization unaffiliated with Kaiser Permanente.

Tags: and processing companies started offering schools fast-food kinds of choices., Colorado Public Radio, Convenience food, Cooking, even the ketchup. But times changed. Families started eating more fast food, Kathy Del Tonto started cooking school food 30 years ago in the Montrose school district at the foot of Colorado?s San Juan Mountains. Back then, the cafeteria workers made everything from scratch

Category: Child & Youth Health, Diet & Nutrition, Fitness, News

Source: http://mylocalhealthguide.com/2012/12/30/school-cafeterias-join-fight-against-childhood-obesity/

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Climate Change Is Not Just an Environmental Problem -- It's ... - Care2


Kit B. (304)
Friday December 28, 2012, 9:39 am
(Photo Credit: Jean Lee/ Shutterstock.com)

This article was published in partnership with GlobalPossibilities.org.

The Delaware River Basin Commission (DRBC), the agency in charge of the Delaware River as it winds through four states, conveniently sidestepped taking responsibility for overseeing the cumulative effects of the many natural gas pipelines being built around or through the Delaware River watershed by saying, essentially, "that's not our job." It's a tried-and-true political maneuver. But, if it's not the job of the DRBC, then we are really screwed here in the Delaware River Valley. That means it's not anybody's job to look after the aggregate environmental degradation in the watershed and threats to human (and animal) well-being caused by the standard procedures of the natural gas industry, operating as they do without need to comply with the Clean Air or Clean Water Acts. Oh well, I guess they can monitor themselves.

The DRBC did however give the go-ahead to two controversial projects: a $1.2 billion electrical transmission line through 72 miles of Delaware River watershed connecting New Jersey and Pennsylvania substations, and a $6.4 billion project to expand the Philadelphia airport- by filling in 130 acres of wetlands. Wetlands mitigate the effects of disastrous storms like Sandy, which we can expect more of, thanks to climate change. But you can't charge for prudence.

Every time I revisit the airport expansion, the numbers get bigger. There's the usual amount of cheerleading for this project, from the usual cheerleaders- the ones that brought you casinos and the expanded convention center. And I'm sure they all stand to make piles of money. Airport director Mark Gale promises jobs and revenue and a more efficient airport. Let's hope any of that is true. US Airways Vice President Micheal Minerva questioned the proposition back in 2010, so some pretty smart people see things differently. The project now only needs permission from Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection (an oxymoron under Corbett) and the US Army Corps of Engineers, so consider it a done deal.

And here, in microcosm, is the problem with solving climate change. There's too much money to to be made doing the same old same old. There's no incentive to change, I mean, unless you like breathing the air and drinking the water. But apparently that's just not as sexy as the old "jobs and revenue" line that gets trotted out by every fill-in-the-blank financially interested party to defend every project that will add more carbon to the atmosphere.

The sticking point with climate change is it's not an environmental problem, primarily, but an economic problem. The entire world's economy revolves around carbon-spewing technologies. And until the kingpins controlling the resources that keep this economy running figure out how to make money in changing, there will be no serious change. Period, the end. Too bad about the air and water.

The natural gas industry is big in Pennsylvania and elsewhere, and is grossly unregulated. The prize the industry promotes is replacing oil with natural gas - liquified natural gas, to be precise. That way cars keep running, factories don't have to retool, there's no need to worry so much about rapid transit, and hey, natural gas is clean, they say, kind of like clean coal (not). Tar sands development in Canada continues at a breakneck pace, although it may not go as smoothly as envisioned. GE recently announced plans to expand "natural gas highway" partnerships and the US government issued a report last week that makes the case for exporting natural gas, which the US now has in surplus. Sure it'll drive up domestic natural gas prices, but ultimately... jobs and revenue. So that's the plan, a natural gas superhighway and exporting the stuff so other countries can build natural gas superhighways. Good old, same old thing.

And nary a word about the hit to the earth's warming climate of these "clean energy" technologies. According to the International Energy Agency the world cannot afford to burn two-thirds of all identified fossil fuel resources. All that new carbon alone will doom the planet. It has to stay in the ground. So what the heck are we all talking about? "Jobs and revenue" is beginning to sound like the ditty Nero might sing as Rome burns.

Earlier this month, countries of the world met in Doha, Qatar under the auspices of the United Nations, to continue their nearly 20 year conversation about what they could or should do concerning climate change. Twenty years of talk and no action. Why? Because there's way too much money to be made doing nothing, and besides, say some, carbon regulation is not the UN's job.

When ordinary people have a concern about the impacts to their well-being of an industry, they naturally turn to their elected political leaders. So it's disappointing when those leaders aren't that interested in protecting public health. Susan Rice, current UN Ambassador, whose name is being floated for Secretary of State, has over a million invested in the Keystone Pipeline, a deal that needs - surprise! - a permit from the Department of State to proceed. It's hard for politicians to care about whether you can breathe air or drink water when they're so busy toting up their own return on investment.

I'm not against jobs and revenue but I've come to highly value breathing air and drinking water. The only force in the world capable of ultimately winning out over all this prevailing wisdom about jobs and revenue and the incredible boon of "clean" fossil fuels is sustained direct action by people. For real change, people will have to push harder, because politicians can talk forever, if you let them.

This is the conclusion many activists have come to across a variety of campaigns like Greenpeace, the Tar Sands Blockade and the new student movement to force colleges and universities to divest themselves of their fossil fuel investments, to name a few. It's surely going to get hotter - literally and figuratively - before health and well-being win out over jobs and revenue.

This article originally published at GreenCityJournal.com.
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By: Caryn Hunt | alternet |

Caryn Hunt lives and writes in Philadelphia.

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