Fracking Study: It’s Not The Process Contaminating Groundwater, It’s the Sloppy Way They Do It
February 20, 2012 No CommentWatch “Gasland” on PBS. See more from NOW on PBS. See, what happens is, the companies who are doing the fracking drilling won’t do it the way it should ideally be done, but if they would do it the way it should be done, there wouldn’t be groundwater contamination ! And as my mother used to say, if pigs had wings, they could fly. In any event, we should all feel a lot better now, knowing that the reason the water is being contaminated is completely different – if related: The hydraulic fracturing of shale formations to develop natural gas has no direct connection to groundwater contamination, according to a study released Feb. 16 by the Energy Institute at the University of Texas at Austin . The study reported that many problems blamed on hydraulic fracturing are related to processes common to all oil and gas drilling operations, such as casing failures or poor cement jobs. University researchers also concluded that many reports of contamination can be traced to above-ground spills or other mishandling of wastewater produced from shale gas drilling, rather than from hydraulic fracturing, Charles “Chip” Groat, an Energy Institute associate director, said in a statement. “These problems are not unique to hydraulic fracturing,” he said.
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Monday is election day in the Libyan city of Misrata. This is the city’s first vote since the fall of dictator Moammar Gadhafi. Misrata residents are electing a 28-member local council. (Feb 20)
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Click here to view this media State Rep.Lynne Blankenbeker (R-NH) suggested yesterday that married couples who can’t afford birth control can use condoms or abstinence, because they’re available “over the counter” and they are affordable. “People with or without insurance have two affordable choices, one being abstinence and the other being condoms, both of which you can get over the counter,” she said. The comments came at the same hearing where state Rep. Jeanine Notter (R-Merrimack) claimed that birth control pills lead to prostate cancer. In an interview with Merrimack Patch, Notter said that she was referring to studies discussing potentially high levels of estrogen in the environment through birth control pills and a connection to prostate cancer. Blankenbeker was engaged in a dialogue with Sylvia Kennedy, a New Hampshire doctor, who was testifying in support of Obama’s plan. Kennedy urged the coverage of birth control and responded to Blankenbeker that condoms are not a foolproof means of contraception, and also suggested that abstinence does not work all the time, a notion Blankenbeker disagreed with. “Abstinence works 100 percent of the time,” she said. Blankenbeker also asserted that condoms and abstinence offer married couples a wider range of family planning options than oral contraceptives. “If you decide you want to get pregnant you can refrain from abstinence,” she said. Apparently Republicans need a daily reminder that the year is 2012 A.D., also that “It’s the economy, stupid!”
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A year after a deadly earthquake devastated Christchurch, the New Zealand city is slowly and steadily recovering and rebuilding. Many say the disaster has brought the community closer together. (Feb. 20)
Continue reading …There’s no shortcut: The only way police departments respond to the community is when the community rises up. Unfortunately, far too often, people think expressing your outrage online is equivalent to showing up at your town council meetings. It isn’t. Leaders will go as far as they think they can go without suffering public backlash: Relations between Oakland police and the city’s residents have never been good, which is one reason why the department issued body-mounted cameras to its officers last year. The goal was to increase accountability, which is important for a department that is facing a federal takeover this March. However, the above video, which shows several officers with their body-mounted cameras turned off – a departmental violation – is just the latest example of Oakland police officers not wanting any accountability.The video is also a clear demonstration of just how high tensions are between Oakland police and citizens. The video was produced by Jacob Crawford and journalist Ali Winston from footage obtained during the January 28th demonstration that included activists attempting to break into city hall. “When the cameras are turned on, you see a green light,” said Crawford, a longtime Cop Watch activist whom I wrote about in 2010 after he was assaulted for attempting to video record a cop.“When the cameras are turned off, they just look like a pager.”
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Israel has accused Iran and its ally Hezbollah, Lebanon’s Shia movement, of being behind twin bomb attacks that targeted its embassy staff in India and Georgia that wounded four people. Tehran denied involvement in Monday’s attacks and accused Israel of carrying out the attacks itself. Hezbollah made no comment. In the Indian capital New Delhi, a bomb wrecked a car taking an Israeli embassy official to pick up her children from school, police said. The woman needed surgery to remove shrapnel but her life was not in danger. Her driver and two passers-by suffered lesser injuries. Israeli officials said an attempt to bomb an embassy car in the Georgian capital Tbilisi failed and the device was…
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European finance ministers have cancelled a meeting scheduled for Wednesday that was to discuss Greece’s second bailout. Eurozone members say Greece has failed to meet all the conditions needed in order to receive its next rescue loan. The group had demanded Greece detail how it will cover its budget gap of $428m. Al Jazeera’s John Psaropoulos, reporting from Athens, said the cancellation was the latest in a line of procedural hiccups. He said “the Greeks have gone to Brussels unprepared with respect to precisely where the 325m euro [$428m] that was still outstanding” from the $3.9bn in cuts that were meant to be made this year. “What I am hearing from the Greek government…
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An analysis by Lt. Col. Daniel Davis, which the US Army has not approved for public release but has leaked to Rolling Stone magazine, provides the most authoritative refutation thus far of the official military narrative of success in the Afghanistan War since the troop surge began in early 2010. In the 84-page unclassified report, Davis, who returned last fall after his second tour of duty in Afghanistan, attacks the credibility of claims by senior military leaders that the US-NATO war strategy has succeeded in weakening the Taliban insurgent forces and in building Afghan security forces capable of taking primary responsibility for security in the future. The report, which Davis had…
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Article be WN.com Correspondent Dallas Darling Greece’s up-and-down seesaw battle over its debt deal and severe austerity laws conjures up an ancient past when children were considered to be the property of the Spartan state. Like Chole Hadjimatheou reported from Athens in the BBC World Service, due to years of unemployment and a lack of food and shelter some families have become so desperate that they are giving up the most precious thing of all – their children.(1) Ancient Spartan custom demanded that the father bring the child before a jury of elders who would examine the infant. If the child was considered healthy and strong, the elders would give orders for the infant’s rearing and…
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The US and Afghan governments have begun secret three-way talks with the Taliban, Afghan President Hamid Karzai has said. “There have been contacts between the US government and the Taliban, there have been contacts between the Afghan government and the Taliban, and there have been some contacts that we have made, all of us together, including the Taliban,” he told The Wall Street Journal in an interview published on Thursday. The newspaper said Karzai had declined to specify the location of the talks or go into further detail, saying he feared this could damage the process. Karzai, whose government had protested for being left out of recent talks between Washington and the…
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