Those tax dollars to Evergreen? sorry, evergone! CEO says MA made a deal. And us taxpayers just got dealt.
The chief executive of Evergreen Solar says his company has no plans to give back $20 million in state corporate incentives, despite its recent decision to close a plant in Devens and lay off 800 workers.
Think we’ll ever start paying for panels instead of promises?
Continue reading CEO says tax dollars given to Evergreen are evergoneBy KYLE SMEALLIE AND HARVEY SILVERGLATE
From the Boston Phoenix, March 24, 2011
Chuck Turner reports to prison Friday. If his sentence sticks, that’s where the 70-year-old former Boston city councilor will spend the next three years.
Turner was convicted of attempted extortion, for accepting a bribe from a paid FBI informant, and also of giving false statements to federal officials, for lying about it to investigators. But there is much more to the case. Stepping back, it becomes clear that Turner was targeted by the FBI because he refused to play ball and build the government’s case against another Massachusetts politician, former state senator Dianne Wilkerson. This is all about federal power – the power to destroy any who won’t cooperate with the government’s agenda.
by Jason Pramas, March 25, 2011
Open Media Boston Editorial
The scene at Northeastern Law School yesterday – as Chuck Turner gave his last speech before starting a three year term in federal prison – was sad on a number of levels. First, NU students did a very poor job of organizing the event – with the result that over 100 people were forced to leave the building where the event was being held, after a number of reasonable proposals to provide overflow space or use another facility on the large campus were rebuffed by the students and a couple of administrators who happened to be on hand. Second, most of the Boston press corps was also kept out of the event – this despite my public plea on behalf of the assembled journalists pointing out that failing to let us in was effectively preventing a large audience from being aware of the event at all – plus making the unfortunate treatment of the press part of the few stories that did ultimately get produced.
Continue reading Chuck Turner, Prisoner of WarGermany’s Merkel Suffers Election Blow Over Nuclear Policy
Greens and Social Democrats Make Big Gains on Nuclear Debate
by Christiaan Hetzner, Reuters
STUTTGART, Germany – Chancellor Angela Merkel’s conservatives appeared set to lose power in a major regional stronghold on Sunday after early results suggested the anti-nuclear Greens were surging to their first ever state premiership.
Supporters of the German Green Party react as they watch the first exit poll predictions for the state elections in Baden-Wuerttemberg Photo: AP
In Baden-Wuerttemberg state, where anti-nuclear sentiment has been mobilised by Japan’s nuclear crisis, the Greens and Social Democrats (SPD) were set to win 48.3 percent, eclipsing the Christian Democrats who have held power for six decades.
Continue reading Greens and Social Democrats Make Big Gains in GermanyI’m not saying that there are no differences between Democrats and Republicans.
I’m not saying that we would be better off today if McCain and Palin had been elected President in 2008.
However, over 3 years of life under President Obama has clearly demonstrated that there is a great deal of policy agreement between the 2 major parties, and that, more often than not, President Obama has continued the policies of President Bush.
Continue reading Impeach Obama CampaignMA Gov. Patrick meets with Fidelity Investments, says he didn’t discuss Fidelity’s tax breaks “at any depth at all.” Fidelity’s earmarked share of the $300 million a year we keep giving away in faux “job creation” corporate income tax breaks didn’t merit in depth discussion? Even when they cut MA jobs? Guess he’s saving his depth for cuts to local aid to our cities, towns, and schools! http://ow.ly/4mRrH
Continue reading Gov. Patrick gives Fidelity his deepest consideration. Their tax breaks? Not so much.Fukushima Rad. Iodine Releases 100,000X Three Mile Island, IEER release.
http://www.ieer.org/comments/F…
By Brian Moench, MD. Should we all whistle “Don’t worry, be happy”? No safe level of radiation.
http://www.truth-out.org/radia…
Physicians for Social Responsibility: No safe level of radiation.
http://preview.tinyurl.com/4uz…
Twenty years after the first Earth Summit in Rio in 1992, the Rio+20, to take place in Rio again in under 13 months, is shaping up to be a critical event in the planet’s fate.
ETC Group’s Jim Thomas explains how, on the road to Rio+20, the hijackers (bankers and largest corporations) are already seizing the reins, why a hollow “green economy” amounts to a Trojan horse for ongoing destruction-as-usual, and what is behind the twin magic potions peddled by corporate execs and politicians as climate solutions: “markets” and “technology”.
People from all walks of life need to know this. A planetary revolt is necessary to get the profiteers off of our backs, and the high priests of techno-fixes off their pedestals.
Continue reading RIO+20: green economy, greenwashed economy, greed economy?I was recently an invited speaker at a conference on health and human rights at Seoul National University in South Korea. The occasion was the 50th anniversary of the establishment of the School of Public Health and I was asked to give a keynote address on the “right to know”. It’s an important issue in Seoul because a number of young workers at Samsung factories have become ill (some have died) and the company refuses to provide information on hazardous exposures claiming “trade secrets”. Although community and worker rights to information about dangerous chemicals and processes were won in the United States in the 1980’s, the issue is still a live one: BP refused to give information to the public on the chemical dispersant used in the Gulf of Mexico claiming trade secrets, but EPA (which did get the information) was badgered by the press until it finally released the data.
Continue reading Worker Rights are Human RightsAccording to the EPA, more than 53 million children and about 6 million adults spend a substantial part of their days in schools. The EPA has recognized that many schools have environmental problems, and, in 1995, released the first edition of its Indoor Air Quality Tools for Schools kit to encourage school districts to address environmental problems. The EPA estimates that an average of one out of 13 school-age children has asthma, and that asthma is a leading cause of student absenteeism.
Health concerns in schools are not limited to indoor air quality. Recently, schools are identifying and remediating PCBs found in building materials. As the public considers how to develop policies to respond to school-based health issues, they often consider AHERA, the Asbestos Hazard Emergency Response Act as a model for regulating health issues in schools.
Continue reading Asbestos Canaries in the Schools