You know it is time to make the switch  to solar when you’re using solar steam generators to extract oil! From Oil and Gas Journal:

The world’s first commercial thermal enhanced oil recovery project that uses solar steam generators went on line Feb. 24 at Berry Petroleum Co.’s heavy oil 21Z lease in McKittrick, Calif.

…GlassPoint built the solar unit in less than 6 weeks and estimates that its facililty on the 21Z lease will supply during the day about an average 1 million btu/hr of solar heat and replace 25-80% of the steam generated by gas-fired boilers on the lease.

The challenge: solar is used for heat and electricity; oil is used for transportation.

http://ow.ly/4e7hI

Win a lottery, get a job at the state house, without owning favors to any campaign contributors (because you didn’t have any)! That’s the proposal of a physics/political science/economist team extending the principle of random jury selection to promotions in organizations and legislative elections. Crazy?

http://improbable.com/2011/03/…

Improbable Research – The Italian research team that received an Ig Nobel Prize in 2010 for demonstrating mathematically that organizations would become more efficient if they promoted people at random has extended its work (as well as gained some team members).  

Doug Rubin, long time aide for MA Gov Deval Patrick and Treasurer Steve Grossman, cashes in on Gov Patrick’s casino advocacy by becoming a lobbyist for the scrstch ticket and casino industry. And Grossman oversees the lottery. You don’t have to spin the wheel or play the slots to see how this one turns out. Never mind the revolving door–did Doug Rubin even leave the building?  http://ow.ly/454pp

Recipients say last year’s 35% rise in MA lobbyist donations not influential. Just like $58 million in state tax $ to EverGreen Solar (now EverGone to China) for promises instead of panels & $70 million/yr to Fidelity investments and other MA wall street investment firms for nothing at all! ow.ly/3MsVB

The State Auditor candidates debate hosted on Tuesday (12 Oct) by the Rappaport Center and State House News Service at Suffolk University Law School hasn’t generated much press coverage, but it should! You can find a link to a full length video  of the debate here on the Rappaport Center home page (requires Windows Media Player): http://www.rappaportcenter.org/

I obviously hope that if you watch the full debate then  you will find yourself convinced you should vote for me,  but I would appreciate any feedback you have on the arguments put forward by my opponents and me in either case.

One small exception to the coverage focus on what Bump said about Connaughton (and what Connaughton did or didn’t say about Bump) are the following two paragraphs from Matt Murphy of State House News Service in the extended text. Note that I only got a couple of paragraphs of coverage, but these were two good paragraphs to get! http://ow.ly/2Szw0

Watch the video linked to this story — all 5 minutes and 58 painful seconds of it — and try not to cringe as the Honorable former State Representative/Lobbyist/Cabinet Secretary Bump explains in her own words the technical basis on which she is entitled to a residential tax break for two different residences:

http://www.patriotledger.com/n…

Is the auditor supposed to practice evasion, or expose it? Is this the kind of nuanced argument — I didn’t get a break on those property taxes, I got a break on this other property tax! The tax break I got for saying I lived in Boston was different from the tax break I got for saying I lived in Great Barrington, so I’m not really claiming two tax breaks! — that we expect a state auditor to accept?

Wasn’t it Suzanne Bump who was rightfully going after Guy Glodis for acting as if the laws applied differently to him than for everyone else?  That there’s no place in the auditor’s office for tax evasion and double dealing?

STATEMENT BY SUZANNE BUMP, DEMOCRATIC CANDIDATE FOR STATE AUDITOR, REGARDING SHERIFF GUY GLODIS AND TODAY’S FRONT PAGE STORY IN THE BOSTON GLOBE

Sep 2, 2010 | Suzanne Bump for Auditor

What makes Guy Glodis believe he is not subject to the same rules which apply to everyone else? And, more troubling, why, when caught red-handed in wrong-doing, does Guy Glodis refuse to take responsibility for his actions? Today we add federal tax evasion to the growing list of apparent violations of the law involving Sheriff Guy Glodis. MORE »

Welcome!  I’m Nat Fortune, and I’m the Massachusetts Green- Rainbow Party candidate for state auditor. I teach physics and environmental science and policy at Smith College in Northampton, and I’m chair of the school committee for my town of Whately. I’ve been on the committee for the past 7 years. My wife Joyce serves on the town select board, and our two children, having graduated from Whately Elementary, now attend Frontier Regional High School.

I understand how hard it is for our towns to pay for the schools and services we need and deserve.  I want ensure that we have a government worth paying for, at a price we can afford to pay.

So why auditor?

Because the state auditor’s job is to make sure that you are getting your money’s worth from your taxes, and that those taxes are being spent where they’re needed most. The state auditor’s job is to be your fiscal watchdog.

I think it’s time we have a watchdog that barks.

Rick Purcell is a long-term resident of Holyoke, Massachusetts, a distinguished community activist, a compassionate health care worker, and decorated US Army veteran who served 10 years of active duty.

He’s also Jill Stein’s running mate for Lt. Governor!

http://www.rickpurcell.org

great op-ed by Max Page and Michael Ash, UMass Amherst:

AMHERST – “Shared sacrifice.” You will hear the governor say it every time he talks about the budget. It is the phrase used by Charles Murphy, chair of the House Ways and Means Committee, when he unveiled a budget that cuts local aid – schools, police and fire, libraries, parks – by $234 million, and public higher education by $132 million.

It was echoed by Michael Widmer of the Massachusetts Taxpayers Association when he endorsed the House’s budget; “They (cities and towns) need to share in the pain given our fiscal realities.”

“Shared sacrifice” must poll well in focus groups. But it is a lie and a fraud.

Continued at

http://www.gazettenet.com/2010…