The Senate's Nov. 30 vote not to impose a moratorium on "earmarks" practically ensures that pork-barrel spending will live on as a subject for journalists — at least in fiscal 2011.
"New York gets a D-plus grade for its regulation of industries that affect air and water quality, job growth and other essentials, according to a report by an independent think tank."
The standards, now in a 60-day comment period, cover three types of heavy trucks but would not apply to vehicles built before the 2014 model year.
Some involved new fees, taxes, or bonds, while others didn't dip into voters' wallets. Get a thumbnail sketch of each measure, and its fate at the hands of voters
"As a young state attorney in the early days of environmental regulation, [Pamela Giblin] built up the laws that regulate pollution of the state's water and air. Today, age 64 and still raven-haired and self-effacing, she is the senior attorney for some of the state's largest polluters — dedicated, some would say, to finding cracks in those same laws."
If EPA's health-based primary standard is reduced from its current level of 75 parts per billion to 60 ppb, which is the low end of what the agency's science advisors have recommended, about 67% of the US population would live in monitored counties that would be out of compliance.
Photojournalists doing environmental stories have been harassed and blocked by federal police for a decade or more when they try to take pictures of federal facilities from public spaces. Now, under a court settlement, the federal government is publicly acknowledging that it is acting illegally when it does this.
"Earlier this week, the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals overturned the state of Ohio's ban on labels that identify milk as rBST- or rBGH-free, meaning produced without the use of artificial bovine growth hormone. Consumer and organic food groups were jubilant at the Ohio news, which may have far-reaching repercussions not only for all milk, but for genetically engineered foods."
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