The tiny rabbit-like rodent has been in steep decline in recent years, which many blame on climate change. The animal has thick fur and can’t survive in temperatures higher than 80 degrees.
A class action lawsuit seeking $200 million was filed against the Washington D.C. Water and Sewer Authority (WASA) by the single father of twin boys who were poisoned as infants by lead contaminated tap water. John Parkhurst filed the suit on behalf of himself and other parents in D.C. whose children were poisoned due to extremely high levels of lead in the municipal water supply from 2001 to 2004.
“In June 2001, WASA discovered that that toxic levels of lead were leaching into the District’s drinking water. Not only did the Authority fail to eliminate this danger, it actually took affirmative steps to hide the lead contamination from its customers and federal authorities. At the same time, WASA encouraged the public to consume this dangerous product. As a result, tens of thousands of children and pregnant mothers faced elevated risks for years longer than they should have. WASA’s actions endangered thousands of children living in the District between 2001 and 2004, many of whom, like Jonathan and Joshua Parkhurst, are now profoundly affected by their ingestion of this highly poisonous element.” - Stefanie Roemer, Sanford Wittels & Heisler.
The legal fight over accountability for a day-care center housed in a former mercury thermometer factory continues in New Jersey, with plenty of buck-passing and legal maneuvering by the owner of the property.
The real estate broker, Jim Sullivan III, who bought the contaminated building and later rented it out as a day-care center says that he did not believe a cleanup was necessary. He also never informed the operators of the day care of its history.Convenient for him, huh?
“Coke fears, probably correctly, that they’ll sell less soda as Americans become increasingly concerned with obesity, diabetes, and other conditions linked to diets too high in sugar. VitaminWater is Coke’s attempt to dress up soda in a physician’s white coat. Underneath, it’s still sugar water, albeit sugar water that costs about ten bucks a gallon.” - Steve Gardner, CSPI litigation director
A suit filed today in a D.C. federal court charges six federal agencies with refusing to establish national regulations that will speed up the recovery of endangered species and take global warming into account in decision-making processes.
“Global warming is the fastest-growing threat to endangered species. It is pushing hundreds of species, including the polar bear, walrus, black abalone, elkhorn coral, staghorn coral, American pika, Sonoran pronghorn, woodland caribou, and wolverine to extinction.” - Bill Snape, senior counsel for the Center for Biological Diversity.
A federal jury ruled yesterday that Chevron had done nothing wrong a decade ago when it called the Nigerian military to control protesters who had taken control of an oil platform, demanding better treatment and jobs.
In the end, the military killed two protesters. Accounts of the incident vary drastically: Chevron says the protesters were violent, armed, and had taken workers hostage, while the protesters and their lawyers claim they had been entirely peaceful and engaged in civil disobedience.
Russian environmental groups have today launched a legal challenge against a consortium led by U.S. oil and gas giant Exxon, for threatening critically endangered whales in the far east of the country.
Last year, Russian authorities gave Exxon the green light to build a pipeline across a lagoon on Sakhalin Island that is a crucial feeding ground for the world’s last surviving colony of Western Gray Whales.
Almond Growers Sue USDA Over Compulsory Almond Treatment
Your support is needed to win the lawsuit brought by domestic almond growers against the USDA.
The Cornucopia Institute has been fighting to protect access to truly raw American almonds. When the USDA announced their intention to gas almonds with a toxic fumigant or steam-heat the raw nuts – and still call them raw – Cornucopia began working with almond farmers, consumers and retailers to block this misguided food safety measure.
This work has now led to a lawsuit challenging the raw almond treatment mandate. They need your help and support to cover the cost of this lawsuit!
Are your raw almonds actually fumigated or steamed?Over a year ago, the USDA implemented regulations requiring treatment for almonds, alleging that it was a necessary food safety requirement. Two outbreaks of salmonella traced to almonds were reported in the last ten years, one traced to a 9000 acre nut farm, and the Almond Board of California supported the USDA’s decision.
From the Cornucopia Institute:
A group of fifteen American almond growers and wholesale nut handlers filed a lawsuit in the Washington, D.C. federal court on Tuesday, September 9 seeking to repeal a controversial USDA-mandated treatment program for California-grown raw almonds.
“The USDA’s raw almond treatment mandate has been economically devastating to many family-scale and organic almond farmers in California,” said Will Fantle, the research director for the Wisconsin-based Cornucopia Institute.
They’ve done it, and help from other states is on the way. California’s Attorney General Jerry Brown has filed a lawsuit with the US court of appeals challenging the EPA’s decision to block California from implementing tough new standards on vehicle emissions. Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger is quoted as saying;
“It is unconscionable that the federal government is keeping California and 19 other states from adopting these standards. They are ignoring the will of millions of people who want their government to take action in the fight against global warming. That’s why, at the very first legal opportunity, we’re suing to reverse the US EPA’s wrong decision. By implementing these standards, California would be eliminating greenhouse gases equivalent to taking 6.5 million cars off the road by the year 2020.”
As I suggested in my “Open Challenge to California and all State Governments” of Dec. 20, 15 other states or state agencies are joining the action, including Maine, Maryland, New Jersey, New Mexico and New York.
I love David and Goliath stories, and the recent news from North Dakota is just that: two farmers and a publicly funded land grant university sticking it to the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA). As you know from an earlier article on Green Options , and my subsequent podcast Greening the Golden Years Podcast: Hemp, The North Dakota Story, two North Dakota farmers, State Rep. Dave Monson and Wayne
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