March 19, 2016 · 1:58 pm

EPA approves another superchemical for superweeds

 

In October 2014 the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency approved the registration of Enlist Duo, a new herbicide to fight superweeds resistant to other weedkillers. The chemical combines glyphosate, originally developed and marketed by Monsanto as Roundup, with the older, more toxic 2,4-D, one of the ingredients in Agent Orange. The approval applies to six states, and the EPA is accepting public comment until Dec. 15 to register the pesticide in 10 additional states. The registration, which came a month after the U.S. Department of Agriculture approved new corn and soybean seeds genetically engineered to resist both herbicides, is subject to a six-year limit and some monitoring requirements. Continue reading →

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March 13, 2016 · 5:01 pm

Three-year-olds, immigration law, and the presidential candidates

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David Wilson and Jane Guskin explain what’s wrong with the mainstream immigration debate, including the Sanders/Clinton pseudo-discussion in their March 9 debate:

“The media and the politicians treat the migration either as a natural disaster (‘flooding over the border’) or as a second-rate science fiction movie (‘the aliens are invading’) — with either scenario seen as deserving an aggressive response.

“But in the real world, the asylum seekers and other migrants that some call ‘illegals’ are human beings pushed from their homes by economic dislocation or fear of violence, often risking their lives for a chance at a brighter future.  And U.S. foreign and economic policies are intimately linked to these ‘push factors.'”

Continue reading →

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March 11, 2016 · 10:44 pm

As France clears “the jungle,” refugees flee to even worse camps

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White board from an English classroom, before Calais camp was dismantled. Photo by EngageJoe, published under Creative Commons license.

French authorities cleared a Calais refugee camp called “the jungle” this week — and the refugees displaced from the squalid camp scattered to set up even less secure camps nearby. But what did the French government expect? The refugees in Calais have nowhere to go, and burning down their tents and shacks does not magically create alternatives, but rather increases their misery. Continue reading →

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March 11, 2016 · 11:14 am

As borders close, refugee crisis in Europe escalates

refugees in Samos

Photo of refugees in Samos by JTStewart, published under Creative Commons license

This week, the already-terrible refugee crisis in Europe got worse, as Turkey and the E.U. reached an agreement that severely restricts refugee movement, and Balkan nations closed borders, leaving refugees stranded in makeshift camps. Continue reading →

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March 10, 2016 · 9:15 am

You, Stephen Colbert, and St. Paul Public Schools

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Today is #BestSchoolDay on donorschoose.org, and Stephen Colbert is leading dozens of celebrities in funding teacher requests for books and materials their classrooms need. Students in Mrs. Hall’s classroom at Como Park Elementary School need A-D leveled guided reading books for small-group instruction. Her students come from ethnically and racially diverse backgrounds, and many speak English as a second language. You can click here to help buy books for Mrs. Hall’s students.   Continue reading →

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March 8, 2016 · 9:12 pm

Death by privatization in U.S. prisons

More than 20,000 immigrant prisoners are serving their sentences at 11 privatized, immigrant-only contract prisons run by three companies: the Geo Group, the Corrections Corp. of America and the Management and Training Corp. Many of these prisoners are convicted only of illegal entry.

Private prisons cost less than federal prisons because they provide less. Immigrant prisoners — who are deported after serving time — don’t receive rehabilitation, education or job training, services considered essential for U.S. citizens held in government-operated prisons.

Even worse, these prisons fail to provide minimally adequate health care to inmates, leading to death for some and misery for many. Basic human rights standards require prisons to provide adequate medical care to inmates, regardless of their legal status.

This article originally published by Al Jazeera America.  Continue reading →

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March 8, 2016 · 1:08 pm

Honduras emergency update: Protecting Gustavo Castro Soto

Gustavo Castro

[UPDATED 3/11/2016 – see below] Berta Cáceres. indigenous and environmental activist, was murdered in her home on March 3. She knew she was in danger. She had received death threat after death threat. Because she was in danger, Gustavo Castro Soto of Otros Mundos, a Mexican organization, was accompanying Cáceres. He was shot, too, but now the danger to Gustavo comes from the Honduran government, which has insisted on removing him from the safety of the Mexican embassy and returning him to La Esperanza. Here’s how Otros Mundos and the Alliance for Global Justice describe his current danger: Continue reading →

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March 6, 2016 · 5:09 pm

Organizing St. Paul: Trash and alley plowing on the agenda

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Image via Fotolia: #80127845 | Author: vostal

Walking around my neighborhood, I counted the different names on garbage cans in a couple of alleys. One block had garbage cans belonging to seven different trash haulers. Another block had eleven. That’s eleven different trucks coming down the alley on different days of the week, every week, and that’s a feature of the current “open” system for trash pick-up. Rational? Efficient? Environmentally friendly? Not in my book. Continue reading →

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March 5, 2016 · 5:59 pm

Amy Klobuchar moves to the DARK side on GMO labeling

Minnesota Senator Amy Klobuchar joined Republicans on the Senate Agriculture Committee last week to vote for the DARK Act — the Deny Americans the Right to Know Act. That’s the bill that would forbid state and local governments from requiring labeling foods containing GMOs. The bill, which still has to pass the full Senate, was described in a March 2 Star Tribune news article:

“The vote gave the food industry, including Minnesota-based companies such as Cargill, General Mills and Land O’Lakes, everything it wanted to derail state GMO labeling laws, especially a law set to take effect in Vermont in July.”

The bill adds insult to injury, by requiring “a taxpayer-funded public education campaign that explains scientific evidence of the benefits of ‘agricultural biotechnology.’” Continue reading →

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March 3, 2016 · 9:53 am

Berta Caceres: ¡Presente!

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[UPDATED 3/4/3016] Berta Caceres was assassinated today, murdered in her sleep, in her home in Honduras at about 1 a.m. Berta was coordinator and co-founder of the Council of Indigenous Peoples of Honduras (COPIHN) and the 2015 recipient of the Goldman Environmental Prize. Her death is not the first: in 2015, Global Witness reported that “at least two people are being killed for taking a stand against environmental destruction” every single week: Continue reading →

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