Morning trains have been canceled between Philadelphia and Washington along the Northeast Corridor.
The reason is high water and washouts along tracks in the Washington area. Amtrak says service has also been temporarily disrupted south of Washington.
Early morning trains between Washington and Philadelphia are canceled. Amtrak says limited service north of Washington is expected to resume. Delays are expected between Washington and Baltimore.
Amtrak service south of Washington is canceled due to washout conditions.
We’ve had between 5 and 8 inches of rain here over the past 3 days…global warming much?
Well CG, if it was global warming don’t you think the gov’t would be doing something about it? Telling the globe it’s either with us or against us?? So no, I’m pretty sure I read that the rain is God’s tears. And he has a lot to cry about recently… lunatic liberals and such.
This reminds me of one of Jack Handy’s “Deep Thoughts”:
When a little child asks me where rain comes from, I like to tell him it’s because God is crying. And when he asks me why God is crying, I like to tell him, “It’s probably because of something you did.”
White House, GOP Leaders Plan All-Out Assault on Federal Protections
Apparently rushing to lock in a long-sought goal before the fall elections, GOP congressional leaders may bring to a vote within weeks a proposal that could literally wipe out any federal program that protects public health or the environment – or for that matter civil rights, poverty programs, auto safety, education, affordable housing, Head Start, workplace safety or any other activity targeted by anti-regulatory forces.
With strong support from the Bush White House and the Republican Study Committee, the proposal would create a “sunset commission” – an unelected body with the power to recommend whether a program lives or dies, and then move its recommendations through Congress on a fast-track basis with limited debate and no amendments.
Three leading proposals have been introduced and are being winnowed into a final version. They would give the White House some – or total – authority to nominate members to the commission. House Majority Leader John Boehner (R-OH) has confirmed that his office is coordinating development of a final version for prompt floor action.
Sunset commissions have been proposed, and defeated, before. But public interest veterans say the current situation is unlike any in the past, because the House Republican Study Committee, which includes some of the most anti-regulatory members of Congress, has secured guaranteed floor consideration of a sunset bill.
If such a bill should become law, the sunset commission could be packed with industry lobbyists and representatives from industry-funded think tanks, and could conduct its business in secrecy. Two of the sunset proposals under consideration would mandate that programs die after they are reviewed, unless Congress takes action to save them.
If they succeed in gutting public services, why in hell would we continue to pay taxes? They’re not happy to give away billions upon billions of tax dollars to cronies and corporations… they want it all. Republicans are dirty stinking bastards and prove it daily.
I am not at all surprised to see such a move considered. And if it results in you being disgusted to pay taxes, well then, that’s another success! Grover Norquist will have done it again: Kill support for government for protecting us, or not protecting us. Frankly, I think much of this is already taking place under Bush, with Congress caring little that he chooses to ignore or interpret laws as he sees fit. Such legislation would simply make his sort of actions legal and continue to go on without the possibility of congressional or public scrutiny.
Given the judiciary response to the likes of Cheney’s energy group working behind closed doors, it’s about what we can expect: all for business, none for the citizenry.
Had to go all the way to Toronto for this story while the American press largely ignores our soldiers’ plight.
Many U.S. Iraq vets homeless
Some are poor, traumatized by war experiences
Thousands of U.S. veterans returning from Iraq and Afghanistan are facing a new nightmare — the risk of homelessness. The U.S. government estimates several hundred vets who fought in Iraq and Afghanistan are homeless on any given night across the country, although the exact number is unknown.
The reasons that contribute to the new wave of homelessness are many: some are unable to cope with life after daily encounters with insurgent attacks and roadside bombs; some can’t navigate government red tape; others simply don’t have enough money to afford a house or apartment.
They are living on the edge in towns and cities big and small from Washington state to Florida. But the hardest hit are in New York, because housing costs “can be very tough,” said Peter Dougherty, head of the Homeless Veterans Program at the Department of Veterans Affairs.
Good take on “Guarding Secrets” from Mark Bowden/Philly Enqirer, and much more over @ Romensko. Daily reading for news-biz junkies. From Bowden’s piece:
For the first time since I started writing for a living 30 years ago, there is reason for me to fear my government.
People with long-term, low-level exposure to pesticides have a 70 percent higher incidence of Parkinson’s disease than people who have not been exposed much to bug sprays, U.S. researchers reported on Monday.
Such workers include mostly farmers, ranchers and fishermen, the researchers report in the July issue of Annals of Neurology.
Their study supports previous research that suggests pesticides can be linked with Parkinson’s, which is caused by the destruction of key brain cells, the team at the Harvard School of Public Health said.
Good thing we have all those environmental government protections keeping us safe…oh, wait. Never mind.
Hubble Main Camera Experiences Trouble. The Advanced Camera for Surveys, the main instrument aboard the Hubble Space Telescope, shut itself down last week and despite repeated attempts by ground controllers to revive it, continues to hibernate in a safe mode.
China’s population will peak at 1.5 billion by the mid-2030s, and its sex ratio will remain skewed at 119 boys for every 100 girls, state media reported on Friday. A study has found that China’s population — which stood at 1.307 billion in late 2005 — will begin to gradually drop after the mid-2030s, the China Daily newspaper said.
A Florida man’s theory of weakening a hurricane through the introduction of absorbent powder illustrates a new trend in science, weather modification. While China currently seeds clouds for rain and Canadian companies attempt to limit incoming hailstorms, this newest weather modification theory focuses on virtually eliminating the destructive force of a hurricane: by introducing 400 tons of super-absorbent powder into a hurricane, the moisture — and therefore the power of the hurricane — would be limited. Scientists are concerned by the proposal, saying we don’t know enough to predict the consequences of such a procedure. Another story profiles research into links between hurricane strength and frequency of lightning strikes.
A large study confirms that even people exposed to a relatively small amount of pesticides have a 70% greater chance of developing Parkinson’s disease. Researchers stress the absolute risk of contracting Parkinson’s disease is low, sp pesticide exposure may only raise one’s risk from 2% to 3%. More here.
Four people have died after catching avian flu from infected swans, in the first confirmed cases of the disease being passed from wild birds, scientists have revealed.The victims, from a village in Azerbaijan, are believed to have caught the lethal H5N1 virus earlier this year when they plucked the feathers from dead birds to sell for pillows. Three other people were infected by the swans but survived. link
The huge pledges of aid, debt relief and trade reforms that were promised at last year’s G8 conference at Gleneagles have not been delivered, according to a report by Action Aid.
Next week sees the first anniversary of the summit, which coincided with the Make Poverty History campaign and Live8 concerts. [snip]
Its report, entitled Mission Unaccomplished and seen by The Independent, says millions of lives are still being lost in Africa and the rest of the developing world by the failure of Western countries to live up to the favourable headlines generated by the summit. The charity is calling for the millions of people who supported the Make Poverty History campaign to use the first anniversary to increase pressure on the Government over the failed pledges.
The report says: “At present, a mixture of backsliding, buck-passing and half measures by rich countries risk undoing much of the progress. One year on, the world’s richest countries are moving too slowly, or not moving at all, on most of their key commitments to tackle poverty.
“Unless they take urgent action now to meet their pledges on aid, trade and HIV and Aids, the prospect of progress towards ending poverty will be jeopardised.”More than one billion people still live on less than a dollar a day. Seven million children die every year from poverty-related diseases and Africa is not yet on track to meet any of the eight Millennium Development Goals for 2015.
. . . the countries that need to increase their contributions the most – the US, Germany and Italy – are “dragging their heels”. [snip]
While the world’s 18 poorest countries have had their debts cancelled, campaigners say another 40 nations need a similar deal. There are also concerns that, despite promises, conditions are being attached to debt cancellation, such as forcing developing countries to open their markets to richer nations.
A promise of universal access to HIV treatments is also not on track to be met, because donors such as the US have failed to contribute sufficient money. The funding gap is currently more than $10bn a year. Link
This editorial about the upcoming UN review conference on small arms control deserves to be paired with the aid story:
. . . arms trading would not be hard to control if the international community were resolved to do so. Arms production tends to be concentrated regionally, and so is the export of arms. As it happens, the leaders of the world, in the shape of the Group of 8 countries, have been persistently responsible for more than 80 percent of global arms exports. [snip]
the conference could also bring out the fact that the terrible consequences of the use of small arms go well beyond the outrageous killing and maiming they cause. Small arms are vital ingredients of terrorism, civil war and generalized violence, which in turn lead to the disruption of social services, health care and basic education, and can also reduce the incentives for long-term investment and economic development. Many of the difficulties faced by Africa from the 1970s onward can be traced to this process. link
One more step as the nuclear industry continues to gear up to renew itself,
In a milestone for nuclear power, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission issued a license late Friday to a European consortium to build a uranium enrichment plant in New Mexico. It was the first time the N.R.C. had licensed an enrichment plant and only the second time it had used a new licensing system intended to smooth the path for new power reactors, if any are ordered.Urenco, a consortium owned by British Nuclear Fuels Ltd., the Dutch government and several German utilities, plans to break ground this summer and build a plant nearly identical to one operating in the Netherlands. [snip]
It will use centrifuge technology that requires only about 5 percent as much electricity as plants using gaseous diffusion systems, which have been used in the United States since World War II. The technology is similar to, but more advanced than, what Iranians are using at a plant the United States is trying to close. [snip]
At $1.5 billion, it is the largest civilian nuclear project in the United States in about a decade. It will be built near Eunice, N.M., not far from the Texas border. [snip]
The only enrichment plant operating in the United States, in Paducah, Ky., was built by the Atomic Energy Commission from 1951 to 1954; it is now run by a private company, the United States Enrichment Corporation, which is trying to develop a centrifuge plant to replace it. The company is in charge of blending down Russian uranium. Link
In another case reheard so that Alito could vote, the Court affirmed Kansas’ death penalty law:
The Kansas case was unique. The state law says juries should impose death sentences if aggravating evidence of a crime’s brutality and mitigating factors explaining a defendant’s actions are equal in weight.
Justice David H. Souter, writing for the liberals, said the law was “morally absurd.” [snip]
But the five conservatives, including Alito, overturned a Kansas Supreme Court ruling that found the law violated the Eighth Amendment’s protection against cruel and unusual punishment.
Writing for the majority, Justice Clarence Thomas disputed the claim by critics that the law created “a general presumption in favor of the death penalty in the state of Kansas.” [snip]
Fifteen states filed friend-of-the-court briefs, predicting that a ruling for former death row inmate Michael Lee Marsh would have required states with capital punishment to set up systems for juries to weigh evidence at sentencing. Souter said that “in the face of evidence of the hazards of capital prosecution,” maintaining a system like the one in Kansas “is obtuse by any moral or social measure.” [snip]
Bill Lucero, the leader of a Kansas-based anti-capital punishment group, Murder Victims’ Families for Reconciliation, called Monday’s ruling disappointing. It “just doesn’t make sense” to mandate death when aggravating and mitigating circumstances are equal, he said, adding that capital cases – and the pressure they put on prosecutors to win death sentences – lead to errors. link
(CBS4 News) WEST PALM BEACH Sources have confirmed to CBS4 News that conservative talk show host Rush Limbaugh has been detained at Palm Beach International Airport for the possible possession of illegal prescription drugs Monday evening.
Limbaugh was returning on a flight from the Dominican Republic when officials found the drugs, among them Viagra.
NBC 10 News
We’ve had between 5 and 8 inches of rain here over the past 3 days…global warming much?
Well CG, if it was global warming don’t you think the gov’t would be doing something about it? Telling the globe it’s either with us or against us?? So no, I’m pretty sure I read that the rain is God’s tears. And he has a lot to cry about recently… lunatic liberals and such.
This reminds me of one of Jack Handy’s “Deep Thoughts”:
When a little child asks me where rain comes from, I like to tell him it’s because God is crying. And when he asks me why God is crying, I like to tell him, “It’s probably because of something you did.”
Oh man, so now I’m responsible for God crying too?? I keep telling people I’m not a lunatic, but I guess to no avail. I need to go back to bed.
We were thinking it was BushCo’s fault…in which case, the rain may never stop.
Hmmm… you may be on to something here. Bush did say he spoke to god, but he never did clue us in to what god said in response…
Yeah, so was I, but I wanted to put the Handey quote out there and let you guys connect the dots, which you of course did admirably.
Link
Apparently rushing to lock in a long-sought goal before the fall elections, GOP congressional leaders may bring to a vote within weeks a proposal that could literally wipe out any federal program that protects public health or the environment – or for that matter civil rights, poverty programs, auto safety, education, affordable housing, Head Start, workplace safety or any other activity targeted by anti-regulatory forces.
With strong support from the Bush White House and the Republican Study Committee, the proposal would create a “sunset commission” – an unelected body with the power to recommend whether a program lives or dies, and then move its recommendations through Congress on a fast-track basis with limited debate and no amendments.
Three leading proposals have been introduced and are being winnowed into a final version. They would give the White House some – or total – authority to nominate members to the commission. House Majority Leader John Boehner (R-OH) has confirmed that his office is coordinating development of a final version for prompt floor action.
Sunset commissions have been proposed, and defeated, before. But public interest veterans say the current situation is unlike any in the past, because the House Republican Study Committee, which includes some of the most anti-regulatory members of Congress, has secured guaranteed floor consideration of a sunset bill.
If such a bill should become law, the sunset commission could be packed with industry lobbyists and representatives from industry-funded think tanks, and could conduct its business in secrecy. Two of the sunset proposals under consideration would mandate that programs die after they are reviewed, unless Congress takes action to save them.
If they succeed in gutting public services, why in hell would we continue to pay taxes? They’re not happy to give away billions upon billions of tax dollars to cronies and corporations… they want it all. Republicans are dirty stinking bastards and prove it daily.
I am not at all surprised to see such a move considered. And if it results in you being disgusted to pay taxes, well then, that’s another success! Grover Norquist will have done it again: Kill support for government for protecting us, or not protecting us. Frankly, I think much of this is already taking place under Bush, with Congress caring little that he chooses to ignore or interpret laws as he sees fit. Such legislation would simply make his sort of actions legal and continue to go on without the possibility of congressional or public scrutiny.
Given the judiciary response to the likes of Cheney’s energy group working behind closed doors, it’s about what we can expect: all for business, none for the citizenry.
What’s next, apportioning votes by income?
Had to go all the way to Toronto for this story while the American press largely ignores our soldiers’ plight.
Some are poor, traumatized by war experiences
Thousands of U.S. veterans returning from Iraq and Afghanistan are facing a new nightmare — the risk of homelessness. The U.S. government estimates several hundred vets who fought in Iraq and Afghanistan are homeless on any given night across the country, although the exact number is unknown.
The reasons that contribute to the new wave of homelessness are many: some are unable to cope with life after daily encounters with insurgent attacks and roadside bombs; some can’t navigate government red tape; others simply don’t have enough money to afford a house or apartment.
They are living on the edge in towns and cities big and small from Washington state to Florida. But the hardest hit are in New York, because housing costs “can be very tough,” said Peter Dougherty, head of the Homeless Veterans Program at the Department of Veterans Affairs.
Good take on “Guarding Secrets” from Mark Bowden/Philly Enqirer, and much more over @ Romensko. Daily reading for news-biz junkies. From Bowden’s piece:
strongly linked: Reuters/Yahoo
Good thing we have all those environmental government protections keeping us safe…oh, wait. Never mind.
Hubble Main Camera Experiences Trouble. The Advanced Camera for Surveys, the main instrument aboard the Hubble Space Telescope, shut itself down last week and despite repeated attempts by ground controllers to revive it, continues to hibernate in a safe mode.
China’s population will peak at 1.5 billion by the mid-2030s, and its sex ratio will remain skewed at 119 boys for every 100 girls, state media reported on Friday. A study has found that China’s population — which stood at 1.307 billion in late 2005 — will begin to gradually drop after the mid-2030s, the China Daily newspaper said.
A Florida man’s theory of weakening a hurricane through the introduction of absorbent powder illustrates a new trend in science, weather modification. While China currently seeds clouds for rain and Canadian companies attempt to limit incoming hailstorms, this newest weather modification theory focuses on virtually eliminating the destructive force of a hurricane: by introducing 400 tons of super-absorbent powder into a hurricane, the moisture — and therefore the power of the hurricane — would be limited. Scientists are concerned by the proposal, saying we don’t know enough to predict the consequences of such a procedure. Another story profiles research into links between hurricane strength and frequency of lightning strikes.
A large study confirms that even people exposed to a relatively small amount of pesticides have a 70% greater chance of developing Parkinson’s disease. Researchers stress the absolute risk of contracting Parkinson’s disease is low, sp pesticide exposure may only raise one’s risk from 2% to 3%. More here.
A German/UK team has put the giant GEO 600 gravitational wave detector in a continuous observational mode. The Hanover lab is trying to detect the ripples created in the fabric of space-time that sweep out from merging black holes or exploding stars. Success would confirm fundamental physical theories and open a new window on the Universe, enabling scientists to probe the moment of creation itself.
Here’s two stories for anyone that thinks the plant isn’t warming: Temperatures have risen so far in recent years that it is now considered possible to grow olives commercially in southern England, and the first groves have been planted. And the Toronto Star reports that climate change is contributing to a slow, but steady alteration in bird populations in Ontario and across the continent. The most iconic of the invaders of the south, mockingbirds now occupy about 400 territories — which usually include a mated pair and a nest — across the greater Toronto area. That’s up from nearly zero two decades ago.
G 8 falls flat on promised aid
This editorial about the upcoming UN review conference on small arms control deserves to be paired with the aid story:
One more step as the nuclear industry continues to gear up to renew itself,
In another case reheard so that Alito could vote, the Court affirmed Kansas’ death penalty law:
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5511686
Eco-Phycian thinks there’s a link between global warming and illnesses.
Jun 26, 2006 7:52 pm US/Eastern
Limbaugh Detained At Airport
Sure sounds like a parole violation to me…
Couldn’t happen to a more deserving guy, IMO.