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January 31, 2012
from Consortium News:
Reagan’s Road to Climate Perdition
January 29, 2012
Exclusive: History can be seen as crossroads where people pick paths and live with the consequences, with some paths leading to grave dangers. Election 1980 was one such crossroad as Americans made the feel-good choice of Ronald Reagan over the eat-your-peas option of Jimmy Carter — taking a path to climate catastrophe, says Sam Parry.
By Sam Parry
The documentary “A Road Not Taken” chronicles the story of the 32 solar panels that President Jimmy Carter installed on the roof of the White House in 1979, the same solar panels President Ronald Reagan unceremoniously removed.
After being taken down in 1986, the solar panels were stored away in a government warehouse, like that scene at the end of “Raiders of the Lost Arc.” They were mostly forgotten until 1991, when Unity College, a small private school in central Maine that promotes sustainability, acquired them and put them to use on the roof of the school’s cafeteria.
Later, one of the panels was donated to the American History Museum in Washington, DC, and another found its way back to Jimmy Carter, given to the Carter Presidential Library in Atlanta, Georgia, where it was made a permanent exhibit in 2007, recalling Carter’s early commitment to renewable energy.
Yet, besides following the fate of these particular solar panels, the 2010 documentary reflects on the lost opportunity for the United States and the world in the change of direction that the solar panels represented, the fateful turn on energy issues from Carter’s presidency to Reagan’s. ................(more)
The complete piece is at: http://consortiumnews.com/2012/01/29/reagans-road-to-climate-perdition/
Reagan’s Road to Climate Perdition
from Consortium News:
Reagan’s Road to Climate Perdition
January 29, 2012
Exclusive: History can be seen as crossroads where people pick paths and live with the consequences, with some paths leading to grave dangers. Election 1980 was one such crossroad as Americans made the feel-good choice of Ronald Reagan over the eat-your-peas option of Jimmy Carter — taking a path to climate catastrophe, says Sam Parry.
By Sam Parry
The documentary “A Road Not Taken” chronicles the story of the 32 solar panels that President Jimmy Carter installed on the roof of the White House in 1979, the same solar panels President Ronald Reagan unceremoniously removed.
After being taken down in 1986, the solar panels were stored away in a government warehouse, like that scene at the end of “Raiders of the Lost Arc.” They were mostly forgotten until 1991, when Unity College, a small private school in central Maine that promotes sustainability, acquired them and put them to use on the roof of the school’s cafeteria.
Later, one of the panels was donated to the American History Museum in Washington, DC, and another found its way back to Jimmy Carter, given to the Carter Presidential Library in Atlanta, Georgia, where it was made a permanent exhibit in 2007, recalling Carter’s early commitment to renewable energy.
Yet, besides following the fate of these particular solar panels, the 2010 documentary reflects on the lost opportunity for the United States and the world in the change of direction that the solar panels represented, the fateful turn on energy issues from Carter’s presidency to Reagan’s. ................(more)
The complete piece is at: http://consortiumnews.com/2012/01/29/reagans-road-to-climate-perdition/
January 31, 2012
from In These Times:
Canada’s Labor Movement Digs in for ‘PATCO Equivalent,’ as Lockouts Drag On
By Mike Elk
It's usually difficult to get more than a few hundred union activists to show up to a rally in support of a small workforce facing steep concessions. But on January 21, more than 15,000 people showed up to a rally in support of 420 workers locked out in London, Ontario, according to organizers. That struggle, combined with a mine lockout in Alma, Quebec that also began on New Year's Day, is being billed by some embattled Canadian union officials as a pivotal moment for the country's labor movement akin to the failed 1981 air traffic controllers union (PATCO) strike that kicked of an era of unionbusting in the United States.
On January 1, Electro-Motive Diesel and England- and Australia-based mining giant Rio Tinto both decided to lock out workers in what some union officials see as a coordinated attack. Rio Tinto, which locked out 780 workers represented by the United Steelworkers, wants the right to replace each union worker that retires with a contract employee making half a union-level wage and ineligible to join the union. The result would be that in one decade, unionized workers would likely be in the minority in the aluminum smelting facility in Alma, and that in two decades the union would not exist, according to USW organizer Joe Drexler.
U.S.-based Caterpillar, which owns the Electro-Motive Diesel locomotive plant through a subsidiary, locked out 420 members of the Canadian Auto Workers Local 27. Despite Caterpillar increasing its profits by 44 percent over the last year, the company is asking union workers to let it cut wages by by as $18.50 an hour (55 percent) in some cases. The company is also asking for the elimination of defined benefits pensions as well as reduction in overtime and vacation plans.
“It’s no coincidence in my view that two different companies decided to lock out the two biggest industrial unions in Canada—the Steelworkers and the CAW—on the same day. This looks like an orchestrated attack,” said Communication, Energy, and Paperworkers Union President Dave Coles, whose union is in the process of merging with the CAW. “When you have these kind of big gigantic struggles, you don’t know who is going to win, but by the time this is done, these employers are going to have goddamn bloody noses. We are not going to allow Canadian employers to kick the shit out of Canadian workers.” ...............(more)
The complete piece is at: http://www.inthesetimes.com/working/entry/12617/american_low_wages_at_center_of_canadas_patco_like_struggle/
Canada’s Labor Movement Digs in for ‘PATCO Equivalent,’ as Lockouts Drag On
from In These Times:
Canada’s Labor Movement Digs in for ‘PATCO Equivalent,’ as Lockouts Drag On
By Mike Elk
It's usually difficult to get more than a few hundred union activists to show up to a rally in support of a small workforce facing steep concessions. But on January 21, more than 15,000 people showed up to a rally in support of 420 workers locked out in London, Ontario, according to organizers. That struggle, combined with a mine lockout in Alma, Quebec that also began on New Year's Day, is being billed by some embattled Canadian union officials as a pivotal moment for the country's labor movement akin to the failed 1981 air traffic controllers union (PATCO) strike that kicked of an era of unionbusting in the United States.
On January 1, Electro-Motive Diesel and England- and Australia-based mining giant Rio Tinto both decided to lock out workers in what some union officials see as a coordinated attack. Rio Tinto, which locked out 780 workers represented by the United Steelworkers, wants the right to replace each union worker that retires with a contract employee making half a union-level wage and ineligible to join the union. The result would be that in one decade, unionized workers would likely be in the minority in the aluminum smelting facility in Alma, and that in two decades the union would not exist, according to USW organizer Joe Drexler.
U.S.-based Caterpillar, which owns the Electro-Motive Diesel locomotive plant through a subsidiary, locked out 420 members of the Canadian Auto Workers Local 27. Despite Caterpillar increasing its profits by 44 percent over the last year, the company is asking union workers to let it cut wages by by as $18.50 an hour (55 percent) in some cases. The company is also asking for the elimination of defined benefits pensions as well as reduction in overtime and vacation plans.
“It’s no coincidence in my view that two different companies decided to lock out the two biggest industrial unions in Canada—the Steelworkers and the CAW—on the same day. This looks like an orchestrated attack,” said Communication, Energy, and Paperworkers Union President Dave Coles, whose union is in the process of merging with the CAW. “When you have these kind of big gigantic struggles, you don’t know who is going to win, but by the time this is done, these employers are going to have goddamn bloody noses. We are not going to allow Canadian employers to kick the shit out of Canadian workers.” ...............(more)
The complete piece is at: http://www.inthesetimes.com/working/entry/12617/american_low_wages_at_center_of_canadas_patco_like_struggle/
January 31, 2012
Indiana's Union-Busting Law Moves One Step Closer to Passage
Right-to-work legislation in Indiana cleared one of its final steps Monday with a state Senate committee passing the bill 6-1. Supporters of right-to-work, led by Indiana’s Republican Governor Mitch Daniels, say it is needed to bring business and jobs to the state. But opponents call it “union busting” and say it will hurt workers with lower wages.
If the bill gets final approval Wednesday it will allow workers to opt out of paying union dues, even when a workplace is unionized.
Local 150 International Union of Operating Engineers representative Todd Vandermyde told the Sun Times the bill goes against a protection found in the state Constitution restricting services from being demanded without just compensation.
“This bill forces my local and many others to render representation to people who choose not to be a member and pay any fees,” Vandermyde said. ...................(more)
The complete piece is at: http://www.alternet.org/newsandviews/article/768790/indiana%27s_union-busting_law_moves_one_step_closer_to_passage/
Indiana's Union-Busting Law Moves One Step Closer to Passage
Indiana's Union-Busting Law Moves One Step Closer to Passage
Right-to-work legislation in Indiana cleared one of its final steps Monday with a state Senate committee passing the bill 6-1. Supporters of right-to-work, led by Indiana’s Republican Governor Mitch Daniels, say it is needed to bring business and jobs to the state. But opponents call it “union busting” and say it will hurt workers with lower wages.
If the bill gets final approval Wednesday it will allow workers to opt out of paying union dues, even when a workplace is unionized.
Local 150 International Union of Operating Engineers representative Todd Vandermyde told the Sun Times the bill goes against a protection found in the state Constitution restricting services from being demanded without just compensation.
“This bill forces my local and many others to render representation to people who choose not to be a member and pay any fees,” Vandermyde said. ...................(more)
The complete piece is at: http://www.alternet.org/newsandviews/article/768790/indiana%27s_union-busting_law_moves_one_step_closer_to_passage/
January 30, 2012
Published on Monday, January 30, 2012 by Common Dreams
The Party People of Wall Street
by Bill Moyers and Michael Winship
A week or so ago, we read in The New York Times about what in the Gilded Age of the Roman Empire was known as a bacchanal – a big blowout at which the imperial swells got together and whooped it up.
This one occurred here in Manhattan at the annual black-tie dinner and induction ceremony for Kappa Beta Phi. That’s the very exclusive Wall Street fraternity of billionaire bankers, and private equity and hedge fund predators. People like Wilbur Ross, the vulture capitalist; Robert Benmosche, the CEO of AIG, the insurance giant that received tens of billions in bailout money; and Alan “Ace” Greenberg, former chairman of Bear Stearns, the failed investment bank bought by JPMorgan Chase.
They got together at the St. Regis Hotel off Fifth Avenue to eat rack of lamb, drink and haze their newest members, who are made to dress in drag, sing and perform skits while braving the insults, wine-soaked napkins and petit fours – those fancy little frosted cakes — hurled at them by the old guard. In other words, a gilt-edged Animal House, food fight and all.
This year, the butt of many a joke were the protesters of Occupy Wall Street. In one of the sketches, the bond specialist James Lebenthal scolded a demonstrator with a face tattoo, “Go home, wash that off your face and get back to work.” And in another, a member — dressed like a protester – was told, “You’re pathetic, you liberal. You need a bath!” ..............(more)
The complete piece is at: http://www.commondreams.org/view/2012/01/30-8
Bill Moyers/Michael Winship: The Party People of Wall Street
Published on Monday, January 30, 2012 by Common Dreams
The Party People of Wall Street
by Bill Moyers and Michael Winship
A week or so ago, we read in The New York Times about what in the Gilded Age of the Roman Empire was known as a bacchanal – a big blowout at which the imperial swells got together and whooped it up.
This one occurred here in Manhattan at the annual black-tie dinner and induction ceremony for Kappa Beta Phi. That’s the very exclusive Wall Street fraternity of billionaire bankers, and private equity and hedge fund predators. People like Wilbur Ross, the vulture capitalist; Robert Benmosche, the CEO of AIG, the insurance giant that received tens of billions in bailout money; and Alan “Ace” Greenberg, former chairman of Bear Stearns, the failed investment bank bought by JPMorgan Chase.
They got together at the St. Regis Hotel off Fifth Avenue to eat rack of lamb, drink and haze their newest members, who are made to dress in drag, sing and perform skits while braving the insults, wine-soaked napkins and petit fours – those fancy little frosted cakes — hurled at them by the old guard. In other words, a gilt-edged Animal House, food fight and all.
This year, the butt of many a joke were the protesters of Occupy Wall Street. In one of the sketches, the bond specialist James Lebenthal scolded a demonstrator with a face tattoo, “Go home, wash that off your face and get back to work.” And in another, a member — dressed like a protester – was told, “You’re pathetic, you liberal. You need a bath!” ..............(more)
The complete piece is at: http://www.commondreams.org/view/2012/01/30-8
January 30, 2012
The US government's capital punishment prerogative
To our shame, the federal authorities have broad powers to execute – even in states that have abolished the death penalty
David A Love
guardian.co.uk, Friday 27 January 2012
While much attention is paid to the 34 US states that still administer the death penalty, federal and military systems of executions also exist. The retention of the US federal death penalty undermines those states that have abolished capital punishment – and federal executions undermine Washington's claims of world leadership in human rights.
Historically, perhaps the most well-known federal executions were of Julius and Ethel Rosenberg in New York. The Rosenbergs were convicted of Soviet espionage and electrocuted in 1953, at a time of anti-communist hysteria, amid charges of prosecutorial and judicial misconduct and a climate of antisemitism.
In 1972, the US supreme court in Furman v Georgia imposed an execution moratorium. The federal death penalty was reinstated, however, with the 1988 Anti-Drug Abuse Act, and has expanded since 1994 with the "wars" on drugs and terrorism. The federal penalty, unlike state versions, encompasses 60 crimes beyond first-degree murder, including drug-trafficking and terrorism. This expansion makes nearly all of the 16,000 murders committed in the nation each year death-eligible, according to Death Penalty Focus. The Death Penalty Information Center reports that 69 defendants have received a federal death sentence since 1988, including three executions and eight sentences removed.
Timothy McVeigh was executed by lethal injection in 2001 for his role in the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing, which killed 168 people. That year, condemned dug trafficker Juan Raul Garza was the first person executed under the 1988 act. The most recent federal execution, in 2003, was of Louis Jones, a Gulf war veteran. Jones's lawyers argued that he committed rape and murder due to the brain damage he suffered from nerve gas exposure in the military. ................(more)
The complete piece is at: http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/cifamerica/2012/jan/27/us-government-capital-punishment
The US government's capital punishment prerogative
The US government's capital punishment prerogative
To our shame, the federal authorities have broad powers to execute – even in states that have abolished the death penalty
David A Love
guardian.co.uk, Friday 27 January 2012
While much attention is paid to the 34 US states that still administer the death penalty, federal and military systems of executions also exist. The retention of the US federal death penalty undermines those states that have abolished capital punishment – and federal executions undermine Washington's claims of world leadership in human rights.
Historically, perhaps the most well-known federal executions were of Julius and Ethel Rosenberg in New York. The Rosenbergs were convicted of Soviet espionage and electrocuted in 1953, at a time of anti-communist hysteria, amid charges of prosecutorial and judicial misconduct and a climate of antisemitism.
In 1972, the US supreme court in Furman v Georgia imposed an execution moratorium. The federal death penalty was reinstated, however, with the 1988 Anti-Drug Abuse Act, and has expanded since 1994 with the "wars" on drugs and terrorism. The federal penalty, unlike state versions, encompasses 60 crimes beyond first-degree murder, including drug-trafficking and terrorism. This expansion makes nearly all of the 16,000 murders committed in the nation each year death-eligible, according to Death Penalty Focus. The Death Penalty Information Center reports that 69 defendants have received a federal death sentence since 1988, including three executions and eight sentences removed.
Timothy McVeigh was executed by lethal injection in 2001 for his role in the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing, which killed 168 people. That year, condemned dug trafficker Juan Raul Garza was the first person executed under the 1988 act. The most recent federal execution, in 2003, was of Louis Jones, a Gulf war veteran. Jones's lawyers argued that he committed rape and murder due to the brain damage he suffered from nerve gas exposure in the military. ................(more)
The complete piece is at: http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/cifamerica/2012/jan/27/us-government-capital-punishment
January 30, 2012
from the Guardian UK:
In recent weeks Antonis Megoulis, who heads the national confederation of Greek commerce, has been playing spot the shopping bag.
He has been standing on Ermou, an Athens street that once commanded Europe's highest rents from retailers, and counting the number of shopping bags carried by passersby. "If you do it yourself you will see there are hardly any at all," he said. "Consumers are out there looking but no one is buying."
As winter sales began in Greece, Ermou was certainly bustling, but even with prices slashed by as much as 70%, cash-strapped Greeks were still more interested in window shopping than snapping up goods.
Consumers suffering wage and pension cuts, rising inflation and a recession of a severity not seen since the second world war ensured that shops had one of their worst Christmases on record, with retail sales down 30% on the previous year. ............(more)
The complete piece is at: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/jan/30/greek-shoppers-economic-crisis-bites
Greek shoppers look but don't buy as economic crisis bites
from the Guardian UK:
In recent weeks Antonis Megoulis, who heads the national confederation of Greek commerce, has been playing spot the shopping bag.
He has been standing on Ermou, an Athens street that once commanded Europe's highest rents from retailers, and counting the number of shopping bags carried by passersby. "If you do it yourself you will see there are hardly any at all," he said. "Consumers are out there looking but no one is buying."
As winter sales began in Greece, Ermou was certainly bustling, but even with prices slashed by as much as 70%, cash-strapped Greeks were still more interested in window shopping than snapping up goods.
Consumers suffering wage and pension cuts, rising inflation and a recession of a severity not seen since the second world war ensured that shops had one of their worst Christmases on record, with retail sales down 30% on the previous year. ............(more)
The complete piece is at: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/jan/30/greek-shoppers-economic-crisis-bites
January 30, 2012
from Dissent magazine:
Is Capitalism on Trial?
Peter Dreier - January 27, 2012
“I’m so scared of this anti-Wall Street effort. I’m frightened to death,” Frank Luntz, an influential GOP pollster and strategist, warned the Republican Governors Association at a meeting in Florida last month, referring to the Occupy movement. “They’re having an impact on what the American people think of capitalism.”
Perhaps Luntz had already discovered this startling finding, buried in a recent Pew Research Center survey: roughly the same number of eighteen-to-twenty-nine year old Americans have positive views of socialism as of capitalism. In a survey conducted in early December last year, 49 percent had a positive view of socialism, while 47 percent had a positive view of capitalism. Similarly, only 43 percent had a negative view of socialism, compared with 47 percent who had a negative view of capitalism.
The approval figure for socialism is even larger than the results of polling from May 2010, where 43 percent of eighteen-to-twenty-nine year olds registered positive feeling for socialism. (This put it in a dead heat with capitalism).
In some ways, the Millennials are out of sync with the rest of the country. The new Pew survey found that, overall, only 31 percent of Americans had a positive reaction to the word “socialism,” while 60 percent had a negative response. But, as Luntz might have predicted, capitalism didn’t fare very well either. Only 50 percent of Americans had a positive view of capitalism, and 40 percent had a negative response. That’s hardly a ringing endorsement. ..............(more)
The complete piece is at: http://dissentmagazine.org/online.php?id=578
Is Capitalism on Trial?
from Dissent magazine:
Is Capitalism on Trial?
Peter Dreier - January 27, 2012
“I’m so scared of this anti-Wall Street effort. I’m frightened to death,” Frank Luntz, an influential GOP pollster and strategist, warned the Republican Governors Association at a meeting in Florida last month, referring to the Occupy movement. “They’re having an impact on what the American people think of capitalism.”
Perhaps Luntz had already discovered this startling finding, buried in a recent Pew Research Center survey: roughly the same number of eighteen-to-twenty-nine year old Americans have positive views of socialism as of capitalism. In a survey conducted in early December last year, 49 percent had a positive view of socialism, while 47 percent had a positive view of capitalism. Similarly, only 43 percent had a negative view of socialism, compared with 47 percent who had a negative view of capitalism.
The approval figure for socialism is even larger than the results of polling from May 2010, where 43 percent of eighteen-to-twenty-nine year olds registered positive feeling for socialism. (This put it in a dead heat with capitalism).
In some ways, the Millennials are out of sync with the rest of the country. The new Pew survey found that, overall, only 31 percent of Americans had a positive reaction to the word “socialism,” while 60 percent had a negative response. But, as Luntz might have predicted, capitalism didn’t fare very well either. Only 50 percent of Americans had a positive view of capitalism, and 40 percent had a negative response. That’s hardly a ringing endorsement. ..............(more)
The complete piece is at: http://dissentmagazine.org/online.php?id=578
January 30, 2012
Atheists should make more noise
Published On Sun Jan 29 2012
By Heather Mallick Star Columnist
I am an atheist, don’t know why.
I’d like to tell you that I was one of those intelligent children who at age 11 gave the religion question careful thought and then alerted their parents that they wouldn’t be doing the church thing no more. Or that reading about the Holocaust had made me think of the open sky above Treblinka and wonder what kind of god didn’t care to notice the crematoria, especially when he could allegedly see a little sparrow fall.
In these cases, the first child is cerebral, the second anguished. I was simply oblivious and continue to be. Religion isn’t on my radar. Like the magnets in high school science experiments that repel each other rather than attract, I am programmed to tune out religious talk.
But atheism is an important phenomenon, and it is growing, the philosopher Alain de Botton now planning to build a $1.4 million (Cdn.) “temple for atheists” in London. There are a great many people like me but you rarely hear from us. Why would you? We don’t discuss this when we meet. It would be stupefying. Our lack of interest in religion bores even us. ...............(more)
The complete piece is at: http://www.thestar.com/opinion/article/1122905--atheists-should-make-more-noise?bn=1
Toronto Star: Atheists should make more noise
Atheists should make more noise
Published On Sun Jan 29 2012
By Heather Mallick Star Columnist
I am an atheist, don’t know why.
I’d like to tell you that I was one of those intelligent children who at age 11 gave the religion question careful thought and then alerted their parents that they wouldn’t be doing the church thing no more. Or that reading about the Holocaust had made me think of the open sky above Treblinka and wonder what kind of god didn’t care to notice the crematoria, especially when he could allegedly see a little sparrow fall.
In these cases, the first child is cerebral, the second anguished. I was simply oblivious and continue to be. Religion isn’t on my radar. Like the magnets in high school science experiments that repel each other rather than attract, I am programmed to tune out religious talk.
But atheism is an important phenomenon, and it is growing, the philosopher Alain de Botton now planning to build a $1.4 million (Cdn.) “temple for atheists” in London. There are a great many people like me but you rarely hear from us. Why would you? We don’t discuss this when we meet. It would be stupefying. Our lack of interest in religion bores even us. ...............(more)
The complete piece is at: http://www.thestar.com/opinion/article/1122905--atheists-should-make-more-noise?bn=1
January 30, 2012
from the Guardian UK:
Three of Belgium's biggest unions are expected to bring Brussels to a standstill on Monday and complicate the arrival of EU leaders for a summit that is their first attempt this year to resolve the single currency and sovereign debt crisis.
Air travel will be seriously disrupted, public transport halted, and roads blocked in the 24-hour strike called to protest against the austerity packages raining down on the EU, with the new Belgian government seeking to lower its debt by raising taxes, slashing benefits and laying off workers.
The issues behind the strike are the same as those on the agenda for the summit. Greece's desperate plight hovers over the meeting, although formally there is no mention of Greece on the agenda or in the statements drafted for the meeting.
Instead the leaders of the 27 governments will discuss how to underpin an EU recovery – of which there is absolutely no sign – with "smart growth" policies, which would entail medium-term structural reforms, cutting labour costs, reshaping labour markets and redirecting surplus EU budget funds towards the eurozone periphery, where the debt crisis is hitting hardest. ...........(more)
The complete piece is at: http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2012/jan/29/eu-summit-brussels-disruption-strike
EU summit on debt crisis faces Brussels disruption as unions strike
from the Guardian UK:
Three of Belgium's biggest unions are expected to bring Brussels to a standstill on Monday and complicate the arrival of EU leaders for a summit that is their first attempt this year to resolve the single currency and sovereign debt crisis.
Air travel will be seriously disrupted, public transport halted, and roads blocked in the 24-hour strike called to protest against the austerity packages raining down on the EU, with the new Belgian government seeking to lower its debt by raising taxes, slashing benefits and laying off workers.
The issues behind the strike are the same as those on the agenda for the summit. Greece's desperate plight hovers over the meeting, although formally there is no mention of Greece on the agenda or in the statements drafted for the meeting.
Instead the leaders of the 27 governments will discuss how to underpin an EU recovery – of which there is absolutely no sign – with "smart growth" policies, which would entail medium-term structural reforms, cutting labour costs, reshaping labour markets and redirecting surplus EU budget funds towards the eurozone periphery, where the debt crisis is hitting hardest. ...........(more)
The complete piece is at: http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2012/jan/29/eu-summit-brussels-disruption-strike
January 30, 2012
LA GRANGE, KY (WAVE) – One Oldham County Neighborhood is dealing with an overcrowding problem, you have to see to believe.
"I've really never seen anything like it," said Kelly Powers, who lives in an apartment off of Jericho Road. "I was scared. The first time, I didn't know what was happening."
....(snip)....
With all of these birds, comes quite a mess. "When it comes down it sounds like rain coming down," said Powers. "I mean literally from inside our apartment you think it is raining outside."
With the extra bacteria in the air, many neighbors are questioning their health. "The other kids in the neighborhood have been getting sick," said Kelly Strausbaugh. "We are all dealing with respiratory upper infections. I don't really know for sure if we can blame it on the birds, but I feel like it is all the birds' fault. All of these problems came when the birds came." ...........(more)
The complete piece is at: http://www.wave3.com/story/16593789/tens-of-thousands-of-birds-invade-oldham-county-neighborhood
Kentucky town goes bird-crap crazy
LA GRANGE, KY (WAVE) – One Oldham County Neighborhood is dealing with an overcrowding problem, you have to see to believe.
"I've really never seen anything like it," said Kelly Powers, who lives in an apartment off of Jericho Road. "I was scared. The first time, I didn't know what was happening."
....(snip)....
With all of these birds, comes quite a mess. "When it comes down it sounds like rain coming down," said Powers. "I mean literally from inside our apartment you think it is raining outside."
With the extra bacteria in the air, many neighbors are questioning their health. "The other kids in the neighborhood have been getting sick," said Kelly Strausbaugh. "We are all dealing with respiratory upper infections. I don't really know for sure if we can blame it on the birds, but I feel like it is all the birds' fault. All of these problems came when the birds came." ...........(more)
The complete piece is at: http://www.wave3.com/story/16593789/tens-of-thousands-of-birds-invade-oldham-county-neighborhood
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