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marmar
marmar's Journal
marmar's Journal
March 2, 2013
from Der Spiegel:
The war on drugs has become so intense that the line between criminality and law-enforcement has blurred. Salvador Martinez, an undercover officer at the Mexican border, ended up in prison after he went too far.
Salvador Martinez began his career with 150 grams of heroin. He met the dealer in the Texan city of El Paso in a diner with large windows during the lunch rush. More witnesses reduce the risk of execution, Martinez calculated. Both of them drank iced tea, he recalls. Martinez wanted dark heroin, La Negra, as the Mexicans say.
"Where is the money?" the dealer asked.
"Around the corner," Martinez said.
He had learned to remain vague, never saying where the money was hidden or giving precise information about amounts and people. ......................(more)
The complete piece is at: http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/failing-drug-war-when-cops-become-criminals-a-886441.html
El Paso Vice: When Drug Cops Become Criminals
from Der Spiegel:
The war on drugs has become so intense that the line between criminality and law-enforcement has blurred. Salvador Martinez, an undercover officer at the Mexican border, ended up in prison after he went too far.
Salvador Martinez began his career with 150 grams of heroin. He met the dealer in the Texan city of El Paso in a diner with large windows during the lunch rush. More witnesses reduce the risk of execution, Martinez calculated. Both of them drank iced tea, he recalls. Martinez wanted dark heroin, La Negra, as the Mexicans say.
"Where is the money?" the dealer asked.
"Around the corner," Martinez said.
He had learned to remain vague, never saying where the money was hidden or giving precise information about amounts and people. ......................(more)
The complete piece is at: http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/failing-drug-war-when-cops-become-criminals-a-886441.html
March 2, 2013
from Civil Eats:
New Book Digs up the Dirt on Processed Foods
By Andy Bellatti on February 26, 2013
You’ve heard of pink slime. You know trans fats are cardiovascular atrocities. You’re well aware that store-bought orange juice is essentially a scam. But no matter how great of a processed-food sleuth you are, chances are you’ve never set food inside a processing plant to see how many of these products are actually made.
Writer Melanie Warner, whose new expose-on-the-world-of-processed-foods book, Pandora’s Lunchbox, is out this week, spent the past year and a half doing exactly that. In her quest to explore the murky and convoluted world of soybean oil, milk protein concentrates (a key ingredient in processed cheese), and petroleum-based artificial dyes, she spoke to food scientists, uncovered disturbing regulatory loopholes in food law, and learned just how little we know about many of the food products on supermarket shelves.
After reading Pandora’s Lunchbox, I sent Melanie some burning questions via e-mail.
The term “processed food” is ubiquitous these days. The food industry has attempted to co-opt it by claiming canned beans, baby carrots, and frozen vegetables are “processed foods.” Can you help explain why a Pop-Tart is years away from a “processed food” like hummus?
You have to ask yourself, could I make a Pop-Tart or Hot Pocket at home, with all those same ingredients listed on the package? I don’t know anyone who could do that in their home kitchen. How would you even go about procuring distilled monoglycerides and BHT, for instance? These are highly processed food products loaded up with sugar and sodium, subjected to abusive processing conditions, and assembled with a litany of additives, many of which nobody ever consumed prior to a hundred years ago.
Yet it is possible to make your own black beans at home by soaking and then cooking them. You could even attempt a rudimentary canning operation to preserve them. You can also make hummus by grinding chickpeas with a few other ingredients like lemon juice. The same goes for frozen vegetables and even baby carrots, though homemade baby carrots wouldn’t look as pretty as the ones you buy at the story. The “processing” these foods go through is minimal and not disfiguring. The end result still looks like a food that once grew on a farm. ..................(more)
The complete piece is at: http://civileats.com/2013/02/26/new-book-reveals-everything-you-ever-wanted-to-know-about-processed-foods/#sthash.0oacZy9b.dpuf
New Book Digs up the Dirt on Processed Foods
from Civil Eats:
New Book Digs up the Dirt on Processed Foods
By Andy Bellatti on February 26, 2013
You’ve heard of pink slime. You know trans fats are cardiovascular atrocities. You’re well aware that store-bought orange juice is essentially a scam. But no matter how great of a processed-food sleuth you are, chances are you’ve never set food inside a processing plant to see how many of these products are actually made.
Writer Melanie Warner, whose new expose-on-the-world-of-processed-foods book, Pandora’s Lunchbox, is out this week, spent the past year and a half doing exactly that. In her quest to explore the murky and convoluted world of soybean oil, milk protein concentrates (a key ingredient in processed cheese), and petroleum-based artificial dyes, she spoke to food scientists, uncovered disturbing regulatory loopholes in food law, and learned just how little we know about many of the food products on supermarket shelves.
After reading Pandora’s Lunchbox, I sent Melanie some burning questions via e-mail.
The term “processed food” is ubiquitous these days. The food industry has attempted to co-opt it by claiming canned beans, baby carrots, and frozen vegetables are “processed foods.” Can you help explain why a Pop-Tart is years away from a “processed food” like hummus?
You have to ask yourself, could I make a Pop-Tart or Hot Pocket at home, with all those same ingredients listed on the package? I don’t know anyone who could do that in their home kitchen. How would you even go about procuring distilled monoglycerides and BHT, for instance? These are highly processed food products loaded up with sugar and sodium, subjected to abusive processing conditions, and assembled with a litany of additives, many of which nobody ever consumed prior to a hundred years ago.
Yet it is possible to make your own black beans at home by soaking and then cooking them. You could even attempt a rudimentary canning operation to preserve them. You can also make hummus by grinding chickpeas with a few other ingredients like lemon juice. The same goes for frozen vegetables and even baby carrots, though homemade baby carrots wouldn’t look as pretty as the ones you buy at the story. The “processing” these foods go through is minimal and not disfiguring. The end result still looks like a food that once grew on a farm. ..................(more)
The complete piece is at: http://civileats.com/2013/02/26/new-book-reveals-everything-you-ever-wanted-to-know-about-processed-foods/#sthash.0oacZy9b.dpuf
March 2, 2013
from the Toronto Star:
By: Tess Kalinowski Transportation reporter, Published on Sat Mar 02 2013
Six out of 10 Toronto area residents believe that building more public transit is the route to reducing regional traffic congestion. But their preferences on how to pay and how much they’re willing to contribute vary dramatically, according to a new poll from Forum Research.
The survey of 1,750 residents, believed to be among the largest studies of transit issues in the Toronto region, shows that many residents are persuaded they will have to pay something toward transit expansion. Results based on the total sample are considered accurate plus or minus 2%, 19 times out of 20.
Sixty-six per cent of respondents said they would pay an additional 10 cents on their transit fare as long as the money was dedicated to reducing the commuting time that saps family life and leisure.
Even among those earning $20,000 per year or less, half said they would pay the extra fare. .................(more)
The complete piece is at: http://www.thestar.com/news/gta/2013/03/02/commuting_and_transit_66_would_pay_more_to_cut_their_trip_to_work_or_school_new_poll_finds.html
Toronto: 66% would pay more to cut their trip to work or school, new poll finds
from the Toronto Star:
By: Tess Kalinowski Transportation reporter, Published on Sat Mar 02 2013
Six out of 10 Toronto area residents believe that building more public transit is the route to reducing regional traffic congestion. But their preferences on how to pay and how much they’re willing to contribute vary dramatically, according to a new poll from Forum Research.
The survey of 1,750 residents, believed to be among the largest studies of transit issues in the Toronto region, shows that many residents are persuaded they will have to pay something toward transit expansion. Results based on the total sample are considered accurate plus or minus 2%, 19 times out of 20.
Sixty-six per cent of respondents said they would pay an additional 10 cents on their transit fare as long as the money was dedicated to reducing the commuting time that saps family life and leisure.
Even among those earning $20,000 per year or less, half said they would pay the extra fare. .................(more)
The complete piece is at: http://www.thestar.com/news/gta/2013/03/02/commuting_and_transit_66_would_pay_more_to_cut_their_trip_to_work_or_school_new_poll_finds.html
March 2, 2013
NATO 3 Case Challenges Constitutionality of State Terrorism Statutes
Friday, 01 March 2013 00:00
By Steve Horn, Truthout | News Analysis
Nine months later and it seems like yesterday - at least for those watching from afar.
On May 16, 2012, the Chicago Police Department (CPD) conducted a violent midnight preemptive raid of an apartment housing 11 activists. Two of them, it would later be exposed, were actually undercover informants working on behalf of the CPD.
Staying in an apartment in the Bridgeport neighborhood on the south side of Chicago, the activists were in town to protest the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) Summit, held May 20-21.
The military-style raid led to the eventual charging of three of those activists in the Windy City to protest the NATO Summit with conspiracy to commit acts of domestic terrorism and other related charges - under Illinois' terrorism statute - in the form of a legal bail proffer. It was the first time the law - passed in haste by the Illinois legislature after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks - had ever been used.
The defendants are now known collectively as the "NATO 3." ......................(more)
The complete piece is at: http://truth-out.org/news/item/14831-nato-3-case-challenges-constitutionality-of-state-terrorism-statutes
NATO 3 Case Challenges Constitutionality of State Terrorism Statutes
NATO 3 Case Challenges Constitutionality of State Terrorism Statutes
Friday, 01 March 2013 00:00
By Steve Horn, Truthout | News Analysis
Nine months later and it seems like yesterday - at least for those watching from afar.
On May 16, 2012, the Chicago Police Department (CPD) conducted a violent midnight preemptive raid of an apartment housing 11 activists. Two of them, it would later be exposed, were actually undercover informants working on behalf of the CPD.
Staying in an apartment in the Bridgeport neighborhood on the south side of Chicago, the activists were in town to protest the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) Summit, held May 20-21.
The military-style raid led to the eventual charging of three of those activists in the Windy City to protest the NATO Summit with conspiracy to commit acts of domestic terrorism and other related charges - under Illinois' terrorism statute - in the form of a legal bail proffer. It was the first time the law - passed in haste by the Illinois legislature after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks - had ever been used.
The defendants are now known collectively as the "NATO 3." ......................(more)
The complete piece is at: http://truth-out.org/news/item/14831-nato-3-case-challenges-constitutionality-of-state-terrorism-statutes
March 2, 2013
from YES! Magazine:
The Coming Climate Exodus: What We’re Doing to Help Wildlife’s New Migration
As climate change forces species to head for cooler climates, biologists are using new tools and partnerships to make sure we help—and don't hinder—their flight.
by Peter Pearsall, Cecilia Garza
posted Mar 01, 2013
For black bears, Florida’s State Road 46 is one of the deadliest motorways in the United States. It winds east-west for some 50 miles, skirting Seminole State Forest, one of the state's key bear habitats. Since the year 2000, more than 100 bears were killed each year in collisions on Florida roads like this one, and for the last two decades around 80 percent of total bear deaths in the state came as a result of such accidents.
These deaths are a tragic outcome of what conservation biologists call “fragmentation,” which occurs when a species’ habitat is cut into small pieces by human infrastructure like roads and developments. Fragmented populations are vulnerable to threats including starvation, genetic isolation, and local extinction. If a fragmented population of bears can’t follow seasonally available food, and can’t deepen their gene pool with new mates, their chances of long-term survival are slim.
Luckily, bears that want to cross State Road 46 are better off today, because it now features an underpass designed specifically with their needs in mind. Passageways like this one, known as wildlife corridors, connect fragmented habitats. They helped to hasten the removal of the black bear from Florida’s endangered species list in 2012.
For more than 20 years, wildlife corridors have been among the tools conservationists used to make sure all sorts of animals were able to move around in search of food, mates, and territory. But today, climate change is forcing these specialists to change the way wildlife corridors are designed. As warming accelerates, animals and plants are starting to change the way they travel, generally moving north or to higher elevations in search of the cooler temperatures they’re used to. ....................(more)
The complete piece is at: http://www.yesmagazine.org/planet/coming-climate-exodus-what-we-re-doing-to-help-wildlife-migration
The Coming Climate Exodus: What We’re Doing to Help Wildlife’s New Migration
from YES! Magazine:
The Coming Climate Exodus: What We’re Doing to Help Wildlife’s New Migration
As climate change forces species to head for cooler climates, biologists are using new tools and partnerships to make sure we help—and don't hinder—their flight.
by Peter Pearsall, Cecilia Garza
posted Mar 01, 2013
For black bears, Florida’s State Road 46 is one of the deadliest motorways in the United States. It winds east-west for some 50 miles, skirting Seminole State Forest, one of the state's key bear habitats. Since the year 2000, more than 100 bears were killed each year in collisions on Florida roads like this one, and for the last two decades around 80 percent of total bear deaths in the state came as a result of such accidents.
These deaths are a tragic outcome of what conservation biologists call “fragmentation,” which occurs when a species’ habitat is cut into small pieces by human infrastructure like roads and developments. Fragmented populations are vulnerable to threats including starvation, genetic isolation, and local extinction. If a fragmented population of bears can’t follow seasonally available food, and can’t deepen their gene pool with new mates, their chances of long-term survival are slim.
Luckily, bears that want to cross State Road 46 are better off today, because it now features an underpass designed specifically with their needs in mind. Passageways like this one, known as wildlife corridors, connect fragmented habitats. They helped to hasten the removal of the black bear from Florida’s endangered species list in 2012.
For more than 20 years, wildlife corridors have been among the tools conservationists used to make sure all sorts of animals were able to move around in search of food, mates, and territory. But today, climate change is forcing these specialists to change the way wildlife corridors are designed. As warming accelerates, animals and plants are starting to change the way they travel, generally moving north or to higher elevations in search of the cooler temperatures they’re used to. ....................(more)
The complete piece is at: http://www.yesmagazine.org/planet/coming-climate-exodus-what-we-re-doing-to-help-wildlife-migration
March 1, 2013
from In These Times:
Budgetary Power to the People
An experiment with direct democracy on Chicago’s South Side.
BY Joel Handley
It’s a January night in the 5th Ward of Chicago, and a small group of ward residents have gathered at Alderman Leslie Hairston’s office in the South Shore neighborhood to evaluate a long list of ideas on how to improve the ward’s transportation system. All can agree that something needs to be done about the dangerous intersection near a neighborhood club on 55th street, where drivers can’t see pedestrians in the walkway until after they’ve accelerated around a curve. As they discuss the different options—pedestrian crossing signs? a stop sign? a roundabout?—they estimate how much each would cost, and consider complicating factors, like the fact that the eastern edge of the intersection is located in the neighboring ward.
The meeting is part of the 5th Ward’s attempt at implementing participatory budgeting, a process that allows citizens to choose how municipal funds could be best spent in their communities. In this case, the funds are the ward’s so-called “menu money”—the $1.3 million allotted annually to every ward to spend on small infrastructure projects, like fixing pot holes or installing pedestrian walkways. In the past, aldermen and ward staff have had full discretion in deciding what projects to fund. But this May, for the first time, 5th Ward residents will have the opportunity to vote directly on how the money should be spent.
The vote in May will be the culmination of a near yearlong process during which community members brainstorm potential uses of the money, narrow down the options and develop detailed project proposals. The ward is currently in the second stage: paring down over 170 ideas to create 32 proposals that ward residents will ultimately vote on.
The three community representatives gathered in Alderman Hairston’s office are members of the transportation committee, one of six committees tasked with evaluating ideas and developing proposals. (The other five committees are arts and culture, parks and recreation, centers and spaces, public safety and streets.) A total of 40 ward residents have volunteered to serve as community representatives, choosing which committee to join based on their individual experience—for example, Robert Daniels says he joined the transportation committee because he takes public transit everywhere he goes. But as the transportation committee discusses the project ideas residents have submitted—more benches at bus stops, sidewalk repairs, disability access ramps on walkways—they’re finding that many may fall under the jurisdiction of city agencies like the Chicago Transit Authority, a condition that Alderman Hairston says makes them ineligible for ward menu money. By the end of the meeting, the transportation committee has narrowed the list of ideas down to three: replacing broken reflective poles at a bike path, connecting two independent bike paths and installing a stop sign at a notoriously dangerous pedestrian crossing. ...................(more)
The complete piece is at: http://inthesetimes.com/article/14665/budgetary_power_to_the_people/
Budgetary Power to the People
from In These Times:
Budgetary Power to the People
An experiment with direct democracy on Chicago’s South Side.
BY Joel Handley
It’s a January night in the 5th Ward of Chicago, and a small group of ward residents have gathered at Alderman Leslie Hairston’s office in the South Shore neighborhood to evaluate a long list of ideas on how to improve the ward’s transportation system. All can agree that something needs to be done about the dangerous intersection near a neighborhood club on 55th street, where drivers can’t see pedestrians in the walkway until after they’ve accelerated around a curve. As they discuss the different options—pedestrian crossing signs? a stop sign? a roundabout?—they estimate how much each would cost, and consider complicating factors, like the fact that the eastern edge of the intersection is located in the neighboring ward.
The meeting is part of the 5th Ward’s attempt at implementing participatory budgeting, a process that allows citizens to choose how municipal funds could be best spent in their communities. In this case, the funds are the ward’s so-called “menu money”—the $1.3 million allotted annually to every ward to spend on small infrastructure projects, like fixing pot holes or installing pedestrian walkways. In the past, aldermen and ward staff have had full discretion in deciding what projects to fund. But this May, for the first time, 5th Ward residents will have the opportunity to vote directly on how the money should be spent.
The vote in May will be the culmination of a near yearlong process during which community members brainstorm potential uses of the money, narrow down the options and develop detailed project proposals. The ward is currently in the second stage: paring down over 170 ideas to create 32 proposals that ward residents will ultimately vote on.
The three community representatives gathered in Alderman Hairston’s office are members of the transportation committee, one of six committees tasked with evaluating ideas and developing proposals. (The other five committees are arts and culture, parks and recreation, centers and spaces, public safety and streets.) A total of 40 ward residents have volunteered to serve as community representatives, choosing which committee to join based on their individual experience—for example, Robert Daniels says he joined the transportation committee because he takes public transit everywhere he goes. But as the transportation committee discusses the project ideas residents have submitted—more benches at bus stops, sidewalk repairs, disability access ramps on walkways—they’re finding that many may fall under the jurisdiction of city agencies like the Chicago Transit Authority, a condition that Alderman Hairston says makes them ineligible for ward menu money. By the end of the meeting, the transportation committee has narrowed the list of ideas down to three: replacing broken reflective poles at a bike path, connecting two independent bike paths and installing a stop sign at a notoriously dangerous pedestrian crossing. ...................(more)
The complete piece is at: http://inthesetimes.com/article/14665/budgetary_power_to_the_people/
March 1, 2013
(Tom Lisi – New York, WNYC) A new study from the Brookings Institution shows that Amtrak ridership has grown by half since 1997, and the bulk of that growth has come from inter-city trips less than 400 miles long, especially outside the Northeast.
The study split up the number trips on Amtrak by metropolitan area. Boston, Tampa, and Dallas ridership tripled, all of which have other urban centers nearby. Trips longer than 400 miles grew, but barely and they operated at the greatest loss. The Northeast Corridor, which links Washington, Philadelphia, New York and Boston, continues to be the only Amtrak line that makes a profit, generating over $200 million in 2011.
Brookings released its findings in part to garner support for reauthorizing the Passenger Rail Investment and Improvement Act, which expires in September. The PRIAA has eliminated the uncertainty of funding renewals from the federal government, and it has pushed states to invest in corridors that serve them. With the help of state funds, shorter corridors like the Carolinian and the Vermonter are now close to breaking even. “There is recognition of the importance of passenger rail as part of transportation costs,” says Robert Puentes, a senior fellow at Brookings. “[The states] are seeing the popularity and the economic connections.”
The study also tries to make the case to Congress and state governments that Amtrak deserves to be looked at as a smart investment. “There’s the convention that Amtrak is part of some big bloated bureaucracy, but Amtrak is actually reinventing itself,” says Puentes. ................(more)
The complete piece is at: http://transportationnation.org/2013/03/01/report-amtrak-ridership-hits-records/#sthash.W6wfjRUu.dpuf
Report: For Short Trips, Passengers Flock to Rail
(Tom Lisi – New York, WNYC) A new study from the Brookings Institution shows that Amtrak ridership has grown by half since 1997, and the bulk of that growth has come from inter-city trips less than 400 miles long, especially outside the Northeast.
The study split up the number trips on Amtrak by metropolitan area. Boston, Tampa, and Dallas ridership tripled, all of which have other urban centers nearby. Trips longer than 400 miles grew, but barely and they operated at the greatest loss. The Northeast Corridor, which links Washington, Philadelphia, New York and Boston, continues to be the only Amtrak line that makes a profit, generating over $200 million in 2011.
Brookings released its findings in part to garner support for reauthorizing the Passenger Rail Investment and Improvement Act, which expires in September. The PRIAA has eliminated the uncertainty of funding renewals from the federal government, and it has pushed states to invest in corridors that serve them. With the help of state funds, shorter corridors like the Carolinian and the Vermonter are now close to breaking even. “There is recognition of the importance of passenger rail as part of transportation costs,” says Robert Puentes, a senior fellow at Brookings. “[The states] are seeing the popularity and the economic connections.”
The study also tries to make the case to Congress and state governments that Amtrak deserves to be looked at as a smart investment. “There’s the convention that Amtrak is part of some big bloated bureaucracy, but Amtrak is actually reinventing itself,” says Puentes. ................(more)
The complete piece is at: http://transportationnation.org/2013/03/01/report-amtrak-ridership-hits-records/#sthash.W6wfjRUu.dpuf
March 1, 2013
CHICAGO (CBS) – Attention Brown and Red Line CTA riders: Your commute is about to change in a major way.
And, at least temporarily, it’s going to be slower, confusing and a lot more crowded.
Starting Friday night at 10 p.m., the CTA will suspend Brown Line trains over the Chicago River at Wells Street to allow for reconstruction of the 90-year-old bridge.
This also means fewer trains and different routes during the rush hour. .................(more)
The complete piece is at: http://chicago.cbslocal.com/2013/02/28/brown-line-service-disrupted-during-wells-street-bridge-construction/
Temporary Hell Commute begins in Chicago
CHICAGO (CBS) – Attention Brown and Red Line CTA riders: Your commute is about to change in a major way.
And, at least temporarily, it’s going to be slower, confusing and a lot more crowded.
Starting Friday night at 10 p.m., the CTA will suspend Brown Line trains over the Chicago River at Wells Street to allow for reconstruction of the 90-year-old bridge.
This also means fewer trains and different routes during the rush hour. .................(more)
The complete piece is at: http://chicago.cbslocal.com/2013/02/28/brown-line-service-disrupted-during-wells-street-bridge-construction/
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