Leid Stories – 03.01.16

Election 2016: On Super Tuesday, An Alternative to the Quadrennial Charade

It’s The Big Day in the 2016 presidential election. Bipartisan primaries and caucuses in Alabama, Alaska, Arkansas, Colorado, Georgia, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Texas, Vermont, Virginia and Wyoming largely will determine which candidates are likely to capture their respective party’s nomination for the general election in November. Leid Stories listeners offer their ideas about a progressive alternative to the duopoly’s quadrennial charade.

Study finds consistent link between violent crime and concealed-carry gun permits

The first study to find a significant relationship between firearm crime and subsequent applications for, and issuance of, concealed-carry gun permits has been published in the Journal of Interpersonal Violence. The paper, “Firearm Violence and Effects on Concealed Gun Carrying: Large Debate and Small Effects,” found there is a consistent link between violent crime—especially crimes that involve guns—and an increase in the …

F. William Engdahl – What’s Really Going on With Oil?

If there is any single price of any commodity that determines the growth or slowdown of our economy, it is the price of crude oil. Too many things don’t calculate today in regard to the dramatic fall in the world oil price. In June 2014 major oil traded at $103 a barrel. With some experience following the geopolitics of oil …

Colorado Celebrates Legalization Anniversary: Massive Drop in Arrests and Millions in Tax Revenue

More than three years have passed since Colorado residents voted to legalize marijuana, which immediately allowed adults to possess and cultivate limited amounts of marijuana. This past New Year’s Day marked the two year anniversary[3] of adults being able to legally buy marijuana in Colorado.  The policy is still in its formative stage, but the first year after marijuana sales [4] started in Colorado …

Alex Kirby – El Niño and war drive aid agencies to the brink

Climate News Network, 30 December, 2015 – The global humanitarian system, designed to save those at risk of dying because of human or natural disasters, faces unprecedented demands in 2016 from levels of strain it has never before had to face, a leading development agency says. With more than 10 million people in a single African country expected to need …

‘School of Assassins’: Protests Demand Closure of Notorious Training Camp

Thousands of activists and dozens of peace groups converged this weekend in Georgia to call for the closure of the School of Americas (SOA or WHINSEC), a controversial training facility for Latin American soldiers, and the nearby Stewart Immigrant Detention Center. Hundreds protested outside SOA’s gates in Fort Benning, calling it the “School of Assassins,” while others marched through the …

Tom Carter – World Socialist Web Site

With the death toll from police brutality continuing to mount, the US Supreme Court on Monday issued a decision expanding the authoritarian doctrine of “qualified immunity,” which shields police officers from legal accountability. When a civil rights case is summarily dismissed by a judge on the grounds of “qualified immunity,” the case is legally terminated. It never goes to trial …

Bill McKibben – Exxon Knew Everything There Was to Know About Climate Change by the Mid-1980s—and Denied It

few weeks before the last great international climate conference—2009, in Copenhagen—the e-mail accounts of a few climate scientists were hacked and reviewed for incriminating evidence suggesting that global warming was a charade. Eight separate investigations later concluded that there was literally nothing to “Climategate,” save a few sentences taken completely out of context—but by that time, endless, breathless media accounts …

The Natural Nurse And Dr. Z – 10.06.15

Topic: Leaf Blower Madness

Host Ellen Kamhi, PhD, RN, www.naturalnurse.com, interviews Dr. Jamie Banks and Daniel Mabe.

Jamie Banks is the Executive Director of Quiet Communities, a 501c3 organization that conducts research, and provides education and outreach to help communities transition to clean, quiet, sustainable, and healthy landscape maintenance practices. After working in health care economics and health outcomes research, she shifted her activities to the area of environmental health and science. In 2007, she founded Planet Rewards. In 2013, she founded Quiet Communities. She earned her PhD at the University of Kent (Canterbury, UK), in Social Policy (Health Economics/Outcomes) and holds Masters degrees from Dartmouth Medical School and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Dan Mabe is the President of The Green Station and Founder of the American Green Zone Alliance (AGZA).Dan has devoted many years to developing and applying clean battery technology in which emissions-free, quiet outdoor maintenance is practiced in noise- and emissions-sensitive areas. Dan’s company, The Green Station, conducts R&D, manufactures and distributes emissions-free outdoor maintenance equipment . The American Green Zone Alliance is working with towns, campuses, companies, contractors and Air Quality Management Agencies to develop the Green Zone concept. AGZA was founded to train and certify outdoor maintenance professionals and encourage sustainable maintenance entrepreneurship. Contact: www.quietcommunities.org, www.agza.net