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Demand Senate Investigation into last decade of oil drilling disasters

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Nelson requests Senate investigation into oil safety claims

BY LESLEY CLARK – Herald Washington Bureau

WASHINGTON — Seizing on the oil rig explosion in the Gulf of Mexico, Sen. Bill Nelson asked Monday for a rare joint Senate committee investigation into safety claims made by the oil industry.

The request — made along with New Jersey Democratic Sens. Frank Lautenberg and Bob Menendez, who like Nelson oppose oil and gas drilling off their states’ coast — comes as authorities monitored the Gulf spill and tried to use underwater equipment to cap the leak.

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Pres. Obama Promises More Effective Safety Oversight at Eulogy for Miners

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PA Municipalities Can Take Steps to Protect Themselves from the Ravages of Gas Drilling

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April 16

Towns get legal advice on gas issues

A lawyer offers sample laws to Back Mountain towns concerned about drilling.

By Rebecca Bria rbria@timesleader.com
Staff Writer

DALLAS TWP. – The Back Mountain Community Partnership was advised Thursday afternoon to separately pass ordinances that may help protect against gas drilling issues.

Read more Natural Gas Leases – Marcellus Shale articles

The partnership is an intermunicipal group composed of Dallas, Franklin, Jackson, Kingston and Lehman townships and Dallas borough.

Attorney Jeffrey Malak, who is solicitor of the group, explained it would be better for each municipality to enact its own ordinances rather than to pass joint partnership ordinances because each municipality has its own unique needs.

Malak provided an example of an ordinance, created by the Pennsylvania State Association of Township Supervisors and the Pennsylvania State Association of Township Solicitors, which addresses height regulations of equipment, setbacks, access roads, wells, tanks and storage.

He also furnished sample dust, noise and light pollution ordinances and a sample road bond agreement. In addition, he provided a copy of Dallas’ zoning ordinance, which restricts drilling to certain areas of the borough and deals with screening and buffering and outdoor lighting issues.

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New York DEC Imposes Strict Regulations on Marcellus Shale Drilling to Protect New York City Water Supply

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State Decision Blocks Drilling for Gas in Catskills

By MIREYA NAVARRO
Published: April 21, 2010

New York state environmental officials announced Friday that they would impose far stricter regulations for a new type of natural gas drilling in the state’s only two unfiltered water supplies, making it highly unlikely that any drilling will be done in the Catskills watershed that supplies drinking water to New York City.

The decision also applies to the smaller Skaneateles Lake watershed, which supplies drinking water to Syracuse and some other towns.

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Will the Real Tea Party Movement Please Stand Up?

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Will the Real Tea Party Movement Please Stand Up?

Submitted by Anne Landman on April 19, 2010 – 2:31pm.

Tea Party BusHave you wondered how the Tea Party, portrayed as a “grassroots” movement, could possibly raise enough money in one year to procure a professionally-painted, luxury motor coach and send it on two highly-publicized national tours? Or how the Tea Party so quickly developed the expertise to plan, organize and execute the tours, and consistently draw major media attention to them?

The answer is that the Tea Party Express is not a “grassroots” effort. The Web site Politico.com obtained and posted a proposal (pdf) showing that long-time Republican party operatives are, in fact, directing the “Tea Party Express” portion of the movement. The “group” and its activities are the result of efforts by a Republican-affiliated political consulting and public relations firm, Russo Marsh & Rogers, based in Sacramento, California. PR executive Sal Russo of Russo, Marsh & Rogers is also the chief strategist for the Our Country Deserves Better, political action committee (PAC) formed in 2008 to oppose then-candidate Barack Obama.

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Media Blackout of Cuba’s Pledge to build a National Healthcare System in Haiti

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One of 26 Cuban field hospitals in Haiti

Cuban aid to Haiti is 250 times greater than US per GDP but ignored by US media.

Media blind to Cuba’s Haiti effort

 Norman Girvan

Trinidad Tobago Express

Thursday, April 22nd 2010

 At the recent UN Donor Conference on Haiti, Cuba announced a programme to rebuild that country’s entire national health service. Although this was, arguably, the most ambitious and impressive ’pledge’ of the 59 governments, regional blocs and financial institutions that made commitments, it was largely ignored by the leading US media-and hence overlooked by most of the world.

The Cuban programme, which is based on the highly effective system developed in that country, embraces primary, secondary and tertiary health care, and medical training. Some of the highlights of the Cuban plan are:

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PA AFL-CIO: No Endorsement for Governor

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Big labor doesn’t endorse in race for governor; backs Saidel

Pennsylvania’s organized labor community can’t come to a consensus in the four-way Democratic primary for governor.

The state AFL-CIO, the state’s largest umbrella union organization, overwhelmingly endorsed former Philadelphia City Controller Jonathan Saidel for Lieutenant during a meeting of its executive committee over the weekend in Pittsburgh. But no top-ticket candidate was able to garner the two-thirds vote needed for a formal endorsement.

An AFL-CIO official couldn’t be reached for comment. But a labor insider said the votes were, for the most part, “well distributed” between Allegheny County Executive Dan Onorato and Auditor General Jack Wagner, with Onorato faring well with the building trades and Wagner finding support from public employee unions. Montgomery County Commissioner Joe Hoeffel also found patches of support.

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