Fossil fuel production on public lands is incompatible with stopping runaway climate change. I urge you to issue an executive order that instructs federal agencies to stop granting new and expanded leases to extract coal, oil and gas from public lands and coastal waters.
jayinslee.com
I said we would get big things done this legislative session, and we did!
After six months — over two months longer than originally planned — we addressed some of the biggest issues facing our state and won:
The Governor’s office was essential to producing this equitable budget and now more than ever, with a divided legislature, the Republicans understand the importance of who is Governor of our state.
Now our campaign has to make up for lost time. We just got out of a seven-month fundraising freeze. We have six months to go before the legislature resumes again. And we have one declared opponent with others looking to get into the race.
We need to make up for lost time. That’s why I’m kicking off our first week-long fundraising drive TODAY with a goal of $50,000 by July 17. Will you contribute today?
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I’m Davan Maharaj, editor of the Los Angeles Times. A drug kingpin’s prison break is a huge embarrassment for Mexico; and a look at where it’s riskiest to step off a curb in L.A. Here are some story lines I don’t want you to miss today.
To Live and Walk in L.A.
Walking is often risky business in car-crazy Los Angeles. Now, a Times analysis puts some startling data behind the conventional wisdom. From 2002 through 2012, more than 58,000 accidents involving pedestrians happened on L.A. County streets. Downtown, Hollywood and Koreatown are especially perilous. Here’s the story, with a detailed map and tips on how to avoid being hit.
‘Seeing’ with Clicks
It’s not like seeing, but for blind people it could be the next best thing — a few clicks away. Not computer clicks. Tongue clicks are at the heart of an unorthodox program run by Daniel Kish in Long Beach. He teaches blind people to send them out as sonar, like dolphins or bats, to get a read on their surroundings. Some of the results have been remarkable. It’s today’s Great Read.
— A bill making progress in the Legislature would allow work permits for farmworkers here illegally.
— More jail trouble: New reports of abuse of inmates and staff suspensions or reassignments underscore a tough problem for new L.A. County Sheriff Jim McDonnell.
— Malibu takes steps to bring traffic mayhem under control on the Pacific Coast Highway.
— Facing another court showdown over solitary confinement, state prisons begin to ease up on the practice.
— The close divide between Supreme Court justices on same-sex marriage portends more tough legal disputes.
— Stay home when you’re sick? A study finds that many doctors don’t.
— A suicide bombing kills dozens of civilians near a U.S. base in Afghanistan.
— In a Paraguay slum, Pope Francis speaks of equality and solidarity for the poor.
— Families are dropping euphemisms in obituaries to help expose heroin’s deadly toll (N.Y. Times).
— Crosscut: “The racist roots of a Northwest secession movement.”
— For Disneyland’s 60th, Smithsonian looks at hidden stories behind some of the park’s wonders.
None of Mount Everest’s four base camps, which are located at 17,380 feet, have proper facilities. The camps have tents, equipment, supplies and even cooks, but no toilets. The waste is collected in a drum in a toilet tent, where it is then carried to a lower altitude and disposed.
But not all climbers use the camps’ facilities to do their business.
“Climbers usually dig holes in the snow for their toilet use and leave the human waste there,” Tshering told The Associated Press, adding that waste around the base camps has been accumulating for years.
Away from the base camp, as climbers head toward the 29,035 foot summit, human waste is also an issue.
“It is a health hazard and the issue needs to be addressed,” said Dawa Steven Sherpa, who has been at the forefront of Everest cleanup expeditions since 2008. Some climbers carry disposable toilet bags with them to the higher camps that don’t have any facilities, Sherpa said.
Image: Dave Watson/Associated Press
Last year the Nepalese government imposed new rules, which requires climbers to return to the base camp with 17.6 pounds of waste. The weight is an estimate of the average amount of trash climbers accumulate en route.
The government does not currently have plans to deal with the human waste issue
The government does not currently have plans to deal with the human waste issue, however Puspa Raj Katuwal, the head of the government’s Mountaineering Department, said officials will strictly monitor it, adding that climbing teams must submit a $4,000 deposit that they will lose if regulations are broken.
Human fecal waste and trash isn’t the only thing left on the mountainside. According to an article released in 2012 by Smithsonian Magazine, more than 200 human bodies remain frozen on the mountain. Some of them are even used as landmarks.
More than 4,000 climbers have braved the mountain since its first expedition in 1953.
Robert Borosage
Greece’s Agonies, Europe’s Shame
The Greeks have been badly served by their oligarchs who avoid responsibility and taxes and by their governments that have been corrupt and incompetent. But this catastrophe is Europe’s failure. It is a failure, as economists from Paul Krugman to Milton Friedman argue, of design: a monetary union without a political union to provide unified fiscal policies. And it is a failure of ideology: a rigid insistence on austerity policies even after their failure has been acknowledged.
Greece misses IMF payment. W. Post:“The $1.67 billion missed payment to the IMF was unlikely by itself to spur immediate problems for the global economy, since it affected only a government-backed institution, not private investors. But if Greece is ultimately forced off the euro, other troubled euro-zone economies such as Portugal could be seen as more vulnerable. The exit could also weaken the goal of ever-closer European integration.”
Tsipras extends olive branch. NYT:“…Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras said Greece was ‘prepared to accept’ a deal set out publicly over the weekend by the creditors, with small modifications to some of the central points of contention on issues like pension cuts and tax increases. Mr. Tsipras linked Greece’s acceptance of the terms to a new package of bailout aid that would need to be negotiated.”
Germany PM Merkel says that offer now off the table. NYT:“‘With the expiration of the program, the basis for the offer has been removed,’ Ms. Merkel said.”
Poll shows Greeks will vote “No.” Bloomberg:“. The survey, in Efimerida ton Syntakton newspaper, showed 54 percent would vote ‘no’ — rejecting austerity in exchange for aid — and 33 percent would vote ‘yes’ — accepting austerity as the price of staying in the euro.”
EPI encourages public comments in support of Obama’s overtime rule:“The Department of Labor just proposed a plan to protect an estimated 5 million additional workers from overtime abuse. And now they need to hear from you.”
Overtime rule “only scratches the surface of the bigger problem” says NYT:“… the affluent have captured a rising share in recent decades, leaving the wages of everyone else to stagnate … there are two main approaches that promise to increase middle-class wages considerably. The first would be to improve the bargaining power of workers … The second type of policy change would be to limit the incomes of those nearest the top of the ladder…”
Unskilled labor seeing wage gains. Bloomberg:“Average hourly earnings in industries paying less than $12.50 an hour a year ago rose 3.2 percent in the 12 months through April, about 1 percentage point more than wage growth for the job market as a whole … It is being driven in part by state governments raising their minimum wages, and also through voluntary decisions by companies to raise employees’ pay.”
Scott Walker’s union busting hasn’t helped workers. The Atlantic’s Donald Kettl:“The $3 billion he saved in his first term was certainly something. But that amounted to less than 1 percent of overall state and local government spending over that time period. Those savings came from the pockets of teachers and other public servants who are also taxpayers and whose compensation, by most measures, was not out of line. The law Walker signed didn’t contribute to the fiscal health of the state’s public pension fund.”
Be a Seed for Change 
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