If you build it, it will flood

On Wednesday, July 6, large amounts of stormwater in the Alewife area sewers exceeded the sewer system’s capacity to send wastewater to the Deer Island treatment plant. The result was a direct discharge of sewage-contaminated stormwater to the Alewife Brook. Residents were advised to avoid contact with the brook and with floodwaters for several days after the rains ended.

The Mass. Department of Environmental Protection's (DEP) Alewife Brook/Upper Mystic River Variance requires the Cambridge Department of Public Works to notify local, state and regional agencies within 24 hours of such sewage discharges.

Water quality in the brook during both wet and dry weather generally fails to meet state bacteria standards for fishing and swimming. Contaminant sources originate in the watershed communities of Belmont, Arlington, Cambridge and Somerville, all of which are making efforts to identify and control the sources of pollution to the brook.

Portions of Cambridge and Somerville are served by combined stormwater and sanitary sewer systems, common in older cities. In these areas, there may be discharges which include bacteria and other pathogens, oxygen-demanding pollutants, solids and other contaminants.

Public health officials recommend avoiding contact with the brook during and for 48 hours following rain storms, as there may be increased health risks during these periods. Contact with floodwaters should also be avoided as they may contain similar contaminants and pose associated health risks. — from a July 7 alert by the Mystic River Watershed Association

Bring on the clones

Ivan Oransky writes in Scientist, "There's one less thing for the embryonic pet cloning industry to deal with as it seeks profitability: it will not be regulated by the federal Animal Welfare Act, according to a recent U. S. Department of Agriculture ruling."

Oransky reports that on July 8, Agriculture rejected the American Anti-Vivisection Society’s demand that cloning firms register as research facilities under the Animal Welfare Act.

Genetic Savings & Clone, a California corporation which sold its first cloned cat in December 2004, claimed they supported the anti-vivisectionists’ move because they "prefer unified federal oversight to a patchwork of state regulations." The Agriculture Dept. said that its decision took into account "only the scope and purview of the Animal Welfare Act and not the ethical and moral issues involved in cloning and genetic engineering." — Ivan Oransky, "USDA: no pet cloning regulation," The Scientist (7/19/05)

Card me, I’m from Massachusetts.

State governors across the U.S.A. are pissed off about the cost of complying with the new law that makes all drivers licenses into a national identity card. Some are even concerned about the civil liberties issues involved.

But not Massachusetts. Amie O'Hearn, of the Registry of Motor Vehicles, sez: ''We're really pretty much doing most of security measures contained in the act already."

"Massachusetts is really unique in that we like the Real ID Act," she said. "We've always liked it. We just feel that a license is only as secure as the documentation you provide for it. We feel that this is just going to help do what we've been trying to do all along." —Robert Tanner, AP "Governors balk at new US license rules," Boston Globe (7/19/05)

March of the iron ladies

"Why should we hear about body bags and deaths and how many, what day it's gonna happen? It's not relevant. So why should I waste my beautiful mind on something like that?" — Barbara Bush, on ABC/Good Morning America, (3/18/03)

WASHINGTON— Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton stood between the former heads of the US Military Academy at West Point and the Army War College yesterday and unveiled legislation that would add 100,000 soldiers to the Army, declaring that it should be a ''national priority" to field a significantly larger military.…Some analysts say she learned from the campaign of last year's Democratic presidential nominee, Senator John F. Kerry, that what counts in national politics is not one's personal service, but support for defense spending. — Brian Bender, "Sen. Clinton...adds to her record of vocal support for Iraq war, military," Boston Globe (7/14/05)

Teflon + animals = cancer

After ignoring numerous warnings from independent scientists for years, the "nonstick" chemical used in Teflon has now officially been categorized as a "likely carcinogen" by the U.S. government's Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). EPA scientists found four different types of tumors in lab animals exposed to the chemical. The agency announced it plans to collect millions of dollars in fines from DuPont, the maker of Teflon, for concealing studies indicating related health and environmental risks for over two decades. — "Consumers beware: Teflon can give you cancer," *Organic Bytes^ #61 (7/12/05)

And we tested pesticides on children

The U.S. Senate has approved a one year moratorium prohibiting the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) from funding or accepting studies that intentionally expose humans to hazardous chemicals used in pesticides.

But the Senate also passed a measure expediting an EPA regulation that could permit the agency to further use and fund human pesticide testing, leaving the prospects for either proposal uncertain.

Both measures were approved as amendments to the appropriations bill that funds the EPA and other agencies. The appropriations bill passed late Wednesday by a vote of 60-37.

The House of Representatives approved the moratorium last month by a unanimous voice vote, but it is unclear if it will be retained in the final House-Senate conference report. Senator Barbara Boxer, a California Democrat and lead sponsor of the provision, said the EPA needs "a timeout" before it moves ahead with regulations on the use of data from studies that tested the effect of pesticides on humans—including children. — J. R. Pegg, Environmental News Service (6/30/05)

State ballot questions, fooey!

In the last two sessions, Sen. Stanley Rosenberg (D,Amherst), has sponsored bills to roughly double the required number of signatures needed to get a question on the Massachusetts ballot.

Why would a liberal legislator want to make it harder to do initiative petitions? Supposedly to prevent wealthy business interests from "buying laws."

But requiring more signatures would simply raise the price of gathering them. Conservative and liberal lobbyists joined in opposition and those bills went nowhere.

This year, Rosenburg is sponsoring a bill that would prohibit backers from paying contractors for each signature gathered.

This measure still allows signature gatherers to be paid by the hour—which again, would only raise the price of "buying a law." But this bill might succeed, because of the anxiety of some gay marriage supporters to stop conservative religious groups pushing a constitutional amendment through the initiative process.

The liberal lobbying groups Common Cause and MassPIRG are opposed to the latest proposal regardless. The framers of the 1918 State law of initiative and referendum actually provided for the possibility that money might corrupt the petition process.

Thus the Legislature could, by law, simply prohibit the collection of signatures for profit. Why not enact such a statute? Otherwise it remains legal to hire a business or other group for the purpose of gathering signatures.

Backers of Rosenberg’s new bill say that paying cavassers by the signature encourages fraud. But a petition can already be thrown out in court if systematic fraud is shown.

What’s good for MIT is good—period.

MIT’s new president, Susan Hockfield, says: "I see that what is in the interests of MIT is very much in the interests of Cambridge. ... In the next five to 10 years, I would hope that we would see an enlivening of the neighborhoods that are adjacent to MIT."

"Central Square, I understand, has improved dramatically over the last 10 years or so. It has enormous potential to be a vibrant, lively, hospitable area. ... I think MIT together with Cambridge can help both Central Square and Kendall Square develop into lively, vibrant communities that will attract more resources to Cambridge and will be wonderful communities for the people who live and work at MIT to be part of." —from an interview with Chris Helms, Cambridge Chronicle (5/5/05)

How Harvard rules

Student anti-war activists planned to protest the presence of CIA and Homeland Security recruiters on campus, despite a warning from Associate Dean of the College Judith H. Kidd that the demonstration will not be allowed to proceed. "They haven’t applied for any space," Kidd said.… "We never allow demonstrations that we don’t have registration for." …Assistant Dean of the College Paul J. McLoughlin II said that groups should inform the administration three to five days in advance to obtain a protest permit…. — Harvard Crimson (5/12/05)

Roy Bercaw comments that "the over pass in front of the Science Center is not Harvard property. That is City-owned land—public property. The University cannot prohibit free expression on public land. This is a recurring problem with that land. The City has an agreement to allow the University to administer the land, but it remains public land and free expression allowed. Stopping it is a First Amendment violation and/or a State Civil Rights Criminal violation."

Just what the Democrats need

"To succeed, the Democratic National Committee must operate less like a political campaign and more like a marketing business. That means significant investments in communications infrastructure and activities to deliver message to voters between presidential cycles. It requires an understanding that such investments will show returns over the long term. It can result in a strong, new brand identity for Democrats that will vastly improve the party's electoral prospects at all levels.

"National headquarters should be staffed up with skilled, experienced marketing professionals who have the resources and creative license to do their jobs well. The most critical element of all is a strong brand identity that resonates with voters. All the marketing savvy in the world won't work without a compelling message. A team of political communications, marketing, and branding professionals is being gathered now to set about re-branding the Democrats."

—Douglas J. Hattaway, "Where to, Democrats?" Boston Globe (12/9/04)

Hattaway and his partner, State Sen. Jarrett Barrios, are founding members of Massachusetts Progressive Democrats.

Tooting our own Green horn

Elaine Brown of the Green Party is running for mayor of Brunswick, Georgia, on a platform that centers on opposition to urban renewal. Th renewal plan would use eminent domain to dispossess much of the city's African-American community. Brown's campaign has attracted national attention because she was at one time the national leader of the Black Panther Party.

*

Jason West, the Green mayor of the Village of New Paltz, N.Y., "won a victory for human rights" last week when the district attorney of Ulster County, N.Y., dropped all charges against him. West faced a possible fine and a year in jail for continuing to use his authority as mayor to marry same-sex couples in 2004 after a judge in the state Supreme Court had issued an order banning him from solemnizing such unions. In West’s opinion, the laws governing marriage in New York are gender-neutral, and it was his duty to uphold the equal protection guaranteed by the N.Y. Constitution. West said he also felt obligated to uphold the Green Party platform, which calls for social and legal equality for all.

Next move in Allston

Business and Mass Turnpike Authority officials are now discussing the construction of a connector ramp at the Harvard-owned turnpike exit in Allston.

For a couple of million bucks, they say, a short link could be built that would greatly ease the trip between Logan Airport and Boston’s Back Bay—at least for taxicabs and shuttles. Since this project is proposed for Harvard property, there is bound to be suspicion that there is more here than meets the eye.

And the ever-suspicious Cambridge City Council candidate Bob LaTrémouille asks, "Is this U-Turn proposal another wolf in sheep's clothing?

"Now the *Globe+ [in an article by Lucas Wall, 7/2/05] is floating a U turn at the Allston Mass Pike ramps owned by Harvard so that ‘traffic from Copley can go to the airport,’ he writes.

"Trouble is that that U turn also turns the ramp from the Mass. Pike to Cambridge into a two way off ramp. Outbound traffic would take the U Turn and get off at the Cambridge exit in addition to the obvious inbound traffic.

"Voila!! Harvard can build on both the outbound and the inbound off ramps at Allston."

Ultimately however, Harvard is likely to move the turnpike exit far from its present location, connector ramp and all. The university will not want a highway running through its multi-billon-dollar science city. Then, the logical place for the road will be along the south edge of Harvard’s holdings.

Such a road would aim straight toward the B.U. Bridge, crossing the river there to connect with MIT’s own "science city" in Cambridgeport and Kendall Square.

A recent Harvard report on possible development in Allston has sketches which assume the displacement of Charlesview, a large low-moderate income development now located on North Harvard Street near Harvard Stadium.

The Arctic is melting

These are unusual times for Ny-Alesund, the world's most northerly community.

Perched high above the Arctic Circle, on Svalbard, normally a place gripped by shrieking winds and blizzards, it was caught in a heatwave a few days ago. Temperatures soared to the highest ever recorded here, an extraordinary 19.6C, [68F] a full degree-and-a-half above the previous record. Researchers lolled in T-shirts and soaked up the sun: a high life in the high Arctic.

…Trud Sveno, head of the Norwegian Polar Institute here [says] "We have found that not only are glaciers retreating dramatically, but the extent of the pack ice that used to stretch across the sea from here to the pole is receding. It is now at an absolute minimum since records began."

Nor is it hard to pinpoint the culprit. On Mount Zeppelin, which overlooks Ny-Alesund, Swedish and Norwegian researchers have built one of the most sensitive air-monitoring laboratories in the world…. Carbon dioxide, produced by cars and factories across the globe, is the real interest here, however. Over the past 15 years, not only have levels continued to rise from around 350 to 380 parts per million (ppm), but this rise is now accelerating.

In 1990 this key cause of global warming was rising at a rate of 1 ppm; by 1998 it was increasing by 2ppm; and by 2003 instruments at Mount Zeppelin showed it was growing by 3ppm. "Never before has carbon dioxide increased at the rate it does now," adds Sveno.

—Robin McKie "T-shirts on for an Arctic heatwave" London Observer [UK] (7/17/05)

We don’t want to alarm you but....

A recent study published in the British medical journal The Lancet reveals that as many as 140,000 heart attacks, in the United States alone, were caused by [the prescription drug] Vioxx, and 44 percent of those likely died from those heart attacks. That means more than 60,000 Americans have been killed by Vioxx, if these data are to be believed. — Mike Adams, www.NewsTarget.com (5/25/05)