Tag Archives: patriot

Kim Kardashian Is Pregnant and the Patriot Act Is Going to Expire

Mother Jones

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You’re just enjoying your Sunday evening when BAM: EXTRA! EXTRA! PATRIOTISM DEAD.

Then, just when you thought it was safe to go back in the water:

Journalists live for days like this. I can’t help but wonder how The Newsroom would have covered this monumental night.

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Kim Kardashian Is Pregnant and the Patriot Act Is Going to Expire

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This Judge Just Smacked Down A Key NSA Spy Program

Mother Jones

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A panel of federal judges slapped down the National Security Agency’s telephone metadata collection program Thursday, effectively saying that the program goes way beyond what the law allows. In a 97-page decision released by the 2nd US Court of Appeals, the three-judge panel found that the Patriot Act doesn’t allow the government to collect phone records in such a blanket way.

The court’s ruling won’t stop the program, as the New York Times notes. Rather, it punts the issue back to lower courts and Congress to determine exactly what’s okay and what isn’t. But the decision, written by Judge Gerard E. Lynch, doesn’t pull any punches either. “Congress cannot reasonably be said to have ratified a program of which many members of Congress—and all members of the public—were not aware,” he wrote.

Here are some highlights from his ruling, which you can read in full below:

On the government using “inapplicable statutes and inconclusive legislative history” in its arguments:

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On the government’s “unprecedented and unwarranted” definition of what material is relevant to an actual investigation:

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On whether Congress, or the public, fully understood what the government was going to do with this program:

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Full decision:

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Appeals Court Ruling ACLU v. Clapper (PDF)

Appeals Court Ruling ACLU v. Clapper (Text)

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This Judge Just Smacked Down A Key NSA Spy Program

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Another day, another river ruined by a big coal-industry spill

Another day, another river ruined by a big coal-industry spill

Appalachian Voices

The coal power industry has dumped a lot of toxic crap into yet another river. This latest incident is not to be confused with the spill of toxic coal-cleaning chemicals that poisoned a West Virginia river last month and left 300,000 people without drinking water. Nor is it to be confused with a huge coal-ash spill from a retired power plant in North Carolina earlier this month.

No, this is a whole new spill.

Patriot Coal accidentally let more than 100,000 gallons of coal slurry loose from a coal processing facility in West Virginia. Six miles of Fields Creek, which flows into the Kanawha River, was blackened by the slurry spill. The slurry contained fine particles of processed coal, which includes heavy metals, and coal-cleaning chemicals.

“When this much coal slurry goes into the stream, it wipes the stream out,” said Randy Huffman, head of the West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection (DEP). “This has had significant, adverse environmental impact to Fields Creek and an unknown amount of impact to the Kanawha River.” But officials say drinking water has not been affected, at least not yet. 

The nonprofit Appalachian Voices has conducted tests of the affected area: “The water in the creek was extremely turbid and was a dark grey, almost black color. Significant sediment had already built up on the banks,” the group reports.

The Charleston Gazette has the disturbing tale of what went wrong this time:

The spill was caused by a malfunction of a valve inside the slurry line, carrying material from the preparation plant to a separate disposal site … according to DEP officials.

The valve broke sometime between 2:30 and 5:30 early Tuesday morning, Huffman said at a news conference Tuesday evening. Patriot Coal did not call the DEP to alert them of the leak until 7:40 Tuesday morning, Huffman said. Companies are required to immediately report any spills to the DEP.

There was an alarm system in place to alert facility operators of the broken valve, but the alarm failed, so pumps continued to send the toxic slurry through the system. There was a secondary containment wall around the valve, but with the pumps continuing to send slurry to the broken valve, it was soon overwhelmed and the slurry overflowed the wall and made its way to the creek. …

“Had the alarms gone off and warned the operator that the pipe was leaking, the shutdown could have been done in time for the secondary containment to contain the material that leaked,” Huffman said.

Neighbors of Patriot Coal’s processing facility in Kanawha County have been seeing a lot of coal slurry in recent years. Smaller such spills occurred from the same Kanawha Eagle facility in November of 2013, leading to a $663 fine, and in 2010, which resulted in a $22,400 fine.

The recent rash of river-spoiling accidents is awful, but, hey, at least the companies that are ruining our environment have all-American names — like Patriot Coal and Freedom Industries.

Here’s video of the latest spill from Appalachian Voices:


Source
‘Significant’ slurry spill blackens Kanawha creek, The Charleston Gazette
BREAKING: Another Coal-Related Spill Reported In West Virginia, Appalachian Voices

John Upton is a science fan and green news boffin who tweets, posts articles to Facebook, and blogs about ecology. He welcomes reader questions, tips, and incoherent rants: johnupton@gmail.com.

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Another day, another river ruined by a big coal-industry spill

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Peabody Energy screwing former coal workers out of health care

Peabody Energy screwing former coal workers out of health care

Shutterstock

A coal worker holding the actual heart of Peabody Energy CEO Gregory H. Boyce. 

If there’s anything darker than coal, it’s the hearts of coal company executives. They ask workers to risk their lives to extract the filthiest of all fossil fuels — and then they screw over those workers.

On Thursday, police arrested 14 people in St. Louis, Mo., during the latest in a series of large union-organized protests against such dark-heartedness by Peabody Energy. Workers say the company robbed them of desperately needed retirement health benefits through a cynical corporate maneuver.

The coal giant spun off a subsidiary in 2007 called Patriot Coal, which then bought up some business assets from Arch Coal. Patriot assumed many of Peabody’s and Arch Coal’s worker liabilities — it’s legally on the hook to pay for the health care and other retirement benefits of former workers and their families.

But oh, guess what, Patriot declared bankruptcy. Now it’s asking a bankruptcy court to allow it to weasel out of more than $1 billion worth of health and other benefits owed to retired miners, many whom never worked for Patriot and many of whom were left ill by their former jobs.

From an interview with an affected miner by NPR reporter Maria Altman:

CHARLES WHITLOW: I think there’s 12 pills there every morning, and there’s six pills here for supper.

ALTMAN: He takes more than two dozen pills daily, some of them for coal-related health problems, including CWP, known as black lung. Last year, he says the cost of all those pills topped $13,000.

WHITLOW: I lost my trust I had in Peabody. I used to be proud to say that I did work for Peabody Coal Company, but I’m a long ways from telling anybody that now.

ALTMAN: Whitlow and his wife, Brenda, are among hundreds who’ve written letters to the bankruptcy court asking that Peabody be held accountable.

University of Illinois law Professor Robert Lawless says the judge’s options are limited, though, because it’s perfectly legal for corporations to spin off both assets and liabilities.

As for Patriot Coal, Lawless says a bankruptcy law does make it harder to drop retirees’ health benefits, but he says it still happens, most recently with Hostess Brands Incorporated.

The United Mine Workers of America claims in court that Peabody set up Patriot to fail. The union alleges that the spinoff company was created as a way of wiping Peabody’s hands clean of obligations to care for the health of its retired workers.

From the St. Louis Business Journal‘s coverage of Wednesday’s protest:

An estimated 2,000 attended the protest, the fifth such protest in St. Louis, according to Phil Smith, director of communications for UMWA.

Union members planted 1,000 white crosses at Kiener Plaza. According to union officials, the crosses were “in memory of the 666 fatalities that have occurred at mines operated by Peabody Energy, Arch Coal and Patriot Coal or their subsidiaries since 1903 and symbolize the more than 22,000 active and retired miners, dependents and surviving spouses who will be at risk if Patriot Coal, Peabody Energy and Arch Coal succeed in their efforts to effectively eliminate contractually-guaranteed health care benefits.”

Protesters traveled from Alabama, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Missouri, Ohio, Pennsylvania and West Virgina to attend the protest.

Peabody’s response to the rally? From St. Louis Public Radio:

Peabody officials have said that the miners should bring their concerns to the bankruptcy court.

John Upton is a science aficionado and green news junkie who

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Peabody Energy screwing former coal workers out of health care

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