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Climate Progress

Documentary Short: Natural Gas Drilling Threatens The Wild Heart Of Wyoming’s Bridger-Teton National Forest

By Public Lands Team on Jul 12, 2012 at 7:27 pm

By Tom Kenworthy

Yesterday the Center for American Progress and the Sierra Club released a series of short documentary videos called “Public Lands, Private Profits.”   The first two stories profiled the new rush to extract uranium near Grand Canyon National Park and a proposed expansion of a coal mine near Bryce Canyon National Park.

Part three explores a remote corner of the Bridger-Teton National Forest and how it might be transformed by a natural gas drilling plan.

The Noble Basin sits in the shadow of the Wyoming Range, most of which was protected from energy development by Congress in 2009.  But previous leases bought by energy companies can still be developed, and that includes one proposal for 136 wells to be drilled by Plains Exploration and Production (PXP), a Texas company.

Opponents of drilling the Noble Basin say it would destroy an area that is vitally important for deer, antelope, moose, bear and other wildlife, and radically alter a way of life for people who live there or who depend on the area for hunting and other recreation.

Those who are battling PXP and urging the Forest Service to find a way out see what unbridled energy development can bring. Thousands of gas wells dot the lands near the town of Pinedale, and have turned a remote region of Wyoming into an industrial center, with huge impacts on wildlife and air quality.

The U.S. Forest Service is conducting a final environmental review of the gas drilling project.  If officials decide that tighter restrictions on drilling near existing roads apply, it’s possible that the PXP leases would be less valuable and could be bought out by those who want the Noble Basin preserved in its current wild state.

To find out more about this issue or to take action, visit the Sierra Club’s website or the Citizens for the Wyoming Range website.

Tom Kenworthy is a Senior Fellow at the Center for American Progress Action Fund.

Security

GOP Rep. On Sexual Assault At Airforce Base: There’s ‘No Evidence Of A Widespread Problem’

By Annie-Rose Strasser on Jul 12, 2012 at 6:30 pm

Vice-chair of the House Armed Services Commitee Rep. Mac Thornberry (R-TX) believes that there is “no evidence” of a serious sexual assault problem at Lackland Airforce Base even though 12 training officers there have been charged or are being investigated for sexual misconduct and there are at least 31 alleged victims of sexual assault.

Today, 78 members of congress led by fierce women’s advocate Rep. Jackie Speier (D-CA) are calling on the House Armed Services Committee to join the Air Force in investigating the vast allegations of sexual assault at Lackland.

One man has already pleaded guilty to having an improper relationship and is serving 90 days in prison. Another, Military Training Instructor, Staff Sergeant Luis Walker, will be court martialed early next week. According to a press release from Speier’s office, “He faces 28 charges of sexual contact with 10 women including sodomy and rape in technical and basic training.”

According to a local Texas paper, Thornberry doesn’t think it’s a huge issue and is putting his faith in the military to deal with the assaults:

Rep. Mac Thornberry, HASC vice chairman, recently discussed the Lackland issues with Gen. Edward Rice Jr., commander of Air Education and Training Command.

“My understanding is there is no evidence of a widespread problem,” said Thornberry, a Republican from Clarendon. “It seems to be very limited, and he seems to be moving out very aggressively to deal with it.”

If the problem turns out to be limited, then the military system can probably best deal with it, Thornberry said.

Whether the the GOP controlled Armed Services Committee agrees to an investigation, the vice chair’s “no evidence” comment indicates that it will look no deeper into the base than whatever has already been uncovered by the Air Force.

Defense Secretary Leon Panetta himself acknowledged the seriousness of the problem, and has issued a new directive to deal with such assaults which includes changing the reporting structure of sexual assault cases.

There were 6,350 reported cases of what the armed forces call “military sexual trauma” last year, but independent studies estimate (PDF) that there were 19,000 cases total last year, most of which went unreported.

NEWS FLASH

Rush Limbaugh: NAACP Booed Romney Because He Is White | On his radio show on Wednesday, Rush Limbaugh opined that President Obama skipped the NAACP convention because he feared tough private meetings with the group’s leadership and because “He’s confident they’ll boo Romney, simply ’cause Romney’s white. He’s confident of that.” As Mother Jones notes, many white candidates and leaders, including Vice President Joe Biden, have spoken to the group in the past, without incident.

NEWS FLASH

Judge Refuses To Block Louisiana’s Controversial School Vouchers Program | District Judge Tim Kelley ruled on Tuesday that he cannot block Louisiana’s controversial voucher program from going into effect next month because of a state law that prohibits injunctions when state officials claim they will cause a deficit. Superintendent John White and Commissioner of Administration Paul Rainwater claimed that an injunction would cause a $3.4 billion–the amount spent by the state to educate students–deficit in the education budget. Opponents countered that an injunction would merely prevent money from being distributed, saying “That’s just kind of crazy. … There’s no way that not spending money can cause a deficit.” Even though no injunction was granted, the case challenging the program’s constitutionality is ongoing.

–Alex Brown

By Guest Blogger on Jul 12, 2012 at 5:50 pm

Economy

Are Employees Abusing Sick Days For Summer Fun Or Are Employers The Real Culprit?

By Guest Blogger on Jul 12, 2012 at 5:45 pm

Our guest blogger is Joanna Venator, an Economic Policy Intern at the Center for American Progress Action Fund.

A recent MSNBC article cited a poll from Monster.com that claims 8 percent of Americans frequently call in sick to enjoy the summer weather, 11 percent do so occasionally, and 30 percent have done so once or twice in their whole careers. The article builds these unrepresentative statistics into the claim that summer hooky is a widespread phenomenon affecting the productivity of businesses. But is that really the case?

The MSNBC article paints a picture of employees sloughing off work to instead work on their tans, but most employees who have access to sick days do not actually use them. Worker with access to five paid sick days on average use only 2.4 of those days. Half of workers with access to paid sick days do not even use any of them. So MSNBC’s portrayal of workers abusing the system is a gross exaggeration at best.

In fact, data from the National Partnership for Women and Families show that employees are more likely to be the victims of unfair sick leave policies than to abuse the sick days they do receive. Some 40 million workers do not have the ability to call out of work even while sick, never mind for a day at the beach. Four in ten private sector workers do not have access a single paid sick day, and the ratio reaches 80 percent for low-wage workers. One in five workers report losing their job or being threatened with losing their job for taking time off while sick.

By perpetuating this myth of rampant misuse of sick days, the article misleads readers and pulls attention away from the very real problems facing American workers. Workers without access to paid sick days are forced to choose between their livelihood and their health. Often, they choose to go into work sick, which is a loss for the employee, the productivity of the firm, and the health of the sick person’s coworkers and/or customers. The media’s focus should be on the millions of people who can’t take leave when they really need it, not on the non-existent ‘problem’ of summertime sick day abuse.

Climate Progress

Drought Covers One-Third Of U.S. Counties, The Largest Agricultural Disaster Area Ever Declared

By Rebecca Leber on Jul 12, 2012 at 5:32 pm

The U.S. Agriculture Department has issued a natural disaster declaration for more than 1,000 U.S. counties facing severe drought. This disaster declaration is the largest ever from the Agriculture Department and includes one-third of counties and spans 26 states. Some 53 percent of the Midwest is facing moderate or severe drought, but areas beyond the drought’s borders could pay higher world grain prices, due to a poor harvest.

This disaster declaration makes farmers eligible for disaster assistance, but lawmakers will continue to remain silent on the root cause: Climate change. The year of record heat isn’t a chance occurrence, but comes from a climate system on steroids, “juiced” by manmade greenhouse gas emissions.

More than one-third of U.S. counties are facing severe drought.

Related Posts:

Security

Dem. Rep. Demands ‘Credible, Substantial Evidence’ Of Bachmann’s Muslim Brotherhood Conspiracies

By Ali Gharib on Jul 12, 2012 at 5:30 pm

Reps. Keith Ellison (L) and Michele Bachmann (R)

When Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-MN) recently escalated her paranoid quest to root out the Muslim Brotherhood from the U.S. government, she named names. There’s a problem, however, when conspiracy theorists get into specifics, people will start demanding facts to back up their wild-eyed assertions.

That’s exactly what her colleague form the Minnesota Congressional delegation Rep. Keith Ellison (D) did when he responded to her letter to the State Department insinuating that Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s aide Huma Abedin (the wife of former Democratic Congressman Anthony Weiner) was at the heart of the Brotherhood’s infiltration of the State Department. “If she has sources for this type of information,” Ellison said in a statement, “she owes it to the country to reveal them to the proper authorities, but definitely not this way.”

Now, Ellison has taken his request for specifics directly to Bachmann and the co-signers of her letters to State and other government departments — Reps. Trent Franks (R-AZ), Louie Gohmert (R-TX), Thomas Rooney (R-FL), and Lynn Westmoreland (R-GA) also signed. Ellison also calls out the source of their information, arch-Islamophobe Frank Gaffney. Ellison wrote:

I request that you provide my office a full accounting of the sources you used to make the serious allegations against the individuals and organizations in your letters. If there is not credible, substantial evidence for your allegations, I sincerely hope that you will publically clear their names.

(Read the whole letter here.)

After listing a host of ludicrous allegations made by Gaffney, Ellison wrote, “Mr. Gaffney’s views have been widely discredited, including by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and conservative organizations.” Gaffney was repudiated by the American Conservative Union, and barred from the powerhouse’s annual conservative CPAC confab.

Gaffney’s clearly pleased with Bachmann’s witch-hunt, soliciting support from other Members of Congress, like Republican House Intelligence Committee Chair Mike Rogers (MI), on his radio show. That he would serve as a source of information for what Ellison calls “serious allegations” is indeed troubling.

It seems now that Bachmann and her coterie of Republican Congressional conspiracy theorists will either have to put up, or shut up.

Justice

Republicans Want to Jail Journalists Who Report National Security Info

By Guest Blogger on Jul 12, 2012 at 5:00 pm

Our Guest Blogger is Billy Corriher, Associate Director of Research for Legal Progress.

Rep. Trey Gowdy (R-SC)

House Republicans want the government to use criminal statutes to prosecute reporters who publish sensitive national security information. In a hearing on Wednesday, the leadership of a House Judiciary Sub-Committee said such actions are needed after a series of New York Times stories included information leaked from government sources. In his testimony, Army Col. Ken Allard accused reporter David Sanger of “systematically penetrating the Obama White House as effectively as any foreign agent” and putting Americans at risk by reporting on the government’s cyber-attacks on Iran.

Journalists from the Times have published important stories with information on the assassination of Osama bin Laden and President Obama’s “kill list” of suspected terrorists. The story of the “kill list,” in particular, is vital information for anyone concerned about the government potentially abusing civil liberties in the “War on Terror.” The administration has placed at least one American citizen, Anwar al-Awlaki, on the list and killed him in a drone strike. If the Times had not acted, we would know very little about how the “kill list” is composed.

But Republicans charge that publishing leaked national security information is endangering the American public. Rep. Trey Gowdy (R-SC) called for subpoenaing journalists and demanding they expose their sources. “You either answer the question or you’re going to be held in contempt and go to jail, which is what I thought all reporters aspire to do anyway. I thought that was the crown jewel of the reporter’s resume, to actually go to jail protecting a source.”

Another Republican suggested the media’s watchdog role is unnecessary because whistleblower laws allow citizens to report wrongdoing to the government. In other words, we don’t need to know anything about our government’s national security actions, because we can trust the government to police itself.

Some even suggested the Obama administration has leaked information for political gain. The chair of the subcommittee, Rep. Lamar Smith (R-TX), said the administration could be “weakening our national security and endangering American lives.” Like the “Fast and Furious” investigation, this could end up being another Republican witch hunt for information that could embarrass the Obama administration.

Read more

Security

For First Time In History, Saudi Arabia Adds Women To Olympic Team

By Travis Waldron on Jul 12, 2012 at 4:55 pm

Runner Sarah Attar will be one of two women representing Saudi Arabia (via Voice of America)

Women will represent the kingdom of Saudi Arabia for the first time in Olympic history when the 30th Olympiad begins in London later this month after the conservative Muslim monarchy agreed to add two women to its Olympic team earlier today. The decision followed similar moves by Qatar and Brunei, meaning that for the first time, every country participating in the Olympic Games will have at least one female on its team.

Saudi Arabia agreed last month to let women attempt to qualify for the Olympics, but after an injury to the horse of the country’s most serious contender — an equestrian rider — no female athletes qualified (some have said Saudi officials knew this when they agreed to let her compete). The International Olympic Committee, however, granted qualification status to two athletes — judoist Wodjan Ali Seraj Abdulrahim Shahrkhani and 800-meter runner Sarah Attar — after months of negotiations with Saudi Arabian officials, Sports Illustrated reported.

Attar, who lives and trains in the United States, said the decision will help make “big strides” for female athletes in Saudi Arabia:

“A big inspiration for participating in the Olympic Games is being one of the first women for Saudi Arabia to be going,” the 17-year-old Attar said in an IOC video from her U.S. training base in San Diego. “It’s such a huge honor and I hope that it can really make some big strides for women over there to get more involved in sport.” [...]

“To any woman who wants to participate, I say `go for it,’ and don’t let anybody hold you back,” Attar said in the video after running a lap on the track wearing pants and a headscarf.

Female athletes in Saudi Arabia still cannot enter sports stadiums or rent athletic venues, though the country is home to a vast network of underground women’s sports leagues. “The participation of two Saudi women in London is an important breakthrough, but will not hide the fact that millions of Saudi girls are effectively banned from sports in schools in Saudi Arabia,” Minky Worden of Human Rights Watch told Sports Illustrated.

In 1996, 26 countries sent teams to the Atlanta Olympics that did not include female members. Only three teams did so at the 2008 Beijing Games.

Economy

Republican Offices Have Fewer Women In High-Paying Jobs

By Annie-Rose Strasser on Jul 12, 2012 at 4:35 pm

A new report from National Journal shows a huge pay disparity between men and women on Capitol Hill — a disparity that is far larger in Republican offices than it is in Democratic ones.

The real-dollar disparity, on average, between male and female Republicans working in the House of Representatives and the Senate is about $10,000. National Journal offers the key findings from the report:

  • For all House staff, women made on average $5,862.56 less annually than men.
  • Female Republican House staff made on average $10,093.09 less annually than male Republican House staff.
  • For all Senate staff, women made $7,277.69 less annually on average than male staff.
  • Female Republican Senate staff made on average $9,805.85 less annually than male Republican Senate staff.

Off the bat, it’s easy to conclude that women are paid less than men for doing the same job. But it’s actually more complicated than that: Republican women don’t make as much, on average, because they tend to hold lower-paying positions than the men in their field.

Men and women are paid roughly the same amount in government. That means, particularly for Republicans, there are more women in administrative roles and fewer female Legislative Directors or Chiefs of Staff, for example:

And it’s not as though there is a lack of experienced women: Women are earning more graduate and bachelors’ degrees than men, make up nearly half the workforce, and are a majority of DC residents.

But women in Washington politics will be the first to tell you that discrimination exists. Fifty one percent of women polled for the National Journal report believe they have been discriminated against based on their gender, including being passed over for promotions, and 73 percent said men have more opportunities in DC.

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