newsdesk dot org (https://newsdesk.org/page/32/)
A legacy of toxic pollution lingers in San Francisco’s Hunters Point Shipyard, which was once a booming hub for wartime construction efforts, but now is largely shuttered and represents a constant threat to the health of marginalized communities that live nearby. The U.S. Navy and diverse community groups are at odds over the best way to address the problem.
A succinct listing of candidate positions and quotes on more than two-dozen key policy issues and ballot initiatives.
Environmental and indigenous groups stepped up their attacks against Canadian oil sands development as two U.S. representatives met with Canadian officials in Ottawa to discuss energy policy.
The great news in California’s High Sierra this January is that its fabled snowpack, for years underfed by an apparently vengeful Skadi, is almost back to normal after a week of roiling storms left some measuring stations over 100 percent of what is normal for an average April. That means come the spring, the waterfalls tumbling into Yosemite Valley ought to be spectacular — awesome perhaps. That might not be so good for the park.
With Internet use booming worldwide, tens of thousands of new blogs written in Farsi, Arabic, Chinese and other languages are inspiring both civic activism and government crackdowns.
Worldwide, nearly half of all imprisoned media workers are online journalists or bloggers, according to a new study by the Committee to Protect Journalists that names Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Iran, Tunisia and Syria as leaders in online repression.
It was a sobering moment.
The new director of the University of Iowa’s School of Journalism and Mass Communications, David D. Perlmutter, last December distributed a chart to members of his school’s professional advisory board. It showed that applicants to the school were so flat this past year that practically anybody who applied was approved for admission to the two-year undergraduate program. It begged the question many people in the field are asking, to wit, what’s a journalism school to do?
Just a handful of nations persist in banning visits by HIV-positive foreigners, following President Barack Obama’s decision to lift the travel ban in the United States. Ki-moon, is working to end discrimination against those infected with HIV around the world—and in his home nation. South Korea has deported 521 foreigners diagnosed with HIV since 2008, and requires foreign residents to take HIV tests annually, as well as if they want to extend a work or residency permit.
Like “The Island of Misfit Toys,” many old electronics this holiday season were shipped off to distant places after they are replaced. However, unlike the popular Christmas movie, most of this electronic garbage, or e-waste, won’t find a happy home in the end.
The truth is, most used electronics, which can contain high levels of toxins, will end up in landfills at home or abroad.
A study by the Environmental Protection Agency found that of 2.25 million tons of televisions, mobile phones and computers tossed in 2007, only 18 percent were recycled; the rest were thrown away, mainly in landfills.