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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.
Catching school board meetings or local talk shows on cable access TV will be more difficult. Twenty states are allowing cable companies to end their support for public-access TV studios, and are giving control to state agencies rather than local communities.Photo: AccessSF/Luxomedia
In an effort to fight illegal immigration, the United States Border Patrol plans to spray a chemical herbicide on tall plants near the Texas-Mexico border. The Carrizo cane is an invasive plant that grows up to 30 feet high and provides a cover for illegal border crossers, thieves and smugglers, according to the Houston Chronicle. Helicopters will spray the plants “until all plant life in the area is poisoned.” The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the Border Patrol say the herbicide imazapyr is safe for animals, but critics say the chemical’s safety is questionable and could threaten the water supply of towns near the river. Government agents asked Nuevo Laredo’s water utility to turn off their water pumps before the spraying, reports El Paso’s Newspaper Tree.
Even as President Obama’s decision to make it easier to travel to Cuba from the United States gains support among Latin American leaders, businesses of all sorts are lining up to make the most of the new policy. The Obama administration lifted restrictions in March on family travel to Cuba, allowing Americans with family in Cuba to visit once a year, stay as long as they want and spend up to $179 a day, according to news media reports. Under President Bush, family visits to Cuba had been permitted only once every three years. Meanwhile, Cuba’s Latin American and Caribbean neighbors are opening doors and advocating for their communist neighbor. Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva called on the United States to rethink its policy toward Cuba, the Associated Press reports.
Fewer hard-earned dollars are going to families in developing nations these days, as their immigrant relatives working abroad feel the pinch from the deepening recession. An Inter-American Development Bank study released in March showed remittances to Latin America from the United States at just over $69 billion in 2008 — nearly the same as in 2007. Yet the latest figures show as much as a 13 percent drop for some countries in January 2009, compared to the same period last year. Overall, 70 percent of Hispanic immigrants in the United States sent less money home last year, according to the Pew Hispanic Center. The Wall Street Journal reports that Bangladesh, too, had a ten percent drop in remittances between January and February.
Catching school board meetings or locally produced talk shows on cable access systems will be more difficult for channel surfers due to changes in laws in several states. Public, educational and government stations, also know as PEGs, are fixtures on basic cable packages, made available as a public service requirement of the Communications Act of 1934. PEG stations televise town hall meetings, school plays and run quirky, locally produced talk shows with “Wayne’s World”-style theatrics. Yet California and Illinois are among 20 states that enacted laws allowing cable companies to end their support for PEG studio facilities, equipment and staff, and giving control of programming to state agencies rather than local communities. When California’s Digital Infrastructure and Video Competition Act took effect Jan.