The bulldozer was clearing land outside a day care center in Hapeville, Ga., when it broke open a buried 1-inch pipeline. The escaping gas ignited into a fireball that killed nine people, including seven children settling down for their afternoon naps.
That was 1968. Since then, there have been at least 270 similar accidents across the country that could have been prevented or made less dangerous by a valve that cuts off leaking gas and costs as little as $10-$15 for homes and small businesses and $200-$300 for larger buildings, an Associated Press investigation found.
Nearly 90 percent of US gas service lines aren't fitted with the valves that could save lives
Israeli bill would deny migrants right to appeal deportation
Migrants who are denied residency in Israel would be forced to leave the country before appealing the government's decision to deport them, according to an Interior Ministry-sponsored bill put out yesterday.
In an explanatory note, the ministry acknowledged it was seeking to reduce the number of appeals.
Super rich hold $32 trillion in offshore havens
Rich individuals and their families have as much as $32 trillion of hidden financial assets in offshore tax havens, representing up to $280 billion in lost income tax revenues, according to research published on Sunday.
The study estimating the extent of global private financial wealth held in offshore accounts - excluding non-financial assets such as real estate, gold, yachts and racehorses - puts the sum at between $21 and $32 trillion.
Prairie2: Bleaching in the Sun
As much of America's heartland turns to desert, at least for this crop year and Texas perhaps permanently, the availability of food comes into question. You might expect that conservative global warming deniers would have a bounty of words to eat.
Sadly, stupidity knows no bounds. They still cling to the weasel words, "you can't link a weather event to global warming". When extreme and formerly rare weather events become the new normal, the bones of that reasoning are just bleaching in the sun.
Alex Baer: More than One Way to Skin a Country
In times of crisis, Republicans always rush in, providing their own special brand of comic relief, if nothing else. And, it always is nothing else.
House Republicans, for example, recently demonstrated a new way to flush 50 million tax dollars down the toilet -- the cost to taxpayers for taking 33 repeated, knowingly futile, politically-staged attempts to repeal the Affordable Care Act, the helpful, but anemic, new healthcare law.
Vaccinated Children Have up to 500% more Disease Than Unvaccinated Children
Suspicions have been confirmed for those wary of vaccinating their children. A recent large study corroborates other independent study surveys comparing unvaccinated children to vaccinated children.
They all show that vaccinated children have two to five times more childhood diseases, illnesses, and allergies than unvaccinated children.
Top Ten Things Climate Change Is Making Worse Right Now
The onslaught of extreme weather and record temperatures this year have had an impact on people globally, directly through drought and temperature, and more indirectly impacting food prices and public transportation.
Here are 10 impacts we’re seeing right now that climate change is very likely worsening, in some cases playing a major role:
Alex Baer: Lemonade Stands and Paranoid Crackpots
Every once in a while, an email floats in that you'd like to share with the whole nation. It doesn't happen often, but it did happen again yesterday. The Twainian email was in the form of a hopeful donation note from former Florida Congressman Alan Grayson, who is now running in the newly-created 9th District there.
The letter is sharp, clear, and darkly humorous, filled with heady satire and parody. It is also filled with lots and lots of heart. There is much humor and truth here, and is of the kind you may have thought not made anymore.
Japan firm ‘told workers to lie’ about radiation dose
A subcontractor at Japan’s crippled Fukushima nuclear plant told workers to lie about possible high radiation exposure in an apparent effort to keep its contract, reports said Saturday.
An executive at construction firm Build-Up in December told about 10 of its workers to cover their dosimeters, used to measure cumulative radiation exposure, with lead casings when working in areas with high radiation, the Asahi Shimbun newspaper and other media said.
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