The World

Earthquake risk is underappreciated danger

On July 4 and 5, two major earthquakes, followed by several thousand smaller ones, struck Southern California. Their size and the damage they caused captured attention around the country. What tends to get much less notice from the public is what can be done to prevent catastrophic damage from big quakes. Had the epicenter of these latest large California earthquakes been closer to downtown Los…


National food waste cut goals not being met

While 1-in-8 Americans are considered to be “food insecure,” an estimated 40 percent of the nation’s supply of fruits, vegetables, dairy and meat goes to waste, discarded by farmers, retailers, restaurant owners and households. Three federal agencies have agreed to work together to cut that food waste in half by 2030. But a recent government oversight report found that the agencies – the Environmental Protection…


Don’t go to Brawley if you’re looking for work

With all the talk of how great the economy is and how anybody who wants a job can get a job, San Diego County’s neighbor to the east is suffering from sky-high unemployment numbers. To visit California’s Imperial Valley is to enter a sleepy place worlds away from the glamorous boom towns of California’s coast. Pickups outnumber BMWs. Vast farms irrigated by the Colorado River…


Duncan Hunter admits to killing Iraqi civilians

Duncan Hunter, the California congressman who’s been telling America that accused and convicted US war crimers deserve to be pardoned by Donald Trump, explained in a podcast interview that it’s ridiculous to charge a Navy SEAL with war crimes just for killing civilians, because honestly, who doesn’t kill some civilians now and then? In the interview published by Barstool Sports’s military podcast “Zero Blog Thirty,”…


Hunter wants this war criminal pardoned

Which war criminal will Donald Trump pardon next? Rep. Duncan Hunter (R-Vapeville) thinks it should be this pig, Eddie Gallagher. Trump issued a full pardon earlier this week to Michael Behenna. A military court convicted the former Army lieutenant in 2009 for killing an Iraqi prisoner. Behenna claimed he shot Ali Mansur Mohamed, who was naked at the time, in self-defense. Who’s up next for…


Turn out the lights at Stone Brewing Berlin

Today, Tuesday April 30, 2019, marks the end of the much ballyhooed Stone Brewing Berlin campaign. After six years of planning and three years of operation, Stone Brewing yields its grounds at Stone Brewing World Bistro & Gardens Berlin to Brewdog, a Scottish craft beer company. In 2010, according to Reid Ramsey, founder of Beer Street Journal, Stone’s co-founder walked thorough the gasworks property and…


Bringing the Mexico border closer to home

Many if not most Americans have never crossed the U.S. border with Mexico by land or spent any time in that region. This unfamiliarity can make it easy for politicians to distort what’s going on there and hard for immigration advocates and social movements to muster support for their primary goal: making U.S. policies toward undocumented people and asylum-seekers more humane. What can advocates for…


Kids are the grownups in climate crisis room

The next U.S. presidential election is being transformed because children everywhere, watching in disbelief as grownups fail to address the climate crisis, are launching their own climate movements. In contrast to the 2016 election – where exactly zero questions about global warming were posed during the general election debates – the lineup of presidential candidates are already being pressured to do something about the climate…


As climate change erodes US coastlines, an invasive plant could become an ally

Many invasive species are found along U.S. coasts, including fishes, crabs, mollusks and marsh grasses. Since the general opinion is that invasives are harmful, land managers and communities spend a lot of time and resources attempting to remove them. Often this happens before much is known about their actual effects, either good or bad. The common reed Phragmites australis is a tall perennial grass with…


Finally, a bill in Congress to fix climate crisis

But it needs your support. It’s hope-inspiring that a bipartisan bill was introduced in the House of Representatives in January which could save our children and grandchildren from what scientists tell us is an ongoing and growing climate disaster. The evidence is incontrovertible that the climate is in crisis and that burning fossil fuels is the primary cause. A recognized global authority on climate change has warned…