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marble falls's JournalTexas cops raid farm commune when mistaking tomato plants for marijuana
Texas cops raid farm commune when mistaking tomato plants for marijuana
By Arturo Garcia
Wednesday, August 14, 2013 10:32 EDT
Texas cops criticized for botched drug raid on 'Garden of Eden' [KXAS-TV]
Police in Arlington, Texas are being criticized for their tactics during a drug raid on a local farm that came up empty while allegedly damaging both the property and the crops.
They cant even tell the difference between tomato plants and a marijuana drug cartel, farm resident Quinn Eaker told KXAS-TV. Thats just really bad intel.
Eaker said to KXAS that he and several residents at the Garden of Eden sustainability garden were handcuffed at gunpoint by officers during the Aug. 2 raid, which also involved a SWAT team, after an undercover officer and helicopter surveillance allegedly gave authorities probable cause to believe there was marijuana being grown on the premises.
They came here under the guise that we were doing a drug trafficking, marijuana-growing operation, owner Shellie Smith told WFAA-TV. They destroyed everything.
http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2013/08/14/texas-cops-raid-farm-commune-when-mistaking-tomato-plants-for-marijuana/
Bright Explosion on the Moon
Bright Explosion on the Moon
May 18, 2013
NASA researchers who monitor the Moon for meteoroid impacts have detected the brightest explosion in the history of their program.
credit: NASA
http://www.redorbit.com/news/video/space_2/1112850678/bright-explosion-on-the-moon/
Pretty darn cool.
Nuclear Weapons Plant To Be Home To Largest Federally Funded Wind Farm
AMARILLO, Texas (AP) Americas only plant for disassembling and assembling nuclear weapons will soon be home to the largest federally owned wind farm.
Ground will be broken Tuesday for a wind farm that will have five turbines located on 1,500 acres east of the Pantex Plant, about 18 miles northeast of Amarillo in the Texas Panhandle.
A news release from the plant says the turbines will generate about 47 million kilowatt-hours of electricity annually, or enough to power nearly 3,500 homes, and supply more than 60 percent of the plants yearly electricity need.
The wind farm will help the plant achieve President Barack Obamas directive that the federal government get 20 percent of its electricity from renewable sources by 2020.
The project is expected to be completed by July 2014.
Teacher Accused Of Calling Students ‘N’ Word On First Day Of School
Source: CBS Houston
DONALDSONVILLE, La. (CBS Houston) A teacher is accused of calling students the N word during class on the first day of school.
CBS affiliate WAFB-TV reports that Lois Polite, a social studies teacher at Lowery Middle School in Donaldsonville, La., is under investigation by the Ascension Parish School System after a parent of a student filed a complaint.
My son came home very upset, Shemika Landry told WAFB-TV. She frequently called the kids the N word in the classroom, belittling them, calling them stupid.
Landry claims that the teacher threatened the students if they complained.
She told them they can call their maw and sent them to the school with their booty shorts on and their high heels but it wasnt going to change anything because she was the only social studies teacher there and they needed her, Landry told WAFB.
The school system, who is allowing Polite to continue to teach during the investigation, offered an apology.
[W]e cant say a whole lot about the allegations other than we received a complaint and we did an investigation internally and we are handling it as a personnel issue, Johnnie Balfantz, spokesman for the Ascension Parish School System, told WAFB.
Landry believes Polite should be fired.
She should be terminated, Landry said. If I would go on my job and use that type of language I would be immediately terminated.
Balfantz says that Polite is currently the only social studies teacher at the school but that substitutes are being lined up in case the teacher is suspended or fired.
Read more: http://houston.cbslocal.com/2013/08/12/teacher-accused-of-calling-students-n-word-on-first-day-of-school/
Hey, racism is dead, right? She was just teaching them 'bout them good ol' days.
Awesomely TimedPhotos
&t=17How much water goes into your latte?
&t=0
I don't want to waste water, but I want caffeine. Lots of caffeine. Lots.
Can You Pass This 8th Grade Exam From 1912?

http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/headlines/2013/08/8th-grade-exam-puts-adults-to-the-test/
A museum in Kentucky has unearthed a rare find: an 8th grade exam given to students 100 years ago.
"For us, this is just fascinating," David Lee Strange, a volunteer at the Bullitt County History Museum, told ABC News. "It puts us in the mindset of 1912."
The exam spans eight subjects: spelling, reading, arithmetic, grammar, geography, physiology, civil government and history.
"Some people say that the questions are trivial, but the questions relate to what the children at the time would have been familiar with," Strange said.
For example, there's a geography query: "Locate the following countries which border each other: Turkey, Greece, Serbia, Montenegro, Romania."
An 8th grader today may have trouble with that one but "the students back then would have to be familiar with that part of the world," according to Strange.
Strange explained, "1912 was right around the corner from what would become World War I. Eighteen students in Bullitt County would go on to die in that war."
The exam also asks students to define the cerebrum and cerebellum, differentiate between copyright and patent rights, and define each part of speech in the English language.
Think you have what it takes to pass the 8th grade? Take a shot at these final exam questions:
How long of a rope is required to reach from the top of a building 40 feet high to the ground 30 feet from the base of a building?
What is a personal pronoun?
Through which waters would a vessel pass in going from England through the Suez Canal to Manila?
Compare arteries and veins as to function. Where is the blood carried to be purified?
During which wars were the following battles fought: Brandywine, Great Meadows, Lundy's Lane, Antietam, Buena Vista?
Sketch briefly Sir Walter Raleigh, Peter Stuyvesant.
Answers to the exam can be found on the Bullitt County History Museum's website.
http://www.bullittcountyhistory.com/bchistory/schoolexam1912ans.html
US judge orders NYPD stop-and-frisk monitor
Source: Yahoo News
Associated Press
COLLEEN LONG 11 minutes ago
NEW YORK (AP) A federal judge has appointed an independent monitor to oversee changes to the New York Police Department's contentious stop-and-frisk policy.
U.S. District Court Judge Shira Scheindlin ruled Monday in the case of four men who say New York City police unfairly targeted them because of their race. There have been about 5 million stops during the past decade, mostly of black and Hispanic men.
Scheindlin ruled after a 10-week bench trial that included testimony from top NYPD brass and a dozen people who said they were wrongly stopped by police.
City lawyers argued the department does a good job policing itself with an internal affairs bureau, a civilian complaint board and quality assurance divisions.
Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/us-judge-orders-nypd-stop-frisk-monitor-133351273.html
Those Damned Hippies. They're Saving the Post Office.
Those Damned Hippies. They're Saving the Post Office.
by jpmassar
Yup. Hippies. Straight out of the 60's, looking oddly like grandparents these days. Hardcore labor unionists. Harscrabble activists. Street kids. Cal students. Throw in a few of Berkeley's famous homeless and They may think it's a movement (as Arlo famously put it). A movement to save the Berkeley Post Office and stop the Privatization of our Commons.
One hundred plus people rallied at the downtown Berkeley Post Office yesterday, celebrating 15 days of successful Occupation organized by an activist coalition from Save the Berkeley Post Office and Strike Debt Bay Area.
We're fighting to stop the sale of the Berkeley Post Office. We're trying to call attention to the seemingly inexorable push to privatize and de-unionize the entire Post Office, just one instance of the more general goal of privatization across the board - from education to Social Security, from Medicare to owning the roads. (For more on these issues and the Occupation see the articles referenced in Background etal at the end of this picture essay).
Let's start with the basics: Why Are They There?
Read more:
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2013/08/11/1230418/-Those-Damned-Hippies-They-re-Saving-the-Post-Office?detail=action
Great stuff! Photos, tweets, etc
San Antonio considers shale drilling’s effect on ozone
San Antonio considers shale drillings effect on ozone
By Neena Satija - Texas Tribune
As the ozone rating in San Antonio continues its slow upward march, area officials are beginning to investigate whether oil and gas drilling in the Eagle Ford Shale has anything to do with it. But their efforts are fraught with complications. And they remain far from answers in what is sure to be a high-stakes debate over the environmental impact of one of the countrys newest and fastest-growing oil and gas development regions.
<snip>
That big stick is held by the Environmental Protection Agency. For years, San Antonio has touted itself as the largest American city that is in compliance with federal ozone standards, and therefore not subject to extra regulation and enforcement from the EPA. That will soon change. Today, San Antonio is violating the Clean Air Act based on its ozone scores, the highest of which are far above the maximum acceptable value of 75 parts per billion.
The San Antonio region has really become much more of an interest for ozone problems than it ever was before, said Daniel Cohan, an associate professor of environmental engineering at Rice University who studies the formation and control of air pollution. Not only have the regions ozone levels started to increase, but the EPA also lowered its ozone standards from 85 parts per billion to 75 parts per billion in 2008, during the final year of George W. Bushs presidency.
San Antonios ozone uptick is relatively recent. The citys ozone numbers dropped dramatically in the beginning of the last decade; in 2007, it was under the federal limit even during some of the hottest days of the summer. Starting in the late 2000s, ozone levels began to increase again just as the first wells were being drilled in the Eagle Ford Shale, now a 400-mile swath of oil and gas production stretching from South Texas Mexico border all the way to East Texas, brushing the southern tip of the San Antonio metropolitan area.
That timing has not been lost on anyone. I think that there can be and there might be impacts of the oil and gas development, Bella said. This month, AACOG produced its first estimates of the Eagle Ford Shales emissions of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) and nitrogen oxides (NOX), air pollutants that are the precursor components of ozone.
The numbers are very preliminary and have not been shared publicly. But they suggest that the oil and gas extraction-related activities in the Eagle Ford Shale result in dozens of tons of emissions of VOCs and NOX every day, according to AACOGs estimates. Such emissions would be equivalent to as much as half of whats emitted daily by the entire San Antonio-New Braunfels metropolitan region each day. During a recent health forum in San Antonio, AACOG officials suggested that Eagle Ford activities could increase the citys ozone score by several parts per billion within the next decade.
<snip>
Spokesmen for the Texas Oil and Gas Association and the South Texas Energy & Economic Roundtable, which was established by the 11 largest operators in the Eagle Ford Shale, did not respond to requests for comment.
<snip>
Air pollution experts at the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality, which will soon review AACOGs report and help with revisions, have their own thoughts on the matter. They dont believe that the Eagle Ford Shale is a major cause of the ozone changes in San Antonio, based on the data they are monitoring.
<snip>
This article is available online at texastribune.org/2013/08/01/is-the-eagle-ford-shale-polluting-san-antonio/
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