Monday, July 30, 2012

AAEA Challenges NY & Conn Attorneys General on Clean Air

Indian Point
Connecticut Post

"Connecticut, clean air and Indian Point"

Entire Article

Connecticut Attorney General George Jepsen and New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman have teamed up to improve air quality, an especially formidable challenge in densely populated communities clustered near major highways like I-84, I-95, Route 8/25 and the Merritt Parkway.
The duo recently won a federal lawsuit to compel the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to adopt updated air standards for harmful particulate matter -- commonly referred to as "soot" pollution -- by Dec. 14, 2012.
 
Although this is a good first step, more needs to be done to protect our community's most vulnerable members. Like any agents of cure, Jepsen and Schneiderman are compelled to first do no harm.
In my opinion, that means ending a series of cross-border legal actions both attorneys general have undertaken to effectively try to close the Indian Point Energy Center in New York. That facility produces 2,000 megawatts of virtually emissions-free power each day.

Connecticut residents, too, need clean power to illuminate their homes and workplaces, to power our jobs and economy. Given its own issues, taking up arms in a neighboring state seems to be going in the wrong direction. (Conn Post, 7/27/2012)

Green DMV Demos GM 2013 Hybrid Escalade

Coqui Brand in association with GreenDMV got the privilege to showcase GM's 2013 Hybrid Escalade.

Taking Green a step further.

Song: The Recipe - Kendrick Lamar ft. Dr. Dre


Tuesday, July 17, 2012

Black Descendants of CHEROKEE SLAVES Want Benefits

Cherokee Confederates
An old dispute about whether the descendants of slaves freed by the Cherokee Nation more than a century ago qualify as members of the tribe is heating up again in a federal court.

The Cherokee Nation abolished slavery in 1863, and three years later it signed a treaty with the U.S. granting tribal rights to the Cherokee's freed slaves, or "Freedmen," many of whom had migrated with the tribe decades earlier to present-day Oklahoma. But the Oklahoma-based Cherokee tribe, which has more than 310,000 members, later narrowed its citizenship criteria, excluding many descendants of the Freedmen and rendering them ineligible for a broad range of tribal benefits, such as business loans, medical services, housing assistance and college scholarships.

About 25,000 Freedmen descendants have been wrongly excluded from Cherokee citizenship, said Marilyn Vann, president of an Oklahoma-based Freedmen's advocacy group. While a sovereign nation, the Cherokee don't extend citizenship to all those within a certain territory but rather limit membership to those who share a common ancestry.

After almost 10 years of legal battles, including in Cherokee tribal courts and federal court in Washington, D.C., the Freedmen's citizenship status appears headed toward a resolution before Judge Terence Kern in Tulsa, Okla.

The Cherokee Nation filed a complaint this year, asking Judge Kern to rule that a 1866 treaty didn't grant citizenship to Freedmen descendants. On July 2, the Interior Department filed a counterclaim against the tribe, saying Freedmen descendants should enjoy all rights of native Cherokee. A group of Freedmen descendants also filed a July 2 claim contending the Cherokee Nation had violated the U.S. Constitution by perpetuating the "badges and incidents" of slavery.

The litigation will hinge partly on the legality of a 2007 vote in which Cherokee amended their constitution to grant citizenship only to those descended from at least one person listed as Indian on a government census of Cherokee taken more than 100 years ago. That definition excludes most Freedmen descendants, although more than 1,500 people who had an Indian ancestor qualify as citizens.

Some experts in Indian rights say the Cherokee Nation has a sovereign right and duty to limit its membership, particularly as the tribe has become increasingly assimilated into American society and more people claim some affiliation with the tribe.

The Cherokee people are sensitive because of efforts by non-Indians to claim to be Indians with nothing behind the claim. This is highlighted by the recent questions over whether Elizabeth Warren, a Massachusetts candidate for the U.S. Senate, exaggerated her possible Indian ancestry, an allegation Ms. Warren has denied. She has said that she has Native American ancestry, but she hasn't been able to document that heritage.

Opponents believe the Cherokee don't have a right to discriminate because of race. However, the tribe is arguing, 'We can do whatever we want,' in the same way Southern states in the 1950s.

A ruling in favor of the Freedmen would be a blow to the Cherokee's tribal sovereignty. But if the tribe wins the right to define its citizenship as it sees fit, it would face the lingering perception that it had excluded people based on race. (WSJ, 7/16/2012, Wiki--on Cherokee Confederates)

Thursday, July 12, 2012

Robert Johnson Operating Small Business Investment Company

Robert Johnson
RLJ Credit Opportunity Fund, one of several business ventures operated by Black Entertainment Television Founder Robert Johnson, has been licensed by the Small Business Administration to operate as a Small Business Investment Company.

Among investors are Deutsche Bank, Sun Trust, Wells Fargo and Northern Trust. The fund will launch with $70 million in capital, and plans to raise a total of $225 million. The relationship with partner banks will demonstrate that banks are willing to invest in minority companies that can generate  returns and help meet their Community Reinvestment Act goals. The fund will focus on financing for minority and small businesses nationwide.

Saturday, July 07, 2012

Demographics of Fracking Areas in North Carolina

Fracking Counties By Zip Code 






Durham
27517, 27519, 27560, 27613, 27701, 27703, 27704, 27705,
27706, 27707, 27708, 27709, 27710, 27711, 27712, 27713
Granville
27509, 27522, 27525, 27565, 27581, 
Lee
27330, 27332
Chatham
27252, 27312, 27330, 27502, 27517, 27519, 27523, 27559, 27562, 27713, 27312
Moore
27281, 28327, 27376, 27330, 27325, 
Wake
27502, 27511, 27513, 27518, 27519, 27522, 27523,
27539, 27540, 27560, 27562, 27587, 27617, 27713 
Montgomery
27229, 27281, 27306
Richmond
28091, 28338, 28379
Anson
28091, 28133, 28135, 28170 
Rockingham
27025, 27027, 27048, 27288
Stokes
27019, 27025, 27052, 
Yadkin
27055
Davie
27028



Companies Interested in Fracking in North Carolina

Nine companies have an interest in fracking in North Carolina. They are:

Natural gas companies 1) PSNC Energy and 2) Piedmont Natural Gas; Electric utilities Progress Energy,

3) Duke Energy (Duke & Progress Energy merged) and 4) Dominion Resources, which are expanding their use of natural gas to produce power;

5) General Electric, which has invested in natural gas reserves in other states and introduced a mobile evaporator to help gas drillers recycle water;

6) Weyerhaeuser, a major landowner that has invested in shale deposits;

Natural gas producer 7) Koch Industries; and

Railroad companies 8) Norfolk Southern and 9) CSX, which are seeing an increase in fracking-related shipping.

(Indy Week, 5/30/2012)