Hillary Clinton is Fed Up with Income Inequality

Hillary Clinton, whose campaign is suffering from email drama + The Bern, wants you to know that she is fighting for you. Those of us in the middle class, she is our champion. She is fed up with income inequality, and she wants the term “middle class to mean something again”.

Today Hillary’s Twitter account tweeted this:

After all, she is just one of us, and she’s just as incensed. But I’m not sure which I can relate to more? The $368.00 “Hillary for President” sweater, her $200,000 speaking fees, or the Clintons’ multiple houses? From her one-percenter platform, she shakes her head at the inequality she sees below, and wants us to again believe “our work will be rewarded”.

The inconvenient truth is that income inequality isn’t a scourge against the 99% by those who hold the purse. Business is business, and you are worth what an employer is willing and able to pay you for your work. Recently, fast food workers have campaigned for “fair” wages, and some companies have caved to their demands. This is not sustainable. The desire to level the playing field feels good, but what does that say about what someone brings to the interview table in terms of education, experience, etc.? Those things set others apart, and should be the criteria for selecting employees. You want the best the workforce has to offer. If you want to be that “best”, then improve your position among applicants by gaining that experience or obtaining that degree. If it’s just a matter of moving the decimal point for anyone whenever they demand it, then why try to present yourself as a worthwhile candidate?

There is no better example than that of Gravity Payments, a credit card payment processing company. A few months ago, its young CEO, Dan Price, changed the company’s minimum salary to $70,000. He took a 90% pay cut and dipped “into the firm’s annual $2 million in profits” to help accomplish this feat of paycheck equality.

Price decided to hike his employees pay after he read a study about happiness. It said additional income can make a significant difference in a person’s emotional well being up to the point when they earn $75,000 a year.

Fast-forward to August, and the side effects of the feelings-based decision, which selected an arbitrary salary amount, haven’t exactly amounted to that sought after happiness.

…a few customers, dismayed by what they viewed as a political statement, withdrew their business. Others, anticipating a fee increase – despite repeated assurances to the contrary – also left. While dozens of new clients, inspired by Price’s announcement, were signing up, those accounts will not start paying off for at least another year. To handle the flood, he has had to hire a dozen additional employees – now at a significantly higher cost – and is struggling to figure out whether more are needed without knowing for certain how long the bonanza will last.

Two of Price’s most valued employees quit, spurred in part by their view that it was unfair to double the pay of some new hires while the longest-serving staff members got small or no raises.

Then potentially the worst blow of all: Less than two weeks after the announcement, Price’s older brother and Gravity co-founder, Lucas Price, citing longstanding differences, filed a lawsuit that potentially threatened the company’s very existence. With legal bills quickly mounting and most of his own paycheque and last year’s $US2.2 million in profits plowed into the salary increases, Dan Price said, “We don’t have a margin of error to pay those legal fees.”

Happiness, indeed. This social experiment certainly has proven something. That feelings-based business decisions, or political ones, are not grounded in reality. CEOs or longer serving employees make more than non-CEOs and new employees, but they should! Being the founder/leader of a company with your financial life on the line, or proving your worth over the long haul and obtaining much experience, do factor into pay, whether some like it or not.

I’m not sure how Hillary, who says she wants to “reshuffle the deck”, plans to address income inequality. However, taking from those that have earned it in order to appease the crowd that yells “But I want more!!” might look good on paper, but doesn’t play out in the real world. Just ask Dan Price.

Via: Red State

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When A Mom Spotted One Question On Her Fourth Grader’s Math Homework, She Lost It

The district confirmed it was aware of the situation Thursday, providing a more detailed response Friday morning.

The mother of one Ohio elementary school student is enlisting the assistance of local and social media to determine why a recent classroom assignment was peppered with what she felt to be inappropriate references.

She posted a social media photo showing an assignment sent home on the second day of the school year, prompting the press and concerned parents to share the image.

I suggested that with questionable wording, he should, maybe, have the pages retyped with new words and recipes he agreed. So not sure this resolved anything, but at least this teacher is aware that parents do pay attention to their kids’ assignments.

The district confirmed it was aware of the situation Thursday, providing a more detailed response Friday morning:

The wording is both insensitive and developmentally inappropriate. It also runs counter to the values of NAM and Cincinnati Public Schools, where we celebrate the diversity of our families and respect differences in backgrounds and beliefs.

Former district teacher Tyran Stallings agreed that the language used in this lesson was worrisome.

“I had an issue with the fact that liquor is being brought in a fourth grader’s classroom,” he said, “and in terms of education, I think that’s ridiculous.”

Should elementary school students be exposed to such references? Share your thoughts in the comments section below.

Via: Western Journalism

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Conservatives Push to Rein in Courts on Abortion, Illegal Immigration

Experts believe Congress can use Article III to limit federal jurisdiction

A Washington think tank is raising awareness of ways that Congress could use the Constitution to rein in the authority of federal courts, which many have accused of usurping the authority of the legislative branch.

The Selous Foundation for Public Policy Research recently launched the Empower the States project, of which Thomas is director. The project is meant to draw attention to the powers available to Congress under Article III of the Constitution, which declares that “The judicial power of the United States shall be vested in one Supreme Court, and in such inferior courts as the Congress may from time to time ordain and establish.”

Andrew Thomas, a fellow at the foundation, says that the nation’s federal court system has been “functionally taken over by the left,” the only solution to which is for Congress to remove power from courts and place it back in the hands of states and the American people.

The Supreme Court has “appellate jurisdiction, both as to law and fact, with such exceptions, and under such regulations as the Congress shall make.” As such, Congress has the authority to limit the jurisdiction of federal courts, a power that Thomas identified as crucial to stop what he considers the decades-long “abuse” that some judges have exercised such areas as immigration, the death penalty, abortion, and marriage.

The challenge with Article III reforms, however, is that there exist limits on what they can accomplish because the courts will ultimately be able to decide whether to uphold limitations on their own jurisdiction.

Thomas said judicial reform should be a key concern for conservative voters ahead of the 2016 election. Data from the Pew Research Centerindicates that negative views of the Supreme Court are at an all-time high, largely driven by Republican dissatisfaction with the court.

A majority of American voters are “uncomfortable” with the direction of the U.S. on social issues in the wake of landmark Supreme Court rulings in favor of Obamacare and gay marriage, according to a Washington Post-ABC News poll released last month.

According to Thomas, the best Republican candidate for president will be one who is not only strong on issues like immigration and religious liberty but also a “champion of judicial reform.”

It is not enough for candidates to promise to “build a wall around the Mexican border” or “protect religious liberty,” Thomas said. The next president will face judges who will ultimately strike down the laws he or she promises to enact unless proper judicial reform is achieved.

Thomas says that using the Article III method, Congress could pass legislation barring federal courts from taking up lawsuits regarding, for example, the federal government’s implementation of deportation. All the bill would need is a signature from the president to become law.

Several Republican contenders have talked forcefully about reining in courts, including Huckabee, the retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson, the former Pennsylvania senator Rick Santorum, and Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas.

The Empower the States project, of which Thomas is director, has garnered support from multiple Tea Parties in Arizona, the Las Vegas Tea Party, and several grassroots allies.

“The time has come,” Thomas said.

WFB:

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Laura Ingraham Explains ‘Trump Effect’

 Via: Weasel Zippers

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Detroit Police Chief: Legal Gun Ownership Can Help Stop Crime

 In a city plagued by crime and guarded by a dwindling police force, residents of Detroit are increasingly taking protection of themselves, their families and property into their own hands. Those who do so responsibly have the support of Detroit Police Chief James Craig, reports Fox News.

Chief Craig gave his public blessing to private gun ownership back in December, 2013, and in 2014 some 1,169 handgun permits were issued, while 8,102 guns were registered with city police - many to prior permit holders who bought new firearms. So for in 2015, nearly 500 permits have issued by the department and more than 5,000 guns have been registered.

“When you look at the city of Detroit, we’re kind of leading the way in terms of urban areas with law-abiding citizens carrying guns,” Craig said recently.

Firearms instructor Rick Ector said, "There’s definitely been a 'Chief Craig' effect.” Ector and other instructors have seen a steady rise in locals looking to get a permit, to protect themselves either on the street or in their homes.

“Home invasions have gone down,” he said. “A huge reason was that there was a huge spate of homeowners using their guns against intruders. More people have guns and it’s making burglars cautious.”

with a population of about 680,000, some 83 percent of which is African-American, Detroit's growing embrace of Second Amendment rights has a racial component that is not unique to the city. According to a recent survey from Pew Research Center, 54 percent of African-American residents nationwide now see legal gun ownership as more likely to protect people than to put their safety at risk. That figure was up from 29 percent two years ago.

“If anyone should have the right or need to carry a gun, it should be the African-American community,” says Philip Smith, founder of the National African American Gun Association.​

Detroit resident Darrell Standberry, who in 2011 used a handgun to kill a career criminal who tried to steal his car and kill him, says,

“I never leave home without my weapon,” he said. “You never know when or what you’ll encounter.”

 Via Truth Revolt

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3 Americans praised for subduing gunman on European train

RRAS, France — One serves in the Air Force, another recently served in Afghanistan in the National Guard, another is studying physical therapy in California — and all three Americans are being hailed as heroes for disarming a gunman on a high-speed train who may have been known to intelligence services in three countries.

A French citizen, who stumbled on the gunman, a Kalashnikov strapped across his shoulder, also is being given kudos as the first to try to subdue him. And a British businessman jumped in to help subdue the gunman.

Air Force serviceman Spencer Stone remained hospitalized Saturday after being stabbed in the attack Friday night as the train from Amsterdam to Paris traveled through Belgium, though the Pentagon said the injury was not life-threatening. A dual French-American citizen was also wounded as he was hit by chance by a gunshot on the train, which eventually was rerouted to Arras, the nearest station in northern France, French Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve said.

Stone was seen Saturday leaving a hospital in Lille where he was treated for a hand injury. He waved quickly and slipped into a black sedan with diplomatic license plates.

Stone, of Carmichael, California, was traveling with childhood friends Anthony Sadler, a senior at Sacramento State University, and Alek Skarlatos, a National Guardsman from Roseburg, Oregon, when they heard a gunshot and breaking glass. Sadler told The Associated Press that they saw a train employee sprint down the aisle followed by a gunman with an automatic rifle.

"As he was cocking it to shoot it, Alek just yells, 'Spencer, go!' And Spencer runs down the aisle," Sadler said. "Spencer makes first contact, he tackles the guy, Alek wrestles the gun away from him, and the gunman pulls out a boxcutter and slices Spencer a few times. And the three of us beat him until he was unconscious."

Via: Boston Herald

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St. Louis Back in Flames

A disturbing yet familiar scenario is playing out once again in St. Louis, where police made nine arrests and dispersed demonstrators protesting the shooting of black American Mansur Ball-Bey, 18, on Wednesday. According to police, Bell-Bey aimed a weapon at two white officers who returned fire, killing him. Unsurprisingly, the protesters are disputing police accounts of the incident. 

The Fountain Park neighborhood where the shooting occurred is an area of abandoned, boarded up houses “plagued by violence,” noted St. Louis Police Chief Sam Dotson. In recent days, a business near the shooting site was hit with gunfire, and a 93-year-old Tuskagee Airman was robbed and carjacked last Sunday when he got lost trying to find his daughter’s home and stopped to call her. A man got in the airman’s car robbing him and fleeing in another vehicle. The airman tried to track him, but pulled over once again to ask two men for help. The duo carjacked him. 

Another man and a woman were removed from the house without incident and Dotson revealed the house had been served with previous search warrants, including one about 18 months ago that yielded several illegal guns. Three additional weapons and crack cocaine were also recovered at or near the residence. One gun was found in the house itself and two others over the fence where they were tossed when the two suspects fled the house. Two of the three remaining guns were also stolen weapons. “Detectives were looking for guns, looking for violent felons, looking for people that have been committing crimes in the neighborhood,” Dotson added.

Via: Canada Free Press

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The Daily Caller Proudly Presents: The DUMBEST College Courses For 2015

America’s elite colleges offer plenty of ridiculous courses. Many are taught by hilariously leftist professors straight out of central casting. Other classes transcend politics and exist on their own fabulous plane of stupidity. Many of them cost a ton of money.

For The Daily Caller’s list of pathetic college classes for 2015, the course descriptions are reprinted here exactly as they appear in the colleges’s course manuals.

University of Pennsylvania, English: Wasting Time On The Internet. “We spend our lives in front of screens, mostly wasting time: checking social media, watching cat videos, chatting, and shopping. What if these activities — clicking, SMSing, status-updating, and random surfing — were used as raw material for creating compelling and emotional works of literature? Could we reconstruct our autobiography using only Facebook? Could we write a great novella by plundering our Twitter feed? Could we reframe the internet as the greatest poem ever written? Using our laptops and a wifi connection as our only materials, this class will focus on the alchemical recuperation of aimless surfing into substantial works of literature. Students will be required to stare at the screen for three hours, only interacting through chat rooms, bots, social media and listservs. To bolster our practice, we’ll explore the long history of the recuperation of boredom and time-wasting through critical texts about affect theory, ASMR, situationism and everyday life by thinkers such as Guy Debord, Mary Kelly Erving Goffman, Betty Friedan, Raymond Williams, John Cage, Georges Perec, Michel de Certeau, Henri Lefevbre, Trin Minh-ha, Stuart Hall, Sianne Ngai, Siegfried Kracauer and others. Distraction, multi-tasking, and aimless drifting is mandatory.” Total cost for a year at Penn: $66,800.

Via: Daily Caller

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First on CNN: Biden meets with Warren in Washington

Washington (CNN)Vice President Joe Biden met privately with Sen. Elizabeth Warren on Saturday in his residence at the Naval Observatory, CNN has learned, another sign he is seriously deciding whether to jump into the Democratic presidential race.

The meeting between Biden and Warren, confirmed by two people familiar with the session, is the biggest indication yet that Biden is feeling out influential Democrats before announcing his intentions.

Beloved by liberal Democrats, Warren decided to sit out a campaign of her own, but she has yet to formally endorse a candidate. In an interview on Friday, she told WBZ in Boston: "I don't think anyone has been anointed."

The vice president arrived in Washington shortly before lunchtime, even though his official schedule said he was planning to spend the weekend at his home in Delaware.

Kendra Barkoff, a Biden spokeswoman, declined to comment on the meeting. But an aide to Biden confirmed a meeting, telling CNN: "The vice president traveled last minute to Washington, D.C. for a private meeting and will be returning to Delaware."

Biden is increasingly weighing whether to challenge Hillary Clinton and other Democratic candidates for the party's presidential nomination. A small team of advisers has spent weeks quietly putting together a campaign strategy and fundraising plan in case Biden decides to run. He had at least one meeting with them this week in Wilmington, one person familiar with the session told CNN.

He has told his associates he intends to make his decision in the next month, an announcement that could upend the fight for the Democratic presidential nomination.

With the Iowa caucuses and New Hampshire primary six months away, Biden is the leading figure Democrats believe they could turn to if they needed to find an alternative to Clinton, whose favorability ratings have taken a deep hit as her email use while secretary of state is drawing deeper controversy.

Biden, 72, has a large and loyal collection of friends and advisers from more than four decades in Washington. Yet even inside his sprawling constellation, affectionately known as "Biden World," deep divisions exist over the wisdom of him making another bid for the presidency.

Via: CNN

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'Anchor Baby' Flap Shows Left Losing Grip

“You said that you have a big heart, and that you’re not mean-spirited,” queried ABC reporter Tom Llamas. “Are you aware that the term ‘anchor baby,’ that’s an offensive term? People find that hurtful.” The target for Llamas’s pique, of course, was presidential candidate Donald Trump.

Yes, “hurtful” and “offensive.” Llamas joined ABC less than a year earlier, but he had already mastered the rudiments of progressive patois, the language of victimization. As ABC’s designated Hispanic avatar, he felt free to spell out the left’s newly revised semantic codes to the insufficiently ethnic Trump.

“You mean [anchor baby] is not politically correct, and yet everybody uses it?” said Trump defiantly. “You know what? Give me a different term.” Llamas had swung at the wrong piñata.

There was no good answer to Trump’s question. Said Llamas lamely, “the American-born childs [sic] of undocumented immigrants.” This suggestion was so foolishly cumbersome even his fellow reporters snickered. Trump scoffed, “You want me to use that? Okay. I’ll use the word ‘anchor baby.'” Game, set, match -- Trump.

Via: American Thinker

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STEMEXPRESS CEO: TECHS ‘FREAK OUT’ WHEN RECEIVING WHOLE BABY HEADS IN THE MAIL

A Federal Judge lifted the temporary restraining order blocking the Center for Medical Progress from releasing a video taken secretly with StemExpress CEO Cate Dyer.

As the order was lifted, CMP immediately released a transcript of the conversation in advance of StemExpress trying to get another restraining order. David Daleiden, founder of CMP, told Breitbart News he is working feverishly to cut a new video. The transcript paints a graphic picture.

StemExpress is a California-based privately held company that buys baby body parts, repackages them and sells them at enormous markups to research facilities around the country. Until this current scandal, her company bought most of its body parts from Planned Parenthood clinics. StemExpress announced two weeks ago it would sever ties with the abortion giant.

The transcript, which Breitbart News obtained from Daleiden, shows Dyer admitting that her company receives intact fetuses, referred to in the transcript as “cases.” She tells an actor posing as a buyer, “Oh, yeah, I mean if you had intact cases, which we’ve done a lot, we sometimes ship those back to our lab in its entirety.”

At one point Dyer laughs about mailing out whole baby heads to her lab buyers in the mail. “They’ll open the box, go, ‘Oh God!’ So yeah, so many of the academic labs cannot fly like that. They are not capable.” She says lab technicians “freak out, and have meltdowns” when receiving whole heads.

Dyer complains that sometimes the intact fetuses are “destroyed” by bad handling at the abortion facility. “…Because it’s just, and the procurement for us, I mean it can go really sideways, depending on the facility, and then our samples are destroyed, and we’re like, ‘Really?’ This was all so much work, and then just to have them be destroyed is awful. I mean we have researchers wait forever, and they want certain things, you know, perfectly done, so we started bringing them back even to manage it from a procurement expert standpoint.”

She complains to the buyer about bad conditions in the clinics. “I’ve seen staph come out of clinics. I’ve seen all sorts of things come out of clinics…”

Asked what would make her lab happy, Dyer says, “Another 50 livers a week.” She says the volume of baby parts is enormous. She says her company will see consistent growth in the buying and selling of baby parts.

Dyer says she feels great support from Planned Parenthood, particularly since StemExpress is viewed as a “champion of the cause. They need champions and if you’re not a champion, then you should go.”

She also describes Planned Parenthood as a huge supplier of baby parts. “Planned Parenthood has volume,” she says. “..they are a volume business.” Planned Parenthood insists abortion is only 3% of their business, a figure that has been widely debunked, even by abortion advocates.

Follow Austin Ruse on Twitter @austinruse

Via: Breitbart

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Weekly republican Address, Sautrday August 22, 2015

The GOP is fulfilling its campaign promises to get Washington working in spite of President Barack Obama's shortcomings, U.S. Sen. John Thune said in a video address released Saturday.

The message was taped at Cherapa Place, overlooking downtown Sioux Falls, as the Republican Party’s response to the president’s weekly address, also released Saturday.

In the 5-minute video, Thune credits Republicans with passing a balanced budget without raising taxes, passing dozens of bills ranging from education to transportation to national security and repeatedly blasts the Obama administration, saying it “has presided over the worst economic recovery in 70 years.”

“As a result, too many hardworking families are stuck living paycheck to paycheck, with few chances for advancement and little access to better-paying jobs,” Thune says.

Via: Argus Leader

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Obama Weekly Address, Saturday August 22, 2015

Weekly Address: It’s Time for Congress To Pass a Responsible Budget

WASHINGTON, DC — In this week's address, the President spoke to the economic progress that our country has made, from 13 million new jobs created over the past five and a half years, to 17 states raising the minimum wage. Congress needs to do its part to continue to help grow the economy, but instead left town last month with a great deal undone. Congress failed to reauthorize the Ex-Im Bank, which enjoys bipartisan support and is tasked solely with creating American jobs by growing exports. And most pressingly, the Republican Congress failed to uphold their most basic responsibility to fund the government, leaving them only a few weeks once they return to pass a budget, or shut down the government for the second time in two years. The President made clear that Congress needs to get to work on behalf of the American people and reach a budget agreement that relieves the harmful sequester cuts and keeps our economy growing

Another EPA Disaster, This Time in Rural Georgia

Still reeling from a disaster it created at a Colorado gold mine, the EPA has so far avoided criticism for a similar toxic waste spill in Georgia.

In Greensboro, EPA-funded contractors grading a toxic 19th-century cotton mill site struck a water main, sending the deadly sediment into a nearby creek. Though that accident took place five months ago, the hazard continues as heavy storms — one hit the area Tuesday — wash more soil into the creek.

The sediment flows carry dangerous mercury, lead, arsenic and chromium downstream to Lake Oconee and then to the Oconee River — home to many federally and state protected species.

Lead in the soil at the project site is 20,000 times higher than federal levels established for drinking water, said microbiologist Dave Lewis, who was a top-level scientist during 31 years at the Environmental Protection Agency.

He became a whistleblower critical of EPA practices and now works forFocus for Health, a nonprofit that researches disease triggers.

“Clearly, the site is a major hazardous chemical waste dump, which contains many of the most dangerous chemical pollutants regulated by the EPA,” Lewis wrote in a 2014 affidavit for a court case filed by local residents that failed to prevent the EPA project: creating a low-income housing development.

The mill site contains 34 hazardous chemicals, 30 of which are on the EPA’s list of priority pollutants because of “high toxicity, persistence, lack of degradability, and harmful effects on living organisms,” Lewis wrote.

But while the nation is transfixed by the bright orange waterways in otherwise pristine Colorado wilderness, little attention has been paid to the unfolding Greensboro disaster.

The four-acre site features the abandoned Mary Leila Cotton Mill, which produced sheeting until the early 2000s. Looking like a ghostly fortress, the 135,000-square-foot building with turrets and a water tower was covered in lead-based paint that flaked off and covered the grounds along with ash produced by its coal-burning generators. High levels of cancer-causing chemicals, such as benzo(a)pyrene, are also buried there. And neighboring farmers dumped pesticides on the vacant grounds back when arsenic was used to kill bugs.

The Environmental Protection Agency has denied — but now admits — that it funded the cleanup and development project the triggered the catastrophe.

The EPA issued a grant around 2005 to turn the mill and surrounding grounds into a housing complex for the mentally ill, homeless and indigent. Contractors working with the Georgia Environmental Protection Division (GEPD) have started digging and tearing down the buildings — despite objections by the city of Greensboro and the absence of a plan to deal with the hazardous waste.

EPA and GEPD documents reviewed by Watchdog show proposals to move the dirt elsewhere or to cover it with concrete. In the latter case, the government agencies promise to monitor and repair any potholes, cracks or foundation breaks.

But for Lewis, any excavation would send large amounts of toxic soil into the creek.

Despite the manmade pollutants, Mother Nature has managed to hold her own against further degradation. The toxic soil was mainly confined to densely packed lower levels held in check by a clay barrier near the creek. EPA/GEPD contractors destroyed that barrier with a backhoe.

Now groundwater and other contaminants can flow freely, Lewis said.

The EPA did not respond to a request for comment. The agency has offered conflicting statements about its involvement in the project, alternating between knowing nothing, providing only data and guidance, and acknowledging, finally, that it funded cleanup and development at the site through a grant to the state.

Lewis says his former employer, the EPA, never showed any concern in several responses to his ongoing pleas regarding hazards around the old mill.

In letters to Lewis and David Kopp, who represented the residents in their court case, the EPA downplayed toxicity in the land, pointing to low levels in a 2010 sampling. Lewis says he tested his own samples at the University of Georgia, where he worked for a time as a marine biologist. The results staggered him.

But the EPA told him it knew nothing about Mary Leila Cotton Mill.

“There is no federal agency involved with this project at the mill property,” EPA Regional Administrator Heather McTeer Toney wrote Lewis on Jan. 9. “This property does not warrant federal action at this time.”

Five months later, in a May 28 letter to Lewis, Toney admitted the program was an “EPA brownfields grant-funded project” and that “remediation must be conducted in a manner that is protective of human health and the environment.” The state directed the developer to “maintain the mill property in a manner that protects humans from exposure to hazardous constituents while the property is undergoing corrective action.”

The EPA’s website says brownfields projects are part of the agency’s mandate “to make environmental justice an integral part of every program, policy and activity by…. Applying EPA’s regulatory tools to protect vulnerable communities.”

And involving lead, it appears that the EPA is violating its own standards. The agency prohibits release of untreated lead-laden water into the waterways and cites the Clean Water Act, saying: “The CWA prohibits anyone from discharging pollutants, including lead, through a point source into a water of the United States unless they have a National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System(NPDES) permit.”

Researcher Earl Glynn contributed to this report.

Contact Tori Richards at tori@watchdog.org or on twitter @newswriter2.

Via: Human Events

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[VIDEO] Copy of Iran ‘side deal’ backs reports Tehran would have major role in nuke site inspections

A draft document exclusively obtained by Fox News supports reports that Iran would play a major role in inspections at its controversial Parchin nuclear site, by providing U.N. inspectors with crucial materials. 

The so-called side deal, labeled "Separate arrangement II," says Iran will "provide to the [International Atomic Energy Agency]" photos and videos of locations and environmental samples, "taking into account military concerns." 

Details of the arrangement were first reported by the Associated Press. 

CLICK TO READ THE AGREEMENT

The agreement also provides that the agency would ensure the "technical authenticity" of activities -- in other words, ensuring nuclear work was not meant for weapons development -- but the IAEA would use Iran's "authenticated equipment." 

This would be followed by a visit from the IAEA director general. 

The details of the agreement for Parchin, where Iran has long been suspected of trying to build nuclear weapons, have fueled concerns from critics. 

"The agreement looks like Iran calls the shots, vetoing technical inspections when they want, where they want at the Parchin military site," House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Ed Royce, R-Calif., said in a statement. 

Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., told Fox News the side agreement is a "joke" and threatened to withhold millions of taxpayer dollars "until I get to look at this side deal." 

The IAEA, though, has called the original AP report -- which also suggested Iran would be able to self-police inspection of the Parchin site and use its own experts -- a misrepresentation. 

"I am disturbed by statements suggesting that the IAEA has given responsibility for nuclear inspections to Iran. Such statements misrepresent the way in which we will undertake this important verification work," IAEA Director General Yukiya Amano said in a statement. 

A senior Obama administration official also told Fox News, "There is no 'self-inspection' of Iranian facilities, and the IAEA has in no way given responsibility for nuclear inspections to Iran. Not now and certainly not in the future." 

The official called the IAEA-Iran arrangements "technically sound and consistent with the agency's long-established practice." 

Via: Fox News

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