Farm Bull
As Congress gears up to write a farm bill for 2007, Ken Meter argues that the legislation should support communities, not commodities. Find out how he would craft the bill, and then tell us how you would, in Gristmill.
Lease and Desist
House reps blow taxpayer dough on pricey gas-guzzlers
It's almost April; do you know where your taxes are? Last year, at least $1.05 million in public money went to leasing SUVs, luxury cars, and other vehicles for members of Congress -- just as the Founding Fathers intended. Members of the House are legally allowed to lease cars out of their office budgets to travel in their own districts, a perk that about one-third of reps took advantage of in 2005. Leasing fuel-efficient, inexpensive vehicles could cost taxpayers less than reimbursing representatives for driving their own cars, yet dozens of the vehicles leased in 2005 were gas-guzzlers. The biggest spender in 2005, Rep. Michael Ross (D-Ark.), spent more than $36,000 to lease three vehicles, including a Ford Expedition SUV; the median annual income of his constituents is about $30,000. "Leadership by example," says Gary Ruskin of the Congressional Accountability Project, "has never been a forte of the United States Congress."
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 The city of Los Angeles has 10 million people, 8 million cars, and a heck of a lot of pollution -- pollution that disproportionately affects low-income communities of color. Francisca Porchas, an organizer with the Clean Air, Clean Lungs, Clean Buses Campaign, is working to change that. As InterActivist this week, Porchas chats about the city's car culture, her trip to New Orleans in the wake of Katrina, why she hearts the people of Tuvalu, and more. Send her a question of your own by noon PST on Wednesday; we'll publish her answers to selected questions on Friday.  |
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Sand Trap
Cancers, other diseases rising near Alberta oil sands
Illnesses including leukemia and lymphomas are cropping up at greater than expected rates in a First Nations community near oil sands in Canada's Alberta province. Elders at Fort Chipewyan say incidence of disease started rising when the oil industry started extracting and processing hundreds of thousands of barrels of oil a day near their community of about 1,200 people. Area medical examiner John O'Connor says he'd like to figure out what's going on before more oil developments are approved; he's diagnosing unusually high numbers of immune-system diseases, and has also treated five community members for a fatal cancer that typically occurs in one out of 100,000 people. O'Connor is negotiating with federal health officials to start an epidemiological investigation ASAP. Alberta's oil sands are estimated to hold between 1.7 trillion and 2.5 trillion barrels of oil -- second only to reserves in Saudi Arabia -- and production is set to quadruple in the next 25 years.
 | NEW IN GRIST The Sweets Hereafter Umbra on dorm snacks |
Eco-friendliness is not typically the green that most worries RAs in the nation's college dorms. (No, it doesn't smell like incense.) But today, one dorm adviser asks advice maven Umbra Fisk how to satisfy her charges' munchies while being good to the planet. 
Silly Rabbit, Toxics Aren't for Kids!
Parents strive to protect kids from everyday chemical hazards
There may be no more powerful force for social change in the world than worried parents. And they're turning their attention to lead in lunchboxes, bisphenol A in plastic, and other eco-nasties in their children's daily lives, switching to greener-seeming products -- like cloth totes and wax-paper wrappers for school lunches -- and sharing information. Breeders' buying power can transform the market: green goods retailer Seventh Generation has seen double-digit growth in sales for the past five years, which the company attributes in part to new parents. Making healthy choices for kids may not get easier any time soon, though, as the Bush administration has proposed killing the National Children's Study, a research effort authorized by Congress in 2000 to understand how environmental factors affect asthma, childhood cancer, and other growing health problems. The study -- set to start in 2007 -- will involve tracking 100,000 children from the womb to age 21. Or would have, anyway.
straight to the source: The New York Times, Julie Bick, 12 Mar 2006
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