Yesterday, I focused on getting prepared to go see Virgil tomorrow. I also heard from Pat B that she will be missing tomorrow. I promise a post, but I don’t promise a full one. I also promise a video open thread, but it may be short as well.
Cartoon –
Short Takes –
HuffPost – Alabama Wants To Use Its COVID Relief Funds To Build New Prisons
Quote – Sandy Ray, the mother of an inmate killed in a state prison in 2019, came to the Statehouse Monday and showed lawmakers a photo of her son’s battered face following an altercation with guards. New prisons might help, she said, but there needs to be broader changes, otherwise it’s, “still going to be the same problems in the new buildings.” “They are still killing people in the prison system and it’s worse than it was in 2019 when my son died,” she said.
Click through for story and rationales.
Mother Jones – In California’s Water Wars, Nuts Are Edging Out People
Quote – Irrigating the valley’s farms takes 89 percent of the region’s water (compared to just 3 percent for residents). Embedded in what’s essentially a desert, San Joaquin’s vast agriculture industry relies on two sources for this liquid sustenance: snowmelt from the Sierra Nevada mountain range that forms the state’s eastern spine, and underground aquifers that have developed over millennia. Farm operations receive the great bulk of the melted snow, shunted through a complex of dams, canals, and aqueducts. But because of climate change, the annual Sierra Nevada snowpack has shown a declining trend for years—and will likely dwindle further over the next several decades, a growing body of research suggests.
Click through for details. This is a serious story, and I hope y’all will pardon my frivolity, but what drew me to this story was the applicability of the title to the entir country. (Wing) nuts are edging out (normal) people everywhere one looks.
NM Political Report – Chipmunk subspecies only found in the White Mountains could be listed as endangered
Quote – The three units proposed for critical habitat include Nogal Peak, Crest Trail and Sierra Blanca. The lands are both federal and tribal. The tribal lands belong to the Mescalero Apache Tribe. The critical habitat includes Ski Apache Resort in the Sierra Blanca unit. According to the notice published in the Federal Register, the chipmunk has been seen at Ski Apache Resort on Lookout Mountain and the summer activities at the ski resort, including maintenance, can negatively impact the chipmunk. The Fish and Wildlife Service has had conversations with the Mescalero Apache Tribe, according to the notice.
Click through for more. Greedy and powerful people don’t give a tinker’s dam about unintended consequences … which is why we have to.
Food for Thought –
