Trump Admin omits climate change from U.S. National Threat Assessment; EPA's deadly rollback of air and water pollution rules; PLUS: SCOTUS kills landmark youth climate lawsuit...
More wildfires in Carolinas as Trump dismantles FEMA; Melting glaciers threaten global water supplies; PLUS: Fossil fuel industry is ready for payback...
THIS WEEK: Kremlin Call ... Court Gestures ... Voiceless America ... Show Toons! ... And more! In our latest collection of the week's most imaginable toons...
Greenpeace ordered to pay hundreds of millions to fossil fuel co.; WMO climate report documents spiraling climate; PLUS: China unveils EV battery that charges in 5 mins...
Felony charges dropped against VA Republican caught trashing voter registrations before last year's election. Did GOP AG, Prosecutor conflicts of interest play role?...
State investigators widening criminal probe of man arrested destroying registration forms, said now looking at violations of law by Nathan Sproul's RNC-hired firm...
Arrest of RNC/Sproul man caught destroying registration forms brings official calls for wider criminal probe from compromised VA AG Cuccinelli and U.S. AG Holder...
'RNC official' charged on 13 counts, for allegely trashing voter registration forms in a dumpster, worked for Romney consultant, 'fired' GOP operative Nathan Sproul...
So much for the RNC's 'zero tolerance' policy, as discredited Republican registration fraud operative still hiring for dozens of GOP 'Get Out The Vote' campaigns...
The other companies of Romney's GOP operative Nathan Sproul, at center of Voter Registration Fraud Scandal, still at it; Congressional Dems seek answers...
The belated and begrudging coverage by Fox' Eric Shawn includes two different video reports featuring an interview with The BRAD BLOG's Brad Friedman...
FL Dept. of Law Enforcement confirms 'enough evidence to warrant full-blown investigation'; Election officials told fraudulent forms 'may become evidence in court'...
Rep. Ted Deutch (D-FL) sends blistering letter to Gov. Rick Scott (R) demanding bi-partisan reg fraud probe in FL; Slams 'shocking and hypocritical' silence, lack of action...
After FL & NC GOP fire Romney-tied group, RNC does same; Dead people found reg'd as new voters; RNC paid firm over $3m over 2 months in 5 battleground states...
After fraudulent registration forms from Romney-tied GOP firm found in Palm Beach, Election Supe says state's 'fraud'-obsessed top election official failed to return call...
IN TODAY'S RADIO REPORT: Lake Michigan beaches closed after toxic chemical spill; BP's newest oil spill in Alaska finally shut down after 3 days; US nuclear company bankruptcy raises questions over unfinished reactors; Good news: March 2017 was not the hottest on record! Bad news: it was 2nd hottest; PLUS: London's famous black cabs are going electric... All that and more in today's Green News Report!
Got comments, tips, love letters, hate mail? Drop us a line at GreenNews@BradBlog.com or right here at the comments link below. All GNRs are always archived at GreenNews.BradBlog.com.
IN 'GREEN NEWS EXTRA' (see links below): Science Strikes Back: Anti-Trump March Draws Thousands To Washington; Trump Advisers To Meet Tuesday To Discuss Paris Climate Agreement; DOE Sec. Perry Orders Electric Grid Study to Boost Coal; Saudis Target 30 Solar, Wind Projects in $50 Billion Pledge; Battle Over Endangered Species Law Already Raging Out Of Public Eye; Exodus From Canada's Oil Sands Continues as Energy Giants Shed Assets; In The Rockies, Climate Change Spells Trouble For Cutthroat Trout... PLUS: Canada Glacier Melt Rerouted In Rare Case Of 'River Piracy'.... and much, MUCH more! ...
IN TODAY'S RADIO REPORT: Democratic senators grill Trump's EPA pick, while his Interior Department nominee denies scientific consensus on climate change; Obama slips in one more parting gift for the planet; PLUS: It's official - 2016 was the hottest year on record, for the 3rd straight year in a row... All that and more in today's Green News Report!
Got comments, tips, love letters, hate mail? Drop us a line at GreenNews@BradBlog.com or right here at the comments link below. All GNRs are always archived at GreenNews.BradBlog.com.
IN 'GREEN NEWS EXTRA' (see links below): Hottest year ever and Arctic meltdown put the world on the brink of catastrophe; EPA cranks out toxics rules during Obama’s last days in office; Court blocks Dakota Access Pipeline company's attempt to halt further environmental review; Biologists Investigate Deaths Of 82 Stranded Dolphins In Florida; Ice Crack To Put UK Antarctic Base In Shut-Down; Hawaiian Electric's new, new plan to get to 100% renewables; Twilight of Tokyo's legendary fish market... PLUS: Asian electronic waste generation up 63% in 5 years... and much, MUCH more! ...
It was another hugely busy news day on today's BradCast. But, as usual, we try, at least, to keep our eyes not on the shiny objects, but on the stuff that actually matters. Wish us luck. [Audio link to show is posted below.]
Among the stories we cover on today's show...
President Obama's final press conference as President of the United States, on Chelsea Manning; Trump; Russia; Cuba; Israel and the need to preserve a free press and protect democracy;
The World Meteorological Organization declares data from NOAA, NASA, the UK, and the European weather and climate center, as well as other datasets, all find that 2016 set the record for the hottest year ever recorded on Planet Earth. It was the third year in a row to shatter the record, posing what scientists categorize as a "profound threat to both the natural world and to human civilization;
Billionaire charter school proponent Betsy DeVos, Trump's nominee to become Secretary of Education, gets hammered by Democrats in her U.S. Senate confirmation hearings. She was unphased;
Oklahoma Attorney General, climate science denier, and enemy of the EPA Scott Pruitt faces tough questions at his confirmation hearings in the U.S. Senate, as Trump's nominee to head...yes...the EPA. He was also unphased.;
Desi Doyen joins us for the latest Green News Report with at least some good news in our increasingly pretend world;
And listeners call in with a few time capsule messages for the future...from the final days before Donald Trump will have become President of the United States...
While we post The BradCast here every day, and you can hear it across all of our great affiliate stations and websites, to automagically get new episodes as soon as they're available sent right to your computer or personal device, subscribe for free at iTunes, Stitcher, TuneIn or our native RSS feed!
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IN TODAY'S RADIO REPORT: New report finds 3,000 American communities have high levels of lead contamination in children; Tap water now safe to use in Corpus Christi after acid accident; Interior Department races to protect drinking water from coal mining pollution; PLUS: Scientists rally to protect scientific integrity and research in the coming Trump Administration... All that and more in today's Green News Report!
Got comments, tips, love letters, hate mail? Drop us a line at GreenNews@BradBlog.com or right here at the comments link below. All GNRs are always archived at GreenNews.BradBlog.com.
IN 'GREEN NEWS EXTRA' (see links below): I’m a scientist who has gotten death threats. I fear what may happen under Trump; Massive 2013 Oil Spill In North Dakota Still Not Cleaned Up; Advanced Black Lung Cases Surge In Appalachia; U.S. Blocks Mine Planned Near Boundary Waters in Minnesota; Feds Withheld Key Documents From Standing Rock Sioux; U.S. To Give 30-Year Wind Farm Permits; Thousands Of Eagle Deaths Seen; California approves first US energy efficiency standards for computers; Michigan loses court case to stop home water deliveries due to lead... PLUS: This Just Became the World's Cheapest Form of Electricity Out of Nowhere... and much, MUCH more! ...
IN TODAY'S RADIO REPORT: Donald Trump taps Exxon Mobil CEO for Secretary of State; Potential Interior Department chief wants to sell off public lands; Trump transition team's chilling request for names of Dept. of Energy scientists working on climate policy; PLUS: Federal aid for Flint, Michigan lead pipes and coal miners, finally clears the U.S. Senate... All that and more in today's Green News Report!
Got comments, tips, love letters, hate mail? Drop us a line at GreenNews@BradBlog.com or right here at the comments link below. All GNRs are always archived at GreenNews.BradBlog.com.
IN 'GREEN NEWS EXTRA' (see links below): Investment Funds Worth Trillions Are Dropping Fossil Fuel Stocks; After Years Of Drama, Farmers Score A Big Win In California Water Battle; Pipeline Spills 176,000 Gallons Of Crude Into North Dakota Creek; Offshore Wind, Which Trump Fought In Scotland, Now Online In U.S.; Donald Trump’s Climate Denial Is A Problem, And These News Headlines Are Making It Worse... PLUS: Santa In Trouble? Reindeer Shrink In Arctic As Climate Changes... and much, MUCH more! ...
IN TODAY'S RADIO REPORT: Major new international agreement to phase out refrigerants (HFCs); First-ever international agreement to cut emissions from airplane travel; US emissions hit lowest level since 1991; September 2016 was the hottest September ever recorded; PLUS: Harsh words for climate activists in latest Clinton-Wikileaks revelations... All that and more in today's Green News Report!
Got comments, tips, love letters, hate mail? Drop us a line at GreenNews@BradBlog.com or right here at the comments link below. All GNRs are always archived at GreenNews.BradBlog.com.
IN 'GREEN NEWS EXTRA' (see links below): Judge Tosses Riot Charge Against Journalist Amy Goodman Covering Dakota Protest; Celebrities Rally Behind Filmmaker Arrested In Pipeline Protests; North Carolina: Damage from Hurricane Matthew estimated; Duke confirms coal ash spill at North Carolina plant due to Hurricane Matthew flooding; Greenland Is Melting; Exxon Now Seeks to Block New York Attorney General's Climate Probe; GAO: Other Cities Face Problems That Led To Flint Crisis; Little-Noticed Court Settlement Will Probably Save Millions Of Animals; Feds Plan To Seal Part Of Nuke Waste Repository... PLUS: Today's Climate Progress and Tomorrow's Climate Challenges... and much, MUCH more! ...
IN TODAY'S RADIO REPORT: Another historic, deadly rainfall event hits the U.S., dislocates tens of thousands --- this time in Louisiana (again); Another wildfire in California (again) forces evacuation of more than 4,000; July 2016 was the hottest month ever recorded on Planet Earth (again); PLUS: Dr. Jill Stein is now officially the Green Party's nominee for President. We'll tell you her position on climate change... All that and more in today's Green News Report!
Got comments, tips, love letters, hate mail? Drop us a line at GreenNews@BradBlog.com or right here at the comments link below. All GNRs are always archived at GreenNews.BradBlog.com.
IN 'GREEN NEWS EXTRA' (see links below): A court ruling that could save the planet; Brazil’s Amazon Hot, Dry and Ablaze; Secret ‘Chemtrail’ Spraying Not Real, Scientists Agree; New study: it would be cheap to retrain coal workers for solar jobs; California Farm Communities Pay Price For Decades Of Fertilizer Use; A closer look at Trump's sentence-like word strings on coal, China, and the size of the Earth... PLUS: Americans More Polarized Than Ever On Climate... and much, MUCH more! ...
IN TODAY'S RADIO REPORT: At the RNC in Cleveland, Republican Presidential nominee Donald Trump (and his Veep nominee Mike Pence) promise to roll back environmental standards and bring back dirty coal; PLUS: U.S. walloped by deadly heat wave, as June 2016 breaks yet another new temperature record... All that and more in today's Green News Report!
Got comments, tips, love letters, hate mail? Drop us a line at GreenNews@BradBlog.com or right here at the comments link below. All GNRs are always archived at GreenNews.BradBlog.com.
IN 'GREEN NEWS EXTRA' (see links below): Link Between Armed Conflict And Climate Change Just Got A Bit Stronger; EPA Clears Path To Regulate Carbon Emissions From U.S. Aircraft; Obama Admin. Announces $4.5 Billion In DOE Loan Guarantees For EV Charging; Donald Trump Loses His War Against a Scottish Wind Farm; Out-of-control wildfire grows to more than 33,000 acres in Santa Clarita Valley; New Zealand Announces Plan to Wipe Out Invasive Predators; Tesla Wants To Help You Become Your Own Solar Utility. And Sell Lots Of Self-Driving Cars... PLUS: Vancouver plans to go 100% renewable. I asked the city's manager about the challenges it faces... and much, MUCH more! ...
On today's BradCast, once-friendly GOPers turn on the FBI Director, and internal DuPont documents reveal more of what the chemical company knew (and when they knew it) concerning a toxic chemical used in cookware and leaked for years into West Virginia's water supply. [Audio link posted below.]
First up: Longtime Republican James Comey, the FBI Director previously beloved by Republicans and Democrats alike, finds himself under fire by GOPers after declaring that his agency's year-long investigation into Hillary Clinton's use of a private email server would not result in criminal prosecution. We cover details from today's four-hour long "emergency" hearing convened by the U.S. House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, following Comey's announcement on Tuesday that while the former Sec. of State's treatment of classified information in her email was "extremely careless", the FBI probe did not find the knowing intent that might have triggered a criminal indictment.
We try to separate real concerns about the scandal (some of which remain unanswered), as based on Comey's testimony at today's Congressional inquiry, from the fictional ones that Republicans are already spinning in hopes of tarring the presumptive Democratic nominee.
Then we're joined by Farron Cousins of DeSmogBlog and Ring of Fire Radio to discuss new disclosures revealed by a recent corporate document dump by the DuPont chemical company, detailing a decades long cover up of the deadly toxic dangers of C8, a chemical used in Teflon.
"C8 exposure through drinking water develops into cancer in the body," Cousins explains. "It has what they call 'bio-persistence' --- it builds up over time and does not get flushed out of the body. We have 99% of Americans with this C8 chemical [now] detectable in their bodies."
The documents, unearthed in a current civil lawsuit (one of hundreds now pending) against the chemical giant, reveal that the company was aware of C8's toxicity for decades, failed to inform their own employees for years, and continued poisoning untold millions for years, particularly those who relied on drinking water from the Ohio River near the company's Parkersburg, West Virginia plant.
"One of the sickest parts of this story, to me," Cousins says, "is the fact that DuPont was fined by the EPA in 2005" related to all of this, "and then they allowed them to continue dumping for another nine years after they were fined by Bush's EPA."
Cousins co-hosts Ring of Fire with our friend Mike Papantonio, whose law firm is currently representing one of the plaintiffs in their suit against DuPont. "This is the only justice that the victims will ever get, and this is the only time that DuPont is actually going to have to pay for their crimes," he tells me. "I defy people to look at these documents and accuse any of [the lawyers] of being ambulance chasers. People have died. People are dying. People will die. All because DuPont didn't want to face the music back in the 1960s. So they kept putting it off. And all throughout this 53 years that they were dumping this chemical into the river --- that's now detectable in the drinking water in 27 states --- they were making money. They're going to be just fine. Those people in West Virginia and Ohio and all over this country that have been poisoned? They are not."
Finally today, Desi Doyen joins us with the latest Green News Report, including very bad news for FL and VT, and very good news for Oakland and NASA...
While we post The BradCast here every day, and you can hear it across all of our great affiliate stations and websites, to automagically get new episodes as soon as they're available sent right to your computer or personal device, subscribe for free at iTunes, Stitcher, TuneIn or our native RSS feed!
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IN TODAY'S RADIO REPORT: Toxic algae bloom in South Florida ruins 4th of July for tourism industry; U.S. Senate moves fast to nix Vermont's GMO labeling law; Royalty reform for Big Coal's public lands scam; Oakland City Council bans coal export terminal; PLUS: Solar-powered NASA spacecraft reaches orbit around Jupiter... All that and more in today's Green News Report!
Got comments, tips, love letters, hate mail? Drop us a line at GreenNews@BradBlog.com or right here at the comments link below. All GNRs are always archived at GreenNews.BradBlog.com.
IN 'GREEN NEWS EXTRA' (see links below): A Model for ‘Clean Coal’ Runs Off the Tracks; The Alabama Landfill That Brought Noise, Health Woes, and a Lawsuit; TCEQ: Contested Coal Mine Can Release Wastewater Into Drinking Supply; Agency OK With Race Through Nevada Desert; Critics Cry Foul; Canada’s Pipeline Watchdog Secretly Talks Safety With Industry; Bornean Orangutan Declared ‘Critically Endangered’ As Forests Shrink; Floods in China kill almost 130, wipe out crops... PLUS: Modernizing The Grid: A Tugboat 'Trying To Turn A Big Ocean Liner'... and much, MUCH more! ...
IN TODAY'S RADIO REPORT: Global protests for action on climate change receive no coverage in corporate media; New evacuations for Fort McMurray fire in Canada's oil sands country; Obama's EPA issues new rules to cut the methane; Shell Oil gives the Gulf of Mexico another spill; A win for whales; PLUS: Here we go again: April 2016 was the hottest April ever recorded... All that and more in today's Green News Report!
Got comments, tips, love letters, hate mail? Drop us a line at GreenNews@BradBlog.com or right here at the comments link below. All GNRs are always archived at GreenNews.BradBlog.com.
IN 'GREEN NEWS EXTRA' (see links below): "You Have Been Fooled": AGU Reopens Exxon Sponsorship Review; Nissan unveils a home battery to take on Tesla's Powerwall; D.C. Circuit Shifts Plans for Obama Climate Cases; Red tuna crabs carpet Southern California beaches again; U.S. top court rejects Exxon appeal in groundwater contamination case; Nebraska Utility Head Recommends Closing Nuclear Power Plant; Trump's son woos sportsmen, covets top job at Interior... PLUS: In India's Drought Crisis, Suicides Increase Among Farmers Deep In Debt... and much, MUCH more! ...
IN TODAY'S RADIO REPORT: Another historic rain event, this time in Houston; Hillary Clinton's big plan to eliminate lead contamination within 5 years; World Bank president warns world must stop building new coal plants; PLUS: Sound familiar? March 2016 was the hottest March on record... All that and more in today's Green News Report!
Got comments, tips, love letters, hate mail? Drop us a line at GreenNews@BradBlog.com or right here at the comments link below. All GNRs are always archived at GreenNews.BradBlog.com.
IN 'GREEN NEWS EXTRA' (see links below): Saudis are going for the kill but the oil market is turning anyway; The Clinton-Sanders debate exchange on climate change was a dumpster fire; How cheap does solar power need to get before it takes over the world?; Baltimore student activist honored for fight against trash-burning power plant; Consensus: "Virtually all climate scientists agree warming is manmade"; EU bans two endocrine-disrupting weedkillers; EPA: U.S. has been emitting a lot more methane than we thought... PLUS: 'La la la la la. I can’t hear you': Deniers double down on denial
... and much, MUCH more! ...
IN TODAY'S RADIO REPORT: Big Oil CEO dies just one day after indictment on conspiracy charges; Bernie Sanders pledges to stop two more tar sands pipelines; Florida bans fracking ban bans; Oregon breaks up with coal; Iowa breaks wind --- records, that is; PLUS: NASA Astronaut Scott Kelly's new perspective on returning to Earth... All that and more in today's Green News Report!
Got comments, tips, love letters, hate mail? Drop us a line at GreenNews@BradBlog.com or right here at the comments link below. All GNRs are always archived at GreenNews.BradBlog.com.
IN 'GREEN NEWS EXTRA' (see links below): Climate Deniers’ Favorite Temperature Dataset Just Confirmed Global Warming; Oil And Gas Industry Has Pumped Millions Into Republican Campaigns; Bitter Contract Dispute Extends to Who Owns Yosemite Names; BHP's Samarco To Pay $5.1 Billion In Damages For Dam Disaster; Justice Department Refers Exxon Investigation Request to FBI; In An Unusual Move, The EPA Tries To Pull A Pesticide From Market... PLUS: Polar Bear Critical Habitat in Alaska Restored by Appeals Court... and much, MUCH more! ...
On today's BradCast we examine what the big Super Tuesday wins mean, and don't, for both Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton, as well what the media is both misreporting and failing to report at all. [Audio linked below.]
First, the GOP is now in full panic mode following Trump's seven-state victory yesterday, as the DNC and corporate media use misleading numbers to describe Clinton's own seven-state victory. In addition to the general horse-race numbers, and the Republican drama, we examine how the MSM continues to ill-serve the public in their coverage of the Democratic race to date, specifically when it comes to the unpledged so-called "SuperDelegates".
We also look at a few more of the more than 2,000 reports of voting problems that came into the non-partisan Election Protection coalition yesterday; More touch-screen trouble, this time in TN; And what the hell happened in Chelsea, MA, where former VA Gov. Jim Gilmore(!?!), who dropped out of the race weeks ago, crushed the Republican Primary competition, at least according to the paper-ballot optical-scan computers that tallied the results last night?...
The paper ballots in Chelsea were initially tabulated by the same type of op-scan systems used in states all over the country and shown to be capable of flipping elections without notice in the jaw-dropping finale of HBO's Emmy-nominated 2006 documentary Hacking Democracy. Today, the numbers have now been "corrected" [PDF] by the clerk's office [Update: The link to the document at the Chelsea government site is now broken, so here's a copy of the PDF that had been linked there] and, apparently, chalked up to "the computer system that reported the results". Ya don't say. Was it anything like this similar failure from Stoughton, WI in 2014?
Also today: Listener email in response to my interview earlier this week with Current Affairs magazine editor Nathan J. Robinson, who had offered his persuasive case, based on his recent feature article, for why Trump is likely to win the Presidency if Democrats fail to nominate Bernie Sanders. We look at the arguments from a number of you who disagreed with Robinson.
Finally: A short, but refreshing break from politics as Scott Kelly, the American astronaut who has been in space for the past year, returns safely to Earth with his Russian counterpart in furtherance of NASA's planned manned missions to Mars...
While we post The BradCast here every day, and you can hear it across all of our great affiliate stations and websites, to automagically get new episodes as soon as they're available sent right to your computer or personal device, subscribe for free at iTunes, Stitcher, TuneIn or our native RSS feed!
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(Snail mail support to "Brad Friedman, 7095 Hollywood Blvd., #594 Los Angeles, CA 90028" always welcome too!)
IN TODAY'S RADIO REPORT: House Republicans double-down in their ongoing war against climate scientists; October 2015 was the hottest October on record; Taxpayers subsidize fossil fuels to the tune of $500 billion a year; UK to phase out coal; PLUS: Canada's new prime minister kills another tar sands pipeline... All that and more in today's Green News Report!
Got comments, tips, love letters, hate mail? Drop us a line at GreenNews@BradBlog.com or right here at the comments link below. All GNRs are always archived at GreenNews.BradBlog.com.
IN 'GREEN NEWS EXTRA' (see links below): GOP Senators Vow To Block Climate Aid, Scrutinize Paris Deal; Statoil to Depart Chukchi Sea; Latest to Drop Alaska Efforts; Wastewater Spills Untracked in Texas, Masking Pollution; Yellowstone Proposes Killing Off 1,000 Bison From Famed Herd; Polar Bear Numbers To Fall as Arctic Ice Shrinks: Study; Congress To Vote on Bill To Ban Microbead Hygiene Products in US... PLUS: French Climate March Ban Draws Criticism ... and much, MUCH more! ...
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