Investigation Reveals Where Our E-Waste Ends Up and It Ain’t Good

People in front of a pile of e-waste. (photo: Discard Studies)

 

Katie Herzog | Grist | Reader Supported News | May 14, 2016

 

ou probably know better than to dump your old electronics in the trash. TVs, printers, and laptops are full of harmful materials like arsenic, lead, and mercury — and when left in landfills, these toxins can leach into nearby land and water. Campaigns to recycle instead of trash have alerted the public to the dangers of e-waste, and so instead of throwing those old TVs in the dumpster behind the local elementary school, we donate them to e-waste recyclers or non-profits like Goodwill. And we donate a lot: About 50,000 dump trucks’ worth of electronics are sent to American recyclers each year.

But what happens to our old devices after we drop them off?

The Basel Action Network, a Seattle-based watchdog group, partnered with MIT to insert 200 GPS tracking devices in old computers, TVs, and printers. They dropped the goods off at donation centers and recyclers that advertise environmental responsibility, including Goodwill, and waited to see where those products actually ended up.

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Why Hillary Isn’t Such a Lock to Win the Key Early State of Nevada Anymore

Steven Rosenfeld | AlterNet | January 21, 2016

Hillary Clinton’s road to the Democratic presidential nomination just got rockier.

If Clinton loses the Iowa caucuses and New Hampshire primary as many are predicting—due to Bernie Sanders’ surging supporters in Iowa and rising poll numbers in New Hampshire—then the nation’s third Democratic contest, in Nevada, becomes even more critical to show she is back on her feet.

But news from Nevada, the third state to vote and the West’s first state to hold a presidential nominating event, are showing the odds are not stacking up in her favor, even though she had a 20-point lead in Christmas polling.

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Nevada’s Right Wing Could Get Burned Trying to Shut Solar Power Down

Isaiah J. Poole | Campaign for America’s Future | Truthout | January 14, 2016

Judy Treichel was just trying to do the right thing for herself and for the planet – and for that she’s being penalized as a result of efforts by the Koch brothers and other right-wingers working to protect the state’s fossil-fuel monopoly.

A couple of years ago, she spent $8,500 to have solar panels installed on her modest Las Vegas home. She took advantage of a federal renewable energy tax credit and a rebate from NV Energy, Nevada’s energy utility. And because of an arrangement called net metering, she earned money for the power generated by her solar panels that she did not use.

She figured that her investment in the panels would pay off in a few years because of the dramatically lower electric bills she would be paying. And NV Energy stood to win because as more people followed Treichel’s example, the utility company would not have to spend money on new generating plants and could more quickly decommission its remaining dirty coal-consuming plants.

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String of protests disrupt Catholic church services in Vegas

KEN RITTER | Associated Press | Yahoo News | December12, 2015

LAS VEGAS (AP) — Police and church officials in Las Vegas are investigating a recent series of disruptive protests at Roman Catholic parishes that they say put worshippers on edge and led to plans for increased patrols around churches this weekend.

No injuries, damage or arrests resulted from demonstrations reported Oct. 31 and Dec. 5 at churches downtown, just off the Las Vegas Strip and several miles east of the Strip, police Officer Michael Rodriguez said Friday. There was also a protest at a Catholic high school on Dec. 2.

“All of these appear to be linked,” Rodriguez said. “It appears to be the same tactic — going into the churches during services, handing out fliers and making inflammatory statements.”

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Nevada says national nuclear dump could harm farm community

KEN RITTER | Associate Press | MSN News | November 20, 2015

LAS VEGAS — Radioactive well-water contamination could threaten some 1,400 people in a rural farming community if federal regulators allow the nation’s deadliest nuclear waste to be buried in the Nevada desert, state officials said in a report issued Friday.

A 53-page document submitted to the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission derides environmental assessments of the proposed Yucca Mountain repository as legally inadequate. It also characterizes the project itself as “an unworkable waste management plan at an unsafe repository site.”

The state says groundwater studies don’t properly address the danger to people in nearby Amargosa Valley or the cultural and spiritual effect that construction of the repository would have on Native Americans.

“In the end, there are real people there,” said Robert Halstead, chief of the Nevada Agency for Nuclear Projects and the top state official leading opposition to the project.

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Passenger Who Plunged From Cruise Ship Was Victim of Anti-Gay Remarks, Attorney Says

Inside Edition | Yahoo News | November 9, 2015

A man went overboard from a Royal Caribbean cruise ship following anti-gay remarks, according to his attorney.

The cruise line claims 35-year-old Bernardo Albaz committed suicide, saying in a statement: “Our security team responded to the guest’s stateroom after a neighboring guest complained about a domestic dispute… Our staff were unable to prevent his jumping from the stateroom balcony.”

Read: Man Who Plummeted From Cruise Ship is ID’d as Family Blames Fall on Fight with Crew

But his family’s attorney, Michael Winkleman, insists that’s not true.

“There were a number of Royal Caribbean security guards that were actually in the room when this all went down and they were right there on the scene as Bernardo was hanging on for dear life over the side of the ship,” Winkleman told INSIDE EDITION.

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Egypt pyramids for grain not pharoahs: presidential hopeful Carson

AFP | Yahoo News | November 4, 2015

Washington (AFP) – Egypt’s pyramids were built by the biblical Joseph to store grain and were not, as archaeologists believe, tombs for pharaohs, Republican presidential hopeful Ben Carson has said.

The retired neurosurgeon seeking his party’s nomination for the White House made these remarks in a 1998 address at Andrews University, a school associated with the Seventh-day Adventist Church, to which he belongs, in a video posted Wednesday on Buzzfeed. The church is a conservative evangelical Christian one.

“My own personal theory is that Joseph built the pyramids to store grain,” Carson said.

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New Horizons Nevada Senior GLBT Community Service Center

NOW WE REALLY NEED YOUR HELP –

Dear friends,
We have been working diligently for 10 years to finally send you this email – we are now ready to open our New Horizons Nevada Senior GLBT Community Service Center – your past support has told us that we can do it.

OUR NEW LOCATION? – 900 Karen Ave. Suite C-116 / 118
(south side of the Commercial Center in the New Orleans Square)
(park in the Commercial Center Parking lot and walk through the New Orleans Square)
This looks to be the home of our new SENIOR GLBT Community Service Center
(as you can tell from the attached photos, we have a lot of work to do)
Its NOT rent free so we will have a monthly expense we have to account for.

Come join our cause – and lets make the Las Vegas Valley a better place to live for our Senior GLBT Community.
We need your help and support now more than ever. Help us grow / watch us grow.

PLEASE HELP – check out our website –
https://www.gofundme.com/newhorizonsnevada

Sincerely,
—
Pete & Loren
New Horizons Nevada
info@newhorizons-nv.com
http://www.NewHorizons-NV.com
702-706-0306
https://www.gofundme.com/newhorizonsnevada

Nevada Sheriff’s Department Promises to Turn ‘Burning Man’ Festival into a Police State

Photo Credit: Shutterstock.com/dwphotos

 

John Vibes | The Free Thought Project | AlterNet | August 25, 2015

 

The new sheriff is concerned about “non-violent crime” at the annual desert bash. What could he be talking about?

 

Pershing County, NV — There is a new sheriff in town in the Burning Man jurisdiction, and he promises more arrests than ever at the world-famous music and arts festival next week.

Pershing County Sheriff Jerry Allen admitted that there would be more nonviolent “crime” at the festival than the police will be able to deal with, but they are determined to write as many tickets and make as many arrests as they possibly can.

“We don’t have the personnel to issue citations to 70,000 naked people on the playa, but we will be upholding the law to the best of our ability,” Allen told the Associated Press.

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Monsanto hit with lawsuit over water contamination in Spokane

 

 

RT America | August 6, 2015

Residents in Spokane, Washington are going up against agriculture giant Monsanto over accusations that the company is allowing high levels of pollutants to fill local rivers. Lindsay France has the latest details.

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