Image 01 Image 03
Sign In or RegisterLogout

Author: Leslie Eastman

Profile photo

Leslie Eastman

I am an Environmental Health and Safety Professional, as well as a science/technical writer for a variety of news and professional publications. I have been a citizen activist since 2009, and am one of the co-founders of the San Diego-based group, Southern California Tax Revolt Coalition.

Posted by Leslie Eastman on September 03, 2016 15 Comments
About a week ago, I noted that new Food and Drug Administration regulations were snuffing out e-cigarette firms. Now the FDA is going to save us from our hand soaps:
The Food and Drug Administration has issued a final rule that throws water on claims that antibacterial soaps and washes are more effective than regular soap. The new rule bans antibacterial soaps and body washes containing certain ingredients from being marketed, because the ingredients were not proved to be safe and effective for long-term daily use, the FDA said Friday.

Posted by Leslie Eastman on August 31, 2016 18 Comments
While I had hoped Dr. Kelli Ward would be the Republican candidate for Arizona's U.S. Senate seat, it looks like Senator John McCain is immune from "anti-incumbent fever" and handily won Tuesday's primary battle.
U.S. Sen. John McCain beat back a primary challenge Tuesday from a Republican tea party activist to win the right to seek a sixth Senate term in November, clearing an important hurdle in a race that was inundated with questions about GOP presidential candidate Donald Trump. The 2008 GOP presidential nominee easily defeated former state Sen. Kelli Ward and two other Republicans on the ballot. He faces a tough Democratic challenge in the November general election from U.S. Rep. Ann Kirkpatrick. She advanced Tuesday after facing only a write-in opponent in the primary.

Posted by Leslie Eastman on August 28, 2016 10 Comments
The Terminator is an iconic film that helped propel former California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger to stardom. The movie is also a basis for discussion about the future of military weaponry, as Air Force General Paul Selva, vice chair of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, uses the film as reference in describing autonomous weaponry systems that could be developed in the next decade.
The nation’s second-highest ranking military officer believes that our adversaries may try to build completely autonomous “Terminator”-like systems that can conduct lethal operations on the battlefield. “I don’t think it’s impossible that somebody will try to build a completely autonomous system, and I’m not talking about something like a cruise missile … or a mine that requires a human to target it and release it and it goes and finds its target,” Selva told an audience at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, D.C. when asked about such capabilities. “I’m talking about a wholly robotic system that decides whether or not, at the point of decision, it’s going to do lethal ops.”

Posted by Leslie Eastman on August 28, 2016 7 Comments
In the last Zika update I filed for Legal Insurrection, I noted 4 Floridians were determined to have been infected with Zika locally (most probably by mosquito bites). Now it anticipated that there will be up to 400 non-travel Zika cases in Florida by mid-September.
Locally transmitted Zika cases in Florida could reach 400 by summer’s end, projections released Tuesday by a team of American biostatisticians suggests. Researchers project the virus will also spread to other Southern states, including Texas, South Carolina and Oklahoma. “It wasn’t clear at first whether mosquito densities were high enough to sustain an outbreak in the U.S.,” Dr. Ira Longini, a biostatistics professor at the University of Florida and a senior researcher at UF’s Emerging Pathogen Institute, said in a news release. That all changed when Zika began being transmitted in Miami, where officials had reported 37 non-travel-related Zika cases as of Monday. On Tuesday, that number rose to 41, consisting of four new cases in South Florida and one in the Tampa, Florida, area.
The rate of spread of Zika through the Sunshine State could be increased by storms projected to hit its shores through hurricane season.

Posted by Leslie Eastman on August 27, 2016 7 Comments
My last report on California mentioned that Governor Jerry Brown was planning to introduce a ballot measure to extend AB-32, the state's Global Warming Solutions Act of 2006. Despite the fact that the bottom has fallen out of the Cap & Trade permit market, the Assembly granted the rules an extension beyond the initial 2020 end date.
The Assembly approved sweeping climate-change legislation Tuesday that extends the state’s targets for reducing greenhouse gases from 2020 to 2030 in a controversial bill that saw White House officials and Gov. Jerry Brown privately urging lawmakers for support. Under SB32, the state would reduce its greenhouse gas emissions to 40 percent below 1990 levels by 2030. The bill would piggyback on AB32, the California Global Warming Solutions Act of 2006, which calls for California to reduce greenhouse gases to 1990 levels by 2020.

Posted by Leslie Eastman on August 24, 2016 16 Comments
Legal Insurrection has chronicled the radical social upheaval pursued by Black Lives Matter, which seems to have enriched some of the participants more than accomplished anything worthwhile. However, the lack of BLM response to the Louisiana floods now have some black Americans questioning the movement's true motives. Jerry L. Washington, a former Baton Rouge resident who went to southern Louisiana to lend a hand after the disaster, is angry about failure to respond. He has a few choice words for Black Lives Matter:

Posted by Leslie Eastman on August 24, 2016 19 Comments
A recent report analyzing the regulatory climate under the Obama Administration shows that it is a lush and healthy environment... for bureaucrats.
A recent report by Sam Batkins of the American Action Forum brings the regulatory overreach of the Obama administration into focus. In nearly eight years, the Obama administration has issued 600 major regulations, which, again, are regulations with an annual economic impact of $100 million or more. Unfortunately, even with President Obama's time in office slowly coming to a close, the number of major regulations issued on his watch may exceed 650.

Posted by Leslie Eastman on August 20, 2016 25 Comments
My newest assignment at the consulting firm I work for focuses on marketing and client development. My recent reading and experiences have given me many great tips and tricks. However, embarrassing customers because of their politics is not among the recommendations I have seen. Yet, Lady Grey Jewelry thought that it was smart business to send Ivanka Trump, daughter of Donald Trump and enthusiastic advocate for her father, a snark-filled "thank you" note along with her web-order.

Posted by Leslie Eastman on August 20, 2016 37 Comments
I reported that the rains that hit Louisiana last week produced a "500 year flood" of epic proportions. This week, the southern part of the state is still reeling from the storm's devastating impact.
Approximately 280,000 people live in the areas that flooded, according to an analysis released Friday by the Baton Rouge Area Chamber. In those flood-affected areas are 110,000 homes worth a combined $20.7 billion and more than 7,000 businesses — about one in every five businesses in the region — that together employ more than 73,000 people.
Now, after giving an inspiring and presidential campaign speech in North Carlonia, GOP presidential hopeful Donald Trump flew to the state to offer support, meet with officials, and hand-out supplies.

Posted by Leslie Eastman on August 20, 2016 40 Comments
A few weeks ago, my colleague Mary reported that an Australian artist removed his mural of Hillary Clinton after a local council vote. His first rendition put her in a very revealing swimsuit; the second featured a burqa after the council first told him to paint over it. In the US, an "anonymous art collective" has focused its questionable creative efforts on Donald Trump.
It's Donald Trump like he's never been seen before. Life-size naked statues of the Republican presidential nominee greeted passers-by in New York, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Seattle and Cleveland on Thursday. They are the brainchild of an activist collective called INDECLINE, which has spoken out against Trump before. In a statement, the collective said the hope is that Trump "is never installed in the most powerful political and military position in the world."

Posted by Leslie Eastman on August 18, 2016 17 Comments
While Louisiana is drying out from its epic flooding, California firefighters are valiantly battling massive wildfires that have erupted throughout the state over the past week.
Here are some of the fires now raging in California:
  • Blue Cut fire: 30,000 acres near the 15 Freeway in Cajon Pass; began Tuesday. 0% contained.
  • Clayton fire: 4,000 acres and 175 structures burned near Clear Lake; 40% contained (as of Wednesday morning); began Saturday.
  • Chimney fire: 7,300 acres and 40 structures destroyed in San Luis Obispo County; 25% contained (as of Wednesday morning); began Saturday.
This is in addition to Soberanes Fire near Big Sur that has closed lanes on a portion of state Highway 1 in Monterey County, blackened over 76,000 acres, damaged or destroyed over 30 homes, and is weeks from full containment. Now, reports are just coming in about another blaze that has forced evacuations about 20 minutes from where I live in San Diego.

Posted by Leslie Eastman on August 17, 2016 20 Comments
Every now and then, I like to check on the state of reporting as it relates to the Tea Party...for entertainment purposes. I have decided that if any actual fact is offered in the elite media stories, it is purely coincidental. Today's review shows that after over 7 years of independent conservative activism, our elite media is still making rather ludicrous claims. For example, this chestnut from Bloomberg:
The Tea Party was always tragically miscast. The angry oldsters who formed its white-hot core fancied themselves tax protesters. Their self-image was informed, inflamed and more than occasionally exploited by conservative operations ranging from Fox News to FreedomWorks and a phalanx of right-wing grifters who dealt themselves into the action.

Posted by Leslie Eastman on August 15, 2016 17 Comments
While Milwaukee burned during race-based violence, thousands in Louisiana were forced to evacuate in the wake of historic rains that led to flooding.
More than 7,000 people have been rescued from their homes after massive floods swept across the state, and officials warned Sunday that even though the rain had subsided, dangers loomed. "It's not over," said Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards on Sunday. "The water's going to rise in many areas. It's no time to let the guard down." ... Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards — who declared a state of emergency —called the floods "unprecedented" and "historic."

Posted by Leslie Eastman on August 13, 2016 11 Comments
About a year ago, a backhoe operator working for the EPA accidentally breached the plug holding 3 million gallons of toxic wastewater from the Gold King Mine, causing it to spill into Colorado’s Animas River and creating a true man-caused disaster. Since that time, an analysis of incident by the Interior Department and Bureau of Reclamation (supported by an official with the Army Corps of Engineers), held the EPA responsible for the multi-state environmental contamination. The scathing report clearly refuted the EPA's assertion that the spill was inevitable. Now, a criminal investigation into the incident has been confirmed.

Posted by Leslie Eastman on August 13, 2016 24 Comments
Before the Rio Olympics began, I noted that scientists found dangerous drug-resistant “super bacteria” off beaches in Rio de Janeiro and in a lagoon where rowing and canoe athletes will compete. This is in addition to bodies, sewage, and other detritus floating off the coast of Brazil. But Olymic officials said, "Let the Games begin". Now, Rio's contaminated waters have claimed their first victim.
A Belgian sailor who won a bronze medal at the 2012 Olympics has become the first person to fall sick after racing on Rio's polluted Guanabara Bay.
Accessibility by WAH