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Author: Leslie Eastman

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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 July 04, 2017 12 Comments
North Korea fired a ballistic missile that flew into waters east of the Korean Peninsula, according to South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff.
"We confirm that North Korea has fired an unidentified ballistic missile off its eastern coast towards the East Sea from Banghyun area in Northern Pyong An Province at around 9:40 am (KST) Tuesday morning," a South Korean military official told NBC. "The launch was immediately reported to the President Moon Jae In." Moon ordered a National Security Council meeting after the launch, South Korean state news agency Yonhap reported, citing the Blue House — the South Korean equivalent of the White House.

Posted by Leslie Eastman on July 01, 2017 9 Comments
Late last year, we reported that there will be a total eclipse of the sun that will be visible throughout a good portion of the United States on August 21. As the date of that event draws near, transportation officials are gearing up for potential gridlock along the interstate that may occur because of skyward rubbernecking.
The eclipse will be visible in 14 states, and FHWA estimates that over 200,000,000 will be within a day's drive from traveling into the phenomenon's path.

Posted by Leslie Eastman on July 01, 2017 13 Comments
The last time that we checked on the National Endowment for the Arts, the progressives were clutching their pearls over President Donald Trump's threat to drain this particular pond of the government swamp. Yet, the agency still exists...and just gave a fairly substantial grant to The Public Theater of New York, which just concluded its run of Shakespeare's Julius Caesar featuring the assassination of a Trump-like character.  Here is an entry from the list of 2017 grants:

Posted by Leslie Eastman on July 01, 2017 7 Comments
Yesterday, we reported that the U.S. House of Representatives passed Kate’s Law (increasing penalties for illegal immigrants who keep trying to re-enter the United States) and another that denies federal grants to sanctuary cities. The need for such federal intervention was promptly highlighted after news of a six-figure settlement between the "sancturary city" of San Francisco and an illegal immigrant was released:

Posted by Leslie Eastman on June 28, 2017 32 Comments
Legal Insurrection readers will recall that the Environmental Protection Agency under Obama enacted one of the most flagrant regulatory power grabs in American history with the Waters of the United States rule (WOTUS). WOTUS redefine how "waters of the United States" are subject to federal regulations under the Clean Water Act. Attempted enforcement of these rules led to farmers being fined astronomical amounts after installing stock pods that had no potential impact on navigable waters, nor posed any other significant environmental threat to the community.

Posted by Leslie Eastman on June 24, 2017 11 Comments
I recently reported that California Senate Bill 562, which would establish a single payer healthcare system within the state, had recently cleared a major hurdle by passing through a state legislative committee. However, the measure died upon entering the California Assembly.
A high-profile effort to establish a single-payer healthcare system in California sputtered Friday when Assembly Speaker Anthony Rendon (D-Paramount) decided to shelve the proposal.

Posted by Leslie Eastman on June 23, 2017 22 Comments

Among the trending news items this week is the tale of a freak accident that took the life of a French model and aspiring social media star.

From the Daily Mail:
A French fitness blogger has been killed by an exploding whipped cream dispenser which hit her in the chest, giving her a heart attack. Rebecca Burger's family announced her death on social media, where she has amassed a following of more than 200,000 with her fitness focused posts.

Posted by Leslie Eastman on June 21, 2017 66 Comments
Many eco-activists have mocked statements that President Donald Trump, Environmental Protection Agency chief Scott Pruitt, and many others have made in the efforts to fight climate alarmist policies. As I noted in a previous post, President Donald Trump understands enough about climate science to be highly skeptical of diverting millions of American dollars into the global bureaucracy. In fact, I asserted that he comprehended more real science that the climate change proponents. Proof that I am correct (again) comes in the form of a paper in Nature Geoscience: Causes of differences in model and satellite tropospheric warming rates. Since this is a weighty article, I will cut to the chase and hit the highlights.

Posted by Leslie Eastman on June 20, 2017 20 Comments
The total losses from the inferno that swept through London's Grenfell Tower last week are still being assessed. The count of dead victims has steadily increased with each report, and now stands at 79.
At least 79 people are dead or missing and presumed dead following the fire that tore through the 24-story Grenfell Tower in London, police have said. Metropolitan Police Commander Stuart Cundy told a press conference Monday that only five victims have been formally identified so far, and the death toll may change.

Posted by Leslie Eastman on June 19, 2017 16 Comments
President Trump has faced many opponents during his quest for the White House and the early days of his administration. However, no group seems to be as powerful as the judiciary when it comes to gutting his policies. Legal Insurrection readers will recall that one of Trump's first acts as President was signing the executive order to move forward with the Dakota Access and Keystone Pipelines. The good news is that the Dakota Access Pipeline began shipping oil on June 1.

Posted by Leslie Eastman on June 18, 2017 14 Comments
As we approach the 150 day mark for President Donald Trump's first term, I thought in might be useful to have a retrospective post about how the American press has presented his record, outside of Twitter, Russia and Comey hearings...and highlight some of his underreported victories. Professor Jacobson so noted, the news cycle is essentially over for the assassination attempt on the Republican congressional baseball team. To be sure, if the Democratic congressional representatives had been targeted (and the assassin found with a list of Democratic targets in his pocket), this would have been "top of the fold" for many more weeks to come.

Posted by Leslie Eastman on June 16, 2017 16 Comments
Legal Insurrection readers may remember my post on a launch of a California recall effort to remove state Senator Josh Newman (D-Fullerton), who voted for the $52 billion road repair package, paid for by fuel taxes and registration fees, just four months after he took office. Unhappy that their super-majority status is in jeopardy, Democratic politicians in Sacramento inserted language into a bill for a veteran's cemetery that would kick a recall vote into the next general election.
Over impassioned objections from GOP lawmakers, California Democrats on Thursday used a budget maneuver to help out a freshman colleague, Sen. Josh Newman, who faces an ugly recall battle in Southern California after voting for increasing the state’s gas tax six months after he was elected.

Posted by Leslie Eastman on June 13, 2017 41 Comments
I recently noted there was a bizarre rendition of Shakespeare's classic tragedy, Julius Caesar, in which the title character resembled President Donald Trump. What I did not report at the time is that I called my banking institution of 19 years, Bank of America, and warned them that their continued sponsorship of this travesty would cost them my long-term business. Clearly, I wasn't the only one either, as the corporation and another sponsor have cut ties to the New York City theater that produced the play.
Delta Airlines and Bank of America pulled out of their sponsorship of New York’s Public Theater on Sunday over a production of “Julius Caesar” that reimagines the main character as President Trump.

Posted by Leslie Eastman on June 13, 2017 15 Comments
This weekend, I recounted the astonishing immaturity of California's junior U.S. Senator Kamala Harris during several hearings in which she participated. However, our state's senior U.S. Senator, Dianne Feinstein, may be attempting to salvage some of California's former reputation of producing serious politicians. Feinstein recently stated that perhaps the time has come to look into Comey’s testimony that former Attorney General Loretta Lynch asked him to minimize the nature of his investigation into Hillary Clinton’s emails.

Posted by Leslie Eastman on June 12, 2017 127 Comments
Because of my Legal Insurrection coverage of climate change, in the wake of the withdrawal from the Paris Climate Accord, I was asked directly: Exactly how much climate science does President Trump understand. Like any true science, climatology is filled with highly technical terms, professional jargon, complex mathematics, and a myriad of other aspects that are challenging to understand and master. For example, a talk by Dr. William Happer, the Cyrus Fogg Brackett Professor of Physics at Princeton University, shows the discussion included the variability of carbon dioxide levels through history and flaws in the computer models used related to lack of cloud cover influence on temperature.
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