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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 February 26, 2016 16 Comments
Less than a year ago, climate scientists were heralding the "Godzilla El Niño," which would generate historic rainfalls that could help alleviate California's mega-drought. Climate reality has failed to confirm climate theory, as the term "dud" is now being used to describe the weather pattern.
Is this El Niño a dud? Sacramento is in the peak of its rainy season, but there is no substantial rain in the forecast for the next two weeks. The Sierra snowpack has fallen below normal levels for this time of year. The state’s three largest reservoirs remain far below capacity.

Posted by Leslie Eastman on February 25, 2016 18 Comments
About 2 years ago, I featured a legal saga involving a California state senator from the Bay area who was a leading advocate for gun control. His alleged crime reeked of irony: Gun trafficking.
In exchange for campaign contributions, according to the affidavit, Yee would “facilitate a meeting with the arms dealer” so that the donor could buy a large number of weapons. The firearms would be imported through a port in Newark, N.J. At one meeting, the affidavit said, Yee and the prospective donor discussed “details of the specific types of weapons.”
The deals were facilitated by a Chinese gangland figure nicknamed "Shrimp Boy." The wheels of justice have been slow to grind, but grind they did. Leland Yee was charged and convicted of soliciting and accepting bribes in exchange for providing political favors and conspiring to import weapons and ammunition into the country. He has just received a 5-year sentence, after throwing himself on the mercy of the court.

Posted by Leslie Eastman on February 25, 2016 23 Comments
Not too long ago, climate alarmists were predicting "bee-pocalyse". A spate of reports about American bee colonies being wiped-out for no apparent reason had people worried about the total loss of one of nature's most important species. There were numerous theories bandied about for bee colony collapse (e.g., GMO's, climate change, pesticides). But usually it was mankind that was the root cause of another impending global crisis. The experts predicted that the consequences to global food production would be unimaginable. We were all going to starve to death!

Posted by Leslie Eastman on February 24, 2016 7 Comments
The last time we checked on the bureaucracy-caused disaster of the Flint Water Crisis, Michigan Governor Rick Snyder offered to testify before Congress about events leading to the lead-contaminated residential water. Of course, since he is a Republican, Snyder has been a convenient target of Democratic Party kabuki theater.
U.S. Rep. Elijah Cummings of Maryland, who is the top Democrat on the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, wrote in a letter to Chairman Jason Chaffetz, R-Utah, that Snyder has "completely ignored" Cummings' and U.S. Rep. Brenda Lawrence's request for documents related to the Flint sent Jan. 29. "As I have stated many times, I believe the committee must obtain information from all levels of government — local, state and federal — in order to conduct a responsible and complete investigation," wrote Cummings, who is part of a delegation of congressional Democrats visiting Flint on Monday with U.S. Rep. Dan Kildee, D-Flint Township.

Posted by Leslie Eastman on February 23, 2016 17 Comments
One prediction I can now comfortably make after years of observation is that there is a direct, linear relationship between how much government funding a scientist gets and the inaccuracy of the theories generated. The more politically connected the researcher, the more erroneous the "consensus" will be. I have a new data point to add to the collection. There are reports that a large colony of penguins died of climate changed induced starvation.

Posted by Leslie Eastman on February 22, 2016 8 Comments
Being a big fan of Game of Thrones, I am really looking forward to the season 6 premier of the hit HBO series. Saturday night, I couldn't help but compare the end of Governor Jeb Bush's campaign to the unexpected loss of key characters that regularly occurs during episodes of the show. Apparently, I am not the only fan following Election 2016 closely. It seems some clever video creator merged current primary leader Donald Trump's statements into carefully selected scenes. The result is pure comedy gold. We get a review in Trumps's own words about the importance of building the wall, protecting citizens from Muslim terrorists, the art of the deal, the usefulness of waterboarding, and the recent exchange with Pope Francis.

Posted by Leslie Eastman on February 22, 2016 8 Comments
The drama that ensued over Pope Francis' remarks about wall-building, Donald Trump, and Christianity last week overshadowed another intriguing papal statement about contraception. Catholic doctrine bans the use of artificial contraception. In remarks to the press, Pope Francis suggested that some forms of birth control may be used to prevent the spread of the Zika virus.
Pope Francis indicates that women exposed to the Zika virus may be permitted to use contraception to avoid pregnancy. Speaking to reporters on the papal plane on Thursday, Francis says: ‘Avoiding pregnancy is not an absolute evil’ and in certain circumstances it may be permitted - he referred to the exceptional dispensation issued by Pope Paul VI, who allowed Catholic nuns in Africa to take birth control pills in the face of the risk of being raped."

Posted by Leslie Eastman on February 19, 2016 13 Comments
While Pope Francis' remarks about Donald Trump were off target, a laser attack during his flight to Mexico was not.
The airline that carried Pope Francis to Mexico says the plane carrying the pontiff was hit by a laser light from the ground as it arrived on Friday. Alitalia says no one was hurt and the aircraft landed safely. It said Wednesday that the crew notified the Mexico City airport's control tower of the incident. Officials around the world have been increasingly concerned about people training laser pointers on jetliners. In some cases, crewmembers have suffered eye damage.
There is no indication Trump was involved.  (Joke) The number of attacks have dramatically increased, hitting 5,300 last year. However, as demonstrated by a recent flight from London that was mere days before the papal trip, the boldness of the attacks has escalated.

Posted by Leslie Eastman on February 16, 2016 23 Comments
There are moments I always recall with great clarity. Learning about the death of Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia will be one of those events. As I have been closely following this news, I have noticed that there is a lot of chatter about the circumstances of his death and the disposition of his body. For example, reading The Drudge Report headlines, I could almost believe this story might soon be featured on Forensic Files. While dialoging with fans of Legal Insurrection's cartoonist, Antonio F. Branco, I noticed many comments I had also read elsewhere. For example, suspicious were shared about the pillow found over his head. Many Americans are expressing worries about the lack of an autopsy that would have confirmed the ruling of "natural death". I wanted to share some perspectives, which I thought might be helpful, based on my own experiences.

Posted by Leslie Eastman on February 14, 2016 12 Comments
We noted that the water crisis in Flint, Michigan was 40-years in the making and the situation was worsened by complete bureaucratic failure. However, unlike Hillary Clinton and her emails, the electronic correspondence from regulators and government officials associated with the decision that resulted in Flint residents consuming water with elevated lead concentrations has been released. It is not a pretty picture. One set from the EPA's local regulators indicate that the bureaucrats were prepared to let the situation continued unchecked for several months before proceeding to take any mitigating action.

Posted by Leslie Eastman on February 10, 2016 19 Comments
I will admit I have a taste for sweet schadenfreude. After nearly a year of the elite media's reporting breathlessly on the war among Republicans, social media is now covering veritable insurrection occurring among the Democrats because of primary system shenanigans. Last week, we covered the Iowa Caucus coin flips that garnered Hillary Clinton more delegates than Bernie Sanders (despite the veritable tie). Now after trouncing Clinton in New Hampshire by a straight-up popular vote total difference over 20% points, Sanders will be leaving the state with an equal number of delegates.
...Sanders had won 13 delegates with his 20-point victory on Tuesday and is expected to raise that total to 15 by the time all of the votes are counted.

Posted by Leslie Eastman on February 10, 2016 11 Comments
Aloha to an American tropical disease crisis!
Hawai’i County Mayor Billy Kenoi declared a State of Emergency in Hawai’i County Monday morning as the Big Island continues to face the dengue fever outbreak. As of Friday, Feb. 5, a total of 250 individuals had been infected with the dengue virus since the beginning of the outbreak. Three of the individuals remained “potentially infectious” on Friday. Hawai’i Department of Health officials will update the numbers again Monday afternoon.
As with Zika, specific mosquito species are the carrier or the virus. Dengue fever is characterized by an array of symptoms, including high fever, severe headache, severe pain behind the eyes, and joint pain. A variety, known as dengue hemorrhagic fever, may be fatal. As with Zika, standing water associated with discarded tires is a contributor to this crisis. In this case, Hawaii County will prohibit the acceptance of tires at its landfills.

Posted by Leslie Eastman on February 09, 2016 8 Comments
It is too bad for the Clintons that the Internet can travel back nearly 20 years! Feminist icons spent the weekend shaming women into voting for Hillary Clinton. Her husband, former President Bill Clinton, even smeared supporters of Senator Bernie Sanders as sexist trolls. But video taken 20 years ago show that Vermont's socialist representative was made an "honorary woman" by feminist luminary Gloria Steinem herself. (Jump ahead to 15:44)
[I]n 1996 the famous feminist traveled to Burlington, VT to endorse him (OVER his female opponent) in what was a tough re-election fight against Republican Susan Sweetser.

Posted by Leslie Eastman on February 09, 2016 16 Comments
Obama now says that there is no reason to panic over a virus that has been linked to an outbreaks in birth defects in South America:
President Obama is asking people not to panic about the Zika virus. "The good news is this is not like Ebola, people don't die of Zika — a lot of people get it and don't even know that they have it," the president said in an interview with Gayle King that aired Monday on "CBS This Morning."
While I agree panic is unwarranted, concern is not...especially after Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced that its emergency operations center has been put on a “Level 1” status. The President is also asking for $1.8 billion in funding for the resources to combat the disease.

Posted by Leslie Eastman on February 07, 2016 20 Comments
There is an old adage that bad things come in threes. Today, there are three omens showing that Hillary Clinton's campaign may be floundering worse than previously imagined. We have covered two of those signs already: Donors wanting to Draft Vice President Joe Biden for the party's nomination and Gloria Steinem indicating women who vote for Senator Bernie Sanders are actually after men. Unexpectedly, that last bit is not playing too terribly well among progressive women.

Posted by Leslie Eastman on February 04, 2016 13 Comments
It looks like Zika virus is truly the new Ebola. Concerns about the Zika virus have grown to the point that Utah Congressman Chris Stewart wants to divert funding from the fight against Ebola to use against this latest epidemic.
Stewart says his bill, which would unlock more than a billion dollars for the CDC and National Institute of Health, would ensure the agencies had the resources they need to research and combat the virus. “Congress has already allocated funding to fight many of the world’s infectious diseases, like Ebola, and I want to make sure this funding can also be used to combat the Zika virus,” Stewart said. The Zika Response and Safety Act would allow federal agencies to use funds allocated for Ebola research in the fight against the Zika virus, according to a press release from Stewart’s office. Stewart states that of the $2.4 billion allocated for Ebola research, about $1.4 billion was unused as of September of 2015.
Dallas County Health and Human Services has confirmed acase of Zika infection that occurred on American soil...through sexual transmission.

Posted by Leslie Eastman on February 02, 2016 41 Comments
In his analysis of the Republican results in the Iowa Caucus, Professor Jacobson indicated that he was right to trust the voters to get the best result. On the other side of the aisle, the Democratic Party placed its trust elsewhere. At least six Iowa precincts flipped coins to call Hillary Clinton the victor. Des Moines Register political reporter Jason Noble covered the caucus in Ames, Iowa.

Posted by Leslie Eastman on February 02, 2016 1 Comment
The World Health Organization officially declared a "public health emergency of international concern" over the wildfire spread of the Zika virus.
The agency said the emergency is warranted because of how fast the mosquito-borne virus is spreading and its suspected link to an alarming spike in babies born with abnormally small heads -- a condition called microcephaly -- in Brazil and French Polynesia. Reports of a serious neurological condition, called Guillame-Barre Syndrome, that can lead to paralysis, have also risen in areas where the virus has been reported. Health officials have specifically seen clusters of this in El Salvador, Brazil and French Polynesia, according to WHO's Dr. Bruce Aylward.
Brazilian officials are claiming the outbreak is even worse than reported, because most cases show no overt symptoms of "Zika". Therefore, testing potentially infected people (especially pregnant women) will be one element of controlling the public health crisis.
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