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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 March 11, 2016 15 Comments
We have continuously chronicled they myriad of symptoms that clearly show the Affordable Care Act is seriously ill. Enrollments have been significantly short of projections. Premiums for health insurance are escalating to the point many Americans can't afford the coverage they were mandated to purchase. Obamacare state exchanges have been closing, and the largest of the co-ops was placed under investigation for under-reporting its financial obligations. Now NPR and Harvard, hardly the bastions of Tea Party activism, have declared Obamacare a failure.
National Public Radio collaborated with Harvard’s T.H. Chan School of Public Health and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation to survey Americans’ recent experience with health care. As to the Affordable Care Act, the survey’s findings are damning. They suggest that Obamacare has been worse than a complete waste of money.

Posted by Leslie Eastman on March 10, 2016 21 Comments
We recently reported that Navy SEALs have confided that the Navy is so short of combat rifles that the SEALs have been forced to rotate rifles among returning and deploying teams. On the other end of the financial spectrum, the Obama Administration had just deposited the first installment of a planned $3 Billion into the United Nation's Green Climate Fund.
At a time when Republican opposition to President Barack Obama’s climate change initiatives is growing, the U.S. government announced Monday that it had deposited $500 million into the United Nations-backed Green Climate Fund (GCF). The payment marks the first tranche of the $3 billion the U.S. pledged for the GCF in 2014.

Posted by Leslie Eastman on March 08, 2016 17 Comments
I suspect there is a new app being used by grant-writing professors that blended the hottest, politically-correct topics together to generate grant proposals. It is the only rational explanation for the following report:
The National Science Foundation has spent more than $400,000 on a study that published scientific results on the “relationship between gender and glaciers.” The paper “Glaciers, gender, and science,” published in January 2016, concluded that “ice is not just ice,” urging scientists to take a “feminist political ecology and feminist postcolonial” approach when they study melting ice caps and climate change. “Glaciers are key icons of climate change and global environmental change,” the paper by Mark Carey, a professor at the University of Oregon, explained. “However, the relationships among gender, science, and glaciers–particularly related to epistemological questions about the production of glaciological knowledge – remain understudied.”

Posted by Leslie Eastman on March 06, 2016 14 Comments
The last time we visited the city of San Francisco, it had just installed open-air urinals because of rampant public urination problem. This sanctuary city was also the focus of national attention when, during a family outing to the Pier 14, Kate Steinle was killed by an illegal immigrant who had a long-term criminal history and had been deported 5 times. In its infinite wisdom, the San Francisco Board of Supervisors has decided that the continuing "quality of life" crisis it is now experiencing can be best resolved by limiting the purchasing freedoms of its young adults.

Posted by Leslie Eastman on March 06, 2016 14 Comments
Our first report on the Flint Water Crisis noted that research teams initially studied the obviously contaminated tap water of Flint resident LeeAnne Walters, whose 4-year old son had been diagnosed with lead poisoning. Walters is now filing a lawsuit against government officials and corporate entities, whose bureaucratic bungling and lack of response led to the crisis.
The Flint mother who told federal lawmakers her house was "ground zero" for lead-contaminated water has filed a lawsuit against those she says are responsible for poisoning her children. The lawsuit, filed Thursday, March 3, in Genesee Circuit Court by LeeAnne Walters, names multiple corporate entities and three current and former government employees for their role in the city's water crisis.

Posted by Leslie Eastman on March 04, 2016 7 Comments
In the wake of Super Tuesday, the new hero to many Democrats is the lone voter in Massachusetts who swung a district into the Bernie Sanders column. I have seen this graphic heralded almost continuously over the past days in my social media feed:

Posted by Leslie Eastman on March 04, 2016 26 Comments
In the annals of criminal trials, I cannot recall one as infamous as the O.J. Simpson criminal trial for the murder of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ron Goldman. In a shocking new twist to this case, a knife that had been located by a construction worker at O.J. Simpon's estate four years after the slaughter is only now in the hands of the Los Angeles Police Department.

Posted by Leslie Eastman on March 02, 2016 43 Comments
Professor Jacobson notes that socialism-embracing Sen. Bernie Sanders is enjoying a lot of "other people's money" in the form of donations. He suggested that Sanders is poised solidify his position as the designated nominee should Hillary "fall". I wanted to add another perspective on the current state of the Democratic Party's race. While some Republicans are initiating a #NeverTrump movement, there is a very robust and dynamic #NeverHillary faction among progressives. I would like to highlight some of their sentiments, as these opinions are likely to go under-reported by our elite media.

Posted by Leslie Eastman on March 01, 2016 11 Comments
While much recent media attention has been focused on mosquitoes and the Zika virus they transmit, another pest is now crawling into the news cycle. Lice have mutated to resist the pesticide that has been effectively used against them for years, and 25 states are experiencing infestations with "super lice".
A strain of so-called ‘super lice’ has hit a reported 25 states, causing concern and frustration among parents because the bugs can’t be killed with most over-the-counter treatments. The treatments, known as pyrethroids, had a 100 percent success rate in 2000 against lice but now only work in 25 percent of cases, KSDK.com reported.

Posted by Leslie Eastman on February 29, 2016 24 Comments
Last night, the organizers of the San Diego area's first "Tea Party" event gathered together for a Beer Caucus. During the lively discussion on the current status of the presidential primary season (which spanned the grief cycle of denial, anger, bargaining, depression and acceptance), it was noted that it was the 7th anniversary of our first event. Looking back, it has been a long, strange, and interesting journey. The focus of the first rally was a celebration of the free market system and a desire to roll-back government spending. I lovingly crafted my first protest sign. LI #34 b San Diego Tea Party sign

Posted by Leslie Eastman on February 28, 2016 3 Comments
The number of confirmed cases of Zika among those living in the United States is steadily rising.
There have been 107 cases of Zika virus among U.S. travelers returning from Zika-infected areas, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Friday. The CDC also reported 40 locally acquired cases of the virus in U.S. territories. Thirty-five are in Puerto Rico, four are in American Samoa, and one is in the U.S. Virgin Islands.
As I have noted, one of the most significant concerns associated with infection by the virus is a birth defect called microcephaly. This condition, associated with abnormal smallness of the head and incomplete brain development, occurs when a pregnant woman is either bitten by a mosquito or infected via other modes of blood-borne pathogen transmission.

Posted by Leslie Eastman on February 28, 2016 41 Comments
I must admit, I was not particularly moved when Governor Chris Christie endorse Donald Trump for President. However, today, there is an endorsement from someone I have respected for quite some time.

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.
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