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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 August 30, 2015 27 Comments
I recently reported that EPA regulations that were poised to go into effect at the end of last week, broadening the scope of the agency's power under the "Waters of the United States" Act. A federal judge has blocked its implementation hours before it was due to take effect:
Yesterday, a federal district court in North Dakota granted a preliminary injunction blocking implementation of a new Environmental Protection Agency rule defining “waters of the United States” under the Clean Water Act. This rule is important because many of the CWA’s regulatory prohibitions, including the prohibition on developing wetlands without a federal permit, apply only in “waters of the United States” (WOTUS). The Supreme Court rebuked the EPA and the Army Corps of Engineers for applying an unduly expansive WOTUS definition (see SWANCC v. U.S. Army Corps and Rapanos v. United States), and this rule is an effort to reassert and clarify the scope of federal regulatory jurisdiction under the CWA.

Posted by Leslie Eastman on August 25, 2015 8 Comments
Earlier this year, I reported that a Washington D.C. attorney discovered ingrained collusion amongst top level staff in the office of former Oregon governor John Kitzhaber to “spread climate coordination and collaboration to a larger group of governors across the U.S." Investigators have continued to follow the email trail, which has uncovered connections between the EPA regulatory drive and a billionaire, "green jobs" activist:
The White House, statehouses, and nonprofits backed by the billionaire Democrat Tom Steyer worked behind the scenes to create a state-level advocacy network to support controversial new Environmental Protection Agency regulations, newly released emails reveal. Involved in the strategy was a top aide to John Kitzhaber, the former Democratic governor of Oregon, according to emails obtained by the Energy and Environment Legal Institute. Kitzhaber resigned this year in the midst of a scandal involving his fiancée.

Posted by Leslie Eastman on August 21, 2015 8 Comments
The Obama administration spent billions to fix the Veterans Administration hospital system so that our nation's former military service personnel could actually receive the good quality healthcare they were promised---and it appears as though the Los Angeles unit used that money to buy shredders.
The embattled Veterans Administration may have another scandal on its hands, after investigators found at least eight benefits claims for veterans at the Los Angeles VA that were shredded instead of being properly processed, according to the Washington Times. The VA’s Office of the Inspector General conducted the internal investigation after receiving an anonymous tip that the staff at the Los Angeles regional office was shredding compensation claims. The 15-page report details what type of documents were allegedly shredded and how the office didn’t have a Records Management Officer, the position created in the wake of similar practices in 2008, for more than a year.
Perhaps the veterans can take some consolation in that fact that the failure of our state's healthcare exchange, Covered California, has left citizens relying on our version of Obamacare unable to access medical care.

Posted by Leslie Eastman on August 19, 2015 29 Comments
The leak of taxpayer dollars from Washington, D.C. continues unabated with reports that the EPA is investigating itself for the Animas River spill.
The inspector general for the Environmental Protection Agency is investigating the cause of a massive spill from an abandoned Colorado gold mine that unleashed 3 million gallons of contaminated wastewater into rivers that supply water to at least three states. The inspector general's office said the investigation also will focus on the EPA's response to the Aug. 5 spill from the defunct Gold King Mine near Silverton, Colo.
I suspect that the results will be similar to those achieved for these gems of federal investigations, which we have all come to enjoy during the Obama Administration!
  • Fast and Furious:  After dramatic investigations, the only fallout was that Attorney General Eric Holder became the first sitting member of the Cabinet of the United States to be held in contempt of Congress.  It didn't seem to phase him much.

Posted by Leslie Eastman on August 18, 2015 34 Comments
While California awaits the arrival of a "Godzilla" El Niño, a storm has already broken out in the city of Huntington Park. We reported that two Mexican migrant leaders, both quite undocumented, have been appointed to city commissions. And video of the city council meeting in which those appointments were approved shows only a few citizens on hand to protest the measure. That wasn't the case for the Monday night meeting, in which approximately 200 local residents flooded the council chambers to voice their anger over the action. The following video from that meeting offers a glimpse into city action, which follows a recap of events that lead to the citizen response:

Posted by Leslie Eastman on August 16, 2015 12 Comments
California's economy is in no danger of catching fire, but its scenic beauty is. Meanwhile, Governor Jerry Brown has been busy signing bills into laws, demonstrating an intriguing set of executive priorities. First, he bans the word "alien" from the state's labor code.
Sacramento has its own Censor-in-Chief. Gov. Jerry Brown just signed a bill making the word “alien” ironically illegal. Brown signed SB 432 by Sen. Tony Mendoza, D-Artesia, to remove the term “alien” from the California labor code to describe foreign-born workers. “Mendoza said removing the term ‘alien’ was an important step toward modernizing California law because it is now commonly considered a derogatory term with very negative connotations,” the AP/CBS reported. “The only vote against the bill came in the State Assembly, from Assemblyman Matthew Harper, R-Huntington Beach (Orange County), who told the San Francisco Chronicle that the bill was ‘just a way for legislators to get their names in the paper….[t]he negative connotations come from the fact that people are breaking the law. Changing the word won’t change the fact that folks are here illegally.” Breitbart reported.

Posted by Leslie Eastman on August 15, 2015 21 Comments
While the EPA is dealing with the fallout from the Animas River spill that it created, China is responding to a chemical catastrophe of its own:
Fires shot plumes of black smoke into the sky Saturday at the site of a chemical warehouse in Tianjin, China, where explosions earlier this week killed at least 105 people. But officials denied news reports that an evacuation order had been issued for everyone within 1.8 miles (3 kilometers), with Tianjin government spokesman Gong Jiansheng calling the reports "false information." The Beijing News, citing Armed Police, had reported the evacuation order. CNN has reported that at least one disaster recovery shelter is located within the reported evacuation zone. However, photographs made it appear that vehicles in a parking lot had caught fire rather than new explosions having taken place at the warehouse, as the Xinhua news agency had reported.
The Chinese have ordered an evacuation radius of nearly 2 miles due to the presence of numerous toxic chemicals and irritating vapors. Drone footage of the port area where the detonation took place is now available, and the extent of the damage is breathtaking.

Posted by Leslie Eastman on August 13, 2015 27 Comments
News related to the Animas River spill continues to stream from Colorado, including the discovery that a warning that a spill of wastewater was likely if EPA's plans to drain the mines went forward as planned had been issued a week earlier. The Silverton Standard published an eerie prediction made by professional geologist Dave Taylor detailing a sequence of events that could lead to environmental catastrophe on July 30, 2015. The editorial included the assertion that the EPA was poised to launch a "Superfund Blitzkrieg". Gateway Pundit has a copy of the full letter; a summary of the key points I would like to cover is below:
...Based on my 47 years of experience as a professional geologist, it appears to be that the EPA is setting your town and the area up for a potential Superfund blitzkrieg. ...[M]ake no mistake, within seven to 150 days all of the 500 gpm flow will return to Cement Creek. Contamination may actually increase due to disturbance and flushing action within the workings. The "grand experiment" in my opinion will fail. And guess what [EPA representative] Mr. Hestmark will say then? Gee "Plan A" didn't work so I guess that we will have to build a treatment plant at a cost to taxpayers of $100 million to $500 million (who knows). Reading between the lines, I believe that the EPA's plan all along. The proposed Red & Bonita plugging plan has been their way of getting a foot in the door to justify their hidden agenda for construction of a treatment plant. After all, with a budget of $8.2 billion and 17,000 employees, the EPA needs new, big projects to keep them in existence."

Posted by Leslie Eastman on August 12, 2015 40 Comments
It's too bad that when Obama promised to lower the ocean levels he also failed say something about America's rivers. The news related to the release of acidic wastewater laden with heavy metals (e.g., arsenic, lead) continues to flow from Colorado, and it stinks. For example, it turns out the Environmental Protection Agency substantially underestimated the size of the spill in its initial reports. The U.S. Geological Survey assessed the actual amount to be closer to 3 million gallons, compared with the initial EPA estimate of 1 million. The flow of contamination is has hit Utah, and New Mexico is declaring a state of emergency:
As of Monday evening, officials said the plume of contamination was southeast of Montezuma Creek, Utah, and was headed for Lake Powell. Environmental Protection Agency officials say the pollutants in the plume include arsenic, lead, copper, aluminum and cadmium, but have not released any detailed information on the spill that started Wednesday morning and has since been contained.

Posted by Leslie Eastman on August 11, 2015 25 Comments
Apparently, there is no economy-crushing law the state of California won't consider. The latest in legislative insanity comes from Senate President Pro Tempore Kevin de Leon, and is entitled Clean Energy and Pollution Reduction Act of 2015 (SB 350). Ultimately, should it pass, it will give one of the most aggressive state agencies in the nation the power to impose "fees" and ration gas.
De Leon’s SB 350 is ultimately a gasoline-rationing act. The bill gives the California Air Resources Board free rein to enact a mandatory 50 percent gasoline and diesel fuel restriction (8 billion gallons annually) by the year 2030. To meet the mandate, the state air resources board will be able to ration gas, place mobility restrictions on state residents, place surcharges on family mini-vans, trucks and SUVs, and even monitor individuals’ fuel consumption records. You have to wonder how these mandates and restrictions will affect not only the state’s economy but its people. ...Californians need to know and act to protect themselves from the devastating effects of this bill on their lives. The California Air Resources Board [CARB], an unelected group of bureaucrats, will be given full authority to meet the restriction mandate in any way its members see fit with no oversight permitted by our elected representatives.

Posted by Leslie Eastman on August 10, 2015 18 Comments
While it's hard to believe California can get any nuttier, the city of Huntington Park has managed to set a new standard. In addition to allowing illegal immigrants access to driver's licenses and the state's Obamacare exchange, now Huntington Park has given them an opportunity to actually govern legal American citizens. Two Mexican migrant leaders have been appointed to city commissions.
Julian Zatarain always assumed the doors of City Hall were closed to him because he is here illegally, arriving from Sinaloa in 2007 when he was 13. The 21-year-old college student found other outlets for service, such as volunteering for the Red Cross and with an organization that helps young people like him get access to educational resources. Then on Monday, Zatarain proudly accepted an appointment to the Huntington Park parks and recreation commission. Another immigrant here illegally, Francisco Medina, 29, won an appointment to the health and education commission.

Posted by Leslie Eastman on August 08, 2015 40 Comments
A good way to predict the future is to look at the past. Using this approach, I have some predictions about what is likely to happen next in the campaign of my current favorite presidential aspirant: Carly Fiorina. To do so, I will look at what happened to Sarah Palin in the wake of her dynamic speech accepting the GOP nomination for Vice President. Palin's presentation was so energetic and moving that she instantly became a target of smears by progressives across the nation, particularly progressive feminists. Her hair, clothing, accent, and family were demeaned, degraded, and dismissed during the 2008 campaign season, and her humiliation is still not complete (e.g., Jon Stewart deriding the "folksy idioms" used by Palin during the Iowa Freedom Summit). Fiornia just gave a brilliant performance and an amazing introduction to the American people...so let the mocking begin:

Posted by Leslie Eastman on August 04, 2015 20 Comments
The Democratic Party side of the 2016 Presidential race got a bit more intriguing this week, after Vice President Joe Biden released a zeppelin-sized trial balloon:
Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. and his associates have begun to actively explore a possible presidential campaign, which would upend the Democratic field and deliver a direct threat to Hillary Rodham Clinton, several people who have spoken to Mr. Biden or his closest advisers say. Mr. Biden’s advisers have started to reach out to Democratic leaders and donors who have not yet committed to Mrs. Clinton or who have grown concerned about what they see as her increasingly visible vulnerabilities as a candidate. ...On Saturday, the New York Times columnist Maureen Dowd reported that Mr. Biden had been holding meetings at his residence, “talking to friends, family and donors about jumping in” to challenge Mrs. Clinton in Iowa and New Hampshire, the first two nominating states.
There can be no doubt that the Democratic Party is rethinking its coronation strategy. Legal Insurrection has chronicled Hillary Clinton's problem-riddled campaign. The "highlights" from last month alone include these chestnuts.

Posted by Leslie Eastman on August 02, 2015 14 Comments
Environmental activists have relied heavily on computer models to predict climate patterns confirming their notion that mankind is toxic. However, recent studies have shown models have failed to consider real world conditions in their calculations. Exhibit 1 - Sea ice is more resilient to melting than thought:
Using new satellite data, researchers at University College London reported in Nature Geoscience on Monday that the total volume of sea ice in the Northern Hemisphere was well above average in the autumn of 2013, traditionally the end of the annual melt season, after an unusually cool summer when temperatures dropped to levels not seen since the 1990s. “We now know it can recover by a significant amount if the melting season is cut short,” said the study’s lead author Rachel Tilling, a researcher who studies satellite observations of the Arctic. “The sea ice might be a little more resilient than we thought.”
Exhibit 2 - The effects of the vast deserts of the Earth have not been considered, and it appears that a good portion of emitted carbon dioxide is disappearing within them.

Posted by Leslie Eastman on August 02, 2015 44 Comments
As the Internet Mob rages against the American dentist who killed the famed lion, Cecil, there is a new potential target for its ire: The hunter's "glamourous" wife.
Tonette Palmer was formerly the vice president of a family-run import and export company although recent employment records list her as secretary for a Minneapolis real estate developer. The mother-of-two seemingly shares her husband's zeal for killing wildlife, with public records revealing that she has held as many as seven sport licenses entitling her to fish in Florida and hunt in Alaska. Her husband's numerous kills - all by bow and arrow - include a moose, a buffalo, a polar bear and a mountain lion. Their two homes are thought to be crammed with stuffed heads and mementos from his safari slaughter spree, with more items stored in his personal office at his dental surgery in Bloomington, Minnesota.
Egads! How dare this woman have hunting licenses! The piece goes on to reveal that the dentist, Walter Palmer, and his wife enjoy $1 million home filled with hunting trophies. Based on this article, the media seems to be expanding its net of outrage to include Palmer's children, too, as it describes the marriage of his daughter. Fueling the fire of environmental justice outrage that is now consuming Palmer and those close to him, the report is essentially nothing more than a caricature of a rich, selfish family completely devoid of compassion for nature.

Posted by Leslie Eastman on July 28, 2015 6 Comments
When all is said and done, one feature of Obama's presidency that will stand out is the sheer number of citizen protests against his policies. Such protests began in 2009, when regular Americans organized to protest federal fiscal policies, tax increases, and Obamacare. In fact, Professor Jacobson was recently treated to a taste of the zaniness our San Diego Tea Party groups often faced, in the form of progressive demonstrators protesting the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) event he was attending. However, showing that not all Californians are crazy, concerned citizens gathered in Balboa Park this weekend to protest the administration's latest pet project: the proposed nuclear agreement with Iran.
About 500 protesters came together Sunday in Balboa Park to speak out against the pending nuclear weapons agreement with Iran, a centerpiece of President Barack Obama’s foreign policy. The Stop Iran Now event was organized by StandWithUs, an international nonprofit organization that is pro-Israel and headquartered in Los Angeles, the site of another rally also held Sunday. Both rallies were part of a larger initiative with the Jewish Rapid Response Coalition, the same group that organized a protest in New York City's Times Square last week that brought out thousands of protesters.
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