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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 April 15, 2016 0 Comments
A new a new report from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention confirms that the Zika virus can cause a rare birth defect called microcephaly, as well as other brain and neurological effcts.
Health officials across the globe have suspected for months a link between the virus and the birth defect, characterized by an abnormally small head and brain. Officials said today the evidence is overwhelming that exposure to virus in utero causes the birth defect. CDC Director Dr. Tom Frieden called the news a "turning point" in a fight against the virus that has continued to spread throughout the Americas.

Posted by Leslie Eastman on April 14, 2016 21 Comments
Energy company and fossil-fuel provider Exxon Mobil is the Jupiter of American business. It's so large, it's gravitational pull attracts Obama Administration strikes to promote wealth-distributing "climate change" policies and otherwise undermine the American economy. Earlier this week, I noted that one of Exxon Mobil's allies in the quest for sensible science regulation (the Competitive Enterprise Institute) was subpoenaed by the Attorney General of the Virgin Islands for correspondence related to its two decades worth of work on climate change and energy policy...including private donor information. Attorney General Claude E. Walker is one of the 17 "AGs for Clean Power" who have colluded to punish "climate change deniers" using civil racketeering statutes.

Posted by Leslie Eastman on April 12, 2016 21 Comments
Californians are thrilled at the prospect of having their votes actually matter during the presidential primary season, especially when every delegate is critical. So many Republicans in the southern California area headed to various rallies yesterday to see aspirant Senator Ted Cruz. I joined two of our local Tea Party bloggers (W.C. Varones and Left Coast Rebel) and 2000 other interested voters at his San Diego event yesterday.

Posted by Leslie Eastman on April 12, 2016 10 Comments
If the list "Best California Governors" is ever created, our current one has a better shot at making the cut than Arnold Schwarzenegger. Schwarzenegger began his time in office with record high approval ratings (89% in December 2003), he left office with a record low 23% in 2011, only one percent higher than that of Gray Davis's when he was recalled. The reasons for the plummeting approval are many, but ultimately stem from selling himself as a conservative but abandoning these principles after important citizen-backed control measures were defeated because of union shenanigans. Californians might have forgiven him for bad politics, but one of his final acts as Governor was utterly disgraceful and unforgivable.

Posted by Leslie Eastman on April 10, 2016 11 Comments
Last week, I noted that a coalition of 17 state attorney generals had formed, which intended to promote the climate change agenda by targeting the fossil fuel industry. The first victim of the Climate Change purge is the Competitive Enterprise Institute (CEI), a wonderful non-profit organization dedicated to protecting free enterprise from being undermined by progressive activists of all stripes. Attorney General Claude E. Walker of the U.S. Virgin Islands has issued a subpoena in an attempt uncover the content of CEI's comprehensive work on climate change policy.
“CEI will vigorously fight to quash this subpoena. It is an affront to our First Amendment rights of free speech and association for Attorney General Walker to bring such intimidating demands against a nonprofit group,” said CEI General Counsel Sam Kazman. “If Walker and his allies succeed, the real victims will be all Americans, whose access to affordable energy will be hit by one costly regulation after another, while scientific and policy debates are wiped out one subpoena at a time.”

Posted by Leslie Eastman on April 10, 2016 2 Comments
I attended two fascinating lectures at a local biosafety conference this week. The first talk addressed "The Zika Virus Invasion" and the second revealed a potential new weapon to control the spread of the pathogen that has been linked to birth defects and neurological disorders. The Scripps Research Institute's Biosafety Officer, Dr. Laurence Cagnon, focused on entirely on the Zika Virus in her intriguing talk. The expert on virology and microbiology discussed the history of Zika research and reviewed recommendations for working with infected samples and mosquitoes safely. "We are still limited about what we actually know about Zika," said Cagnon. "The recommendations are to treat Zika as guilty until proven innocent". Cagnon noted that before the outbreak in Brazil was widely reported, along with the associated microcephaly birth defects, only 171 professional articles mentioned the Zika Virus. In comparison, thousands were available on other well-known mosquito-borne diseases (including several I have covered here, including dengue fever, chikungunya, and Ebola).

Posted by Leslie Eastman on April 07, 2016 10 Comments
I would like to introduce you to California Attorney General Kamala Harris, who is running for the U.S. Senate and hoping to take the seat occupied by Barbara "Don't Call Me Ma'am" Boxer. I would like to say that Harris, who is both the likely nominee and ultimate November victor, will be an improvement over the pugnacious pixie. But I can't.

Posted by Leslie Eastman on April 06, 2016 3 Comments
California's primary is June 7th, and because of the ongoing election drama of both parties, voters in the Golden State are already very excited about their votes making a difference. So much so that the state's election officials are preparing for an election-day voting tsunami:
More than 600,000 Californians have registered to vote online or updated their registration in just the last three months, and county election agencies may be overwhelmed by the volume of people who show up, Secretary of State Alex Padilla warned Gov. Jerry Brown. Voter registration application cards are in high demand statewide, he wrote in a letter Monday to the governor. Padilla also wrote that "one campaign" alone recently requested 200,000 registration forms to sign up voters, although he did not specify which candidate's campaign made it. “Our data suggests a surge in voter participation in both the presidential primary election in June and the general election in November,” Padilla wrote in the letter.
Extreme interest in the presidential race is a factor. Current polls report that both Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton have substantial leads in their respective contests. However, June is months away and polls for this election cycle have been...unreliable.

Posted by Leslie Eastman on April 05, 2016 28 Comments
Dave Bry is the author of Public Apology: In Which a Man Grapples With a Lifetime of Regret, One Incident at a Time. I suspect he is going to have one more regret to add to his list: Writing a column in The Guardian asking if its immoral to have children... because "Climate Change."
...For while the world is a wonderful place, one we humans have made nicer for ourselves with wonderful inventions like books and record players, penicillin and pizza, it’s also a really awful place, one we’ve ravaged with deforestation and smog, nuclear weapons and mountains of pizza delivery boxes and other garbage. The awfulness seems to be getting worse, especially now that climate change has sped up – sea level rise that was supposed to take centuries has recently been projected as taking just decades. This complicates the already difficult decision of whether to have a kid.... Was I complicit in the damage? I remember every extra paper towel I’ve ever unspooled from the roll, and think about a tree falling in the Amazon, and then think about my son growing up in a gray, dying world – walking towards Kansas on potholed highways. Maybe while trying to protect his own son, like the father in The Road. Will he decide to have a kid? I have foisted upon him a decision even more difficult than my own. It’s all very depressing.

Posted by Leslie Eastman on April 04, 2016 4 Comments
The last time we checked on Flint, we learned that the regional Environmental Protection Agency team indicated the city was "not worth going out on a limb for." Perhaps not, but the city now is facing over 50 lawsuits because the EPA decided it didn't need to take any action upon learning about the elevated lead levels in the municipal water supply.
More than 50 lawsuits have been filed since January, accusing the city of being complicit in the water crisis for not doing enough during the 18 months in which Flint was getting its drinking water from the polluted Flint River. That move was a decision made by the state, and it turned out to be a terrible one. The river's highly corrosive water wasn't treated properly by the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality, and the water corroded lead service lines, which then caused lead to seep into the drinking water and poison families.

Posted by Leslie Eastman on April 02, 2016 18 Comments
About 2 weeks ago, I noted that the limp-wristed handshake with Cuba's acting dictator Raul Castro perfectly captured Obama's presidency. He nearly topped this historic effort with this week's Nuclear Policy Summit commemorative photograph. The Daily Mail reports:
Surrounded by world leaders, President Barack Obama gave the peace sign as they gathered for a 'team photo' during a two-day nuclear summit. All eyes were on Obama as 54 other presidents and prime ministers joined him in Washington, DC, for crunch talks on Iran and terrorist threats involving nuclear weapons. There was one set of eyes, however, that was particularly focused on the President - those of Prime Minister David Cameron. Relations between Cameron and Obama have been strained since the President criticized the Prime Minister for getting 'distracted' during the crisis in Libya and turning it into a 's**t show'.

Posted by Leslie Eastman on April 01, 2016 24 Comments
When his second term comes to its inevitable conclusion, the final list of President Obama's policy failures will be ponderous. And few items on this list will place higher than his "Green Energy Initiatives." One of his gandest schemes involved backing Solyndra LLC, a solar-panel maker. Presidential aides pressured White House budget officials to complete a review of a $535 million U.S. loan guarantee to the firm, which subsequently filed for bankruptcy protection. Now comes news of a failure 5-times larger. Late last year, another Obama-based green energy company was poised for bankruptcy:

Posted by Leslie Eastman on March 30, 2016 1 Comment
As the primary battle in Wisconsin heats up with the endorsement of Senator Ted Cruz by Governor Scott Walker, an different kind of fight is occurring among the state's citizens. As of this report, nearly 60 Wisconsin residents have been stricken with bloodstream infection from a bacteria called Elizabethkingia, and 18 have died. Additionally, one Michigan resident has also died from an infection.

Posted by Leslie Eastman on March 30, 2016 18 Comments
A little over a year ago I reported that a Food Justice Warrior had been appointed "School Lunch Czar" to shake-up the signature program promoted by First Lady Michelle Obama. Prior to that appointment, students across the country ran a #ThanksMichelleObama campaign to share pictures of the unappetizing meals being served. More recent tweets show....that the Food Czar has been less than effective. I got a hollow chicken nugget in my school lunch #ThanksMichelleObama pic.twitter.com/ELhIr6sIag — Henry (@henrytheisen) March 18, 2016

Posted by Leslie Eastman on March 27, 2016 13 Comments
California's elite politicos have long resented our state's system of propositions and ballot measures, which give the voters some measure of control on how Sacramento runs. Famous tax-payer victories include Proposition 13 (capping property taxes). Furthermore, Californians have organized statewide to defeat other issues (e.g., Proposition 1A, a temporary tax increase that California Tea Party Groups fought successfully in 2009). After a ballot measure was recently approved for a proposed, gradually-implemented $15/hour minimum wage law, our state's politicians played a round of "Let's Make a Deal" to bypass the will of the voters.
Lawmakers and labor unions have struck a tentative deal to raise the statewide minimum wage to $10.50 an hour next year and then gradually to $15, averting a costly political campaign this fall and possibly putting California at the forefront of a national movement.
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