Pennsylvania Limits Authority of Oil and Gas Inspectors

And the Philadelphia Inquirer wrote today:

Pennsylvania environment chief now must approve any shale-drilling citations

In an unprecedented policy shift, inspectors in Pennsylvania have been ordered to stop issuing violations against drillers without prior approval from Gov. Corbett’s new environmental chief.

The change, ordered last week in response to complaints by the drilling industry and its supporters in the Pennsylvania legislature, dismayed ground-level staff in the Department of Environmental Protection and drew a chorus of outrage from environmental advocates.

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BREAKING: Wisconsin Judge Declares Union Law Not In Effect
By Associated Press

Wisconsin judge on Thursday did what thousands of pro-union protesters and boycotting Democratic lawmakers couldn’t, forcing Republican Gov. Scott Walker to halt plans to implement a law that would strip most public workers of their collective bargaining rights and cut their pay.

Dane County Circuit Judge Maryann Sumi, who had issued an order intended to block implementation of the law while she considered a challenge to its legitimacy and warned of sanctions for noncompliance, amended her order Thursday to clarify that the law had not taken effect, as Republican leaders argued it had.

The governor’s top aide, Department of Administration Secretary Mike Huebsch, later issued a statement saying Walker would comply with Sumi’s order and halt preparations that were under way to begin deducting money from most public workers’ paychecks, but that the governor’s administration still believes the law took effect after a state office unexpectedly published online.

“While I believe the budget repair bill was legally published and is indeed law, given the most recent court action we will suspend the implementation of it at this time,” Huebsch said.

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Exclusive: Koch Operative May Have Deceived Officials To Take $2.7M In Taxpayer Money For Governor’s Race
By Steve Lebowitz

In 2008, Steve Lonegan, the New Jersey state director for David Koch’s Americans for Prosperity group, announced a campaign to run for governor. Running as a Republican, Lonegan lost to Chris Christie (R-NJ) in the Republican primary, and Christie went on to win the general election later in 2009. But recent tax disclosures examined by ThinkProgress reveal that Lonegan, who used $2.7 million in taxpayer matching funds for his gubernatorial campaign, may have deceived public officials in order to collect the public money used for his campaign.

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Another “Suicide” Darkens the Political Landscape in Karl Rove’s Alabama
by Roger Shuler

Charles “Bubba” Major

For the fourth time in roughly a year, a person with ties to Alabama’s corporate/political elites has committed suicide under mysterious circumstances. This time, the deceased had family ties to a man who committed a most public “suicide” in March 2010.

Charles “Bubba” Major died on Monday at age 59, and his funeral will be at 3 p.m. today at Mountain Brook Baptist Church. Bubba Major was a first cousin of prominent Birmingham attorney Major Bashinsky, whose body was found floating in a golf-course pond last March and later was ruled a suicide, afinding we have reported is dubious, at best.

Bubba Major was quoted publicly as saying the story of Major Bashinsky’s death did not add up. Now, sources are telling Legal Schnauzer this morning that Bubba Major’s death has been ruled a suicide–and that has been confirmed with today’s post from goodmorningfloridakeys.com, a blog written by Sloan Bashinsky Jr., Major’s older brother.

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The Truth About the Economy that Nobody In Washington
Or On Wall Street Will Admit: We’re Heading Back Toward a Double Dip
by Robert Reich

Why aren’t Americans being told the truth about the
economy? We’re heading in the direction of a double dip
- but you’d never know it if you listened to the upbeat
messages coming out of Wall Street and Washington.

Consumers are 70 percent of the American economy, and
consumer confidence is plummeting. It’s weaker today on
average than at the lowest point of the Great
Recession.

The Reuters/University of Michigan survey shows a 10
point decline in March – the tenth largest drop on
record. Part of that drop is attributable to rising
fuel and food prices. A separate Conference Board’s
index of consumer confidence, just released, shows
consumer confidence at a five-month low – and a large
part is due to expectations of fewer jobs and lower
wages in the months ahead.

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Bill would cut FAA funds, undermine regulations
By JOAN LOWY, Associated Press

WASHINGTON – The House debated a sweeping aviation bill Thursday that would cut funding for the Federal Aviation Administration and shield industry from safety regulations being drafted by the Obama administration.

The Republican-drafted bill, a blueprint for FAA programs, would cut the agency’s budget by nearly $4 billion over the next three and a half years. The bill’s sponsors said the government can spend less on aviation oversight and still maintain air travel safety.

But Democrats said the proposed cuts to the FAA budget would force the layoff of hundreds of workers, including safety inspectors, and would likely delay modernization of the nation’s air traffic system, which is needed to accommodate forecasted increases in passengers and flights.

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Japan to Scrap 4 of 6 Damaged Nuclear Reactors
Mari Yamaguchi
AP

TOKYO — Setbacks mounted Wednesday in the crisis over Japan’s tsunami-damaged nuclear facility, with nearby seawater testing at its highest radiation levels yet and the president of the plant operator checking into a hospital with hypertension.

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Argonne Lab’s Head of Vulnerability Assessment Team Disses Election Security
By Joan Brunwasser

My guest today is Dr. Roger Johnston, who leads the Vulnerability Assessment Team at the Argonne National Laboratory. Welcome to OpEdNews, Roger. Your job sounds very interesting and a lot of fun. Can you tell our readers what you do at Argonne?

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The Collapse of Globalization
by Chris Hedges

The uprisings in the Middle East, the unrest that is tearing apart nations such as the Ivory Coast, the bubbling discontent in Greece, Ireland and Britain and the labor disputes in states such as Wisconsin and Ohio presage the collapse of globalization. They presage a world where vital resources, including food and water, jobs and security, are becoming scarcer and harder to obtain. They presage growing misery for hundreds of millions of people who find themselves trapped in failed states, suffering escalating violence and crippling poverty. They presage increasingly draconian controls and force-take a look at what is being done to Pfc. Bradley Manning-used to protect the corporate elite who are orchestrating our demise.

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