Monday, August 31, 2015
Sloppy Adherence to Safety Practices:
Andrew Jacobs, Javier Hernandez & Chris Buckley: Behind Deadly Tianjin Blast, Shortcuts and Lax Rules
"One partner was the son of a local police chief, the other an executive at a state-run chemicals firm. After meeting at a dinner party, they started a company here to handle the export of the most dangerous chemicals made in China, promising “outstanding service” and “good results.” Within two years, Rui Hai International Logistics had built a reputation as the go-to place for businesses looking to ship hazardous materials to customers abroad, a niche market that had been dominated by sluggish state enterprises. Rui Hai offered lower prices, a no-hassle approach to paperwork and quick government approvals. Business was brisk....
...In interviews with more than a dozen of Rui Hai’s former clients and associates — and unusually critical reports in China’s state-controlled news media — a picture has emerged of a company that exploited weak governance in a showcase economic district and used political connections to shield its operations from scrutiny. Rui Hai began handling hazardous chemicals before it obtained a permit to do so, and it secured licenses and approvals from at least five local agencies that conducted questionable reviews of its operations. Local authorities outsourced one safety review required for a storage permit to a private contractor that Rui Hai selected and paid. As much as 3,000 tons of hazardous chemicals were stored at Rui Hai on the night of the explosions, including 700 tons of sodium cyanide, deadly in a dose of less than a tablespoon, and 1,300 tons of fertilizer nitrates, more than 500 times the amount used in the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing. Rui Hai’s shipping yard covered more than 11 acres, but clients said it routinely packed huge volumes of different volatile chemicals together in haphazard fashion instead of storing them separately, at safe distances and in smaller quantities as recommended in the industry..."
Medical Malpractice: It is high time that the medical profession police its own ranks.
Thomas Moore and Steve Cohen: When Bad Doctors Happen to Good Patients
"...That Lavern’s Law wasn’t allowed to come up for a final vote is Albany’s shame. The greater shame is that hospitals don’t put more emphasis on patient safety. As the Lavern’s Law travesty makes clear, we need better solutions. Don’t limit what injured people may collect, and don’t make it more difficult for victims to get their cases heard. Even better for all concerned, keep the negligent act from ever happening in the first place. And there are practical ways to do that. Doctors and hospitals must do a better job of policing themselves. Six percent of all doctors were estimated to be responsible for 58 percent of all malpractice payments between 1991 and 2005. State licensing agencies must do a much better job of keeping those worst of the worst out of hospitals. The threshold for state medical licensing agencies to initiate reviews should be reduced; in New York it takes six malpractice judgments or settlements. It should be three at most. Also, top hospital administrators should be held accountable for negligence committed in their facilities. The 10 highest-paid administrators and doctors at each hospital should have a significant portion of their compensation tied to patient safety. If 30 percent of their compensation was tied to an annual reduction in malpractice claims against their hospital, patient safety would be a higher priority. There would be no personal liability, but it would ensure that everyone in the organization would be more focused on keeping patients safe. But as long as hospitals and doctors block legislation and fight regulation, patients will remain in peril."
Automobiles:
Daniel Victor: Consumer Reports Gives New Tesla Its Highest Score Ever
"Consumer Reports gave the Tesla Model S P85D sedan its highest score ever for a car, breaking the magazine’s scoring system by initially giving it 103 out of 100. Editors were forced to adjust the scoring system, leaving the electric car with a mere 100 out of 100. At $127,820, it’s not only the highest-rated but also the most expensive car Consumer Reports has tested. Even if few Americans can afford it, the car remains “an automotive milepost” that is “a powerful statement of American startup ingenuity,” the magazine wrote. “It’s a combination we’ve never really seen before,” said Jake Fisher, the magazine’s director of automotive testing..."
Andrew Jacobs, Javier Hernandez & Chris Buckley: Behind Deadly Tianjin Blast, Shortcuts and Lax Rules
"One partner was the son of a local police chief, the other an executive at a state-run chemicals firm. After meeting at a dinner party, they started a company here to handle the export of the most dangerous chemicals made in China, promising “outstanding service” and “good results.” Within two years, Rui Hai International Logistics had built a reputation as the go-to place for businesses looking to ship hazardous materials to customers abroad, a niche market that had been dominated by sluggish state enterprises. Rui Hai offered lower prices, a no-hassle approach to paperwork and quick government approvals. Business was brisk....
...In interviews with more than a dozen of Rui Hai’s former clients and associates — and unusually critical reports in China’s state-controlled news media — a picture has emerged of a company that exploited weak governance in a showcase economic district and used political connections to shield its operations from scrutiny. Rui Hai began handling hazardous chemicals before it obtained a permit to do so, and it secured licenses and approvals from at least five local agencies that conducted questionable reviews of its operations. Local authorities outsourced one safety review required for a storage permit to a private contractor that Rui Hai selected and paid. As much as 3,000 tons of hazardous chemicals were stored at Rui Hai on the night of the explosions, including 700 tons of sodium cyanide, deadly in a dose of less than a tablespoon, and 1,300 tons of fertilizer nitrates, more than 500 times the amount used in the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing. Rui Hai’s shipping yard covered more than 11 acres, but clients said it routinely packed huge volumes of different volatile chemicals together in haphazard fashion instead of storing them separately, at safe distances and in smaller quantities as recommended in the industry..."
Medical Malpractice: It is high time that the medical profession police its own ranks.
Thomas Moore and Steve Cohen: When Bad Doctors Happen to Good Patients
"...That Lavern’s Law wasn’t allowed to come up for a final vote is Albany’s shame. The greater shame is that hospitals don’t put more emphasis on patient safety. As the Lavern’s Law travesty makes clear, we need better solutions. Don’t limit what injured people may collect, and don’t make it more difficult for victims to get their cases heard. Even better for all concerned, keep the negligent act from ever happening in the first place. And there are practical ways to do that. Doctors and hospitals must do a better job of policing themselves. Six percent of all doctors were estimated to be responsible for 58 percent of all malpractice payments between 1991 and 2005. State licensing agencies must do a much better job of keeping those worst of the worst out of hospitals. The threshold for state medical licensing agencies to initiate reviews should be reduced; in New York it takes six malpractice judgments or settlements. It should be three at most. Also, top hospital administrators should be held accountable for negligence committed in their facilities. The 10 highest-paid administrators and doctors at each hospital should have a significant portion of their compensation tied to patient safety. If 30 percent of their compensation was tied to an annual reduction in malpractice claims against their hospital, patient safety would be a higher priority. There would be no personal liability, but it would ensure that everyone in the organization would be more focused on keeping patients safe. But as long as hospitals and doctors block legislation and fight regulation, patients will remain in peril."
Automobiles:
Daniel Victor: Consumer Reports Gives New Tesla Its Highest Score Ever
"Consumer Reports gave the Tesla Model S P85D sedan its highest score ever for a car, breaking the magazine’s scoring system by initially giving it 103 out of 100. Editors were forced to adjust the scoring system, leaving the electric car with a mere 100 out of 100. At $127,820, it’s not only the highest-rated but also the most expensive car Consumer Reports has tested. Even if few Americans can afford it, the car remains “an automotive milepost” that is “a powerful statement of American startup ingenuity,” the magazine wrote. “It’s a combination we’ve never really seen before,” said Jake Fisher, the magazine’s director of automotive testing..."
Saturday, August 29, 2015
ALEC is working against people in every state:
Joan McCarter: This report blows the cover of secretive conservative shop pushing right-wing legislation
"An Atlanta, Georgia television station has made national news with its fantastic investigative reporting on the conservative "corporate bill mill," ALEC, the American Legislative Exchange Council. The station's Brendan Keefe followed Georgia state legislators to a resort hotel in Savannah last week, trying to find out what they were doing in closed door meetings where he, as a credentialed reporter, was not allowed. He had to go to a former member of ALEC to find out...
...When trying to verify that with in-person reporting, Keefe was turned away and, in fact, "kicked out with the aid of off-duty police officers on orders from ALEC staff." But not before seeing Bethanne Cooley, Director of State Legislative Affairs for CTIA—the Wireless Association in the room—talking to Georgia Rep. Ben Harbin. Cooley is not a registered lobbyist in Georgia, but here she was working with that state's lawmakers. Under the auspices of ALEC, a non-profit educational 501(c)3, Cooley talking about or even actually writing legislation—which is what ALEC does—doesn't have to be reported as lobbying, and neither does the "scholarship" money they provide to legislators to travel to these meetings, or the food and drink and hotel costs that are covered. When the station tried an open records request to get receipts and reimbursement records for legislators' travel to ALEC-sponsored events, they were denied. But the reporter was able to complete an extensive report on how ALEC operates, and where state legislators fit in. He used the example of Georgia's Asbestos Claims Priorities Act which "severely limits who can file asbestos claims against corporations in the state," as an industry-backed piece of legislation that was passed in 2007, and introduced by legislators who received thousands from ALEC that same year to go to meetings. He compared the ALEC-written suggested legislation, cooked up at a conference in Las Vegas that year, to what was introduced in Georgia and found much of it was copied word for word. None of this is news to people who have been following ALEC closely over the years, but it is monumentally instructive for a local news organization to walk its viewers through the process and to show them how much of the governing in their state is done with voters left completely in the dark. It demonstrates starkly just how much control ALEC's corporate bosses have over what happens in state houses across the country."
The War On Terror As The Pretext for Oppression:
Tom Hintze: 5 Ways the U.S. Government Has Built 'An Architecture of Oppression'
"Edward Snowden, the 29-year-old NSA whistleblower who leaked a byzantine collection of classified documents,insists that the US government is building “an architecture of oppression.” While it has not yet become a reality, the capabilities of the security state are astounding, as Snowden notes. Similar rhetoric has been recently used by Brian Jenkins, a man at the other end of the spectrum. A counter-terrorism expert and high-level consultant, Jenkins helped create the first database of international terrorists in 1971. In an interview with Slate,Jenkins remarked: "What we have put in place is the foundation for a very oppressive state." Both of these characterizations of the sprawling national security apparatus acknowledge that “the tools are in place,” as Jenkins puts it, but the oppressive state is not yet fully formed. However, the two men indicate that a capricious turnkey response to a crisis, or the contrasting policies of a newly elected leader, for example, could easily undermine basic democratic freedoms and create a tyrannical regime. Here are five ways that an "architecture of oppression" has already grown publicly and been normalized since September 11, 2001...
1. The Patriot Act The big daddy of reactionary power grabs, the Patriot Act was put before Congress ona rare fast-track by Attorney General John Ashcroft just nine days after September 11. It was passed in a whirlwind of jingoistic fervor with only two hearings in the House and none by the Senate Judiciary Committee. Sen. Russ Feingold (D-WI) was the only senator who voted against it...
2. Killing US Citizens and the Use of Drones There is no legal framework for the targeted assassination of US citizens without due process...
3. Cracking Down on Activists Activism used to be the way people voiced their grievances to elected officials and the powerful, but recent government crackdowns on peaceful protest have demonstrated that in this country, now more than ever, dissent is being criminalized...
4. Prosecuting Whistleblowers The Obama administration has prosecuted more whistleblowers than every other previous administration combined. Since 2009, Obama’s Department of Justice has used the Espionage Act, an archaic law drafted during World War I,to prosecute six whistleblowers: Thomas Drake, Stephen Jin-Woo Kim, John Kiriakou, Shamai K. Leibowitz, Jeffrey Sterling and Pfc. Bradley Manning....
5. Prosecuting and Spying on Journalists The revelation that the US government obtained phone records of Associated Press (AP) reporters and editors in a probe that took place over a two-month period came as a shock to many. But in the wake of the NSA surveillance scandal, it is now unclear whether this behavior is extraordinary. It fits in with what the NSA leak exposed; it was indicative of the nonchalance of the US government with regard to dragnet surveillance of US citizens, whether they are press or not. Less than a month ago, the AP’s president sent aletter to Attorney General Holder expressing his outrage and rebuking the Department of Justice: “We regard this action by the Department of Justice as a serious interference with AP’s constitutional rights to gather and report the news. While we evaluate our options we urgently request that you immediately return to the AP the telephone toll records that the Department subpoenaed and destroy all copies.”...
There is a deeply disturbing pattern of escalating infringements on civil liberties that has been normalized, beginning with the Patriot Act and extending to drone warfare, activism, and the surveillance and prosecution of members of the press. Many politicians would have you believe that this is a fair tradeoff for liberty. But Americans are beginning to see the architecture of oppression swelling around them. This is the moment when it looks like the United States will finally have a conversation about what the post-9/11 world should look like and re-problematize some of the more troubling conclusions we’ve reached in the past decade. This line of questioning should extend far beyond the bounds of the national security apparatus, and tackle fundamental issues. For example, are we, as a society, prepared to condemn an 82-year-old nun as a serious national security threat and imprison her and her co-defendants for the rest of their lives? This is a serious question which gets to the heart of some national security dilemmas: political culpability. The protest was harmless, yet some unnamed nuclear experts told the New York Times on August 10, 2012 that it represented “the biggest security breach in the history of the nation's atomic complex.” So the conviction of the three protesters in Tennessee is more complicated. It created a huge national security embarrassment when the banner-wielding hymn-singing troupe waltzed into the nuclear facility and made it clear that terrorists could have done the same. The US government has chosen to criminalize the agency of dissidents in the decade following 9/11 and create, by way of simile, the parallel between dissent and acts of terror. The protesters are not to blame for the scandal; they were the ones who revealed it to the public. When asked by Glenn Greenwald about the worst thing that could happen after the leaks came out, Snowden replied: “The greatest fear that I have regarding the outcome for America of these disclosures is that nothing will change. People will see in the media all of these disclosures. They'll know the lengths that the government is going to grant themselves powers unilaterally to create greater control over American society and global society. But they won't be willing to take the risks necessary to stand up and fight to change things to force their representatives to actually take a stand in their interests." Fortunately, it appears that the conversation has gone viral, and both the US and the world are starting to catch on."
The Failed War On Drugs:
Instituto Manquehue: With no DEA in sight, Bolivia keeps reducing coca fields
"According to data from the United Nations, Bolivia achieved a reduction in the amount of coca fields — the plant which is used as a raw material for the elaboration of cocaine — approximately in an 11% since the year 2014, and in over a 30% since 2010, which amounts to four consecutive years of decline, from over 30 thousand to some 20 thousand hectares. The data, presented in the form of satellite images and imaging studies, were published last week in a report which was jointly presented by Antonio De Leo, representative of the UN Office Against Drug and Crime, and the Bolivian president, Evo Morales. De Leo congratulated the Bolivian government over the good news, indicated that the area for the growing of coca is the lowest in twelve years, and asserted the participation of social movements, coca unions and different local authorities in the process. During his speech, Morales stressed that the progress against drug trafficking was possible after the 2008 expulsion of the United States Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) — accused of conspiracy and espionage — together with a significant national effort. The head of state also celebrated that drug trafficking no longer has a significant weight in the economy of the Andean country, now corresponding to less than 1% of its Gross Domestic Product (GDP)..."
Joan McCarter: This report blows the cover of secretive conservative shop pushing right-wing legislation
"An Atlanta, Georgia television station has made national news with its fantastic investigative reporting on the conservative "corporate bill mill," ALEC, the American Legislative Exchange Council. The station's Brendan Keefe followed Georgia state legislators to a resort hotel in Savannah last week, trying to find out what they were doing in closed door meetings where he, as a credentialed reporter, was not allowed. He had to go to a former member of ALEC to find out...
...When trying to verify that with in-person reporting, Keefe was turned away and, in fact, "kicked out with the aid of off-duty police officers on orders from ALEC staff." But not before seeing Bethanne Cooley, Director of State Legislative Affairs for CTIA—the Wireless Association in the room—talking to Georgia Rep. Ben Harbin. Cooley is not a registered lobbyist in Georgia, but here she was working with that state's lawmakers. Under the auspices of ALEC, a non-profit educational 501(c)3, Cooley talking about or even actually writing legislation—which is what ALEC does—doesn't have to be reported as lobbying, and neither does the "scholarship" money they provide to legislators to travel to these meetings, or the food and drink and hotel costs that are covered. When the station tried an open records request to get receipts and reimbursement records for legislators' travel to ALEC-sponsored events, they were denied. But the reporter was able to complete an extensive report on how ALEC operates, and where state legislators fit in. He used the example of Georgia's Asbestos Claims Priorities Act which "severely limits who can file asbestos claims against corporations in the state," as an industry-backed piece of legislation that was passed in 2007, and introduced by legislators who received thousands from ALEC that same year to go to meetings. He compared the ALEC-written suggested legislation, cooked up at a conference in Las Vegas that year, to what was introduced in Georgia and found much of it was copied word for word. None of this is news to people who have been following ALEC closely over the years, but it is monumentally instructive for a local news organization to walk its viewers through the process and to show them how much of the governing in their state is done with voters left completely in the dark. It demonstrates starkly just how much control ALEC's corporate bosses have over what happens in state houses across the country."
The War On Terror As The Pretext for Oppression:
Tom Hintze: 5 Ways the U.S. Government Has Built 'An Architecture of Oppression'
"Edward Snowden, the 29-year-old NSA whistleblower who leaked a byzantine collection of classified documents,insists that the US government is building “an architecture of oppression.” While it has not yet become a reality, the capabilities of the security state are astounding, as Snowden notes. Similar rhetoric has been recently used by Brian Jenkins, a man at the other end of the spectrum. A counter-terrorism expert and high-level consultant, Jenkins helped create the first database of international terrorists in 1971. In an interview with Slate,Jenkins remarked: "What we have put in place is the foundation for a very oppressive state." Both of these characterizations of the sprawling national security apparatus acknowledge that “the tools are in place,” as Jenkins puts it, but the oppressive state is not yet fully formed. However, the two men indicate that a capricious turnkey response to a crisis, or the contrasting policies of a newly elected leader, for example, could easily undermine basic democratic freedoms and create a tyrannical regime. Here are five ways that an "architecture of oppression" has already grown publicly and been normalized since September 11, 2001...
1. The Patriot Act The big daddy of reactionary power grabs, the Patriot Act was put before Congress ona rare fast-track by Attorney General John Ashcroft just nine days after September 11. It was passed in a whirlwind of jingoistic fervor with only two hearings in the House and none by the Senate Judiciary Committee. Sen. Russ Feingold (D-WI) was the only senator who voted against it...
2. Killing US Citizens and the Use of Drones There is no legal framework for the targeted assassination of US citizens without due process...
3. Cracking Down on Activists Activism used to be the way people voiced their grievances to elected officials and the powerful, but recent government crackdowns on peaceful protest have demonstrated that in this country, now more than ever, dissent is being criminalized...
4. Prosecuting Whistleblowers The Obama administration has prosecuted more whistleblowers than every other previous administration combined. Since 2009, Obama’s Department of Justice has used the Espionage Act, an archaic law drafted during World War I,to prosecute six whistleblowers: Thomas Drake, Stephen Jin-Woo Kim, John Kiriakou, Shamai K. Leibowitz, Jeffrey Sterling and Pfc. Bradley Manning....
5. Prosecuting and Spying on Journalists The revelation that the US government obtained phone records of Associated Press (AP) reporters and editors in a probe that took place over a two-month period came as a shock to many. But in the wake of the NSA surveillance scandal, it is now unclear whether this behavior is extraordinary. It fits in with what the NSA leak exposed; it was indicative of the nonchalance of the US government with regard to dragnet surveillance of US citizens, whether they are press or not. Less than a month ago, the AP’s president sent aletter to Attorney General Holder expressing his outrage and rebuking the Department of Justice: “We regard this action by the Department of Justice as a serious interference with AP’s constitutional rights to gather and report the news. While we evaluate our options we urgently request that you immediately return to the AP the telephone toll records that the Department subpoenaed and destroy all copies.”...
There is a deeply disturbing pattern of escalating infringements on civil liberties that has been normalized, beginning with the Patriot Act and extending to drone warfare, activism, and the surveillance and prosecution of members of the press. Many politicians would have you believe that this is a fair tradeoff for liberty. But Americans are beginning to see the architecture of oppression swelling around them. This is the moment when it looks like the United States will finally have a conversation about what the post-9/11 world should look like and re-problematize some of the more troubling conclusions we’ve reached in the past decade. This line of questioning should extend far beyond the bounds of the national security apparatus, and tackle fundamental issues. For example, are we, as a society, prepared to condemn an 82-year-old nun as a serious national security threat and imprison her and her co-defendants for the rest of their lives? This is a serious question which gets to the heart of some national security dilemmas: political culpability. The protest was harmless, yet some unnamed nuclear experts told the New York Times on August 10, 2012 that it represented “the biggest security breach in the history of the nation's atomic complex.” So the conviction of the three protesters in Tennessee is more complicated. It created a huge national security embarrassment when the banner-wielding hymn-singing troupe waltzed into the nuclear facility and made it clear that terrorists could have done the same. The US government has chosen to criminalize the agency of dissidents in the decade following 9/11 and create, by way of simile, the parallel between dissent and acts of terror. The protesters are not to blame for the scandal; they were the ones who revealed it to the public. When asked by Glenn Greenwald about the worst thing that could happen after the leaks came out, Snowden replied: “The greatest fear that I have regarding the outcome for America of these disclosures is that nothing will change. People will see in the media all of these disclosures. They'll know the lengths that the government is going to grant themselves powers unilaterally to create greater control over American society and global society. But they won't be willing to take the risks necessary to stand up and fight to change things to force their representatives to actually take a stand in their interests." Fortunately, it appears that the conversation has gone viral, and both the US and the world are starting to catch on."
The Failed War On Drugs:
Instituto Manquehue: With no DEA in sight, Bolivia keeps reducing coca fields
"According to data from the United Nations, Bolivia achieved a reduction in the amount of coca fields — the plant which is used as a raw material for the elaboration of cocaine — approximately in an 11% since the year 2014, and in over a 30% since 2010, which amounts to four consecutive years of decline, from over 30 thousand to some 20 thousand hectares. The data, presented in the form of satellite images and imaging studies, were published last week in a report which was jointly presented by Antonio De Leo, representative of the UN Office Against Drug and Crime, and the Bolivian president, Evo Morales. De Leo congratulated the Bolivian government over the good news, indicated that the area for the growing of coca is the lowest in twelve years, and asserted the participation of social movements, coca unions and different local authorities in the process. During his speech, Morales stressed that the progress against drug trafficking was possible after the 2008 expulsion of the United States Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) — accused of conspiracy and espionage — together with a significant national effort. The head of state also celebrated that drug trafficking no longer has a significant weight in the economy of the Andean country, now corresponding to less than 1% of its Gross Domestic Product (GDP)..."
