Monthly Archives: December 2011

Founder of American Family Association Endorses Serial Adulterer Newt Gingrich. Say What?

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Written by Bill Berkowitz

His public confession on Dr. James Dobson’s radio program nearly five years ago, the speech at the graduation ceremony of Jerry Falwell’s Liberty University, his much publicized conversion to Catholicism, his insistence on writing, making films and speechifying about the threat of a secularized America, may all have contributed to re-branding Newt Gingrich, from womanizing miscreant to redeemed sinner, in the eyes of the Religious Right.
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It’s polluted – $ell it to the farmers

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When did we start farming brownfields?

BY CURTIS MORRISON

As a kid growing up in rural Southern Indiana, I knew the 10,000+ acre, Indiana Army Ammunition Plant was blighted by long-term pollution. My step-dad had told me. It wasn’t a secret back then.

That’s why I was surprised to hear in it’s last meeting of 2011, the River Ridge Development Authority which has owned and controlled the former Plant since 1998, announced they’re offering more than 360 acres of land to farmers.

(News and Tribune: River Ridge offering land to farmers: Farm leases expected to bring in additional revenues)

The Authority’s Executive Director Jerry Acy told the News and Tribune’s Branden Lammers: 

“It’ll be a good revenue boost.”

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FDA Plays Santa For Factory Farms

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The FDA’s Christmas Present for Factory Farms
By Tom Philpott Wed Dec. 28, 2011 4:00 AM PST

(highlights and emphasis added by Ana)

On Dec. 22, while even the nerdiest observers were thinking more about Christmas plans than food-safety policy, the FDA snuck a holiday gift to the meat industry into the Federal Register.
The agency announced it had –
essentially given up any pretense of regulating antibiotic abuse on factory farms,
at least for the time being.

Wired’s diligent Maryn McKenna has the background.  Read more

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