Posts
PNN - 8-16
the Sound and the Furry
RWS
Brook Hines Commentator
Maestro Ira Sullivan
Poet Ashlie Allen
Poet Claudia Gary
Poet Alexandra Psaropoulou (psaro-pollou)
Morgane Fialon Student (from France)
1. Environmentalists appeal to protect Silver Springs from aquifer pumping
Fearing the state has sanctioned further harm to one of Florida's first tourism treasures, Silver Springs, two environmental groups are seeking to overturn an aquifer-pumping permit issued to a ranch belonging to a Canadian billionaire.
A notice of intent to challenge the permit was filed Tuesday with the 5th District Court of Appeal in Daytona Beach. The move aims to nullify approval last month by the St. Johns River Water Management District for Sleepy Creek Lands ranch near Ocala to pump 1.5 million gallons a day from the Floridan Aquifer to irrigate pasture grass.
An appeal would stage a David vs. Goliath battle, with the grass-roots St. Johns Riverkeeper and Florida Defenders of the Environment facing off against the tax-funded district and global industrialist Frank Stronach.
"Allowing our over-pumped aquifer and polluted waterways to be further degraded for the economic benefit of a private landowner is completely contrary to the public interest," said Lisa Rinaman, who serves as "Riverkeeper" for the Jacksonville-based group.
The Palatka-based district spans 18 counties that include Orlando and Jacksonville. Its spokesman would not comment on the matter.
"We believe that the 5th District Court of Appeal will agree ... the issuance of the permit is consistent with Florida law," said ranch spokeswoman Allison North Jones in an email
The Sleepy Creek permit also had been recommended for approval by a state-hearing judge.
"The powerful in Florida are not interested in protecting water supply on behalf of the people in the state of Florida and the environment of Florida," said Thomas Hawkins, executive director of the Defenders group based in the Gainesville area.
Among the state's largest spring systems but in decline for years, Silver Springs discharges more than 325 million gallons a day. Water from its multiple vents creates Silver River, which drains into the Ocklawaha River, which flows to the St. Johns River.
Stronach had also sought a second permit to pump from the Floridan Aquifer near the springs.
As review of that application unfolded, a district scientist testified in legal proceedings that his agency's calculations had been flawed so as to underestimate the potential harm of additional pumping.
Last year, the district's staff recommended denial of that permit application and Silver Springs defenders are aghast that the same analysis did not play into application for the permit issued last month.
Rinaman said the pumping of aquifer water would not only divert flow from Silver Springs, it would lead to further pollution of the iconic springs and its river.
She said previous legal clashing over the permit revealed that 9,500 cattle planned initially for the ranch would result each year in nearly 158 million pounds of manure, 11 million gallons of urine and application of fertilizer with 700,000 pounds of nitrogen compounds.
Such pollutants have been blamed for triggering harmful algae growth in springs and rivers.
kspear@tribune.com, 407-420-5062 or facebook.com/envirospear.
2. US ex-intelligence chief on ISIS rise:
It was 'a willful Washington decision' | 11 Aug 2015 | The US didn't interfere with the rise of anti-government jihadist groups in Syria that finally degenerated into Islamic State, claims the former head of America's Defense Intelligence Agency, backing a secret 2012 memo predicting their rise. An interview with retired Lieutenant General Michael Flynn, former head of the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA), given to Al Jazeera, confirms earlier suspicions that Washington was monitoring jihadist groups emerging as opposition in Syria...The classified DIA report presented in August 2012, stated that "the Salafist, the Muslim Brotherhood, and AQI [Al- Qaeda in Iraq] are the major forces driving the insurgency in Syria," being supported by "the West, Gulf countries and Turkey."
http://www.rt.com/usa/312050-dia-flynn-islamic-state/
3. Chelsea Manning facing solitary confinement
Chelsea Manning could face solitary confinement at military prison | 13 Aug 2015 | Chelsea Manning, a soldier imprisoned for leaking classified U.S. information to pro-transparency site WikiLeaks, could face solitary confinement on charges she violated prison rules by having prohibited reading material, her attorney said on Wednesday. Manning was convicted in 2013 of providing more than 700,000 documents, videos, diplomatic cables and battlefield accounts [of myriad US war crimes] to WikiLeaks, in the biggest breach of classified materials in U.S. history. Manning has been charged with a number of disciplinary infractions and will attend a hearing before a three-person discipline adjustment board on Aug. 18 at the prison, attorney Nancy Hollander said. The alleged disciplinary infractions on July 2 and July 9 included attempted disrespect, the possession of prohibited books and magazines [?] while under administrative segregation, medicine misuse pertaining to expired toothpaste and disorderly conduct for pushing food onto the floor, Hollander said.
4. Where were you?
Dear NAACP, National Action Network, Rainbow PUSH Coalition, Congressional Black Caucus and others:
Where were you?
Where were you when I was faced with blatant discrimination at my job, when my employer told me I was "too big and too black" to do the job?
Where were you when I, one of the first black officers to do so, filed a discrimination suit against the Central Intelligence Agency?
Where were you when the justice system of the United States dismissed my discrimination suit because the U.S. government maintained that trying my suit would endanger national security?
Where were you during the many years I reached out to you, begging, pleading for help from you while the United States government pursued and tormented me for years, bent on retaliation and persecution?
Where were you when I begged for help from Congressman Lacy Clay's office and they told me to run away, to leave the country? I was there ... and I didn't run.
Where were you when the United States government arrested me, put me in jail and branded me with espionage?
Where were you when the United States put me -- the only person and only black face investigated over a 10-year period of time -- on trial in federal court on Espionage Act charges, claiming that I am a traitor to national security?
When the prosecution used against me the same issues from my discrimination case that I had not been allowed to pursue in civil court? When a jury without a single black member found me guilty, even when the FBI itself said there was no evidence?
Where were you when a white official, Gen. David Petraeus -- accused of far more violations than I -- was given a slap on the wrist?
Where were you when Archbishop Desmond Tutu spoke up for me?
Where were you when the judge sentenced me to prison for 42 months?
I have seen you around.
I saw you when Michael Brown lay dead in the street only a few miles from my home.
I saw you when other black faces were either killed or mistreated. I was out there, too.
I felt the joy and promise of the Million Man March. I felt the joy and the promise when the first black president was elected. I was there with you then.
Though I am invisible to you, others, many others, see me and see the injustice that I have endured for a very long time. Have you not read the editorials, articles and commentaries?
I am now in prison for a crime I did not commit.
The many others I speak of do not claim to be mighty advocates for civil rights on the same level as you, but they are there and have been with me, and will be with me as I appeal. And, they will be with me when I am free.
Where are you?
POETS LINKS
http://tearsinthefence.com/blog/?blogsub=confirming#subscribe-blog
ALEXANDRA PSAROPOULOU’S ALL THE STARS (AUSTIN MACAULEY, 2014)
Ashlie
> "Blonde tea"
>
> I wanted the ghostliness of Fall,
> the thrill of fresh masks
> and hard candy
>
> I wanted the romance of arguing,
> the depression of school nights
> and dim lamp lights
>
> I wanted the abuse of painful side affects,
> the fascination of my shadow
> within a crowd,
> the excitement of loneliness
>
> I wanted the pleasure of demons,
> the euphoria of erotic bonding,
> the exhaustion of sadness
>
> I wanted the love of parents,
> the horror of sour nails,
> the joy of intentionally sore skin
>
> I wanted the relief of exhaling,
> the weakness of flu season,
> the peace of floating away
>
> I fell asleep on black hair
> and woke up inside a blonde tea pot
> I was served to the earth unsweetened,
> every ounce of me disgusting
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