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[BRIEF] Sonora State, Mexico, where 10 million gallons of acids from a copper mine spilled into two rivers earlier this month, has ordered the closure of 88 schools in seven municipalities due to the dangers associated with the contaminated water.

Carlos Arias, Sonora State civil protection director, announced that the schools may open again next week. Officials are ensuring the safety of the school’s water supplies.

The spill took place August 6. Since then, Mexican officials have distributed over 1 million gallons of drinking water, reaching 80-90 percent of affected residents, according to authorities. Residents in the most isolated communities have not yet been reached.

By James Haleavy

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[BRIEF] A 30-year-old woman is currently isolated at the University of New Mexico (UNM) Hospital while being assessed for the Ebola virus. The New Mexico Department of Health and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention are conducting tests on the woman.

According to authorities, the woman left Sierra Leone, West Africa earlier this month. Since returning, the woman developed symptoms associated with Ebola, including sore throat, fever, headache, and muscle aches.

The woman was not known to have been exposed to Ebola in Sierra Leone, the health department stated Sunday, but has been isolated while tests are underway.

Ebola has an incubation period between infection with the virus and the appearance of symptoms of 2-21 days. A person is contagious during this time, even if no symptoms are present. The average incubation period is 4-6 days. After symptoms appear, a person will remain contagious for approximately three weeks.

When the Ebola virus enters a host, the virus begins to multiply, and can travel through the blood to the liver, spleen, pancreas, thyroid gland, lungs, kidneys, skin, brain and other organs. Common symptoms include high fever, headache, joint and muscle aches, sore throat, weakness, stomach pain, and lack of appetite.

The first confirmed Ebola death in Sierra Leone took place in May. Earlier this month, the nation’s government imposed quarantines in counties with the highest Ebola infection rates. Some international airlines have suspended flights from Sierra Leone.

More information is expected Sunday evening. A doctor involved in the case has scheduled a press statement for 5:30 PM.

By Sid Douglas

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Hours after hacktivist group Anonymous threatened to release the name of the officer involved in the Ferguson, Missouri police shooting, the group released the St. Louis Police dispatch recordings from the shooting.

The group claimed to have the name of the shooter already, but had not been yet able to verify the identity. Anonymous said that they needed a witness or a second leaked source to confirm before releasing the name.

Eighteen-year-old Michael Brown was shot dead Saturdat by a police officer while Brown was walking from a convenience store with a friend. Brown’s friend reported that the officer ordered the two youths to the sidewalk and threatened Brown before shooting. Police have said that Brown tried to hit the officer and take the officer’s gun.

Although St Louis police initially said they would release the name of the officer involved, they later said that they would not release the name due to online threats made against the officer and the department.

Anonymous posted a demand Sunday on Youtube, calling for legislation to “set strict national standards for police conduct and misbehavior,” otherwise Anonymous would release emails and personal information of the department and “take every web-based asset of your department and government offline.”

Representatives of Anonymous released the home address and telephone information of St Louis Police Chief Jon Belman Tuesday, and a Twitter account linked to Anonymous threatened to release information about the chief’s daughter if the chief did not release the officer’s name.

Anonymous: Audio Tapes (St. Louis Dispatch) – talk of the Mike Brown shooting begins at 11:25

By Andy Stern

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According to two reports recently published by the Center for Naval Analyses (CNA), current water usage will lead to water scarcity affecting 30-40 percent of the world by 2020, and a global shortage by 2040.

The reports, “Capturing Synergies Between Water Conservation and Carbon Dioxide Emissions in the Power Sector” and “A Clash of Competing Necessities; Water Adequacy and Electric Reliability in China, India, France, and Texas,” were completed by researchers from Aarhus University in Denmark, Vermont Law School and CNA Corporation in the US and published on the CNA website.

The researchers looked at links between electric power generation and water use, focusing on the US, France, India and China, and compared these with data on population predictions.

The researchers found that in some countries electricity generation used more water than human consumption, but in most countries large amounts of water were used to cool various energy generation systems.

“Water used to cool power plants is the largest source of water withdrawals in the United States and France, and a large source in China and India,” said lead researcher Paul Faeth.

The researchers concluded that in the near future water consumption will be pitted against electricity and other power generation cooling needs. The researchers recommended replacing many power systems with wind and solar power–currently the only two power solutions that do not require cooling cycles.

Another finding of the research was that most power systems do not register the amount of water they use.

Read more: Most Power Systems Do Not Register Water Usage, New Study Discovers

Researcher on the study Professor Benjamin Sovacool, concluded, “If we keep doing business as usual, we are facing an insurmountable water shortage–even if water was free, because it’s not a matter of the price. There will no water by 2040 if we keep doing what we’re doing today. There’s no time to waste. We need to act now.”

By Day Blakely Donaldson

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Two recent water use studies by the Center for Naval Analyses (CNA) have discovered that most power systems do not register how much water they are using to cool their systems. The finding is relevant in light of the main finding of the research: due to combined water consumption and power system cooling, water scarcity will affect 30-40 percent of the world by 2020 and will surpass available water resources by 2040, leading to a global water shortage.

“It’s a huge problem that the electricity sector do not even realise how much water they actually consume. And together with the fact that we do not have unlimited water resources, it could lead to a serious crisis if nobody acts on it soon,” said Professor Benjamin Sovacool from Aarhus University.

The two reports, “Capturing Synergies Between Water Conservation and Carbon Dioxide Emissions in the Power Sector” and “A Clash of Competing Necessities; Water Adequacy and Electric Reliability in China, India, France, and Texas,” were competed by Aarhus University in Denmark, Vermont Law School and CNA Corporation in the US, and were published on the CNA website.

The water shortage will affect 30-40 percent of the world by 2020, the researchers found, and it will be impossible to maintain current water usage by 2040, resulting in future competition between energy and human consumption needs.

“This means that we’ll have to decide where we spend our water in the future, said Sovocool. “Do we want to spend it on keeping the power plants going or as drinking water? We don’t have enough water to do both.”

“It’s a very important issue,” said Paul Faeth, lead researcher and Director of Energy, Water, & Climate at CNA. “Water used to cool power plants is the largest source of water withdrawals in the United States and France, and a large source in China and India.”

The researchers noted that only solar and wind power systems do not require cooling cycles, and recommended replacing other power sources with these systems.

In addition to improving energy efficiency and cooling cycle technology, the researchers advised the registration of power plant water consumption and the abandonment of fossil fuel facilities in all water-scarce locations.

“If we keep doing business as usual, we are facing an insurmountable water shortage–even if water was free–because it’s not a matter of the price. There will no water by 2040 if we keep doing what we’re doing today. There’s no time to waste. We need to act now,” concluded Sovacool.

Water cooling is used because it is inexpensive and non-toxic, although direct cooled systems do pose thermal pollution risks. Water cooling is superior to air cooling because of its higher specific heat capacity, density and thermal conductivity. Industrial water cooling uses river, ocean and well water.

“The recommendations in these reports can serve as a starting point for leaders in these countries,” said Faeth, “and for leaders around the world, to take the steps needed to ensure the reliability of current generating plants and begin planning for how to meet future demands for electric power.”

By Day Blakely Donaldson

Illustration courtesy Climate Reality Project

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Sixteen-year-old Nick Rubin has created a free app intended to show the main sources of US politicians’ funding. The app was designed to allow users to scroll over the names of all members of Congress on any webpage to see a list of the top ten industries from which each receives money.

Rubin’s stated goal was to promote transparency, which Rubin said he believed would help fix the problem of people not understanding the role of money in politics. He hoped that internet users would use it daily while reading about politics online. “For example, if you’re reading a piece on Congress votes for energy policy,” Rubin said of his app, “you might see that a sponsor has received hundreds of thousands of dollars from the oil and gas industry. I like to say that Greenhouse allows people to see the money story behind the news story.”

Rubin also hoped the app would help voters make election decisions. “Once people are informed, they will reject elected officials who are motived by money instead of principles.”

The app provides 2012 data from the last full election cycle when scrolling over a politician’s name, but clicking the politician’s name links to 2014 data from OpenSecrets.org.

“Greenhouse provides access to the most up-to-date 2014 data on OpenSecrets.org by clicking on the name of the member of Congress in the popups,” Rubin told The Speaker. “Greenhouse popups currently use the totals from the last full election cycle (generally 2011-12 for Representatives and 2007-12 for Senators) because it is the most complete and 2014 data to date underrepresents the amounts of campaign dollars in an election cycle. Data in the popup will be updated later in this election cycle.”

Rubin told us that he was motivated to pursue this line of interest after giving a presentation on corporate personhood in 7th grade. “What this did was introduce me to the concepts of campaign finance and the issue of money-in-government I wasn’t as interested in corporate personhood, and may have been too young to truly understand it. But the campaign finance issue grabbed my eye because it really made me angry. I remember asking my dad (a few times) ‘How is this legal?'”

By Day Blakely Donaldson

At a meeting Wednesday between Russia’s Minister of Foreign Affairs Sergei Lavrov and the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) Secretary General Lamberto Zannier, Lavrov, in addition to commending the “usefulness” of Zannier’s upcoming trip to the Rostrov region–where Zannier would meet some of the 12,000 refugees reported to have fled from the turbulent Donetsk region–also admitted that Russia was providing “humanitarian aid” to residents of Southeastern Ukraine “through militia members” since Kiev refused to do so.

“We’re providing aid by all means available through militiamen, who voice concern over suffering endured by their children, mothers and wives,” Lavrov said. Lavrov did not detail the type of humanitarian aid Russia was providing.

In April, Lavrov was also the one who admitted that Russians took part in Ukraine’s separatis rallies–something that had previously been denied by the Russian government. On April 12, Lavrov told TV station Russia 1 during an interview, “These are not our military, our agents. There are Russian citizens, some of them were shown in a number of TV shows, one guy came from Volgograd. This is not surprising. On the Maidan there were different people, including Swedish extremists, etcetera. Nothing like this is happening there. We are accused that there are Russian intelligence agents–but they are not there. There are no our troops as well.”

In the April interview, Lavrov blamed the Ukrainian govenrment and authorities for the goings on. “The fact that people were driven to despair when they hung Russian flags,” said Lavrov, “and cried ‘Putin, help, save us from the Nazis,’ is primarily the fault of those who declared themselves the power in Kyiv. It is impossible not to talk to people.”

In the meeting Wednesday Lavrov voiced his support for non-Ukrainian efforts to control the situation in Ukraine.

“We believe that the OSCE Mission should continue its work. We discussed this issue on February 25. Many events have occurred since then,” Lavrov said in the meeting. “It is necessary to make the work of the OSCE Special Monitoring Mission more concrete and substantial,” Lavrov added, stating that attempts to replace the OSCE plan with other plans would be counterproductive.

By Day Blakely Donaldson

ITAR-TASS

Ukrinform

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American mass surveillance programs, such as those carried out by the NSA, have begun to change, as Wednesday the US House Judiciary Committee unanimously approved a revision of the USA Freedom Act, Human Rights Watch reported Thursday.

The rewrite purposes to prohibit government bulk data collection of records, including phone and internet metadata. The data collection currently takes place under several US laws, such as Section 215 of the Patriot Act, which allows collection of all phone and other business records.

The rewrite includes many of the proposals suggested by President Barack Obama earlier this year. The revision aims to end the massive sweeping style of records collection, instead creating “specific selection terms” for collection.

The rewrite also places new reporting requirements on the government, provides a mechanism for emergency requests, and allows companies to report limited information about orders receives. The rewrite also creates an expert panel that will be able to intervene in FISA court in some instances.

The revised version of the Act is one step toward bulk data and telephone metadata collection reform, but Human Rights Watch says there is still work to be done. Cynthia Wong, senior internet researcher at the organization, said, “The USA Freedom Act revision would help end one of the most problematic programs Edward Snowden revealed last year. However, the bill does not address needed reforms to surveillance programs that affect millions of people outside US borders.”

Also, several provisions that had been included in the earlier draft of the revision were removed or weakened, according to Human Rights Watch. A special advocate to represent the public’s interest in FISA trials is no longer included. In the earlier draft version, there was also a provision for challenging government gag orders, but it was removed.

A further criticism of the revision is that other laws and regulations, such as Section 702 of the FISA Amendments Act and Executive Order 12333, also allow mass surveillance and bulk data collection, and these laws, which affect more people than the US Freedom Act and include actual content–not just metadata–are not affected by the current actions of the House.

Thursday, the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence is scheduled to review the US Freedom Act, and is expected to pass the revised Act without further modifications, after which the revision will move to Congress.

By James Haleaey

Source:

Human Rights Watch

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Human Rights Watch has just released a report finding that too many US laws violate basic principles of justice. The report, released today, entitled “Nation Behind Bars: A Human Rights Solution,” finds that the US has the highest reported rate of incarceration in the world because punishments are far more severe than are necessary to meet their purposes.

A co-author of the report and US Program at Human Rights Watch senior advisory, Jamie Fellner, stated, “The ‘land of the free’ has become a country of prisons. Too many men and women are serving harsh prison sentences for nonviolent and often minor crimes. How can a country committed to liberty send minor dealers to die in prison for selling small amounts of illegal drugs to adults?”

Between 1997 and 2009, according to the report, prisoners in the US have increased 430 percent. The report also found that more than 95,000 criminals under 18 were in adult prisons and jails in 2011, based on Bureau of Justice Statistics data, and black Americans are nearly 10 times more likely to be in prisons. Currently, over 40 percent of all federal criminal prosecutions are for “illegal entry and re-entry” and border crimes, according to Human Rights Watch.

Human Rights Watch urged US legislators to ensure that punishments do not exceed the gravity of a crime, reform or eliminate mandatory minimum sentencing laws, ensure age-appropriate punishments for adolescents and children, reduce or eliminate criminal sanctions for immigration offences, and prevent racially biased enforcement of laws. Human Rights Watch also urged the decriminalization of personal use drug possession.

By Sid Douglas

Sources:

Human Rights Watch

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Rebels have retaken the South Sudan city of Bor after a battle that started at daybreak Tuesday morning.

The SPLA stationed in Bor had been expecting the White Army rebels, who had been marching toward the city for days.  Army Spokesperson Philip Aguer had made statements about his confidence that the South Sudanese army would be able to prevent the rebels from retaking the town.

Tuesday was the deadline announced the South Sudanese government and the East African trading bloc IGAD, who had threatened repercussions if rebel leader Riek Machar had not called off his violent opposition by that day.

By Day Blakely Donaldson

Land and Sea Journal
Voice of America
Gurtong
Sudan Tribune

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Lawyer Michael Busby is seeking $1 million in damages from a Houston fortune teller after a ritual to reunify Busby with his wife went awry. The Houston lawyer filed the lawsuit December 16 against several defendants allegedly associated with the Houston psychic services business, Psychic Love Spell Center.

Busby, a certified attorney since 2002 and currently a bankruptcy and family law practitioner at Busby & Associates, is suing Melena Thorn, the fortune teller. Busby allegedly states that fortune teller, Thorn did not return $2,700 Busby gave her in order to be ritually reunited with his wife.

The $2,700, Busby says, was to be cleansed by the psychic and then returned and placed under the marital bed. Busby alleges that he “filed suit not because the ritual failed, but because the contract was not honored and the woman lied about services being sold.”

Busby first paid $30 for a tarot reading, after which the psychic advised the husband-wife reunification ritual. Busby paid for the tarot reading he said, to “give [him] an edge.” The fee for the ritual was $500, which Busby paid by gift card.

Busby is seeking a class action suit, alleging that over 100 people have been defrauded by Psychic Love Spell Center.

Thom has responded that she never received the $2700 from Busby, and that the $500, which was used for candles and other materials involved in the ritual, would be refunded when she could get the money together.

Busby has published the work up of the case, in which he notes that “The defendants are a family of Roma…. The family have strong gypsy roots…. I believe that all the names used are not birth names, nor has there ever been a court order granting name changes for any of the defendants….” Busby also notes that he has not found any listed corporate entity for the defendants, no “doing business as filings,” and no records of sales tax paid to the state.

Busby filed his original petition December 16, in which he seeks “monetary relief over $1 million” and a permanent injunction against the named defendant from fortune telling within the state of Texas. Busby is also seeking a “permanent injunction prohibiting the defendants from practicing or advertising Psychic abilities within the state of Texas.” On December 20 subpoenas were issued to the Houston Better Business Bureau and the Bellaire Police department.

Busby is reaching out to prospective co-plaintiffs: “Texas and Houston residents, I have stuck my chin out there and they are taking swings at me. If you need help with this family, now is the time to come forward.”

Commenting lawyers have noted that the proceeding may not succeed as a class action suit. There is not sufficient commonality (under rule 23(b)(3) for class actions that require that “questions of law or fact common to class members predominate” over individual concerns and make the class action a better method than individual adjudication. The prospective co-plaintiffs will be hard to find because of the high level of potential embarrassment and the low potential of recovery. Busby has addressed this issue, “If you do not want to go public about your dealings with the family, I understand. You are welcome to discuss concerns with me privately should you be undecided.”

Lawyers have also commented about the practice of tarot readings to “get an edge” in legal proceedings. Some argue that it is a breach of attorney ethics, others disagree because oracles are available to both sides.

Busby expects to see class action certification before February 2014. Fraud, violation of Texas consumer law and breach of contract are among the causes of action in the lawyer’s lawsuit for $1 million against the fortune teller.

By Day Blakely Donaldson

Sources:

Busby Law
Busby Law
ABA Journal