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Maybe this explains our high cancer rate in Humboldt County?
HONG KONG (Reuters) – Smoking a joint is equivalent to 20 cigarettes in terms of lung cancer risk, scientists in New Zealand have found, as they warned of an “epidemic” of lung cancers linked to cannabis.
ADVERTISEMENTStudies in the past have demonstrated that cannabis can cause cancer, but few have established a strong link between cannabis use and the actual incidence of lung cancer.
In an article published in the European Respiratory Journal, the scientists said cannabis could be expected to harm the airways more than tobacco as its smoke contained twice the level of carcinogens, such as polyaromatic hydrocarbons, compared with tobacco cigarettes.
The method of smoking also increases the risk, since joints are typically smoked without a proper filter and almost to the very tip, which increases the amount of smoke inhaled. The cannabis smoker inhales more deeply and for longer, facilitating the deposition of carcinogens in the airways.
“Cannabis smokers end up with five times more carbon monoxide in their bloodstream (than tobacco smokers),” team leader Richard Beasley, at the Medical Research Institute of New Zealand, said in a telephone interview.
“There are higher concentrations of carcinogens in cannabis smoke … what is intriguing to us is there is so little work done on cannabis when there is so much done on tobacco.”
The researchers interviewed 79 lung cancer patients and sought to identify the main risk factors for the disease, such as smoking, family history and occupation. The patients were questioned about alcohol and cannabis consumption.
In this high-exposure group, lung cancer risk rose by 5.7 times for patients who smoked more than a joint a day for 10 years, or two joints a day for 5 years, after adjusting for other variables, including cigarette smoking.
“While our study covers a relatively small group, it shows clearly that long-term cannabis smoking increases lung cancer risk,” wrote Beaseley.
“Cannabis use could already be responsible for one in 20 lung cancers diagnosed in New Zealand,” he added.
“In the near future we may see an ‘epidemic’ of lung cancers connected with this new carcinogen. And the future risk probably applies to many other countries, where increasing use of cannabis among young adults and adolescents is becoming a major public health problem.”
(Reporting by Tan Ee Lyn; Editing by Alex Richardson)
gCaptain did or found a nice series of posts, or links to posts.
If you can dream it, you can build it. His post of 5 Most Ambitious Bridge Designs of Today.
A link to post The Century’s Most Devastating Bridge Collapses and original post.
A link to post Ocean Arcologies and original post.
Indestructible USB drive. Drown it in boiling water, burn it, freeze it, throw it. It doesn’t seem to matter.
SALT LAKE CITY 27 January 2008 President Gordon B. Hinckley, who led The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints through twelve years of global expansion, has died at the age of 97.President Hinckley was the 15th president in the 177-year history of the Church and had served as its president since 12 March 1995.The Church president died at his apartment in downtown Salt Lake City at 7:00 p.m. Sunday night from causes incident to age. Members of his family were at his bedside. A successor is not expected to be formally chosen by the Church’s Quorum of the Twelve Apostles until after President Hinckley’s funeral within the next few days.
More at the link.
NCJ posted it 1st with ruling. NCRA says it will only affect one project due to cut off date moved to 7 Jan 2008. One has to wonder with fiscal stability of Novato is questioned, Novato government agency’s now having to pay for garbage service, Highway 101 closed at the Sonoma-Marin county line for 9 hours due to flooding of a creek this past week, and yet we want to pay for a lawsuit to delay or kill the rail line? Home sells/prices down in Marin(free hybrid car with home purchase). Mass exodus of jobs from Marin is worst in state. Oh yeah don’t forget as pointed out in a letter to the editor of MIJ the connection of the train with reducing traffic, and yet traffic is a major concern.
Things are not as rosy down there as NCJ would have you believe. The problem that people are not looking at is when you delay work on the railroad, it makes it more expensive to restore, even if you only want the SMART or other passenger trains.
Setback for Novato rail project
Joe Wolfcale
Article Launched: 01/24/2008 11:42:29 PM PSTThe North Coast Rail Authority must halt all construction associated with its attempt to bring rail service to Novato, a Marin County judge said Thursday.
Judge James Ritchie, upholding much of his preliminary ruling, concluded that the Ukiah-based rail agency violated California Environmental Quality Act guidelines in moving forward with the project and that an environmental analysis must be completed for work launched after Jan. 7.
“The city is very pleased with the outcome,” said City Attorney Jeff Walter.
The merits of the case will be heard Feb. 26.
Christopher Neary, the rail authority’s Willits-based attorney, said the Jan. 7 date affects only one contract. The city urged the date be set at Oct. 15, a move that would have affected a number of contracts.
“In his tentative ruling, that would have prohibited us from getting reimbursed on (other) contracts, a monumental impact on us,” Neary said. “We appreciate the fact that the judge took the time to think things through, reason it out and come to the decision he did,” Neary said.
“It will be a relatively minor impact on us.”
In his ruling Judge Ritchie said the rail authority may have violated environmental laws by filing disputed notices of exemption before
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project approval, and by entering into contracts and allowing work to begin before environmental analysis.Ritchie said the rail agency was attempting to skirt the law by claiming an analysis was not necessary for the construction work itself, but only for the operation of the railway.
Ritchie said the entire project, whether broken up geographically, by phases of construction and operation, or otherwise – must be considered in an environmental analysis.
“That’s essentially what we’ve been saying all along,” Novato City Manager Dan Keen said.
Neary said he believes the rail agency followed proper procedures.
The judge emphasized in his seven-page ruling that no conclusions have been reached as to whether the railway expansion is appropriate or not.
The city filed suit Sept. 28, saying freight trains in Novato could pose traffic problems, safety hazards and noise and that the rail agency needed to complete an environmental report. The judge denied the city’s request for a temporary restraining order, allowing the agency to continue construction.
Officials are preparing a $2.4 million report on the rail plan and it should be available in May, outlining impacts of a plan that could send as many as 32 trains, each pulling up to 60 cars, through Novato every week at speeds of up to 40 mph.
Setback for Novato rail project
Joe Wolfcale
Article Launched: 01/24/2008 11:42:29 PM PSTThe North Coast Rail Authority must halt all construction associated with its attempt to bring rail service to Novato, a Marin County judge said Thursday.
Judge James Ritchie, upholding much of his preliminary ruling, concluded that the Ukiah-based rail agency violated California Environmental Quality Act guidelines in moving forward with the project and that an environmental analysis must be completed for work launched after Jan. 7.
“The city is very pleased with the outcome,” said City Attorney Jeff Walter.
The merits of the case will be heard Feb. 26.
Christopher Neary, the rail authority’s Willits-based attorney, said the Jan. 7 date affects only one contract. The city urged the date be set at Oct. 15, a move that would have affected a number of contracts.
“In his tentative ruling, that would have prohibited us from getting reimbursed on (other) contracts, a monumental impact on us,” Neary said. “We appreciate the fact that the judge took the time to think things through, reason it out and come to the decision he did,” Neary said.
“It will be a relatively minor impact on us.”
In his ruling Judge Ritchie said the rail authority may have violated environmental laws by filing disputed notices of exemption before
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project approval, and by entering into contracts and allowing work to begin before environmental analysis.Ritchie said the rail agency was attempting to skirt the law by claiming an analysis was not necessary for the construction work itself, but only for the operation of the railway.
Ritchie said the entire project, whether broken up geographically, by phases of construction and operation, or otherwise – must be considered in an environmental analysis.
“That’s essentially what we’ve been saying all along,” Novato City Manager Dan Keen said.
Neary said he believes the rail agency followed proper procedures.
The judge emphasized in his seven-page ruling that no conclusions have been reached as to whether the railway expansion is appropriate or not.
The city filed suit Sept. 28, saying freight trains in Novato could pose traffic problems, safety hazards and noise and that the rail agency needed to complete an environmental report. The judge denied the city’s request for a temporary restraining order, allowing the agency to continue construction.
Officials are preparing a $2.4 million report on the rail plan and it should be available in May, outlining impacts of a plan that could send as many as 32 trains, each pulling up to 60 cars, through Novato every week at speeds of up to 40 mph.
Partial injunction issued against repairing railroad tracks
By Tim Omarzu
Managing Editor
Saturday, January 26, 2008 9:24 AM PSTBoth sides were declaring victory Thursday afternoon, after Marin Superior Court Judge James R. Ritchie issued a preliminary injunction partially stopping work on freight train tracks that run through Novato.
The city of Novato sought the injunction against the North Coast Railroad Authority, which is in the process of repairing a 62-mile stretch of tracks between Lombard, in Napa County, and Windsor, in Sonoma County so that freight trains can run in the summer.
The city’s suit argues that the railroad authority needs to complete an environmental impact report, or EIR, for its entire 316 miles of track between Humboldt Bay and Marin and Sonoma Counties before doing any repair work.
Judge Ritchie will hear the case in full on Feb. 26.
In the meantime, the judge ruled that construction work that was already underway as of Jan. 7 could continue, but that the railroad authority can’t issue any other contracts prior to the Feb. 26 hearing.
“The harm alleged in the (city’s lawsuit) apparently would arise from the operation of trains, not from the construction work itself,” Judge Ritchie wrote.
The railroad authority’s attorney, Christopher J. Neary, said, “This is a triumph for us, because it allows us to proceed with all the contracts that were awarded.”
Contractors will continue to install crossing signals, repair bridges and dewater a flooded area in southern Sonoma County, said Mitch Stogner, the railroad authority’s executive director.
The ruling will delay the railroad authority from awarding a $9 million contract to repair the railroad track itself, including the tracks, railroad ties and “ballast,” or rock and slag foundation on which the tracks rest, Stogner said.
The railroad authority argues that it has the right to repair the 60 miles of track without performing a California Environmental Quality Act, or CEQA, analysis.
But the judge’s ruling that said “It … appears that NCRA was attempting to avoid conducting CEQA review by claiming that an environmental impact report was not necessary for the construction work itself, but was necessary only for the planned operation of the railway. Instead, the “whole” project — whether broken up geographically, by phases of construction of operation, or otherwise — must be considered in CEQA analysis.”
City manager Dan Keen felt vindicated by that section of the Ritchie’s ruling and predicted that the city would prevail on Feb. 26.
“NCRA could have avoided this, they could have done CEQA (analysis),” Keen said.
Both are from Petaluma ARGUS-COURIER STAFF. The trestle is about 500 feet long, and too unsafe to allow people on it. There are efforts to run a trolley on it. The trestle is a spur off the main line, owned by SMART.
View Larger Map is my rough idea of here it would go.
New life for old downtown trestle?
Advocates for preserving riverside railway, buoyed by new study, hope this is the year decaying structure’s fate is finally resolved
Published: Wednesday, Jan 23, 2008By COREY YOUNG
ARGUS-COURIER STAFF
This wooden railroad trestle along the downtown riverfront has slipped into disrepair over the years.
Chris Samson
This wooden railroad trestle along the downtown riverfront has slipped into disrepair over the years.
Zoom PhotoCalled “Petaluma’s most identifiable landmark,” the wooden railroad trestle that spans 500 feet of downtown riverfront property is slowly slipping away.
Fires have burned holes in the horizontal planks above. Rain seeps into the exposed tops of timber pilings and small marine creatures known as “the termites of the sea” bore their way into the wood wherever the tide reaches.
Little wonder, then, that it’s been closed off for years, with no significant use in more than a decade.
But it’s not too late to change the trestle’s fate, it turns out.
A recently completed “historic structure report” on the 85-year-old trestle concludes salvation is possible, even for a private group’s long-planned trolley service across the aging span.
“It’s no longer a myth,” Petaluma Trolley’s Chris Stevick said. “The trestle can be saved.”
To do so will require upwards of $2 million, remedial treatment to stop the decay from getting worse and an answer to the question: Whose job is it?
Still owned by railroad
Although the city of Petaluma ordered the historic structure report, it’s the local railroad agency that owns the trestle.
The Sonoma-Marin Area Rail Transit District, formed in 2004, inherited the Water Street tracks and trestle when it took over railroad operations in the North Bay.
The district has plans to run commuter trains on the former Northwestern Pacific Railroad tracks from Cloverdale to Larkspur, but the Water Street spur that juts off from the mainline at Payran Street isn’t included.
The North Coast Railroad Authority, which plans to run freight trains in Sonoma County beginning this summer, won’t use the Water Street tracks either.
Although repairing the trestle wouldn’t interfere with those agencies’ rail plans, the question of which entity would take the lead on fixing the trestle is still unresolved.
“They own the facility; they should be able to repair the facility,” City Manager Mike Bierman said of SMART. “We need to talk with them and find out what they plan to do, if anything.”
If SMART were to offer the trestle to the city, “We would not buy it — they would have to give it to us,” Bierman said. “At that point, it’s a matter of whether the city makes it a priority.”
The estimated cost of repairing the trestle — $2 million for use as a pedestrian walkway, $2.8 million to shore it up for trolley service — isn’t anticipated in the city’s five-year capital improvements plan.
“That’s a lot of money,” Bierman said. “That’s a decision the council’s going to have to make.”
The council has asked Bierman to send SMART a letter seeking information about the rail agency’s plans for the trestle.
SMART spokesman Chris Coursey said the agency would like to see the trestle restored and will talk with the city as part of making a decision about its future.
Part of Petaluma history
In the meantime, advocates for the trestle’s preservation are hoping to push for grants and private fund-raising to offset the cost of repair.
“It is primed for federal restoration grants,” Stevick said of the trestle.
Historian Marianne Hurley noted the recent report said the trestle appears eligible for listing on the National Register of Historic Places.
“As such, it’s of even greater importance to the city,” Hurley said. “It’s a historical resource and we cannot let it just fall away.”
Built in 1922, the trestle bridged the southern end of Water Street with the beginning of First Street, near the Petaluma Yacht Club today.
Trains ran all the way down First Street to H Street, site of Foundry Wharf today, serving warehouses and mills along the waterfront.
It was part of the Petaluma and Santa Rosa Railroad, which brought people and farm products from as far as Forestville to Petaluma steamers sailing for San Francisco.
Railroad enthusiasts say the riverside trestle doubled as a wharf so that goods could be offloaded directly to barges and schooners docked below.
“It is both a trestle and a pier,” said Allen Tacy, a Petaluma author and historian. “I do not know of another structure in the country that’s both a trestle and a pier.”
“Petaluma is where the river to the south meets the rail from the north, and the trestle dramatically illustrates that union,” Stevick said.
Restoring it would bring back a riverside gathering spot popularized during the Petaluma River festivals of the ’80s and ’90s, and eliminate a fenced-off blight in the middle of other downtown revitalization, supporters said.
“It would be the balcony for all the river events, fairs and festivals,” Stevick said. “One thing that will help maintain the economic vitality of the downtown is tourism, and the trolley and trestle would be excellent draws.”
To drum up excitement over its plans, the trolley group is hoping to unveil a restored cable car on Water Street during the city’s sesquicentennial celebration this year.
The trestle today
“The current condition of the trestle is ‘poor,’” said Diane Ramirez of the city’s public works department, who presented the historic structure report to the City Council this month.
“It is not at an immediate risk of failure, but it is deteriorating at an ever-increasing rate,” Ramirez said.
Consultants hired by the city found that the deteriorating redwood pilings posed the biggest problem.
The past 85 years’ worth of tides washing in and out of the Turning Basin brought marine borers that invaded the pilings at the water’s edge, weakening the load-carrying capacity of some of the pilings.
Most are considered in good, fair or poor condition. Others, considered “beyond poor,” have lost up to three inches from their diameter and have to be replaced if the trestle is to be used again.
But the tops of some of the pilings are also weakening, the report found.
Put in place without metal flashing or crossbeams that completely covered the exposed end grain of the pilings, some of the timbers have begun decaying from the top.
Even the horizontal redwood “stringers” that stretch lengthwise from crossbeam to crossbeam, supporting the trestle deck and railroad tracks, have begun to deteriorate, the report found.
Though it’s possible to repair the trestle for either pedestrian-only or trolley use, more of the existing timber and “historic fabric” will need to go if the structure will ever support rail cars again, the report determined.
As a pedestrian-only walkway, “most of the piles could likely be retained, but they would have to be wrapped with newer material,” the report said.
In either case, a full engineering analysis of the trestle needs to be completed first, researchers said.
And more immediate steps to slow the pace of decay could include protective caps on the top of exposed pilings and plastic or concrete “jackets” around the pilings at the water’s edge, the report said.
The city said the report would be kept on file as background for any eventual restoration of the trestle.
Supporters of its rebirth hope that day comes sooner rather than later.
“You can’t buy this kind of history,” Stevick said of the trestle, “but you most certainly can lose it.”
(Contact Corey Young at corey.young@arguscourier.com)
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EDITORIAL COMMENT
Old rail trestle should be saved
Published: Wednesday, Jan 23, 2008The old wooden railroad trestle that spans a 500-foot stretch of the downtown waterfront was once a vibrant and functional part of Petaluma’s commercial and recreational life. But it has gradually fallen into despair and become an eyesore that is unsafe to even walk upon today.
Just north of the trestle, the city spent $7.8 million two years ago to transform Water Street into a “waterfront promenade.” To the south, the $100 million Theatre District project is the jewel of the city’s downtown redevelopment. But the trestle remains a blight on the otherwise rejuvenated downtown area.
Built in 1922, the trestle links the south end of Water Street with the foot of First Street. It was originally part of the Petaluma & Santa Rosa Railroad, which brought people and farm goods from the north to Petaluma, where they were transferred to steamers and barges bound for San Francisco.
For years after rail service stopped, the trestle and the adjacent wooden dock next to the Great Petaluma Mill could handle foot traffic for such events as river festivals and arrivals of boats. But not anymore.
In recent years, the trestle has become so dilapidated that it is dangerous to pedestrians and has been fenced off to prevent potential injury. There are holes in the wooden planks and the timber pilings that support the structure are deteriorating. It’s just a matter of time before the structure collapses.
But a recently completed report on the trestle concludes that it can be saved — at a cost of more than $2 million. The question is, who’s responsible to pay for its repair?
The Water Street railroad tracks and trestle are owned by the Sonoma-Marin Area Rail Transit District. The district has no plans for those tracks or the trestle as part of its goal of bringing commuter train service back to the North Bay. But it also may not have any interest in spending money to repair the trestle.
If SMART has no interest in repairing the trestle, it should turn over ownership to the city. The city has more at stake in getting the structure refurbished — even if it doesn’t have the funds to do so right now. It would cost $2 million just to repair it for use as a pedestrian walkway, $2.8 million to make it sturdy enough for trolley service.
While redevelopment funds could be used to help pay for the restoration, the project could also be aided by a combination of private funding and grants. Because of its historical significance (it may be the only structure of its kind in the country that serves as both a trestle and a pier), it may be eligible for federal restoration grants.
It’s interesting to note that the railroad tracks were left intact along Water and First streets when the cobblestones, or pavers, were put in those streets as part of the downtown redevelopment work a couple of years ago. If the trestle were fully restored, it would make possible a trolley service that would run along the waterfront and possibly up to the factory outlets at the north end of town.
The trestle is a piece of local history that has been allowed to deteriorate for far too long. It’s encouraging that the recent report concluded that it can be saved. The city should resolve the ownership issue with SMART and then work with local groups to seek grants and private funding to supplement public funds so that repairs can move forward.
Filed under: Renewable Energy
Looks like electric supplies will be a little tighter next year. Things look better, and better to put up a little RE. Solar does quite well up here, even in the foggy parts. Add a battery bank to the mix, and you can last a bit through the power outages.
By MITCH WEISS, Associated Press Writer 28 minutes ago
LAKE NORMAN, N.C. – Nuclear reactors across the Southeast could be forced to throttle back or temporarily shut down later this year because drought is drying up the rivers and lakes that supply power plants with the awesome amounts of cooling water they need to operate.
Utility officials say such shutdowns probably wouldn’t result in blackouts. But they could lead to shockingly higher electric bills for millions of Southerners, because the region’s utilities may be forced to buy expensive replacement power from other energy companies.
Already, there has been one brief, drought-related shutdown, at a reactor in Alabama over the summer.
“Water is the nuclear industry’s Achilles’ heel,” said Jim Warren, executive director of N.C. Waste Awareness and Reduction Network, an environmental group critical of nuclear power. “You need a lot of water to operate nuclear plants.” He added: “This is becoming a crisis.”
An Associated Press analysis of the nation’s 104 nuclear reactors found that 24 are in areas experiencing the most severe levels of drought. All but two are built on the shores of lakes and rivers and rely on submerged intake pipes to draw billions of gallons of water for use in cooling and condensing steam after it has turned the plants’ turbines.
Because of the yearlong dry spell gripping the region, the water levels on those lakes and rivers are getting close to the minimums set by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. Over the next several months, the water could drop below the intake pipes altogether. Or the shallow water could become too hot under the sun to use as coolant.
“If water levels get to a certain point, we’ll have to power it down or go off line,” said Robert Yanity, a spokesman for South Carolina Electric & Gas Co., which operates the Summer nuclear plant outside Columbia, S.C.
Extending or lowering the intake pipes is not as simple at it sounds and wouldn’t necessarily solve the problem. The pipes are usually made of concrete, can be up to 18 feet in diameter and can extend up to a mile. Modifications to the pipes and pump systems, and their required backups, can cost millions and take several months. If the changes are extensive, they require an NRC review that itself can take months or longer.
Even if a quick extension were possible, the pipes can only go so low. It they are put too close to the bottom of a drought-shrunken lake or river, they can suck up sediment, fish and other debris that could clog the system.
An estimated 3 million customers of the four commercial utilities with reactors in the drought zone get their power from nuclear energy. Also, the quasi-governmental Tennessee Valley Authority, which sells electricity to 8.7 million people in seven states through a network of distributors, generates 30 percent of its power at nuclear plants.
While rain and some snow fell recently, water levels across the region are still well below normal. Most of the severely affected area would need more than a foot of rain in the next three months — an unusually large amount — to ease the drought and relieve pressure on the nuclear plants. And the long-term forecast calls for more dry weather.
At Progress Energy Inc., which operates four reactors in the drought zone, officials warned in November that the drought could force it to shut down its Harris reactor near Raleigh, according to documents obtained by the AP. The water in Harris Lake stands at 218.5 feet — just 3 1/2 feet above the limit set in the plant’s license.
Lake Norman near Charlotte is down to 93.7 feet — less than a foot above the minimum set in the license for Duke Energy Corp.’s McGuire nuclear plant. The lake was at 98.2 feet just a year ago.
“We don’t know what’s going to happen in the future. We know we haven’t gotten enough rain, so we can’t rule anything out,” said Duke spokeswoman Rita Sipe. “But based on what we know now, we don’t believe we’ll have to shut down the plants.”
During Europe’s brutal 2006 heat wave, French, Spanish and German utilities were forced to shut down some of their nuclear plants and reduce power at others because of low water levels — some for as much as a week.
If a prolonged shutdown like that were to happen in the Southeast, utilities in the region might have to buy electricity on the wholesale market, and the high costs could be passed on to customers.
“Currently, nuclear power costs between $5 to $7 to produce a megawatt hour,” said Daniele Seitz, an energy analyst with New York-based Dahlman Rose & Co. “It would cost 10 times that amount that if you had to buy replacement power — especially during the summer.”
At a nuclear plant, water is also used to cool the reactor core and to create the steam that drives the electricity-generating turbines. But those are comparatively small amounts of water, circulating in what are known as closed systems — that is, the water is constantly reused. Water for those two purposes is not threatened by the drought.
Instead, the drought could choke off the billions of gallons of water that pass through the region’s reactors every day to cool used steam. Water sucked from lakes and rivers passes through pipes, which act as a condenser, turning the steam back into water. The outside water never comes into direct contact with the steam or any nuclear material.
At some plants — those with tall, Three Mile Island-style cooling towers — a lot of the water travels up the tower and is lost to evaporation. At other plants, almost all of the water is returned to the lake or river, though significantly hotter because of the heat absorbed from the steam.
Progress spokeswoman Julie Hahn said the Harris reactor, for example, sucks up 33 million gallons a day, with 17 million gallons lost to evaporation via its big cooling towers. Duke’s McGuire plant draws in more than 2 billion gallons a day, but most of it is pumped back to its source.
Nuclear plants are subject to restrictions on the temperature of the discharged coolant, because hot water can kill fish or plants or otherwise disrupt the environment. Those restrictions, coupled with the drought, led to the one-day shutdown Aug. 16 of a TVA reactor at Browns Ferry in Alabama.
The water was low on the Tennessee River and had become warmer than usual under the hot sun. By the time it had been pumped through the Browns Ferry plant, it had become hotter still — too hot to release back into the river, according to the TVA. So the utility shut down a reactor.
David Lochbaum, nuclear project safety director for the Union of Concerned Scientists, warned that nuclear plants are not designed to take the wear and tear of repeatedly stopping and restarting.
“Nuclear plants are best when they flatline — when they stay up and running or shut down for long periods to refuel,” Lochbaum said. “It wears out piping, valves, motors.”
Both the industry and NRC spokesman Scott Burnell said plants can shut down and restart without problems.
(This version CORRECTS water use figure for plant.)
I only hope this works and helps in some way.
Staff Report
Article Launched: 01/22/2008 11:24:03 PM PSTThe lawsuit, filed Jan. 17 in Marin Superior Court, seeks all correspondence, including letters, notes, e-mails and phone messages between Novato City Manager Dan Keen and others from Jan. 1 to Dec. 11, 2007.
The city last year filed a lawsuit against the rail authority, saying the agency needed to conduct more environmental studies before proceeding with plans to extend rail service through the city. A Marin Superior Court has issued a tentative ruling in favor of Novato; a final ruling is pending.
Keen said he had told rail officials that he would not be able to comply with a records request until the second week of January.
He said Tuesday he has prepared the documents on two CDs and City Attorney Jeffrey Walter is reviewing them. He said the rail agency should have the material by the end of the week.
“I don’t think we’ve been unreasonable,” Keen said. “It was not a simple exercise.”
The Freedom Train is specially chartered by the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Association of Santa Clara
I didn’t know there were modern Freedom Trains. I only knew of the old events of 1947-1949 and 1975 – 1976. Freedom Train.org and Wikipedia for more info on those. They had one today, so people from Santa Clara area and stations along the way could join in the celebrations in San Francisco, for $5.
More info from Caltrans website, 1,600 people were transported, and this was the 23rd annual run.
Why don’t we hear more about this kind of thing? True it wasn’t a National event, but for a National figure who’s life and achievements should be celebrated.
Filed under: Uncategorized
You have got to be kidding me!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! All because she isn’t having fun right now?
11:27 AM PST on Monday, January 21, 2008
AP
Britney Spears arrives for the grand opening party of LAX nightclub at the Luxor hotel-casino in Las Vegas, in a Sept. 1, 2007 file photo.
LOS ANGELES – How awful does Britney Spears feel her life is right now?
She told the paparazzi in a British accent, “you’re better off being homeless than being me, sir.” In a video posted on Hollywood.TV, Spears complained “it’s been a long time since I had fun.”
The photographers then asked Spears if she had something to tell Adnan Ghalib, the photographer she’s been hanging out with recently. Spears replied that she didn’t know who that was. Spears said she “never met him.”
Survey still shows strong support for rail despite economy
Supporters of the proposed SMART commuter rail line can take comfort in a recent poll on whether Sonoma County residents still support creating a rail alternative to highway driving. Clearly they do.ADVERTISEMENT
Although residents have concerns about the economy and the impact of increased taxes, three out of every four Sonoma County residents still support a quarter-cent sales tax to fund a new commuter train through Sonoma and Marin counties.
The survey commissioned by the Sonoma County Transportation Authority showed 77 percent would support a rail tax while 21 percent would oppose it. Only 1 percent said they were unsure or had no opinion. The phone survey, conducted in early December by Sacramento-based pollster Jim Moore, had a margin of error of 4.4 percent.
The results are similar to the outcome from the sales tax measure of 2006 when nearly 70 percent of Sonoma County residents voted in favor of a quarter-cent tax for the SMART (Sonoma-Marin Area Rail Transit) train. But the measure failed because it required a two-thirds majority of all the North Bay — and it only mustered 57 percent in Marin County.
That’s the big unknown here. The poll only covers Sonoma County residents. The success of a commuter rail line, once again, will depend on Marin voters.
Nonetheless, these results should come as no surprise. The poll reflects a strong public support for rail in a time of growing concern about climate change. The public understands this, even if sometimes elected officials don’t.
Seventy-one percent of those surveyed listed “reducing traffic congestion” in Sonoma County as a high priority while 81 percent listed “reducing dependence on foreign oil” as a high priority. Only “reducing crime and gang activity” (82 percent) came in with a higher rating.
Supporters of the sales-tax measure will still have their work cut out for them if they put another quarter-cent sales tax measure on the November ballot as planned. The survey suggests some reluctance by Sonoma County voters to accept new taxes, something that may grow if the economy sours.
Even so, a strong majority of residents are willing to tax themselves to see this rail line built. Given that, there’s nothing here that should discourage officials from moving forward with a rail tax measure this fall — and getting this done.
