Archive

by: MICHAEL CHEUNG

The Bush administration Friday rejected the conclusion that global warming poses a threat to the public welfare, calling for 120 days of public comment and effectively delaying action to reduce greenhouse gas emissions at least until the next president takes office.

Although Bush agreed during the G-8 summit in Japan this week to cut carbon emissions blamed for global warming by at least half by 2050, in a 588-page report, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) examined the issues concerning greenhouse gases, but refused to adopt its own experts’ findings that such gases could cause disastrous flooding, drought, and affect food and water supplies.

According to the EPA, there were doubts whether “greenhouse gases could be effectively controlled under the Clean Air Act.”

David Bookbinder, the climate counsel for the Sierra Club environmental group, said the EPA’s decision underscores EPA administrator Stephen Johnson’s “utter lack of credibility.”

The report follows a Supreme Court ruling ordering the EPA last year to devise ways to regulate greenhouse gas emissions from motor vehicles under the Clean Air Act.

Environmentalists angrily denounced the White House for what they said was political interference with government experts’ proposed rules. “The Bush administration’s refusal to respond to the Supreme Court and do something about global warming is not just illegal, it is grossly immoral,” said Danielle Fugere of Friends of the Earth, an environmental group.

Opinion
by: MITCHELL HANDLER
I was extremely disappointed by the White House’s reaction to one of its own organizations about greenhouse gases, but what could I expect? The Bush administration has never been the purveyor of change when it comes to global warming.

Even if the Administration was right about the ineffectiveness of the Clean Air Act, doing nothing would be even worse. And as to President Bush agreeing to reduce emissions by half by 2050, the Los Angeles Times points out that no binding commitment was signed. In the end, money does the talking, and Bush likes to “talk” a lot to the oil industry, which tells him to take no action.

Ignoring an issue does not make it go away. This world faces a crisis. Global warming is a steadily growing problem, and the United States cannot afford to just sit back and relax while our own country is being eaten away by the sea because of rising waters. As ice melts and the sea level rises, coastal Alaskan villages are literally being engulfed by the sea. The rest of the country may seem safe now, but unless action is taken, that will change. Stronger storms will hit the southeast, and weather patterns will change drastically.

One man can’t change the world by himself, but many can, and many small reductions of greenhouse gases will have a huge impact on the environment. Hopefully, the new President will pass laws that will satisfy scientists.

ArchiveTags:supreme court, justice, antonio scalia, second amendment, united states, guns, firearms, constitution, washington dc, john roberts, gun control

By MICHAEL CHEUNG
Published: July 9, 2008

Iranian Revolutionary Guards practicing military exercises test-fired nine missiles on Wednesday, a move promptly condemned by the United States as heightening tensions over the country’s suspected nuclear weapons program.  The tests came a day after the Iranians had threatened to retaliate against Israel and the United States if attacked.

Iranian television showed three launches, including a new version of the Shahab-3 missile, which Tehran claims can travel 1,250 miles, well within the range of U.S. troops in Iraq, the Navy’s 5th Fleet in Bahrain and American allies such as Israel, Turkey, Saudi Arabia and Egypt. Iran said earlier this week that it would retaliate against U.S. and Israeli interests in the region if its nuclear facilities were attacked.

According to one of Iran’s top military leaders, Gen. Hossein Salami, the war games in the Persian Gulf would “demonstrate our resolve and might against enemies who in recent weeks have threatened Iran with harsh language.”

“Our hands are always on the trigger and our missiles are ready for launch,” added Salami.

Gordon D. Johndroe, the deputy White House press secretary, said in a statement at the G-8 summit in Japan that Iran’s development of ballistic missiles was a violation of United Nations Security Council resolutions.

“The Iranian regime only furthers the isolation of the Iranian people from the international community when it engages in this sort of activity,” said Johndroe.

However, some saw the tests as essentially defensive in nature. A senior American intelligence official said the missile test seemed part of a deterrent strategy to warn Iran’s neighbors of Tehran’s “capacity to inflict pain.”

Negotiations between Iran and the West are scheduled to resume this month and Iranian officials have sounded mounting alarms about speculation that the United States or Israel could attack Tehran’s nuclear facilities. On a European tour last month, President Bush repeated Washington’s warning that no options had been ruled out.

Editorial

By MICHAEL CHEUNG

Now that the world is desperately in need for diplomacy, it’s frustrating when Iran conducts missile tests like this.  How can Iran expect to gain the trust of the rest of the world while it threatens everyone else like this?  Granted, the United States and Israel have both made mistakes: promising to “obliterate” or “bomb, bomb, bomb” Iran is not very diplomatic, but Iran will need to continue to negotiate with Western countries if it truly wishes, as it has claimed, to avoid a war.

Archive Tags: supreme court, justice, antonio scalia, second amendment, united states, guns, firearms, constitution, washington dc, john roberts, gun control

By MICHAEL CHEUNG
Published: June 26, 2008

The Supreme Court declared for the first time on Thursday that the Constitution protects an individual’s right to have a gun, not just the right of the states to maintain militias.

The justices voted 5-4, ruling that a sweeping ban on handguns in the nation’s capital would violate the Second Amendment right to bear arms.

Justice Antonin Scalia, writing the opinion for the majority in the landmark decision, said the Constitution does not allow “the absolute prohibition of handguns held and used for self-defense in the home.”

However, the court held that the individual right to possess a gun “for traditionally lawful purposes, such as self-defense within the home” is not unlimited. “It is not a right to keep and carry any weapon whatsoever in any manner whatsoever and for whatever purpose,” Justice Scalia continued.

Joining Justice Scalia in his vote were Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. and Justices Clarence Thomas, Anthony M. Kennedy and Samuel A. Alito Jr.

The high court’s ruling was the first since 1939 to deal with the scope of the Second Amendment, and the first ever to directly address the meaning of the amendment’s ambiguous, comma-laden text: “A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.”

From the Editor’s Desk

By MICHAEL CHEUNG

I myself am strongly against the Supreme Court’s interpretation of the second Amendment. In this age and time, when our crime rate is much too high, why give potential criminals and mentally ill persons the right to bear arms? Yes, protecting our rights is very important, but isn’t the right to own firearms a bit outdated in the twenty-first century?

I have a question for you: when was the last time owning a gun would have helped save your life? Many American citizens have never needed or wished to own a firearm in their lives. Now consider this: when’s the last time you heard about a shooting that would have been prevented if guns had been banned? Virginia Tech? Any number of local crimes?

To me, the bottom line is, the Second Amendment was originally written so that States would be able to keep a militia. But I say, allowing individual citizens to own firearms does not equate to keeping a militia. If you really want to help the United States defend itself, join the National Guard or the Army, especially now that we are having so many shortages of soldiers.

Archive Tags: mississippi, flood, river, levees, fema, united states, army corps of engineers, mississippi valley, hancock, illinois, atvs, president bush

By MICHAEL CHEUNG
Published: June 8, 2008

The swollen Mississippi River flowed over the tops of two more levees in the St. Louis area, as the total number of levees compromised by the floodwaters has reached 21, said officials on Wednesday.

U.S. Army Corps of Engineers for the Mississippi Valley said water flowed over the top of one levee, but local officials had a different account, reporting that the levee — near Meyer, Illinois — breached in two places about 6:20 a.m., pouring water into Hancock and Adams counties.

The latest breaks occurred overnight near the small town of Meyer on the western border of Illinois and Missouri, flooding roads and farmland, and prompting authorities to evacuate about 50 people. The river was expected to crest early Wednesday afternoon farther downstream in Quincy, Ill., a town of about 40,000 people perched on the banks of the Mississippi.

“It’s kind of a sad day,” said Sheriff John Jefferson of Hancock County. “People put in a lot of manpower [to build up the levees] and all was lost.”

The floodwaters will cover thousands of acres of farmland from Warsaw to Quincy — about a 25-mile stretch of the river.

In Canton, a town of 2,500 in eastern Missouri, people were bracing for the Mississippi to crest by Thursday morning. Workers on four-wheel ATVs drove up and down the town’s levee, carting an extra layer of protection: 1.3 million sandbags to sit atop a two foot wall that they have built atop the levee. Looking out from the levee on Wednesday, the Mississippi was only feet away from the top. Farmland, a road, and the welcome sign for Canton were under about 12 feet of water.

Still, Canton officials say they hope the levee will protect the town. Every time a sign of water slipped through the top — or a puddle appeared in sandbags, more ATVs raced to the spot to shore it up. “We think this is going to hold,” said Richard Dodd, an alderman here, as he drew on his experience in 1993 and directed traffic and ordered more sand bags in different spots. “We were green in ’93, but now we know,” he said, referring to the last enormous flood here, a year when the level crept only a few inches higher than is expected by morning.

Levees elsewhere along the Mississippi were being topped with sandbags as the river — fed by its flooded tributaries — continued to rise.

“We fix one thing and it breaks,” Mayor Jo Anne Smiley told the Associated Press. “Sewers are plugged up. We have leaks in walls and people who need things. We’re boating in food to people.”

President Bush plans to visit Cedar Rapids, Iowa, Thursday to see the flood-damaged regions, according to White House Deputy Press Secretary Tony Fratto.

From the Editor’s Desk

By MICHAEL CHEUNG

It’s very inspiring to see the residents of these Midwest towns fight so bravely against the ever-rising water levels. As we learned from Hurricane Katrina, we can’t always count on the government to help us, and these residents are taking up the challenge of defending themselves. It is this kind of determination – not FEMA, not President Bush – that will ultimately be the deciding factor in who can survive these disasters.

Archive Tags: salmonella, tomatoes, sickness, fda, mexico, florida, fruit, disease, contaminated, cooks

By MICHAEL CHEUNG
Published: June 8, 2008

Salmonella food poisoning first linked to uncooked tomatoes has spread to 16 states, federal health officials said Saturday. Investigations by the Texas and New Mexico Departments of Health and the U.S. Indian Health Service have tied 56 cases in Texas and 55 in New Mexico to raw, uncooked, tomatoes.

The source of the tomatoes is still unknown, but officials believe that large tomatoes, including Roma and round red, are carrying the strain that has infected 145 people since mid-April.

Health officials are recommending limiting raw tomato consumption to those that are not the likely source of the outbreak, including cherry tomatoes, grape tomatoes, tomatoes sold with their vine attached and homegrown tomatoes.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA’s) communicable disease program chief, Francie Wise, sought to downplay the significance of the illness in a statement released Friday, noting that the county normally averages about 123 cases a year.

From the Editor’s Desk

By MICHAEL CHEUNG

It is in times like these where the benefits of home growing vegetables become more obvious. Not only are they fresher and healthier, but when diseases strike farms around the country, home grown vegetables are generally almost always safe from the threat. Especially now that food prices (as well as gas prices) are skyrocketing, more and more people should consider home growing vegetables.