USA TODAY…The brands also will give up greenhouse gas emissions credits — estimated by the EPA as worth $200 million — because of the lower mileage ratings added up to 4.75 million more metric tons of greenhouse gases. They also agreed to spend $50 million on an independent unit to set their future mileage estimates… […]
Marijuana profits up in smoke under IRS rules
USA TODAY: …Then, in 1982, Congress amended the U.S. tax code to include 280E, which says businesses selling a Schedule I or II drug — like marijuana, heroin, methamphetamine or cocaine — cannot deduct all of their regular business expenses. The rule means that the “costs of the product,” like the soil and fertilizer used […]
Americans’ Obesity, Drug Use Cancels Gains From Less Smoking, Safer Cars
WALL STREET JOURNAL: Americans are smoking less, driving safer and have cut back on heavy boozing, leading to healthier and longer lives over the past half-century. Unfortunately, Americans also are getting fatter, overdosing on drugs and getting shot more frequently, factors which have all but wiped out those positive trends, according to a paper by […]
Re: Lancaster’s CRIZ picture slowly develops with potential projects
EDITOR: What a tragedy for the City of Lancaster, all willfully brought on by the current administration headed by Mayor Rick Gray and Patterson.
Cancel the Midterms
NEW YORK TIMES OP-ED: …The main impact of the midterm election in the modern era has been to weaken the president, the only government official (other than the powerless vice president) elected by the entire nation. Since the end of World War II, the president’s party has on average lost 25 seats in the House […]
Frankencharters
PHILADELPHIA DAILY NEWS EDITORIAL: ..The controller’s report asserts that it’s not fair for the district to pay whatever the charters bill them and then not get reimbursed, which has been an issue since Gov. Corbett dropped such reimbursements back in 2011. But the report also offers a detailed and much overdue look at some of […]
Terminally Ill Woman Brittany Maynard Has Ended Her Own Life
EDITOR: “Suicide” would not properly describe what took place. It was euthanasia, the voluntary ending of life when pain and suffering become unbearable.
Voters mean little
By Dick Miller WE.CONNECT.DOTS: Political pundits predict another record low turnout for Pennsylvania voters Tuesday, Nov. 4 and why not? Never has their votes counted for less – even less so in Western Pennsylvania. In fact, the predicted low turnout remains the only factor preventing everyone from forecasting that Democrat Tom Wolf will send Republican […]
A Natural Fix for A.D.H.D.
NEW YORK TIMES: …Dr. Nora D. Volkow, a scientist who directs the National Institute on Drug Abuse, has studied the dopamine reward pathway in people with A.D.H.D. Using a PET scan, she and her colleagues compared the number of dopamine receptors in this brain region in a group of unmedicated adults with A.D.H.D. with a […]
Why Innocent People Plead Guilty
Against this background, the information-deprived defense lawyer, typically within a few days after the arrest, meets with the overconfident prosecutor, who makes clear that, unless the case can be promptly resolved by a plea bargain, he intends to charge the defendant with the most severe offenses he can prove.
LNP: “Who says crime doesn’t pay?”
“While the law was designed to crack down on major drug criminals, an LNP review of hundreds of recent forfeiture files show it’s more often used against low-level dealers, casual users — and sometimes people never charged with a crime.”
In Torrent of Rapes in Britain, an Uncomfortable Focus on Race and Ethnicity
NEW YORK TIMES: …Mr. Ahmed’s* case and a handful of others prosecuted since 2010, including in Rochdale and in Keighley in the north and in Oxford in the south, followed the same template: Mostly Asian men were found to have groomed mostly white British girls between the ages of 12 and 18, getting them to […]
Top scientists blame humans for climate change
USA TODAY: Warning of “irreversible and dangerous impacts,” some of the world’s top scientists Sunday released the most comprehensive assessment of climate change ever done… The assessment comes as the Earth is headed toward its hottest year ever recorded, along with its highest level of atmospheric carbon dioxide in at least 800,000 years. “The IPCC’s […]
Use [Justice McCaffery scandal] to drive reform
SCRANTON TIMES-TRIBUNE EDITORIAL: … In any case, like every other Supreme Court justice and other appellate court judge, Justice [Seamus] McCaffery was elected on the strength of political factors that had little to do with his professional suitability for the job… No selection method can eliminate politics. But the objective is to diminish political considerations […]