Holy megaweeds - USDA GM Deregulation

from Laura Flanders:

It's a hoary bureaucratic trick, making a controversial announcement on the Friday afternoon before a long weekend, when most people are daydreaming about what beer to buy on the way home from work, or are checking movie times online. But that's precisely what the US Department of Agriculture pulled last Friday. [...]

In its July 1 response, the USDA agreed: "[N]one of the organisms used in generating this genetically engineered (GE) glyophosphate tolerant Kentucky bluegrass...are considered to be plant pests," so Roundup Ready bluegrass "does not meet the definition of a 'regulated article' and is not subject" to the Plant Protection Act. In other words, go forth and multiply.

Definitely worth reading the whole thing - explains how the US regulations against GM crops were based on a 1950s era fiction bolstered by a slightly (but only slightly) more binding recent law that has now been blown thru ...

Wazí Aháŋhaŋ Oyáŋke

Demographics (Wikipedia)

In 2005 in an interview, Cecilia Fire Thunder, the first woman president of the Oglala Sioux Tribe, noted the following: "68 percent of the college graduates on the reservation are women. Seventy percent of the jobs are held by women. Over 90 percent of the jobs in our schools are held by women."^[38]

• As of 2011, population estimates of the reservation range from 28,000 to 40,000. Numerous enrolled members of the tribe live off the reservation.^[39]
• 80% of residents are unemployed (versus 10% of the rest of the country);
• 49% of the residents live below the Federal poverty level (61% under the age of 18);
• Per capita income in Shannon County is $6,286;
• The Infant Mortality rate is 5 times higher than the national average;
• Native American amputation rates due to diabetes is 3 to 4 times higher than the national average;
• Death rate due to diabetes is 3 times higher than the national average; and
• Life expectancy on the Pine Ridge is the lowest in the Western Hemisphere, other than in Haiti; Men - 48 years, Women - 52 years.^[40]

All sorts of morons are common

Oak Park Woman Faces 93-Days in Jail For Planting Vegetable Garden

Code enforcement gave her a warning, then a ticket and now she's been charged with a misdemeanor. Why? The city is pointing to a code that says a front yard has to have suitable, live, plant material. The big question is what's "suitable?"

We asked Bass whether she thinks she has suitable, live, plant material in her front yard.

"It's definitely live. It's definitely plant. It's definitely material. We think it's suitable," she said.

So, we asked [the city] why it's not suitable.

"If you look at the definition of what suitable is in Webster's dictionary, it will say common. So, if you look around and you look in any other community, what's common to a front yard is a nice, grass yard with beautiful trees and bushes and flowers," he said.

But when you look at front yards that are unsightly and overgrown, is Bass' vegetable garden really worth the city's time and money?

[via]