A week after leading climate scientist James Hansen called for radical steps to prevent environmental chaos caused by greenhouse gas pollution, 13 people were arrested today during a blockade of Dominion's Richmond headquarters to protest the granting of an air permit earlier this month for the company's planned new coal-burning power plant in Wise County, Va.

During the protest involving members of Blue Ridge Earth First!, four women locked themselves together and to a concrete-filled barrel while a man using climbing gear dangled off a suspension bridge. Eight supporters watching from the sidelines were also arrested. The action snarled traffic for miles.

There have been other direct-action protests this year against coal plants in North Carolina, Texas, and Kentucky. And in the United Kingdom earlier this month, climate activists occupied a coal train on its way to a power plant.

Last week, Virginia's Air Pollution Control Board approved pollution permits for Dominion's proposed Virginia City Hybrid Energy Center, which would burn a mix of coal and other polluting fuels including bituminous coal waste commonly known as "gob." The company said the permit decision "paves the way for us to start construction in the very near future."

(Photo from the blog "It's Getting Hot in Here: Dispatches From the Youth Climate Movement.")

Labels: climate, coal, Dominion, Earth First, virginia

The $100 million budgeted for damages in the government's discrimination settlement with Black farmers may not be sufficient to fully compensate all farmers with successful rulings. The 2008 Farm Bill includes a provision to assist the late filers in the Pigford Class Action Lawsuit filed by Black farmers against the U.S. Department of Agriculture. The provision authorizes Black farmers who would have qualified for Pigford relief to seek redress in Federal court. But as the Associated Press reported last week, with more than 70,000 potential claimants, the liability could exceed $3 billion, a far greater amount that the $100 million included in the legislation.

According to the AP:

The decision to allow new claims comes almost 10 years after the Agriculture Department settled a class-action lawsuit brought on behalf of thousands of black farmers. The farmers, mainly from rural areas in the South, alleged that local USDA offices routinely denied them loans, disaster assistance and other aid frequently given to whites -- practices that often drove them out of business. At that time, 22,500 farmers filed claims…[but] an estimated 73,000 others were denied payments because they missed the October 1999 deadline for seeking claims.

As the Federation of Southern Cooperatives explained in a June press release, in hearings held by Congress in 2004 and again last year, it was determined that these tens of thousands of potential Pigford claimants had not gotten fair notice of the settlement from the TV, radio, and print campaign about the settlement in early 1999, and that, as a matter of fundamental fairness, they should be given another chance to obtain relief for the USDA discrimination.

In light of the limited funds available to redress wronged farmers, it appears the long-fought battle by Black farmers will continue. Lawyers involved in the case acknowledge that it is unclear where the money will come from once claims exceed $100 million. “There’s no doubt that there will have to be more money in the future,” Sen. Chuck Grassley, an Iowa Republican and lead sponsor of the measure, told the AP, but adding that, "African-American farmers deserve justice.”

Labels: agriculture, black farmers, farm act, pigford class action lawsuit, rural south, USDA

The man who's been called a "pirate in seersucker" is heading to the brig.

Richard "Dickie" Scruggs -- the noted Mississippi trial attorney who sued insurance companies for their actions after Hurricane Katrina -- was sentenced last week to five years in federal prison for attempting to bribe a state judge. Scruggs, who must also pay a $250,000 fine and the cost of his incarceration, is a former Navy fighter pilot who made a fortune suing the asbestos industry on behalf of sick shipyard workers and representing Mississippi in the tobacco litigation of the 1990s.

Upon reporting to prison on Aug. 4, Scruggs reportedly will receive mental health and drug treatment. He was found to have a drug problem after pleading guilty earlier this year.

At the sentencing hearing, Scruggs expressed regret and an inability to understand why he did what he did:

I could not be more ashamed than to be where I am today, mixed up in a judicial bribery scheme that I participated in. I realized that I was getting mixed up in it. And I will go to my grave wondering why.

I have disappointed everyone in my life, my wife, my family, my son, particularly; my friends, many of whom were kind enough to come up today and to write to the Court. I deeply regret my conduct. I ' m sorrowful for it. It is a scar and a stain on my soul that will be there forever.

Scruggs' former law partner, Sidney Backstrom, was already sentenced to 28 months for his role in the scheme. Scruggs' son, Zach, is scheduled to be sentenced Wednesday for charges related to his failure to report the wrongdoing. Also awaiting sentencing are attorneys Tim Balducci and Steve Patterson, a former state auditor.

Scruggs and his co-conspirators were indicted last year for offering to pay Circuit Court Judge Henry Lackey $50,000 to rule in favor of the Scruggs Law Firm in a lawsuit over the allocation of $26.5 million in attorney's fees for the Katrina litigation. Lackey reported the bribery attempt to the FBI, which taped subsequent conversations.

After insurers tried to avoid paying claims filed by homeowners after Katrina by arguing the damage was due to water and not wind, Scruggs sued. He eventually negotiated more than $100 million in settlements, though a federal judge recommended that he face criminal contempt charges for using improper tactics.

A Democrat, Scruggs is the brother-in-law of former U.S. Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott, and he represented the Lott and U.S. Rep. Gene Taylor in their lawsuits against State Farm for refusing to pay claims for the loss of their homes in Katrina. Taylor, a Democrat, and Lott, a Republican, pushed federal legislation to investigate insurers' claims handling after the disaster, a potential conflict of interest.

Lott resigned last year just days before Scrugg's indictment, and it was later reported that the former Senator was being investigated for a possible role in the bribery conspiracy. Lott was not in the courtroom for Scruggs' sentencing. U.S. Attorney James Greenlee, who prosecuted Scruggs, has said his investigation is continuing.

A message at the website of Scruggs' law firm says Katrina insurance cases are now being handled by the Katrina Litigation Group. That firm says the criminal case will not affect its clients.

Labels: Gulf Coast Reconstruction Watch, Hurricane Katrina, mississippi, richard scruggs, trent lott

Last Sunday, the New York Times Magazine ran a gushing profile of Jim Rogers, the CEO of Duke Energy in Charlotte, N.C. Penned by staff writer Clive Thompson, who found his subject "charming and natty," the article repeated the oft-heard praise that because he acknowledges the threat of greenhouse gas pollution and the need for his company -- the nation's third-largest carbon emitter -- to do something about it, Rogers is an "environmentalist." Why, he even talks to scientists:

For years, he has opened his doors to the kinds of green activists who would give palpitations to most energy C.E.O.’s. In March, he had breakfast with James Lovelock, the originator of the Gaia theory, which regards the earth as a single, living organism, to discuss whether species can adapt to a warmer earth. In April, James Hansen, a climatologist at NASA and one of the first scientists to publicly warn about global warming, wrote an open letter urging Rogers to stop burning coal -- so Rogers took him out for a three-hour dinner in Manhattan. "I would dare say that no one in the industry would talk to Lovelock and Hansen," Rogers told me.

It's true that Rogers, a former reporter, has cultivated a green media image. Of course, he's had some help with that from Duke Energy's formidable in-house public relations department, and private P.R. firms including California-based Marston+Marston and Grossman Strategies of New York. Then there's Duke's army of lobbyists in state capitals, and its Washington-based political action committee, which so far in the 2008 federal election cycle has spent about $900,000 on various politicians, according to OpenSecrets.org.

But is Rogers really the green dreamboat the Times makes him out to be? Let's examine some of the claims in the magazine's mash note:

* QUESTIONABLE CLAIM #1: Duke's coal-fired plants "produce clean air."

Thompson visited the company's massive Cliffside coal-fired power plant in Rutherford County, N.C. to check out its pollution control equipment. Speaking to him afterwards, Rogers said, "Sometimes I tell people that Duke is really just a company that processes chemicals to produce clean air, and we get electricity as a byproduct." Thompson didn't examine this claim further.

So how clean is the air produced by Duke's facilities?

According to Cliffside's toxics release inventory, the plant emitted more than 4.2 million pounds of toxic air pollution in 2006 alone -- including some 3.7 million pounds of hydrochloric acid, 265 pounds of lead, and 174 pounds of mercury. And that's the pollution from just one of the company's coal-fired power plants. In 2006, Duke's 14 coal plants across the Carolinas, Indiana and Kentucky emitted more than 61 million pounds of pollution -- including more than 48 million pounds of hydrochloric acid, 8,000 pounds of lead, and 2,700 pounds of mercury. This year, researchers at the University of Massachusetts identified Duke as the nation's 13th-largest corporate polluter, having more than doubled its total emissions of toxic chemicals since 2002 to 80 million pounds per year.

Meanwhile, Duke has fought requirements to clean up its emissions. Last year, for example, the U.S. Supreme Court overturned a lower court decision and ruled that Duke violated the Clean Air Act when it modernized its coal plants without buying required pollution control equipment.

* QUESTIONABLE CLAIM #2: The pollution-scrubbing process at coal-fired power plants produces harmless byproducts.

During his visit to the Cliffside plant, Thompson viewed the massive pollution scrubbers that capture sulfur dioxide pollution. "The process produces gypsum," he wrote, "a safe and inert mineral, which Duke sells for use in drywall."

It's true that the air pollution scrubbing process produces what's known as flue gas desulfurization sludge, which is used to make a synthetic form of gypsum processed into wallboard and other building products. But that's just one kind of waste created from burning coal; there's also fly ash, bottom ash and boiler slag. These coal combustion wastes contain toxic pollutants such as arsenic, lead and mercury. They're also a fast-growing pollution source: The volume of CCW produced nationally increased by more than 30 percent in 2004 alone due to laws aimed at controlling acid rain, according to an Environmental Protection Agency report [pdf].

Because the federal government doesn't regulate CCW as hazardous waste, most of it ends up being dumped in unlined and poorly monitored landfills, surface impoundments or abandoned mines. A 2000 report by the nonprofit Clean Air Task Force found there are 60 places around the country where CCW has degraded public ground and surface waters to the point they're unusable.

Duke has its own problems with CCW pollution. Earlier this year, the Charlotte Observer reported that state records indicate potentially unsafe levels of toxic arsenic, boron and selenium in groundwater beneath Duke's coal waste dumps, and an Indiana community has discovered boron contamination of groundwater coming from waste dumps at Duke's Gibson Generating Station.

As far back as the 1970s, CCW pollution from Duke's Belews Creek Steam Station in North Carolina caused the widespread selenium poisoning of the adjacent Belews Lake ecosystem, where fish suffered deformities and 19 out of 20 fish species were eventually wiped out.

* QUESTIONABLE CLAIM #3: Coal is cheaper and more accessible than other energy sources.

Thompson paraphrased Rogers making this claim while explaining Duke's plan for reducing the company's reliance on coal, but he didn't scrutinize it.

The fact is, coal is relatively cheap on today's energy market only because coal profiteers like Rogers have been successful in shifting many of its associated costs to the public.

What would the price of coal be if it included the cost of hospital visits and medical treatment for asthma and other illnesses in people forced to breathe coal-plant pollution? If it included the billions paid in public medical benefits to former miners, many of whom suffer from black lung and other job-related health problems? Or the value of forests destroyed by acid rain, landscapes ruined by strip mines, waters rendered unfit to fish because of mercury contamination?

And what's the cost of the coal industry's wholesale destruction of Appalachian communities through mountaintop removal mining? Besides West Virginia, North Carolina is the largest consumer of coal mined by mountaintop removal, thanks in large part to Duke Energy. The company is the nation's third-largest consumer of coal mined via mountaintop removal, in which explosives are used to blast apart mountains to get at the coal, with the resulting debris dumped into nearby river valleys. The practice has destroyed more than 470 mountain peaks, polluted more than 1,200 miles of headwater streams, and wiped out some 800 square miles of diverse ecosystems across Appalachia.

* QUESTIONABLE CLAIM #4: Rogers' Save-a-Watt efficiency plan is simply "brilliant."

Thompson reports on Duke's proposed Save-a-Watt efficiency program, which would allow the company to charge higher rates for its electricity in exchange for reducing customer usage. His sole sources about the program are Rogers and former President Clinton, who calls it a "brilliant idea."

But in North Carolina, the program has drawn opposition from a coalition of environmentalists, consumer advocates and conservative policy wonks.

In an opinion piece published earlier this year in the Raleigh News & Observer, co-authors Daren Bakst of the right-leaning John Locke Foundation think-tank and Shana Becker of the N.C. Public Interest Research Group with help from Pete MacDowell of the N.C. Waste Awareness and Reduction Network called on the state Utilities Commission to reject Duke's proposal. They noted that Save-a-Watt would require consumers to pay for lost sales based on the company's own speculative projections and would have a disproportionate impact on the poor.

Others have criticized the program for excessive profits and for focusing too much on load shifting -- that is, moving power use to off-peak hours when it costs less to generate, which doesn't save energy.

* QUESTIONABLE CLAIM #5: The people who oppose Duke's plan to build a new 800 megawatt coal plant at Cliffside are "elites."

At Duke's annual shareholders' meeting in May, a dozen people stepped up to the microphone and lambasted Rogers over the company's plan to build a new 800 megawatt coal-fired power plant at Cliffside, voicing concerns about its impact on climate and its dependence on coal mined via mountaintop removal. (The company's original plans called for two new plants at Cliffside, but that proposal was rejected by state regulators.) Rogers is reportedly "annoyed" by opposition to the plant -- and he accuses the protesters of being "an eco-elite" unsympathetic to working-class families' need for affordable energy.

In fact, the movement to stop the Cliffside plant involves a broad cross-section of North Carolinians -- students concerned about the climate, mothers worried about mercury, doctors alarmed by increases in pollution-related illness, people of faith distressed by the destruction of Appalachia. The Canary Coalition -- a grassroots clean air advocacy group that organizes weekly boycott actions to stop the new Cliffside plant ---reported in a press advisory this week that it's grown to the point that it's now financed by its members alone and no longer needs to rely on "industry funded grant foundations" or "government funds."

It's unlikely that many of the Canary Coalition's members are as "elite" as Rogers himself, who was paid about $9.9 million last year in a compensation package that includes personal use of company aircraft. Few of them probably live in mansions like his, either.

Labels: coal, coal combustion waste, Duke Energy, Jim Rogers, media, new york times, toxics

This week Facing South begins a bi-weekly listing of new books about the U.S. South or written by Southern writers.

Slavery by another Name: The Re-Enslavement of Black Americans from the Civil War to World War by Douglas A. Blackmon, 480 pages, Doubleday (March 25, 2008)

Based on a vast record of original documents and personal narratives, Slavery by Another Name unearths the lost stories of slaves and their descendants who journeyed into freedom after the Emancipation Proclamation and then back into the shadow of involuntary servitude. The book has been hailed by Bill Moyers as “the most stunning book you will read this year.” The Atlanta Journal-Constitution called it “an important, ambitious account of the black men engulfed in a legal system operating for the white South’s pursuit of racial dominance and private profit. It weaves together a vast quantity of existing scholarship, interviews and archival records in order to tell the personal stories of black Southerners snared by the South’s interlocking systems of racial exploitation.”

For more information, visit the book’s website.

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Winning Our Energy Independence: An Energy Insider Shows How by S. David Freeman, 248 pages, Gibbs Smith (September 7, 2007)

In Winning Our Energy Independence, Tennessean-born environmentalist and long-time energy insider S. David Freeman sheds light on America’s deadly addiction to the "three poisons": foreign oil, coal, and nuclear power. He challenges the United States and the world to create a high-energy global civilization where each nation has its own homegrown, carbon-free renewable source of energy. The LA Times blogs that Freeman’s book “is a highly inspiring and optimistic read that encourages environmentalists to think big and act fast.”

"We now are aware that this civilization of ours is on death row,” Freeman told a crowd gathered to him speak this month at The Carter Center. “Almost every climatologist tells us we have about 10 years to get greenhouse gases under control… or the greatest likelihood is our civilization will go down and go down for keeps."

For more information visit Gibbs Smith publishing.

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On the Road to Freedom: A Guided Tour of the Civil Rights Trail by Charles Cobb, 388 pages, Algonquin Books (December 20, 2007)

Charles Cobb’s On the Road to Freedom is a journey through Southern history and an insider's tour of the Civil Rights trail. Cobb left college in the early 1960s to join the Civil Rights movement in the Deep South, and went on to spend five years working with people who would become icons of the movement and in places that would become pivotal battlegrounds in the fight for civil rights.

FireDogLake called On the Road to Freedom “a book about freedom--the idea and pursuit of it--not only from slavery itself but also from the unique history of slavery in the United States, a history so ugly, so painful but yet fundamental, the author argues, that even after over two hundred years later in the 21st century we still haven't fully come to grips with it: We still haven't completely dealt with the collective trauma and social neurosis in its wake.”

For more information visit Algonquin Books. You can listen to an interview with Cobb on North Carolina Public Radio or on NPR’s Tell Me More.

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Let Them Eat MoonPie: The Southern Fried Poetry Slam From 1992-2000 by Bill Abbot, 274 pages, The Wordsmith Press (March 1, 2008)

Poetry slam is the competitive art of poetry originating in Chicago over 20 years ago, and is now practiced at venues worldwide. It is an interactive experience that involves the audience as well as the poets, according to Nashville-born writer Bill Abbott. Abbott captures the colorful history of Southern performance poetry in Let them Eat Moonpie, a book that is part history and part Southern study.

According to the Winston-Salem Journal, the book takes a look at some of the South’s most decorated competitive poets and the events and people who were and continue to be a part of the Southern Fried circuit, a quirky regional poetry slam held annually in cities around the South. The Winston-Salem Journal goes on to call the book an “oral and somewhat insider history of a competition that's as much about performing as it is about writing, eight years of Southern poetry slamming stitched together by the colorful memories of creative people. Like poetry and performing itself, it is sometimes bawdy, sometimes piecemeal but a celebration of an activity that prides itself on being on the fringe.”

The Southern Fried Poetry Slam continues to remain strong. As the Tallahassee Democrat reported, this year’s Southern Fried Slam attracted more than 200 poets and 40 teams to Tallahassee, Fl. earlier this month.

For more information about the book, visit its website or the website of The Wordsmith Press.

Labels: arts and culture, authors, book fridays, books, southern culture, southern history, southern writers

Have you filled out your bracket at the Consumerist blog yet?

Don't worry, they don't want early picks for the 2009 NCAA hoops tournament -- the popular consumer rights website is asking readers to vote for which business deserves the dubious honor of "Worst Company in America."

The annual contest starts off with a field of 64 companies infamous for their treatment of consumers. This week, readers have been choosing among the "Elite 8" corporate miscreants. Five -- soon to be six -- of the eight finalists are headquartered in the South: American Airlines (Texas), Bank of America (North Carolina), Capital One (Virginia), ExxonMobil (Texas) and Wal-Mart (Arkansas).

Voters' brackets were thrown into chaos by yesterday's "Elite 8" match-up, which pitted #7 Bank of America vs. #15 Countrywide Home Loans, given the news that the Charlotte banking giant BofA is buying up Countywide and its troubled home mortgage operations.

The blog editor's advice: "For the purposes of this contest we ask that you evaluate their track record with consumers separately." According to testimonials from Consumerist readers, neither has a pretty track record:

Bank of America:

"Bank of America tellers gave away $12,000 of my money to a woman with missing teeth and a fake driver's license in my name. On SEVEN occasions. In places I never go."

"My girlfriend had a credit card with a bank that was bought out by BOA. Her monthly payments went from $20 a month to $170 despite the fact that she never missed a payment and always paid more then the minimum."

"BoA is not just "a" bank, they're a bank with some of the least customer-friendly policies in America. Re-opening closed accounts then charging $35 for it? That's not a courtesy, that's fraud."

"Can u say overdraft? Lets take billions from the poor every year and feel good about it!"

Countrywide:

"Countrywide, because before the subprime crisis I could finance my education, and now I'm posting as a dropout."

"Countrywide is ultimately what caused the dollar to be worthless. So them, and people like them, wrecked our economy."

"Countrywide is the subprime mortgage business. Sure, blame is spread widely, but no one company/person/sector so aggressively made it part of their business plan."

Many readers were dismayed at the prospect of such operations now being under one roof.

UPDATE: The Final Four has been announced: Comcast, Countrywide, Diebold and Wal-Mart (the highest vote-getter among the Elite 8). Who are you betting will win it all?

Labels: american airlines, bank of america, business, capital one, comcast, consumerist, consumers, countrywide, diebold, economic justice, exxonmobil, wal-mart, worst company in america

The latest Institute Index -- about deep budget cuts at newspaper publisher McClatchy Co. -- as featured in our e-newsletter Facing South. If you don't get Facing South, sign up now in the box in the upper right hand corner!

Size of workforce cuts announced this month by California-based newspaper chain McClatchy: 10 percent

Jobs lost: about 1,400

Jobs lost at the Miami Herald: 250, or 17 percent of the workforce

At the Charlotte (N.C.) Observer: 123, or 11 percent

At the Raleigh (N.C.) News & Observer: 70, or 8 percent

At the Lexington (Ky.) Herald-Leader, which is unionized: 17, or 4 percent

Annual savings expected as a result of the cuts: $70 million

Year McClatchy went heavily into debt to buy the Knight-Ridder newspaper chain: 2006

Debt remaining from the deal even after McClatchy sold a dozen former Knight-Ridder papers in slow-growing markets: $2.5 billion

Proportion of McClatchy ad revenue that comes from papers in Florida and California, which have been hit hard by the housing market crunch: more than 1/3

Fall in sales of print ads in the first quarter for U.S. newspapers overall: 14 percent

Last time there was such a dramatic quarterly decline: more than 30 years ago

Growth in McClatchy's online audience in 2007: 25 percent

In the first quarter of 2008: 41 percent

Gain in online ad revenue McClatchy reported last month: 12.9 percent

Drop in McClatchy's stock price in reaction to the job-cut announcement: 13 cents, to $8.02

Fall in company's stock value over the past year: more than 70 percent

Shares of McClatchy stock CEO Gary Pruitt beneficially owns: 13 million

Last year's pay for Pruitt: $4.6 million

Pruitt's additional bonus in 2007: $800,000

Salary of a newsroom aide laid off from one McClatchy paper: barely $20,000

Year in which McClatchy was founded by an Irish immigrant fleeing the potato famine: 1857

Labels: facing south, institute index, mcclatchy, media

The U.S. Supreme Court has slashed the punitive damages awarded in the Exxon Valdez oil spill disaster from $2.5 billion to $500 million. The 1989 tanker accident fouled Alaska's Prince William Sound with 11 million gallons of crude oil, causing the collapse of the local marine ecosystem and leading to the bankruptcy of the native Chugach people.

Today's high court decision marks a win for Texas-based Exxon, which was originally ordered by a jury to pay $5 billion in punitive damages. During the time the matter has been making its way through the courts, more than 3,000 of the original plaintiffs died.

Greenpeace USA Executive Director John Passacantando criticized the ruling as a "mockery of justice":

"The worst environmental calamity in U.S. history will continue to haunt the Prince William Sound and those dependent upon it for their livelihoods. Crude oil still can be found under rocks along the Sound’s shores, and fishery scientists estimate that only ten percent of the oil was ever cleaned up.

"As long as America maintains its addiction to oil, the country will remain at risk of environmental disasters such as the one caused by the Exxon Valdez."

In a statement released after the ruling, Exxon said it deeply regretted the incident and noted that it's paid $3.4 billion as a result -- an amount that covers compensation, cleanup, settlements and fines. Last year the company recorded a profit of more than $40 billion.

The court's decision comes as President Bush and Republican presidential candidate John McCain are pushing to lift the federal moratorium on offshore oil drilling, which would increase the likelihood of coastal spills.

(Photo of birds killed by Exxon Valdez spill from the online photo gallery of the Exxon Valdez Oil Spill Trustee Council)

Labels: Exxon Mobil, Exxon Valdez, offshore drilling

Economists say that recessions hurt African-American and Latino workers the most because they are "the last hired and the first fired."

James Sparks at the AFL-CIO blog has an eye-opening post this week arguing that the home foreclosure crisis is working the same way: while affecting everyone, it's been especially devastating for blacks and Latinos -- draining billions of dollars in wealth built up over decades.

First the numbers:

The Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies reports that the rate of subprime mortgages for Latinos and African Americans is about double the rate for whites. In 2006, subprimes made up one in four mortgages (26 percent) made to whites, 47 percent of those to Latinos and 53 percent of mortgages that went to African Americans.

As Southern Exposure found in our award-winning series on predatory lending four years ago, the disparate racial impact isn't a coincidence. Sparks shows other evidence of racial targeting:

[E]conomist Algernon Austin ... says in a study released last week that creditworthiness -- alone or in combination with factors other than race -- cannot account for the disparities in subprime loan rates. When the Federal Reserve and the Wharton School of Business conducted an analysis that took into account how many adults in a neighborhood were high-credit risks, they still found a link between the amount of subprime loans and the number of minorities in the neighborhood.

An analysis by the Center for Responsible Lending found that even after taking into account individual credit scores, Latino and African American borrowers were more than 30 percent more likely to receive higher-rate subprime loans.

The result? A shocking report by United for a Fair Economy this year estimates that the subprime mortgage crisis will end up stripping away $213 billion from largely African-American and Latino communities -- the greatest loss of wealth in U.S. history.

Labels: AFL-CIO, center for responsible lending, credit crisis, economic policy institute, housing, race and racism, subprime lending, united for a fair economy

There's a long-standing debate in Democratic Party circles about how to win over "swing states."

One view -- which usually comes from moderates and conservatives, like those in the once-influential Democratic Leadership Council -- argues the trick is to move to the political center to lure wavering Soccer Moms and Reagan Democrats.

The other side, coming from the party's more liberal/left wing, believes the winning formula is to hold firm on a solidly progressive agenda, and mobilize more voters who embrace that agenda -- like young voters and African-Americans.

The Chicago Tribune today gives ammunition to the progressives, showing that even modest gains in youth and African-American voter turnout could turn nine swing states Democratic in 2008 -- including three in the South:

If Obama could inspire just 10 percent more Democratic voters under 30 to go to the polls than did four years ago, that alone could be enough to switch Iowa and New Mexico from red to blue, the analysis suggests.

Just a 10 percent increase in turnout among blacks would make up more than 40 percent of George W. Bush's 2004 victory margin in Ohio and more than 20 percent of the Republicans' 2004 victory margin in Florida.

Turnout increases of 10 percent of young voters and African-Americans could virtually eliminate the Republicans' 2004 victory margin in Ohio and go a long way toward closing the gap in Colorado, Nevada, Missouri, Virginia and -- a bit more of a stretch -- possibly North Carolina.

Since this strategy -- registering huge numbers of new young and African-American voters -- is largely the strategy Obama is using, we'll find out in November if they're right.

One curious omission from the list: Georgia, where Obama is sinking major resources for ad buys and field offices to reach new voters -- and where the GOP fears Republican-turned-Libertarian Bob Barr might be a spoiler (not a factor in the Tribune's analysis).

Labels: barack obama, bob barr, democratic party, Election 2008, Florida, Georgia, libertarian party, north carolina, republican party, swing states, virginia

Facing South reported earlier this month about the struggle by New Orleans advocates to keep a $76-million Katrina aid package from being axed from the supplemental spending bill for the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. The bill has been going back and forth between the House and Senate for the past few months, and much of the domestic funding is at risk for being cut again. This week the bill is back in the Senate and is expected to go up for a vote tomorrow.

In light of this, advocates in Mississippi are asking their senators to reinsert the request for $20 million for project-based Section 8 vouchers in Mississippi into the bill before resubmitting the Senate’s version to the House. Advocates argue that these funds would enable Mississippians to continue to work toward recovery.

“This is needed funding to help with housing and case management,” Mary Troupe, executive director of the Mississippi Coalition for Citizens with Disabilities, told Facing South. “It’s for the hardest hit cases on the coast. People with barriers, senior citizens and people with disabilities who do not have the funds to move out of their FEMA trailers. FEMA is requiring them to evacuate the trailers and there is no housing for people to move into. We also need funds to get special case management workers to work with these individuals.”

Troupe explains that the struggle for including this domestic funding has been a regional effort by lawmakers and advocates in Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama to support recovery efforts along the Gulf Coast. The $76 million New Orleans aid package would secure 3,000 permanent supportive housing vouchers for the state of Louisiana, and the $50 million Alabama aid package would go into a community development fund.

Gulf Coast advocates are encouraging concerned citizens to call in to their senators' offices in order to save the funding on the Senate side.

Labels: affordable housing, Gulf Coast Reconstruction Watch, homelessness, Hurricane Katrina, iraq war, louisiana, mississippi, new orleans, war financing

In his briefing [PDF] to Congress yesterday on the climate crisis, NASA scientist James Hansen warned that our planet perches at a dangerous tipping point, with all the elements of cataclysm assembled: sea ice melting, ice sheets disintegrating, ecosystems collapsing. Yet humankind continues to pump out greenhouse gas pollution as if there's no tomorrow, making that an all-too-real possibility for some species.

Hansen blamed fossil energy companies for delaying the transition to a renewable energy future by sowing doubt among the public about the reality and urgency of climate change, and he reiterated his call that CEOs of these companies should be tried for "high crimes against humanity and nature."

But he also pointed out that convicting the CEOs of ExxonMobil and Peabody Energy would be little consolation if at the same time we face an out-of-control climate. He called on citizens to take the lead in making change -- and especially young people, whose very future is at stake:

We must demand a moratorium on new coal-fired power plants. We must block fossil fuel interests who aim to squeeze every last drop of oil from public lands, off-shore, and wilderness areas. Those last drops are no solution. They yield continued exorbitant profits for a short-sighted self-serving industry, but no alleviation of our addiction or long-term energy source.

Hansen also offered his recommendation for moving quickly from fossil fuels to clean energy sources -- and it has nothing to do with complicated carbon cap-and-trade schemes like the Climate Security Act sponsored by U.S. Sens. Joe Lieberman of Connecticut and John Warner of Virginia and recently rejected by their colleagues:

A price on emissions that cause harm is essential. Yes, a carbon tax. Carbon tax with 100 percent dividend is needed to wean us off fossil fuel addiction. Tax and dividend allows the marketplace, not politicians, to make investment decisions.

Carbon tax on coal, oil and gas is simple, applied at the first point of sale or port of entry. The entire tax must be returned to the public, an equal amount to each adult, a half-share for children. This dividend can be deposited monthly in an individual’s bank account.

Carbon tax with 100 percent dividend is non-regressive. On the contrary, you can bet that low and middle income people will find ways to limit their carbon tax and come out ahead. Profligate energy users will have to pay for their excesses.

Demand for low-carbon high-efficiency products will spur innovation, making our products more competitive on international markets. Carbon emissions will plummet as energy efficiency and renewable energies grow rapidly. Black soot, mercury and other fossil fuel emissions will decline. A brighter, cleaner future, with energy independence, is possible.

Washington likes to spend our tax money line-by-line. Swarms of high-priced lobbyists in alligator shoes help Congress decide where to spend, and in turn the lobbyists' clients provide "campaign" money.

The public must send a message to Washington. Preserve our planet, creation, for our children and grandchildren, but do not use that as an excuse for more tax-and-spend. Let this be our motto: "One hundred percent dividend or fight!"

For more on Hansen's idea, read his recent paper titled "Carbon Tax and 100% Dividend: No Alligator Shoes" [PDF]. For more details on the carbon tax, visit the Carbon Tax Center's website.

Labels: carbon tax, climate, Exxon Mobil, global warming, James Hansen, Lieberman-Warner Climate Security Act, Peabody Energy

The South continues to lead in U.S. prison population growth, and the rising costs of incarceration are taking a significant toll on state budgets. The Associated Press reported this month that Kentucky state officials with budget woes are looking to reduce the amount of money the state spends on prisons.

Kentucky’s prison population has increased rapidly in recent years. A study released earlier this year by the Pew Center on the States found that Kentucky has experienced the nation's largest prison population increase - it grew by 12 percent to 22,400 inmates. That number could reach nearly 31,000—an increase of 40 percent—over the next decade, the report found.

Kentucky Gov. Steve Beshear has called on a group of legal authorities from across the state to find ways to relieve the prison system's financial burden on taxpayers. "It is time that we take a serious look at our sentencing guidelines, our penal code, and all of the related items to try to figure out ways to appropriately punish people, make sure the public is protected, and find some alternatives that are less expensive than just putting somebody in prison,” Beshear told the AP.

On a national level, the United State’s prison population continues to surge. This month the Washington Post reported, citing statistics from the federal Bureau of Justice Statistics, that the number of people under supervision in the nation’s criminal justice system rose to 7.2 million in 2006, the highest ever. The Washington Post also found that states were spending an estimated cost of $45 billion to house and monitor offenders as they go in and out of jails and prisons.

The 2008 Pew Center report also found that one percent of U.S. adults are behind bars, a historic high. The United States is still the world’s incarceration leader in inmates per capita (750 per 100,000 people). But when it came to locking people up, Louisiana led the South, and the South led the nation. Here are some more findings from the 2008 Pew Center report:

* Ten of the 20 states with the highest incarceration rates are in the South.
* The South’s prison population grew from 623,563 to 641,024—a rise of 2.8 percent.
* The four states with the highest rates of incarceration were all in the South—Louisiana, with 1,138 sentenced prisoners per 100,000 state residents, Georgia (1,021), Texas (976), and Mississippi (955).
* Southern states continue to add numbers to their rolls. Florida added 4,447 persons to its state facilities, Georgia added 2,413, and Virginia added 1,867 state inmates.
* Texas has the second largest prison population (following California)

Since 1980, the country's prison population has quadrupled to more than two million, with the South accounting for nearly half of that increase. Advocates have long argued that the South has traditionally spent less on the kinds of social programs that tend to keep people out of prison and less on community-based alternatives to prisons once people offend.

Yet, with the rising prison rates and their resulting costs to state budgets, many Southern states like Kentucky may be forced to start looking for alternatives to incarceration.

“The [Kentucky] prison population has grown to the point that it’s getting close to costing half a billion dollars,” Charles Geveden, deputy secretary of Kentucky’s Justice and Public Safety Cabinet, told the AP. Geveden will be heading one of the panels set up by Kentucky Gov. Beshear to study the prison issue. Geveden’s panel will be looking at, among other things, finding ways of reducing the number of people who re-offend. Some answers could include offering more treatment, education and job training while people are in prison, Geveden told the AP.

Labels: crime, criminal justice, incarceration, kentucky, louisiana, mississippi, prisons

This month the Annie E. Casey Foundation released its annual Kids Count report, a national and state-by-state effort to track the status of children in the United States. The report details that the national rate of children living in poverty is 11 percent for white children, 36 percent for African Americans and Native Americans and 28 percent for Hispanics.

The South and Southwest continue to have the highest percentage of children living in poverty. The state with the best child well-being ranking is New Hampshire, followed by Minnesota and Massachusetts. The three states at the bottom of the rankings are Mississippi, Louisiana, and New Mexico. The overall ranking map (see graphic) also reflects significant regional overtones. Except for Maine and Rhode Island, all of the New England states rank in the top 10. In the Northern Plains, Iowa, Minnesota, Nebraska, North Dakota, and Wisconsin are all ranked in the top 12. At the other end of the spectrum, states in the South and Southwest dominate the lower part of the ranking. The 12 states with the lowest overall rank in terms of child well-being are all located in the South or Southwest.

Other key findings include:

* Low-birthweight babies
Lowest (percentage): Alaska, Oregon, Washington (6.1 percent)
Highest: Mississippi (11.8 percent)

* Infant mortality
Lowest: Utah (4.5 deaths per 1,000 live births)
Highest: Mississippi (11.3 deaths per 1,000 live births)

* Child death rate
Lowest: New Hampshire (8 deaths per 100,00 children ages 1-14)
Highest: Louisiana (34 deaths per 100,000 children ages 1-14)

* Teen death rate
Lowest: Hawaii (37 deaths per 100,000 teens ages 15-19)
Highest: Louisiana, Wyoming (103 deaths per 100,000 teens ages 15-19)

* High school dropout
Lowest: North Dakota (3 percent)
Highest: Louisiana (11 percent)

* Children living in families where no parent has full-time, year-round employment.
Lowest: North Dakota (24 percent)
Highest: Louisiana (43 percent)

* Children living in poverty
Lowest: Maryland, New Hampshire (10 percent)
Highest: Mississippi (30 percent)

* Children living in single-parent households
Lowest: Utah (18 percent)
Highest: Mississippi (45 percent)

For more information by state, check out the Kids Count Data Center.

Labels: children, louisiana, mississippi, poverty

Not surprisingly, the same outfits that have helped corporate greenhouse gas polluters spread disinformation about the science of climate change are none too pleased with NASA scientist Jim Hansen's call to try fossil fuel CEOs for crimes against humanity.

We received a comment about our earlier post today on Hansen's congressional testimony from someone calling themselves "climatestrategies." Though the Blogger profile is not public, we're guessing from the name that these are probably the folks behind Climate Strategies Watch, a project of the fossil fuel-funded climate change deniers at North Carolina's John Locke Foundation and the Heartland Institute of Chicago. The commenter wrote:

Disinformation? It would be nice if Hansen divulged what disinformation he is alleging. Maybe he means the information that global mean surface temperature has not risen for the last 10 years. Or that the oceans have not been shown to be warming. Or that Antarctic ice mass, overall, has increased. Or that despite a claimed consensus, more than 31,000 scientists have signed a petition disputing the belief that global warming will lead to planetary disaster.

But then again, that wouldn't be disinformation -- they would be inconvenient truths for people like Hansen.

We didn't publish that comment, as we have a policy against allowing our comment section to be used to spread disinformation. And this particular comment makes claims that are misleading at best:

* MISLEADING CLAIM #1: Global mean surface temperature has not risen for the last 10 years. In fact, the U.S. government itself has acknowledged a steady climb in global average temperatures beginning in 1880, when reliable record-keeping began, to the present, as we can see in the following chart based on National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration data (click on image for larger version)



*MISLEADING CLAIM #2: The oceans have not been shown to be warming. In fact, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) released a report last year that among other things documents a warming trend in global ocean temperature measurements. It found that global mean sea surface temperature increased 0.9°F in the 20th century, and stated that "global ocean heat content has increased significantly since the late 1950s."

* MISLEADING CLAIM #3: Thickening ice in Antarctica casts doubt on the reality of global warming. It's true that scientists have documented a thickening of the Antarctic ice, which may temporarily ease sea level rise caused by warming. But at the same time, there's been a dramatic increase in temperatures over Antarctica -- which scientists say is due in large part to greenhouse gas emissions.

* MISLEADING CLAIM #4: More than 31,000 scientists have signed a petition disputing global warming. The commenter is referring to what's known as the Oregon Petition urging the U.S. government against signing the Kyoto protocol. There are questions about the claim that this petition been signed by 31,000 scientists, since its signatories include Drs. Frank Burns, B. J. Honeycutt, and Benjamin Pierce from the TV show M*A*S*H as well as Geraldine Halliwell of the pop group The Spice Girls. Furthermore, it has more signatories with general engineering degrees than degrees in atmosphere, earth and environmental sciences combined -- and only 40 climatologists. Meanwhile, most major climate science organizations agree that climate change is happening and that humans are contributing to it.

Given the increased media attention to climate change that will probably result from Hansen's congressional testimony today, we can expect the deniers and dis-informers to come out in force. An excellent starting point for understanding the truth of climate change is the Union of Concerned Scientists' website on global warming science. UCS also offers a helpful guide to the skeptics, which includes a link to their excellent report titled Smoke, Mirrors & Hot Air: How ExxonMobil Uses Big Tobacco's Tactics to "Manufacture Uncertainty" on Climate Change.

Labels: climate, climate change skeptics, global warming, James Hansen, john locke foundation

One of the world's top climate experts says chief executives of big fossil fuel companies should be tried for crimes against humanity for their role in spreading disinformation on the climate crisis.

James Hansen, who heads NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies, will brief Congress today -- the 20th anniversary of his historic speech before that body warning of the need for action on what he calls the "global warming time bomb." Hansen will speak before the House Select Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming at 3 p.m.

In an interview that appears today in the British newspaper The Guardian, Hansen said his testimony will accuse the CEOs of companies including Texas-based ExxonMobil and Peabody Energy of Missouri of being fully aware that they're spreading disinformation about climate change:

"When you are in that kind of position, as the CEO of one the primary players who have been putting out misinformation even via organisations that affect what gets into school textbooks, then I think that's a crime."

This morning, Hansen repeated his call for trying fossil fuel executives involved in spreading disinformation on WAMU's Diane Rehm Show. He pointed to the companies' continuing efforts to dispute what science knows about human impact on climate and to fund contrarians that help disseminate disinformation.

As we reported in our investigation last year into efforts by fossil fuel-funded think tanks to cast doubt on climate science, a Peabody Energy lobbyist participated in a conference call organized by the John Locke Foundation of North Carolina and the Chicago-based Heartland Institute that was aimed at disrupting state-level efforts to address the climate crisis. Both of those market fundamentalist think tanks have been generously funded by fossil fuel interests, with Heartland taking at least $791,500 from Exxon since 1998.

ADDENDUM: A presentation Hansen made to the National Press Club as well as his briefing to the House Select Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming is available online here. The Powerpoints used are available as a PDF here.

(Photo of James Hansen from Goddard Institute for Space Studies' website)

Labels: climate, energy policy, Exxon Mobil, global warming, James Hansen, Peabody Energy

In the wake of the Hurricane Katrina disaster, we heard time and time again from survivors about the critical role faith groups and nongovernmental organizations played in helping people -- especially given the federal government's failure to respond quickly and adequately to the immense human suffering.

Now with our nation facing another devastating disaster in the historic floods drowning the Midwest, questions still linger about the Federal Emergency Management Agency's ability to respond effectively to the needs of the American people.

Earlier this week, National Public Radio reported that 14,000 Iowans have already registered for FEMA assistance, and the agency has paid out some $7 million with more to come. However, this money comes in the form of modest grants meant to cover emergency expenses. For repairing or replacing homes, the agency offers only limited help through low-interest loans.

If that's not enough help to rebuild their lives, what are flood victims to do?

FEMA Regional Administrator Richard Hainje suggests they look to private charity, telling NPR:

"The faith-based and nongovernmental organizations, they actually come in in a very large way, and they can bring a lot to the table."

That's undoubtedly true. But what does it say when the government of the wealthiest nation on the planet has to refer its disaster-stricken people to churches and private agencies for assistance?

Meanwhile, a report [pdf] released this week by the Inspector General for the Department of Homeland Security, which oversees FEMA, questions the agency's ability to distribute relief supplies effectively during major disasters.

Coming almost three years after the harsh lessons of Katrina and before the current Midwest floods, the report found that FEMA still relies on ad hoc computer systems and even paper forms to order and distribute supplies. At the same time, goods donated by other agencies and charities can't be easily integrated into FEMA's supply chain.

"As a result, FEMA may be hindered in its ability to perform disaster response in an effective and timely manner," the report concluded.

Labels: disaster response, FEMA, floods of 2008, Hurricane Katrina

Helena-West Helena is an east Arkansas Delta community going through hard times. The seat of Phillips County, one of the state's poorest counties, it got its hyphenated name two years ago after two cash-strapped towns merged in hopes of improving the local economy, which has struggled since the closing of the Mohawk Rubber Co. back in the 1970s.

But the city of 15,000 people still faces financial serious problems. Now they've landed it in a less-than-flattering spotlight following a controversy that erupted earlier this month over how its mayor has chosen to handle homeless dogs.

A lack of funds forced Helena-West Helena to close its animal shelter in January. Since then, stray dogs were being housed in a lot for the city's garbage trucks. But Mayor James Valley decided that wasn't an appropriate place to keep animals.

So earlier this month, he had three dogs euthanized and set another 10 loose in the nearby St. Francis National Forest -- a forest named, ironically enough, for the patron saint of animals. As Valley told WREG TV news of Memphis:

"God created the heavens and the earth, and in that these animals will be able to fend for themselves. And of course it's going to be the survival of the fittest."

The public has reacted to the decision with outrage. Forest visitors are upset over the sight of skittish dogs suffering from mange and covered with flies, while nearby residents complain that the stray animals are running wild on their property and threatening their pets.

The Humane Society of Southeastern Arkansas has sworn out a complaint against the mayor with the Phillips County sheriff's office, seeking his arrest on misdemeanor animal mistreatment charges. Meanwhile, the city has accepted an offer from People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, the National Animal Control Association and the Humane Society of the United States to pay to send two of the city's animal-control officers to a basic training seminar in Little Rock.

The city estimates that it would cost upwards of $50,000 to open a new animal shelter. No word yet on where the money might come from.


In other dog-related news, today is Take Your Dog to Work Day. The holiday began in 1999 to celebrate the great companions dogs make, and to encourage their adoption from humane societies, animal shelters and breed rescues.

In honor of the day, here's a snapshot of my three dogs at my workplace, which also happens to be our home. From left to right, they are Keli, an Australian cattle dog adopted from our local SPCA; Zoe, an Australian shepherd who came from a cattle farm in eastern North Carolina; and Chance, who's an American bulldog -- a breed also known as the Old Southern bulldog because of its deep roots in the region.

I adopted Chance from my local county animal shelter last fall, just days before he was scheduled to be euthanized. He's turned out to be a perfect companion. It breaks my heart to think of all the wonderful animals like him whose shelter stories don't have such happy endings.

So if you're thinking about adopting a pet, please remember those in need at your local shelter.

Facing South has reported on the affordable housing crisis along the Mississippi Gulf Coast in the wake of the 2005 hurricanes. Last September we reported on the State of Mississippi’s move to transfer $600 million from a housing program created to help low-income homeowners to expand the State Port at Gulfport.

This week several members of Congress, including Congressman Bennie Thompson and Congresswoman Maxine Waters, signed a letter requesting that House Appropriations Chairman David Obey insert language into a current appropriations bill blocking Mississippi from diverting the $600 million in emergency Community Development Block Grant funds.

Advocates point out that thousands of Mississippians remain displaced nearly three years after the storms. Reilly Morse, senior attorney with the Mississippi Center for Justice, has twice testified before Congressional committees regarding the use of CDBG funds for purposes other than the adequate restoration of safe, affordable housing for low and moderate-income residents. In a press statement, Morse explained:

“Affordable housing is a necessity, not a luxury. The $600 million is more than ten times the amount needed to cover hurricane damage to the port – damage that is largely covered by private insurance and other monies. The diversion puts the lives of thousands of Mississippians at stake because they will be without safe, affordable housing.”

Labels: affordable housing,