Gas Wells: The Trickle-Down Effect

The Guardian is running an article by Nina Berman for Alternet about the effects of living in a gas-rich part of Pennsylvania.

The creeping arrival of industry and the intensifying manifestations of subterranean chemistry sound like a surreal alien invasion.

Lest We Forget

It is the 150th anniversary of the shots on Fort Sumter which opened the American Civil War. In other words, a kind of wedding anniversary for battle reenactors.

Which presents to give? I turned to the relevant Wikipedia article for inspiration.

***

A Dagger to the Heart of British Architecture

While confessing to liking the Shard, I enjoyed the lament of the Guardian's critic, Jonathan Jones, over the new skyscraper in the core of London: "Shard Attack" (April 12). The comments section is also worthy of a glance.




The Shard From Southwark Street
by Loz Pycock
Licensed under CC Attribution-ShareAlike 2.0 Generic
(via Wikimedia Commons)

Los Angeles Police Officers Successfully Sue Over Ticket Quota

In 2006 a new head of Los Angeles's West Traffic Division reportedly started a policy that every officer had to hand out at least 18 traffic tickets a day.

Officers Howard Chan and David Benioff took issue with the quota, which is illegal in California, and were punished for it by their superiors.

On April 11th they won a lawsuit against the department and were given $2 million in damages.

"LAPD officers who complained about ticket quotas are awarded $2 million" [Los Angeles Times], by Andrew Blankstein and Joel Rubin(April 12, 2011)

Update: "10 LAPD officers sue, saying department has traffic-ticket quotas" [Los Angeles Times], by Andrew Blankstein (August 4, 2011)