November Cycling Totals

The best thing I can say about November is that it was better than October. 322 miles this month. I only wish more of them had been outdoors. It doesn't look like I'll hit 5,000 miles for the year, unless we get unusually nice weather for December.

Year to date:  4605 miles.

EPA Fines Waste Management $300,000

Kettleman Hills Landfill in Kettleman City Has Been Controversial For Years

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has fined landfill operator Chemical Waste Management, a subsidiary of Waste Management, $300,000 for allowing cancer-causing polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) to leach into the soil. Residents have complained that birth defects have been caused by toxic chemicals from the landfill.  State health officials recently released a report that concluded the birth defects did not come from exposure to chemicals from the landfill.

The EPA fine does not confirm the health effects that residents claim caused the birth defects, but fined the company due to the contamination of the soil.

House Passes Claims Settleman Act of 2010

John Boyd

The House passed the Claims Settlement Act of 2010 today by a vote of 256-152. The legislation includes a $4.6 billion settlement in the Pigford-Cobell lawsuits. Companion legislation passed the Senate on November 19. President Obama will sign the bill into law. Black farmers will receive $1.15 billion to settle discrimination claims against the Agriculture Department. The bill also included $3.4 billion for American Indians who said the Interior Department had swindled them out of royalties since the 19th century. The bill now goes to the House.  John Boyd, president of the National Black Farmers Association, has been a tireless advocate for passage of the legislation.

Statement by President Obama on House Passage of the Claims Settlement Act of 2010

"I am pleased that today, the House has joined the Senate in passing the Claims Settlement Act of 2010. This important legislation will fund the agreements reached in the Pigford II lawsuit, brought by African American farmers, and the Cobell lawsuit, brought by Native Americans over the management of Indian trust accounts and resources. I want to thank Attorney General Holder and Secretaries Salazar and Vilsack for all their work to reach this outcome, and I applaud Congress for acting in a bipartisan fashion to bring this painful chapter in our nation’s history to a close.

"This bill also provides funding for settlements reached in four separate water rights suits brought by Native American tribes, and it represents a significant step forward in addressing the water needs of Indian Country. Yet, while today’s vote demonstrates important progress, we must remember that much work remains to be done. And my Administration will continue our efforts to resolve claims of past discrimination made by women and Hispanic farmers and others in a fair and timely manner."

The iPad Makes It Easy to Take Your Business Global

According to Gartner research analyst Raphael Vasquez:

"PC market growth will be impacted by devices that enable better on-the-go content consumption such as media tablets and next-generation smartphones," added research analyst Raphael Vasquez. "These devices will be increasingly embraced as complements if not substitutes for PCs where voice and light data consumption are desired."

 And according to Laurel Delaney, founder of GlobeTrade:

"The iPad will make it a whole heck of lot easier and more fun to take your business global."

Read more here.

Happy Birthday Winston Churchill (1874-1965)

Arguably, the outstanding historical figure of the 20th century, Churchill served in the British army, daringly escaped captivity during the Boer War, modernized the British Navy as First Lord of the Admiralty, gave artful speeches as a Member of Parliament, served in various cabinet positions and twice as Prime Minister of England (the first time when it mattered most, during World War II), proved himself a reckless military strategist, whom subordinates often had to work around, but an excellent leader of his people. Churchill was also an exceptionally gifted writer, who earned the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1953. And he had a rapier wit. Of all the bon mots attributed to Churchill, my own favorite took place at a cocktail party, where a woman said to him: "If you were my husband, I would put poison in your wine." Churchill's response: "Madame, if you were my wife, I would drink it."

Karen Bowlding: New Blog and New Book

Karen Bowlding is a freelance writer and editor providing professional custom service to small businesses, authors and individuals. Her Debatable Matters Blog is for 'honest Christian debate on today's matters.'

She has published two books:

1) "Say No! With A Smile"

2) "Living In Autumn While Preparing For Spring: The Journey Towards Marriage.

Karen Bowlding says:

“I love editing. I’m a researcher. My passion is to see people grow. I take pleasure in working with a raw document and then after hard work seeing the result. My mind constantly runs with ideas to better a project. As long as I’m in His will at this time, I will continue to help others get their work done.”

The books are available on Karen Bowlding's Website.

In "Say No! With A Smile," Mrs. Bowlding writes:

Too many women, including the author, don’t sit still, Women are constantly doing things for other people… listening to folks problems; taking on other people’s burdens; driving someone somewhere; loaning out money to people they know can’t afford to give it back; and being places she doesn’t want to be.

Bowlding says, "Saying no with a smile is an internal, not an outward expression. It is not a grin or smirk on your face when you decline an offer, but a private high-five because you were able to say no without self-reproach. It is contentment within yourself at your ability to overcome by saying what you truly feel; being pleased in your spirit."

The book will give readers information on when to say no, how to say it, and do it without feeling guilty. The book also provides tips on what to do with the “free” time once someone learns the art of saying no. Bowlding wrote the book to help her deal with her own issues, and hopes that she will help other women grow into saner, and less harried women.

At present she, her husband Andre and young daughter reside in Maryland. Education: Springfield College, BS; University of Maryland University College, MS.

Learn How To Do Business With People in Other Countries

Need help negotiating with clients, suppliers and partners in other countries?  Trying to work more effectively with customers and colleagues from another culture?

Go here for assistance.  The books alone are worth a read.

Illustration credit here.

Posted by:  The Global Small Business Blog

Happy 37th Birthday Ryan Giggs

It's rare that an Arsenal supporter like me would celebrate the birthday of a Manchester United player, but Ryan Giggs is special. He is universally admired for his prodigious footballing skills, the long tenure of his service at Man U (the only team he has played for, since 1991), his dedication to the game, and his evident modesty as a person. He is the kind of player every manager would like to have on his team, and every football fan would pay  to see play. Without question, Giggs is one of the all-time greats.

Faster than Advertised

The weather was a tad warmer today, and the winds a little lighter. Consequently, a larger group showed up for today's Wilkes/Raynor group ride, which was advertised as an easy, conversation-pace ride. I knew when we were in trouble when the three college guys showed up (all sons of regular group members, and all strong collegiate riders). At least Karl didn't have us climbing all the hills, like he did yesterday. I worked hard (for me) during  most of the ride, and was toasted several miles before the finish.

Anyway, 80 miles on a late-November weekend is always a reason to celebrate ... with a long nap.

Thaler on Wrong Scientific Beliefs

Over at The Edge, University of Chicago Business School Professor Richard Thaler, coauthor with Cass Sunstein of the influential book Nudge (Yale 2008), has raised an interesting question for regular Edge contributors:

The flat earth and geocentric world are examples of wrong scientific beliefs that were held for long periods. Can you name your favorite example and for extra credit why it was believed to be true?

I am not a contributor to The Edge, but I nevertheless sent Thaler the following message:

Already a couple of respondents have correctly indicated Newtonian gravity as a “wrong scientific belief.” Interestingly, it’s a wrong scientific belief that still seems to be treated as true, not by physicists of course, but by large segments of the public. I suspect there are two reasons for this: (1) gravity is both intuitive and conforms to our “common sense” of the world (of course, common sense is often treated as a infallible guide to judgment, but often is misleading); and (2) Newtonian gravity is only falsified at very high speeds, which none of us experiences. Thus, while Newton’s theory of gravity is scientifically false, it seems experientially “true.”

Long before Newton, when Aristotle’s “scientific” theories held sway for centuries, it was thought that objects move faster as they approach the earth because they sensed that they were approaching “home,” i.e., where they belonged. This theory, too, made some intuitive sense if one also accepted Aristotle’s belief that vacuums were impossible.

More generally, my sense is that all scientific theories, like all religious theories, are not only about people trying to comprehend the mysterious world and universe in which we live, but to establish regularities so as to be less frightened by the world and attain some (true or false) psychological equilibrium. The need for some such equilibrium is innate.

Happy Birthday Stefan Zweig (1881-1942)

It's hard to imagine that this Viennese novelist, poet, biographer, playwright, and journalist was once the world's most popular writer, selling more books in more countries than any other. Today, he is all but forgotten except among a few aficionados, including me (and The Guardian's literary critic Nicholas Lezard, see here). Zweig's novels and novellas have an honored place in my library but, truth be told, my favorite of all his works is his autobiography, The World of Yesterday, which is equally a history of the times in which he lived. Like his great French friend Romain Rolland, Zweig was a cosmopolitan, pan-European humanist of the fin de siecle, who increasingly felt out of place in the war-torn Europe of the twentieth century. Born a Jew, he managed to escape Austria shortly after Hitler's rise to power in Germany. He fled to South America. But he found he could not escape the psychological effects of the destruction of the Europe he knew, and he committed suicide in Brazil in 1942 (along with his second wife, Charlotte Elisabeth Altmann).

First Cold Weather Ride of the Season

I count any ride in temperatures under 45 degrees (Fahrenheit) as a cold-weather ride. Today, was the first of the season for me. The temperature was 36-37 degrees, and winds were blowing from the west at 10-15 mph. I met a small group at Fishback Academy. For the first hour, we rode all the climbs around Traders Point (I totaled about 950 feet of climbing for the ride). A few riders went home after the hills, but Karl, Mark and I continued out for a zone 2-to-3 (endurance-to-tempo pace) ride out to Brownsburg, then up to Fayette, then back to Fishback Academy and home.

I hate putting on all the layers, but at least I got the recipe right today - not too hot, hot too cold. And while riding west into the wind was not fun, at least the sun was warm on our faces. Pretty soon, we'll be wishing for these kinds of temps and winds for riding.

Aston Villa 2 - Arsenal 4

Who would have thought, after last week's dreadful collapse at home to Tottenham, that Arsenal would go top of the table this week? Well, they have, if only temporarily (pending the outcomes of later games). The Gunners traveled to Aston Villa this week to face a solid team that had not lost at home all season. Despite some nervous moments after Villa twice closed two goal deficits to just one goal, the Gunners put the game away in the final minutes for a 4-2 victory.

Several Gunners merit special mention for their performances in today's match, starting with Andrei Arshavin, who scored for the first time since August, and generally looked quicker and more incisive with his passes than he has since the beginning of the season. Samir Nasri, who has been Arsenal's outstanding player throughout the season, had another excellent match, as did Marouane Chamakh, who is scoring regularly - he now has 10 goals for the season - and providing Arsenal with the kind of strength upfront that they have lacked in recent seasons. Tomas Rosicky also looked dangerous coming off the bench with his pin-point passing.

The Gunners may yet threaten for the title this season, but I think they still need help in defense. Not only do they need Vermaelen to get healthy, but they need another big and quick central defender to help out. Koscielny seems a decent player, but Squillace is a weak link. In addition, while Song has played very well in defensive midfield all season, Denilson needs to step up his game, and it would help to get Abu Diaby back  into the line-up.

Happy Birthday Charles A. Beard (1874-1948)

A progressive American historian, who was an early proponent of economic analysis of legal institutions. His 1913 book, An Economic Interpretation of the Constitution of the United States, challenged the orthodox view that the founding fathers were purely publicly-minded individuals, devoid of self-interest. Beard's book, and his radical form of historiography, fell out of favor after the Second World War, in part because of Beard's opposition to US involvement in the war. Nevertheless, his economic approach to understanding the constitution remains influential today, at least among legal scholars. A simple Lexis search indicates  that An Economic Interpretation of the Constitution of the United States has been cited in law review articles more than 150 times since 1999.

How To Do Business With American Importers

Hello world! For those of you residing outside the United States, this one's for you.  A valuable resource that covers:

• The Steps In Selling To US Importers 
• Best Ways To Market And Sell To US Importers
• How NOT To Market And Sell To US Importers
• Reasons Exporters Are Not Successful In The US Market
• What Are The Opportunities For Exporting To The USA
• How To Be An Agent Or Middleman For US Importers
• Making Sure You Get Paid
• How To Know If A US Importer Is Reliable
• US Import Requirements

Visit American Importers Association: Bringing exporters worldwide together with importers in the USA.

California Health Officials Deny Dump Causes Defects

According to a 16- page draft report released Monday, the California State Department of Public Health has have ruled out a toxic waste dump as the cause of severe birth defects including heart problems and facial deformities in the impoverished Central California farming community of Kettleman City.  The community is just off Interstate 5 between Los Angeles and San Francisco.

State Environmental Protection Agency and Department of Public Health investigators were still unsure why 11 babies were born with physical deformities in Kettleman City between September 2007 and March 2010. Three of the babies died. Tests of water, air and soil; analysis of pesticides; and interviews with six of the affected families did not suggest a common cause for the health problems.

Residents believe the medical problems are linked to the nearby Waste Management Inc. hazardous waste facility, the largest landfill of its kind west of Louisiana and the only one in California licensed to accept cancer-causing polychlorinated biphenyls, or PCBs.

Health investigators analyzed the state's registry for the rates of birth defects from 1987 to 2008 and reviewed case histories of the 11 babies born with major defects, including cleft palates and lips. Although more children were born with birth defects in 2008 and 2009 than would be expected for a population of Kettleman City's size, investigators found no clear trend that could be explained by exposure to environmental pollution.  An examination of cancer rates for the census tract that includes Kettleman City found five cancer cases diagnosed among children younger than 15 during a 12-year period, two more than would be expected. Most of the childhood cancers were acute lymphocytic leukemia and all occurred in areas of the census tract outside of Kettleman City.

The state Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment is recommending several steps to address dangerous chemicals detected in the community's water system. It is being recommended that state regulatory agencies investigate benzene emissions at a treatment unit at a Kettleman City drinking water well and levels of lead detected in the local elementary school's wells. It is also being recommended that the city reduce arsenic levels in local drinking water either through improved treatment or development of a new source of water.

Waste Management has requested permits to expand the facility. State officials said a final decision on whether to grant the request will not be made until after completion of a final report on the investigation into the birth defects later this year. (L.A. Times, 11/23/2010)

Brad DeLong on "The Retreat of Macroeconomic Policy"

Here. I largely agree with his historical and political analysis.

From the World Ice Art Championship

And this is pretty cool too: Ice Carving Secrets.

Posted by:  The Global Small Business Blog

Taleb the Predictor

In his popular but overrated book The Black Swan, Nassim Nicholas Taleb argued that people are very bad at predicting the future in large part because they are by nature prone to forecasting errors. Apparently, Taleb believes that he is exempt from the errors that afflict the rest of us. In The Economist (here), he makes a variety of outrageous claims about what the world will look like later in this century. Among other things, he predicts the collapse of nation-states as significant political entities (though they may survive "cosmetically"), the disappearance of large-scale, publicly-traded corporations, the demise of currencies, and a return of the gold standard.

It's unclear to me why a staid publication like The Economist would publish such tripe, except that Taleb's name could sell copies. He is, after all, a genius. If you don't believe me, just ask him.

Facing the Costs of Climate Change Adaptation

A very well done article in The Economist (here) examines the issue.

Happy Birthday Major Taylor (1878-1932)

One of the greatest athletes that most people have never heard of. Raised in Indianapolis during the era of Jim Crow, Taylor overcame systemic racial discrimination to become a world champion cyclist. In his prime, he was virtually unbeatable. A truly inspirational athlete and man.

Thanksgivingworld

Turkey (pictured) just about done.  Have a Happy Thanksgiving and be grateful for every precious little thing in your life.  I am blessed by your readership -- thank you!  Enjoy the day.

Photo credit:  Laurel Delaney, The Global Small Business Blog

Happy Thanksgiving

I give thanks to all of my family, friends, colleagues, and students who make each day a learning experience.

Happy Birthday Joltin' Joe (1914-1999)

Joe Dimaggio was one of the greatest ball players ever. 3-time MVP, 13-time all star. He still holds one of the most revered records in all sports: the longest ever hitting streak of 56 straight games (in 1941). He also married Marilyn Monroe and sold coffee makers.

Happy Birthday Baruch Spinoza (1632-1677)

A seventeenth-century Dutch Jew and rationalist philosopher who helped lay the groundwork for the eighteenth-century Enlightenment. Although not an empiricist, Spinoza had an advanced understanding of science (for his day). Among other advances, he disputed Descartes mind-body dualism, arguing that what we perceive as two separate entities are really just two expressions of a single entity.

The Whole World is Going Global

Based on this article, it is vital to build your global skill sets, to learn how work is done offshore, and to educate yourself on projects and teams that work with offshore components either internationally or through a service provider.

“The whole world is going global, and especially in the last three or four years, it has really taken off,” said Janssen. “The revenue growth is in Asia—with some in Europe, but [revenue growth in] the United States is virtually flat. The jobless recovery here is very, very real. The war for talent in the United States [consists of] finding those who have skills to manage a global group—those who have global awareness and understand the complexities in doing global business. It’s only a handful of people right now.”

Read the entire article here.

Braga Beat Arsenal

Apparently, Arsenal lost in the Champion's League today away at Braga (Portugal). I was not able to see the match because of meetings, but I understand that the Gunners displayed pretty much the same fragility that contributed to their loss at home to Spurs this past weekend. To make matters worse, Fabregas reportedly hurt his hamstring again. And Wenger is left fuming at the referees, when he should probably be asking himself what it is about his coaching that fails to prevent the kinds of defensive lapses we have seen throughout the season.

The Gunners still have a decent chance of progressing out of the group stage of the Champion's League, just needing a win against lowly Partizan Belgrade at home. But the way the Gunners have been playing at home, no visiting team should be considered to lowly to win there.

Web Start-Ups Go Global

According to a recent article in the WSJ, "Web Start-Ups Search History," a newer generation of start-ups such as Yelp Inc. and Groupon Inc. are going global. They are studying their predecessors and adapting successful ideas -- such as using acquisitions or partnerships to enter markets where a strong competitor exists -- with the intent of improving their chance of success in the global marketplace.

Read the entire article here.

Happy 77th Birthday Krzysztof Penderecki

One of the greatest and most prolific composers of the modern era, whose work has evolved from experimental (and quite difficult) to something approaching late-late-Romantic, as in this very beautiful Chaconne in memory of John Paul II from his "Polish Requiem."

Juliet Eilperin Publishes Environmental Justice Story

The title shows that Juliet has come a long way.  And we think we had something to do with that by publicly criticizing her.  We had to point out that The Washington Post environmental reporter Juliet Eilperin avoided quoting Black people.  But once Barack Obama was elected president and Lisa Jackson was appointed as EPA administrator, she had no choice but to quote Blacks on environmental policy.  We chuckled at her being forced to quote Black people. 

And we know that she saw our criticism of her. Aren't the internet and blogs great.  For the longest time we had no recourse but to sit back and take it while people like Ms. Eilperin refused to get our message out.

But now she has published her first environmental justice article: "Environmental Justice Issues Take Center Stage."  Glory hallelujah.  Free at last.  Free at last.  Thank God Almighty, Juliet Eilperin is free at last.

We recognize and applaud progress.  One more such article and we are going to take down all of our blog articles criticizing Ms. Eilperin about excluding Blacks. 

The article addresses the fly ash issue. (Wash Post, 11/21/2010)

Juliet Eilperin Compelled To Quote A Black Person

Juliet Eilperin Finally Writes About A Black Person

Juliet Eilperin Continues Excluding Blacks When She Can

-------------------------------------------------------------
AAEA Articles on Fly Ash

House Hearing on Kingston, Tennessee Coal Ash Spill

TVA Must Cease Shipments of Fly Ash Immediately

Majority Black Uniontown Gets Tennessee Toxic Fly Ash

Will EPA & OMB Ignore & Abuse Blacks With Fly Ash

High Speed Rail: Economic Environmental Injustice in California

The $43 billion California High Speed Rail Project is the largest construction project in the United States.  It is also one of the few Federal subsidized programs of this nature that has no provisions to include minorities and women.   

The United States Department of Transportation (USDOT), Federal Rail Administration (FRA) awarded California a $2.25 billion grant for the State’s High Speed Rail Project through President Obama’s American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA). While the grant is great for California, it appears to have little benefits for Disadvantaged Business Enterprises (DBEs) including small businesses. The benefits of the Stimulus grant will be minimal to communities of color since the inclusion of minority and women owned
businesses is less than 1% of this Federalized project.

Title VI, 42, United States Code § 2000d et seq, was enacted as part of the landmark Civil Rights Act of 1964. It prohibits discrimination on the basis of race, sex, color, and national origin in programs and activities receiving federal financial assistance.  Simple justice requires that public funds, to which all taxpayers of all races [colors, and national origins] contribute, not be spent in any fashion which encourages, entrenches, subsidizes or results in racial [color or national origin] discrimination.  As a recipient of USDOT federally assisted funds, California has several disparity studies that provide the evidence of disparity and inference of discrimination of DBEs and minority and women-owned (MBE/WBE) firms on USDOT federally assisted projects.

The FRA is under the authority of USDOT, the $2.25 billion grant to California is federal financial assistance and as such FRA and its funding source is required to comply with Title VI. The FRA does not have statutory authority for a DBE program, however; they have established a statement to “encourage” contractors to utilize DBEs on FRA funded contracts. California has the evidence that without a formal DBE program that includes race-conscious measures (individual DBE contract goals on contracts) the “encouragement” to engage DBEs on the contract will result in no DBE participation.



Rendering from the California High-Speed Rail Authority
 and Newlands & Company Inc.

When California recipients of USDOT funds suspended their DBE race-conscious program while disparity studies were completed, each recipient “encouraged” prime contractors to voluntarily utilize DBEs on their bids. The result was a “nose-dive” of DBE participation. A good example of the “nose-dive” result is the California Department of Transportation (Caltrans). Caltrans, who has an aggressive DBE Program, suspended its DBE race-conscious program and “encouraged” prime contractors to meet the overall 10.5% DBE goal. In 2004, prior to suspending the DBE raceconscious program, Caltrans was attaining 10% DBE participation. Immediately after suspending the race-conscious program and enacting race-neutral measures, the DBE Program participation “nose-dived” to less than 3% DBE participation with African American firms obtaining nothing. This same result is evidenced for FTA and FAA recipients in California. That is what “encourage” does when no formal goals and requirements are placed on federally assisted contracts.

USDOT cannot ignore the evidence as presented in the recent and current California disparity studies. USDOT cannot ignore its authority to pursue a “Presidential Executive Order” to establish emergency regulations to incorporate the existing 49 Code of Federal Regulations Part 26 (49CFRPart 26) onto FRA funded contracts. USDOT cannot ignore Title VI and Simple Justice in its requirement to at a minimum establish a policy in the interim of formal regulations to require DBE participation in FRA funded projects.

OBJECTIVE

• The High-Speed Rail Project (HSRP) in California must be brought under the U.S. DOT-DBE Program with specific, significant achievable goals (such as DOT DBE goal of 13.5% in California). The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) and 49 CFR Part 26 states that a recipient of federally assisted USDOT funds must implement a DBE Program with a minimum goal of 10 percent and a higher goal where there is evidence for such a goal. California has a minimum DBE
goal of 13.5%.

• The High-Speed Rail Project (HSRP) in California must establish firm, fixed goals
(not an aspirational goal as currently exists) for small business participation. The HSRP must set a firm 25% Goal for small businesses and a 5% Disabled Veteran Business Enterprise goal for all California funded HSRP activities.

BACKGROUND: The High-Speed Rail system in California will be the first of its kind in the United States and the largest public works project in the nation. It is also the largest environmental review in U.S. history according to California High-Speed Rail Authority Chairman Curt Pringle. The 800 mile project, expected to begin revenue service in 2020 will, connect Sacramento at the northern part of California, through the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Area, to Central California at Fresno, Bakersfield, south to The Inland Empire, Greater Los Angeles area and then on to San Diego at the southern tip of the State.

The Phase One section from San Francisco to Anaheim is scheduled to begin initial revenue service in 2020. The cost of the system is $45 Billion, estimated by the Authority as of 2009. (Source: APAC Paper)

Injustice on Our Plates: Immigrant Women in the U.S. Food Industry

"Legalizing undocumented workers would raise the U.S. gross domestic product by $1.5 trillion over a decade. On the other hand, if the government were to deport all 10.8 million undocumented immigrants living on U.S. soil, our economy would decline by $2.6 trillion over a decade, not including the massive cost of such an endeavor.

Each year, undocumented immigrants contribute as much as $1.5 billion to the Medicare system and $7 billion to the Social Security system, even though they will never be able to collect benefits upon retirement."

• A mere 8 percent of farmworkers report being covered by employer-provided health insurance, a rate that dropped to 5 percent for farmworkers who are employed seasonally and not year-round.⁷
• According to the U.S. Department of Labor, farmworkers suffer from higher rates of toxic chemical injuries and skin disorders than any other workers in the country.⁸ The children of migrant farmworkers, also, have higher rates of pesticide exposure than the general public.⁹
• Each year, there are an estimated 10,000 to 20,000 cases of physician-diagnosed pesticide poisoning among U.S. farmworkers, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.¹⁰
• Farmworkers are not covered by workers’ compensation laws in many states. They are not entitled to overtime pay under federal law. On smaller farms and in short harvest seasons, they are not entitled to the federal minimum wage.¹¹ They are excluded from many state health and safety laws.¹²
• Because of special exemptions for agriculture, children as young as 10 may work in the fields. Also, many states exempt farmworker children from compulsory education laws.

-Southern Poverty Law Center

When It Comes to Going Global, Preparation is Everything

Read our esteemed colleague (and friend) Anita's Campbell's (founder of Small Business Trends) great post:

How to Prepare Your Business to Go Global

She offers five helpful tips to consider before you take the leap.

Posted by:  The Global Small Business Blog

Happy Birthday Jacob Cohen (1921-2004)

Better known as Rodney Dangerfield, one of the funniest men I've ever seen (I got to see him two or three times in live performances). His jokes are so memorable, I can still quote many of them. Men like Rodney, who can make us laugh, deserve our thanks and our respect.

Carol Rose on "Ostrom and the Lawyers"

University of Arizona law professor, Carol Rose, one of the outstanding property law scholars of our time, has posted a new working paper on the Social Science Research Network on "Ostrom and the Lawyers: The Impact of Governing the Commons on the American Legal Academy." The paper is forthcoming in a special issue of the International Journal of the Commons celebrating the 20th anniversary of Elinor Ostrom's Governing the Commons (Cambridge 1990).

Professor Rose's paper examines the influence of Lin Ostrom's theory of common property regimes on legal scholars since the publication of her famous 1990 book. Not surprisingly, Rose finds that the book exerted great influence on property scholars and law professors writing in environmental and natural resources law. More recently and only a bit more surprisingly, Ostrom's work has engaged the attention of intellectual property scholars. Here is the abstract of Rose's paper:

American legal academics began to cite Elinor Ostrom’s Governing the Commons (GC) shortly after its 1990 publication, with citations peaking in the mid 2000s and with signs of a new peak in 2010 in the wake of Ostrom’s Nobel Prize in Economics. The legal scholars most interested in GC have worked in three areas: general property theory, environmental and natural resource law, and since the mid 1990s, intellectual property. In all those areas legal scholars have found GC and its many examples a strong source of support for the proposition that people can cooperate to overcome common pool resource issues, managing resources through informal norms rather than either individual property or coercive government. Legal academics have also been at least mildly critical of GC as well, however. A number have tried to balance the attractive features of GC’s governance model-stability and sustainability-with more standard legal models favoring toward open markets, fluid change and egalitarianism.

As someone who has written a fair amount about Lin's work myself (in my 2002 Pollution and Property book), I find nothing much to argue with in Rose's article. I only wish she had situated Lin's book within the context of her earlier work, much of it with her husband Vincent, on polycentric governance regimes, where they stress the importance of local authority as part of larger, more complex government institutional structures.

A greater focus on the central importance of polycentricity to Lin's framework would help explain some of the conventional (and contradictory) misunderstandings of Lin's work, by legal scholars and others, as either opposing private property or opposing public regulation. In fact, as Professor Rose notes, Lin opposes neither, but merely argues that in some circumstances other governance mechanisms exist for avoiding what Garrett Hardin called "the tragedy of the commons." Those other governance mechanisms include common property regimes. Such regimes do not always succeed, of course. Nor do they necessarily exist in isolation from other formal or informal institutional structures. As often as not, they are "nested" within a larger complex of institutions, including formal laws.

John Pistole Should Resign

TSA Administrator John Pistole is under fire for the new "enhanced security" measures recently introduced at US airports, which presumes that all American air travelers are criminals. For his part, Pistole defends the security measures as "a crucial development to guarantee the safety of travelers" (see here). This is complete BS, as anyone would know who has read John Mueller's expose, Overblown: How Politicians and the Terrorism Industry Inflate National Security Threats, and Why We Believe Them (Free Press 2006).

I was not on the faculty when Pistole received his legal training at our law school. Nevertheless, as a faculty member, I am embarrassed that one of our esteemed graduates, with responsibility for a very powerful federal agency, has so little appreciation for the basic civil liberties that are supposed to limit government authority. Under Pistole's directive, the government is treating all air travelers just like common criminals. Such  treatment is intolerable and, in my view, patently unlawful (for reasons set forth by Marc Rotenberg here).

Even if the new security measures make travelers safer (a claim the TSA has yet to substantiate no doubt for reasons of national security), that does not make them either lawful or constitutional. Moreover, the price of safety can be very high. While the TSA protects us from terrorists, who will protect us from the TSA? I am reminded of an observation made by the famous Polish dissident Jacek Kuron at a symposium I attended several years ago: the safest societies are police states.

Hopefully, the political outcry and lawsuits will force the out-of-control TSA to back down, and lead to Pistole's resignation.

UPDATE: I have read that President Obama has defended the new security measures as "necessary" to airline safety. He should know better than most that what is "necessary" is not necessarily constitutional. His predecessor has claimed that waterboarding was "necessary." In the past, other politicians have claimed that internment of Japanese Americans was "necessary" or that Indian removal was "necessary." I used to think Obama would make a good Supreme Court Justice - perhaps a better Justice than a president. Perhaps I was wrong.

Happy Birthday Voltaire (1694-1778)

Francois-Marie Arouet was one of the great Enlightenment philosophers and writers who promoted freedom of conscience, freedom of expression, science, and free trade against the absolute monarchism, mercantilism, and religious dogmas of his day. He wrote dozens of plays, stories, philosophical treatises, and histories, many displaying his great wit as well as wisdom. He was revered by and inspired other Enlightenment thinkers, including Adam Smith, Rousseau, John Locke, and Benjamin Franklin. The crown and church considered Voltaire a dangerous man because he thought for himself, and that is what made him great.

African American Women Environmentalists

Michelle Tingling-Clemmons
Lisa Gaffney
Arnita Hannon
Kathy Blagburn
Karen Blagburn
Muriel Jabbar
Harolyn Jabbar
Samara Swanston
Marsha Coleman-Adebayo
Morning Sunday
Sonja Ebron
Adaora Lathan
Connie Tucker
Peggy Shepard
Dr. Mildred McClain
Dr. Beverly Wright
Vernice Miller-Travis
Deeohn Ferris
Dorceta E. Taylor
Michelle DePass
Delmetria Millener
Majora Carter
Sandrea O'Dette McDonald
Naomi Davis
Lisa P. Jackson

If we missed you, please leave a Comment so that we can add you to the list.

Why Do Anti-Intellectuals Publish Books?

I'm just asking.

African American Environmentalist Association: 25th Anniversary

PRESIDENT'S CORNER

By Norris McDonald

Today is our 25th anniversary.  We were incorporated on November 20, 1985.  The African American Environmentalist Association (AAEA) is the outreach arm of the Center for Environment, Commerce & Energy (Center).

You can see a listing of many of our activities during that time at our original website, which we converted to Multiply when the original Msn Groups platform ended).  There is more activity information at our History page. My career has been very satisfying.  From my beginning in the Fall of 1979 at the Environmental Policy Center (now Friends of the Earth) until today, the adventure has been incredible.  I started out in the Washington, D.C.-based environmental movement.  Jimmy Carter was president and was just finishing a rough 4-year run.  I shook his hand at the Democratic National Convention in New York in 1980 not knowing that Washington was about to get a completely new makeover.  The Reagan era was interesting and quite the challenge for the environmental movement.  I still remember his 'no standard standard' for appliance efficiency standards.  I also remember the Air Florida crash and the Metro subway accident on the day that I was walking back from the U.S. Department of Energy after testifying on appliance standards.

Well, without sounding like the old guy in the room sharing old war time stories that nobody really wants to hear, the situation today is as exciting as ever.  We are embarking on trying to build biomass power plants in Mississippi, California and in Kenya.  The adventure continues and I am having more fun than ever.  Our team is lean and mean and green. 

I have kept the AAEA small on purpose and will continue to do so.  I almost died from respiratory failure in 1991 and 1996 (intubated for 4 days in ICU each time).  After getting divorced and full custody of my son when he was 2 years old, I decided that I wanted to stick around to see my son grow up.  But I also wanted to continue with my entrepreneurial environmentalism.  So keeping it small worked.  Although I still struggle with a chronic acute asthma that could kill me any day, my son is now 18 and I am still 'doing my green thing.'  Life is good.  Hey, and we just opened a new Center Hollywood blog this week (Also see AAEA Hollywood).  Oh, and if you're feeling generous, feel free to click on our Donation button on our sites.

Arsenal 2 - Tottenham 3

Arsenal could have gone top of the table (temporarily) with a win at home today to North London rivals Tottenham Hotspur. But, in recent years, every time the Gunners have closed within shouting distance of the top, they have found a way to squander the chance. Today, they squandered the chance after taking a two-goal lead.

Arsenal played an excellent first half, taking a 2-0 lead on superb breaks finished by, respectively, Nasri and Chamakh. The second half seemed like a mere formality, and Arsenal played as if it was and paid for it. They  broke like a cheap toy, and Tottenham took all 3 points.

The wounds were largely self-inflicted, as Arsenal fell asleep at the back for Tottenham's first goal, and Fabregas gifted the Hotspurs a second goal with an almost cynical handball in the box on a free kick, which lead to a penalty. Tottenham finished off the come back with a well-played free kick which Kaboul headed into the back of the Arsenal net.

All true Gunners fans will be stunned and outraged by the complete and utter collapse at home, which cannot be laid only at the feet of the players. How many times will Arsene Wenger be able to get away with talking about their "naivete"? At some point, the coaching staff must take responsibility for the mental preparation and strength (or lack thereof) of the players.

Happy 63d Birthday Joe Walsh

One of the true greats of rock 'n roll, Walsh can make his guitar sing, with a style immediately recognizable as his own. He is probably best known (for better or worse) for playing and singing with the Eagles, but he did so much wonderful work early on with the James Gang, and later on his own.

Here are a couple songs from the James Gang Live (at Carnegie Hall), which is my all-time favorite live recording (even above The Who's Live at Leeds). Note that Joe is playing the Hammond B3 organ.



And just to make sure we don't forget that he is a guitar hero, here's Joe playing with Booker T and the MGs at Eric Clapton's Crossroads concert a couple of years ago:

Flag Fascination

Sometimes the first photo is not always the best.  It's more intriguing to capture moments as they occur.  I love the simpleness, cleanness and color in these shots.  On the day (11/19/10) these flags were photographed, I was out at the Chicago lakefront.  The temperature was about 39 degrees F -- chilly -- and the wind was blowing fiercely.

Enjoy your weekend.  May it be filled with magnificence and many more colorful flags!

Photo credit:  Laurel Delaney

Posted by:  Laurel Delaney, The Global Small Business Blog

Senate Approves $1.15 Billion Settlement For Black Farmers

John Boyd

 The Senate has approved $1.15 billion to settle discrimination claims brought by black farmers against the Agriculture Department.  John Boyd, president of the National Black Farmers Association, lobbied continuously to get the legislation passed out of the Senate. The bill also included $3.4 billion for American Indians who said the Interior Department had swindled them out of royalties since the 19th century. The bill now goes to the House.

The legislation, approved by unanimous consent, also includes a one-year extension of the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families program and several American Indian water rights settlements sought by Sen. Jon Kyl (R-Ariz.).

To pay for the entire measure, money would be diverted from a surplus in nutrition programs for women and children and by extending customs user fees.

Statement by the President on Senate Passage of the Claims Settlement Act of 2010

"I applaud the Senate for passing the Claims Settlement Act of 2010, which will at long last provide funding for the agreements reached in the Pigford II lawsuit, brought by African American farmers, and the Cobell lawsuit, brought by Native Americans over the management of Indian trust accounts and resources. I particularly want to thank Attorney General Holder and Secretaries Salazar and Vilsack for their continued work to achieve this outcome. I urge the House to move forward with this legislation as they did earlier this year, and I look forward to signing it into law.

This bill also includes settlements for four separate water rights suits made by Native American tribes. I support these settlements and my Administration is committed to addressing the water needs of tribal communities. While these legislative achievements reflect important progress, they also serve to remind us that much work remains to be done. That is why my Administration also continues to work to resolve claims of past discrimination made by women and Hispanic farmers against the USDA."

(USA Today, 11/19/2010)

Emanuel Cleaver: Chairman, Congressinoal Black Caucus

Emanuel Cleaver (D-MO) has been unanimously elected as the new Chairman of the Congressional Black Caucus (CBC). He succeeds Congresswoman Barbara Lee (D-CA).

Congressman Emanuel Cleaver, II is currently serving his third term representing the Fifth District of Missouri in the House of Representatives and sits on the Financial Services Committee and Homeland Security Committee.  He was a member of Speaker Pelosi's Select Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming.

According to a statement in The Washington Post:

Among Cleaver's priorities will be turning the attention of the caucus to environmental and energy policy - which would allow its members to work with the Environmental Protection Agency and the Energy Department on developing green jobs in their districts, many of which face high unemployment rates.

We would like to suggest that the CBC expand its focus to include all energy sources.  AAEA President Norris McDonald wrote the energy and natural resources sections of the CBC Alternative Budget Recommendations in the early 1980's.  Blacks do not own any of the energy infrastructure and resources in the United States.


Emanuel Cleaver

 He was born in Waxahachie, Texas, grew up in public housing and graduated high school in Wichita Falls, Texas. Congressman Cleaver went on to attend Prairie View A & M University, earning a B.S. in Sociology.

In 1974, he began his pastoral career at St. James United Methodist Church with a membership of 47. Today, St. James has a membership of 2,800.

In 1979 Cleaver was elected to the City Council of Kansas City. After three terms, he ran for and was elected to the office of Mayor, where he made history as the first African American to hold the City’s highest office.

Congressman Cleaver and his wife, Dianne, have been married for more than thirty years, where they have made Kansas City their home. They have four grown children and three grandchildren. (House)

Brief Review: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part I

It was, as expected, a wonderful night out for my family, along with a couple hundred others in the mostly teenage audience. Everything about the film marked it as different - the clothing, the locations, the coloring, the music and, for long stretches, the absence of any characters other than the three young heroes. They had to carry a lot more weight in this picture, and I was pleasantly surprised to find that they had the acting chops to pull it off. They are, in fact, much better actors now than they were not just at the beginning of the series, but even in the most recent episodes. (My kids agree with this assessment.)

The fact that the film makers decided to split the final book in the series into two films is a great boon because it gives them a certain luxury of time to allow the full story to unfold. I wish they had done likewise with the Goblet of Fire (at least), which was so truncated on the screen that virtually all exposition and character relations were sacrificed to what was, in the end, just a series of action scenes (with an inexplicably angry and voluble Dumbledore).

The Deathly Hallows, Part I is recommended to anyone who does not place themselves above and beyond the many charms of J.K. Rowling's books.

Happy 66th Birthday Dennis Hull

My favorite hockey player when I was a kid. I don't know why I preferred him to his flashier brother, Bobby. Maybe it was the very fact that he was less flashy but still an All Star-caliber player, who had the hardest shot of any left-winger in the game.

Pork Butt Goes Global

The most underutilized meat export, pork butt -- genteel name is Boston Shoulder Roast -- is set to go international.

The U.S. Meat Export Federation thinks that the butt, which has enjoyed a surge in popularity in the U.S. as the raw material for pulled pork sandwiches (as shown), should go international.

Read all about it here.

USMEF is looking at a variety of markets for this initiative, including Mexico, the Caribbean, Canada, South Korea and Japan,” said Dan Halstrom, USMEF senior vice president of marketing and communications.  “U.S. pork is the protein of choice globally, and we see opportunities to expand market share and compete with other proteins by educating our contacts there about the advantages of the pork butt.”

Posted by:  The Global Small Business Blog

EPA Appoints Mayor Heather McTeer Hudson Chair of LGAC

Heather McTeer Hudson

 U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Lisa P. Jackson has appointed Mayor Heather McTeer Hudson of Greenville, Miss., to chair EPA’s Local Government Advisory Committee (LGAC). LGAC is an independent committee of elected and appointed officials to advise the agency on a broad range of environmental issues effecting communities across the country.

EPA’s Local Government Advisory Committee met on Nov. 17-18, 2010, to provide advice on how best to advance the administrator’s seven priorities. EPA, states, tribes and local governments share the responsibility for environmental and human health protection, and EPA seeks to strengthen these partnerships to find innovative solutions to the challenges of climate change, cleaning our air, protecting our waters, and cleaning our communities.

Heather McTeer Hudson was born and raised in Greenville, Mississippi, She was elected Mayor of the City of Greenville in 2003 and re-elected for a second term in 2007. She serves as the 1st African-American and 1st female to serve in this position. Heather Hudson received her formative education from Greenville’s T.L. Weston High School and left Mississippi only to attend college. A 1998 graduate of Spelman College in Atlanta, Georgia, Mayor Hudson received her B.A. in Sociology and went on to earn her a Juris Doctorate at New Orleans’ Tulane Law School. As a three year member of McTeer & Associates Law firm, where she practiced law, she was well versed in the corporate political arena. Today, Mayor Hudson still practices in her own firm, the McTeer-Hudson Firm, PLLC. (EPA, City of Greenville, Mississippi)

More information

Rose-Ackerman on Cost-Benefit Analysis

The always astute Susan Rose-Ackerman, the Henry R. Luce Professor of Jurisprudence in the Law School and Political Science Department at Yale (from which she also possesses a PhD in economics), has an interesting new paper, "Putting Cost-Benefit Analysis in Its Place: Rethinking Regulatory Review." Here is the abstract:

Policymakers need to reassess the role of cost-benefit analysis (CBA) in regulatory review. Although it remains a valuable tool, a number of pressing current problems do not fit well into the CBA paradigm. In particular, climate change, nuclear accident risks, and the preservation of biodiversity can have very long-run impacts that may produce catastrophic and irreversible effects. This article seeks to put cost-benefit analysis in its place by demonstrating both its strengths and its limitations. The Obama Administration should rethink the use of CBA as a way to evaluate regulatory policies and develop procedures to restrict its use to policy areas where its underlying assumptions fit the nature of the problem.

I don't think the paper breaks much new ground on the methodological or practical problems of CBA, but it does include an interesting discussion of an alternative called Impact Assessments (IA), which is widely used in the European Union and elsewhere. However, none of the various alternatives for CBA avoids the biggest problems, which include the valuation of non-market goods, the impossibility of  making unambiguous interpersonal utility comparisons, and the setting of social discount rates. Professor Rose-Ackerman is obviously correct, however, that CBA is a tool of only limited utility that should not be elevated to the role of decision rule in social or regulatory policy. She also usefully points out when cost-effectiveness analysis may be more suitable than CBA.

Finally, it's not obvious to me that creating a new organization within (or without) the White House on policy integrity would solve any of the problems she identifies. How would such an organization differ in structure, mission, or political orientation from the current White House Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs in the Office of Management and Budget? It's clear that government CBAs, among other kinds of analysis, require greater consistency in methodology and application. To that end, the Society for Benefit-Cost Analysis is in the process of developing "best practice" standards, which the White House Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs or reviewing courts might one day adopt (as I have recommended in earlier writings, e.g., here). But it's not clear to me that a brand new bureaucracy would improve the situation.

Harry Potter and the Curse of the Midnight Show

The Harry Potter series has spawned numerous Cyclingprof family traditions. As each book came out, I would read them aloud (complete with poorly-done characterizations) to the family. Then, on road trips we would listen to the audio versions of the books (the early ones on cassette, the later books on compact disc) read by the inimitable Jim Dale. We would go the midnight show to see each film on opening night. And, finally we would buy the DVDs and video games.

Tonight the tradition continues. My daughter is taking the bus up from Bloomington, my son will be taking a peremptory nap this afternoon, and my wife and I will be drinking lots of tea to help us stay away for tonight's midnight extravaganza. The actual quality of the film doesn't much matter to my brood (although I walked out on the film of the fourth book because I thought the portrayal of Dumbledore was too loud and the Director sacrificed everything else in the book for the action scenes).  The reviews from England of the new film have been mixed, but the several positive reviews have made me cautiously optimistic. I'll file my own review tomorrow.

Young Entrepreneurs Hold the Key to Our Global Economic Future

For one week, millions of young people around the world join a growing movement of entrepreneurial people, to generate new ideas and to seek better ways of doing things.

The movement is called Global Entrepreneurship Week 2010 (runs November 15-21).

How are you getting involved?

Learn more here.

Illustration credit here.

Supreme Court Opinions Are Growing Longer, Less Clear, and More Boring

A terrific piece of reporting by Adam Liptak in today's New York Times (here) supports an argument that I have long been making (see, e.g., here and here) that Supreme Court opinions are out of control. Here's one interesting tidbit from the article: In the 1950s, the median length of Supreme Court opinions was 2000 words. The Court's ruling in Brown v. Board of Education - a judicial landmark if ever there was one - was all of 4000 words. Today, by contrast, hardly any Supreme Court opinions manage to come in under 10,000 words; and it is not at all uncommon to find opinions in the 40,000-word range, which approximates a 300-page book.

This might be acceptable if the opinions were well crafted and engaging to read, but they never are. As Liptak points out, Supreme Court opinions are pastiches of draft opinions by clerks, plagiarized sections of briefs from the parties, topped off with a few apercus by the Justices themselves. They are stylistically inconsistent and often border on incoherence, which needless to say undermines their pedagogical and wider social purpose. What we need are opinions that are clear, to the point, and written with a bit of flair. What we tend to get are plodding tomes.

Dearth of Blog Posts

I apologize for the lack of substantive blog posts this week. We are interviewing job candidates just about everyday this week at the law school, which means office interviews, job talks, lunches, dinners, and reading resumes and published writings. The rest of my time this week has been spent studying the history of (formal) water law in Spain and Kenya as part of an NSF proposal with folks from the Workshop in Bloomington. That group has been meeting once or twice each week to work on that proposal. In fact, I have so many meetings to attend this week that I can't possibly attend them all. All that is on top of normal class preps, of course. (And I thought I was too busy when I was traveling.)

Happy Birthday Carl Maria von Weber (1786-1826)

An innovative and very influential composer, Weber was a progenitor of the Romantic school of composition, and is best known today for his opera Der Freischutz.