Will VW be able to buy its way out with gift cards?

VW Emissions cheating scandal update

From: Leon Kaye , Triple Pundit

Volkswagen is still struggling to move past the emissions-software scandal that has plagued its reputation for the better part of a year.

Ever since the news officially broke that an array of its diesel passenger cars were outfitted with deceptive software, VW’s reputation has been pretty much at bottom ratings.

It’s not like the company hasn’t tried to regain public trust: To disgruntled consumers who bought one of the affected cars, it’s offered a combo of Visa cards and credit at dealerships.

To dealers stuck with stock frozen by the publicity, the company offered to buy back used vehicles at full price. 

And in response to hundreds of class-action suits coming up on the horizon, the company recently suggested that it may be willing to buy back those vehicles that can’t be fixed.

Fixing, VW lawyer Robert Giuffra explained in court in January, requires coming up with new software, and that may still be a long way off — too long for some earlier vehicles caught in the debacle.

How to prevent spring allergies

Pollen count (for real) from Pollen.com; handy advice from Fake Science

Plant a tree for Arbor Day

DEM & the Arbor Day Foundation again team up to offer you free trees

PROVIDENCE - The Rhode Island Department of Environmental Management (DEM) and the Arbor Day Foundation are teaming up to give away 1,000 trees this spring; the Energy-Saving Trees Program helps homeowners conserve energy, reduce utility costs, and beautify their neighborhood.

"We're happy to partner with the Arbor Day Foundation again this year to encourage homeowners to "green" their properties and promote a healthier environment," said DEM Director Janet Coit. 

"Trees play an important role in cooling our streets and homes, filtering our air, and reducing stormwater pollution. I hope Rhode Islanders will take advantage of this opportunity to plant a tree with their families and watch it grow; it will help with household expenses and benefit our environment for generations to come."

The trees are approximately four to six feet tall and will be distributed in three-gallon containers for easy transport. The RI Tree Council will provide planting and care instruction to homeowners - as well as guidance on how to maximize energy-savings. When planted properly, a single mature tree can save $30 annually in heating and cooling costs.

A predator in so many ways

Donald Trump: Corporate Raider

By Phil Mattera, editor of the Dirt Diggers Digest

“We’re not interested in being taken over by Donald Trump.” That message, which sounds like a pronouncement by today’s Republican Party establishment, was expressed three decades ago by the board of directors of Bally Manufacturing as it sought to thwart an unwanted bid by the developer. Bally managed to escape the clutches of Trump but it had to pay a significant price.

During his recent endorsement statement, Dr. Ben Carson declared that there are two Donald Trumps running for president, one of them “cerebral.” Whether that’s true or not, there’s evidence of two Donald Trumps in the business world.

The first Trump is the one constantly promoted by the candidate — the owner and operator (or at least licensor) of a string of supposedly wildly successful business all adorned with his name. Whether Trump University or Trump Steaks, these are also the focus of his critics.

Yet Trump has another track record that involves not the running of companies but rather that of profiting by launching takeover bids that do not lead to completed transactions. During the 1980s Trump was a junior member of a fraternity of wheeler dealers known as corporate raiders. (One of the more notable members of that group, Carl Icahn, has endorsed Trump’s presidential campaign).

Trump ANGRY

For more cartoons by Tom Tomorrow, CLICK HERE

Special Easter VIDEO: 10 Ways to Kill Marshmallow Peeps

Watch this video on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e0OIxb3dJ3w

Zombie fiction writer Kim Paffenroth to speak at URI, April 5

Event is part of URI Center for the Humanities Festival

Elizabeth Rau

KINGSTON, R.I. –Kim Paffenroth, a nationally acclaimed zombie fiction writer, will speak at the University of Rhode Island Tuesday, April 5 for the 5th annual Center for the Humanities Festival.

His talk, “I Want to Know What Love Is: Hellish and Heavenly Loves, from Dante to The Walking Dead,’’ will start at 6 p.m. in the Agnes B. Doody Auditorium, Swan Hall, 60 Upper College Road on the Kingston campus. 

Paffenroth is distinguished professor of Religious Studies at Iona College, specializing in scholastic theology. He is the author of Gospel of the Living Dead: George Romero’s Visions of Hell on Earth and of zombie fiction influenced by classical humanities texts such as Dying to Live: Last Rites. 

He regularly speaks about the role of zombies and the horror genre in popular culture. His essays have appeared in Communio and The Journal of Religion and Film. He is the recipient of the 2006 Bram Stoker Award and a silver medal in Forward Magazine’s Book of the Year 2007. He was a finalist for the 2007 International Horror Guild Award and the 2008 Black Quill Award. 

Anniversary of a tragedy

Mourn the dead, but fight like hell for the living

By Judy Gearhart, International Labor Rights Forum.  

Today we remember the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire in New York City and the 146 garment workers – most of them young women and girls – who died 105 years ago. 

That tragedy became a pivotal moment in history that helped usher in sweeping labor law protections in the United States. 

At ILRF we are proud supporters of the  Remember the Triangle Coalition, which continues to commemorate the sacrifice of those 146 garment workers every year and to build a coalition of supporters for a permanent memorial at the site of the tragedy.

The annual commemoration in New York is not an isolated action, but one that connects garment workers everywhere, too many of whom continue to risk their lives making the clothes we wear.  

A Curbside Crisis

How much of what you recycle ends up at the dump?

By Beth Porter

Do you cross the street to put your soda can in the recycling bin or avidly pluck plastics and paper from your neighbor’s trash cans? The current state of recycling in the United States may surprise you.

It’s in trouble for many reasons, including two straightforward ones. Most programs dump everything together — and consumers are confused about what goes into their recycling bins.

Single-stream recycling, first developed in the 1990s, offers the allure that everything can be recycled without duplicating efforts to handle paper, plastic, glass, and metal refuse. Creating a single blue bin where people can toss all kinds of recyclable items did away with the need to separate your bottles from your cans from your newspapers.

When your commingled recyclables arrive at the facility, they travel along conveyor belts where someone manually pre-sorts them. Then the stuff goes through a series of screens that separate items by weight and shape, and strong magnets mechanically sort the steel and aluminum products.

Nearly two-thirds of U.S. communities that recycle used this approach by 2010.

The single-stream system sounds great, but it’s not perfect. The biggest problem is that contamination can occur at your home or workplace, in your curbside bin, at the sorting facility, or on the way there.

In First, Majority of Americans Now Oppose Nuclear Energy

Gallup poll comes as new campaign counters nuclear’s "clean energy myth"

By Andrea Germanos, staff writer for Common Dreams

A majority of Americans—54 percent—oppose nuclear energy, a Gallup poll released Friday found.

It marks the first time a majority in the country has felt this way about nuclear energy providing electricity since Gallup began asking the question in 1994.

Forty-four percent said they are still in support of it.

The new results show a major shift from responses last year, when just 43 percent expressed opposition to nuclear energy and support stood at 51 percent.

Republican support, in particular, dropped steeply from 2015. Fifty-three percent now say they are in favor of nuclear energy, compared to 68 percent last year. Thirty-four percent of Democrats are in favor of nuclear energy, an 8-point drop from last year.

Even in 2012, the first time Gallup asked the question after the Fukushima disaster, 57 percent of Americans were still in favor of nuclear energy.

As to why to tide has turned, Gallup suggests it may be the result of lower gas prices, as they have coincided with low levels of worry about the nation's energy situation.

VIDEO: Donald Trump has a very good brain

Watch this video on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V_eTKSzoAUY

Trump's foreign policy brain trust

The new Teflon?

Spray on coating could ice-proof airplanes, power lines, windshields

University of Michigan

Yes, we used this graphic before. Couldn't resist an encore

On your car windshield, ice is a nuisance. 

But on an airplane, a wind turbine, an oil rig or power line, it can be downright dangerous. 

And removing it with the methods that are available today--usually chemical melting agents or labor-intensive scrapers and hammers--is difficult and expensive work.

That could soon change thanks to a durable, inexpensive ice-repellent coating developed by University of Michigan researchers. 

Thin, clear and slightly rubbery to the touch, the spray-on formula could make ice slide off equipment, airplanes and car windshields with only the force of gravity or a gentle breeze. 

This could have major implications in industries like energy, shipping and transportation, where ice is a constant problem in cold climates.

The new coating could also lead to big energy savings in freezers, which today rely on complex and energy-hungry defrosting systems to stay frost-free. 

An ice-repelling coating could do the same job with zero energy consumption, making household and industrial freezers up to 20 percent more efficient. The coating is detailed in a new paper published in the journal Science Advances.

Speaks for itself

Undergoing fertility treatment? Watch your plastics

As evidence mounts, FDA stays silent

By Brian Bienkowski for Environmental Health News

One of the most challenging aspects of Sarah Bly’s work is helping women cope with infertility.

“It’s not only a mental desire you have around creating a life, but a very deeply physical, primal and biological urge, and these women are dealing with this on all of those levels,” said Bly, a women's health counselor and fertility awareness educator in Oregon.

Bly, who runs a private practice in Ashland, home of Oregon's famous Shakespeare festival, urges women to listen to their bodies in pursuing health and pregnancy. Increasingly, she's asking them to also pay attention to scientists’ alarms over chemical exposure.