Chemically Green
Government Worker Strikes Gold at Taxpayer’s Expense
While New Yorkers and the rest of American taxpayers are going broke, one state worker is striking gold:
“I do nothing all year and get paid $93,803 per year just for showing up at my work place and this has been going on since 2002! I want to work, but I have been shoved off to a little corner and am paid no attention, but the pay is great.” — Source
He spends much of his workday at the State Insurance Fund donning headphones, listening to rock ‘n’ roll, blues or classical tunes, watching cars go by, sometimes just sitting doing nothing and his superiors are cool with that.
His work agenda involves placing his feet up on his desk, staring out his office window and counting cars on the New York State Thruway. He arrives at 7:30 a.m., leaves at 3:30 p.m., sees no one and talks to no one.
He never does any work. It’s been this way for Randall Hinton for most of this decade.
From ALBANY N.Y., TimesUnion.com:
As he tells it, Randall Hinton is paid $93,803 a year to do nothing. “I just sit here,” said Hinton, 55, of Niskayuna, a 27-year state employee who has held several high-level posts at various agencies.
At 6 feet 4 inches and 265 pounds he is an imposing figure who begins to tear up when discussing his situation. A member of the Passamaquoddy Tribe in Maine, he said he is being discriminated against because of his national origin and retaliated against for having sued the state.
Since February 2002, Hinton has been director of investigations for the Insurance Fund, but he said he has never been allowed to investigate anything. Instead, he builds up pension credits, year after year, but is unproductive at work because his superiors are blackballing him, according to he and his former boss.
Hinton contends he is without portfolio as retaliation for suing Gov. George Pataki’s administration 10 years ago, alleging discrimination then, too. That was after getting stuck in a storeroom for two years for refusing to leave his post at the Department of Environmental Conservation, where he headed investigations.
“This is not about me,” he said, asserting that he is trying to make a name for Native Americans in public service. “I’m ashamed of my situation. I’m embarrassed. Nobody cares. They don’t care about Indians.”
What in the world is going on? The state of New York is in dire financial straights and they turn their heads on this situation? New York taxpayers are worried and a fiasco like this won’t make them any happier. To top it off, New York is adding additional taxes to help pay for a stupid decision to pay one man nearly $100,000 a year for not working.
What do you think the state of New York is affraid of? Bet it might be a discrimination lawsuit because the man is Native American!
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11 Incredible Living Walls
The idea of a living wall conjures up all sorts of images, but in reality it is nothing more than a wall completely covered in vegetation. In order to create a living wall pre-vegetated or fabric panels containing plastic containers, or geotextiles, as well as irrigation systems and vegetation are attached to the wall or supporting structure. This form of urban gardening is often designed as an art form to decorate buildings in cities and has been hailed as one way to make cities more enjoyable, healthier and ultimately greener places.
Will A Weed Save California From Bankruptcy?
[Source]
The Pros and Cons of Legalizing Marijuana To Financially Save the Golden State.
The Newest California Legislation: AB390-Marijuana Control, Regulation and Education Act.
The Argument for Legalizing Marijuana:
Assemblyman Tom Ammiano’s landmark bill (AB 390) to tax and regulate marijuana just like alcohol and tobacco is being considered by state lawmakers.
Courtesy, Times-Standard: A grainy black-and-white film fills the dark room. The audience shifts in their seats nervously as a young woman walks into her room and looks in the mirror and suddenly starts to scream! The words “Marijuana Madness” appear on the top of the screen.
The myths are starting to lift like fog dissipating in the light of day. The lies and racist reasons for making marijuana illegal are dropping out of the sky like a steady rain, forming puddles destined to dry up.
Californians, and the other states that allow medical marijuana, have received some good news. Assemblyman Tom Ammiano’s landmark bill (AB 390) to tax and regulate marijuana just like alcohol and tobacco is being considered by state lawmakers.
This is a legitimate effort to legalize marijuana. The bill would make recreational use of marijuana legal. Users would have to be 21 years old, the same as for alcohol and tobacco. It wouldn’t change the medical marijuana guidelines for those involved in that growing industry, according to Ammiano.
There’s no way to tell how many California residents smoke pot, but according to the Zogby Poll “Fifty-eight percent of respondents residing on the West Coast agree that cannabis should be taxed and legally regulated like alcohol and cigarettes.”
The failing national economy makes headlines every day across America. Wouldn’t it be nice to lead the country out of this depression with an unprecedented economic recovery in California? We could be the model and other states would follow with similar legislation.
Betty Yee, who chairs the state Board of Equalization, which collects the sales tax in California, is in favor of this landmark legislation.
Right now Californians pay $170 million a year for arrests, prosecution and imprisonment of pot offenders, according to statistics released from NORML. Poof! That would go up in smoke, and reduce the prison population as well.
Right now there’s talk among lawmakers of an early release program for as many as 58,000 prisoners in the next couple of years because of overcrowding and fiscal shortfalls. There are plenty of good reasons to support AB 390. As It Stands, it’s time to legalize marijuana and jumpstart California’s sagging economy into the 21st century.
[Source]
The Argument Against Legalizing Marijuana
[Source]
Courtesy San Jose Mercury News : California Cannot Afford to Legalize Marijuana.
Legalizing marijuana will not solve our budget woes, nor will it be good for public health. Introducing marijuana into the open market is very likely to do some other things, however: increase the drug’s consumption, and with it, the enormous social costs associated with marijuana-related accidents, illness and productivity loss.
The example of legal alcohol and tobacco reveal an unsettling pattern. Legal drugs are by definition easy to obtain, and commercialization glamorizes their use and furthers their social acceptance. Their price is low, and high profits make promotion worthwhile for sellers. Addiction is simply the price of doing business. Any revenue gained from taxing these drugs is quickly offset by the heavy costs associated with their increased prevalence. Because today’s high-potency marijuana is much more harmful than once thought, a spike in use from legalization would result in a financial burden California cannot afford to bear.
Assemblyman Tom Ammiano’s justification for AB 390 relies on the myth that marijuana laws are costing taxpayers millions of dollars and wrecking the lives of otherwise law-abiding citizens. But a closer examination of the facts reveals a very different reality. Although there are thousands of arrests for marijuana possession every year in our state, most of these arrests result in little or no consequences. Most of those who are charged with possession plead down from more serious charges, such as trafficking. Researchers from Rand report that many marijuana arrests result from drinking and driving violations at alcohol checkpoints. “The police also find joints, and then (the offender) is in jail for both offenses. People’s images of the casual (marijuana) user getting hauled off to jail are not true,” a Rand researcher recently commented.
Rand-sponsored research reveals that in the Netherlands, where the drug is sold openly at “coffee shops,” marijuana use among young adults increased almost 300 percent after a wave of commercialization. The country has also become a haven for producers of high-potency marijuana, and other drugs like ecstasy and methamphetamine. These unintended consequences have led many Dutch officials to advocate for rolling back the status quo.
O.K., time for your opinions. Chemically Green wants to here for you, for or against.
Stop Sniffles and Runny Noses, Kill the Rhino!
Rhino Virus not as big as a real Rhino, but much more troublesome.
A New Breakthrough for a Vaccine to Stop the Common Cold?
Scientists have unveiled lab-made human antibodies that can disable several types of influenza, including highly-lethal H5N1 bird flu and the “Spanish Flu” strain that killed tens of millions in 1918.
Tested in mice, the antibodies work by binding to a previously obscure structure in the flu virus which, when blocked, sabotages the pathogen’s ability to enter the cell it is trying to infect, according to the study.
Because this structure — described by one scientist as a “viral Achilles’ heel” — is genetically stable and has resisted mutation over time, the antibodies are effective against many different strains.
The breakthrough “holds considerable promise for further development into a medical tool to treat and prevent seasonal as well as pandemic influenza,” said Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, which helped fund the study.
Clinical trials on humans could begin within a couple of years, the researchers said.
Seasonal flu kills more than 250,000 people every year, and pandemic flu, which occurs with the emergence of deadly viral strains against which people lack immunity, remains an ever-present threat.
Kill The Rhino!