IMPORTANT: another report why Adam Putnam DOES NOT DESERVE your vote ... by gimleteye

It only took serial algae blooms around the state, containing Cyanobacteria that can cause long-term brain damage, to wake up Floridians about who the Florida Legislature, Gov, Rick Scott and Agriculture Commissioner Adam Putnam really work for: Big Sugar.

Florida voters became immune to Big Sugar's influence on local and state politics -- it needs to organize the political ladder because rules and regulations can harm its profits. But the outbreak of dangerous, harmful algae for the third time in five years really rankled Floridians.

Big Sugar's candidate for governor is Adam Putnam, a Republican who has been cultivated by the industry as carefully as it tends its cane crop. (For our archive on Adam Putnam, click here.)

Remarkably, political money from Big Sugar has become toxic in this campaign cycle for the first time ever. All of the leading Democratic candidates for Governor and many Congressional candidates, including some Republicans, have signed the Bullsugar.org questionnaire pledging that they will not take Big Sugar money. That's a first, and for that, credit Bullsugar.org (if you would like to contribute to the organization, now is a very good time to do it!)

For reasons why, read this excellent report in the Tampa Bay Times.

This candidate for Florida governor is the only one taking money from Big Sugar
BY CRAIG PITTMAN
Tampa Bay Times

August 06, 2018 08:31 AM
Updated 6 hours 55 minutes ago


Florida politicians from both parties used to have a sweet tooth for campaign contributions from the state’s powerful sugar industry.

But now that Big Sugar is getting blamed for toxic algae blooms, a connection to the industry has turned into a political liability. This campaign season, only one person running for governor is still taking sugar’s money: Agriculture Commissioner Adam Putnam.

So far sugar companies and their affiliates have given Putnam’s campaign and his Florida Grown PAC $804,000 in direct contributions, a reward for a reliable ally. He’s also received $7.6 million from five political action committees that receive a significant portion of their contributions from the industry, or one out of every five dollars he has raised.

Putnam also is the only gubernatorial candidate defending the sugar companies from accusations that they deserve some or all of the blame for the pollution-fueled algae blooms mucking up Lake Okeechobee and threatening to ruin beach communities on both coasts.

“I support our Glades communities,” he said during an April television interview with WPTV in West Palm Beach, speaking of the areas around the Everglades where sugarcane is grown. “I support giving them the opportunities to have good jobs ... And I think they’re a viable, vibrant part of our economy, and the water that leaves sugar farms is cleaner than the water that comes on to them.”

He said the challenges facing Lake Okeechobee, the Everglades and the coastline go beyond sugar and include everyone who has moved to a state once covered by wetlands. It’s not as simple as taking out “the bad guys,” he said.

Putnam’s GOP rival, Ron DeSantis, and all five leading Democratic candidates have been painting the sugar companies as corporate greed heads who don’t care what damage they do to the rest of Florida. DeSantis, a congressman unpopular with sugar companies since he voted against giving them federal price supports, told the GOP Sunshine Summit in June that Putnam and Big Sugar are “tied at the hip.”

For once, environmental groups are on the same side as DeSantis, even though he was endorsed by President Trump, whom they dislike. Kim Mitchell, executive director of the Everglades Trust, has dubbed the agriculture commissioner “Pay-to-Play Putnam.”

Putnam’s campaign spokeswoman couldn’t explain why he’s still taking sugar money at a time when the industry is so unpopular. Instead, Meredith Beatrice pointed out that some other candidates took sugar contributions in prior campaigns, then stopped.

Now, she said, the other candidates “are fueled by out-of-state special interests.” Beatrice said Putnam is “the only candidate who isn’t controlled by the Washington swamp.”

Republican lobbyist and campaign consultant Towson Fraser said he didn’t think Putnam’s ties to sugar would hurt him in the long run because so many people who work in agriculture will still vote for him. Meanwhile, Ben Wilcox of the government watchdog group Integrity Florida said he’s glad to see so much attention being paid to who’s financing the candidates.

“So much cash flows into these campaigns that we need to hold people accountable for who their funders are,” said Wilcox. He said politicians ought to be like NASCAR drivers who emblazon the names of their sponsors on their cars.

The big question, Wilcox said, is what Big Sugar expects from Putnam in return. No one from either U.S. Sugar or Florida Crystals, the state’s biggest sugar companies, responded to numerous calls and e-mails seeking comment.

Putnam grew up in the Central Florida town of Bartow, known for cultivating citrus and producing cattle — not sugar. State records show he began taking money from the sugar industry as far back as 1996. That’s the year he was first elected to the Florida House of Representatives at age 22, becoming the youngest legislator in state history.

He continued accepting contributions from sugar during his 10 years in Congress, and through his election as state agriculture commissioner in 2010 and subsequent re-election four years ago. Throughout his long career in office, he has consistently supported the same positions as the sugar companies:

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Florida Pheonix: more on Maggy Hurchalla v. George Lindemann Jr.

The gargantuan battle between a David versus Goliath (in this case, Maggy Hurchalla against a billionaire, George Lindemann Jr.) has turned into a not-so-quiet fight for First Amendment Rights. The organization for which I serve as a voluntary board member, Friends of the Everglades, recently sought to join as an intervenor in the case. At Eye On Miami, we've written extensively on Hurchalla, a hero of Florida's environmental movement. Read on, from the Florida Pheonix.


A 77-year-old South Florida environmentalist speaks out and gets sued, harrassed. She won’t back down
August 6, 2018
Diane Roberts

In Martin County, all animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others. You may express your opinion–about a dodgy water deal, say, or damage to certain wetlands–but if you challenge the wrong billionaire, if you urge your elected representatives to take action thwarting the plans of said billionaire, you may find yourself hauled into court, financially imperiled, and told that your free speech rights are not what you thought they were, Constitution be damned.

Maggy Hurchalla, longtime warrior for Florida’s environment, daughter of legendary Miami News reporter Jane Wood Reno, and sister of Janet Reno, the first woman to serve as Attorney General of the United States, has been ordered by a court in Martin County to pay the very, very rich George Lindemann Jr. $4.4 million.

Here’s the upshot: in 2008, Lindemann cut a deal with the South Florida Water Management District and the Martin County Commission to mine some of the 2200 acres owned by his company Lake Point, digging up rocks to use in construction and using the resulting pits to store dirty water. The plan was to someday donate land to the county for stormwater treatment. Lindemann sees himself as a Good Guy, though in his rich-brat youth (aged 31), he did prison time. Supposedly a serious contender for the US Equestrian Olympic Team, in 1990, he paid a horse hit man to electrocute his thoroughbred Charisma: he wanted to collect the $250,000 insurance. Lindemann would rather not talk about that. He’d rather you know that he’s given more than $10,000 to Audubon and chairs the board of trustees at the Bass Museum of Art in Miami Beach. Can’t blame him there: nobody likes a horse-murderer.

In 2011, Lindemann and Lake Point hit upon the bright idea to sell the water on their property through New Jersey-based American Water, the nation’s largest private utility company. Moving 35 million gallons of H2O every day would net large money. Except Lake Point forgot that water is a public resource. The people own it; and you can’t sell it without the right permits–which Lake Point failed to acquire. Lindemann told the Tampa Bay Times that Lake Point wasn’t charging for the actual water. The company was merely storing and cleaning it, keeping the water happy till it could go quench the thirsts and wash the bodies of aging boomers and Russian ex-pats flocking to the Treasure Coast. Also, Lake Point was supposed to be creating man-made wetlands to filter and clean the water. But it didn’t. Some at SFWMD didn’t seem to care: ever since Rick Scott became governor in January, 2011, he’d made it clear to the water management districts that they should be business friendly. Very friendly. Out went the scientists and in came the cronies, determined to monetize like hell.

Next thing you know, the Palm Beach Post went and wrote about the water deal. Maggy Hurchhalla took a dim view. She started speaking out against it, and accusing Lake Point of damaging wetlands. She sent emails to the Martin County Commission, expressing her opposition. The water district and Martin County backed out of the deal, so Lake Point sued them, subpoenaing emails between Hurchalla and the county commission. Lake Point sued Hurchalla, too, accusing her of lying about the wetlands and “coaching” at least one commissioner, giving “expert” advice on how to extract themselves from Lake Point and (shades of Hillary Clinton!) deleting some of the emails sent to her. Hurchalla’s crime? “Tortious interference,” or, in human-speak, trying to intentionally and unfairly damage a business–a classic SLAPP suit charge.

The county and the water district settled. Hurchalla refused. Lindemann’s lawyers intimated there was something sinister about Hurchalla’s deleting emails, which is news to all of us private citizens who delete emails, even (perhaps especially) from politicians. Circuit Judge William Roby seemed to have made up his mind before Hurchalla had her say in court. At a meeting he called with her and her lawyer, he opined that she would lose the case and presented her with a draft apology. She could confess her transgressions and promise to never diss Lake Point again. Hurchalla declined. And lost.

She lost because Judge Roby let Lake Point lawyers imply no innocent person would delete emails. And because he instructed the jury that intentional “interference” in a contract, criticizing it, advocating for its demise, whatever, is culpable. This is insane. As Barbara Petersen, President of the First Amendment Foundation, says, “If the judgment against Maggy is allowed to stand, it will have a huge chilling effect on citizens throughout Florida. We want citizens to engage with their government and what this SLAPP judgment says is its okay to engage so long as you don’t criticize, so long as you support rather than oppose development funded by deep pockets.”

Since the ruling against her, it’s been harassment piled on top of harassment, freezing and garnishing her accounts and seizing property–two weather-beaten kayaks and a Toyota with north of 207,000 miles on it, so far. Lake Point’s white shoe lawyers also demanded IRS statements and bank records, which got posted by the Martin County Clerk’s office without redacting her social security number and other personal information. One of these lawyers insisted she reveal the value of her “furs and jewels.” Hurchalla laughs: “I don’t seem to have any furs or jewels.” He then wanted to know if she’d had her wedding band appraised.

“Instead of encouraging civic engagement,” says Peterson, “the Hurchalla case warns us to keep our mouths shut and fingers off the keyboard.” There’s your lesson, Floridians: don’t cross rich people.

Maybe Maggy Hurchhalla hurt his feelings. Lindemann clearly thinks he’s a good guy, a green guy: he donated some land along Soak Creek up in Tennessee and was named the 2017 Tennessee Wildlife Federation’s “Conservationist of the Year,” damn it! Maybe he’s so accustomed to getting his way he simply must wreak disproportionate revenge on anyone who tries to thwart him. He wants to teach Maggy Hurchalla a lesson. But she’s not going away. And she’s not sorry for revealing that George Lindemann isn’t an environmentalist, just another in a long line of plutocrats pimping out Florida. Maggy Hurchalla is more interested in principle than money: “I can’t think of anything better to do when you’re 77 years old,” she says, “Than defend the First Amendment. Can you?”

Diane Roberts is an 8th-generation Floridian, born and bred in Tallahassee, which probably explains her unhealthy fascination with Florida politics. Educated at Florida State University and Oxford University in England, she has been writing for newspapers since 1983, when she began producing columns on the legislature for the Florida Flambeau. Her work has appeared in the New York Times, the Times of London, the Guardian, the Washington Post, the Oxford American, and Flamingo. She has been a member of the Editorial Board of the St. Petersburg Times–back when that was the Tampa Bay Times’s name–and a long-time columnist for the paper in both its iterations. She was a commentator on NPR for 22 years and continues to contribute radio essays and opinion pieces to the BBC. Roberts is also the author of four books, most recently Dream State, an historical memoir of her Florida family, and Tribal: College Football and the Secret Heart of America. She lives in Tallahassee, except for the times she runs off to Great Britain, desperate for a different government to satirize.

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The planet is on fire. America: VOTE ... by gimleteye

Clouds over the California fires, 30,000 feet up. Photo by: Peter Singer

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Rick Scott, Adam Putnam, and Matt Caldwell: Turbulent Waters For Florida's Toxic Trio ... by gimleteye

In the winter of 2016, polluted water from Lake Okeechobee turned from brown to guacamole green, thick with toxic algae carrying cyanobacteria to downstream communities, putting people and businesses in harm's way. In the summer of 2018, it is happening again. Right before midterm elections.

Gov. Rick Scott. Agriculture Commissioner Adam Putnam. State Representative Matt Caldwell. All are seeking to move up the political ladder in November on the Republican side of the slate. Rick Scott is aiming to unseat Bill Nelson, the Democrat incumbent, in the US Senate. Adam Putnam is running to be Florida's next governor. Matt Caldwell, to take Putnam's chair in the state agriculture hierarchy. The ladder is real, and it is constructed carefully by the state's shadow government: Big Sugar.

There are a handful of Big Sugar players, and a much larger circle of influence peddlers, but there are two billionaire families who are the mainstay of the Big Sugar cartel; the descendants of Charles Stuart Mott who own US Sugar Corporation and the Fanjul family, owners of Florida Crystals and a vertically integrated, transnational sugar empire.

Both the Mott descendants and the Fanjuls spend heavily to make rules and regulations work their way while claiming a public benefit: "farming for families to put the food on your table". They never say that sugar is not a food but a substance more addictive than cocaine when consumed in excess. But that is another story.

Big Sugar deeply cares about the political ladder because laws and regulations are a key variable in its profit. Florida's sugar industry uses politics to minimize risk that laws and regulations can lower profits below expectations.

Big Sugar calibrates campaign money, including dark pools allowed after the 2010 Citizens United decision by the US Supreme Court, as carefully as it laser-measures its fields, from seeding to harvest, from back bench to committee leadership. It carefully externalizes its costs on the environment, from sulfur magnifying into methyl mercury to phosphorous and nitrogen runoff to cyanobacteria, from ditches into public waterways, from post crop burning to ash plumes to respiratory illnesses in farming communities where frightened residents are too intimidated to complain.

In 2012 Big Sugar picked Matt Caldwell from the legislative crowd. Caldwell, a state representative from Lehigh Acres -- one of the areas in southwest Florida hit hardest by rampant speculative construction and the mortgage excesses triggering the great recession of 2007/ 2008 -- successfully executed a US Sugar Corporation strategy to unseat a popular county commissioner in Lee County, Ray Judah. Big Sugar t-boned Judah with dark money. Judah was a lone Republican calling for Big Sugar to fairly shoulder the costs of its pollution caused through fertilizer and additives designed to extract the absolute last penny from crop yields. Caldwell was head of a political committee that launched $1 million of dirty ads in the last weeks of the campaign against Judah.

For his success, Caldwell was elevated to Big Sugar's de facto majority whip in the Florida House where, in 2013, he pushed a new law extending to thirty years, Big Sugar's leases on public lands in the Everglades Agricultural Area. That was the same year as a major toxic algae outbreak in the Caloosahatchee River, a key connector between Lake Okeechobee and Florida's tourism-dependent west coast.

At a moment the public clamored to buy more sugar lands for surface water treatment and storage to avoid the mess of downstream toxics waste puking on rivers and private property and small businesses owned by ordinary taxpayers, Caldwell went with Big Sugar. Now he's aiming to replace Adam Putnam who Big Sugar is promoting to Florida governor.

Adam Putnam's family farm was purchased by a state agency - the South Florida Water Management District - at five times the appraised value conducted only a year earlier. The Palm Beach Post reported in 2012: "Adam Putnam — former congressman, current commissioner of    agriculture and widely viewed as the future of Florida politics — became a very rich man in 2005 when taxpayers spent $25.5 million on 2,042 acres of his family’s ranch that had been valued at $5.5 million a year earlier..."

Putnam ferociously opposed the intervention by the federal US Environmental Protection Agency in establishing state-wide nutrient limits. Nutrients being the primary cause of the toxic puke, including vast amounts of legacy pollution when Big Sugar used Lake Okeechobee as its septic tank. Big Sugar has waged a decadal war to boot federal laws from overseeing its pollution. "States rights!"

In the Palm Beach Post, Rick Cerabino noted yesterday, "“Eight years ago, the federal Environmental Protection Agency called for specific numeric limits on pollutants from farmers, municipal wastewater and stormwater utilities operations, and other polluters of state waters. In a letter responding to the EPA, Gov. Scott, Attorney Gen. Pam Bondi, Agriculture Commissioner Adam Putnam and the state’s legislative leaders wrote that Florida couldn’t afford the “onerous regulation” of reducing man-made pollution in its waterways. “We each ran on a platform of fiscal responsibility and hear from numerous constituents about concerns of an overbearing federal government that’s placing burdensome regulations on Florida’s families and employers,” the letter said.“

And Rick Scott. Scott came to Tallahassee in 2010 without any prior experience in government.

Scott became extraordinarily wealthy through expertise navigating the edges Medicare reimbursement practices. The company he founded, Columbia/ HCA, was hit with the largest Medicare fraud fine ever in 1997. Scott left the company four months after the federal investigation began, but paid no political price for whistling past the HCA graveyard. Which is why, he believes, he can do it again with the toxic mess he substantially helped create.

Once in Tallahassee Scott immediately sought to build a political infrastructure. Among those offering a helping hand; the special interest with institutional experience and memory longer than most who served in the legislature: Big Sugar.

One of Scott's commitments, straight out of the box: terminate a deal consummated by his predecessor, Charlie Crist, to purchase ALL the lands of US Sugar Corporation in the Everglades Agricultural Area. Originally, about 187,000 acres. Because the EAA is highly compartmentalized by ownership (and by design), the US Sugar lands would not of themselves have solved the problem of wetlands treatment marshes on the scale necessary to fix the toxic algae problems. But in aggregate, the lands if they had been purchased by taxpayers even at the enormous costs -- would have been a massive lever to rearrange the Everglades Agricultural Area for the purpose of encouraging a sustainable economic future based on public health instead of sugar cane production.

Conservation groups, enormously frustrated by the failure of the state to complete the US Sugar purchase -- its critics said, "we don't have the money" -- proceeded to mount a statewide ballot referendum to secure that money and more, around $1 billion per year. In 2014 Amendment 1 passed the threshold of more than 60% voter approval. "The 2014 amendment... was approved by 75 percent of voters, sends 33 percent of revenues from a tax on real-estate documentary stamps to the Land Acquisition Trust Fund." Then Gov. Rick Scott proceeded, with the Republican leadership, to thwart the will of the people by refusing to allocate the money for its stated purposes. (Environmental groups sued in state court and won, four years after the referendum was passed.)

The net effect: rather than pursuing a course that more than 200 qualified scientists believe is necessary -- addition of significant acres of land for water treatment and cleansing marshes -- Scott paved the way towards a 2017 fix that is really a Big Sugar Trojan Horse; a $2 billion "Everglades" reservoir that won't be complete for at least a decade and will likely trigger violations of existing water quality law, imposed on the state by a federal consent agreement after more than a decade of litigation in the 1990's.

In other words, Scott killed the real chance to protect Florida's waters, rivers, bays and Everglades and substituted with one that serves Big Sugar's interests. In another early act as governor, Scott gutted the science budget of the South Florida Water Management District. In doing so, he neutered the state capacity to investigate, explain and show the science of pollution of state waters and the linkages between toxics in farming and cities and the Everglades. In effect, Scott made it so that the public couldn't get good information from qualified scientists because he fired them -- most of them. Then he stacked the governing board of the water districts -- his right under state law -- with Sugar-friendly advocates, some of whom delighted in denigrating critics.

According to a recent report, "During the seven years under Governor Rick Scott, environmental enforcement has hit a modern nadir, with 2017 registering some of the most anemic results on record, according to a new analysis released today by Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER). The upshot is that not only is Florida’s environment bearing a greater pollution load, but also its Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) is losing revenue as well as its capacity to monitor--let alone deter--eco-offenses. Apart from the 2017 results in isolation, the Scott record shows a deep, across-the-board nosedive in Number of Cases in virtually every enforcement category."

Big Sugar wants to elevate Rick Scott to the US Senate. There is only one risk to its plans for the Toxic Trio -- Scott, Putnam and Caldwell -- that Big Sugar can't control: the weather.

And it is the weather, once again, that threatens to force Big Sugar to rebuild its political ladder. Not yet. But maybe. The summer of 2018 is shaping up to be a complete disaster for coastal communities bearing the brunt of highly toxic algae out of Lake Okeechobee.

The US Army Corps of Engineers held a public hearing on the toxic algae outbreak while scarcely a hundred feet away a dying manatee clung to one already dead. July 30, 2018 

Yesterday, the US Army Corps of Engineers -- the federal partner in charge of the canal infrastructure investment that is built around relieving Lake O water levels when there is too much rain -- held a meeting in Cape Coral, Florida. Only a few hundred feet away, a dying manatee clung to the corpse of another; killed by cyanobacteria in the red tide.

The Toxic Trio have nothing to say, because everything they have done as elected officials has set in concrete the measures needed to keep science and disclosure of fact at bay. They have closed off options that could save public health, Florida's waters, and a tourism-based economy in favor of sugar industry profits. They don't want the public to know any more than Big Sugar thinks the public needs to know.

Go anywhere near cyanobacteria mixed in with red tide, you are at risk of serious neurological disease including links to later-development of Alzheimer's. But Florida won't do the science and won't disclose the data and won't clearly outline the steps necessary to protect public health, because Big Sugar doesn't make money that way. Big Sugar deploys phalanxes of lobbyists, downtown lawyers, and for-hire media professionals so it can continue to extract the last penny from its crop, grown on nearly 400,000 acres, never mind the MILLIONS of Floridians, their families, guests and visitors who put tens of billions into the state economy. Oh, they say, "We are doing MORE than our fair share. We reducing phosphorous hugely!"

Rick Scott talks about "jobs". Adam Putnam talks about "jobs". Matt Caldwell talks about "jobs". But they didn't see the weather coming.

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Juliana v US, the federal lawsuit Trump and the GOP despise, just jumped another major hurdle ... by gimleteye

In other news, global heatwave continues to smash records:

- Tbilisi: 41°C

- Baku: 43°C

- Yerevan: 42°C

- Iran: 53°C

- Montreal: 37°C

- Ottawa: 47°C

- Denver: 40°C

- Los Angeles: 44°C (111°F) and all of Southern Ca

- Scotland: 33.2°C

It’s a hot new world and getting hotter. Republicans fiddle while the planet is burning. (If you think — as some Republicans do — that we “can’t afford” to address climate change or that government intervention is “unconstitutional”, just wait until the planet is 10% hotter or more, than it is today.)

For Immediate Release:
July 30, 2018
Contacts:
Philip Gregory, 650-278-2957, ​pgregory@gregorylawgroup.com

To set up interviews with youth plaintiffs, contact: Meg Ward, 503-341-8590, ​meg@ourchildrenstrust.org

U.S. Supreme Court Rules in Favor of Youth Plaintiffs, Allows ​Juliana v. United States ​to Proceed to Trial

Washington, D.C. -- Today, the U.S. Supreme Court unanimously ruled in favor of the 21 youth plaintiffs in ​Juliana v. United States,​ the constitutional climate lawsuit filed against the federal government. The Court denied the Trump administration’s application for stay, preserving the U.S. District Court’s trial start date of October 29, 2018. The Court also denied the government’s “premature” request to review the case before the district court hears all of the facts that support the youth’s claims at trial. The Supreme Court’s decision follows the July 20 decision from the U.S. Court of Appeals, also in favor of the youth, denying the government’s highly unusual second petition for writ of mandamus.

The Court ​stated​: “The breadth of [the youth’s] claims is striking” and ordered the District Court to take the federal government’s “concerns into account in assessing the burdens of discovery and trial, as well as the desirability of a prompt ruling on the Government’s pending dispositive motions.” On July 18, 2018, the District Court expressed its intent to issue a ruling on the government’s motions promptly.

Julia Olson​, ​executive director and chief legal counsel of ​Our Children’s Trust​ and co-counsel for youth plaintiffs said:

“​This decision should give young people courage and hope that their third branch of government, all the way up to the Supreme Court, has given them the green light to go to trial in this critical case about their unalienable rights. We look forward to presenting the scientific evidence of the harms and dangers these children face as a result of the actions their government has taken to cause the climate crisis.”

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How did the end of the world become “old news” NY Mag

NOTE: Wake up, voters. It is time to turn the tables on our national response to climate change. Our house — the one we share — is on fire as David Wallace-Wells notes in NY Mag.

Republicans, contrary to your interests, are more intent on locking down their prerogatives and privileges than they are in solving the problem of what to do when none of those prerogatives and privileges can be protected because the planet that sustains us, starts crumbling.

The Republican Electeds and their funders know. They know that crop cycle failures can happen on a massive scale, and they don’t have any answer or prescriptions as the likelihood sharply rises just based on common sense observations like David Wallace-Wells’.

Principled conservatives have a choice: vote DEM this November. It is time to re-plant the yard.


How did the end of the world become old news?
David Wallace-Wells
http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/amp/2018/07/climate-change-wildfires-heatwave-media-old-news-end-of-the-world.html?__twitter_impression=true

The fire this time (in Sweden). Photo: Mats Andersson/AFP/Getty Images
There has been a lot of burning lately. Last week, wildfires broke out in the Arctic Circle, where temperatures reached almost 90 degrees; they are still roiling northern Sweden, 21 of them. And this week, wildfires swept through the Greek seaside, outside Athens, killing at least 80 and hospitalizing almost 200. At one resort, dozens of guests tried to escape the flames by descending a narrow stone staircase into the Aegean, only to be engulfed along the way, dying literally in each other’s arms.

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Bullsugar primary candidate questionnaire and endorsements ... by gimleteye

The advocacy group Bullsugar has tapped into public focus on the massive pollution of Florida's rivers, bays, estuaries and Everglades as a result of mismanagement of the state's water infrastructure, primarily to benefit Big Sugar.

Repetitive toxic algae blooms are triggering enormous damage to the state's prestige, to its tourism-related and fishing industries and to public health. Cyanobacteria is linked to severe health risks including neurological disease like Alzheimer's. USA Today reports: "Eighty-six percent of Floridians are concerned about the toxic algae blooms plaguing the state’s east and west coasts, according to a university poll released Wednesday. Among the 800 registered voters polled July 20-21, 53 percent said they are "very concerned" and 33 percent said they are "somewhat concerned," the Florida Atlantic University Business and Economics Polling Initiative said in a news release."

Bullsugar's endorsements come as primary season approaches. Notably, for the Democratic primary in the governor's race, Bullsugar favors four out of five candidates who affirmatively responded to the Bullsugar questionnaire.

Candidates were asked to respond to five questions including one on Big Sugar money campaign contributions.

Bullsugar favors Congressman Ron DeSantis in the Republican primary for governor. In the polls, DeSantis leads a well-funded (Sugar) campaign of Ag. Secretary Adam Putnam.

In the non-partisan District 8 county commission race, Bullsugar endorsed Daniella Levine Cava.

On the Democratic side, in Miami-Dade County, Bullsugar endorsed:

Debbie Mucarsel-Powell in Congressional District 26
Matt Haggman in Congressional District 27
Julian Santos, Florida Senate District 36
Jason Pizzo, Florida Senate District 38
Ross Hancock, Florida House District 105
Joseph Dotie, Florida House District 108
Ryan Torrens, Attorney General
David Walker, Agriculture Commissioner

For the Republican primary:
Denise Grimsely, Agriculture Commissioner
Michael Ohevzion, Congressional District 27
Ronda Rebman-Lopez, Florida House District 115

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Blunders by the Toxic Trio: Rick Scott, Adam Putnam, and Matt Caldwell created this Florida water crisis ... by gimleteye

Inconveniently for Florida's Toxic Trio: Rick Scott -- running for the US Senate against incumbent Bill Nelson, for Adam Putnam -- the Ag Secretary running to succeed Scott as governor, and for Caldwell -- a state representative aiming for Putnam's job as Ag Secretary -- Florida's weather is conspiring against claims they deserve your vote. They don't.

The immediate crisis -- far from the first -- is the reappearance of highly toxic cyanobacteria in algae blooming in the diseased heart of Florida: Lake Okeechobee. Both Florida's rivers -- the St. Lucie and the Caloosahatchee -- carry water out of the lake towards a million residents and tourism businesses on the east and west coast of the southern half of the state. It happened in 2013 then again in 2016 and now.

The water has to go somewhere, when rain levels cause the lake to rise, and the US Army Corps of Engineers and the South Florida Water Management District release those billions of gallons of toxic water downstream. The water could be treated and cleansed if it was allowed to filter through wetlands sufficient in space and volume, south of the Lake. Those lands belong to some of the wealthiest welfare recipients in the US Farm program: Big Sugar. And every year Big Sugar takes its winnings from the electeds and spends millions to ensure that the state legislature, executive mansion, Congress and even the presidency is locked and loaded to shoot down any serious effort to share the adversity caused by Florida's manufactured water crisis.

Florida Gov. Scott, Ag. Secretary Putnam and legislators like Matt Caldwell had the answer in the palm of their hands, and they let it slip away. Now they want your vote.

Taxpayers could be on the road to salvation, but the toxic trio closed the road and built an exit ramp to more wastefulness and more environmental harm and more threats to public health and safety. They did this is three ways.

First, Scott and his co-conspirators killed the deal to buy US Sugar lands because it was opposed by its sometimes competitor, the Florida Crystals/Fanjul family empire. Second, Caldwell, Putnam and Scott created a new law that extended lease terms without competitive bidding on at least 23,000 acres of public lands to sugar farmers. Those lands could have been deployed to cleansing the cyanobacteria-laced waters, but the toxic trio bent to Big Sugar's will. Third, the toxic trio endorsed a new law that prohibits the state from eminent domain in the Everglades Agricultural Area while, at the same time, funds a multi-billion dollar reservoir that even the US Army Corps of Engineers doubts will work or be cost effective.

The bottom line is that billions of taxpayer dollars and years of civic efforts have been squandered while governmental processes slowly grind toward common sense: more water storage lands in the Everglades Agricultural Area. From the Now Or Neverglades Movement to the nation's premier science review agency, the National Academies of Sciences, the eventual solution to taxpayer and property owners woes is clear: buy the land that is necessary to fix Florida's water crisis.

Anyone paying attention knows that Big Sugar is at the heart of Florida's water crisis. The industry excels at muddying the waters, pointing fingers in every direction, but cyanobacteria doesn't lie. It is lifted into air we breathe and is linked to severe and incurable neurological diseases like Alzheimer's.

Remember the Toxic Trio when you go to the polls in November: Scott, Putnam and Caldwell do not deserve your votes.


The next step is simple: Fund Everglades restoration
BY DON JODREY
donjodrey2@gmail.com
July 23, 2018 06:30 PM
Finally, on July 25, after 18 months of silence, the South Florida Ecosystem Restoration Task Force is scheduled to convene in Washington, D.C., to discuss next steps for Everglades restoration. As Floridians know, the intergovernmental restoration effort is the world’s largest infrastructure project that will, when complete, bring economic and environmental benefits for a vast region that ranks 13th in the nation in population and economic output.

The congressionally chartered Task Force, co-chaired by Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke and the state of Florida, fosters the necessary collaboration needed to line up funding, engineering capability and science to get restoration done. The Task Force meeting could not come at a more important time. Several issues require immediate attention.

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Does Stephen Cody Play Fair? By Geniusofdespair

Stephen Cody has an ethics complaint against South Miami Mayor Philip Stoddard.

Stephen Cody was hired by someone when we were examining ballots for the Lynda Bell/Gene Flinn election -- I was there and he was watching us. As I watched him looking over our shoulders, I thought "scum." After he had his license suspended as a lawyer by the Supreme Court, I made peace with Natacha Seijas's lawyer/friend Stephen Cody - even friending him on Facebook when he posted cute pictures of his granddaughter Olivia.  Those days are long over.

Cody doesn't play fair. He can be vindictive. He ain't no friend of mine.  I unfriended him in February, when he was attacking Phil Stoddard. He had Valerie Newman do a robocall for his PAC. Everyone knows that Valerie is a known enemy of Stoddard  and has been accused of questionable activity in that regard.

My last words to Cody as I unfriended him:

I doubt you care as much about feminism as you do at helping your pals at FPL.

 I really think that Cody,  in a corner of his clouded brain,  thinks he is being a good guy, but I am apt to believe he is just a hired gun. He has used this tactic before, in Miami Lakes for instance. I just do not like someone who plays by his murky rules and I don't like anyone lecturing me on what kind of a Me-Too survivor I should be. Sorry Steve, ethics rules are not in effect. No response needed by you. And since when does Ethics do anything anyway? This case is a no winner for them. The Mayor asked Council. That should have ended it. And, does Steve Cody have standing if he is not a lobbyist?

Did this make Stephen Cody a bottom feeder?

You are a bully still, trying to explain it away as you hide your supporters behind a 501-C4's.  I wrote this in 2012 about him:

The big question always comes down to: Who is paying Stephen Cody? He doesn't appear to do work when he isn't paid. He charged Natacha Seijas and her PAC's a small fortune over the years. He has had a shadow client before like he has in Miami Lakes. He tried to get Eugene Flinn thrown out of the District 8 County Commission race. Who paid him for that? No one knows.

We have an example of the importance that Cody puts on getting paid in a recent (4/13/2011) Florida Bar "Admonishment" where he was fined about $2,000 for minor misconduct. In the complaint, even though he had a $5,000 retainer, he did not answer calls from his client so she stopped paying 2 installments due. In return, he says for NON-PAYMENT, Cody then failed to send his client correspondence advising his client of the status of the appeal. In Cody's signed admission he stated:

"Respondent (him)  failed  to  send  written  correspondence  to Vazquez advising her of the status of the appeal and/or his failure to file the appeal due to her nonpayment."

 So why is Stephen Cody in Miami Lakes snapping photos and passing out 15 pages of stuff, most of it dismissed ethics complaints (deemed frivolous), at a meeting in Miami Lakes?  Kevin Morejon, a 20 year resident said he wanted to know.

Kevin said he went to the meeting held by Mayor Pizzi with 75  to 100 of his neighbors.

Pizzi was having the Town Meeting at the Royal Oaks Park Community Center  on January 17th at 7:00 pm. The topics were public safety, park and lake issues for homeowners in Miami Lakes. The town of Miami Lakes is a very long way from Cody's Palmetto Bay office. When people arrived, they were confronted by Stephen Cody, and some workers he brought with him, according to Kevin Morejon. He said Cody and his crew confronted everyone going into the meeting and passed out a  bunch of pages with an unflattering photo of Mayor Pizzi stapled on the front.  According to Pizzi the content of the pages were an old ethics report of false allegations against him. He said the multiple page flyer cut off the portion of the report that said that these were allegations from years ago and that they were all dismissed.

Morejon said that he didn't know who the group were crashing the meeting, until he heard an employee call the man in the blue shirt Mr. Cody. He said they were disturbing the residents and they were unprofessional. Morejon said "I thought it was wrong that they gave under-age kids the stapled papers.  Mr. Cody was taking numerous photographs too. I thought he was a photographer at first. My guess is he took 25 to 30 snapshots. It was very disruptive." Apparently for a time he was blocking the view of  Mayor Pizzi as he was talking, filming or snapping photos.

Morejon said, after I revealed Cody was an attorney: "Now you tell me he is an attorney. If he is a lawyer, I am surprised he was doing that.  Some residents left because they were scared." Then I said to Kevin: "What would you think if I told you that he was Natacha Seijas' lawyer?"  He said: "I would freak out. Why would she stoop to his level if she sent him? She might as well have been there herself giving out the papers." He said a lot of people ripped up the papers in front of Cody.

I also spoke to Mary Collins, of Miami Lakes who, like Morejon, wanted to know why Cody was in Miami Lakes. She said, "Why is Cody so interested in Miami Lakes he doesn't even live here?" Good question. If I had, to guess, this is who I think is paying Cody.  I told Mary that he was once Natacha Seijas's attorney. She said: "I didn't realize he was her lawyer but I did not sign that recall petition."

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How dirty is Miami real estate? A LOT DIRTIER than you think ... by gimleteye

It is time for reflection, after a long run as a Miami-Dade taxpayer. When I moved from the Keys to Miami in 1992, I embraced the challenge of calling attention to the importance of preserving open space and farmland as a buffer between the intensely developed areas of Florida’s most populous county and the fragile beauty of the Everglades. Previously, I spent nearly four years as an advocate for Monroe County marine resource issues and had become involved for the first time in my life in local county politics, part of a successful effort to run out of office a majority who had proudly called themselves, “The Concrete Coalition”.

In Miami-Dade I discovered two planning tools critical to protecting the downstream economy and environment in the Keys; 1) the Urban Development Boundary embraced by the county but under constant pressure by developers and the supply chain of special interests and 2) state law mandating comprehensive land use plans by every one of Florida’s counties.

“All growth is good” propelled Miami into the 20th century, but by the end of the century it was evident that a new model needed adjustments. These two planning tools were intended as a rationale framework to bring together competing interests. The problem, of course, is that the competition between civic values and private property owners is not fair. One of the ways failure manifests is through the unregulated influence of corporate law that encourages property owners and speculators to hide their identity through invisibility shields like limited liability corporations.

Every issue of concern to Miami Dade taxpayers — traffic congestion, overburdened schools, fire and police protection — manifests through county politics. And as we know, too well, county politics are extraordinarily influenced by deep pocketed donors who now, thanks to the Citizens United decision by the Bush Supreme Court, give unlimited amounts of money to support causes and candidates.

Today, there is attention on the decision by Mayor Gimenez and the majority of the county commission to support the extension of a major state highway, SR 836, into the southwest corner of Miami-Dade; exactly the geographic area that absorbed my interest after moving to Miami two and a half decades ago. It is as true today as it was then: it is impossible to know who one is negotiating with, when one’s opponent can shield his or her identity through a limited liability corporation, or, LLC.

Eye On Miami is virtually the only space in the media universe where this and related issues have been investigated.

We have mapped to the extent possible, with freely donated time and energy, the LLC’s behind the push that absorbs so much of the elected officials' attention. Sometimes the identities are well known — lobbyists, for instance, who are required to identify themselves. But those are just the tips of the icebergs.

A very small group of land speculators, who are extraordinarily wealthy through the growth of suburban sprawl, dominate the outcomes that put such huge costs on the backs of taxpayers. They’ve figured out the playbook to persuade voters that their cause is noble: ie. “jobs” and that opponents are “elitists”and worse.

If voters knew their names and could make the linkages, it would be a start to a level playing field. At least, then, there would be some “sunshine” to illuminate a path for voters. That’s why, in 2016, I was so excited to learn about an Obama Treasury Department initiative to require the disclosure of LLC ownership in property transactions, as a test case in a few areas of the nation. Miami-Dade was an obvious place to start. I wrote at the time, this was “the best story of 2016”. Attention was being paid.

The Herald's recent report, "How dirty is Miami real estate? Secret home deals dried up when feds started watching", is a book-end to the federal effort to find out who is behind the biggest land deals in South Florida. It turns out that as soon as the speculators found out the feds were watching, they stopped using LLC's..

LLC transactions declined by 95% during the study period. The breathtaking number answers the question, “How dirty is Miami real estate?” The answer: Very.

The land flippers and speculators who stand to benefit from Mayor Gimenez’ SR 836 jihad don’t want to be identified, but we know they exert profound influence.

The take-away is as true today as it was those long years ago: VOTE. If you care about Miami-Dade, your taxes, and your quality of life; vote for candidates who aren’t stuck on the suburban sprawl merry-go-round because they are tethered to campaign cash from special interests whose identities are shielded by corporate law.

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Miami Dolphins Kneel ... by gimleteye

I don’t care about the culture of the NFL. I DO care about free speech in America.

I don’t care about Donald Trump. I DO care that his presidency is a dog whistle to racism and Alt R extremism and that he is eroding fundamental American values.

I don’t care about billionaire NFL team owners. I do care that racial discrimination tears at our social fabric, bearing most heavily on young African American men.

I don’t care that NFL players have chosen to protest by taking a knee. I DO care that freedom of speech is protected.

In November: VOTE. 

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Disgusted With Donald Trump: Do This

OPED: Disgusted With Donald Trump, Do This
Frank Bruni, New York Times

We got it wrong in 2016. We can get it right in 2018. There’s a far side to this American disgrace, a way to contain the damage, and it’s both utterly straightforward and entirely effective.

It’s called voting. And from now until Nov. 6, we must stay fanatically focused on that — on registering voters, turning them out, directing money to the right candidates, donating time in the right places.

The moral of the Helsinki freak show, the NATO tragicomedy and the children in cages near the border isn’t just that Donald Trump lacks any discernible conscience, real regard for this country or mature appreciation of history and our exalted part in it. It’s that this next election matters — immeasurably.

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The Great Congressional Debate Last Night: Big Loser David Richardson. By Geniusofdespair

Miami Dade County Democratic Party Head - Juan Cuba introduces the Candidates

The Candidates for District 27 of the US Congress: Matt Haggman, Michael Hepburn, David Ricardson, Kristen Rosen Gonzalez and Donna Shalala. Michael Putney was the moderator.

David Richardson annoyed the hell out of me when Kristen Rosen Gonzalez questioned him about his getting Big Sugar donations. He didn't address them he just turned it into an attack and said the pollution to Lake Okeechobee was coming from North of the Lake and that is where we needed remediation. He told Kristen she should get her facts straight.  No sugar related pollution David? Oh, well he can't win anyway.

The rest of it, put me to sleep. They agreed on a lot. Free College Tuition? Come on. Get realistic, how about affordable loans. Democrats can be so fanciful with our tax dollars. That is what gets them into trouble. I never saw Michael Hepburn speak before. He was impressive.

I still hold a grudge against Donna Shalala over the Pine Rockland sale when she was head of U of M. I assume she will win. Anyway, the St. Stephens Episcopal Church in Coconut Grove was packed and hot as hell. I left pretty early.

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Fossil fuel companies spent billions to block climate change adaptation ... by gimleteye

Is anyone surprised fossil fuel companies spent billions to block climate change adaptation? Moreover, one political party — the GOP — now reinforces America’s status as a pariah among the world’s nations attempting to deal with humanity's biggest challenge.

Legislation to address climate change has repeatedly died in Congress. But a major new study says the policy deaths were not from natural causes — they were caused by humans, just like climate change itself is.

Climate action has been repeatedly drowned by a devastating surge and flood of money from the fossil fuel industry — nearly $2 billion in lobbying since 2000 alone.

Trump, first and foremost among the denialists. It is literally as though one political party is in the midst of a group psychosis.

Meanwhile, the Arctic is on fire. What do Republicans think: that next year, soaring temperatures will GO DOWN?

No. Temperatures are on a rising curve, and the time we have lost to billionaires and their partners in the fossil fuel supply chain, including the Federalist Society, could be recorded as the start of the darkest chapter in mankind’s history. Is change in the air?

Have we hit rock bottom as a nation and superpower? We will know better, after the November elections.

https://www.wunderground.com/

Hot Times for Reindeer: All-Time Records Melt in Lapland

Bob Henson  ·July 18, 2018, 12:33 PM EDT

Temperatures soared into the nineties Fahrenheit north of the Arctic Circle on Tuesday and Wednesday, as 2018’s parade of exceptional heat continued marching across the Northern Hemisphere. This week has been northern Scandinavia’s turn under the sizzling klieg lights, including Lapland (Sápmi), the region of northern Scandinavia famed for its reindeer and often associated with Christmas. In contrast to that wintry reputation, Sweden is now grappling with an onslaught of wildfires unprecedented in modern times, as reported by weather.com.

Here’s a sampling of the preliminary all-time highs set in Scandinavia on Tuesday.

FINLAND
Kilpisjärvi:  28.3°C (82.5°F)
Kittila Pokka: 30.2°C (86.4°F) 
Salla: 31.5 (88.7°F)
Sodankylä: 31.8°C (89.2°F)
Rovaniemi (capital of the Finnish province of Lapland):  32.2°C (90.0°F)

NORWAY
Sihcajavri: 29.2°C (84.6°F)
Namsskogan: 32.6°C (90.7°F)
Mo I Rana: 32.6°C (90.7°F)

SWEDEN
Katterjak Airport: 28.3°C (82.5°F)
Kvikkjokk: 32.5°C (90.5°F)

Located at an altitude of 1100 meters (3500 feet), Finland's Tarfala Research Station is the coldest long-term reporting site in Lapland, according to weather records expert Maximiliano Herrera. The station hit 23.1°C (73.6°F) on Tuesday, smashing the all-time record of 21.4°C (70.5°F). The overnight low Monday night at Tarfala was a strikingly mild 13.3°C (55.6°F).

More records were smashed on Wednesday, including 33.4°C (92.1°F) at Kevo, Finland—the hottest temperature in reliable records for all of the province of Lapland in Finland, according to Herrera. Other all-time highs in the preliminary list for Wednesday:

FINLAND

Muonio: 30.8°C (87.4°F)

Kittila Pokka: 31.8°C (89.2°F)

Savukoski: 31.9°C (89.4°F)

Sondakyla: 32.1°C (89.8°F)

Rovaniemi:  32.2°C (90.0°F), tying the all-time high set on Tuesday

Inari: 32.6°C (90.7°F)

NORWAY

Svolvaer: 29.7°C (85.5°F)

Leknes: 29.9°C (85.8°F)

Kautokeino: 30.0°C (86.0°F)

Sandnessjoen: 30.2°C (86.4°F)
Bodo:  30.4°C (86.7°F)

Stokmarknes: 31.6°C (88.9°F)
Evenes: 32.2°C (90.0°F)
Alta: 33.0°C (91.4°F)
Bardufoss: 33.5°C (92.3°F)

SWEDEN

Katterjak Airport: 29.3°C (84.7°F)

In addition, Sweden's northernmost weather station, Naimakka (latitude 68.683°N), hit 29.5°C (85.1°F) on Wednesday, breaking its all-time record high of 29.4°C set on July 17, 1945. 

A tropical night in the mountains of Lapland

At the Makkaur, Norway lighthouse, located at 70.7°N--hundreds of miles inside the Arctic Circle--the temperature did not drop below 25.2°C (77.4°F) the night of July 18 - 19. According to Herrera and weather records expert Jérôme Reynaud, this destroyed the world record of highest minimum temperature for the Arctic, and is the all-time third highest minimum temperature recorded anywhere in Scandinavia. It is also the highest minimum temperature ever recorded in northern Norway (previous record for northern Norway: 24.7 °C on July 1, 1972 at Grøtøy), and for northern Scandinavia as a whole. Several other stations in Norway also set unfathomable minimum temperature marks on Thursday morning, including 20.5°C (68.9°F) at Lyngen Gjerdvassbu, Norway at 69.55°N at an elevation of 710m (1583 feet).

The insanely warm minimum temperatures are being made possible by ridiculously warm ocean temperatures in the Baltic Sea, which were more than 8°C (14°F) above average on July 18, in the northern Gulf of Bothnia between Finland and Sweden.

Here are the top three all-time warm-minimum temperatures on record in Scandinavia:

25.8°C (78.4°F), Alstadhaug, Norway, 5 July 1937, at a latitude of 63.7°N.
25.5 °C (77.9°F), Halden-Langbryggen, Norway, 9 July 1933.
25.2°C (77.4°F), Makkaur, Norway, 19 July, 2018

And these are the all-time warm minimum records by nation:

Norway highest minimum: 25.8°C, Alstadhaug, 5 July 1937
Sweden highest minimum:  23.7°C, Kullen, 10 August 1975
Finland highest minimum: 24.2°C, Kotka-Haapasaari, 1 August 2003

Has it ever hit 100°F in the Arctic?

The hottest location in the Scandinavian Arctic on Tuesday, according to Michael Theusner (Klimahaus), was Kevo (latitude 69.75°N), with a high of 32.7°F (91.0°F). If you’re wondering whether any place in or very near the Arctic has ever broken 100°F, the answer is yes—but just barely. Back on July 23, 2010, the community of Ust Moma, Russia (latitude 66.27°N, or about eight miles south of the Arctic Circle), got up to 37.8°C (100.04°F), according to weather records expert Maximiliano Herrera. That’s the warmest reliable temperature on record at or north of that latitude, he says, although there’s an equal reading of questionable veracity in the books from Prospect Creek, Alaska, on June 27, 1915. The highest reliable reading north of latitude 67°N appears to be 37.3°C (99.1°F) at Verkhoyansk, Russia (67°33'N), on July 25, 1988.

The heat across Scandinavia is being driven by a large, strong upper-level high parked over the region. The persistent high pressure has also fed unusually warm, dry conditions across the British Islands, where several all-time heat records were broken just a few days ago (see last week’s roundupfrom WU weather historian Chris Burt). Parts of southern England have gone more than a month without a drop of measurable rain, noted the Guardian, which also pointed out that the same type of upper-level blocking pattern can produce bitter cold across the region in winter. As this upper high builds westward, and a zone of warm maritime air approaches from the Atlantic, London could see a solid week of highs topping 80°F from Thursdayonward.

After a less hot interlude over the last couple of days, forecast models are suggesting temperatures creeping up again into next week, along with increasing humidity

— Met Office (@metoffice) 9:20 AM - Jul 18, 2018

 

Heat wave rolls onward in East Asia

Extreme heat has gripped parts of East Asia, including Japan and Korea, since last weekend, with several more days of intense heat on tap. The heat wave is being blamed for at least 14 heat-related deaths and thousands of heat-stroke hospitalizations. On Thursday, July 19, Kyoto tied its all-time high temperature for any month, 39.8°C (103.6°F), previously set on July 8, 1994. Kyoto has also beaten its previous all-time high for July (38.3°C/101.0°F from July 26, 2014) on five of the past six days:

38.5°C (101.3°F) on Saturday, July 14
38.7°C (101.7°F) on Sunday, July 15
38.5°C (101.3°F) on Monday, July 16
39.1°C (102.4°F) on Sunday, July 18
39.8°C (103.6°F) on Thursday, July 19

Weather records in Kyoto extend back to 1881.

A number of all-time records set on Monday, July 16, in Japan, although most of the stations have periods of record dating back only to 1976.

Okunikko (Tochigi prefecture): 30.4°C (86.7°F), previous record 30.2C on July 16, 1946 (data since 1944)
Ikari (Tochigi prefecture):  33.9°C (93.0°F), previous record 33.6C on August 7, 1994 (data since 1977)
Otawara (Tochigi prefecture): 37.1°C (98.8°F), previous record 36.8C on August 6, 2015 (data since 1976)
Ikuno (Hyogo prefecture): 37.5°C (99.5°F), previous record 37.4C on August 8, 1994 (data since 1978)
Miyoshi (Hiroshima prefecture): 37.9°C (100.2°F), previous record 37.4C on the day before and 37.2C on August 2, 2001 (data since 1978)
Akana (Shimane prefecture): 35.1°C (95.2°F), previous record 35.0C on August 6, 1994 (data since 1978)

Rocky Mountain highs: Record-breaking strings of hot days

Parts of Colorado have seen an unprecented number of days hitting at least 90°F for the year to date. Up through Monday, July 16, Denver reported 33 days in the 90s, which beats the old year-to-date record of 31 such days, set in 2012. Denver’s weather records go all the way back to 1872. In Pueblo, where records go back to 1888, a total of 49 days have hit the 90°F mark so far, compared to the previous year-to-date record of 42, set in 1974. We have a long way to go before Pueblo could reach the full-year record total of 90 days hitting at least 90°F, which was set in 2000. However, the city is predicted to reach 90°F every day for at least the next week, and some of Pueblo’s hottest weather can occur in August, after the peak of the midsummer monsoon.

Even the state of Texas—where summer temperatures often climb above 100°F—is feeling the heat. Readings in the Dallas-Fort Worth area hit 104°F on Tuesday and 106°F on Wednesday. The DFW metroplex could reach or exceed 105°F each day into early next week, along with low temperatures possibly failing to dip below 80°F. The longest streak of highs on record of at least 105°F in Dallas-Fort Worth occurred during the infamous heat wave of 1980. That year produced 11 consecutive days of 105°F heat—from July 8 to 18—and an incredible 28 days across the summer as a whole. The forecast calls for the heat wave to peak on Friday, with a high temperature of 109°F. There has been only one July day since 1980 to record a temperature that warm in the city—a 110°F reading on July 12, 1998.

Waco, Texas recorded a high temperature of 108°F on Wednesday. This breaks the previous daily record of 106°F set in both 2006 and 1925, and is the hottest temperature recorded in Waco since August 28, 2011 (109°F).

Thanks to Maximilliano Herrera, Etienne Kapikian, Jerome Reynaud, Michael Theusner and Jeff Masters for contributing data to this post.

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The GOP yard needs to be bulldozed and re-sodded ... by gimleteye

The GOP has stopped, blocked and inhibited at every turn any effort to use state or federal regulation to protect water quality in Florida. Elected Republicans use specious arguments like "federal overreach" and when it is time to loosen state laws, they do things like exchange hard numerical standards for "narrative" ones.

Well it turns out those narrative standards are utterly failing at protecting public health and the environment. Public health, as in severe and permanent neurological diseases.

In DC, the GOP is determined to gut the federal protections of the Clean Water Act.

To get really sick -- perhaps not today but down the road -- you don't have to TOUCH cyanobacteria. All you have to do is BREATHE.

So don't "hold your breath" and vote for Republicans this November. Principled conservatives need to keep saying it like George Will and Bill Kristol have: VOTE DEM.

The GOP yard needs to be bulldozed and re-sodded. Only voters can do that.

https://www.tcpalm.com/story/news/local/indian-river-lagoon/health/2018/07/18/blue-green-algae-101-what-your-ought-know/792429002/

Toxic blue-green algae is really cyanobacteria, plus other facts about blooms, microcystin

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Tyler Treadway  |  Treasure Coast Newspapers Updated 17 hours ago

Video: Blue-green algae through the years

The problem dates back to 1923. DACIA JOHNSON/TREASURE COAST NEWSPAPERS

Wochit

Algae blooms from different sources are popping up throughout the Treasure Coast.

The green slime is polluting the St. Lucie River in Martin and St. Lucie counties and Blue Cypress Lake in Indian River County.

Here are some things you should, but may not, know about it:

It's not really algae

Blue-green algae is actually cyanobacteria, naturally occurring microscopic bacteria that, like plants, use photosynthesis to produce food from nutrients and sunlight.

A combination of things can cause normal levels of blue-green algae to explode into a full-tilt bloom: high levels of nitrogen and phosphorus from fertilizer runoff and septic tank leakage; long, hot days; and low salinity. 

The normally salty St. Lucie River estuary is susceptible to algae blooms only when there are high freshwater inflows from canals and Lake Okeechobee discharges.

Blooms can harm an ecosystem like the St. Lucie River by killing the tiny organisms at the bottom of the food chain, oysters and sea grass. And when the bloom dies, bacteria eating the dead cells suck all the oxygen out of the water, which can cause fish kills.

Toxic threat

A species called Microcystis aeruginosa has been the primary blue-green algae in St. Lucie River blooms. It produces several toxins, including one called microcystin.

Microcystin can cause nausea and vomiting if ingested and rash or hay fever symptoms if touched or inhaled. Drinking water with the toxins can cause long-term liver disease.

Breathing in fumes from blooms with microcystin can cause respiratory problems, particularly in people with asthma or pulmonary disease.

More: American Council on Science & Health: Why algae's 3 toxins are so dangerous

An Ohio State University study found people living in areas with significant blue-green algae blooms containing microcystin are more likely to die from nonalcoholic liver disease than those in areas without the blooms. The study did not conclude blooms cause liver disease, especially not in particular individuals.

More: Ohio State University study links toxic algae blooms, fatal liver disease 

A growing number of scientists think another toxin in the algae, known as BMAA, can trigger diseases such as Alzheimer's, Parkinson's and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, also known as ALS or Lou Gehrig's disease.

More: Health risks of all blue-green algae toxins unknown, marine biologist says

Concentrations of toxins in blue-green algae are measured in parts per billion. The World Health Organization considers water with up to 1 part per billion safe to drink and more than 10 parts per billion to pose a health threat from recreational contact.

More: Health effects of blue-green algae need study, hospital CEO says

Other algae

Another blue-green algae found in the Indian River Lagoon, lyngbya often looks like masses of brown seaweed floating on the water, especially in the summer.

Lyngbya (LING-bee-yah) can be toxic to fish, plants and other marine creatures and cause a skin irritation known as “swimmer’s itch" in humans.

It grows rapidly in water with high levels of fertilizer and septic runoff, so blooms are a sign of an unhealthy lagoon.

Brown tide

Aureoumbra lagunensis, a true algae (not cyanobacteria) known as "brown tide," is more common in the northern and middle Indian River Lagoon as far south as Sebastian.

The aftermath of a brown tide bloom in mid-March 2016 in the Banana River, an arm of the Indian River Lagoon that stretches from Kennedy Space Center to just north of Melbourne in Brevard County, killed millions of fish.

More: Brevard County fish kill sparked by brown tide

Scientists suspect the bloom absorbed all the nutrients in the river, then died. Bacteria eating the dead cells sucked all the oxygen out of the water, and the fish suffocated.

Originally Published 12:29 p.m. EDT July 18, 2018

Updated 17 hours ago

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