Among states where fracking is widespread, Utah, which does not require disclosures at all, had the highest rate of companies withholding at least one ingredient (94%). Second was New Mexico, which does have some mandates on publishing fracking chemicals, at 84%, followed by California at 80%. Companies with the highest tendency to kept chemical details secret were BP America Production Co. and Howell Oil & Gas of Texas.   read more

Although the debate over marriage equality seems at times to center on the social and emotional costs inflicted on gay couples by the denial of legal recognition of their relationships, 83-year-old widow Edith Windsor can place a precise dollar amount on its cost to her: $363,053. That’s the amount in federal estate tax she had to pay when Thea Spyer, her wife and partner of nearly 50 years, passed away in 2009. Had they been a heterosexual couple, Windsor would have paid nothing.   read more

A group of doctors, researchers and cancer patients filed a petition with the Supreme Court asking it to review the case of Myriad Genetics, which owns two patents associated with hereditary breast and ovarian cancer. The company has used the patents to perform genetic tests and tell patients whether they are at risk of contracting the diseases. The plaintiffs claim the patents “exclude the rest of the scientific community” from utilizing the genes for testing and research.   read more

The ACLU first requested the records in 2008, but the FBI refused. Eventually, the agency released 13,088 pages of documents, as well as two cassette tapes and a DVD. But it redacted another 4,952 pages and a second DVD and withheld 425 pages all together. The ACLU asked for access to the remaining, censored files. Following his review of the records in question, Lasnik ordered the FBI to release the documents within two weeks.   read more

Latinos comprise 15% of San Francisco’s population, but, according to official statistics, account for only 1.5% of all arrests. Even this small number is the result of arrests made by the California Highway Patrol within the city, since the Highway Patrol uses a more modern computer system. On September 12, San Francisco Police Chief Greg Suhr assured the city police commission that from now on, his department will allow arrestees to self-identify their ethnic group.   read more

NIH-supported research centers will still have access to another 300 chimpanzees for invasive research even though the Institute of Medicine concluded nine months ago that most invasive chimpanzee research was scientifically unnecessary. Even the NIRC will continue to engage in primate research for private industry clients and will continue to house 6,000 non-human primates.   read more

According to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, a probe of cheating scandals in various states uncovered “a subculture of dishonesty” among some educators. The findings included instructors providing answers to students, administrators organizing groups to erase and correct student answers, and education leaders ignoring allegations of cheating. In the 130 cheating cases that the Journal-Constitution examined, less than a dozen teachers were actually punished.   read more

Chevron was forced to install monitoring equipment as a result of a 2005 settlement with EPA, but Bay Area enforcement inspectors became suspicious in August 2009 when they saw steam coming from a refinery unit that converts oil into gasoline and jet fuel. When they examined the monitoring equipment they discovered that Chevron had installed 100 feet of piping that diverted gases around the equipment and into the air.   read more

In the early years of the Cold War, American officials were worried the country wouldn’t have enough uranium to meet the military and civilian demands for nuclear power. So Washington set out to invest more than $5 billion to develop and stockpile a man-made form of uranium, U-233. About 3,400 pounds of U-233 was collected, most of which now awaits burial after never being used. Scientists in the 1950s underestimated the quantities of natural uranium available.   read more

Democratic leaders in some counties, including Montgomery and Allegheny, decided to authorize the issuance of poll-ready identification cards through county-run nursing homes and colleges. The move is legal because the voter ID law contains a provision allowing higher education institutions and senior-care centers to provide such cards to anyone who lives in the county, and not just to the people who attend those colleges or reside in those centers.   read more

Since 1954, the IRS has prohibited tax-exempt organizations, such as churches, from publicly supporting campaigns. The IRS enforced the law under Presidents Bill Clinton and George W. Bush, however since Barack Obama became president, the IRS has stopped enforcement. Oddly, the “Pulpit Freedom Sunday” movement was created in 2008 by the conservative Alliance Defending Freedom to oppose Obama’s candidacy.   read more

According to the lawsuit, filed on behalf of four living Texans who received notices that their voter registration was subject to cancellation because they are “potentially deceased,” Andrade recently told registrars across Texas that “potentially dead” voters must provide “evidence within 30 days that they are alive…[or] they are to be purged from the voter rolls.”   read more

The 2004 law required that DNA be collected from anyone arrested on suspicion of committing a felony and from some convicted of certain misdemeanors. No charges need to be filed. No conviction needs to be obtained. Lily Haskell, one of the people challenging the law, was arrested at an anti-war demonstration. She was released without any charges being filed, but was compelled to give a DNA sample while in custody.   read more

Nearly three months after the U.S. government sued a reluctant JPMorgan Chase & Co. for documents during an investigation of allegations that it had manipulated California energy prices, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) is threatening to suspend its energy trading unit from the state market. JPMorgan denied manipulating the market and said it had committed an “inadvertent factual error in papers related to discovery and promptly informed the commission of this mistake.”   read more

Richard H. Perkins, a reliability and risk engineer with the NRC’s division of risk analysis, said superiors blacked out critical portions of a report he helped author that detailed which nuclear plants face the risk of flooding from swollen rivers or reservoirs. Perkins’ assertions were backed up by another anonymous NRC risk engineer who warned that the three reactors at the Oconee Nuclear Station near Seneca, South Carolina, could face a Fukushima-like episode should a nearby dam fail.   read more

Hicks and others noticed that a safety relief valve had lifted, causing a leakage of coolant. Following federal regulations, he says he ordered the reactor shut down to avoid an accident similar to the 1979 Three Mile Island incident in Middletown, Pennsylvania. Hicks reported what he had done to his superiors, including FPL executive vice president Manoochehr Nazar, who ordered Hicks to restart the reactor. Hicks refused.   read more