RSN: Phyllis Schlafly Won Some Battles, but She Lost the War

It's Live on the HomePage Now: 
Reader Supported News

STILL LITTLE OR NOTHING IN TERMS OF SUPPORT - Second straight day of super low fundraising totals. Sure absolutely, without support a financial crisis can evolve quickly. It's evolving. Please help out. / Marc Ash - Curator, Reader Supported News

Sure, I'll make a donation!

---

FOCUS: Jessica Valenti | Phyllis Schlafly Won Some Battles, but She Lost the War 

Jessica Valenti, Guardian UK 
Valenti writes: "But despite Schlafly's predictions and beliefs, the world she left behind this week is one that largely embraces the issues she most feared. Feminism is more popular than ever, women are in the workforce en masse, LGBT rights are front and center and the country is mostly pro-choice." 
READ MORE

---

Contribute to RSN

Become a Fan of RSN on Facebook and Twitter

INDIANA STANDS BY DISGUSTING DECISION TO JAIL WOMAN FOR TWENTY YEARS OVER MISCARRIAGE

The republican party, working against the best interests of the American people daily.

Indiana Stands By Disgusting Decision To Jail Woman For TWENTY YEARS Over Miscarriage

This is one terrifying example of the GOP punishing a woman for something outside of her control.

WINNINGDEMOCRATS.COM

INDIANA STANDS BY DISGUSTING DECISION TO JAIL WOMAN FOR TWENTY YEARS OVER MISCARRIAGE

Posted by Patricia Colli on 24 Dec 2015

Purvi Patel has now been incarcerated at the Indiana Women’s Prison for eight months – for having a miscarriage.

Earlier this year, 35-year-old Patel became the first person in the history of the United States to be sent to prison for feticide, which Patel insists was actually a miscarriage and a situation far beyond her control. According to Patel, she had delivered a stillborn fetus after being about 23 weeks pregnant. The premature fetus wasn’t moving, and she tried to resuscitate it but was unsuccessful in her attempts. Patel didn’t want her conservative Hindu parents to discover what had happened, so she disposed of the fetus and sought medical attention because she was bleeding.

Prosecutors in Indiana framed Patel’s incident much differently. They accused her of taking drugs to induce an abortion – despite the fact that there were no drugs found in Patel’s system. A discredited test was also used to claim the fetus was alive at birth. Patel was sentenced to a minimum of 20 years in prison for something she had no control over.

This case received attention all over the globe, as fears rose that Patel’s conviction of feticide and child neglect would make it easier for women to be punished for the uncontrollable variables and outcomes of their pregnancies. Reproductive rights groups rallied for her freedom, but to no avail.

The executive director of the National Advocates for Pregnant Women (NAPW), Lynn Paltrow, said:

“While no woman should face criminal charges for having an abortion or experiencing a pregnancy loss, the cruel length of this sentence confirms that feticide and other measures promoted by anti-abortion organizations are intended to punish not protect women.”

Patel filed an appeal of her conviction in October, and she’s finally gotten a response from Indiana’s attorney general, who is still standing by the conviction. The appeal Patel recently filed argued that the conviction was a violation of Patel’s constitutional rights, and that the feticide charge shouldn’t have been applied to her case. However, Indiana Attorney General’s office stands firm:

“The state was not required to prove that an attempt to obtain medical care would have saved the baby’s life, only that Defendant placed her baby in appreciable danger by not obtaining medical care for him. The jury reasonably inferred that Defendant was subjectively aware that her baby was born alive…The baby was born at 8:11pm on July 13, one of the longest days of the year, meaning that there was still plentiful light present at that time.”

The state also accused Patel of knowing that she was over 10-12 weeks pregnant and insists she should have known she’d have a live birth. Examining her text messages to a friend, the state claimed Patel had a “disengaged and unemotional attitude at the hospital.”

Photo credit: Amy Gastelum

However, Patel’s attorneys have one more chance to object to the state’s argument, and the Indiana Court of Appeals has not yet ruled on her appeal. Patel’s attorneys will continue to argue that the child neglect and feticide charges contradict each other and that “a conviction for feticide does not require proof that the fetus died in utero.”

Unfortunately in Indiana, there are no legal protections against feticide charges for pregnant women. If the state doesn’t change its mind, Patel will be forced to serve a minimum of 20 years in prison.

http://winningdemocrats.com/indiana-stands-by-disgusting-decision-to-jail-woman-for-twenty-years-over-miscarriage/

Another WTF moment brought to you by the insanity that is the current Republican party m

This Woman Was Placed In An Alabama Prison 

For A Stillbirth…A Stillbirth!

In 2008, Amanda Kimbrough experienced one of the most horrible things an expectant mother can ever face: Her son Timmy was born and then died 19…

DEEPLEFTFIELD.INFO

This Woman Was Placed In An Alabama Prison For A Stillbirth…A Stillbirth!

In 2008, Amanda Kimbrough experienced one of the most horrible things an expectant mother can ever face: Her son Timmy was born and then died 19 minutes later. The child had been stillborn, and the memory still haunts Amanda to this day:

“Tim Jr would be six years old [today]. And not a day goes by I don’t think of him.”

Amanda Kimbrough was incarcerated in one of the toughest prisons in Alabama due to the stillbirth of her son. How is that possible? Well, Alabama prosecuted Kimbroughunder the statute of “chemical endangerment” of her fetus due to her recurring struggle with drug addiction. She was even charged with a class A felony – the equivalent of murder – and taken all the way to trial. This is thought to be the only full trial hearing of its sort anywhere in the United States.

Kimbrough’s case eventually went all the way to the Alabama Supreme Court, and in the process it set a new precedent. In essence, it says that all pregnant women may be prosecuted for any harm they might cause their fetus at any time after the moment of conception.

Fearing she would receive a harsher sentence if she took the case to trial, Kimbrough agreed to plead guilty to the charge and received a 10 year sentence. She served three years of that sentence and is now free again.

Amanda Kimbrough’s case is part of a larger trend in states across the country from Alabama to South Carolina, Tennessee, and Wisconsin. Hundreds of women have been prosecuted –some for murder – for allegedly inflicting harm on their fetuses, even though in many of these cases their pregnancies ended with the birth of healthy babies.

Lynn Paltrow, executive director of National Advocates for Pregnant Women, says that the spread of these aggressive new tactics by prosecutors has led to the effectively criminalized pregnancy in some states:

“States are saying that they know what is best for fertilized eggs, and because they know best they can tell a pregnant women that she’s a criminal and that she must do whatever her doctor – or a social worker, or law enforcement officer, or lawyer appointed to represent her fetus – says.”

This is the direct result of the “personhood” agenda being pursued by anti-choice activists and lawmakers.

Paltrow says that the impact of such a “personhood” approach has been that a system of separate and unequal laws has been created for pregnant women:

“It creates a burden on all fertile women – because once there is a fertilized egg something they did yesterday that wasn’t a crime could be a crime today. So if they are taking painkillers for a painful back, they are now guilty of a crime.”

And now Amanda Kimbrough has to live not only with the loss of her son Timmy, but also a felony conviction on her record:

“I continue to give a lot to God and just hang on. I know I made a mistake, a fatal one I have to live with every day. I just take it one day at a time. God has a reason for everything even if I don’t know.”

This article was originally published by the same author at LiberalAmerica.org.

http://deepleftfield.info/this-woman-was-placed-in-an-alabama-prison-for-a-stillbirtha-stillbirth/

This & that.....

Like

 

 

Beyond Bars

Two corrupt judges received $2.6 million in kickbacks from the builders and owners of private prison facilities to throw 1000s of children in jail.

http://bit.ly/1khPa44

‪#‎privateprisons‬ ‪#‎profitoverpeople‬

Like

Sue Fitzmaurice, Author with Inserra Joey and 3 others

ღ Sue Fitzmaurice, Author ღ

Like

Secular Coalition for America

Do you want to help ‪#‎FixHobbyLobby‬ and turn the tide against the expanding "Religious Freedom" to discriminate? Join us for the ‪#‎KnitABrick‬ March, Tuesday September 9th, 11:30am at the Supreme Court!https://www.facebook.com/events/358599010953875/

The U.S. has become little more than a Third World Nation thanks to the Regressive Party!

Let's join the rest of the World in protecting our environment!

Free and Equal with Matthew Morris and 5 others

Germany bans fracking as American politicians from both parties cuddle with fracking corporations. Your thoughts?

Via Terrence Moonseed & Juice Rap News

In case you missed it.....

How the Right uses environmental law to kill American jobs

No, that was not the title of the recent New York Times article about the Cape Wind offshore wind project. But it should have been.

 

Article | Op Ed | January 25, 2014 - 1:00pm

 

U.S. lacks a robust, mature offshore wind industry.

"Conservative groups use environmental litigation to kill American jobs. "

By Lew Milford , President of Clean Energy Group.

No, that was not the title of the recent New York Times article about the Cape Wind offshore wind project. But it should have been.

The article detailed the unfortunate story of how a local contractor, Mass Tank, lost out on a big welding job for the Cape Wind project to European offshore contractors.

Why? Because the European bids were cheaper.

And why is that? Because the U.S. lacks a robust and mature offshore wind industry. It has not had the opportunity to build up to scale to compete against the Europeans who have been building projects for two decades.

But why is that? That is where the litigation against the Cape Wind project should have a played a bigger part in the story.

Things don't go better with Koch

For the last decade, Bill Koch, the infamous billionaire, has funded litigation to stop the Cape Wind project, because he doesn't want to see it from his Cape Cod mansion. Whether he also wants to kill off renewable power because his wealth comes from fossil fuels is almost beside the point.

And what kind of litigation strategies is the conservative Mr. Koch pursuing? Just the kind of legal strategies that the conservative right complains about when environmentalists use them to protect the environment.

In Koch's latest failed effort to use environmental law to block the project, the federal appeals court in Washington rejected his attempts to sue the FAA, which concluded the project would not interfere with airport radar. The case relied in part on using NEPA, the nation's major environmental review law, to try to overturn the federal approval.

There is a connection here between the loss of American jobs and the conservatives' use of environmental litigation to serve clearly private, not public, interests.

What if...

If the Cape Wind offshore wind project had not been held up for a decade by fruitless litigation, more companies like Mass Tank would have had a chance to gain competence, reduce costs, and compete against their European counterparts for Cape Wind and other offshore wind projects. There might be an emerging offshore wind industry with competitive U.S. suppliers winning bids rather than losing them.

The endless litigation is not the only reason for that shortcoming, but it has to take some of the blame.

So the next time someone on the right falsely decries environmentalists for killing American jobs through lawsuits, ask them to explain why their friends in Massachusetts are doing the same thing.

This article is reprinted with the author's permission. It also appeared in the Huffington Post.

Clean Energy Group is a leading nonprofit advocacy organization working in the U.S. and internationally on innovative clean energy technology, finance, and policy programs.
Founded in 1998, CEG is headquartered in Montpelier, Vermont, with staff based in Washington, D.C. and Philadelphia. In 2002, CEG created and now manages a separate, national nonprofit alliance of state-based, U.S. public clean energy funds- Clean Energy States Alliance. CEG has previously serverd as the Secretariat for the UNEP Sustainable Energy Finance Alliance, the only convening body in the international system for public finance agencies in the clean energy sector.
Clean Energy Group is supported by major foundations, as well as state, federal and international energy agencies.

 

Related Content:

Fighting Cape Wind $1 million at a time

Cool breeze or hot air: The case for Cape Wind

Everything you need to know about Bill Koch...

Koch, Murdoch, on 10 worst billionaires list

 

 

 

http://www.capecodtoday.com/article/2014/01/25/23750-how-right-uses-environmental-law-kill-american-jobs

 

 

While the Regressive Party proclaims the hoax of climate change, other nations are leading and the U.S. is being left behind.

Maybe it's time to rid ourselves of dinosaurs that endorse environmental destruction and keep America in the 19th Century.

Remember that Mitt Romney, as Massachusetts Governor pulled out of RGGI.

Charlie Baker, current Republican Gubernatorial candidate opposes Cape Wind.

Where are we going?


Harnessing Tidal Power has been largely ignored, yet the tides is dependable, the energy clean.

ENN offers great articles available by subscription.



From: ClickGreen Staff, ClickGreen, More from this Affiliate
Published January 20, 2014 09:09 AM

Scotland's tidal energy potential is greater than a nuclear power plant

RELATED ARTICLES

• The Sea could provide much of Scotland's power!
  July 10, 2013 06:02 AM
• Why Tidal Power is Europe’s Best Near-Term Ocean Energy Technology
  September 14, 2010 08:54 AM
• Major plans for tidal energy farm
  October 14, 2008 09:08 AM
• Scottish Government commits £18m for wave and tidal power
  October 24, 2011 02:35 PM

Renewable tidal energy harnessed from a single stretch of water off the northern tip of Scotland could produce enough energy to power half of the nation, engineers say.








Researchers have completed the most detailed study yet of how much tidal power could be generated by turbines placed in the Pentland Firth, between mainland Scotland and Orkney, and estimate 1.9 gigawatts (GW) could be available - a greater capacity than a nuclear Magnox power station.

The in-depth assessment by engineers at the Universities of Oxford and Edinburgh offers valuable insights into how to develop and regulate this clean energy resource effectively.

The Pentland Firth is a prime candidate to house marine power projects because of its tidal currents, which are among the fastest in the British Isles.

Engineers say that their study improves on previous estimates of the generating capacity of turbines embedded in the Firth — ranging from 1 to 18 GW — which were too simplistic or based on inappropriate models. Researchers calculated that as much as 4.2 GW could be captured, but because tidal turbines are not 100 per cent efficient, they say that 1.9 GW is a more realistic target.

To exploit the Firth's full potential, turbines would need to be located across the entire width of the channel. In order to minimise the impacts on sea life and shipping trade, a number of individual sites have been identified for development by the UK Crown Estate, which will lease these sites to tidal energy firms.

Researchers have pinpointed locations where turbines would need to be positioned for the Firth to meet its full energy production potential.

The research was commissioned and funded as part of the Energy Technologies Institute's Performance Assessment of Wave and Tidal Array Systems project (PerAWAT).
Professor Alistair Borthwick, of the School of Engineering at the University of Edinburgh, who worked on the research, said: "Our research builds on earlier studies by analyzing the interactions between turbines and the tides more closely.

“This is a more accurate approach than was used in the early days of tidal stream power assessment, and should be useful in calculating how much power might realistically be recoverable from the Pentland Firth."

Professor Guy Houlsby of the Department of Engineering Science, University of Oxford, said: "The UK enjoys potentially some of the best tidal resources worldwide, and if we exploit them wisely they could make an important contribution to our energy supply.

Read more from our affiliate, ClickGreen.

Tidal turbine image via Shutterstock.

http://www.enn.com/top_stories/article/46920

 

Today's headlines

Natural sugar batteries could be running world's gadgets within 3 years Is plant virus linked to honeybee Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD)? Should activities in public space be limited? The UK approach. Biofuels Patents Surge, Small Players Drive Solar Lead Beaver, Dam it! Scotland's tidal energy potential is greater than a nuclear power plant Oil production in Greenland? Maybe not. New Episode of Earth Focus Exposes the Truth January 20, 2014 By: KCETLink Burbank, California – Jan. 13, 2013 -- Americans are exposed to tens of thousands of man-made chemicals that are largely unregulated and untested for safety. Exposure to even very low doses of common chemicals like phthalates and BPA can have health risks especially for children. Full Article SUNSCREEN CHEMICAL IN SOAPS, COSMETICS AND BODY FRAGRANCES THREATEN CORAL REEFS January 15, 2014 By: Haereticus Environmental Laboratory Clifford, VA— A team of marine scientists from Virginia, Florida, Israel, and the U.S. National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration published a study demonstrating that a common UV absorber found in over 380 different product lines of soaps, laundry detergents, cosmetics, and body fragrances is highly toxic to corals. Full Article MEXEL USA LLC ANNOUNCES MASTER DISTRIBUTORSHIP WITH AMCHEM SOLUTIONS January 06, 2014 By: Mexel USA Washington, DC. – January 6, 2014 -- Mexel USA LLC, exclusive U.S. distributor of Mexel® anti-fouling products, announced today that it has signed a strategic agreement with American Chemstar, Inc., trading as Amchem Solutions, to become its master distributor to all members of the Association of Water Technology. Full Article

Company in W.Va. Chemical Spill Cited at Second Site, Pentagon & NSA Officials: Assassinate Edward Snowden

The environmental catastrophe in West Virginia highlights the importance of regulations and inspections.

Who really believes industry will police itself to protect the environment? Only Republicans!

The articles below are from RSN. Please consider subscribing and supporting independent media, the only factual source.

If it's FREE, you get what you paid for!

Inspectors found that, like the Charleston facility where the leak originated, the Nitro site lacked appropriate secondary containment. In Charleston, a porous containment wall allowed the chemical to ooze into the Elk River. (photo: Steve Helber/AP)

Company in W.Va. Chemical Spill Cited at Second Site

By Jonathan Mattise, Associated Press

17 January 14

he company responsible for the chemical spill in West Virginia moved its chemicals to a nearby plant that has already been cited for safety violations, including a backup containment wall with holes in it.

 

As a result, state officials may force the company to move the chemicals to a third site.

 

Inspectors on Monday found five safety violations at Freedom Industries' storage facility in Nitro, about 10 miles from the spill site in Charleston. The spill contaminated the drinking water for 300,000 people, and about half of them were still waiting for officials to lift the ban on tap water.

 

The West Virginia Bureau for Public Health issued a statement Wednesday evening advising pregnant women not to drink the water "until there are no longer detectable levels" of 4-methylcyclohexane methanol, a chemical used in coal processing. The statement said it was making the recommendation "out of an abundance of caution" after consulting with the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

 

The Department of Environmental Protection on Friday ordered Freedom Industries to move all of its chemicals to the Nitro site.

 

According to a report from the department, inspectors found that, like the Charleston facility, the Nitro site's last-resort containment wall had holes in it. The report described the site's wall as "deteriorated or nonexistent."

 

Freedom Industries said the building's walls acted as a secondary containment dike, but state inspectors disagreed. The walls had holes in them near the ground level, and they led out to a stormwater trench surrounding the structure's exterior, the report said.

 

Department spokesman Tom Aluise said the ditch eventually drains into the Kanawha River. The

 

Nitro facility isn't on a riverbank, like the other facility.

 

The facility had no documentation of inspections of the Nitro site. Nor did it have proof of employee training in the past 10 years, the report said.

 

Aluise said the state could force Freedom to move the chemicals to a third site, or build secondary containment structures at the Nitro facility. He said the department would issue an administrative order Thursday morning detailing what corrective action will be required. Asked what possible penalties would be brought against the company, Aluise responded in an email: "Yet to be determined."

 

The report only specified that Freedom Industries has 20 days to provide a written response detailing corrective action.

 

Members of Gov. Earl Ray Tomblin's administration said they were aware of no problems with the Nitro facility during a Tuesday evening press briefing, even though the violations were discovered during an inspection Monday.

 

"My understanding, DEP has checked that facility and there is no issue with the storage there," Jimmy Gianato, director of Homeland Security and Emergency Management, said Tuesday night.

Tomblin also put faith in the agency during the Tuesday briefing.

 

"I'm sure that DEP is keeping a close eye on where that material is," Tomblin said.

 

The report was made available to the public Wednesday.

 

It's unclear whether the state had inspected the Nitro facility before Monday. The facility violated its stormwater permit, but that doesn't require routine inspections, Aluise said.

 

A spokeswoman for Freedom Industries said the company didn't want to comment. Keith Beneker, the Nitro plant manager, did not answer a phone call.

 

The Charleston facility flew under the regulatory radar because it only stored, not produced, chemicals, state officials have said. State inspectors were able to assess the Nitro facility under the order to move the chemicals.

 

During the 7,500-gallon spill Thursday, a cracked containment wall allowed the chemical to ooze into the Elk River. Freedom Industries then moved the remaining 70,000 gallons of that chemical to Nitro.

 

Under the agency order issued Friday, the company still has to move almost 1 million gallons of other chemicals from the Elk River location to another site, Aluise said. The materials include calcium chloride and glycerin.

 

 

FOCUS: David Sirota | Pentagon & NSA Officials: Assassinate Edward Snowden

David Sirota, PandoDaily
Sirota writes: "How can Americans who witness executive-branch crimes feel comfortable or even physically safe blowing the whistle on said crimes?"
READ MORE

---

NSA Collects Millions of Text Messages Daily in 'Untargeted' Global Sweep

James Ball, Guardian UK
Ball reports: "The National Security Agency has collected almost 200 million text messages a day from across the globe, using them to extract data including location, contact networks and credit card details, according to top-secret documents."
READ MORE

Obama to Call for Overhaul of NSA's Phone Data Collection Program
Mark Lander and Peter Baker, The New York Times
Lander and Baker report: "President Obama will require intelligence agencies to obtain permission from a secret court before tapping into a vast trove of telephone data, but he will leave the data in the hands of the government for now, an administration official said."
READ MORE

Wal-Mart Case Seen As Key Test in Struggle Over Labor Rights
Carlyn Kolker and Kevin Drawbaugh, Reuters
Kolker and Drawbaugh report: "A challenge by the U.S. National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) to Wal-Mart Stores Inc's treatment of striking workers is likely to become a critical symbol of labor unions' attempts to organize the many non-union workplaces in the United States in the face of stiff resistance from management."
READ MORE

Company in W.Va. Chemical Spill Cited at Second Site
Jonathan Mattise, Associated Press
Mattise reports: "The company responsible for the chemical spill in West Virginia moved its chemicals to a nearby plant that has already been cited for safety violations, including a backup containment wall with holes in it."
READ MORE

House Republicans Are Pushing a Bill That Would Force the IRS to Audit Rape Victims
Tara Culp-Ressler, ThinkProgress
Culp-Ressler writes: "House Republicans are currently advancing the 'No Taxpayer Funding For Abortion Act,' or HR 7, a measure that would impose sweeping restrictions on abortion coverage that could make the procedure less affordable for Americans across the country."
READ MORE

Environmental Groups Say Obama Needs to Address Climate Change More Aggressively
Juliet Eilperin and Lenny Bernstein, The Washington Post
'A group of the nation's leading environmental organizations is breaking with the administration over its energy policy, arguing that the White House needs to apply a strict climate test to all of its energy decisions...'
READ MORE

YOU CAN NOW TEXT YOUR PLEDGE TO RSN! DETAILS

This is a very slow fundraiser. We have the readers, so far we don’t have the donations.

Who will step up?

Marc Ash
Founder, Reader Supported News

Okay, I'll make a donation.

If you would prefer to send a check:
Reader Supported News
PO Box 2043
Citrus Hts
CA 95611

---

Visit Reader Supported News

Become a Fan of RSN on Facebook

Follow RSN on Twitter