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Freedom Industries chemical leak: Where things stand

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Here is a roundup of where things stand on various aspects of the Jan. 9, 2014, Freedom Industries chemical leak story:

| Water testing Despite a recommendation from his own expert team, Gov. Earl Ray Tomblin rejected a proposal for a broad program to test in homes across the region to determine if there is any MCHM still in the water supply. Citing its own sampling at distribution system locations, West Virginia American Water Co. has said there is no reason to think the chemical remains in the system.

| MCHM studies Federal scientists are continuing work on studies, trying to learn more about the effects of MCHM, to build on the very limited information that was available at the time of the 2014 leak. State officials are continuing work on a long-term medical study required by the Legislature. Peer-reviewed papers about the leak have been published by researchers at Purdue University, the U.S. Geological Survey and Virginia Tech.

| Public Service Commission investigation The PSCs investigation of West Virginia Americans response to the chemical leak has been delayed and partly derailed, as the parties argue over the scope of the probe and over what documents the water company must provide to the commission. PSC Chairman Michael Albert, a former water company lawyer, has recused himself from the case, and the three-member commission also has seen both other members resign in recent months. There is no new date set for formal hearings.

| SB 373 Lawmakers passed broad-reaching legislation that regulates above-ground chemical storage tanks and sets new requirements for drinking water utilities to protect source-water supplies. The West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection has issued proposed rules to implement the storage tank portions of SB 373 and the Bureau for Public Health has done likewise with drinking water protection standards. Lawmakers are expected to revisit the legislation during the 2015 session that starts next week, and a commission set up by the law has recommended some potential changes.

| Freedom Industries bankruptcy Some key matters in the bankruptcy case are basically on hold, pending completion of the cleanup of the Freedom site along the Elk River. The DEP has approved a new consent order with Freedom, and is waiting for Freedom to submit an application to enter the states voluntary-remediation program, a move that could lessen the companys cleanup standard. Freedom also is trying to win approval of a settlement with its insurance company.

| Civil lawsuits Lawsuits over the leak and its impact have been filed against Freedom Industries and some Freedom executives, as well as against West Virginia American Water and MCHM-maker Eastman Chemical. Some of those cases are on hold because of the bankruptcy case. A team of local lawyers has reached a tentative class-action deal with Freedom, but details of that deal remain unclear and it has not been finalized.

| Government investigations The U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration fined Freedom Industries $11,000 for workplace safety violations related to the leak. Freedom paid those fines without challenging the citations OSHA issued. The U.S. Chemical Safety Board has said it found serious problems at Freedom Industries and is continuing its investigation.

| Criminal probe Criminal charges have been filed against six former Freedom Industries officials and against the company. Most of the charges concern Clean Water Act violations, but former Freedom President Gary Southern also faces felony bankruptcy fraud charges for allegedly trying to hide his personal wealth from potential chemical leak litigation.

Reach Ken Ward Jr. at kward@wvgazette.com, 304-348-1702 or follow @kenwardjr on Twitter.

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Freedom Industries chemical leak: Where things stand

'Gateway to Freedom' reveals underground railroad history

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Eric Foner's vivid new book, about the semi-organized system to aid runaway slaves popularly known as the underground railroad, makes an excellent companion to "Reconstruction," his magisterial 1988 account of the post-Civil War effort to bring racial justice to the American South. In both histories, Foner appreciates the crucial role of white radicals while emphasizing that black people were active combatants in the struggles to end slavery and to establish meaningful freedom for African Americans.

Like its predecessor, "Gateway to Freedom" makes palpable the nuances and complexities of the past. "The 'underground railroad,'" Foner writes, "should be understood not as a single entity but as an umbrella term for local groups that employed numerous methods." The New York Vigilance Committee, founded in 1835, was typical: a small, interracial band of abolitionists who took open, legal actions to protect free African Americans from being kidnapped and sold into slavery, while also covertly helping runaway slaves reach safety in upstate New York, New England and Canada.

David Ruggles, a free black man who was the committee's driving force for its first five years, is one of several grass-roots activists given lively thumbnail sketches by Foner. Ruggles' conviction that combating slavery required direct action and not necessarily nonviolent direct action would come to be shared by more abolitionists after the passage of the Fugitive Slave Law of 1850.

During the 1840s, thanks in large part to the advocacy of vigilance committees in New York and elsewhere, many Northern states passed laws prohibiting their public officials from participating in the recapture of slaves and adopting the "freedom principle" that slaves brought by their owners to a state where slavery was illegal automatically became free.

This was the period when the term underground railroad came into widespread use, and if infuriated Southerners tended to overestimate the scope and power of ad hoc arrangements that helped perhaps 10,000 to 50,000 runaway slaves during that decade (a pitiful percentage of the 4 million enslaved), they accurately perceived that legal maneuvers and covert action combined to undermine what they saw as their sacred property rights.

The Fugitive Slave Law changed all that. It overrode Northern personal liberty laws and enabled the federal government to force local authorities and citizens to assist in the recapture of escaped slaves. (Foner notes the irony inherent in this huge expansion of federal power to appease the nation's loudest advocates of states' rights.) If slaveholders thought it would cow abolitionists, they were mistaken.

"The Fugitive Slave Law reinvigorated and radicalized the underground railroad," Foner writes. From Norfolk, Va., and Wilmington, Del., in the slave states to Albany and Syracuse in upstate New York, key way stations on the route to Canada, activists intensified their efforts and solidified informal arrangements into a strong if still loose network whose hub was New York City.

Foner gets his detailed information about the workings of the underground railroad during this fraught period from two invaluable contemporary documents. The first is a Record of Fugitives compiled in 1855-56 by Sydney Howard Gay, white editor of the National Anti-Slavery Standard, who recounted the journeys of more than 200 runaways who passed through his Manhattan offices. The second is the journal of William Still, son of a fugitive slave and leader of the Philadelphia Vigilance Committee, which played a vital role because of southern Pennsylvania's proximity to Delaware, Virginia and Maryland, sources of most fugitive slaves.

Using these documents and others, Foner puts names and faces to activists less famous than Harriet Tubman (who makes a brief appearance) but more important to the functioning of the underground railroad. While Tubman rescued some 70 slaves, Jermain W. Loguen of Syracuse was credited with assisting 1,500 fugitives; Thomas Garrett, one of the many Quakers active in the underground railroad, helped more than 2,200 people cross the Delaware border to freedom.

Perhaps most indispensable of all was Louis Napoleon, Gay's right-hand man, who reportedly aided 3,000 slaves escaping from bondage. Although illiterate, Napoleon was involved in several abolitionist-instigated legal proceedings, including one challenging slaveholders' right to transport their slaves through free states; when the attorney for Virginia sarcastically asked if the Louis Napoleon who launched that case was emperor of France, a lawyer on the other side replied, "A much better man."

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'Gateway to Freedom' reveals underground railroad history

Feds: Freedom knew about problems for years

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Freedom Industries knew about serious problems with the spill-containment dikes at the companys Elk River facility years before the leak in January 2014 that contaminated the drinking water supply for hundreds of thousands of Kanawha Valley residents, federal authorities allege in newly unsealed documents.

Freedom was long aware of inadequacies with the containment dike around Tank 396 the one that leaked MCHM and other chemicals into the Elk on Jan. 9, 2014 and also knew the tank was old, had not been properly inspected and needed to be replaced, according to an FBI affidavit made public late Wednesday in U.S. District Court.

The containment area at the Etowah Facility within which Freedom stored MCHM was incapable of holding a significant chemical spill, wrote FBI Special Agent Jim Lafferty. There were numerous cracks in the dike wall. Moreover, at various spots along the dike wall, mortar had ended between and underneath the blocks, thus creating space through which liquid could leak.

Laffertys 26-page affidavit was filed in support of an application for a search warrant federal officials sought in September to obtain computer records, a laptop computer and paper financial records from Freedom as part of their ongoing investigation of the chemical leak. U.S. Magistrate Judge Cheryl A. Eifert, in Huntington, approved the warrant on Sept. 12, 2014, and a copy of the warrant and Laffertys affidavit was unsealed Wednesday.

Late Thursday, state Attorney General Patrick Morrisey released a report that outlined similar findings regarding a long history of Freedom officials knowing about problems at the Elk River site, but not taking action to fix them.

The 49-page report said that among the most disturbing findings of the state investigation was that Freedom employees and outside consultants warned of a potential catstrophic incident due to poor tank conditions and design problems for years, and in some cases offered solutions that were never acted upon.

The new details from the FBI and from Morriseys office come as three of the six former Freedom Industries officials who have been charged with criminal violations concerning the leak and its aftermath were making court appearances.

In Charleston, former Freedom officials Dennis Farrell, William Tis and Gary Southern pleaded not guilty at arraignments before U.S. Magistrate Judge Dwane L. Tinsley.

The trio appeared in separate hearings held consecutively, and Tis gave Farrell a thumbs up sign as Tis walked from the front of the courtroom after entering his plea. Farrell, 58, of Charleston, and Tis, 60, of Verona, Pennsylvania, were released on $10,000 unsecured bail, and trial for all three men was tentatively scheduled for March 10.

Tinsley rejected a request by Assistant U.S. Attorney Phil Wright to force Southern to post a $500,000 secured bond to assure his appearance at trial. After initially being arrested at his home in Marco Island, Florida, based on a criminal complaint, Southern was released on $100,000 unsecured bail by a magistrate in nearby Fort Myers.

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Feds: Freedom knew about problems for years

According to Econ 101, Tax Freedom Day is just a silly myth

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On April 21, 2014, the United States celebrated Tax Freedom Day. This is the day when Americans have finally earned enough income to pay off Uncle Sam.

Hard-working Americans and libertarians alike bemoan the burden of government, which makes us slave away for almost a third of the entire year just to pay the taxman.

Except theres just one problem. From an economics point of view, Tax Freedom Day is hogwash.

Suppose your pretax salary is $100,000 a year and your total tax rate is 30 percent. According to the math of Tax Freedom Day, that means that you pay $30,000 in taxes. But, according to Econ 101, this isnt actually what you pay because that $100,000 wasnt all yours to begin with.

To see this, take the above example and imagine that all taxes dropped to zero. In that case, your pretax salary would be the same as your after-tax salary. Would your employer then pay you $100,000 a year?

Not likely.

Because, remember, when there were taxes, you were willing to work for $70,000 in take-home pay. If taxes suddenly vanished, you wouldnt suddenly start demanding $100,000 in take-home pay. Your salary would rise, but not all the way to $100,000.

This is what is known in economics as tax incidence and its one of the very first things they teach you about taxes in Econ 101.

The burden of taxes is split between employers and employees between buyers and sellers of labor. You may think you pay $30,000 in income tax, but actually your employer pays some chunk of that and you pay the rest.

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According to Econ 101, Tax Freedom Day is just a silly myth

Review of the Saris Freedom Hitch-Bike-Racks on a 2014 Chrysler Town and Country – etrailer.com – Video

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Review of the Saris Freedom Hitch-Bike-Racks on a 2014 Chrysler Town and Country - etrailer.com
http://www.etrailer.com/Hitch-Bike-Racks/Saris/SA4414B.html Today on our 2014 Chrysler Town Country we #39;re going to be frustrating the Saris Freedom. Now this is a folding and tilting...

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Review of the Saris Freedom Hitch-Bike-Racks on a 2014 Chrysler Town and Country - etrailer.com - Video

N.O.V.A. 3: Freedom Edition Gameplay on Nvidia Shield Tablet (Tegra k1) (Android OS) – Video

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N.O.V.A. 3: Freedom Edition Gameplay on Nvidia Shield Tablet (Tegra k1) (Android OS)
Gameplay N.O.V.A. 3: Freedom Edition on Nvidia Shield Tablet (Tegra k1) (Android 5.0.1 Lollipop) FREE in Google Play https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.gameloft.android.ANMP.

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N.O.V.A. 3: Freedom Edition Gameplay on Nvidia Shield Tablet (Tegra k1) (Android OS) - Video

USA: John Kerry condemns Charlie Hebdo shooting as an attack on ‘freedom’ – Video

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USA: John Kerry condemns Charlie Hebdo shooting as an attack on #39;freedom #39;
US Secretary of State John Kerry condemned the attack on the Charlie Hebdo magazine, adding that "the world will never give in to the intimidation of terror" in Paris on Wednesday. Kerry also...

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USA: John Kerry condemns Charlie Hebdo shooting as an attack on 'freedom' - Video

Freedom of Speech Is of No Use Unless We Exercise It

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TIME Ideas world affairs Freedom of Speech Is of No Use Unless We Exercise It A person holds a candle next to a placard which reads "I am Charlie" to pay tribute during a gathering in Strasbourg on Jan. 7, 2015, Vincent KesslerReuters

Jytte Klausen is a scholar of politics who teaches at Brandeis University in Massachusetts. She is the author of The Cartoons that Shook the World (Yale University Press, 2009).

Editors and producers across the Western world will now be asking themselves: Can I print this? They are asking the wrong question. It is a fallacy to think that could be us. The readers of the world rely on them to say collectively: Yes, we can.

In 2009, Yale University Press censored a book I had written about the worldwide protests against the Danish Mohammed cartoons. The book contains a discussion of traditions for depicting Mohammed in Islamic and Western art. Citing fear of unknown terrorists, the press redacted all illustrations from the book featuring Mohammed: Ottoman prints, the Danish cartoons, and a 19th-century engraving made by Gustave Dore, a French artist, who mass produced such art for middle-class homes in the United Kingdom. The danger was imagined. There were no known threats against the press or against myself, at the time, and there never have been any.

Stifling debate in order to evade unknown or perceived threatsat home or abroadmay seem a reasonable tradeoff at the moment, but it has corrosive effects on debate and the dissemination of knowledge in the long-term. The standard for what is permissible expression becomes essentially unknowable. Nor is risk-aversion without cost.

Imagine for a minute that the Western press had continued to publish irascible cartoons ridiculing jihadist pieties after the Danish cartoon episode? What if we did not have to go to the hidden corners of the Internet to find reproductions of Ottoman painting of Mohammed? The editors and cartoonists at Charlie Hebdo were targeted because, over the past five years, they have been left alone standing in defense of press freedom against the jihadist Kulturkampf.

Hebdo was attacked to send a message to all of us who write, read, consume, and produce intellectual content. The jihadists are the new thought police. Clearly, there are reasons to take precaution, but we should not exaggerate the threat. Trained teams of angry Muslim assassins are not lurking in every metropolis, ready to attack the editorial offices of newspapers big and small.

The right reaction is to rally our wagons and protect controversial speechand the speakerand suppress the threat. We have to trust our governments to protect us and allow them to do the job. Salman Rushdie has lived for 23 years with an active and credible death threat. Two American bookstores and a community newspaper were bombed in response to the Rushdie fatwa, and yet, bookstores kept stocking the book. Rushdies Italian and Japanese translators were killed. The Norwegian publisher was shot and wounded. Yet Penguin kept the book in print. This should be the model for how to deal with threats and intimidation.

Freedom of speech is of no use unless we exercise it. The right thing to do right now is to rely on our governments to tamp down the scourge of terrorism. After the July 7 suicide attacks on the London Underground, Londoners conquered their fears and went back on the trains. Let us, the editors and the producers, the corporate managers and owners of our big newspapers and media companies, get back on the train, publish and carry on.

TIME Ideas hosts the world's leading voices, providing commentary and expertise on the most compelling events in news, society, and culture. We welcome outside contributions. To submit a piece, email ideas@time.com.

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Freedom of Speech Is of No Use Unless We Exercise It

Angela Merkel: Freedom of movement cannot be questioned 'in any way'

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Mrs Merkel said that she is ready to seek "common solutions" to concerns raised by the UK about the European Union and added: Where there's a will there's a way.

She suggested that EU laws could be changed to ensure that migrants access to benefits in countries like Britain can be restricted.

The Prime Minister has called for major changes to welfare rules across the EU, including requiring migrants to have a job offer before coming to the UK, making them wait four years before they can receive certain benefits and stopping foreigners sending benefits to children living abroad.

Mrs Merkel said: We have no doubt about the principle of freedom of movement being any way questioned but we also have to look at abuse of that.

We are looking at the legal and legislation here. We want to see how this plays out at a local level. We want to also say to our local authorities that abuse needs to be fought against so that freedom of movement can prevail.

"One has to take a very close look at the social security systems of individual member states that are not part of communal law - to what extent they have to be adjusted to this situation. That is something we have to address together.

The German leader said a recent European Court of Justice (ECJ) ruling that Germany can refuse welfare benefits to EU migrants if they have never held a job in the country - seized on by Number 10 as a vindication of the PM's reform calls - had been "quite helpful".

She added: Where there is common ground is that the last ruling of the ECJ was helpful as regards to the abuse of social benefits and entitlement. We deal with all of those issues in the sense that everything is connected to other things.

"We together have said that we don't want to question the right of freedom of movement. In each and every members state There is a necessity to address this issue.

Although Mrs Merkels comments do not go as far as some figures in Downing Street would have wanted, they will be seen as a sign that Germany is willing to support many of the changes being demanded by Mr Cameron.

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Angela Merkel: Freedom of movement cannot be questioned 'in any way'

Freedom Street Medley / Johnny Was King Flashman The Ragga Years 1989 – 1994 – Video

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Freedom Street Medley / Johnny Was King Flashman The Ragga Years 1989 - 1994
Another workout on the New Music riddim. King Flashman @ Rainbow Arch Studio 1992. An improvisation piece containing fragments of Tappa Zukie #39;s "Freedom Street" and Al Tashit Joe #39;s "Ethiopian...

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Freedom Street Medley / Johnny Was King Flashman The Ragga Years 1989 - 1994 - Video


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