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Friday, April 1
Industry's Secret Weapon Against the Environment
by
Linda Thieman
on Fri 01 Apr 2005 11:53 AM CST
 Industry's Secret Weapon Against the Environment
By Sidney A. Shapiro, Center for American Progress, AlterNet.org
Despite
its furtive entrance onto the legislative stage, the Information
Quality Act has become a powerful weapon in the Bush administration's
attack on environmental, health and safety protections.
If
you've never heard of the Information Quality Act (IQA), you're not
alone. When it cleared Congress in 2000, most senators and
representatives didn't even know they were voting for it; the
two-paragraph provision had been quietly attached only hours before to
a massive appropriations bill. But vote for it they did, and it became
law without benefit of congressional hearing or debate.
...A new
report, "Truth and Science Betrayed: The Case Against the Information
Quality Act," describes in detail the ways industry has taken the
administration up on its offer to clog the regulatory process with IQA
challenges. Researchers examined IQA petitions filed to date and found
repeated attempts to:
-delay overdue regulatory actions that have already been subject to extensive public review and comment;
-withdraw unfavorable reports rather than simply correct incorrect information in the report;
-"correct" policy decisions on the part of agencies empowered to make such decisions;
-bypass existing statutory procedures for regulatory decision-making;
-prevent agency action in the face of incomplete, rather than poor quality, information;
-obtain underlying data without complying with established Freedom of Information Act request procedures;
-sidestep
the courts by attempting to discredit information that corporate
defendants have either been unable to successfully exclude at trial, or
information that they would prefer not to encounter in future
litigation.
In
short, industry is taking advantage of the administration's expansion
of the IQA and turning it into a powerful weapon against environmental,
health, and safety regulations.
(Click here to read the complete article.)
Blog for Iowa Hits Nearly Half a Million Page Views in First Year
by
Linda Thieman
on Fri 01 Apr 2005 04:02 AM CST
 Blog for Iowa Hits Nearly Half a Million Page Views in First Year
by Linda Thieman
Yes,
dear readers, Blog for Iowa is one year old today! I remember a
year ago this past week when I was looking for an online blog host –
there were a few to choose from and it looked like BlogHarbor had excellent support materials and great customer service – and they’ve lived up to every expectation I had for them.
Blog for Iowa went up on the evening of April 1, 2004.
That first month, we averaged 94 readers (distinct hosts served) per
day and had a total of 7,362 page views (hits). This past month
(March, 2005) we have averaged 1300 readers per day with a total of
just over 66,000 page views. This is the first time that we
topped 60,000 page views in one month. It’s also the first time
we topped 40,000 distinct hosts served in one month.
I
tallied up the number of page views (hits) we’ve scored over the past
year and was nothing short of astonished to discover that we landed
very near the half million mark – 481,786 page views to be more
precise. No wonder we had to upgrade to the professional
package! To tell you the truth, the professional package didn’t
even exist when we first joined BlogHarbor. No one needed
it! Kind of puts the whole thing into perspective, doesn’t
it? (And thanks to Dr. Alta Price of Bettendorf for footing the
bill!)
TOP CATEGORIES
I
thought you might be interested in which categories of articles are the
most popular on Blog for Iowa. (You can view and click on the
list of categories on the right sidebar.) Without fail, Iowa in the News is always number one, month after month. Here are the top 15 categories for March, 2005:
1) Iowa in the News
2) Calls to Action
3) Candidates
4) National News
5) GOP
6) Environment
7) Democrats
8) How You Can Help
9) Dean News
10) Local Events
11) Economy/Jobs
12) Progressive Community
13) GLBT
14) Health Care & Medicare
15) Farming
NEW CONTRIBUTORS
Blog for
Iowa has also added additional contributing posters these past few
months. We are graced by a weekly political column (Tuesdays)
from John Drury, former mayor of Swaledale and Democratic candidate for
Iowa Senate from District 6 in 2004, and a weekly environmental column
(Sundays) from Molly Regan, Scott County Soil and Water
Commissioner. Chad Thompson, Johnston, whom we stole away from the excellent (now
defunct) blog Iowa Populist, adds his sharp analysis of Iowa and
national events, and Caroline Vernon (DFQC) is in the process of
joining us as a regular poster. We are also extremely lucky to
have Trish Nelson, Iowa City, working the blog for us. Trish, the
Co-coordinator of Rapid Response – Iowa, is our media bias go-to gal,
our poster of calls to action, and our de facto assistant editor.
In other words, Blog for Iowa would have collapsed without her hard
work and great enthusiasm.
I'd like
to thank the many, many folks who have contributed to the success of
Blog for Iowa. Here's to another year of growth.
Linda Thieman
Editor, Blog for Iowa
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