Oh, boy. I've been waiting for this to happen, haven't you? See, here in America, we have a little something called the First Amendment. We can say what we want to say. Now, no, that doesn't mean that our employers have to put up with us once we do so. But! There is already established First Amendment-related law protecting employees who vent about their bosses on their own time, or even at the water cooler, as the below article points out.

So: Let the lawsuits begin.

I say bring it on. This is one of those instances where the our First Amendment rights should prevail, so long as the plaintiff can either flip the legal bill or convince attorneys, eager to argue before the Supreme Court, to go in pro bono. Because, face it folks, lawsuits are often won by the party with the fattest wallet.

From MSNBC and the Associated Press:

A Connecticut woman who was fired after she posted disparaging remarks about her boss on Facebook has prompted a first-of-its-kind legal case by federal authorities who say her comments are protected speech under labor laws.\

The National Labor Relations Board alleges that American Medical Response of Connecticut Inc. illegally fired Dawnmarie Souza from her job as an emergency medical technician late last year after she criticized her supervisor on her personal Facebook page and then traded Facebook messages about the negative comments with other employees.

The complaint, filed Oct. 27 by the board's Hartford, Conn., regional office, could set a precedent for employers to heed as more workers use social networking sites to share details about their jobs.

"It's the same as talking at the water cooler," said Lafe Solomon, the board's acting general counsel. "The point is that employees have protection under the law to talk to each other about conditions at work."

Federal labor law has long protected employees against reprisal for talking to co-workers on their own time about their jobs and working conditions, including remarks that may be critical of managers. The law applies whether or not workers are covered by a union.

Read the rest of this article, by Sam Hananel, here.

Hey bosses: Want your employees to stop bitching about you? Stop being douche bags.

Rhiannon "Rhi" Bowman is an independent journalist who contributes snarky commentary on Creative Loafing's CLog blog four days a week in addition to writing for several other local media organizations. To learn more, click the links or follow Rhi on Twitter.

From the Associated Press:

Yields are not keeping up with a world growing hungrier. Crops are stunted in a world grown warmer. A devastating fungus, a wheat "rust," is spreading out of Africa, a grave threat to the food plant that covers more of the planet's surface than any other.

In Chicago, London and other money centers, the wheat market is so roiled by bad news and speculators that rising prices may put bread out of reach for millions more of the world's poor.

The future of wheat — in many ways the future of food — was the subject of an emergency meeting of agricultural officials who flew to Rome from around the world in late September, worried over skyrocketing prices.

Since July, when traders saw a historic heat wave devastating Russia's crop, prices on the world's wheat exchanges have shot up 50 percent. Corn and other grains rose in lockstep.

Then Mozambique was rocked by riots over rising bread prices, and 2010 began to look like 2008, when an even bigger spike in cereal prices touched off violence worldwide.

Will wheat prices ever settle back to the low, steadier levels of 2005 and earlier? "No," he replied. "We've ruled out that possibility."

Since 2005, the FAO's cereals price index has doubled. Meanwhile, the number of chronically undernourished in the world has swelled, standing today at an FAO-estimated 925 million, or one-seventh of humanity.

Feeding the world, 9 billion people by 2050, will mean boosting food output globally by 70 percent over 40 years, the FAO says.

But wheat, the biggest source of protein in poorer countries, is falling behind: As global population grows 1.5 percent a year, the growth in wheat yields, the amount of grain produced per hectare, has slipped below 1 percent a year. In the United States, yields generally peaked in the 1990s.

In the face of leapfrogging prices, stagnating yields and shifting climate zones, wheat cannot be counted on to fill mankind's stomach in the future as it has since at least 7000 B.C. Affordable substitutes are often unavailable in places like India and Egypt.

"Humanity faces tremendous challenges to food security," the world's top wheat researchers conclude in a blueprint for a stepped-up strategy to produce more of the grain.

Read the entire article here.

Further reading: Rising Seas and the Groundwater Equation -- The New York Times

Rhiannon "Rhi" Bowman is an independent journalist who contributes snarky commentary on Creative Loafing's CLog blog four days a week in addition to writing for several other local media organizations. To learn more, click the links or follow Rhi on Twitter.

From our friends at ProPublica, and article by Marian Wang:

While they may be conducting their own investigations, federal prosecutors and national bank regulators for the most part aren’t the ones leading the investigation into the foreclosure mess. At least that's the perception—one that's reinforced when Elizabeth Warren, Obama's head of consumer financial protection, says her money is on a 50-state investigation by the states' attorneys general. The New York Times’ Joe Nocera, for instance, has said that the handful of federal investigations into the subject are “not going to amount to a hill of beans."

Why such low expectations for the feds? A piece in the Washington Post today may shed some light (emphasis added):

As foreclosures began to mount across the country three years ago, a group of state bank regulators  suspected that some borrowers might be losing their homes unnecessarily. So the state officials asked the biggest national banks for details about their foreclosure operations.

When two banks—J.P. Morgan Chase and Wells Fargo—declined to cooperate, the state officials asked the banks' federal regulator for help, according to a letter they sent. But the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, which oversees national banks, denied the states' request, saying the firms should answer only to inquiries from federal officials. In a response to state officials, John Dugan, comptroller at the time, wrote that his agency was already planning to collect foreclosure information and that any additional monitoring risked "confusing matters."

But even as it closed the door on state oversight, the OCC chose itself not to scrutinize the foreclosure operations of the largest national banks, forgoing any examination of their procedures and paperwork. Instead, the agency relied on the banks' in-house assessments. These provided no hint of the problems to come until they had tripped the nation's housing market, agency officials later acknowledged.

The music video in the background of this 2007 YouTube video was made in response to the 1992 housing bubble implosion. It makes you wonder, will we ever learn?

And, here's Megadeth with "Foreclosure on an American Dream," Guess no one listened. (Lyrics)

Rhiannon "Rhi" Bowman is an independent journalist who contributes snarky commentary on Creative Loafing's CLog blog four days a week in addition to writing for several other local media organizations. To learn more, click the links or follow Rhi on Twitter.

We're going to have to stop accusing pot heads of being lazy and unfocused: The folks backing Proposition 19 in California — which, had the voters approved it, would have legalized marijuana — are gearing up for a big come back in the next election, and this time they think they'll make some real progress.

Why should you care? Because legalizing pot is the best thing for our country: 1) Our government needs the tax revenue; 2) It's a natural pain killer that can be consumed in food or drinks, smoked or taken in tablet form; 3) Our prisons are already over-filled with people who are not violent criminals — and they're expensive; 4) Even though white people — you know who you are — are more likely to smoke pot, minorities are more likely to go to jail or prison for marijuana-related crimes; 5) It will be a boon for start-up business who will create jobs; 6) The fantasies about pot making people crazy are just that.

From The Los Angeles Times:

They see the election as a trial run that could lead to a campaign with a better message, a tighter measure and more money. Both the winning and losing sides say California's voters rejected this specific initiative, but remain open to legalizing the easily obtainable drug.

The proponents have a huge head start compared to where they were two years ago. At that time, regulating and taxing marijuana was the dream of a handful of Oakland activists. Now, the campaign has a broader base of supporters, including labor and civil rights leaders. Big-money donors have shown a keen interest. And the state's electorate and media have seriously debated the issue.

In addition, the presidential election is expected to draw far more young voters to the polls. If they had shown up Tuesday, supporters note, Proposition 19 might have come close to passing. Even so, they also point out with bemusement, legalization outpolled Meg Whitman and Carly Fiorina.

"The question about legalizing marijuana is no longer when, it's no longer whether, it's how," said Ethan Nadelmann, the executive director of the Drug Policy Alliance, a national advocacy group that will play a pivotal role in any 2012 ballot measures in California or other states. "There's a really strong body of people who will be ready to pull the lever in the future."

Read the rest of this article, by John Hoeffel, here.

This is the full documentary, "Grass: The History of Marijuana." So, get yourself a bowl and some popcorn ...

Rhiannon "Rhi" Bowman is an independent journalist who contributes snarky commentary on Creative Loafing's CLog blog four days a week in addition to writing for several other local media organizations. To learn more, click the links or follow Rhi on Twitter.

OK, I admit it: When I saw the "breaking news" this morning about Whole Foods coming to town I got a little excited. A few years back, when I lived in Atlanta — a place that didn't have to beg Whole Foods to open stores, I was a regular-enough shopper. (They really do have some good eats.) But, once I read past the headline my excitement turned into disgust.

Here's why:

South Park? Are we sure South Park needs one more grocery store, because I thought they were all ready full-up. In a time when you don't have to explain what a food desert is, it's really annoying that yet another grocery store is being established in an area that doesn't need one.

Also, your company people came right out and said, in The Charlotte Observer article about your new store, the company is putting the store in South Park because its food is pricey. This is no surprise ... but the balls! Really. You are telling a whole, diverse city that you're only interested in serving people who won't look at your price tags because your products are more expensive than most. That smacks of vanity, materialism, consumerism and screams status symbol. Those things do not equal healthy food in my mind. Good quality food should not be a status symbol.

So, fuck you Whole Foods. I've lived without you since I moved to the Queen City and I'll continue living without you. I'd rather spend a year in my organic garden than drive 15 minutes to your new store.

The Healthy Home Market in South End, Trader Joe's in University City, WalMart in Denver ... those are the shops for me. See, it's not the commute to your store that matters to me, nor is it the fact that you're a corporation, it's your attitude I can't stand. I'll drive for good, healthy food and great customer service, but I won't drive for a status symbol in a world aching for equality.

Other food news:

• Brace yourselves for higher food prices as companies pass the costs along — The Wall Street Journal
• Young Chinese farmers sowing seeds for organic revolution — The Washington Post
• Scientists Find Bisphenol A In U.S. Food — Chemical and Engineering News
• Man out to prove potatoes aren’t junk food eats nothing but potatoes for two months — Grist
• 9 Everyday Products You Didn't Know Had Animal Ingredients — Treehugger

The connection between geography and obesity. Or, why does the South have so many food deserts? (Answer: Status.)

Rhiannon "Rhi" Bowman is an independent journalist who contributes snarky commentary on Creative Loafing's CLog blog four days a week in addition to writing for several other local media organizations. To learn more, click the links or follow Rhi on Twitter.

No doubt. When the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency regulates big business in an effort to keep our air and water clean, that means reduced profits for the corporations that fund the GOP's candidates. And, as we all know, when profits are on the line, the Republican party says, "Fuck the people ... gimme the money!"

The thing that's always most curious about announcing plans to thwart environmental progress is that these are the same people who will trot their wives and kids out onto a stage and say, "See, I care. I have kids, too." But, I'm not buying it. If they truly cared, they'd make sure our air and water stayed as clean as possible for future generations. They wouldn't generate giant messes for their children and grandchildren to clean up.

Instead, what they want us to believe is that scientists are lying about climate change and industry's role in it, and that everyone has it out for the super wealthy corporate elite. The Republicans want us to protect their rich buddies and sacrifice our own health so they can all continue rolling around in piles of cash. The money is so enticing, they're even willing to sacrifice the futures of their own children. Now, that's greed.

So, the message that's coming across is, "The planet is fucked. Let's go ahead and rape it for all it's worth since there won't be much of anything to pass on to little Johnny." Oh, and, "Show me the money!"

As the Cree Indian prophecy goes: “Only after the last tree has been cut down. Only after the last river has been poisoned. Only after the last fish has been caught. Only then will you find that money cannot be eaten.”

From The L.A. Times:

If the GOP wins control of the House next week, senior congressional Republicans plan to launch a blistering attack on the Obama administration's environmental policies, as well as on scientists who link air pollution to climate change.

The GOP's fire will be concentrated especially on the administration's efforts to use the Environmental Protection Agency's authority over air pollution to tighten emissions controls on coal, oil and other carbon fuels that scientists say contribute to global warming.

The attack, according to senior Republicans, will seek to portray the EPA as abusing its authority and damaging the economy with needless government regulations.

Read the rest of this article, by Neela Banerjee, here.

Further reading:

Coal Industry Spending to Sway Next Congress — The New York Times

What's the worse that could happen if we ignore climate change science?

Yesterday was the last of a series of public hearings held by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency regarding its proposed coal ash regulations. The hearing was held in Knoxville, Tenn., about 30 miles from the coal ash spill that got everyone's attention. But it was quite different from Charlotte's hearing.

For one thing, the venue was fancier and larger. In Charlotte, when you walked into the Holiday Inn down by the airport, you couldn't help but encounter people involved in the hearing. In Knoxville, the hearing was at a huge Marriott hotel near the city's downtown district. If you didn't go there specifically for the hearing, you'd never have known one was going on. The hearing was held downstairs, out of sight.

Also, while Charlotte's 13-hour hearing was backed for many hours, the Knoxville hearing looked empty. What I discovered was people were coming in, commenting and leaving. In Charlotte, people hung out — sometimes for hours. At both hearings, a couple hundred people spoke. Also at both hearings, comments were divided somewhat evenly — as far as I could tell — on both sides of the issue.

Right after arriving at the hearing, I spoke with a representative from the EPA who told me the families affected by the coal ash spill in December 2008 were warned away from the hearing by their attorneys and that many of them had moved away. Additionally, he said the message at the hearing, with few exceptions, was on repeat. To summarize: Those who work for companies that create or use coal ash want lenient regulations and everyone else wants stronger regulations.

Another thing that was different at yesterday's hearing: The hotel allowed environmentalists to rent a room. While the Holiday Inn in Charlotte originally told environmentalists they could rent a room, they changed their tune and rented the same space to coal industry lobbyists instead. And in Knoxville, environmentalists were able to hold a small Halloween-themed protest outside of the hearing. In Charlotte, the planned protest was quashed by the Holiday Inn. The company has yet to explain why.

One more thing: At yesterday's hearing there was a screening of the documentary "Perry County." That's the county in Alabama where the sludge from the coal ash spill in Tennessee is being dumped. It's one of the poorest in Alabama.

With that, I can't report any new news out of yesterday's hearing — other than the fact that they're finally over and we'll hear back from the EPA ... well, the when part is unclear. But I can show you the photos I took both at the hearing and near the coal plant that created the disaster.

From what I saw, everything looks normal in Kingston, Tenn. (That's the town surrounding the Tennessee Valley Authority's coal plant.) But, there are a lot of for-sale signs in front of expensive-looking houses. And my GPS freaked out once I passed the "locals only beyond this point" sign, coloring the roads hazard yellow.

If you were unable to attend the hearings, but would still like to comment, you can sign the North Carolina Conservation Network's petition or send in your own comments. The deadline is Nov. 19. The Catawba Riverkeeper has created a few easy buttons for you at the bottom of this linked page.

Read more about yesterday's hearing from the Knoxville Sentinel.

Rhiannon "Rhi" Bowman is an independent journalist who contributes snarky commentary on Creative Loafing's CLog blog four days a week in addition to writing for several other local media organizations. To learn more, click the links or follow Rhi on Twitter.

Well, this is just annoying, especially since state and local governments aren't much help either. In fact, Charlotte-Mecklenburg Utilities refuses to detail its emergency plan should our drinking water become compromised. This could be because the company's in the process of expanding the reservoir behind its main drinking water treatment plant on Brookshire Boulevard — which means the reservoir is currently empty. Though, officials say they can't detail the plan due to security concerns. But, wait a minute — isn't it our water and our utility? Don't we deserve to know the emergency plan?

From The New York Times, on the Obama administration's lack of enforcement:

Criminal enforcement of federal water-pollution laws has continued a more than decadelong slide under the Obama administration, despite pledged improvements, according to U.S. EPA data.

The government reported 32 new Clean Water Act convictions during the fiscal year that ended in September, down from 42 in 2009. The number of criminal water pollution cases initiated by the agency fell from 28 last year to 21 this year.

Both figures have dropped nearly 60 percent since the late 1990s, their highest points in the past 20 years.

The numbers indicate that the Obama administration so far has been unable to reverse a trend that started under President George W. Bush, when EPA criminal enforcement activity dropped in conjunction with a 27 percent cut to U.S. EPA's overall budget, said William Andreen, an environmental law professor at the University of Alabama.

Read the rest of this article here.

That's full-on annoying. We can't drink promises, Mr. President.

And, as stated before, local and state governments aren't much more help either. From The Chicago Tribune:

It took years for Illinois officials to discover that southwest suburban Crestwood was pumping contaminated water to its residents, in part because the state took village officials at their word that nothing was wrong.

Such lax oversight is a problem in scores of communities throughout the nation, according to a new report from the U.S. Environmental Agency's inspector general that urged federal and state officials to conduct more rigorous inspections and adopt tighter reporting guidelines.

The report, prompted by a Tribune investigation, also found there is no way to determine if emergency water supplies that serve more than 58 million people are contaminated or being misused. Oversight is based on trust, rather than routine inspections, the inspector general concluded.

As a result, it's unclear if there are situations like Crestwood in other parts of the country. Investigators could find just two similar problems during the 1990s, one in Minnesota and the other in the U.S. Virgin Islands.

Read the rest of this article, by Michael Hawthorne, here.

Clean water is essential for life. Watch: Clean water issues will become more prominent over the next few years.

Rhiannon "Rhi" Bowman is an independent journalist who contributes snarky commentary on Creative Loafing's CLog blog four days a week in addition to writing for several other local media organizations. To learn more, click the links or follow Rhi on Twitter.

A few months ago, a friend called all exciting about refinancing her home. "It's easy," she told me. Five months later, Bank of America is still giving her the run around. Why? It's unclear, since the bank isn't very communicative, but my friend -- who has excellent credit, a steady job and a perfect payment history -- suspects it's because she's after a lower interest rate, which means a lower mortgage payment. But, her story isn't one of the appalling ones. It is, however, one more example of big banks dicking around with their customers.

Bank of America, the country's largest bank and Charlotte's darling -- along with many other banks now under investigation by attorney generals across the country, halted foreclosures for a minute earlier this month (a move widely looked upon as a public relations stunt), then they kicked them back into high gear days later. This after news that bank employees knowingly goofed around with people's financial paperwork.

Now, I know: People shouldn't have signed up for mortgages they didn't understand. I agree with you. But, let's face it: Most people don't read the long, jargon-filled documents they sign. I mean, when was the last time you read your insurance policy or your mortgage documents? Have you ever read them? So, the people who signed up for crazy-bad mortgages are also at fault, but, in my eyes, the big banks that enticed people into zero-down, gotcha loans knowing people barely understand financial documents are truly in the wrong here. And their greed, if you connect the dots, led us all directly into the midst of what's now known as The Great Recession. Gee, thanks Bank of America.

From The New York Times:

After months of horror stories, it seemed that the real estate mess could not get any worse. But now, the nation is in the middle of yet another foreclosure crisis.

Revelations that the nation’s biggest banks may have fudged crucial documents in their rush to reclaim tens of thousands of homes have the public in an uproar. Attorneys general from all 50 states announced sweeping investigations into the industry’s foreclosure practices. The nation’s top financial regulators have also ordered reviews. And Bank of America, JP Morgan Chase, GMAC and other big banks announced a few weeks ago that they were halting foreclosures in much of the country.

But now, banks are slowly getting back into the foreclosure business. And on Wednesday, Shaun Donovan, the secretary of housing and urban development, tried to ease concerns by saying that none of the problems threaten the health of the financial system.

The foreclosure crisis seems to be either in meltdown or in repair. Which is it?

Read the rest of this article, by Eric Dash, here.

Rhiannon "Rhi" Bowman is an independent journalist who contributes snarky commentary on Creative Loafing's CLog blog four days a week in addition to writing for several other local media organizations. To learn more, click the links or follow Rhi on Twitter.

The N.C. Department of Environment and Natural Resources is holding a public hearing in Mooresville tonight. The topic: Pollution discharge permits for three Duke Energy coal plants — one is on Lake Norman, one is on Mountain Island Lake and the other is on Lake Wylie. All three, by way of everyday operating procedures, heat the water in the lakes (which lowers the amount of oxygen in the water and can kill fish) and discharge pollutants into the lakes.

The hearing follows news from Mecklenburg County that they have, again, detected arsenic levels exceeding state water quality standards in Mountain Island Lake — our area's main drinking water reservoir.

You should know, the permit for the two Duke Energy unlined, high-hazard coal ash ponds on that lake expired in February of this year, and the one proposed to take its place doesn't limit the amount of arsenic that can be discharged into the lake.

Again, this isn't just any body of water ... it's our drinking water. When you turn on your taps, there's a high probability that Mountain Island Lake is what flows out of it.

If you'd like to attend the hearing, here are the details:

• You’ll need to arrive by 6 p.m. to register to speak at the hearing.
• Include I-77’s daily traffic congestion in your planning. Get there early and enjoy one of Mooresville's great restaurants.
• You’ll have three minutes to speak, so come prepared.
• The location: Charles Mack Citizen Center, 215 N. Main Street, Mooresville, N.C. (map)
• Review the proposed permits here.

Read more about what the county found in our water, and why they've asked NCDENR to limit the amount of arsenic — and 13 other heavy metals — Duke Energy can discharge, from The Charlotte Observer's Bruce Henderson here.

Find out what the Catawba Riverkeeper thinks about the permits for the three coal plants here.

Further reading:

The future of coal: Old energy source under new pressures, but it’s not dust yet — Knoxville News Sentinel

Learn more about arsenic:

Rhiannon "Rhi" Bowman is an independent journalist who contributes snarky commentary on Creative Loafing's CLog blog four days a week in addition to writing for several other local media organizations. To learn more, click the links or follow Rhi on Twitter.