Left In Lowell

A pretty predictable but still disturbing outcome of the mishandling of the Gulf spill crisis by BP (via dkos):

Scientists have found signs of an oil-and-dispersant mix under the shells of tiny blue crab larvae in the Gulf of Mexico, the first clear indication that the unprecedented use of dispersants in the BP oil spill has broken up the oil into toxic droplets so tiny that they can easily enter the foodchain.

Marine biologists started finding orange blobs under the translucent shells of crab larvae in May, and have continued to find them “in almost all” of the larvae they collect, all the way from Grand Isle, Louisiana, to Pensacola, Fla. — more than 300 miles of coastline — said Harriet Perry, a biologist with the University of Southern Mississippi’s Gulf Coast Research Laboratory.

Good god. What have we done to our planet?? We need renewable replacements for oil and coal right now. Of course, our do-nothing Senate (thanks to Senator Brown and the Nelson/Landreu wing of the Dems) will produce no useful energy policy bill in the foreseeable future.

This, on top of the news that over a million acres of the high-altitude pine trees in the region of Yellowstone are dying from an infestation of beetle, likely due to climate change.

Sometimes, I am so glad I do not have any kids whose future I have to worry about.

The Globe reports there’s a deal between the House and Senate on the casino bill. DeLeo wants slots at the racetracks (aka slot parlors) and the Senate wanted, well, none.

The deal would authorize three resort casinos and would allow the state’s four racetracks to compete for two slot parlor licenses. The deal does not meet Governor Deval Patrick’s demands. He said Thursday he would accept creation of one slot parlor as part of the expanded gambling bill, if legislators agreed to break a legislative logjam on Beacon Hill.
[…]
House Speaker Robert DeLeo, who initially wanted slot licenses for each of the four tracks, had recently signaled he would accept two slot parlors, with the racetracks given a preference in the bidding, the Globe has reported.

While I disagree with the whole damn bill (it’s junk, it’ll only harm us in the long run, there is no such thing as free money), I certainly am against any slot parlors. I am really certainly against a no-bid or easy-bid contract for the racetracks to get them as a preference. But of course, that’s what DeLeo wants. I’ll be charitable and say it’s because he has some racetracks in his constituency - though it is pretty plain this is more than just saving a mere handful of jobs (and I do mean mere handful).

So, I hope the Governor stands firm - no deal if there are no-bid or preferential-bid contracts in the mix. My personal fave outcome here would be, of course, for a dead bill, and there is only roughly 36 hours left in the legislative session. But that’s not the only reason I do not want the Governor to give in here. I think it’s wrong to start handing out giant no-bid or restricted-bid contracts at all, especially to an industry which is linked to some of the worst sorts of abuses and ethical problems in the state.

By the way, the Massachusetts AFL-CIO’s stand on this is super shortsighted. If you want real jobs, casinos are so not the way to go. It all looks good on paper in the short run, but the degradation of the local economy around casinos will kill more jobs that the whole shebang creates. (Ask the restaurants and other entertainment venues around Atlantic City’s casinos.) It also kills opportunity for venues like the Lowell Summer Music Series to attract acts, since they can’t compete with the casinos on artist salaries. The venues out near Connecticut already have problems with this - we want to create more?

This is pretty encouraging! Of course, if you’re the one still out of work it matters very little, but, as we’ve seen consistently during this downturn, we have been one of the few fortunate states.

The Massachusetts economy expanded at more than double the rate of the national economy during the second quarter of the year, boosted by federal stimulus programs, demand for technology products, and the strongest job growth since the so-called miracle years of the 1980s, the University of Massachusetts reported today.

The article cautions, however, that if the national economy slows again, and federal stimulus spending is not extended (as it appears to be the case, thanks Senator Brown), that will of course affect us going forward.

But, you know, the stimulus didn’t, like, work or nothin’. You know. (Too bad we wasted 1/3 of the stimulus in non-stimulative tax cuts - imagine how much further we’d be ahead right now.)