Mayors vow to cut levels of pollution
Chicago The U.S. Conference of Mayors unanimously passed a resolution Monday requiring their cities to try to meet or surpass emissions standards set by the Kyoto Protocol, an international global- warming treaty ratified earlier this year without the United States.
The resolution also urges federal and state governments to meet or beat the goal of reducing global-warming pollution levels to 7 percent below 1990 levels by 2012.
President Bush opposes the 1997 Kyoto Protocol, questioning scientists’ views that “greenhouse gases” are causing temperatures to rise. U.S. officials also argue the Kyoto requirements would boost energy prices and cost U.S. jobs.
Seattle Mayor Greg Nickels sponsored the mayoral agreement.
Panel to ask about falsified Yucca data
Washington A congressional committee will subpoena a former worker on the Yucca Mountain, Nev., project who is at the center of a controversy over document falsification at the proposed nuclear waste dump.
The House Government Reform Committee will issue a subpoena today demanding an appearance and documents from Joseph Hevesi, a U.S. Geological Survey scientist in Sacramento, Calif., said Rep. Jon Porter, R-Nev.
Hevesi was a principal author of e-mail by scientists studying how water moved through the proposed waste dump 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas. In the e-mail, Hevesi discussed making up facts, deleting inconvenient data and keeping two files – “the ones that will keep (Quality Assurance) happy and the ones that were actually used.”
Senate vote looming over nominee to U.N.
Washington President Bush’s embattled pick to be the next U.S. ambassador to the United Nations could face a confirmation vote in the Senate within days.
Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn., has indicated to Democrats that he wants a vote on John Bolton’s stalled nomination this week, aides said. The White House has predicted Bolton eventually will win confirmation.
Last month, Republicans fell short of the 60 votes they needed to stop debate on the nomination.
Drugs, not a stun gun, blamed in man’s death
West Park, Fla. A man subdued with a stun gun died from cardiac arrest because of cocaine in his system, officials said.
Broward County sheriff’s deputies used a stun gun on Horace Owens, 48, of Fort Lauderdale, Fla., after he broke into a home Saturday. He reportedly struggled with deputies trying to arrest him, collapsed and was pronounced dead at a hospital.
The medical examiner said cocaine in Owens’ system – not electric shock – sparked cardiac arrest. More than 100 people have died since 2001 in the United States and Canada after stun-gun shocks.
Poultry firms accused of fouling area water
Tulsa, Okla. Oklahoma’s attorney general filed a lawsuit Monday against 14 poultry companies accused of polluting water in northeastern Oklahoma with animal waste.
The complaint alleges violations of state and federal laws and agricultural codes. It seeks unspecified compensation to clean up the damage, mainly in the Illinois River watershed.
Attorney General Drew Edmondson said the waste is rich in phosphorus and makes an excellent fertilizer – but not at the levels going into the watershed.
A spokeswoman for the poultry industry said it is “dismayed” by the lawsuit and hopes it can be resolved through mediation.