rootstock II's List: watershed_jordan_river

"What if children never got to feel mud squish through their toes? See the ripple effect of a rock thrown into a lake? Chase a butterfly through a field of wildflowers? Or watch a raptor soaring on thermals?

A growing number of people are missing out on these important life-forming experiences, and it could change the world, Scott Sampson says in his new book, "How to Raise a Wild Child: The Art and Science of Falling in Love With Nature."

"The vast majority of people over 30 grew up freely outdoors, playing outdoors in nature in their own neighborhoods," said Sampson, known to thousands of children as Dr. Scott the Paleontologist on PBS Kids' "Dinosaur Train." "This generation doesn't have it, and if they grow up to not have a connection with nature, they won't value it. We are now a generation away from losing the connection.""

"For decades, Great Salt Lake shorebirds have been harbingers of the chemicals contaminating Utah's inland sea.

And soon, mallards — and more specifically their eggs — may be the gatekeepers of a $74 million water-reclamation project.

Private scientists will monitor the ducks' nests every year to determine the impact of a pipeline dumping 1.5 million gallons a day of wastewater — the byproduct of a public-private partnership between Kennecott Utah Copper and the Jordan Valley Water Conservancy District — on the lakebed.

Now, after more than a decade, the 21-mile pipeline's final stage is in sight: building a 1,000-foot extension that will spew water from two new reverse-osmosis plants straight into the lake."

"Why not just rebuild the prison in Draper?

It's the nagging question the Prison Relocation Commission has found difficult to move beyond, and it hung over a public meeting held in Salt Lake City on Wednesday evening.

Commission co-chairman Brad Wilson, a state lawmaker from Kaysville, warned the crowd of about 200 that "we are not here to talk about whether or not to move the state prison."

But as a moderator began reading questions from the audience, the topic popped up repeatedly, far more than any other, and it garnered the biggest outburst of applause from the audience.

Sen. Jerry Stevenson, R-Layton, the other co-chairman, was rather brusque in referencing the Legislature's vote to relocate the lockup: "The decision has been made to move the prison, the question is where do we put it.""

"GALESBURG, Ill. — Even in this city of abandoned factories, it is possible to see some of the benefits the United States reaps from increased foreign trade: At the rail yard, where boxcars of bargain-price Asian goods are routed to American consumers; at the nearby slaughterhouse, where pigs are packaged for the global market; and at Knox College, where almost 10 percent of the students now come from foreign countries.

It is also hard to miss the enduring costs. In 2004, Maytag shut down the refrigerator factory that for decades was Galesburg’s largest employer and moved much of the work to Mexico. Barack Obama, then running to represent Illinois in the Senate, described the workers as victims of globalization in his famous speech that year at the Democratic National Convention.

A decade later, many of those workers are still struggling. The city’s population is in decline, and the median household income fell 27 percent between 1999 and 2013, adjusting for inflation."

"A state prison relocation open house last night in Salt Lake City drew a couple of hundred people—many of whom questioned why the Utah Prison can’t remain at its existing location in Draper. "

"It is hard to avoid the feeling that our current economic problems are more than just a cyclical downturn. We know that the economy has gone through some bad times. But what exactly are we experiencing?

One relatively optimistic view is that observed deficiencies — like slow growth in real wages and the overall economy, persistently low interest rates and low levels of labor participation — are merely temporary. In this view, these problems will dwindle after manageable problems like high levels of public or household debt have been reduced.

Another commonly heard view is that we made the mistake of letting the last recession linger too long, allowing some of its features to became entrenched. That analysis suggests that if we correct past policy errors, whatever they may have been, an underlying normality will re-emerge.
Economic View
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There are some nuggets of truth in both of these arguments, but there is a much more disturbing possibility that could turn out to be more accurate: namely, that the recession was a learning experience that we haven’t fully absorbed. From this perspective, the radical and sudden changes of the financial crisis were early indicators of deep fragility and dysfunctionality."

"MINNEAPOLIS — Long before the fight over same-sex marriage began in earnest, long before gay couples began lining up for marriage licenses, Jack Baker and Michael McConnell decided to wed.

The year was 1967. Homosexuality was still classified as a disorder, sodomy was illegal in nearly every state, and most gay men and lesbians lived in fearful secrecy.

But from the age of 14, eyeing young men in his father’s barbershop, Mr. McConnell dreamed of living “happily ever after” with a partner.

So when Mr. Baker proposed moving in together, Mr. McConnell challenged him. “If we’re going to do this,” he replied, “you have to find a way for us to get married.”

Mr. Baker remembers his initial reaction: “I had never heard of such a thing.”

He enrolled in law school to try to make it happen."

"A new report on financial professionals’ views of their industry paints a troubling picture. Rather than indicating that Wall Street has cleaned itself up, it suggests that many of the lessons of the crisis still haven’t been learned. And the mind-boggling settlement numbers, as well as stringent new rules, like the of Dodd-Frank regulatory overhaul in 2010, appear to have had little deterrent effect.
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In the study, to be released Tuesday, about a third of the people who said they made more than $500,000 annually contend that they “have witnessed or have firsthand knowledge of wrongdoing in the workplace.”"

"How healthy is the most popular seafood? What’s it doing to the environment? Below you’ll find simplified versions of recommendations from the Monterey Bay Aquarium’s Seafood Watch program."

"Homeowners around Salt Lake City's Bonneville golf course are calling for a mulligan after learning a water-conservation plan would leave turf to brown and die around the perimeter of the links.

Whatever grows in those areas abutting houses near the course at the mouth of Emigration Canyon would be kept to a maximum height of 6 inches, according to city officials. It's a money-saving strategy that will help fund a new irrigation system now being constructed at Bonneville.

But residents fear the new rough — 14.7 acres in all — could create a fire hazard, provide a home for rodents and other vermin and set the stage for duffers searching endlessly for lost balls very near their homes. Not to mention the fact that the brown vegetation will do nothing to enhance the ambiance of their well-tended yards of Kentucky bluegrass."