Month: July 2003

U.S. House Votes to Deny Money to Enforce Meat Labelling Requirement

One provision of the 2002 Farm Bill that U.S. president George W. Bush signed into law is a requirement that meat packers and retailers affix labels to their products describing the geographical origin of the meat.

In June, however, the House Appropriations agriculture subcommittee unanimously approved language in a U.S. Department of Agriculture funding bill that prohibits the USDA from spending any money to enforce this new requirement.

Those affected by the law argue that it is very expensive while providing only a marginal benefit (if any). The Associated Press reports that the USDA estimates the costs of complying with the requirement would be $1.9 billion annually.

Rep. Henry Bonilla (R-Texas) told the Associated Press that the language was designed to give those affected more time to study the law’s implications,

Before any decision is made, the producers, processors, retailers and meat industry must have the opportunity to consider the ramifications.

But Consumer Federation of America assistant director Arthur Jaeger told the Associated Press that the industry had more than enough time to study the costs without cutting all funding for enforcement of the rule,

How much study do they need? Implementation was specifically put off until fall of 2004, specifically to allow thorough review and consideration of how to implement it. They’ve had plenty of time to do it. Why on earth would you need more?

Source:

House panel rejects meat labeling money. Emily Gersema, June 18, 2003.

Animal Activist Arrested in Dog Theft

A South Carolina animal activist was arrested in June and charged with the theft of a dog.

Janice Melton, 43, claimed the dog walked up to her on June 2 as she was watching Columbus County Animal Control officers seize two horses from property owned by Ronald and Donna Beck that were allegedly malnourished. Melton had reported the horses to animal control.

Melton returned to the area on June 3, and according to her account,

I picked her up and put her in my car. I wasn’t on their property. She didn’t have a collar or tags, and she was in desperate need of some help.

According to Melton, the dog suffered from malnourishment and mange. An Associated Press report quoted an unnamed relative of the Becks as saying that the dog did not have mange, but appeared malnourished because it was recovering from parvovirus.

When Melton refused to turn the dog over to police, she was arrested and charged with felony theft. She was also charged on an outstanding warrant accusing her of providing alcohol to a person under 21 years of age.

Sources:

Woman says dog’s welfare worth jail. Associated Press, June 18, 2003.

Animal-rights activist charged in dog theft. Deuce Niven, Fayetteville Online, June 17, 2003.

First, Lets Kill All the Environmentalists?

Chico Unified School Trustee Anthony Watts found himself in hot water recently after he wrote a letter to the editor criticizing animal rights and environmental extremists.

Watts was rightfully angered at recent animal rights extremist attacks at a McDonald’s and a car dealership in Chico. But Watts used an odd turn of the phrase to express his frustration. According to the Chico Enterprise-Record,

Weighing in on the issue of a Frisbee golf course in Bidwell Park, Watts wondered if Shakespeare were alive and living in Chico, would he write, “First, let’s kill all the environmentalists”?

This brought outrage from folks such as long-time school district employee, Tanya Heinrich, who was quoted by the Chico Enterprise-Record as saying, “I am deeply offended that you would use such inflammatory language.”

Watts apologized saying, “I deeply regret I offended anyone on this issue.”

Alas, no mention of anyone coming to the defense of lawyers for the Bard’s numerous sleights and inflammatory language directed at lawyers. One suspects, though, that the Chico Unified School District will not be staging “Henry VI” anytime soon.

Source:

Watts apologizes for remarks he made about environmentalists. John Michael, Chico Enterprise-Record, June 20, 2003.

UK Judge Renews Restrictions on Protests Against Huntingdon Life Sciences

A judge in the United Kingdom extended an interim injunction that placed time and place limitations on anti-Huntingdon Life Sciences protests in that country.

On April 16 a judge granted a temporary order requested by Huntingdon Life Sciences just a few days before an expected large protest by the group as part of the World Day for Laboratory Animals.

Mr. Justice Pitcher at that time created a 50-yard exclusion zone around the homes of HLS employees where anti-HLS activists could not protest. The order also placed an exclusion zone around the premises of HLS and limited the size of any protests against the company.

HLS lawyer Tim Lawson-Cruttenden had argued before Mr. Justice Gibbs that,

It is clear that both the claimant company and the claimant employees have been the subject of a very detailed campaign that has been targeted against them by an organisation called Stop Huntingdon Animal Cruelty

We say that the campaign amounts, at the very least, to harassment as a matter of fact, and that it also involves a large number of criminal offences being committed in the course of that campaign.

In granting an extension to the order, Mr. Justice Gibbs agreed with there Lawson-Cruttenden saying there was “a serious likelihood, in the absence of injunctive relief continuing, that the employees will suffer further unlawful harassment of a serious nature.”

Gibbs did alter the initial injunction slightly to allow for activist to protest more frequently.

Sources:

Judge renews curbs on HLS activists. Nikki Tait, The Financial Times (London), June 21, 2003.

JUDGE URDGE TO CONTINUE INJUNCTION FOR ANIMAL RESEARCH WORKERS. Cathy Gordon, Press Association, News, June 12, 2003.

JUDGE TO GIVE RULING ON HLS INJUNCTION. Cathy Gordon, Press Association News, June 20, 2003.

Lab firm injunction continues. The BBC, June 20, 2003.

The Strange Case of China’s Flower Magnate

So whatever happened to Yang Bin, the man listed just a few years ago as the second richest man in China? Yang is actually a Dutch national, but was arrested in China back in November as part of a Chinese crackdown on bribery and other corruption. Yang headed up Euro-Asia Agricultural (Holdings) Co Ltd (a major flower exporter), but was arrested by Chinese authorities just a few days after North Korea had named him to head up a free trade area near the North Korea/China border. He was charged with falsifying financial documents and his trial was to have begun in June. But this Washington Post story about the government shutting down a Beijing newspaper notes that media outlets in China are specifically forbidden from reporting on Yang’s case. I assume that means the world will find out about Yang’s sentence a month or two after the completion of his trial. Sources: China Closes Beijing Newspaper in Media Crackdown. John Pomfert, The Washington Post, June 20, 2003. China to Deal with Yang Bin Case According to Law. Xinhua News Agency, November 29, 2002. China orchid king stands trial. Jonathan Ansfield, Reuters, June 10, 2003.

More Funky Feeds

I swore to myself I was not going to write anything more about the 2003 RSS Wars, but this section from Dave Winer’s RSS 2.0 Political FAQ was too good to pass up,

If we were to go the opposite way, with every source of feeds inventing their own replacements for core RSS 2.0 elements, the cost to enter would become increasingly high, and it becomes more likely that programs will express compatibility in terms of products, not formats. Then you’d have to use one aggregator to read BBC feeds, for example, and another to read SF Chronicle feeds. So “funky” is anti-interop; and “not funky” is pro-interop.

Okay, he has a point. Can you imagine, for instance, if you could only read the RSS feeds of something as important as the New York Times in just a single aggregator? That would really suck, wouldn’t it?

Thank goodness the anti-interop feeling in the RSS community is strong enough to prevent something like that from ever happening.