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Vinson Court (1946–1953)
VINSON COURT (1946–1953)
fred m. vinson was Chief Justice of the United States from June 24, 1946, until his death on September 8, 1953. During his seven-year period of service the Supreme Court was considerably less interesting, colorful, or originative of significant constitutional doctrine than its predecessor, the stone court, or its successor, the warren court. However, the Vinson Court did deal with serious and important issues, particularly Cold War challenges to civil liberties and awakening concerns about racial discrimination.
Vinson was a close friend of President harry s. truman and an active Democrat who had had the unique experience of serving in all three branches of the federal government. Immediately preceding his appointment to the Court he had been secretary of the treasury. President Truman had made one previous appointment, naming harold burton, a Republican and former senate colleague of Truman, to replace owen roberts in 1945. The other seven justices were of course all holdovers from the Stone Court, which guaranteed a continuation of the judicial dialogue that had pitted the liberal activism of hugo l. black, william o. douglas, frank murphy, and wiley b. rutledge against the brilliant critiques of felix frank-furter and robert h. jackson, with the moderate stanley f. reed somewhere in the center.
The four-judge liberal bloc had within itself the votes required to grant certiorari petitions, which ensured that civil liberties issues would continue to appear on the Court's agenda. When the liberals agreed, they needed only one additional vote to constitute a majority. But in the summer of 1949 Justices Murphy and Rutledge died, cutting the liberal bloc in half. President Truman filled these two vacancies by the appointment of tom c. clark, his attorney general, and sherman minton, who had been a New Deal senator from Indiana. The two new justices joined with Vinson, Reed, and Burton in a moderately conservative bloc which dominated the remaining four terms of the Vinson Court. An indication of the balance of power on the Court is provided by the number of dissents registered by each of the Justices during this four-year period: Clark 15, Vinson 40, Burton 44, Minton 47, Reed 59, Jackson 80, Frankfurter 101, Douglas 130, Black 148.
The most famous decision of the Vinson Court in terms of public reaction, and probably the most noteworthy as a contribution to constitutional theory, was youngstown sheet tube co. v. sawyer (1952), generally known as the Steel Seizure Case. Here the Court by a vote of 6–3 held unconstitutional President Truman's seizure of the nation's steel mills in 1952, an action he justified as necessary to avert a nationwide strike that might have affected the flow of munitions to American troops in Korea. The President had no statutory authority for the seizure, which consequently had to be justified on a theory of inherent presidential power to meet emergencies.
Justice Black, supported by Douglas, flatly denied the existence of any inherent presidential powers. Justices Jackson and Frankfurter were less dogmatic, and the doctrine of the case is generally drawn from their opinions. As they saw it, the controlling factor was that Congress had considered granting the President seizure power to deal with nationwide strikes when adopting the taft-hartley act in 1947 but had decided against it. In addition, Jackson contributed a situational scale for ruling on claims of executive emergency power. Vinson, in his most famous dissent, upheld the President as having moved in an emergency to maintain the status quo until Congress could act, and he rejected the majority's "messenger boy" concept of the presidential office.
The fact that the Court could have avoided the constitutional issue in the Steel Seizure Case by various alternatives suggested that most of the justices believed it important to announce a check on presidential power. The decision was enormously popular with the press and public and has subsequently been accepted as an authoritative statement on the separation of powers, establishing that actions of the president are subject to judicial review. There had been some doubt on this point since the failure of the post-civil war suit against the president in mississippi v. johnson (1867). It established also that executive claims of power for which statutory authority is lacking, and which must consequently rely on the President's general Article II authority, are subject to strict judicial scrutiny.
Less significant in its doctrine than the Steel Seizure Case but almost as controversial was the Court's contempt ruling against John L. Lewis, leader of the coal miners, in 1947 (united states v. united mine workers). The government had seized the nation's bituminous coal mines in 1946 to end a crippling strike and had entered into a contract with Lewis on wages and working conditions. When Lewis subsequently terminated the contract unilaterally and resumed the strike, the government secured a contempt judgment and heavy fine against Lewis and the union. In his first major opinion Vinson upheld the conviction for contempt, ruling that the norris-laguardia act limiting the issuance of labor injunctions was not binding on the government as an employer.
A significant difference between the Stone and Vinson Courts was that world war ii had ended and the Cold War against communism had begun. The hunt for subversives in which the nation was caught up soon after the shooting war was over tainted the entire period of the Vinson Court and created difficult civil liberties issues. The government's principal weapon against suspected subversion was the Smith Act of 1940, which made it unlawful to teach and advocate the overthrow of the United States government by force and violence, or to organize a group for such a purpose.
Convictions of eleven leaders of the American Communist party under the Smith Act were upheld by the Supreme Court in dennis v. united states (1951). In the most memorable event of his judicial career, Chief Justice Vinson wrote the Court's majority opinion defending the Smith Act against contentions that it violated the first amendment. The defendants admittedly had taken no action with the immediate intention of initiating a revolution. But Vinson held that the clear and present danger test, developed by Justice oliver wendell holmes and louis d. brandeis, did not require the government to wait until a "putsch" was about to be executed before acting against a conspiracy. Vinson accepted the reformulation of the test developed by Judge learned hand : "Whether the gravity of the "evil,' discounted by its improbability, justifies such invasion of free speech as is necessary to avoid the danger." He considered the communist "evil" to be that grave. Justices Black and Douglas dissented; Douglas pointed out that the prosecution had introduced no evidence of Communist party action aimed at overthrow of the government.
Vinson also wrote the Court's opinion in american communications association v. douds (1950), upholding the Taft-Hartley Act noncommunist oath. This statute denied the protections and services of the wagner (national labor relations) act to any labor organization whose officers failed to file affidavits that they were not members of the Communist party. The Chief Justice held that Congress in adopting this statute was acting to prevent the obstruction of commerce by "political strikes." The law was not aimed at speech but rather at harmful conduct carried on by persons who could be identified by their political affiliations and beliefs.
The Vinson Court was caught up in the final moments of the Cold War's most spectacular event, the execution of Julius and Ethel Rosenberg, who were charged with passing atomic "secrets" to the Russians. Review of the lower court conviction and subsequent appeals was routinely denied by the Supreme Court in 1952 and early 1953, as were also the initial petitions for stay of execution. But Justice Douglas thought that one final petition filed the day before execution was scheduled raised a new legal issue deserving consideration. He consequently granted a stay which the full Court set aside the next day, and the executions were then carried out. Douglas's action caused a brief furor and a congressman demanded his impeachment. In the last opinion before his death Vinson defended Douglas's action as a proper response to protect the Court's jurisdiction over the case pending a consideration of the legal issue raised. Black and Frankfurter joined Douglas in asserting that the stay should have been granted.
During the era of the Vinson Court, congressional committee investigations of communism developed into major political and media events. Senator Joseph McCarthy's pursuit of "Fifth Amendment Communists" got under way in 1950, too late to create issues for the Vinson Court. But the house committee on un-american activities had begun operations in 1938, and by 1947 petitions for review of contempt citations against witnesses who had refused to reply to committee interrogation began to reach the Supreme Court. However, it declined review of all the cases that would have required a ruling on the constitutionality of the use of investigatory power, and it dealt only with certain less controversial issues of committee procedure and use of the Fifth Amendment privilege by witnesses.
A prominent feature of the Cold War period was concern about the loyalty of government employees. aloyalty oath fad developed in nearly every state, which the Vinson Court legitimated in gerende v. board of supervisors of elections (1951) by upholding a Maryland law that required candidates for public office to file affidavits that they were not "subversive persons."
A loyalty program covering federal employees was set up by President Truman in 1947 and was continued by President dwight d. eisenhower. It required checking the loyalty of all incumbent employees and all applicants for federal employment. A complex administrative organization of loyalty review boards was created, and to assist the boards the attorney general issued a list of organizations he found to be "totalitarian, fascist, communist, or subversive." Consideration of the constitutionality of this program split the Court 4–4 in Bailey v. Richardson (1951). But in joint anti-fascist refugee committee v. mcgrath (1951), decided the same day, the Court by a vote of 5–3 challenged the attorney general's list as having been drawn up without appropriate investigation or due process. The dissenters were Reed, Vinson, and Minton. In spite of this opinion the list continued to be used for a number of years in government hiring and investigation.
At the state level a New York law providing for the removal of public school teachers on grounds of membership in listed subversive organizations was upheld in adler v. board of education of city of new york (1952), Justice Minton reasoning that the purpose was constitutional and that procedural protections provided by the statute were adequate. Justices Black and Douglas dissented, and Frankfurter would have denied the appeal on technical grounds of standing and ripeness.
Apart from Cold War cases, freedom of speech and freedom of the press did not suffer seriously at the hands of the Vinson Court. burstyn v. wilson (1952) was in fact an advance in its holding that a motion picture could not be censored on the ground that it was "sacrilegious." A law censoring magazines featuring bloodshed and lust was struck down in Winters v. New York (1948) as void for vagueness. Poulos v. New Hampshire (1953) upheld licensing of meetings in public parks and streets, but only if the licenses were granted without discrimination, and the use of licensing ordinances to prevent unpopular religious groups or preachers from holding meetings in public parks was rebuffed in niemotko v. maryland (1951) and kunz v. new york (1951).
In terminiello v. chicago (1949) a divided Court reversed on rather technical grounds the conviction of a rabble-rouser for breach of the peace resulting from an incendiary speech. But feiner v. new york (1951) upheld the conviction of a soap-box orator even though the situation was much less inflammatory than in Terminiello. Moreover, beauharnais v. illinois (1952) approved a state law treating critical comments about racial groups as criminal and subjecting their authors to prosecution for group libel.
The Vinson Court dealt with a number of conflicts between freedom of expression and privacy but without producing any theories justifying or limiting privacy claims such as those subsequently developed in griswold v. connecticut (1965) by the Warren Court. Use of sound trucks in streets and parks was initially upheld in Saia v. New York (1948) against contentions of infringement on privacy, but in the following year the Court conceded that "loud and raucous" sound trucks could be forbidden (kovacs v. cooper). Radio broadcasts including commercial messages in district of columbia streetcars were permitted to continue by Public Utilities Commission v. Pollak (1952), even though captive audiences might suffer, but Breard v. City of Alexandria (1951) protected householders by approving an ordinance forbidding door-to-door selling of magazine subscriptions. Justice Black charged that the latter decision violated the "preferred position" for First Amendment freedoms originated by the Roosevelt Court. The severest blow to that philosophy was United Public Workers v. Mitchell (1947) which upheld by a vote of 4–3 the hatch act limits on political activity by public employees.
In a 1940 case, thornhill v. alabama, the Court had strongly asserted that picketing in labor disputes was protected by the First Amendment. Almost immediately, however, the Court found it necessary to announce limits on this holding, a process the Vinson Court continued. The most significant case was giboney v. empire storage ice co. (1949), where the Court ruled unanimously against a union that was picketing to force an employer to enter into an illegal restrictive contract.
The issue of public financial aid to religious schools required the Vinson Court to make the first significant effort to interpret and apply the First Amendment ban on establishment of religion. everson v. board of education (1947) involved a state arrangement under which parents could be reimbursed from public moneys for their children's bus fare to parochial schools. An unusual five-judge majority composed of three liberals (Black, Douglas, and Murphy) and two conservatives (Vinson and Reed) held that the subsidy was simply a social welfare measure and that the First Amendment did not require exclusion of persons of any faith from the benefits of "public welfare legislation." Rutledge's vigorous dissent regarded payment for transportation to church schools as a direct aid to religious education and so unconstitutional.
The following year mccollum v. board of education presented another church-state issue. The case involved a released time program of religious education under which public school children attended classes in Protestant, Roman Catholic, or Jewish religious instruction during school hours and in the school building. The Court's almost unanimous verdict of unconstitutionality aroused a storm of criticism in church circles, and within four years the Court substantially reversed this ruling, upholding a New York City released time program that differed from McCollum only in that the classes were held off the school grounds (zorach v. clausen, 1952.) A similar reluctance to disturb the religious community was seen as the Court avoided on technical grounds of standing a ruling on the constitutionality of Bible-reading in the public schools (doremus v. board of education, 1952).
The Vinson Court's civil liberties record was distinctly better than that of its predecessors in one area, protection of minorities from discrimination. The prevailing constitutional rule was that established by plessy v. ferguson in 1896—that segregation of the races was constitutional provided treatment or facilities were equal. In practice, they were never equal, but over the years the Court had consistently avoided the difficult task of enforcing the Plessy rule. In the field of education, none of the few efforts to challenge unequal facilities had been successful. But in 1938 the hughes court made a small beginning, ruling in missouri ex rel. gaines v. canada that Missouri, which denied blacks admission to state law schools, must do so or set up a separate law school for blacks. morgan v. virginia (1946) invalidated a state Jim Crow law requiring racial segregation of passengers on public motor carriers, but the constitutional ground given was burden on interstate commerce rather than denial of equal protection.
The Vinson Court undertook cautiously to build on these beginnings. The commerce clause justification used in the Virginia bus case was likewise employed in boblo excursion co. v. michigan (1948). But the Vinson Court's boldest action against segregation came shortly thereafter in shelley v. kraemer (1948). With Vinson writing the opinion, the Court declared that restrictive covenants binding property owners not to sell to minorities, although within the legal rights of property owners, were unenforceable. For a court to give effect to such a discriminatory contract, Vinson held, would amount to state action in violation of the fourteenth amendment.
The separate law school for blacks that Texas had established was declared unequal in sweatt v. painter (1950). The University of Oklahoma, forced to admit a black graduate student, required him to sit in a separate row in class, at a separate desk in the library, and at a separate table in the cafeteria. mclaurin v. oklahoma state regents (1950), with Vinson again writing the opinion, held these practices to be an unconstitutional impairment of the student's ability to learn his profession.
Vinson's opinion, however, rejected the opportunity to consider the broader issue of the Plessyseparate but equal rule. So attacks on the segregation principle continued, and the test cases moved from the universities and graduate schools to the primary and secondary schools. In December 1952 brown v. board of education and four other school segregation cases were argued for three days before the Court. But instead of a decision in June, the Court set the cases for reargument in October. The Chief Justice died in September, and so the Vinson Court's most momentous issue was passed on to the Warren Court.
Although the Stone Court had broken some new ground in criminal procedure, its record was mixed, particularly in guaranteeing the right to counsel and protection against unreasonable searches and seizures. This latter issue surfaced in the Vinson Court's first term. One of the oldest problems in American constitutional law is whether the due process clause of the Fourteenth Amendment "incorporated" and made effective in state criminal proceedings the protections of the Fourth through the Eighth Amendments. As recently as 1937 in palko v. connecticut the Court had reiterated the principle that all state procedures consistent with ordered liberty are acceptable.
In Adamson v. California (1947) the Palko doctrine survived on the Vinson Court, but by only a 5–4 vote. Justice Black led the minority. He relied on legislative history to establish his version of the intention of the framers of the Fourteenth Amendment and attacked the ordered liberty test as substituting natural law and the notions of individual Justices for the precise and protective language of the bill of rights.
Although Black lost in Adamson, "ordered liberty" was a standard powerful enough to bring state criminal processes within the ambit of the fourth amendment in wolf v. colorado (1949). However, Justice Frankfurter for the six-judge majority held only that searches and seizures by state law officers are bound by the standard of reasonableness; he declined to go further and impose on state prosecutions the exclusionary rule which prevents evidence secured by unconstitutional means from being offered in federal prosecutions. Justices Murphy, Douglas, and Rutledge, dissenting, contended that the exclusionary rule provided the only effective protection against police violation of the Fourth Amendment, and their view was finally adopted on the Warren Court in mapp v. ohio (1961).
With respect to right to counsel, the Vinson Court accepted the rule announced by the Stone Court in betts v. brady (1942) that the necessity for counsel depended upon the circumstances, such as the seriousness of the crime, the age and mental capacity of the defendant, and the ability of the judge. Applying the "special circumstances" rule in twelve cases, the Vinson Court concluded that in six the absence of counsel had resulted in denial of a fair trial. In only one of the twelve was the Court unanimous. This experience was a factor in the Warren Court's decision in gideon v. wainwright (1963) to abolish the confusing special circumstances rule and make counsel mandatory in all state felony prosecutions.
What was potentially one of the Vinson Court's most significant decisions for the federal system was nullified by Congress. In 1947 the Court ruled that subsurface land and mineral rights in California's three-mile coastal area belonged to the federal government (United States v. California), and in 1950 the Court applied the same rule to Texas. Congress retaliated in 1953 by ceding to the states ownership of land and resources under adjoining seas up to a distance of three miles from shore or to the states' historic boundaries.
In summary, the tendency of the Vinson Court was to follow a policy of judicial restraint, rejecting innovation or activism. The number of cases decided by full opinion fell below one hundred during three of the last four years, far less than the number typically decided by earlier Courts. The five justices who dominated the Court in its latter period were capable but lacking in style or originality. The four Justices of intellectual distinction—Black, Douglas, Frankfurter, and Jackson—generally paired off and pulled in opposite directions.
The pall of the Cold War hung over the Court. Confronted with the scandal of mccarthyism, it was quiescent. Facing Smith Act prosecutions, the loyalty inquisition of federal employees, lists of subversive organizations, scrutiny of school teachers' associates, loyalty oaths, and deportation of ex-communists, the Court's response was usually to legitimate the government's action.
But in one field, significantly, there was a different kind of response. The Vinson Court did not evade the issue of racial discrimination. Although moving cautiously, as was appropriate considering the enormity of the problem, the Court nevertheless proceeded to bring denial of equal protection out of the limbo of neglect and unconcern into the focus of national consciousness and thereby prepared the way for its successor's historic decision on May 17,1954.
C. Herman Pritchett
Frank, John P. 1954 Fred Vinson and the Chief Justiceship. University of Chicago Law Review 21:212–246.
Murphy, Paul L. 1972 The Constitution in Crisis Times, 1919–1969. New York: Harper & Row.
Pritchett, C. Herman (1954) 1966 Civil Liberties and the Vinson Court. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Swindler, William F. 1970 Court and Constitution in the Twentieth Century: The New Legality, 1932–1968. Indianapolis: Bobbs-Merrill.


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When I get a new Civil War book, I first look at the endnotes/footnotes so I can see the kinds of sources that the author used. Perhaps this makes me a geek, but I like to see how an author constructed the book. Over the years, I’ve read a fair number of books relating to the trans-Mississippi, and there are certain sources that I see referenced over and over. One of these is the trilogy written by Anne Heloise Abel, a pioneering historian. Published between 1915 and 1925, Abel studied the fate of the slaveholding Indians (the Cherokees, Chickasaws, Choctaws, Creeks, and Seminoles) in the Indian Territory from 1830-1866. Most modern historians focus on relatively small slices of history so I am impressed at Abel’s audacity in tackling a large and complex topic.
According to the introduction in the modern reprint of her trilogy, Abel was born in England, but her family emigrated to Kansas when she was a still a youngster. She earned her first degrees at the University of Kansas and then earned a Ph.D. at Yale University. How and why she became interested in the topic of slaveholding Indians during the war is a mystery to me; perhaps it related to her time at the University of Kansas. Several years after earning her Ph.D., she taught at a college in Baltimore and traveled regularly to Washington, D. C. to examine Bureau of Indian Affairs records. Abel was the first historian to study many of these documents.
Admittedly, it took me several years to work up the courage to begin reading her books as I assumed that they were densely written. Much to my surprise they proved to be well organized and quite readable. However, she was fond, quite fond, of footnotes and some pages consist primarily of notes. She had a tendency to include transcriptions of excerpts and even entire documents in her notes. Although this is viewed as quite old-fashioned today, I have actually found her notes to be quite valuable in my latest research project. Another refreshing feature of her books is the almost total absence of typographical errors. One of my pet peeves in recent years has been the great increase in typographical errors in history books. Not too long ago, I had to set aside a book for a few days because I became so irritated at the many typos. But, I digress… A major negative feature of Abel’s trilogy is her outmoded, ethnocentric references to Indians; her wording can be quite jarring. Also, she failed to make use of Indian sources in her study. In spite of these criticisms, though, Abel’s work has stood the test of time. It has been almost 100 years since her trilogy was published and essentially every journal article or book dealing with the Indian Territory references her work. Now, that is staying power!
Bibliographic citations for her books:
Abel, Annie Heloise. The American Indian as Slaveholder and Secessionist. Cleveland: Arthur H. Clarke, 1915; reprint ed., Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1992.
Abel, Annie Heloise. The American Indian in the Civil War, 1862-1865. Cleveland: Arthur H. Clarke, 1919; reprint ed., Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1992.
Abel, Annie Heloise. The American Indian and the End of the Confederacy, 1863-1866. Cleveland: Arthur H. Clarke, 1925; reprint ed., Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1993.

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27 No. 5
Advancement of Harmonized Approaches for Crop Protection Chemistry in Latin America
by K. Racke, E. Carazo, and G. Roberts
As a leading agricultural producer and exporter, Latin America
constitutes one of the four largest global crop protection
chemistry markets. In 2004, sales of agricultural chemicals
in Latin America amounted to USD 5.6 billion, which is 20%
of the global total in sales of agricultural chemicals—an
increase of 25%–35% from sales experienced during the
late 1990s. As the use of crop protection chemicals has increased,
so have environmental, food safety, and regulatory concerns.
Against this backdrop, the International
Workshop on Crop Protection Chemistry in Latin America was
held 14–17 February 2005 in San Jose, Costa Rica.
It was organized around three priority topics related to crop
protection chemistry: regulatory harmonization, environmental
assessment, and residues and human exposure. Key observations
from each of the three major workshop topics are summarized
below, and future action items for IUPAC are also outlined.
A fundamental assumption for the regulatory process is that chemical pesticides play an important role in sustainable agriculture, provision of the world’s food supply, and protection of public health. Their use has contributed to efficient use of existing agricultural lands, thus minimizing further encroachment into natural areas. Pesticide use has had a major role in the tripling of world food production experienced during the past 50 years. For example, the use of pesticides in Costa Rica has resulted in a three-fold increase in production value during the past 5–10 years, while actually reducing the area of land under cultivation. Meanwhile, Costa Rica has been able to protect nearly one-quarter of its territory as national parks or private reserves.
Over the past decade, sales of crop protection chemicals in Latin America have grown significantly; the region is now one of the four largest global markets for such chemicals. Analysis of market trends indicates the potential for increased use of some categories of products, particularly those targeted for public health protection. Compared to other regions, Latin America has been faster to adopt products with new active ingredients. However, the cost of developing each new active ingredient has soared, and current estimates place the associated R&D expenses at between USD 180 and 200 million. For industry, this cost escalation has increased concerns about regulatory data and patent protection.
One major market trend is an overall increase in reliance upon generically produced, off-patent products. In light of this trend, lecturers from both industry and nongovernmental organizations emphasized the critical importance of quality control of approved sources of pesticide active ingredients and formulations. This is important for ensuring efficacy while supporting human and environmental safety, particularly with respect to the correct assay of active ingredients and the minimization of relevant impurities.
There are a number of international approaches available to support local regulatory evaluation and management of crop protection chemistry. These include the FAO Code of Conduct, the FAO/WHO product quality specification process, OECD test guidelines, and Codex maximum residue limits. In addition, crop protection chemistry will be affected by implementation of international treaties and conventions that have recently entered into force, including those related to persistent organic pollutants (Stockholm Convention, May 2004) and prior-informed consent (Rotterdam Convention, February 2004). It was suggested that most evaluation systems be redesigned to assess the benefits of pesticides as well as the risks. Currently, no internationally harmonized guidelines are in place to do this.
Some interesting regional approaches to harmonization have been initiated recently in Latin America. During the late 1990s, the five Andean countries agreed to adopt a common norm for evaluation and regulation of pesticides, and a technical manual of evaluation criteria and procedures was developed. Implementation is still at an early stage, but many valuable lessons have already been learned. One remaining gap concerns evaluation criteria and an agreed-upon procedure for establishing generic versions of existing active ingredients. Similarly, the CATIE/GTZ-NOQ project, in cooperation with the Agricultural Regional Organization of Central America, has drafted a common set of regulatory evaluation guidelines specifically for microbial and botanical pesticides, which are currently not well covered by guidelines for traditional, synthetic pesticides. The proposals arose following evaluation of guidelines available from OECD and several major OECD countries. It is hoped that in the future the seven Central American countries plus the Dominican Republic will adopt this harmonized approach.
Lecturers also emphasized the importance of education as a complement to regulation to support effective management of crop protection chemistry throughout the region. Health and environmental risks, especially those that may be associated with misuse, are largely a preventable problem. Safe pesticide use requires safe equipment and good systems for training and educating pesticide applicators and farm workers. In addition, good regulation and enforcement by a well-trained authority are essential. In Costa Rica, for example, the Ministry of Agriculture and Agricultural Pesticide Chamber trained nearly 130 000 people during the past 20 years in safe pesticide use practices. The appropriate management of an ever-expanding information base related to crop protection chemistry was also emphasized. The Internet in particular has become a vast resource for exchanging information on pesticide chemistry. Navigating this information, with respect to both availability and reliability, is an increasing challenge. Perhaps two quotes from classical scholars summarize well the present situation:
“The next best thing to knowing something is to know where to find it.” — Samuel Johnson, English author (1709–1764)
“Man’s most judicious trait is a good sense of what not to believe.” — Euripides, Greek philosopher
(c. 480–406 BC)
To this end, the recently initiated IUPAC project
on global agrochemical information management was introduced as a means of improving the situation. In partnership with FAO and IAEA, this project aims to increase availability of reliable information on the most important pesticides and pesticide information sources.
Environmental fate and ecological risk assessment were important
areas of emphasis at the workshop, particularly in light of
growing environmental awareness in the Latin America region.
Although past IUPAC project (PAC
1349–1371  [pdf file - 1.79MB])
conclusions highlighted the overall tendency for more rapid
dissipation of pesticides under tropical or sub-tropical conditions,
it was noted that much of the area in Latin America where
pesticides are used heavily actually falls within the temperate
climate zone (e.g., grain and soybean-growing regions of Southern
Brazil and Argentina; fruit-growing regions of Argentina and
Chile). The wide diversity of agricultural, soil, and climatic
conditions present in both temperate and tropical areas of
Latin America make it important to understand the processes
governing fate and transport under these conditions. On the
other hand, it was noted that testing has consistently revealed
a similar level of sensitivity to pesticide exposure within
major groups of non-target wildlife in temperate and tropical
area species. Thus, it is possible to refer to standardized
OECD test guidelines and organisms without having to implement
specific tests on locally prominent species.
|Speaker at the Workshop on Crop
Protection Chemistry in Latin America.
The off-target movement of pesticide residues during and following
application was emphasized as an important factor not to be
neglected. Considerations of such movement include direct
human exposure, deposition on sensitive non-target crops or
plants, and contamination of surface water resources. Spray
drift of fine particulates during application may be an inevitable
process, but preliminary results of an ongoing IUPAC project
indicate that a variety of drift mitigation practices are
available. Options for best management practices for drift
mitigation include sprayer technology (e.g., drift-reducing
nozzles, properly calibrated equipment), chemical technology
(e.g., spray tank adjuvants), and operational practices (e.g.,
wind speed restrictions, no-spray zones). Pesticide labeling
regulations and education are also important factors for ensuring
that applicators understand their responsibilities and take
Although application spray drift and post-application surface water runoff/sediment erosion are perhaps the greatest contributors to offsite movement of pesticides from agricultural areas, volatilization was also noted as a potentially significant loss process for some chemicals in combination with favorable meteorological and soil conditions. Although research in Latin American countries is limited, work in other regions indicates that under some conditions, from 5% to 20% or more of applied residues for certain pesticides may volatilize from soil and foliar surfaces into the atmosphere, where they may constitute sources for exposure or redeposition into sensitive areas. Unique combinations of environmental conditions and agricultural practices may contribute in some regions to higher pesticide volatilization (e.g., frequent pesticide application, frequent precipitation/irrigation, high temperature, low organic carbon content soils). In some cases, minor use pesticides may also be major constituents of atmospherically derived residues depending on their particular solubility, sorption, persistence, and volatility properties.
|Without a doubt the noisier workshop participants, these macaws, which are native to South and Central America, were eager to learn more about crop protection.
Lecturers and participants also discussed the impact of pesticides on water quality, including effects on aquatic organisms, humans, and livestock. Water monitoring has indicated the presence of trace concentrations of both highly persistent and more degradable pesticides in natural water areas adjacent to agricultural fields. For example, monitoring of irrigation return waters near the Palo Verde National Park area of Costa Rica displayed low ppb (μg/L) levels of both insecticides and fungicides. Similar observations of low concentrations of pesticides in both irrigation and natural waters have been reported from the fruit and vegetable areas of Mexico, the banana-growing areas of Central America, and the soybean and grain growing areas of Brazil.
The importance of effective water management in mitigating
pesticide entry into natural areas was also emphasized. The
movement of residues from agricultural areas following sprinkler/flood
irrigation compared to the lack of detections where drip irrigation
was employed was particularly noteworthy. Lecturers also stressed
the need for accurate and reliable data from well-designed
studies for regulatory compliance purposes and for determining
the effectiveness of exposure mitigation practices. It was
generally recognized that regional cooperation would be beneficial
for implementing systematic monitoring of surface water residues
from pesticides and other contaminants. Important quality
control aspects for both chemical and biological monitoring
of residues were highlighted (# 1999-017-1-600),
including the establishment of monitoring objectives, design
of sampling frequency and procedures, secure sample handling
and preparation procedures, laboratory analysis using appropriate
methods and procedures (e.g., accredited labs), and reporting
of results with appropriate limits.
Finally, with respect to establishment and interpretation of limits for pesticide residues in water, conclusions and recommendations of a recently completed IUPAC project were highlighted. Key considerations include defining the purpose of the standard and type of water to which the standard will apply, explaining publicly and transparently the rationale for each limit, and developing analytical methods with limits of quantitation that can match concentrations relevant to biological effects. Arbitrary adoption of water standards from other regions without consideration of the basis or rationale for such standards could result in little real benefit to advancement of environmental and human health protection in the Latin American region.
Ecological risk assessment involves consideration of the inherent toxicity of a pesticide as well as the magnitude and likelihood of exposure. Although simple toxicity or hazard classification systems are available and may be suitable for purposes of handling, storage, and transportation, these may be entirely inadequate and subject to misuse for purposes of environmental evaluation and regulation when not considered within the context of a full risk assessment. The importance of exposure considerations in determining potential harm was perhaps first well recognized some 500 years ago:
“All substances are poisons: there is none which is not a poison. The right dose differentiates a poison and a remedy.” — Paracelsus, Swiss philosopher and medical expert (1493–1541)
number of schemes have been developed, primarily in the United
States and Europe, for supporting the regulatory evaluation
of ecological risk posed by pesticides. Generally, these schemes
involve tiered approaches whereby screening levels requiring
limited data are used to identify those products and crop/use
scenarios for which more detailed, data-intensive assessments
are required. A recently initiated IUPAC project (# 2004-011-1-600)
provided initial insight into how screening-level or comparative
approaches may be employed as a first step in the pesticide
evaluation procedure, particularly in countries where there
are significant evaluation resource limitations. The EU’s
tiered approach to ecological risk assessment, involving standardized
fate/exposure scenarios to represent different climatic/geographic
areas across a region, was also highlighted. What made this
approach particularly interesting for the Latin American situation
was the collaborative manner, involving both government and
industry, in which the FOCUS (FOrum for the Coordination of
pesticide fate models and their USe) scenarios were developed.
This might be a good model for Latin America to follow since
the region has yet to achieve consensus on ecological risk
Finally, preliminary conclusions of an IUPAC project on environmental
implications for the use of genetically modified crops (e.g.,
insecticide resistant and/or herbicide tolerant) were reviewed
Such crop protection technology has growing importance in
many parts of the world, including the soybean- and grain-growing
areas of Argentina and Brazil, which together contain around
one-fourth of the world’s transgenic crops. Genetically
modified, disease-resistant rice and banana varieties are
currently under investigation in Central America. In general,
data predict genetically modified crops are likely to have
less environmental impact than traditional pest management
Residues and Human Exposure
The topic of pesticide residues and human exposure was also included in the workshop. Latin America is an important agricultural producing and exporting region, and food safety considerations are of growing importance in today’s regulatory arena. Mexico’s vegetable and fruit exports to the USA, the worldwide export of bananas and other tropical fruits from the Central American and Andean countries, and the grain, soybean, meat, and fruit exports of Brazil, Argentina and Chile to the USA and EU are all major components of the increased international trade in agricultural commodities observed during the past 20 years.
The primary means of local management of pesticide residues in food is via establishment of maximum residue limits or MRLs:
Maximum residue limit (MRL) “Maximum concentration of a residue that is legally permitted or recognized as acceptable in, or on, a food, agricultural commodity or animal feedstuff as set by Codex or a national regulatory authority.” (IUPAC 1996)
These MRLs are set to reflect the good agricultural practice (GAP) of a particular country or region, and when residues are present at or below the MRL, this is an indication that GAP has been followed. Most of the countries in Latin American, even those that may establish their own national MRLs, defer to the internationally harmonized MRLs established by Codex when it comes to the regulation of pesticide residues in imported foods. These Codex standards are specifically established to promote fair practices in food trade by ensuring that all relevant GAPs of producing countries are considered in establishing the MRLs. The suitability of these Codex standards for consumer protection is evaluated using chronic and, where appropriate, acute dietary intake assessment methods developed, in part, based on the recommendations of IUPAC. It should be noted that MRLs are not health standards per se, but are established based on GAPs and are evaluated for consumer safety. Thus, when an MRL in a food commodity is exceeded, it should not necessarily be viewed as a health concern, but primarily as an indication that GAP may not have been followed.
Monitoring results from tests on both locally produced and imported agricultural commodities in the EU, Japan, and the USA, generally show the vast majority of samples contain no detectable residues or residues at levels well below relevant MRLs. For example, U.S. Department of Agriculture monitoring of residues between 2001–2003 of the commonly used insecticide chlorpyrifos on bananas imported from Latin America revealed only one detection (at 0.007 mg/kg or ppm) in more than 1400 samples. In other cases, detections may be more frequent, but in general the vast majority fall well within established MRLs. Monitoring data from Brazil during the past 10 years reveals a generally low incidence of residues exceeding MRLs in fruits and vegetables (1%–2%), but between 5% and 19% of the samples in recent years have contained residues of pesticides for which use is no longer permitted. These illegal residues, primarily involving chlorinated hydrocarbon pesticides banned for use after 1995, may be present due to either lingering environmental contamination or illegal use.
Recent food residue monitoring results from Costa Rica have
highlighted some interesting differences. Whereas during 2003,
approximately 98% of food items imported into or exported
from the country had no detectable residues or residues below
the relevant MRL (i.e., 2% MRL violation rate), only 52% of
food items grown for local consumption fell within established
MRLs (i.e., 48% MRL violation rate). Findings such as these
from Brazil and Costa Rica highlight the need for consideration
of both extraneous MRLs (i.e., residues which may result from
historic use and environmental contamination) and continued
surveillance and education concerning adherence to approved
GAP. Concerning the implementation of such monitoring programs,
it was recognized that adherence to good laboratory practices
concerning both sampling and analysis may be important considerations
for ensuring reliability of reported results. Sampling programs,
in particular for monitoring of pesticides with acute toxicity
considerations that may be present on foods eaten as individual
units, must be designed to accommodate the considerable unit-to-unit
variability that may occur. For example, recent testing of
Brazilian-grown eggplant, mango, papaya, and summer squash
revealed variability factors of 2–3 (residue level in
the 97.5th percentile of individual unit divided by the mean
of the population). It was noted that this data was consistent
with an IUPAC recommendation to use a general variability
factor of 3 when estimating acute dietary intakes of pesticides
through consumption of this type of commodity (project # 1999-009-1-600).
Despite availability of internationally harmonized Codex MRLs for many pesticide/crop combinations, the Codex promise of promoting fair practice in international food trade through worldwide adoption of its voluntary standards has not been fully realized. This is in part due to the slowness in developing a full set of Codex MRLs, but also to the implementation of divergent national MRL systems by the world’s most influential food-importing regions (EU, Japan, USA). These competing MRL systems are posing significant challenges for pesticide management in Latin American export crops. In addition to Codex standards, which have been historically respected by the countries in Latin America, growers and exporters also must now consider EU, Japan, and USA MRLs that have not generally been established with the GAPs of Latin American producers in mind.
The emergence of “private” food-quality standards
developed by retailers and food importers primarily in the
EU, some more restrictive than those set by governments, is
posing an additional challenge. Some of these private standards
go so far as to mandate no allowable use of particular pesticides
that are not favorably viewed, regardless of whether any detectable
residues are present in the commodity at harvest. Minor crops,
for which MRLs may often be nonexistent due to a lack of available
field trial data, are particularly susceptible to trade disputes
related to pesticide residue detections. Although these crops
may be too “minor” in the sense of overall dietary
contribution and/or economic value to justify the cost of
registration studies, in some instances (e.g., spices, herbs,
tropical fruits, tea) they may nevertheless have high economic
importance for growers and their regions. Initial findings
were reviewed at the workshop from an ongoing IUPAC project
on MRLs for minor crops (# 2001-039-1-600).
The project aims to develop scientifically justified recommendations
for a tiered approach to establishing MRLs for pesticide uses
on minor crops without the need for comprehensive field trials.
Finally, worker exposure during handling and application is also an important consideration from a safety standpoint. A tiered system of exposure assessment has been recommended, which may involve application of generic estimates from established databases of available exposure studies to the conduct of new studies to measure external or absorbed residues (i.e., biomonitoring).
Although the workshop in San Jose was a great success in terms
of participation and the level of scientific information exchange
involved, it only represented the second of three objectives
for the “Crop Protection Chemistry in Latin America”
IUPAC project (# 2003-013-1-600).
The project also aims to develop recommendations for future
advancement of crop protection chemistry in Latin America.
Although the results of the workshop are still being evaluated,
three preliminary areas of emphasis and future action have
so far been proposed.
First, the importance of pesticide product specifications
as a means of controlling the quality of locally available
products was emphasized. The harmonized FAO/WHO process has
been well documented and supported by a past IUPAC project
but satisfactory application of the process in some Latin
American countries would be greatly assisted by specific training
of the personnel involved. Therefore, a hands-on training
session involving several key international experts and perhaps
15 to 20 or more of the key regulatory experts and analysts
from the region has been proposed.
Second, the importance of ecological risk assessment
methods for the safety evaluation of pesticide products was
emphasized. The ongoing IUPAC project on development of simplified
methods for ecological risk assessment will be of great assistance
in this regard (# 2004-011-1-600),
but further dissemination of the outcomes of this project
and also development of additional levels of refinement to
address the inevitable “problem cases” must be
addressed. In addition, it is vitally important that the various
Latin American stakeholders for crop protection chemistry,
government, industry and academia, develop a consensus regarding
the tiers of assessment to be employed and the risk mitigation
and management approaches to be endorsed. Therefore, the formation
of a Latin America ecological risk assessment working group
has been proposed.
Third, the importance of education in achieving
scientifically sound and harmonized approaches for regulation
was recognized. Of primary importance is outreach to the key
leaders and influencers within the Latin America crop protection
chemistry field, including regulatory officials, industry
leaders, technical specialists, agricultural consultants,
and researchers. One issue currently slowing advancement in
this area is a shortage of comprehensive and affordable crop
protection chemistry information resources in the Spanish
language. Two action steps were proposed to help address this
issue. First, the IUPAC Glossary of Terms Related to Pesticides,
currently being updated as part of an ongoing IUPAC project
will be translated into Spanish with the cooperation of the
FAO and IAEA. Second, the excellent textbook Pesticides
and the Environment, co-authored by workshop lecturer
Gerry Stephenson of the University of Guelph, will be reviewed
and edited by the IUPAC Subcommittee on Crop Protection Chemistry
and subsequently translated into Spanish. Particular emphasis
will be placed on Latin American considerations.
For Further Information
The IUPAC workshop in Costa Rica was the sixth in a developing series of such crop protection chemistry-related workshops organized by the DCE since 1988. Past workshops have been held in Brazil, China, Korea, Taiwan, and Thailand. The papers from the Costa Rica workshop proceedings are available at the Web site listed below.
Ken Racke <[email protected]>, a global regulatory leader with Dow AgroSciences in Indianapolis, Indiana, USA, was chair of the international organizing committee for the workshop. Dr. Racke is currently president of the IUPAC Division of Chemistry and the Environment (DCE), and has been active with the Subcommittee on Crop Protection Chemistry for several years. His interests include environmental considerations related to pesticide use and establishment of international standards for pesticide management.
Elizabeth Carazo <[email protected]>, a professor at the University of Costa Rica in San Jose and director of the Centro de Investigación en Contaminación Ambiental, was chair of the local organizing committee for the workshop and project leader on behalf of IUPAC. Carazo has been active with the DCE Subcommittee on Crop Protection Chemistry for several years, and has a particular interest in the environmental aspects of pesticides and other contaminants.
Graham Roberts <[email protected]>, a scientist with the Department of Primary Industries in Victoria, Australia, was a member of the international organizing committee for the workshop. Roberts has been active with the DCE Subcommittee on Crop Protection Chemistry for several years, and has a particular interest in food residue considerations for pesticides and human dietary intake. He has also served on the Australian delegation to the Codex Committee on Pesticide Residues for a number of years.
To access IUPAC projects visit <www.iupac.org/divisions/VI/cp6.html>.
last modified 30 August 2005.
Copyright © 2003-2005 International Union of Pure and
Questions regarding the website, please contact [email protected]

domain: agronomy


The Bible: How and Why
From Broadcast for Schools.co.uk.co.uk
The Bible: How and Why is a BBC schools radio series from the 1960s and 1970s, covering Religious Education for secondary school pupils.
- alternating with Religion: How and Why from autumn 1971
Some random programmes for age 11-13 from the 1970s
|Rules, Rules, Rules|


Pocket Cutting Just Got Portable Castle USA now has a highly portable and easy-to-use solution for creating stable low angle pocket joints. The Castle 110 Pocket Cutter creates low, 3º pockets that minimize joint creep, particularly when compared to other pocket hole joinery solutions. The Castle 110 Pocket Cutter in a Nutshell The Castle 110 […]
In a perfect world, we’d conveniently build furniture and casework at our shops with the workflow set up just the way we like it. Then we’d pack it up for easy transport, unload it without a hitch, and carry it gently to its installation point. What a breeze, right? That’s a far cry from reality, […]
Using glue-ups in joinery is the preferred solution for tables and other surfaces requiring strong adhesion. We asked our Pros for some thoughts on when using glue-ups in joinery is best. Joinery, whether utilitarian or decorative, must always be dependable. Joint failure is annoying at best and dangerous at worst. A carpenter’s skill level, available […]
You would think that after 35 years in the field of trim carpentry I would have used or owned all of the available tools and equipment on the market. Apparently I was wrong, with a capital W. This review is about another piece of equipment from the German master tool builder called the Festool Domino […]
As a furniture maker, I am always on the lookout for new tools, techniques, and jigs that simplify the construction of strong and long lasting joinery. With a couple of face frames to build and a table project in the works, this seemed like a great time to try out the new Porter-Cable PC560 Quik […]
Porter Cable just announced the Quick Jig 560 Pocket Hole Joinery System. We don’t do a ton of these, but it actually looks to be very flexible and built like a tank, so you don’t have to worry about drift when using it repeatably over several pieces. In addition, the 560 has an automatic depth control system that allows for easy set up for different material thicknesses (up to 1-1/2″ thick). That means less setup time and a whole lot less computations on where you’re going to place your holes. There’s even a repeatable self-adjusting clamp that adjusts automatically. Variable spaced bushings allow a variety of positions for the pocket holes and a handy screw length gauge recommends the appropriate screw length for the material thickness.


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Buy it Again
Tetley Decaf Blend Tea - 72 CT
Black Tea, Classic Decaf, Decaffeinated, Bags
Hot or iced. New look. Since 1837. Bright, smooth and refreshing. Double chamber tea bags. Enjoy the flavor of an American Classic: Enjoy the flavor of an American Classic Tetley Master Blenders have carefully selected the finest tea leaves from estates around the world. Our new dual chambered tea bags help the tea leaves infuse better, brewing an aromatic bright cup full of sparkle and flavor. Our Classic tea is also delicious when served iced. Celebrate Tetley's 180 years of black tea expertise with a true classic! www.tetleyusa.com. Facebook. Twitter. Instagram. Follow (at)TetleyUSA. How was your Tetley Tea? Question, comments, feedback, we would love to hear from you! 800-728-0084; www.tetleyusa.com. We are a member of Ethical Tea Partnership. www.ethicalteapartnership.org. Rainforest Alliance Certified: 100% Rainforest Alliance Certified Tea. Tetley is working with the Rainforest Alliance, a non-profit organization dedicated to sustainability and conservation around the world. We are committed to ensuring a better life for our farmers, better tea for you and a better environment for everyone.
Serving Size: 1tea bag
Servings Per Container: 72
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|Total Fat||Amount Per serving 0g||0%|
|Saturated Fat||Amount Per serving (-)||(-)|
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Decaffeinated Black Tea.
Directions Brewing the Perfect Cup of Tetley Tea: Pour freshly boiled water over tea bag in cup; Brew for 3-5 minutes; Sweeten if desired. Enjoy! Brewing the Perfect Pitcher of Tetley Iced Tea: Pour freshly boiled water over two tea bags; Brew for 3-5 minutes; Sweeten if desired and chill; Add ice cubes and enjoy!

domain: food


For Immediate Release
March 9, 2023
Michael S. Garrity, Director of Communications
firstname.lastname@example.org | (603) 931-9375
Matthew G. Conley, Attorney, Election Law Unit
email@example.com | (866) 868-3703
Concord, NH – Attorney John M. Formella provides the following update to this week's press releases regarding political advertising that does not identify who is responsible for it:
In Raymond, an unidentified party published the website "raymondrights.com". The website contains endorsements of candidates and warrant articles on the Raymond ballot in the March 14 election but violated RSA 664:14. As part of the Election Law Unit's investigation, contact was made with Kera Clements who confirmed she was responsible for the website. The website has been updated to include a contact person to identify the responsible party for the political advertising.
In Amherst, an unidentified party has published the website "amhersttoday.com" which includes endorsements of and opposition to warrant articles on the March 14 ballot but violates RSA 664:14. The website states that it is "provided by concerned Amherst citizens who wish to remain anonymous." The Election Law Unit is continuing to investigate.
In each of these matters, the political advertising did not contain information identifying the party that paid for or distributed them. Under New Hampshire law, political advertising that does not have the required disclosure information can be removed by municipal maintenance personnel and law enforcement.
As the elections are so close, the identities of these individuals may not be known prior to the elections. As a result, Attorney General Formella reminds voters to do their own research on candidates and warrant articles before they vote.
New Hampshire Department of Justice
33 Capitol Street | Concord, NH | 03301


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Christian Ryan’s review published on Letterboxd:
My second viewing and I’m just gonna paint in the rest of that fifth star.
We lost Sally Menke too soon, but Tarantino seems to be in good hands. Just check out that feeding the dog sequence. That was the best editing I’ve ever seen in my whole life.
Fred. Fuckin’. Raskin.

domain: hobby


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Montecarlos — Gesha
Carlos and Julie Batres are renowned, fifth generation stewards of Montecarlos, a prized coffee estate in Apaneca, El Salvador. Their beautiful farm is situated on a volcano which provides rich soil and dynamic topography for growing world class coffees. This coffee is 100% Gesha and grown between 1600 - 1800 meters above sea level.
Each box includes 6 individual cups. Each packet contains 5g of freeze dried coffee. Add 10 oz of filtered water (hot or cold), give it a stir and enjoy!

domain: geography


Compared to the early days of climate change denial, electric vehicles are now making serious inroads. How can we do better?
Amidst rising affluence and the onset of “fast” everything—from fashion to consumer electronics, how can we still act decisively on climate change issues?
As the window to mitigating the worst effects of global warming rapidly narrows, Asian governments are now setting their sights on burgeoning green industries like e-mobility.
Countries from Singapore to Indonesia and Japan have rolled out bold climate action plans, with the shift to e-mobility forming a critical pillar.
Globally, there are now over 10 million electric vehicles (EVs) on the roads, following a decade of growth that also saw EVs contravene the worldwide downturn in car sales at the height of the pandemic in 2020 (Fig. 1).
EVs: cleaner and greener with time
In the earlier days of the EV revolution, some were concerned about the vehicles’ true environmental impact after factoring in the higher carbon footprint of their manufacturing process based on fossil fuel-powered electricity grids.
However, there is now a growing body of evidence pointing to the positive climate impact of EVs.
In 95% of the world today, EVs are arguably still cleaner than fossil fuel alternatives—regardless of their electricity source. Moreover, while the manufacturing of an EV generates higher emissions than that of an automobile, some studies have found that this is eventually offset by EVs’ superior energy-efficiency.
The current general consensus is that EVs will only get cleaner and greener with time, in tandem with rapid technological advancements and the decarbonization of electricity grids. ASEAN, for instance, is expected to see its renewable capacity nearly double by 2025. Clearly, we are on track to unlocking the full green potential of EVs.
With EVs now seen as a catalyst for sustainability, world governments have announced ambitious targets for EV adoption. An increasing number of automobile manufacturers are also entering the industry to offer a wider range of models at more accessible prices. Now, we are set to fast track the shift to e-mobility and pave the way towards a zero-emission future.
Strategies for winning buy-in
While the battle to acknowledge the green impact of EVs has been won, consumer buy-in is still one of the biggest obstacles to widespread EV adoption. In the electrification drive today, one persistent hurdle remains: the lack of convenient and accessible EV charging infrastructure.
Only when infrastructure becomes accessible does take-up really follow. Yet, building up the necessary infrastructure is often a long and time-consuming process. The solution has been to seamlessly integrate charging infrastructure to existing petrol stations. Present in every neighbourhood and city across the globe, and strategically located according to driving patterns, petrol stations can play a key role in creating a convenient network of EV charging stations.
To successfully execute such a strategy, the public and private sectors will have to work closely together. For instance, such collaborations in Thailand recently coordinated the installation of EV chargers at petrol stations along main highway routes. Elsewhere, Japan has embarked on its first-ever pilot for EV charging on public roads, in partnership with a consortium of seven private companies including automobile manufacturers.
The advent of fast chargers has also allayed consumer misconceptions of the extended time required for EV charging. EVs can now be charged from zero to 80% within 30 minutes, making a quick recharge enroute easy and convenient.
Such robust public-private collaborations are helping countries to rapidly scale up their public EV charging network, laying the groundwork for EVs to truly take off in Asia.
The road ahead
As EV adoption accelerates, we must now gear up for the next phase in the e-mobility journey. Looking ahead, as the world faces a growing e-waste problem, plus concerns about how EV batteries will contribute to this challenge.
To address this, the EV industry has started building up its capabilities for recycling lithium-ion batteries. Automobile manufacturers like Tesla and BYD have set up battery recycling services, while Singapore this year opened a new facility that can recycle up to 14 tons of batteries. Furthermore, retired EV batteries have significant after-life use as stationary energy storage systems that can store renewable energy or serve as backup power.
Regulations will also have a crucial role to play in building circularity into the EV industry. In this aspect, Singapore is one country that is leading the way, by implementing a regulated e-waste management system that mandates responsible management of batteries in the EV supply chain vendors.
As new challenges unfold, agility and continuous innovation will be key to addressing them and pushing new frontiers to stay on course.
Securing a zero-emission future will be no small feat; and no government, business or consumer can achieve it alone. Only when we work together will we be able to drive change and a chart a new, greener path forward.


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This weekend was full of cleansing culinary surprises—enough that the two men in my life could enjoy alongside me and my vegan ma. Having the parents in town usually serves as an excuse to order our own desserts and bottles of wine, but this time around, with only two more days(?!) left on the cleanse, it would just be wrong to cop out now.
I already blogged about lunch yesterday, a post-yoga smorgasboard of colour and things I thought I’d never be eating this month—spring rolls and pizza.
For dinner, my friend Ali had recommended vegan resto Fressen on Queen (same owners as Urban Herbivore in Kensington) and since it sounded a little more of an intimate, upscale vibe, we gave it a go for dinner. Prepare yourself to see how much vegan food four hungry 6”+ folk can eat.
Clockwise, from top: Jicama Salad, Chickpea and avocado salad, spicy red lentil balls (crowd favourite, mum’s already working on her own recipe), and some olives.
Wished I’d gotten a photo before we chopped it up, but this zucchini bundle was stuffed with nuts that tasted JUST LIKE ricotta and served up in a tangy tomato sauce. Seriously, you could have fooled me into thinking I was eating straight-up lasagna!
Decadent hummus—unfortunately they were out of gluten-free bread options so we had it with carrot sticks. We also had some AMAZING tempeh fish styx—tempeh battered in gluten-free-ness, with a tartar-like, dairy-free dipping sauce and some lemon? Um, YAH.
My charred portobello mushroom with roast potatoes and veggies. (yes, I ate a mushroom. for dinner)
Dad’s yum Sweet Potato morrocan stew. Super filling.
We went back to my parent’s hotel to have a glass of wine (okay, I’m not a saint!) after the meal, and this is what we’re greeted with. A gluttonous spread of fresh-cut fatty hams and homemade chutneys. Thankfully, all meat is somehow safe on this cleanse. So was my favorite, the onion-raisin chutney.. but it wasn’t really necessary. Even if I was a tooth-lacking senior and had to gum these slices down, it wouldn’t have been a problem. You think m’n’m’s melt in your mouth? HA!
The nitrate-free prosciutto, at top right, ages for THIRTY-SIX MONTHS before being served. So basically you could meet someone, start dating, get married and pop out a baby before this thing’s even ripe for slicing.
That’s a $10,000 one-use piece of machinery before your eyes, folks.
“Fat is o.k., everyone!”
DAY TWO: Back to Rawlicious in Yorkville for lunch. Okay, we’re boring but it was f&$in’ awesome. This is my kale-celery-spinach-pineapple-banana-orange (or something like that) smoothie with Sprulina for energy. Pretty thick, but the tropical fruits made it go down easy! We had the same spring rolls for appetizers too.
These are the corn tacos my ma had yesterday—so filling I could only eat one. The tacos are formed from corn, red peppers and buckwheat(?), made on-site, and stuffed with refried beans, house guac, dairy-free sour cream, and lots of veggies. Seriously, eating one of these things is like running a marathon.
And now for the creme de la creme. Vegan cheesecake. They said it couldn’t be done, but… The ‘cheese’ is cashews, almond milk, and agave, the crust out of crushed pecans and agave, and with a generous dollop of strawberry syrup. CLEANSE HEAVEN!
For dinner, I met Ren and Carly at Green Earth on Broadview. A menu that reads like a novel, and I picked out this asian-inspired dish. Oh yeah, those prawns? They’re yams. WRAP YOUR HEAD AROUND THAT.
Dinner tonight. Nearly the same as before, but—craving starch—I opted for some brown-rice-and-wakame soba noodles instead of brown rice. So filling, so delicious, and for the first time in a long time, I feel frickin’ GREAT.


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Lollapalooza Cocktail Specials & Music at Estelle's
Bucktown | Website
This event occurred in the past.
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In celebration of Lollapalooza, Estelle's in Wicker Park will offer an "LL Cool-aid" cocktail (CH key gin, Campari, lime juice, demerara) and the "96 Quite Bitter Beings" (Aperol Aperitivo, St. Elder elderflower, La Marca Prosecco, lemon juice). Estelle's will also play music from Lolla artists as a kickoff to the festival on Thursday, August 2 that will include CKY, Durand Jones & The Indications, LL Cool J and The Regrettes.

domain: entertainment


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Welcome to Adaaran Prestige Vadoo, the prestigious Maldives Luxury Resorts, where time ceases to exist and the voice of the Indian Ocean beckons you to her shores. As the gateway to the South Atolls, Vadoo possesses its own exotic reef teeming with vibrant aquatic flora and fauna. Awarded as the World’s Leading Water Villa retreat at the World Travel Awards in 2010, Adaaran Prestige Vadoo is a luxurious Maldives Island resort that stands out amongst the best. The list of indulgences that awaits you at our Maldives Island resort can only be matched by the captivating lushness of the surroundings.
Experience the ultimate in island getaways at our distinct water villas that feature a range of contemporary comforts, and offer intimate living spaces above the azure waters of the Indian Ocean.
Sunrise Water Villas
With a glimpse of the far located city of Male, Sunrise Water Villas at Adaaran Presitge Vadoo holds a breathtaking view and surroundings where the gifts of Mother Nature are so pristine that one cannot feel but humbled by their timeless natural beauty.
Ocean as far as the eye can see, in a place where the heart beats to a different rhythm and your soul will find peace. Adaaran Prestige Vadoo is nestled amidst surroundings where the gifts of Mother Nature are so pristine that one cannot feel but humbled by their timeless natural beauty.


This is the first change to EN 131-2 since 1993 and specifies the general design features, requirements, and test methods for portable ladders and steps. It does not apply to step stools or certain specialist ladders such as fire brigade ladders and roof ladders for example.
The primary changes to the standard include an increase in the strength test loads applied to the stiles of ladders. The platform-loading test on a stepladder has also been modified in order to improve stability. A kick-up test of the platform has been added, along with a ‘feet pull’ test, a test on the hand and knee rails as well as a new torsion test.
Fibreglass ladders now have a comprehensive set of tests to determine the heat resistance, UV stability, and electrical properties.
The standard is intended to be use in conjunction with EN 131-1 (Sizes), EN 131-3 (Safety Instructions) and EN 131-4 (Multiple hinge ladders).The draft of EN131-3:2011 that relates specifically to user information and safety instructions is currently being reviewed and is expected to be ratified by the end of the year.


Railway workers have embarked on a sit-down strike in protest of what they say, are the poor conditions of service.
The strike has left commuters plying the Accra-Nsawam and Accra-Tema routes stranded with many compelled to resort to road transport which is relatively costly.
According to Chairman of the Railway Workers Union, Alex Nana Boateng , who spoke to Joy News, they have withdrawn the shuttle services until an agreement has been reached between the leaders of the Union and government.
Last week, the railway workers, issued an ultimatum to government about their intention to strike if government failed to address concerns on their low incomes and the growing challenges in the railway sector.
In an attempt to convince the workers to return to work, Deputy Minister of Transport, Joyce Bawa , pleaded with the workers to call off the sit-down strike.
“We have appealed to them to try and exercise restraint in the face of their challenges, the Deputy Minister implored.
She also bemoaned the state of the impoverished railway sector, noting that it was the reason why the railway business was ailing.
Her appeals notwithstanding, the railway workers have begun their strike to protest their poor living conditions.
A negotiation between the leadership of the Union and the Fair Wages and Salaries Commission (FWSC) which is expected to take place today would decide the future of the strike action.


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In the very neat village of Midwolda I stayed two nights in the former farhouse Blauwestadhoeve. As other farms in the area the living quarters adjoin the main fafrm building, which has here been made to accommodate the group rooms, small chalets under the immense main roof. My private room (with shared bath) was neat and clean, facing the garden.... More
Location: The Netherlands > Groningen Province > Midwolda
Price Range (Based on Average Rates): $
Hotel Class:3 star — Blauwestadhoeve 3*
Number of rooms: 7
- Reservation Options:
- TripAdvisor is proud to partner with Booking.com, Expedia, Hotels.com and Odigeo so you can book your Blauwestadhoeve reservations with confidence. We help millions of travelers each month to find the perfect hotel for both vacation and business trips, always with the best discounts and special offers.

domain: travel


text:
Critics often comment on the ‘shape’ a poem makes – not the concrete form of the words on the page, but the poem’s conceptual trajectory, the statement, development and resolution (or lack thereof) of its central theme. What is most striking about Robert Adamson’s first collection of poems published in North America, The Goldfinches of Baghdad, however, is the shape the collection makes as a whole, the arc of the volume in its entirety. As the culmination of forty years’ experience, it is nothing short of a masterpiece.
Here, the dominant concerns of what might be called Adamson’s later period (prevalent in the 1999 volume, Black Water: Approaching Zukofsky) reach their apotheosis: his writing of the Hawkesbury River region, his unremitting passion for all things ornithological, and his fascination with the Greek myth of Orpheus and Eurydice. But the volume is much more than a mere concatenation of individual poems treating the poet’s trademark themes.
As a collection, it is sublimely cohesive: from first to last, the correspondences between poems are considerably fecund. Less a series of songs than an organically realised symphony, the volume is replete with a masterful lyricism and a comprehensive, mythopoeic grandeur verging on an indigenous ‘dreaming’. To be sure, the individual poems are often marvels in their own right; many have been published previously, and have been reworked for this volume. It is not the place here to undertake a rigorous comparison of the various versions; suffice it to say that whereas Black Water was an accomplished volume, here the poems appear effortless: the enjambment is cleaner, the cadence immaculate, the music further refined.

domain: library


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text:
Warning: Last items in stock!
Ingredients: Free range pork, free range chicken liver, shallots, onions, free range eggs flour, marocain spices, chilli, herbs, sea salt, black pepper.
It's best to put your Terrine au Chilli in the fridge a few hours before serving.
Then spread some on a slice of bread, or have it on its own with a salad and a glass of wine.
Try it with baby cucumber or anything that takes your fancy - apéritif is easy!
Our artisanal products are all naturally preserved, they can be conserved at room temperature for up to 5 months. After opening, keep refrigerated and consume within 6 days.
We do ship interstate so you can also get your "Terrine au Chilli" in Adelaide, Melbourne, Sydney, Perth, Darwin and Australia wide.


text:
The Deputy Minister of Regional Re-organization and Development, Mr Agyei Mensah Korsah, has entreated assembly members to support the campaign for revenue mobilization by assemblies to improve their Internally Generated Fund (IGF).
He said it was only when assembly members actively supported revenue generation activities of their assemblies to rake in more income that their sitting allowances could also be increased.
The Deputy Minister said this while addressing the chiefs and people of Atwima Nwabiagya South Municipality as part of the inaugural ceremony of the newly constituted Assembly at Nkawie, the District's capital.
He urged the members to educate electorates on the need to meet their tax obligations to aid development of their respective electoral areas.
He said government policies like digitization, property rate, land development and management and waste management ought to be executed in their communities.
Mr Michael Amoah Awuku, the Municipal Chief Executive (MCE), asked the Assembly members to see themselves as ambassadors who needed to be diligent, proactive and law abiding, and showing mutual respect to one another.
While urging them to adopt teamwork for effective leadership, he commended them for taking bold decisions to represent the electorates and asked them to be abreast with the code of ethics and standing orders of the local government.
The 31-member Assembly, comprising 21 elected and 10 appointees, were led to take the oath of office by Mr Michael Johnson Abbey, the Nkawie Circuit Court Judge.
Mr John Anane, Nerebehi Assemblyman, was elected Presiding Member for the Assembly after securing 26 out of 31 total votes cast.

domain: law


Profile: Pendrell Corp (PCO.OQ)
Pendrell Corporation, incorporated on March 17, 2000, is engaged in the business of licensing and selling intellectual property (IP) rights to others. The Company invests in, acquires and monetizes IP rights. The Company's subsidiaries hold patents that support approximately four IP licensing programs that it owns and manages, such as digital media, digital cinema, wireless technologies, and memory and storage technologies. The Company's subsidiaries focus on licensing the IP rights they hold to third parties and pursuing relevant product opportunities.
The Company's digital media program is supported by patents and patent applications designed to protect against unauthorized duplication and use of digital content that is transferred from a source to one or more electronic devices. The Company's digital media licensees include manufacturers, distributors and providers of consumer products, including Amazon, Casio Hitachi Mobile Communications, DirecTV, Fujitsu, LG Electronics, Microsoft Corporation, Nokia, Panasonic, Pantech, Sharp, Sony, Toshiba, Technicolor, S.A., Time Warner and Xerox Corporation. The Company's digital cinema program is supported by patents and patent applications designed to protect against unauthorized creation, duplication and use of digital cinema content that is authored and distributed to movie theaters globally. Its digital cinema licensees include distributors and exhibitors of digital content, including motion picture producers, motion picture distributors and equipment vendors.
The Company's wireless technologies program is supported by the United States and foreign patents and patent applications. These patents and patent applications are developed by Philips, IBM and ETRI. The technologies covered include third generation (3G), fourth generation (4G), Bluetooth, wireless fidelity (Wi-Fi) and near field communication (NFC) technologies. Its wireless technologies program's licensees include suppliers, manufacturers, distributors and providers of wireless devices and infrastructure, including manufacturers and distributors of handsets, tablets, laptops and other connected devices. The Company's memory and storage technologies program is supported by patents and patent applications. Its memory and storage technologies program's licensees include flash memory component suppliers, solid state disk manufacturers and device vendors.
2300 Carillon Pt
KIRKLAND WA 98033-7445


.... but no pushover. First thing my wife said when I took it out of the box, "It's cute"!, and guns make her crawl.
And it is. First thought that came to me it looked like a BB gun. It's a Marlin 336Y .30. The box says "compact", with the 16.25" barrel. Trying to get the head tilted and the elbow bent enough to accomodate the short stock, and the eye down to the rear aperature is a contortionist dream. I measured what I needed to get comfortable, and I figure a foam 1" butt extension will fix that, besides, the kick of these things aren't puny anyway. I think getting rid of the rear sight, and mounting a peep sight 3" rearward would give me more accuracy. As for a scope, for a truck gun like this thrown behind the seat it would be damaged, besides, I'ts not for hunting mainly.
So my boys and I are going prospecting next month and I'll sight it in first, then carry it in my backpack while panning. It's actually designed for women and teens. Hope she doesn't find out, maybe I'll be out of a rifle.


text: The study of human physiology is paramount to understanding disease and developing rational and targeted treatments. Conversely, the study of human disease can teach us a lot about physiology. Investigations into primary inherited nephrogenic diabetes insipidus (NDI) have contributed enormously to our understanding of the mechanisms of urinary concentration and identified the vasopressin receptor AVPR2, as well as the water channel aquaporin-2 (AQP2), as key players in water reabsorption in the collecting duct. Yet, there are also secondary forms of NDI, for instance as a complication of lithium treatment. The focus of this review is secondary NDI associated with inherited human diseases, such as Bartter syndrome or apparent mineralocorticoid excess. Currently, the underlying pathophysiology of this inherited secondary NDI is unclear, but there appears to be true AQP2 deficiency. To better understand the underlying mechanism(s), collaboration between clinical and experimental physiologists is essential to further investigate these observations in appropriate experimental models.

domain: health


text:
School Atlas Rainbow
A COLOURFUL CONVERSATION PIECE
Against a rougher background and in a course paper, all the world’s countries shine in the clear colors of the rainbow. This world map mural was created in 2010 and the countries are tightly, tightly listed – as befit a school atlas. By Rebel Wall.

domain: design


text:
After mastering fried donuts and baked cinnamon-sugar donuts, I wanted to try cooking up a batch of baked chocolate donuts, so I turned to the World Wide Web and stumbled across a recipe for “Baked Double Chocolate Cake Doughnuts” on a website called “A Cozy Kitchen.” (more…)
I wanted to make a big batch of donuts for my mother’s birthday celebration recently, so after cooking up some baked vanilla and chocolate donuts, I turned to the Internet for an easy-to-follow vanilla donut glaze recipe. That’s when I found the “Doughnut Glaze” recipe published by the Food Network. (more…)
What temperature should you fry donuts at? Well, most of the recipes you find online suggest frying your donuts in vegetable oil at a temperature of about 350-375 degrees Fahrenheit. However, I’ve found that at this temperature, the donuts burn the outside of your donuts and don’t fully cook the dough on the inside – especially if you are making big, fluffy donuts (the kind that most people aim for when making donuts at home). (more…)
You don’t need to bake or fry dozens of different donuts in order to create a variety of donut flavors. Using a single donut dough, you can use simple donut toppings to decorate and flavor your doughnuts in a variety of ways.
Take for example the doughnuts pictured in the image at the top of this page. The dough used to create each of these five doughnuts is exactly the same. Click here to learn how to make this simple at-home doughnut recipe for yourself. The only difference in these donuts is the way that they’ve been decorated with simple donut toppings. (more…)
My first attempt at making donuts went pretty well, but the doughnut itself was kinda small, flat and dense. I wanted to try again… and this time make my doughnuts a whole lot fluffier.
Lucky for me (and you too), making fluffier donuts is relatively easy. There are really only a few important steps to pay attention to. (more…)
I just got finished making my first official batch of donuts… and they turned out incredibly well.
As I admited in my very first blog post, I’ve got a dream of one day opening up my own donut shop, but I’ve never actually made a donut before. So today was my first attempt at making donuts… and I’m pleased with how they turned out. However, I can certainly see some areas worth improving upon. I learned a few lessons along the way and I’ve also got a few questions. (more…)
While making donuts sounds quite simple, you’d be surprised at the length and variety of ingredients in the donut recipes that liter the Internet. Because there are so many different shapes, flavors and kinds of donuts to choose from, there is also a very long and varied list of donut ingredients.
If, however, you are in the search for a basic list of donut making ingredients, then this list is a good place to start – as these are the most basic list of ingredients in donuts that you will find: (more…)
I honestly haven’t spent a lot of time thinking about donuts (or doughnuts as they are more appropriately called). But over the last several years, I’ve spent a lot of time traveling around the world – mostly in Europe. And during my travels, I’ve noticed that the donuts shops I was so used to seeing in my home state of California where I grew up were nowhere to be found in most of the world.
In my hometown (near Ventura, California), for instance, my small city had at least five or more doughnut shops operating at any one time. So, doughnuts were something of a norm for me growing up – even if I didn’t eat them as frequently as I might have liked. (more…)


In a chilling case of murder, a 35 year old woman named Shubhlagna Chakraborty was killed last night at her residence in Konnagar area of West Bengal’s Hoogly District. The murderer Md Sultan Ali has been arrested by the police.
According to the reports, victim had a long standing affair with Sultan who is a resident of nearby locality. However since last year Shubhlagna was trying to get out of the relationship which was not acceptable to Sultan.
On Thursday night, Sultan forcefully trespassed into Shubhlagna’s house, pressurized her to get married to him. When Shubhlagna’s parents tried to intervene they were assaulted by Sultan. Both parents of Shubhlagna sustained heavy injuries during the scuffle.
After assaulting her parents, Sultan turned towards Shubhlagna and fired at her from point-blank range. Albeit he didn’t stop after firing but kept assaulting Shubhlagna’s head using the gun’s backside, until she was completely dead, after which he absconded from the place.
Victim’s parents who are currently under medical supervision at Uttarpara state general hospital, have alleged that Sultan had given false information about his identity to establish the relation, but when Shubhlagna came to know about it she tried to break all relations with him.
The police official said, “When the marriage was being called off, Sultan attacked his wife on Thursday. Her parents Tushar Chakroborty and Shubhra Chakroborty were severely injured while trying to save her. They are being treated in the Uttarpara State General Hospital.
Sultan has been taken into police custody for 7 days. There are speculations on whether this could be a possible a case of ‘Love Jihad’.


text:
Most of the global observers, analysts, media commentators and mandarins are taking a long view of the insurrection which occurred at the Capitol Hill on January 6, 2021. The key motif was that former President Donald Trump refused to accept the electoral victory of candidate Joe Biden who had won at the hustings. Now, the quizzing of Trump’s aides at the White House, along with the abortion debate, has touched a raw nerve in the larger political vortex of the US.
Personages such as Steve Bannon, Meadows and former Governor of New York City Rudy Guiliani have been interrogated and have deposed before both the Senate Hearings Committee and a historical enquiry undertaken by the US Justice Department. Interestingly, the US Justice Department states that the enquiry initiated by it has no precedence in the US keeping in view the nature and scope of the posers on the aggrieved ethos of democracy in the US.
After the enquiry in the case study of President Nixon’s impeachment, it is the first instance of both the Senate and the Justice Department taking up the task of quizzing the highly seated perch of Trump. Even his daughter Ivanka and Jared Kushner, her husband, have not been spared the exigencies of the Justice Department enquiry. Such is the high pedestalled mandate of the hearings on the Capitol Hill insurrections, which brings yet another tumult in the political circus in the US.
Does the dictum of “no one will be spared if found guilty” work so effectively in the American homestead?
It has been pithily contended by the US Justice Department portal that the extent of personages being interrogated has led to the rise in significance of the ambit of working of the hearings. The Justice Department portal contends, “Three former Justice Department officials — former Acting Deputy Attorney General Richard Donoghue, former Acting Attorney General Jeffrey Rosen and former Assistant Attorney General Steven Engel — testified before the committee on Thursday.”
Donoghue showed handwritten notes he had taken during a call with Trump, in which the former President said, “Just say the election was corrupt and leave the rest to me and the Republican congressmen.”
The recent outreach by the Senate and the Justice Department hearings pinpoint the complicity at the highest level at the White House as far as the mayhem which ensued in the Capitol Hill is concerned. Also, as an attendant fact, the entire nation and the world are looking askance at a daze as one of the sacrosanct symbols of democracy in the American nation was pillaged upon and it has found in the subsequent hearings that the several key officials fled the scene of the insurrection as the protesters ruthlessly stormed the heady portals of the Capitol Hill. How they managed to breach the security establishment has stirred up a hornets’ nest for the conspiracy theories to churn out their versions of the ghastly and deplorable incident.
The current tirade is targeted at Trump as he corrected and re-corrected the notes which he had given to his White House aides and nowhere did he completely belittle the insurrections as he had been informed in advance by some of his aides that the public and shameful carnage was expected in the Capitol Hill. The debate, accusation and counter accusations are being bandied about, and the relentless search for truth goes on as a stately continuum in the Capitol Hill’s insurrections enquiry. The US Senate releases inform us that even in the past, the ilk of Vice Presidents and even the Presidents have been brought to the cage and interrogated which pinpoints the stately and traditional ideal of “no one is above law” as has been dexterously and assiduously adhered to in the establishment’s fray in the US.
One can cite a US Senate source which pithily informs us that how the process dates back to the 19th century when President Abraham Lincoln was quizzed about a ticklish matter pertaining to the fourth estate. The Senate’s portal informs us that, “President Lincoln today voluntarily appeared before the House Judiciary Committee,” reported the New York Tribune, and gave testimony in the matter of premature publication in the Herald of a portion of his last annual message.
Lincoln’s message to the Congress in December 1861 had been published in the New York Herald on the same morning that it was sent to Capitol Hill. The House Judiciary Committee, chaired by John Hickman, investigated the leak and called Herald correspondent Henry Wikoff to testify. Wikoff refused to divulge his source, citing “an obligation of strictest secrecy.” It can be argued that when the American nation was creating its own “self” through invention, innovation and experimentation through territorial purchases, reviews of the political process and further external inventions in nations such as Spain and the Philippines, then at that point of time the nation spared no one and the posers are a part and parcel of the general narrative of the grandiose march ahead of the American nation and civilisation.
The United State’s Senate Resolution number 60 spawned the Senate select Committee on the election campaign activities of President Nixon and it came to be popularly known as the Senate Watergate Committee which shook the entire soul of the American population as the US had just emerged out of the military and diplomatic debacle in Vietnam and the grandiose notion of the entrepreneurial and rules-based America had taken a beating.
The allegations on the American President ranged from campaign finance procedures and the practice of state espionage which cast a dreary shadow at the one-upmanship of the American political system. Sam Ervin chaired the Watergate Committee and indicted around 40 State department officials and its findings played a key role in ushering in the impeachment proceedings of President Nixon in the stupendous seventies when questions were being asked for the first time and the city on Mount Sinai had to look inwards and a stately and timely delving in exercise was comprehended as the political need of the hour.
In the case of the January 6 insurrection, the testimony of Cassidy Hutchinson proves evidence of the complicity of the White House when the secret service guards in and around the Capitol meticulously ignored the scare signals for the portending disturbance at Capitol Hill. Though, those days will historically go down as a blot on the zeitgeist of the grandiloquent American “way”, such scuffles and hiccups come and go and are never indelible in nature as America and the rest of the nations steady themselves in the rumbustious lurch of the Ukraine war, the pandemic and other internal challenges asking questions at the American “way.”
(The writer teaches at International Relations and International Organisations, IIPA, New Delhi)

domain: politics