The Environmental Protection Agency has issued a $1 million fine against a global plastics producer for alleged Clean Air Act violations at its plants in two small, polluted communities seven hours apart in Alabama and Indiana.

The civil penalty against SABIC Innovative Plastics, announced May 31, targets leak detection and repair failings that resulted in hundreds of tons of hazardous air pollutant releases every year, the federal agency said.

SABIC, a global producer of polymers and thermoplastics, is a top employer in the two towns involved: Burkville, a rural community best known for hosting Alabama’s annual Okra Festival, and Mount Vernon, a town of just under 6,700 nestled in the southernmost tip of Indiana.

The EPA’s 15-count complaint said SABIC skirted Clean Air Act rules on monitoring and repairing equipment leaks, complying with chemical plant regulations and reporting known violations. SABIC agreed to the penalty to settle the case.

The Mount Vernon plant recently won several environmental awards. In 2011, the National Pollution Prevention Roundtable recognized it with a Most Valuable Pollution Prevention award. This April, the plant won three Responsible Care Energy Efficiency Awards from the American Chemistry Council.

SABIC said in a news release at the time that such recognition demonstrates its commitment to “minimize environmental impact while strengthening operational excellence.”

Now, SABIC must reform its monitoring practices, replace valves, reengineer emission controls and invest in an environmental project to control hazardous air emissions. The upgrades will cost the ...

Attorney General Eric Holder spoke to attendees at a summit of the Congressional Black Caucus and the Conference of National Black Churches about the importance of voting as well as the significance of new voter ID laws, which disproportionately affect minorities. The summit was designed, in part, to help black leaders learn about the new laws -- yet Rush Limbaugh and a Fox News contributor attacked Holder's appearance as “reprehensible” and “unseemly.”

Attorney General Eric Holder delivered the keynote address at a meeting of the Congressional Black Caucus and the Conference of National Black Churches.

The day also features panels on the state of voting rights, protecting a church's non-profit status, and energizing constituents and congregants to vote.

The Attorney General has announced that he will vigorously defend the Voting Rights Act of 1965, including the Section 5 provision that Southern states or those that have historically disenfranchised black voters must clear any changes to voting law or electoral systems with the Justice Department. [C-SPAN.org, 5/30/12]

McClatchy: Summit Was Planned To “Discuss The New Laws, Their Potential Impact On African-American Voters And How Churches Can Educate Parishioners.” From McClatchy:

African-American churches, historically at the forefront of the nation's civil and voting rights efforts, are grappling this election year with how to navigate through the wave of new voting-access laws approved in ...

A surprising fact: Gamblers spent more last year at commercial casinos in Indiana than they did at non-Indian casinos in all but three other states — not surprisingly, Nevada, New Jersey and Pennsylvania. The 11 casinos and two racinos (horse racing tracks with slots) are the Hoosier State's third-largest source of tax revenues.

Cleary, the idea that gambling is sinful has vanished in much of the heartland — Iowa has 18 casinos — and increasingly on the coasts. Or let's just say that the immorality attached to the activity and to preying on the working class, lonely elders and other vulnerable groups that flock to casinos has faded before the god of lower taxes. But that easy-come of living off gamblers seems to be vanishing as nearby states get in on the action.

Indiana has relied on attracting players from neighboring Kentucky and Ohio. Kentucky still doesn't allow casinos, but Ohio has succumbed. The Horseshoe ...

This spring has brought constant controversy for the American Legislative Exchange Council, the conservative group of legislators and corporations that pushes free-market model legislation in the states — but it may not be over yet.

The tumult began with pressure from progressive groups Common Cause and Color of Change that caused 14 ALEC members, including Coca-Cola, McDonalds and Procter & Gamble, to drop out of the group. Thirty-four legislators have also quit.

Then ALEC announced in April it would shelve the task force that approved controversial voter identification laws and “stand your ground” gun laws that spread quickly in the states. And on April 20 Common Cause submitted a whistleblower complaint to the IRS, claiming ALEC is “a corporate lobbying group masquerading as a charity” that promises its donors a tax deduction.

It could take several years for the IRS to decide whether ALEC is indeed a lobbyist required to register with that label and disclose how much it spends on influencing legislation. But in three states — South Carolina, Indiana and Colorado — it turns out that ALEC has quietly, and by name, been specifically exempted from lobbyist status.

The laws in those states allow ALEC to spend millions annually hosting corporate lobbyists and legislators at three yearly conferences, send “issue alerts” to legislators recommending votes on pending legislation, and draft press releases for legislators to use when pushing ALEC model bills — all without registering as a lobbyist or reporting these ...

Retired Naval Commander Leah Bolger will appear in court Thursday, April 12th 2012 on charges stemming from her arrest on October 26th, 2011.  Bolger, who is a peace activist and the President of Veterans For Peace, interrupted a public hearing of the Joint Select Committee on Deficit Reduction, commonly known as the Super Committee.

In a calm, articulate manner Bolger spoke for nearly a minute in the well of the Senate hearing room before Capitol Hill police escorted her out and placed her under arrest.  Prominent   social activist Ben Cohen praised Bolger for her courageous stand in this video which includes footage of her action: http://youtu.be/aZVtPhVBM5Q  Bolger accused the sole witness, Chief Budget Officer Douglas Elmendorf, of obfuscating the true costs of   military spending, and implored the Committee to enact the people’s plan for reducing the deficit—end the wars and tax the rich.

Ralph Nader, a member of Veterans For Peace, applauded retired Naval Commander, Bolger's effort to challenge the Super Committee for a minute of an un-scheduled  reminder that cutting much needed social programs that saves lives rather than cutting the bloated military budget and taxing the 1% is Congressional   insanity. "The government is dysfunctional, working for corporate   interests rather than providing for the peoples necessities.  Bolger   showed what active citizens should be doing peacefully-- confronting the   corruption head on and making sure the public knows what is really going on.  She should be honored for her actions."

Bolger was a member of the Occupation of Washington,DC at Freedom Plaza.  The occupation protested the Super Committee by holding an Occupied ...

One of the critical moments in Barack Obama presidential candidacy happened in May 2008, in the days preceding the Indiana and North Carolina primaries. Gas prices were skyrocketing, en route to an all time record $4.12 per gallon. The presidential candidates were under pressure to propose quick fix solutions.

Both the de facto Republican nominee Sen. John McCain, and Obama's primary challenger Sen. Hillary Clinton were touting a "gas tax holiday." But Obama resisted, earning the mockery of the pundit class. MSNBC's Joe Scarborough said: "If that's your best outreach to working-class voters, stay home tomorrow because it's going to get ugly in North Carolina and Indiana."

Yet Obama handily won ...

Why the Republicans chose Mitch Daniels — the Indiana governor who once thrilled right-wing pundits as a 2012 hopeful — to deliver a rebuttal to President Obama's State of the Union address is puzzling. His uninspiring remarks surely killed the Daniels fad, revived lately as Republicans fret over the unappetizing choices available in their primaries.

By shining the spotlight on Daniels, the Republicans risked losing much more than a political rescue fantasy. He isn't merely a politician who looks like an accountant; he actually was an accountant — or at least he played one during the Bush years, when he served as director of the Office of Management and Budget. Listening to him drone on about fiscal rectitude just might have reminded voters of the true source of our national problems.

"Mitch Daniels ... Isn't he the former Bush budget director who said the Iraq War would cost $50 billion when it ended up costing $3 trillion? The bureaucrat who promoted the Bush tax cuts when we were fighting two wars? The one whose budget projections were so fraudulent that he predicted federal surpluses in 2004 and 2005? Why the hell should we listen to him criticize Obama?"

That last is a highly pertinent question, although whether most viewers could watch Daniels long enough to ask it may be doubtful. Honest economic ...

When the Congress of Industrial Organizations launched “Operation Dixie” in the aftermath of World War II, with the goal not just of organizing unions in the states of the old Confederacy but of ending Jim Crow discrimination, Southern segregationists moved immediately to establish deceptively named “right-to-work” laws.

These measures were designed to make it dramatically harder for workers to organize unions and for labor organizations to advocate for workers on the job site or for social change in their communities and states.

In short order, all the states that had seceded from the Union in order to maintain slavery had laws designed to prevent unions from fighting against segregation. The strategy worked. Southern states have far weaker unions than Northern states, and labor struggles have been far more bitter and violent in the South than in other parts of the country. It was in a right-to-work state, Tennessee, where the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated while supporting the struggle of African-American sanitation workers to organize a union and have it recognized by the ...

The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) took an important step in combating the epidemic of Republican vote suppression efforts on Friday. DOJ blocked a South Carolina law requiring voters to present photo identification, because the law would disproportionately disenfranchise minority voters. South Carolina is one of the states that under the Voting Rights Act (VRA), due to a history of discriminatory practices, must obtain pre-clearance from DOJ for new voting requirements. The DOJ must certify that such laws are not discriminatory in their impact, not just in their intent. 

According to South Carolina, 240,000 registered voters lack the requisite identification. That alone should be a cause for concern. But the legal problem for South Carolina arises from the fact that those without photo identification are more likely to be African-American than white. (They also tend to be younger, poorer and thus more Democratic-leaning.)

Voting rights experts say DOJ did the right thing. Unfortunately, in states that aren’t subject to pre-clearance, DOJ doesn’t have the same power to protect voting rights. “The Department of Justice came to the only conclusion it could have – that South Carolina’s ID law, like others passed around the country, may disenfranchise tens of thousands of voters and is racially discriminatory in its impact,” says Tova Andrea Wang, an election reform expert at Demos, “The decision is legally correct,” says Daniel Tokaji, an election law professor at Ohio State University. “If the effect is to make it more difficult for minorities to vote than was the case before, then the law presumptively violates the VRA. Given that blacks are more likely to lack the required ID, it was hard for South Carolina seriously to argue that the law complies with the VRA.”

Wisconsin and Indiana, which ...