Saturday, March 23, 2019

ACTIVIST 5G RESOURCES


Ninth Circuit Case(s) 19-70144 et al. (cases opened on Jan 15, 2019; a consolidation of nine separate cases) — including Repeal of FCC 18-111 and FCC-18-133

Latest Relevant Documents of the Case(s)

2019-0307-Joint-Opposition-to-FCC-Motion-to-Hold-in-Abeyance 
2018-1114-GWTCA-et-al-Small-Cell-Petition-For-Reconsideration
2019-0307-Joint-Opposition-to-FCC-Motion-to-Hold-in-Abeyance is a motion written/approved by Joseph Van Eaton, Partner at BBK and the nation's premier Telecom attorney, representing Cities' interests.

Costly Upgrades Loom for US Transmission Grid

Infrastructure and distribution upgrades needed to handle increased electrification demands could cost up to $90 billion by 2030 and several times more by 2050.
San Diego Gas & Electric workers repair power lines. (Photo: San Diego Gas & Electric)
Demands and changes caused by the increasing electrificationof transportation and heating in the United States will require transmission infrastructure and distribution upgrades totaling $30 billion to $90 billion by 2030 with an additional $200 billion to $600 billion needed between 2030 and 2050.
Those statistics come from a new report prepared by The Brattle Group for WIRES, a trade association that advocates for transmission investment. The study, written by Jürgen Weiss, Michael Hagerty and Maria Castañer, estimates that the number of electric vehicleson the road will jump from one million today to seven million by 2025 and increase exponentially from there.

Demand will also come from changes in residential and business heating as more electric heat pumps are used throughout the U.S., not just in warmer climates. The report notes that technology advances could also lead to more electrification of many industrial processes.

“This is a new form of load that is being driven by several things. It’s being driven by policy in certain places aiming to reduce greenhouse emissions. It’s also being driven by consumer preferences,”said Hagerty, Brattle Group senior associate and co-author of The Coming of Electrification of the North American Economy: Why We Need a Robust Transmission Grid.
Based on the average annual transmission investment over the past 10 years, the report projects investment levels would be 20 percent to 50 percent higher through 2030—or about $3 billion to $7 billion more spent each year. Those numbers increase significantly from 2030 through 2050, requiring a 50 percent to 170 percent increase in transmission investment, or between $7 billion and $25 billion a year. The high electrification numbers are assuming electrification will be powering all transportation and space and water heating needs by 2050.



“The writing on the wall is clear; we’re headed toward a cleaner energy future. The transportation and heating sectors will be electrified—it’s just a matter of when,”Brian Gemmell, president of WIRES Group and vice president of transmission and asset management with National Grid, said in a prepared statement. “Transmission is the enabler of our electrified future, so we need to start planning now in order to keep pace with the coming increased demand and to ensure continued reliability of the U.S. electric system.”

Hagerty noted transmission upgrades can take as long as 10 to 15 years to develop from initial conception to completion and so it is imperative that utilities begin planning upgrades now.

“From the industry perspective, they’ve been living through a period of very limited demand growth. The load isn’t growing all that much. But the conventional wisdom is that very significant changes are coming up for the next 10 to 30 years,”Hagerty told Commercial Property Executive. 

Lower Rates?

Despite the increased spending required to support electrification growth, the report notes that the overall impact on increased transmission investment is likely to result in modest consumer rate increases and possibly even lower rates. The authors cite three reasons: transmission costs represent a small share of the rates; total investment will be spread over greater electricity demand with electrification; and the higher costs of transmission are likely to be offset by lower generation costs from low-cost renewable resources.

The mix of new generation resources handling increased electrification demand will differ by region due to resource availability, technology costs and policy objectives, according to the WIRES report. For example, in regions like the Pacific coast and Northeast, utilities, states and consumers are increasingly choosing low-cost renewable generation. Those numbers are expected to increase to about 90 percent by 2050.

“The main takeaway for the study is if you don’t think about transmission systems as you are aiming for these high goals, you will either miss the goals or pay a lot more to achieve the goals,”Hagerty said of renewable energy goals.

Grid Modernization Investments

In a separate report prepared for the National Electrical Manufacturers Association (NEMA), The Brattle Group provides insight into the benefits and cost recovery for several recent grid modernization efforts in the U.S. The report, Reviewing Grid Modernization Investments, reviews 21 recent grid projects and offers 10 case studies assessing cost benefits to customers and utilities as well as cost recovery. The projects cover five key areas: distribution infrastructure hardening and resiliency; transmission infrastructure hardening; smart grid and distribution modernization; advanced metering infrastructure (AMI); and distributed energy resources (DERs).

During the past decade, several utilities and public commissions have made investments in new technologies, tools and techniques to modernize the grid. NEMA’s goal for the report is to document some of those projects and provide information for utilities and regulators contemplating similar investments so they can learn from the early adopters’ experiences.


“Contrary to popular belief, grid modernization efforts are not limited to those conducted in a few states, such as California, Illinois and New York, but are taking place in many states around the country, each starting with its own priorities, such as improved resilience or AMI infrastructure,” said Sanem Sergici, Battle principal and the study’s lead author, in a prepared statement. “Most utilities are willing to undertake grid modernization projects, provided they achieve timely cost recovery and an increasing number of regulators are willing to consider alternative regulatory models to enable these projects and broader utility innovation.”

The report, co-authored by Michelle Li and Rebecca Carroll, notes that while some of the investments were done solely on utility initiatives, most grid modernization efforts were undertaken in response to local or state policy requirements. For some utilities, renewal of their “customer engagement strategies”was also part of the impetus for investment.

However, even those utilities driven by state initiatives faced just as many hurdles in the regulatory process. In most cases, the regulatory approvals took more than a year13 months on averageand were contingent on meeting the required threshold in a typical benefit-cost test such as the Total Resource Cost (TRC) test. Other approaches for cost benefits used included break-even analysis and proof-of-cost prudency.

The majority of the cases relied on cost recovery through general rate filings, although some use formula rates and rate riders to address lags in regulatory approvals. Some jurisdictions also introduced performance-based rates and incentives, particularly for meeting targets for increased utilization of DERs, beneficial electrification and increased system utilization. Brattle researchers expect this trend to continue as the urgency of grid modernization, DER integration and electrification continues.


Source

California May Ban All Smartphones At Schools

SACRAMENTO (CBS13) –California wants all school districts to come up with smartphone policies, including banning or restricting when students can use the phones at school or on school grounds.  Assembly Bill 272would allow students to keep their phones with them at school, in case of emergency or for learning purposes.


The bill’s author, Assemblymember Al Muratsuchi (D- Torrance), said, “Cell phones can be a distraction in the classroom, and there are social and emotional consequences to too much use. According to studies, kids who are heavy users of social media are showing signs of depression and other mental health problems in greater numbers. Studies have also shown that restricting cell phone use improves pupil performance.”

Pew Research Centerstudy conducted in 2018 found 95% of teens have access to a smartphone, a 22% increase since 2014-15.

A psychology professor at San Diego State University found in 2017: “8th grade pupils who spend 10 or more hours per week on social media are 56% more likely to describe themselves as unhappy than those who devote less time to social media. Moreover, teenagers who spend three hours per day or more on electronic devices are 35% more likely to demonstrate risk factors for suicide, such as suicidal ideation; and, teenagers who spend five or more hours per day on their devices are 71% more likely to demonstrate a risk factor for suicide.”

ALSO: More Time On Smartphones Linked To Higher Suicide Risk In Teens, Study Says

According to a study done by Common Sense Media, 13-18-year-olds spend:
  • 8:56 a day consuming entertainment on TV, computer, smartphone
  • 6:40 a day of screen media
8-12-year-olds spend:
  • 5:55 a day consuming entertainment on TV, computer, smartphone
  • 4:36 of screen media
The London School of Economics and Political Science found student test scores improved significantly at schools that had smartphone bans, specifically among disadvantaged and underachieving students.

France banned smartphones at all primary and middle schools at the start of the school year.

AB 272 goes before the Assembly Education Committee in April.

Source

A Lesson In Wireless Radiation in Schools



Excerpt:

But what is the long-term impact for a student sitting in a classroom with a powerful router and twenty-five tablets or laptops all transmitting and receiving data (and emitting radiation) several hours each day? 

One thing we know from the research: most children are unlikely to suffer immediate symptoms of exposure, although some will experience headaches, nausea, dizziness, confusion or “mental fog. 

But the fact that children in school classrooms are not exhibiting overt signs of serious illness should not be interpreted as a sign that everything is OK.  More serious long-term illness can take years to manifest itself, by which time the child has long since left the classroom where the problem may have had its origins. 

The alarming fact is that our school classrooms are some of the “hottest” hot spots for wireless radiation and we need to make some adjustments in our approach to technology in the educational setting.

Source

Thursday, March 21, 2019

5g Dangers & Americas Leading Man Problems, Lena Pu & Darryl Hamamoto the Vinny Eastwood Show




Ford Explorer Owners Say Their SUVs Are Making Them Sick


Not a peep mentioned about radiation levels in the vehicles....

Migraine headaches, fatigue and dizziness were sidelining Bert Henriksen several times a week. Evenings were the worst, after his 30-mile commute home in his 2017 Ford Explorer.
His behavior grew erratic. He’d get angry over minor things. “We were getting scared that he had some kind of a brain problem,” said his wife, Megan.
An answer came last March in a phone call from his doctor: A blood test revealed that Henriksen had been exposed to toxic levels of carbon monoxide gas. But how? The result was consistent with someone who’d been in a house fire, his doctor said, but Henriksen hadn’t been through anything like that.
He says his prime suspect was parked in his driveway.
Henriksen is among more than 3,000 Ford Explorer owners who’ve complained to Ford or federal regulators that they suspect exhaust fumes have seeped into their sport-utility vehicles’ cabins. Many fear carbon monoxide gas may have made them ill, and dozens of drivers have complained to regulators that the company’s recommended fix wasn’t effective. Explorer owners have filed more than 50 legal claims nationwide against Ford. And some police departments in the U.S. said in 2017 that Explorers used as cruisers were exposing officers to carbon monoxide.

Nauseated, Sick and Dizzy


Explorer owners have complained to federal officials about various symptoms they attribute to exhaust fumes and carbon monoxide.

The complaints, which cover vehicles built between 2010 and 2018, carry high stakes for the second-largest U.S. automaker. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration began investigating drivers’ claims in 2016, then expanded the probe a year later after saying it had “preliminary evidence” of elevated carbon monoxide levels in some driving scenarios. If NHTSA finds a safety defect, Ford would face the prospect of recalling more than 1 million vehicles, costing perhaps hundreds of millions of dollars.
Ford, which in January debuted a redesigned Explorer for the 2020 model year, says there’s nothing wrong with the previous version. “All of our testing to date has shown these vehicles are safe,” company spokesman Mike Levine said in a statement. “Ford’s investigation has not found carbon monoxide levels that exceed what people are exposed to every day.”
The claims aren’t easy to investigate. For one thing, hospitals and doctors seldom test patients for exposure to carbon monoxide—Henriksen’s test was rare. Also, the U.S. has no regulatory standard for how much of the odorless, colorless, toxic gas would create a health risk for drivers, and scientists say the answer varies depending on individuals’ health and age. And drivers say the seepage problem comes and goes, complicating attempts to verify their allegations.
NHTSA’s task includes evaluating both what might be causing the alleged defect and what sort of health risk is posed to occupants by any pollutants in the cabin, a subject that global experts have just begun to study in recent years.
The fact that the agency’s investigation is well into its third year is “extraordinary,” said Allan Kam, an independent auto-safety consultant who retired as a senior enforcement attorney at the agency in 2000. It may signal that the probe isn’t a high priority—or it may reflect resource constraints at NHTSA’s Office of Defect Investigations, Kam said.
“It could be a serious problem,” he said, “and because it’s not like a crash where there’s an obvious impact or moment of danger, this is something that builds up over minutes but potentially could be very serious or deadly.”
Ford’s response to the claims has served to deepen some drivers’ mistrust. The company’s first attempt to quell the concerns—through repair instructions the company provided to dealerships in 2012 to respond to customers’ complaints—was followed by repeated updates and several additional instructions. Ford said it’s confident in its most recent repair campaign, which was offered in 2017 and is still in effect. Complaints have dropped dramatically since this latest effort, the company said, and the fix “effectively resolves the matter.”
And yet, for drivers like Bert Henriksen, it hasn’t. He now drives with a portable carbon monoxide detector in his Explorer, and he said it occasionally shows elevated levels of the gas. He invited Bloomberg News along for a ride.
There was very little sign of carbon monoxide during a 76-mile test drive near Henriksen’s home in South Lyon, Michigan, in January. One of two detectors in his vehicle registered only tiny amounts of the gas. The other showed zero.
“That’s the problem—it’s so sporadic,” he said. Ford twice sent engineers to examine his Explorer, Henriksen said, and they found no problem.
Explorer owner Dallas Haselhorst of Hays, Kansas, had a similar experience. Ford’s engineers twice found no issue with his vehicle, he said, even though his own carbon monoxide detector—which he attached to a third-row headrest after his wife said she smelled exhaust fumes—detected elevated levels every few weeks.
“It was a very frustrating experience,” Haselhorst said. “We knew what we were smelling.” Weeks would go by without any exhaust fumes or carbon monoxide readings and then both would appear, seemingly at random, he said. Haselhorst pressed his case nonetheless, and the company bought back his Explorer in December 2017.
In Henriksen’s case, Ford offered to buy his Explorer back after he sued the company under Michigan’s lemon law. He’s in the process of closing that deal now.
As of mid-2016, Ford had bought back roughly 100 Explorers from complaining drivers, according to federal records. “We have made buyback offers to certain customers as goodwill gestures,” Ford’s Levine said.
When it was introduced in 1990, the Explorer helped usher in an American obsession with SUVs, and Ford has sold more than 7 million of them. The fifth-generation Explorer arrived in the 2011 model year. The first complaints about exhaust fumes seeping into its cabin followed soon after.
One came from a Ford manager who was leasing an Explorer. Company engineers tested his vehicle and confirmed what they described as a slight exhaust odor under specific driving conditions: full-throttle acceleration while the climate-control system was in “recirculation” mode. Ford described those circumstances as outside “typical customer usage,” according to a letter the company sent NHTSA in August 2016.
Using recirculation mode created negative air pressure inside the cabin, which could draw in outside gases through gaps in the rear of the Explorer’s body, Ford’s letter said.
That letter didn’t address any potential flaws in the Explorer’s exhaust system itself, but records the company turned over to NHTSA indicate that Ford dealers found exhaust system leaks in roughly 50 Explorers between December 2011 and April 2016—all on vehicles with fewer than 100,000 miles.
That’s a “fairly high failure rate,” said Ed Kim, a senior analyst with industry consulting firm AutoPacific Inc. “These components should not be failing at such a high rate prior to reaching 100,000 miles.”
The records summarize about 2,300 warranty claims, and a Ford spokeswoman said the list of claims doesn’t represent an acknowledgement by the company that any of the vehicles had a safety issue.
The leaks were mostly found in the exhaust manifold and the catalytic converter, which in the Explorer are welded together to form a single part. Problems identified in the records included porous welds, cracks and poor fits with other components that allowed exhaust to escape before exiting the tailpipe. The reports indicate that installing new parts resolved owners’ complaints.
In a statement, Ford said its testing hasn’t found exhaust leaks “to be a contributor to the concern.”
Regardless of the cause, Explorers’ exhaust issues made national headlines in 2017: Police officers who used Explorers in California and Massachusetts tested positive for exposure to carbon monoxide. And police in Austin, Texas, pulled almost 400 so-called Explorer Police Interceptors from their fleet over carbon monoxide concerns. Austin police had Ford repair the vehicles and began returning them to service in late 2017. But as recently as last September, an officer from the Fall River Police Department in Massachusetts was diagnosed with carbon monoxide poisoning after driving his police-issue Explorer, a department spokesman said. The department hadn’t sought repairs for that vehicle under Ford’s recommended service for police cruisers to address the carbon monoxide risk, he said.
Ford says the police problems differ from civilian complaints and stem from after-market modifications to the vehicles—like holes drilled in their bodies to allow for special wiring.
Plaintiffs’ lawyers argue otherwise. “It is an Explorer defect issue, period,” said Brian Chase, whose client, Brian McDowell, a former police officer, is suing Ford. McDowell passed out behind the wheel of an Explorer Police Interceptor at almost 50 miles per hour in 2015. He veered across several lanes of traffic before crashing into a tree. Ford has denied responsibility for McDowell’s accident or his injuries, according to court papers filed in the suit.

purred in part by media reports, some Explorer drivers around the country, like Henriksen, have used portable carbon-monoxide detectors to measure air quality in their vehicles. Some have reported alarming results.
An Eastlake, Ohio, driver found a concentration of 141 parts per million, according to an Oct. 19 complaint to NHTSA. Another in Kane, Pennsylvania, in 2014 reported a range of 75 to 100 ppm. One in Las Cruces, New Mexico, cited levels as high as 43 ppm in a 2013 Explorer, and one in Hughes Springs, Texas, reported 38 ppm. Carbon monoxide concentrations in the air typically register less than 2 ppm, according to the Environmental Protection Agency.
Levine, the Ford spokesman, said carbon monoxide should only be measured with scientifically calibrated detectors—which can cost several hundred dollars—and added that chemicals inside vehicles, such as vapors from cleaners, solvents and air fresheners, could cause false readings.
The deadly effects of exposure to high carbon monoxide levels are well known, but experts say chronic exposure to lower levels can also be unhealthy. While there’s no U.S. standard for interior air quality in motor vehicles, various agencies have set workplace limits, ranging from the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration’s 50 ppm to California state regulators’ 25 ppm. Both limits are average exposures over an eight-hour shift.
Even lower levels can still cause harm, especially to vulnerable people, such as the elderly, babies and people with heart disease, said Dr. Lindell Weaver, a physician and carbon monoxide expert in Salt Lake City. Workplace standards were written to protect otherwise healthy adults, not those vulnerable groups, he said, and they presume workers are at sea level, not higher elevations where carbon monoxide’s effects can be magnified.
“The situation and the individual factor into much of this, and that’s why having a hard and fast rule is difficult if not impossible,” he said.
In its August 2016 letter to NHTSA, Ford said the carbon monoxide it had found was well below established limits, but it cited an air-quality standard that experts say they can’t verify. Ford’s letter said the “Global Vehicle Interior Air Quality Standard” allows for continuous exposure to 25 ppm for an hour. But Google searches for that phrase showed no official use of it anywhere—except by Ford in its letter to NHTSA. A spokesman for Underwriters Laboratories, a U.S.-based product-safety certification company, said its subject experts were also unaware of any standard by that name.
Asked for more information about the standard, Ford didn’t provide any. Instead, its spokesman, Levine, said: “There is no single government standard specifically for vehicle interiors. Like all other automakers, Ford references a variety of government standards, guidelines and sources to ensure the safety of our vehicles.”
That’s not the only potential misstep the company has encountered. In a Louisiana case, a Ford representative attributed a couple’s problems with exhaust fumes in their Explorer to “a design issue”—just the sort of question NHTSA investigators are examining.
James and Faith Cassidy filed a lemon-law complaint against Ford, alleging that a defect in their 2013 Explorer allowed fumes and carbon monoxide to seep into the cabin, making Faith Cassidy ill. In non-binding arbitration, Ford representative Bob Gray testified in January 2015 that the Cassidys couldn’t pursue warranty claims because the company had tried but couldn’t solve the problem.
“It’s a design issue, not a defect,” Gray told the arbitrator, according to a transcript of the proceeding. “The fact that it’s being reported across the large number of vehicles would show that it’s not a defect in this particular vehicle.”
The arbitrator rejected the Cassidys’ claim, but Gray’s words will no doubt be used as evidence against Ford, said Chase, the lawyer for McDowell and several other police officers who say they were injured in Explorer crashes. “It’s a good admission, on the record,” he said.
Ford now says Gray was a contractor who misspoke, and that there is no design problem with the Explorer. Even so, when the Cassidys filed a lawsuit in 2015, the company sought a dismissal, arguing in part that the vehicle’s warranty didn’t cover alleged flaws in design. A federal judge denied Ford’s motion to dismiss, saying the warranty “does not actually exclude defects in design.”
The Cassidys’ case was settled as part of a 2016 deal to resolve a national class-action lawsuit alleging carbon monoxide problems in 2011-2015 Explorers. That nationwide settlement, which was finalized last September, provided $175 to $500 to customers who paid for repairs that didn’t work; extended warranties for the exhaust issue; and required Ford to issue a new bulletin to dealerships recommending repairs, which it did. In the settlement agreement, Ford didn’t admit to any liability.
Drivers of 2016 and 2017 Explorers not covered by that settlement filed a separate case seeking class-action status in federal court in Detroit in October 2017. That case is ongoing. Meanwhile, proposed class-action suits have been filed in federal courts in New York State and New Jersey, both on behalf of law enforcement personnel who used Police Interceptor models.
A handful of personal-injury suits are also pending, mostly brought by police officers. McDowell’s suit is scheduled for trial in November. And several individuals have filed lemon-law complaints in state courts, seeking reimbursement for Explorers that they claim are too defective to repair.
Ford declined to comment on pending litigation.
In 2017, a year after NHTSA began investigating the Explorer, the agency started a more in-depth review for a potential safety defect, known as an “engineering analysis.” At that point, the agency said, it had found 2,719 Explorer drivers who’d complained about exhaust seepage to Ford or to the agency.
Those complaints included claims of three crashes and 41 “injuries,” including headaches, nausea and “unspecified loss of consciousness.” Since July 2017, those numbers have increased, Bloomberg News found: Now the complaints allege more than 80 injuries; at least 11 of them claim drivers crashed after losing consciousness. Dozens of complaints since Ford’s last repair announcement in 2017 claim that drivers continued to feel ill, smell exhaust or register carbon monoxide on portable detectors even after getting the repairs.
While NHTSA’s probe and Ford’s repairs have focused on model years up to 2017, more than a dozen drivers of 2018 Explorers have complained to NHTSA about exhaust fumes in their cabins, records show. Ford says it continues to monitor customer complaints, including those lodged with NHTSA, and that customers with concerns should contact their dealer for inspections.
The agency said in 2017 it had no proof that carbon monoxide caused any of the crashes or injuries described in the complaints. NHTSA declined to comment on the progress of its probe, but said it’s testing and inspecting several Explorers driven by consumers and police officers and reviewing crashes involving police Explorers. It’s also monitoring the effectiveness of Ford’s campaign to repair the SUVs, according to a NHTSA statement.
The agency has completed about 90 such engineering analyses on various vehicle models since 2008; more than two-thirds of them resulted in manufacturers issuing recalls, according to the agency’s records.
Recalling the 1.3 million fifth-generation Explorers would be costly, but precise estimates are hard to come by—chiefly because it’s unclear what any fix might entail if NHTSA requires a new one. For context: Ford said in September that it would take a $140 million charge to recall around 2 million F-150s for faulty seatbelt components that could cause fires. In 2017, the company took a $267 million charge to recall 1.3 million F-Series pickup trucks in the U.S., Canada and Mexico to correct faulty door latches.
In Michigan, Bert Henriksen is still waiting to complete his buyback. Meanwhile, he’s driving his Explorer to and from work each day and keeping an eye on the carbon monoxide detector that sits on his dashboard. When it registers, he says, he rolls down the windows.


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100's of Billions in Future Liability for Monsanto-Bayer



BREAKING: Roundup "Weed Killer" Contributed to CA Man's Cancer; 100's of Billions in Future Liability for Monsanto-Bayer

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In a poetic twist of fate, the very same day that the American Health Association reversed decades old guidelines on using aspirin to promote heart health and prevent strokes, advising against its daily, low-dose use in healthy adults, Bayer's Monsanto buyout headache transmogrified into a debilitating migraine...
A federal jury in San Francisco has found that Monsanto’s weed-killer glyphosate was “a substantial factor” in causing a man’s cancer, delivering a major new blow to the agrochemical giant now owned by Bayer who acquired it last year.
This is the second such verdict against Monsanto-Bayer within the past five months, following the initial victory of Dwayne “Lee” Johnson who was awarded 78.5 millions last October; neither verdict, including 1,600 other pending cases in the US District Court for the Northern District of California, bodes well for Bayer’s hemorrhaging stock value.
Last October, Ian Hilliker, an analyst at Jefferies LLC in London, estimated in a note to clients that based on a class action lawsuit involving 8,700 plaintiffs (at the time) believed to have cancer as a result of glyphosate exposure, Monsanto’s liability could reach $800 billion dollars. To put this in perspective, the original Bayer-Monsanto buyout offer was $57 billion dollars. Clearly, this no longer looks like an "asset" to Bayer and its stockholders.


In Tuesday’s verdict, jurors unanimously determined that Edwin Hardeman, a 70-year old Sonoma County man, developed non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma (NHL) as a result of his exposure to the herbicide glyphosate commonly marketed as Roundup. Hardeman testified that he sprayed Roundup on his 56-acre property in Santa Rosa, CA, between 1986-2012, in order to control poison oak and weeds. In 2015, he was diagnosed with stage 3 NHL at the age of 66, and has undergone conventional treatment.
The next phase of the case will look at whether Monsanto knowingly concealed information about the potential harms of its product, and whether damages will be awarded to Hardeman. And the next case to go to trial will be Pilliod v. Monsanto, which is set to begin about March 28 in state court in Oakland.
To date, Monsanto-Bayer now faces over 11,000 additional plaintiffs who claim exposure to glyphosate-based products caused them harm. Indeed, an increasingly dense body of scientific research indicates this weedkiller is a broad spectrum toxicant with dozens of modes of toxicity.
GreenMedInfo has been indexing research on the unintended, adverse health effects of glyphosate for over a decade. You can view over 230 abstracts on the topic, linking glyphosate to over 50 adverse effects on the Glyphosate Toxicity database.
With this latest verdict, the tides are clearly turning against corporations who do not respect the precautionary principle and therefore sacrifice both human and ecological health in the name of prioritizing profit and gaining control of the marketplace
At the time of this writing (March 19th, at 9:30 pm EST), Bayer's stock was at 19.67 per share. Once the news sinks in, we expect it to decrease significantly. [Update: On March 20th, Bayer's stock crashed 9.6%. On March 21st, it sunk lower and is now at 17.29 a share.]

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ESHOO INTRODUCES LEGISLATION TO RESTORE LOCAL CONTROL IN DEPLOYMENT OF 5G


WASHINGTON, D.C. – Yesterday Congresswoman Anna G. Eshoo (CA-18) introduced H.R. 530, the Accelerating Wireless Broadband Development by Empowering Local Communities Act of 2019, legislation to overturn Federal Communications Commission (FCC) regulations limiting the ability of local governments to regulate the deployment of 5G wireless infrastructure.
“Having served in local government for a decade on the San Mateo County Board of Supervisors, I understand and respect the important role that state and local governments play in protecting the welfare of their residents,” said Rep. Eshoo. “5G is essential for our country’s communications network and economy, but it must be deployed responsibly and equitably. The FCC let industry write these regulations without sufficient input from local leaders. This has led to regulations that restrict cities from requiring carriers to meet the needs of communities in which they want to operate.”
“The FCC forced Congress to act by failing to listen to reasonable input from communities across the country, cowering to industry interests, and failing to put the public interests first. This legislation will preserve the ability of local communities to negotiate fair, market-based broadband deployment agreements and close the digital divide that exists for 34 million low-income and rural Americans,” said Sam Liccardo, Mayor of San Jose. “We want to thank Rep. Eshoo for her leadership on this issue.”
“We applaud Congresswoman Eshoo for her leadership on behalf of local governments,” said Clarence Anthony, CEO and Executive Director of the National League of Cities. “Cities, towns and villages are eager to welcome new technologies like 5G, but must retain the authority to protect the diverse needs of residents and communities. Federal agencies should work more closely with local leaders to understand those needs, which the FCC’s actions failed to do.”
“Counties are committed to ensuring that all residents have access to affordable broadband while timely 5G facilities and services are deployed. As we achieve these goals, we must also fulfill our responsibilities as trustees of public property and rights-of-way, without adding unnecessary red tape,” said Matthew Chase, Executive Director of the National Association of Counties. “We thank Representative Eshoo for introducing a bill that preserves the role of counties and other local governments as true partners in advancing 5G technology everywhere.”
“We welcome Congresswoman Eshoo’s effort to set aside the Federal Communications Commission’s actions that unnecessarily benefit one industry at the expense of our communities,” said Nancy L. Werner, General Counsel of the National Association of Telecommunications Officers and Advisors. “They do nothing to ensure that all communities—rich, poor, urban, rural, and everything in between—will see the benefits of increased broadband deployment.  Local governments have the ultimate responsibility for safeguarding their communities.”
Background
On August 2, 2018 and September 26, 2018, the FCC adopted regulations limiting the abilities of cities and states to regulate small cell sites (e.g., pole attachments) needed for the deployment of 5G. The actions limit the type and amount of fees cities and states may charge, set “shot clocks” as low as 60 days for cities and states to authorize proposals, and limit non-fee requirements cities and states may institute. The regulations began taking effect on January 14, 2019.
The City of San Jose is leading a coalition of nearly 100 cities, towns, counties, and associations of localities in suing the FCC arguing that the agency lacks the statutory authority to issue such regulations. The Cities of Burlingame, San Bruno, and San Francisco have also joined the City of San Jose in its lawsuit. Rep. Jackie Speier (CA-14) joined Rep. Eshoo as a cosponsor of the bill.


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Barrie Trower & Mark Steele discuss 5G as a weapon and how 5G encompasses the Sub Ghz range.


Barry Trower & Mark Steele discuss 5G as a weapon and also answer the confusion relating to Bemri's visit to Gateshead and how 5G encompasses the Sub Ghz range.