Quick Takes

Rev. Harold Camping, we miss you.

Gloom and Doom edition

By Will Collette

Where’s Harold? OK, the world didn’t end on Friday as predicted by Rev. Harold Camping. After his second prediction fizzled, where’s Harold? He made himself readily available to explain what really happened last May instead of his predicted doomsday, but this time, the media can’t find him. Harold, where are you? We need to need when the world is going to end to plan the next tag sale. 

NORAD can track Santa but LOSES a 3-ton satellite?

And where’s ROSAT? The 2.7 ton German satellite ROSAT plummeted to earth sometime late Saturday night, Eastern Time, but it’s a day later and NASA and the Defense Department still don’t know where it fell.  Of course, I’m glad it didn’t fall and kill anybody, but isn’t it troubling that we don’t know where it is? I was under the impression that our trillions of dollars of defense hardware and surveillance satellites pretty much had the whole planet covered. That you couldn’t sneak a baseball sized object through our airspace without our knowing exactly where it is and where it’s going. How did we lose a school-bus sized piece of space junk weighing more than 5000 pounds?

Wal-Mart has a healthcare plan? Yes they do have a health insurance plan for their employees, though not too many people know about it. And yes, it’s crap. But this past week, Wal-Mart announced major cut-backs in their coverage and special demands on employees who want to avoid punishing cost-sharing. 

Good news, bad news on suicide in Rhode Island. A new report lists Rhode Island as the very worst in the nation for suicide attempts, but not so bad for actual suicides. One in 67 Rhode Islanders attempted suicide last year, compared to 1 in 200 nationwide, But actual suicides were among the lowest in the nation. The report does not explain why our attempt rate is so high and the actual death rate is so low. 

Charlestown NIMBY leadership to be challenged? There are rumblings out of North Kingstown, Charlestown’s long-time competitor for the total of most fanatical anti-wind NIMBY in Rhode Island. Their town council has just extended North Kingstown’s moratorium on wind energy (guess their town solicitor went to a different law school than our’s) and their Planning Commission is writing a new ordinance. Like Charlestown, North Kingstown is also banning commercial sized turbines. But they seem poised to take a harder line on other turbines. They cap the size of wind generators at 160 feet for industrial zoned areas and at 50 feet for residential and commercial zoned properties. And they’re going with a five to one setback (if you put up a 50 foot generator, you have to have a 250 foot buffer between it and your property line). They probably have additional details that must be followed, like Charlestown does, to make sure that no wind generators actually get built. Unlike Charlestown, they are willing to admit they intend to ban wind energy. As their Town Administrator Michael Embury told the No Kingstown Patch, “Theoretically, you can have no locations in town that can meet the restrictions of this ordinance.” But it's really academic since Charlestown's current and proposed wind ordinances effectively ban any size or form of wind generator anywhere in town.

Portsmouth wins “net metering” case. A lot of people around Rhode Island have been watching to see which way a challenge to the price National Grid has been paying the town of Portsmouth for electricity coming from its municipal turbine next to Portsmouth High School. The state PUC ruled in favor of the town, saying the price the town was receiving did not violate state or federal law. This will make it easier for other towns – certainly not Charlestown – to recoup the cost of installing municipal turbines that produce enough electricity to sell it back into the grid. 

Oil prices expected to skyrocket – again – this winter. Heating oil prices this winter are expected to rise to more than $3.70 a gallon at the same time as federal heating assistance to low-income families has been cut. The average heating bill for New England families who heat with oil is expected to be around $2500.

Texas Plans to issue a Confederate Flag license plate. And doesn't that figure? Given that Governor and presidential contender Rick Perry proudly told a Tea Party rally that he would seriously consider getting the state of Texas to secede from the United States in protest of federal policies, why not the Stars and Bars on the ole pick-up? 

And finally, Lindsay  Lohan reports to work at the morgue – with cupcakes and burgers. On the verge of being sent to prison, this time for real, druggie starlet Lohan finally showed up at her latest court-assigned community service site, the Los Angeles County Morgue. After showing up too late to work on the first day, Lohan reported for work early on the second day. And she had gourmet cupcakes delivered to the morgue in the morning and gourmet burgers delivered for lunch. Morgue officials turned away both deliveries and warned Lohan that her “generosity” (or publicity stunt, depending on your POV) were disruptive and not welcome. Idiot.