The Dittmar Deliverer

Minneapolis police used pepper spray and smoke gernades to break up a block party in Dinkytown on Saturday night, according to a report by the Star Tribune.
According to the reports, there was a crowd of over 500 students on 7th street in between avenues 13th and 14th Avenues SE and about 60 police officials.
Six students were arrested.
According to the Minnesota Daily, after police started to use projectiles to disperse the crowds, some students responded by throwing broken bottles at the officers.
Jeff Ormsbee , a chemical engineering junior, said the police arrival was expected.
"People were jumping on cars, riding in shopping carts and chanting around the fires," said Ormsbee
MPD Sgt. Jesse Garcia said that students used Spring Jam as an excuse for uncontrolled partying.
"This is a lot of drunk college students that are taking advantage of a good situation,” Garcia said.
“I think they might have gotten the message tonight.”

Posted by dittm027 at 3:31 PM | Permalink

The recession is changing the direction of the current green movement, according to a report in the Pioneer Press.
In many situations buying eco-friendly products are more expensive and people are more concerned about the green in their pocketbooks instead of in the environment.
The Pioneer Press said that people who are worried they may not have a job in six months are unlikely to install solar pannels or will shy away from the more pricey organic grocery stores.
To save money, we pared down on organic foods, and we stopped subscribing to a CSA (community-supported agriculture)," said 32-year-old Sundee Kuechle.
Also the press reports the numbers of hybrid car sales of declined.
"It's not that people don't want to do it anymore, but priorities are changing. The bottom line is, if you're worried about cutting costs, and you perceive — rightly or wrongly — that green is more expensive, you might put it on hold," Michael Solomon said, a professor at Saint Joseph's University in Philadelphia.
New York Times released results from a poll that ranked the top concerns of Americans after Barack Obama became president. At the top of the list were jobs and the economy, related to the current recession.
Climate change was number 20, at the very bottom of the list.

Posted by dittm027 at 3:13 AM | Permalink

Cities are starting to redesign their back alleys from being dark and dangerous to welcoming and eco-friendly, according to a report by USA Today.
Cities are restructuring the use of these forgotten roadways to be used for gardens, cafes and buffer zones that absorb rain water runoff by resurfacing them with porous pavement.
"The biggest issue with alleys is not what folks are doing to retrofit them but the fact that folks are rediscovering them," says Craig Lewis, principal of the Lawrence Group Town Planners and Architects in Davidson, N.C.
For example, one of Chicago's goals in their Green Alley Program is for alleys to absorb polluted water into the ground instead of it running into Lake Michigan.
Over 80 of the cities 1,300 alleys have been rebuilt to include rock beds underneath the surface that will filter and recharge underground water basins.
According the the New York Times, the cities pavements, which are made from recyclable materials, are also designed to reflect heat keeping the city cooler on warm days and absorb heat when temperatures drop.

Posted by dittm027 at 5:35 PM | Permalink

Many schools in Northern Minnesota lost a week of classes due to harsh winter weather conditions. Now there is legislature debating whether students will be required to make this time up in the classroom, according to a report by the Star Tribune.
Teachers are concerned that the "increased disruptions" may pay divedends in the students education.
Until recently, Minnesota schools have had to make up snow days.
Now there is a bill being moved through legislature that may require students to be in school for a specific number of hours.
"We really believe that more time on task is important," Minnesota Education Commissioner Alice Seagren said, "and the trend and expectation is that we need to have more time in class."
Though the soonest snow day make-ups will be required is next year.
This year teachers will be more rigorus with the curriculum and additional field trips may be taken away.
"Instead of doing labs on some concepts, I am doing shorter lessons out of the book," Carolyn Heistad , a science teacher at Denfeld High School in Duluth, said. "Kids miss that hands-on experience."

Posted by dittm027 at 5:10 PM | Permalink

The population of Eco-police officers are growing as the envirnomental awareness and the role of pollution in global climate change has also increased, said a report by the New York Times.
These officers, appropriately uniformed in green, are part of the the State Department of Environmental Conservation and primary purpose is to enforce environmental laws.
The Eco-Police was originally created in 1880 as "game protectors" that were responsible for monitoring the fish and hunting regulations.
However, now with the need of environmental regulation on urban turf their roles have been changed.
They are responsible for investigation in matters such as trucks that spew too much exhaust, oil spills in car crashes, markets that sell undersized fish and companies that fail to comply with recycling laws.
They are very similar to a state or city officer in the fact that they carry guns, handcuffs, can issue citations and make arrests.
New environmental officers are often assigned to New York City because this is where there is the most job openings.
However, it is difficult for them to remain in the city because their $40,000 per a year salary is difficult to pay New York's high living expenses.
The Times reports that there are about 20 officers in New York City and 300 total Eco-officers around the state.

Posted by dittm027 at 1:53 AM | Permalink

Minnesotan explorer Will Steager said his good health is from activity, outdoor living and joy of the wilderness in a report in The Star Tribune on Friday.
Steager, 64, is an environmentalist that has led expeditions to the North Pole several times. After seeing climate change first hand he has dedicated his life to saving the earth and is now in the best shape of his life linking life in the outdoors and his health.
Steager said he has never been out of shape, but also doesn't enjoy regulated excercise.
Instead he is always on the move in nature, if he is chopping wood or hiking up hills.
Steager also said that eating healthy is not difficult either. He maintains a diet of organic foods and perfers to eat simple foods while staying away from preservatives .
"I eat a lot of wild foods like vegetables, fruits and nuts. I don't eat processed foods; it just doesn't make sense," said Steager. "Eating right is so simple."
Steager also believes that an individuals happiness resides in the simple things is life and that the ecomomic collapse is bring people back to the fundamentals of happiness.
"America has been too big of a party, with too many materials," said Steager. "We need to get back to basics, the basics where you're happy."

Posted by dittm027 at 3:00 AM | Permalink

President Obama's plan to address global warming and produce a green economy was laid out in The New York Times on Friday.
The White House established a goal of cutting U.S. carbon emissions by 14% than what they were in 2005 by the year 2020 and 83% of what they were by 2050.
Finances to complete this goal will be delivered through the cap-and-trade program that is estimated to produce $150 billion over 10 years beginning in 2012.
Another $65 million will be reserved to pay for middle class tax credits.
Under this program pollution permits will be auctioned to companies who will directly pay taxes for their greenhouse gases emissions.
The budget will also give an increase in spending to the Department of Energy from 24.1 billion last year to 3.9 billion.
Obama's other plans to raise the green economy include an increase of green jobs available to middle income citizens.

Posted by dittm027 at 11:29 PM | Permalink

Elk heard feeding is drawing attention of environmentalists that say the practice has become overused, according to a report by The New York Times on Tuesday.
There is currently a law suit being filed against the Federal Fish and Wildlife service that says feeding practices are degrading the landscape and creating monocultures that danger the areas biodiversity.
Also, with so many Elk in an area it is argued that diseases such as chronic wasting disease is easier spread.
The feeding originally started by the federal government in response to the population's dwindling numbers from overhunting and settlement.
Though there are many complications within the decision to feed or not to feed.
The elk head in Jackson, WY., is a tourist attraction that draws in revenue for the town. It is estimated that 25,000 people tour the elk refuge each year.
Also those involved in oil drilling local to the area and farmers wish to keep the elk herds contained.
“It’s like a tar baby — nobody can figure out how to let go of it,” said Bradford Mead, a Jackson rancher.

Posted by dittm027 at 2:49 PM | Permalink

Lance Armstrong will return to professional road cycling in the US on Saturday at the Amgen Tour of California with other goals than a victory, according to a report from USA Today.
Armstrong, 37, has three motives to get back in the saddle on Saturday: to prove his innocence of performance enhancing drugs, to draw more attention to his international anti-cancer campaign, and to help a teamate to win the race.
Armstrong has claimed to be one of the most accused characters of drug doping in sports history.
"Cycling's at the end of that dark spot," Armstrong said Thursday at a press conference. "But at night we can sleep well knowing that we've been tested more than anyone."
In October Armstrong said he would create a program with anti-doping scientist Don Catlin, that would test him every three days and report all findings online, to finally put an end to accusations.
However, Catlin said the program would be unlikely to complete as it would cost up to $1 million.

Posted by dittm027 at 3:47 PM | Permalink

A 56-year-old became the first to swim across the Atlantic Ocean after she touched sand in Trinidad on Thursday according to a report in USA Today.
Accompanied by a sailboat, Jennifer Figge of Colorado started her 25 day trek on Cape Verde Islands on Jan. 12 and swam for approximately 700 miles.
Figge's longest swim was 8 hours and shortest 21 minutes. She would fuel her swim with energy drinks thrown to her by ship crew members. At night she would rest and replenish the 8000 calories she lost in the day. At 7 a.m. the next day she would wake and return to the water.
The 30 ft waves, icy temperatures, and many Portuguese man of War were never enough to make her turn around. "I was never scared," Figge said. "Looking back, I wouldn't have it any other way. I can always swim in a pool."
Figge first imagined the idea of swimming across the ocean when she was on a trans-Atlantic flight in the 60's and thought if the plane crashed and she had a life jacket she could swim to her destination.
She will finish her journey by continuing from Trinidad to the British Virgin Islands ending in late February.

Posted by dittm027 at 3:01 AM | Permalink

The New York Times reports that the growing acidity in oceans is proving an imminent danger to shellfish and coral reefs according to an international panel of marine scientists.
The group issued a statement last October that declared the decrease in shellfish weights and the loss of coral reefs because of the increasing salt content called the Monaco Declaration.
Officials believe effects will be detrimental to all forms of marine life because of the heavy dependency on coral reefs.
As C02 levels in the atmosphere rise, the problem becomes worse. The ocean absorbs over a quarter of the earths carbon gases and dissolves them in its oceans to produces carbonic acid.
A doubling of the concentration of atmospheric carbon dioxide, which could occur in as little as 50 years, will make some marine ecosystems uninhabitable, according to The Nature Conservancy in the Honolulu Declaration on Ocean Acidification and Marine Management.
“The chemistry is so fundamental and changes so rapid and severe that impacts on organisms appear unavoidable,�? according to James Orr, who headed the symposium’s scientific committee.
The group, composed of 156 scientists from 26 countries, calls for "urgent action" to internationally decrease the amount of carbon dioxide outputs.

Posted by dittm027 at 3:11 AM | Permalink