Texas couple awarded $3M in fracking-damage suit

[Updated at 5 p.m. to add more detailed story—see below: “In landmark ruling…]

A jury in Dallas has awarded Bob and Lisa Parr of Decatur nearly $3 million for damages resulting from a nearby fracking operation.

 
The Parrs sued Aruba Petroleum in 2011 for fracking operations that "fouled the family’s 40-acre ranch property, their home and quality of life, sickened them and their pets and livestock," according to the plaintiffs’ law firm Matthews and Associates.
 
The April 22 verdict included $275,000 for the Parr’s property loss of market value and $2 million for past physical pain and suffering by Bob and Lisa Parr and their daughter, $250,000 for future physical pain and suffering, $400,000 for past mental anguish.


The attorneys claim that the case is the first fracking verdict in Texas.
A copy of the Parrs’ amended court petition is available here 

Jury awards Parrs $2.9 Million


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NY college, solar company announce $700M investment

A Japanese solar cell manufacturing company could build its North American headquarters at the College of Nanoscale Science and Engineering in Albany, NY.

The Albany Business Review reports that "Solar Frontier K.K. and the College of Nanoscale Science and Engineering have signed an agreement to explore establishing
a site at the nanocollege."
"The partnership also is looking into the potential construction of a solar manufacturing plant in western New York. If the two organizations move forward with the partnership,
it would create about 1,000 jobs and result in a $678 million investment."

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Fish swap brings salmon to New Jersey lakes

Catch a salmon in a New Jersey lake? Yep, it’s possible. See Andre Malok’s
Star-Ledger video to learn about the program and people who made it possible.

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Snowy Owl, a former D.C. celeb, is released to the wild

The Snowy Owl who captured the attention of residents and reporters in the nation’s capital, perching atop a lobbying firm’s awning and then at the Washington Post building, has taken flight in Minnesota after two months of rehabilitation for injuries sustained after being struck by a D.C. bus.

The Associated Press reports:

The Raptor Center at the University of Minnesota released the owl on Saturday outside Superior, Wis., near the Minnesota and Wisconsin state border.

Center director Julia Ponder says the owl is in great condition and flew off with strong, steady wing beats. She says it will hopefully head north.

The owl was found injured in downtown Washington in late January and taken to the National Zoo before being transferred to a Washington, D.C., wildlife rehabilitation center. It then came to Minnesota for rehab, because The Raptor Center has expertise in replacing damaged feathers.

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Meet NJ Gov Christie's Ombudsman, Patrick Hobbs

Patrick E. Hobbs

"As part of the internal review into the scandals whirling around New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, lawyers recommended the governor hire an ombudsman. On Friday, Christie announced that he appointed Patrick Hobbs for the position."

That’s the introduction to a short but interesting sketch about Mr. Hobbs, provided by Matt Katz in his blog, Katz on Christie, hosted by NJ Spotlight.

Katz tells us that Hobbs is the dean of Seton Hall Law School and chair of the State Commission on Investigation, which in recent years has been more focused on criminal issues than public corruption.  

Hobbs will be paid $75,000 for the part-time job and is not resigning from his dean’s position.

What’s  his relationship to Christie? They have known each other professionally for the last 15 years through Christie’s involvement as an alumnus of Seton Hall Law. Hobbs said they have never socialized.
Oh, yes, we almost forgot…Hobbs is a Democrat.


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Different cleanups for Ford's paint sludge in NY and NJ

    Soil would be excavated from this site in Ramapo, N.Y. (Record photo) 
New York State has ordered Ford Motor Co. to remove almost all the toxic paint sludge that was trucked from its former Mahwah plant and dumped at a site in Rockland County, a stark contrast to a proposal by federal officials that would leave much of the automaker’s waste next to an Upper Ringwood neighborhood, Scott Fallon reports in The Record.
 
"The $7.5 million plan would be the second major cleanup of Ford’s pollution in Ramapo, N.Y., which calls for the majority of the paint sludge to be dug up and hauled away. The move has upset some in Upper Ringwood who want to see the Environmental Protection Agency take a similar approach at the borough’s 500-acre Superfund site instead of considering a plan that would remove far less contaminated soil than originally planned."


“Even though I understand the importance of cleaning the paint sludge out of that area, I think it’s important to clean it out of all areas,” said Vincent Mann, a chief of the Ramapough Lenape Nation, whose members have lived in the mountains of Ringwood for centuries.

The story explains that the two communities, just a few miles apart, “share a common history as a dumping ground from the mid-1960s to the early 1970s for tons of paint sludge that Ford generated at its former Mahwah plant. But in recent years, the EPA and the New York Department of Environmental Conservation have taken vastly different approaches to the problem: Ringwood could have waste entombed there in perpetuity, while in Ramapo, sludge could be nearly completely removed.”

Fallon notes that the two sites are different. "The amount of pollution in Ramapo is much smaller than what was dumped in Ringwood. The paint sludge is also dumped in more shallow pits in Ramapo, making it less costly and complicated to excavate. "

Read the entire story here 

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