Illinois STATE law would ban gas leaf blowers. SB3313 by DEM State Senator Laura Fine.

WGEM: New Illinois bill would make gas leaf blowers illegal.

A Senate bill in Illinois would ban the use or sale of gas-powered leaf blowers in the state.

SB3313 filed last week by Senator Laura Fine (D) of the 9th Senate District amends the Environmental Protection Act. It states that "a person may not operate or sell at retail a gas-powered leaf blower in the State. Provides that a person who violates the amendatory Act's provisions shall be subject to a civil penalty not to exceed $500."

The bill lists environmental and noise pollution as the reasons for the ban.
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These emissions, the bill states, are a contributing factor to smog formation and acid rain.
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In addition, it states that leaf blowers send dust and other small particles like metals, allergens, and animal feces into the air for considerable distances.

Synopsis of SB3313.

Ms. Fine previously was a State Representative (and before that a township clerk) before being elected to the Illinois Senate which she won, according to the Wiki entry, by running unopposed. 

Acid rain? Talk about stretching and grasping at straws for justification excuses. And yeah, only leaf blowers send "dust and other particles" into the air. No other product or device does this.

$500 bucks. It's all about revenue. If you live in Illinois, and this bill passes and you own a gas leaf blower - what are you going to do with it? You can't legally use it and you can't sell it in-state. Where will it end up? Yet another landfill.
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WGEM Archived 
SB3313 Archived

Tech Waste. An Existential Threat? "Climate Change" is more popular and financially rewarding.

Scientific American: Tech Waste Is a Danger to Us All.

Hardware in general, and smartphones in particular, have taken over our lives so quickly that few of us have had the chance to think about what happens to them when we no longer use them. The answer is that they become a huge environmental and health problem in the Global South’s landfill sites.

We don’t hear much about this problem because it is out of sight, out of mind.

Electronic waste is currently 5 percent of all global waste, and it is set to increase exponentially as more of us own multiple smartphones, laptops and power banks—few of which are likely to be repaired or recycled at the end of their lives.
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There is an almost limitless consumer demand for hardware, and governments do not have bottomless pockets, especially when their green policies are focused on more high-profile issues like carbon emissions.
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Only the manufacturers can fix this, by creating a circular hardware economy.

No, this is not a problem that "only manufacturers can fix". Not any different than blaming manufacturers of plastic and the hysteria of the pearl-clutching-crowd crying for bans on plastic bags and bottles. People use and buy based on their wants, needs and what they feel is a good return for their money. Much of it is packed with plastic.

Do you want that plastic band around your ice cream container so you're assured no one the super market, opened it, licked it and returned it to the freezer? I'm betting no matter how much you hate and want to ban plastic, you like that plastic band.

Look around your house. How much plastic is there is in everything? I'm betting, at some point in their journey, fossil fuels were used in transporting those items to your home. Plastic is versatile and affordable, same for fossil fuel.

Consumers play a large part in tech waste. The question is, is the Tech-Obsessed-Must-Have-the-Latest-Device-Crowd willing to do their part? And a circular hardware economy has a limit, it's not an endless loop.

Tech Waste can wait. We have to solve the Existential Threat of Climate Change first.

I've referenced the stories below in the past and I'll use them again:

Amnesty.org: Child labour behind smart phone and electric car batteries.

GreenTech Media: With demand for cobalt and lithium surging, companies need to be aware of where they’re sourcing from.
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Scientific American Archived
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(Feb. 17, 2020 typo fix "is" to "in")

Gas-powered lawn equipment ban proposed in Santa Maria.

Santa Maria Times: Proposed ban on gas-powered lawn equipment worries Santa Maria-area landscapers.

California regulators have proposed a ban on the sale of gas-powered landscaping equipment, worrying Santa Maria Valley landscapers who say the move would impact their ability to serve their clients.

State regulators with the California Air Resources Board said they plan to ask board members to sign off on a plan by the end of the year to gradually reduce the emissions from items like lawn mowers and leaf blowers to zero.

The move is an important one to reduce air pollution, said Karen Caesar, a spokeswoman for the board.

Caesar said the work put into reducing pollution from car engines hasn’t translated at the same level for lawn mowers, and that the devices often emit more harmful gases than cars.

According to CARB, running the best-selling leaf blower for one hour releases as much smog-forming pollution as driving a 2017 Toyota Camry from Los Angeles to Denver.
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“When you’re talking about mowing a school, an electric piece of equipment to mow an area that big doesn’t exist,” he said. “You’d have to change 12 batteries to mow one grass area — that’s insane,” [said Neil Towery, general manager of All Weather Landscape Maintenance in Santa Maria].

Ernie Torres, who owns PJD Landscape Management, said electrical equipment wouldn't be practical for commercial landscapers.

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Santa Maria Times Archived

Where TF is this magic Weather station?

It's still wrong. Or, 75 is much cooler than I remember.

The above result is from a search on Duckduckgo using, "weather 55101", the general zip code for St. Paul.

I guess the AC is going on tonight!

Something tells me this is incorrect.

But who am I to argue with experts in the meteorological sciences.

U.N. chief warns may not have enough money to pay staff next month.

Jan. 13, 2018; U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres. 

Why, is he making the White Supremacist "OK" hand gesture?

Shocker...the UN needs money.

Daily Maverick: UN's Secretary-General Guterres warns may not be able to meet payroll.

[U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Tuesday] told the 193-member U.N. General Assembly’s budget committee that if he had not worked since January to cut spending then “we would not have had the liquidity to support” the annual gathering of world leaders last month. “This month, we will reach the deepest deficit of the decade. We risk … entering November without enough cash to cover payrolls,” said Guterres. (Those three periods after risk "...", I wonder if he was literally gasping...for Teh...Drama. Maybe he played an ominous ringtone before continuing with, "...entering November... ." - DD)
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Washington owes some $381 million for prior regular budgets and $674 million for the 2019 regular budget. The U.S. mission to the United Nations confirmed the figures. It did not immediately respond to a request for comment on when it might pay.

U.S. President Donald Trump has said Washington is shouldering an unfair burden of the cost of the United Nations and has pushed for reforms of the world body. Guterres has been working to improve U.N. operations and cut costs.
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The United States is responsible for nearly 28 percent of the peacekeeping budget but has pledged to pay only 25 percent – as required by U.S. law.

The UN could save a lot of money - and help Teh Climate - by ceasing all air travel. There's this thing called Web Conferencing. Most of the UN's actual business needn't be conducted in-person.
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Daily Maverick Archived

Leaked IPCC report reveals coastal communities around the world will be destroyed. Global banking on board with UN-backed climate principles.

Here we go, again.

The Scotsman (via Webpage Archive): Leaked IPCC report reveals coastal communities around the world will be destroyed.

A new UN report is set to issue a stark warning on the impact of climate change on oceans and frozen areas, amid a push to ratchet up efforts to tackle the crisis.

The latest in a series of special reports from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) is being published in the same week as countries meet at the UN for a summit aimed at upping ambitions on tackling global warming.
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[The study] warn[s] of huge increases in flooding damage, melting ice caps and glaciers and more ocean heatwaves that bleach and kill coral.

A draft of the report leaked to AFP suggested that if global temperatures rise to 2C above pre-industrial levels, 280 million people could be displaced by rising seas.

This report was leaked. Yeah. Sure. That's believable.

What if the IPCC report is wrong and the reality of their outlook is far, far worse than they ever imagined? Shouldn't there be a mass exodus of people living near bodies of water who immediately put their homes up for sale and start moving inland? Why wait? Why take the chance? When the Elites start abandoning their ocean property, let the rest of us know.
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Global financial institutions have caved to the U.N. and the worldwide, self-induced climate crisis hyperbole.

SBS News: Banks worth $69 trillion commit to new UN-backed climate principles.

Banks with more than $69 trillion in assets, or a third of the global industry, have adopted new UN-backed "responsible banking" principles to fight climate change that would shift their loan books away from fossil fuels.

Deutsche Bank, Citigroup and Barclays were among 130 banks to join the new framework on Sunday on the eve of a United Nations summit in New York aimed at pushing companies and governments to act quickly to avert catastrophic global warming.

"These principles mean banks have to consider the impact of their loans on society - not just on their portfolio," Simone Dettling, banking team lead for the Geneva-based United Nations Environment Finance Initiative, told Reuters.
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Under pressure from investors, regulators and climate activists, some big banks have acknowledged the role lenders will need to play in a rapid transition to a low-carbon economy.

Financing for oil, gas and coal projects has come under particular scrutiny as climate scientists step up calls to change the global economy's deep reliance on fossil-fuels to avert disastrous warming.

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SBS News Archived

Sanders' $16 Trillion Green Scam.

Chattanooga Times Free Press: Sanders touts $16 trillion climate plan in fire-ravaged town.

Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders released a $16.3 trillion climate plan on Thursday before touring a Northern California town ravaged by wildfire, declaring the setting a "wake-up call for our entire nation" to the dangers of a warming planet.

"Climate change is a major, major crisis for our country, and the entire world, and one of the manifestations of that crisis is what happened here," the Vermont senator said as he walked through a burned-out mobile home park in Paradise alongside people who lost their homes in last November's deadly blaze.

Sanders' climate plan calls for the United States to move to renewable energy across the economy by 2050 and declare climate change a national emergency.

When has anyone, especially a Liberal Full-Fledged Socialist Bernie accurately predicted the cost of something? Yeah, his plan will come in on time and on budget. Much like California's Train To Nowhere, as just one example.

Is Bernie sure $16 Trillion is enough?

 Via Prep Scholar

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Chattanooga Times Free Press Archived

NBC/MSNBC Technical Difficulties best part of DEM Debate Wednesday night.

Other than the Tech Difficulties experience by NBC and MSNBC, the best moment was during the second half of Tuesday night's DEM 2019 Debate, Round One, when BOB O'Rourke, replying to NBC News Anchor Lester Holt, called him,  "John".

Technical Difficulties...priceless.

The Western Journal:  NBC Suffers Humiliating Malfunction During Democratic Debate, Forced To Cut to Commercial.

Other than that, all the DEM wannabes expressed dire pearl-clutching and hand-wringing over climate change global warming global cooling weather.

WSTP Tampa Bay: Democratic Debate Recap: Climate change urgency was a unifying debate topic.

The Max Headroom Broadcast Signal Hijacking

More global warming alarmism; U.S. cities and landmarks COULD be underwater...by 2100.

(Big sigh...)

Business Insider: Disturbing before-and-after photos show how US cities — and their famous landmarks — could be underwater in 80 years.

A few years ago, the UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change predicted that the world's sea levels would rise an additional 3 feet by 2100. But earlier this week, a study in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences more than doubled this worst-case estimate, predicting that sea levels could rise by around 6.5 feet in the same time frame.

For coastal cities like New York and San Francisco, this spells bad news for low-lying waterfront neighborhoods — and the many landmarks within them.

Climate Central's Google Earth plug-in shows what US cities would look like in the most extreme cases of sea-level rise.

And we know we can completely Trust in the accuracy of Teh Googel, right?

Statue of Liberty - current.

 Statue of Liberty - underwater.

 Palm Beach, FL - current

 Palm Beach, FL - underwater

PROS: 

Significant reduction in street vehicles and pedestrian traffic!

More places accessible by boats! More boating! Yay!

Long drives to the beaches eliminated!

Home-to-work commute by water-sking!

Fishing easily available almost everywhere!

Can play "Waterworld" for real!
Reductions in home and business fires!
Porpoise Lassoing finally legalized and recognized as a sport!
Fun times at High Tide!
Finally a reality to living under the sea.
Ski-jetting everywhere!
Big decrease of lawns to mow and maintain.
Good deterrent to Zombie attacks.
More Hydroponic alternatives.
Fewer seasonal allergies.

CONS:
Extra water.
Possible increased risk of Cthulhus.

Did I miss any?

Summer was nice...

...while it lasted. Good luck, Denver.

Screen cap: 9 News.

Image: National Weather Service

USA MacPaper: 'Potentially historic' blizzard conditions.

    Travel will become difficult, dangerous and nearly impossible.
    Minneapolis/St. Paul is the biggest metro area in the path of the storm.
    Tornadoes possible, too.

Don't put away those scrapers just yet:

Midwest Blizzard, heRE we snow again.

Daily Mail: Massive blizzard to hit the Rockies and Midwest Wednesday weeks after a 'bomb cyclone' hit the area.

...the major storm will include everything from high winds to heavy snow and rain, while also bringing the return risk of severe weather, just three weeks after a 'bomb cyclone' hit the area. 

Temperatures could drop more than 30 degrees Fahrenheit across the northern Plains starting Tuesday, setting the stage for lots of snow.
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Some computer models indicate snowfall could reach more then 30 inches in some areas from Sioux Falls, South Dakota, through Minneapolis and east to Eau Claire, Wisconsin, although it's more likely that the snow would max out at about 24 inches.
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It's believed that winds as strong as 90mph could even be seen across the Front Range and High Plains from southeastern Wyoming through eastern New Mexico and the Texas and Oklahoma panhandles.

 We didn't listen.

Semi truck drives onto Lake Minnetonka

Photo credit: Jeremy Elshaug

FOX 9 KMSP:  Semi-truck driver drives onto Lake Minnetonka.

According to the Hennepin County Water Patrol, the driver was reportedly making a delivery to a resident on the lake when he drove onto the snow-covered ice.
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According to Jeremy Elshaug, who was on the lake checking on his fish house, he and some other ice-goers helped the truck driver dig out the rig. Elshaug then used his pickup truck to pull the truck to a less snowy area.

A brief update on radio news said the truck driver was following his GPS directions. Minnetonka is a big lake with many homes around it. In certain areas, in winter, with today's diminished visibility - going by GPS - yeah, I can see how driving onto the lake would happen. Lucky the ice is as thick as it is, holding the weight of a semi.

Below chart from Almanac.com

Here comes more global warming Climate Change!

The calm...

Before the storms.

Map: Weather.gov

WCCO CBS: More snow, winds 40-50 mph.

I picked the wrong week(end) to...

Minnesota Blizzard? No, we've been lying for years.

This is what it was like earlier today in Minneapolis.

We've been lying for so long to the rest of the country, and world, about harsh Minnesota winters. We don't want others to know how easy we have it.

U.S. Hit by BIG Winter Storm

Image weather.gov

AccuWeather: Back-to-back storm blasts.

USA MacPaper via Yahoo: Coast-to-Coast storm; Winter MISERY.

Daily Mail: 39 states facing winter storm; some areas 1 foot of snow.

USA MacPaper - The Spectrum: Snow in Utah. 

Remember winter driving tips, folks. Always drive as fast as you can, the faster your wheels spin the better traction, you'll stop on a dime on slippery roads so braking is rare, don't allow for extra travel time, honk the horn often and never clear away more than a dime-sized hole of snow from the windshield to see through - this will allow you, the driver, more than adequate visibility and the excess snow on your vehicle helps others to see you better.

The weather is entirely our fault. We didn't listen.

Your odds of...are...

Discover the Odds: Odds of being hit by lightning; 1 in one million.

CBS News: Odds of winning lotteries is roughly 1 in 259 million for Mega Millions and 1 in 292 million for its cousin, Powerball.

Elite Daily: Odds of being in an airplane crash; 1 in 11 million.

Forbes: Odds of surviving an airplane crash. (They vary).

Discover the Odds: Odds of being murdered in any given year; 1 in 18,989.

Yahoo Answers: Odds of a huge cruise ship sinking or crashing. ("Titanic" scenarios very rare).

Best Health Degrees: Odds of dying while attending a dance party; 1 in 100,000.

The Wildlife Museum: Odds of being attacked and killed by a shark; 1 in 3,748,067.

Golf Link: Odds of a hole in one: PGA player 1 in 2,500; average player 1 in 12,500.

Injury Fact/National Safety Council: Odds of dying by falling; 1 in 114.

Straight Dope: Rare, but yes, people have been killed by falling pianos and falling safes. Same link notes the following on death by falling anvils:

It’s difficult to imagine why one would ever need to hoist an anvil high enough for it to drop on someone. However, we can’t rule falling anvils out entirely, due to a little-known pastime called anvil shooting, an exemplar of the hold-my-beer-and-watch-this school of redneck diversions.

The concept, which can be seen in practice in numerous online videos, is lethally simple: You put an anvil on the ground, fill a concave space on its upper surface with black powder, insert a fuse, set a second anvil on top, light the fuse, and run like hell. The detonation sends the top anvil flying in the air — preferably straight up and then straight down, but you can see where things could go tragically awry. We didn’t find any instances of this actually occurring, but thanks to the Road Runner we have an artist’s impression of what might happen when it does.

I don’t want to give the impression that getting killed by falling objects is uncommon. On the contrary, the advent of large-screen and more recently wall-mounted televisions has created an entirely new category of real-world danger: death by falling TV.

And a MUST READ - Philthy-Delphia: Odds good you will NOT be eaten by a bear because you smell like a potato. Odds not as good the bear won't kill you anyway.

How ya feeling about your odds? At the moment, or, in general?

More Midwest Snow. More... Global Warming. Global Cooling. Climate Change.ManBearPig ALERT!We Didn't Listen!

Damn it people, we didn't listen.

FOX 9 KMSP: More snow.

The Twin Cities metro is now estimated to get around 4 to 6 inches of snow between Wednesday and Thursday evenings. Northwestern Wisconsin and northeastern Minnesota could see 6 to 8 inches during that time.

This is nothing compared to the snowfall in other parts of U.S. The Twin Cities winter, so far, has been this: November; got some snow, had a few cold days here and there, there was light snow coverage on lawns around Thanksgiving. December; warmed up, snow melted, didn't get any significant snow, cold days, then higher than average, brown lawns snow-free. January; some decent and tolerable days, a Polar Vortex plunge (that was fun), some sub-zero days, then a few warmer than average. February; expected temps and it snowed yesterday.

National Weather Service

WeatherUnderground; other winter storm alerts: Kansas, Wisconsin, Iowa, and a lot of other parts of the U.S.  

So many other parts of the country have had far more dumps of snow. I feel for ya, folks; we know what it's like.

Could ManBearPig be real?

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Corrected link to KMSP 2/06/2019

Make sure others are okay.

With this wicked chill in the central mid-west, check with those maybe "not so young" family members, friends and others that we all should all make a point to contact more often. But especially with this cold weather. Some folks might be indoors for the next two days and not leave. Even if you think you know they're all right, call them anyway. They'll be glad to hear from you.

This is the reason for the snow and sub-zero temps in the Upper Mid West and the weather heading east.