Author Archives: Jon

Scrap metal thieves sabotage California farms

 Scrap metal prices – particularly for copper – have led to thieves stealing phone lines, plaques from public memorials, and all manner of farming infrastructure.

From Jennifer Steinhauer’s excellent piece in today’sTimes  :

The rampant thefts have left farmers without functioning water pumps for days and weeks at a time, creating financial loss and occasional crop devastation in a region still smarting from a spectacular freeze last winter.

Theft of scrap metal, mostly copper, has vexed many areas of American life and industry for the last 18 months, fueled largely by record-level prices for copper resulting from a building boom in Asia. Common in developing counties, metal theft is now committed in nearly every state, largely by methamphetamine users who hock the metal to buy drugs, the authorities say.

Thieves have stripped the wires out of phone lines, pulled plaques off cemetery plots, raided air-conditioning systems in schools and yanked catalytic converters from cars, all to be resold to scrap metal recyclers.

But perhaps no group has been as been as consistently singled out as California farmers, who provide roughly half of the nation’s fruits and vegetables. Irrigation systems, a treasure trove of copper, tend to be in remote places, out of the eyes of farmers and, until recently, law enforcement.

– snip –

Some sheriff’s departments in agricultural counties have rural crime units that investigate metal crimes almost exclusively these days, setting up sting operations in recycling shops and tagging copper bait with electronic tracking devices.

Metal theft from California farmers rose 400 percent in 2006 over the previous year, according to the Agricultural Crime Technology Information and Operations Network, a regional law enforcement group headed by Mr. Yoshimoto [Bill Yoshimoto, an assistant district attorney in Tulare County]. The numbers this year are equally high. Through the end of June, there were nearly 1,000 incidents of scrap metal theft on farms, causing more than $2 billion in losses, the group’s figures show.

Here in Kern County, there were 213 incidents of copper theft, the greatest number in the state.

“They go out and take a farm pump in the middle of nowhere,” said Sgt. Walt Reed, head of [the] county’s rural crime task force. “And they can pull the copper wire strands from the electrical wire box and get 60 feet of wire, remove the insulation and take it to the scrap yard for $2 to $3 a pound.”

Alan Scroggs, an almond farm manager in Wasco, knows the story only too well. Over the course of three months this spring, his irrigation system was raided five times by copper thieves; his well was hit twice, and the booster system that helps pump the water underground to irrigate the almond trees three times.

Copper thieves cut the wires in the conduit that runs to the power source, tie the wires to the back of a pickup truck and drive away, pulling the wire behind them and generally making off with roughly 75 pounds of scrap metal.

“When the sheriff’s department came out here for the third time,” Mr. Scroggs said, “they said, ‘I can’t believe I am here again.’ ”

Over the last 18 months, copper prices have hovered over $3.50 a pound, hitting $4 at one point, the highest price the metal has reached in recent memory, said Patrick Chidley, a mining and metals analyst at Barnard Jacobs Mellet in Stamford, Conn. By comparison, copper fetched 65 cents a pound in 2001.

“It is really the law of supply and demand,” Mr. Chidley said. “You have a lot of demand in China, where there is a big infrastructure build-out. Every building, every car, every motor, every wind turbine needs copper, and there are not enough mines out there to keep up.”

From Hawaii, where an accused copper thief is about to go on trial for felony theft charges, to Maryland, where a 41-year-old man was electrocuted recently after trying to cut through a high-voltage line in an abandoned discount store, stolen metals have filled a market void. This summer in Oakland, Calif., a memorial to 25 people who were killed nearly 16 years ago in a fire was stripped of stainless steel memorial plaques, and metal scavengers were suspected.

Let’s leave aside  the specious claim [2nd quoted graf above] that it’s all because of drugs and drug use – and please bear in mind that Steinhauer reported it as a claim – rather than endorsing the truth of the claim. Steinhauer has painted a very clear picture of how market forces drive illicit as well as licit markets. And she’s suggested – reasonably, I think – that at current record high prices – thieves are willing to undertake relatively low-risk larcenies and burglaries: unattended farm equipment.

Unattended infrastructure, of course, includes pipelines, water mains, power lines and lots of other things that we’d prefer to have where they are.

But what if prices go even higher? Is there a price at which it makes sense for thieves to start stealing copper from occupied buildings? Of course there is. Let’s just hope the market doesn’t supply it.

"an official policy of premeditated ignorance"

After FEMA started providing trailers to survivors of Katrina and Rita, high levels of formaldehyde were found in many of the trailers. I first learned of this from Dr. Irwin Redlener’s excellent Americans At Risk, which we’ve referred to before, and will again. Suffice it to say for present purposes that

  1. There was formaldehyde in the trailers, in which were housed many people, of every age, male and female, and varied in many ways – although probably very few of them affluent.
  2. The formaldehyde is dangerous –
  3. And its presence in housing – above certain parts-per-million (I believe that’s in air samples – not in the building materials themselves)
  4. When FEMA officials first found out that this was a possibility  – FEMA counsel instructed them not to test – and to take the position that that was not a FEMA function – fearing that with knowledge would come responsibility.

Alas, the index of Americans at Risk does not do it justice – so a discussion of Dr. Redlener’s account will have to wait for an updated post.

“an official policy of premeditated ignorance”

Congressman Henry Waxman’s description of FEMA lawyers instructing FEMA employees not to test trailers for formaldehyde.

Professor David Michaels has been providing excellent coverage of this issue at The Pump Handle, a most-excellent public health blog.

You can read Michaels’ excellent post of July 26th here;

Michaels’ two previous posts here

and here.

Michaels points out that The Washington Post, in an editorial called “FEMA’S TOXIC ENVIRONMENT,” says that the Post tells FEMA director R. David Paulison that “knocking a few heads in FEMA’s general counsel’s office would be a good first step” in sending a strong signal that the beleaguered agency needs to undergo major changes.

The Post is right, of course. Michaels links to an excellent article by Bob Egelko in the San Francisco Chronicle – citing a number of legal ethics experts – who agree that the FEMA attorneys’ behavior was unethical. These attorneys include Monroe Freedman, perhaps the best-known legal ethics expert in the United States, and Ronald Rotunda, another leading ethics expert. Ask most lawyers to name nationally known legal ethics experts, and most will give you a short list – Freedman and Rotunda would, I think, be on nearly every list.

[Disclaimer: I know and admire Monroe Freedman, and have worked with him on at least one matter].

Professor Rotunda – who has the funniest law professor’s web page that I’ve seen – was assistant majority counsel to the Ervin Committee (for you young people, that was the Senate Select Committee on what’s now referred to as “The Watergate Affair”) – which might mean he was once a Democrat – but he’s also been counsel to Ken Starr while Ken Starr was Special Prosecutor, special counsel to the Department of Defense in the current administration – would, I hope, not be offended if we described his politics as “other-than-leftist.”

My point is that there’s a consensus that government lawyers should not take the position that “we don’t do those tests, because if we did we’d be responsible for knowing about the results and acting on them.” This is not a controversial proposition.

However – will these FEMA lawyers be disciplined? Our best bet is – probably not – unless someone formally brings it to the attention of legal ethics officials in a state in which any of the attorneys is licensed. Because this involves what is probably unethical conduct – but hasn’t resulted in a conviction – although it may have made some people very, very ill – the state licensing agencies (in some states, the bar association) aren’t likely to act on the basis of news reports.

We’re going to have the crack Popular Logistics research team look at the five thousand page document set released by Congressman Waxman’s committee and report back. Stay tuned.

Walmart Flip-Flops reported to cause chemical burns

The following images are reported to have been caused by flip-flops sold by Wal-Mart – which, according to the same report, told the consumer to take the matter up with the Chinese manufacturer.

200707231608.jpg

200707231609.jpg

If Chinese-made items as innocuous as rubber sandals can cause injury – perhaps, until circumstances change, emergency caches should not contain any items made in China. Let’s hope this manufacturer hasn’t also been making respirators.

Original link.

Via Boing Boing.

New Blog – Zuzu has returned from the mountaintop!

Our dear friend and pack-member (that’s right, we’re a lot like dogs, in good ways and

bad) Zuzu has started her own blog

, Kindly Pog Mo Thoin.

We’re aware that most Popular Logistics readers excel in obscure languages – and spoken Irish, even taking into account recent efforts to revive it – falls ino the category “obscure.” (And the people who post responses in Aramaic – we have good reasons

for not publishing those comments. I’m not even going to discuss the Esperanto types). But in case your Irish isn’t too strong – this means “Kindly Kiss My —-.”

Never at a loss for words, Zuzu is like Shakespeare’s Beatrice – with a little Emma Goldman a tiny touch of Maureen Dowd mixed in.

So please check out Kindly Pog Mo Thoin.

Vested Interests: allmed.net – EMS and rescue supplies

I’ve been looking for a while for a high-visibility vest – ideally ANSI Class III (visible at – I think it’s 1,250 feet – in poor lighting conditions, like snow or rain, visible from all sides) – that also  had pockets. And had great difficulty finding a garment that was serious about storage and visibility. Lots of great special ops-type vests – in any color you want as long as it’s black.

I’ve been looking every time I find a new EMS or SAR or similar supplied. I  stumbled on  these guys through a Google search (I think for “ANSI” +”vest” +”pocket”).

Here’s a link to the vest. 

And, of course, it comes in any color you want, as long as it’s high-visibility yellow. Trimmed with Scotchlite at virtually every opportunity. The person I spoke with, Mark Robinett, told me that while they don’t make this in-house, it was designed by Dan White of AllMed. So I’ve ordered one – and I’ve got high expectations. (My nefarious scheme is to try to get them to add some Reflexite to each surface, some velcro or dual-lock on the back and/or front for names, assignments, etc).

New Yorkers involved in CERT stuff know that people are often selling “CERT” gear that doesn’t remotely approach the ANSI specs, and is very overpriced.

I’ll try to add photos of the AllMed vest – and the not-so-useful “CERT” vests to this post later.

I did some quick comparisons of AllMed’s gear and prices and my impression is that they’re very  competitive about price – and, while they have a pretty wide range of merchandise – one gets the impression they’re fussy about the brands they stock.

Here’s a link to AllMed.

Note: not that we’re not thoroughly corrupt (we are, after all, New Yorkers, and have a reputation to live up to) – but because we’re going to review this item, we paid for it, as is our current policy.

Redlener connects the dots –

From Irwin Redlener’s Americans at Risk:

Even if the nation’s intelligence capacity is substantially strengthened and homeland security better assured, these systems will never be perfect. An American city could conceivably experience the nightmare of a nuclear detonation. The essential point is that the quality and extent of survival and recovery, even from a nuclear bomb, are affected by the success of our preparedness and mitigation programs.

The current presidential administration is, of course, now well-known for its argument that it “didn’t want the smoking gun to become a mushroom cloud.” Implicit – by omission – was that the strategy of pre-empting the (hypothetical or fictional) threat of nuclear attack by Iraq would so likely to succeed that it wasn’t necessary to take steps to mitigate or prepare for the effects of a nuclear attack. Continue reading →

Skybuilt Power receives patent for its “MPS” (mobile power station)

We first learned about these from Haninah Levine’s piece in Defense Tech, which had reported that they were under consideration for field use in Iraq

.

skybuilt-power-mps-schematic.jpg

From the firm’s press release:

This is a revolutionary, plug-and play, rapidly deployable, mobile, hybrid solar and wind power system. It can provide power in hours and run for years with very low maintenance and minimal operating costs. It is ideal for disaster relief, Homeland Security, commercial, military, and intelligence applications in any climate worldwide.

Continue reading →

citizens: a problem to be managed or an asset to be utilized?

Christian Science Monitor, by Alexandra Marks, July 14, 2005:

As planning for terrorism becomes a part of daily life in the Western World, a growing number of disaster experts are calling for a dramatic reassessment in the way the nation plans for emergencies.

The problem, they argue, is that the current top-down approach views the public as a problem to be managed rather than an asset to be utilized. Officials don’t take into account people’s natural willingness to help or address their most basic needs — like concern about the safety of their spouses and kids.

This upstart group of sociologists, physicians, and terrorism experts contends that the use of ordinary citizens during a large-scale emergency could save hundreds if not thousands of lives. And they are determined to ensure the public is properly prepared before the next catastrophic event.

“It’s critical that we readjust our thinking. If you look at the 9/11 commission report they talked about first responders versus what they called ‘civilians,’ as if all of the civilians did was just stand at the sidelines,” says Kathleen Tierney, the director of the Natural Hazards Center at the University of Colorado in Boulder. “That is so radically at variance with what actually happened that day.”

— snip —

A major study done by the Center for the Advancement of Collaborative Strategies in Health at the New York Academy of Medicine found what many experts call an alarming disconnect between those official plans and the needs of the public. Researchers did an extensive review of the current plans to deal with a dirtybomb explosion and a smallpox attack at an airport. Then they did in-depth interviews with citizens at 14 different locations around the country, and a national telephone survey to find out how people would actually react.

In the case of a smallpox outbreak, they found the official plans expect everyone to go to a vaccination site. But the study found that only 40 percent of the public would actually go. The reasons are twofold: 40 percent of the people surveyed said they basically didn’t trust their government in such a case, and 60 percent were concerned about impact of the vaccine. That’s twice as many as were worried about catching the virus.

The official plans have another vulnerability. Currently, medical experts estimate that 50 million people are at risk of developing life-threatening complications if they get the smallpox vaccine. In the case of an outbreak, the official plans expect even those people to go to public vaccination sites which could unnecessarily put them at risk.

And in the case of a dirty bomb, the study found only 60 percent would “shelter in place” for as long as officials tell them to, primarily because they’d be worried about their families. On the upside, the study found that if people knew that their workplaces were organized and safe, and their children’s schools were safe and prepared, and that they could communicate with family members, they’d be much more likely to follow official instructions.

“Because we haven’t looked at these issues from the perspective of the public, we’re missing some very important information in developing strategies that would work best for them and also would be much more effective in terms of protecting people,” says Roz Lasker, the study’s principal researcher. “There’s been no planning that starts with asking, ‘What would make you feel safe?’”

That’s why researchers contend it’s crucial to involve whole communities in disaster planning from the start.

“If we really truly want to prepare for a disaster, we need to do it on a local level, where local means down to the level of the workplace and the level of schools,” says Lee Clarke, a disaster planning expert at Rutgers University In New Jersey. “Too many of the usual ways of looking at disaster planning looks at command and control, as if we’re all children and we need the generals to organize us otherwise the world will fall apart.”

Via Jonas Landgren

Information Technology and Emergency Response Reflections Comments Thinking Speculations In Swedish and English

Con Edison takes five weeks to repair steam pipe; historic church organ damaged

From “Church Sues Con Ed Over Damage to Pipe Organ,” The New York Times, June 13, 2007 (Associated Press Dispatch).

 A historic church has sued Consolidated Edison for $1 million, claiming that its 89-year-old pipe organ, one of the largest in the Western Hemisphere, was damaged by steam escaping from beneath the adjacent street and sidewalk.

In court papers filed Monday in State Supreme Court, the church, St. Bartholomew’s Episcopal Church in Manhattan, says that it told the utility on June 30, 2004, about an “extraordinary amount of steam” coming from Park Avenue into the church. But, the papers say, the utility did not take any action until five weeks later, when it repaired components that were causing steam to enter the church, which is on Park Avenue between 50th and 51st Streets.

The church’s lawsuit claims that soon after the initial complaint, the pipe organ, an Aeolian-Skinner, began to malfunction. The problems were caused by moisture being drawn into the organ’s pipe system through its blowers and pumps in the church basement, the court papers say.

“The moist, humid and damp air,” the papers say, caused “a general, overall breakdown of the organ system.”

A Con Ed spokesman, Chris Olert, said yesterday that the utility would not comment on pending litigation.

The church’s pipe organ, as described on its Web site, was built in 1918 by the Ernest M. Skinner Company of Boston, has 12,422 pipes and uses temperature-controlled air pressure.

It was once played by Leopold Stokowski, who came from England in 1905 to be St. Bartholomew’s organist and choirmaster and later became a world-renowned conductor.

What can we learn from this?

1. At least some of Con Edison’s steam pipes fail some of the time.

2. Even if it’s damaging a well-connected landmark church (you don’t need to be Episcopalian in New York to know where St. Bart’s is – or to have visited – it’s a stunning building, and they have had (and may still have) wonderful music programs,  Con Edison is either

(A) unconcerned about powerful institutions and bad publicity

(B) So overwhelmed with even more serious repairs and problems that it couldn’t get to this for five weeks

Or so badly managed they didn’t promptly route the information internally and make a decision.

via Gothamist.  

Rice pressures Iran on Iranian-Americans wrongly held; Iran continues to deny knowledge of Levinson whereabouts

 From Nasser Karimi of the Associated Press, dated June 10th:

In an interview with The Associated Press this week, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said the detentions of the Iranian-Americans were unwarranted but would not stop the United States from trying to engage Iran on other matters, including its disputed nuclear program and alleged support of insurgents in Iraq.

“We take seriously the holding of any American anywhere in the world where they are being wrongly held and where they are being accused of things that clearly are untrue,” Rice said. “It just shows again what kind of regime this is.”

– snip –

The U.S. also has expressed concern about Robert Levinson, a former FBI agent who the United States says has been missing since March after traveling to an Iranian resort island on private business.

[Mohammad Ali]  Hosseini [the spokesman for Iran’s foreign ministry]  reiterated Sunday that Iran has no information about Levinson.

Via Washington Post.