Issue link: https://www.epageflip.net/i/332510
ByJohnFlesher The Associated Press TRAVERSE CITY, MICH. Environ- mentalists in Illinois expected a battle royal over their call for a statewide ban on "microbeads" — tiny bits of plastic used in per- sonal care products such as fa- cial scrubs and toothpaste that are flowing by the billions into the Great Lakes and other wa- terways. Discovered only recently, they're showing up inside fish that are caught for human con- sumption, scientists say. But instead of resisting, lead- ing companies quickly collab- orated on a ban that was en- acted by the state legislature this spring. And with similar mea- sures now pending in at least three other large states and in Congress, the extinction of micro- beads is taking shape as one of the unlikeliest events in the pol- itics of nature: a low-stress com- promise by interest groups that are often at each other's throats. "To have that happen in one year is rare," said Jen Walling of the Illinois Environmental Coun- cil, recalling the pessimistic re- sponse when she initially sought legislative sponsors. "I was not predicting we'd get it done at all." Don't get used to it, said Mark Biel of the Chemical Industry Council of Illinois, which repre- sented the product manufactur- ers during three months of nego- tiations. The quick deal resulted from unique circumstances, he said, including the availability of substitute ingredients. "I just concluded that maybe this was one of those issues where it would be smart to try to work something out," he said. Disagreements over details are delaying similar bills in Califor- nia and New York, while a mea- sure in Ohio has gained little trac- tion. Still, all sides expect deals in most cases, and that given those states' outsized place in the mar- ket, microbeads will disappear from U.S. products as the indus- try swallows the cost. U.S. Rep. Frank Pallone Jr., a New Jersey Democrat, introduced a bill Wednesday proposing a na- tionwide ban that would take ef- fect in 2018. Environmentalists hope the collaborative experience car- ries over to debates concerning the Great Lakes' other ills. Biel's group last year helped scuttle a proposal to restrict flame retar- dants, which some consider an emerging contaminant in the freshwater seas. Still, he says the microbead talks nurtured a bet- ter working relationship, as have negotiations over fending off in- vasive species like the Asian carp. "There is room for common ground," he said. It's been known for years that the world's oceans teem with masses of floating plastic. But microplastics in the Great Lakes were discovered only when sci- entists dragged the surface of all five lakes in 2012 and 2013 with specially designed nets and found the specks everywhere. Barely visible without a mi- croscope, the bits flow through wastewater treatment plant screens and into the lakes. Sherri Mason, an environmental scien- tist with State University of New York-Fredonia who was a leader of the research team, said the beads are showing up the stom- achs of Great Lakes perch and in fish-eating birds like the double- crested cormorant. Her group is studying whether the particles are absorbing toxins in the lakes. Because treated wastewater flows into so many waterways, Mason said, "Every river and ev- ery inland lake you look at is go- ing to have some plastic in it." The plastic exfoliants appar- ently came into widespread use in the 1990s, preferred because they are smoother to the skin than nat- ural ingredients. Laurent Gilbert, director of advanced research at L'Oreal, said they have "no proven environmental toxicity." Procter & Gamble, Johnson & Johnson, Colgate, Unilever and L'Oreal are among the companies announcing plans to replace mi- crobeads with natural substances such as ground-up fruit pits, oat- meal and sea salt. ENVIRONMENT In twist, industry agrees to ban on 'microbeads' Plastic bits in personal care products such as facial scrubs to be eliminated SUNY-FREDONIA Sherri Mason, right, a New York environmental scientist who led a research team studying microplastics in the Great Lakes, examines a trawling device used to collect plastic 'microbeads' from the water's surface with University of Buffalo student Shayne McKay on Lake Ontario. Illinois environmentalists expecting a battle with business over a call for a ban on the tiny bits of plastic used in personal care products, found the industry quickly collaborated. News feed ST. LOUIS With Florida preparing Wednesday for the nation's third execution in less than 24 hours, some death penalty states — par- ticularly in the South — ap- pear unfazed by the recent furor over how the U.S. car- ries out lethal injections. A botched execution seven weeks ago in Oklahoma am- plified a national debate about the secretive ways many states obtain lethal in- jection drugs from loosely regulated compounding pharmacies. Before Tuesday, nine executions were stayed or delayed — albeit some for reasons not related to the drug question. Amid the court battles, many pro-death penalty states kept pushing to re- sume executions, including the three that scheduled le- thal injections during the quick burst this week. Geor- gia and Missouri executed prisoners around an hour apart late Tuesday and early Wednesday. The executions in Geor- gia and Missouri were the first since April 29, when Oklahoma prison officials halted the process because drugs weren't being ad- ministered properly into the veins of inmate Clayton Lockett. DEATH PENALTY Executionspersistin handful of states WASHINGTON Two sena- tors unveiled a bipartisan plan Wednesday to raise federal gasoline and die- sel taxes for the first time in more than two decades, pitching the proposal as a solution to Congress' strug- gle to pay for highway and transit programs. The plan offered by Sens. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., and Bob Corker, R-Tenn., would raise the 18.4 cents- a-gallon federal gas tax and 24.4 cents-a-gallon die- sel tax each by 12 cents over the next two years, and then index the taxes to keep pace with inflation. The increase would be ap- plied in two increments of 6 cents each. The plan also calls for offsetting the tax increases with other tax cuts. Sen- ators said that could be done by permanently ex- tending six of 50 federal tax breaks that expired this year, but they indi- cated they would be open to other suggestions for offsets. The plan was immedi- ately embraced by industry and transportation advo- cacy groups seeking a long- term means to keep the fed- eral Highway Trust Fund solvent. TAXES Senators propose 12-cent gas increase WASHINGTON The mother of an American serving a prison sentence in Cuba for covertly setting up internet access there has died, and it seems doubtful her son will be allowed to return for her funeral despite the urging of U.S. officials. The family of 92-year-old Evelyn Gross said Wednes- day that she died in Plano, Texas. She had suffered from lung cancer. Her son, Alan Gross, was arrested in Cuba in 2009. The Maryland man had been setting up hard-to- detect Internet networks for the island's small Jew- ish community as a sub- contractor for the U.S. gov- ernment's Agency for In- ternational Development. Cuba considers such pro- grams to be an affront to its sovereignty and sentenced Gross to 15 years for crimes against the state. Gross had a close rela- tionship with his mother, even in prison. He called regularly, and when Gross began a hunger strike this year, his mom persuaded him to end it. Gross had previously asked to visit his ill mother before she died and promised to return to prison in Cuba if he were allowed to visit. PASSING Mother of US worker imprisoned in Cuba dies BROWNSVILLE, TEXAS Chil- dren's faces pressed against glass. Hundreds of young boys and girls covered with aluminum foil-like blan- kets next to chain link fences topped with barbed wire. The pungent odor that comes with keeping people in close quarters. These were the sights from Wednesday tours of a crowded Border Patrol sta- tions in South Texas and Arizona, where thousands of immigrants are being held before they are trans- ferred to other shelters around the country. It was the first time the media was given access to the facilities since Presi- dent Barack Obama called the more than 47,000 un- accompanied children who have entered the country il- legally this budget year an "urgent humanitarian sit- uation." Border Patrol stations like the one in Browns- ville and Nogales were not meant for long-term cus- tody. Immigrants are sup- posed to wait there un- til they are processed and taken to detention centers. But the surge in children arriving without their par- ents has overwhelmed the U.S. government. IMMIGRATION Children held in crowded, concrete cells WASHINGTON It's not ev- ery day that teenagers get to tell members of Congress how to think. But that's what four chess young champions did Wednesday on Capitol Hill. With as much patience as they could muster, the teens served as coaches as a team of Republicans played a team of Democrats for a single game. The lawmakers were competing in the first Con- gressional Chess Tourna- ment, designed to raise awareness of the game's ed- ucational benefits and the importance of introducing chess to young people na- tionwide. Joining the teen coaches was Garry Kasp- arov, arguably the greatest chess player of all time. Kasparov and Rex Sin- quefield, founder and pres- ident of the Chess Club and Scholastic Center of St. Louis, made the first six moves. They then turned the game over to four con- gressmen and Senate Chap- lin Barry Black, who filled in until Rep. Chaka Fattah, D-Pa., arrived. The lawmakers tried their hand at chess to illus- trate the critical thinking skills that the game helps children to develop. TOURNAMENT Chess played to raise awareness of game By Kathy Matheson The Associated Press PHILADELPHIA An89-year-old Philadelphia man was ordered held without bail Wednesday on a German arrest warrant charging him with aiding and abetting the killing of 216,000 Jewish men, women and chil- dren while he was a guard at the Auschwitz death camp. The man, retired toolmaker Johann "Hans" Breyer, was arrested by U.S. authorities Tuesday night. Breyer spent the night in custody and ap- peared frail during a deten- tion hearing in federal court, wearing an olive green prison jumpsuit and carrying a cane. Legal filings unsealed Wednesday in the U.S. indi- cate the district court in Wei- den, Germany, issued a war- rant for Breyer's arrest the day before, charging him with 158 counts of complicity in the commission of murder. Each count represents a trainload of Nazi prisoners from Hungary, Germany and Czechoslovakia who were killed at Auschwitz-Birkenau between May 1944 and Octo- ber 1944, the documents said. Attorney Dennis Boyle ar- gued his client is too infirm to be detained pending a hear- ing on his possible extradi- tion to Germany. Breyer has mild dementia and heart is- sues and has previously suf- fered strokes, Boyle said. But Magistrate Judge Tim- othy Rice ruled the detention center was equipped to care for Breyer, who appeared to comprehend questions about the nature of the hearing. A law enforcement officer also testified Breyer and his elderly wife grasped what was happening during his arrest Tuesday outside their home. "They both understood," deputy marshal Daniel Don- nelly said. "It wasn't news to them." Breyer has admitted he was a guard at Auschwitz in occu- pied Poland during World War II, but said he was stationed outside of the Auschwitz-Birke- nau death camp part of the complex and had nothing to do with the wholesale slaughter of about 1.5 million Jews and oth- ers behind the gates. WORLD WAR II US man, 89, held for Nazi crimes Accused of aiding in deaths of 216,000 Jews CAROLYN BOX — 5GYRES.ORG A sample of "microbeads" collected in eastern Lake Erie is shown on the face of a penny. NEWS » redbluffdailynews.com Thursday, June 19, 2014 MORE AT FACEBOOK.COM/RBDAILYNEWS AND TWITTER.COM/REDBLUFFNEWS B4