Erin Brockovich

The celebrity environmental investigator, Erin Brockovich, is looking into an apparent anomaly of brain tumors in Cameron, Missouri. The US EPA and the Missouri Department of Natural Resources has been investigating, although in a light kind of way, and has found nothing of significance so far. Oh, well they have found a lot of heavy metals in groundwater, but they say there is so much sediment in the water that it cannot be used for drinking. The members of the community are scared, and rightfully so. There has not been nearly enough investigation done to this point to make any real determinations and that is a shame because it is the health of citizens that we should be trying to protect. Any good environmental consultant with a reasonable budget could find the "smoking gun" in a small community of 10,000 people within a few short months. The government should hire this project out to those who do such things for a living and have to work within budgets. But in the meantime we all hope and pray that the people in Cameron, Missouri remain cancer free. Cameron is about 50 miles north of Kansas City, if you want to look it up.

Resolution Trust

The world of residential real estate lending has almost brought the economy of the world to its knees, if that is what you chose to to believe. The US Federal government has sent out a "rescue bill", which most people have a hard time understanding, but many of us do understand that whatever the final amount of billions involved in the bail out, it is all coming out of our pockets. It is a part of the same idea that got us into this problem in the first place. We are mortgaging our national future without the proper vetting of our ability to repay - as a country. 

If we can hold the savings and loan problem of the late 1980s as an example there is a solution to the current fiscal "crisis", and that solution once again has to belong with the Federal government. After all that is where the neo-natal aspects of this crisis started, it might as well be where it ends. The Resolution Trust Corporation of the late 1980s and early 1990s was a profitable endeavor that the government took on. What a concept! Congress needs to act quickly and the problem will be over quickly. Organize a new RTC now, and let's get back to business as usual.