Carolers explain why banks are to blame for fare hikes

Money-losing gas fracking heavily subsidized and harmful -- same as oil, big surprise

DEC selling out to fracking industry - Times Union: "Moreover, fracking depends on massive, wealth-eating subsidies from public resources that will lower net New York wealth. For example, damage to state roads alone has been estimated by the state to cost tens of millions of dollars annually. Then there are the adjacent landowners whose property and business values fracking will crash, the environmental degradation of water resource, the lack of any offsetting tax revenues, and the disruptive effects on local services and housing markets of a transient oil patch work force.

Fracking also promises potentially devastating impacts on three critical economic development opportunities for New York: agriculture, tourism and green energy."

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Still 10,000 without power in the Rockaways

Battle for the Rockaways | The Indypendent: "Yet, underneath this veneer of forced, revenue-generating normalcy, the eastern area of the peninsula, where Casco and other working-class, mostly people of color live, is decidedly not back to normal. According to Queens State Senator Joe Addabbo, there are still 10,000 homes without electricity and heat in the Rockaways, and — according to reports by numerous on-the-ground organizers — the majority of those houses are in the poorer neighborhoods of Far Rockaway."

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Tanker Carrying Bakken Oil to Canadian Refinery Runs Aground - Bloomberg

Tanker Carrying Bakken Oil to Canadian Refinery Runs Aground - Bloomberg: "The first oil tanker carrying Bakken crude to Irving Oil Corp.’s refinery in Canada from Albany, New York, ran aground in the Hudson River, delaying the first of what is expected to be many voyages on the route."

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MTA: All fares go up in 2013; unavoidable | The Poughkeepsie Journal | poughkeepsiejournal.com

MTA: All fares go up in 2013; unavoidable | The Poughkeepsie Journal | poughkeepsiejournal.com: "“We are not the fat, profligate, out-of-control agency that people make the MTA out to be. We’ve done everything we can to control costs,” board Chairman Joseph Lhota said. “I agree with everyone that our riders pay too much of the cost.”"

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Communities hit by Sandy “form like Voltron” and fight back « ear to earth

Communities hit by Sandy “form like Voltron” and fight back « ear to earth: "The stakes are high for people in the Rockaways. More than month and a half after Superstorm Sandy, winter is setting in and many of the ten thousand residents of this Queens neighborhood still lack heat or electricity. Many have no hot water. And there’s another festering crisis: mold. "

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In 2009, Victor Bernace ran for city council on a single issue: #freetransit

View more videos at: http://nbcnewyork.com.

Subways should be as safe as elevators

The Air-train at JFK Airport has sliding doors to protect passengers from the track area. Most subways around the world have such protection. Why not the U.S.?

Why no subway safety doors in the United States?

Thailand, Korea, France, China, Russia, Spain, Canada, are just a few of the countries where subway safety doors are found. In the U.S. a few airports have them, so we know how to do it. There is no excuse. 

Taipei, Taiwan. Passengers are screened from the tracks by a safety wall with doors-Wikipedia.

Fracking good for the climate? What a load of hot air - NY Daily News

Fracking good for the climate? What a load of hot air  - NY Daily News: "The fracking cheerleaders are misinformed. Drilling for natural gas has some disastrous environmental consequences. It will speed climate change, not help stave it off."

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