September 2008 report from the GAO says the EPA does not have the data to assess the risk posed by CAFO to human health:

Since 2002, at least 68 government-sponsored or peer-reviewed studies have been completed that examined air and water quality issues associated with animal feeding operations and 15 have directly linked air and water pollutants from animal waste to specific health or environmental impacts. EPA has not yet assessed the extent to which these pollutants may be impairing human health and the environment because it lacks key data on the amount of pollutants that are being emitted from animal feeding operations.

Link

No comment, just passing it on: Union Co. commissioners adopt livestock ordinance:

The Union County livestock zoning ordinance for CAFOs and CFOs adopted and amended Monday:

Includes setbacks of a quarter-mile from residences, a half-mile from state park and reservoir land boundaries and churches, and a mile from schools and municipality boundaries.

Requires at least 80 acres for a CFO, CAFO or a very large CAFO, which has four times the minimum animal numbers to be classified as a CAFO, if a lagoon or other outside manure storage is used.

Requires a public hearing and special exception from the Union County Board of Zoning Appeals for very large CAFOs, which are four times the minimum livestock numbers that qualify an operation as a CAFO.

Marcia Oddi is always talking about allowing golf carts on streets, but you still can’t do this:  Golf cart operator facing a DWI charge.

Under the entertainment category, one of my legal interests is real estate and the selling of real estate. I stumbled across a blog recently that posts oddball photos people post of properties they are trying to sell. Like this one, from It’s Lovely! I’ll Take it! Why wouldn’t you tidy up a bit?

Just a roundup. My feelings on blogging lately (maybe always) have been fairly negative. Maybe not  negative, but I’ve not been very excited about it. I this Ernie the Attorney’s recent post sums up my current sentiments on the subject: Is it true, kind and helpful? 

So, to speak properly three things all have to come together: (1) I know something true, (2) that I am able to express compassionately, and (3) which is helpful to the person I’m expressing it to. Can you see how this bodes ill for having a blog? Even if I meet criteria numbers 1 and 2, I have no way of knowing who I am speaking to because my audience is too varied.

So, just a round up, for now:

We are drilling for oil in Indiana again (IBJ)

Muncie’s cultural center is getting a green roof (Star Press)

Check out the roof at the Muncie Living Lightly Fair at the center tomorrow (Star Press) see presentations by Eric Cotton (East Central Indiana Wind & Solar), Lynn Jenkins (Indiana Living Green Magazine), and local Phil Seybold (Cope Center) as well as many others.

Just for fun, a pedal driven compost turner.

Whitney L. Stump of Muncie gained some recognition when he was arrested for criminal mischief up in Delaware County after he repainted his own crosswalk on the street near his home.

He grew frustrated with motorist who blew through a stop sign at a nearby intersection, and the City’s refusal to install a fix, so he painted his own crosswalk.

Well the prosecutor has  dismissed the case. [Star Press]