Foul emissions

A couple of weeks back, Libertarian billionaires the Koch brothers got the feature treatment in The New Yorker, which investigated the family’s $100 million in donations to right-wing causes such as killing health-care reform and spiking President Barack Obama’s stimulus plan. Just last week, the family oil company, Flint Hills Resources, pumped a cool $1 million into the campaign for Proposition 23—which would suspend California’s efforts to curb greenhouse-gas emissions (also known as Assembly Bill 32). The Koch’s support lines up with millions more from out-of-state oil companies Tesoro and Valero.

It’s worth noting, as The New Yorker did, that Koch Industries was named one of the nation’s top 10 air polluters by the University of Massachusetts at Amherst’s Political Economy Research Institute.

It’s also worth bearing in mind that not all oil companies think alike on Proposition 23. Shell’s climate-change adviser, David Hone, wrote on his blog in July that the measure would just lead to more uncertainty and more expense for energy companies.

That led the brains behind Prop. 23, state Assemblyman Dan Logue, to comment on Hone’s blog: “Shell’s hypocracy has no bounds. They want a b 32 beacuase in Europe where Shell Oil is headquartered they have to pay the carbon emmissions costs which are higher than in America.”

Enough said. (Cosmo Garvin)

Sacramento has a new place for you to stick it.

Specifically, city officials want you to get rid of needles, or sharps, in designated disposal sites. Sharps include intravenous, hypodermic and pen needles, as well as lancets and other objects used to inject medications.

To help protect waste workers and promote public safety, the city now requires medical businesses to provide a place to dispose of such skin-penetrating sharps. The rule applies to retailers, medical offices, hospitals and veterinarian clinics that dispense sharp medicinal objects. As part of the law, these businesses must provide a free collection-and-disposal program.

Statewide, it is illegal to throw medical needles, generally highly infectious, into garbage containers. Sacramento’s new law aims to help with compliance. And if you can’t make it to one of the free disposal sites, you can also use special mailers to send sharps to the California Department of Health Services. (Hugh Biggar)

Bikini barista?

Who said there aren’t any decent jobs out there?

Consider a recent Craiglist post by Sweet Spot Espresso in Carmichael: “Now hiring part-time barista for double drive-thru coffee shop.” Sounds simple enough, right? Take the cash, hand over the joe.

But there’s a catch: “Must be confident in your ability to serve coffee in a bikini top.”

Not unlike Dive Bar on K Street’s mixing of mermaids and mojitos, Sweet Spot’s ownership evidently feels they have a winner by combining swimwear and soy lattes.

And so, if you’re actually interested in the gig, please send résumé—and photo—to <script type="text/javascript" language="javascript">{ document.write(String.fromCharCode(60,97,32,104,114,101,102,61,34,109,97,105,108,116,111,58,98,105,107,105,110,105,99,111,102,102,101,101,64,103,109,97,105,108,46,99,111,109,34,62,98,105,107,105,110,105,99,111,102,102,101,101,64,103,109,97,105,108,46,99,111,109,60,47,97,62)) } </script>.(Nick Miller)