Citizen Cartwright

Good news on public safety in U.S., protection of the Amazon, plastic recycling

Among the items in this week’s Future Crunch:

 

— Gun violence trended down across the United States last year, according to AH Datalytics, though not uniformly (it was up where I live, in Washington, D.C., for example).

 

— In the past 25 years, Bolivian towns have protected 25 million acres of Bolivia’s Amazon (an area nearly the size of Iceland), securing their livelihoods as well as endangered wildlife, and helping the country reach its goal to protect 30 percent of its land years ahead of schedule, says Conservation International.

 

— An enzyme used in laundry detergent can recycle single-use plastics within 24 hours, 84 times faster than the 12-week industrial composting process used for recycling bioplastic materials, researchers at King's College London report in the journal Cell Reports Physical Science.

 

Future Crunch has issued a correction on a mistake I also didn’t catch: 

 

"In our last edition we said that Lao's maternal mortality rate fell by 250 percent between 2000 and 2020. This is obviously impossible and we feel silly for making such an obvious mistake, even if the original error was the UNFPA's," Future Crunch says. "We should do better at double-checking. Lao's maternal mortality did drop from 579 per 100,000 births to 126 per 100,000 during that period, which is incredible, but not an impossibility."

Date correction: First GOP presidential debate is tonight

My apologies for the incorrect headline yesterday, that the debate was Thursday (Aug. 24).

The two-hour debate, in Milwaukee, starts at 9 p.m. ET Wednesday. 

Unlike some previous presidential debates that have been simulcast across a number of major networks and cable channels, the first debate will air exclusively on Fox News and the Fox Business Network, as well as on Fox’s website and other streaming and digital platforms, says The Associated Press.

And instead of the network’s YouTube channel, the Republican National Committee has partnered with Rumble — a video sharing platform popular with some conservatives — to livestream the debate. RNC Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel said earlier this year that this was a decision aimed at “getting away from Big Tech.”

The RNC confirmed late Monday which candidates will be on the debate stage. The party set a number of markers that candidates needed to meet to qualify.

They needed have a total of 40,000 unique donors, including at least 200 unique donors in 20 states or territories. And they had to hit at least 1 percent support in three national polls or 1 percent support in two national polls and 1 percent support in two early state polls, says Vox. 

They also had to sign a pledge to support the eventual Republican nominee.

Those expected to be on the stage are Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, Sen. Tim Scott of South Carolina, former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley, entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy, former Vice President Mike Pence, former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum and former Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson.

Former President Trump, the early GOP front-runner, long ago satisfied the polling and donor requirements but has said for months that he saw little upside in joining his rivals on stage, given his lead in the race, AP says.

Those who didn’t make the debate stage — businessman Perry Johnson, radio host Larry Elder, former Rep. Will Hurd and Miami Mayor Francis Suarez — appear to lack the polling numbers the RNC required, says Politico.

Here is a separate AP rundown of the expected issues and political maneuvering at the debate.

Note to readers

Correction: Today's House Jan. 6 hearing begins at 3 p.m., not 1 p.m.

Correction

My thanks to the reader who pointed out that in Monday’s item titled "For Trump, this is ‘infrastructure week,'" the "$200 million" in the next-to-the-last paragraph should have been "$200 billion." The item has been corrected online.

Correction

My fingers sure got ahead of my brain in yesterday's item on the 3-D printer that enables manufacturing at home. The printer is the size of a microwave oven, not a "microsoft" oven. My apologies!

Correction

My fingers got ahead of my brain in Monday's item about the passing of ozone-depletion researcher Sherwood Rowland. I typed in Sherwood Boehlert, the name of a former Republican lawmaker from New York who was chairman of the House Science Committee — and is very much alive. My apologies for the error!