On Tuesday Jan 8, NPR aired a brief segment announcing the EPA’s launch of a new program to encourage cell phone recycling as part of a larger initiative, Plug-In to eCycling, to help consumers decrease and manage the ever-growing amount of used, electronic waste being generated across the country. Top cell phone and electronics companies such as AT&T Wireless, Best Buy, Motorola and Nokia have partnered with the EPA to make recycling cell phones as simple as possible.

The EPA estimates that, because many consumers are unaware of how or where to recycle used cell phones, more than 100 to 130 million old, unwanted cell phones are currently laying around collecting dust in average American homes nationwide.What most people don’t know is that cell phones are 100 % recyclable — the plastic and metals can be reused, as well as battery chemicals, lcd screens and key pads. Read the rest of this entry »

 by Sam Winston

When I first visited Germany a couple of years ago, I was stopped on the street twice by virulent George W. Bush haters who went out of their way to berate me in public and give me an earful on American foreign policy. I’m talking about men who looked one cut above homeless but spat out political and historical references like they were on Jeopardy. Rough English aside, the words “idiot” and “stupid American” dwarfed my response of, “I’m may be a ’stupid American,’ but I never voted for Bush.” There also might have been some expletives exchanged.

However, strolling the streets of Hamburg now as an Obama fan, it’s a different story. The German media has made a plethora of Obama comparisons to JFK, an icon in this country ever since his “Ich bin ein Berliner” speech. So much so that Obamamania is spreading fast here in Deutschland.

Here’s what some of the major papers are saying about him… Read the rest of this entry »

QUESTION FROM A READER:

Was Hillary Clinton’s come-from-behind win in New Hampshire as historic as pundits — such as Keith Olbermann, who called it “the Titanic of political upsets,” and Brian Williams, who invoked “Dewey Defeats Truman” — would have us believe?

CLANCY’S ANSWER: Read the rest of this entry »