A picture is worth a thousand words

On Saturday, I participated, with my green Toyota Prius, in the Hybrid Rally and Parade at LA Auto Show. About 30 hybrid and electric vehicles circled the Convention Center en masse, honking in support of the demonstration held outside to “demand a doubling of average car fleet gas mileage and a doubling of the number of buses in LA.”

We used a church parking lot as a staging area. A wedding was in progress and in a perfect irony, this behemoth stretch Hummer pulled in to pick up the wedding entourage. Green activist Linda Piera-Avila pulled her Prius next to the behemoth, and I snapped the photo.

Prius. 46 mpg
stretch Hummer. 4.6 gpm

Code Pink went inside and staged an action at the Hummer booth. LA Indymedia has photos. 1., 2. Medea Benjamin was active in this, and it just occurred to me that even though she’s well-known, she is still always out there on the front lines.

Hybrid Driver has streaming video on the hybrid parade. Most of the cars were the Toyota Prius. There were also several Honda Civic hybrids, several Toyota RAV 4 electric vehicles, and even a Ford pickup electric vehicle (yes, they exist!).

Toyota and Honda now have several hybrid models on the road, with many more planned. They’ve completely left Detroit in the dust with this important new technology.

I’ve had my Prius since October 2001. I average 46 mgp in LA traffic. The car does not need to be plugged in to recharge, merely driving it recharges the electric motor battery. It has a good sized trunk, a comfortable back seat, and I can cruise up steep grades at 80 with lots of power left. Yes, it’s a real car! Mine was $21,000 out the door, not counting the $2000 federal government rebate.

How many more years do you think it’ll take Detroit to catch on?

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Wall Street warns of Schwarzenegger budget

Analysts say ties to bond measures “perilous’

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s budget is perilously linked to a variety of bond issues that could fail at the ballot box and in the Legislature, toppling his financial rescue plan and further damaging the state’s battered credit ratings, Wall Street analysts warned Friday.

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The gang that couldn’t shoot straight

American soldiers killed two Iraqi police officers and detained a third man in a gun battle on Friday night in the volatile northern city of Kirkuk, military officials said Saturday

The soldiers did not realize they were firing on police officers, said Maj. Gordon Tate, a spokesman for the Fourth Infantry Division, which controls much of the area. It is the second time in three weeks that American soldiers have killed Iraqi police officers in the area.

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Now they’ve screwed up the salmon

Farm-raised salmon — widely thought to be among the most healthful foods on the American diet — sometimes contain dangerous levels of toxic chemicals, says a landmark study out today.

“PCBs stay in the body for 10 years,” says David Carpenter, one of the study’s authors and director of the Institute for Health and the Environment at the University at Albany in New York.

Alex Trent, executive director of Salmon of the Americas, a trade organization for salmon farms, said the industry is trying to reduce the level of toxins, which apparently come from salmon feed.

Gosh Alex, don’t hurry. No need to pay any mind to my health and the health of others. Better you make a profit, eh? Why, may I ask, did it take this report for the farmed salmon industry to get their heads out of their ass? Shouldn’t the health of those eating the fish always have been a concern? And please don’t say you didn’t know the salmon feed was toxic, I doubt anyone will believe you.

PS If you live near a Trader Joe’s, they have wild frozen salmon for about $7 a pound. Way cheap.

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