What Local Elections?

When you see this picture, and then read this -

Two field workers who gave birth to deformed babies were illegally exposed to pesticides more than 20 times each while they picked tomatoes in Eastern North Carolina, N.C. Department of Agriculture data show.

A third worker, who spent most of her pregnancy working in Florida, was exposed four times during the less than six weeks she worked in North Carolina, the data show.

All worked for Ag-Mart, a Florida-based tomato grower, and they were illegally exposed to a host of chemicals as often as three times a week, the documents show. Three of the 15 chemicals are linked to birth defects in lab animals.

The agriculture records show that Herrera, whose boy was born in December 2004 with no arms and legs, started working in North Carolina in mid-April. During her first trimester, when a baby's limbs form, she was illegally exposed on 11 different days, the Agriculture Department data shows.

Then read this (about Governor Easley's task force on pesticide exposure) -

"Only one of the recommendations brought by farmworker advocates, a provision that would outlaw retaliation against workers who report workplace safety problems, was adopted by the Task Force."

"One Task Force member in particular, Commissioner of Agriculture Steve Troxler, was extremely effective in preventing the Task Force from taking up several of the reform measures they discussed." [emphasis added]

It's hard to believe this -

In the month leading up to Election Day 2004, viewers of local news in 11 media markets saw nearly four and a half times more stories about the presidential campaign than they did stories about all other political races combined, a new Lear Center study has found.

Only one-third of all campaign stories focused on issues.

Ninety-two percent of the 4,333 regularly scheduled half-hour news broadcasts studied contained no stories at all about local candidate races, which include campaigns for the U.S. House, state senate or assembly, mayor or city council, law enforcement posts, judgeships, education-related offices and regional and county offices.

But I'm sure this year will be different, right?

(Cross-posted at Scrutiny Hooligans)