Friday, December 7, 2018
The 90 Miles Mystery Box: Episode #463
You have come across a mystery box. But what is inside?
It could be literally anything from the serene to the horrific,
from the beautiful to the repugnant,
from the mysterious to the familiar.
If you decide to open it, you could be disappointed,
you could be inspired, you could be appalled.
This is not for the faint of heart or the easily offended.
You have been warned.
Thursday, December 6, 2018
Texas And New Mexico Shale Basins Hold 49 Years Worth Of Oil: USGS
In its first assessment of the Delaware portion of the Permian shale field that spans west Texas and New Mexico, the USGS, which is part of the U.S. Department of the Interior, said it contains about 46.3 billion barrels of oil and 281 trillion cubic feet of natural gas.
The government estimates include all underground shale oil and gas that is technically recoverable but may not be economic to extract at current prices.
The estimate is twice the size of the country’s next largest shale reserve – the Midland Basin – another portion of the Permian. In 2016, that was found by the USGS to have about 20 billion barrels of oil and 16 trillion cubic feet of natural gas.
Survey results “demonstrate the impact that improved technologies such as hydraulic fracturing and directional drilling have had on increasing the estimates,” said Walter Guidroz, an official in the USGS Energy Resources Program. Hydraulic fracturing forces water and sand underground at high pressure to free oil and gas trapped in shale rock.
The Permian Basin, which includes both shale regions, is expected to pump 3.7 million barrels of crude oil per day this month, up 30 percent from a year ago, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration.
The Delaware and Midland basins combined would take 49 years to produce if all the oil was...
DOJ DECLINED PROSECUTION OF SENIOR OFFICIAL ACCUSED OF SEXUAL ASSAULT AGAINST SUBORDINATE
The official, who worked with DOJ’s Office of Justice Programs, is not identified in a summary of a report released Tuesday by the Office of the Inspector General (OIG). The official retired from office, the report states.
The OIG, which is led by Michael Horowitz, claims it substantiated the official:
- “Sexually harassed one subordinate when he pressured her into a sexual relationship with him in exchange for a promotion;
- Sexually harassed another subordinate when he made repeated verbal sexual advances to her and ultimately sexually assaulted her; and
- Sexually harassed two other subordinates by engaging in sexually inappropriate conduct toward them.”
The inspector general also found during the investigation the official allegedly had a long-term sexual relationship with a subordinate and might have supervised her performance evaluations.
The OIG determined the official’s actions “constituted ethical misconduct, sexual harassment, and sexual assault,” all of which violated the law, federal regulations and DOJ policy. Investigators asserted the boss-employee dynamic of the relationship “undermined the consensual nature of their personal relationship.”
The official also lacked candor in his statements to the OIG, according to the report.
It is not entirely clear why prosecution of the official was declined and whether an investigation was referred to local or state authorities. The DOJ prosecutes crimes that occur in Washington, D.C., where the DOJ’s headquarters are located.
It is also not clear whether the official receives a pension from his...
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