Cool summer cheats Fair of a primary pleasure - TwinCities.com

But this has been such a nonsummer that the Fair could not and did not have to produce the transformation. We had days in July when you knew that fall was in the air, or something approximating even December. Not only couldn't the Fair deliver that inevitable seasonal sigh, but the 12-day run offered some of the best days we had all summer, unseasonably cool but clear and still and warm enough if you had a bench seat in the sun. We didn't hit 80 degrees. According to KSTP-TV Channel 5's Dave Dahl, who is the official meteorologist of the State Fair, you would have to go back to 1992 to find a Fair as cool. For some reason, I remember 1974 as the coolest Fair of my attendance.

The Gaggle : Musical Chairs in the Senate Present Worries for Enviros

What does all this have to do with the environment? Agriculture is one of several committees that have jurisdiction over a climate-change bill. As chair, Lincoln will be reluctant to take the sort of risks environmentalists are calling for. She'll be under serious pressure from farmers who are deeply concerned about the costs that climate-change legislation could impose on their businesses, as well as from the particularly conservative GOP contingent on her committee. And then there are the voters. Those most likely to turn out in midterms (i.e., older, white, more conservative), particularly in a place like Arkansas, remain dubious about cap-and-trade. If Lincoln chairs a committee that passes some form of carbon-trading regime, it will be easy fodder for her Republican opponents in 2010. So it will be in her political interest to hold up climate-change legislation until after the election. Environmentalists hoping the Senate will strengthen the House's Waxman-Markey bill should start readjusting their expectations.

USGS Release: [Your SUV is causing warming that is causing geese to winter in Alaska, which may cause them to freeze to death!]

In the winter of 1991-92, the milder Alaskan winters were punctuated by an extended period of cold weather and extensive shoreline ice, a scenario that could well become more common if scientific predictions that couple climate warming with increased climatic variability prove true. These sudden and severe cold bouts could put more of the entire brant population at risk with so many of the birds now wintering in Alaska, Ward said.