NASA reports:

Arctic sea ice thinned dramatically between the winters of 2004 and 2008, with thin seasonal ice replacing thick older ice as the dominant type for the first time on record. The new results, based on data from a NASA Earth-orbiting spacecraft, provide further evidence for the rapid, ongoing transformation of the Arctic’s ice cover. [NASA]

Take a look at the NASA pictures.

The FDA is requiring makers of painkillers containing propoxyphene, the ingredient in widely used Darvon and Darvocet, to add a warning box to the label highlighting the potential for overdose. [CNN]

The agency says that from 1969 to 2005, 91 deaths were related to drug overdoses and suicide attempts involving medications containing propoxyphene. Darvon and Darvocet are made by Xanodyne Pharmaceuticals Inc. of Newport, Kentucky.

Like rats deserting a sinking ship, general counsel, Chris Nielsen, submitted his resignation to Governor Jim Gibbons yesterday. [Inside Nevada Politics, Reno Gazette Journal]

Gibbons’ Chief of Staff, Josh Hicks’ last day of work was June 26. Nielsen doesn’t have another job yet.

Gibbons is considered unlikely to be re-elected as Nevada’s governor in 2010. Nothing in it for his staff to remain. They undoubtedly can see Gibbons is washed up.

On June 8 a petition signed by 131 people was submitted to the Pahrump Town Board wanting Town Manager Bill Kohbarger fired. Board members Frank Maurizio and Mike Darby had signed the petition for removal of Kohbarger.

Photo from Pahrump Valley Times: GINA B. GOOD / PVT
After Tuesday night’s town board meeting, attendees gather in front of the Bob Ruud Community Center. Tables for various petitions have been set up on meeting dates since May 12.

See No vote yet on Kohbarger in the Pahrump Valley Times on June 26, 2009. Then see Scare tactics won’t deter attendee.

On June 23 the Town Board met again. The primary issue for most  in attendance was whether or not Town Manager Bill Kohbarger would be fired. An additional 150 signatures were added to the 131 names the group, wanting Kohbarger fired, had turned in June 8.

In Kohbarger’s defense came a lone voice.

A young lady, Stephanie Lopez, attending her first board meeting, addressed the Board. She told the Board she and her family moved to Pahrump in 2005 from Las Vegas.

Photo from Pahrump Valley Times: GINA B. GOOD / PVT
Stephanie Lopez attended her first town board meeting to support Town Manager Bill Kohbarger. She said she was harrassed after the meeting.

She said, “I volunteer at my son’s elementary school and my husband coaches T-ball.” She said she knew Kohbarger because his son plays T-ball. She did not know he was the town manager until she saw his picture in the Pahrump Valley Times and read that signatures had been gathered from people who wanted him terminated.

“Bill and his wife were at every game and you could see the joy and love on Bill’s face,” Lopez said. “Bill never came off like he was arrogant or powerful. He brings a lot of joy to this town. He can bring some serious, much needed changes to this town.”

Lopez presented 150 signatures who wanted Kohbarger to remain as town manager. She had secured the signatures by talking to residents in the Wal-Mart parking lot. “Attendees applauded her three-minute statement.” [Pahrump Valley Times]

After the meeting, Lopez said, “I usually don’t say much because I don’t like the limelight or the drama. I was so nervous to get up and talk. I don’t like to have the center of attention, but after the meeting, people were shaking my hand as I left. Two gentlemen gave me their cards and said if I needed help to contact them. Someone told me I was the first person who had the strength and the will to support Bill. Another guy said I was the voice of all of us.”

But some of those wanting Kohbarger fired accosted Lopez. She was told to “move back to Las Vegas.” with epithets “Screw you.”

All this was followed up by a Letter to the Editor with the headline Kohbarger doesn’t ‘get’ Pahrump in the July 1 issue of the PVT. The author of that letter apparently wants to get rid of Kohbarger because of  “an ill advised proposed ban on guns on town property.”

Then on July 3, the day before Independence Day, Lopez to turn in petition, then step back appeared in the PVT. Mrs. Lopez is quoted:

“I have two small kids. I don’t need stuff like that. I don’t want this to become a hate thing. I have the right to my opinion. I’m going to the next town board meeting to turn in my signatures and all the e-mail comments I receive — whether good or bad, as long as they aren’t hateful, but that’s the last one I’ll attend.”

Pahrump persistently embroils itself in controversy. A few years ago the Town Board displayed almost unbelievable bigotry fueling divisive hatred when it attacked the Hispanic community with proposed ordinances to require registration of illegal immigrants, governing flag flying, prohibiting landlords from renting to illegals. All in the name of patriotism. Pahrump’s Town Board brought international media attention. The Hispanic community rose up en masse in opposition to such treatment. Thankfully that Town Board was replaced.

What is it about Pahrump that fosters this kind of behavior? Each Town Board election brings new people onto the board. Then the board members are attacked with threats of recall by some of the very voters who elected them.

It isn’t just the Town Board either. Nye County Commissioners are subject to the same fickle behavior of voters. They get elected then seem to have to brace themselves and ward off recall movements. Recalls R Us, touted as “concerned citizens of Pahrump have formed a recall committee … filed a recall petition with Nye County and the state of Nevada to recall Nye County Commissioner Butch Borasky and town board members Nicole Shupp and Bill Dolan.”

There seems to be this constant “pot stirring” of discontent of some in Pahrump that perpetuates these events.

The behavior of those who accosted Mrs. Lopez following her presentation to the Town Board about Mr. Kohbarger is despicable. In the name of the 2nd Amendment they are willing to chill the 1st Amendment.

One of these days one of those 2nd Amendment hot heads is going to lose it and gun down a 1st Amendment exerciser.