The National Gun Victim’s Action Council (NGAC) has announced a Starbucks boycott.

As I stood witness to the Triangle Shirtwaist fire centennial commemoration at the corner of Washington Place and Green Street on Friday, March 25, I was surprised and impressed by the size of the crowd, but the most unexpected moment of the day came when New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg stepped to the microphone.

The Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire, one of America’s most horrific industrial accidents, happened 100 years ago today, on March 11, 1911. Though New York City’s fire department arrived on the scene within two minutes of the call, the fire at this “modern” high rise at the corner of Washington Pl. and Greene St. still claimed the lives of 146 people, most of them young women and teenage girls. Some were burned, some died of smoke inhalation, some were crushed pushing for the exits, some fell from a faulty fire escape, and some jumped nine stories in an attempt to escape the flames.

It was a catastrophic, once-in-a-lifetime failure of what were considered more than ample emergency response systems. No one could have possibly anticipated. . . .

This week marks the 100th anniversary of the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire. A documentary on HBO tonight will remember the event, where 146 garment workers died in a fire at their factory. The managers of the factory had locked the doors to the exits, a typical tactic to force long workdays in a time before laws outlawing the practice. The Triangle Fire led directly to worker safety laws and the growth of the ILGWU garment worker’s union.

The Obama Administration approved the first deepwater drilling well permit for the Gulf of Mexico, 11 months after the BP oil disaster. . . .

We know plastic additive Bisphenol A is bad for humans, although we’re still learning more about its effects on humans. But why is the U.S. spending tax dollars on studying Chinese workers’ exposures?

The White House lifted its deepwater drilling moratorium today, but Mary Landrieu still won’t lift her hold on Jack Lew.

The Interior Department moved forward today with new offshore drilling rules without moving up the end of the moratorium.

Like a lazy adolescent with senioritis, BP had been intimating that they might not need to finish up drilling the relief well that would permanently stop the Macondo well in the Gulf, arguing that the heavy drilling mud, cement and other containment strategies are holding. Admiral Thad Allen gave that idea the big no-go today.

Last week the House passed the Oil Pollution Research and Development Program Reauthorization Act of 2010, a bill that amends the post-Exxon Valdez legislation in order to fund research on oil spills.

As part of this bill, Rep. Alan Grayson attached two amendments to, in his words, “expand research on the effects of these spills on the human beings assigned to clean them up.” Critically, the amendments target both oil and dispersants — ingredients in the toxic stew affecting BP Oil Disaster cleanup workers.