Pam Rotella home page VeggieCooking.com Vegan Cookbook Vegan Recipes Vegetarian Recipes Donate! Featured Articles: My Vegetarian Cookbook Index Healthy Eating The Genetic Fad - A Medical Myth Joel Wallach - Copper Deficiencies Lawrence Broxmeyer - Mad Cow Organophosphates - Mad Cow Multiple Sclerosis and Mercury Alternative Medicine Used for Flus Good Fats (Omega-3 Fatty Acids) Dr. Hulda Clark - Cancer and AIDs Alternative Cancer Treatments Vegans and Vitamin B-12 Aspartame, MSG - Excitotoxins Sickle Cell Anemia Jake Beason - Raising Children Election Fraud 2004 9-11: A Government Operation Pam Remembers Ronald Reagan Family Values Giving Thanks Travel Page Photo Gallery Main Page The Peace (Flower) Gallery Glacier National Park Gallery Autumn Foliage Gallery 2004 New York City Protests Yellowstone National Park Gallery The Badlands Photo Gallery The Main Caverns Gallery Luray Caverns in Virginia Shenandoah Caverns in Virginia Skyline Caverns in Virginia Endless Caverns in Virginia Dixie Caverns in Virginia Natural Bridge in Virginia Crystal Caverns at Hupp Hill in Virginia Cave of the Mounds in Wisconsin Kickapoo Indian Caverns in Wisconsin Crystal Cave in Wisconsin Niagara Cave in Minnesota Mena Airport Photo Gallery Skyline Drive Photo Gallery The House on the Rock Gallery Wisconsin Windmill Farm Copyright Notice & Limited Use Other Health Web Sites: Mercury Poisoned .com Cancer Tutor .com Dorway.com - Aspartame Breast Implant Dangers Dr. Hulda Clark - products Dr. Clark Information Center Dr. Joel Wallach Dr. Lawrence Broxmeyer Mark Purdey Dr. Joseph Mercola Dr. Hal Huggins Dr. Lorainne Day Dr. Andrew Weil Dr. Ralph Moss - Cancer Decisions Dr. Patrick Flanagan - Neurophone NUCCA-Certified Chiropractors Pranic Healing Alternative News Sites: Rense.com What Really Happened .com Buzz Flash .com Information Clearing House Prison Planet.com Alternative Radio: WBAI - New York City KPFK - Los Angeles KPFA - Berkeley WPFW - Washington, DC Air America Radio
	Pam Rotella’s Vegetarian FUN page -- your source for nutrition, health, environmental, political, and other news! Fun link of the month: An ABC segment on Pat Robertson's Haiti remarks -- last month's "Happy Christmas (War Is Over)" fun link was of the noble variety, now this month's is more of the screw-up variety. I like this segment because it takes the time to juxtapose Robertson's Haiti remarks with other craziness the man has said through the years, for a sort of timeline effect. Of course with Robertson, there's too much material for anyone to fit it into just one news story. And don't forget past fun links of the month -- just as fun as this month's! Week of 7th to 13th of February 2010 Updates this week may be delayed by a day or two at times, as another big project takes most of my time but is near completion. - PR John P. Murtha, Congressman, Dies at 77 WASHINGTON — Representative John P. Murtha of Pennsylvania, a gruff ex-Marine who was one of the most hawkish Democrats in Congress but who became an outspoken critic of the Iraq war, died on Monday in Arlington, Va. He was 77. He died while under treatment for complications of gallbladder surgery, his office said. The first Vietnam veteran to serve in Congress, Mr. Murtha voted in 2002 to authorize use of military force in Iraq. But he evolved into a leading foe of the war as it was conducted under the administration of President George W. Bush. “The war in Iraq is not going as advertised,” Mr. Murtha said in November 2005, as he demanded an immediate withdrawal of American troops. He called the Iraq campaign “a flawed policy wrapped in illusion.” Michael Jackson's personal physician pleads not guilty to involuntary manslaughter Michael Jackson’s personal physician entered a plea of not guilty Monday afternoon at a standing-room-only arraignment attended by Jackson’s parents and several siblings. Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Keith L. Schwartz set bail for Conrad Murray at $75,000 – three times the standard for involuntary manslaughter cases. The judge also forbade Murray from prescribing heavy sedatives, including propofol, to his patients. “I don’t want you sedating people,” the judge told Murray. CFB Trenton chief charged with murder of two women (Canada) The commander of CFB Trenton, a career officer with 23 years in the military, has been charged with two counts of first-degree murder in the deaths of two women, including a corporal at Trenton and a Belleville woman who vanished 11 days ago. Col. Russell Williams, 46, was also charged Monday in connection with sexual assault in two home invasions in the Tweed area, Det. Insp. Chris Nicholas said at a news conference today in Belleville. The charges came “due to a singularity in those incidents,” Nicholas said. “We linked those crimes to a single suspect.” Jessica Lloyd, 27, vanished Jan. 28 and police said on Monday that her body had been found. A second woman, Cpl. Marie France Comeau of the 435th squadron, Trenton, was found dead in her home in Brighton on Nov. 25, 2009. World's tallest tower closed a month after opening The world's tallest skyscraper has unexpectedly closed to the public a month after its lavish opening, disappointing tourists headed for the observation deck and casting doubt over plans to welcome its first permanent occupants in the coming weeks. Electrical problems are at least partly to blame for the closure of the Burj Khalifa's viewing platform -- the only part of the half-mile high tower open yet. But a lack of information from the spire's owner left it unclear whether the rest of the largely empty building — including dozens of elevators meant to whisk visitors to the tower's more than 160 floors — was affected by the shutdown. The indefinite closure, which began Sunday, comes as Dubai struggles to revive its international image as a cutting-edge Arab metropolis amid nagging questions about its financial health. The Persian Gulf city-state had hoped the 2,717-foot (828-meter) Burj Khalifa would be a major tourist draw. Dubai has promoted itself by wowing visitors with over-the-top attractions such as the Burj, which juts like a silvery needle out of the desert and can be seen from miles around. Police "fire live ammunition" at protesters It took the presence of Winnie Madikizela-Mandela to calm the tensions and violence between protesting police reservists and police members at the Beyers' Naude Square, in central Joburg on Monday morning. Police reservists from around the country had gathered to hand a memorandum to the Gauteng MEC of Community Safety, Khabisi Mosunkutu, complaining about working for years without pay only to be overlooked when permanent vacancies are opened. Protesting reservists claim that about 11 of their peers had to be rushed to hospital after being shot with live ammunition by police officers. Given Zondo, a 35-year-old reservist from Orlando, Soweto, said she saw two people being shot at close range by the police officers. "They shot a man and a women and they dragged them into a police truck. When they shook the guy to wake him he was unresponsive," said Zondo, who has been a reservist for 9 years. Robert Fisk: Why does the US turn a blind eye to Israeli bulldozers? This majority of the West Bank - known under the defunct Oslo Agreement's sinister sobriquet as "Area C" - has already fallen under an Israeli rule which amounts to apartheid by paper: a set of Israeli laws which prohibit almost all Palestinian building or village improvements, which shamelessly smash down Palestinian homes for which permits are impossible to obtain, ordering the destruction of even restored Palestinian sewage systems. Israeli colonists have no such problems; which is why 300,000 Israelis now live - in 220 settlements which are all internationally illegal - in the richest and most fertile of the Palestinian occupied lands. When Obama's elderly envoy George Mitchell headed home in humiliation this week, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu celebrated his departure by planting trees in two of the three largest Israeli colonies around Jerusalem. With these trees at Gush Etzion and Ma'aleh Adumim, he said, he was sending "a clear message that we are here. We will stay here. We are planning and we are building." These two huge settlements, along with that of Ariel to the north of Jerusalem, were an "indisputable part of Israel forever." Northeastern Minnesota's moose population continues to decline Northeastern Minnesota's moose population continues to decline, based on the latest aerial survey this winter by the Department of Natural Resources. Wildlife researchers estimate that there were 5,500 moose in that region of the state. With a 23 percent margin of error, the estimate is not statistically different from last year's estimate of 7,600, but it supports other evidence that the moose population is declining. "We don't believe the population dropped 2,000 in the past year, but it's indicative that the population is declining and parallels everything else we've been seeing,'' said Mark Lenarz, DNR wildlife researcher. "Our concern continues.'' Lenarz said this is the first year the survey has agreed with other indices showing the decline. The proportion of cows accompanied by calves continued a 13-year decline, dropping to a record low of 28 calves per 100 cows. The bull-to-cow ratio also continued to decline, with an estimated 83 bulls per 100 cows. Reasons for the decline are uncertain, but researchers believe a warming climate is responsible. "There's more and more evidence suggesting it's related to climate,'' Lenarz said. Warmer temperatures can stress moose and make them susceptible to other diseases and parasites. Mortality from hunting or wolves is not a major factor, Lenarz said. Dominion looks to define its role in offshore wind "Wind is the largest renewable resource available to Virginia and it could end up being the cheapest one of scale," Doswell said. Dominion has joined on as a member of the VOW Coalition, Doswell said, and has been an active participant in studies conducted to measure the feasibility of utilizing the winds off local shores to capture energy. VOW, along with local politicians, has pushed for bills in the General Assembly that call for the creation of a state offshore wind authority with the power to help secure the issuing of bonds and government guarantees for loans, and to facilitate ways that might persuade the state's electricity monopoly to get on board. If the mid-Atlantic is to derive some of its electricity from offshore wind, there are a number of ways in which Dominion might get involved, Doswell said. Carp talks may miss bigger lake challenge; Summit called for fish threat, but biologists also fear ballast water The focus of Monday's White House Asian carp summit is to stop the giant, ecosystem-ravaging fish from slipping in the Great Lakes' back door - the Chicago canal system that links the Great Lakes and the Gulf of Mexico. But the governors who called for the summit don't just want to talk about carp; they want the Obama administration to tackle the larger issue of invasive species in the Great Lakes, which have become an ecological stew teeming with at least 185 foreign organisms. And if that discussion is going to occur, it will be impossible for regional and national leaders to ignore what's going on at the lakes' front door - the St. Lawrence Seaway, a manmade navigation corridor between the Great Lakes and the Atlantic Ocean. That's the invasive species pathway biologists say poses the most trouble for the Great Lakes, even if Chicago canals and Asian carp are grabbing all the attention at the moment. Oceangoing ships dumping contaminated ballast water are blamed for 57 species invasions since Seaway builders blasted their way into the lakes 51 years ago. Michael Pollan on “Food Rules: An Eater’s Manual” [DN] AMY GOODMAN: But explain the issue and the problem with high-fructose corn syrup. MICHAEL POLLAN: Well, I mean, the reason I have suggested that you should avoid products with high-fructose corn syrup is not that we have science proving that it is a worse form of sugar than conventional cane sugar. AMY GOODMAN: Now, again, it’s made out of corn. MICHAEL POLLAN: It’s made from corn. It’s a very complex process that was invented by the Japanese in the ’70s, and it really has been a boon to the food industry, because high-fructose corn syrup is very cheap, because we subsidize the corn, and it has various properties of food science that are very valuable. If you put it in a bread product, it gets a nice brown coating. And it actually helps prevent freezer burn in frozen foods. So—and you make any food sweeter, and we’ll eat more of it, so they’re putting it in everything. So if you can avoid high-fructose corn syrup, you’re probably avoiding a heavily processed food that you should avoid anyway. So that’s why I said don’t eat it. But is it worse than sugar? Not necessarily. Both of them are about fifty-fifty glucose and fructose. They’re joined in a different way. Some people think that might affect absorption rates. But let’s assume they’re the same. And so, they’ve come back and reformulated a bunch of products with sugar. And they’ve said “with real sugar now” or “with no high-fructose corn syrup.” And people—you know, how do you read that? You say, “Well, if they’re boasting about it, it must be healthier.” And so, we now are—we’ve created a health claim for sugar, and I feel somewhat responsible, because it’s very deceptive. So I came up with a rule to avoid all these schemes, which is, don’t buy any food you see advertised on television. That is the only way to avoid their marketing cleverness. And that rule captures most processed food, because two-thirds of ad budgets go to heavily processed food. Only about five percent of ad budgets go to, you know, prunes or walnuts or real foods. So I’m hoping that your common sense will not—you know, will allow you not to tar them with the same brush. US soldier gives four-year-old daughter 'waterboarding' over alphabet Joshua Tabor allegedly told police he had used the technique because he was angry and knew his daughter was scared of water. The 27-year-old, who had recently gained custody of the young girl, said she "squirmed" as he pushed her under the water three or four times, it was claimed. Waterboarding is a controversial torture technique used by the CIA to interrogate al Qaeda suspects at Guantanamo Bay, where water is poured over detainees so they think they are drowning. Mr Tabor, from the Lewis-McChord base in Tacoma, Washington, was arrested after he was seen wearing a Kevlar military helmet and threatening to smash windows. When police went to his home in nearby Yelm, his girlfriend told them about the alleged torture. Mr Tabor's daughter was found hiding in a cupboard with bruises on her back and throat. When asked how she got her injuries, she replied: "Daddy did it." A Federal Effort to Push Junk Food Out of Schools WASHINGTON — The Obama administration will begin a drive this week to expel Pepsi, French fries and Snickers bars from the nation’s schools in hopes of reducing the number of children who get fat during their school years. In legislation, soon to be introduced, candy and sugary beverages would be banned and many schools would be required to offer more nutritious fare. To that end, Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack will deliver a speech Monday at the National Press Club in which he will insist, according to excerpts provided to The Times, that any vending machines that remain in schools be “filled with nutritious offerings to make the healthy choice the easy choice for our nation’s children.” The first lady, Michelle Obama, said last month that she would lead an initiative to reduce childhood obesity, and her involvement “shows the importance all of us place on this issue,” Mr. Vilsack said. PAM COMMENTARY: Today's kids are exposed to a lot more junk food vending machines than my generation, because schools have turned to food vendors for a part of their budgets. Maybe it really does take a law to stop the madness. Monsanto Indian Farmer Suicide (Video) (FLASHBACK) PAM COMMENTARY: As long as we're on the topic of food profiteering, remember this old story? Beach family goes it alone in suit over Chinese drywall Ben Proto is mad. He's mad at his builder. Mad at his insurance company. Mad at his bank. Proto, like hundreds of homeowners, has a home built with tainted Chinese-made drywall. The gases released by the drywall have damaged his electrical appliances and led him to move his family out of the home. Unlike many of those home-owners who've added their names to the class-action lawsuit, Proto has gone at it alone, spending the past year negotiating with builders, lenders and insurance companies to get the home fixed. So far, none of the companies that helped usher the Protos into their home has come to their aid. All have pointed the finger elsewhere. Sarah Palin's palm cheat-sheet steals her show Has there been a more talked about stolen glance since George H.W. Bush looked at his wristwatch during a 1992 debate with Bill Clinton? On Saturday, former Republican vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin glanced at her left palm during a question and answer session at the first National Tea Party Conference in Nashville. The topic: her thoughts on what the top three priorities for the GOP ought to be should the party regain control of Congress. It quickly became apparent that Palin had been glancing notes written on her palm. The Huffington Post produced a photographic close-up, which showed her hand contained the words "Energy", "Tax" and "Lift American Spirits." The phrase "Budget cuts" was also there, though the word "Budget" had been crossed out. Much mockery has ensued -- from members of the press and liberal critics of Palin alike. Andrea Mitchell on Monday tweaked Palin's "cheat sheets" on MSNBC's Daily Rundown, saying she'd written notes on her own hand "just in case I didn't remember" the script. Study: Moms over 40 nearly twice as likely to have autistic children Women who give birth after age 40 are nearly twice as likely to have a child with autism as those under 25, California researchers reported Monday. Surprisingly, the age of the father plays little role in the likelihood of the disorder unless the mother is younger than 30 and the father is over 40, according to the analysis of all births in California in the 1990s. The number of women over age 40 in California giving birth increased by 300% in the 1990s, while the diagnosis of autism increased by 600%. At first glance, it might seem that the rise in older pregnancies could be responsible for the rise in autism, which is now thought to affect as many as one child in every hundred. But the authors of the paper, from UC Davis, calculate that older mothers account for less than 5% of the increase in autism diagnoses. "There is a long history of blaming parents" for the development of autism, said Dr. Irva Hertz-Picciotto of the UC Davis MIND Institute, the senior author of the report. "We're not saying this is the fault of mothers or fathers. We're just saying this is a correlation that will direct research in the future." PAM COMMENTARY: Well, the two major theories of autism are neurological damage from vaccines, or vitamin/mineral deficiencies (possibly both play a role). Older women are known to have more deficiencies, and it's possible that they're also more likely to trust their children to the medical establishment. Obviously, more research needs to be done on the real causes of autism and related statistical trends. Iran severs cultural ties with British Museum over Persian treasure British Museum officials were due to lend the 2,500-year-old artefact to Iran's national museum last month, but announced they were holding on to it to do some more research. The clay cylinder - which was acquired by the museum after being discovered in 1879 - is regarded as the world's first declaration of rights. Hamid Baghaei, head of Iran's Cultural Heritage and Tourism Organisation, said the decision to keep the cylinder was unacceptable and politically motivated. He said: ''The Cultural Heritage Organisation has cut all its relations and co-operation with the British Museum.'' 'Whaling ship rammed us' THE anti-whaling group Sea Shepherd says it will continue to monitor a Japanese whaling ship even though whalers allegedly rammed one of its vessels at the weekend off Antarctica. Sea Shepherd founder Captain Paul Watson said the Japanese ship rammed the Bob Barker and tore a gash in the hull above the water line. No one was injured in the incident about 300km off Cape Darnley, in the Australian Antarctic Territory, at 3.09pm on Saturday. The organisation claimed the harpoon ship Yushin Maru 3 "intentionally" rammed the Bob Barker. The anti-whaling craft had been actively blocking the slipway of the Nisshin Maru, the Japanese whaling fleet's factory ship, when the collision occurred. Week of 31st of January to 6th of February 2010 Bob Barker Rammed at Sea - Japanese whalers hit another Sea Shepherd ship (Video) The anti-whaling boat Bob Barker was rammed on the high seas early this morning during a showdown with a vessel piloted by an allegedly illegal whaling crew. According to the Sam Shepherd Conservation Society, the B.B. was blocking the shipway of a Japanese whaling fleet's factory ship when the collision occurred. One of the Japanese boats slammed into the Bob Barker, creating "a 3-foot long 4-inch deep gash in the mid starboard side." No one was injured. The boat was retrofitted thanks to a $5 million donation from Bob Barker, thus the name. PAM COMMENTARY: Also see Anti-whaling vessel hit again Whaler, activist ship collide at sea; Vessel named after Bob Barker is damaged, group says SYDNEY - The anti-whaling ship the Bob Barker and a Japanese harpoon boat collided in the icy waters off Antarctica on Saturday — the second major clash this year in the increasingly aggressive confrontations between the two sides. No one was reportedly injured in the latest strike. The U.S.-based activist group Sea Shepherd, which sends vessels to confront the Japanese fleet each year, said a small hole was torn in the hull of its ship, but it was above the water line and the vessel was not in danger of sinking. Sea Shepherd founder Captain Paul Watson said by satellite telephone that the Japanese ship rammed the Bob Barker — named after the U.S. game show host who donated millions to buy it for Sea Shepherd — as it blocked the slipway of the Japanese fleet's factory ship. Dave Zirin on Super Bowl Fever in New Orleans and the Militarization of Sport’s Biggest Spectacle [DN] JUAN GONZALEZ: And Dave, you’ve been involved in plans for a Super Bowl party that has an anti-militarism theme. Could you talk about this whole issue that you alluded to earlier of the involvement of the military in Super Bowls? DAVE ZIRIN: Oh, yeah. Well, that’s the whole funny thing about, “Oh, we can’t have advocacy ads for the Super Bowl.” But last year David Petraeus flipped the coin at the Super Bowl. Every year, you have the fighter planes fly overhead. It’s a huge recruitment day for the US armed forces. And particularly in the context of the war on terror, the Super Bowl has been an absolute center for military recruitment on a year-in, year-out basis. And this year I’m teaming up with the Iraq Veterans Against the War, IVAW, and we’re actually going to have a Super Bowl party at the IVAW house here in Washington, DC, where we’re going to watch the game, without question, but we’re also going to speak about de-linking the fun of football with the reality of war. Far too often, sports is used as this idiotic metaphor for war—quarterbacks are field generals, and they throw bullet passes or bombs—when in reality we know that war is very different. War is life and death. War is long periods of boredom punctuated by horrifying terror. So, if you want to just watch the game and have fun watching the game but also speak out against militarism, please email me, dave(at)edgeofsports.com, and I’ll hook you up at the IVAW house here in Washington, DC to watch the big game. Robert McChesney and John Nichols on “The Death and Life of American Journalism: The Media Revolution that Will Begin the World Again” [DN] ROBERT McCHESNEY: Yeah, it’s a really important point, Juan, because, you know, everything is going digital. This program is largely received, or will be, digitally at some point in the very near future, not just on television and radio systems. And it’s not a technological argument we’re making about one technology supplanting another. We understand the digital times we’re in. The argument that’s crucial is whether the internet is going to provide the basis for substantive journalism to replace what’s disintegrating before us. And we go through this very carefully in the book. And I think it’s obvious that if we want to look at actual resources, so people who get paid money to cover beats, who are accountable for them, who are competing with other journalists, who have proofreaders and copy editors and fact checkers and institutions to support them in their work, they’re just not happening online. The resources there barely exist. There are only a handful of journalists who can make a living doing journalism online. And what you have there, too, is if you’re seeking out advertising support, it puts journalism in a very compromised position, because there’s such a competition for the scarce ad dollars. It really undermines the integrity of news that is essential for a credible free news system. JUAN GONZALEZ: Well, and even within the old media, newspapers are still the, as I say, the fountainhead of news. I remember once in 1985, I was at Philadelphia Daily News and Inquirer. We were on strike, and we were on strike for five weeks. And all my friends in TV came to me and said, “When are you guys going to go back to work? Because without you, we don’t know what to report.” This is the TV news. JOHN NICHOLS: Hey, Juan, let me tell you how real that still is, and this is the scary part. There’s a new Pew Center study out. They actually studied Baltimore. They looked at where all the original newspapers came from. They looked at all the independent media, all the online, everything. They found that 96 percent, almost 96 percent—there’s a little debate about the precise figure, but well over 90—came from old media, largely from the daily newspaper, the Baltimore Sun. But here’s the scary part: the footnote. The Baltimore Sun is producing 73 percent fewer original news stories today than twenty years ago. So new media is commenting on old media, but it’s not filling the void of news. Old media is giving us a lot less. And so, you say, well, OK, come on, Pew Center folks, tell us, where is the news coming from? Who is generating it, if it’s not—well, it’s in there. Eighty-six percent of the stories came in the form of public relations, either from government or from corporations; only 14 percent produced by a reporter who went out and tried to speak truth to power. This is a scary zone we’re entering. AN ATTACK FROM HARVARD LAW ON THE ESCALATING 9/11 TRUTH MOVEMENT [WRH] While the article's title suggests conspiracy theories broadly, the 9/11 Truth Movement is the paper's focus, and it reveals substantial concern regarding that Movement's ongoing advance. Particularly ominous is that the authors, who use "theorists" and "extremists" interchangeably, limit their focus "to potentially harmful theories". To whom, one might wonder, would the 9/11 Truth Movement, so "worrisome" for the authors, be harmful? And why do the authors consider the 9/11 Truth Movement such a "serious threat" that it should be "broken up or at least muted by government action"? (pg 21) The authors contend that conspiracy theorists suffer from "cognitive blunders" and "crippled epistemology". Using psycho-philosophic parlance they are saying those failing to accept the official story of the 9/11 Commission, leading members of which admitted it was "set up to fail", cannot think straight. But the "theorists/extremists" they wish to censure include by now thousands of physicists, architects and engineers using only physical facts and data; substantial figures in theology and philosophy applying elementary logic; military, political and intelligence personnel from all over the world with lifetimes of experience in how the system -- including its underbelly -- functions. So, what is proposed? "Practically speaking", the authors write, "government might do well to maintain a more vigorous counter-disinformation establishment." (pg 19) They recommend that government officials respond "to more rather than fewer conspiracy theories [which] has a kind of synergy benefit: it reduces the legitimating effect of responding to any one of them, because it dilutes the contrast with unrebutted theories." (pgs 15, 29) Such advice assumes that all theories -- or aspects of a single theory -- are essentially equal in validity or lack of validity -- an odd position for legal minds supposedly sensitive to fine distinctions. But that would not matter when the point is simply to defeat citizen efforts. More menacing, however is that the authors suggest "planting doubts [to] undermine the crippled epistemology [through] cognitive infiltration" of groups by governmental agents or by forces appointed by government. (pgs 3, 14, 15, 22, 29)"Government agents (and their allies)", they write, "might enter chat rooms, online social networks, or even real-space groups and attempt to undermine percolating conspiracy theories." In light of such proposals for dealing with citizens seeking truth, that Cass Sunstein is "one of America's leading constitutional scholars" (See above link to the White House announcement) is appalling. PAM COMMENTARY: Sounds like they're begging for research money. "Oh, please be more aggressive... and send us LOTS of money to come up with some disinformation scripts for ya... We kind of needed a new building anyway, and bigger houses than our neighbors..." Actually, I've had a few debunkers write me over the years, and I don't pay attention to them because ALWAYS their "debunking" is nothing more than a barely intelligible string of their own personal opinions. No evidence, no facts to prove that 9/11 in fact was NOT an inside job. Now Harvard seems to be lobbying for more money to babble the same nonsense with a Boston accent and a few big words tossed in for the academic crowd. VA processed 141,000 GI Bill claims for the spring TCC did not receive some tuition payments until the end of the fall semester, but "we allowed them to be enrolled, knowing the moneys would come in eventually," said Phyllis Milloy, the vice president for finance. The housing stipends go directly to students. Andrea Dance, an assistant registrar at ODU, said some students told her that they received those before the university got the tuition payments. Both said the VA department was processing requests more quickly this year. "Everything was new last semester," Dance said. "This semester they really have made a lot of effort to try to make things better." The department's Web site said it had processed claims for 141,580 students for the spring, as of Thursday. PAM COMMENTARY: I'd say that's a POPULAR program. Half of new UK jobs are created by the state [AJ] NEARLY three-fifths of the growth in jobs under Labour during a decade in power was directly or indirectly created by the state, new research shows. Across the country as a whole, it says 57% of new jobs created during the period 1997-2007 were state or “para-state” — dependent on government spending . In the West Midlands these jobs accounted for all of the rise in employment, with no new private sector jobs generated overall. More than 80% of new jobs for women nationally depended on the state. The research, which was carried out at Manchester University’s Centre for Research on Socio-Cultural Change, concludes that Britain’s business model before the financial crisis in 2007 was “undisclosed and unsustainable”. “America’s Secret Afghan Prisons”: Investigation Unearths New US Torture Site, Abuse Allegations in Afghanistan [DN] AMY GOODMAN: Anand Gopal, you write that of the twenty-four former detainees that you interviewed for this story, seventeen said they were abused. What happened to them? ANAND GOPAL: Well, the abuse ran the gamut from being slapped and kicked and punched to more extreme cases. One of the more extreme cases, which I detail in the story, is of one person who was essentially waterboarded or made to swallow large amounts of water, and he was hung upside down. He was hung from chains. He was forced to kneel on a metal bar as it rolled across his shin. There are other cases of people who have been—who have had dogs used against them, so dog bites. There’s been accusations of sleep deprivation, where interrogators will play very loud music throughout the night and keep the lights on, and also accusations of being stripped and being held naked in public areas or held naked outside in very cold weather. AMY GOODMAN: Just to be exact in the quote of this man who was taken, you say they—you quote him saying, “They tied my hands to a pulley and pushed me back and forth as the bar rolled across my shins. I screamed and screamed.” They then pushed him to the ground and forced him to swallow twelve bottles of water. And you quote the man saying, “Two people held my mouth open and they poured water down my throat until my stomach was full and I became unconscious. It was as if someone had inflated me,” he says. After he was roused from his torpor, he vomited the water uncontrollably. Can you talk about these-- ANAND GOPAL: That’s right. And the-- AMY GOODMAN: Go ahead. ANAND GOPAL: Sorry. I was going to say that the remarkable thing about this is that he was taken to Bagram and then quietly released three or four months later and given a letter of apology saying that US authorities realized they had the wrong man. And a lot of the people who allege abuse also have these letters from US authorities, basically absolving them. Vt. nuke plant: Tritium may be leaking from pipe MONTPELIER, Vt. - Officials at a Vermont nuclear plant say they're investigating the possibility that a leak in an underground pipe connected to a sump pit may be responsible for a radioactive substance turning up in groundwater samples at the plant. Vermont Yankee plant officials said Friday they found tritium levels in the sump pit that are three times higher than those recently found in groundwater samples. Officials say they've found 2.7 million picocuries per liter in the sump sample. They also say levels in a groundwater monitoring well have reached 834,000 picocuries - the highest reading yet for groundwater and more than 40 times higher than a federal safe drinking water limit. The tritium leak was discovered last month. Tritium can cause cancer if it's ingested in large amounts. The Freedom Riders: New Documentary Recounts Historic 1961 Effort to Challenge Segregated Bus System in the Deep South [DN] AMY GOODMAN: Tell me about the Freedom Riders and how you pieced this together—I mean, it is the most dramatic telling of this story—and its significance in history. STANLEY NELSON: Well, you know, let me explain in just a real quick way—in a quick way what the Freedom Riders were. In 1961, twelve people, both black and white, decided that they would test the segregation laws of the South by simply getting on buses, Greyhound buses and Trailways buses, and going down south. And the white and black people would sit together at the front of the bus. They would eat together in the restaurants in the bus stations. The white people would use the colored-only restrooms, and the black people would use the white-only restrooms. And they would just see what would happen to them. And they had no police protection, no army protection, very little press when they started out, and they had no idea that it would really turn into this mass movement. AMY GOODMAN: And so, there were—talk about the different Rides that went down and what happened to each. STANLEY NELSON: Well, the first twelve people were beaten so badly in Anniston and Birmingham that they had to stop, they had to quit. Stolen U.S. vehicles end up as bombs in Iraq, FBI says [WRH] WASHINGTON — Fifteen years after U.S. states were directed to share motor vehicle information in a national database, only nine states have done so, making it nearly impossible to identify hundreds of thousands of stolen vehicles - including a small but steady number that end up as car bombs in Iraq. FBI officials said they believe the database could help break up far-flung terrorist networks, which are using vehicles stolen and smuggled from the United States. Bought and sold on the international black market, cars and trucks help fund criminal operations and can be turned into the terrorist weapon of choice against U.S. troops and Iraqi civilians: vehicles packed with explosives. The FBI declined to estimate how many stolen U.S. cars have turned up as car bombs in Iraq but said the number is believed to be at least in the dozens. The National Motor Vehicle Title Information System was created in 1992 to thwart motor vehicle thefts, but it remains a patchwork repository at best. Authorities say the system, which has the potential to track every car or truck in the country by its vehicle identification number, has languished because of years of local government inattention, a lack of urgency among state motor vehicle departments, and inconsistent federal funding. PAM COMMENTARY: WhatReallyHappened.com dug this old cached article out of Google. Mike commented that he posted this old story because of the news about Charlie Sheen's car. Obviously, stolen US cars being shipped to Iraq for use in "terrorist" attacks would seem more like black ops than genuine resistance from an invaded country, due to the cost of shipping in a used car vs. stealing or buying one. Car Thieves Caught on Tape in Sheen Case The eye in the sky may be the key to the mysterious Bentley at the bottom of a ravine near where Charlie Sheen's car was found -- the Bentley owners claim they have surveillance tape of the car being stolen. TMZ just contacted the owners of the Bentley -- one of whom, we're told, is slated to be on the upcoming "Real Housewives of Beverly Hills." Lisa Vanderpump -- who appeared on "Silk Stalkings" and "Baywatch Nights" -- is married to Kenneth Todd. They live near Charlie Sheen's house in a gated community. The keys were not in the car, Lisa says. The car was parked in the driveway. Lisa tells us they have surveillance footage of the crime. Lisa and Ken own the fancy Beverly Hills restaurant, Villa Blanca. UPDATE: Law enforcement sources tell TMZ police are investigating to see if the Charlie Sheen and Todd incidents are connected. They have looked at the surveillance video from Charlie's house and there is a shot of the thieves leaving the scene, though it is hard to ID them. PAM COMMENTARY: Sounds like the type of crime a psycho would commit, vs. a regular street criminal interested in making money from the crime. Dim outlook for nuke industry A coming "nuclear renaissance" is often cited by government and industry officials as reason to keep investing in Canada's nuclear-power sector. Without support, they say, the country risks being sidelined in a market poised for massive expansion. But that growth, according to an independent report released Thursday, simply isn't happening. After 10 years of industry cheerleading, the world's fleet of nuclear reactors has become smaller. "There has been, in fact, a decline in the contribution of nuclear power to the world electricity production, from 16.7 per cent in 2000 to 13.5 per cent in 2008," said the report, the result of a three-year study by the Centre for International Governance Innovation in Ottawa. Arctic ice melt affecting weather, wildlife, study finds “We know we’re losing sea ice. The world is all aware of that,” said Barber, who holds the Canada research chair in Arctic science at the University of Manitoba. “What you’re not aware of is that it has impacts on everything else that goes on in this system. We’re just starting to understand that from a scientific perspective.” The expedition discovered there is more open water than ever before in the Arctic, he said. That is creating more cyclones — Arctic storms, characterized by snow and high winds. The storms further erode the sea ice crucial to the region’s ecosystem. “Those storms are having a very dramatic impact on the sea ice — they are melting the ice from underneath,” Barber said. “The other thing the cyclones do is they bring winds with them. Those winds remove snow from the surface but they also break up the ice as well.” Scientists found the loss of that sea ice has both far-reaching and immediate consequences, from boosting temperatures further south to threatening whales and releasing toxic contaminants. 70 Irish priests accused of sex crimes in US US victims of child abuse have unearthed a direct link to scandals in Ireland, revealing that 70 irish priests who worked in the States have been accused of paedophile crimes. This dramatic disclosure follows the admission by the archdiocese of Boston that the list includes the late Fr Brendan Smyth, who worked briefly in Arlington two decades ago. It had previously been thought that at that time he was on the run in the Republic from police in Belfast. The Boston archdiocese was responding to the demands of victim-support groups, which have alleged in the wake of the Murphy Report that church leaders in Ireland sent accused priests to dioceses in other countries, including the US. Human Body Found on Plum Island [R] A human body has washed ashore on tiny Plum Island, where the U.S. government has an aging lab for studying dangerous animal diseases. Suffolk police say a security guard on foot patrol discovered the clothed body Thursday afternoon on the southwest beach area of the island, where access is restricted. Homicide Squad detectives say the partially decomposed body was that of a black man about 6 -feet tall with a large build and very long fingers. He was wearing a light green three button short sleeve shirt, green cargo pants with buttons inscribed with the words “God Body Collection,” brown loafer style size 10 shoes, blue plaid boxer style underwear and a belt with a buckle inscribed with the words “Stacy Adams.” There were no obvious signs of trauma. The Suffolk County medical examiner will perform an autopsy to determine the cause of death. Plum Island has been called a potential target for terrorists because of its stock of vaccines and diseases, such as African swine fever. Anyone with information about the identity of this person is asked to call the Homicide Squad at 631-852-6392 or Crime Stoppers at 1-800-220-TIPS. Scientists read the minds of the living dead Scientists have succeeded in reading the mind of a man thought to have been lacking all awareness after a traumatic head injury, opening a host of questions about what it is to be a sentient person and how we should treat people in his condition. The 29-year-old, who had been presumed to be in a vegetative state for five years following a road accident, was able to communicate with the researchers by thought alone, giving "yes" and "no" answers to questions. Using an advanced brain scanner, researchers were able to detect that he was thinking, and interact with him, even though it proved impossible to establish any communication at the bedside. It was the first time since his injury in 2003 that he had managed to make contact with the outside world. The discovery by an Anglo-Belgian team led by Adrian Owen of the Medical Research Council's Cognition and Brain Sciences Unit at the University of Cambridge was praised by other scientists yesterday. Nicholas Schiff, associate professor of neurology at Weill Cornell College, New York, said the findings had "extremely broad implications" for the assessment of patients in the twilight zone between consciousness and unconsciousness. Once the biological basis of the results was explained it would "have a profound impact across medicine," he said. Cops Say Whoever Killed Morgan Harrington Knew Tricky Farm Area "We were all hoping that they were going to find her safe and while we knew it would take a lot of work to get Morgan back to normal, we just wanted her to be alive," said Testerman. "We just wanted her to give us one of her big hugs that she's known for." Testerman said she is particularly feeling the loss. She and Harrington were part of a close-knit group of girlfriends who called themselves "The Nine." Some of the girls even got the number nine tattooed on their bodies as a symbol of their friendship when they all went off to college. Now they are eight. "We just hope that she didn't have to go through any pain and that her killer showed her mercy and that she's up above in heaven looking down on us," said Testerman. Swinger link in Rockefeller's death The slaying of multi-millionaire Herman Rockefeller has been linked to Melbourne's underground "swingers" network as details emerge of his addictive personality. The body of the 52-year-old was found in a junk-strewn suburban backyard eight days after he was reported missing. While a missing persons investigation into his business activities across Australia and New Zealand turned up nothing unusual, it's believed detectives uncovered details of the Harvard graduate's secret double life. Police discovered Mr Rockefeller had been using erotic websites to find partners within Melbourne's swingers network, sources close to the family have told AAP. Bird Ridge vapor vents draw curiosity of hikers and geologists Years ago, a band of mountain runners from Anchorage to Girdwood, incorporated winter climbs on Bird Ridge, into their training regimen. Their sport may be called “mountain Running”, but on Bird Ridge, the running is negligible until the descent. Then they take off, full tilt down the snowfields. While sprinting below the false summit, one or more would occasionally break through the surface of the snow, disappearing into a cavity. For years, they didn't give these random holes much thought. They just climbed out and kept running, thinking the pockets were a result of how the wind loads the snow. Year to year, those voids developed in the same areas, and the group of friends grew adept at avoiding them. Barney Griffith was the first to intentionally investigate one of the pockets. He stuck his head into it and found humid warm relief from the bitter cold. It felt like Tahiti. On the coldest days, Griffith reports seeing “steam rising from them.” It is now understood that the cavities are created by a sort of geothermal (“earth heat”) venting. But to what degree? The volcanic degree? Our friendly neighborhood Bird Ridge volcano? Surry board OKs coal power plant The debate over a coal-fired energy plant in the center of Surry County continued Thursday with a standing-room-only crowd at the Board of Supervisors meeting. The Dendron Town Council on Monday approved rezonings and a conditional use permit for the Cypress Creek Power Station, paving the way for the state's largest coal-fired energy plant to be located in the tiny town. Old Dominion Electric Cooperative wants to build the $4 billion plant - the price has come down since it was first proposed - on about 1,600 acres. On Thursday, the Surry County Board of Supervisors followed Dendron's example and approved the necessary changes to the county's comprehensive plan, zoning changes and a conditional use permit to allow for the plant. PAM COMMENTARY: How lovely -- located so that any pollution will blow over Virginia's largest metropolitan area. Sen. Webb questions Navy adviser's role in carrier move WASHINGTON — The Pentagon recommended Monday moving an aircraft carrier from Virginia to Florida, angering Sen. Jim Webb, D-Va., who questions whether a retired admiral who lobbies for Jacksonville exerted unfair influence on the decision. Retired admiral Robert Natter, who is also a paid adviser for the Navy, said he had nothing to do with the recommendation that the Navy move the carrier. The recommendation, part of a long-range strategy review, says moving the carrier to Mayport, Fla., will limit the risk that a terrorist attack, natural disaster or accident could cripple the eastern carrier fleet, which is based in Norfolk,Va. The review maps out threats the Pentagon anticipates and its plans to meet them. Webb, a former secretary of the Navy, has questioned whether Natter met with officials who took part in the Pentagon's strategy review. In December, Webb wrote a letter to the Pentagon asking about Natter's role in the carrier decision and cited a Nov. 18 USA TODAY report that cited Senate lobbying records that showed Natter received $1.5 million as a lobbyist for Florida from 2004 to 2006 on base-closing decisions. The Pentagon has not yet answered Webb's letter, according to Jessica Smith, a spokeswoman for Webb. Webb said Monday that moving a carrier to Mayport made no financial sense and that the proposal "was not a done deal." He has said the move could cost up to $1 billion. Fighting Denied Claims Requires Perseverance Ms. Carr’s form of shock is all too common. The Department of Labor estimates that each year about 1.4 billion claims are filed with the employer-based health plans the department oversees. Of those, according to data collected from health insurance industry sources, 100 million are initially denied. In simpler numbers, that is one of every 14 claims. But Ms. Carr, whose hip pain ceased after the arthroscopic surgery, did not give up on the reimbursement. And neither should you. When Ms. Carr, a special education administrator at a local charter school, read her explanation of benefits statement more carefully, she spotted some instructions on how patients can appeal denied claims. “I decided I would fight,” she said. “After all, what did I have to lose?” When Windmills Don’t Spin, People Expect Some Answers For those who suspect residents in places like Minnesota of embellishment when it comes to their tales of bitterly cold winter weather, consider this: even some wind turbines, it seems, cannot bear it. Turbines, more than 100 feet tall, were installed last year in 11 Minnesota cities to provide power, and also to serve as educational symbols in a state that has mandated that a quarter of its electricity come from renewable resources by 2025. One problem, though: The windmills, supposed to go online this winter, mostly just sat still, people in cities like North St. Paul and Chaska said, rarely if ever budging. Residents took note. Schoolchildren asked questions. Complaints accumulated. “If people see a water tower, they expect it to stand still,” said Wally Wysopal, the city manager of North St. Paul. “If there’s a turbine, they want it to turn.” Perch return to local waters - in an old factory Perch have largely disappeared from Lake Michigan, but Milwaukee diners soon might be able to order the popular Friday night fish fry species once more from local waters. Just in time for Lent. A new generation of yellow perch is being netted about a mile from Lake Michigan at an urban fish and vegetable farm called Sweet Water Organics, which mimics the Earth's natural ecosystem in a cavernous industrial building. Harnischfeger Industries once used the Bay View neighborhood building to make mining cranes. Decades ago, perch were hauled out of Lake Michigan by commercial fishermen. The fish with a sweet, mild flavor ruled fish fries until - for reasons biologists still don't completely understand - perch fisheries collapsed in the 1990s. Most Wisconsin fish fry perch now hail from Lake Erie and Lake Winnipeg, at a hefty price of $14 to $16 a pound. Self-help guru in court on manslaughter charges CAMP VERDE, Ariz. - Self-help guru James Arthur Ray says it was all a tragic accident when his followers began collapsing one by one in a sweat lodge at his retreat, with three of them dying. As unfortunate as the ordeal was, he says the participants knew about the risks the ceremony presented. Prosecutors say it's a blatant case of manslaughter by a man who recklessly crammed dozens of people in a 400-square-foot sweat lodge and chided them for wanting to leave, even as people were vomiting, getting burned by hot rocks and lying lifeless on the ground. The two sides will be on display in coming months now that prosecutors have charged Ray with manslaughter in a case that could send him to prison for more than 35 years. The 52-year-old Ray said nothing during his first court appearance Thursday, and his lawyer entered a not guilty plea. The prospect of a conviction against Ray will depend on whether jurors view the episode as an accident or a criminal act in which he recklessly caused the deaths of the victims, the definition of manslaughter in Arizona. PAM COMMENTARY: Self-help "retreats" -- I know that a number of them are pretty good, and people find them useful, but that's not true for all of them. Some are pure profiteering. Personally, I'd have trouble charging people for suggestions of questionable value. I guess I'm too ethical to take advantage of vulnerable people during hard times in their lives. When I want to help people (which is all day, every day, and without charges or membership requirements on this web site), I'll stick to things that I believe can make a real difference, like vegetarianism and some of the more effective methods of alternative medicine. Self-help guru arrested in Arizona sweat lodge deaths Reporting from Los Angeles and Denver - Self-help guru James Arthur Ray was arrested Wednesday and charged with three counts of manslaughter in connection with an Arizona sweat lodge ceremony that left three people dead in October. Ray was taken into custody at his attorney's office in Prescott, Ariz., a sheriff's spokesman said, and taken to the Yavapai County jail in Camp Verde. Bond has been set at $5 million. He is to appear in court Thursday. The charges are linked to the last day of Ray's five-day $9,695-a-person "Spiritual Warrior" retreat near Sedona, where he assembled about 50 people in a makeshift, sauna-like sweat lodge for about two hours. When it was over, three people were dying. Eighteen others suffered burns, dehydration, respiratory arrest or kidney failure. 10 Americans charged in Haiti with kidnapping PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti — Ten U.S. Baptist missionaries were charged with kidnapping Thursday for trying to take 33 children out of Haiti to a hastily arranged refuge just as officials were trying to protect children from predators in the chaos of a great earthquake. The Haitian lawyer who represents the 10 Americans portrayed nine of his clients as innocents caught up in a scheme they did not understand. But attorney Edwin Coq did not defend the actions of the group leader, Laura Silsby, though he continued to represent her. "I'm going to do everything I can to get the nine out. They were naive. They had no idea what was going on and they did not know that they needed official papers to cross the border," Coq said. "But Silsby did." The Americans, most members of two Idaho churches, said they were rescuing abandoned children and orphans from a nation that UNICEF says had 380,000 even before the catastrophic Jan. 12 quake. New York charges Bank of America, Lewis over Merrill deal NEW YORK (AP) — The New York Attorney General's office said Thursday it is filing civil charges against Bank of America and its former CEO Ken Lewis, saying the bank misled investors about Merrill Lynch when it acquired the Wall Street bank in late 2008. Civil charges are also being filed against Joe Price, the bank's former chief financial officer. Price is now head of the bank's consumer banking division. At the same time New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo's office was filing its civil charges, the Securities and Exchange Commission reached a settlement to resolve charges it brought against Bank of America (BAC) over similar issues. Lewis stepped down from Bank of America on Dec. 31 after almost a year of strife that followed the bank's purchase of Merrill Lynch. George Galloway: Tony Blair, Liar and War Criminal [AJ] ...The armies are bogged down, and for them, victory is impossible to achieve. This country, that our government has led us into disaster, and that if we don't hold them to account -- they may lead us into further disasters yet... PAM COMMENTARY: This article links to a video of one of Galloway's speeches, where he is criticizing the past wars of the Blair administration (Iraq and Afghanistan), and future wars apparently on a U.S. wish list (Yemen and Iran). Illinois Court Overturns Malpractice Statute In a case that could resonate in Washington, the Illinois Supreme Court on Thursday overturned the state’s five-year-old medical malpractice law because it limited compensation to injured patients for pain, suffering and other non-economic harms. The ruling came down as federal proposals to cap malpractice awards are receiving fresh attention on Capitol Hill. Republicans enthusiastically support the limits, and they are seen as a potential vehicle for restarting the stalled health care negotiations in Congress with bipartisan impetus. Neither the House bill that Democrats passed late last year nor its Senate counterpart included significant changes to medical malpractice regulations. In a 4-to-2 ruling, the Illinois court wrote that the legislature, in enacting the 2005 law, violated the state Constitution’s separation of powers clause by imposing decisions that should be reserved for judges and juries. The law established caps of $500,000 for non-economic damages in verdicts against doctors and $1 million in cases against hospitals. The decision armed opponents of such provisions with fresh ammunition, and held a particular sting for the American Medical Association, which has its headquarters in Chicago. PAM COMMENTARY: Malpractice limits have little to do with cutting medical costs and everything to do with boosting insurance company profit margins. And it can be devastating to patients with serious medical needs after being damaged by medical errors. For example, do you have any idea what it costs to be paralyzed? Even without the cost of medical care, what if the paralyzed person can no longer work and was supporting his family with a 75k salary? Even if it was only a 50k job, 50k a year for just 20 years is a million dollars. How is a million dollars going to make that guy whole? And if his wife has to work instead of being at home taking care of him, that'll drive up the cost of his care because they'll have to pay for someone else to take care of him. Malpractice caps are more smoke and mirrors by legislators who take lots of money from the insurance lobby. 5.9 quake rattles North Coast (02-04) 15:06 PST EUREKA -- A magnitude 5.9 earthquake shook the North Coast today in the area where a stronger temblor hit last month, but there were no reports of injuries or significant damage. The quake hit at 12:20 p.m. and was centered 28 miles offshore and 7 miles deep, northwest of the small town of Petrolia in Humboldt County, according to the U.S. Geological Survey. Residents said they could feel the shaker, but it was nowhere near as disconcerting as the magnitude 6.5 quake that struck the region Jan. 9. That quake was centered 18 miles offshore and wreaked more than $40 million in damage to roads, buildings and power systems in Eureka, Arcata, Ferndale and other North Coast towns. We Need 402,000 Jobs A Month. Does The Senate Get It? [BF] Today, Sen. Majority Leader Harry Reid unveiled plans for a series of job-related bills, but details remained sketchy apparently because negotiations are still ongoing to secure enough Republican support to avoid filibuster. Unsurprisingly, weaker tax cut proposals are more likely to get bipartisan support than robust public investment proposals. So far, Senate leaders are not saying how big their proposals will be, nor how much jobs they are expected to create. Perhaps they need us to put a fine point on how giant the jobs hole is that we're in. To return the level of employment we had before the recession began, we need to create 402,000 jobs month for three years straight. The $154 billion House jobs bill won't come close to filling that jobs gap either -- only a third of the cost goes towards creating jobs, the rest to prevent layoffs and help the jobless -- but it would least take a bigger step than what the Senate is cooking up. Unless the magnitude of the jobs crisis is made clear, and unless the grassroots loudly demands bold action that meets the size of the crisis, the Senate process will be a race between the parties to see how small can you make a jobs bill and still call it a jobs bill. Brown sworn in as US senator from Massachusetts Depending on how Democrats set the Senate's calendar, Brown's first vote could be against the confirmation of Craig Becker, a lawyer for the Service Employees International Union, to a seat on the National Labor Relations Board, the federal panel that referees private sector labor-management disputes. Brown said he hasn't decided on whether to support Becker. The Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee approved Becker's nomination on a party-line 13-10 vote Thursday, sending it to the full Senate. Republicans have held up Becker's confirmation for months, saying they fear he might use the post to make labor laws more union-friendly without congressional approval. House Overwhelmingly Passes Cyber Security Bill [AJ] A document posted on the Infowars.com website last year revealed that the Department of Homeland Security considers returning veterans, gun owners, advocates of the Second Amendment and states’ rights to be potential enemies. The 500 to 1,000 “cyber warriors” funded by the sweeping Cybersecurity Enhancement Act will likely be turned against the patriot movement and not the CIA spawned fake terror organization al-Qaeda. Moreover, the bill represents yet another intrusion into the private sector by the Obama administration and its fellow travelers in Congress. “As our reliance on information technology has increased, so has our vulnerability to cyber attacks, as news reports indicate on a near daily basis,” bill sponsor Daniel Lipinski (D-IL) told eWeek. “Cyber crime is a major problem for the government, for businesses and indeed for every American. This bill will increase the security of vital and personal information by strengthening research partnerships among the federal government, the private sector, and colleges and universities, and supporting the transfer of promising technologies from researchers to the wider marketplace.” In March of 2009, Infowars.com reported on comments made by senator Jay Rockefeller, the great-grandson of John D. Rockefeller, nephew of banker David Rockefeller, and former Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman. Rockefeller said the internet represents a serious threat to national security. Rockefeller was not alone in this assessment. His belief that the internet is the “number one national hazard” to national security is shared by the former Director of National Intelligence Mike McConnell and Obama’s current director Admiral Dennis C. Blair. “It really almost makes you ask the question would it have been better if we had never invented the internet,” said Rockefeller. Rockefeller introduced Senate bills 773 and 778. Rockefeller’s bills would allow the president to “declare a cybersecurity emergency” relating to “non-governmental” computer networks. In other words, if passed, Rockefeller’s bill would give the president the ability to pull the plug on the internet in the name of national security. State police provide update on Morgan Harrington's case People who know the area where Morgan Harrington's remains were found are critical to solving the crime, according to state police. During a news conference Thursday, authorities emphasized how important location is in this case. State police say the people who know Anchorage Farm and the North Garden area know information that will help them lead to Harrington's killer. That's because investigators believe the suspect(s) is(are) familiar with the area. State police say because of the terrain changes, fences and layout of the land, it would have been too difficult for someone who didn't know the area to navigate. State police say the person(s) responsible felt inclined to return back to the area during a high stress situation. Authorities say Morgan's body was found a considerable distance from a public roadway and the location would have been a high risk one if they didn't know the farm. Search ends: As devastated parents grieve, hunt for killer intensifies Nestled on the Western slopes of Gibson Mountain near the crossroads known as North Garden, Anchorage Farm is reached from a red-gated, cattle-guarded private drive connecting directly to Route 29. That kind of access, along Central Virginia’s main north-south thoroughfare, coupled with the seclusion of a large agricultural tract, make it an optimal place for stealthily discarding a body– though the alleged inaccessibility of the site where Harrington’s body was discovered has caused some to wonder who would know the lay of the land. Although Anchorage Farm appears mostly open fields, stands of trees around its periphery also mean that, even from the adjacent Blandemar Farm Estates neighborhood, activity on the site may not be visible— particularly at night. Harrington was last seen on the Copely Road bridge around 9:30pm. Property owner Bass, who describes himself as primarily a cattle farmer and who bought Anchorage Farm in 1983, says the body was found about a mile and a half from Route 29. But, citing a request from law enforcement, he declined to get more specific about the location on his 742-plus acre tract where cows were grazing on discovery day. News about the discovery of the body of a blonde woman clad in dark clothing traveled fast. With no other blonde people missing from the Charlottesville-Albemarle area other than Harrington, attention speedily turned to Anchorage Farm, parts of which are listed on the National Register of Historic Places. According to a Hook reporter who arrived at the site shortly before 11am, Albemarle Police cordoned the driveway leading to the Red Hill-area property, and Police Lt. Todd Hopwood, spokesperson for the Department, citing concerns about harmful speculation, declined to offer any information or to answer questions. PAM COMMENTARY: This article is about a week old, but it offers some good specifics. Sanofi Pasteur Hired RAND to Determine How to Vaccinate School Children RAND said parental consent laws create barriers to vaccinating children. PAM COMMENTARY: "Vaccines that they need to be healthy"? "NEED" to be healthy? A lot of parents whose children were damaged or killed by vaccines would disagree. You lost your house - but you still have to pay Former homeowners may still be on the hook if there's a difference between what they owed on their mortgage and what the bank could sell it for at auction. And these "deficiency judgments" are ticking time bombs that can explode years after borrowers lose their homes. It can even happen to people who got their bank to approve them selling their home for less than it is worth. Vanessa Corey, for example, short sold her Fredericksburg, Va., home in April 2008. She and her husband built the house in 2004, but setbacks, both personal (divorce) and professional (housing bust), made it impossible for the real estate agent to keep her home. So she negotiated the short sale and thought that was the end of it. "My understanding was that the deficiency was negotiated away," she said. "Then, last November, I got a letter from a lawyer telling me I owed my lender $65,000. I had to declare bankruptcy. There was no way I could pay it." Rep. John Murtha hospitalized in intensive care Rep. John Murtha has been hospitalized in intensive care stemming from complications related to gallbladder surgery. Spokesman Matt Mazonkey says the 77-year-old Pennsylvania congressman underwent scheduled surgery last week and is currently at Virginia Hospital Center in Arlington. Murtha was also hospitalized in December with gallbladder problems. The 19-term Democrat was the first Vietnam veteran to serve in Congress. He leads the powerful House Appropriations subcommittee on defense spending. PAM COMMENTARY: I hope that my Hulda Clark liver cleanses save me from ever needing gall bladder surgery. As it is, they already had saved me from those weird allergies that appeared suddenly after an auto accident. $225 million waste-to-energy project planned in Milwaukee A $225 million project in Milwaukee announced Tuesday would convert municipal and industrial waste into renewable energy. Alliance Federated Energy of Milwaukee announced that it plans to build Project Apollo, a project that is expected to create more than 250 construction jobs and 45 full-time jobs once it is operational. The 25-megawatt project would go online in 2013, and would deploy a plasma gasification technology developed by Westinghouse Plasma Corp. Under this technology, the municipal waste is not burned but is instead converted into a syngas that can be used to generate electricity, steam or biofuels. You don't have to be bipolar to be a genius -- but it helps Scientists have for the first time found powerful evidence that genius may be linked with madness. Speculation that the two may be related dates back millennia, and can be found in the writings of Aristotle, Plato and Socrates. Aristotle once claimed that "there is no great genius without a mixture of madness", but the scientific evidence for an association has been weak – until now. A study of more than 700,000 adults showed that those who scored top grades at school were four times more likely to develop bipolar disorder than those with average grades. The link was strongest among those who studied music or literature, the two disciplines in which genius and madness are most often linked in historical records. The study was conducted by researchers from the Institute of Psychiatry, King's College London, with colleagues from the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm, Sweden. PAM COMMENTARY: Bipolar responds well to Omega-3 supplementation and is probably the one "disorder" most likely to be nothing or little more than an Omega-3 deficiency. I haven't observed any differences personally in people whose mental conditions have improved with Omega-3 supplementation -- they're just as intelligent and talented as far as I can tell, maybe more so. But perhaps not feeling well mentally compels people to try harder, if only to feel better about themselves. And when you're talking about music and literature, that's very subjective. Some of the sickest stories become the most famous, often written about crazy or homicidal people. That doesn't mean violent literature is "better" than non-violent works; again, it's quite subjective. Personally, even if Omega-3 deficiency gave people a slight advantage, I'd rather have good levels of Omega-3 than the range of health problems that come from not enough. Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak says his Toyota Prius accelerates on its own Apple Inc. co-founder Steve "Woz" Wozniak has seen his share of software glitches in the gadgets he has created and in those he collects. But Wozniak said he was surprised several months ago when his 2010 Toyota Prius started accelerating on its own -- to as much as 97 mph -- when he used cruise control to increase the vehicle's speed. He said he had to tap the brakes to stop the car from accelerating. Wozniak, 59, wanted to alert Toyota Motor Corp. and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration to the possible safety issue, but he grew frustrated when no one would listen. Thanks to a media blitz Tuesday -- including an appearance on CNN -- Toyota engineers are going to borrow Wozniak's car for a week to diagnose the problem, he said. A Toyota spokesman confirmed that the automaker had reached out to Wozniak. Anne Froelick Taylor dies at 96; blacklisted screenwriter Taylor's first screen credit was the 1941 drama "Shining Victory," which she co-wrote with Koch.Four other Froelick writing credits followed: "The Master Race" (1944), "Miss Susie Slagle's" (1946), "Easy Come, Easy Go" (1947) and "Harriet Craig."Taylor's involvement in left-wing causes, such as fighting against fascism and promoting unions and desegregation, had led her to join the Communist Party, her daughter said. In 1951, Taylor's party membership caused her husband, Philip Taylor, to lose his job as a manufacturing planner at Lockheed. "He was escorted out of the plant by two guards," Taylor's daughter said. "I think it was to make a public display, which is what they were doing all over to frighten people. Interestingly, my mother hadn't gotten work [as a writer] from 1950 to '53, so she feared she was sort of covertly blacklisted, not blatantly blacklisted." On the last day of the House Un-American Activities Committee's last visit to Hollywood in 1953, two fellow screenwriters named Taylor as a Communist. Exclusive: Israeli commander: 'We rewrote the rules of war for Gaza' A high-ranking officer has acknowledged for the first time that the Israeli army went beyond its previous rules of engagement on the protection of civilian lives in order to minimise military casualties during last year's Gaza war, The Independent can reveal. The officer, who served as a commander during Operation Cast Lead, made it clear that he did not regard the longstanding principle of military conduct known as "means and intentions" – whereby a targeted suspect must have a weapon and show signs of intending to use it before being fired upon – as being applicable before calling in fire from drones and helicopters in Gaza last winter. A more junior officer who served at a brigade headquarters during the operation described the new policy – devised in part to avoid the heavy military casualties of the 2006 Lebanon war – as one of "literally zero risk to the soldiers". The officers' revelations will pile more pressure on Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to set up an independent inquiry into the war, as demanded in the UN-commissioned Goldstone Report, which harshly criticised the conduct of both Israel and Hamas. One of Israel's most prominent human rights lawyers, Michael Sfard, said last night that the senior commander's acknowledgement – if accurate – was "a smoking gun". Until now, the testimony has been kept out of the public domain. The senior commander told a journalist compiling a lengthy report for Yedhiot Ahronot, Israel's biggest daily newspaper, about the rules of engagement in the three-week military offensive in Gaza. But although the article was completed and ready for publication five months ago, it has still not appeared. The senior commander told Yedhiot: "Means and intentions is a definition that suits an arrest operation in the Judaea and Samaria [West Bank] area... We need to be very careful because the IDF [Israel Defence Forces] was already burnt in the second Lebanon war from the wrong terminology. The concept of means and intentions is taken from different circumstances. Here [in Cast Lead] we were not talking about another regular counter-terrorist operation. There is a clear difference." Murray leaves Houston to face possible charge Dr. Conrad Murray, the Houston cardiologist at the center of the investigation into Michael Jackson's death, is in Los Angeles and prepared to surrender if authorities charge him in the case, said his spokeswoman. Miranda Sevcik said Murray left Houston over the weekend, but has no information on if or when involuntary manslaughter charges might be filed. She said that authorities haven't notified Murray's Houston lawyer Edward Chernoff of any plans to charge the doctor. “We're trying to be as cooperative as we can, but we don't have any idea what's coming — there's been no contact, no request, no directive from authorities,” said Sevcik. “But with all the rumors swirling around, Ed felt it was in Dr. Murray's best interest to be in Los Angeles now.” Sevcik said Murray also is in Los Angeles because of family business. She said he still goes there frequently. Foot power to light up London by 2012; Stepping on green slabs will power street lights and subway stations In the rush to develop alternative energy sources, harnessing the power of the sun and wind has captured the world's imagination. By comparison, capturing power from walking seems rather pedestrian. But when you add up every step taken in a city such as London, with millions on foot every day expending kinetic energy that could be converted and stored as electricity, that's a pretty significant source of power. Pavegen systems, a London-based company, has developed technology that uses electricity produced from walking on specially designed pavement slabs to power street lights and subway stations. The city of London has partnered with the company to do just that, with plans to have 16,000 of the green pavement slabs installed by summer 2012. PAM COMMENTARY: New York City could use a whole lot of those green slabs! Mining destruction for data to help others William Holmes was at his desk at a downtown San Francisco engineering firm when a message from the U.S. Geological Survey flashed onto his computer screen: A magnitude 7.0 earthquake had struck 10 miles from the Haitian capital of Port-au-Prince. Within minutes, Holmes was making plans for a team of geotechnical engineers, architects and seismic design experts to scour Haiti's devastated landscape and collect data to be analyzed in laboratories back home. Theirs will be a humanitarian mission in the broadest sense. The beneficiaries might be thousands of miles, and many years, away from the Caribbean. A handful of researchers have already begun trickling into the country; dozens more, including Holmes' team, will follow. The National Science Foundation, the primary funder of such missions, is now evaluating proposals from investigators hoping to study the geologic and engineering aspects of the quake, such as the way houses crumpled and how soil moved and changed. Other scientists are interested in the human side, such as how quake victims responded to the anarchy and how relief agencies coordinated their missions. This attraction to misfortune may appear unseemly, but events like the Haiti quake are opportunities for an idiosyncratic breed known as disaster researchers. These scientists flock to places devastated by quakes, hurricanes and intentional acts of destruction to study the consequences. Medical examiner: Morgan Harrington death a homicide The Office of the Chief Medical Examiner in Richmond has determined that Morgan Harrington's death was a homicide. The office said it currently has no further information to share about how she was killed. Harrington disappeared Oct. 17 from a Metallica concert she was attending in Charlottesville. Her body was found Jan. 26 in an Albemarle County hayfield about 10 miles south of where she was last seen. The medical examiner's office finding rules out the possibility that Harrington, 20, wandered away from Charlottesville and died of exposure. Oregon man says Idaho officers ruined his medicine bag SANDPOINT, Idaho — An Oregon man is accusing Idaho police officers of destroying the mystical qualities of his Native American medicine bag when they opened it during a drunk driving arrest last summer. The tort claim filed recently by 49-year-old Craig Clark Show, of Portland, seeks $25,000 in damages from the Idaho State Police and Bonner County Sheriff Department. Show also alleges he was persecuted because of his religious beliefs after he was stopped by northern Idaho authorities last August. The Bonner County Daily Bee reports that police arrested Show, charging him with driving under the influence of alcohol. In the tort claim, Show says the medicine bag had been blessed by a medicine woman and has been sealed since 1995. But he says the bag's mystical qualities were damaged when opened by officers. PAM COMMENTARY: I guess the medicine bag had some sort of energy healing attached to it. For those of us familiar with energy healing, it's possible that the policeman changed or stopped its energy properties by opening the bag. Israelis disciplined in attack on UN warehouse The Israeli military said Monday it has reprimanded two high-ranking officers for approving the firing of artillery shells toward a U.N. compound during the Gaza Strip war last year — the first admission of any high-level wrongdoing during the offensive. Israel announced the punishment in a document submitted to the United Nations last Friday in response to a U.N. report that has accused Israel's military of committing war crimes, including the use of white phosphorus, an incendiary munition, in the warehouse attack. Israel is trying to stave off the report's central threat of launching war crimes proceedings if it does not carry out an independent investigation into the military's conduct during the fighting. There was no immediate comment from U.N. officials, and it remained unclear whether the relatively minor punishments would mollify international concerns that the military is not capable of investigating itself. U.S. Examines Whether Blackwater Tried Bribery WASHINGTON — The Justice Department is investigating whether officials of Blackwater Worldwide tried to bribe Iraqi government officials in hopes of retaining the firm’s security work in Iraq after a deadly shooting episode in 2007, according to current and former government officials. The officials said that the Justice Department’s fraud section opened the inquiry late last year to determine whether Blackwater employees violated a federal law banning American corporations from paying bribes to foreign officials. The inquiry is the latest fallout from the shooting in Nisour Square in Baghdad, which left 17 Iraqis dead and stoked bitter resentment against the United States. A federal judge in December dismissed criminal charges against five former Blackwater guards implicated in the episode, but Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. recently announced that the Obama administration would appeal that decision. Missoula native is first woman to serve as military's 'top cop' Colleen McGuire’s father said it was in her all along – this tough girl, firstborn of six kids, Sentinel High School graduate and former University of Montana cheerleader. “She was always,” said Bill McGuire, a career Army man who is now retired, “a take-charge person.” That’s putting it mildly. Because today, 35 years after Colleen McGuire left high school, Bill McGuire has to salute his daughter – almost literally. Colleen McGuire, a U.S. Army brigadier general, was appointed in January as head of the entire Army military police apparatus – both the Army’s provost marshal general and the commanding general of the U.S. Army Criminal Investigation Command. Spray-on miracle could revolutionise manufacturing It sounds too good to be true: a non-toxic spray invisible to the human eye that protects almost any surface against dirt and bacteria, whether it is hospital equipment and medical bandages or ancient stone monuments and expensive fabrics. But true it is. The spray is a form of "liquid glass" and is harmless to living things and the wider environment. It is being touted as one of the most important, environmentally-friendly products to emerge from the field of nanotechnology, which deals in objects at the molecular end of the size scale. Tests have revealed an astonishing variety of potential uses for the liquid glass, from protecting vineyards against fungal attacks to coating medical implants with non-stick, antibacterial surfaces. Scientists have even used it to spray fabric with an invisible, dirt-resistant film – emulating the fictional invention of unstainable clothing in the 1951 Ealing comedy The Man in the White Suit. The secret of liquid glass is that it forms an ultra-thin film between 15 and 30 molecules thick – about 500 times thinner than human hair. On this nanoscale – a few millionths of a millimetre thick – liquid glass turns into a highly flexible invisible barrier that repels water, dirt and bacteria, yet is resistant to heat, acids and UV radiation but remains "breathable". Leaked climate change emails scientist 'hid' data flaws Phil Jones, the beleaguered British climate scientist at the centre of the leaked emails controversy, is facing fresh claims that he sought to hide problems in key temperature data on which some of his work was based. A Guardian investigation of thousands of emails and documents apparently hacked from the University of East Anglia's climatic research unit has found evidence that a series of measurements from Chinese weather stations were seriously flawed and that documents relating to them could not be produced. Jones and a collaborator have been accused by a climate change sceptic and researcher of scientific fraud for attempting to suppress data that could cast doubt on a key 1990 study on the effect of cities on warming – a hotly contested issue. Today the Guardian reveals how Jones withheld the information requested under freedom of information laws. Subsequently a senior colleague told him he feared that Jones's collaborator, Wei-­Chyung Wang of the University at Albany, had "screwed up". PAM COMMENTARY: This sort of thing is what journalists like Mike Rivera of WhatReallyHappened.com were calling "Climate Gate." I wouldn't totally dismiss the global warming theory just because scientists changed their data to go along with it, though. It doesn't disprove the theory, but it does show some kind of cover-up going on for whatever reason. I have heard of scientists changing research results that their students collected because it didn't go along with fashionable theories at the time, and the professors doubted that their students' readings were genuine. I guess they were afraid of going against the establishment. Gotta report those stray findings though! Sometimes it takes more research to find out what's responsible for twists in the data, but that's how most people come up with new theories and make names for themselves. Chinese dissident stranded at Tokyo airport set to return home A Chinese dissident who has spent the past three months living in limbo at Tokyo's main airport said today he would return home after apparently reaching an agreement with Beijing. Feng Zhenghu, an academic who has been highly critical of China's human rights record, said he had decided to abandon his protest in the immigration area of Narita airport after a weekend visit from Chinese embassy officials. Feng, 55, said he had been denied re-entry to China eight times since June while attempting to return home from a trip to see his sister in Japan. After the most recent refusal, at Shanghai's Pudong airport on 4 November, he was forced on to a flight back to Narita, where he took up residence on a bench opposite the immigration desks. Airport officials have been powerless to move him, since he has a valid passport and visa to visit Japan. Local search intensifies as Morgan Harrington's remains are found [with video] More than 100 days after 20-year-old Virginia Tech student Morgan Harrington was spotted on the Copeley Road Bridge, leaving a Metallica concert at John Paul Jones Arena, her remains were found in a 750-acre farm roughly 10 miles away. Since the discovery of Harrington’s body, Virginia State Police and local law enforcement have pursued new leads in a case that primary investigator Lieutenant Joe Rader said VSP considers a “potential homicide.” C-VILLE Weekly also pursued new information, from interviews with residents of the areas surrounding Anchorage Farm, where Harrington’s body was found, to a tip on 15th Street, where local residents reported being interviewed by investigators who might’ve located Harrington’s shirt. As the discovery of Morgan Harrington’s remains turns to new searches for answers, here is a comprehensive report of the events so far. PAM COMMENTARY: One of the best articles I've seen describing the Harrington case so far. Week of 24th to 30th of January 2010 Alternative medicine sales soar as consumers shake off cynicism (UK) Sales of alternative medicines are booming as consumers shake off their cynicism. Analysts say the market has grown by 18 per cent in two years and is worth £213million a year. And they predict sales will increase by 33 per cent to £282million over the next four years as more patients reject prescription drugs in favour of natural remedies. Even relatively unknown treatments such as ayurveda - the Indian holistic system of diet, yoga, massage and herbs - are picking up in popularity. A Growing Share of Americans' Income Comes from the Government [AJ] While most eyes were focused on the better-than-expected gross domestic product data for last year's fourth quarter, this week's report from the Commerce Department's Bureau of Economic Analysis also included details on U.S. personal income. Along with wages and salaries, dividends and interest income, this category includes personal current transfer receipts, which the BEA defines as "income payments to persons for which no current services are performed and net insurance settlements." That is, government social benefits (and, to a very minor extent, net transfers received from businesses). As you can see from the following graph, while the relationship between personal income and GDP has not changed all that much over the course of the past six decades, the share of income accounted for by transfer payments has jumped more than 200 percent. The latest data also confirms that the financial crisis has played a major role in boosting Americans' dependence -- for lack of a better word -- on government largesse, with the run-up over the past two years accounting for around a quarter of the relative increase since 1947. Did the Late J.D. Salinger Include a Satire of George H.W. Bush in The Catcher In The Rye? [AJ] “The worst part was, the jerk had one of those very phony, Ivy League voices, one of those very tired, snobby voices. He sounded just like a girl. He didn’t hesitate to horn in on my date, the bastard. I even thought for a minute that he was going to get in the goddamn cab with us when the show was over, because he walked about two blocks with us, but he said he had to meet a bunch of phonies for cocktails, he said. I could see them all sitting around in some bar, with their goddamn checkered vests, criticizing shows and books and women in those tired, snobby voices. They kill me, those guys.” Who was Sally’s friend? “His name was George something – I don’t even remember- and he went to Andover. Big, big deal.” Who was the “phony Andover bastard” who so exasperated Holden Caulfield? Can this be a very early cameo appearance of George Herbert Walker Bush? J.D. Salinger is not known for giving interviews, but George Bush, Big Man on the Andover campus, would have been a figure of some note under the clock in the Biltmore during the early 1940’s, which seems to be the epoch in which this episode is set. Manufacturing Consent For Attack On Iran; Senate OKs Sanctions on Iran's Fuel Suppliers January 29, 2010 "Reuters" -- Thursday, January 28, 2010; 6:58 PM -- WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Senate on Thursday approved legislation that would let President Barack Obama impose sanctions on Iran's gasoline suppliers and penalize some of Tehran's elites, a move aimed at pressuring Tehran to give up its nuclear program. The sanctions, approved on a voice vote, would target companies that export gasoline to Iran or help expand the country's oil-refining capacity by, in part, denying them loans and other assistance from U.S. financial institutions. The House of Representatives has already passed similar legislation. Differences between the two bills will have to be worked out before the measure becomes law. Lawmakers and the Obama administration fear Iran's uranium enrichment program will be used to develop weapons, while Tehran says it is for peaceful purposes such as generating electricity. Many in Congress want to give Obama more tools to pressure Iran. Cutting off gasoline supplies would hurt Tehran's economy; while Iran has the world's third biggest oil reserves, it must import 40 percent of its gasoline to meet domestic demand because of a lack of refining capacity. Secret Banking Cabal Emerges From AIG Shadows: David Reilly Jan. 29 2010 - "Bloomberg" -- The idea of secret banking cabals that control the country and global economy are a given among conspiracy theorists who stockpile ammo, bottled water and peanut butter. After this week’s congressional hearing into the bailout of American International Group Inc., you have to wonder if those folks are crazy after all. Wednesday’s hearing described a secretive group deploying billions of dollars to favored banks, operating with little oversight by the public or elected officials. We’re talking about the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, whose role as the most influential part of the federal-reserve system -- apart from the matter of AIG’s bailout -- deserves further congressional scrutiny. The New York Fed is in the hot seat for its decision in November 2008 to buy out, for about $30 billion, insurance contracts AIG sold on toxic debt securities to banks, including Goldman Sachs Group Inc., Merrill Lynch & Co., Societe Generale and Deutsche Bank AG, among others. That decision, critics say, amounted to a back-door bailout for the banks, which received 100 cents on the dollar for contracts that would have been worth far less had AIG been allowed to fail. State Farm won't renew thousands of Fla. policies [BF] TALLAHASSEE, Fla. – Thousands of State Farm Florida property insurance customers will be seeing notices in their mailboxes next week saying their policies will not be renewed, a company spokesman said Thursday. The first wave of notices will be mailed Monday to a selected number of the company's policyholders who were set to renew Aug. 1, spokesman Chris Neal said. It's part of an agreement reached with the Office of Insurance Regulation in December. The company is cutting 125,000 policies in the next 18 months to reduce its liability in hurricane-prone Florida, where State Farm insures nearly 714,000 homeowners. State Farm, which quit writing new homeowners policies in Florida two years ago, will send its final notices early next year for policies that would be otherwise renewed in the last week of July 2011. Most of the policies not being renewed are in high-risk coastal areas. Nigerian oil rebels threaten 'all-out' attacks [WRH] Nigeria's main rebel group Saturday called off a truce in the oil-rich Niger Delta, threatening an "all-out onslaught" and adding to the political and economic woes of Africa's oil and gas giant. The announcement is a fresh blow for authorities amid uncertainty over the health of the country's president, in hospital in Saudi Arabia for more than two months, which has sparked an unprecendented political crisis. The Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND) had declared the unilateral ceasefire on October 25 to allow "meaningful" dialogue with authorities. But three months on, MEND said: "it is sufficiently clear that the government of Nigeria has no intentions of considering the demands made by this group for the control of the resources and land of the Niger Delta to be reverted to the rightful owners, the people of the Niger Delta. Sea-level rise slowly becomes issue in Outer Banks Coastal scientists are predicting that rising seas could drown much of the Outer Banks by the next century, but the issue is just starting to be recognized as a looming crisis in league with beach erosion. Despite the vulnerability of the barrier islands to potentially catastrophic rising seas, there is no clarion call to be proactive. "I think most people who spend time around the ocean probably think there is some rise in the ocean levels," said Allen Burrus, v ice c hairman of the Dare County Board of Commissioners and a Hatteras native. "But they also feel that, like most things in nature, it comes in cycles." A science panel - hosted by the state Department of Environment and Natural Resources - this month presented data that showed seas off the Outer Banks have risen 0.17 of an inch a year over a 24-year period, the highest rate in the state. Data will be reviewed every five years to observe trends. Sundance Founder Robert Redford on His Life, His Activism and the Importance of Independent Films [DN] ROBERT REDFORD: ... I was made a lot of promises. But it was a very low budget film, a million-and-a-half dollars. I had given up my salary, and I was very passionate about it. I was willing to do it for nothing. And it practically was done for nothing. It was real guerrilla filmmaking. But, to answer your question, it was so exciting. It was so really, really exciting. And you had all these people pitching in for the same reasons, giving it their all. And it just had a--created energy. What happened was, the studio dumped it, because they didn’t believe in it. And I had to experience that the hard way. And I realized that there was never any real support for it. They were sort of letting me do it, due to the larger pictures. But the experience of making it so excited me that I kept wanting to do it. And that led me to be making other films throughout the ’70s, because I would do a larger film, which I was happy to do, and “if I do this, would you let me make this little riskier film?” And they say, “Yeah, as long as it’s under $2 million.” So I did The Candidate and Jeremiah Johnson and Ordinary People and a couple of others. And that experience was very thrilling to me. I loved it. And I thought, well, I’m lucky because, you know, I’m making these larger films, and because of that and whatever success they’re having, I’m allowed to make the smaller ones. Well, other people aren’t that lucky. So what about creating something that would allow more people to have that same benefit? But we would have to create the structure. So that’s what led to the lab program. And then we would focus on that category of independent film, which was sort of dead, and see if we could fuel that. And that led to the festival. And the festival then grew after several years, until it is what it is. That’s enough said on all that. But international created the possibility to bring international stories here. And basically, there was a political subset to it, because these were stories very often about diasporas and people suffering and wanting to get their story out about why there were suffering and what it looked like, so people could understand. And we gave them a platform. Glenn Beck Stars as “V for Viper” [AJ] Note the last line of that speech and then listen to what Glenn Beck said about 911 “Truthers” in a 2007 CNN show about the confrontation between Bill Maher and a 911 “Truther” on his show “Reel Time” circa. October, 2007. At 1 minute, 51 seconds into this clip: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OJSd-ymwYzE , Beck declares: These “truthers” are exactly the kind of people who want to rock this nation’s foundation! Sounds eerily familiar to the previous quote, does it not? Coincidence? Or is Glenn Beck channeling the mind of author Alan Moore, a self-described Kabbalist and Chaos Magician who penned both the 1982 graphic novel “V for Vendetta” as well as the 1986 graphic novel “Watchmen” that advocated false-flag terror as a Machiavellian “end justifies the means” scenario that unites the world under a global government following the nuking of a major U.S. city? Or is it just that all good villains think the same? You be the judge. One thing is for sure. Whoever is writing Glenn Beck’s material is of the same mind-set. As a matter of fact, everything we see happening on the world stage sounds like a Hollywood film script. In James Cameron’s “Avatar”, a planet is occupied and exploited for it’s mineral wealth. Now we find the U.S. occupation of Haiti, which has just recently found to be sitting on a vast fortune in mineral resources of oil, gold, uranium, zirconium and iridium. PAM COMMENTARY: Lately Alex Jones has been doing a good job of exposing Glenn Beck. Jones says that he's making a short film called "The Glenn Beck Deception" (a play on the name of Jones' well-known film "The Obama Deception"). Among many other things, Jones says that Beck is there to divert legitimate political movements, and to "manage" white people. Some very interesting shows lately, very good insights on Beck's bogus activism. EXCLUSIVE…Blackwater’s Youngest Victim: Father of 9 Year-Old Killed in Nisour Square Gives Most Detailed Account of Massacre to Date [DN] MOHAMMED KINANI: One of the guards gestured towards us with his hands. The gesture means ‘stop,’ so we stopped. I, and all the cars in front and behind me stopped. We followed their orders. At that point, I didn’t even know they were Blackwater. I didn’t know it was a security company. I thought was some sort of American army unit. Or maybe a Military Police unit. In any case, we followed their orders. JEREMY SCHAHILL: As Mohammed and his family waited in the SUV, the man in the car next to them was frantic, "I think someone was shot in that car in front of you he told Mohammed. It was then Mohammed watched in horror as Blackwater gunners for no apparent reason blew up a white Kia sedan front of their eyes. Inside, Mohammed would later learn were a young Iraqi medical student and his mother. MOHAMMED KINANI: There was absolutely no shooting or any sign of danger for us or Blackwater. No one was in the slightest danger. Suddenly, in a flash of a second, they started shooting in all directions. And it wasn’t warning shots, they were shooting as if it were fighting in the field. By the time they stopped shooting, the car looked like a sieve. This is the only way to describe it, because it was truly riddled with bullets. They finished with the first car and turned their guns on us. It turned into the apocalypse. JEREMY SCHAHILL:As chaos and blood flooded the square, Mohammed remembers the fate of one man in particular who tried to flee the Blackwater gunmen. MOHAMMED KINANI: Everyone was trying to escape. Whoever wasn’t shot dead in their car just wanted to escape somehow. When one man tried to run, they shot him. He dropped dead on the spot. He was on the ground bleeding and were shooting non-stop. They shot like you’re trying to kill everyone they could see. He sank into his own blood. And every minute, they would go back and shoot him again and I could see his body shake with every bullet. He was dead, but his body shook with the bullets. He would shoot at someone else and then go back to shooting at this dead man. This man is dead in a pool of blood! Why would you keep shooting him? Doctors are addicted to 'every drug under the sun' (UK) Doctors are addicted to “every drug under the sun” the head of the first ever confidential GP service for health professionals has warned. In its first year the clinic has treated NHS staff hooked on drugs including heroin, ketamine, a horse tranquilliser, and methadrone, a drug linked to amphetamines, said Dr Clare Gerada, medical director of the Practitioner Health Programme. The service also uncovered six cases of undiagnosed psychosis, in which sufferers see things or hear voices. The clinic was set up amid fears many health professionals were treating themselves or avoiding their local GP or hospital because of worries colleagues could learn of their health problems. Charges fly over grounded airlifts Hundreds of grievously injured Haitian earthquake victims remained in limbo Saturday, waiting for the U.S. military to resume airlifts to American hospitals four days after the flights were halted amid finger-pointing from the state and federal governments. The Obama administration insisted late Saturday that the flights ceased because of logistical challenges -- and not over questions of who will pay the hospital bills in the United States, as the military had said earlier in the day. Flights stopped on Wednesday amid a bewildering flurry of accusations and confusion over intentions, visas and costs -- and an angry surgeon's prediction that 100 of his patients would die if military flights didn't resume. Military officials blamed Florida hospitals, saying they wouldn't take more injured Haitians. Hospital spokesmen strongly denied saying it. Idaho volunteers arrested in Haiti Sean Lankford said his wife and daughter were among 10 Americans detained Saturday at the border of Haiti and the Dominican Republic as they were moving 33 orphans to new housing. Lankford said the Idahoans had been planning an orphanage in the Dominican Republic for several years, and they were ready to build when the earthquake hit. Members quickly arranged to help a pastor whose orphanage in Haiti collapsed, Lankford said. "They've been working with governments on bothsides for a while," he said. The Idahoans from Meridian's Central Valley Baptist Church and from East Side Baptist Church in Twin Falls are with Idaho-based New Life Children's Refuge. The detainees include people from Texas and Kansas. Despite their good intentions, the Americans - the first known to be taken into Haitian custody since the Jan. 12 quake - stepped into a firestorm in Haiti, where leaders have suspended adoptions amid fears that lost or parentless children are vulnerable to trafficking, The Associated Press reported. Inching along in the channel A collision on Jan. 23 between an oil tanker and a chemical barge dumped more than 460,000 gallons of crude into the waterway, shutting down operations for almost five days, and imperiling the region's economy as refineries began to run dry. The narrow channel runs along the 12-mile stretch from Texas Island, where the Intracoastal Waterway enters from the west, to the Neches River intersection at Stewts Island, where the Intracoastal continues east. That means the Intracoastal Waterway and the Sabine-Neches Ship Channel share the same narrow corridor. It is the longest such shared stretch of waterway in the nation. And the pilots who steer the ships through the channel say it can be a nerve-wracking experience. “If you're on the conn (conducting the vessel), you can feel the water pressure. You can feel the bank (of the shoreline). You can feel the suction of the other vessel. It's real subtle,” said Tweedel, whose pilots guide tankers, bulk carriers and other deep-draft vessels in and out of the docks along the Sabine-Neches. PAM COMMENTARY: In other words, tankers going through there were an accident waiting to happen. David Bass on finding Morgan Harrington's remains (Video) PAM COMMENTARY: The local farmer in his own words. America's Secret Afghan Prisons One quiet, wintry night last year in the eastern Afghan town of Khost, a young government employee named Ismatullah simply vanished. He had last been seen in the town's bazaar with a group of friends. Family members scoured Khost's dusty streets for days. Village elders contacted Taliban commanders in the area who were wont to kidnap government workers, but they had never heard of the young man. Even the governor got involved, ordering his police to round up nettlesome criminal gangs that sometimes preyed on young bazaargoers for ransom. But the hunt turned up nothing. Spring and summer came and went with no sign of Ismatullah. Then one day, long after the police and village elders had abandoned their search, a courier delivered a neat handwritten note on Red Cross stationery to the family. In it, Ismatullah informed them that he was in Bagram, an American prison more than 200 miles away. US forces had picked him up while he was on his way home from the bazaar, the terse letter stated, and he didn't know when he would be freed. In the past few years Pashtun villagers in Afghanistan's rugged heartland have begun to lose faith in the American project. Many of them can point to the precise moment of this transformation, and it usually took place in the dead of night, when most of the country was fast asleep. In its attempt to stamp out the growing Taliban insurgency and Al Qaeda, the US military has been arresting suspects and sending them to one of a number of secret detention areas on military bases, often on the slightest suspicion and without the knowledge of their families. These night raids have become even more feared and hated in Afghanistan than coalition airstrikes. The raids and detentions, little known or understood outside the Pashtun villages, have been turning Afghans against the very forces many of them greeted as liberators just a few years ago. Noam Chomsky and Naomi Klein Respond to Obama’s First State of the Union [DN] AMY GOODMAN: Naomi Klein, right now—well, you just flew into Park City, Utah just before President Obama’s State of the Union address. Your reaction to it? NAOMI KLEIN: Well, I mean, we knew the spending freeze was going to come, but to me, it’s really striking. I think what this moment represents is the decision, which we all feared would come, to pass the bill on from saving Wall Street, from saving the elites of this country from their own mess, a bill worth trillions of dollars, to regular people in need in this country. I mean, that’s what a spending freeze really means. And we have to look at it in the context of the debt crisis that is occurring at the state level. There’s deficit—huge deficits being run up. California is the most dramatic example, but you’re already seeing how students are facing things like 30 percent tuition increases. Women’s shelters are being closed. So, you know, when the President says freeze spending, that’s saying to the states, “We’re not going to help you. We’re not going to bail you out.” So this is really—this, to me, all comes back to the top-down bailout that should never have taken place in the first place, the decision that was made to throw the taxpayer dollars at the banks, at the elites, no strings attached, not to help the people losing their jobs, losing their homes. And now the bill is being passed on, because the debt crisis, the private-sector debt crisis, which started this, the banks racking up these huge debts, was never solved. It was just moved. It was just moved to the public coffers. And now Obama is—this is a Hoover move. This is a Herbert Hoover move. And I think we have to say very clearly, he is not FDR. And, you know, in the spirit of Howard Zinn, who passed yesterday, I keep thinking, you know, what would he say about the State of the Union? And I think he would tell us to refuse to pay this bill, that we need a debtors’ revolt. Report: No sanctions for lawyers who OK'd torture Bush administration lawyers who drafted legal theories that led to waterboarding and other harsh treatment of terrorism suspects showed poor judgment but won't face sanctions for professional misconduct, according to a published report. A forthcoming government ethics report initially concluded the two key authors of the so-called torture memos, Jay Bybee and John Yoo, who were officials in the Justice Department's Office of Legal Counsel during the Bush administration, had violated their professional obligations as lawyers when they crafted the memos that allowed the use of harsh interrogation tactics. But a senior Justice Department official, David Margolis, later softened the department's finding to say the authors simply showed poor judgment, Newsweek reported. Margolis, who is a career lawyer and not a political appointee of the Obama administration, has supervised the department's internal discipline through several administrations from his post in the deputy attorney general's office. PAM COMMENTARY: Outrageous as usual, although it's questionable whether they came up with the violations themselves or drafted something under orders. U.S. citizen in CIA's cross hairs Reporting from Washington - The CIA sequence for a Predator strike ends with a missile but begins with a memo. Usually no more than two or three pages long, it bears the name of a suspected terrorist, the latest intelligence on his activities, and a case for why he should be added to a list of people the agency is trying to kill. The list typically contains about two dozen names, a number that expands each time a new memo is signed by CIA executives on the seventh floor at agency headquarters, and contracts as targets thousands of miles away, in places including Pakistan and Yemen, seem to spontaneously explode. No U.S. citizen has ever been on the CIA's target list, which mainly names Al Qaeda leaders, including Osama bin Laden, according to current and former U.S. officials. But that is expected to change as CIA analysts compile a case against a Muslim cleric who was born in New Mexico but now resides in Yemen. Anwar al Awlaki poses a dilemma for U.S. counter-terrorism officials. He is a U.S. citizen and until recently was mainly known as a preacher espousing radical Islamic views. But Awlaki's ties to November's shootings at Ft. Hood and the failed Christmas Day airline plot have helped convince CIA analysts that his role has changed. PAM COMMENTARY: All of these extrajudicial killings are illegal, as no due process is involved. Winter vomiting bug closes whole hospital (UK) Whipps Cross University Hospital in London has been shut to new patients for three days as staff battle to contain the outbreak of norovirus. Visitors have been banned, all planned routine surgery has been cancelled and ambulances with emergency patients are being diverted to nearby hospitals. In total 18 wards are closed at the hospital. Many hospitals across the capital have been affected by the bug but none to the same extent and a source said pressure on the NHS in London was at about six out of ten. Nationally cases of norovirus, which causes severe diarrhoea and vomiting and can be dangerous in the young and elderly, are lower than at this point last year. Japan's whalers are at sea again, harvesting meat that few will eat Oddly, very little is known about the dynamics of whaling in Japan, probably because foreign media do such an awful job of reporting it. Without an explanation, Japan's taste for "whale blood" (as The Independent once put it) seems irrational and barbaric, fuelling racist stereotypes that the Japanese do not deserve. Clearly, it is not because Japan's citizens love whale meat. A 2006 Greenpeace survey concluded that 95 per cent of Japanese had "never or very rarely eaten" it. Outside of a handful of local ports, fresh whale is as rare as, say, veal, in the UK. Pro-whalers respond that it is so only because foreign pressure has made the meat so expensive to harvest. But even after the 1986 international whaling moratorium and the start of Japan's "scientific" whaling, 70 tons of whale meat was left unsold from a catch of 1,873 tons after the fleet returned to port in spring 2001 – a fraction of the 230,000 metric tons consumed in the peak whaling year of 1962. Although some middle-aged citizens remain fond of it, most youngsters would rather eat almost anything else. The mass consumption of whale meat, and the industry that supports it, was essentially forced on Japan by a lack of alter-native resources half a century ago. So, boring as it sounds, Tokyo's relentless drive to reverse the whaling ban is essentially political, and understanding why means casting our minds back to how the ban came into being. The Japanese Fisheries Agency (JFA), which controls the nation's whaling policy, feels that it was bamboozled and blackmailed into abandoning commercial hunts by the US-led West. One date, in particular, is for ever burned into the JFA's collective consciousness. On 30 June 1979, anti-whaling protester Richard Jones, who later became an Australian senator, dumped red paint over Japanese delegates at the International Whaling Commission's (IWC) conference in London. Caught up in the growing environmental movement, the bureaucrats professed no idea why they were being blamed for the destruction of whale stocks, when historically the US and Europe had hunted far more whales. In the 1980s, as a bitter trade war raged between Japan and the West, Washington came under pressure to limit access to its coastal waters, which yielded nearly a million tonnes of fish per year to Japanese boats. In a deal struck in the middle of the decade, Japan agreed to withdraw its objections to the IWC whaling moratorium in return for a US pledge to keep this access open. But months after Japan formally agreed to the ban in July 1986, its US fishing quota was halved. Two years later, it had fallen to zero and an angry JFA responded by kick-starting the now infamous practice of "scientific whaling". Aging pipes force sewage into San Francisco Bay "There's no way we would eat anything we catch," Petrosh said, watching one of the lines buck with what looked like a bite. "Just think of the bay - it's too contaminated. We just catch 'em for fun and throw 'em right back." Little did she know how contaminated the water really was. During the storms that howled through the Bay Area a couple of weeks back, a total of 630,000 gallons of raw sewage spewed into the bay at 47 spots, according to environmental watchdog group San Francisco Baykeeper. That was small fry, however, compared with the 170 million gallons of under-treated - meaning only partially processed - sewage discharged from three East Bay Municipal Utility District "wet weather" overflow plants on the eastern side of the bay, Baykeeper reported. The plants are there to process overflows during storms, but in big drenchers like this month's the water is sullied more than usual by sewer overflows. One of those "wet weather" plants is at Point Isabel, right by where Petrosh was fishing. Dr. Francis A. Boyle on The Alex Jones Show: The Art of War [AJ] PAM COMMENTARY: This article has links to an audio version of the interview. The little mine that did: Workers, owners save Troy Mine from closure The economy was bad, the bosses said. Productions costs were rising. Metal prices were tanking. “We’d always taken these jobs for granted,” Steiger said. “Until we thought we might lose it, we didn’t realize what we had.” What they had were 180 of the highest-paying jobs in Lincoln County. What they also had were mortgages, truck payments, kids in college. “It was a nightmare,” Steiger said. But somehow, some way, in the space of one year, the crews at Troy Mine have emerged stronger than ever. No one lost a job, and it looks like no one will. Pay cuts are being paid back, “and we’re like a completely different company coming out,” Steiger said. Gandhi's ashes scattered off South Africa coast DURBAN, South Africa (AP) -- Six decades after his death Saturday, some of Mohandas K. Gandhi's ashes were scattered off the coast of South Africa, where he was confronted by racial discrimination during a 21-year sojourn and developed some of his philosophies of peaceful resistance. An early morning service in a harbor in the eastern city of Durban on the 62nd anniversary of Gandhi's death included the laying of flowers and candles on the water's surface. Gandhi, known as the Mahatma or "great soul," was shot dead by a Hindu hard-liner in 1948 in New Delhi. His ashes were divided, stored in steel urns and sent across India and beyond for memorial services. It was not unusual for some of the ashes to have been preserved instead of scattered as intended. South Africa's state broadcaster, SABC, reported the portion of Gandhi's ashes in South Africa was brought here by a family friend. SABC quoted Gandhi's great grandson Kidar Ramgobin as saying Saturday's ceremony included the playing of the national anthems of South Africa and India. The Fateful Geological Prize Called Haiti [WRH] Leaving aside the relevant question of how well in advance the Pentagon and US scientists knew the quake was about to occur, and what Pentagon plans were being laid before January 12, another issue emerges around the events in Haiti that might help explain the bizarre behavior to date of the major ‘rescue’ players—the United States, France and Canada. Aside from being prone to violent earthquakes, Haiti also happens to lie in a zone that, due to the unusual geographical intersection of its three tectonic plates, might well be straddling one of the world’s largest unexplored zones of oil and gas, as well as of valuable rare strategic minerals. The vast oil reserves of the Persian Gulf and of the region from the Red Sea into the Gulf of Aden are at a similar convergence zone of large tectonic plates, as are such oil-rich zones as Indonesia and the waters off the coast of California. In short, in terms of the physics of the earth, precisely such intersections of tectonic masses as run directly beneath Haiti have a remarkable tendency to be the sites of vast treasures of minerals, as well as oil and gas, throughout the world. Notably, in 2005, a year after the Bush-Cheney Administration de facto deposed the democratically elected President of Haiti, Jean-Baptiste Aristide, a team of geologists from the Institute for Geophysics at the University of Texas began an ambitious and thorough two-phase mapping of all geological data of the Caribbean Basins. The project is due to be completed in 2011. Directed by Dr. Paul Mann, it is called “Caribbean Basins, Tectonics and Hydrocarbons.” It is all about determining as precisely as possible the relation between tectonic plates in the Caribbean and the potential for hydrocarbons—oil and gas. Notably, the sponsors of the multi-million dollar research project under Mann are the world’s largest oil companies, including Chevron, ExxonMobil, the Anglo-Dutch Shell and BHP Billiton.[1] Curiously enough, the project is the first comprehensive geological mapping of a region that, one would have thought, would have been a priority decades ago for the US oil majors. Given the immense, existing oil production off Mexico, Louisiana, and the entire Caribbean, as well as its proximity to the United States – not to mention the US focus on its own energy security – it is surprising that the region had not been mapped earlier. Now it emerges that major oil companies were at least generally aware of the huge oil potential of the region long ago, but apparently decided to keep it quiet. Fancy oysters with your Shakespeare? Today's theatre audiences tend to sustain themselves by craftily tucking into goodies during the performance or quaffing pre-ordered drinks at the bar during the interval. But archaeologists have found that the British habit of snacking while watching the latest play began hundreds of years ago – although back then the fare was somewhat different. The preferred snacks for Tudor theatre-goers appear to have been oysters, crabs, cockles, mussels, periwinkles and whelks, as well as walnuts, hazelnuts, raisins, plums, cherries, dried figs and peaches. Some clues even suggest that 16th-century fans of William Shakespeare and Christopher Marlowe also ploughed through vast quantities of elderberry and blackberry pie – and some may even have snacked on sturgeon steaks. The evidence has emerged from the most detailed study ever carried out on a Tudor or early Stuart playhouse. Archaeologists have been analysing the thousands of seeds, pips, stones, nutshell fragments, shellfish remains and fish and animal bones found on the site of the Rose Playhouse on London's South Bank. Grave-digging scientists to tackle Mona Lisa mystery ROME–The legend of Leonardo da Vinci is shrouded in mystery: How did he die? Are the remains buried in a French chateau really those of the Renaissance master? Was the "Mona Lisa" a self-portrait in disguise? A group of Italian scientists believes the key to solving those puzzles lies with the remains – and they say they are seeking permission from French authorities to dig up the body to conduct carbon and DNA testing. If the skull is intact, the scientists can go to the heart of a question that has fascinated scholars and the public for centuries: the identity of the "Mona Lisa." Recreating a virtual and then physical reconstruction of Leonardo's face, they can compare it with the smiling face in the painting, experts involved in the project said. "We don't know what we'll find if the tomb is opened, we could even just find grains and dust," says Giorgio Gruppioni, an anthropologist who is participating in the project. "But if the remains are well kept, they are a biological archive that registers events in a person's life, and sometimes in their death." The leader of the group, Silvano Vinceti, said he plans to press his case with French officials in charge of the purported burial site at Amboise Castle early next week. 5 ways to save the Grammy Awards; Changes are needed if the show hopes to regain its once huge audience Since they started in 1958, no one has ever accused the Grammy Awards of being on the cutting edge. This is, after all, a music award show that didn't add Best Rock and Roll Recording as a category until 1962 — six years after Elvis ele ctrified "The Dorsey Brothers Stage Show" and America with his talent — and didn't give out its first award for a Rap Performance until almost a decade after the Sugarhill Gang had the genre’s first Top 40 hit with “Rapper’s Delight.” Add to that the fact that Grammy ratings have been in a slump since 1994 when they were last watched by an audience of 30 million. In the last four years, they have not been able to get 20 million viewers. That’s not even a decent night of "American Idol." Still, don’t worry, music fans — we might not be able to save the 52nd Annual Grammy Awards that being are handed out Sunday, but while the patient is on the table, the doctor is in the house armed with a red guitar and the truth. 1. Less is more You wanted bloated? Check this out ... there are 29 genre categories, from Pop and Rock to Classical and Gospel, in this year's Grammys. And there are 109 categories within those fields. Compare that for a second to the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences who will be giving out around 24 Oscars and five Special Oscars on March 7. Then add to that the Byzantine breakdown of who's eligible for what, how and why. You see why the Grammys and their rules has been the butt of jokes in and outside the industry for years. Do we really care who wins the Best Surround Sound Album award? Or the overly ambitious Best Recording Package award — which is actually for Art Directors not musicians? Especially in an era of iTunes? PAM COMMENTARY: Actually, I doubt that anything this article suggests would help the Grammys. But I thought I'd post it here, as a precursor to my own observations... First, who wants to watch their favorite musicians when they're CENSORED? "Don't say anything bad about the war or the president, or anything political. We have it on 5-second delay, we can cut you out..." That's really showing 'em... how to be irrelevant and boring. And how about the music industry itself, signing airheaded acts instead of anyone who deals with real issues? Where's the new Crosby, Stills and Nash, or Bob Dylan? Oh, that's right, YOU NEVER SIGNED THEM. I guess Neil Young's album will have to do... for those old enough to remember who he is. How about TV coverage of the event? "What kind of gown are you wearing? My my, that's a pretty gown. OK, move along, gotta talk to the next gown." I used to like fashion when I was a teenager, but then I got a life... Also, the products don't have much variety, although they do have several categories. I think this has to do with the money-making nature of the music industry. One guy has a hit with a "grunge" style, suddenly the music industry says "Grunge sells, it's the new fad!" And they sign act after act of grunge artists who imitate the big successes in that style, and therefore sound almost exactly the same. How could THAT possibly bore the hell out of people? I think that's why lame shows like "American Idol" do so well -- people get to see some variety for a change, musical artists before they're filtered down to a few money-making "products" for the music industry. In the end, the Grammys is really just another show on TV. Either it can hold peoples' interest, or it can't. The nice thing about the music world these days is that with the internet, people can get anything they want, 24/7. They don't have to listen to anything they don't want, including music from people they don't believe in, many appearing on the Grammy Awards. Time for another, although necessarily lengthy, flashback. Note the quote, "Yeah, it kind of did. I mean, I got popular and famous right away." That's because during a war, people LIKE to hear anti-war songs... Or translated into music industry language, there's a MARKET for it... Democracy Now! Special: An Hour of Music and Conversation with Legendary Native American Singer-Songwriter Buffy Sainte-Marie (FLASHBACK) [DN] AMY GOODMAN: When did you write “Universal Soldier”? How did you write it? BUFFY SAINTE-MARIE: I wrote “Universal Soldier” very early in the ’60s. And it was just--it was both original to me, but it was also an absorption and a reflection of what I was seeing in the streets and on college campuses. [singing] He’s five foot two, and he’s six feet four He fights with missiles and with spears He’s all of thirty-one, and he’s only seventeen He’s been a soldier for a thousand years He’s a Catholic, a Hindu, an atheist, a Jain A Buddhist and a Baptist and a Jew And he knows he shouldn’t kill And he knows he always will Kill you for me, my friend, and me for you And he’s fighting for Canada He’s fighting for France He’s fighting for the USA And he’s fighting for the Russians And he’s fighting for Japan And he thinks we’ll put an end to war this way And he’s fighting for democracy And fighting for the reds He says it’s for the peace of all He’s the one who must decide who’s to live and who’s to die And he never sees the writing on the walls But without him How would Hitler have condemned him at Dachau? Without him Caesar would have stood alone He’s the one who gives his body as a weapon to a war And without him all this killing can’t go on He’s the universal soldier And he really is to blame But his orders comes from far away no more. They come from him and you and me And brothers can’t you see This is not the way we put an end to war. AMY GOODMAN: Did it just explode on the scene as soon as you started to sing it? I mean, we’re talking about now in the ’60s the Vietnam War. BUFFY SAINTE-MARIE: Yeah, early ’60s. Yeah, it kind of did. I mean, I got popular and famous right away. And I was very, very fortunate, in that I could travel where my—the other girls who had graduated college with me, they couldn’t travel. I could travel. And I had a Native American background and really interest in knowing what had not been told to me, because when I was growing up, my mother who raised me, she especially told me, you know, what you see in the movies and read in books is not necessarily true, but you can find out someday. . . . . . AMY GOODMAN: The ’60s and ’70s, Johnson, Nixon--what about music and culture at that time? How was it affected? BUFFY SAINTE-MARIE: Well, at the time, we didn’t know about it, but a lot of us were being blacklisted. Our music was being suppressed. AMY GOODMAN: How? BUFFY SAINTE-MARIE: Letters were being sent to radio stations, acknowledging and giving pats on the back for broadcasters who were refusing to play music that ought to be suppressed. And-- AMY GOODMAN: How do you know that now? BUFFY SAINTE-MARIE: Well, I only found out about it maybe twenty years after the fact, when a broadcaster in Toronto brought it to my attention. He had a letter on White House stationery, you know, commending him for having suppressed music that deserved to be suppressed, and it was about me. Eartha Kitt was affected. Taj Mahal was affected. A lot of people were affected. But when I found out about it, I went and got my FBI files, and I was just appalled. I mean, the Freedom of Information Act, at that time, anyway, was just a crock. In the first place, they ask you to come in and be with an FBI agent in the FBI offices. And my lawyer said, “No, no, no. No, you can send somebody to our offices.” So I looked at the files, and they were all crossed out, big fat magic markers. And then, a couple years ago, on the internet, a former CIA agent came forward, as well, and talked about the suppression of music in the ’60s. And so, these-- AMY GOODMAN: How did you feel it at the time? BUFFY SAINTE-MARIE: When I first found out about it, I was just surprised, I was just flabbergasted, because I had never known that there was anything going on like that. I didn’t know that records were not being--not showing up at their destinations, so there’d be no records in town when I had a big concert. So I was mystified. It had never occurred to me. And then later on, you know, a couple years ago, when I found out about the Nixon administration, as well, doing things like that, according to the CIA agent, anyway, you know, it bothers me, but it’s not the kind of thing that I’ve made a career of being mad about, because where are Johnson and Nixon now, anyway? I have a new record and a great life, and I only wish that people at the time had been able to hear the songs that I thought were reflecting their feelings. I think it would have made a difference, because I think music can make a difference. PAM COMMENTARY: You can hear her sing it at the link above by clicking on the video there, the song starts somewhere between the 27 and 28 minute marks. Cracking the codex: Long lost Roman legal document discovered Dr Simon Corcoran and Dr Benet Salway of the history department at University College London have found fragments of an important Roman law code that previously had been thought lost forever. It’s believed to be the only original evidence yet discovered of the Gregorian Codex – a collection of constitutions upon which a substantial part of most modern European civil law systems are built. They made their remarkable find by painstakingly linking 17 pieces of seemingly incomprehensible parchment. Together they form, according to Dr Salway, “a page or pages from a late antique codex book – rather than a scroll or a lawyer’s loose-leaf notes,” judging by the number of abbreviations within characteristic of legal texts, and the presence of writing on both sides of the fragments. Thought to originate from Constantinople (modern Istanbul) the page or pages bear “the text of a Latin work in a clear calligraphic script, perhaps dating as far back as AD 400,” Salway added. Thatcher went to work on an egg, her private papers from 1979 show Her fondness for whisky is well known, as is her ability to get by on as little as four hours sleep a night. But an even more unusual aspect of Margaret Thatcher's lifestyle is revealed today: the Tory leader steeled herself for the 1979 general election with a crash diet that featured no fewer than 28 eggs a week. The two-week high-protein diet included one day - Thursdays - on which eggs were on the menu for breakfast, lunch and dinner. The only respite she was allowed in this grapefruit and black coffee, steak and lettuce diet was a glass of whisky "when meat is eaten". Otherwise it was "no alcohol". The impact of such a diet on her temperament, especially when combined with her famed lack of sleep, can only be guessed at. But the ticks she made against each ingredient on her personal diet sheet seems to indicate that she followed the Mayo Clinic regime – well-known for rapid weight loss – rigorously. The diet plan was tucked into the cover flap of her 1979 Economist pocket diary which is among her personal papers released today. PAM COMMENTARY: I always wondered why she was so nuts. The Sharp Dressed Man Who Aided Mutallab Onto Flight 253 Was U.S. Government Agent [AJ] Please note that in the article that follows, I am not claiming that the U.S. Government knew Mutallab had a bomb or intended to hurt anyone on Flight 253 when the U.S. Government let him board. Since our flight landed on Christmas Day, Lori and I have been doing everything in our power to uncover the truth about why we were almost blown up in the air over Detroit. The truth is now finally out after the publication of the following Detroit News article: http://detnews.com/article/20100127/NATION/1270405/Terror-suspect-kept-visa-to-avoid-tipping-off-larger-investigation Let me quote from the article: “Patrick F. Kennedy, an undersecretary for management at the State Department, said Abdulmutallab’s visa wasn’t taken away because intelligence officials asked his agency not to deny a visa to the suspected terrorist over concerns that a denial would’ve foiled a larger investigation into al-Qaida threats against the United States. “Revocation action would’ve disclosed what they were doing,” Kennedy said in testimony before the House Committee on Homeland Security. Allowing Adbulmutallab to keep the visa increased chances federal investigators would be able to get closer to apprehending the terror network he is accused of working with, “rather than simply knocking out one solider in that effort.”‘ PAM COMMENTARY: Despite the first paragraph where the author says he's not trying to say that the US government knew the suspect had a bomb, it seems likely that they did. It all seems to fit their usual M.O. for false flag events, but what they were trying to justify with this one is a matter of debate. To follow is the news story quoted by this article... Terror suspect kept visa to avoid tipping off larger investigation [AJ] Washington --The State Department didn't revoke the visa of foiled terrorism suspect Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab because federal counterterrorism officials had begged off revocation, a top State Department official revealed Wednesday. Patrick F. Kennedy, an undersecretary for management at the State Department, said Abdulmutallab's visa wasn't taken away because intelligence officials asked his agency not to deny a visa to the suspected terrorist over concerns that a denial would've foiled a larger investigation into al-Qaida threats against the United States. "Revocation action would've disclosed what they were doing," Kennedy said in testimony before the House Committee on Homeland Security. Allowing Adbulmutallab to keep the visa increased chances federal investigators would be able to get closer to apprehending the terror network he is accused of working with, "rather than simply knocking out one solider in that effort." The committee's hearing continues a series across Capitol Hill that started last week, all looking into the events leading up to and after the attempted bombing of Flight 253 over Detroit. Law enforcement officials say Abdulmutallab tried to detonate an explosive hidden in his underwear on board the flight from Amsterdam shortly before its landing at Detroit Metropolitan Airport in Romulus on Christmas Day. Since the failed attack, criticism has swirled around leaders of the U.S. intelligence community who have indicated they were warned by the suspect's father about a month before the flight of a potential terror threat, but failed to stop Abdmutallab, despite other warning signs like the fact that he purchased a one-way ticket to Detroit with cash. Homeopathy protesters to take 'mass overdose' outside Boots Hundreds of sceptics will stage a "mass overdose" outside Boots stores around Britain tomorrow to protest against the chain's continuing sale of homeopathic remedies and to argue that such treatments have no scientific basis. The event - called 10:23 - will see the protesters swallowing the contents of entire bottles of homeopathic pills to illustrate their claims that such remedies "are nothing but sugar pills". It is being co-ordinated by the Merseyside Skeptics Society, a non-profit organisation dedicated to "developing and supporting the sceptical community". The "overdoses" will take place outside Boots stores in Birmingham, Bristol, Brighton, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Hampshire, Leeds, Leicester, London, Liverpool, Manchester, Oxford and Sheffield. "Sympathy events" will also be held in Canada and Australia. PAM COMMENTARY: These people are confusing the toxicity of petroleum-based drugs as a necessary attribute of efficacy. Actually, homeopathy was the precursor to the modern drug industry, and is based on experimentation with various substances -- read Andrew Weil's book "Health and Healing" for a good description of how it evolved. And I don't claim to be a homeopathic expert, but when it comes to herbs, a lot of them work pretty well while also being (usually) non-toxic and very gentle. Yes, peppermint tea CAN settle a stomach depending on what's making a person feel ill. And no, drinking a lot of peppermint tea day after day is NOT going to kill anyone. Gas pipeline could cost up to $41 billion TransCanada Corp. now estimates it would cost between $32 billion and $41 billion to lay a 1,700-mile natural gas pipeline from the North Slope to Alberta and would take about two years longer to launch the project than originally expected when it was first announced in 2007. The revised price tag was revealed in a federal filing Friday amid concerns that potential shale gas developments in the Lower 48 could delay an Alaska gas pipeline. But Tony Palmer, TransCanada's vice president of Alaska development, said at a press conference Friday that despite an "epic financial crisis" and the development of huge shale gas finds, expectations for natural gas prices and demand 10 years out still make the project feasible. TransCanada and its partner, an Exxon Mobil midstream arm, are proposing the "Alaska Pipeline Project" under a license granted by the state of Alaska that includes $500 million in subsidies. Under their plan, gas would flow by 2020, with full operations slated in 2021. On Friday, TransCanada reached a milestone by filing plans for an "open season" with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission. If FERC approves the plan, TransCanada will hold an open season between May 1 and July 30 during which the pipeline builder will seek bids from companies with gas to move. For those companies, it's a matter of weighing risk and reward. They'll shoulder the bulk of the hefty price tag, but stand to gain if they can link their gas to markets. PAM COMMENTARY: See also Alaska gas pipeline could cost $41 billion U.S. Drops Plan for a 9/11 Trial in New York City But behind the brave face that many New Yorkers had put on for weeks, resistance had been gathering steam. After a dinner in New York on Dec. 14, Steven Spinola, president of the Real Estate Board of New York, pulled aside David Axelrod, President Obama’s closest adviser, to convey an urgent plea: move the 9/11 trial out of Manhattan. More recently, in a series of presentations to business leaders, local elected officials and community representatives of Chinatown, Police Commissioner Raymond W. Kelly laid out his plan for securing the trial: blanketing a swath of Lower Manhattan with police checkpoints, vehicle searches, rooftop snipers and canine patrols. “They were not received well,” said one city official. Mysterious Bush-Bush-Obama meeting at the Oval Office this morning [AJ] President Barack Obama hosted a pair of Bushes this morning in the Oval Office: former President George H.W. Bush and his son, former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush. Two weeks ago, Jeb's brother, former President George W. Bush, was at the White House talking about Haiti relief with Obama and ex-President Bill Clinton. The White House described it as a social call, but feel free to speculate. Jeb Bush's presence was unexpected -- the White House hadn't said anything about him being invited. It's all very... bipartisan. The Bushes were at the White House for just over a half-hour, emerging in a driving snow that over the next few hours will blanket the capital with several inches of fluff. "Good meeting, good meeting," the elder Bush, 85 and walking with a cane, said in response to a question called out by a reporter. Bush the elder hosted Obama at Texas A&M a few months back, at an event celebrating community service/volunteerism and marking the 20th anniversary of his Points of Light project. PAM COMMENTARY: Oh, I hope they're not thinking of running JEB for President now! I guess there's a limited pool of people evil enough to be mass murderers of history, and they HAVE to keep recycling the same crazies, but this country has had ENOUGH of that family! Here's a story -- in the late 90s, I was sitting in a bar in Florida. Lawton Chiles was still governor there, and a couple of new guys were running to succeed him after he retired. A TV over the bar showed a mean-spirited commercial for candidate Jeb Bush, and of course the Bush family hadn't gained the infamy that came with George Duh-bya yet. I didn't know anything about Jeb and barely remembered that his dad had a role in Iran-Contra, but I took one look at Jeb's face on TV and told the guy I was talking to, "He's all coked up. I can tell just by looking at him." The man next to me said that it was unfortunate, but Jeb Bush would probably become the next governor of Florida. He said that the other guy was better, but was just too goofy-looking, and that he felt sorry for Buddy MacKay but he just didn't look the part. Ironically, Buddy MacKay DID become the next governor of Florida -- briefly, before the newly-elected Jeb Bush took office. That's because Lawton Chiles died (supposedly while exercising alone) just before leaving office, and MacKay happened to be Lieutenant Governor, succeeding him. Body in backyard is missing Fla. lottery winner's PLANT CITY, Fla. -- Winning $30 million in the Florida Lottery should have been the best thing that ever happened to Abraham Shakespeare. But with his newfound wealth came a string of bad choices and hangers-on who constantly hit him up for money. Nine months ago, he vanished. Friends and family hoped he was on a beach somewhere in the Caribbean. On Friday, detectives confirmed that a body buried under a concrete slab in a rural backyard was his. The home Shakespeare was found behind belongs to the boyfriend of a woman who befriended him in 2007, the year after he won the lottery. Authorities believe he was murdered and the woman may know something about it, but they do not yet know how he died and have not arrested anyone. Shakespeare's brother, Robert Brown, said Friday that Shakespeare often wished he had never bought the winning ticket. "'I'd have been better off broke.' He said that to me all the time," Brown said. State to probe birth defects spike in Calif. town Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has ordered two state agencies to investigate a rash of birth defects that have confounded impoverished Kettleman City for more than a year. Schwarzenegger's intervention into a bitter environmental battle came as a surprise and relief to both residents and the activists who have been demanding answers. "This is a tremendous victory for the people of Kettleman City, whose pleas for help have fallen on deaf ears, including the state's for the past 15 months, said Bradley Angel, executive director of the environmental justice group Greenaction. "We just wish he would have done this a year ago." The birth defects became a rallying point last year for residents trying to stop the expansion plans of the West's largest hazardous waste facility by Chemical Waste Management Inc. Their stories of miscarriages and the photographs they carried of children with facial defects failed to convince the Kings County Board of Supervisors that the company's expansion plans should not go forward. PETA protester hit with pie at Newfoundland hotel ST. JOHN’S, N.L.—People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals got a taste of its own tactics as one of its seal hunt protesters was pied in St. John’s, N.L., on Friday. A woman wearing a seal suit was waiting for Prime Minister Stephen Harper to arrive for a speech when a man approached, dressed in a local mascot’s outfit — a dog with a rain slicker and a sou’wester. The seal hunt supporter shoved a cream pie into the woman’s face after knocking off the head of her seal costume. The man then took off down the street. Twenty-one-year-old Emily Lavender said she was happy to take a pie in the face for her cause. PETA took credit earlier this week for hitting federal Fisheries Minister Gail Shea in the face with a pie to protest her support for sealing. PAM COMMENTARY: "We love to kill baby seals SO MUCH! I don't mind hitting a girl, if she makes me FEEL BAD for KILLING BABY SEALS! Oh, I'm such a killing-baby-seals HERO!" Spot where Harrington body found scrutinized The best way to access the location where missing Virginia Tech student Morgan D. Harrington’s body was found is across a neighboring property, according to the Albemarle County farmer who found her remains. “A lot of my neighbors who are outdoors people have said to me that they think the most logical entrance is from Blandemar Farm subdivision,” Dave Bass said. The area, Blandemar Farm Estates, is a collection of large homes on cul-de-sacs, surrounded by vast expanses of clipped grass. Bass said he saw police drive a car across that grass and through a neighbor’s hayfield to access a fence line near where the body was found on his farm. The farm is west of U.S. 29, near its intersection with Red Hill Road, about 5.5 miles south of Interstate 64. “The easiest way by public road, even in a car, not an SUV or pickup or tractor, would be what I just described,” he said. “There is a barbed wire fence, but you couldn’t get to that place without crossing creeks or barbed wire fences.” Harrington, 20, went missing after she left a Metallica concert held at the University of Virginia’s John Paul Jones Arena on Oct. 17. Bass discovered her remains Tuesday. Bass, who lives on the farm with his wife and daughter, said they don’t get many trespassers, and it likely would have been difficult to sneak past the two homes — his and his daughter’s — on the road into his farm. “It would be difficult for someone to pass either home without being noticed, but, you know, I’m not different than you. I don’t sit at the window all day looking for trespassers,” he said. Anyone who did draw notice would be in a bind because of the long drive back out, he said. He didn’t see anything the night Harrington went missing, he said. There is some illegal spotlighting of deer near the Hardware River, he said. Relatively few people come onto the farm, he said. “I don’t have any employees,” he said. “I do the farm myself, and … you know, we have the normal people that would come on any residential property to fix your air conditioning or your heating or your plumbing,” he said. He said four hunters have permission to hunt the farm, and their names have been given to police. He has also spoken at length with investigators, he said. “I’ve spent a lot of time talking with them,” he said. “I don’t know if it helped them much. I tried.” The area where the body was discovered was initially reported by police to be a hayfield. It was, in fact, a pasture with particularly tall grass, Bass said. “It’s a creek bottom, and the grass grows real well, even though I bushhog it,” he said. He added, “The only reason I think I saw it was the heavy deep snow.” By the time the more than 20 inches of snow the region received in December melted, it had matted down tall grass all across the region. In the particular pasture where Harrington was found, the grass had been at least knee-high, Bass said. He saw the remains because he was on a tractor, several feet off the ground, he said. Bass initially thought the body was a deer, but when he saw what appeared to be a human skull, along with fingers and toes, he knew he had to call police, he said. Virginia State Police still have no suspects, state police spokeswoman Corinne Geller said. A rumor that circulated midday Thursday that police had made an arrest was unfounded, she said. They’re also waiting on the medical examiner’s office for cause and time of death, she said. Geller confirmed that police had finished examining the area where the remains were found by midday. “Now that we’ve finished that part of the collection process at the scene, … we move into the analysis stage,” she said. UPDATE: Morgan Harrington's Pantera shirt found near 15th Street? Several residents of 15th Street claim to have been interviewed by investigators who canvassed the area in connection to the death of Morgan Harrington. The residents, who wished to remain anonymous, told C-VILLE that investigators mentioned finding a shirt that could possibly belong to Morgan Harrington, who was wearing a black Pantera t-shirt when she disappeared the night of October 17. The street is between 1 and 1.5 miles from the Copeley Road Bridge, where Harington was reportedly last spotted. "About 11:30am, I got a knock on my back door. I opened it up and it’s a guy who flashes a badge and says he’s a detective," said one resident. "He just told me that they were canvassing my building, because they had found what they thought was Morgan Harrington’s shirt somewhere in the bushes in front of the building." The resident said the investigator asked whether the resident remembered anything suspicious from the night Harrington disappeared, or since, and recommended that the resident call CrimeStoppers if anything occurred. The investigator was not in uniform and did not leave a business card, but reportedly flashed a badge. ...A second resident told C-VILLE that, on Wednesday, "I came outside from my apartment. I was going to my car, and there was a woman who was kind of digging in the bush, and there were two guys walking around the apartment across the street. I heard the one guy [say] they hadn’t found anything, so the one guy was like 'Well, we found her shirt over here.'" The second resident added: "There wasn’t any UVA police car around. They looked like they were wearing detective clothes. It’s really speculative, but, whatever." PAM COMMENTARY: How'd they find that place? Sounds like someone confessed, or maybe somebody else figured out who'd killed her based on where the body was found. Scientists test model dinosaur wings The long-dead bones of a four-winged dinosaur, the cat-sized Microraptor gui, have inspired lively argument among present-day paleontologists. How, they ask, did such an animal coast through the skies? For a study published this week in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, researchers took an unusual approach to test the 125-million-year-old dinosaur's flight capability -- they built a life-size model microraptor from a beautifully preserved fossil skeleton found in China. Little is known about how this microraptor lived, but some scientists believe it probably glided from tree to tree in the subtropical forests, eating insects and smaller animals. Researchers at the University of Kansas and Northeastern University in China made a full cast of an unusually intact microraptor fossil without disturbing the bones' positions in relation to each other. Then they covered the cast with clay "flesh" and added real bird feathers, trimmed to size. Howard Zinn (1922-2010): A Tribute to the Legendary Historian with Noam Chomsky, Alice Walker, Naomi Klein and Anthony Arnove [DN] AMY GOODMAN: ...We spend the rest of the hour paying tribute to Howard Zinn, the late historian, writer and activist. He died suddenly Wednesday of a heart attack at the age of eighty-seven. After serving as a bombardier in World War II, Howard Zinn went on to become a lifelong dissident and peace activist. He was active in the civil rights movement and many of the struggles for social justice over the past fifty years. He taught at Spelman College, the historically black college for women. He was fired for insubordination for standing up for the students. While at Spelman, he served on the executive committee of SNCC, the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee. After being forced out of Spelman, Zinn became a professor at Boston University. In 1967 he published Vietnam: The Logic of Withdrawal. It was the first book on the war to call for immediate withdrawal, no conditions. A year later, he and Father Daniel Berrigan traveled to North Vietnam to receive the first three American prisoners of wars released by the North Vietnamese. When Daniel Ellsberg needed a place to hide the Pentagon Papers before they were leaked to the press, he went to Howard and his late wife Roz. In 1980, Howard Zinn published his classic work, A People’s History of the United States. The book would go on to sell over a million copies and change the way we look at history in America. The book was recently made into a television special called The People Speak. Well, in a moment, we’ll be joined by Noam Chomsky, Alice Walker, Naomi Klein, Anthony Arnove. But first, I want to turn to a 2005 interview I did with Howard Zinn, in which he talked about his time as an Air Force bombardier in World War II. HOWARD ZINN: Well, we thought bombing missions were over. The war was about to come to an end. This was in April of 1945, and remember the war ended in early May 1945. This was a few weeks before the war was going to be over, and everybody knew it was going to be over, and our armies were past France into Germany, but there was a little pocket of German soldiers hanging around this little town of Royan on the Atlantic coast of France, and the Air Force decided to bomb them. Twelve hundred heavy bombers, and I was in one of them, flew over this little town of Royan and dropped napalm—first use of napalm in the European theater. And we don’t know how many people were killed or how many people were terribly burned as a result of what we did. But I did it like most soldiers do, unthinkingly, mechanically, thinking we’re on the right side, they’re on the wrong side, and therefore we can do whatever we want, and it’s OK. And only afterward, only really after the war when I was reading about Hiroshima from John Hersey and reading the stories of the survivors of Hiroshima and what they went through, only then did I begin to think about the human effects of bombing. Only then did I begin to think about what it meant to human beings on the ground when bombs were dropped on them, because as a bombardier, I was flying at 30,000 feet, six miles high, couldn’t hear screams, couldn’t see blood. And this is modern warfare. In modern warfare, soldiers fire, they drop bombs, and they have no notion, really, of what is happening to the human beings that they’re firing on. Everything is done at a distance. This enables terrible atrocities to take place. And I think, reflecting back on that bombing raid and thinking of that in Hiroshima and all the other raids on civilian cities and the killing of huge numbers of civilians in German and Japanese cities, the killing of 100,000 people in Tokyo in one night of fire-bombing, all of that made me realize war, even so-called good wars against fascism like World War II, wars don’t solve any fundamental problems, and they always poison everybody on both sides. They poison the minds and souls of everybody on both sides. We’re seeing that now in Iraq, where the minds of our soldiers are being poisoned by being an occupying army in a land where they are not wanted. And the results are terrible. Howard Zinn: “I Wish Obama Would Listen to MLK” (FLASHBACK) [DN] AMY GOODMAN: When Barack Obama was running for president, asked in the debates who would MLK endorse, who would Dr. King endorse, he said, “None of us.” HOWARD ZINN: Yeah, that’s true, because King believed--and this actually is one of the themes of our people’s history, is that you cannot depend on presidents, and you cannot depend on elections and voting to solve your problems. People themselves, organizing, demonstrating, clamoring, they are the only ones who can push the President and push Congress into change. And that’s what we have to do now with Obama. We have to point to what Obama said in the course of the campaign, when he said we not only have to get out of Iraq, we have to get out of the mindset that brought us into Iraq. Obama, himself, has not gotten out of that mindset yet. And I think we, the people, have to speak to him about that. AMY GOODMAN: How? HOWARD ZINN: Well, these people that I saw on your program earlier who were demonstrating for the single-payer health system, which Obama is very, very reluctant to endorse, they were doing what needs to be done. They were committing acts of civil disobedience. They were going into offices where they were told to leave, and they wouldn’t leave. They were doing what we were doing during the movement against the war in Vietnam. They were doing what the black movement was doing in the South. And this is what we will need. We will need demonstrative acts which dramatize the fact that our government is not responding to what the people need and what the people want. 2010 State of the Union Address by President Obama (Video) PAM COMMENTARY: Nothing like watching it for yourself instead of hearing about it later. Republican Response to 2010 State of the Union Address by VA Governor Bob McDonnell (Video) PAM COMMENTARY: No, he didn't sound any better during the Virginia campaign, either. It was a low-turnout election. Lesson to be learned -- THIS could happen to you if you don't show up to vote! How about the way he blames the deficit on the new administration, rather than 8 years of Bush's tax cuts, wars, new drug benefit at full prices/gift to big pharma, and so on? But then McDonell has a lot of "selective memory" that way. 2007 State of the Union: SuperNews! (Video) (FLASHBACK) PAM COMMENTARY: A little humor from previous years, preceded by a Google Ad that's probably worth tolerating. Democratic Response to 2007 State of the Union Address by VA Senator Jim Webb (Video) PAM COMMENTARY: Remember this more honest response by another newly-elected Virginian? Only this time it sounds like a response to the State of the Union Address should. Police confirm remains belong to Morgan Harrington; Va. Tech student vanished from Metallica concert Harrington, the daughter of an associate dean at the Virginia Tech Carilion School of Medicine, was last seen wearing a black T-shirt with "Pantera" across the front in tan letters, a black mini-skirt, black tights and black knee-high boots, police said. She became separated from her friends after she left the John Paul Jones arena where the concert was being held and was not allowed to re-enter due to venue policy Authorities did not speculate on the cause of death. David Bass, who owns the 742-acre Anchorage Farm about 10 miles south of the John Paul Jones arena, found the remains while doing maintenance work on the property and contacted the police, according to the University of Virginia's Cavalier Daily. "I saw what I thought was a dead deer." Bass said. "I got a little bit closer and it didn't look like a deer skull." The hayfield was last cut in August 2009 and would have been possibly waist-high by mid October 2009, authorities said. Property owner describes finding what is believed to be Morgan Harrington’s remains He said it was only accessible by driving up his private driveway then taking several unpaved paths. In Bass’s opinion, he could only be accessed using four wheel drive. He said state police investigators couldn’t even get there in their vehicles, instead having to walk. Bass said, since several friends participated in volunteer searches for Morgan Harrington, his first thought was that it might be her. PAM COMMENTARY: Way back when she first disappeared, I urged people to check their own properties, just in case someone had dumped her body on private land. It's very common for predators to dump bodies in remote areas, or in ditches along farm roads -- they figure no one will check there until after most DNA evidence has decomposed. It sounds a little more involved for this farmer to check everywhere on his property, but if he'd at least tried as soon as it seemed likely that she'd been abducted, he may have been able to find her body right away. A lesson going forward for those wanting to help find missing persons -- before you hop in the car and drive 25 miles or more to help in a search, how about checking your own backyard first? Red-headed dinosaurs? What color were dinosaurs? Well, at least one of them had a head-to-tail feathered mohawk in a subdued palette of chestnut and white stripes. That is what a team of Chinese and British scientists reported on Wednesday in Nature, providing the first clear evidence of dinosaur colors from studies of 125-million-year-old fossils of a dinosaur called sinosauropteryx. "We might be able to start painting a picture in color of what these things looked like," said Lawrence M. Witmer, a paleontologist at Ohio University, who was not involved in the study. Of course, such pictures have been painted many times, but the colors were products of a painter's imagination, not a scientist's laboratory. Dinosaur fossils are mostly drab collections of mineralized bones. A few preserve traces of skin, and fewer still preserve structures that many scientists have argued are feathers. In the new study, Michael Benton, a paleontologist at the University of Bristol, and colleagues have analyzed the structures of what appear to be feathers and say that they match the feathers of living birds down to the microscopic level. And they used those microscopic features to determine what color the ancient feathers were. Nothing dull about an orange dinosaur MODEL makers who paint dinosaurs a traditional green, grey or brown will now have to add orange to their palette. The real – rather than imagined – colour of these extinct creatures has been determined for the first time. Research suggests a meat-eating dinosaur that lived in China about 125 million years ago had orange and white bristly feathers, which evolved for colourful display, rather than for flight, camouflage or warmth. The turkey-sized Sinosauropteryx caused excitement when unearthed more than a decade ago in Liaoning Province, because it was the first dinosaur specimen to be found with the fossilised impressions of feather-like structures. Were early humans close to extinction?; Geneticist says it’s a mystery how modern humans thrived A new genetic study concludes that humans living 1.2 million years ago were too few to populate three continents, contrary to popular opinion. The genetic evidence suggests 1.2 million years ago the effective human population – an indicator of genetic diversity -- was about 10,000, said Chad Huff, a co-author of the study and a human geneticist at the University of Utah in Salt Lake City. This means essentially that the human population, including those who were of reproductive age and those younger and older, was effectively 30,000 odd souls at that time, said Huff. A surprisingly small number than thought, Huff said. These findings have led some to speculate that perhaps early humans were on the verge of extinction. Huff, however, isn’t sure that’s the correct interpretation of the study’s data. UCSF patient records possibly compromised (01-27) 16:01 PST SAN FRANCISCO -- Medical records for about 4,400 UCSF patients are at risk after thieves stole a laptop from a medical school employee in November, UCSF officials said Wednesday. The laptop, which was stolen on or about Nov. 30 from a plane as the employee was traveling, was found in Southern California on Jan. 8. There is no indication that unauthorized access to the files or the laptop actually took place, UCSF officials said, but patients' names, medical record numbers, ages and clinical information were potentially exposed. The laptop did not contain any Social Security numbers or other financial data. The security breach is UCSF's second in recent months. Last month, UCSF officials revealed that a faculty physician responding to an Internet "phishing" scam potentially exposed the personal information of about 600 patients. Wisconsin lands $800 million for high-speed rail Wisconsin will receive more than $800 million to build a high-speed rail line carrying passengers between Milwaukee and Madison at 110 mph and recapture a piece of a regional rail system largely abandoned six decades ago. The high-speed line could be up and running as early as 2013, the state says. President Barack Obama mentioned the federal investment in high-speed rail in his State of the Union speech Wednesday night and was expected to announce the specific awards for 13 projects nationally at an event in Florida on Thursday morning. A fact sheet issued by the White House lists the $810 million for the stations and track improvements necessary for the high-speed line connecting the state's two largest cities, along with improvements to the Amtrak Hiawatha line between Milwaukee and Chicago that will serve as the building blocks for a 110-mph service along that route. Ridership on that line nearly doubled from 397,518 passengers in 2002 to 766,167 in 2008, then leveled off in 2009. The decrease was blamed on the recession, which decreased travel across various modes of transportation. The federal funding is part of an $8 billion package of rail grants approved by Congress in the 2009 economic recovery act. It provides money to build up the tracks and start operation of a high-speed rail connection that had been stalled in Wisconsin for decades. Use robot groundhog for festival, group urges An animal rights group wants organizers of Pennsylvania's Groundhog Day festival to replace Punxsutawney Phil with a robotic stand-in. According to the long-time tradition, if Phil the groundhog sees his shadow on the Feb. 2 unofficial holiday, then there will be six more weeks of winter. If he does not appear to see his shadow, there will be an early spring. People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals says it's unfair to keep the animal in captivity and subject him to the huge crowds and bright lights that accompany tens of thousands of revellers each year in Punxsutawney, a tiny borough about 105 kilometres northeast of Pittsburgh. PETA is suggesting the use of an animatronic model. But William Deeley, president of the Inner Circle of the Punxsutawney Groundhog Club, says the animal is “being treated better than the average child in Pennsylvania.” The groundhog is kept in a climate-controlled environment and is inspected annually by the state Department of Agriculture. PAM COMMENTARY: Have you ever been to the "Groundhog Museum" in Punxsutawney? Funny story -- a family I know was passing through the area and saw a sign directing motorists to the "Groundhog Museum." It'd been a long day and the parents didn't want to stop. But one of their boys wanted to see it and BEGGED them to stop, until they finally did. What's the "Groundhog Museum"? It's a little room that comes off of the local Punxsutawney library, where the famous groundhog hibernates in a little nest-like groundhog house area. There are big windows looking in, where people can see maybe a bit of his fur as he's curled up in a ball. Obviously, everyone in the family was disappointed that they'd gone so far out of their way and delayed their return home to see THAT. Years later, I had to see the "museum" for myself when I was in the area -- sure enough, Punxsutawney Phil hibernates in his own little display case, the "Groundhog Museum." Or at least the locals say that's the famous groundhog in the case, for some reason he looked smaller than the groundhog I see on TV. Perhaps "the cameras add 10 pounds" rule applies even to groundhogs... Gov. Suggests Building Prison In Mexico; Schwarzenegger Speaks To Sacramento Press Club [BF] SACRAMENTO, Calif. -- Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger floated an unusual suggestion Monday on how to cut the state's bloated prison costs with a private venture -- build a private prison in Mexico. "We pay them to build a prison down in Mexico and then we have those undocumented immigrants be down there in a prison and with their prison guards and all this," Schwarzenegger told a gathering of the Sacramento Press Club. "It will halve the costs to build the prisons and halve the costs to run the prisons." The governor's remark came amid alarm from law enforcement and crime victim groups about a new program meant to thin the state's prison population through early release. "We're going to release early tens of thousands of criminals into your neighborhoods, many of them without parole supervision," Assemblyman Ted Lieu, D-Torrance, said. Tycoon search goes online DETECTIVES investigating the disappearance of millionaire property developer Herman Rockefeller are confident that he is still alive and have extended their search online. Police are looking into a number of reported sightings of the 52-year-old and believe they have enough information to suggest he has not come to any harm. There was another unconfirmed sighting of the multi-millionaire today, in the town of Kyneton, north-west of Melbourne. Police confirmed a Kyneton resident phoned triple 0 earlier to report seeing a man who fitted Mr Rockefeller’s description, sparking a search by local police. K Street rushing to get its slice of jobs bill before Obama's spending freeze So far, Senate Democrats have released only an outline of what they are contemplating. The draft shows a sharp turn, though, from the type of stimulus package Congress passed a year ago — and that may limit the opportunities for lobbyists. At $80 billion instead of $787 billion, the new package is much smaller. It also puts greater emphasis on tax cuts to encourage businesses to hire more workers to bring the unemployment rate below 10 percent. One of the largest components will likely be a job hiring tax credit, which a draft summary of the bill pegged at $20 billion. The tax credit discussion has spurred a lengthy debate about how to design it so that employers do not abuse the system. Several industries and advocacy groups also stand to gain from the new jobs bill, and there is no shortage of ideas about how the money should be spent. The push comes on the heels of President Barack Obama’s stated goal of a three-year freeze in domestic spending to reduce the federal debt. Such an effort is likely to make competition for federal dollars even fiercer and is driving some of the push to have projects added to the jobs package now under consideration. US congressmen urge end to Gaza siege Two congressmen in the United States are among the first to publicly call for end to an Israeli-imposed siege on Gaza. Congressmen Keith Ellison (D-MN) and Jim McDermott (D-WA) sent a letter, signed by over 50 members of the US Congress to President Barack Obama urging him to ease the humanitarian suffering of the people of Gaza by lifting Israel's siege on the coastal territory. In the letter, the congressmen urged the president "to press for immediate relief of the suffering of the citizens of Gaza as an urgent component of your broader Middle East peace efforts". The letter states that the crisis triggered by the siege on Gaza "has devastated livelihoods, entrenched a poverty rate of over 70%, increased dependance on erratic international aid". Drug company GlaxoSmithKline is recalling a blood-thinning tablet that may contain more medicine than it should. The 3mg blue Marevan tablets containing warfarin have been dispensed to patients in New Zealand since November last year. GlaxoSmithKline says people taking the 3mg tablet have an increased risk of bruising and/or bleeding. People are advised to return these tablets to pharmacies. Marevan is one of three medications containing warfarin that pharmacists can dispense in New Zealand. Warfarin is an anticoagulant used widely to thin blood and help prevent clots. The Pharmacy Guild of New Zealand's chief executive, Annabel Young, says patients will still be able to maintain their treatment by taking three of the 1mg tablets instead. Antidepressants affect lactation process Apart from affecting mood, emotion and sleep, taking certain antidepressants may delay the postpartum production of breast milk, a new study finds. Many mothers particularly those who are known as primiparous are more vulnerable to experience early breastfeeding difficulty as milk secretion is delayed beyond 72 hours among them. These moms are also at risk of the early cessation of breastfeeding. According to the study published in the Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism, delayed secretion of breast milk is commonly reported in selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor (SSRI)-treated mothers. SSRIs antidepressants such as fluoxetine, sertraline and paroxetine influence the serotonin regulation process both in the brain and in the breast, the study found. "The breasts are serotonin-regulated glands, meaning the breasts' ability to secrete milk at the right time is closely related to the body's production and regulation of the hormone serotonin," said lead researcher Nelson Horseman. Turkish envoy conveys Israel offenses to UNSC Turkey has "strongly" warned Israel at the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) for that country's policy and activities against the Palestinians, World bulletin reported. Turkey's UN Permanent Representative Ambassador Ertugrul Apakan conveyed to the UNSC Turkey's thoughts on Israel and Palestinians at the monthly meeting on the Middle East. Israel must end the forced evacuation of the Palestinians in Jerusalem and end Jewish settlements on occupied territories. Israel must also end the tragedy in Gaza, Apakan stressed. Turkey fully supports international efforts so that the peace process in the Middle East is restored, Apakan said. Deadly fish virus discovered in Lake Superior; The contagious disease has now been reported in all five of the Great Lakes. A deadly fish virus has been discovered in fish from Lake Superior near Duluth. The contagious disease, viral hemorrhagic septicemia virus, causes death in numerous fish species, but poses no threat to humans. The virus attacks freshwater and saltwater fish and causes them to bleed to death. It already had been found in the other four Great Lakes and has been identified in 28 fish species in the Great Lakes watershed, where it has killed large numbers of walleye, muskellunge, smallmouth bass, whitefish, yellow perch and black crappies. Dirk Peterson, acting fisheries chief for the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources, said the discovery will not change regulations in Minnesota. Anglers already are required to remove aquatic vegetation from boats and take other precautions to avoid moving invasive species from infested waters to clean waters. The DNR will continue checking for the virus in a number of lakes, he said, including private and state-owned ponds that are used to stock fish in public waters. The State of the Union We'd Like to See (Video) PAM COMMENTARY: A little humor about the State of the Union Address. Barefoot runners avoid injury: study WASHINGTON—The best running shoe may be none at all, U.S. researchers said Wednesday. Runners who eschew shoes may be less likely to do serious injury to their feet, because they hold their feet differently, Daniel Lieberman of Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts and colleagues found. Writing in the journal Nature, they said runners who wear shoes tend to hit the ground with their heels first, whereas barefoot runners put the balls of the feet down first. "People who don't wear shoes when they run have an astonishingly different strike," Lieberman said in a statement. Apple unveils its tablet computer, the iPad (01-27) 14:59 PST San Francisco -- After months of speculation and hype, Apple unveiled a portable device Wednesday called the iPad that will attempt to usher in a new era of touch-screen computing, filling the gaps between smart phones, laptops and e-readers. In front of a rapt audience of technology journalists from around the world, Apple CEO Steve Jobs showed off the iPad, calling it "the most advanced technology in a magical and revolutionary device." He said the iPad will give people a unique experience - powerful yet personal - that other devices can't provide. Apple's tablet computer has generated tremendous buzz because of the company's string of runaway hit products, such as the iPod and iPhone, which have transformed the way people interact with digital content. Apple's success in crafting easy-to-use and stylish devices has also piqued the curiosity of the print media industry, which is anxious to find ways to expand sales of its content. Tablet computers have never really caught on, in part because of higher prices, bulkier designs and underwhelming software. But Jobs said the time is right for the tablet to take its place among portable computing devices. After Arrest, Provocateur’s Tactics Questioned NEW ORLEANS — Shortly after news broke of his arrest on charges of trying to tamper with the telephones in Senator Mary L. Landrieu’s district office here, James O’Keefe III posted a brief statement on Twitter: “I am a journalist,” it read. “The truth shall set me free.” It is still unclear exactly what Mr. O’Keefe and three other men were doing when they were caught on Monday, charged by federal authorities with fraudulently entering a federal building for the purpose of “interfering” with Senator Landrieu’s phone system. But the episode has raised questions about the nature of the journalism practiced by Mr. O’Keefe, even among his past supporters. Mr. O’Keefe is a conservative activist who gained fame last year by posing as a pimp and secretly recording members of the community group Acorn giving him advice on how to set up a brothel. At least three of the men charged in the episode have backgrounds in campus journalism. Both Mr. O’Keefe, 25, a graduate of Rutgers, and Joseph Basel, 24, a graduate of the University of Minnesota-Morris, started conservative newspapers on their campuses, which they saw as counterweights in a liberal campus environment. (Mr. Basel actually called his paper The Counterweight.) Stan Dai, 24, was editor in chief of The GW Patriot, a conservative campus newspaper at George Washington University. In Theory: Many hidden agendas behind oil reserve data The other development is related to the regularly leaked but often contradictory information about the world's oil reserves. The latest US government report was about the Orinoco Belt oil reserve, a territory that occupies the southern strip of the eastern Orinoco River Basin in Venezuela, boosting Venezuelan oil reserves to 500 billion barrels — twice Saudi Arabia's reserves. Venezuela's registered oil reserves are now around 50 billion barrels. Similar data was also published about the oil reserves in Bahrain, Iraq and Kuwait. The Bahrain and Iraq reserves were estimated to be double the previously discovered quantities. The estimations also found the Bahraini per capita reserves will be the highest in the world. All these assessments were made at a time when both Bahrain and Iraq decided to triple their oil production. Kuwait's oil reserves, however, declined by almost 50 per cent — from 97 billion barrels to 50 billion barrels. This led Kuwait's Parliament members to demand the truth behind the matter. PAM COMMENTARY: I like this article because it admits the uncertainty in estimating reserves -- a dose of realism from a region involved in oil production. Michael Moore on Haiti, the Supreme Court Decision on Corporate Campaign Financing, and Why He Calls the Democrats “Disgusting” [DN] AMY GOODMAN: The Obama administration? MICHAEL MOORE: Yeah, the Obama. What did I say? The— AMY GOODMAN: Bush administration. MICHAEL MOORE: Yeah, yeah. We already put pressure on them. They’re no longer with us. But that wasn’t just Freudian. That’s really—that is my state of mind. That is how I’m, you know, feeling, because I won’t accept the sugarcoated difference between the Obama administration and the Bush administration. And you can say, on the surface, just how great things are in terms of compared to the last eight years, but the substance, when it comes to, you know, the rubber meeting the road, I can’t tell you how profoundly disappointed I am at this point. And this situation with the National Nurses Union, they went out to their membership. Who would be willing to go to Haiti right now? Over 11,000, almost 12,000 nurses—12,000 nurses—around this country have signed up, who are willing to go right now to Haiti. I don’t know if I heard it on your show last week or someplace else. You know, essentially one nurse could provide help for dozens of people. So just imagine if we could get 12,000 nurses there, with the necessary supplies, how many people could have been helped. I mean, this offer was made days and days ago. AMY GOODMAN: To whom? MICHAEL MOORE: To the Obama administration from the executive director of the National Nurses Union. She contacted the administration. She got put off. She had no response. Then they sent her to some low-level person that had no authority to do anything. And then, finally, she’s contacting me. And she says, “Do you know any way to get a hold of President Obama?” And I’m going, “Well, this is pretty pathetic if you’re having to call me. I mean, you are the largest nurses union. You are, I believe, one of the vice presidents of the AFL-CIO, of the main board of the AFL-CIO, and you can’t get a call in to the White House to get 12,000 nurses down there? I don’t know what I can do for you. I mean, I’ll put my call in, too.” But as we sit here today, not a whole heck of a lot has happened. And it’s distressing. It’s just one example, I think, of so many things, and you covered a lot of it last week when you were there, that just have fallen through here. Study finds drop in age-related hearing problems NEW YORK—Sweet news for baby boomers: Despite all those warnings that loud rock music would damage their ears, their generation appears to have better hearing than their parents did. In fact, a new study suggests that the rate of hearing problems at ages ranging from 45 to 75 has been dropping for years, at least among white Americans. "I'm less likely to have a hearing loss when I get to be 70 years old than my grandmother did when she was 70," said Karen Cruickshanks of the University of Wisconsin-Madison. She's an author of the study -- and a baby boomer who remembers taking guff from her mother for listening to loud music. Apart from giving her generation some satisfaction, the new work implies that what people do and experience may help them prevent or delay hearing loss as they get older. Experts theorize there may be several reasons for the finding, like fewer very noisy jobs and better ear protection at worksites, immunizations and antibiotics that prevented certain diseases, and maybe even a decline in smoking. PAM COMMENTARY: Dr. Wallach (the big vitamin doctor/author) says that deficiencies like tin and calcium are related to hearing loss. I wonder if the drop in hearing problems has anything to do with the number of Americans popping calcium/magnesium tablets. Household chemicals linked to reduced fertility Flame-retardant chemicals found in many household consumer products may reduce fertility in women, researchers reported today. Their study joins several other papers published in the last two years suggesting that the chemicals, polybrominated diphenyl ethers, or PBDEs, affect human health. PBDEs have been used as flame retardants for four decades and are found in foam furniture, electronics, fabrics, carpets and plastics. The chemicals are being phased out nationwide, and certain PBDEs have been banned for use in California. But they are still found in products made before 2004. Californians may have higher exposures compared with residents of other states because of the state's strict flammability laws, according to the study authors, from UC Berkeley. Most of the previous research on the chemicals has been in animals. But a 2008 study linked the chemicals to disrupted thyroid levels in men, and a study published this month tied PBDE exposure in pregnancy to neurodevelopmental delays in young children. "These are association studies. You can't show cause and effect," said Dr. Hugh Taylor, an expert on endocrine-disrupting chemicals at Yale University who was not involved in the new study. "But we have cause-and-effect studies in animals, and we have association studies in humans. I think that is fairly convincing." Haiti earthquake may have exposed gas, aiding economy The earthquake in Haiti this month may have left clues to petroleum reservoirs that could aid economic recovery in the Western Hemisphere's poorest nation, a geologist said. The Jan. 12 earthquake was on a fault line that passes near potential gas reserves, said Stephen Pierce, a geologist who worked in the region for 30 years for companies that included including he former Mobil Corp. The quake may have cracked rock formations along the fault, allowing gas or oil to temporarily seep toward the surface, he said Monday in a telephone interview. ``A geologist, callous as it may seem, tracing that fault zone from Port-au-Prince to the border looking for gas and oil seeps, may find a structure that hasn't been drilled,'' said Pierce, exploration manager at Zion Oil & Gas Inc., a Dallas-based company that's drilling in Israel. ``A discovery could significantly improve the country's economy and stimulate further exploration.'' Haitian Prime Minister Jean-Max Bellerive met Tuesday in Montreal with diplomats, including U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, to discuss redevelopment initiatives. Canadian Foreign Affairs Minister Lawrence Cannon said wind power may play a role in rebuilding the Caribbean nation, where forests have been denuded for lack of fuel, the Canadian Press reported. Guatemalan police arrest ex-president wanted in U.S.; Alfonso Portillo indicted on charges of money laundering Police captured fugitive former President Alfonso Portillo in northern Guatemala on Tuesday, a day after U.S. prosecutors indicted him on charges of laundering money stolen from foreign donations meant to buy children's books. Dozens of agents raided a ranch in the province of Izabal to execute the arrest, Attorney General Amilcar Velasquez said. An indictment unsealed Monday in federal court in New York alleges that in a four-year scheme starting in 2000, Mr. Portillo embezzled $1.5-million in donations from Taiwan intended to buy school library books. It accused Mr. Portillo of endorsing cheques drawn from a New York bank and depositing them in a Miami account; the money then was transferred to a Paris account in the name of his ex-wife and daughter. Embattled Trow to leave Humane Society; Facing criminal charges, former president intends to resign from THS board of directors Controversial former Toronto Humane Society president Tim Trow will resign from the THS board of directors, a lawyer for the organization said Tuesday. Trow, THS president between 2001 and late 2009, is facing criminal charges of animal cruelty, obstruction of a peace officer and conspiracy to commit an indictable offence. He had previously dismissed calls for his resignation, which intensified in the spring after newspaper reports suggested the THS was neglecting animals and mismanaging its finances. Agents uncover document mill for illegal immigrants in Norfolk Authorities say they have uncovered another so-called document mill that was producing hundreds of bogus identifications, Social Security and green cards enabling illegal immigrants to live and work here. Three suspects charged with operating the ring were due to appear in federal court this afternoon. Each is in the country illegally, according to authorities. U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents used confidential informants to infiltrate the ring and record conversations implicating the suspects in the production and sale of the phony documents, according to a court affidavit filed by an ICE agent. Texas oil spill -- Half the 462,000 gallons in Texas oil spill evaporated, dispersed or removed About 462,000 gallons of oil spilled when an 800-foot tanker headed for an Exxon Mobil Corp. refinery in Beaumont collided Saturday with a vessel pushing two barges. As of Monday, roughly 220,000 gallons of oil had evaporated, dispersed or been recovered, the U.S. Coast Guard said. No injuries have been reported. Port Arthur residents were evacuated after the spill while officials tested the air quality. So far only two oil-covered birds have been reported; one of them was captured and cleaned up, and the other flew away. More than 60 vessels and 550 people from the Coast Guard, the state, the shipping company and others responded to the spill. More than 11 miles worth of the plastic walls known as booms are floating around the spill, and 27 skimmer boats were removing the oil floating on the water. "This response has helped contain this oil and keep it from becoming a catastrophe," said Texas General Land Office spokesman Jim Suydam. "Had this oil escaped the ship channel, it could have been a catastrophe." It was the largest spill in Texas since 1990, when a Norwegian tanker spilled 4.3 million gallons about 60 miles off Galveston. The state typically has about 800 spills a year, but nearly all involve less than one barrel, according to the Texas General Land Office. UPDATE 1- Texas spill unlikely to cause emergency oil draw HOUSTON, Jan 26 (Reuters) - The tanker-barge collision that spilled oil at Port Arthur, Texas, and shut a key energy industry waterway probably won't force refiners to seek crude from the emergency U.S. reserve, a major refiner said Tuesday. "I really doubt anything happens on that front," a spokesman for a major refiner said, citing ample crude stockpiles, low refinery runs due to weak fuel demand and expected quick reopening of the waterway. The U.S. Coast Guard, which shut the Sabine-Neches Waterway Saturday, plans to reopen it to "limited" traffic starting Thursday, forestalling the need for Strategic Petroleum Reserve requests, which would take a few days to fill anyway, officials said. Crude and products prices appeared unaffected on Tuesday by the continuing waterway shutdown. [O/R] Cleanup of the spill, which soiled 9 miles (15 km) of shore line, will continue for weeks, a Coast Guard spokeswoman said. Suicide car bomber strikes Baghdad police forensics office A car bomb has exploded outside a Baghdad forensics lab and major crime unit that played roles in the prosecution of the Saddam Hussein loyalist known as Chemical Ali, who was executed hours before a deadly series of blasts in the Iraqi capital on Monday. Today's suicide blast killed 18 people and injured 82. The victims were mainly police, with many believed to have worked on terrorism investigations and prosecutions, including those of former Saddam henchmen. It happened in the Karrada district, close to the site of Monday's three explosions, in which city centre hotels were targeted, killing 42 people. The body of Chemical Ali – Ali Hassan al-Majid, who was also a first cousin of Saddam – was collected by his family, who had driven to Baghdad from their hometown, Tikrit, in the centre of Iraq. He will be buried alongside the executed president, who was hanged in 2006, and his two sons, who were killed during a US raid in Mosul three years earlier. Kucinich Announces Program To Add A Million New Jobs [BF] CLEVELAND -- An Ohio congressman pushed for a new program to add a million new jobs Monday. Congressman Dennis Kucinich unveiled his plan Monday afternoon at his Lakewood office. Kucinich is proposed offering early retirement with social security benefits and health insurance subsides to people as young as 60 years old. He said that will free up as many as a million new positions in businesses that have already shed jobs. "In every business, people are cutting to the point of where they're not functioning the way they used to. So, this gives business a chance to get new blood in. At the same, be able to do it in a way that they don't have to have access more money to do it,” Kucinich said. Kucinich said he’ll introduce his Kucinich job plan bill this week on the floor of the U.S. House of Representatives. Unions Can't Compete With Corporate Campaign Cash by John Nichols They imagine that, with spending limits removed, organized labor will be able to buy enough television time to reward their political friends and punish their political enemies. It's a sweet fantasy. But the reality is that corporations will be buying so much more television time when it matters -- in the run-up to key elections -- that the voices of working Americans will drowned out with the same regularity that they are on Capitol Hill -- where, it should be noted, overwhelming Democratic majorities have yet to deliver on even the most basic demands of the labor movement. To think otherwise is to neglect the reality that one corporation -- Goldman Sachs -- spends more annually to pay just its top employees than the combined assets of all the nation's major unions. University of Wisconsin communications professor Lew Friedland points out that the nation's four largest banks would have to allocate a mere one-tenth of one percent of their assets--$6 billion--to counter a campaign in which the whole of the U.S. labor movement spent all of its assets. Dangerous Crossroads: U.S. Moves Missiles And Troops To Russian Border Nuclear and Conventional Arms Pacts Stalled On January 13 the Associated Press reported that the White House will submit its Quadrennial Defense Review to Congress on February 1 and request a record-high $708 billion for the Pentagon. That figure is the highest in absolute and in inflation-adjusted, constant (for any year) dollars since 1946, the year after the Second World War ended. Adding non-Pentagon defense-related spending, the total may exceed $1 trillion. The $708 billion includes for the first time monies for the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq which in prior years were in part funded by periodic supplemental requests, but excludes what the above-mentioned report adds is the first in the new administration’s emergency requests for the same purpose: A purported $33 billion. Already this month several NATO nations have pledged more troops, even before the January 28 London conference on Afghanistan when several thousand additional forces may be assigned for the war there, in addition to over 150,000 already serving or soon to serve under U.S. and NATO command. Washington has increased lethal drone missile attacks in Pakistan, and calls for that model to be replicated in Yemen have been made recently, most notably by Senator Carl Levin, Chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, who on January 13 also advocated air strikes and special forces operations in the country. [1] Smokers with lung cancer: It's not too late Smokers may develop a fatalistic attitude and assume there is little they can do to improve their chances of survival after a diagnosis of lung cancer. That would be a mistake, say researchers writing today in the British Medical Journal. The authors of the study, from the University of Birmingham, United Kingdom, analyzed 10 studies that measured the effects of quitting smoking after a diagnosis of lung cancer. They found that people who are diagnosed at an early stage can double their chances of survival over five years if they stop smoking, compared with people who continue to smoke. The authors of the study say the findings provide grounds for healthcare professionals to offer smoking cessation treatments for lung cancer patients. But, in an editorial accompanying the paper, other experts point out that some doctors feel bad about asking people with lung cancer to quit. And, in most cases, the lung cancer is advanced and other issues take center stage, such as hospice care. "Perspectives differ among health-care professionals who have to advise patients with lung cancer. Some discuss smoking habits with all patients and caution against smoking. Others think it is inhuman to dwell on the matter — that it adds to feelings of guilt and takes away a life long comfort from the dying patient," said the authors of the editorial, Tom Treasure professor of cardiothoracic surgery, Clinical Operational Research Unit UCL, in London, and Janet Treasure, a professor of psychiatry, Institute of Psychiatry, King’s College London. U.S. seeks extradition of Guatemalan ex-president GUATEMALA CITY (Reuters) - The United States has requested the extradition of former Guatemalan President Alfonso Portillo on money-laundering charges, authorities said on Sunday as they searched for him at several of his properties. Portillo, who also faces corruption charges in Guatemala, was not at any of the locations searched by police, the government said. "The (extradition) request was approved by a court in Guatemala on Friday," Interior Ministry spokesman Nery Morales told Reuters. "We are still looking for him." Portillo won office in 2000 promising to redistribute wealth, but fled the country shortly after his four-year presidential term ended in 2004 and spent the next four years in Mexico. He was extradited from Mexico to Guatemala in 2008 to face charges he embezzled millions of dollars of public money during his presidency. Largest US health insurer’s profits rise 30 percent As if to mock the Democrats' loss of Ted Kennedy's Senate seat and the subsequent and rapid unraveling of a healthcare bill that seemed determined to curb the excesses of the US health insurance industry, the largest US health insurer announced Thursday morning that its fourth quarter profits had climbed a whopping 30 percent. UnitedHealth, the largest US health insurer by market capitalization, posted earnings of $944 million in the fourth quarter of 2009, up from $726 million in 2008. The profit totals topped analyst estimates. And, as if to add salt to the wound, an analyst for Goldman Sachs -- itself the target of post-bailout ire -- added that he thought the insurer's profits were "very solid" in a research note and said "they bode well for other managed care companies." Economic Black Hole: 20 Reasons Why The U.S. Economy Is Dying And Is Simply Not Going To Recover #2) The Federal Housing Administration has announced plans to increase the amount of up-front cash paid by new borrowers and to require higher down payments from those with the poorest credit. The Federal Housing Administration currently backs about 30 percent of all new home loans and about 20 percent of all new home refinancing loans. Tighter standards are going to mean that less people will qualify for loans. Less qualifiers means that there will be less buyers for homes. Less buyers means that home prices are going to drop even more. #3) It is getting really hard to find a job in the United States. A total of 6,130,000 U.S. workers had been unemployed for 27 weeks or more in December 2009. That was the most ever since the U.S. government started keeping track of this statistic in 1948. In fact, it is more than double the 2,612,000 U.S. workers who were unemployed for a similar length of time in December 2008. The reality is that once Americans lose their jobs they are increasingly finding it difficult to find new ones. Just check out the chart below…. #4) In December, there were also 929,000 “discouraged” workers who are not counted as part of the labor force because they have “given up” looking for work. That is the most since the U.S. government first started keeping track of discouraged workers in 1949. Many Americans have simply given up and are now chronically unemployed. #5) Some areas of the U.S. are already virtually in a state of depression. The mayor of Detroit estimates that the real unemployment rate in his city is now somewhere around 50 percent. Mom: Army leans toward suicide ruling; But Colonie soldier "in no way, shape or form" took her own life, she says [R] ALBANY -- The mother of Staff Sgt. Amy Seyboth Tirador, a Colonie native slain in Iraq in November, said Friday she believes military investigators are "leaning toward" ruling her daughter's death a suicide. Tirador, 29, was killed Nov. 4, the victim of a gunshot to the back of her head while walking to an evening work shift on the U.S. military base Camp Caldwell in Kirkush, Iraq, near Iran. The Army has attributed the fatality to a "non-combat-related incident." Tirador's mother, Colleen Murphy, said she suspects the investigation will find the bullet was self-inflicted. "They seem to be leaning toward suicide in the questions that they have asked," Murphy said in a phone interview, referring to military investigators. She would disagree with such a finding. Bus-riding cat Casper killed in hit & run [R] LONDON (Reuters) – A cat which became famous in Britain for riding on the buses around the southern English city of Plymouth has died after being run over, media reported. Casper, a 12-year-old black and white cat, used to wait with commuters at a bus stop outside his home and then hop on to the number 3 bus to find a seat to curl up on. The cat was so well-known on the service that drivers knew at which stop to let him off. Casper's death was announced on a notice put up at his bus stop by his owner, the BBC and local newspapers reported. U.S. to Appeal Blackwater Decision BAGHDAD (AP) -- The U.S. will appeal a court decision dismissing manslaughter charges against five Blackwater Worldwide guards involved in a deadly 2007 Baghdad shooting, U.S. Vice President Joe Biden said Saturday. Biden's announcement after a meeting with Iraqi President Jalal Talabani shows just how diplomatically sensitive the incident remains nearly three years later. A lawyer for one guard, noting that word of the intended appeal came in Iraq, accused the Obama administration of political expediency and the U.S. was pursuing an innocent man, rather than justice. Blackwater security contractors were guarding U.S. diplomats when the guards opened fire in Nisoor Square, a crowded Baghdad intersection, on Sept. 16, 2007. Seventeen people were killed, including women and children, in a shooting that inflamed anti-American sentiment in Iraq. Biden expressed his ''personal regret'' for the shooting and said the Obama administration was disappointed by the dismissal. ''A dismissal is not an acquittal,'' he said. PAM COMMENTARY: I don't think anyone feels they're "innocent" -- the issue here was where they should be tried, and who should be held accountable for what they did. 1.2M pounds of pepper-coated salami recalled SAN FRANCISCO — A Rhode Island sausage company has issued a recall of 1.2 million pounds of ready-to-eat pepper-coated salamis, sausages and other cured meats because they may be contaminated with salmonella, the Dept. of Agriculture announced this morning. The company, Daniele International Inc., of Pascoag and Mapleville, R.I., has created a hotline for consumers with questions (888-345-4160). "Our family business has been producing premium gourmet products for over 60 years," said vice president of Sales Davide Dukcevich. "While we conduct further tests, our goal right now is to take prudent, proactive measures to do everything possible to remove any products that do not meet our high standards for quality and taste." The recall comes after six months of painstaking work by health officials at both the federal and state levels who have been trying to track down the cause of a national outbreak of a relatively common form of the disease, called Salmonella Montevideo. It was first reported in July and has thus far sickened 184 people in 38 states, leading to at least 35 hospitalizations but no deaths, says the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Cleanup under way in 462,000-gallon oil spill off Texas No injuries were reported when the Exxon Mobile-chartered tanker -- the 807-foot Eagle Otome -- collided Saturday with two barges being towed by a tug boat. The tanker was carrying about 570,000 gallons of crude oil to Exxon's Beaumont refinery when it crashed, Exxon Mobile spokesman Kevin Allexon told CNN. The cause of the crash was unknown, but is under investigation, he said. "We are very concerned about how this could have happened," Allexon said. "We are very concerned about the impact to the environment, to the community. No one wants to see this happen." The port is primarily for industrial use, but it is not far from wetlands. None of the nearby marshes or sensitive wildlife were adversely affected, Chambers said, but one heron was "oiled." The bird was alive and undergoing treatment, he said. An evacuation order that was imposed in a 50-block area around the port after the collision was lifted. That area was evacuated Saturday out of caution, as the tanker was carrying a type of oil containing sulfide. Fifteen skimming vessels sailed the area recovering the oil and workers dropped more than 45,000 feet of boom -- fencing-like material -- to keep the oil from spreading, Chambers said. More than 500 people were involved in containing and cleaning the spill, said Darrell Wilson, spokesman for Malaysia-based AET Tanker Holdings, the owner of the tanker. The biggest oil spill in U.S. history occurred in 1989 when the Exxon Valdez ran aground on a reef in the Gulf of Alaska, resulting in the spill of 11 million gallons of crude. Liberal Radio, Even Without Air America The collapse of Air America on Thursday came across as a symbolic loss for those seeking an ideological counterweight to right-wing talk radio dominated by personalities like Rush Limbaugh. But symbolic it is, little more, given that small pockets of progressive talk are flourishing on the radio dial despite Air America’s misfortunes. The hosts of several progressive talk shows hastened to remind fans last week that although the format’s brand-name network had folded, their shows were still on the air. Air America’s biggest names have been more successful after leaving the network. Rachel Maddow has a prime-time show on MSNBC, and Al Franken, the former comedian most closely associated with Air America, is a senator from Minnesota. Reminded of Ms. Maddow and Mr. Franken on Twitter Thursday evening, Mr. Moulitsas conceded, “That’s a pretty good legacy.” But with so many defections and so few listeners, it is little wonder that people might think Air America had folded long ago. The nearly six-year-old network, which suffered from merry-go-round management and repeated financial shortfalls, halted production on Thursday evening, only one hour after staff members were told they were losing their jobs. The network’s signals will officially leave the airwaves on Monday. PAM COMMENTARY: I thought Air America was great, but I have to admit that I could only listen to it for so long. Although they aired a good number of interviews and some original reporting, they also spent quite a lot of time on commentary. There are other radio shows out there with much more substantive reporting, like Pacifica's "Democracy Now!" I usually found myself turning to Air America only when I couldn't find something I liked better. Actually, it was a lot more fun when Al Franken was on, with his Henry Kissinger impersonations and other great comedy bits. But it's OK that he moved on to the US Senate -- I'll forgive him for the big career change. Et Tu, Fox News Channel? [BF] It's a horrible, unspeakable tragedy that gets you right in the core of your humanity. The poorest country in the Western Hemisphere is flattened by a huge earthquake. Hundreds of thousands killed, thousands of children orphaned, more than 1.5 million now homeless. Bodies of the dead are lain in the street to be bulldozed into mass graves while machete-wielding gangs fight for the scarce resources. The pain, the fear, the sense of hopelessness is palpable. It is now incumbent upon all of us, as fellow humans, to lend a hand and help the Haitians. And in a rare show of humanity, broadcast and cable television outlets have agreed to pre-empt their regular programming to air the Hope For Haiti Now Global TV Telethon. Except for Fox News Channel. Tobacco Smoke Exposure Promotes Pre-existing Cancer Tumors Growth Repeated exposure to tobacco smoke can promote the growth of pre-existing cancer tumors, besides causing lung cancer, say researchers. Scientists at the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine have found that mice with early lung cancer lesions that were repeatedly exposed to tobacco smoke developed larger tumors - and developed tumors more quickly - than unexposed animals. The key contributing factor was lung tissue inflammation. The study has been published January 19 in the journal Cancer Cell. Michael Karin, PhD, Distinguished Professor of Pharmacology and Pathology at the UC San Diego School of Medicine, who led the work, said: "We've shown for the first time that tobacco smoke is a tumor promoter - not only a tumor initiator - and that it works through inflammation." Tè Tremblé: Journey to the Epicenter of the Earthquake [DN] AMY GOODMAN: Wasn’t the helicopter just on the ground? Couldn’t they have given it over then? MAYOR SANTOS ALEXIS: That’s exactly the problem. If they were here on the ground, why do they have to fly and drop the bread? That’s exactly our question. AMY GOODMAN: What did they deliver when they were on the ground? MAYOR SANTOS ALEXIS: That’s exactly the problem. That’s what we’re asking ourselves. Why you were on the ground, you couldn’t give them the bread? You have to fly back up and throw the bread in the air? We don’t appreciate it. Duke Professor Skeptical of bin Laden Tape [WRH] Bruce Lawrence has just published "Messages to the World: The Statements of Osama Bin Laden," a book translating bin Laden's writing. He is skeptical of Thursday's message. "It was like a voice from the grave," Lawrence said. He thinks bin Laden is dead and has doubts about the tape. Lawrence recently analyzed more than 20 complete speeches and interviews of the al Qaida leader for his book. He says the new message is missing several key elements. "There's nothing in this from the Koran. He's, by his own standards, a faithful Muslim," Lawrence said. "He quotes scripture in defense of his actions. There's no quotation from the Koran in the excerpts we got, no reference to specific events, no reference to past atrocities." Overdoses: Another Danger of Radiation "Treatments" Mr. Jerome-Parks died several weeks later in 2007. He was 43. A New York City hospital treating him for tongue cancer had failed to detect a computer error that directed a linear accelerator to blast his brain stem and neck with errant beams of radiation. Not once, but on three consecutive days. Soon after the accident, at St. Vincent’s Hospital in Manhattan, state health officials cautioned hospitals to be extra careful with linear accelerators, machines that generate beams of high-energy radiation. But on the day of the warning, at the State University of New York Downstate Medical Center in Brooklyn, a 32-year-old breast cancer patient named Alexandra Jn-Charles absorbed the first of 27 days of radiation overdoses, each three times the prescribed amount. A linear accelerator with a missing filter would burn a hole in her chest, leaving a gaping wound so painful that this mother of two young children considered suicide. PAM COMMENTARY: The worst part of this article is that it leads the reader to believe that radiation is GOOD, if only used in appropriate amounts. There are so many problems with using radiation in medical treatment regimens that the practice should have been banned long ago. Vibrant Haitian art vanishes in the dust The earthquake two weeks ago buried hundreds of thousands and struck deep into Haiti's vibrant arts community, erasing in seconds cultural touchstones like the murals that depicted Christ's birth, crucifixion and ascension. Even as talk turns to rebuilding, artists struggle to account for the loss of thousands of expressions of artwork that shows themselves -- and the world -- a creativity that persists through years of political strife, turmoil and poverty. ``We'll be knocking on every door possible to save whatever is left,'' said Gerald Alexis, a Haitian-born curator and expert on Caribbean art who from his home in Quebec is trying to mobilize arts groups to find a way to preserve the portions of the mural that survive. ``It is essential for future generations, for our identity.'' The losses on the cultural front are staggering. At the Centre d'Art -- the successor home of the original movement that launched Haitian art -- the front of the building has been torn off and reduced to rubble. Neighbors were able to salvage some pieces, Alexis said, though many are visible but out of reach on the second floor. Private collections across the city, and at least one artist and several arts patrons, perished in the quake. The Haitian government has asked former Culture Minister Daniel Elie to conduct an inventory to determine what is lost. Vegemite becomes politically correct VEGEMITE has gone halal in a bid by food giant Kraft to make the national "treasure" available to Muslim Australians. The label on Australia's most famous spread has changed in recent months to include halal certification in a move some have described as "ridiculous" political correctness. "Islamic communities are proud Australians and they want to be able to eat our national icon as well," Kraft spokesman Simon Talbot said. "We don't own Vegemite. The people of Australia own Vegemite. We're just the custodians and we want to make sure Vegemite is available for everyone." UK 'using obscure legal principle' to dismiss torture claims in colonial Kenya The government is invoking an obscure legal principle to dismiss claims of torture and rape by the British colonial administration in Kenya, campaigners claimed. The Foreign Office has said four elderly Kenyans alleging that they suffered serious physical and sexual abuse at the hands of the British during the Kenyan "emergency" of 1952 to 1960 should not be allowed to proceed with their claim because of the law of state succession. The government argues it is "not liable for the acts and omissions of the Kenyan colonial administration", claiming the Kenyan government was now responsible for events that took place while Kenya was a British colony. But a cross-party group of MPs will this week publish an open letter demanding an apology and the creation of a welfare fund to help the alleged victims through old age. Allegations that the British abused suspected Mau Mau fighters have continued since the Kenyan government lifted a 30-year ban on membership in 2003. Non-stick chemical linked to thyroid illness; People with high levels of PFOA more than twice as likely to be on medication, study finds People with higher residues in their blood of a chemical used to make non-stick coatings for frying pans and water-repellent clothing have a far greater likelihood of reporting thyroid diseases, according to a new study released Thursday. The finding is the first time exposure to the chemical, known as perfluorooctanoic acid or PFOA, has been linked to thyroid-related illness, one of the most common medical problems experienced by women in North America. Thyroid disorders are estimated to affect one Canadian out of 20, and are five to seven times more common in women, according to the Thyroid Foundation of Canada. The study, published in the peer-reviewed journal Environmental Health Perspectives, found that in a group of nearly 4,000 people in the United States, those with elevated PFOA levels were more than twice as likely to report being on medication to treat thyroid conditions as those with lower concentrations of the chemical. Almost everyone carries detectible blood levels of PFOA, a nearly indestructible chemical used to make many consumer products. Besides cookware, it is used to make grease- and stain-resistant fast food containers and carpets, among other uses. In 2006, because of concerns over possible health effects of the chemical, U.S. and Canadian regulators asked manufacturers to reduce emissions and product content of PFOA by 95 per cent by 2010 – and virtually eliminate it by 2015. While manufacturers say little or no PFOA is left in consumer products after manufacture, environmentalists argue that non-stick coatings can break down into PFOA, which can be absorbed by animals and people. Men can detect when women are ovulating A man can smell when a woman is ovulating – and the proof is in his testosterone, says a new study from Florida State University that had undergraduate men sniffing sweaty T-shirts for course credit. The study, published last month in the journal Psychological Science, suggests that olfactory cues signalling a woman’s ovulation – her most fertile time – can prime men to have sex with them. Prior studies have shown that smells affect the hormones and subsequent mating habits of animals. Odours emitted by females influence male testosterone levels, particularly during ovulation. Higher testosterone, in turn, makes males more prone to initiate courtship. It has also been associated with competitiveness, dominance and risk-seeking, traits typically valued by women, particularly those at their reproductive peak. In the latest study, the researchers decided to map the connection between female ovulation and male testosterone by having women wear T-shirts three nights straight during various phases of their menstrual cycles – and getting men to sniff them. Why Alzheimer's is called `type 3 diabetes' The two work insidiously in tag-team fashion: With dementia, her father forgets the last time he's eaten; because of Type 2 diabetes, his body is unable to properly convert glucose into energy. While both can be age-related diseases, a growing body of research is showing an even stronger link that connect the two: Insulin. So strong is the link, some call Alzheimer's disease, "type 3 diabetes." Just as insulin produced by the pancreas helps regulate blood sugar levels in the body, scientists discovered that the brain also produces insulin of its own, critical in the formation of new memories. Pa. turkey farm to appear on CBS Evening news "As we walked to the barn and then stood among the turkeys, I got to tell her how we raise our birds differently than those produced at factory farms and show her a handful of the feed we use. "Our turkeys have much more room to move around, which helps them grow naturally but more slowly than factory farm birds. And their feed is a total vegetarian mix of corn, soy and vitamins. It will never contain pet food, bakery, fish or poultry by-products that are added by some turkey producers who want to keep their food costs down," Koch says. "Raising the birds our way costs more, but we've shown it can be done and that there is a market for it," he says. Although Koch can't be sure of the final content that will air on CBS Evening News, he says, "From what they told me, their point is that Denmark completely banned the use of non-therapeutic antibiotics in meat, and that it can be done here, too." The entire European Union four years ago banned feeding antibiotics to livestock for growth purposes out of concerns it plays a key role in the rise of antibiotic-resistant bacteria. More vegan food would help environment I was delighted to hear that Marietta's cafeterias plan on reducing waste for the environment ("MC becomes part of national recycling contest," Marietta Times, Jan. 19). However, there is an even better way to save the environment: adding more vegan food. According to an extensive United Nations study, raising animals for food contributes more to climate change than all cars, boats, and trains combined. If we really want to make a difference, the first step is to cut out the meat. The amount of resources wasted on producing animal-derived products is staggering. We currently feed more than 70 percent of the grains raised in the U.S. to animals raised for food. Similarly, nearly half the water and 80 percent of agricultural land consumed in this country is used for livestock, rather than direct consumption by humans. Farmed animals produce about 130 times as much excrement as the entire U.S. population, much of which finds its way into our local waterways. Passing these resources through animals, who use up 90 percent of the energy they consume simply by living their lives, requires exponentially more land, water, and other resources than simply eating plants directly. Field Poll: Governor's approval rating 27% A majority of voters - 59 percent - also said that Schwarzenegger, who will be termed out at the end of this year, will leave the state in worse shape than when he won office in 2003, after Gov. Gray Davis was recalled. At the time, he enjoyed some of the highest approval ratings of any governor ever elected - 64 percent. But his numbers have fluctuated drastically over the past six years. "The legacy question is interesting - this is a governor who was elected as an outsider that would come into Sacramento and make a series of reforms, blow up boxes and make things better," he said. "The verdict from voters is that he has really failed in that effort. ... There's a great deal of disappointment." By contrast, DiCamillo noted that Gov. Pete Wilson, who served from 1991 to 1999, enjoyed relatively positive reviews at the end of his tenure - 38 percent of voters said he left the state in better condition than he found it, 19 percent said it was worse and 40 percent said it was about the same. But Wilson, DiCamillo said, entered office at the beginning of an economic downturn and left at a time when the economy was fairly strong. "A lot of what happens to governors is really dependent on the circumstances they find themselves in," he said. "But for Schwarzenegger, a lot also has to do with the fact that he said he saw the problems of Sacramento and got elected to do something about it, and the assessment of most voters is that he failed at that." In Haiti, some see the spirit world behind the quake In Haiti, the spiritual world is omnipresent, a raucous realm where voodoo, folklore, superstition, Protestant and Catholic faiths compete, clash and sometimes converge. When the earth shakes no one talks about fault lines and tectonic plates. Instead, there are many otherworldly explanations of why the earthquake hit and the aftershocks go on here, from the biblical to the superstitious to the conspiratorial. The devastation Jan. 12 has also widened a rift that has been growing since U.S. missionaries began coming to Haiti in the 1800s: Evangelical Christians blame voodoo for bringing on this ruin, claiming it is satanic. Voodoo priests counter that the Christians are exploiting the catastrophe to convert people and raise money. "The Protestants tell people that voodoo is evil," said Louis, 52, who lives next to the cemetery. "They say that voodoo is responsible for this. They are taking advantage of the situation to get people into churches." 150,000 Haiti quake victims buried, gov't says PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti — The truckers filling Haiti's mass graves with bodies reported ever higher numbers: More than 150,000 quake victims have been buried by the government, an official said Sunday. That doesn't count those still under the debris, carried off by relatives or killed in the outlying quake zone. "Nobody knows how many bodies are buried in the rubble — 200,000? 300,000? Who knows the overall death toll?" said the official, Communications Minister Marie-Laurence Jocelyn Lassegue. Dealing with the living, meanwhile, a global army of aid workers was getting more food into people's hands, but acknowledged falling short. "We wish we could do more, quicker," said U.N. World Food Program chief Josette Sheeran, visiting Port-au-Prince. Week of 17th to 23rd of January 2010 Oil spilled at east Texas port as ships collide PORT ARTHUR, Texas -- As much as 450,000 gallons of crude oil spilled in a southeast Texas port Saturday after two vessels collided, the U.S. Coast Guard said. No injuries have been reported, but part of the port has been closed and some nearby residents have been evacuated. Port Arthur police Sgt. Ken Carona told television station KFDM that fewer than 100 people were evacuated from the area because of hydrogen sulfide - a hazardous gas with a rotten egg smell - that was emanating from the oil. He told the station that people will be allowed back when the levels go down. While the Coast Guard said around 450,000 gallons of oil were spilled, Carona says only about 40,000 gallons of oil were spilled. U.S. Coast Guard Petty Officer Renee Aiello told The Association Press that the crude spilled at the Port of Port Arthur when a 600-foot tanker carrying oil collided with a towing vessel pushing a loaded barge. The Coast Guard was notified of the collision around 9:50 a.m., she said. US Marines end role in Iraq; Biden in Baghdad RAMADI, Iraq -- The U.S. Marine Corps wrapped up nearly seven years in Iraq on Saturday, handing over duties to the Army and signaling the beginning of an accelerated withdrawal of American troops as the U.S. turns its focus away from the waning Iraqi war to a growing one in Afghanistan. In Baghdad, meanwhile, Vice President Joe Biden held talks with Iraqi leaders amid rising tensions over plans to ban election candidates because of suspected links to Saddam Hussein's regime. The White House worries the bans could raise questions over the fairness of the March 7 parliamentary elections, which are seen as an important step in the American pullout timetable and breaking political stalemates over key issues such as dividing Iraq's oil revenue. The Marines formally handed over control of Sunni-dominated Anbar, Iraq's largest province, to the Army during a ceremony at a base in Ramadi - where some of the fiercest fighting of the war took place. PAM COMMENTARY: Too bad they're only pulling out Marines. The Army and everyone else should be leaving along with them. When is the occupation going to end? Plan to close Gitmo now on indefinite hold As one of his very first acts in the White House, President Obama signed an executive order to close the Guantanamo Bay prison for terror suspects within a year. The one-year mark arrived Friday -- and it will likely be a year or more before Obama makes good on his promise. He has not offered a new deadline. Unless Obama decides to change course, to close Gitmo the president must still find support in Congress to pay for what's being dubbed "Gitmo North" -- Illinois' Thomson Correctional Center -- a super-secure prison near Downstate Sterling for some of the detainees he wants to continue holding. Gov. Quinn says that Illinois should receive "at least" $145 million from the federal government for the Thomson prison. Corporate Personhood Should Be Banned, Once and For All, by Ralph Nader January 21, 2010 - -Today’s decision by the U.S. Supreme Court in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission shreds the fabric of our already weakened democracy by allowing corporations to more completely dominate our corrupted electoral process. It is outrageous that corporations already attempt to influence or bribe our political candidates through their political action committees (PACs), which solicit employees and shareholders for donations. With this decision, corporations can now also draw on their corporate treasuries and pour vast amounts of corporate money, through independent expenditures, into the electoral swamp already flooded with corporate campaign PAC contribution dollars. This corporatist, anti-voter decision is so extreme that it should galvanize a grassroots effort to enact a Constitutional Amendment to once and for all end corporate personhood and curtail the corrosive impact of big money on politics. It is indeed time for a Constitutional amendment to prevent corporate campaign contributions from commercializing our elections and drowning out the civic and political voices and values of citizens and voters. It is way overdue to overthrow “King Corporation” and restore the sovereignty of “We the People”! PAM COMMENTARY: We haven't had a Constitutional amendment for the longest time. I've been saying that we may need one to limit the authority of the President, especially since George W. Bush granted himself so many new powers and Congress didn't seem in the mood to impeach him (at least not after he had the anthrax sent to them). Now a new guy is in office, and of course they never want to hand back authority, even if when it's really not even legal. So maybe we could start with Nader's amendment and put a few other ones together -- why doesn't every group with a big cause write its own amendment, and start working on getting it passed? We might just end up with a few new decent laws, no thanks to our current "democracy" where people vote for whoever ran the most TV ads. Canada's man in Tehran was a CIA spy Ken Taylor, the Canadian diplomat celebrated 30 years ago for hiding U.S. embassy personnel during the Iranian revolution, actively spied for the Americans and helped them plan an armed incursion into the country. Mr. Taylor, ambassador in Iran from 1977 to 1980, became “the de facto CIA station chief” in Tehran after the U.S. embassy was seized by students on Nov. 4, 1979, and 63 Americans, including the four-member Central Intelligence Agency contingent, were taken hostage. Had his espionage been discovered, Mr. Taylor told The Globe and Mail in an interview this week, “the Iranians wouldn't have tolerated it. And the consequences may have been severe.” His intelligence-gathering activities were kept secret by agreement between the Canadian and the U.S. governments, although his role in sheltering six Americans and helping to spirit them out of Iran was later made public, winning him and the Canadian government widespread U.S. gratitude. Glaxo, Merck disclose how much they're paying U.S. doctors Responding to a continuing push from lawmakers to reveal how much the pharmaceutical industry is influencing America's doctors, two more major drug makers have made public their payments to physicians, but an industry expert says the data are of limited value. The new websites, by GlaxoSmithKline and Merck, join one set up by Eli Lilly in August. A similar service is expected from Pfizer later this year. Among South Florida doctors, the latest quarterly reports reveal that the recipient getting the most was B. Mitchell Grabois, an Aventura obstetrician-gynecologist who picked up $46,750 over three months from Glaxo. In second place was Steven Turpin, a Homestead pulmonologist, who was paid $32,100. Neither responded to a request for comment. ``We welcome the companies that are voluntarily disclosing,'' said Allan Coukell, a pharmacist who directs the Pew Prescription Project, a nonprofit watchdog group. ``But that remains a tiny fraction of all companies.'' Hugo Chavez: Haiti Earthquake Caused by U.S. Tectonic Weapon Test Venezuelan leader, Hugo Chavez has reportedly said the Haiti earthquake was caused by a U.S. tectonic weapons test, also being dubbed The Earthquake Weapon. Hugo Chavez told Spanish newspaper ABC that a "tectonic weapon" launched by the U.S. Navy was capable of triggering a powerful earthquake off the coast of Haiti. Chavez told the newspaper that this time it was only a test and the ultimate target is Iran Conspiracy theorists have long held that the U.S. and Russia both have "tectonic" capable weapons. Resort workers say decision to continue Royal Caribbean cruise stops to Haiti an easy one: 'Without this, we don't eat' LABADEE, Haiti (AP) — With the Celebrity Solstice cruise ship anchored just offshore this beautiful expanse of white sand Friday, vacationers stretched out on beach chairs in the sun, sipped cold beer and pina coladas with pineapple slices on the rim and listened to Haitian folk music. The beach resort of Labadee is just 60 miles (100 kilometers) from Port-au-Prince, but it's a world away from the devastation of the Haitian capital, where some 200,000 people are believed dead in an earthquake. The cruise ships that stop here have become the center of a controversy: Should vacationers relax and have fun with so much suffering elsewhere on the island? Or would it be worse to halt the port calls and deprive locals of what they earn from tourism? Jameson Charitable, 20, stood near the pier with a sign offering tours. "Without this," he said, motioning toward the boat, "we don't eat." He said he makes $15 every time a ship comes in. About 200 people work here, and a few hundred more vendors and service providers are allowed in whenever ships arrive. The resort enclave, which has a beach, a zipline in the mountains and other activities, is leased by the Haitian government to Royal Caribbean International, which also owns the Celebrity cruise line. Former Quebec MP found dead in rubble of Haitian hotel: family Canwest News Service - Former Liberal MP Serge Marcil has been confirmed dead in Haiti, his family said Saturday, ending days of uncertainty and emotional turmoil for those who knew former politician. Marcil’s remains were found in the rubble of the Montana Hotel in the Haitian capital of Port-au-Prince. “Serge was the gift that life gave me,” his wife, Christiane Pelchat, said in the statement to media. Marcil, 65, had been in Haiti on a business trip for the Montreal-based engineering firm Group SM International when the earthquake struck on Jan. 12. He had been working for the company for two years. His wife went to Port-au-Prince on Friday to retrieve his remains. Thousands turn out at rallies to protest proroguing of Parliament OTTAWA — Thousands of demonstrators showed up in the nation's capital on Saturday to voice their displeasure with the Harper government's decision to prorogue Parliament — one of dozens of rallies expected across the country. Demonstrators made their presence felt in Ottawa, holding signs with such messages as Democracy Works, and holding singalongs, including a rendition of O Canada at a rally that was also expected to be attended by Liberal Leader Michael Ignatieff and NDP Leader Jack Layton later in the day. Media reports pegged the turnout at more than 3,000 people. Organizers were boasting of rallies in 50 communities across the country, including major centres such as Toronto — where estimates of crowd attendance were also in the thousands — Calgary and Vancouver. B.C.'s privacy office frozen, leaked letter says VANCOUVER — Operations at the Office of the Information and Privacy Commissioner have ceased, leaving British Columbians with no independent office to hold the government accountable, says a leaked letter marked "Extremely Urgent" to the Speaker of the Legislative Assembly. The letter, sent Friday, is from the executive director of the Office of the Information and Privacy Commissioner, Mary Carlson, and is addressed to Bill Barisoff. She said staff have shut down the whole operation to avoid any legal issues that could arise from reviewing cabinet files or law-enforcement information. Their duties also include opening appeal files and privacy complaints, securing and reviewing records on the subject of an appeal, authorizing time extensions to respond to access requests and policing the timeliness of government responses to access requests. The letter warns that B.C. has no independent office that can hold the provincial government and nearly 3,000 public bodies to account under the Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act. Coastal restoration getting 'dream team'; They'll help push to get projects started Hoping that attention on coastal restoration needs in the Pontchartrain Basin will get much-needed projects up and running, the regional levee authority president for districts east of the Mississippi River established a "dream team" of coastal specialists Thursday to advise the board. Despite years of planning at various levels of government, as well as the involvement of nonprofit organizations such as the Lake Pontchartrain Basin Foundation, coastal restoration advocates say too few projects have been started in the basin, which stretches from the Mississippi border south to the mouth of the river and west to Lake Maurepas. "We can't keep talking about these projects or we'll have lost so much land there won't be anything left to protect," said Tim Doody, the Southeast Louisiana Flood Protection Authority-East president who formed the Coastal Advisory Committee. Environmentalist kicked off cruise discharge panel Link: CoastAlaska via APRN A Southeast environmental activist has been removed from a 11-seat science panel charged by the state with examining wastewater treatment options for cruise ships. Gershon Cohen of Haines, a co-sponsor of the 2006 voter initiative that imposed strict limits on sewage discharge (and put a $50 head tax on passengers), appeared to be biased against the cruise industry, said Department of Environmental Conservation Commissioner Larry Hartig. Cohen said his science experience and education make him ideal for the panel and his dismissal "doesn't pass the red-face test." "The cruise ships have a seat on the panel, so they have an advocate," Cohen said, "and in fact the fisheries folks have a person on the panel in a fisheries seat, and they have an advocate." The Legislature has delayed enforcement of the new discharge standards while the issue is further studied. Can Apple save the newspaper industry? Nowhere is next week's launch by Apple of its new tablet device more breathlessly awaited than in the executive offices of traditional publishing houses. For the tablet – or the iSlate or the iPad as it may become known – is regarded as a possible saviour for newspapers, magazines and textbooks. There are electronic reading devices in existence already, such as Sony's e-Reader and Amazon's Kindle. But, publishers hope the unquestioned design talents of Apple will ensure that its latest product is the vehicle that enables them to transform their business models. After all, the iPod has converted millions to the idea of paying to download songs and, to a degree, has revived the music industry, becoming the world's largest music retailer in the process. The iPhone has created a culture of acquiring apps for "just about anything", many of them paid for. Newspaper content is already being widely consumed on smart mobile phones but mostly for free. With a touch screen of 10-11 inches, the Apple tablet presents publishers of all kinds with the opportunity to create an entirely new reader experience, one that consumers might be persuaded to pay for. David Rowan, editor of the UK edition of the technology magazine Wired, said that the size of the tablet screen could mean that readers enjoyed a "comparable experience" to reading a magazine. Innovative publishers would be offered myriad opportunities, such as accompanying an article on a film director with video footage, or a recipe piece with touch screen links to ingredients. Tasers seen as option in 1/3 of police shootings One-third of shootings by San Francisco police over a five-year period might have been avoided had officers been equipped with less-lethal options such as Tasers, a police study suggests. Unlike many departments, San Francisco police officers are not equipped with Tasers, stun guns that disrupt a target's muscle control. Chief George Gascón, who ordered the study shortly after coming on the job in late July, says the city should consider adopting the devices. Critics of Tasers, however, say they are not the nonlethal weapons the maker advertises. They point to hundreds of deaths associated with the devices since their use began spreading in law enforcement in the late 1990s. The word "Taser" is not included in the 185-page study of officer-involved shootings, written by Assistant Chief Morris Tabak and released this week. But Gascón made it clear in an interview Friday that it supported the case for giving officers stun guns. PAM COMMENTARY: Who's to say that taser deaths won't outnumber shootings once police are given that option? Yellowstone's Plumbing Reveals Plume of Hot and Molten Rock 410 Miles Deep [R] ScienceDaily (Dec. 14, 2009) — The most detailed seismic images yet published of the plumbing that feeds the Yellowstone supervolcano shows a plume of hot and molten rock rising at an angle from the northwest at a depth of at least 410 miles, contradicting claims that there is no deep plume, only shallow hot rock moving like slowly boiling soup. A related University of Utah study used gravity measurements to indicate the banana-shaped magma chamber of hot and molten rock a few miles beneath Yellowstone is 20 percent larger than previously believed, so a future cataclysmic eruption could be even larger than thought. The study's of Yellowstone's plume also suggests the same "hotspot" that feeds Yellowstone volcanism also triggered the Columbia River "flood basalts" that buried parts of Oregon, Washington state and Idaho with lava starting 17 million years ago. Those are key findings in four National Science Foundation-funded studies in the latest issue of the Journal of Volcanology and Geothermal Research. The studies were led by Robert B. Smith, research professor and professor emeritus of geophysics at the University of Utah and coordinating scientist for the Yellowstone Volcano Observatory. McDonald's to create 5,000 jobs as British sales soar 11% MCDONALD'S is to create 5,000 jobs in the UK after the nation was singled out as the US fast-food giant's best-performing market. Speaking to The Scotsman, McDonald's UK chief executive, Steve Easterbrook, said he expected 400-500 jobs to be created in Scotland this year. The extra posts would take the total number of workers employed by the group in the UK to 85,000. Across the UK, annual sales rose by 11 per cent, beating the burger chain's global average growth of 3.8 per cent. Scotland itself marginally outperformed the UK, boasting a sales increase of 11.5 per cent for the year ending December. PAM COMMENTARY: I wouldn't assume that Britons are liking junk food more these days. Rather, the increase is probably just a switch by customers from neighborhood cafes and diners to the cheap stuff, a way to save money during the slow economy. Wind power surges in B.C. (Canada) Environmental permits have been issued for two large wind energy projects in B.C., and work is to resume in January on a half-finished project that went bankrupt last year. As it concluded a historic land settlement with the Haida Nation, the B.C. government issued an environmental certificate last week for a 110-turbine offshore wind farm in Hecate Strait near Haida Gwaii. The $2 billion NaiKun project includes 80-metre towers anchored to the seabed and underwater cables that connect the island chain to the BC Hydro grid at Ridley Island near Prince Rupert. Energy Minister Blair Lekstrom and Environment Minister Barry Penner issued a second permit to the Thunder Mountain Wind Project, 45 km southeast of Tumbler Ridge in northeastern B.C. Its plan includes 160 wind turbine towers, five substations, a 65 km power line, access and maintenance roads. Both permits impose dozens of conditions, including fish and wildlife monitoring programs and ongoing consultation with affected aboriginal communities. The Haida Nation is a partner in the NaiKun project, and will operate and maintain it when it is completed. Sad end for Waterford Crystal; Rush for souvenirs as doors close for good IT was a painful end for Waterford Crystal. The thousands who worked there over the years, the hundreds of thousands who visited to admire its jewels and the millions who associate the brand with this country never thought they would see the day. Waterford Crystal was, after all, the fourth most popular visitor attraction in the country -- bringing 315,000 people to the south-east every year. But last night the slow but inexorable decline of the world-famous attraction was complete when the factory's visitor centre and gallery closed to the public for the last time. Since January 5, when Waterford Wedgwood went into receivership, the nail in the business's coffin was inevitable, despite a brave but doomed campaign mounted by workers who wanted the factory to stay open. The takeover of the brand a few months later by a consortium of American venture capitalists, WWRD, did not set local pulses racing with romantic thoughts of a rejuvenation of the Kilbarry plant, and production was soon halted. The US-backed firm will make the crystal in locations across the globe, including Eastern Europe. Google co-founders to sell $5.5B combined in stock Google Inc. co-founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin are relinquishing some of their control over the Internet search leader with the sale of 10 million shares worth $5.5 billion at current prices. Under a plan disclosed Friday, the longtime business partners will each sell 5 million Google shares during a five-year period that will commence with the first trade. The sales will occur periodically to lessen the chances of hurting Google's stock price. Page and Brin, both 36, will remain Google's most influential shareholders, although they will be losing some of their clout. Most U.S. Union Members Are Working for the Government, New Data Shows For the first time in American history, a majority of union members are government workers rather than private-sector employees, the Bureau of Labor Statistics announced on Friday. In its annual report on union membership, the bureau undercut the longstanding notion that union members are overwhelmingly blue-collar factory workers. It found that membership fell so fast in the private sector in 2009 that the 7.9 million unionized public-sector workers easily outnumbered those in the private sector, where labor’s ranks shrank to 7.4 million, from 8.2 million in 2008. “There has been steady growth among union members in the public sector, but I’m a little bit shocked to see that the lines have actually crossed,” said Randel K. Johnson, senior vice president for labor at the United States Chamber of Commerce. According to the labor bureau, 7.2 percent of private-sector workers were union members last year, down from 7.6 percent the previous year. That, labor historians said, was the lowest percentage of private-sector workers in unions since 1900. Italy moves to impose Internet regulation; Government decree would erode freedom of expression, mandate monitoring what individuals put on the Internet, critics say Silvio Berlusconi is moving to extend his grip on Italy's media to the freewheeling Internet world of Google and YouTube. Going beyond other European governments, the premier's government has drafted a decree that would mandate the vetting of videos for pornographic or violent content uploaded by users onto such sites as YouTube, owned by Google, and the France-based Dailymotion, as well as blogs and online newsmedia. Google, press freedom watchdogs and telecom providers are among those pressing for changes in the draft to prevent the fast-track legislation from taking effect as early as Feb. 4. They say the decree would erode freedom of expression and mandate the technically burdensome — maybe even impossible — task of monitoring what individuals put on the Internet. Reporters Without Borders Media says the measures could force Web sites to obtain licenses to operate in Italy. The 34-page decree mandates vetting of any content harmful to minors, specifically pornography or excessive violence, and would require telecoms providers to shut down any Internet site not in compliance, or face fines ranging from euro150 to euro150,000 ($210 to $210,960). NOAA may prohibit Navy sonar testing at marine mammal 'hot spots' Marine mammal "hot spots" in areas including Southern California's coastal waters may become off limits to testing of a type of Navy sonar linked to the deaths of whales under a plan announced this week by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. NOAA also called for development of a system for estimating the "comprehensive sound budget for the oceans," which could help reduce human sources of noise -- vessel traffic, sonar and construction activities -- that degrade the environment in which sound-sensitive species communicate. The plans were revealed in a letter from NOAA Administrator Jane Lubchenco to the White House Council on Environmental Quality. In the letter, Lubchenco said her goal is to reduce adverse effects on marine mammals resulting from the Navy's training exercises. Environmentalists contend that sonar has a possibly deafening effect on marine mammals. Studies around the world have shown the piercing underwater sounds cause whales to flee in panic or to dive too deeply. Whales have been found beached in Greece, the Canary Islands and the Bahamas after sonar was used in the area. Necropsies showed signs of bleeding in the ears. PAM COMMENTARY: See earlier links on this topic -- this article is too timid in its description of injuries to whales and dolphins. Indiana City fed up with crows TERRE HAUTE, Ind. — Thousands of crows have descended on Terre Haute, making a mess of downtown and causing trouble for business owners. A researcher estimates that at least 32,000 crows are roosting in the city this winter, leaving sidewalks and trees covered in droppings. While its unknown why the crows return to the city year after year, Indiana State University associate biology professor Peter Scott theorizes that the warmth and lights attract the birds. Scott said the crows also might choose the city because it offers protection from predators or a source of food. He said the crows leave the city during the day to forage for food, then return at night to spend the night in the trees. PAM COMMENTARY: I wonder if Indiana's corn fields are the main draw, with the city providing some variety in their diet, along with warmth and shelter. Sunflower DNA map could produce plants for fuel SIOUX FALLS, S.D. — A $10.5 million research project aimed at mapping the DNA sequence of sunflowers could one day yield a towering new variety for both food and fuel. Researchers envision crossbreeding a standard sunflower with the Silverleaf species out of Texas to produce a hybrid with bright yellow flowers bursting with tasty seeds and thick stalks filled with complex sugars that can be turned into ethanol. The wild, drought-resistant Silverleaf is known for its woody stalks, which can grow up 15 feet tall and 4 inches in diameter. "Since it's the closest relative of the cultivated sunflower, it should be perhaps reasonably straightforward to move some of the traits," said Loren Rieseberg, a University of British Columbia botany professor and leader of the DNA sequencing project. PAM COMMENTARY: Just what we need -- more Franken-flowers. My Dinner with Ollie (North's airplane) High on a cliff overlooking the ocean near Quepos, El Avion was a lot like other restaurants we'd been to in Costa Rica, in that it consisted of tables spread out under a roof with nary an exterior wall to be found. Unlike those other restaurants, the center of El Avion's floor plan was taken up by the hulking carcass of an aging cargo plane. There was a bar inside the plane. And normally, this gimmick alone would have been enough to make me happy. Then we found out what used to be carried in there. I tell you what. I would not have thought that "Iran-Contra Affair" would make a great idea for a restaurant theme. But then, this is apparently why I'm a writer and not a successful restaurateur. You're looking at the interior of a 1954 Fairchild C-123, specifically one of two such planes bought with the help of the CIA to run weapons (also purchased with the help of the CIA) to guerrillas in Nicaragua in the early 1980s. PAM COMMENTARY: Sounds like a cool place, a tourist trap and restaurant rolled into one! Well, I guess it's time for some Iran-Contra flashbacks. I notice that the old videos I'd linked to on the Mena airport don't work anymore (they were on infowarstv.com, which must have removed them). So here's a flashback that covers a piece of the Iran-Contra story -- the drug-running/Contra re-supply airport at Mena, Arkansas: The Mena Connection: Bush, Clinton, and CIA drug smuggling part 1/6 The Mena Connection: Bush, Clinton, and CIA drug smuggling part 2/6 The Mena Connection: Bush, Clinton, and CIA drug smuggling part 3/6 The Mena Connection: Bush, Clinton, and CIA drug smuggling part 4/6 The Mena Connection: Bush, Clinton, and CIA drug smuggling part 5/6 The Mena Connection: Bush, Clinton, and CIA drug smuggling part 6/6 Also, TheSmokingGun.com posted a copy of one of Hasenfus' first criminal complaints for indecent exposure. And a blogger for the Daily Kos wrote a follow-up article on Hasenfus, including his Wisconsin arrests for indecent exposure. Apparently Hasenfus hung up when called for comment. China eyes grand plan to develop Tibetan regions China's top leaders say Tibet's development must include Tibetan areas in neighboring provinces — a move likely aimed at tying the region tighter to the rest of the country after deadly riots two years ago. Chinese President Hu Jintao told the first high-level meeting on Tibet in nine years that the development would require hard work to prevent "penetration and sabotage" by separatists working for Tibet's independence, the state-run Xinhua News Agency reported late Friday. Hu also said at this week's meeting that residents' awareness of being part of China should be constantly enhanced, Xinhua reported. The meeting was the first of its kind since the deadly riots in March 2008, the largest uprising against Chinese rule in decades. Chinese-owned shops and government offices were attacked in Tibet's capital, Lhasa, and other traditionally Tibetan regions of western China. The government says at least 22 people were killed in Lhasa, and Tibetan rights groups say nearly 140 Tibetans died. First Nations win big in Casino Rama case More than 100 First Nations hit the jackpot Friday in a dispute over profits from Casino Rama, beating back a claim that one band alone is entitled to the lion’s share of the money. The Ontario Court of Appeal’s 78-page decision was a blow to the Chippewas of Mnjikaning, whose land just outside Orillia houses the gaming mecca, and who argued they had a deal with the Ontario government to receive 35 per cent of net profits. Casino Rama is the only commercial gambling operation in Ontario located on a First Nation Reserve. Since opening nearly 14 years ago, it has boasted gross revenues of more than $5.2 billion, or about $500 million a year. The Chippewas of Mnjikaning, about 1,500 people, claimed it had a binding agreement with the province that entitled the band to more than a third of the net profits in perpetuity, plus a further portion of gross revenues to compensate it for running the casino. Another 133 First Nations, represented by the Chiefs of Ontario, opposed the claim, arguing revenue from the casino was to have been divided among all of them to help with economic development and improve health and education in their communities. Listeria scare sparks salad recall in six provinces (Canada) OTTAWA — The public was warned Saturday not to eat a specific brand of salad mix sold at grocery stores in six provinces due to fears it may be contaminated with Listeria monocytogenes. The Canadian Food Inspection Agency said the recall affects Compliments brand Italian Blend sold in 284 g packages with a best-before date of Jan. 18, 2010. The salads have a bar code of 68820 10093 and were sold Alberta, Manitoba, Quebec, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, and Newfoundland and Labrador. No illnesses have been reported as a result of people eating the salad. CCTV in the sky: police plan to use military-style spy drones; Arms manufacturer BAE Systems developing national strategy with consortium of government agencies Police in the UK are planning to use unmanned spy drones, controversially deployed in Afghanistan, for the ­"routine" monitoring of antisocial motorists, ­protesters, agricultural thieves and fly-tippers, in a significant expansion of covert state surveillance. The arms manufacturer BAE Systems, which produces a range of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) for war zones, is adapting the military-style planes for a consortium of government agencies led by Kent police. Documents from the South Coast Partnership, a Home Office-backed project in which Kent police and others are developing a national drone plan with BAE, have been obtained by the Guardian under the Freedom of Information Act. They reveal the partnership intends to begin using the drones in time for the 2012 Olympics. They also indicate that police claims that the technology will be used for maritime surveillance fall well short of their intended use – which could span a range of police activity – and that officers have talked about selling the surveillance data to private companies. A prototype drone equipped with high-powered cameras and sensors is set to take to the skies for test flights later this year. NYPD suspends 2 officers after video shows them punching handcuffed suspect on ground NEW YORK - Two New York Police Department patrolmen have been suspended after a video surfaced showing them beating a handcuffed suspect during an undercover drug operation. The footage was shot by a witness looking out an apartment window in the Bronx on Jan. 5. Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly says he decided to suspend the two as soon as he saw the video. The video shows the two officers bending down to punch the suspect, Jonathan Baez, who was handcuffed and face down on the ground. A lawyer for Baez says other officers seen milling about as the scene unfolded should be punished as well. The lawyer says drug charges against Baez have been dismissed. In Landmark Campaign Finance Ruling, Supreme Court Removes Limits on Corporate Campaign Spending [DN] AMY GOODMAN: Can you talk about President Obama’s response? He was extremely critical, to say the least. He said, “With its ruling today, the Supreme Court has given a green light to a new stampede of special interest money in our politics…a major victory for big oil, Wall Street banks, health insurance companies and the other powerful interests that marshal their power every day in Washington to drown out the voices of everyday Americans.” Yet a number of especially conservatives are pointing out that there was—that President Obama spent more money for his presidential election than anyone in US history. JAMIN RASKIN: OK, well, that’s a red herring in this discussion. The question here is the corporation, OK? And there’s an unbroken line of precedent, beginning with Chief Justice Marshall in the Dartmouth College case in the 1800s, all the way through Justice Rehnquist, even, in First National Bank of Boston v. Bellotti, saying that a corporation is an artificial creation of the state. It’s an instrumentality that the state legislatures charter in order to achieve economic purposes. And as Justice White put it, the state does not have to permit its own creature to consume it, to devour it. And that’s precisely what the Supreme Court has done, suddenly declaring that a corporation is essentially a citizen, armed with all the political rights that we have, at the same time that the corporation has all kinds of economic perks and privileges like limited liability and perpetual life and bankruptcy protection and so on, that mean that we’re basically subsidizing these entities, and sometimes directly, as we saw with the Wall Street bailout, but then they’re allowed to turn around and spend money to determine our political future, our political destiny. So it’s a very dangerous moment for American political democracy. And in other times, citizens have gotten together to challenge corporate power. The passage of the Seventeenth Amendment in 1913 is a good example, where corporations were basically buying senators, going into state legislatures and paying off senator—paying off legislators to buy US senators, and the populist movement said we need direct popular election of senators. And that’s how we got it, basically, in a movement against corporate power. Well, we need a movement for a constitutional amendment to declare that corporations are not persons entitled to the rights of political expression. And that’s what the President should be calling for at this point, because no legislation is really going to do the trick. Now, one thing Congress can do is to say, if you do business with the federal government, you are not permitted to spend any money in federal election contests. That’s something that Congress should work on and get out next week. I mean, that seems very clear. No pay to play, in terms of US Congress. And I think that citizens, consumers, shareholders across the country, should start a mass movement to demand that corporations commit not to get involved in politics and not to spend their money in that way, but should be involved in the economy and, you know, economic production and livelihood, rather than trying to determine what happens in our elections. Daily pint of blueberry juice 'could help stop memory loss', study suggests Half drank two cups of blueberry juice, similar to the kind available in supermarkets, every day for two to three months and half drank a placebo, a drink they thought was berry juice but was not. Both groups were given the same memory and learning tests to see if it made any difference. In just 12 weeks of drinking the juice, the volunteers were better at recalling words from a list, scored better on other word association tasks and also less likely to feel depressed too. Researcher Robert Krikorian, reporting in the Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry, said the study showed a “significant improvement on learning and memory tests” among those who drank blueberry juice. Widespread antibiotic use in 1960s sparked MRSA The European samples were concentrated around the base of the evolutionary tree. Working backwards, the scientists established that the strain probably emerged in Europe in the 1960s. The finding lends support to the theory that the introduction of widespread antibiotic use in the 1960s may have spawned MRSA. Natural selection would have favoured resistant strains that could survive the antibiotic onslaught. Another discovery was that one MRSA outbreak in a London hospital intensive care unit was probably due to a bacterial strain imported from south-east Asia - possibly brought in by a single infected patient. Haitians react to televangelist Pat Robertson's 'devil pact' remarks (Video) PAM COMMENTARY: More reaction to Robertson's remarks, but this time from a Haitian instead of other people speaking for them. Pat Robertson on Karate: Avoid "Inhaling Demon Spirits" (Video) (FLASHBACK) Are you going to "take ghetto kids and make them very fine citizens" like Chuck Norris, or will you be "inhaling some demon spirits" for ultimate fighting power? 700 Club, 11/26/2007 Security “Red Zones” in Haiti Preventing Large Aid Groups from Effectively Distributing Aid [DN] SASHA KRAMER: My name is Sasha Kramer, and I came out of Cap-Haïtien. I’m based there with a group called SOIL, Sustainable Organic Integrated Livelihoods. And we’ve been working in Cap-Haïtien for the last five years, mainly on sanitation and garbage transformation. What I’ve been witnessing here is that the aid actually arrived fairly quickly. So, very quickly, they had ships there with supplies, medical supplies, water. As I understand, there’s thousands of tons of food that are available. But the problem that they’re having is distribution of the aid. And one of the issues with that is that large aid organizations working in Haiti, because it’s an area that has a State Department warning, there’s a lot of regions in Port-au-Prince that are considered red zones that they’re not able to go into without very high security restrictions. So when the large aid groups circulate around Port-au-Prince, they’re often in sealed vehicles with their windows up, and what this means is that they’re not able to develop good relationships with community leaders. Often they don’t speak Creole, as well, a lot of their international employees. So when a large disaster like this happens, and they need to be able to get into the neighborhoods to distribute the food, they are afraid to go in, because they don’t have the connections they would need in order to keep them safe and distribute the food in an organized manner. So, as I understand it, there’s a lot of aid just waiting to be distributed. And we met with a lot of community groups from Port-au-Prince yesterday who said, “Hey, you know, our main need is water. We have water. We have people who will give their wells. We have community people who have water trucks, who are ready to distribute the water. It’s a question of gas. And we just need to be able to connect with the larger aid organizations to get that gas, and then we can get the water to the communities.” AMY GOODMAN: But the hurricanes, four, one after another after another, that hasn’t led to any kind of international aid organization, UN communication with the local community groups? SASHA KRAMER: Well, I mean, I think that they have limited communications still, I would say. I don’t know. That’s because after the hurricanes happened, security restrictions got even higher for international aid groups, because they said, well, Haiti is even more insecure now. So you’re even less able to circulate in the communities. So it’s been this very self-perpetuating process, where, at this point, the Haitians on the ground who are ready to do something have no way to connect with the people down at the UN base who have all the materials to make a difference. Sea offers escape from the ruins; Thousands of Haitians wait hours by the shore for chance to catch ships headed for relative Thousands of Haitians had gathered on the shoreline – its gaping cracks caused by the earthquake straddled by sandaled feet and filled with garbage – to see if they would be lucky enough to squeeze their way onto a boat headed to Jérémie, another city in southwestern Haiti, on Wednesday morning. Dena is one of them and had been standing at the edge of the water since the previous night. But the ship, christened with the less colourful Trois-Rivières, had already set off on the second of its 12-hour voyages to Jérémie since the earthquake struck. Thousands crowded onto docked ships – unable to make their own journeys due to lack of fuel – near tilted shipping containers, hoping to jump across to the deck of a functional vessel the next time one comes around. Manchurian Candidates: Supreme Court allows China and others unlimited spending in US elections [BF] Right now, corporations can give loads of loot through PACs. While this money stinks (Barack Obama took none of it), anyone can go through a PAC's federal disclosure filing and see the name of every individual who put money into it. And every contributor must be a citizen of the USA. But under today's Supreme Court ruling that corporations can support candidates without limit, there is nothing that stops, say, a Delaware-incorporated handmaiden of the Burmese junta from picking a Congressman or two with a cache of loot masked by a corporate alias. Candidate Barack Obama was one sharp speaker, but he would not have been heard, and certainly would not have won, without the astonishing outpouring of donations from two million Americans. It was an unprecedented uprising-by-PayPal, overwhelming the old fat-cat sources of funding. Well, kiss that small-donor revolution goodbye. Under the Court's new rules, progressive list serves won't stand a chance against the resources of new "citizens" such as CNOOC, the China National Offshore Oil Corporation. Maybe UBS (United Bank of Switzerland), which faces U.S. criminal prosecution and a billion-dollar fine for fraud, might be tempted to invest in a few Senate seats. As would XYZ Corporation, whose owners remain hidden by "street names." PAM COMMENTARY: I was looking for an article that mentioned foreign ownership of corporations, and the influence of foreign nations on our elections as a result of the latest Supreme Court decision. Iraq littered with high levels of nuclear and dioxin contamination, study finds More than 40 sites across Iraq are contaminated with high levels or radiation and dioxins, with three decades of war and neglect having left environmental ruin in large parts of the country, an official Iraqi study has found. Areas in and near Iraq's largest towns and cities, including Najaf, Basra and ­Falluja, account for around 25% of the contaminated sites, which appear to coincide with communities that have seen increased rates of cancer and birth defects over the past five years. The joint study by the environment, health and science ministries found that scrap metal yards in and around Baghdad and Basra contain high levels of ionising radiation, which is thought to be a legacy of depleted uranium used in munitions during the first Gulf war and since the 2003 invasion. The environment minister, Narmin Othman, said high levels of dioxins on agricultural lands in southern Iraq, in particular, were increasingly thought to be a key factor in a general decline in the health of people living in the poorest parts of the country. "If we look at Basra, there are some heavily polluted areas there and there are many factors contributing to it," ­she told the Guardian. "First, it has been a battlefield for two wars, the Gulf war and the Iran-Iraq war, where many kinds of bombs were used. Also, oil pipelines were bombed and most of the contamination settled in and around Basra. "The soil has ended up in people's lungs and has been on food that people have eaten. Dioxins have been very high in those areas. All of this has caused systemic problems on a very large scale for both ecology and overall health." PAM COMMENTARY: This has been well-known since the first Gulf War, but it's good to see the mainstream press follow-up occasionally. Haitians flee shattered, barren city for new life in countryside; Government buses ferry thousands out of Haiti's earthquake-stricken capital city Port-au-Prince to rural safety All around Port-au-Prince there are crowds of Haitians queuing. Outside the US embassy they jostle to present their credentials in an almost certainly fruitless search for work. Wherever aid trucks are parked they line up, buckets at the ready, for water and food. At the UN building they gather in the hope of securing plastic sheets to turn into makeshift tents. Now the streets of Port-au-Prince are witness to a new form of waiting, as Haitians in their thousands scramble to board buses to quit the stricken city. An exodus is under way. The initial monstrous shock of the earthquake, that left the 3 million residents of the capital dazed and paralysed, has faded, replaced by an urgent instinct to flee. Fleets of buses laid on by the government have begun ferrying people free of charge out of Port-au-Prince and into the countryside, where food is more plentiful and shelter certain. The government plans to create refugee villages outside the crushed capital, each housing 10,000 survivors, up to a total of about 400,000. Many thousands more homeless residents of the capital are heading east by bus, to the border of the Dominican Republic, aiming to cross into a happier nation. Canadian military targets gunsights with hidden biblical references OTTAWA — Gunsights carrying hidden Biblical references are being used by Canadian special forces in Afghanistan but the military plans to move as quickly as possible in removing the controversial targeting devices from its weapons. Militaries around the world didn’t know that U.S. manufacturer Trijicon had put the Biblical citations on the siGHTS now in use by forces throughout Afghanistan and Iraq. Relief efforts in Haiti turn to long-term rebuilding U.S. troops have been moving humanitarian cargo from the Port-au-Prince airport and airlifting supplies from 20 ships off Haiti's coast to four central hubs established by the United Nations, Fraser said. From there, supplies are distributed to 100 different points. As of Thursday, ``We have distributed 1.4 million bottles of water, over 700,000 meals and roughly 22,000 pounds of medical supplies'' directly to the Haitian people, Fraser said. An extra 4,000 U.S. troops are due to arrive in Haiti on Saturday to join the more than 12,000 U.S. troops on the ground and offshore. In its first meeting since the earthquake collapsed the parliament building, the Haitian Senate gathered at the National Police Academy Thursday. Fifteen senators held an informal session because they were unable to gather the necessary 18 for a quorum. The Senate asked Prime Minister Jean-Max Bellerive to appear before them Friday to answer questions about the slow delivery of aid. In an email response, Bellerive said he would meet with them as soon as returns from an emergency trip to Canada. Poll: Most Americans want more GOP support on health care An overwhelming 72% of those surveyed Wednesday say Brown's victory "reflects frustrations shared by many Americans, and the president and members of Congress should pay attention to it." Just 18% say it "reflects political conditions in Massachusetts and doesn't have a larger meaning for national politics." Obama had a similar reaction Wednesday in an interview with ABC News. "Here's my assessment of not just the vote in Massachusetts, but the mood around the country: The same thing that swept Scott Brown into office swept me into office," he said. "People are angry; they are frustrated." There's less unanimity about what that larger meaning is, however: 55% call for lawmakers to go back to the drawing board to draft a more bipartisan proposal while 39% say they should continue to work on the current bill being pushed by Democrats. Those surveyed also are inclined to say that the president and Democratic leaders have erred in making health care the top legislative priority for now. Forty-six percent say health care is important but there are other problems they should address first, and 19% say health care shouldn't be a major priority. Lowering salt intake has profound effect A modest reduction in the mounds of salt consumed by the typical American each year could lead to 155,000 fewer heart attacks and strokes annually, according to a new analysis. The benefit would come from reductions in blood pressure that would result from cutting about 3 grams of salt a day. The average man and woman now consume 10 grams and 7 grams a day, respectively. That's about 8 pounds of salt a year for a man. While some groups such as African-Americans, older people and those with high blood pressure would benefit the most, reducing salt would lower blood pressure throughout society, said lead author Kirsten Bibbins-Domingo, an associate professor of medicine and epidemiology at the University of California, San Francisco. PAM COMMENTARY: I don't know if I agree with this -- Joel Wallach has an interesting take on salt, namely that people need it and the snack food industry capitalizes on this. Also, the author of the books "The Water Cure" and "Your Body's Many Cries for Water" would argue that salt intake has to be balanced with water intake, and both have to be appropriate for a person's weight. With Americans, it's likely they're not getting enough water to offset the salt -- too much soda, coffee, milk and sweet drinks, not enough just plain real water. Bottled Water Supplies in Port-au-Prince Airport Being Distributed…to US Embassy [DN] AMY GOODMAN: Everywhere we have traveled, people have asked, “Where is the aid?” Well, a lot of it appears to be here, right here at the Port-au-Prince airport. People ask for water. They ask for food. And we see many, many pallets, thousands of bottles of water. We see some being loaded now onto a truck. But people are asking, “Where is it? Why isn’t it coming to us faster?” Most people haven’t gotten it at all. Let’s see where this water is going. So, where is the water going? HAITIAN WORKER: US embassy. AMY GOODMAN: To the US embassy. HAITIAN WORKER: Yes, ma’am. Supreme Court Rolls Back Campaign Finance Restrictions By a 5-4 decision, the Supreme Court on Thursday rolled back restrictions on corporate spending on federal campaigns. The decision could unleash a torrent of corporate-funded attack ads in upcoming elections. "Because speech is an essential mechanism of democracy -- it is the means to hold officials accountable to the people -- political speech must prevail against laws that would suppress it by design or inadvertence," wrote Justice Anthony Kennedy for the majority. In his dissent, Justice John Paul Stevens accused the majority of judicial activism and attacked the use of corporate personhood in the case: "The conceit that corporations must be treated identically to natural persons in the political sphere is not only inaccurate but also inadequate to justify the Court's disposition of this case." Republicans offered measured praise for the decision, but progressive good-government groups and Democrats responded angrily and vowed to fight back with legislation. "With its ruling today, the Supreme Court has given a green light to a new stampede of special interest money in our politics," said President Obama in a statement. "It is a major victory for big oil, Wall Street banks, health insurance companies and the other powerful interests that marshal their power every day in Washington to drown out the voices of everyday Americans... That's why I am instructing my Administration to get to work immediately with Congress on this issue. We are going to talk with bipartisan Congressional leaders to develop a forceful response to this decision." PAM COMMENTARY: Free speech is important, but corporations already exercise too much control over the political process through their army of lobbyists. Giving them even more rights, to advertise during campaigns? Just wait for more legislation forcing you to buy their stuff. The last health care bill was written BEFORE this decision, to give you an idea of what's coming on the other side of today's ruling. Obama proposes tough new limits on large banks' size and investments President Obama called Thursday for tough new restrictions on the nation's largest banks, proposing to bar them from making the kind of high-risk investments that he said contributed to the financial crisis more than a year ago. The proposal is more evidence that the Obama administration has Wall Street in its sights as it seeks to demonstrate to the middle class that it understands the economic frustrations of persistent unemployment. In remarks from the Diplomatic Reception Room at the White House, Obama chastised the leaders of financial firms for sending what he called an "army of industry lobbyists" to fight his broad efforts to reform the banking industry. "My message to leaders in the financial industry is to work with us, not against us," he said. "If these folks want a fight, it's a fight I am ready to have." California Supreme Court strikes down limits on medical marijuana possession The California Supreme Court today struck down the state's limits on how much medical marijuana a patient can possess, concluding that the restrictions imposed by the Legislature were an unconstitutional amendment of a 1996 voter-approved initiative. The decision means that patients and caregivers with a doctor's recommendation to use marijuana can now possess as much as is "reasonably related to the patient's current medical needs," a standard that the court established in a 1997 decision. "I'm very pleased. They gave us exactly what we wanted," said Gerald F. Uelmen, a law professor at Santa Clara University who argued the case for Patrick K. Kelly, a medical marijuana patient from Lakewood who was convicted of possession and cultivation. "This makes it very clear that all of the rights of patients under the Compassionate Use Act are fully preserved." The initiative did not limit the amount of marijuana that a patient could possess or cultivate other than to require it be "personal medical purposes." Earthquake Frees Haitian Prisoners from Port-au-Prince Jail, 80% Never Charged with a Crime [DN] AMY GOODMAN: So talk about who gets put in prison. How long do they stay? How many of them had not been charged? MARIO JOSEPH: [translated] Up until now, nothing has happened, because there haven’t been any charges. But for certain people, like the Prime Minister, according to the Constitution, 186, he can’t be judged in an ordinary court because he’s political. But even though he said that, they kept him in prison for twenty-five months. After the inauguration of President Préval, there were certain people which they freed, like the Interior Minister, like former Deputy Amanus Mayette. But up until now, they kept Ronald Dauphin in prison, because he was less well known. And that’s the system of exclusion in Haiti. AMY GOODMAN: Explain how many people haven’t been charged who were in prison, how many people were there without trial. MARIO JOSEPH: [translated] Generally, in the Haitian prisons, everybody agrees that there are about 80 percent of the people are not charged. It is only a few, maybe ten percent, which are convicted. And those are awaiting an order to be sent to court. And that’s supposed to be done in three months, and he’s been waiting six years. He’s never been judged. In all the prisons, 90 percent are not judged, are not even charged. That’s in the system. And that’s what I’m telling you. This event, this earthquake, it’s justice with the getting the people out of jail. The other thing I can say, in Haiti, we have a symbolic—the palace that went down, the Palace of Justice, the Haitian IRS, and the whole power of the state. This is like a message that was sent, because it wasn’t just the people in prison who were suffering injustice, but the poorest in the country, the excluded in the country. Thus I think it was a clear message. It was a symbolic thing for the people who are the chiefs in the country, in the government, to know how to serve the people and to stop the exclusionary system which was there for 200 years. Russian happiness guru faces psychiatric ward (01-21) 10:04 PST MOSCOW, Russia (AP) -- Some time in the coming month, Russian poetess Yulia Privedyonnaya may be packed off to a psychiatric ward in a case activists described Thursday as a dangerous throwback to the Soviet-era practice of punitive psychiatry. Rights defenders see Privedyonnaya's plight as yet another worrying sign that Russian authorities are ready to revive Soviet-style psychiatric treatment of dissidents. In recent years, a number of anti-government activists and independent reporters have been forcibly subjected to treatment. Earlier this month, the Supreme Court upheld a ruling that Privedyonnaya should undergo a monthlong psychiatric examination at the Serbsky psychiatric hospital in Moscow, which was used in Soviet times for involuntary treatment of political prisoners. If she is found to be mentally unsound, Privedyonnaya will be sent for further psychiatric treatment. The alternative is prosecution and possibly a lengthy jail sentence. Half-pound meteorite hits doctor's office in Lorton A Virginia doctor's office is cleaning up after being hit by a meteorite, but no one was hurt. Frank Ciampi said the space rock struck the two-story building in Lorton where he and two other medical professionals work a little after 5:30 p.m. on Monday. He says it punched a hole in the roof, raining pieces of wood, plaster and insulation. At first Ciampi didn't know what to think of the three chunks of stone that together formed a rock about the size of a tennis ball, but the office manager said it might be a meteorite. A planetary scientist at the Smithsonian Institution's Museum of Natural History, Cari Corrigan, confirmed it. She says the meteorite weighs just over a half pound and was probably traveling about 220 mph when it struck the building. Federal report finds persistent mistakes and poor oversight at UC Irvine Medical Center In another case, an on-call resident did not respond to repeated pages from nurses in the neurological intensive care unit, where a patient with an irregular heartbeat languished for more than an hour. Investigators faulted pharmacists for not monitoring and storing drugs correctly, allowing nurses to carry narcotics in their pockets and inject patients without proper oversight. At one point during the inspection, a federal investigator had to stop a nurse from injecting a brain-injured patient in intensive care with steroids because she had prepared the dose incorrectly, according to the report. The hospital had to submit a plan of correction by Jan. 18, which has to be approved by federal officials before they return for another surprise inspection, said Jack Cheevers, a spokesman for the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Service. The hospital’s October inspection was its second since July, when Medicare officials issued a finding of immediate jeopardy after investigators discovered five UCI patients had received overdoses because nurses using pain medication pumps were not properly trained. UCI officials immediately began training nurses to use the pumps, and the finding was lifted within 24 hours. The Drugs I Need (Video) Take action in support of drug safety legislation. http://tinyurl.com/2ukd36 We hope you enjoyed this video from Consumers Union. Please pass it on to your friends. The Town of Allopath (Video) The video parodies the drug companies and conventional healthcare system and many are furious about the truth being exposed. Hopefully the humour will open some eyes. Haiti gasoline shortage slows relief efforts U.S. forces rushed Tuesday to prepare new airports to boost the flow of aid to Haiti, but a week after an earthquake devastated its capital the relief effort was increasingly hampered by a crimp in the supply chain: a shortage of gasoline that left medicine, food and water sitting out of reach of the needy. President Rene Preval said Haitian authorities had buried 72,000 victims of the quake, a figure that does not include an untold number buried privately. Officials have estimated that 200,000 people may have died, but the true figure may never be known. In badly damaged neighborhoods throughout the city, heavy-equipment crews began tearing into thousands of collapsed buildings. An exodus grew, as people packed up their belongings and headed to the provinces. Those who remained in the city were watching the skies. Rain clouds gathered over the high pine ridges far above the city. Sometimes the mountains hold them back; sometimes they don't. "If it rains now, it will be a total catastrophe for us," Preval said. Tens of thousands of people are living in tent cities that spread daily through soccer fields, school grounds and parks. And rain could loosen tons of concrete rubble. A Richly Deserved Humiliation; Coakley Loses and a Good Job Too Republican Scott Brown takes over a seat held by the Kennedy family for over half a century and the dark cloud already hovering over Obama's White House thickens. By any measure the energetic Brown's emphatic defeat of Martha Coakley, believed only a month ago to be a sure thing as Ted Kennedy's replacement, is a disaster for the Democratic Party and for President Obama. Coakley, a former prosecutor and attorney general of Massachusetts, ran a dumb, complacent campaign, allowing Brown, a state senator, to charge that she seemed to believe she had an inherent right to the seat. Coakley ladled out platitudes; Brown, pelting about the Commonwealth in a manly GMC truck, made the Democrats' health reform bill his prime issue, which was scarcely rocket science, since people of moderate income accurately believe that "reform" is going to cost them money, with zero improvement in overall service. A year after his inauguration Obama has disappointed so many constituencies that a rebuke by the voters was inevitable. Yesterday it came in Massachusetts, often categorized as the most liberal in the union. This is entirely untrue. It's a disgusting sinkhole of racism and vulgar prejudice, as five minutes in any taxi in the state, listening to Talk Radio or reading the local newspaper, will attest. Brown's achievement is not novel. His type of Republican has been elected governor in Massachusetts three or four times in the last 18 years by the real "majority party" --which is the "unenrolled" independents who are 1 and 1/2 times the size of Democrats in number among registered voters and tower over the Republicans of whom less than 12 per cent are registered as such. 464 killed in Nigeria, troops seek to end violence Clashes between Muslim and Christian gangs subsided today in the Nigerian city of Jos and nearby communities, where rights activists said the death toll has topped 464. Hundreds of soldiers and police were stationed throughout Plateau state’s capital city in central Nigeria to enforce a 24-hour curfew, which has left many streets deserted and businesses closed. US-based Human Rights Watch said 151 bodies had been taken to the city’s mosque for burial since the violence started on Sunday, while the number of Christian dead was put at 65. “The fighting has stopped in Jos, but we can hear gunshots in other communities in the outskirts of the city. We are expecting more corpses to be brought in from surrounding communities later today,” said Muhammad Tanko Shittu, a senior mosque official organising mass burials, who estimated the death toll among Muslims at 177. Activists sentenced in Vietnam A Vietnamese court has sentenced four democracy activists to between five and 16 years in prison. The group was convicted in a one-day trial on Wednesday in Ho Chi Minh City on charges of collaborating with foreigners in a plot to overthrow the government. Le Cong Dinh, a 41-year-old leading human rights lawyer, and Nguyen Tien Trung, 26, a computer expert and blogger, were said to have undertaken "activities aimed at subverting the people's administration". The two other defendants, Tran Huynh Duy Thuc, 43, and Le Thang Long, 42, internet entrepreneurs from Ho Chi Minh City and Hanoi, respectively, were convicted of the same charge. Italy's senate backs bill ending Berlusconi trials Italy's parliament gave its first nod on Wednesday to a draft law drastically cutting the duration of trials, a measure critics say is tailor-made to stop pending court cases against Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi. The Senate, where Berlusconi has an ample majority, approved the so-called "short trial" draft bill -- one of the most radical reforms of Italy's snail-paced justice system since the end of World War Two -- by 163 to 130 votes. It will now go before the lower house, where it is all but certain to get the green light. The draft law sets a total limit of between 6-1/2 and 10 years on the three stages of court cases -- initial trial, first appeal and final appeal -- depending on how serious the crime is. Beyond that, the defendant would be automatically acquitted. Because of its retroactive effect, the measure would effectively terminate two corruption and tax fraud trials against Berlusconi, who denies all charges and says he has been hounded by magistrates since entering politics in 1994. The opposition said the draft bill was the umpteenth "ad personam" law, using the Latin term meaning "for one person," to save Berlusconi from prosecution. It says the way to speed up trials is to give the judiciary more resources. Zimbabweans' perilous journey Every month, thousands of economic migrants flee Zimbabwe and cross the border into South Africa in search of a better life. However, many become victims of rapists and robbers waiting on the border. Medical workers say they have seen an average of 15 abused women and girls a week since the beginning of the year. With most cases going unreported due to fear, it is impossible to know the exact number. But with unemployment in Zimbabwe at 90 per cent, desperation will keep driving people to make the journey, no matter how treacherous it may be. US Mercenaries Set Sights on Haiti We saw this type of Iraq-style disaster profiteering in New Orleans, and you can expect to see a lot more of this in Haiti over the coming days, weeks and months. Private security companies are seeing big dollar signs in Haiti thanks in no small part to the media hype about "looters." After Katrina, the number of private security companies registered (and unregistered) multiplied overnight. Banks, wealthy individuals, the US government all hired private security. I even encountered Israeli mercenaries operating an armed checkpoint outside of an elite gated community in New Orleans. They worked for a company called Instinctive Shooting International. (That is not a joke). Now, it is kicking into full gear in Haiti. The Orwellian-named mercenary trade group International Peace Operations Association didn't waste much time in offering the "services" of its member companies to swoop down on Haiti for some old-fashioned "humanitarian assistance" in the form of disaster profiteering. Within hours of the massive earthquake in Haiti, the IPOA created a special webpage for prospective clients, saying: "In the wake of the tragic events in Haiti, a number of IPOA's member companies are available and prepared to provide a wide variety of critical relief services to the earthquake's victims." While some of the companies specialize in rapid housing construction, emergency relief shelters and transportation, others are private security companies that operate in Iraq and Afghanistan, such as Triple Canopy, the company that took over Blackwater's massive State Department contract in Iraq. For years, Blackwater played a major role in IPOA until it left the group following the 2007 Nisour Square massacre. Murkowski EPA Amendment Expected Tomorrow We'll find out tomorrow precisely which strategy Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) plans to employ in her mission to bar the Environmental Protection Agency from regulating greenhouse gases. Her press office just announced that the senator will give a floor speech tomorrow in which she'll indicate whether she plans to tack an amendment blocking EPA regulations onto debt-ceiling legislation, or whether she'll offer a separate "resolution of disapproval" barring any EPA restrictions on carbon emissions. Murkowski's move comes as Democratic leaders are growing increasingly worried about advancing their legislative priorities in the aftermath of Republican Scott Brown's win in Massachusetts on Tuesday. What was already expected to be a very tough vote on climate legislation just got a lot tougher. In fact, EPA regulation of carbon dioxide is starting to look like the last—and possibly only—hope for curbing emissions anytime soon. Murkowski's office argues, however, that she's not trying to prevent emissions cuts, but that she simply wants to keep the policy debate in Congress rather than letting the executive branch write the rules. And she's getting support from at least one Democrat—Virginia's Jim Webb. "There’s been a lot of criticism of Sen. Murkowski’s motives," says Robert Dillon, the senator's spokesman. "The fact is all she’s asking for is an up or down vote on whether the EPA should be allowed to regulate greenhouse gases under the Clean Air Act." PAM COMMENTARY: This isn't as big of a deal as they're trying to make it -- everything can be regulated by LAWS instead of agencies. This amendment would just try to block turning things over to agencies, who can write many of their own policies. The FDA is a good example of agency regulation -- because of jobs promised to people there, the best science is often suppressed, and far too many dangerous or risky products are approved. Political representatives can sometimes be just as corrupt, but at least they're more in the open, and accountable to people during the next election. Killer spiders invade Sydney (Australia) Forget sharks and crocodiles: the real menace at this time of year, at least for surburban Sydneysiders, is a backyard spider whose bite can kill you in the space of two hours. Insect experts have warned that the city is being invaded by funnel-webs, considered one of the world's most aggressive and poisonous spiders. A reptile park north of Sydney where people can drop off captured specimens, and where they are milked of their venom to make antidote, has received more than 40 males in recent weeks. Males are deadlier than females. A lengthy dry period, followed by unseasonable downpours and high humidity over the Christmas break, is blamed for the plague. NZ army to remove bible quotes from weapon sights WELLINGTON, New Zealand — New Zealand's defense force said Thursday that Biblical citations on markings on weapon sights used by its troops in Afghanistan will be removed. Going to war in Afghanistan with Biblical citations stamped on their weapons is not appropriate for New Zealand soldiers, said defense force spokesman Maj. Kristian Dunne. U.S. manufacturer, Trijicon of Wixom, Michigan, would be instructed to remove the inscriptions on further orders of the gun sights and the letters would be removed from gun sights already in use by New Zealand troops, he said. The Advanced Combat Optical Gunsight rifle sights supplied by Trijicon and used by New Zealand troops carry references to Bible verses that appeared in raised lettering at the end of the sight stock number. Alaska Wildlife sightings PAM COMMENTARY: A gallery of reader-submitted wildlife pictures from Alaska. Some of these photos are stunning! Native, environmental groups challenge Chukchi Sea drilling A coalition of Alaska Natives has combined forces with some of the heaviest hitters in the environmental community to challenge a plan by Shell to drill for oil off Northwest Alaska. The legal challenge to Shell's approved drilling plan for the Chukchi Sea was filed today in the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals. The groups say that the plan approved by the Minerals Management Service does not comply with federal environmental laws. And they say the plan was approved without evaluation of the potential impact of a major oil spill in the Chukchi Sea. The MMS has approved a Shell drilling plan for up to three exploratory wells in the Chukchi next summer. $10,000 reward offered for scientific proof of H1N1 vaccine safety and effectiveness (NaturalNews) In conjunction with NaturalNews, the non-profit Consumer Wellness Center (www.ConsumerWellness.org) has publicly offered a $10,000 reward for any person, company or institution who can provide trusted, scientific evidence proving that any of the FDA-approved H1N1 vaccines being offered to Americans right now are both safe and effective. Vaccine promoters keep citing their "science" in claiming that H1N1 vaccines are safe and effective. NaturalNews and the CWC ask one simple question: Where is this science? The $10,000 reward will be issued to anyone who can produce scientific evidence meeting the following criteria: • A scientific paper, published in a peer-reviewed medical journal, describing the results of a minimum of two Phase III trials structured as randomized, placebo-controlled scientific clinical trials of an FDA-approved H1N1 vaccine currently in distribution, carried out on a minimum of 1,000 people (for statistical significance) for a duration of at least 90 days. The inclusion criteria for both clinical trials must be properly randomized so that the participants are representative of the entire U.S. population and not merely a desired sub-group selected to skew the research outcome. Inclusion criteria must be provided to NaturalNews for verification. PAM COMMENTARY: I started to get what seemed like swine flu symptoms a few days ago, and was able to handle it by zapping once a day for 3 days in a row. (I also had a cup of licorice tea each day, a glass of orange juice, and a cup of some herbal tea called "Gypsy Cold Care" -- a blend that's probably pretty weak, but at least it wasn't as dehydrating as the licorice.) I don't know 100% for sure whether it was the swine flu, but if so, it seemed pretty weak just like they say -- at least when confronted with a zapper. A giant leap for British salmon The rivers of the South Wales coalfield once ran black with mining waste and were so polluted in places that no life could survive. But, in one of the most remarkable environmental turnarounds Britain has ever seen, a 20-year effort to clean them up has paid off – salmon have returned to all of them. Watercourses such as the Ebbw, the Rhymney, the Taff and the Rhondda, whose names for many people are still redolent of a blighted landscape of pitheads and slag heaps, now have salmon running up them from the sea to spawn. The revolution has been brought about by 20 years of work by the Environment Agency, local authorities and angling clubs, in the wake of the collapse of the South Wales mining industry at the end of the 1980s. It is part of a significant improvement in water quality across England and Wales, continuing for nearly two decades, which has seen salmon coming back to once heavily polluted rivers such as the Thames, the Mersey and the Tyne. Migrant domestic workers: 'I was in a prison, a cage, just like a slave' Less than a week after arriving in the UK from Africa, Rose realised that she had made a terrible mistake. First, her passport was taken from her at the airport by her new employers. Then the promises that her employers had made began to disappear. Insults turned into slaps. One day she missed a call from her boss. “She beat me from upstairs to downstairs, dragging me. I was just crying and crying,” she says. “The more I cry, the more she beat me. She said, ‘Keep quiet, keep quiet. In this country you are not allowed to cry. The police will come’.” The police didn’t come. Migrant domestic workers such as Rose (her name has been changed) tend to pass unnoticed through our day-to-day lives. The recipients of these visas — more than 16,500 are issued each year — come to work as housekeepers or nannies, gardeners or cooks, and live a closeted existence inside private houses. Many are treated well but their isolation, their dependence on their employers and a lack of clarity over their rights can leave them open to abuse. Rose had come here to work as a nanny. She thought the pay would allow her to educate her brothers and her daughter back home. Instead, she was deprived of her wages and made to work as a skivvy. “I was in a prison, a cage, a slave,” she says. “I had no family, I had no friends. There was a point where I was even thinking I should commit suicide.” Luckily for Rose, her cries did not go completely unheard. One night, her neighbour Abigail heard her wailing coming through the wall as she was putting her daughter to bed. Not even the roar of traffic past the row of townhouses was loud enough to muffle it. The sobs became so persistent that Abigail rang the bell of the house next door, convinced that someone had died. There was no answer. Vincent Van Gogh: A life in letters ON 23 July, 1890, Vincent Van Gogh sent a letter to his brother Theo from the village of Auvers-sur-Oise. "As for me, I'm applying myself to my canvases with all my attention," he wrote, and enclosed four sketches of paintings recently completed. A week later he was dead. But the letter doesn't read like the work of a crazed artist about to paint a frenzied picture of crows above a cornfield then shoot himself. Van Gogh's last letter is very much like the hundreds that preceded it: thoughtful, articulate and above all, passionately engaged with the ongoing and difficult business of being an artist. Experts on Van Gogh often talk about "the Van Gogh myth", that of the mad artist producing works of accidental genius. It is pernicious, helped by Irving Stone's bestselling bio-novel Lust for Life, and the subsequent film starring Kirk Douglas. But it is a myth. We know this because Van Gogh left us his side of the story. More than 800 letters of his survive, close to a million words, an astonishing correspondence with his brother and others about love, friendship, literature, religion, and above all, art. Art historians claim Van Gogh's ear 'cut off by Gauguin' (FLASHBACK) Vincent van Gogh's fame may owe as much to a legendary act of self-harm, as it does to his self-portraits. But, 119 years after his death, the tortured post-Impressionist's bloody ear is at the centre of a new controversy, after two historians suggested that the painter did not hack off his own lobe but was attacked by his friend, the French artist Paul Gauguin. According to official versions, the disturbed Dutch painter cut off his ear with a razor after a row with Gauguin in 1888. Bleeding heavily, Van Gogh then walked to a brothel and presented the severed ear to an astonished prostitute called Rachel before going home to sleep in a blood-drenched bed. But two German art historians, who have spent 10 years reviewing the police investigations, witness accounts and the artists' letters, argue that Gauguin, a fencing ace, most likely sliced off the ear with his sword during a fight, and the two artists agreed to hush up the truth. In Van Gogh's Ear: Paul Gauguin and the Pact of Silence, published in Germany, Hamburg-based academics Hans Kaufmann and Rita Wildegans argue that the official version of events, based largely on Gauguin's accounts, contain inconsistencies and that both artists hinted that the truth was more complex. Stocks fall as China clamps down on bank lending NEW YORK — Stocks fell by the most since late October on concerns that tighter lending rules in China could endanger an economic recovery. Disappointing earnings from IBM and Morgan Stanley added to investors' angst. At the same time, a spike in the dollar pushed commodity prices sharply lower, hurting stocks of energy companies and materials producers. The Dow Jones industrial average fell 130 points from a 15-month high. Earlier, the index lost more than 200 in its worst drop since Oct. 30. Demand for safe havens like government debt rose, pushing yields lower in the Treasury market. Concerns grew that China's efforts to keep its economy under control could hurt a global recovery. A top banking regulator said Wednesday that China will increase monitoring of banks as it tries to prevent speculative bubbles in areas like real estate. Last week China took steps to restrict runaway lending as a way to cool that country's rapid growth. Investors are worried that a slowdown in China's huge economy would spill over to other countries. Metro Birmingham group advocates urban backyard egg production Her husband is an architect who runs his own company in Avondale. He designed the fancy chicken coop in their yard. The Nelsons have been identifying other urban chicken-raising supporters and researching city zoning ordinances and the process to change them. "We're in the embryonic stages, no pun intended," Julie said, adding that any ordinance revisions would have to result from a grassroots movement. "Having pro-hen ordinances would benefit people because they would have access to convenient fresh eggs. In this economy, that means something." She also said "it's a joy" to raise a chicken. A spot check of the metro area found that Birmingham, Jefferson County, Bessemer, Hoover and Alabaster do not allow farm animals -- including chickens -- in residential areas. In those cities, chickens are limited to agricultural areas, and some ordinances require minimum acreage on which chickens may live. In Homewood, however, chickens and other fowl are allowed in residential areas if there is no noise, odor or pollution and the chickens are kept at least 300 feet from adjacent buildings. PAM COMMENTARY: I once had a "friend" in Orwigsburg, Pennsylvania who raised chickens. The first time he tried his hand at it, all of his chickens and their chicks were killed by foxes because he let them run around the yard. The second time, he built a hideous shambles of a chicken coop in his backyard, which seemed to protect the birds a little more. I liked the birds, but later learned that the man was a horrible sexual predator, as was one of his friends who raised chickens. TV star challenges crowd to share civil rights stories Reid, an Emmy-nominated actor, producer and director known for his roles in TV's "WKRP in Cincinnati," "Simon & Simon," and "Sister, Sister," challenged the crowd of more than 1,200 to make sure that their children and grandchildren are taught the stories of the great heroes of civil rights and black history. Character, he said, does not happen by accident. "If character determines fate and TV defines reality, then we have our work cut out for us," Reid said. "I pledge to keep Martin Luther King's battle alive. Join me in the battle for the minds and hearts of our children." Schools switch sugars in chocolate milk Berkeley Farms is swapping the type of sugar it uses in the nonfat chocolate milk it ships to schools after San Francisco parents complained that the high-fructose corn syrup added to sweeten the milk is unhealthy for their children - a switch that does nothing to improve the nutritional value, experts say. Sucrose, or regular white sugar, will replace the high-fructose corn syrup. The sugar and calorie content in the milk will remain the same. Local healthy food advocates called the formula change a victory for consumers, but scientists and Berkeley Farms officials noted that the substitution won't make a difference nutritionally for children in the lunch line. Are mystery bones those of 10th-century princess? LONDON—She was a beautiful English princess who married one of Europe’s most powerful monarchs and dazzled subjects with her charity and charm. Now a team of British and German experts say they think they’ve found the body of Princess Eadgyth (pronounced Edith) — a 10th-century noblewoman who has been compared to Princess Diana. “She was a very, very popular person,” said Mark Horton, an archaeology professor at Bristol University in western England. “She was sort of the Diana of her day if you like — pretty and full of good works.” Horton is one of a team of experts working to verify the identity of some bones found bundled in silk in Magdeburg Cathedral in Germany. Russian journalist dies after beating by police officer Reporting from Moscow - A Russian journalist who was thrown into a Siberian drunk tank and savagely beaten by a young police officer died today, in a case that has sparked a national conversation about the latent alcoholism and casual violence that wind their way through life in this winter-hardened land. Konstantin Popov was a little-known 47-year-old journalist who specialized in writing about economics. A few days into the new year, in the thick of a 10-day Russian holiday known for its debaucheries, Popov was arrested and thrown into the police holding cell reserved for the drunk and disorderly. He was taken home the next day, but he had been beaten so badly his wife grew alarmed and took him to a hospital. He soon lapsed into a coma from severe damage to his internal organs. Because Popov was a journalist, and because Russia is a country where not-uncommon attacks on journalists are carefully tracked, his death drew national attention. News conferences were called. The Tomsk drunk tank was closed down. The deputy police chief resigned, along with the supervisor of the holding cell. The police chief apologized. The young officer was arrested and confessed. Casting Doubt on US Claims of Suicide, Attorney Scott Horton Reveals 3 Gitmo Prisoners Died After Torture at Secret Site [DN] ANJALI KAMAT: NCIS? SCOTT HORTON: Is the Naval Criminal Investigation Service—we were able to see how they had concluded the suicides occurred. And they state that these three prisoners bound their feet, bound their hands with cloth, stuffed cloth down their throats, in some cases, at least, put masks over their faces to hold the cloth in place, fashioned mannequins of themselves to put in their beds to deceive the guards, put up cloth to obstruct the view of cameras, fashioned a noose which they attached at the top of an eight-foot wire wall, stepped up as their hands and feet are bound and they’re gagging on cloth, stepped up on top of a wash basin, put their head through the noose, tightened it, and jumped off—and moreover, that these prisoners, in non-adjacent cells, did all of these things absolutely simultaneously, in a clockwork-like fashion. So the story is just simply incredible and simply not believable, I should stress. And then we began looking at autopsy evidence, all sorts of other evidence, which strongly suggested that there was something seriously inappropriate here. We talked with pathologists and so on, who told us they had rarely seen something quite as irregular as what was going on here. And then, ultimately, I was approached by Sergeant Hickman, who gave me his account. And it’s not just Sergeant Hickman, actually; it’s almost his entire unit who was on duty that night and the perimeter guards. Four other soldiers provided aspects of corroboration. There’s not a single element of Sergeant Hickman’s story that is not in fact corroborated by others, based on the their own eyewitness testimony. And I should say, the things they observed are the things they were required to observe. It was their duty. These were the perimeter guards. They were supposed to keep close count of everything that happened, and particularly who went in and out of the base that evening. And what they tell us is that three prisoners were removed from that cellblock that evening between 7:00 and 8:00 and taken to the secret facility, Camp No. ANJALI KAMAT: Explain what Camp No is. Why is it called Camp No? SCOTT HORTON: Well, they call it Camp No because “No, it does not exist” was an answer that they were supposed to give if there were inquiries about it. In their first weeks on the job there in March 2006, they had come across it when they were doing perimeter patrols. In fact, two of the soldiers here were PIs, and they decided sort of to sharpen their skills. They were going to monitor and keep an eye on Camp No, which they did. And they largely believed that this was a facility that was being used by the CIA, or certainly by Intelligence Service agents. They noted un-uniformed government personnel from other government agencies who seemed to be involved with or connected with this facility. Study links Asia to smog component in Western US Ozone blowing over from Asia is raising background levels of a major ingredient of smog in the skies over California, Oregon, Washington and other Western states, according to a new study appearing in Thursday's edition of the journal Nature. The amounts are small and, so far, only found in a region of the atmosphere known as the free troposphere, at an altitude of two to five miles, but the development could complicate U.S. efforts to control air pollution. Though the levels are small, they have been steadily rising since 1995, and probably longer, said lead author Owen R. Cooper, a research scientist at the University of Colorado attached to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Earth System Research Laboratory in Boulder, Colo. "The important aspect of this study for North America is that we have a strong indication that baseline ozone is increasing," said Cooper. "We still don't know how much is coming down to the surface. If the surface ozone is increasing along with the free tropospheric ozone, that could make it more difficult for the U.S. to meet its ozone air quality standard." With Foreign Aid Still at a Trickle, Devastated Port-au-Prince General Hospital Struggles to Meet Overwhelming Need [DN] AMY GOODMAN: What do you need? What would be constructive? DR. EVAN LYON: What we need right now is electricity, water, nurses, surgeons and materials. We have on site right now—we have seven operating rooms up and running. We need about fifteen or twenty within the next twenty-four hours. We have materials to keep the operating rooms going for maybe another twelve hours. Once that runs out, then we’re stuck. AMY GOODMAN: Soldiers haven’t brought you supplies? DR. EVAN LYON: Not yet. AMY GOODMAN: Talk about the most pressing problems of people here, dare I say the crushing need, and what has happened in this first week, the people who have died, the people who could have lived. DR. EVAN LYON: The most pressing need is for surgery. Most of the injuries were crushing injuries, were bones. There are hundreds of people here with compound fractures, meaning the bone has broken and come out the skin. They’ve had first aid. They’ve been stabilized. They’re being given antibiotics. And some are dying of infection. What they need is surgery. And they need it right away. Those people are dying minute to minute to minute, because we don’t have the surgical capacity to take care of their wounds, to decompress the infections. The other thing that weighs heavy on me is that we have no pain medicine. So we have people now—we’re approaching exactly one week in a few hours. We’ve had people with compound fractures. We’ve had people with limbs that need amputation. And we have no analgesia. We have no pain medicines of any kind. Journalist Kim Ives on How Western Domination Has Undermined Haiti’s Ability to Recover from Natural Devastation [DN] AMY GOODMAN: And just to be clear, when you talk about the two coups, the one in 1991, the one in 2004, both were of them were the—led to the ouster of President Jean-Bertrand Aristide. KIM IVES: Correct. AMY GOODMAN: And you talked about US involvement with those. KIM IVES: Right. And Aristide, in both cases, was taken from Haiti, essentially by US forces, both times. The first time he ended up spending it in Washington, but now he’s presently in South Africa, where he’s been for these past six years. But along with this political—these political earthquakes carried out by Washington were the economic earthquakes, the US policy that they wanted to see in place, because Aristide’s government had a fundamentally nationalist orientation, which was looking to build the national self-sufficiency of the country, but Washington would have none of it. They wanted the nine principal state publicly owned industries privatized, to be sold to US and foreign investors. So, about twelve years ago under the first administration of René Préval, they privatized the Minoterie d’Haiti and Ciment d’Haiti, the flour mill, the state flour mill, and the state cement company. Now, for flour, obviously, you have a hungry, needy population. You can imagine if the state had a robust flour mill where it could distribute flour to the people so they could have bread. That was sold to a company of which Henry Kissinger was a board member. And very quickly, that flour mill was closed. Haiti now has no flour mill, not private or public. AMY GOODMAN: Where does it get its flour? This is the poorest country in the western hemisphere. KIM IVES: It has to import it, and a lot of it is coming from the United States. The other one is—and even more ironic, Amy—is the cement factory. Here is a country which is mostly made of limestone, geologically, and that is the foundation of cement. It is a country which absolutely should and could have a cement company, and did, but it was again privatized and immediately shut down. And they began using the docks of the cement company for importing cement. So when we drive around this country and we see the thousands of cement buildings which are pancaked or collapsed, this is a country which is going to need millions and millions of tons of cement, and it’s going to have to now import all of that cement, rather than being able to produce it itself. It could be and should be an exporter of cement, not an importer. Bank Shot: Independents and Dem Base Still Aligned in Anger Rep. Patrick Kennedy (D-R.I.), whose father held the seat for more than four decades, said that voters were protesting a lack of accountability for Wall Street -- a top priority for both Democrats and independents. "Frankly, people wanted a whipping boy for the fact that they're losing their jobs and their homes and their businesses because of a lack of credit and that these banks are getting bailed out with taxpayer funds and it seems as if nobody's going to jail. I mean it's pretty basic. They feel like this country got put through the ringer and the taxpayers got held out to dry and nobody's being held accountable. It's like, in Roman times, they'd be trotted out into the coliseum and the lions would be brought out. They're wanting blood and they're not getting it. And so they want to protest and you can't blame them," he said. The unemployment rate is hovering at 10 percent and many more people have stopped looking for work or are underemployed. Independents, said Lake, have been hit hardest by the economic downturn, so addressing the economy can win support from both independents and Democrats. Picking up independents means making their lives better in a meaningful way. "We're facing an electorate that is uncertain. They're struggling," said Rep. Paul Hodes, a Democrat from New Hampshire running for Senate. "They've lost jobs. Their friends have lost jobs. They're worried about their houses." The foreclosure crisis continues to devastate the middle class. The House has passed aggressive legislation to deal with it, allowing bankruptcy judges to rewrite mortgages, but it died in the Senate without Obama pushing for it. "Some people believe that Washington isn't getting it done, and we've got institutions designed by our founders to work slowly in an era when our PDAs work really quick. And so adapting those institutions to our modern era is an important issue," said Hodes. PAM COMMENTARY: There are a number of articles speculating on the Democrats' loss of Ted Kennedy's old seat in Massachusetts yesterday. This one quotes Ted Kennedy's own son, so I thought I'd post it. Kennedy thinks the loss was due to financial hardship, and it's true that voters usually vote their wallets. There are other theories on the loss, and I'll post a few of those as well. Health Care and the Massachusetts Senate Race; What’s bothering folks up there, anyway? When President Obama came to Massachusetts to rally the troops for Martha Coakley Sunday, he had little to say about health care. That was curious, considering that the White House needs Coakley to keep his filibuster-proof Senate intact so the health care bill makes it to the finish line. It’s also puzzling considering that for weeks health care has been Topic Numero Uno, and the president has been working behind the scenes to shape the legislation. In his remarks, the president noted that Coakley as attorney general had gone after big insurance companies that misled people into buying coverage, only to deny it when they got sick. Later in his talk, he told the crowd that when it comes to taking on the worst practices of insurance companies that routinely deny Americans the care they need, she’s going to be on your side. That was pretty much it. No mention of how Massachusetts reform became the model for national legislation; no mention of the state’s high cost of medical care; no mention that many residents have dropped coverage because they can’t afford it and are willing to take the penalty; no mention that small businesses are struggling mightily to pay their premiums. It’s not unreasonable for Massachusetts residents to want their U.S. senator to be on their side, especially when it comes to the state’s soaring cost of health care—an issue simmering beneath the surface, even if it hasn’t quite bubbled over as a major issue, in Coakley’s campaign against Republican Scott Brown. “Small businesses are mad as hell,” says Jon Hurst, who runs the Retailers Association of Massachusetts, a trade group of some 3000 firms. “This is by far the worst year we’ve seen since the [reform] law has gone into effect.” Hurst is talking about the double-digit insurance rate increases his members are seeing in renewal envelopes. The premiums for his own five employees have jumped up thirty-three percent. The next logical step, he says, is a high deductible policy to bring down the price. Bruce Derosier owns a fitness center in Spencer, a town of about 13,000 in the middle of the state. The premium for his individual policy was affordable at $1,800 nine years ago, but the $9,100 he pays now is not. His agent found him a similar Blue Cross policy for about $6,000 a year, but warned him it was an introductory offer and that the price could go up next year. PAM COMMENTARY: My take on the whole thing is that people were expecting more from the Democrats since Bush left office -- an end to the wars, real health care reform, repairs to the economy, etc. Instead they were given more of the same, only without Bush as the idiotic front man. The wars rage on, both already longer than any US war other than Vietnam. The economy is dire, with high unemployment for more than a year. And health care "reform" has turned into a gift for big corporations, basically forcing people to buy insurance policies. It's unlikely that the Republican candidate will attempt to fix any of these problems, in fact he'll probably make them worse. But how would a continuation of Bush's old policies provide the motivation for people to turn out for the Democrats? Running for office is a lot like selling a product -- you have to give people a product they want. Republican Brown beats Coakley in special Senate election in Massachusetts BOSTON -- Republican Scott Brown dealt a devastating blow to President Obama's domestic agenda Tuesday night by capturing the Senate seat of the late Edward M. Kennedy, the legendary Democrat who had made health-care reform the cause of his political career. Brown, a little-known Massachusetts state senator 10 days ago, won the special election by running directly against the health-care legislation that Kennedy trumpeted before his August death and that Obama considers his most important legislative priority. Coming on the eve of the first anniversary of Obama's historic inauguration, the stunning upset eliminated the Democrats' filibuster-proof majority in the Senate and created an immediate roadblock to approving the health-care plan and other Obama priorities. The symbolism of the rejection was difficult to overstate: Kennedy, who held his Senate seat for nearly 47 years, served as a political mentor to Obama and was the patriarch of the Kennedy family's political dynasty. Even before the polls closed at 8 p.m., Obama's top advisers engaged in a public blame game with the campaign of state Attorney General Martha Coakley, the Democratic candidate, over who is responsible for the crippling setback to the party. Brown's late surge was fueled by voter anger about the high unemployment rate and by his vow to block the president's proposal for health-care reform. He drew chants of "41!" during his acceptance speech Tuesday night, symbolic of his role as the 41st member of the Senate GOP caucus. PAM COMMENTARY: The video embedded in this article says that the Democrat took a win for granted, and maybe didn't do enough. The article itself says that Brown appealed to voters' dislike of the current health care reform legislation, and that also voters had concerns about the unemployment rate. I'm sure all contributed to the loss.  Democratic blame game in full force in Massachusetts Senate special election 1. Less than 24 hours removed from state Attorney General Martha Coakley's (D) stunning loss in the Massachusetts Senate race, Democrats were at daggers-drawn over whose fault it was. Two rival camps quickly emerged: Coakley's campaign (and consultant -- in particular pollster Celinda Lake) versus national Democrats. From a Coakley campaign adviser came a strongly worded memo, arguing that she had consistently raised concern about voter apathy in advance of the special election and asked for fundraising help that she never received from national Democrats. One senior party official dismissed the memo as a "pack of lies" and -- in a memo rebutting the Coakley memo -- made several points including: 1) National Democrats had contacted the campaign on Jan. 2 asking what could be done to help and didn't hear back for four days. 2) The money problems were Coakley's and hers alone; "If the Coakley campaign did have money troubles perhaps it was because the candidate and campaign went on hiatus/vacation for the last 10 days of December," read the memo. 3) "Remember -- the most notable events of the last week had nothing to do with the national Democratic Party -- it was: Schilling is a Yankee, telling voters she didn't need to shake their hands, a Disastrous trip to Washington DC and a terrible debate performance," read the memo. The simple fact -- as we noted last night -- is that everyone from the White House to the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee to the Coakley campaign deserves their share of blame. It wasn't any one group or groups that cost Democrats this race but rather a confluence of factors: an angry electorate, a skillful Republican message that framed Sen.-elect Scott Brown (R) as the outsider and Coakley as the status quo, a damaged Democratic brand in state politics, a health care bill that remains far less popular than the White House is willing to admit and, yes, a poor candidate who made a series of blunders that reinforced the idea that she was out of touch. Democrats did well in sharing the credit during the ups of 2006 and 2008; they would now do well to share a bit of the blame for this loss. 2. As expected, the idea of delaying Brown's seating was quickly washed away amidst his victory. Even before Brown delivered his victory speech, Virginia Sen. Jim Webb (D) put out a statement insisting that "it would only be fair and prudent that we suspend further votes on health care legislation until Senator-elect Brown is seated." Brown, for his part, made clear he was ready, willing and able to head to Washington as soon as today. He said that he had spoken to interim Sen. Paul Kirk (D), who drew headlines last week for his insistence that he would vote for final passage of health care regardless of what happened in the special, and that Kirk "welcomes me as soon as I can get there." The truth of the matter on health care is that there are simply no good options out there for the White House and Senate Democrats. As the Post's Shailagh Murray and Lori Montgomery wrote today: "Unless Democrats can thread a very narrow legislative needle, Republican Scott Brown's upset victory over Martha Coakley in Massachusetts on Tuesday could lead to the collapse of a health-care bill that, only weeks ago, appeared close to becoming law." There seems to be considerable resistance from the House to simply pass the Senate bill and it's hard to imagine that resistance not growing in the wake of the Coakley defeat. An attempt to adjust the bill to attract a moderate Republican -- Sen. Olympia Snowe (Maine) would seem the most obvious target -- will take both time and some fence mending as Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (Nev.) made clear recently that he didn't believe Snowe was negotiating in good faith. The White House continues to believe that the worst of all worlds is no bill at all and, as a result, are likely to explore all options that will allow the President to sign something. But, for an Administration that made clear they wanted to clear the decks of health care prior to the President's State of the Union address, that idea now seems like a pipe dream. PAM COMMENTARY: This article brings up possible fundraising problems, and other nuts and bolts issues of running a campaign. Kennedy’s absence tangible as Democrats ask what went wrong WASHINGTON - For decades it was, quite literally, Ted Kennedy’s seat, the place in the Senate chamber where the legendary liberal pounded his desk and spoke passionately in favor of universal health care. And after the senator’s death, his legacy was marked by a black mourning cloth and crystal vase of white roses on his desk. Democrats never imagined that a Republican determined to defeat the health care overhaul Kennedy fought to achieve right until his death could take, if not his actual seat, then his place in the Senate. The stunning victory of Republican Scott Brown has disrupted both the legislative strategy and the psyches of a Democratic caucus still grieving the loss of their friend. And while the late senator’s long legislative record remains intact, advocates for a health care overhaul wonder whether the dream of achieving their goal died with the Massachusetts senator. “It will certainly be a sad irony for Massachusetts to replace Senator Kennedy with someone who is determined to block a bill Senator Kennedy very much himself wanted to get passed,’’ said David Kravitz, co-founder of Blue Mass Group, a liberal blog. As Baucus Unveils Health Plan Absent of Public Option, New Study Finds 45,000 Uninsured Die Every Year (FLASHBACK) [DN] JUAN GONZALEZ: Now, you have an individual mandate there in Massachusetts under the Massachusetts plan. How has that worked? DR. STEFFIE WOOLHANDLER: Well, it hasn’t worked very well. When the individual mandate was rolled out this past year, we saw no improvement in the number of uninsured in the state. We actually saw a deterioration in access to care. The previous year, they had rolled out a Medicaid expansion. That worked. That got some people covered. But when they rolled out the mandate this year, there was no improvement in the number of insured. The Census Bureau just announced that only—that only half of the uninsured were covered by that Medicaid expansion. It also found that there were five-and-a-half percent of people in the state uninsured. That’s not universal coverage. And then, our private insurance industry just announced that they’re raising all of our premiums ten percent, and they’re saying that’s because of the cost of the reform. So, in Massachusetts, we’ve spent a lot of money. We’ve managed to cover about half of the uninsured through Medicaid expansion and expansion of Medicaid-like programs. We’ve given the insurance industry absolutely everything they wanted. And what we’re getting is higher prices and still having uninsured people in the state. PAM COMMENTARY: That's right, Massachusetts is the state that required its citizens to buy medical insurance within the past few years. Massachusetts voters have had experience with the type of health care reform being debated in DC right now, and they've turned Ted Kennedy's seat over to a water boarding-supporting Republican to prevent that type of system from becoming national law. How Quickly Should Scott Brown Take His Senate Seat? But first, some background: Health care is the reason the timing of Brown's appointment is such a big deal. If, as Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., suggested in a statement Tuesday night, Brown's swearing-in must wait until election results are certified, it would give Democrats as many as 15 days more of a 60-vote Senate majority. That's enough votes to block a Republican filibuster and enough time, House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, D-Md., suggested to reporters Tuesday, to whip through a revised health care bill that reconciles the differences between versions of the legislation that the House and Senate passed last year. In his victory speech, Brown said that the state's interim senator, Democrat Paul Kirk, should step down right away. "Interim Sen. Paul Kirk has completed his work," Brown said. "The people, by their votes, have not filled the office themselves and I am ready to go to Washington without delay." That's the way it usually works, Brown's suporters say. Campaign spokesman Eric Fehrnstrom cited the 1962 special election that launched launched the epic career of the late Sen. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass. -- whose seat Brown will be assuming. Kennedy was elected on Nov. 6, 1962 and took his oath of office the next day. Since then, there have been nine other cases in which interim senators, appointed to fill the vacancies of senators who resigned or died in office, did not seek election to their posts. Three ceded their seats to their replacements within 48 hours of the election. In the six other cases, it was a matter of weeks before the new senators were sworn in. Party affiliation doesn't appear to be the factor: Humphrey, a Democrat appointed to take the place of her late husband, Sen. (and LBJ's Vice President) Hubert Humphrey, stepped aside immediately when Republican Rudy Boschwitz was elected in Minnesota and Nicholas Brady, a Republican, let New Jersey Democrat Frank Lautenberg get a head start on his seniority. But appointed Sen. Kaneaster Hodges Jr. of Arkansas made fellow Democrat David Pryor wait to take office until the official beginning of his term. No Deaths from Vitamins, Minerals, Amino Acids Or Herbs; Poison Control Statistics Prove Supplements' Safety [R] (OMNS) -- There was not even one death caused by a dietary supplement in 2008, according to the most recent information collected by the U.S. National Poison Data System. The new 174-page annual report of the American Association of Poison Control Centers, published in the journal Clinical Toxicology, shows zero deaths from multiple vitamins; zero deaths from any of the B vitamins; zero deaths from vitamins A, C, D, or E; and zero deaths from any other vitamin. Additionally, there were no deaths whatsoever from any amino acid or herbal product. This means no deaths at all from blue cohosh, echinacea, ginkgo biloba, ginseng, kava kava, St. John's wort , valerian, yohimbe, Asian medicines, ayurvedic medicines, or any other botanical. There were zero deaths from creatine, blue-green algae, glucosamine, chondroitin, melatonin, or any homeopathic remedies. Furthermore, there were zero deaths in 2008 from any dietary mineral supplement. This means there were no fatalities from calcium, magnesium, chromium, zinc, colloidal silver, selenium, iron, or multimineral supplements. Two children died as a result of medical use of the antacid sodium bicarbonate. The other "Electrolyte and Mineral" category death was due to a man accidentally drinking sodium hydroxide, a highly toxic degreaser and drain-opener. The Guantánamo “Suicides”: A Camp Delta sergeant blows the whistle [DN] Twenty minutes later—about the amount of time needed for the trip to Camp No and back—the paddy wagon returned. This time Hickman paid closer attention. He couldn’t see the Navy guards’ faces, but from body size and uniform they appeared to be the same men. The guards walked into Camp 1 and soon emerged with another prisoner. They departed Camp America, again in the direction of Camp No. Twenty minutes later, the van returned. Hickman, his curiosity piqued by the unusual flurry of activity and guessing that the guards might make another excursion, left Tower 1 and drove the three quarters of a mile to ACP Roosevelt to see exactly where the paddy wagon was headed. Shortly thereafter, the van passed through the checkpoint for the third time and then went another hundred yards, whereupon it turned toward Camp No, eliminating any question in Hickman’s mind about where it was going. All three prisoners would have reached their destination before 8 p.m. Hickman says he saw nothing more of note until about 11:30 p.m, when he had returned to his preferred vantage at Tower 1. As he watched, the paddy wagon returned to Camp Delta. This time, however, the Navy guards did not get out of the van to enter Camp 1. Instead, they backed the vehicle up to the entrance of the medical clinic, as if to unload something. At approximately 11:45 p.m.—nearly an hour before the NCIS claims the first body was discovered—Army Specialist Christopher Penvose, preparing for a midnight shift in Tower 1, was approached by a senior Navy NCO. Penvose told me that the NCO—who, following standard operating procedures, wore no name tag—appeared to be extremely agitated. He instructed Penvose to go immediately to the Camp Delta chow hall, identify a female senior petty officer who would be dining there, and relay to her a specific code word. Penvose did as he was instructed. The officer leapt up from her seat and immediately ran out of the chow hall. Another thirty minutes passed. Then, as Hickman and Penvose both recall, Camp Delta suddenly “lit up”—stadium-style flood lights were turned on, and the camp became the scene of frenzied activity, filling with personnel in and out of uniform. Hickman headed to the clinic, which appeared to be the center of activity, to learn the reason for the commotion. He asked a distraught medical corpsman what had happened. She said three dead prisoners had been delivered to the clinic. Hickman recalled her saying that they had died because they had rags stuffed down their throats, and that one of them was severely bruised. Davila told me he spoke to Navy guards who said the men had died as the result of having rags stuffed down their throats. Monsanto: Report Genetically Modified Corn Causes Organ Damage In Rats [BF] Genetically-modified corn sold by Monsanto (MON) causes organ damage in rats, according to a paper by three French scientists published in the International Journal of Biological Sciences. The Huffington Post published a piece today on the study. The study, which looked at three different types of Monsanto corn, found a variety of side-effects from consuming the corn: “[I]n the three GM maize varieties that formed the basis of this investigation, new side effects linked to the consumption of these cereals were revealed, which were sex- and often dose-dependent. Effects were mostly concentrated in kidney and liver function, the two major diet detoxification organs, but in detail differed with each GM type. In addition, some effects on heart, adrenal, spleen and blood cells were also frequently noted.” Uganda oil contracts give little cause for optimism But the problems facing Uganda - and Katine - are almost certain to be exacerbated rather than solved by oil. Last month, the campaigning group PLATFORM published three of the production sharing agreements (PSAs) the government has spent years keeping a closely guarded secret. The deals point towards a resource extraction programme designed for profit, not development, and contain a series of provisions that undermine any hope of changing course. Our analysis reveals that the international oil companies, including Tullow Oil, backed by a $1.4bn loan arranged by the Royal Bank of Scotland, and Heritage, run by former mercenary Tony Buckingham (which had been due to finalise a sale of their licences to Italian firm ENI for $1.6bn, although these may now be bought by Tullow), are set to reap huge sums at Lake Albert - as much as a 35% return on their capital investment. That's three times what's internationally recognised as a fair profit. The oil contracts are structured so that price risk lies primarily with the state, while the private companies are virtually guaranteed a healthy return even if the market slumps. As the oil price rises, investors will make a higher and unlimited profit, taking close to one quarter of oil revenues, whether each barrel is fetching $70 or $200. Even the Norwegian experts advising the government have expressed serious reservations: a review of Uganda's contracts commissioned by the Norwegian Agency for International Corporation (NORAD) in 2008 concluded that the profit-share model adopted "cannot be regarded as being in accordance with the interests of the host country". Premier hopes Samsung green deal will net 15,000 jobs$7B plan to build up solar, wind industry has already stirred up political turbulence A controversial green energy deal between the provincial government and Samsung Group worth up to $7 billion will be unveiled Thursday, the Star has learned. Sources said Tuesday that Premier Dalton McGuinty will reveal the details of a landmark agreement with the South Korean industrial giant to manufacture renewable energy equipment such as wind turbines here. Samsung will also develop 600 megawatts of wind and solar farms in Ontario, which the Liberal government believes will help meet its target of 50,000 new jobs created over three years through the Green Energy Act. "I want Ontario to be the place where we are manufacturing those wind turbines," not just for use in the province, but to sell abroad, McGuinty said Nov. 9. Weight Watchers sues Jenny Craig over ads NEW YORK - Weight Watchers International is suing rival weight-loss company Jenny Craig over ads it says are misleading and deceptive. Weight Watchers, based in New York, says in the suit that Jenny Craig is running ads that refer to a study comparing Weight Watchers current weight-loss program and Jenny Craig's pre-packaged meals system. But Weight Watchers says no such study has been done and the claims in the ads are not supported by fact or science. The lawsuit has been filed in the U.S. District Court in New York City. It asks for an injunction and damages along with a ban of the ads Cargo firms delivering aid also involved in arms trafficking, says report (FLASHBACK) [WRH] Air cargo companies involved in illicit arms and drug trafficking have been repeatedly contracted by the UN and other aid agencies to deliver humanitarian aid, a leading thinktank reveals today. Evidence that arms dealers have comprehensively penetrated the world market in aid, peacekeeping and stability operations is disclosed in a report by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (Sipri). At least 90% of international air cargo carriers named in UN security council and other arms trafficking-related reports have also supplied UN agencies, EU and Nato governments, and non-government organisations, as well as private contractors in Africa, Europe, and the Middle East, it says. The report, Air Transport and Destabilising Commodity Flows, shows how air cargo carriers involved in humanitarian aid and peacekeeping operations have also transported a range of other "conflict-sensitive" goods such as cocaine, diamonds and precious minerals. It cites as an example how UN peacekeeping missions in Sudan continued to use aircraft operated by Badr Airlines even after the UN security council said the company should be banned for allegedly breaking arms embargos. Unicef used Juba Air Cargo, also based in Sudan, even though the UN said it had documented evidence showing the company violated an arms embargo, the Sipri report says. "Haiti is Shaken to the Core": Amy Goodman Reports from Port-au-Prince [DN] JUAN GONZALEZ: Amy, I’d like to ask you, it’s been now almost exactly a week since the quake. What about the living? There are about a hundred—there’s 130,000 people in Léogâne. Are they getting water? Are they getting any kind of assistance to be able to stay alive? AMY GOODMAN: They are getting almost no help. We went from one family to another, and they said, continually, their lives are in the hands of God. The UN itself made the statement about security. And we wanted to know what was it they were referring to. We walk freely from one place to another. The people desperate, but certainly peaceful. You know, Juan, what it looks like, where people are, they have formed--and it’s remarkable. As Sister Mary Finnick said to us, where--in Port-au-Prince at a place called Matthew 25, it was a hospitality house that has now become a house of hospitality for over a thousand people on the soccer field next door. There are camps, refugee camps, all over. In Léogâne, some are smaller, some are larger. We would look behind cars, and people had erected with sheets and with anything that could protect them from the sun. You would look inside, and there would be many women, children, men laying on sheets on the ground--if they were lucky, they had been able to drag out mattresses—on chairs, on car seats. And they’re there, wherever you go. And in the main plaza, you have more than a thousand people who are gathered. And all they ask for, they ask for food, they ask for water. They ask for search and rescue equipment, although, of course, at this point it is hard to imagine that people could survive. But, you know, Juan, sometimes they can. As we went through the airport on Sunday, a woman was being brought in--people are brought in on doors, carried in by sheets. You’ll see sometimes, if you’re lucky, the--a woman was being put on a plane to Miami, and we asked where had she come from. And they said, from the Caribe market, you know, a shopping place in Port-au-Prince. She had just been pulled out on Saturday morning. That’s Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday. She was surrounded by her sisters, and she was being put on a plane. She is one of the lucky ones. The stories of people hearing the moaning, day after day--their babies, their mothers, their fathers, their grandparents. They are simply asking for the support of a civilized world. And to be told that the UN is concerned about security before they’ll give aid, this is what is of grave concern to people. You know, it’s interesting. I asked the mayor of Léogâne--I asked the mayor what he would think--what he thought first of President Obama calling on President Bush and President Clinton, the three of them standing side by side, saying they wanted to show the face of unity, past and present presidents, that they were together in this effort to help save Haiti. I asked Mayor Santos of Léogâne, what would he think of President Aristide returning home? He has spoken, you know, from South Africa. He has spoken and said he wants to come back. The Aristide Foundation is providing medical care and working with doctors here in Haiti, but the First Family from 2004 wants to return. What did he think of President Aristide standing, like Bush, Clinton and Obama did, with President Préval in a face of unity, in bringing hope to the people? And even he, who would not necessarily have supported Aristide in the past, Mayor Santos, said it would be a sign of hope to have that unified front, that people are looking for some help. And when I said, you know, President Obama, talking about how he would save Haiti, I think what we have witnessed here--for example, at Matthew 25 in Delmas in Port-au-Prince--that’s a neighborhood. And Matthew 25, this hospitality house, is actually taking off on the adage Matthew 25: "Whatsoever you do unto the least of my brothers and sisters, you do unto me." The people who are working around the clock here, what they have shown us, in talking with the Haitians here, is not--I think we’re talking about anarchy of the government, but incredible communal strength of the community. These refugee camps, these smaller and larger camps that number in the thousands, they are organized communities. At night they’ll put rocks across the street. If you didn’t know these communities, you’d say, "What’s going on here? Right? Are these, you know, anarchists? Are they violent? Are they menacing?" They are protecting their communities and those within. And they don’t want those from outside to come in, especially at night. It’s remarkably organized at the local level, among neighborhoods, people helping each other. US Accused of Militarizing Relief Effort in Haiti [DN] SEBASTIAN WALKER: The most visible face of the international aid effort here in Port-au-Prince. Most Haitians here have seen little humanitarian aid so far. What they have seen is guns, and lots of them. Armored personnel carriers cruise the streets. UN soldiers aren’t here to help pull people out of the rubble; they’re here, they say, to enforce the law. This is what much of the UN presence actually looks like on the streets of Port-au-Prince: men in uniform, racing around in vehicles, carrying weapons. At the entrance to the city’s airport, where most of the aid is coming in, there’s anger and frustration. Much needed supplies of water and food are inside. Haitians are locked out. HAITIAN MAN: [translated] These weapons they bring, they are instruments of death. We don’t want them. We don’t need them. We are a traumatized people. What we want from the international community is technical help—action, not words. SEBASTIAN WALKER: And beyond the well guarded perimeter, there’s something else going on. Here, the United States has taken control. It looks more like the Green Zone in Baghdad than a center for aid distribution. Heavily armed US forces patrol the entrances. Even within the airport, these soldiers are never without weapons. There are several thousand on the ground already, and that number is expected to grow. America now decides who lands in Haiti, and there’s a constant stream of US aircraft arriving with thousands of US boots on the ground. Meanwhile, aid flights from other nations are being turned back. Two Mexican aircraft with vital life-saving equipment were told they couldn’t land on Saturday. New airfield, more troops to increase delivery of aid, security PORT-AU-PRINCE … Opening two new airfields and delivering supplies by helicopter and amphibious vehicles, the U.S. military said Tuesday that more humanitarian aid and troops would begin arriving in earthquake-stricken Haiti. Army Maj. Gen. Daniel Allyn, deputy commander of the military operation in Haiti, said a runway in the town of Jacmel, on the south coast, will open for C-17 flights in 24 hours, and another field in the neighboring country of the Dominican Republic would also be used, though the timing was uncertain. U.S military officials are working around quake damage to entry ports as time runs out for rescue workers to find survivors in crumbled buildings, and for international aid to relieve a population that has endured eight days with little food, water and medical attention. WWF says China's wild tigers face extinction BEIJING — The World Wildlife Fund warned on Tuesday that the wild tiger faced extinction in China after having been decimated by poaching and the destruction of its natural habitat. "If there are no urgent measures taken, there is a high risk that the wild tiger will go extinct," Zhu Chunquan, conservation director of biodiversity at WWF China, said ahead of the start of the Year of the Tiger on February 14. Zhu said that China's State Forestry Administration (SFA) estimated there were only around 50 tigers left in the nation's wilderness. "Globally, WWF estimates that if poaching and other threats continue, there are around 30 years left until tigers go extinct," he told AFP. Loss and degradation of the tigers' habitat in China and poaching of the animals as well as their prey -- or source of food -- were behind the rapid disappearance of the animal, he added. B.C. native groups unveil 'authentic' logo It took 12 years to work out a process that was acceptable provincewide, but 60 native organizations in British Columbia have finally agreed on a way to designate goods and businesses as culturally authentic. A new seal was unveiled at a news conference Monday that is being awarded to native-run enterprises that pass a rigorous screening by the Aboriginal Tourism Association of B.C. Native leaders say the logo, which features the words “Authentic Aboriginal” framed by an eagle feather and human eye motif, will promote quality control and allow consumers to easily identify genuine native products. The seal can be granted only to native owned and operated businesses, so it would not have headed off the controversy that emerged last week when VANOC was criticized by a Squamish Nation artist for selling aboriginal items, such as T-shirts and baseball caps, that were printed outside Canada. The Four Host First Nations have dismissed the criticism of VANOC as unwarranted because all the art was done by natives, although the mass reproduction of some items was done by non-native businesses. “That issue hasn't come up, and it won't be one we'll be dealing with,” Linnea Battel, co-chair of the Aboriginal Tourism Association said of the Olympics dispute. Report: Appalachian states should look beyond coal MORGANTOWN, W.Va. (AP) -- Coal production in Central Appalachia is likely to continue its 12-year decline, and an environmental consulting firm said Tuesday it's time policy makers and legislators in four states work to diversify the region's economy. A report issued by Downstream Strategies of Morgantown predicts production in West Virginia, Kentucky, Virginia and Tennessee will fall nearly 50 percent within a decade and urges those states to adopt laws, low-interest loan programs and other measures to support the development of renewable energy sources. The report blames the decline in part on increased competition from other coal-producing regions and other sources of energy, such as natural gas. It also points to the depletion of the most accessible, lowest-cost coal reserves and increasingly stringent environmental regulations. The coal industry has long been concerned about Central Appalachia's decline and faces even more challenges as legislators and the public grow interested in global climate change, renewable energy options, and cap-and-trade legislation, said Chris Hamilton, vice president of the West Virginia Coal Association. Kraft Foods, Cadbury agree $19.5 bln deal LONDON — After months of fierce resistance, Cadbury's about-face to accept a sweetened 11.5 billion pound ($19.5 billion) takeover from Kraft Foods Inc. -- forming the world's biggest candy company -- has alarmed British unions, lawmakers and chocolate lovers. With Cadbury shareholders expected to agree to the deal and a rival bid from The Hershey Co. looking less likely, opponents fear the U.S. multinational's impact on one of Britain's oldest and best-loved brands. Just days after Cadbury declared its suitor a "low growth" company with a "long history of underperformance," the British maker of Dairy Milk chocolates and Dentyne gum capitulated to a raised bid of 840 pence ($13.78) per share. The deal, comprising 500 pence cash and 0.1874 new Kraft shares for each Cadbury share, is a 9 percent premium to its previous 770 pence offer and 50 percent higher than Cadbury's market value before Kraft, based in Northfield, Illinois, went public with its approach in September. Supreme Court won't immediately close river locks to safeguard Great Lakes from Asian carp TRAVERSE CITY, Mich. - The U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday refused to order immediate closure of shipping locks near Chicago to prevent Asian carp from infesting the Great Lakes. The court rejected a request by Michigan for a preliminary injunction to close the locks temporarily while a long-term solution is sought to the threatened invasion by the ravenous fish. The one-sentence ruling didn't explain the court's reasoning. Asian carp, primarily bighead and silver varieties, have been migrating up the Mississippi and Illinois rivers toward the Great Lakes for decades. They have swarmed waterways near Chicago leading to Lake Michigan. Scientists fear that if they reach the lakes, they could disrupt the food chain and endanger the $7 billion fishery. Asian carp DNA found in Lake Michigan; Supreme Court rejects remedy Now the Army Corps is poised to announce that two "environmental" DNA samples show the presence of leaping silver carp above the O'Brien lock south of downtown Chicago. One of those samples, taken Dec. 8, reveals the presence of DNA in Lake Michigan. The Army Corps is scheduled to make an announcement at 1:30 Tuesday afternoon. The court, meanwhile, has denied a request for a preliminary injunction to shut a lock at Navy Pier and O'Brien lock, the lock that the carp have apparently already bypassed. While no actual fish have been found above the barrier, biologists say the presence of DNA in lake waters is essentially as good as finding a fish. Researchers report Yellowstone earthquake swarm The U.S. Geological Survey says a 3.3-magnitude earthquake struck at 8:39 p.m. Monday, and it was centered 9 miles southeast of the town of West Yellowstone, Mont. No damages or injuries have been reported. Rafael Abreu, a USGS geophysicist, says a swarm of earthquakes has hit the park in recent days, which is normal. Jamie Farrell, a doctoral student at the University of Utah, says the swarms generally last from a few days to weeks but sometimes last for months. The recent series of quakes started Sunday night, and Farrell says more than 200 had been counted by 9 a.m. Monday. Girl Scouts rolling out a new cookie Trucks filled with cases of sweet treats are headed this way. Starting Thursday, it's Girl Scout cookie time. ``There is nothing cuter than a Daisy or Brownie Scout looking up at an adult and asking, `Would you like buy a box of Girl Scout cookies?' Who can say `no' to that?'' said Gail Lunsford, 72, cookie booth coordinator for the 22-troop Great Earth Service Unit in Plantation and parts of Fort Lauderdale. Back this year are peanut butter sandwich Do-Si-Dos, shortbread Trefoils, chocolaty Thin Mints, thick peanut buttery Tagalongs, caramel Samoas, Dulce de Leche and zesty Lemon Chalet Cremes. A new cookie, Thank U Berry Munch, delivers tart cranberry and sweet white fudge in every crunchy bite. Diabetes alarm raised; First Nations women face future with disease: study It looked at more than 90,000 diabetics in Saskatchewan since 1980 and gives the clearest picture yet of differences that likely occur across Canada, says Dyck, who has been studying the relentless rise in diabetes rates for 20 years. He and his colleagues suggest the disease is so insidious that First Nations women and their children are increasingly caught in a "vicious cycle" that sees the rates go up in each generation. "And it's not going to level off unless we do something to intervene," Dyck said, stressing the need for earlier and more effective prevention programs. More than two million Canadians have Type 2 diabetes and five million more are at risk for the disease, which disrupts sugar uptake in the blood. The epidemic is tied to sedentary lifestyles and the modern diet of food laced with sugar and fat. San Onofre siren wakes nearby residents, turns out to be false alarm A siren went off this morning at the San Onofre nuclear power plant near San Clemente, but it turned out to be a false alarm, officials said. The siren woke nearby residents about 4:30 a.m., and calls began pouring into the Orange County Sheriff’s office and Southern California Edison. “There was no emergency last night,” said Lt. Theodore Boyne. Edison technicians reached the siren within 30 minutes and shut it off, said utility spokesman Gil Alexander. A preliminary investigation concluded the alarm, which had made a “warbly” call instead of holding at a constant pitch, had been caused by an exceedingly rare equipment error. PAM COMMENTARY: You never know what to believe with San Onofre -- sometimes they might tell you that they released something into the environment after the fact. I remember living near there during the late 90s, and nearly passing out one night as I drove past the plant just from something in the air. I never figured out what that was, and they weren't publishing anything about it in the local media, either. Surmont oilsands expansion given green light EDMONTON — Alberta’s oilsands got a major boost Tuesday with an announcement that the Surmont oilsands expansion has been given the green light. The project will employ up to 2,500 construction workers, while the permanent employee count will rise to 300 from the current 100. Project partners Total and ConocoPhillips said in a joint news release that construction of Phase 2 would start this year at the site southeast of Fort McMurray. The steam-assisted gravity drainage (SAGD) project will boost production at Surmont from 27,000 to 110,000 barrels of bitumen a day by 2015. 100 DAYS IN THE PARK: Photographer’s dedication rewarded in images of Glacier National Park WEST GLACIER – It began on a snowy day in May, with a hawk owl perched on Glacier National Park’s eastern edge, a tiny vole caught tight in its clutches; and it ended in the fog, with a hoary marmot’s nose raised curious and sniffing, his long yellow teeth right up close and in person. In between were rushing rivers, deep and ancient forests, mountain peaks, bear, moose, elk, deer, a spider on a trillium. Yellow-rumped warblers and Savannah sparrows. Goats, glacier lilies, grasshoppers. Forget-me-nots. For more than three months, photographer Chris Peterson hiked and crawled and camped his way through Glacier National Park – every day, rain or shine – shooting its wildlands, wildlife, wildflowers and even a few wild people. It was, he said, a kind of birthday present to the park. “I knew 2010 was coming up, with the park’s centennial,” Peterson said, “and I thought it’d be pretty cool to do 100 straight days in Glacier, in honor of 100 years.” PAM COMMENTARY: I have a small photo gallery on Glacier National Park, and will have to do it again someday with a better camera and more time. It is beautiful -- although wildlife there isn't easy to find. This particular photographer went into some remote areas to find wildlife, but for most people Glacier Park isn't like Yellowstone, where you can see wildlife even from the road at times. University study opens window on bird-strikes; Airborne accidents claim up to a quarter-million a year "People who have things in their yards that make it a bird-friendly place, just by default tend to have more window strikes," he added. "It's a trade-off. "You provide a lot of things, you increase the number of birds in your yard, you increase the number of strikes." Bayne said this doesn't mean people should take those things away. But people can think about how those feeders are positioned relative to their windows. A bird shouldn't think a window is an escape route if it's flying from the feeder in a panic. In Edmonton, about five per cent of patients turned in at the Wildlife Rehabilitation Society of Edmonton are birds that hit windows, said Cheryl Feldstein, the society's executive director. Judge orders press to pay damages to Polanski A Paris judge ordered three French publications Tuesday to pay damages to Roman Polanski and his family for printing unauthorized photos — but the sums were a fraction of what the filmmaker had demanded. Polanski and his wife had sued two French newspapers and two French magazines for a total of about euro150,000 ($217,215), complaining the publications ran photos that invaded their privacy. With most of the decisions in, they have so far been awarded euro12,500. Many of the photographs at issue depicted Polanski, his wife or children in or near the Swiss Alpine chalet where he has been under house arrest since early December, awaiting word on whether he will be extradited to the United States on a 32-year-old sex case. In one decision Tuesday, a judge ruled that the respected Le Journal du Dimanche weekly newspaper must pay Polanski euro3,000 for a December 2009 photo showing the "Chinatown" and "Rosemary's Baby" director looking out through a slit in the curtains of the chalet. He had asked for euro10,000. PAM COMMENTARY: Looks like he's trying to cash in on his past crime, aside from refusing to take responsibility for it. Doctor: Misinformation and Racism Have Frozen Recovery Effort at General Hospital in Port-au-Prince DR. EVAN LYON: We’ve been working around the clock since our team from Partners in Health came to meet up with our Haitian colleagues, who are still here and still leading and still helping us recover to try to get this hospital back up and running. The infrastructure is really, you know, completely destroyed. There is a nursing school on this campus that collapsed completely, killing really, as far as we know now, the entire class of second-year nursing students. The medical school right behind me is—will not ever be usable again. But the main problem is that this General Hospital, the main general public hospital for the city of Port-au-Prince, is still barely operational. We have a thousand patients scattered throughout the campus, mostly sleeping under the stars or sleeping in tents, a thousand patients who have been triaged, assessed. They’re getting primary care. They’re getting good medical care from Haitian staff and from volunteer international relief staff. But we are just scratching the surface of the operative needs of the orthopedic and other operative needs. Again, 1,000 people in need of operations, and we’re just barely starting to scratch the surface. Two days ago, we began operating. We had four operating rooms up as quick as possible and have been using them ever since. We don’t have full proper anesthesia. We’re missing many of the materials we need. But that has been working. As of last night, we have some electricity on the campus, and we’ll be able to start operating twenty-four hours a day through this night and on through tomorrow. I think, you know, the singing and the [inaudible], I know, is clear to many, certainly anyone who has followed Haiti and cared about this special country. One thing that I think is really important for people to understand is that misinformation and rumors and, I think at the bottom of the issue, racism has slowed the recovery efforts of this hospital. Security issues over the last forty-eight hours have been our—quote “security issues” over the last forty-eight hours have been our leading concern. And there are no security issues. I’ve been with my Haitian colleagues. I’m staying at a friend’s house in Port-au-Prince. We’re working for the Ministry of Public Health for the direction of this hospital as volunteers. But I’m living and moving with friends. We’ve been circulating throughout the city until 2:00 and 3:00 in the morning every night, evacuating patients, moving materials. There’s no UN guards. There’s no US military presence. There’s no Haitian police presence. And there’s also no violence. There is no insecurity. Despite demand, U.S. carriers flying empty planes out of Haiti Despite the demand from stranded travelers scrambling to leave Haiti, most planes operated by American, Spirit and other U.S. carriers are flying out of the country with no passengers on board. Even though airlines are flying supply-laden relief flights into the country, The Miami Herald reports they're not able to accept most passengers departing Haiti because of rules imposed by U.S. authorities. The Herald writes the U.S. has "banned commercial air travel from the Port-au-Prince airport, citing the airport's inability to clear passengers for flights. That screening includes putting passengers through metal detectors and checking them against federal terrorist-watch lists." FBI broke law for years in phone record searches The FBI illegally collected more than 2,000 U.S. telephone call records between 2002 and 2006 by invoking terrorism emergencies that did not exist or simply persuading phone companies to provide records, according to internal bureau memos and interviews. FBI officials issued approvals after the fact to justify their actions. E-mails obtained by The Washington Post detail how counterterrorism officials inside FBI headquarters did not follow their own procedures that were put in place to protect civil liberties. The stream of urgent requests for phone records also overwhelmed the FBI communications analysis unit with work that ultimately was not connected to imminent threats. A Justice Department inspector general's report due out this month is expected to conclude that the FBI frequently violated the law with its emergency requests, bureau officials confirmed. The records seen by The Post do not reveal the identities of the people whose phone call records were gathered, but FBI officials said they thought that nearly all of the requests involved terrorism investigations. Obama and Grassroots: The Thrill is Gone? When Barack Obama won the election in November 2008, one question was, what will he do with his army? His ultra-wired campaign had attracted over 13 million volunteers and donors plugged into Obama HQ via email and text messages. The future of this grassroots movement had to be decided, and eventually—perhaps too slowly—Obama for America (the campaign entity) morphed into Organizing for America and became an arm of the Democratic Party. And among the politerati, there's been much discussion over the past year whether Obama has made the best possible use of his supporters through OFA. TechPresident.com, a "crosspartisan group blog" that explores how government and politicians use the Internet, commissioned journalist Ari Melber to evaluate OFA. In a 73-page report, Melber notes that the outfit "successfully mobilized...a new corps of super-activists" during 2009, mostly regarding health care reform. But he reports that congressional aides do not consider OFA "a major or powerful force on Capitol Hill." He writes: "In 2009, OFA focused more on supporting and thanking allied Members than pressuring resistant Democrats or Republicans." That sure makes OFA seem a tad wimpy. The most intriguing part of Melber's report is the section featuring the comments of former Obama campaign staffers. They are quoted anonymously, but a powerful theme emerges: the Obama White House is not as interested in grassroots action as the Obama campaign was. Melber reports: Most interviewees stressed that OFA's current structure, within the DNC and reporting to the White House, put significant constraints on OFA's activities. In this narrative, while the campaign operated as a single, holistic strategic entity, OFA is now inevitably subsumed in a sprawling organizational matrix, including the White House, Congress and party infrastructure. Thus it can be easily outranked. "It’s very, very hard, because you’re being led around by the White House, which has shifting strategy and different political concerns," noted one former staffer. The organizational chart makes it hard to quickly answer practical organizing questions, this person observed, or even settle on the right "political rhetoric" for communicating with supporters. This former staffer was also concerned about the commitment to a robust OFA at the White House, a view echoed by other campaign staff. PAM COMMENTARY: I have a different take on this -- during the election, Obama was elected because his ideas were better than the other candidate's. But once elected, translating those ideas into real legislation was something else. I'd occasionally get an e-mail from this organization, as I supported Obama as the lesser of the 2 evils after the primaries, asking me to contact my Congressmen telling them to support Obama's latest this-or-that. Well, what if I didn't agree with the new law Obama wanted? What if I'd rather contact my Congressmen and tell them that it WASN'T what I wanted, that I'd rather they go in a different direction? This happened several times, and then I noticed that the e-mails tapered off. Maybe a lot of other people felt the same way I did, and the organization found out that those army of activists weren't doing what they wanted. That's the thing about activists -- you don't drive them. They may drive you, if you're willing to give them enough of what they want. Google puts off launch of mobile phone in China; Censorship row sees Google postpone launch of handset that incorporates its email and web services Google today postponed the launch in China of a mobile phone incorporating its email and web services, after the row with the government in Beijing over censorship and hacking of its internal network. "The launch we have been working on with [mobile carrier] China Unicom has been postponed," said a Google spokesman. Informed observers said Google had decided it could not launch a handset which relies on the US company's services – particularly the web search and Gmail applications, which would be "baked" into the operating system – when it could not be sure if those will continue to be available in China. Google last week accused Chinese hackers of compromising its internal networks to try to access the webmail accounts of human rights activists, who have been repeatedly targeted by the Chinese government. As a result, Google said it would end the self-imposed censorship of its search results there. Queen Berenike's cat goddess temple discovered in Alexandria, Egypt Early studies on site revealed that the temple’s foundation can be dated to the reign of Queen Berenike - the wife of King Ptolemy III Euergetes (246-222 BC) - making this the first Ptolemaic temple discovered in Alexandria to be dedicated to Bastet. It also indicates that her worship continued in Egypt after the decline of the ancient Egyptian era. Bastet originally took the form of a lion and protected the king during battle. However the Greek rulers of the Ptolemaic Dynasty associated her instead with their own Artemis, changing her appearance to that of a cat and calling her Ailuros, a lunar goddess. The temple is thought to have been destroyed in later eras when it was put to use as a quarry, which lead to the disappearance of most of its stone blocks. The inscribed base of a granite statue from the reign of King Ptolemy IV (205-222 BC) was also unearthed. It bears ancient Greek text written in nine lines stating that the statue belonged to a top official in the Ptolemaic court. Dr. Maqsoud claims the base was made to celebrate Egypt’s victory over the Greeks during the Battle of Raphia in 217 BC. A Roman water cistern, a group of 14 meter-deep water wells, stone water channels, the remains of a bath area and a large number of clay pots and sherds that can be dated to the 4th century BC were also uncovered. Chevron will restructure refining, cut jobs No decisions have been made about which plants or markets will be affected or by how many of the division's employees will be cut, he said. Word of the restructuring came Monday in a video message to Chevron employees from Mike Wirth, executive vice president for the company's global downstream business. Chevron's downstream business has 19,000 employees globally, including 900 in Texas. In the U.S., Chevron owns refineries in Pascagoula, Miss; Salt Lake City; Honolulu; and in El Segundo and Richmond, Calif. Internationally, it owns three additional plants, and has a stake in nearly a dozen others. Chevron, like other integrated oil companies, has been hit hard by a downturn in oil refining, brought on by a recessionary decline in demand for transportation fuels like gasoline and diesel, an increase in usage of biofuels like ethanol and a building boom in recent years that has resulted in a glut of refining capacity worldwide. One of MLK's mug shots by The Smoking Gun Martin Luther King Jr. was photographed by Alabama cops following his February 1956 arrest during the Montgomery bus boycotts. The historic mug shot, taken when King was 27, was discovered in July 2004 by a deputy cleaning out a Montgomery County Sheriff's Department storage room. It is unclear when the notations "DEAD" and "4-4-68" were written on the picture. Google probes for enemies within Google is investigating whether one or more employees may have helped facilitate a cyber attack that the US search giant said it was a victim of in mid-December, two sources have told Reuters. Google, the world's most popular search engine, said last week it may pull out of the world's biggest internet market by users after reporting it had been hit by a "sophisticated" cyber attack on its network that resulted in theft of its intellectual property. The sources, who are familiar with the situation, said that the attack, which targeted people who have access to specific parts of Google networks, may have been facilitated by people working in Google China's office. "We're not commenting on rumour and speculation. This is an ongoing investigation, and we simply cannot comment on the details," a Google spokeswoman said. Security analysts said the malicious software (malware) used in the Google attack was a modification of a Trojan called Hydraq. A Trojan is malware that, once inside a computer, allows someone unauthorised access. The sophistication in the attack was in knowing whom to attack, not the malware itself, the analysts said. Kabul "under control" after brazen Taliban assault Taliban gunmen launched a brazen assault on targets in the centre of Kabul on Monday, with suicide bombers blowing themselves up at several locations and heavily armed militants fighting a pitched battle in a shopping centre. The insurgents failed in an apparent attempt to seize government buildings, but demonstrated their ability to cause mayhem at a time when US President Barack Obama is trying to rally support for an expanded military mission to fight them. It was the worst attack on the city in nearly a year. Gunfire and loud explosions shook the city and a huge column of smoke towered over its centre, pouring out of the shopping centre where gunmen battled security forces for hours. After more than four hours of gunbattles, President Hamid Karzai said in a statement that "the security situation is under control and order has once again been restored." The Taliban said 20 of their fighters were involved in the attacks, which they said targeted the presidential palace, justice ministry, ministry of mines and a presidential administrative building, all clustered in the centre of town. Myanmar court hears Suu Kyi appeal Myanmar's highest court has begun hearing an appeal by opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi against her continued house arrest. The Nobel peace laureate was sentenced last August to a further 18 months detention, after an uninvited American stayed overnight at her home. Her lawyers are arguing the extension was unlawful because the sentence was based on a 1974 constitution that is no longer valid. Nyan Win, one of Aung San Suu Kyi's lawyers, told reporters the supreme court was expected to deliver its verdict on the case later this week. Gaza flooded after Israel opens dam gates Israel has opened the floodgates of one of its dams in the eastern part of the Gaza Strip, flooding Palestinian houses and causing severe damage. The Israeli authorities opened the dam's floodgates without any prior warning or coordination with local authorities in Gaza, stunning the residents of the area, the Press TV correspondent in Gaza reported late on Monday. There has been heavy rain in the region over the past 24 hours. It seems the Israeli authorities could not handle the huge amount of rainwater and decided to open the floodgates without prior warning. Because Gaza is located in a low-lying area and the elevation decreases on the way to the Mediterranean Sea, water gushed into the area, flooding two Palestinian villages and displacing a hundred Gazan families. Vets Say Toxic Tests Sickened Them; Government Says Prove It; Army says it used 'voluntary human subjects,' but ill man says 'I was private first class I did anything they told me to do.' Even those who know the area best won't step far off the narrow, muddy road that runs through the center of the desolate toxic dump at Utah's Deseret Chemical Depot. It's been more than 30 years since the U.S. Army used this vast scrubland, known as the East Demilitarization Area, to dispose of a deadly arsenal of chemical and conventional munitions -- but the military still hasn't figured out how to clean up its mess. The Defense Department does acknowledge the disaster, just as it has belatedly admitted having tested a gamut of chemical and biological weapons on military members in Utah's vast west desert during the Cold War. But the U.S. government insists that the tests have contributed to long-term illnesses in only a handful of exposed service members. And that has led the Department of Veterans Affairs to deny almost all claims for care and compensation made by those who believe they got sick as a result of the tests. Although the Cold War was fought mainly by proxy and politicians, it was not without its casualties: Many died while waiting on the military to so much as acknowledge its secret programs. Study: At Public Universities, Aid Goes to Relatively Wealthy The Washington Post [2] reports today on a study from the nonprofit Education Trust [3] that found many public universities are giving aid to students from relatively wealthy families instead of poorer students, leading to campuses with less economic and racial diversity. Among the study's key findings: at public research universities between 2003 and 2007, families with $115,000 or more in income saw their aid increase 28 percent, while families making $54,000 or less routinely received the same aid packages as families making $80,000 or more. At the same time, a federal Pell Grant that would have covered most of a four-year university education in 1980 now covers roughly one-third of the costs. Kati Haycock, president of the Education Trust, told the Post that public institutions do not reflect the demographics of their respective states, adding that “these institutions continue today to enroll students who are far richer and far whiter.” Message From Ecuador to Chevron CEO John Watson A heartfelt message from the Amazon rainforest communities in Ecuador to new Chevron CEO John Watson: "We don't want to continue dying of cancer." This video message appeals for Chevron to clean up its massive contamination of the Ecuadorian Amazon that has devastated the environment and continues to cause widespread cancer, birth defects, and other ailments. EPA Gives Coal Mining Company Reason To Celebrate While Environmentalists Cry Foul The Environmental Protection Agency announced a compromise regarding one mountain top coal mine in West Virginia. The mine will receive its permit to operate but must decrease its pollution of surrounding streams by half. The Hobet 45 mine in West Virginia encompasses 25 square miles in the southern part of the state. It was one of 79 sites the EPA decided to take a closer look at in September because of environmental concern. Negotiation and compromise between the mining company and the Environmental Protection Agency has cleared the way for the surface mine’s operation because they EPA says it now meets Clean Water Act standards. The mining company has promised to reduce the number of streams it will fill with the debris during the mountain top removal process – from 6 miles of streams to 3 miles. The company, Patriot Coal, will also have to monitor and contain its pollution. Disappeared in the Andes On January 5, 1985, my brother, Boris Weisfeiler, disappeared at the end of a 10-day solo hiking trip in the wilderness of Chile. He had planned to take a bus from the small southern town of San Fabian to Santiago, and then to fly to the United States to resume teaching at Pennsylvania State University where he was a mathematics professor. He never returned. After a trapper discovered his backpack 10 days later on the bank of the Nuble river, a local court ruled that he had died of accidental drowning. But declassified US documents, from the US embassy and the CIA, tell a far more sinister and painful story of kidnapping, torture, and disappearance at the hands of General Augusto Pinochet’s forces of repression—a story that, for my family, still has no ending. My brother’s body has never been found; like so many other family members of the disappeared, in my heart I can not even be 100 percent sure he is dead. Twenty five years later, Boris Weisfeiler remains the lone US citizen among some 1100 Chilean desaparecidos from the Pinochet era. Iraq instructs lawyers to take on Blackwater cases BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Iraq has asked its lawyers in the United States to take on U.S. security firm Blackwater on behalf of victims shot by the company's security guards at a Baghdad traffic circle in 2007, officials said on Monday. Fadhil Mohammed Jawad, a legal adviser to Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki, said a law firm used by the Iraqi government in the United States had been asked to contact lawyers previously hired by victims of the shooting and their families to take over their cases. "The Iraqi government will take the matter up on behalf of the families of the victims," government spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh said at a meeting with the families and victims. "They have rights, and the aggressor must recognize their rights and the right to compensation because this was a despicable treatment of innocent people," Dabbagh said. MARTIN LUTHER KING - THE FATAL SHOT CAME FROM A DIFFERENT DIRECTION [WRH] My curiosity about Dr. King's assassination was acutely aroused in January of 1994 when I went to The Memphis Commercial Appeal in mid January to get a back issue of their December 1993 Christmas week paper. While the CA clerk retrieved a copy of the paper for me from storage I began looking through the CA's book, I AM A MAN, for sale there at their counter. It is a picture book of the Memphis Sanitation Workers strike of 1968, the reason for Dr. King's presence in Memphis when he was shot. Page 101 is a picture of the murder scene. In this picture Dr. King is lying on his back on the walkway with his feet stuck beneath the wrought iron balcony railing. His legs are bent at his knees forming an inverted "V"; his back lying flat on the walkway that turns left and passes the side of room 306 where he was staying. The balcony turns right again at room 307, which is offset from room 306 by a distance of nearly the length of the room. I belabor this point because it is important to know the physical layout of the rooms to determine where Dr. King was actually lying immediately after being shot. I had no prior knowledge that day in mid January of 1994 that the CA's book I AM A MAN existed. But I left the CA with their book and newspaper less some twenty-five dollars and went to the city library located at Peabody & McLean to do some genealogy research. As I passed a display of books about Dr. King in the library's history department one book caught my attention, The FBI & Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., by Mark Lane. Picking it up I opened it to within about three pages of Dr. Jerry Francisco's autopsy report testimony he gave at Ray's trial about a year after the murder. Dr. Francisco stated that the death bullet entered Dr. King's body on the right side of his face, traveled downward right to left through his neck, and lodged beneath the skin close to his left shoulder blade. That information is consistent with where the eyewitnesses (one of whom is Reverend Andrew Young) in the murder scene are pointing. Finding this interesting I went to a copy machine and copied the page with Dr. Francisco's statement regarding his autopsy report. In the murder picture Rev. Young is actually looking in the direction of his pointing finger, but I couldn't see any rooming house where he or the others with him were pointing. Page 107 of I AM A MAN is a picture of the Lorraine Motel taken from inside the bathroom window of the rooming house. FDA to study what's in cigarettes RICHMOND, Va. -- The Food and Drug Administration is working to lift the smokescreen clouding the ingredients used in cigarettes and other tobacco products. In June, tobacco companies must tell the FDA their formulas for the first time, just as drugmakers have for decades. Manufacturers also will have to turn over any studies they've done on the effects of the ingredients. It's an early step for an agency just starting to flex muscles granted by a new law that took effect last June that gives it broad power to regulate tobacco far beyond the warnings on packs, but short of banning it outright. Companies have long acknowledged using cocoa, coffee, menthol and other additives to make tobacco taste better. The new information will help the FDA determine which ingredients might also make tobacco more harmful or addictive. It will also use the data to develop standards for tobacco products and could ban some ingredients or combinations. "Tobacco products today are really the only human-consumed product that we don't know what's in them," Lawrence R. Deyton, the director of the Food and Drug Administration's new Center for Tobacco Products and a physician, told The Associated Press in a recent interview. Navy defends sonar training in Gulf of Alaska The third option calls for two 21-day training exercises. That option also could bring sinking exercises, in which the Navy would clean decommissioned ships to Environmental Protection Agency standards and use them as target practice at least 50 nautical miles from shore. The Navy now conducts a joint exercise -- known as Northern Edge -- each summer with the Army and Air Force. Part of the exercise takes place in the Gulf of Alaska. Environmentalists believe sonar has detrimental effects on marine mammals, particularly whales. "The active sonar is something that we're pretty concerned about," said Jon Warrenchuk, a scientist with the conservation group Oceana. "These exercises are planned off of Kodiak and it's right beside critical habitat for Northern Right whales and there are about 100 of these left in Alaska, they estimate. They're, if not the rarest, probably one of the rarest marine mammals in the world. This is one of the areas they've identified as critical habitat for them. It's right beside the proposed training area." Sheila Murray, a Navy spokeswoman, said there is a possibility that sonar could have adverse effects on marine mammals but said the Navy tries to avoid any type of interaction with marine mammals wherever possible. There are 29 protective measures in place to minimize impacts, such as turning off sonar within 200 yards of marine mammals, she said. PAM COMMENTARY: "You don't mind if we kill the rest of this species, do ya? I mean, they were already on their way out anyway..." Law to Curb Lobbying Sends It Underground But for all its penalties, the law left the definition of a lobbyist fairly elastic. The criteria included getting paid to lobby, contacting public officials about a client’s interests at least twice in a quarter and working at least 20 percent of the time on lobbying-related activities for the client. Enforcement is also light. Lobbyists suspected of failing to file receive at least one official letter offering a chance to rectify their status before any legal action is taken. After the rules changed, private companies and nonprofit groups immediately began to rethink their registration. The Union of Concerned Scientists, which advocates on arms control, energy policy and environmental issues, had previously registered almost anyone who went to Capitol Hill on its behalf, said Stephen Young, a senior analyst for the group. That changed after the new law. “We thought: ‘Hmm, this is now not such an easy thing. Let’s see if we are required to do it. We are not? Let’s take them off,’ ” he said. The group terminated the registrations of “virtually all” its former lobbyists, he said. Venezuela's Citgo Renews Cheap Heating Oil Program in United States [R] NEW YORK – Citgo, the U.S. subsidiary of state-owned Petroleos de Venezuela SA, renewed a program under which it has provided cheap heating oil to hundreds of thousands of U.S. low-income households since 2005. Citgo CEO Alejandro Granado, whose company carries out the initiative in partnership with U.S. non-governmental organization Citizens Energy Corporation, told Efe Friday the goal this year is to benefit 200,000 families, the same number as last year. This year’s program was kicked off with a symbolic ceremony at Riverside Church in Harlem, known for its key role in the civil rights movement of the 1960s. Among those in attendance, in addition to Granado, were Venezuelan Ambassador to the United States Bernardo Alvarez and Citizens Energy’s founder and chairman, Joseph Kennedy. Dems look at bypassing Senate health care vote [WRH] BOSTON (AP) - A panicky White House and Democratic allies scrambled Sunday for a plan to salvage their hard-fought health care package in case a Republican wins Tuesday's Senate race in Massachusetts, which would enable the GOP to block further Senate action. The likeliest scenario would require persuading House Democrats to accept a bill the Senate passed last month, despite their objections to several parts. Aides consulted Sunday amid fears that Republican Scott Brown will defeat Democrat Martha Coakley in the special election to fill the late Edward M. Kennedy's seat. A Brown win would give the GOP 41 Senate votes, enough to filibuster and block final passage of the House-Senate compromise on health care now being crafted. House Democrats, especially liberals, viewed those compromises as vital because they view the Senate-passed version as doing too little to help working families. Under the Senate-passed bill, 94 percent of Americans would be covered, compared to 96 percent in the version passed last year by the House. The House plan would increase taxes on millionaires while the Senate plan would tax so-called Cadillac, high-cost health insurance plans enjoyed by many corporate executives as well as some union members. PAM COMMENTARY: Massachusetts already knows about laws requiring people to buy their own health insurance -- they have one just like it! And people wonder how the Democrat could be in trouble -- in Kennedy's old state, no less. Now the House is being asked to vote for the worst possible plan -- the Senate's. I knew people who worked hard for Obama's campaign because they really believed he'd give them health care, they had problems with health bills, and health care was their main (and often only) issue. I don't know if those people will get anything from the new law, other than a big fat insurance bill out of their own pockets. They're sure not getting what they expected, that I know. FBI admits Spanish politican was model for 'high-tech' Osama bin Laden photo-fit The digitally altered image of an older and greying Bin Laden was meant to show how the world's most wanted terrorist might now look without his trademark turban and long beard. It was released in a renewed effort to locate him, more than eight years after the September 11 attack which he ordered and directed. But it created an unexpected stir in Madrid when a Spanish MP recognised strong elements of himself in the image and complained to the US. Gaspar Llamazares, 52, a member of Spain's communist party and the former leader of the United Left coalition in parliament, said his forehead, hair and jaw-line had been "cut and pasted" from an old campaign photograph. The FBI claimed to have used "cutting edge" technology to reproduce new images of 18 of the most wanted terrorist suspects for the State Department's Rewards for Justice website. U.S. Military Weapons Inscribed With Secret 'Jesus' Bible Codes Jan. 18, 2010 "ABC News " — Coded references to New Testament Bible passages about Jesus Christ are inscribed on high-powered rifle sights provided to the United States military by a Michigan company, an ABC News investigation has found. The sights are used by U.S. troops in Iraq and Afghanistan and in the training of Iraqi and Afghan soldiers. The maker of the sights, Trijicon, has a $660 million multi-year contract to provide up to 800,000 sights to the Marine Corps, and additional contracts to provide sights to the U.S. Army. U.S. military rules specifically prohibit the proselytizing of any religion in Iraq or Afghanistan and were drawn up in order to prevent criticism that the U.S. was embarked on a religious "Crusade" in its war against al Qaeda and Iraqi insurgents One of the citations on the gun sights, 2COR4:6, is an apparent reference to Second Corinthians 4:6 of the New Testament, which reads: "For God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ." E.ON chief: Preserve coal plants to keep lights on Ageing coal-fired power stations should be exempted from environmental regulations and kept open to stop the lights from going out, the chief executive of E.ON UK has urged the government. Paul Golby told the Guardian that some of the coal and oil-fired plants due to close this decade because of European pollution regulations should remain operational and ready to come online during periods of peak demand such as those experienced in recent weeks. The Guardian revealed this month that almost 100 large power users had to switch to alternative sources when National Grid triggered clauses in their interruptible supply contracts. "Given that the issue we are trying to grapple with is climate change, there is a question mark over keeping one or two of these oil or coal fired plants mothballed to secure supplies for a few days per year when we get these conditions," Golby said. "It might be a small economic and carbon premium worth paying for security of supply and getting us through this transition to a low-carbon energy system. It's something we have talked to the government about." Golby's view is privately supported by many UK power station operators who fear a looming energy gap in a few years when old coal and nuclear plants have been closed but new reactors, clean coal plants and wind farms have not been built. Voodoo wasps that could save the world They are so small that most people have never even seen them, yet "voodoo wasps" are about to be recruited big time in the war on agricultural pests as part of the wider effort to boost food production in the 21st century. The wasps are only 1 or 2 millimetres long fully-grown but they have an ability to paralyse and destroy other insects, including many of the most destructive crop pests, by delivering a zombie-inducing venom in their sting. Now scientists believe they have made the breakthrough that will enable them to recruit vast armies of voodoo wasps to search and destroy farm pests on a scale that could boost crop yields without polluting the wider environment with insecticides. PAM COMMENTARY: Great -- Franken-wasps. I'm sure nothing could go wrong there... Democracy Now! tribute to Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., 1929-1968 [DN] Martin Luther King. He was born January 15th, 1929. He was assassinated April 4, 1968, at the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tennessee. He was just thirty-nine years old. While Dr. King is primarily remembered as a civil rights leader, he also championed the cause of the poor and organized the Poor People’s Campaign to address issues of economic justice. Dr. King was also a fierce critic of US foreign policy and the Vietnam War. We play his “Beyond Vietnam” speech, which he delivered at New York’s Riverside Church on April 4, 1967, as well as his last speech, “I Have Been to the Mountain Top,” that he gave on April 3, 1968, the night before he was assassinated. PAM COMMENTARY: Democracy Now! always has a good show on MLK Day featuring speeches by Dr. King every year. Here are the past 3 years, if you'd like to hear more: Democracy Now!'s 2009 MLK show The 2008 show The 2007 show Noam Chomsky on Movements (Video) The way things change is because lots of people are working all the time. And you know, they're working in their communities, or in their workplace, or wherever they happen to be -- and they're building up the basis for popular movements, which are going to make changes. That's the way everything that has ever happened in history -- you know, whether it was the end of slavery, or whether it was the democratic revolutions, or anything you want -- you name it, that's the way it worked. You get a very false picture of this from the history books. In the history books, there's a couple of leaders, you know -- George Washington, or Martin Luther King, or whatever -- and I don't want to say that those people are unimportant. Martin Luther King was certainly important, but he was not the civil rights movement. Martin Luther King can appear in the history books because lots of people whose names you will never know, and whose names are all forgotten, and who may have been killed and so on, were working down in the South. PAM COMMENTARY: Another mention of the importance of all activists, not just the leadership or biggest names in a movements. Giving Thanks (for all activists) -- and my favorite MLK quote... Deep down in our non-violent creed is the conviction there are some things so dear, some things so precious, some things so eternally true, that they're worth dying for. And if a man happens to be 36-years-old, as I happen to be, some great truth stands before the door of his life -- some great opportunity to stand up for that which is right. A man might be afraid his home will get bombed, or he's afraid that he will lose his job, or he's afraid that he will get shot, or beat down by state troopers, and he may go on and live until he's 80. He's just as dead at 36 as he would be at 80. The cessation of breathing in his life is merely the belated announcement of an earlier death of the spirit. He died... A man dies when he refuses to stand up for that which is right. A man dies when he refuses to stand up for justice. A man dies when he refuses to take a stand for that which is true. So we're going to stand up amid horses. We're going to stand up right here in Alabama, amid the billy-clubs. We're going to stand up right here in Alabama amid police dogs, if they have them. We're going to stand up amid tear gas. We're going to stand up amid anything they can muster up, letting the world know that we are determined to be free! - Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Selma, Alabama, 8 March 1965 PAM COMMENTARY: Years ago, I wrote this little page in tribute to one of my friends who was spending her holidays trying help people, and to other activists like her who give their time and money trying to make the world a better place. I also included my favorite quote by Dr. King at that time. Note that King would have been 80 years old last year, a few days before the inauguration of the country's first black president, Barack Obama. US accused of annexing airport as squabbling hinders aid effort in Haiti; Priority landing for Americans forces flights carrying emergency supplies to divert to Dominican Republic The US military's takeover of emergency operations in Haiti has triggered a diplomatic row with countries and aid agencies furious at having flights redirected. Brazil and France lodged an official ­protest with Washington after US military aircraft were given priority at Port-au-Prince's congested airport, forcing many non-US flights to divert to the Dominican Republic. Brasilia warned it would not ­relinquish command of UN forces in Haiti, and Paris complained the airport had become a US "annexe", exposing a brewing power struggle amid the global relief effort. The Red Cross and Médecins Sans Frontières also complained about diverted flights. The row prompted Haiti's president, René Préval, to call for calm. "This is an extremely difficult situation," he told AP. "We must keep our cool to co-ordinate and not throw accusations at each other." Aid plane turned away from Haiti airport, says medical charity; Médecins sans Frontières cargo plane carrying inflatable hospital blocked from landing at Port-au-Prince airport A medical group today said one of its planes was turned away from Port-au-Prince, Haiti's capital, despite guarantees given by the UN and the US defence department. Médecins sans Frontières (MSF) received no explanation as to why the cargo plane carrying an inflatable surgical hospital was blocked from landing yesterday and re-routed to Samana, in the Dominican Republic. All material from the cargo is now being sent by truck from Samana, but this has added a 24-hour delay. A second MSF plane is on its way and scheduled to land today in Port- au-Prince at around 10am local time (3pm GMT) with additional lifesaving medical material and the rest of the equipment for the hospital. If this plane is also rerouted the installation of the hospital will be further delayed, in a situation where thousands of wounded are still in need of life-saving treatment, the group said. Dr. Scott Reuben, former chief of acute pain at Baystate Medical Center in Springfield, pleads guilty to health-care fraud In 2005, Reuben received a $74,000 research grant from pharmaceutical giant Pfizer, agreeing to test Celebrex as a component of the multimodal therapy. He claimed to have treated 200 patients, 100 with Pfizer’s product and 100 with a placebo. “In fact, Reuben had not enrolled any patients into that study and the results reported both to Pfizer and to the Anesthesia and Analgesia Journal and in turn to the public were wholly made up by Reuben,” the charge states. Albert said the fabrications were discovered by medical staff within the hospital during a routine review at the hospital’s “research week,” when clinicians design poster displays of their studies. “We conducted investigations into past research,” at that time, Albert said. “Dr. Reuben cooperated fully.” Pirates feud over largest ransom ever MOGADISHU—The largest ransom ever paid to Somali pirates was dropped on Sunday onto a Greek-flagged oil tanker with two million barrels of oil on-board, pirates and maritime officials said. An aircraft dropped a ransom believed to be between $5.5 million and $7 million for the release of the tanker which was hijacked near the Indian Ocean archipelago of the Seychelles, the officials said. The Maran Centaurus was seized on Nov. 29 with nine Greeks, two Ukrainians, one Romanian and 16 Filipinos on board and the ransom dwarfs amounts paid previously for vessels held captive by Somali sea gangs. The tanker has yet to be freed as a dispute between rival pirate gangs over the spoils means the recipients are wary of returning to the coastal haven of Haradheere with their booty. Webb visits VA medical center after receiving complaints U.S. Sen. Jim Webb made his first visit Friday to the Hampton VA Medical Center, where he praised the dedication of health care workers but said he is still following the incomplete investigations of many patient complaints. In the fall, Webb asked the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs to examine the quality of care at the Hampton facility after his office had received 149 complaints, including allegations that ranged from abusive patient treatment to wrongful death. "We have disposed a number of those and there are others we're still looking at," said Webb, who declined to discuss the specifics of the complaints. "Any time anybody contacts us, we're going to take it very seriously." He made the remarks after touring the Hampton hospital with his staff. Webb said his office has received several new complaints since writing to VA Secretary Eric Shinseki about the allegations by patients or their families. CIA Cable “Granting Permission” to Destroy Torture Videotapes Surfaces [Updated] [WRH] A January 8 release of documents in the ACLU FOIA lawsuit seeking materials related to the CIA’s destruction of videotapes of interrogators using "enhanced interrogation techniques" has revealed the first evidence of a precise instruction for the destruction of those tapes. According to Rachel Myers at the ACLU, while there was previous evidence of requests from the "field" that the videotapes be destroyed, this is our first verification of the exact date CIA headquarters gave its approval. The approval came in the form of "a two-page cable discussing a proposal and granting permission to destroy the videotapes." (emphasis added) The cable was sent from "HQ" to the "Field" on November 8, 2005, the same day an earlier request was made from the "Field". Confirmation of the destruction of the tapes was already revealed in a cable "from the field to CIA headquarters, confirming the destruction of the videotapes." (11/20/2009 Vaughn Index 4). Requests for destruction of interrogation videotapes, and discussions around such an action are documented as far back as September 2002 (11/20/2009 Vaughn Index 55). It’s presumed that these requests came from the Thailand CIA black site where Abu Zubaydah had been an experimental victim of the new so-called enhanced interrogation techniques, which were based on stress inoculation torture survival schools for the military, known as SERE. Psychologists James Mitchell and Bruce Jessen, formerly of SERE and its parent agency, Joint Personnel Recovery Agency (JPRA)[, have been identified as being key figures in implementing the program.] Ban butter to save thousands of lives, says heart surgeon (UK) Mr Kolvekar, a consultant at University College London Hospitals, said: 'By banning butter and replacing it with a healthy spread the average daily sat-fat intake would be reduced by eight grams. 'This would save thousands of lives each year and help to protect them from cardiovascular disease - the UK's biggest killer. 'When a patient comes to me, they have established coronary heart disease. We are the last resort. 'The frustrating thing is that often the need for heart surgery could have been prevented by following a healthier, lower sat-fat diet.' The Muslim Cabbie Who Saved Christmas [R] At the same time, I bet there are very few American who’ve heard the story of the Muslim cabbie who saved Christmas. It is another heartwarming but true Christmas story that took place last year on Christmas eve that is worthy of being made into a film for its profound effect. This was a story about honesty, integrity, ethics, and human decency, yet those who heard about, knew very little about the honest cabbie or where he came from. It began with an Italian traveler, Felicia Lettieri, a 72 year old grandmother along with 6 members of her family who took two cabs from midtown Manhatten on Christmas eve. Mrs. Letterie left her purse and a hand bag in one of the cabs. Inside her bag was over $21,000 of the group’s traveling money, expensive jewelry, and some of group’s passports. After realizing she had lost this great fortune, she went to the police who told her “not to get her hopes up.” Her family echoed these sentiments, telling her that “this is New York. Forget about it. You have lost everything.” Not so quick! The cab driver was a medical student from Queens, N.Y. who took a job few days a week driving a taxi after his hours were cut back at his former job. When he found the purse, he looked for contact information. Seeing the rolls of euros, nevertheless he never bothered even counting the money. He finally found the address and then asked a friend of his with a car to drive him 60 miles one way to Patchogue. When he got there, no one was home. He left his cell phone number with a note “Mrs. Letterie, don’t worry about your money, it is safe.” Have doctors found a cure for MS? Doctors believe they have cured a British woman of ­multiple sclerosis after a pioneering operation. For years sufferers have been told there is no cure for MS, but the apparent success of the surgery has given new hope to those who are battling the disease, which attacks the nervous system. And Alex Gibbs is so certain she has now beaten the disease that she has even become pregnant – something she would never have dared do before. Alex, 38, travelled to the United States last June after reading on the internet about the breakthrough procedure, which involves widening the veins. PAM COMMENTARY: When I post an article here, that doesn't mean that I endorse it or agree with it. This is just an interesting and experimental treatment for MS -- I'm not encouraging anyone to try it, and I'm not saying that it might work as well as other alternative approaches. I don't have enough information to report much about it yet. There are people who say they've cured themselves of MS with a zapper and chelation therapy (the most famous case was Ken Pressner of Canada), designed to treat the most common model of the disease -- mercury poisoning followed by a parasitic invasion of the nervous system. Why would a zapper/chelation work, while increasing circulation also seems to work? I can think of a couple of reasons. If the issue were really circulation, then chelation would help because in addition to removing mercury, chelation also happens to be very good at removing arterial plaques. It could therefore increase circulation somewhat. The zapper may also help by killing any microbes involved in inflammation. On the other hand, if the main model of the disease -- parasites and heavy metal poisoning -- were correct, then increased circulation may help by giving the immune system a boost in fighting and eliminating them. There's also the possibility that circulation is another model of the disease to be added to the others -- as it is, there are several valid models of the disease (including aspartame poisoning and viral causes), and an MS victim may have to sort it all out before deciding on which alternative treatments to try. The day I decided to stop being gay And lately I have, almost imperceptibly, been laying the groundwork to make parenthood happen in the old-fashioned way. I have been flirting with someone at my local pub, thinking about her at odd times, making excuses to call her and wondering if she likes me. It’s rather strange. This will come as a shock to — among others — my male former partner of ten years, gay pals from my former media career, my rabidly heterosexual chums in the aviation industry and, not least, my family (who rather hoped I was going through a phase — albeit for about 20 years). Well, it’s come as a shock to me, too. I once attended the nuptials of a gay male friend to a girl with whom he had unexpectedly fallen head over heels in love. It was a curious affair: the wedding party was peopled with his ex-lovers — including me, the best man and even the vicar. There is a risk that a wedding guest list of mine could have the same casting issues. My sexuality was formed behind bike sheds and in school dormitories, a most unimaginatively clichéd pattern of pubescent fumbling. This propelled me into a lifestyle, reinforced by a social milieu of flamboyant media gays. At the BBC, where I worked for seven years, homosexuality was very nearly compulsory. At these tidings, my sceptical buddies will splutter, “You what?! Miss Patsy, trouser-chaser extraordinaire, has decided she’s now dancing at the other end of the ballroom? Pur-leeeeeeeze!” They have seen little evidence of an interest in the opposite sex during my adult life, nor asked why. And that’s the clincher. Last dancing bears rescued in India Two years ago I travelled to Agra in India to visit the biggest bear sanctuary in the world. The park offers a peaceful life to former dancing bears and snatched bear cubs allowing them to live with each other with at least some comfort. The park is part of a project to clear illegal dancing bears from the streets of India. Now comes the heartwarming news that the last dancing bears have been surrendered. Green jobs grow slowly; Federal funding for energy-saving projects has been slowed by a bureaucratic thicket. Last year, Randy Hagen, president of Solar Skies Mfg in Starbuck, Minn., laid off four of his 14 workers after orders stalled for the rooftop solar collectors he makes. Government rebates promised last year under the Obama administration's green jobs initiative never won final approval, so consumers didn't buy. "Everyone who is considering buying a solar thermal system in Minnesota was hoping there may be some rebate stimulus dollars available to them," Hagen said. "[But the] proposed rebate for solar thermal has not yet been approved by the Department of Energy. ... This has literally halted solar thermal sales and has directly hurt our business. ... Yet everyone perceives that if you are in renewable energy you should be doing well." The Obama administration's call for green jobs as an economic savior initially sparked hope for economic recovery. But the federal funds have only dribbled into the sector, held up by various shades of bureaucratic red tape and the lingering credit crisis. As a result, projects stalled and workers got pink slips as banks froze credit, venture capital firms slowed sector investments and government rebates snagged. By year-end, green-sector job freezes and losses far outweighed gains. Greg Palast - History of a Haitian Holocaust [BF] 6. From my own work in the field, I know that FEMA has access to ready-to-go potable water, generators, mobile medical equipment and more for hurricane relief on the Gulf Coast. It's all still there. Army Lt. Gen. Russel Honoré, who served as the task force commander for emergency response after Hurricane Katrina, told the Christian Science Monitor, “I thought we had learned that from Katrina, take food and water and start evacuating people." Maybe we learned but, apparently, Gates and the Defense Department missed school that day. 7. Send in the Marines. That's America's response. That's what we're good at. The aircraft carrier USS Carl Vinson finally showed up after three days. With what? It was dramatically deployed — without any emergency relief supplies. It has sidewinder missiles and 19 helicopters. 8. But don't worry, the International Search and Rescue Team, fully equipped and self-sufficient for up to seven days in the field, deployed immediately with ten metric tons of tools and equipment, three tons of water, tents, advanced communication equipment and water purifying capability. They're from Iceland. 9. Gates wouldn't send in food and water because, he said, there was no "structure ... to provide security." For Gates, appointed by Bush and allowed to hang around by Obama, it's security first. That was his lesson from Hurricane Katrina. Blackwater before drinking water. Not everyone surprised by Haiti earthquake; geologists sounded alarm for years They were hoping to spur action. Beefed up building codes, early warning systems for tsunamis, public education and disaster planning, such as exist in California, were among their goals. But between poverty and government corruption, nothing happened. "I don't think anyone cares anything about an earthquake in Haiti because they have too many other things to worry about," said Roger Bilham, professor of geological sciences at the University of Colorado. "(The people) don't worry about earthquakes, but the government should care." The frustrated geologists point to the difference building codes and emergency preparedness measures can make. The magnitude 7.1 Loma Prieta earthquake in California, known as the 1989 World Series earthquake, killed 63 people. The magnitude 6.9 Kobe earthquake in Japan in 1995 claimed 5,000 lives. Asia's greed for ivory puts African elephant at risk There has been a massive surge in illegal ivory trading, researchers warned last week. They have found that more than 14,000 products made from the tusks and other body parts of elephants were seized in 2009, an increase of more than 2,000 on their previous analysis in 2007. Details of this disturbing rise have been revealed on the eve of the 20th anniversary of the world ivory trading ban. Implemented on 18 January 1990, it was at first credited with halting the slaughter of hundreds of thousands of elephants. But the recent growth in the far east's appetite for ivory – a status symbol for the middle classes of the region's newly industrialised economies – has sent ivory prices soaring from £150 a kilogram in 2004 to more than £4,000. At the same time, scientists estimate that between 8% and 10% of Africa's elephants are now being killed each year to meet the demand. The world's largest land animal is again threatened with widespread slaughter. Greenpeace to build £14m flagship; The Rainbow Warrior III mega-yacht will be one of the greenest ships afloat, complete with satellite video system and a helipad Many navies are shrinking as defence cuts bite, but environment groups are renewing their fleets in response to growing ecological pressure on oceans and losses of their vessels at sea. German and Polish shipyards will shortly start work on Greenpeace's £14m flagship, a mega-yacht that will become the third Rainbow Warrior next year. It will be one of the biggest yachts to have been commissioned in the last decade with, say the designers, a massive 1,300 sq metres of sail supported on two A-frame masts. Like billionaire Roman Abramovich's £300m mega-yacht, the Eclipse, also expected to be launched this year in Germany, the Rainbow Warrior III will have its own helipad and room for a flotilla of inflatables. But while it will sleep 30 in more comfort than the fishing boats the environment group usually converts, it will not have Abramovich's swimming pools, military-grade missile defence system, submarine or armour-plating. Instead it will be one of the greenest ships afloat and a satellite system will allow campaigners to stream video footage from anywhere in the world. "We have converted ships for 30 years and it's time we practised what we preach," said Ulrich von Eitzen, a Greenpeace spokesman. "Upgrading the existing ship was not technically or financially feasible and converting a secondhand ship would compromise our campaigning and energy conservation needs." Can the U.S. Navy Make Jet Fuel Out of Sea Water? (NaturalNews) U.S. Navy scientists are investigating a method for transforming ocean water into jet fuel as a way to maintain U.S. military superiority even in the face of dwindling global oil supplies. "The U.S. Navy is surrounded by seawater and the Navy needs jet fuel," said researcher Robert Dorner, who works at the Naval Research Laboratory in Washington, D.C. "In the seawater you have [carbon dioxide] and you have hydrogen. The question is, how do you convert that into jet fuel?" The navy researchers hope to develop a new version of the Fischer-Tropsch process for combining carbon monoxide with hydrogen to produce synthetic gas (syngas), a precursor for both jet fuel and plastics. The Fischer-Tropsch process requires the use of cobalt catalysts and heat, and also produces waxes and the greenhouse gas methane as byproducts. Because of its high cost, it has rarely been used commercially -- most notably, the isolated regimes of Nazi Germany and Apartheid South Africa used it to transform solid coal into liquid fuel as a way of working around fuel embargoes. Dorner and colleagues hope to modify the process to use the carbon dioxide dissolved in sea water instead of carbon monoxide, and an iron catalyst rather than cobalt. This latter change would reduce methane output by 70 percent and also increase syngas output. If this is successful, the researchers would then need to find a way to turn syngas into jet fuel. "It's still a very energy-intensive process," Dorner said. "A lot of work remains to be done. We haven't even really looked at building an actual pilot plant yet." U.N.’s World Health Organization Wants Tax on Internet [AJ] The World Health Organization (WHO) is considering a plan to ask governments to impose a global consumer tax on such things as Internet activity or everyday financial transactions like paying bills online. Such a scheme could raise “tens of billions of dollars” on behalf of the United Nations’ public health arm from a broad base of consumers, which would then be used to transfer drug-making research, development and manufacturing capabilities, among other things, to the developing world. The multibillion-dollar “indirect consumer tax” is only one of a “suite of proposals” for financing the rapid transformation of the global medical industry that will go before WHO’s 34-member supervisory Executive Board at its biannual meeting in Geneva. Saudi billionaire Prince Alwaleed eyes expanding alliance with Murdoch's News Corp. CAIRO (AP) -- The Saudi billionaire whose investment firm is one of the biggest stakeholders in Rupert Murdoch's News Corp. said he is looking to expand his alliances with the media giant, in the latest indication that his appetite for growth remains robust even as his company retrenches. Prince Alwaleed bin Talal, a nephew of the Saudi king and who was listed last year by Forbes as the world's 22nd richest person, met with News Corp.'s chief executive Rupert Murdoch on Jan. 14 in a meeting that "touched upon future potential alliances with News Corp.," according to a statement released by his Kingdom Holding Co. late Saturday. Media reports have indicated that News Corp, parent to Fox News and Dow Jones & Co., among others, may be thinking of buying a stake in Alwaleed's Rotana Media Group, which includes a number of satellite channels that air in the Middle East. Neither company has commented publicly on the possible deal, but the talks offer an indication yet that such an agreement may yet be in the offing. Cindy Sheehan leads drone protest in Virginia LANGLEY, Va. (AP) -- A group led by anti-war activist Cindy Sheehan rallied Saturday near the CIA's headquarters and former Vice President Dick Cheney's home in northern Virginia to protest the use of unmanned drone aircraft for attacks on al-Qaida and Taliban targets. The group of about 70 people rallied along a highway outside the CIA compound. About half then marched to Cheney's street, which is nearby, and stayed for 20 minutes, though police kept them from going down his street. Sheehan's 21-year-old son Casey was killed in Iraq in April 2004. She staged a prolonged demonstration outside former President George W. Bush's ranch near Crawford, Texas, in 2005. She called the use of drones "cowardly" and "immoral." She says she's concerned about all military uses of drones but specifically about their use by the CIA in Pakistan. She says drones have killed about 700 civilians. Week of 10th to 16th of January 2010 Haiti aid flow grows; feuds over reaching victims [WRH] Bellerive said an estimated 300,000 people are living on the streets in port-au-Prince and "Getting them water, and food, and a shelter is our top priority." The US military operating Haiti's damaged main airport said it can now handle 90 flights a day, but that wasn't enough to cope with all the planes sent by foreign donors and governments circling overhead in hopes of winning one of the few spots available on the tarmac. France's Cooperation Minister Alain Joyandet told The Associated Press that he had filed an official complaint to the US government after two French planes, one carrying a field hospital, were denied permission to land. A plane carrying the prime ministers of two Caribbean nations also was forced to turn back late Friday due to a lack of space at the airport, the Caricom trade bloc announced. Tylenol recall expanded to Motrin, Benadryl, more The recall includes some batches of regular and extra-strength Tylenol, children's Tylenol, eight-hour Tylenol, Tylenol arthritis, Tylenol PM, children's Motrin, Motrin IB, Benadryl Rolaids, Simply Sleep, and St. Joseph's aspirin. The FDA and Johnson & Johnson's McNeil Consumer Healthcare Products said they did not know the number of bottles recalled. It included caplet and geltab products sold in the Americas, the United Arab Emirates, and Fiji. Consumers should check the full list at www.mcneilproductrecall.com to identify the recalled batches. The FDA said about 70 people have been either sickened by the odor — including nausea, stomach pain, vomiting and diarrhea — or noticed it. The smell is caused by small amounts of a chemical associated with the treatment of wooden pallets, Johnson & Johnson said. The FDA said the chemical can leach into the air, and traced it to a facility in Las Piedras, Puerto Rico. 'Even Charles Manson could beat him now' Every Wednesday at 4.30pm they come: a small steady human trickle rolling down a ravine in Prestonsburg, western Kentucky ­towards the Town Branch church. They come in pick-ups, on foot, alone and with families. Some stop for just a few minutes. Others linger. They come for food and warm second-hand clothes. They come because desperation in this part of America has become a routine part of life. More than a quarter of the families in Prestonsburg live in poverty; half of the children in Floyd County, where it is situated, are on food stamps. This ­Appalachian coal mining area has never been rich. But no one can remember when it has ever been this poor either. It sits on the old Route 23 – the country music highway of which Dwight Yoakam (a Floyd Country native) sang in Readin', Rightin', Route 23. It was the road that took people north to factory jobs in places such as Detroit and Cleveland and "the good life they had never seen". Now those cities are broke and there's nowhere left to go. "We're getting more and more ­people coming here as time goes by," says Tom Price, who helps administer the church's Feed My Sheep pantry. "The bottom's just fallen out of it all." He blames it on Barack Obama. "Is there a direct correlation [between Obama's victory and the region's bad times]? I don't know. But I do know a lot of people are hurting." A week may be a long time in politics. But a year has not been enough for the Democratic president to meet the expectations of his candidacy, deal with the situation he inherited or defuse the barbed charges of his detractors. For many the change that Obama promised when he was inaugurated a year on Wednesday has ended up being a change for the worse. Unemployment is rising, houses prices are falling, unpopular wars are still raging. After 100 days only Ronald Reagan had higher approval ratings for his first few months in office than Obama. But as his first year draws to a close nobody has had lower ratings at this stage since Dwight Eisenhower. Keith Bartley, Floyd County's Democratic chairman, says one key reason why Obama's such a tough sell here is because of the effect of his cap and trade policy on the coal industry. Lt Governor Daniel Mongiardo, the Democratic frontrunner in Kentucky's senatorial race later this year, says he would not want Obama to come and stump for him on the campaign trail, particularly because of his environmental policies. "With some of the positions he has taken, especially on coal, no. He certainly can't come into eastern or western Kentucky and help. Nor would I want him to." PAM COMMENTARY: So far I haven't seen a willingness on the part of Obama to deviate much from Bush's economic policies, and so I don't expect to see much improvement anytime soon. And coal -- it's a lot of pollution better replaced with renewables, but the displaced workers will need other opportunities. Years ago, someone told me that windmills take just as much money and labor as coal or anything else, in fact maybe a little more, because they need so much maintenance. But the skills to machine the parts and the best locations for wind will shift where those new energy jobs are located. Wind over water; Some see giant wind farms on horizon for the vast, breezy Great Lakes So you might be surprised that he has a problem with some retired engineers who want to determine whether a wind turbine could be erected to supply electricity to the island's population, which peaks in summer at about 3,000 residents. This fall they installed a temporary 165-foot-high tower in Big Bay State Park to gauge which way the wind blows, and just how hard. Nelson sees the year-long study as a waste of a year's worth of wind. The 54-year-old grumbles that the Apostle Islands town should just get on with it and buy an actual wind turbine. Standing in front of his café with a hand-painted sign on the wall that reads: "People are exactly as free and independent as they choose to be," Nelson says he'll even donate a prime piece of his own land to help liberate his island from the polluting coal power he so detests. "It's like this: You got an apple tree, it's got some apples. We don't need a committee to spend a year deciding whether we should pick those apples." Wind jobs outstrip coal mining (FLASHBACK) Here’s a talking point in the green jobs debate: The wind industry now employs more people than coal mining in the United States. Wind industry jobs jumped to 85,000 in 2008, a 70% increase from the previous year, according to a report released Tuesday from the American Wind Energy Association. In contrast, the coal industry mining employs about 81,000 workers. (Those figures are from a 2007 U.S. Department of Energy report but coal employment has remained steady in recent years though it’s down by nearly 50% since 1986.) Wind industry employment includes 13,000 manufacturing jobs concentrated in regions of the country hard hit by the deindustrialization of the past two decades. The big spike in wind jobs wa