Mar 29 2011
Regular Features-
Featured Essays for March 28, 2011-
Mar 29 2011
(10 am. – promoted by ek hornbeck)
Shortly after taking office, the Barack Obama’s Attorney General announced new Department of Justice guidelines for medical marijuana in states that had laws permitting its dispensing.
U.S. Atty. Gen. Eric H. Holder Jr. said Wednesday that the Justice Department has no plans to prosecute pot dispensaries that are operating legally under state laws in California and a dozen other states — a development that medical marijuana advocates and civil libertarians hailed as a sweeping change in federal drug policy
Well, apparently the word didn’t get out to the field and in the last two weeks there have been 28 raids on medical marijuana clinics in Montana where 26 raids took place:
GREAT FALLS, Mont. – Federal agencies conducted 26 raids on medical marijuana facilities in 13 Montana cities this week, as agents seized thousands of marijuana plants and froze about $4 million in bank funds.
The raids stunned medical marijuana advocates, many of whom believed the Obama administration’s policy was to leave states with medical marijuana laws alone.
That belief stemmed from Attorney General Eric Holder’s announcement in October 2009 that the pursuit of “individuals whose actions are in clear and unambiguous compliance” with existing state medical marijuana laws would be the lowest priority of U.S. law enforcement.
and California:
Federal drug enforcement agents Tuesday raided two West Hollywood medical marijuana stores in the first such action in the city since the Obama administration decided two years ago to take a hands-off approach to dispensaries that abide by state laws.
The dispensaries — Alternative Herbal Health Services and Zen Healing on Santa Monica Boulevard — are among four that the city has authorized to operate. West Hollywood was one of the first California cities to regulate medical marijuana sales and is often cited as a model.
In the tradition of the previous administration, the DOJ and the IRS began the raids after new memo (pdf) was issued that is up front about the new policy. The memo issued on February 1st by US Attorney Melinda Haag (who, ironically, represents Northern California) directly contradicts Holder’s edict. She declares that ANYONE engaging in the buying or selling of marijuana, regardless of their protection under state laws, will be punished by the federal government.
As the Department has stated on many occasions, Congress has determined that marijuana is a controlled substance. Congress placed marijuana in Schedule I of the Controlled Substances Act (CSA) and, as such, growing, distributing, and possessing marijuana in any capacity, other than as part of a federally authorized research program, is a violation of federal law regardless of state laws permitting such activities.
The prosecution of individuals and organizations involved in the trade of any illegal drugs and the disruption of drug trafficking organizations is a core priority of the Department. This core priority includes prosecution of business enterprises that unlawfully market and sell marijuana. Accordingly, while the Department does not focus its limited resources on seriously ill individuals who use marijuana as part of a medically recommended treatment regimen in compliance with state law as stated in the October 2009 Ogden Memorandum, we will enforce the CSA vigorously against individuals and organizations that participate in unlawful
manufacturing and distribution activity involving marijuana, even if such activities are permitted under state law. The Department’s investigative and prosecutorial resources will continue to be directed toward these objectives.
Schedule I drugs are determined to have “no currently accepted medical use in treatment in the United States.” and carry the harshest penalties resulting in a prison population in which 1 in 8 prisoners in the U.S. is locked up for a marijuana-related offense. However, recently a federal agency has determined that marijuana does have a medicinal purpose. The National Cancer Institute (NCI), a division of the National Institute of Health, which is itself one of the 11 component agencies that make up the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, added to its treatment database a summary of marijuana’s medicinal benefits, including an acknowledgment that oncologists may recommend it to patients for medicinal use:
The potential benefits of medicinal Cannabis for people living with cancer include antiemetic effects, appetite stimulation, pain relief, and improved sleep. In the practice of integrative oncology, the health care provider may recommend medicinal Cannabis not only for symptom management but also for its possible direct antitumor effect.
The Supreme Court ruled in 2001 that medical use of marijuana cannot be considered in any federal court deliberating on a marijuana possession or distribution case. While a solution to this would be to reschedule marijuana and put it under the regulation of the FDA but the possibility of this Congress acting on this anytime soon is nil to zero.
That leads to the question of the administrations policies which are conflicting to say the least and appear to have some political motivation to molify the criticism of the hard right wing that is now dominating the conversation. It begs to question whether Holder is being dishonest and hypocritical? Or does he simply lack strong leadership among US Attorneys General? Either way, this isn’t the way this administration is winning any support.
The Just Say Now campaign at FDL has a petition telling Holder to enforce his memo and stop raiding marijuana clinics.
Mar 29 2011
(Midnight – promoted by TheMomCat)
Essays Featured Monday, of March:
Nick Lowe begins the day in Late Night Karaoke, mishima DJs
Six Brilliant Articles! from Six Different Places!! on Six Different Topics!!!
Six Days a Week!!! at Six in the Morning!!!!
Monday Open Thoughts from RiaD are threadbare.
from fake consultant a reminder about Social Security: Get On The Phone Tuesday And Wednesday And Help Fight Cuts
patric juillet brings another scrumptious edition of Tales from the Larder: the Tomato
from Timbuk3: The 100 Greatest Rock Songs of All Time!
Tonight #95
The latest Pique the Geek from Translator How Nuclear Reactors Work. Part the Second
Mar 29 2011
I’ll be sitting in for ek hornbeck who is Live Blogging the Men’s and Women’s NCAA Championship Games for the next few days. Come live blog the Women’s Regional Finals with us.
NAWFALIYAH/MISRATA, Libya (Reuters) – Rebels advanced west toward the birthplace of Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi on Monday, firing mortars and heavy machineguns in sporadic clashes with loyalist forces.
Emboldened by Western-led air strikes against Gaddafi’s troops, the rebels took the town of Nawfaliyah and moved toward Sirte, Gaddafi’s home town and an important military base, in the sixth week of an uprising against his 41-year rule.
TOKYO (Reuters) – Plutonium found in soil at the crippled Fukushima nuclear complex heightened alarm on Tuesday over Japan’s protracted battle to contain the world’s worst atomic crisis in 25 years.
Plant operator Tokyo Electric Power Co (TEPCO) said the radioactive material, a by-product of atomic reactions and also used in nuclear bombs, was traced in soil at five locations at the complex, hit by an earthquake and tsunami on March 11.
TOKYO – Workers discovered new pools of radioactive water leaking from Japan’s crippled nuclear complex, officials said Monday, as emergency crews struggled to pump out hundreds of tons of contaminated water and bring the plant back under control.
Officials believe the contaminated water has sent radioactivity levels soaring at the coastal complex and caused more radiation to seep into soil and seawater. Crews also found traces of plutonium in the soil outside of the complex on Monday, but officials insisted there was no threat to public health.
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – President Barack Obama faces the challenge on Monday of convincing Americans he has clear aims and a U.S. exit strategy in the Libya conflict as he seeks to counter growing criticism from Congress.
Obama, accused by many lawmakers of failing to explain the U.S. role in the Western air campaign against the forces of Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi, will try to define the mission’s purpose and scope in a televised address at 7:30 p.m. EDT.
DAMASCUS (Reuters) – Syrian forces fired into the air on Monday to disperse a pro-democracy protest in the southern flashpoint city of Deraa, where reformists want to overthrow the 41-year rule of the Assad family.
More than 60 people have been killed so far in the crackdown in the town on the Jordanian border that poses the most serious challenge to President Bashar al-Assad. Residents said security forces’ snipers were on rooftops.
HARAWA, Libya (AFP) – Libyan rebels were stopped in their tracks on Monday as forces loyal to Moamer Kadhafi launched a fierce attack on their convoy, halting their push forward to Sirte for a second time in the day.
The rebels came under heavy fire at the village of Harawa, some 60 kilometres (35 miles) short of Kadhafi’s birthplace.
ADEN, Yemen (AFP) – A huge fire and blasts killed more than 75 people at an ammunition factory looted by Al-Qaeda on Monday, officials said, as parts of south Yemen eluded government control amid mounting protests.
A security official said the explosions rocked the plant as dozens of residents were inside helping themselves to whatever ammunition and guns were left after Sunday’s raid by suspected Al-Qaeda fighters.
ABIDJAN (AFP) – Fighters backing internationally recognised president Alassane Ouattara Monday launched a “general offensive” in the west, centre-west and east of Ivory Coast, an army source said.
“There is a general offensive along the entire frontline,” splitting the country in two since a failed coup in 2002, said a source from the army chief of staff.
The north is controlled by pro-Ouattara forces and the south by strongman Laurent Gbagbo’s army.
SOUDA BAY AIR BASE, Greece – In Libya’s skies, Qatar is punching above its weight.
From an air base in Crete, the tiny Persian Gulf nation has started its biggest, farthest combat deployment – including a third of its fighter-jet fleet – and given the first Arab face to the Western-led coalition hoping to protect Libyan civilians from Moammar Gadhafi’s firepower.
By Marwa Awad – 1 hr 56 mins ago
CAIRO (Reuters) – Egypt will hold a parliamentary election in September, its military rulers said on Monday, setting a date that analysts said would suit well-organized Islamists and remnants of former leader Hosni Mubarak’s party.
The ruling Supreme Council of the Armed Forces said emergency laws that have helped crush political life for decades would be lifted before elections, but did not say when, and approved a law easing restrictions on political party formation.
DUBAI (AFP) – Activists for women’s rights in Saudi Arabia said its decision on Monday to keep a voting ban in place was “outrageous” at a time that Arab governments are taking steps to avert pro-democracy revolts.
The head of the electoral committee charged with preparing for next month’s municipal polls said the kingdom was not ready to allow women to vote.
WASHINGTON (AFP) – More than one billion urban residents will face serious water shortages by 2050 as climate change worsens effects of urbanization, with Indian cities among the worst hit, a study said Monday.
The shortage threatens sanitation in some of the world’s fastest-growing cities but also poses risks for wildlife if cities pump in water from outside, said the article in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
TOKYO – The auto industry disruptions triggered by Japan’s earthquake and tsunami are about to get worse.
In the weeks ahead, car buyers will have difficulty finding the model they want in certain colors, thousands of auto plant workers will likely be told to stay home, and companies such as Toyota, Honda and others will lose billions of dollars in revenue. More than two weeks since the natural disaster, inventories of crucial car supplies – from computer chips to paint pigments – are dwindling fast as Japanese factories that make them struggle to restart.
HAVANA – Former President Jimmy Carter arrived in Cuba Monday to discuss economic policies and ways to improve Washington-Havana relations, which are even more tense than usual over the imprisonment of a U.S. contractor on the island.
Carter was scheduled to meet with Jewish leaders – suggesting that his visit will deal at least partly with the case of Alan Gross, who was arrested in December 2009 while working for Bethesda, Maryland-based Development Alternatives Inc. on a USAID-backed democracy-building project.
WASHINGTON – Japan’s nuclear emergency highlights a big medical gap: Few treatments exist to help people exposed to large amounts of radiation.
But some possibilities are in the pipeline – development of drugs to treat radiation poisoning, and the first rapid tests to tell who in a panicked crowd would really need them.
The U.S. calls these potential products “countermeasures,” and they’re part of the nation’s preparations against a terrorist attack, such as a dirty bomb. But if they work, they could be useful in any kind of radiation emergency.
AUGUSTA, Maine – A mural depicting Maine’s labor history was removed from the lobby of the state Department of Labor headquarters and put into storage over the weekend after a directive from the new Republican governor that it come down.
The 36-foot, 11-panel mural will be kept at an undisclosed location until a suitable spot can be found to put it on public display, said Adrienne Bennett, spokeswoman for Gov. Paul LePage.
BOSTON (Reuters) – Smoke billowing from an equipment elevator at a New Hampshire nuclear plant briefly triggered an “unusual event” on Monday but did not impact operations or affect any employees, officials said.
Smoke was detected in a transformer attached to a service elevator in a support building at Seabrook Station in Seabrook, said Jim Van Dongen, spokesman for the state’s department of safety.
LUBBOCK, Texas (Reuters) – A 20-year-old Saudi student indicted in a bomb plot with targets including the Dallas home of former President George W. Bush pleaded not guilty on Monday.
Khalid Aldawsari faces a charge of attempting to use a weapon of mass destruction. If convicted, the former chemical engineering exchange student could face up to life in prison.
INDIANAPOLIS (Reuters) – Indiana House Democrats said they are returning to the state on Monday after a five-week stand-off with Republicans, having won changes on bills they claimed hurt labor and public education.
“The timeout forced by Democrats gave Hoosiers an opportunity to examine the radical agenda being attempted in Indiana and to speak out,” said Indiana House Democratic Leader B. Patrick Bauer of South Bend, in a statement issued by the House Democrats.
CHARLESTON, South Carolina (Reuters) – Low levels of radioactive iodine believed to be from Japan’s Fukushima nuclear power plant have been detected in the atmosphere in South Carolina, North Carolina and Florida, officials said on Monday.
There is no current threat to public safety, said spokesman Drew Elliot of Progress Energy, the Raleigh, North Carolina, electric utility serving Florida and the Carolinas.
WASHINGTON (AFP) – Traces of radioactivity from damaged nuclear power facilities in Japan have been detected in rainwater in the northeast United States, but pose no health risks, officials said.
The Environmental Protection Agency, in an update Sunday, said it had received reports of “elevated levels of radiation in recent precipitation events” in Massachusetts and Pennsylvania and that it was “reviewing this data.”
SAN FRANCISCO (AFP) – Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey announced on Monday that he was returning to the high-flying company as executive chairman to head its product team.
“Today I’m thrilled to get back to work at @Twitter leading product as Executive Chairman,” Dorsey said in a message on his Twitter feed @jack.
WASHINGTON (AFP) – NASA’s inspector general warned Monday that computer servers used by the US space agency to control spacecraft were vulnerable to cyber attack through the Internet.
“We found that computer servers on NASA’s agency-wide mission network had high-risk vulnerabilities that were exploitable from the Internet,” NASA inspector general Paul Martin said in an audit of NASA’s network security.
WASHINGTON (AFP) – US consumer spending rose in February, outpacing income growth, as Americans faced higher costs for energy and food, official data showed Monday.
Consumer spending rose 0.7 percent from January, more than double the 0.3 percent increase in January, the Commerce Department reported.
It was the strongest increase since October and topped forecasts for a 0.5 percent rise.
WASHINGTON – The Homeland Security Department official in charge of submitting sensitive government files to political advisers for secretive reviews before they could be released to citizens, journalists and watchdog groups complained in emails that the unusual scrutiny was “crazy” and hoped someone outside the Obama administration would discover the practice, The Associated Press has learned.
Chief Privacy Officer Mary Ellen Callahan, who was appointed by Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano, complained in late 2009 that the vetting process was burdensome and said she wanted to change it, according to uncensored emails newly obtained by the AP. In the emails, she warned that the Homeland Security Department might be sued over delays the political reviews were causing, and she hinted that a reporter might find out about the vetting. The reviews are the subject of a congressional hearing later this week and an ongoing inquiry by the department’s inspector general.
WASHINGTON – President Barack Obama said Monday that students should take fewer standardized tests and school performance should be measured in other ways. Too much testing makes education boring for kids, he said.
“Too often what we have been doing is using these tests to punish students,” the president told students and parents at a town hall hosted by the Univision Spanish-language television network at Bell Multicultural High School in Washington, D.C.
WASHINGTON – The specter of a partial government shutdown looms again as Congress returns to Washington with Democrats and Republicans as far apart on a bill to keep the government running as they were two weeks ago.
Despite mounting pressure and a deadline looming, talks have stalled, with Democrats accusing GOP leaders of catering to tea party forces and Republicans countering that the White House isn’t offering serious proposals to cut spending.
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – President Barack Obama’s Democrats on Monday moved beyond their earlier proposals to cut U.S. spending in an attempt to revive stalled budget talks that would avert a government shutdown.
The latest White House plan would trim $20 billion from current spending, on top of the $10 billion that has already been cut from the current budget, Democratic aides said.
WASHINGTON (AFP) – US Secretary Hillary Clinton left for London on Monday for an international conference that she says will begin to focus on diplomatic efforts to force Moamer Kadhafi to step down.
The chief US diplomat will join a conference on Tuesday attended by foreign ministers from more than 35 countries, including Turkey, as well as the top officials from NATO, the United Nations, the Arab League, and African Union.
NEW YORK (AFP) – Here’s heavy metal music that won’t give you a headache: a French-built organ with more than 6,000 steel pipes that has just started thundering from a New York church.
The organ, built by master artisans in France, draws on centuries of French organ tradition, creating an authentic Baroque sound that other makers just can’t copy, according to organist Dennis Keene.
Mar 28 2011
NCAA Women’s Basketball Tournament 2011
Not a good day for underdogs.
| Seed | Team | Record | Score | Seed | Team | Record | Score | Region |
| 1 | *Connecticut | 35 – 1 | 68 | 5 | Georgetown | 24 – 11 | 63 | East |
| 2 | *Duke | 31 – 3 | 70 | 3 | DePaul | 25 – 10 | 61 | East |
| 2 | *Texas A&M | 30 – 5 | 79 | 6 | Georgia | 24 – 11 | 38 | Southwest |
| 1 | *Baylor | 34 – 2 | 86 | 5 | Wisconsin-Green Bay | 34 – 2 | 76 | Southwest |
But I am hopeful for tonight.
Gonzaga is going to have to pull off a miracle to get past Stanford, but I sure wouldn’t mind if that happened.
Notre Dame is a better bet. A number 2 over a number 1 is not that big an upset and Notre Dame is a good team, probably the second best in The Big East.
Besides, don’t you think Pat Summit looks tired?
Current Matchups
| Time | Seed | Team | Record | Seed | Team | Record | Region |
| 7 pm | 1 | Tennessee | 33 – 2 | 2 | Notre Dame | 28 – 7 | Southeast |
| 9 pm | 1 | Stanford | 31 – 2 | 11 | Gonzaga | 30 – 4 | West |
Follow the 2011 NCAA Women’s Basketball Tournament on The Stars Hollow Gazette.
If you don’t like squeeky shoes you can look for alternate programming here-
If you like a more traditional bracket try this NCAA one, they also have a TV schedule.
Mar 28 2011
A School in a Quandary
By RICHARD WEIZEL, The New York Times
Published: September 01, 1996
Going to Stratfield, it was thought by many, was a way to prepare one’s child for the Ivy League.
That was all before a cheating scandal at Stratfield was revealed in April by the school superintendent, Carol Harrington.
…
On both exams there were significantly higher erasure rates than at other schools, and on both tests 89 percent of erasures at Stratfield had been changed to correct answers.“At first nobody at the school, actually no one in the school system, wanted to believe that this had happened, particularly at such a wonderful and prestigious school that has received so much positive attention in recent years,” said Ms. Harrington, who was harshly criticized at the time by Stratfield School parents for revealing the news to the media before the school year’s ending, and before they had been informed.
“There was a lot of denial and people wanted to blame the messenger, but now I think most people accept that there was tampering and want to get to the bottom of it,” said Ms. Harrington.
…
(A)fter carefully reviewing the test results, which had up to five times the number of erasures of the other schools’ exams, officials at Houghlin-Miflin, the parent company of the Iowa Test, concluded otherwise, saying their review “clearly and conclusively indicate tampering.”And when Stratfield’s third graders were retested in March, as requested by the school board, they fell below two other town schools. On the first test, the school’s third graders scored higher than 89 percent of students nationwide on vocabulary and reading comprehension. But on the monitored retests, their scores dropped to 80 percent on vocabulary and 79 percent for reading.
The school’s 512 pupils, 22 teachers and its long-beloved but now beleaguered principal started a new school year last week amid several investigations, in addition to one already completed by the forensic expert Dr. Henry C. Lee, who most recently gained prominence for his work on the O. J. Simpson case.
Dr. Lee’s findings, which were released in early July, did not resolve the mystery. He concluded only that there was no evidence of chemical erasures and that the erasures were made by one or more persons. He also concluded that some of the tests had different patterns of pencil strokes and others had more consistent style patterns.
What was in fact happening you see is that teachers and administrators go through test sheets to ‘clean up erroneous marks that might effect proper scoring’.
And at Stratfield Elementary School in Fairfield Connecticut, one of the highest rated and most prestigious in the United States, at the behest of and under the direction of their Principal- Roger Previs, these people were changing student answers so the school would itself test higher.
Now in my Connecticut School District we called cribbing answers from a cheat sheet, well…
CHEATING!
So what do you call what Fenty, Duncan, Obama, Third Way “Democrat”, Charter School loving Michelle Rhee did?
Test Gains at Michelle Rhee’s Favorite School Possibly Fabricated
By: David Dayen, Firedog Lake
Monday March 28, 2011 8:00 am
This doesn’t fully prove a case of fraud at the Noyes School: as Kevin Drum noted, perhaps students at Noyes were taught to look over their answers before completing the test. But he adds, “the pattern here sure seems to follow a pattern we’ve seen in other school districts that have reported startling test gains and later had to recant them for one reason or another.”
I think it’s important that this is part of Michelle Rhee’s legacy, while I’m not necessarily holding her responsible. She put a premium on success at DC schools, and that pressure can lead to some dastardly things. Moreover, if the Noyes School is found to have cheated on standardized tests, it invalidates a lot of the results Rhee held up as a model in how to best teach students.
And I will point out that this is exactly the excuse offered by Roger Previs and proven false by Dr. Henry Lee.
Correcting your own answers as a test strategy doesn’t result in conclusive findings by forensic handwriting analysts that erasures and new answers were made by two different people. Has something changed since I took the SAT and you’re now allowed to pass your paper to your neighbor because you have writer’s cramp and carpal tunnel?
Mar 28 2011
“Punting the Pundits” is an Open Thread. It is a selection of editorials and opinions from around the news medium and the internet blogs. The intent is to provide a forum for your reactions and opinions, not just to the opinions presented, but to what ever you find important.
Thanks to ek hornbeck, click on the link and you can access all the past “Punting the Pundits”
Pual Krugman: American Thought Police
Recently William Cronon, a historian who teaches at the University of Wisconsin, decided to weigh in on his state’s political turmoil. He started a blog, “Scholar as Citizen,” devoting his first post to the role of the shadowy American Legislative Exchange Council in pushing hard-line conservative legislation at the state level. Then he published an opinion piece in The Times, suggesting that Wisconsin’s Republican governor has turned his back on the state’s long tradition of “neighborliness, decency and mutual respect.”
So what was the G.O.P.’s response? A demand for copies of all e-mails sent to or from Mr. Cronon’s university mail account containing any of a wide range of terms, including the word “Republican” and the names of a number of Republican politicians.
E. J. Dionne, Jr.: The Midwest’s new class politics
The battle for the Midwest is transforming American politics. Issues of class inequality and union influence, long dormant, have come back to life. And a part of the country that was integral to the Republican surge of 2010 is shifting away from the GOP just a few months later.
Republican governors, particularly in Wisconsin and Ohio, denied themselves political honeymoons by launching frontal assaults on public employee unions and proposing budgets that include deep cuts in popular programs.
Doyle McManus: Obama’s nuanced call to arms in Libya
The Obama administration says the goals of its bombing campaign in Libya are crystal clear, but it has tied itself in knots trying to explain them.
This isn’t a war, White House spokesman Jay Carney said last week, “it’s a time-limited, scope-limited military action.”
“What we are doing is enforcing a [United Nations] resolution that has a very clear set of goals, which is protecting the Libyan people, averting a humanitarian crisis and setting up a no-fly zone,” said national security aide Ben Rhodes. “Obviously that involves kinetic military action, particularly on the front end. But … we are not getting into an open-ended war, a land invasion in Libya.”
Clear enough for you?
Patrick Cockburn: Every Tyrant Makes the Same Mistake in the Arab Uprisings
The despots who have ruled the Arab world for half a century are not giving up without a fight. In the southern Syrian city of Dara, security forces last week machine-gunned pro-democracy protesters in a mosque, killing 44 of them, and then faked evidence to pretend they were a gang of kidnappers. In the Yemeni capital, Sanaa, a few days earlier, snipers firing from high buildings shot dead or wounded 300 people at a rally demanding the President step down.
In Syria and Yemen, state-sponsored violence has proved counter-effective. Protesters were enraged rather than intimidated. A remarkable aspect of the Arab uprisings is that ruler after ruler is making the same mistakes that brought down Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali in Tunisia and Hosni Mubarak in Egypt. Local tyrants, from Muammar Gaddafi in Libya to Ali Abdullah Saleh in Yemen, behave as if they had joined a collective political suicide pact whereby they alternate mindless violence and inadequate concessions in just the right quantities to discredit themselves and undermine their regimes.
John Nichols: In Lawless Fitzwalkerstan, a Constitution Officer Refuses to Bend to a Royal Governor’s Dictate
The fear that Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker and Republican allies such as state Senate majority leader Scott Fitzgerald are turning Wisconsin into the American equivalent of a lawless “rogue state”-dubbed “Fitzwalkerstan” by state Rep. Mark Pocan, the former co-chair of the powerful Legislative Joint Finance Committee-was being taken more seriously Sunday. Walker’s lieutenants have announced that they would begin implementing the governor’s draconian anti-union power grab, despite the fact that a judge has issued an order blocking the law from going into effect.
Dane County Circuit Court Judge Maryann Sumi had issued a temporary restraining order (TRO) blocking publication of the anti-union law until the courts could weigh multiple questions about the legislature’s actions and the law itself. But Walker’s minions are now claiming that steps taken Friday by the state’s Legislative Reference Bureau to prepare for publication of the bill are an authorization to begin implementing it.
“Upon the advice of my legal counsel, the Department of Administration will begin the process of implementing [the law] as we are required to do the day after a bill is lawfully published,” claimed Walker’s Department of Administration secretary Mike Huebsch.
The problem is that bill has not been lawfully published.
David Sirota: A New Red Dawn
The 1984 film “Red Dawn” fantasized about a group of American teenagers called the Wolverines who valiantly repelled an invasion of foreign communists. For its mix of dystopia and hope, the movie became such an enduring cultural touchstone that U.S. military leaders honored it by naming their 2003 effort to apprehend Saddam Hussein “Operation Red Dawn.” Amid the triumphalism, however, we missed the fact that the invaders started winning – a fact that none other than “Red Dawn’s” 2011 remake underscores.
That’s the subtext of a Los Angeles Times report this week about MGM taking “the extraordinary step” of digitally removing fictional Chinese villains from the $60 million film “lest the leadership in Beijing be offended.” Why the fear of upsetting such an odiously anti-democratic government? Because movie executives worry that a film involving a negative message about China “would harm their ability to do business with the rising Asian superpower, one of the fastest-growing and potentially most lucrative markets for American movies.”
Jim Hightower: Rich Get Richer With New Congress
Change is not the same thing as progress. In fact, change can be the exact opposite. It can be regressive, as we’re now learning from — where else? — Congress.
A flock of tea party-infused Republicans has certainly changed the political dynamic there, and exultant GOP leaders are claiming that they are now the voice of “The People.” But most people won’t find themselves represented by this change, much less see it as progress.
That’s because the newcomers in Congress, whether Republican or Democrat, tend to live high up the economic ladder, way out of touch with the people they’re representing. Indeed, 40 percent of newly elected house members are millionaires, as are 60 percent of new senators.
Mar 28 2011
Monday Business Edition is an Open Thread
| From Yahoo News Business |
1 Russia aims to boost caviar exports with fish farms
by Eleonore Dermy, AFP
Sun Mar 27, 6:10 pm ET
| GAMZYUKI, Russia (AFP) – Once the world’s top exporter of black caviar, Russia is building fish farms to harvest the gourmet delicacy as it aims to bring its sturgeon stocks back from the brink.
In Gamzyuki, a tiny village in the Kaluga region, around 200 kilometres (125 miles) south of Moscow, a fish farm has the ambitious goal of producing 16 tons of the sturgeon eggs per year by 2014. Opened three years ago, it is one of dozens of sturgeon farms that have opened in Russia recently, aiming to rebuild the nation’s reputation as the world’s premium exporter of caviar. |
2 Wi-Fi cars hitting the information superhighway
by Rob Lever, AFP
Sun Mar 27, 4:20 pm ET
| WASHINGTON (AFP) – More cars are hitting the information superhighway thanks to new automotive Wi-Fi technology that allows vehicles to become rolling “hot spots.”
Analysts say consumers are warming to the notion of more connectivity in their cars, with “apps” for information and entertainment just as they have with their smartphones or tablet computers. “Initially, putting Internet access in the car sounds like a distraction and frivolous but as time passes it will become a part of our lives and we will feel uncomfortable not having access,” said Jeff Kagan, an independent telecoms analyst. |
And it still is. I’d rather be on the road with a bunch of drunks than people phoning, texting, twittering, emailing, facebook updating, blogging, GPSing, and watching streaming video from Netfix.
Take a fucking train assholes!
Studies show (and I have private access to some) that this behavior is IN FACT 3x as likely to result in accidents as driving while intoxicated.
3 Truckers scarce as India aims for top gear growth
by Salil Panchal, AFP
Sun Mar 27, 2:14 am ET
| MUMBAI (AFP) – After three years of driving on some of the world’s most dangerous roads, 20-year-old Indian truck driver Moin Sheikh wants out of the gruelling job.
He complains he is underpaid, overworked, harassed by police and frightened by the reckless driving on India’s traffic-choked roads, which have the world’s highest rate of fatalities. “I want to leave. The police treat us like dirt and driving at night is dangerous,” Moin, who gets just 3,000 rupees a month ($65) from his private trucking company employer, told AFP at a Mumbai suburban truck halt. |
4 Bulls turn bears on India as doubts grow
by Penny MacRae, AFP
Sun Mar 27, 1:10 am ET
| NEW DELHI (AFP) – Investors have turned bearish on India despite government forecasts of nine percent economic growth, as concerns over widespread corruption and high inflation knock confidence, analysts say.
Only a few months ago investors were pouring into Indian equities, seeing the country as a promising high-growth market and talking about the “India story”. But now the mood looks to be on the turn. The government’s lack of progress on economic reform, massive corruption scandals including the cut-price sale of telecoms licences, and eight interest rate hikes to try to tame high inflation have all had an impact. |
5 Investment guru Buffett dispenses wisdom in India
by Penny MacRae, AFP
Sat Mar 26, 1:28 am ET
| NEW DELHI (AFP) – He came, he saw, he charmed… Warren Buffett, known as the Oracle of Omaha for his legendary investment acumen, dispensed his trademark homespun wisdom and market savvy to Indians on his first visit to the fast-growing South Asian giant this week.
The 80-year-old Buffett was in India to join his close friend, Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates, to prod India’s super-rich to part with some of their wealth as part of the charity drive the pair launched last year. Buffett, worth an estimated $50 billion through his investment company Berkshire Hathaway, told Indian business leaders bluntly there was no conflict between making money and being philanthropic. |
6 BP risks losing Russia ‘deal of century’
by Dmitry Zaks, AFP
Sat Mar 26, 11:01 pm ET
| MOSCOW (AFP) – One of the biggest energy deals in Russia’s post-Soviet history is on the verge of collapse amid questions about both the British giant BP’s credibility and the risk of doing business in the country.
The British firm’s $16 billion alliance to jointly explore the Arctic with state-held Rosneft was hailed on its announcement January 15 as the “deal of the century” that would help resurrect Russia’s dour business image abroad. It marked a triumphant return for BP after the 2010 Gulf of Mexico oil spill and a chance for Russia to roll back its reputation for coming up with bizarre pretexts for stripping energy majors of their prized possessions. |
7 On financial regulation, it’s Warren vs. Dimon
By Kevin Drawbaugh, Reuters
Sun Mar 27, 1:53 pm ET
| WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Elizabeth Warren, the Obama administration’s defender of financial consumers, will venture into the corporate lion’s den this week, along with Jamie Dimon, CEO of banking giant JPMorgan Chase & Co.
The two will be speakers at an event set for Wednesday at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the country’s largest business lobbying group, in its Corinthian-columned headquarters situated within view of the White House. Warren, 61, is an earnest Harvard Law School professor brought up in Oklahoma, while Dimon, 55, is a consummate New York City insider and one of Wall Street’s richest CEOs. |
8 Jobs, the lagging indicator once more?
By Emily Kaiser, Reuters
Sun Mar 27, 3:01 pm ET
| WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The U.S. labor market is finally improving, just when many of the other economic indicators are wavering.
Jobs are considered a lagging indicator. They typically recover many months after the economy comes out of a recession, and this cycle was no exception. So will troubles in Japan, Libya and elsewhere push up U.S. unemployment later this year? “The U.S. economy is headed for another soft patch brought on by the double shock,” said IHS Global Insight chief economist Nariman Behravesh, referring to Japan and upheaval in the oil-producing Arab world. |
9 Japan corporate funding demand soars after disaster
By Taiga Uranaka, Reuters
Sun Mar 27, 2:31 am ET
| TOKYO (Reuters) – Japanese companies’ demand for funding has soared since the March 11 earthquake and tsunami, with the country’s top three banks seeing a surge in new loan requests, lenders said on Sunday.
Companies are rushing to secure extra financing to repair damage to their operations in the areas worst-hit by the disaster as well as fund their day-to-day operations following fall in revenue amid output disruptions, the banks said. Japan’s top three banks, Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corp, Mizuho Corporate Bank and Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ have received requests for new loans totaling 2.6 trillion yen ($32 billion) over two weeks, said the banks. |
10 Special Report: Brazil’s Olympic push isn’t winning any medals
By Brian Winter, Reuters
Sun Mar 27, 9:10 am ET
| SAO PAULO (Reuters) – It’s 8 p.m. at Sao Paulo’s sublimely overcrowded international airport and Marvin Curie, seeing all the chairs around him taken, decides to join dozens of other business travelers and sit on the floor.
Until, that is, a coffee-colored mystery liquid starts to seep out of a nearby men’s room. “Oh, Jesus!” Curie exclaims, scrambling to his feet. He checks the seat of his suit pants for stains — nothing. |
11 Nikkei slips as nuclear and supply concerns sour mood
By Ayai Tomisawa and Antoni Slodkowski, Reuters
Mon Mar 28, 1:49 am ET
| TOKYO (Reuters) – The Nikkei average fell on Monday after weekend reports of soaring radiation levels at a damaged nuclear plant, adding to investors’ worries over disrupted supply chains and power cuts already biting into corporate earnings after Japan’s earthquake and tsunami.
The Nikkei found support near the bottom of a narrow 200-point range in which it hovered last week, helped by ex-dividend date buying and bargain-hunting by foreigners and short-term investors. Domestic players kept off-loading holdings in Tokyo stocks or have already closed positions ahead of the end of the fiscal year on March 31, putting the market under more selling pressure. |
12 Court to take up huge sex bias claim vs. Wal-Mart
By MARK SHERMAN, Associated Press
1 hr 28 mins ago
| WASHINGTON – Christine Kwapnoski hasn’t done too badly in nearly 25 years in the Wal-Mart family, making more than $60,000 a year in a job she enjoys most days.
But Kwapnoski says she faced obstacles at Wal-Mart-owned Sam’s Club stores in both Missouri and California: Men making more than women and getting promoted faster. She never heard a supervisor tell a man, as she says one told her, to “doll up” or “blow the cobwebs off” her make-up. |
13 Judge’s ties at issue in NY pension fund case
By JENNIFER PELTZ, Associated Press
Mon Mar 28, 3:42 am ET
| NEW YORK – A judge’s friendships and a defense lawyer’s strained family ties have injected awkwardly personal uncertainty into a former state comptroller’s sentencing for his role in influence-peddling at the state’s giant pension fund.
Ex-Comptroller Alan Hevesi was set to learn Monday whether he’ll have to spend time behind bars. The Democrat pleaded guilty in October to accepting campaign contributions and free travel in exchange for investing hundreds of millions of dollars of state pension money with a certain firm. He’s the highest-ranking official in a pay-to-play scandal that has brought guilty pleas and civil settlements from a roster of politicians, financiers and firms. Hevesi, 71, could get up to four years in prison or no jail time at all. The decision is up to a judge who happens to have close ties to the estranged father of Hevesi’s lawyer. |
14 Radiation in Japan seawater, soil may be spreading
By SHINO YUASA, Associated Press
1 hr 25 mins ago
| TOKYO – Workers at Japan’s damaged nuclear plant raced to pump out contaminated water suspected of sending radioactivity levels soaring as officials warned Monday that radiation seeping from the complex was spreading to seawater and soil.
The coastal power plant, located 140 miles (220 kilometers) northeast of Tokyo, has been leaking radiation since a magnitude-9.0 quake on March 11 triggered a tsunami that engulfed the complex. The wave knocked out power to the system that cools the dangerously hot nuclear fuel rods. The frantic effort to get temperatures down and avert a widening disaster has been slowed and complicated by fires, explosions, leaks and dangerous spikes in radiation. Two workers were burned after wading into highly radioactive water, officials said. |
15 Egypt stocks pare gains after early rally
By TAREK EL-TABLAWY, AP Business Writer
1 hr 31 mins ago
| CAIRO – Egypt’s stock market pared early gains on Monday, retreating sharply from a market-opening rally linked to bargain hunters snapping up shares that had been heavily sold off over the past couple of sessions.
The broader EGX100 index had surged 5 percent within the first 15 minutes of trading, triggering a 30 minute suspension of trading for the fourth consecutive session. The benchmark EGX30 index climbed roughly 7.2 percent before trading was halted. It slumped, however, with the resumption of trading and was up just 0.84 percent by 12:15 p.m. Cairo time, according to the Egyptian Exchange’s Web site. “There’s a cooling as people re-evaluate their holdings, especially those who were buying aggressively,” said Ahmed Hanafi, head of research at Gothour Trading. |
16 Investment talks bring Turkish premier to Baghdad
By QASSIM ABDUL-ZAHRA, Associated Press
1 hr 18 mins ago
| BAGHDAD – Joined by dozens of businessmen, Turkey’s prime minister led trade talks Monday with Iraqi leaders that he said would be a step toward greater stability across the Middle East.
Recep Tayyip Erdogan, a Sunni leader whose premiership has greatly expanded Turkey’s regional influence, was also expected to meet with one of Shiite Islam’s top spiritual leaders to discuss the crackdown on Shiite protesters in the Gulf nation of Bahrain. The Turkish premier will also appeal for more help from Baghdad in combatting Kurdish rebels seeking greater rights in Turkey and operate from safe havens in the north of Iraq. |
17 Nuclear industry touts safety of new reactors
By MATTI HUUHTANEN, Associated Press
Mon Mar 28, 5:44 am ET
| OLKILUOTO, Finland – Halfway around the globe from Japan’s atomic emergency, engineers building a cutting-edge nuclear reactor along Finland’s icy shores insist the same crisis could never happen here.
And that’s not only because Finland is seismically stable. The 1,600-megawatt European Pressurized Reactor projected to come online in 2013 in Olkiluoto, 195 miles (315 kilometers) northwest of Helsinki, is the first of its kind expected to begin operating after the Japanese disaster. |
18 Workshop offers geeks industrial-strength toys
By MARCUS WOHLSEN, Associated Press
Mon Mar 28, 5:21 am ET
| SAN FRANCISCO – In the tech-obsessed South of Market neighborhood that digital sensations like Twitter and Zynga call home, a newfangled workshop for would-be inventors blends a startup sensibility with the area’s historic manufacturing roots to give geeks a chance to get out from behind the keyboard.
Modeled after gyms, TechShop is attracting members who pay as little as $100 a month to use industrial strength equipment to invent whatever they can imagine. “Everybody on the planet has ideas for things they want to make,” says TechShop founder Jim Newton, who wants to bring TechShops to cities across the country. |
19 Wiretaps captivate NY insider trading trial
By TOM HAYS and LARRY NEUMEISTER, Associated Press
Sun Mar 27, 6:02 pm ET
| NEW YORK – Jurors at a closely watched federal trial are learning that the high-stakes world of hedge funds sometimes sounded like this:
“I need to get back to basics. I’m gonna become Mr. October.” “Yeah, I love that.” |
20 Nintendo ready to take 3-D gaming to mass market
By BARBARA ORTUTAY, AP Technology Writer
Sun Mar 27, 5:27 pm ET
| NEW YORK – With the Nintendo 3DS, the Japanese video game company is betting that it can once again nudge mass entertainment in a new direction, just as it did nearly five years ago when it launched the Wii with its innovative motion-based controller.
This time, though, the competition from other devices is tougher. The handheld 3DS, which goes on sale in the U.S. on Sunday for $250, lets users play 3-D games without wearing special glasses. It also takes 3-D photos. This summer, the 3DS will play 3-D movies streamed from Netflix on its 3.5-inch screen. |
21 Medicare rise could mean no Social Security COLA
By STEPHEN OHLEMACHER, Associated Press
Mon Mar 28, 4:18 am ET
| WASHINGTON – Millions of retired and disabled people in the United States had better brace for another year with no increase in Social Security payments.
The government is projecting a slight cost-of-living adjustment for Social Security benefits next year, the first increase since 2009. But for most beneficiaries, rising Medicare premiums threaten to wipe out any increase in payments, leaving them without a raise for a third straight year. About 45 million people – 1 in 7 in the country – receive both Medicare and Social Security. By law, beneficiaries have their Medicare Part B premiums, which cover doctor visits, deducted from their Social Security payments each month. |
22 Louisiana is front line in fight for prickly pear
By CAIN BURDEAU, Associated Press
Mon Mar 28, 3:22 am ET
| CACTUS CANAL, La. – Federal agricultural workers carrying blow torches moved slowly down the bank of an old oil canal, burning every prickly pear cactus they came across in hope of killing off a cactus-eating pest that’s been on a tear across the Gulf Coast and is moving West.
Cactoblastis cactorum, a tan-colored moth from Argentina, has been moving steadily across the Gulf Coast for the past decade. The moth lays its eggs in prickly pear cacti, which its larvae then infest. They’ll eat through the pads of the fruit-bearing plant worth hundreds of millions of dollars because of its use in Mexican cooking. Cactus Canal now marks the western boundary of the moth’s new habitat, and federal workers hope to stop it before it gets to Texas and the population explodes with an abundant food supply. |
23 Top Afghan banker: Kabul Bank’s fate undecided
By DEB RIECHMANN, Associated Press
Sun Mar 27, 10:10 am ET
| KABUL, Afghanistan – International bankers have pushed Afghan officials to sell Kabul Bank, but the nation’s top banker said Sunday that no decision has been made about whether to dissolve the nation’s largest financial institution, which nearly collapsed last year from mismanagement and questionable lending.
Central Bank Governor Abdul Qadir Fitrat told The Associated Press in a telephone interview Sunday, “We have not decided anything with regard to Kabul Bank yet. Kabul Bank is still under control of the central bank and under conservatorship.” Last month the International Monetary Fund recommended that Kabul Bank be placed into receivership and then quickly sold off as part of a broader effort to stabilize the country’s shaky financial system. U.S. Treasury Department officials agreed with the recommendation. |
24 As Japan shutdowns drag on, auto crisis worsens
By SHARON SILKE CARTY and ELAINE KURTENBACH, AP Business Writers
Sun Mar 27, 11:05 pm ET
| TOKYO – The auto industry disruptions triggered by Japan’s earthquake and tsunami are about to get worse.
In the weeks ahead, car buyers will have difficulty finding the model they want in certain colors, thousands of auto plant workers will likely be told to stay home, and companies such as Toyota, Honda and others will lose billions of dollars in revenue. More than two weeks since the natural disaster, inventories of crucial car supplies – from computer chips to paint pigments – are dwindling fast as Japanese factories that make them struggle to restart. Because parts and supplies are shipped by slow-moving boats, the real drop-off has yet to be felt by factories in the U.S., Europe and Asia. That will come by the middle of April. |
25 Cuomo early winner in tentative $133B budget
By MICHAEL GORMLEY, Associated Press
Mon Mar 28, 3:31 am ET
| ALBANY, N.Y. – If a closed-door deal on Sunday sticks, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo will have performed a fiscally conservative act in hard times that his father, Mario Cuomo, was unable to do when he was swept from the governor’s office almost three decades ago.
The tentative $132.5 billion plan would reduce state spending by more than 2 percent and would address a $10 billion deficit. Cuomo’s first budget has no tax increases or substantial borrowing and rejects the Assembly’s proposal for a “millionaire’s tax” to ease cuts. The plan stands a chance to be finalized by legislators this week, in time for the Friday deadline, when the state fiscal year begins. New York lawmakers routinely miss the budget deadline. The last early budget was in 1983, when Mario Cuomo was in his first term. |
26 AP IMPACT: Nuclear plant downplayed tsunami risk
By YURI KAGEYAMA and JUSTIN PRITCHARD, Associated Press
Sun Mar 27, 4:47 pm ET
| TOKYO – In planning their defense against a killer tsunami, the people running Japan’s now-hobbled nuclear power plant dismissed important scientific evidence and all but disregarded 3,000 years of geological history, an Associated Press investigation shows.
The misplaced confidence displayed by Tokyo Electric Power Co. was prompted by a series of overly optimistic assumptions that concluded the Earth couldn’t possibly release the level of fury it did two weeks ago, pushing the six-reactor Fukushima Dai-ichi complex to the brink of multiple meltdowns. Instead of the reactors staying dry, as contemplated under the power company’s worst-case scenario, the plant was overrun by a torrent of water much higher and stronger than the utility argued could occur, according to an AP analysis of records, documents and statements from researchers, the utility and the Japan’s national nuclear safety agency. |
27 Air raids hit Gadhafi stronghold of Sirte in Libya
By RYAN LUCAS and HADEEL AL-SHALCHI, Associated Press
Sun Mar 27, 11:33 pm ET
| RAS LANOUF, Libya – International air raids targeted Moammar Gadhafi’s hometown of Sirte for the first time Sunday night as rebels quickly closed in on the regime stronghold, a formidable obstacle that must be overcome for government opponents to reach the capital Tripoli.
A heavy bombardment of Tripoli also began after nightfall, with at least nine loud explosions and anti-aircraft fire heard, an Associated Press reporter in the city said. Earlier in the day, rebels regained two key oil complexes along the coastal highway that runs from the opposition-held eastern half of the country toward Sirte and beyond that, to the capital. Moving quickly westward, the advance retraced their steps in the first rebel march toward the capital. But this time, the world’s most powerful air forces have eased the way by pounding Gadhafi’s military assets for the past week. |
28 ‘Brain waste’ thwarts immigrants’ career dreams
By DEEPTI HAJELA, Associated Press
Sat Mar 26, 11:41 pm ET
| NEW YORK – After finishing medical school in Bogota, Colombia, Maria Anjelica Montenegro did it all – obstetrics, pediatrics, emergency medicine, even surgery. By her estimate, she worked with thousands of patients.
None of that prepared her for the jobs she’s had since she moved to the United States: Sales clerk. Babysitter. Medical assistant. That last one definitely rubbed raw at times. |
29 Brown urges G-20 to seal ‘global growth pact’
By GABRIELE STEINHAUSER, AP Business Writer
Sat Mar 26, 4:37 pm ET
| BRUSSELS – Less than a week ahead of a meeting of the Group of 20 rich and developing nations in China, former U.K. Prime Minister Gordon Brown has urged the world’s most powerful economies to seal a “global growth pact” to fight unemployment.
Brown was joined on Saturday by other top economic policymakers in his call for a transformation of the G-20 to help it remain relevant in a global economy torn by clashing national interests – although their focus differed somewhat from his. To tackle high unemployment in poor and rich nations and a lack of economic growth in Europe and the United States, politicians need to look beyond merely reducing deficits, Brown said. |
30 Analysis: Gambits abound in Wisconsin union fight
By SCOTT BAUER, Associated Press
Sat Mar 26, 7:59 pm ET
| MADISON, Wis. – Wisconsin Republicans were accustomed to getting what they wanted after the election put Scott Walker in the governor’s office and flipped legislative control to the GOP, even gaining some Democratic support for a series of economic measures in his first weeks in office. Then they took on unions.
Uproar was swift and furious when Walker unveiled his plan to take away nearly all public employee collective bargaining rights, drawing tens of thousands of protesters to the Capitol and sending Senate Democrats running away from it to stall further action. Delayed but not deterred, GOP leaders found a legislative workaround and passed the measure without even needing the Democrats to be in the state. The move brought quick court action, and a temporary restraining order meant to stop the plan from becoming law while a judge decides whether steps taken to get it approved were legal. |
31 ‘Cheap’ bread to cost billions in new Egypt
By CHARLES J. HANLEY, AP Special Correspondent
Mon Mar 28, 12:01 am ET
| CAIRO – In the gritty gusts of a sandstorm, men in turbans and women in veils stood uncomplaining for hours outside a ramshackle kiosk, lined up for their daily loaves of “life.”
Political change may be remaking Egypt, but “we trust in God that the bread’s going to stay cheap,” said Shadia Abdul Halim, 45, a mother of six patiently queued up to buy. Bread has stayed cheap even as Egypt’s other food prices leaped upward by 17 percent last year – cheap because the government pays for most of it. |
32 Tsunami-hit rice farmers face challenges in Japan
By JAY ALABASTER, Associated Press
Sat Mar 26, 6:30 am ET
| SENDAI, Japan – The rice paddies on the outskirts of this tsunami-hit city are ankle-deep in a black, salty sludge. Crumpled cars and uprooted trees lie scattered across them.
His house destroyed, rice farmer Shinichi Shibasaki lives on a square of blue tarp on the top floor of a farming cooperative office with others like him. He has one set of soiled clothes. But all he can think about is getting back to work. “If we start washing the soil out now, we can start growing our rice seedlings at the end of April at a different location, and plant them here a month later,” the 59-year-old farmer said. |
33 Troops open fire as protests explode across Syria
By ZEINA KARAM and BASSEM MROUE, Associated Press
Sat Mar 26, 12:05 am ET
| DAMASCUS, Syria – Troops opened fire on protesters in cities across Syria and pro- and anti-government crowds clashed in the capital’s historic old city as one of the Mideast’s most repressive regimes sought to put down demonstrations that exploded nationwide Friday demanding reform.
The upheaval sweeping the region definitively took root in Syria as an eight-day uprising centered on a rural southern town dramatically expanded into protests by tens of thousands in multiple cities. The once-unimaginable scenario posed the biggest challenge in decades to Syria’s iron-fisted rule. Protesters wept over the bloodied bodies of slain comrades and massive crowds chanted anti-government slogans, then fled as gunfire erupted, according to footage posted online. Security forces shot to death more than 15 people in at least six cities and villages, including a suburb of the capital, Damascus, witnesses told The Associated Press. Their accounts could not be independently confirmed. |
Mar 28 2011
This is your morning Open Thread. Pour your favorite beverage and review the past and comment on the future.
Find the past “On This Day in History” here.
March 28 is the 87th day of the year (88th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. There are 278 days remaining until the end of the year.
On this day in 1979, the nuclear reactor at Three Mile Island overheats causing a partial meltdown. At 4 a.m. on March 28, 1979, the worst accident in the history of the U.S. nuclear power industry begins when a pressure valve in the Unit-2 reactor at Three Mile Island fails to close. Cooling water, contaminated with radiation, drained from the open valve into adjoining buildings, and the core began to dangerously overheat.
The Three Mile Island nuclear power plant was built in 1974 on a sandbar on Pennsylvania’s Susquehanna River, just 10 miles downstream from the state capitol in Harrisburg. In 1978, a second state-of-the-art reactor began operating on Three Mile Island, which was lauded for generating affordable and reliable energy in a time of energy crises.
Three Mile Island Nuclear Generating Station
The power plant was owned and operated by General Public Utilities and Metropolitan Edison (Met Ed). It was the most significant accident in the history of the USA commercial nuclear power generating industry, resulting in the release of up to 481 PBq (13 million curies) of radioactive gases, and less than 740 GBq (20 curies) of the particularly dangerous iodine-131.
The accident began at 4 a.m. on Wednesday, March 28, 1979, with failures in the non-nuclear secondary system, followed by a stuck-open pilot-operated relief valve (PORV) in the primary system, which allowed large amounts of nuclear reactor coolant to escape. The mechanical failures were compounded by the initial failure of plant operators to recognize the situation as a loss-of-coolant accident due to inadequate training and human factors, such as human-computer interaction design oversights relating to ambiguous control room indicators in the power plant’s user interface. In particular, a hidden indicator light led to an operator manually overriding the automatic emergency cooling system of the reactor because the operator mistakenly believed that there was too much coolant water present in the reactor and causing the steam pressure release. The scope and complexity of the accident became clear over the course of five days, as employees of Met Ed, Pennsylvania state officials, and members of the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) tried to understand the problem, communicate the situation to the press and local community, decide whether the accident required an emergency evacuation, and ultimately end the crisis. The NRC’s authorization of the release of 40,000 gallons of radioactive waste water directly in the Susquehanna River led to a loss of credibility with the press and community.
In the end, the reactor was brought under control, although full details of the accident were not discovered until much later, following extensive investigations by both a presidential commission and the NRC. The Kemeny Commission Report concluded that “there will either be no case of cancer or the number of cases will be so small that it will never be possible to detect them. The same conclusion applies to the other possible health effects”. Several epidemiological studies in the years since the accident have supported the conclusion that radiation releases from the accident had no perceptible effect on cancer incidence in residents near the plant, though these findings are contested by one team of researchers.
Public reaction to the event was probably influenced by The China Syndrome, a movie which had recently been released and which depicts an accident at a nuclear reactor. Communications from officials during the initial phases of the accident were felt to be confusing. The accident crystallized anti-nuclear safety concerns among activists and the general public, resulted in new regulations for the nuclear industry, and has been cited as a contributor to the decline of new reactor construction that was already underway in the 1970s.
The incident was rated a five on the seven-point International Nuclear Event Scale: Accident With Wider Consequences.
37 – Roman Emperor Caligula accepts the titles of the Principate, entitled to him by the Senate.
193 – Roman Emperor Pertinax is assassinated by Praetorian Guards, who then sell the throne in an auction to Didius Julianus.
364 – Roman Emperor Valentinian I appoints his brother Flavius Valens co-emperor.
845 – Paris is sacked by Viking raiders, probably under Ragnar Lodbrok, who collects a huge ransom in exchange for leaving.
1776 – Juan Bautista de Anza finds the site for the Presidio of San Francisco.
1794 – Allies under the prince of Coburg defeat French forces at Le Cateau.
1795 – Partitions of Poland: The Duchy of Courland, a northern fief of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, ceases to exist and becomes part of Imperial Russia.
1802 – Heinrich Wilhelm Matthaus Olbers discovers 2 Pallas, the second asteroid known to man.
1809 – Peninsular War: France defeats Spain in the Battle of Medelin.
1854 – Crimean War: France and Britain declare war on Russia.
1860 – First Taranaki War: The Battle of Waireka begins.
1862 – American Civil War: Battle of Glorieta Pass – in New Mexico, Union forces stop the Confederate invasion of New Mexico territory. The battle began on March 26.
1871 – The Paris Commune is formally established in Paris.
1910 – Henri Fabre becomes the first person to fly a seaplane, the Fabre Hydravion, after taking off from a water runway near Martigues, France.
1913 – Guatemala becomes a signatory to the Buenos Aires copyright treaty.
1920 – Palm Sunday tornado outbreak of 1920 affects the Great Lakes region and Deep South states.
1930 – Constantinople and Angora change their names to Istanbul and Ankara.
1939 – Spanish Civil War: Generalissimo Francisco Franco conquers Madrid.
1941 – World War II: Battle of Cape Matapan – in the Mediterranean Sea, British Admiral Andrew Browne Cunningham leads the Royal Navy in the destruction of three major Italian heavy cruisers and two destroyers.
1942 – World War II: In occupied France, British naval forces successfully raid the German-occupied port of St. Nazaire.
1946 – Cold War: The United States State Department releases the Acheson-Lilienthal Report, outlining a plan for the international control of nuclear power.
1959 – The State Council of the People’s Republic of China dissolves the Government of Tibet.
1968 – Brazilian high school student Edson Luís de Lima Souto is shot by the police in a protest for cheaper meals at a restaurant for low-income students. The aftermath of his death is one of the first major events against the military dictatorship.
1969 – Greek poet and Nobel Prize laureate Giorgos Seferis makes a famous statement on the BBC World Service opposing the junta in Greece.
1969 – The McGill français movement protest occurs, the second largest protest in Montreal’s history with 10,000 trade unionists, leftist activists, CEGEP students, and even some McGill students at McGill’s Roddick Gates. This led to the majority of the protesters getting arrested.
1978 – The US Supreme Court hands down 5-3 decision in Stump v. Sparkman, 435 U.S. 349, a controversial case involving involuntary sterilization and judicial immunity.
1979 – Operators of Three Mile Island’s Unit 2 nuclear reactor outside of Harrisburg, Pennsylvania fail to recognize that a relief valve in the primary coolant system has stuck open following an unexpected shutdown. As a result, enough coolant drains out of the system to allow the core to overheat and partially melt down.
1979 – The British House of Commons passes a vote of no confidence against James Callaghan’s government, precipitating a general election.
1990 – President George H. W. Bush posthumously awards Jesse Owens the Congressional Gold Medal.
1994 – In South Africa, Zulus and African National Congress supporters battle in central Johannesburg, resulting in 18 deaths.
1999 – Kosovo War: Serb paramilitary and military forces kill 146 Kosovo Albanians in the Izbica massacre.
2000 – A Murray County, Georgia, school bus is hit by a CSX freight train (3 children die in this accident).
2003 – In a “friendly fire” incident, two A-10 Thunderbolt II attack aircraft from the United States Idaho Air National Guard’s 190th Fighter Squadron attack British tanks participating in the 2003 invasion of Iraq, killing British soldier Matty Hull.
2005 – The 2005 Sumatran earthquake rocks Indonesia, and at magnitude 8.7 is the fourth strongest earthquake since 1965.
2006 – At least 1 million union members, students, and unemployed take to the streets in France in protest at the government’s proposed First Employment Contract law.
* Christian Feast Day:
o Guntram
o Priscus
o March 28 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics)
* Commemoration of Sen no Rikyu (Schools of Japanese tea ceremony)
* Serfs Emancipation Day (Tibet)
* Teachers’ Day (Czech Republic and Slovakia)
Mar 28 2011
Libya: coalition attacks Sirte for first time
Coalition planes launched air strikes on Sirte, Col Muammar Gaddafi’s home town, for the first time on Sunday night.
2:39AM BST 28 Mar 2011
Libyan television confirmed the Gaddafi stronghold had been the target of strikes by “the colonial aggressor”, as had Tripoli, and there was a large deployment of troops on the streets of Sirte.
Nato commanders say Libyan regime forces have begun digging in to make a stand in Sirte, raising the prospect that a bloody battle lies ahead as rebel forces barrel westward.
Regime forces who retreated in the face of the rebel advance have begun locating their armour and artillery inside civilian buildings in Sirte, Nato sources said, a tactic designed to make air strikes fraught with risk.
Sirte, which Col Gaddafi repeatedly tried to turn into Libya’s capital, is dominated by members of his tribe, the Gaddafi, who remain largely loyal to the regime.
How a traumatised Tokyo kept calm and carried on
Touring his adopted city, David McNeill finds a people slowly adjusting to a new reality of power cuts and food shortages
Monday, 28 March 2011
Not every city boasts thousands of citizens ready to converse about safe iodine levels. But then, not every city is Tokyo.“Your drinking water is fine,” shouts Ryosuke Shibato to commuters emerging from Shibuya station, one of the capital’s busiest. Beside him, his friend and fellow science student Takamasa Imai holds a handmade cardboard sign with daily radiation readings written on it in marker. “Iodine is higher than normal, but still well below danger levels,” he says, smiling. “We just want people to stop panic-buying.”
A few metres away, a trumpet player tunes up for the Salvation Army. “I’m too old to worry about radiation,” she laughs. “I’m more worried about the refugees in the north-east. They need our help.”
New Europe: fresh information uncovered in stolen baby scandal
In the headlines: speculation about whether the prime minister will run for a third term and a baby trafficking scandal are making the news in Spain
Giles Tremlett in Madrid
The Guardian, Monday 28 March 2011
The scandal of the babies stolen, trafficked, sold or given into illegal adoption after being taken from Spanish maternity clinics by a network of doctors, nurses and nuns has continued to grow with fresh revelations in several newspapers.The most startling came in El Mundo, which revealed the case of Almudena González, who was deemed to have died aged just four days old in a hospital in Badajoz, eastern Spain, in 1990.
Her parents have done tests to match the corpse they were given with their own DNA only to discover that the baby they buried was not their daughter.
Mugabe: Foreign firms must treat Zim as ‘senior partner’
President Robert Mugabe on Sunday told foreign investors to embrace Zimbabwe’s equity laws and treat Zimbabweans as “senior partners” if they wanted to operate in his country.
HARARE, ZIMBABWE – Mar 28 2011 06:32
“Those whites who want to be with us, those outsiders who want to work with us fine, they come in as partners, we are the senior partner, no more the junior partner,” Mugabe said on Sunday at the burial of a party cadre at the national shrine.“We are taking over. Listen Britain and America: this our country. If you have companies which would want to work in our mining sector, they are welcome to come and join us, but we must have our people as the major shareholders,” he added.
The equity laws took effect in March last year and requires large foreign corporations to give majority stakes to local shareholders.
U.S. cables show grand calculations underlying 2005 defence framework
Six years on, a mixed record of implementation, but military sales hold the key
SIDDHARTH VARADARAJAN
Most observers of the Indo-U.S. relationship remember 2005 for the civil nuclear initiative that was launched during Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s visit to Washington in July. But the ‘New Framework for the U.S.-India Defence Relationship,’ which was signed at the end of June 2005, was just as path breaking – at least for the U.S. government, which saw expanding military cooperation as central to the growing ties between the two countries.Leaked U.S. Embassy cables, accessed by The Hindu through WikiLeaks, provide an unparalleled insight into the military and strategic considerations that drove – and continue to drive – U.S. administrations towards seeking closer ties with India. There is the sheer size of the Indian market for weapons imports, estimated by U.S. diplomats to be worth more than $27 billion in the ‘near term’ alone. There is also the promise of a closer working relationship with the Indian armed forces in the Asian region.
Frenzy in Washington grows over nation’s debt
There are signs of bipartisan efforts to tackle deficits, but how will they fare in the partisan heat of the 2012 election cycle?
By Lisa Mascaro, Washington Bureau
March 28, 2011
Reporting from Washington-
Not since Ross Perot unleashed his wonky charts has the nation’s heavy debt load received so much attention.Suddenly, it seems, Washington is consumed with the urgent task of lowering the annual deficit and preventing a European-style debt crisis, which experts warn could be but a few years away.
Six senators, meeting behind closed doors, have spent months drafting a bipartisan blueprint that would propose substantial changes to the way the federal government taxes, spends and provides such core services as Medicare and Social Security – all aimed at trying to reduce the nation’s annual $1.4-trillion deficit.
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