On Sunday, members of the Machinists Union District 837 in St. Louis will vote on a new seven-and-a-half-year contract extension, similar to what Machinists in Washington state barely approved on January 3 to win production of the 777X airliner.
One thing in common is that the St. Louis Machinists are also being asked to move away from a traditional pension plan to a 401k style “defined contribution plan.” In those plans employee contributions into a retirement fund are matched by the company, with the money invested in things like stocks and bonds. That move has been met with anger and resistance in the Puget Sound.
The St. Louis labor agreement was announced Wednesday night and is being recommended by the leadership for passage. Unlike the Puget Sound region of Washington, which is seeing a booming business in airliner production, St. Louis factories are focused on fighter jets and military hardware and are struggling with tighter defense budgets.
Right now production of the F-18 Super Hornet is slated to end in just two years in 2016 unless more orders can be found. Boeing is expected to make the case to the Pentagon that by lowering the relative price of the jets with a new labor deal it can bring in more business and secure jobs. The plant also makes big parts for the C-17 cargo jet for the U.S. Air Force that is slated to shut down in late 2015. Boeing assembles the C-17 in Long Beach, California.
PUBLISHED: 01:47 EST, 7 January 2014 | UPDATED: 04:52 EST, 7 January 2014
A beach in San Francisco contains five times the safe levels of radiation fueling concerns that Japan’s Fukushima nuclear plant’s crisis is impacting areas across the country.
It comes just days after radiation readings were found to be double the normal amount in Missouri’s recent snowfall.
According to YouTube user, DutchSinse, who posted a video of him taking the Geiger readings in St Louis, the findings mean that ‘small particles of radioactive material are indeed coming down in the precipitation. Past tests show around 30CPM in the same spot on a nice day with no precipitation’.
Source: Could Fukushima’s ongoing crisis be the reason the US is experiencing abnormally high radiation levels?
Dangerous: A beach in San Francisco contains five times the safe levels of radiation. In this picture the radiation device is in the foreground with the beach in the background
Higher near the water: Once the man approaches the water itself, the radiation spikes to at least 500 per cent safe levels
Officials reject concerns over 500 percent radiation increase on California beach
Published time: January 06, 2014 17:22
Edited time: January 07, 2014 15:10
AFP Photo / Spencer Platt
Health officials in California are now telling residents not to worry after a video uploaded to the internet last month seemed to show high levels of radiation at a Pacific Coast beach.
The video, “Fukushima radiation hits San Francisco,” has been viewed nearly half-a-million times since being uploaded to YouTube on Christmas Eve, and its contents have caused concern among residents who fear that nuclear waste from the March 2011 disaster in Japan may be arriving on their side of the Pacific Ocean.
Throughout the course of the seven-minute-long clip, a man tests out his Geiger counter radiation detector while walking through Pacifica State Beach outside of San Francisco. At times, the monitor on the machine seems to show radiation of 150 counts-per-minute, or the equivalent of around five times what is typically found in that type of environment.
After the video began to go viral last month, local, state and federal officials began to investigate claims that waste from the Fukushima nuclear plant has washed ashore in California. Only now, though, are authorities saying that they have no reason to believe that conditions along the West Coast are unsafe.
The Half Moon Bay Review reported on Friday that government officials conducted tests along California’s Pacific Coast after word of the video began to spread online, but found no indication that radiation levels had reached a hazardous point.
“It’s not something that we feel is an immediate public health concern,” Dean Peterson, the county environmental health director, told the Review. “We’re not even close to the point of saying that any of this is from Fukushima.”
Screenshot from YouTube user Kill0Your0TV
According to the Review’s Mark Noack, counts-per-minute does indeed measure radiation, but “does not directly equate to the strength or its hazard level to humans.” And while the paper has reported that testing conducted by Peterson’s department on their own Geiger counters has since revealedradiation level of about 100 micro-REM per hour, or about five times the normal amount, officials are confident that there is nothing to be concerned about.
Phyllis May of Redmond, Wash. says she is “appalled and shocked and embarrassed all at the same time” about the incident that happened on Dec. 3.
May has a small business selling unique sock monkey dolls. She says she and her husband were on their way from St. Louis to Sea-Tac and she had a couple of monkeys and sewing supplies with her in a carry-on bag.
“His pistol was in there,” she says of the sock monkey “Rooster Monkburn,” a take-off on John Wayne character “Rooster Cogburn” from the film “True Grit.”
May and her husband were going through the screening process when she noticed that one of her bags was missing.
“And the (TSA agent) held it up and said ‘whose is this?’” she said. “I realized oh, my God this is my bag.”
The Knockout Game Is Just A Preview Of The Chaos That Is Coming To The Streets Of America
By Michael Snyder, on November 25th, 2013
There is a hot new game being played in cities all over America, and it is very simple. You pick out a defenseless person on the street and you try to knock them out. In most areas, it is known as “the knockout game”. In some communities it is called by other names such as “point-em-out, knock-em-out” and “polar bear hunting”. In many instances, the perpetrators don’t even try to steal anything from the people that they knock out. The goal is just to “have fun” by brutally attacking an innocent victim. Well, if this is what young thugs in America will do for fun when times are still good, what will they be willing to do when our economy really starts falling apart? Yes, the U.S. economy has definitely been steadily declining, but the truth is that what we are experiencing right now is rip-roaring prosperity compared to what is coming in the years ahead. So what will the streets of America look like when things get really bad?
If you have never heard of “the knockout game” before, the following is how USA Today recently described it…
Dangerous “knockout” attacks on strangers are leading to arrests, more officers flooding the streets and more warnings for vigilance by an unsuspecting public.
Perpetrators have dubbed the violent practice as the “knockout game,” in which young people try to randomly knock out strangers with one punch.
Recent attacks in New York, New Haven, Conn., Washington, D.C. and suburban Philadelphia have raised concerns across the country.
Of course there are variations on the game. Sometimes the goal is to knock out victims with a single punch, but in other instances entire groups of young thugs attack a victim and the goal is to see who can knock out the victim first.
Most of the time this game does not involve the theft of belongings, but in other cases it does. For example, the following is how one teen described the game…
“You just knock them out. You hit them with a blow and you take their belongings.”
Most of the time, the victims are males.
But this is not always true.
In fact, the Huffington Post recently reported on an incident in which a 78-year-old grandmother was attacked…
Earlier this month, CBS 2 reported on a series of attacks on Jews in Brooklyn, allegedly part of a disturbing game that has teens punching Jewish adults in an effort to try to knock them over.
Now it appears the action — dubbed the “knockout game” — has spread. Violent videos shot in other cities and in as many as six states, show teenagers knocking into other victims on purpose including, most recently, a 78-year-old grandmother in Brooklyn.
The victim’s daughter said she was walking along in broad daylight when a young African-American male knocked her down. He didn’t take anything, she said, and didn’t seem interested in anything but hitting her as hard as he could before running off.
Sometimes, the victims of “the knockout game” never get back up. Last year, a 20-year-old college student in Minnesota was killed by a pack of thugs playing the knockout game. You can see a video news report about that incident right here.
Non-profit group tracks reports of fake ingredients in products from olive oil to juice.
*********************************************************************** Food Fraud-Economically Motivated Adulteration with Mitchell K. Weinberg, LL.B.
Mitchell Weinberg is the founder, President and Chief Executive Officer of the International Supply Chain Assessment Technologies Corporation (INSCATECH). INSCATECH has created a comprehensive solution to protect the world’s food supply chains from FOOD FRAUD (economically motivated adulteration). Using its proprietary methodology and specially trained fraud detection professionals, INSCATECH conducts food supply chain vulnerability assessments to identify the sources of Food Fraud and to recommend mitigation solutions that help to prevent our food from being adulterated. INSCATECH has created a secure and user-friendly software tool that is used by the food industry to manage and protect food supply chains from Food Fraud.
Mitchell is a graduate of Carleton University in Ottawa, Canada where he obtained a Bachelor of Arts in Pre-Law and Sociology and the McGill University School of Law in Montreal, Canada where he obtained his Common Law (LL.B) and Civil Law (B.C.L.) degrees in 1991.
1. Introduction.
2. What is food fraud?
3. Who would commit this act?
4. What is concealment?
5. What is counterfeiting?
6. What is dilution?
7. What is the grey/parallel market? a. Is there theft, diversion?
8. What is mislabeling?
9. What is substitution?
10. What are unapproved enhancements?
11. What does Inscatech do to help fight these food fraud acts?
12. Conclusion.
Contact:
Mitchell K. Weinberg B.A, B.C.L, LL.B
Founder, President & Chief Executive Officer
INSCATECH
373 Park Avenue South, 6th Floor
New York City, New York 10016
347-448-2790
mitchellweinberg@inscatech.com
Food fraud: USP’s Food Fraud Database Markus Lipp, Ph.D., Senior Director for Food Standards, U.S. Pharmacopeia.
Click: http://www.blogtalkradio.com/ame-food…
Duration: 23 minutes, 40 seconds.
Dr. Markus Lipp is the Senior Director for Food Standards at the U.S. Pharmacopeia.
USP is a non-profit scientific organization that sets standards for the identity, quality and purity of pharmaceuticals, food ingredients and dietary supplements.
USP publishes quality standards for food ingredients in the Food Chemicals Codex; and for dietary supplements in the Dietary Supplements Compendium.
Prior to this position, Dr. Lipp worked as the Director for Science and Research at the International Bottled Water Association and as the Global Lead for Detection Methods and Reference Materials relevant to genetically modified organisms at Monsanto Co’s headquarters in St. Louis, MO.
His experience includes working for Unilever at their Dutch research facility and for the Joint Research Center of the European Commission at its facility in Italy, both position focused on ensuring food authenticity and safety.
Dr. Lipp holds a Ph.D. in analytical chemistry from the University of Karlsruhe, Germany.
Agenda:
1. Introduction.
2. What is food fraud?
3. Is there a systematic compilation of food fraud scholarly and media articles?
4. What is the U.S. Pharmacopeia?
5. What is the U.S. Pharmacopeia database repository for ingredient fraud reports?
6. What are the risks and trends for economically motivated adulteration, authenticity, fraud, or counterfeiting of food ingredients?
7. Is there a susceptibility or vulnerability of individual ingredients to fraud?
8. Does the database include a library of detection methods reported in peer-reviewed scientific journals?
9. An extract of the information in the database is also published in the Food Chemicals Codex.
10. Article in Journal of Food Science regarding USP’s Food Ingredients Fraud Database.
11. Conclusion.
Contact:
Markus Lipp, Ph.D.
Senior Director for Food Standards
U.S. Pharmacopeia
301-230-6366
mxl@usp.org
There’s a fire burning in Bridgeton, Missouri. It’s invisible to area residents, buried deep beneath the ground in a North St. Louis County landfill. But the smoldering waste is an unavoidable presence in town, giving off a putrid odor that clouds the air miles away – an overwhelming stench described by one area woman as “rotten eggs mixed with skunk and fertilizer.” Residents report smelling it at K-12 school buses, a TGI Fridays and even the operating room of a local hospital. “It smells like dead bodies,” observes another local.
On a Saturday morning in March, one mile south of the landfill, several Bridgeton residents have gathered at a small home in a blue-collar subdivision called Spanish Village. Concerned citizens Karen Nickel and Dawn Chapman are here to answer questions posed by four of their neighbors. “How will I ever sell my house?” “Am I going to end up with cancer 20 years down the road?” “Is there even a solution?”
In February, the landfill’s owner, Republic Services, sent glossy fliers to residents within stink radius claiming the noxious odor posed no safety risk. But official reports say otherwise. Temperature probes reveal the fire has already surpassed normal heat levels. Reports from the Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services (DHSS) indicate dangerously high levels of benzene and hydrogen sulfide in the air. In March, Missouri’s Department of Natural Resources (MDNR) – which has jurisdiction over Bridgeton Landfill – quietly posted an Internet notice cautioning citizens with chronic respiratory diseases to limit time outdoors. A month after Republic distributed its potentially misleading flier, the state attorney general sued the company on eight counts of environmental violations, including pollution and public nuisance. And this week, as part of a settlement set to be announced Tuesday, Republic sent another round of fliers offering to move local families to hotels during a period of increased odor related to remediation efforts.
Nickel and Chapman are stay-at-home moms; Chapman has three special-needs kids. Neither of them wants to spend her time worrying about a damn landfill fire. But until someone higher up the power chain intervenes, they have sworn to call municipal offices, file Sunshine requests and post notices to the community’s Facebook group, no matter how unsettling the facts they uncover. Scariest of all: The Bridgeton landfill fire is burning close to at least 8,700 tons of nuclear weapons wastes.
“To have somebody call you at 11 P.M., and they’re in tears, concerned for their family, that’s heartbreaking,” Chapman tells Rolling Stone. “We’re doing this because we don’t have a choice. If we don’t come together as a community and fight, no one’s going to do it for us.”
West Lake Landfill is an Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Superfund site that’s home to some of the oldest radioactive wastes in the world. A six-foot chain-link fence surrounds the perimeter, plastered with bright yellow hazard signs that warn of the dangers within. On one corner stands a rusty gas pump. About 1,200 feet south of the radioactive EPA site, the fire at Bridgeton Landfill spreads out like hot barbeque coals. No one knows for sure what happens when an underground inferno meets a pool of atomic waste, but residents aren’t eager to find out.
At a March 15th press conference, Peter Anderson – an economist who has studied landfills for over 20 years – raised the worst-case scenario of a “dirty bomb,” meaning a non-detonated, mass release of floating radioactive particles in metro St. Louis. “Now, to be clear, a dirty bomb is not nuclear fission, it’s not an atomic bomb, it’s not a weapon of mass destruction,” Anderson assured meeting attendants in Bridgeton’s Machinists Union Hall. “But the dispersal of that radioactive material in air that could reach – depending upon weather conditions – as far as 10 miles from the site could make it impossible to have economic activity continue.”
Judge Ponders Plan to Put Out Bridgeton Landfill Fire
May 13, 2013 5:55 PM
Bridgeton Sanitary Landfill, where underground fire has been smoldering since December 2010
ST. LOUIS–(KMOX)–A judge says he’ll decide by morning whether a plan to put out the fire and end the smell at the Bridgeton Sanitary Landfill is workable.
The plan — crafted by the Missouri Attorney General and the landfill owner, Republic Services Inc. — has not yet been made public. It’s now in the hands of Circuit Court Judge Michael Jamison, who met in his chambers with lawyers from both sides on a day he was scheduled to hold a hearing on the Attorney General’s lawsuit against the landfill.
“It’s not exactly a settlement,” Jamison told Bridgeton residents, reporters and environmentalists waiting in his courtroom, “But it’s something that would address the smoldering issue and what the sate may be able to do.”
The lawsuit filed by the state calls for an aggressive plan to put out the fire, which has been smoldering since December 2010 — and for fines upwards of tens-of-thousand a dollars a day for alleged violations of Missouri environmental laws. Koster’s suit claims the burning landfill is billowing benzene and other hazardous chemicals into the air, and leaking a black ooze into ground water.
Koster’s office declined to comment. The Attorney General has scheduled a news conference for 10:30 Tuesday morning in downtown St. Louis to reveal details of the proposed next step.
Already, complaints are rising that the apparent deal was made without input from the Missouri Coalition for the Environment, from area businesses or from Bridgeton residents.
“The community needs to be at the table,” said the coalition’s Kat Logan Smith, “The property owners, the families and businesses here need to be at the table, because they need to decide what the bottom line is.”
Flash Flood in USA on Wednesday, 24 April, 2013 at 14:01 (02:01 PM) UTC.
Description
A powerful spring cold snap brings more rain and snow to a soggy U.S. heartland Wednesday, putting more pressure on riverside communities from the upper Midwest to the Deep South. The residents of Grafton, Illinois, north of St. Louis, will see the worst of the floodwaters through Friday as the Mississippi River peaks at more than 11 feet above flood stage, the National Weather Service says. Many along the river’s edge decided to evacuate. But Jerry Eller thought he would wait it out. “I’ve got water coming up through cracks in the floor, so I have about 3,000 gallons an hour of pumps running down the basement keeping water out, and that seems to be keeping it down to about an inch,” Eller sa
…
Midwest begins to see some relief from flooding
By Ed Payne, CNN
updated 8:18 PM EDT, Wed April 24, 2013
Household items are submerged in floodwaters in front of a house in Fox Lake, Illinois, on Monday, April 22. Steady rains are expected Tuesday, April 23, in several Midwestern states already facing severe flooding. Have you been affected by the flooding? Share your images with CNN iReport.
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Flooding hits Midwest
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STORY HIGHLIGHTS
NEW: Areas north of St. Louis should see water slowly recede
NEW: Some rivers closed to public because of debris, fast currents
Fargo, North Dakota, is preparing for flooding
The rain and flooding have caused four deaths, local authorities say
(CNN) — It appears the people on the banks of at least one major river in the Midwest are finally getting a break from rising water.
Water levels have peaked north of St. Louis, but the floodwaters from the upper Mississippi River will be slow to recede in the coming days, CNN weather producer Taylor Ward said.
And forecasters think the weather north of St. Louis in the next few days should be mostly calm.
But rain is expected on Friday and Saturday from St. Louis into Mississippi, Ward said.
The peak waters will continue to head south in the coming days but are not expected to be significant south of Missouri. The expected rainfall late this week shouldn’t have much of an impact on the anticipated crests of rivers.
The residents of Grafton, Illinois, north of St. Louis, will see the worst of the floodwater through Friday as the Mississippi River peaks at more than 11 feet above flood stage, the National Weather Service says.
Many along the river’s edge decided to evacuate, but Jerry Eller thought he would wait it out.
“I’ve got water coming up through cracks in the floor, so I have about 3,000 gallons an hour of pumps running down the basement keeping water out, and that seems to be keeping it down to about an inch,” Eller told CNN affiliate KPLR.
Floodwater has ravaged dozens of counties in Illinois, forcing thousands of residents from their homes.
On Wednesday, the Missouri and Illinois rivers and parts of the Mississippi River were closed to recreational boats due to debris and fast currents, the Coast Guard said.
The statement said conditions had already caused 200-foot long barges to break away from their moorings and sink.
The Army Corps of Engineers closed three of its locks to all river traffic until flooding subsides.
“Public safety is our first priority. Rivers are unpredictable and dangerous in a flood,” said Col. Chris Hall, commander of the Corps’ St. Louis District. “Even if someone has lived along a river his whole life, he shouldn’t assume it will behave the same way during a flood. It’s not a good time to be on or near the rivers.”
As rivers across the heartland swelled during the past two weeks, rising water was blamed for four deaths. Flooding has threatened rivers in Illinois, Missouri, Iowa, Indiana, North Dakota, Mississippi and Michigan, the National Weather Service said.
An explosion at a steel plant in Granite City Thursday morning injured 9 workers. It happened just after 8 a.m. at the Amsted Rail Company. The force of the blast sent workers flying through the air. Clifford McIntyre, a steel worker, went to helped his fellow employees who were injured. He said, “All I heard was an explosion when I went back to see what was going on I seen a couple of my Union brothers out and on fire.” Fire Chief Tim Connolly said, “They said there was a gas explosion.” United Steel Union V.P. Bobby Washington was working inside the plant. “When the explosion happened they don’t know what it was but it blew workers from their job and they were damaged and burning,” he said. Workers became one, rescuing the injured. McIntyre said, “First reaction was to put him out with my jacket and then another union brother came over with a fire extinguishers and put him out.”
Two of the workers were airlifted the Mercy Hospital’s burn unit. The seven others were treated at Gateway Regional Medical Center. Connolly said, “They looked like they were in some kind of coal mine work. Their faces were black around their mouths.” He said paramedics worried about the victims who may have inhaled superheated gases. “They’ll breathe that in. It will burn everything all the way down. It will affect he lungs we can’t see those things,” he stated. Company officials said their employees’ well being is their top priority. Amsted makes parts of the wheel assembly for train cars. The explosion happened in an area called the cleaning and finishing department. McIntyre said, “It was real scary and upset. I ain’t seen nothing like that in my life and when I seen it, I was like in shock.” Washington added, “Very frightening, emotions are still high.” OSHA has investigated two complaints at the company in the past five years. It found no violations. At last report the two men being treated in the burn union were in critical condition. Four of the seven other victims were treated and released from the Granite City hospital.
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2 critical after explosion at Granite City steel plant
KMOV.com
Posted on March 7, 2013 at 8:55 AM
Updated today at 9:27 AM
GRANITE CITY, Ill. (KMOV) – Nine people were injured in an explosion at the AmstedRail plant in Granite City Thursday morning.
According to officials, at least two people were standing on a platform at the plant in the 1000 block of Niedringhaus Ave. when it exploded around 8:10 a.m. According to officials, the victims were in the cleaning and finishing department.
According to a spokesperson at Gateway Regional Medical Hospital, seven people were transported to the hospital to be treated for smoke inhalation. Three of those victims have since been released.
Two others were flown by helicopter from Gateway to Mercy Hospital in St. Louis in critical condition. The remained in critical condition Thursday night.
Roughly 800 people work at the plant where the company produces railcar undercarriages and related components, said Mike Right, the United Steelworkers union’s health, safety and environment chief.
The United States Military conducted top secret experiments on the citizens of St. Louis, Missouri, for years, exposing them to radioactive compounds, a researcher has claimed.
While it was known that the government sprayed ‘harmless’ zinc cadmium silfide particles over the general population in St Louis, Professor Lisa Martino-Taylor, a sociologist at St. Louis Community College, claims that a radioactive additive was also mixed with the compound.
She has accrued detailed descriptions as well as photographs of the spraying which exposed the unwitting public, predominantly in low-income and minority communities, to radioactive particles.
Scroll down for video
Test: Sociologist Lisa Martino-Taylor, right, a sociologist at St. Louis Community College, has spent years tracking down declassified documents to uncover the lengths which the US experimented on people without their knowing. At left, cadmium sulfide, the ‘harmless’ chemical sprayed on the public is pictured
Spray: She has accrued detailed descriptions as well as photographs of the spraying, which took place as part of Manhattan-Rochester Coalition, which was an operation that dispersed zinc cadmium silfide particles over the general population, a compound that was presented as completely safe
‘The study was secretive for reason. They didn’t have volunteers stepping up and saying yeah, I’ll breathe zinc cadmium sulfide with radioactive particles,’ said Professor Martino-Taylor to KSDK.
Through her research, she found photographs of how the particles were distributed from 1953-1954 and 1963-1965.
In Corpus Christi, the chemical was dropped from airplanes over large swathes of city. In St Louis, the Army put chemical sprayers on buildings, like schools and public housing projects, and mounted them in station wagons for mobile use.
Despite the extent of the experiment, local politicians were not notified about the content of the testing. The people of St Louis were told that the Army was testing smoke screens to protect cities from a Russian attack.
‘It was pretty shocking. The level of duplicity and secrecy. Clearly they went to great lengths to deceive people,’ Professor Martino-Taylor said.
Controversial: But Professor Martino-Taylor says that it wasn’t just the ‘harmless’ compound, radioactive particles were also sprayed on the unwitting public. A woman refills the spray canisters in this archive picture
Scope: In St Louis, the Army put chemical sprayers on buildings, like schools and public housing projects, and mounted them in station wagons for mobile use
She accrued hundreds of pages of declassified information, which she has made available online.
In her research, she found that the greatest concentration of spraying in St Louis was at the Pruitt-Igoe public housing complex, which was home to 10,000 low income residents. She said that 70 per cent of those residents were children under the age of 12.
Professor Martino-Taylor became interested in the topic after hearing independent reports of cancers among city residents living in those areas at the time.
‘This was a violation of all medical ethics, all international codes, and the military’s own policy at that time,’ said Professor Martino-Taylor.
How To: Despite the extent of the experiment, local politicians were not notified about the content of the testing. In this picture, a man demonstrates how to spray the canisters
School: The people of St Louis were told that the Army was testing smoke screens to protect cities from a Russian attack. A canister is positioned on top of a school in this photo
‘There is a lot of evidence that shows people in St. Louis and the city, in particular minority communities, were subjected to military testing that was connected to a larger radiological weapons testing project.’
Previous investigations of the compound were rebuffed by the military, which insisted it was safe.
However, Professor Martino-Taylor believes the documents she’s uncovered, prove the zinc cadmium silfide was also mixed with radioactive particles.
She has linked the St Louis testing to a now-defunct company called US Radium. The controversial company came under fire, and numerous lawsuits, after several of its workers were exposed to dangerous levels of radioactive materials in its fluorescent paint.
Contaminated: The Army has admitted that it added a fluorescent substance to the ‘harmless’ compound, but whether or not the additive was radioactive remains classified
Exposed: In her research, she found that the greatest concentration of spraying in St Louis was at the Pruit-Igoe public housing complex, which was home to 10,000 low income residents. She said that 70 per cent of those residents were children under the age of 12
‘US Radium had this reputation where they had been found legally liable for producing a radioactive powdered paint that killed many young women who painted fluorescent watch tiles,’ said Professor Martino-Taylor.
In her findings, one of the compounds that was sprayed upon the public was called ‘FP2266’, according to the army’s documents, and was manufactured by US Radium. The compound, also known as Radium 226, was the same one that killed and sickened many of the US Radium workers.
The Army has admitted that it added a fluorescent substance to the ‘harmless’ compound, but whether or not the additive was radioactive remains classified.
Professor Martino-Taylor has not been able to find if the Army ever followed up on the long term health of the residents exposed to the compound. In 1972, the government destroyed the Pruitt-Igoe houses.
Upon learning of the professor’s findings, Missouri lawmakers called on the Army to detail the tests.
‘I share and understand the renewed anxiety of members of the St. Louis communities that were exposed to the spraying of (the chemicals) as part of Army tests during the Cold War,’ Senator Claire McCaskill wrote to Army Secretary John McHugh.
‘The impacted communities were not informed of the tests at the time and are reasonably anxious about the long term health impacts the tests may have had on those exposed to the airborne chemicals.’
Senator Roy Blunt called the findings ‘absolutely shocking.’
‘The idea that thousands of Missourians were unwillingly exposed to harmful materials in order to determine their health effects is absolutely shocking. It should come as no surprise that these individuals and their families are demanding answers of government officials,’ Senator Blunt said.
St. Louis (KSDK) – Lisa Martino-Taylor is a sociologist whose life’s work has been to uncover details of the Army’s ultra-secret military experiments carried out in St. Louis and other cities during the 1950s and 60s.
She will make her research public Tuesday, but she spoke first to the I-Team’s Leisa Zigman.
The I-Team independently verified that the spraying of zinc cadmium sulfide did take place in St. Louis on thousands of unsuspecting citizens. What is unclear is whether the Army added a radioactive material to the compound as Martino-Taylor’s research implies.
“The study was secretive for reason. They didn’t have volunteers stepping up and saying yeah, I’ll breathe zinc cadmium sulfide with radioactive particles,” said Martino-Taylor.
Army archive pictures show how the tests were done in Corpus Christi, Texas in the 1960s. In Texas, planes were used to drop the chemical. But in St. Louis, the Army placed chemical sprayers on buildings and station wagons.
Documents confirmed that city officials were kept in the dark about the tests. The Cold War cover story was that the Army was testing smoke screens to protect cities from a Russian attack. The truth, according to Martino-Taylor was much more sinister.
“It was pretty shocking. The level of duplicity and secrecy. Clearly they went to great lengths to deceive people,” she said.
By making hundreds of Freedom of Information Act requests, she uncovered once-classified documents that confirm the spraying of zinc cadmium sulfide.
Martino-Taylor says the greatest concentration was centered on the Pruitt-Igoe housing complex, just northwest of downtown St. Louis in the Carr Square neighborhood. It was home to 10,000 low income people. An estimated 70 percent she says were children under the age of 12.
“This was a violation of all medical ethics, all international codes, and the military’s own policy at that time,” said Martino-Taylor.
In 1994, then-Congressman Richard Gephardt (D-St. Louis), asked the Army to open its records and explain the St. Louis testing.
At the time Rep. Gephardt said, “We want to make sure nothing went on that would harm anyone, and that all the fact are out on the table.”
Documents released in the 90s showed the Army placed sprayers on a former Knights of Columbus building on Lindell and in Forest Park. The Army always insisted the chemical compound was safe. Martino-Taylor believes documents prove otherwise.
“There is a lot of evidence that shows people in St. Louis and the city, in particular minority communities, were subjected to military testing that was connected to a larger radiological weapons testing project,” she said.
For the first time, she links the St. Louis testing to a company called US Radium, a company notorious for lawsuits involving radioactive contamination of its workers.
“US radium had this reputation where they had been found legally liable for producing a radioactive powdered paint that killed many young women who painted fluorescent watch tiles,” said Martino-Taylor.
While the Army admits it added a florescent substance to the zinc cadmium compound, details of whether it was radioactive remains secret.
Documents uncovered to date indicate the Army never conducted follow-up studies to see whether the compound caused long term health issues.
In 1972, after years of crime, poverty, and decline, the government destroyed the Pruitt -Igoe housing complex.
Click here to see Martino-Taylor’s research and the unclassified government documents.
North Korea to boost nuclear deterrent after U.S. pressure
By Ju-min Park
SEOUL
(Reuters) – North Korea intensified its war of words against the United States on Tuesday, vowing to strengthen its nuclear deterrent after Washington warned Pyongyang of further sanctions if it did not abandon its atomic program.
Last week, world leaders meeting in the United States said North Korea needed to adhere to international norms on nuclear issues and that it would face deeper isolation if it “continues down the path of provocation”.
The North’s foreign ministry spokesman served notice via the official KCNA news agency on Tuesday that it would “bolster its nuclear deterrent as long as the United States was continuing with its hostile policies” and that it planned “countermeasures” following pressure from Washington.
Under new leader Kim Jong-un, Pyongyang tried but failed to launch a long range rocket called Unha in April, breaking an agreement with the United States that would have traded food aid for access to its nuclear facilities, among other things.
Illegally downloading songs off the Internet has become a common trend around the globe, but a student at Boston University was specifically targeted for the practice. Joel Tenenbaum was sued by the Recording Industry Association of America for sharing 30 songs and now has to cough up a total of $675k. He joins us with more on his ongoing case against the RIAA, which the US Supreme Court decided this week not to hear.
In New Jersey, Muslim leaders demanded a formal investigation of the NYPD’s tactics after allegations arose of law enforcement targeting and spying on Muslim businesses and mosques. After a three month review by New Jersey Governor Chris Christie’s administration, it turns out the NYPD did nothing wrong. So what does this mean for America’s Muslim community? Sahar Aziz, law professor at Texas Wesleyan University, joins us with her take.
House Votes Down NDAA Amendment to End Indefinite Detention
Van Rompuy to draft plan for deeper economic union
Van Rompuy (r) is back to the economic governance drawing board (Photo: consilium.europa.eu)
BRUSSELS – EU leaders have tasked council chief Herman Van Rompuy with drafting a plan on deepening the eurozone’s economic union, potentially via an inter-governmental treaty.
After more than five hours of talks on the need to strengthen growth policies while sticking to the already strengthened deficit rules, EU leaders on Wednesday night (23 May) agreed to come back to these issues at a formal summit on 28 June.
“Our discussion also demonstrated that we need to take the economic and monetary union to a new stage. There was a general consensus that we need to strengthen the economic union to make it commensurate with the monetary union,” Van Rompuy said during a press conference at the end of the meeting.
The former Belgian premier added he would work on a report for the June summit with the heads of the European Commission, the European Central Bank and the chairman of eurozone finance ministers.
In recent weeks, European Central Bank chief Mario Draghi has called for a 10-year plan on how to achieve closer fiscal and political union in the eurozone. Economics commissioner Olli Rehn has also indicated he will table ideas in this direction.
Van Rompuy explained his report would not be the definitive plan on deeper economic union, but just an outline of the “main building blocs and the working method to achieve this objective.”
Back in 2010, when he co-ordinated a similar exercise on stronger sanctions for deficit sinners in the eurozone, Van Rompuy hit a wall when it came to German-led demands for an EU treaty change. With the UK vetoing a treaty change last year and the Czech Republic opting out, an inter-governmental treaty on fiscal discipline was signed in March among 25 member states.
The U.N. Environment Program (UNEP) has its headquarters in Nairobi, Kenya. (Photo: UNEP)
(CNSNews.com) – Ahead of a mammoth United Nations sustainability conferencein Rio de Janeiro next month, the Brazilian government has signaled a new push to get the U.N.’s top environmental body upgraded – a push long opposed by the United States.
Brazil wants to breathe new life into an initiative — vigorously promoted since the 1990s by European leaders — to replace the 40 year-old U.N. Environment Program (UNEP) with a full-fledged “specialized agency,” dubbed the U.N. Environment Organization (UNEO).
Brazilian Environment Minister Izabella Teixeira told a press briefing last Friday that the issue was a priority for her government, but she acknowledged that “there is no consensus in international organizations on the proposal to create an environment agency” during the summit, known as Rio+20.
“We are working hard looking for the best way to achieve this,” she said.
In what the U.N.’s Division for Sustainable Development says will be the biggest conference ever organized by the U.N., around 50,000 people, including some 135 heads of state and government (or deputies) will take part in the June 20-22 event.
During an earlier briefing, Brazilian Rio+20 organizer Luiz Alberto Figueiredo said his government believed that “UNEP should be strengthened as an environmental pillar, because in its present condition it is incapable of adequately carrying out its task.”
Go to Google and type in “H.R. 4133.” You will discover that, apart from a handful of blogs and alternative news sites, not a single mainstream medium has reported the story of a congressional bill that might well have major impact on the conduct of United States foreign policy. H.R. 4133, the United States-Israel Enhanced Security Cooperation Act of 2012, was introduced into the House of Representatives of the 112th Congress on March 5 “to express the sense of Congress regarding the United States-Israel strategic relationship, to direct the president to submit to Congress reports on United States actions to enhance this relationship and to assist in the defense of Israel, and for other purposes.” The American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) reportedly helped draft the bill, and its co-sponsors include Republicans Eric Cantor and Ileana Ros-Lehtinen and Democrats Howard Berman and Steny Hoyer. Hoyer is the Democratic whip in the House of Representatives, where Cantor is majority leader. Ros-Lehtinen heads the Foreign Affairs Committee.
The House bill basically provides Israel with a blank check drawn on the U.S. taxpayer to maintain its “qualitative military edge” over all of its neighbors combined. It requires the White House to prepare an annual report on how that superiority is being maintained. The resolution passed on May 9 by a vote of 411–2 on a “suspension of the rules,” which is intended for non-controversial legislation requiring little debate and a quick vote.
A number of congressmen spoke on the bill, affirming their undying dedication to the cause of Israel. Rep. Ron Paul of Texas was the only one who spoke out against it, describing it as “one-sided and counterproductive foreign policy legislation. This bill’s real intent seems to be more saber-rattling against Iran and Syria.” Paul also observed that “this bill states that it is the policy of the United States to ‘reaffirm the enduring commitment of the United States to the security of the State of Israel as a Jewish state.’ However, according to our Constitution, the policy of the United States government should be to protect the security of the United States, not to guarantee the religious, ethnic, or cultural composition of a foreign country.” Paul voted “no” and was joined by only one other representative, John Dingell of Michigan, who represents a large Muslim constituency.
It is interesting to note what exactly the bill pledges the American people to do on behalf of Israel. It obligates the United States to veto resolutions critical of Israel, to provide such military support “as is necessary,” to pay for the building of an anti-missile system, to provide advanced “defense” equipment (including refueling tankers, which are offensive), to give Israel special munitions (i.e., bunker-busters, which are also offensive), to forward deploy more U.S. military equipment to Israel, to offer the Israeli air force more training and facilities in the U.S., to increase security- and advanced-technology-program cooperation, and to extend loan guarantees and expand intelligence-sharing (including highly sensitive satellite imagery). Actually, there’s even more included, and I may have missed the kitchen sink. But the objective is to provide Israel with the resources to attack Iran, if it chooses to do so, while tying the U.S. and Israel so closely together that whatever Benjamin Netanyahu does, the U.S. “will always be there,” as our president has so aptly put it.
Mr. Speaker: I rise in opposition to H.R. 4133, the United States-Israel Enhanced Security Cooperation Act, which unfortunately is another piece of one-sided and counterproductive foreign policy legislation. This bill’s real intent seems to be more saber-rattling against Iran and Syria, and it undermines U.S. diplomatic efforts by making clear that the U.S. is not an honest broker seeking peace for the Middle East.
The bill calls for the United States to significantly increase our provision of sophisticated weaponry to Israel, and states that it is to be U.S. policy to “help Israel preserve its qualitative military edge” in the region.
While I absolutely believe that Israel — and any other nation — should be free to determine for itself what is necessary for its national security, I do not believe that those decisions should be underwritten by U.S. taxpayers and backed up by the U.S. military.
This bill states that it is the policy of the United States to “reaffirm the enduring commitment of the United States to the security of the State of Israel as a Jewish state.” However, according to our Constitution, the policy of the United States government should be to protect the security of the United States, not to guarantee the religious, ethnic, or cultural composition of a foreign country. In fact, our own Constitution prohibits the establishment of any particular religion in the U.S.
More than 20 years after the reason for NATO’s existence — the Warsaw Pact — has disappeared, this legislation seeks to find a new mission for that anachronistic alliance: the defense of Israel. Calling for “an expanded role for Israel within the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), including an enhanced presence at NATO headquarters and exercises,” it reads like a dream for interventionists and the military-industrial complex. As I have said many times, NATO should be disbanded, not expanded.
This bill will not help the United States, it will not help Israel, and it will not help the Middle East. It will implicitly authorize much more U.S. interventionism in the region at a time when we cannot afford the foreign commitments we already have. It more likely will lead to war against Syria, Iran, or both. I urge my colleagues to vote against this bill.
disclaimer: image is for illustration purposes only
The European Parliament this week adopted a report urging Turkey to follow up on its recent work toward securing gender equality and women’s rights.
The report, written by Socialists & Democrats Member of European Parliament Emine Bozkurt, lays out a series of goals for Ankara to accomplish by 2020 in raising the status of women to fully equal members of Turkish society as Brussels and Ankara seek to breathe life into the country’s stalled EU accession bid.
The Dutch lawmaker’s report was accepted unanimously by the legislative body’s Women’s Rights and Gender Equality Commission in March, and Tuesday was approved by the entire EP meeting in a plenary session, with 590 votes in favor, 28 against and 53 abstentions, the Italian news agency ANSAmed reported.
Bozkurt, the EP’s rapporteur on women’s rights in Turkey, said the passage of the report — “A 2020 Perspective for Women in Turkey” — is meant to ensure that the European Commission keeps the issue of women’s right and domestic violence in the forefront of its efforts to promote a “positive agenda” with Ankara.
The report “stresses that there can be no democracy without women and that women should be treated as individuals rather than just as family members or as mothers,” the S&D Party said in a statement. “[It] highlights the importance of placing women’s rights at the core of accession negotiations between Turkey and the EU.”
In the report, Bozkurt calls for “zero tolerance” on violence against women while also praising such positive steps such as a new law on violence against women and the appointment of special prosecutors to handle such cases.
It also notes progress been made in terms of providing education for girls and improving women’s participation in employment and politics.
Opposition by Turkish civil society has been intense and to a large extent has stymied the actual implementation of the reforms, but recent indications have been more encouraging as the government steps up its efforts, Bozkurt said.
“Each of the relevant ministries are busy with bringing projects to life which give effectiveness to the legislation on improving women’s standard of living,” she noted. “More importantly, these ministries are cooperating in the area of gender equality.”
The report cites Turkey’s newly established Ministry of Family and Social Policies — now a fully-fledged ministry with its own budget.
But many problems remain, it noted.
For instance, Turkey’s new law against domestic violence “lacks a mechanism which immediately removes [alleged perpetrators] from the vicinity of the woman who has been subjected to violence” and the report urges “uniform interpretation and application” of the measure by police and prosecutors.
The EP’s adoption of the report comes at a time when the European Commissioner for Enlargement Stefan Fule has sought to ease the acrimony that has arisen in EU-Turkish relations, partly due to disagreements over the status of the divided island of Cyprus.
Last week in Ankara, Fule said restarting formal accession talks should begin by opening “Chapter 23” of the process, which addresses reforms on fundamental rights, the judiciary and corruption in Turkey.
“On women’s rights, every step needs to be taken to implement the recent law on violence against women, also, to improve the situation on the ground of women in Turkey as regards education, employment and political representation,” he said.
Senate rejects rival bills extending low-interest federal student loans
By Daniel Strauss – 05/24/12 04:26 PM ET
The Senate on Thursday rejected two competing bills that would prevent interest rates on federal student loans from doubling starting in July.
The failure of the two measures — one backed by Democrats and one backed by Republicans — guarantees both parties will continue to battle over how to keep the loan rate low over the coming weeks, right through spring graduations that have helped call attention to the issue.
The Democratic bill failed in a 51-43 vote — attaining a majority, but short of the 60 required for passage. Sen. Jim Webb (D-Va.) was the only Democrat to vote against the bill. Sen. Olympia Snowe (R-Maine) voted present.
Just before that vote, the GOP bill, which was offered as a substitute amendment and also needed 60 votes, failed 34-62. Snowe voted present again, and nine Republicans voted against the amendment.
Both sides agree the low interest rates should be extended, but the two parties disagree over how to cover the nearly $6 billion cost.
Democrats would pay for it by closing a business tax break, while Republicans would close a fund in the healthcare law.
The result was expected, as Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) predicted before the votes that both bills would fail.
“I’m certainly aware of how things work around here. Neither one of these things are going to pass, sorry to say,” Reid said. “These two proposals were not created equal, but I hope a few reasonable Republicans will join with us to not put Americans’ health at risk.”
Republicans said Reid set up the vote to fail to help give Democrats a political talking point over the next few weeks.
Report rips DOJ attorneys in botched Stevens’s case
By Jordy Yager
Two Department of Justice prosecutors have been suspended without pay and a Senate Democrat has scheduled a committee hearing following the release Thursday of a DOJ report that detailed the government’s misconduct in its botched case against the late Sen. Ted Stevens (R-Alaska).
The DOJ’s Office of Professional Responsibility (OPR) released its 672-page report on the Stevens case to top ranking lawmakers after more than two years of investigating the alleged wrongdoing of the federal prosecutors waging a criminal lawsuit against the veteran senator.
Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.), chairman of the Senate Committee on the Judiciary, has scheduled a hearing to review the report.
The DOJ, also on Thursday, announced it was suspending Joseph Bottini and James Goeke without pay. The report found the attorneys “acted in reckless disregard” for their legal obligations by not disclosing exculpatory evidence to Stevens’s defense lawyers. The two attorneys had already been transferred out of the public integrity division of DOJ in response to their involvement in the botched case.
A powerhouse of a senator, Stevens was convicted in 2008 on charges that he accepted improper gifts from an oil executive in the form of renovations to his cabin. About one week later, Stevens lost his bid for reelection. In August 2010, Stevens died in a plane crash in Alaska.
Obama taps George Mason professor to head nuclear agency
By Andrew Restuccia
President Obama nominated George Mason University Professor Allison Macfarlane Thursday to serve as chairwoman of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC).
Macfarlane has been a professor of environmental science at the university since 2006 and served on a federal panel tasked with determining a long-term solution for the country’s nuclear waste.
She has been critical of the proposed Yucca Mountain nuclear waste repository in Nevada, a long-delayed project that the Obama administration abandoned in 2009. Macfarlane wrote a 2006 book titled, Uncertainty Underground: Yucca Mountain and the Nation’s High-Level Nuclear Waste. The book, according to the GMU website, “explores the unresolved technical issues” with Yucca Mountain.
Current NRC Chairman Gregory Jaczko, who has come under fire from his colleagues and Republicans for his leadership style, announced earlier this week that he intends to step down once the Senate confirms his replacement.
Obama nominated Macfarlane as one of five NRC commissioners and said he intended to appoint her as chairwoman of the panel once she is confirmed by the Senate.
The nomination sets up what could be a politically thorny confirmation process. Republicans are certain to take aim at Macfarlane over her stance on Yucca Mountain, a project that they say Obama abandoned for political reasons.
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) applauded the nomination Thursday.
“I am confident that like her predecessor, Dr. Allison Macfarlane will make preserving the safety and security of American citizens her top priority as Chair of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission,” he said in a statement. “Dr. Macfarlane’s education and experience, in particular her service on the Blue Ribbon Commission on America’s Nuclear Future, make her eminently qualified to lead the NRC for the foreseeable future.”
Reid said he hopes to move Macfarlane’s nomination in tandem with the nomination of Republican Commissioner Kristine Svinicki to a second term on the panel. By tying them together, Republicans are less likely to block Macfarlane’s nomination; they want Svinicki’s nomination to move forward before her term expires June 30.
“I continue to have grave concerns about Kristine Svinicki’s record on the Commission,” said Reid, who has been a vocal critic of Svinicki.
“But I believe the best interests of the public would be served by moving the nominations of Dr. Macfarlane and Ms. Svinicki together before Ms. Svinicki’s term expires at the end of June, to ensure that we have a fully functioning NRC. Republicans claim to share that goal, and I hope they will work with us to make it a reality.”
Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), a critic of nuclear power, said in a statement he believes Macfarlane “can be a strong chair for the NRC,” while Senate Environment and Public Works Committee Chairwoman Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) said Macfarlane’s “background and experience demonstrate that she has the strong commitment to safety that is so needed in this post-Fukushima era.”
The Senate Armed Services Committee passed its version of the Defense Authorization bill Thursday, setting Pentagon spending in line with President Obama’s desired level and setting up a showdown with the Republican-led House.
The Senate panel passed the $631.4 billion bill unanimously out of committee, committee chairman Carl Levin (D-Mich.) said Thursday. It is about $4 billion below the funding-level set in the legislation that passed the House.
The differences between the two bills will have to be resolved in conference committee, although both bills are above the spending caps set by last year’s Budget Control Act.
The Senate bill reverses several cuts the Pentagon had requested in its plans to cut $487 billion over the next decade, pushing back on reductions in the Air National Guard and proposed increases to TRICARE fees.
Levin said that the committee made about 150 changes from the president’s request.
The panel also took aim at aid to Pakistan, as ranking member John McCain (R-Ariz.) expressed outrage at the sentencing of Pakistani doctor Shakil Afridi for his role helping the United States kill Osama bin Laden.
McCain said the bill fenced in funds to aid Pakistan’s military until Islamabad opens its supply routes, is not supporting extremist groups and is not detaining citizens — a reference to Afridi, who was sentenced to 33 years in prison for treason.
“That has frankly outraged all of us,” McCain said. “It is our goal to make sure this doctor is not sentenced to death — which is basically what he got — for helping us apprehend Osama bin Laden.”
Levin and McCain held a joint press conference to announce the details of the bill on Thursday, which was marked up behind closed doors in committee Wednesday and Thursday. The bill now moves to the floor, where Levin said it’s on a list of bills to be considered in June by Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.).
The bill did not directly tackle the $500 billion in automatic cuts through sequestration that the Defense Department potentially faces next year, which both Levin and McCain have said must be reversed. But the bill does instruct the Pentagon to explain the effects of sequestration — something it has yet to do — on the Defense Department to help “understand the huge impact” sequestration would have, Levin said.
During the markup, the committee did not tackle one of the most contentious issues in the Defense authorization bill, indefinite detention.
Sen. Mark Udall (D-Colo.) withdrew his amendment to change the language in last year’s authorization bill, saving it instead for debate before the full Senate on the floor.
Udall and opponents of indefinite detention want to change the law to stop military detention on U.S. soil, while supporters say it’s a necessary tool for the government to stop terrorism.
Sen. Kelly Ayotte (R-N.H.), one of the most vocal detention supporters, said she will also bring amendments to the floor on the issue.
Many of the major changes that the Armed Services panel made involved pushing back against the Pentagon’s proposed cuts.
EU leaders gather for an informal dinner in Brussels, but the main course will undoubtedly be the Eurozone’s crippling debt crisis. There’s a growing belief that the austerity driver heralded by France and Germany has backfired, sending weaker countries into a spiral of decline.
Reports say single currency member nations are preparing back up plans for the consequences of a Greek exit. France’s President Hollande wants the strategy to shift to growth – something Germany’s reluctant to agree with. Both sides have to search for a compromise ahead of what could be a decisive 2nd Greek election in June.
John Laughland, the Director of Studies in the Institute of Democracy and Cooperation, believes the EU tries to control Greece by giving it no other choise but austerity.
http://www.euronews.com/ Thailand evokes images of endless, sandy beaches but there is a lot more to this South East Asian country. In the first edition of our four part series ‘Thai Life’, we take a look at the kingdom’s business spirit. To find out why Thailand is such a popular investment market, euronews headed to its capital, Bangkok.
With a population of around 10 million, it can sometimes feel like all the city’s inhabitants are on the streets at once. Bangkok is at the heart of the Thai economy with 90% of the country’s export trade taking place in the capital. The Asian Kingdom is also becoming an evermore attractive production location for foreign businesses, which are attracted by its stable infrastructure and tax incentives.
Stiebel Eltron, a housing technology manufacturer is one of the 500 German companies to start up operations in Thailand.
It learned early on that doing business ‘Thai style’ requires a great deal of cultural awareness and tact; something the company’s Export Manager, Holger Palla knows all too well:
“In Germany you can raise your voice (literally bang your fist on the table) and speak more openly and direct. Maybe even a little too loud and direct. In Thailand you can’t do that at all. You have to be careful not to embarrass other people — they shouldn’t lose face so you have to show respect and proceed more subtly.”
Yupa Tassri, General Manager at Siebel Eltron takes care of the staff’s needs, bridging any cultural divides:
“In Thai most people respect Buddha, so the Germans will never understand how we respect him.
“My main challenge is to mix and match between Thai and German mindsets, to make sure that they understand each other and work together in harmony.”
Teamwork plays a vital role, ensuring the working day runs smoothly, as Roland Hoehn, Asian Pacific Director at Siebel Eltron explains:
“Thai’s like to work in groups. They want to have Sanuuk once in a while. Sanuuk is probably best translated as fun and is simply a part of the Thai culture. If they aren’t having fun, they leave the company. So harmony and fun are important.”
For foreign companies, the benefits of working in Thailand, seem to outweigh concerns voiced by some businesses over bureaucracy and a lack of qualified labour.
John Svengren, the Executive Director of the European Asean Business Centre believes the key to doing business successfully in Thailand is taking the time to build bonds with colleagues:
“Relationships mean a lot more for one thing. You don’t come to an Asian country and do business on the first day. You need to have relationships, particularly if you’re in joint venture operations with Thai partnerships. It can take years to develop confidence and trust.”
This is not only true for the industrial sector but also for tourism, another important area for foreign investors, especially European.
This year alone, more than 20 million visitors are expected, making up around 6% of the nation’s total economy.
The tourism industry has been trying to attract new target groups and green tourism is becoming increasingly popular. At Karon beach in Phuket, a Swiss run hotel was the first on the island to receive the Green Globe certificate for sustainability.
The hotel’s General Manager at the Mövenpick resort, Hansreudi Frutiger talks to euronews about his accomplishment:
“We began with the Green Globe one year ago. We wanted to explain to our Thai employees what this means to us; that we want to help the world stay as it was and is. We’ve a small garden where we grow tomatoes and cucumbers alongside various Thai herbs and spices which our chefs use in our kitchen’s dishes.”
Thailand is a country of contrast. While it is finding success putting itself on the world business map – tradition and heritage remain an integral part of life.
Turn Out The Lights – The Largest U.S. Cities Are Becoming Cesspools Of Filth, Decay And Wretchedness
Once upon a time, the largest U.S. cities were the envy of the entire world. Sadly, that is no longer the case. Sure, there are areas of New York City, Boston, Washington and Los Angeles that are still absolutely beautiful but for the most part our major cities are rapidly rotting and decaying. Cities such as Detroit, Cleveland, Baltimore, Memphis, New Orleans, St. Louis and Oakland were all once places where middle class American workers thrived and raised their families. Today, all of those cities are rapidly being transformed into cesspools of filth, decay and wretchedness. Millions of good jobs have left our major cities in recent decades and poverty has absolutely exploded. Basically, you can turn out the lights because the party is over. In fact, some major U.S. cities are literally turning out the lights. In Detroit, about 40 percent of the streetlights are already broken and the city cannot afford to repair them. So Mayor Bing has come up with a plan to cut the number of operating streetlights almost in half and leave vast sections of the city totally in the dark at night. I wonder what that will do to the crime rate in the city. But don’t look down on Detroit too much, because what is happening in Detroit will be happening where you live soon enough.
A recent Bloomberg article described Mayor Bing’s plan to eliminate nearly half of Detroit’s streetlights….
Detroit, whose 139 square miles contain 60 percent fewer residents than in 1950, will try to nudge them into a smaller living space by eliminating almost half its streetlights.
As it is, 40 percent of the 88,000 streetlights are broken and the city, whose finances are to be overseen by an appointed board, can’t afford to fix them. Mayor Dave Bing’s plan would create an authority to borrow $160 million to upgrade and reduce the number of streetlights to 46,000. Maintenance would be contracted out, saving the city $10 million a year.
What this means is that there are going to be a lot of neighborhoods that will have the lights turned off permanently.
“You have to identify those neighborhoods where you want to concentrate your population,” said Chris Brown, Detroit’s chief operating officer. “We’re not going to light distressed areas like we light other areas.”
City officials know that they cannot force people to move from “distressed areas”, so they are going to encourage them to leave by cutting off services.
But turning off the lights is not the only way that Detroit is trying to save money.
Recently, officials in Detroit announced that all police stations in the city will be closed to the public for 16 hours a day.
It is so sad to see what is happening to what was once such a great city.
Back in the old days, Detroit had a teeming middle class population.
Today, 53.6% of all children in the city of Detroit are living in poverty.
Back in the old days, Detroit was a shining example of what America was doing right.
Today, 47 percent of all people living in the city of Detroit are functionally illiterate.
Back in the old days, middle class neighborhoods sprouted like mushrooms all over Detroit.
Today, the median price of a home in Detroit is just $6000.
Needless to say, crime is exploding in Detroit and many families live in constant fear.
Many have taken justice into their own hands. Justifiable homicide in Detroit rose by a staggering 79 percent during 2011.
But Detroit is only one example of a national trend.
For example, a recent article by Jim Quinn entitled “More Than 30 Blocks Of Grey And Decay” described the filth, decay and wretchedness in West Philadelphia. Quinn refers to the drive through this area as “the 30 Blocks of Squalor”….
The Senate Banking Committee is responding to outrage over the news that J.P. Morgan lost some $3 billion in customer money because of a risky trading strategy. The committee is preparing for two hearings with regulators, and Senator Tim Johnson (D-SD), chair of the committee, is hoping that Jamie Dimon will testify in the near future. “Our due diligence has made it clear that the Banking Committee should hear directly from JPMorgan Chase’s CEO Jamie Dimon,” Johnson said in a statement last week.
Luckily for Dimon, the professional staff in charge of managing the banking committee will be quite familiar to him and his team of lobbyists. That’s because the staff director for the Senate Banking Committee is none other than a former J.P. Morgan lobbyist, Dwight Fettig.
In 2009, Fettig was a registered lobbyist for J.P. Morgan. His disclosures show that he was hired to work on “financial services regulatory reform” and the “Restoring American Financial Stability Act of 2009″ on behalf of the investment bank. Now, as staff director for the Senate Banking Committee, he will be overseeing the hearings on J.P. Morgan’s risky proprietary trading.
On the House side of Congress, J.P. Morgan may see even less of a risk in upcoming hearings. Chairman Rep. Spencer Bachus (R-AL), who would presumably manage any investigation into the bank, has already offered comments to the press defending the investment bank’s trading decisions.
It asked for them to be suspended ahead of a board meeting later on Friday to reformulate its accounts for 2011 and submit a plan to shore up its finances.
The bank is reported to be due to ask the government for a bailout of more than 15bn euros ($19bn; £12bn).
Bankia, which is Spain’s fourth-largest bank, was part-nationalised two weeks ago because of its problems with bad property debt.
Huawei accuses InterDigital of “abusing” its position and demanding “exploitative” fees to use its patented technology, said to be essential to 3G in mobile devices.
It added that such moves were against the EU rules which require holders to licence their patents fairly.
InterDigital said it was “committed” to those rules.
The apartment block in Vathy Square from which the mother and son plunged to their death.
A 60-year-old man and his 90-year-old mother jumped off the roof of their apartment block in Vathy Square, near central Athens, early on Thursday in a double suicide that appeared to have been prompted by financial woes.
No suicide note was found but a short despair-filled text was uploaded onto a poem-sharing website late on Wednesday by a man called Antonis Perris. “I don’t see any way out. I have property but no cash at all, so what am I going to do about food?” he wrote, adding that his mother had Alzheimer’s while he had a terminal illness. “I don’t have many days left, I am very sick,” he wrote. The note is followed by a string of comments posted afterward by readers wishing him well and then notes of sorrow as of Thursday morning.
Police would not comment on the incident but sources said the man was an unemployed musician.
He and his mother are the latest in a series of Greeks to take their own lives in recent months as the repercussions of the debt crisis push many into despair over their finances.
Iran is hoping to convince world powers its nuclear programme serves a peaceful purpose and isn’t about making bombs. A new round of talks has begun in Baghdad – with further pressure on Tehran to stop higher-grade uranium enrichment which it’s feared could be put to military use. Iran has already tried to ease worsening relations, by tentatively agreeing to new UN inspections of sites which are suspected of involvement in atomic weapons development.
But, Washington says there’ll be no let-up in the heat on Tehran. Fresh sanctions are expected to hit in just over a month, targeting the country’s oil and nuclear sectors, as well as international trade links. Political analyst Chris Bambery says Iran’s nuclear programme has become a matter of national pride for its people – which they’ll not give up.
NEW DELHI: India and the US on Monday discussed ways to further strengthen their already expansive bilateral defense, in the backdrop of their Malabar naval combat exercise being successfully held in the Bay of Bengal earlier this month.
Visiting US chief of naval operations Admiral Jonathan Greenert held talks with Navy chief Admiral Nirmal Verma, IAF chief Air Chief Marshal N A K Browne and Army vice-chief Lt-Gen S K Singh, apart from calling on defense minister A K Antony and national security adviser Shiv Shankar Menon.
Admiral Greenert will also be visiting key naval establishments, including Western Naval Command at Mumbai, the INS Hansa base at Goa, the new Karwar naval base and the training establishment at Kochi, during his five-day visit.
India, however, still remains reluctant to ink bilateral pacts like the Logistics Support Agreement (LSA), Communication Interoperability and Security Memorandum Agreement (CISMOA) and Basic Exchange and Cooperation Agreement for Geo-Spatial Cooperation (BECA) that are being pushed by the US for the last several years.
But there have been no full-stops in either the flurry of joint military exercises between the two countries as well as armament deals, with US notching up sales worth over $8 billion to India over the last decade and many more contracts in the pipeline. In just the military aviation sector, the US is going to notch up sales worth well over $11 billion, ranging from over $2.2 billion for 12 C-130J `Super Hercules’ aircraft to $3.1 billion for 12 P-8I Poseidon maritime patrol aircraft.
Taliban Poisons 120 School Girls in Latest Attack Against Education
More than Afghan 120 schoolgirls and three teachers have been poisoned in the second attack in many months blamed on conservative radicals in the country’s north, Afghan police and education officials said on Wednesday (May 23)
Victims of the poisoning were being treated in hospital after the attack on a school in Taliqan inTakhar Province.
One of the poisoned schoolgirls who gave her name as Samera gave details of the ordeal.
“We saw one of the students was unconscious and in bad condition we were told not to drink water but we had already drunk the water and we became unconscious too,” she said.
The attack occurred in Takhar province where police said that radicals opposed to education of women and girls had used an unidentified toxic powder to contaminate the air in classrooms. Scores of students were left unconscious.
“There was a certain smell that our students noticed, unfortunately as a result some of our students were poisoned and the recent report showed that 80 of our students were poisoned,”Abdul Wahab Zafari head of Takhar education departmentAfghanistan’s intelligence agency, the National Directorate of Security (NDS), says the Taliban appear intent on closing schools ahead of a 2014 withdrawal by foreign combat troops.
Afghanistan’s Ministry of Education said last week that 550 schools in 11 provinces where the Taliban have strong support had been closed down by insurgents.
Last month, 150 schoolgirls were poisoned in Takhar province after they drank contaminated water.
Since 2001 when the Taliban were toppled from power by U.S.-backed Afghan forces, females have returned to schools, especially in the capital Kabul. They were previously banned from work and education.
But there are still periodic attacks against students, teachers and school buildings, usually in the more conservative south and east of the country, from where the Taliban insurgency draws most of its support.
‘US backed off Libya-style regime change in Syria’
The Syrian regime has come under fire from a new UN report claiming both the government and opposition are committing gross human rights violations. It claims Damascus is responsible for the largest share of the violence, while rebels are accused of kidnapping civilians and torturing captured soldiers. Meanwhile, Amnesty International has slammed the UN Security Council as ‘increasingly unfit for purpose’ and too slow to act on Syria. The world body dispatched an observer mission to the country, where it’s estimated around ten thousand people have been killed since March last year.
Author William Engdahl says however that Syria must be left alone to determine its own future.
Winds from Syria unrest blow into Lebanon: Clashes spark fears of another war
Experts say Lebanon has fallen hostage to conflict in neighbouring Syria, following deadly sectarian clashes between pro-, anti-Damascus camps.
Middle East Online
By Rita Daou – BEIRUT
Crime, sectarianism, corruption… Another war?
Fed by the 14-month crisis in neighbouring Syria and rumours of renewed civil unrest, turbulence across Lebanon is stoking fears the situation in the country may take a turn for the worse.
On Wednesday night, a gunbattle broke out in the Caracas district of west Beirut, followed by a clash that lasted several hours and left two dead, according to security officials.
The spark for the clash, during which gunmen used hand grenades against the Lebanese security forces, was a “personal dispute” between at least one of the men and a woman in her early 20s, the officials added.
Though the shootout was an “isolated incident,” a security official at the scene said, “the timing of the incident is very bad, because people in Lebanon are nervous about the overall situation.”
Uncertainty turned news of a crime into a new cause for alarm. That some of those involved in the clash were Syrian nationals sparked rumours on the streets the next morning.
Some wondered where the gunmen got the weapons from, others said their real target was the Lebanese army, and still others raised questions about whether the gunfight had a political backdrop.
The developments have proven right experts who say Lebanon has fallen hostage to the conflict in neighbouring Syria, following deadly sectarian clashes between the country’s pro- and anti-Damascus camps.
Though the violence has on the whole been short-lived and focused on small areas of the country, individual citizens’ lives have already been transformed.
“My husband is travelling and due to return soon,” Mirella Qazzi, 40, said. A mother of four, Qazzi lives in Jounieh, 20 kilometres (12 miles) from the capital Beirut.
“I am very worried that when he flies back, he won’t be able to get home, because the roads might be blocked,” Qazzi added.
She said was angry because she felt the spectre of war looming, “even if no Lebanese wants war, regardless of our sectarian differences.”
Though relatively contained, the speed with which the waves of violence have unfolded from specific security incidents has left many feeling shaken.
On May 12, Shadi al-Mawlawi, a young Islamist from the northern port city of Tripoli was arrested on charges of belonging to a terrorist organisation. The arrest was followed by clashes that left 10 people dead.
Then on May 20, troops shot dead two Sunni clerics when their convoy failed to stop at a checkpoint in the north, prompting a round of fighting in Beirut that left two dead.
Residents protested the clerics’ killing by setting fire to tyres and cutting off several roads in northern Lebanon.
Youths also cut off roads when a group of Shiite Lebanese pilgrims were kidnapped in Syria this week.
(Reuters) – Russia tested a new long-range missile on Wednesday that should improve its ability to penetrate missile defense systems, the military said, in Moscow’s latest warning to Washington over deployment of a missile shield in Europe.
The Intercontinental Ballistic Missile (ICBM) was successfully launched from the Plesetsk facility in northwestern Russia and its dummy warhead landed on target on the Kamchatka peninsula on the Pacific coast, the Defense Ministry said.
The new missile is expected to improve Russia’s offensive arsenal, “including by increasing the capability to overcome missile defense systems that are being created”, the ministry said in a statement.
Russia opposes a missile shield the United States and NATO are deploying in Europe, saying it will be able to intercept Russian warheads by about 2018, weakening Moscow’s nuclear arsenal and upsetting the post-Cold War balance of power.
The United States says the system is intended to counter a potential threat from Iran and poses no risk to Russia, but the Kremlin has rejected those assurances and stepped up criticism of the system, to be deployed in four phases by about 2020.
Last autumn, then-President Dmitry Medvedev outlined steps Russia was taking to neutralize the perceived threat, including upgrades to Russia’s offensive nuclear arsenal.
Russia and the United States are still in talks to agree cooperation on missile defense, but Moscow has warned of further measures if no such deal is reached and Washington refuses to provide binding guarantees its system will not threaten Russia.
At a conference in Moscow this month, senior General Nikolai Makarov said Russia could carry out pre-emptive strikes on future NATO missile defense installations to protect its security.
The European system is to include interceptor missile installations in Poland and Romania and a radar in Turkey as well as interceptors and radars on ships based in the Mediterranean Sea.
Russia usually names its weapons, but the Defense Ministry made no mention of a name for the new missile. It said it could be fired from a mobile launcher.
Missile defense has troubled ties between Russia and the United States since the Cold War.
The dispute over the current project has developed despite President Barack Obama’s decision in 2009 to scrap the previous administration’s plans for longer-range interceptors, which helped improve relations after a period of growing tension.
Western officials say improvements to Russia’s ICBM arsenal undermine Moscow’s argument that the system will present a threat and suggest the Kremlin wants to use the issue as a bargaining chip in broader talks on nuclear arms cuts.
During his 2000-2008 Kremlin term, President Vladimir Putin repeatedly said Russia would improve its offensive nuclear capability in response to U.S. missile defense plans.
In 2007, First Deputy Prime Minister Sergei Ivanov, now Putin’s chief of staff, was quoted by Russian news agencies as saying Russia already had weapons that could overcome any current or future missile defense system.
(Writing by Steve Gutterman; editing by Andrew Roche)
Hundreds of Israelis took to the streets in south Tel Aviv on Thursday to protest against the mass migration from Sudan as a result of the strife in the African nation.
Some Israelis now want the government to tighten the rules on immigration, and to even send the migrants back home.
Tensions have been building for months as migrants are blamed for an increase in burglary and crime.
The protesters shouted “Sudanese go home” – a reference to the thousands of Sudanese who have travelled through Egypt to Israel. Many were smuggled into the country via the Sinai Peninsula.
Israeli politicians are now responding to this fear and anger, with the interior minister trying to push a mass-expulsion order through the courts.
Al Jazeera’s Sue Turton reports from Tel Aviv.
The Questionable Past of the Man Who Decides Who U.S. Drones Will Kill
By Conor Friedersdorf
White House counterterrorism chief John Brennan, who is taking on new authority over strikes, once backed “enhanced-interrogation techniques.”
Reuters
As I figure it, there are two death panels in the United States. One is within the C.I.A., where high-ranking intelligence professionals decide, via some opaque protocol, who they want to kill with armed drones. I used to assume that they put all the names on a list. But it was subsequently reported that sometimes the C.I.A. kills people whose identities it doesn’t even know.
Then there’s the other death panel. It determines whose death will be sought by drones that the Department of Defense controls. These human targets used to be determined in a meeting that involved the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, various unnamed national security officials, and Obama Administration counterterrorism adviser John Brennan. They’d talk things over and debate names.
Now the protocol is changing for both programs.
“White House counterterror chief John Brennan has seized the lead in choosing which terrorists will be targeted for drone attacks or raids, establishing a new procedure for both military and CIA targets,” Kimberly Dozier of the Associated Press reports. “The effort concentrates power over the use of lethal U.S. force outside war zones within one small team at the White House … Under the new plan, Brennan’s staff compiles the potential target list and runs the names past agencies such as the State Department at a weekly White House meeting.”
So who is the man with this extraordinarily powerful influence over who lives and dies in the due-process-free world of international assassinations? An experienced intelligence officer with 25 years experience, fluent Arabic skills … and a more controversial recent history in government.
Thousands of soldiers have come home with symptoms and illnesses they suspect are linked to open-air “burn pits.” Now, a new study has confirmed that particulate matter from the pits causes lung damage and immune system impairment. Photo: U.S. Air Force
Since returning home from Iraq and Afghanistan, an untold number of soldiers have come down with puzzling health problems. Chronic bronchitis. Neurological defects. Even cancer. Many of them are pointing the finger at a single culprit: The open-air “burn pits” that incinerated trash — from human waste to computer parts — on military bases overseas.
Pentagon officials have consistently reassured personnel that there was no “specific evidence” connecting the two. But now, only days after Danger Room uncovered a memo suggesting that Army officials knew how dangerous the pits were, an animal study is offering up new scientific evidence that links burn pits to depleted immune systems.
“The dust doesn’t only appear to cause lung inflammation,” says Dr. Anthony Szema, an assistant professor at Stony Brook School of Medicine who specializes in pulmonology and allergies, and the researcher who led this latest study. “It also destroys the body’s own T-cells.” Those cells are at the core of the body’s immune system, “like a bulletproof vest against illnesses,” Szema tells Danger Room. When they’re depleted, an individual is much more prone to myriad conditions.
For scientists, trying to establish a definitive connection between those diffuse health problems and the pits has been exceedingly difficult to do. Most notably because the Department of Defense, as a report issued by the Institutes of Medicine noted last year, didn’t collect adequate evidence — like what the pits burned and which soldiers were exposed — for researchers to draw any meaningful conclusions about the impact of the open-air incinerators. Szema’s study is only on 15 mice, so it’s by no means definitive. But it is an important first step.
Regardless, it’s becoming increasingly clear that Pentagon officials were aware of the risk posed by the pits. Another memo (.pdf), written by Lt. Col. Darrin Curtis in 2006 and obtained by Danger Room, warned of “an acute health hazard” to personnel stationed at Iraq’s Balad air base. “It is amazing,” he noted, “that the burn pit has been able to operate … without significant engineering controls being put in place.”
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By Michael Snyder, on November 25th, 2013
Octavio Castillo paddles down a flooded street on Friday, April 19, in Des Plaines, Illinois, a suburb of Chicago.
Household items are submerged in floodwaters in front of a house in Fox Lake, Illinois, on Monday, April 22. Steady rains are expected Tuesday, April 23, in several Midwestern states already facing severe flooding. Have you been affected by the flooding? 
Spray: She has accrued detailed descriptions as well as photographs of the spraying, which took place as part of Manhattan-Rochester Coalition, which was an operation that dispersed zinc cadmium silfide particles over the general population, a compound that was presented as completely safe
Controversial: But Professor Martino-Taylor says that it wasn’t just the ‘harmless’ compound, radioactive particles were also sprayed on the unwitting public. A woman refills the spray canisters in this archive picture
Scope: In St Louis, the Army put chemical sprayers on buildings, like schools and public housing projects, and mounted them in station wagons for mobile use
How To: Despite the extent of the experiment, local politicians were not notified about the content of the testing. In this picture, a man demonstrates how to spray the canisters
School: The people of St Louis were told that the Army was testing smoke screens to protect cities from a Russian attack. A canister is positioned on top of a school in this photo
Exposed: In her research, she found that the greatest concentration of spraying in St Louis was at the Pruit-Igoe public housing complex, which was home to 10,000 low income residents. She said that 70 per cent of those residents were children under the age of 12
Family Survival Protocol - Microcosm News 