The Fukushima Disaster

Fukushima radiation reaches 8 times govt standards 11 Jan 2014 Nuclear radiation at the boundaries of the stricken Fukushima power plant has reached 8 times government safety guidelines, TEPCO has said. The firm has been struggling to contain radioactive leaks at Fukushima since the onset over the crisis in 2011. The levels of nuclear radiation around Fukushima's No. 1 plant have risen to 8 millisieverts per year, surpassing the government standard of 1 millisievert per year, reports news site Asahi Shimbun citing Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO).

Japan to send nuclear fuel rod into meltdown in Fukushima probe 10 Jan 2014 Japan's Atomic Energy Agency (JAEA) will deliberately send a nuclear fuel rod into meltdown after April this year in a bid to learn more about the events leading up to the Fukushima disaster of March 2011. The experiment will take place at the Nuclear Safety Research Reactor in Tokai, Ibaraki Prefecture, in order to give investigators a better idea of exactly how and when meltdown occurred at the stricken plant. A single 30-centimeter-long fuel rod will be used instead of the tens of thousands of 4.5-meter-long rods used at Fukushima, with fission predicted to cease shortly after the controlled meltdown.

 

 

The rest from CLG:

 

Breaking News and Commentary from Citizens for Legitimate Government11 Jan 2014 - Part 2http://www.legitgov.org/
All links are here:http://www.legitgov.org/#breaking_news

Looking for Part 1 of Today's CLG Newsletter? NSAssociate Google Relegated Part 1 of Today's CLG Newsletter to Spam Bin Posted by Lori Price, www.legitgov.org 11 Jan 2014 CLG subscribers: If you use Gmail as your email provider, please go to your spam bin to retrieve today's CLG Newsletter. Perhaps Google did not like the subject line: 'US secretly deployed troops to Somalia since October; drones conducting airstrikes, surveillance.'

 

 

Four hospitalized as hundreds in W. Virginia report exposure symptoms after chemical spill 11 Jan 2014 At least four people have been hospitalized and several hundred thousand remain without water after a chemical leaked from a [Freedom Industries] storage tank in West Virginia and into the public water treatment system, state authorities said Saturday. Hundreds of residents called the West Virginia Poison Center to report concerns or symptoms related to the spill, including nausea, vomiting, dizziness, diarrhea, rashes and reddened skin, state health officials told Reuters. Allison Adler of the Department of Health and Human Resources said 47 people sought treatment at area hospitals for symptoms.

State of emergency declared over West Virginia chemical spill, water ban in 9 counties 09 Jan 2014 West Virginia Gov. Earl Ray Tomblin declared a state of emergency Thursday in several counties because of a chemical spill into the Elk River. The advisory was expanded at night to nine counties. The state of emergency includes West Virginia American Water customers in Boone, Cabell, Clay, Jackson, Kanawha, Lincoln, Logan, Putnam, and Roane counties. NBC affiliate WSAZ said the chemical leaked from a tank at Freedom Industries in Charleston.

BP appeal to stop 'fictitious' U.S. oil spill claims fails 11 Jan 2014 One of BP's attempts to curb payouts for what it says are "fictitious" and "absurd" claims related to the 2010 Gulf of Mexico oil spill has failed after a legal appeal was rejected by a U.S. court. BP had argued in its appeal that the administration of a 2012 settlement agreement was faulty because it allowed claimants without actual damages to join in. But a panel of the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on Friday affirmed a federal judge's approval of the multi-billion d*llar settlement between the oil company and businesses and individuals who lost m*ney and property in the spill.

US 'tried to oust Hamid Karzai by manipulating Afghan elections' 10 Jan 2014 Top US diplomats connived in delaying an Afghan presidential election in 2009 and then tried to manipulate the outcome in a "clumsy and failed putsch" that aimed to oust Hamid Karzai, the US defence secretary at the time, Robert Gates, has said. Senior diplomat Richard Holbrooke, then special envoy for Afghanistan and Pakistan, paid public lip-service to the idea of a level playing field, but was working behind the scenes to ensure the opposite, Gates said. He first supported an unconstitutional three-month delay to the election and then, with the help of the US ambassador in Kabul, Karl Eikenberry, backed Karzai's rivals, he alleged.

US drone crashes in western Afghanistan 11 Jan 2014 An unmanned aerial vehicle belonging to the US military in Afghanistan has crashed in the country's western province of Herat, local security officials say. Afghan officials said on Saturday that the drone went down in the town of Shindand, but a Taliban spokesman claimed that the militants shot down the aircraft during an airstrike against their stronghold on Friday. The unnamed spokesman added that militants have collected the wreckage of the drone and took it to an unknown location. []

Aircraft crash in Afghanistan kills 2 coalition troops, civilian 10 Jan 2014 An air accident in eastern Afghanistan Friday claimed the lives of two coalition servicemembers and a civilian working with the military, the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force said. In Washington, ABC News reported that the plane involved was an MC-12 twin-turboprop reconnaissance aircraft flying a nighttime mission. Citing an unnamed defense official, the network said all three victims were Americans.

Sharon should have faced justice for massacre: HRW 11 Jan 2014 It is a shame that former Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon dies without facing justice for his role in the Sabra and Shatila massacre, says the director of Human Rights Watch (HRW)'s Middle East and North Africa division. Sharon led Israel into a war with Lebanon in 1982 and was responsible for the massacre of hundreds of Palestinians at Sabra and Shatila refugee camps outside the Lebanese capital of Beirut after his forces allowed allied Lebanese militias into the camps.

Former Israeli prime minister Ariel Sharon dies 11 Jan 2014 Israel's former prime minister, Ariel Sharon, has died at a hospital in Tel Aviv after eight years in coma, Israeli media reported. Israeli Army Radio said the former premier died on Saturday at the age of 85. On January 4, 2006, Sharon suffered a stroke and went into a coma, from which he never recovered.

Democrat heading bridge probe says Christie could be impeached if he knew of closures 11 Jan 2014 The chairman of a New Jersey legislative panel investigating the George Washington Bridge lane closures said Gov. Chris Christie's top aides had engaged in a "cover-up" and the governor could be impeached if it is determined he was aware of efforts to use the bridge for political purposes. "Using the George Washington Bridge, a public resource, to exact a political vendetta, is a crime," New Jersey Assemblyman John Wisniewski, who is spearheading the bridge probe, told NBC News on Saturday. "Having people use their official position to have a political game is a crime. So if those tie back to the governor in any way, it clearly becomes an impeachable offense."

NJ lawmaker on traffic scandal: 'I do think laws have been broken' 11 Jan 2014 The Democratic New Jersey legislator leading an investigation into Republican Gov. Chris Christie's administration says he believes laws were broken when the governor's aides ordered lane closures at the nation's busiest bridge. "I do think laws have been broken," said State Assemblyman John Wisniewski, who's also deputy speaker. "Public resources -- the bridge, police officers -- all were used for a political purpose, for some type of retribution, and that violates the law." Legislators need to "make sure any violations of law are addressed," Wisniewski told CNN on Saturday.

Lawmaker to seek more documents from Christie in New Jersey bridge scandal 11 Jan 2014 A New Jersey lawmaker on Saturday said he intends to formally request Governor Chris Christie and his staff hand over more correspondence and documents related to the bridge scandal that has engulfed Christie, a rising star in the Republican Party. Assemblyman John Wisniewski, a Democrat who chairs his legislative body's Transportation Committee, told CNN he would make the request on Monday because "there's still a lot of documents we haven't gotten we'd like to see." Wisniewski's comments came a day after more than 1,000 pages of anxiously-awaited papers, subpoenaed by New Jersey lawmakers, were made public.

New documents reveal 'Bridgegate' PA appointees ignored danger warnings --Bill Baroni and David Wildstein -- despite email warning that traffic problems could threaten lives -- continued with punitive Washington Bridge scheme. 10 Jan 2014 Gov. Chris Christie's top two Port Authority appointees continued the George Washington Bridge gridlock for three days after learning the traffic jams were life-threatening. A Sept. 9 e-mail to Bill Baroni and David Wildstein laid out the emergency response problems for police and ambulances in Fort Lee, N.J., after the morning rush-hour lane closings. "Wanted you both have a heads-up -- Peggy Thomas, Borough Administrator, called me regarding the increased volume and congestion," wrote PA employee Tino Lado. "She mentioned there were two incidents that Ft Lee PD and EMS had difficulty responding to: a missing child (later found) and a cardiac arrest...If there is anything you need me to do, let me know."

Wildstein held in contempt by Assembly panel for pleading the Fifth 09 Jan 2014 Minutes after Gov. Chris Christie pledged in a lengthy news conference Thursday to get to the bottom of the George Washington Bridge lane-closure scandal, his former high-ranking appointee who orchestrated the traffic jam repeatedly refused to answer questions about it from lawmakers. David Wildstein, until last month the director of interstate capital projects for the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, cited his constitutional right against self-incrimination when asked, under subpoena, to explain the closure and various emails and text messages related to it. As a result, the Assembly transportation committee voted unanimously -- including its four Republicans -- to find Wildstein in contempt, a misdemeanor.

Zucker: GOP being run from Fox News headquarters 11 Jan 2014 Fox News Chairman Roger Ailes struck first, saying in an interview published this week that it was interesting for CNN "to throw in the towel and announce they're out of the news business." It was a reference to CNN President Jeff Zucker's efforts to expand CNN's offerings beyond breaking news. "We happen to be in the business, as opposed to some other fair and balanced network," Zucker responded at a news conference on Friday. He suggested that Ailes's remarks, published in the Hollywood Reporter, were silly and an attempt to deflect attention from "The Loudest Voice in the Room," a book on Ailes and Fox that is being published this month. Zucker said he hadn't read the book, but that from what he heard it confirmed that "the Republican Party is being run out of News Corp. headquarters masquerading as a cable news channel."

$70K in Newtown Donations Missing 10 Jan 2014 A charity formed after the shooting massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary School has been unable to account for more than *70,000 it raised through marathon running, one of its co-founders said Friday. Ryan Graney, of Nashville, Tenn., said only *30,000 of the *103,000 taken in by the 26.4.26 Foundation was used for the organization's purpose. That money was presented last January by co-founder Robbie Bruce to the nonprofit NYA, a youth sports center in Newtown, where the December 2012 shooting occurred. Graney said she filed complaints with the FBI and the Tennessee attorney general's office.

Previous lead: U.S. secretly deployed troops to Somalia since October; drones conducting airstrikes, surveillance --Drones from U.S. base in Djibouti conduct airstrikes, surveillance missions from Somalia's skies 10 Jan 2014 The U.S. military secretly deployed a small number of trainers and advisers to Somalia in October, the first time regular troops have been stationed in the war-ravaged country since 1993, when two helicopters were shot down and 18 Americans killed in the "Black Hawk Down" disaster. A cell of U.S. military personnel has been in the Somali capital of Mogadishu to advise and coordinate operations with African troops fighting to wrest control of the country from the al-Shabab militia [for oil], according to three U.S. military officials. The previously undisclosed [and illegal] deployment -- of fewer than two dozen troops -- reverses two decades of U.S. policy that effectively prohibited military "boots on the ground" in Somalia.

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