CLG: Polar bears migrate north as rising temperatures hasten Arctic ice melt, Fukushima worker dies after falling into water storage tank

News Updates from CLG
22 January 2015

http://www.legitgov.org/
All links are here:http://www.legitgov.org/#breaking_news

1). Yes, of course, Google is still relegating CLG News to the sp-m bins.

2). CLG Newsletter Was Not Delivered to Many Subscribers | 20 Jan 2015 | Many people did not receive Sunday's CLG Newsletter (GCHQ captured emails of journalists from BBC, Reuters, the Guardian, the New York Times and others), sent at 7:56 PM EST. If you did not receive this edition, please write clg_news at legitgov.org and I'll happily re-send it.

3). Outage of CLG Site for Comcast Customers | 18 - 21 Jan 2015 | Due to a technical malfunction and the service provider's apparent unwillingness or lack of urgency to address it, the CLG site has been unavailable to Comcast Internet customers from Florida through Pennsylvania. [Update: This problem has (mostly) been rectified, as of late Wednesday evening.]

4). Regarding the previous CLG Newsletter, GCHQ is the UK's Government Communications Headquarters -- aka England's 'NSA' -- which I should have noted after the abbreviation. --LRP

C.I.A. Report Found Value of Torture Was Inflated | 20 Jan 2015 | Years before the release in December of a Senate Intelligence Committee report detailing the C.I.A.'s use of torture and deceit in its detention program, an internal review by the agency found that the C.I.A. had repeatedly overstated the value of intelligence gained during the brutal interrogations of some of its detainees prisoners. The internal report, more than 1,000 pages in length, came to be known as the Panetta Review after Leon E. Panetta, who, as the C.I.A.'s director, ordered that it be done in 2009. The contents of the Panetta Review, which remain classified, are now central to simmering battles over the Intelligence Committee's conclusions about the efficacy of torture and the C.I.A.'s allegations that committee staffers improperly took the review from an agency facility.

Six-year wait for 9m-pound 'whitewash': 179 British men and women sacrificed their lives in the Iraq war. Yesterday their loved ones branded Chilcot delays an insult to their memories | 22 Jan 2015 | Families of soldiers killed in Iraq last night condemned the 'disgraceful' decision to further delay the Chilcot report. Six years after the 9million-pound inquiry started - and 12 years on from the 2003 war - bereaved parents said they were expecting a whitewash. John Miller, whose son Simon was among six military policemen killed by an Iraqi mob, said: 'It is absolutely disgraceful, although I could use stronger words. It is becoming the biggest cover-up of our generation...'

Iraq war report 'delayed until after UK election' | 20 Jan 2015 | The official inquiry into the 2003 Iraq War will not publish its long-awaited report before the general election, the BBC understands. The BBC's political editor Nick Robinson said inquiry chairman Sir John Chilcot is expected to confirm in a letter to David Cameron that it will be delayed until after May's poll. The inquiry began its work in 2009 and held its last public hearing in 2011. Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg said the delay was "incomprehensible".

Obama to call on Congress to approve continued military action against Isis | 20 Jan 2015 | Barack Obama is calling on Congress to authorise continued military action in the Middle East, following growing criticism that his existing air strikes in Iraq and Syria lacked the necessary legally underpinning. In excerpts from his sixth State of the Union speech released early by the White House, the president also suggests that the coalition fight against the Islamic State will continue for months if not years to come..."And tonight, I call on this Congress to show the world that we are united in this mission by passing a resolution to authorize the use of force against Isil."

In State of the Union Speech, Obama Defiantly Sets an Ambitious Agenda | 20 Jan 2015 | President Obama claimed credit on Tuesday for an improving economy and defiantly told his Republican adversaries in Congress to "turn the page" by supporting an expensive domestic agenda aimed at improving the fortunes of the middle class. Released from the political constraints of a sagging economy, overseas wars and elections, Mr. Obama declared in his sixth State of the Union address that "the shadow of crisis has passed," and he vowed to use his final two years in office fighting for programs that had taken a back seat. He called on Congress to make community college free for most students, enhance tax credits for education and child care, and impose new taxes and fees on high-income earners and large financial institutions.

State of the Union 2015: Full transcript --As Prepared for Delivery | 20 Jan 2015 | There is a ritual on State of the Union night in Washington. A little before the address, the White House sends out an embargoed copy of the President's speech to the press (embargoed means that the press can see the speech, but they can't report on it until a designated time). The reporters then start sending it around town to folks on Capitol Hill to get their reaction, then those people send it to all their friends, and eventually everyone in Washington can read along, but the public remains in the dark. This year we change that. For the first time, the White House is making the full text of the speech available to citizens around the country online...

At least 9 killed, dozen injured after shell hit stop - eastern Ukraine | 22 Jan 2015 | A stop was shelled during rush hour on Thursday morning in the Ukrainian city of Donetsk. Nine people were killed and up to twenty were injured, local authorities report. Residents of Donetsk's Leninsky district heard shelling at about 07:40 local time...On January 13, twelve people died and 13 more were injured as a bus was shelled in the eastern Donetsk region, Ukraine's Interior Ministry said. Denis Pushilin, Donetsk People's Republic representative at Minsk talks, said the attack may have been staged by Kiev.

South Ossetia Leader Says Treaty Could Call for Joining Russia | 11 Dec 2014 | The de facto leader of Georgia's breakaway South Ossetia region says a planned treaty with Moscow could call for the separatist province region to become part of Russia. Leonid Tibilov said on December 10 that his government will probably sign a treaty strengthening ties with Russia early next year. He said it would codify "a qualitatively new level of integration."

Journalists reporting on asylum seekers referred to Australian police | 21 Jan 2015 | Journalists reporting on the federal government's asylum-seeker policies have been repeatedly referred to the police in attempts to uncover confidential sources and whistleblowers, a Guardian Australia investigation can reveal. Over the past 12 months federal government agencies have referred stories by journalists from Guardian Australia, news.com.au and the West Australian to the Australian federal police (AFP) for their reporting on the government's asylum seeker operations during the time Scott Morrison was immigration minister. Almost every referral made to the AFP by federal government agencies "for unauthorised disclosure of commonwealth information" since the Coalition took office in September 2013 has been directly related to immigration reporting by journalists.

Journalism is not a crime. So why are reporters being referred to police? | 21 Jan 2015 | Journalism in Australia is not a crime. Despite this, journalists who have reported on immigration and asylum seeker issues have been referred to the Australian Federal Police for investigation in a series of attempts to prosecute confidential sources and whistleblowers. This is a move that should alarm all citizens...Journalists from Guardian Australia, News.com.au and the West Australian have all had their stories sent to the AFP by customs, the immigration department and the defence department to ask the AFP to track down their sources. There may be journalists from other news outlets involved.

Fukushima worker dies after falling into water storage tank | 19 Jan 2015 | A worker at Japan's destroyed Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant died on Tuesday after falling inside a water storage tank, the latest in a spate of industrial accidents at the site of the March 2011 nuclear disaster, the world's worst since Chernobyl. The death is the second in Fukushima in less than a year. Last week, labor inspectors warned the operator of the plant, Tokyo Electric Power Co., about the rise in accidents and ordered it to take measures to deal with the problem. An unnamed laborer in his 50s working for construction company Hazama Ando Corp. on Monday fell into a 10-metre-high (33 feet) water storage tank he had been inspecting.

Plane searched at JFK airport after bomb threat; no injuries | 19 Jan 2015 | Authorities say a passenger jet at John F. Kennedy Airport was given the all clear following a bomb threat. Port Authority spokesman Joe Pentangelo says Delta Air Lines Flight 468 from San Francisco to New York with 171 passengers landed at JFK Airport just after 7:40 p.m. Monday. Pentangelo says the Boeing 757 was evacuated and taken to a remote part of the runway where it was swept and found to have no explosives.

1 critical, suspect dead [or in custody] in shooting at Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston --Hospital, streets were on lockdown | 20 Jan 2015 | A cardiologist at Boston's Brigham and Women's hospital is in critical condition Tuesday after he was shot twice by a gunman who police say fatally shot himself in a nearby exam room. Authorities did not immediately release the identities of the gunman and victim but credited a swift response by police and hospital staffers to control the situation. The victim was rushed to the emergency room where he was treated for his life-threatening injuries...The Boston Globe reported that the hospital was under a Code Black, which means no additional patients were being accepted.

Justice Dept. to Recommend No Civil Rights Charges in Ferguson Shooting | 21 Jan 2015 | Justice Department lawyers will recommend that no civil rights charges be brought against the police officer involved in the fatal shooting of an unarmed teenager in Ferguson, Mo., after an F.B.I. investigation found no evidence to support charges, law enforcement officials said Wednesday. Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. and his civil rights chief, Vanita Gupta, will have the final say on whether the Justice Department will close the case against the officer, Darren Wilson. But it would be unusual for them to overrule the prosecutors on the case, who are still working on a legal memo explaining their recommendation.

Polar bears migrate north as rising temperatures hasten Arctic ice melt | 17 Jan 2015 | It was just a theory, but for years scientists believed what years of observation were telling them. As Arctic sea ice melted because of climate change global warming, polar bears appeared to be creeping their way toward a final refuge in the icy Canadian archipelago. Now a study of polar bear DNA backs that up. Scientists who research the animals across the Arctic teamed up to produce a paper showing that the "directional gene flow" of recent polar bear generations is "moving towards areas with more persistent year-round sea ice".

Romney and Jeb Bush to Meet in Utah | 21 Jan 2015 | Jeb Bush and Mitt Romney are scheduled to meet privately this week in Utah, raising the possibility that the two former governors will find a way to avoid competing presidential campaigns that would split the Republican establishment next year, two prominent party members said Wednesday night. The meeting was planned before Mr. Romney's surprise announcement two weeks ago to donors in New York that he was considering a third run for the White House. Mr. Bush proposed the meeting, according to one of the party members familiar with the planning, who did not want to be quoted by name in discussing a secret meeting.

DeflateGate: NFL finds 11 of 12 Patriots' footballs were underinflated, say reports | 21 Jan 2015 | Eleven of the dozen footballs used by the New England Patriots in the AFC championship game were not inflated to NFL specifications, league sources have told ESPN, miring the team in controversy as they prepare for the Super Bowl. ESPN first reported that the league had found 11 footballs were underinflated by 2lb of air per square inch. League regulations state that each game ball be inflated between 12.5-13.5lb PSI.

*****

CLG needs your support.

http://www.legitgov.org/donate.html

Or, please mail a check or m*ney order to CLG: Citizens for Legitimate Government (CLG)
P.O. Box 1142
Bristol, CT 06011-1142
Contributions to CLG are not tax deductible.

Feel free -- and CLG encourages you -- to forward this newsletter to your lists and friends!
Those who wish to be added to the list can go here: http://www.legitgov.org/#subscribe_clg and add your name.