CLG: NZ Govt opens Maui's dolphin area for oil drilling, Ben & Jerry's Renames Iconic Flavor to Support Vermont's GMO Labeling Food Fight Fund, et al

News Updates from CLG
19 Jun 2014

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

Previous edition: Obama tells Congress U.S. deploying up to 275 troops to Iraq (Google subscribers: Google Filter Instructions for CLG Newsletter.)

Obama to Congress: I don't need new permission on Iraq 18 Jun 2014 I'll let you know what's going on, but I don't need new congressional authority to act, President Barack Obama told congressional leaders Wednesday about his upcoming decision on possible military intervention in Iraq. While the White House statement emphasized Obama would continue to consult with Congress, Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky said the President "basically just briefed us on the situation in Iraq and indicated he didn't feel he had any need for authority from us for the steps that he might take." House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi of California agreed with McConnell's assessment, adding she believed congressional authorization for military force in Iraq back in 2001 and 2003 still applied.

ISIS militants 'with US passports' --'The seeds of 9/11s are being planted all over Iraq and Syria' 16 Jun 2014 There is something particularly concerning about the "masked, sociopathic murderers" who fight for the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIS), writes former state department official Andrew G Doran for the National Review. Some of them, he says, are Western citizens who have travelled to Syria to fight President Bashar Assad's government - and have passports or other immigration paperwork that would allow them to return to their home countries whenever they want. In fact, he says, citing the Daily Beast, perhaps a dozen are already in the US.

Cameron says Isis planning attacks in UK 18 Jun 2014 David Cameron tells MPs it is wrong to think that violence in Iraq is "nothing to do with us" because Islamist militants are "planning to attack us here at home in the United Kingdom". Referring to a series of attacks by the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham (Isis), the prime minister said the group hoped to establish "some sort of extreme Islamist regime in the middle of Iraq", which would affect Britain.

Social media mass surveillance is permitted by law, says top UK official 17 Jun 2014 The true extent of the government's interception of Google, Fb and Twitter - including private messages between British citizens - has been officially confirmed for the first time. The government's most senior security official, Charles Farr, detailed how searches on Google, Fb, Twitter and YouTube, as well as emails to or from non-British citizens abroad, can be monitored by the security services because they are deemed to be "external communications". It is the first time that the government has admitted that UK citizens, talking via supposedly private channels in social media such as Twitter direct messages, are deemed by the British government to be legitimate legal targets that do not require a warrant before intercepting.

British Spy Agencies Assert Power to Intercept Web Traffic 17 Jun 2014 In a broad legal rationale for collecting information from Internet use by its citizens, the British government has asserted the right to intercept communications that go through services like Fb, Google and Twitter that are based in the United States or other foreign nations, even if they are between people in Britain. The British position is described in a report released Tuesday by Privacy International and other advocacy groups. The report, confirming a summary seen Monday by The New York Times, says the findings are based on a government document that the groups obtained through a lawsuit. The government document, released with the report, says contact between people in Britain through social networks based elsewhere, or use of search engines located outside Britain, constitutes "external communication," and as such, is subject to interception, even when no wrongdoing is suspected.

UN: 356 killed, including 257 civilians, in E. Ukraine military campaign 18 Jun 2014 At least 356 people, including 257 civilians, have died since the beginning of the "anti-terrorist" operation in Ukraine's eastern regions of Lugansk and Donetsk, according to UN calculations. There were 14 children among the dead. The results prepared by the UN special commission in Ukraine have been presented by Gianni Magazzeni, head of European Department of the Office of the High Commissioner of Human Rights.

2 Russian journalists killed in Ukraine military shelling 18 Jun 2014 Kiev's army shelling near Lugansk, eastern Ukraine, took the lives of two Russian journalists - Igor Kornelyuk and Anton Voloshin, who were filming refugees leaving the scene when a shell hit amidst their small group. The two journalists working for Rossiya TV died from their wounds, with reporter Igor Kornelyuk passing away on the operating table. Later in the day, the death of Anton Voloshin, a sound engineer, was also confirmed by the channel.

Psaki defends Ukraine FM over 'Putin f**ker' remark, confuses Iraq and Iran 16 Jun 2014 Long-suffering State Dept. spokesperson Jen Psaki endured another torrid press briefing as she was forced to defend some distinctly unsavory remarks by Ukrainian politicians and struggled with the differences between Iraq and Iran, as well as oil and gas. [LOL!] As usual, AP's Matt Lee served as Psaki's chief tormentor, bringing up last week's protests outside the Russian embassy in Kiev, in which Ukraine's acting Foreign Minister Andrey Deshchitsa addressed the anti-Russian mob by telling them that "Putin is a f**ker."

$40-billion missile defense system proves unreliable --The system's performance has gotten worse, not better, since testing began in 1999. --Lawmakers have protected flawed missile defense system's funding and want to spend billions more to expand it. 15 Jun 2014 The Ground-based Midcourse Defense system, or GMD, was supposed to protect Americans against a chilling new threat from "rogue states..." But a decade after it was declared operational, and after 40 billion in spending, the missile shield cannot be relied on, even in carefully scripted tests that are much less challenging than an actual attack would be, a Los Angeles Times investigation has found. The Missile Defense Agency has conducted 16 tests of the system's ability to intercept a mock enemy warhead. It has failed in eight of them, government records show.

Air Force prepares to dismantle HAARP ahead of summer shutdown 14 May 2014 The U.S. Air Force gave official notice to Congress Wednesday that it intends to dismantle the 300 million High Frequency Active Auroral Research Program in Gakona this summer. The shutdown of HAARP...will start after a final research experiment takes place in mid-June, the Air Force said in a letter to Congress Tuesday. Responding to questions from Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R) during a Senate hearing Wednesday, David Walker, deputy assistant secretary of the Air Force for science, technology and engineering, said this is "not an area that we have any need for in the future" and it would not be a good use of Air Force research funds to keep HAARP going. "We're moving on to other ways of managing the ionosphere, which the HAARP was really designed to do," he said. "To inject energy into the ionosphere to be able to actually control it. But that work has been completed." Comments of that sort have given rise to endless conspiracy theories, portraying HAARP as a superweapon capable of mind control or weather control, with enough juice to trigger hurricanes, tornadoes and earthquakes. [It is.]

'We'll turn membership of Hamas into a ticket to Hell': Palestinians' homes trashed as Israeli troops make 40 new arrests in hunt for three 'kidnapped' Jewish teenagers --Hamas denies accusations that it is behind the kidnapping of three youths 17 Jun 2014 Palestinians were today picking up the pieces of their trashed homes after Israeli troops swept through the West Bank in the hunt for three missing Jewish teenagers. Soldiers charged into homes in cities and refugee camps across the eastern Palestinian territory, turning over furniture and taking away 41 suspected Hamas members. To the east, in Gaza, homes and workplaces were shattered by a fourth straight night of Israeli air force bombardment after militants fired rockets into Israeli territory.

Benghazi suspect Ahmed Abu Khattala may be brought to U.S. on Navy ship --The administration has said only that he will appear before the U.S. District Court in Washington "in the coming days." 18 Jun 2014 Captured Libyan terrorism suspect Ahmed Abu Khattala may be brought to the United States aboard the Navy ship where he is being held, U.S. officials said, a prospect that would probably extend the amount of time he can be interrogated by the FBI without being brought before a court. Although the federal court where he is to be tried has not yet spoken on the issue, it could object to the relatively slow mode of transport, officials said. Abu Khattala is aboard the amphibious transport ship USS New York in the Mediterranean Sea.

Benghazi Consulate Attack Suspect Captured in Libya, U.S. Official Says 17 Jun 2014 American special forces seized the suspected mastermind of the deadly Benghazi consulate attack in a weekend raid in Libya, a U.S. administration official said Tuesday. Ahmed Abu Khattala has been wanted in the assault that killed Ambassador Chris Stevens and three other Americans since shortly after the Sept. 11, 2012, attack. His capture marks the first apprehension of one of the alleged perpetrators in the attack.

MH370: searchers not looking in the best place, satellite experts say --Scientists from British company Inmarsat tell BBC that Australian vessel was distracted by bogus signals 16 Jun 2014 The search for the missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 is yet to target the most likely crash site, having been distracted by what is now believed to have been a bogus signal, satellite experts have claimed. Scientists from Inmarsat, the British company that has been helping the search effort, told the BBC's Horizon programme there was a "hotspot" in the southern Indian Ocean in which it most likely came down. [Try Diego Garcia.]

Fukushima operator struggles to build ice wall to contain radioactive water --Tepco says it is behind schedule with scheme because temperature of pipes sunk into ground is not low enough 17 Jun 2014 The operator of Japan's battered Fukushima nuclear power plant has said it is having trouble with the early stages of an ice wall being built under broken reactors to 'contain' radioactive water. Tokyo Electric Power (Tepco) has begun digging the trenches for a huge network of pipes under the plant through which it intends to pass refrigerant. This will freeze the soil and form a physical barrier that is intended to prevent clean groundwater flowing down mountainsides from mixing with contaminated radioactive water underneath the leaking reactors.

FDA OKs US cell-based flu vaccine facility as govt prepares for pandemic --The facility had already received a separate 'pandemic ready' certification. 16 Jun 2014 The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved the first US facility that can make cell-culture influenza vaccines, a Novartis plant in Holly Springs, N.C., that has been part of federal government efforts to prepare for a their pandemic and to sidestep some limits of egg-based flu vaccine technology. Novartis said in a press release today that the approval clears the way for commercial production to begin at the site and for Flucelvax, its seasonal flu vaccine, to be made in the United States for the first time. The vaccine, approved in November 2012, was the first cell-based flu vaccine to receive FDA clearance. Flucelvax, an inactivated trivalent vaccine approved for use in adults, contains flu viruses grown in mammalian cell cultures. [Now that hundreds of millions of dollars have been invested on these deadly vaccines, do you actually think the(ir) pandemic isn't far behind?]

NZ Govt opens Maui's dolphin area for oil drilling 17 Jun 2014 The Government has opened up more than 3000 square kilometres of a marine mammal sanctuary for oil and gas drilling, home to the critically endangered Maui's dolphin. It comes less than a week after the International Whaling Commission urged our Government to do more to save the species. The Maui's dolphin is the world's rarest. It is estimated there are only 55 left.

Ben & Jerry's Renames Iconic Flavor to Support Vermont's GMO Labeling Food Fight Fund 16 Jun 2014 It's food fight time. In response to the lawsuit filed against Vermont's first in the nation GMO labeling law, Ben & Jerry's unveiled Food Fight Fudge Brownie, an honorary renaming of one of its most iconic flavors, Chocolate Fudge Brownie, to support Vermont's legal defense. Vermont's Governor Peter Shumlin, business leaders, members of the Vermont Right to Know Coalition, and passers by watched as the company's co-founder Jerry Greenfield unveiled a giant pint of the new flavor, Food Fight Fudge Brownie.

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Contributions to CLG are not tax deductible.

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RSN: Fracking-Linked Earthquakes May Strike Far from Wells, What BP Doesn't Want You to Know About the Gulf Oil Spill, CIA, FBI Agents 'Advising' Ukraine Government, et al

It's Live on the HomePage Now:
Reader Supported News

---

Elizabeth Warren | What Happened to the Middle Class?

Elizabeth Warren, Reader Supported News
Warren writes: "The hollowing out of America's middle class has been years in the making, but it wasn't inevitable that working families would fall further and further behind."
READ MORE

Report: CIA, FBI Agents 'Advising' Ukraine Government
Agence France-Presse
Excerpt: "Dozens of specialists from the US Central Intelligence Agency and Federal Bureau of Investigation are advising the Ukrainian government, a German newspaper reported Sunday."
READ MORE

Nate Silver and Allison McCann | Are White Republicans More Racist Than White Democrats?
Nate Silver, Allison McCann, FiveThirtyEight
Excerpt: "When racist statements by high-profile figures are made public, some news commentators become preoccupied with trying to discern the speaker's political affiliation."
READ MORE

How the Rich Stole Our Money - and Made Us Think They Were Doing Us a Favor
David Atkins, Salon
Atkins writes: "If you've paid attention to the economy over the last few years, you've doubtless seen the charts and figures showing the decline of the American middle class in concert with the explosion of wealth for the super-rich."
READ MORE

What BP Doesn't Want You to Know About the Gulf Oil Spill
Lindsay Abrams, Salon
Excerpt: "Despite what you may have heard about the cleanup being complete, fresh tarballs keep reappearing. Especially after storms, Henderson’s liable to find them by the thousands."
READ MORE

Nuclear Experts Raise Concerns Over Giant "Ice Wall" at Fukushima
Andrea Germanos, Common Dreams
Germanos writes: "Nuclear experts are casting doubt on Japan's plans to build a giant underground "ice wall" surrounding the crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear facility in a bid to stop dangerous radiation leaks."
READ MORE

Fracking-Linked Earthquakes May Strike Far from Wells
Becky Oskin, Live Science
Oskin writes: "Fracking may cause earthquakes much farther from the sites of its wastewater wells than previously thought, researchers said at the annual meeting of the Seismological Society of America."
READ MORE

Fukushima: The Endless Catastrophe

Many U.S. Nuclear Reactors are as vulnerable as Fukushima.
Pilgrim Nuclear and Vermont Yankee, both operated by Entergy, as of the same age and design as Fukushima, both storing nuclear waste on-site. Are we prepared?


From RSN...consider subscribing and supporting independent media for information you won't get on MSM:

Workers in protective suits and masks wait to enter the emergency operation center at the crippled Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power station. (photo: AP)

Crippled Fukushima Reactor Springs Another Mysterious Leak

By Common Dreams

20 January 14

Tepco said the amount of radioactive material in the just-found leak is unknown because the radiation in the reactor building is already so high

apanese media is reporting yet another mysterious and previously undetected leak inside one of the crippled nuclear Fukushima reactors this weekend.

According to Asahi Shimbum, citing an announcement from the Tokyo Electric Power Company, a "new water leak, possibly from the effort to cool a crippled reactor, has been detected on the first floor of a reactor building at the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant."

It remained unclear whether the leak was coming from water coolant pipes being pumped into the containment unit or if radioactive water from the cooling pools themselves was leaking out.

As the Japan Times reports:

The camera of a rubble-removing robot operating inside the No. 3 building has captured images of a 30-cm-wide water leak, the beleaguered utility said Saturday. It also claimed that none of the water has leaked outside the building so far.

Tepco, as the utility is known, is perpetually pumping water into reactors 1 through 3 to keep their melted cores cool, but leaks have been spotted in parts of No. 3's containment vessel. Tepco is investigating whether the water spotted by the camera is actually the coolant.

The radiation level on the first floor of the No. 3 reactor is a relatively high 30 millisieverts per hour. Tepco said the amount of radioactive material in the just-found leak is unknown because the radiation in the reactor building is already high.

 

 

 

Andy Borowitz | Mayors Bullied by Christie Form Support Group

Andy Borowitz, The New Yorker
Borowitz writes: "Organizers of the gathering pronounced themselves pleased with the turnout, as bullied officeholders from all over the state filled the eighteen-thousand-seat venue."
READ MORE

Martin Luther King Jr. | Let Justice Roll Down
Martin Luther King Jr., The Nation
King writes: "When the American people saw before them a clear choice between a future of progress with racial justice or stagnation with ancient privilege, they voted in landslide proportions for justice."
READ MORE

Paul Krugman | The Undeserving Rich
Paul Krugman, The New York Times
Krugman writes: "It is difficult to get a man to understand something when his salary depends on his not understanding it."
READ MORE

Robert Parry | The Mistaken Guns of Last August
Robert Parry, Consortium News
Parry writes: "Secretary of State John Kerry misled the American people last summer when he assured them that the U.S. government knew for a fact that the Syrian government was responsible for the Aug. 21 Sarin gas attack outside Damascus."
READ MORE

Supreme Court to Hear Little-Known Case With Huge Implications for Unions
Peter Moskowitz, Al Jazeera America
Moskowitz writes: "If the court rules in favor of the plaintiffs, the foundation of public union funding - the ability to collect compulsory dues - could crumble."
READ MORE

Medea Benjamin | Should Syria's Future Be Decided by Men With Guns?
Medea Benjamin, Common Dreams
Benjamin writes: "While the fighting has raged around them, women have continued to organize, build civil society groups and train themselves to play a role in designing a unified, democratic Syria."
READ MORE

 

 

FOCUS: Chris Hedges | What Obama Really Meant Was...

Chris Hedges, TruthDig
Hedges writes: "Throughout American history, intelligence services often did little more than advance and protect corporate profits and solidify state repression and imperialist expansion."
READ MORE

 

 

Reader Supported News

*THIS MONTH PEOPLE ARE NOT DONATING: Much worse than any time in the past two years. Would love to finish off this drive. One good day of contributions could do that. We've seen over half a million readers visit RSN since the drive began, 700 have donated. You folks are here, how do we get you to donate? / Marc Ash - Founder, Reader Supported News*

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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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.

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New worries about Fukushima

 











Unexplained plumes of radioactive steam have been rising from Fukushima's Reactor Building 3,

Could a major meltdown be on the way?

Fukushima's Reactor Building 3 exploded on 13th March 2011 as a result of a hydrogen buildup, breaching the building's containment and emitting a huge plume of radiation. The reactor itself is in meltdown.

And now fresh plumes of steam have been seen coming out the structure. These have now been confirmed by Tepco, the owner of the nuclear plant, from 19th December onwards. The company believes the steam is coming from the fifth floor of the building.

However it does not know the cause of the steam. Lethal levels of radiation and the physical damage to the structure have so far made entry and inspection impossible.

Possibility 1 - a meltdown is taking place

The Reactor 3 fuel storage pond still houses an estimated 89 tonnes of the plutonium-based MOX nuclear fuel employed by the reactor, composed of 514 fuel rods.

Ever since the explosion Tepco has been concerned that if the spent fuel storage pond dries out, the intensely radioactive spent fuel rods would melt down and produce further significant radioactive emissions.

One possibility is that this process may now be taking place. In the event of water loss from the pond, the water would begin to overheat and produce clouds of steam, prior to a complete meltdown. If this is the case then a second major nuclear disaster at Fukushima is in the making.

Aerial drone photo of plant via cryptome.org


http://www.enn.com/top_stories/article/46842

Fukushima etc

Radioactivity level spikes 6,500 times at Fukushima well 18 Oct 2013 Radioactivity levels in a well near a storage tank at the Fukushima nuclear power plant in Japan have risen immensely on Thursday, the plant's operator has reported. Officials of the Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO) said on Friday they detected 400,000 becquerels per liter of beta ray-emitting radioactive substances - including strontium - at the site, a level 6,500 times higher than readings taken on Wednesday, NHK World reported. The storage tank leaked over 300 tons of contaminated radioactive water in August, some of which is believed to have found its way into the sea through a ditch.

Senior adviser for Fukushima cleanup says foreign assistance needed 17 Oct 2013 One of the senior advisers of the Fukushima cleanup said that Tokyo Electric Power Co. (TEPCO) needs foreign assistance. The utility operator may have already sought foreign assistance, but the ones currently available seem to be not enough to ensure that the defunct nuclear plant causes no more trouble. "They need to have a number of foreign firms to come in and assist them with the cleanup," said Lady Barbara Judge in an interview in Tokyo.

Meet Fukuppy, the inadvertent Fukushima mascot 15 Oct 2013 It wasn't a refrigeration company's decision to use a cartoon egg with wings, of indeterminate gender and with "a strong sense of justice" as its corporate mascot that got Japan-based internet users giggling. It was, simply, the character's name. Fukuppy has become an unlikely online star... This led to inaccurate reports that Fukuppy was being used to promote the regeneration of Fukushima Prefecture - given the long list of problems to have hit the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant since 2011, some thought the name would have been inadvertently fitting. "I'm Fukuppy. Nice to meet you," the mascot says on the company's website.

 

 

Here's the balance of CLG articles:

 

Breaking News and Commentary from Citizens for Legitimate Government18 Oct 2013http://www.legitgov.org/
All links are here:http://www.legitgov.org/#breaking_news

 

 

 

Targeted Killings Defender Jeh C. Johnson Will Be Nominated as Homeland Security Chief 18 Oct 2013 President Obama plans to nominate Jeh C. Johnson, a former general counsel for the Defense Department, to become the next head of the Homeland Security Department, according to administration officials. If confirmed by the Senate, Mr. Johnson will fill the vacancy left by Janet Napolitano, who resigned in July to lead the University of California system. Mr. Johnson shaped the Obama administration's policies on detainees prisoners and military tribunals.

Documents reveal NSA's extensive involvement in targeted killing program 16 Oct 2013 It was an innocuous e-mail, one of millions sent every day. But this one was of particular interest to the National Security Agency and contained clues that put the sender's husband in the crosshairs of a CIA drone. Days later, Hassan Ghul -- an associate of Osama bin Laden who provided a critical piece of intelligence that helped the CIA find the al-Qaeda [al-CIAduh] leader -- was killed by a drone strike in Pakistan's tribal belt. The U.S. government has never publicly acknowledged killing Ghul. But documents provided to The Washington Post by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden confirm his demise in October 2012 and reveal the agency's extensive involvement in the targeted killing program that has served as a centerpiece of President Obama's counterterrorism strategy.

Edward Snowden: I brought no leaked NSA documents to Russia 18 Oct 2013 Edward Snowden, the source of US National Security Agency leaks, has revealed that he left all the leaked documents behind when he flew from Hong Kong to Moscow and there was no chance of them falling into the hands of Russian or Chinese authorities. In an interview with the New York Times (NYT), Snowden said he had decided to hand over all the digital material to the journalists he had met in Hong Kong because it would not have been in the public interest for him to hold on to copies. Snowden conducted the interview over the past few days, communicating from Russia, where he has been granted a year's asylum, with an NYT journalist in the US via encrypted email.

Snowden leaks: David Cameron urges committee to investigate Guardian 16 Oct 2013 David Cameron has encouraged a Commons select committee to investigate whether the Guardian has broken the law or damaged national security by publishing secrets leaked by the National Security Agency whistleblower Edward Snowden. He made his proposal in response to a question from former defence secretary Liam Fox, saying the Guardian had been guilty of double standards for exposing the scandal of phone hacking by newspapers and yet had gone on to publish secrets from the NSA taken by Snowden.

New US charges in Blackwater shootings 18 Oct 2013 The US Justice Department has brought fresh charges against four former Blackwater Worldwide security contractors [mercenaries], reviving an internationally charged case over a deadly 2007 shooting on the streets of Baghdad. A new jury indictment charges the men in a shooting that inflamed anti-American sentiment in Iraq and heightened diplomatic sensitivities amid an ongoing war. The men were hired to guard US diplomats. The guards are accused of opening fire in busy Nisoor Square on September 16, 2007, killing 17 Iraqi civilians, including women and children.

59 killed, 196 wounded in violent attacks in Iraq 18 Oct 2013 At least 59 people were killed and 196 others wounded on Thursday in separate violent attacks across Iraq, including a wave of car bombings in the capital of Baghdad that left 40 people dead, police said. At least 11 people were killed and 21 others injured when two car bombs exploded near a popular restaurant in the Alwaya area in central Baghdad, a police source told Xinhua. Ten people were killed and 20 others wounded when a car bomb went off in the Husseiniyah area in northeastern Baghdad, while another car bomb attack in the Mamel area in eastern Baghdad killed six people and wounded 15 others, the source said.

Next round of Afghanistan deployments announced 24 Sep 2013 Almost 9,000 soldiers will deploy to Afghanistan this winter, the Defense Department announced Tuesday. The deploying soldiers represent six major Army units, including a corps headquarters, a division headquarters, three brigade combat teams and a combat aviation brigade. The BCTs will go as Security Force Assistance Brigades, which are smaller, tailored units designed to train, advise and assist the Afghan National Security Forces [to protect the CIA's opium routes].

San Francisco's Union Square reopens after bomb scare 17 Oct 2013 San Francisco's Union Square is getting back to normal after it was evacuated earlier Thursday. Hundreds of tourists and shoppers were rushed out of the plaza after a police officer spotted a suspicious backpack. For two hours, Union Square's garage and surrounding streets remained closed while police with bomb-sniffing dogs searched the area.

Canadian pleads guilty to terrorism charges in U.S. --Prosecutors alleged Nadarajah and co-conspirators negotiated with an undercover FBI agent to buy and export $1 million of high-powered weapons and military equipment 16 Oct 2013 A Canadian man has pleaded guilty in the United States to two terrorism offences in connection with the Tamil Tigers. Piratheepan Nadarajah, from Brampton, Ont., admitted to a conspiracy to acquire anti-aircraft missiles and attempting to provide material support to a foreign terrorist organization. Online court records, updated Wednesday, show that Nadarajah pleaded guilty last week in New York to the two counts.

Canadian First Nation anti-fracking protest: Arrests, pepper-spray, snipers, torched cars 18 Oct 2013 An anti-fracking protest descended into violence when an estimated 100 police officers sought to control hundreds more Canadian protesters who set cars on fire and threatened officers mounted on horseback. Tension spilled over Thursday when the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) moved in to take down barriers erected by members of the Elsipogtog First Nation tribe in New Brunswick, Canada. Activists and local aboriginals have held demonstrations for a week to protest shale gas exploration in the region.

BART workers go on strike 18 Oct 2013 (CA) BART workers went on strike early Friday morning, leaving hundreds of thousands of Bay Area commuters scrambling for ways to get to work. After a marathon bargaining session that lasted nearly 30 hours, Roxanne Sanchez, president of Service Employees International Union Local 1021, walked out of the Oakland negotiations late Thursday afternoon and said the talks were over and that union workers would walk off the job at 12:01 a.m. Friday. SEIU spokeswoman Cecille Isidro confirmed shortly after midnight that the unions were on strike. "We made concessions, but you can only bend so far before you break," Sanchez said. "This is the way they want to solve the conflict, in a fight, a street fight."

Ex-Halliburton Manager Pleads Guilty to Destroying Evidence 15 Oct 2013 A former Halliburton manager pleaded guilty Tuesday to destroying evidence in the aftermath of the deadly rig explosion that spawned BP's massive 2010 oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. Anthony Badalamenti, 62, of Katy, Texas, faces a maximum sentence of 1 year in prison and a $100,000 fine after his guilty plea in U.S. District Court to one misdemeanor count of destruction of evidence. Badalamenti was the cementing technology director for Halliburton Energy Services Inc., BP's cement contractor on the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig. Prosecutors said he instructed two Halliburton employees to delete data during a post-spill review of the cement job on BP's blown-out Macondo well.

Across US, parks and memorials reopen, federal workers back in offices after 16-day shutdown 17 Oct 2013 From the Liberty Bell to Alcatraz, federal landmarks and offices reopened Thursday. Furloughed employees were relieved to get back to work -- even if faced with email backlogs -- but many worried about another such disruption in a matter of months. "We'd hate to have to live through this all over again," Richard Marcus, a 29-year employee of the National Archives in Washington, said after the government shutdown finally ended. Nationwide, from big-city office buildings to wilderness outposts, innumerable federal services and operations shifted back into gear after 16 days.

Government open again, Obama bemoans damage 17 Oct 2013 The government unlocked its doors Thursday after 16 days, with President Barack Obama saluting the resolution of Congress' standoff but lambasting Republicans for the partial shutdown that he said had damaged the U.S. economy and America's credibility around the world. "The American people are completely fed up with Washington," Obama said in stern remarks at the White House, just hours after signing a last-minute measure from Congress that headed off the threat that the nation would default on its debts. The nation's cr*dit rating was jeopardized, economic growth and hiring were slowed and federal workers deprived of p*ychecks, Obama said, all because of "yet another self-inflicted crisis."

U.S. Congress ends default threat, Obama signs debt bill 17 Oct 2013 The U.S. Congress on Wednesday approved an 11th-hour deal to end a partial government shutdown and pull the world's biggest economy back from the brink of a historic debt default that could have threatened financial calamity. Capping weeks of political brinkmanship that had unnerved global markets, President Barack Obama quickly signed the spending measure, which passed the Senate and House of Representatives after Republicans dropped efforts to use the legislation to force changes in his signature healthcare law. The White House budget office told hundreds of thousands of federal workers, the bulk of whom had been idle for the past 16 days, to be ready to return to work on Thursday.

Shutdown Deal Includes Over $2.8 Billion in Pork for Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell 16 Oct 2013 A deal to reopen the government and avert a debt default also includes language authorizing more than $2.8 billion in funding for a locks and dam project championed in the past by Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY). The provision would steer $2.918 billion in funding to the Army Corps of Engineers for the Olmsted dam and lock project on the Ohio River, and would benefit Kentucky, Tennessee, and Illinois. The language is only one of several provisions lawmakers have tucked into the must-pass spending and debt bill which would reopen the government through Jan. 15 and extend the nation's credit line until the middle of February. Although the language was inserted by Sen. Diane Feinstein (D-CA) and Sen. Lamar Alexander (R), whose home state of Tennessee would also benefit from the project, McConnell has been its historical champion. In fact, the Kentucky lawmaker secured hundreds of millions of dollars in earmarks for the Olmsted project before lawmakers ended the practice several years ago.

House Roll Call: Vote to End Govt Shutdown 17 Oct 2013 The 285-144 roll call Wednesday night by which the House passed and sent to President Barack Obama legislation to avoid a threatened federal default and end the 16-day partial government shutdown.

Who voted against the Senate bill to end the government shutdown? 16 Oct 2013 Eighteen Senate Republicans vote against the deal to reopen the government and extend the debt ceiling, which passed 81-18. Here’s the breakdown of the 'no' votes

Cory Booker elected to Senate in NJ 16 Oct 2013 Newark Mayor Cory Booker won a special election Wednesday to represent New Jersey in the U.S. Senate, giving the rising Democratic [and Wall Street] star a bigger political stage after a race against conservative Steve Lonegan, a former small-town mayor. Booker, 44, will become the first black senator from New Jersey and heads to Washington with an unusual political resume. Booker was elected to complete the 15 months remaining on the term of Frank Lautenberg, whose death in June gave rise to an unusual and abbreviated campaign. If he wants to keep the seat for a full six-year term -- and all indications are that he does -- Booker will be on the ballot again in November 2014.

African Americans in the U.S. Senate 16 Oct 2013 Newark Mayor Cory Booker won the special election Oct. 16 for the U.S. Senate. With the victory, the New Jersey Democrat becomes only the ninth African American appointed or elected to the U.S. Senate. Here is a list.

Cervical cancer vaccination probe kicks off 16 Oct 2013 (Japan) Two groups set up by the health ministry have started full-scale studies of whether cervical cancer vaccines are directly linked to severe pain that has affected some young women. The Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare started recommending in April that girls between the sixth grade and the first year of high school be given cervical cancer vaccines under a free vaccination program. However, the ministry suspended the recommendation in June following reports of adverse reactions.

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