Society's ChildS


Nuke

Radiation leaks 'force' transfer of nuclear waste from New Mexico to a private dump in Texas

Nuclear valve
© AFP/ Barbara Sax
The cause of the radiation leaks at the United States' first nuclear waste repository are still under investigation, but in the meantime government officials have decided to move a stalled shipment of waste to a private dump in Texas.

According to Reuters, the shipment of approximately 1,000 barrels of radioactive leftovers to the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) in Carlsbad, New Mexico, was put on hold when the facility began leaking radioactive material in February. On Thursday, the Department of Energy announced it would temporarily relocate those barrels to a rural site in western Texas.

Beginning in April, shipments from Los Alamos National Laboratory will commence as officials hope to remove the barrels - currently stored outside and potentially at risk of a wildfire - by the original June deadline. The waste includes items contaminated with low level radiation such as clothing, tools, soil, rags, and other items. These barrels will be held in Andrews County until the WIPP reopens.

"Removing waste from the mesa in Los Alamos before fire season is critical to ensure safety in the greater Los Alamos community," Sen. Tom Udall (D-N.M.) said in a statement, according to the Associated Press. "I'm pleased we have a temporary solution that will ensure there will not be any significant disruption in cleanup efforts."

However, the move has not been greeted positively by Greg Mello of the watchdog Los Alamos Study Group, who dismissed the risk of wildfire to the AP and said shipping the barrels twice poses more of a danger.

Comment: Officials always say that the radiation does not pose a threat to public health. This is standard policy. The same has been said over and over in Japan, whereas facts on the ground have proven this not to be true.


Stock Down

UK: More student loans won't be repaid, government believes

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Around 45% of university graduates will not earn enough to repay their student loans, the government now believes.

If the figure reaches 48.6% experts calculate that the government will lose more money than it gained by increasing fees in England to £9,000 a year.

Students do not pay the fees upfront and only start repaying when they are earning at least £21,000 a year.

But a government spokesman said these were estimates based on long-term forecasts and could change.

Ambulance

Facing mass eviction to save elites' financial interests, ordinary Spaniards protest in Madrid - 101 people injured as provocateurs turn things violent

Demonstration in Madrid
© Reuters / Paul HannaAnti-austerity demonstrators crowd into Colon square as they take part in a demonstration which organisers have labeled the "Marches of Dignity" in Madrid, March 22, 2014
Protesters clashed with police in Madrid as thousands of people trekked across Spain to protest austerity which they claim is destroying their country. Under the banner "no more cuts!" the protesters called for an end to the government's "empty promises."

Police arrested at least 29 protesters following the clashes which took place after the march. According to emergency service, 101 people were injured - 67 of them police, El Mundo newspaper reports.

Protesters were seen throwing stones and firecrackers at police. According to witnesses, officers used tear gas to disperse the demonstrators.

Clashes broke out during a final speech at the demonstration when protesters tried to break through a police barrier. Riot police took charge by beating protesters with batons, AP reported.

"The mass rally was coming to an an end when reportedly a group of younger protesters, who had masks on their faces, started throwing rocks at the police. Police tried to push them away from the parameter that they organized around this area," RT's Egor Piskunov reported from the Spanish capital.


Cut

Referendum results: 89% of Veneto residents vote for independence from Rome

President of the Veneto region, Luca Zaia
© AFP Photo / Alberto PizzoliThe president of the Veneto region, Luca Zaia gives a press conference on the vote for the independence of the region, on March 19, 2014 in Rome.
Over 89 percent of residents in Italy's Veneto region have voted in an unofficial referendum in favor of independence from the rest of the country as Venetians seek to restore the glory of the old days by creating a state of their own.

Over two million residents of Veneto - the region of Italy surrounding Venice - took part in the so-called 'Veneto independence referendum' that lasted from Sunday to Friday. The survey, conducted online and backed by the region's independence parties, has no legal power but aims to gather support for a bill calling for a referendum.

The poll also asked residents if they want the region to keep the euro and remain part of the European Union and NATO if it declares its independence. More than 55 percent of voters said they would prefer an independent Veneto to remain part of the EU, and over 51 percent said they want to remain in the eurozone. Over 64.5 percent said they want Veneto to be part of NATO.

The results of the vote were announced Friday in the city of Treviso, where hundreds of pro-independence activists gathered for a demonstration, waving the flags of the old Venetian Republic.

Earlier, the "yes" campaign - organized by pro-independence activists - said that if the majority voted for separation of the region, Veneto would issue a 'Declaration of Veneto Sovereignty' and stop all tax transfers to the central government in Rome.

Gear

Preparedness is the ultimate act of optimism

glass on beach
Does this sound familiar?

You're talking to a friend or family member who isn't on board with preparedness. (And it's even worse when they think they know what's going on in the world but garner their so-called "information" from network news sources.) You try for the millionth time to get them to consider stocking up on a few things and they say this:
Life's too short for all of this doom and gloom. Live a little! You're such a pessimist!
My response to this is that preparedness is the ultimate form of optimism.

One who practices skills, makes dramatic lifestyle changes, and studies current events critically may come across to the uninitiated as a person who has buried himself or herself in negativity, but in fact, one who prepares is saying to life, "Whatever comes, we are not only going to live through it, my family is going to thrive, and I will not bend my knee to tyranny for an MRE and a bottle of water."

Satellite

Anonymous Malaysian official: 'It is conclusive' someone hijacked missing jet

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© Hoang Dinh Nam/AFP/Getty ImagesColonel Do Duc Minh (3rd L), Vietnam Air Force’s 370 Division’s Chief of Staff, points at a map as he speaks to reporters about search flights aimed at finding the missing Malaysia Airlines plane at Tan Son Nhat airport in Ho Chi Minh city on March 15, 2014.
A Malaysian government official says investigators have concluded that one of the pilots or someone else with flying experience hijacked the missing Malaysia Airlines jet.

The official, who is involved in the investigation, says no motive has been established, and it is not yet clear where the plane was taken. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to brief the media.

The official said that hijacking was no longer a theory. "It is conclusive."

The Boeing 777′s communication with the ground was severed under one hour into a flight March 8 from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing with 239 aboard. Malaysian officials have said radar data suggest it may have turned back and crossed back over the Malaysian peninsula westward, after setting out toward the Chinese capital.

Piracy and pilot suicide have been among the scenarios under study as investigators grew increasingly certain the missing Malaysia Airlines jet reversed course and headed west after its last radio contact with air traffic controllers.

Wolf

Life or death: Arizona jury selection for penalty phase in Jodi Arias retrial to begin in September

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An Arizona judge on Monday set a September court date to try again to determine whether convicted murderer Jodi Arias will be put to death for killing her ex-boyfriend nearly six years ago, court officials said.

Arias was convicted by a jury in May 2013 of murdering Travis Alexander, whose body was found slumped in the shower of his suburban Phoenix home in June 2008. He had been stabbed multiple times, shot in the face and had his throat slashed.

But the jury deadlocked on whether the former California waitress should be executed or face life in prison.

Judge Sherry Stephens ordered jury selection for a penalty phase retrial to begin on September 8. The high-profile case, watched live by tens of thousands of people over the Internet, has been frequently delayed amid a flurry of motions by defense attorneys. The latest sought to have the death penalty thrown out, a move that was rejected by Stephens last month.

Comment: For some insight into Jodi Arias, a "brilliant sociopath", see the discussion on our Forum here.


Road Cone

Louisiana Lt. Governor's office sues MoveOn.org over Bobby Jindal Medicaid billboard

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Lt. Gov. Jay Dardenne has asked MoveOn to take down a billboard that parodies Louisiana's tourism slogan. MoveOn says the advertisement is protected under the First Amendment.
Louisiana is suing national left-leaning policy group MoveOn.org in federal court, saying it violated trademark rules when it put up a billboard and commissioned television ads critical of Gov. Bobby Jindal that use the state's tourism logo and motto.

Republican Lt. Gov. Jay Dardenne has been locked in a pitched battle with the group for weeks, unsuccessfully calling for it to take down the billboard that is currently up on the I-10 coming into Baton Rouge from Port Allen.

"We have invested millions of dollars in identifying the Louisiana: Pick Your Passion brand with all that is good about Louisiana. No group should be allowed to use the brand for its own purposes, especially if it is for partisan political posturing," Dardenne said in a statement announcing the suit.

"MoveOn.org has every right to attack Gov. Jindal, the state's refusal to accept Medicaid or, for that matter, me personally. But they do not have the right to use our protected service mark, which is used solely for the purpose of promoting and marketing Louisiana. We own the mark and its use is under the direction of my office, not the Office of the Governor."

House

Unbelievable! Housing: One chart tells the grim story

Get a load of this chart from DataQuick's National Home Sales Snapshot. It'll tell you everything need to know about housing.
US housing chart
© DataQuick/DQNews.com
(Note: MSA=metropolitan statistical area)

As you can see, prices are flatlining or drifting lower while sales are sinking like a stone. That's the whole ball of wax, isn't it?

Sure, sales will increase in the spring (as they always do), but judging by the sharp dropoff in last year's hottest markets, this could be the crappiest spring selling season since the crash.

Why?

Because prices are too high, rates are too high, "organic" demand is too weak, credit is too tight, and the pool of potential buyers has shrunk to the size of a walnut, that's why.

The banks have reduced the percentage of distressed homes (foreclosures and short sales) on the market to roughly 11 percent from 59 percent in 2009. Fewer distressed homes mean higher prices, but higher prices mean fewer sales. It's a trade-off. The banks get their money, but the market goes to hell. That's how it works. According to most estimates, there are roughly 4.5 million homes in some stage of foreclosure. That means that - at the present pace - we should get through this Housing Depression a few weeks before Judgment Day. But don't hold me to that.

Did you catch this gem on Bloomberg last week? It's about the big private equity guys exiting the market. Take a look:
"Blackstone Group LP is slowing its purchases of houses to rent amid soaring prices after a buying binge made it the biggest U.S. single-family home landlord. Blackstone's acquisition pace has declined 70 percent from its peak last year, when the private equity firm was spending more than $100 million a week on properties, said Jonathan Gray, global head of real estate for the New York-based firm...

"The institutional wave has passed," Gray, who oversees almost $80 billion in property investments, said in a telephone interview. 'It's at a much lower level than it was 12 or 24 months ago.'

Private-equity firms, hedge funds, real estate investment trusts and other institutional investors have spent more than $20 billion to buy as many as 200,000 rental homes in the last two years. They snapped up properties after prices fell as much as 35 percent from the 2006 peak...

American Homes 4 Rent and Colony American Homes, the second- and third-largest single-family landlords, also have been scaling back as bargains dry up...

"We're going to have to probably slow down a little bit on our acquisition pace until we have a better view or actual certainty of the capital being available," (Chief Executive Officer David ) Singelyn said.

Colony Financial Inc. (CLNY), a REIT that invests in Colony American Homes, slowed its funding for acquisitions last year to focus on improving operations, CEO Richard Saltzman said in a November conference call...

American Residential Properties Inc. (ARPI), a landlord with 6,000 homes, slowed acquisitions by almost half in its latest quarter ending Dec. 31. It invested $104 million in 633 homes compared with $204 million on 1,251 homes in the previous quarter, the Scottsdale, Arizona-based company said in a statement." (Blackstone's Home Buying Binge Ends as Prices Surge, Bloomberg)
Okay, so the speculators are getting out of housing. How's that going to effect the market?

Eiffel Tower

Paris, France: Amid soaring pollution, limits placed on vehicle use

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France is limiting vehicle use in the capital Paris on Monday amid a spike in pollution to health-threatening levels, only the second time the drastic measure has been introduced in nearly two decades.

A system of "alternating traffic", whereby vehicle use is restricted to alternate days depending on licence plate numbers, came into effect in Paris and its 22 surrounding suburbs at 5.30 am (04.30 GMT) on Monday, as the city tries to curb dangerous pollution levels.

The radical move has seen around 700 police officers deployed to 60 checkpoints around the French capital to ensure that only cars with number plates ending in odd numbers are out on the streets.

Parking is free on Monday for vehicles with even number plates, the Paris city hall said, calling on residents to consult carpooling or car-sharing sites to work out their travel plans.