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Cow

US: EPA boosts radiation monitoring after low levels found in milk

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© Agence France-Presse/Getty ImagesRadiation gets into the milk because it falls on grass eaten by cows.
There is no health risk from consuming milk with extremely low levels of radiation, like those found in Washington state and California, experts said Thursday, echoing the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

"When we have a disaster like we've had with a nuclear power plant in Japan, we're probably going to find things that are truly not a public health risk, but I think it's very difficult for the public to assimilate this information and understand the risks," said Dr. Wally Curran, a radiation oncologist and head of Emory University's Winship Cancer Center.

The federal agency said Wednesday it was increasing its nationwide monitoring of radiation in milk, precipitation, drinking water, and other outlets. It already tracks radiation in those potential exposure routes through an existing network of stations across the country.

Results from screening samples of milk taken in the past week in Spokane, Washington, and in San Luis Obispo County, California, detected radioactive iodine, or iodine-131, at a level 5,000 times lower than the limit set by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, officials said.

At that level, a person would have to drink 1,000 liters of milk to receive the same amount of radiation as a chest X-ray, said Dr. James Cox, radiation oncologist at Houston's MD Anderson Cancer Center.

Heart - Black

US: Two Denver police officers fired in videotaped LoDo beating case

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© Denver Post | John PrietoManager of Safety Charles F. Garcia talks about firing two police officers
Two Denver police officers were fired this afternoon in connection with a 2009 beating of 23-year-old man in Lower Downtown.

Officer Devin Sparks and Cpl. Randy Murr have both lost their jobs, Safety Manager Charley Garcia and Mayor Bill Vidal said during a press conference at City Hall this afternoon.

Sparks was caught on videotape throwing Michael DeHerrera to the ground as DeHerrera talked on a cellphone. The video then shows Sparks repeatedly beating him with a department-issued sap, a piece of metal wrapped in leather.

The Denver district attorney's office reviewed the case and declined to file criminal charges.

Denver police internal affairs division then conducted its own investigation, which was sent to then-Safety Manager Ron Perea.

Radar

$5 Fees May Be Coming to an ATM

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© Jack Hollingsworth | Getty Images
J.P. Morgan Chase and other banks are trying to recoup approximately $30 billion a year in lost overdraft fee income by testing $5 ATM fees, Consumer Action spokesman Joe Ridout told CNBC.

These banks have "historically been reliant on overdraft fees," he said, so they're "coming up with new ways to make up the difference." He said higher ATM fees and other rising costs penalize small depositors.

Nessa Feddis, spokeswoman with the American College of Consumer Financial Services, agreed there are "enormous pressures on banks because of lost revenue."

But she insisted that "most people don't pay ATM fees. Only non-customers who otherwise pay nothing to contribute to the cost of providing the ATMs pay the fee. That is fair because otherwise they are not contributing to the cost of providing the service."

Nuke

Japan nuclear crisis: Fukushima 50 'expect to die'

Workers who have been fighting to bring the reactors under control at Japan's strick nuclear plant expect to die from radiation sickness, according to the mother of one of the men.

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© Aflo/Air Photo Service / Rex FeaturesAn aerial photo, taken by small unmanned drone, showing the crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant. From bottom to top, Reactors 4 through 1
The so-called Fukushima 50, the group of around 300 technicians, soldiers and firemen who work in shifts of 50, have been exposed repeatedly to dangerously high radioactive levels as they attempt to avert a nuclear disaster.

The mother of one of the men has admitted that the group have discussed their situation and have accepted that death is a strong possibility.

"My son and his colleagues have discussed it at length and they have committed themselves to die if necessary in the long-term."

Nicolas Sarkozy, the French president, said the world needed international safety standards on nuclear power by the end of the year as fears surrounding the extent of radiation leaks in Japan continued to grow.

Mr Sarkozy, on the first trip by a foreign leader to Japan since the devastating earthquake and tsunami on March 11, said he would call a meeting of the G20's nuclear power watchdogs to discuss safety regulations. "We must address this anomaly that there are no international safety norms for nuclear matters ... We need international safety standards before the end of the year."

Heart - Black

UK: Pastor jailed for fondling boy

An evangelical pastor who fondled a teenage boy while he slept and touched a young preacher while sharing a hotel bed has been jailed for eight months.

Dr Albert Odulele, 47, admitted indecently assaulting the boy and sexually assaulting the man during a hearing at Bexley Magistrates' Court on March 3.

Today at Woolwich Crown Court, in London, he was jailed for eight months and six months respectively, to run concurrently, and put on the sex offenders' register for five years.

Bizarro Earth

Japan Leaves Bodies Over Radiation Fears

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© UnknownAftermath of destructive earthquake and tsunami in Japan
Recent rise in radiation around Japan's Fukushima power plant has prevented Japanese officials from collecting bodies of earthquake victims within the 20-kilometer-radius.

As many as 1,000 bodies of victims of the destructive earthquake and tsunami that hit Japan's northern coasts on March 11 have been left untouched within the evacuation zone around the Fukushima nuclear plant, Kyodo News Agency reported on Thursday.

Police sources say the bodies have been "exposed to high levels of radiation after death."

On Sunday, high levels of radiation was detected on a body found in Okuma in Fukushima Prefecture, about 5 kilometers from the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant.


Comment: According to JapanToday, the bodies are contaminated with such high levels of radiation that not only "The authorities are now considering how to collect the bodies, given fears that police officers, doctors and bereaved families may be exposed to radiation in retrieving the radiation-exposed bodies or at morgues", but "Even after the bodies are handed over to the victims' families, cremating them could spread plumes containing radioactive materials, while burying the victims could contaminate the soil around them."


The earthquake and a subsequent tsunami set off nuclear problems by knocking out power to cooling systems at the Fukushima nuclear plant resulting in radiation leaks.

Clock

Government to impose martial law?

With growing discontent among Americans over US domestic policy the situation might get out of control, argues George Hemminger of Survive and Thrive TV. While the American people are forced to face high prices, unemployment and the challenge of feeding their families, Wall Street continues to profit, Main Street USA is likely to rise up! What is the government going to do about it? That's unknown says Hemminger, but it looks like they are preparing for martial law.

2 + 2 = 4

Why I quit selling Gulf seafood

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© Unknown
Just this past week I decided to leave my job as a food server at a casino in Hancock County, Mississippi. I've worked in tourism for 15 years. I just could not continue to serve Gulf seafood to unsuspecting tourists and locals after the BP disaster. There were other reasons for my leaving as well, but risking people's health and pretending things are normal is totally against what I believe in.

It started when a random guest asked me where our lemon fish comes from, known down here as cobia. I asked our kitchen staff, and they finally received the answer from one of the higher up chefs; "It comes from the Gulf." My reaction, as a concerned server and coastal resident, was, "Are you serious? Why are we serving Gulf seafood?" They said, "The FDA said it is safe."

I started questioning and challenging this, knowing that the oil is still out there and the FDA testing procedures are inadequate. But I got no result. It was left up to me to warn my guests when they ordered Gulf seafood, and risk my job. I knew that sooner or later I was going to get in trouble with the casino, so I decided to resign and change my life so that I could make a difference.

My name is Laurie Gayle Lambert. I am almost 38 years old and I grew up on the Mississippi Gulf Coast. I watched beautiful Bay St. Louis and Waveland grow throughout my life. I moved away in 2003, then had to watch on TV from up North in Ohio when my hometown was devastated by Hurricane Katrina. I felt helpless. Now it is my time to help the Gulf Coast.

The one-year marker of our country's worst man-made disaster in history is coming up, and there is no recovery in sight. But the majority of our nation, including some of our local residents here on our Gulf Coast, thinks the BP oil disaster is all over. They are unaware and uneducated about the danger we are in now, from threats to our environment and health. Clean-up workers, average vacationers, and Gulf Coast residents (even those living 100 miles inland) are being affected, and most of them do not know it.

Bizarro Earth

Radioactive waste from Japan reaches Israel

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© Associated PressFukushima power plant after Tsunami
Nuclear Research Center finds traces of nuclear waste in air. Experts say insignificant concentration of particles not dangerous for health, environment.

The Soreq Nuclear Research Center detected traces of radioactive waste in the air on Tuesday. Experts say that the insignificant concentration did not pose environmental or health risks.

Like many such centers worldwide, Israel's station for the detection of radioactive particles and gases in the atmosphere, established under the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty, discovered a tiny amount of nuclear waste emitted from Fukushima's failed nuclear reactors earlier this month.

The station in Soreq operates a high-capacity pump, which draws in air and filters it for particles. The filter is then examined in a radioactive waste lab. On Tueday, the lab discovered in the air sample traces of Iodine-131 with a concentration of 0.00005 becquerel per square meter.

Handcuffs

Will BP Execs Face Criminal Charges? Not Likely, Experts Say

A Bloomberg News report that the U.S. Justice Department is considering manslaughter charges in its investigation of BP's oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico played prominently enough Tuesday to drive BP's share price down.

But if criminal charges are filed against individuals involved in the disaster, it would be a rare event. An analysis of industrial disasters by University of Maryland law professor Jane Barrett shows that company managers are almost never charged in industrial accidents -- even in disasters that have killed more people than the 11 men who died in last year's explosion on the Deepwater Horizon rig.

"If they are large corporate entities, what has happened historically is the company pleads guilty, pays a fine and no individuals are prosecuted," Barrett said in an interview with AOL News. "The bigger the company, the less likely there will be individuals held accountable."