What has eally amazed me about his is that there has been 36 banks closed since 2000. And nothing has really been repoted about it. It is akes since now why the FDIC is almost out of funding forthe take overs

Columbian Bank and Trust of Kansas Closed by U.S. Regulators
By Alison Vekshin and Ari Levy
Aug. 23 (Bloomberg) -- Columbian Bank and Trust Co. of Topeka, Kansas, was closed by U.S. regulators, the nation's ninth bank to collapse this year amid bad real-estate loans and writedowns stemming from a drop in home prices.
The bank, with $752 million in assets and $622 million in total deposits, was shuttered by the Kansas state bank commissioner's office and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp., the FDIC said yesterday in a statement.
Citizens Bank and Trust will assume the failed bank's insured deposits. Columbian Bank's nine branches will open Aug. 25 as Citizens Bank and Trust offices, the FDIC said. Customers can access their accounts over the weekend by writing checks or using ATM or debit cards.
``There is no need for customers to change their banking relationship to retain their deposit insurance coverage,'' the FDIC said.
The pace of bank closings is accelerating as financial firms have reported more than $500 billion in writedowns and credit losses since 2007. The FDIC's ``problem'' bank list grew by 18 percent in the first quarter from the fourth, to 90 banks with combined assets of $26.3 billion.
Prior to yesterday, the FDIC had closed 36 banks since October 2000, according to a list at fdic.gov. The U.S. shut 12 banks in 2002, the highest in the period, and 2005 and 2006 had no closures.
U.S. bank regulators closed Florida's First Priority Bank on Aug. 1; Reno-based First National Bank of Nevada, Newport Beach, California-based First Heritage Bank, and Pasadena-based IndyMac Bancorp Inc. in July; Staples, Minnesota-based First Integrity Bank and ANB Financial in Bentonville, Arkansas, in May; Hume Bank in Hume, Missouri, in March; and Douglass National Bank in Kansas City, Missouri, in January.
To contact the reporters on this story: Alison Vekshin in Washington at avekshin@bloomberg.net; Ari Levy in San Francisco at alevy5@bloomberg.net.
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=a9iX_1ShWWAs&refer=home

Sterling Tumbles as UK Economy Grinds to a Halt August 22nd, 2008
Via: Financial Times:
Sterling tumbled on Friday as official figures showed UK economic growth ground to a halt in the second quarter of this year, strengthening fears the economy is already contracting.
The Office for National Statistics revised its first estimate of second quarter growth by more than expected as it said output had been flat quarter on quarter, the lowest figure since the second quarter of 1992.
Gross domestic product was 1.4 per cent higher than in the second quarter of 2007, the lowest year-on-year growth rate since the end of 1992.
Economists had anticipated a smaller downwards revision to the ONS’ initial estimate of 0.2 per cent quarter on quarter growth, and its scale and broad-based nature may raise hopes of an eventual cut in interest rates.
However, the Bank of England had already forecast output would stagnate for the next year, and minutes of the monetary policy committee’s last meeting suggested fears of persistently high inflation could keep rates on hold for some time.
“Even in our gloomy scenario for growth, we would have not expected such an abrupt loss of momentum – and we think the Bank of England would be also surprised,” said Chiara Corsa at Unicredit.
http://cryptogon.com/?p=3671

100% H1N1 Tamiflu Resistance in Australia and South Africa Recombinomics Commentary 21:44August 21, 2008In South Africa, a total of 139 A(H1N1) viruses have been isolated during the 2008 influenza season to date. Of those, 107 isolates have been tested for oseltamivir resistance by the National Institute of Communicable Diseases (NICD) and 100% were found to be resistant to oseltamivir by genotypic analysis. From Australia, 10 of 10 A(H1N1) viruses tested, and from Chile, 4 of 32 A(H1N1) viruses tested showed the specific neuraminidase mutation (H274Y) associated with oseltamivir resistance.The above comments suggest that Tamiflu (oseltamivir) resistance (H274Y) is running at 100% in South Africa and Australia, strongly suggesting that similar levels will be seen in the upcoming flu season in the northern hemisphere.The latest update extends earlier results from South Africa, which included analysis of the first 23 isolates. All contained H274Y, which was confirmed by the release of 16 HA and NA sequences. The sequences fell into two sub-clades and one of the sub-clades had 5 clustered polymorphisms near the receptor binding domain position of 190 (H3 numbering). Three of these five changes were non-synonymous, raising concerns that the H1 was rapidly evolving away from the Brisbane/59 sequences, which are the target of the northern hemisphere vaccine, which will be released in the next few months. Moreover, the two polymorphisms from the 3’ side of the cluster matched H1N1 sequences from the 1940’sThe detection of H274Y in all 107 isolates sequenced, coupled with 100% in Australian isolates, indicates that those isolates with H274Y are becoming dominant. These sequences may be linked to recent reports of high frequency pneumonia levels in Zimbabwe.More information of the severity of the H1N1 cases in South Africa and Australia would be useful.
http://www.recombinomics.com/News/08210802/H274Y_100_SA_Australia.html

This is an idea past it prime, i personally believe that the prison should bring bck the road gangs and pc up trash and such. I'm not talking about Cool Hand Luke, but someting needs to be done.
Virginia's prison farms grow crops to feed inmates August 23, 2008 - 2:55pm
JARRATT, Va. (AP) - Prisoners learn skills, help feed fellow inmates and save Virginia taxpayers millions per year at Yarden Farm near Jarratt.
The Virginia Department of Corrections has nearly 160 acres of crops growing at the farm located about 50 miles south of Richmond. But it is just a small part of one of the largest agricultural enterprises in the state.
About 10,000 acres across Virginia are being cultivated or in use as pasture in an expanding effort to employ prisoners and control the cost of feeding 30,000 of them. The operation saves state taxpayers about $6 million per year, said William H. Gillette, the agribusiness manager for the state prison system.
"As far as I know, we are the only (prison) program in the country that can handle _ statewide _ fresh produce, frozen produce, meat and milk, all of it delivered to any institution in less than 24 hours," Gillette said.
The program employs about 1,000 inmates who earn up to 45 cents an hour, Gillette said. Much of the work is simple labor, but many inmates learn skills and gain experience that can help them get jobs on the outside.
All of the dairy, pork, beef and fish consumed by inmates is produced or otherwise handled by the program, which officials say nearly has doubled its sales in the past five years.
The crops include feed and sweet corn, apples, tomatoes, broccoli, squash, beans, peppers, asparagus, cantaloupes, watermelons, sweet potatoes, carrots, cabbage, lettuce, kale, collards, strawberries and soybeans.
The system has an expanding frozen-food operation; two milk- and juice-processing plants; a produce sorting and distribution center; a small fleet of trucks and a maintenance shop. It also has three sawmills; 30 greenhouses to start plants; hydroponics for year-round growing; two meat-processing plants; and more than 200 beehives for crop pollination and honey.
Inmates have done much of the construction. Ron Lintz, who runs the produce-distribution center in Jarratt, said, "We have some talented individuals locked up here in the state. ... It's saved a lot of money."
The James River Correctional Center Work Center in Goochland County is home for 34-year-old Richard Bartole, an unlikely dairy farmer. The Teaneck, N.J., native is serving a 12-year sentence for fraud and other crimes.
"I'd never been close to a cow. ... I'd never been near a tractor before I came here," said Bartole, who now cares for dairy cows "from birth to breeding," on workdays that can last 14 hours.
Bartole said he believes he is learning skills he can use once he is released.
"I can milk them. I can feed them. I can raise the calves. We learn construction. We can work the farm equipment _ everything," Bartole said.
___
Information from: Richmond Times-Dispatch, http://www.timesdispatch.com
http://www.wtop.com/?nid=600&sid=1465260

New angle on the old "Bait and Switch"
Internet provider's usage cap raises questions August 22, 2008 - 10:34am
NEW YORK (AP) - Three months ago, Guy Distaffen switched Internet providers, lured from his cable company to his phone company by a year of free service on a two-year contract. But soon the company quietly updated its policies to say it would limit his Internet activity each month.
"We felt that were suckered," said Distaffen, who lives in the small village of Silver Springs in upstate New York.
The phone company, Frontier Communications Corp., is one of several Internet service providers that are moving to curb the growth of traffic on their networks, or at least make the subscribers who download the most pay more.
This could have consequences not just for consumers _ who would have to learn to watch how much data their Internet use entails _ but also for companies that hope to make the Internet a conduit for movies and other content that comes in huge files.
Cable companies have been at the forefront of imposing and talking about usage caps, because their lines are shared between households. Frontier's announcement is noteworthy because it is a phone company _ and it is matching a seemingly low ceiling set by a main cable rival: just 5 gigabytes per month, the equivalent of about 3 DVD-quality movies.
"We go through that in a week," Distaffen said. "If they start enforcing the caps we're going to have to change service." Other subscribers on Broadbandreports.com, where the cap was first reported, echoed his feelings.
But since the other option for wired broadband in the village is Time Warner Cable Inc., switching providers isn't necessarily going to get Distaffen away from a bandwidth cap. The cable company is trying out a 5-gigabyte traffic cap for new users in Beaumont, Texas. Every gigabyte above that costs $1. More expensive plans have higher caps _ at $54.90 per month, the allowance is 40 gigabytes. Depending on the results of the trial, Time Warner Cable may apply the same pricing structure elsewhere.
Frontier's biggest market is in Rochester, N.Y., where it competes with Time Warner Cable.
"This isn't really an issue that's just going to be about Frontier," said Philip Dampier, a Rochester-based technology writer who is campaigning to get Frontier to back off its plans. "Virtually every broadband provider has been suddenly discovering that there's this so-called `bandwidth crisis' going on in the United States."
In a sense, caps on Internet use are no stranger than the limited number of minutes a cell phone subscriber gets each month. Internet use varies hugely from person to person, and service providers argue that the people who use it the most should pay the most. But the industry hasn't worked out where to set the limits, or how much to charge users who exceed them. Fearing a customer backlash, most providers are setting the limits at levels where very few would bump into them. Comcast Corp. has floated the idea of a 250-gigabyte monthly cap.
Frontier says it plans to start enforcing its 5-gigabyte cap next year. First, it will let customers know how much data they use each month, a figure that most people don't know how to track on their own (the tech-savvy Distaffen gets it from his Internet router). Then it will offer premium plans with higher caps to those who use more data.
Frontier says most of its 559,300 broadband subscribers consume less than 1.5 gigabytes per month. But in an e-mail to Frontier employees, Chief Executive Maggie Wilderotter said traffic is doubling every year, which means that by the time the caps would be put in place, a lot more users will exceed them. In two years, the average user could be consuming 6 gigabytes of traffic per month if the current growth rate holds up.
The growth of traffic means the company has to invest millions in its network and infrastructure, threatening its profitability, according to the e-mail.
Dampier disagrees, saying the costs of network equipment and connecting to the wider Internet are falling.
"If they continue to make the necessary investments ... there's no reason they can't keep up" with increasing customer traffic, he said.
Frontier spokeswoman Karen Miller referred questions about the cap to the company's Web site. On one page, the site says there "are no plans to limit customer usage," but on another page, the company already reserves the right to suspend or terminate users who exceed 5 gigabytes of traffic per month.
The traffic allowance is enough for maybe 15,000 Web pages, or tens of thousands of e-mails, but as the Internet becomes rich with video, there is more and more content available that eats up gigabytes.
Distaffen said he reaches 5 gigabytes in a week even though he doesn't download movies or play games online. He does have a device that links a ham radio to the Internet, allowing distant radio enthusiasts to use his broadband connection. But that makes up only a fifth of his traffic, he said.
"We really aren't heavy users," he said. "I don't see how they came up with their numbers."
http://www.wtop.com/?nid=108&sid=1464727