Eeyore's News and view

This is the final installment of Jerry's Story, did not i tell you it was good stuff, enjoy.
Man! It Is Cold Outside! – Chapter 3
Mike made a few inquiries in Springfield and found out that Amanda had been treated and released after the intentional hit-and-run accident outside of Springfield. It made him wonder about things.He didn’t wonder much. He was starting to get more and more responses from the contacts he’d made. Among the various ongoing terrorist scares, impending pandemics, the whole gamut of natural disasters, not to mention serious tensions between China and the United States over Taiwan, the severity of the weather was becoming a more and more mentioned topic.Most of those seeking the shelter of the facility were looking at it for short term protection. But not all. One dentist, who’d made a fortune in the stock market decided to retire to the facility for the foreseeable future. He’d honor his contract to furnish dental services for free, for his time in the facility. Plus a hefty membership fee.Others weren’t ready to take up residence, but with the facility more an ongoing process now, they were ready to buy their way in, with entry to the facility at a later date.Out of the blue one day, Sara, who besides some cyber work-at-home activity for the legal firm she was associated with, was taking care of the reception desk during regular business hours, helping coordinate the deliveries of incoming supplies and equipment.Word of mouth had spread to the local communities, and people were showing up hoping for jobs at the facility. Though Mike wasn’t hiring people that weren’t going to live on site, he did find one or two retired people that were living on pensions and wanted something to do. He found a couple of ladies that were willing to take care of the communal kitchen for their room and board, keeping their retirement income for pocket money. They were exempted from the need to be armed.The one retired farmer that showed up one day wasn’t. He was an elderly gentleman, but he had lots of experience with Ozark hills farming and working with draft animals. He was a welcome addition to the family, giving the former students real hands-on experience in running a working animal farm.Though it was the middle of summer now, which was obvious in the Ozarks, Canada was having a rough time of it. There were areas where the snow had not melted by late July and a few areas it looked like it wouldn’t melt even into August.The Weather Channel and National Weather Service were now talking climate change due to global warming, with the effect being highly variable weather with extremes of both summer weather and winter weather. The federal governments of several nations were launching inquiries, especially the northern governments, including Canada and much of Europe.Mike was beginning to wonder when they would catch on that this wasn’t a simple extreme in the weather. Now that the place was up and running, he was tempted to tempt fate and go public with what he knew. But reading the preparedness forums on a daily basis there were already people crying Ice Age. They weren’t getting any more attention than anyone else. He’d just be considered a kook. He had no real proof. His sister was dead and buried almost three years. Whoever had wanted her work suppressed would have had plenty of time to do a good job of it. But there was Amanda Trotter. Apparently not all of FEMA was in on the information suppression.It took quite a while to track her down in the Agency. In fact, it was in the middle of the worst winter on record since the Little Ice Age days of the 14th century to the mid-19th century. Those at the facility were glad they were there. The green houses were producing fruits and vegetables, and the old Ozarks farmer had taken over the butchering chores of the animals, with the cooks handling the meat from there, to provide a good table at every meal.Their were three entertainment rooms, along with game rooms in the second dome, where people could relax together, if they didn’t want to stay in their own quarters and entertain themselves there.The Ozarks were getting what Iowa used to get. Iowa was like Canada, and the Artic had taken up residence in Canada.Mike saw to it that the facility road was kept clear with the road grader, D-8 dozer, and 966 front end loader, but the county was unable to keep up with the snow for a while. The facility was snowed in at that time.Though several had brought cars to the facility, which were nice and safe in the earth-sheltered garage, they didn’t even think about using them in the weather they were having. When the roads were passable any activity of the property was done in the small fleet of four-wheel-drive vehicles Mike had provided for the facility.There were patches of snow on the ground on the shaded north sides of things at the facility into April. In Jefferson City, Missouri the shaded north sides of building held snow until July. Only in late July and Early August did everything completely melt. It was worse the further north you went.Those already at the facility were glad they were there. Others were making their preparations to get there.Mike called Amanda in late August. “It’s Mike Buncie. I’ve something to tell you,” Mike said when Amanda picked up the phone on her end and identified herself.“Go ahead,” she said.“Not on the telephone. Especially considering your accident. They never found the perps, did they?”“As a matter of fact, no. I think you are being ridiculous, but perhaps there is an element of justification to your mistrust. I’m quite able to travel. I’ll be there in a couple of days.”“Watch your back.”“I’ll have a couple of people with me to help.”It didn’t dawn on Mike for a few seconds after he hung up that she might mean Number One and Number Two. They might have got to her and turned her to their side. He told himself it was just his paranoia. Aloud he said, “Just because you’re paranoid doesn’t mean they’re not out to get you.”Mike checked the P-14 and made a mental note to keep it handy the next few days. As he’d been wearing his most of the time, a few of the others in the facility had begun going armed, too. That included many of those working outdoors with the animals and for other reasons.Part of the reason Mike had chosen the spot he had, and had developed it the way he had, was because they were in a natural defensive zone. Other than the good access road, and the marginal road that was their back door, all of the surrounding area was heavily wooded. That meant quite a few people could get up to a few hundred yards of them, but nothing powered, except perhaps a dirt bike or ROKON.All the structures were earth-sheltered, with parapet walls extending six feet above the roofs. A backing wall with cantilevered roof projecting over the walkway by the parapet would protect anyone manning the parapets from the weather. Anyone approaching from the forest would be an easy target for riflemen on the parapets. It would take an overwhelming force of people to work their way through the forest and a massive charge to take the facility. No place was invulnerable.A handful of men might, using stealth, get to the buildings. But part of the contract was a no bargaining clause. Anyone caught and used for hostage had an obligation to aid any attempt to free them using force. And force would be used. There would be no negotiations.Mike put it out of his mind. He’d just see what developed when Amanda showed up.Between incoming supplies and equipment, which Mike felt he should personally check, since he’d ordered everything, and people showing up and others applying for membership, he was kept busy. He’d made sure to make his schedule flexible for the day she was scheduled to arrive. He also made sure Sara was going to be elsewhere. In fact, she was part of the team taking vehicles to Springfield for an auction. Several people had decided to sell their personal vehicles and rely on the facilities fleet.Mike breathed a slight sigh of relief when Amanda showed up with two men, neither of which was Number One or Number Two. She told them to wait in the lobby area while she went with Mike up to his office. She was using a cane to support herself.“Do you wear a gun on you all the time?” Amanda asked as soon as Mike had shown her to her seat. “Does everyone?”“Not everyone. But most. Part of the contract for living here is a commitment to defend the place.” Mike responded in a conversational tone. He could tell that Amanda was badly stressed.“You don’t look well,” he said. “Are you up to this?”Amanda sighed. “I have to be. I’ve been tasked with finding out what is going on.”“So you admit that something is going on?”This time Amanda frowned. “Yes. There is a problem. One we are trying to correct before anyone else gets hurt. You act as though you’ve known for some time.”“Well, I can tell you one thing. Three years ago I knew something was going on. Apparently so did my sister. I think she was killed for having that knowledge.”Amanda’s face fell. “I hate to say this, but we are beginning to believe that may be the case. But we don’t have any hard evidence. And we don’t know exactly why.”“Because she knew an Ice Age was coming. A little slowly at first, then more rapidly. With glaciation to 38 degrees North Latitude.”“So it is true…” Amanda’s words faded away.“Yes. She told me on that last phone call. Before she was killed. I don’t know if it was done on board, or if it was after they made port. I do know the ship made port. They say she was killed in an accident aboard the ship, but I’m thinking they found out what they wanted to know from her research and then killed her and just said it was an accident. That was what the inquest said. That it was an accident. I doubted it from the first.“Then, when Number One and Number Two questioned me about that last phone call… their attitudes… demanding. Wanting to come right out and ask about an Ice Age, but talking around it. And then Jeremiah, actually trying to put the words in my mouth. They had orders to keep the coming Ice Age quiet. They were working for someone. Not themselves. Though they did seem to enjoy it immensely. Someone, I think within FEMA, has been trying to keep it quiet for as long as they could.”“I don’t suppose I should tell you this, but FEMA has come to the same conclusion. We don’t have the proof that your sister apparently had, but with the way the weather has been, and some of the modeling our meteorologists have been doing are saying the same thing. That an Ice Age is coming, and coming quickly.“The person we think was responsible for the men you’ve referred to as Number One and Number Two, Tom Harris and Billy Bonestall, has been arrested and is being questioned in Washington. He seems to have been working with a group outside of FEMA. We still don’t know who. And it seems it was only the three. We’ve not found any connection with anyone else in FEMA to account for your Jeremiah. But there is the link outside the agency.“It appears that this outside group had plans to use the Ice Age to ‘Cleanse the earth of Undesirables,’ as it was put by Oliver Blackwood. He’s the FEMA agent we’ve arrested. We’re still looking for Harris and Bonestall. We’ll add the murder of your sister to their list of crimes. I don’t know if we’ll be able to prove it, but we’ll add it. We don’t know where they are at the moment. Some agency equipment, including a helicopter, is missing from inventory. I think they are the ones that tried to kill me by causing my accident.”“I agree,” said Mike. “And I think they may try again.”“Well, I have two US Marshals with me to try and prevent that. I’d like to get you some protection, but even with what you have told me, I don’t think it’ll happen. This is being kept very hush, hush. Very low profile.”“I understand. I can’t deny that part of the reason I go armed is on the off chance I run into Number One and Number Two again. We have a few differences of opinion to settle.” Mike’s face was grim.“Don’t do something silly, Mr. Buncie. FEMA is working on the problem with the help of the Marshals Service and the FBI. We’ll find them and bring them to justice.”Mike waved it away. “What about the population? Are they going to get the word? An organized evacuation of points north needs to be started before it is too late.”“I’m afraid it is already too late for some,” Amanda said softly. “I don’t have the power to bring it to the world’s attention. That will be up to my superiors. To be honest, I think they will. Seems everyone is speculating on just such a theory, now anyway. They’ll just take the speculation away.”She adjusted herself in the chair. Amanda was obviously in some pain from her injuries resulting from the hit and run accident. “If there isn’t anything else you can tell me, I’ll be on my way.”“No. That was it. Just my suspicions and what my sister had told me.”Amanda nodded and began to get up from the chair. The thought just occurred to Mike and he decided to ask. “Is this Ice Age the natural progression from global warming, or is it man-made. By the population cleansing people?”Her reaction was so normal to the question that Mike was sure it had come up before. She didn’t deny the possibility. “We don’t know. We simply don’t know,” Amanda said.She switched the cane to her left hand, held out her right and Mike shook it.“Be careful,” they both said, almost simultaneously. With a laugh, a nice one, Mike noted, Amanda transferred the cane back to her right hand and Mike escorted her down to her Marshals.“Quite a set up, you’ve got here, according to a couple of the residents,” one of the men said. “You taking applications?” Mike gave him a business card. The other Marshal laughed, but it had a hollow ring to it.Mike slowly followed them outside. He looked up, shading his eyes with his hands. It was hard to believe that an Ice Age was coming on this beautiful sunny summer day in the Ozarks. When Sara got back and found out Amanda had been there Mike thought she seemed angry. And couldn’t figure out why.It was no longer a beautiful sunny summer day in the Ozarks, Mike thought, remembering his thought that day. It was September and there was snow on the ground and more coming. A line of vehicles was coming up the road. The President had gone on the air two days previously and announced the discovery that an Ice Age was in the process of occurring. People in the northern latitudes would be evacuated as places to house them were found. There was already fighting on the Mexican boarder where the Mexican army was trying to stop the minor invasion of Northerners headed for warmer climes.Ever since the announcement, a stream of people that knew about the facility had been calling, and then showing up. People were offering huge sums of money for entrance. Mike was taking it, when it was a person he would have brought in anyway. He knew many of them would leave the next summer, when things looked better and the government’s warning was ignored. The payment was non-refundable.There were guards out, very obviously carrying weapons. So far, only those invited were showing up. There was a chance that some of the locals, now that they knew of the place, might come up and try to get in.When April rolled around, a full quarter of those that had come in upon the government’s announcement left, sheepishly. Some demanded their money back. None got it. The contract had been very specific. A tiny handful announced that they were only going home to tie up a few loose ends and would be back before winter set in again. Mike found that more than acceptable.He was very pleased with the way the facility had run at 50% capacity for those few weeks. All the bugs had been worked out of the systems, few that there had been. He expected to still be able to get supplies for a while, though much was being devoted to the evacuations.The national plan wasn’t going that well. Like some of the residents of the facility, many in the northern latitudes, around the world, refused to believe the information and warnings. Mike had everyone required to bear arms practicing on a regular basis. The following winter, Mike was thinking, would not be as easy as the first. He knew his sister very well. How her mind worked. The two years of slow build up had occurred, four years ago. Mike figured this would be the year it really got bad.He topped fuel tanks, and packed all the supplies he could into the regular above ground storage rooms. The basements of all the structures had been filled first. Mike had nearly a million dollars left. He converted nine-tenths of it to gold, silver, and diamonds. The rest would pay for the rest of the supplies that might be obtained.The world turned, as it was want to do, and fall fell. Winter was right on its heels. And it was, indeed, a bad one. People began to return to the facility. That’s what it was referred to as, now. The Facility. Mike was selective as to who he let in. The county had begun stationing an SUV with two deputies at the entrance of The Facility for a while when Mike was regularly calling in people demanding entrance he didn’t want in. Some of them were local. They seemed to take it harder than those that had traveled some distance to get there. The government had not mentioned the 38th parallel. Mike didn’t know why.Mike was being conservative on the personnel he was allowing in. He was going to cut the occupancy off at 85%. There would need to be room for the population to grow. After.And as the world is wont to do, it continued to turn. A short spring, and a summer, even at 38 degrees. The snow on the north side of the capital building in Jefferson City, Missouri from the previous winter was still there when it started to snow again there in July. Mike let a select few more people in during July and August. The roads were impassible to most vehicles by then. Definitely only four-wheel-drive vehicles were moving on the highways. Mike gave the message to quit plowing the road in to the facility.He retired to his office for the afternoon. All the security monitors were on. He was dozing when a call wakened him. “Sir, I have clandestine movement near the out road.” The ‘out’ road was the commonly used name for the poorly maintained logging road that was also known as the back door to the place.Mike moved over to the monitors mounted along the wall of his office and studied them for a few moment. Yes. There it was. Movement. And it wasn’t the direct movement of someone wanting to be seen. One of Mike’s concerns had been security without massive fences. It had been obvious that shortly into the Ice Age, where they were located, there wasn’t going to be much in the way of risk. They were on the edge of survivalbility.He’d had experts tell him how experienced people would attack the place if one came. It had been as he’d thought. Other than an army and an air force, only mass attack out of the woods, or a small group using modern stealth techniques could approach the facility, as long as a careful watch was maintained. Someone seemed to know what they were doing. You had to know it was happening to see it. The computer software that scanned video for motion was the best on the market. It had alerted the guard before the men had moved more than a few feet out of the forest.Mike knew the path they would take. It was the only reasonable one and had been left as an enticement. He touched the P-14 on his belt and lifted the telephone. “Scramble Squad. Meet me at the front doors.”He slipped into his jacket and met the six person team of former police and military. Including one ex-US Marshal. “Follow me. Cover me, but stay behind. I want to see who these guys are.”It took only a few moments to deploy. Mike stood waiting in the shadows as the men continued to work their way toward the dome. More quickly now that they were out of range of the cameras. One of the men would have commented on the lax security had they not been on silent mode.When they were a few feet away, Mike worked a remote control device, lighting up the area. The men behind him made their presence known. The two men slowly dropped their rifles and raised their hands. It was still hard to see their faces with their coat hoods up.“Drop the hoods,” Mike said, his P-14 held in a classic Weaver stance. When their faces could be seen, Mike softly said, “Well if it isn’t Number One and Number Two.”“What?” asked Number one, venom in his tone. Number Two looked wary.“Harris and Bonestall,” Mike said, the weapon steady, pointed between the two men.“I told you she would tell him,” Harris hissed at Bonestall.A touch more loudly now, Mike asked the simple question, “Which one of you killed my sister?”Harris, Number One, just stared at him with hate filled eyes. Mike was watching Bonestall, Number Two. Mike saw Bonestall’s eyes flick toward Harris a fraction of an instant before Harris spoke.Mike shifted his stance slightly and squeezed the trigger of the P-14. A neat .45 caliber hole appeared in Harris’ forehead. Harris fell silently. The men behind Mike tensed.Looking at Bonestall, Mike flatly said shifting his aim, “That means you gave the order.” He squeezed the P-14’s trigger again. Bonestall fell dead beside his partner. “Clean it up,” Mike said to his people. They were looking at him with shock on their faces. This was one hard man.Mike safed the P-14 and re-holstered it. He turned and walked back to the main entrance doors, leaving the people behind to take care of business. There was a procedure for handling deaths. He’d seen to it.He was a little surprised to see a vehicle in the parking area when he got to the doors. It was a black Suburban. A touch tense, he entered the lobby. When he saw Amanda he relaxed. She hurried over to him as fast as she could. “Mike! They’re coming after you. Harris and Bonestall. I came out to warn you.” Sara was watching silently.“Not any more,” Mike said. They’re both dead.”“Guns,” she said softly. Mike nodded. “Maybe they are needed, sometimes.” It was a huge admission for her.Obviously tired, Amanda moved to one of the lobby chairs and sat down. Sara moved out of the way but continued to watch. “We caught the others. They have a place much like this one. Harris and Bonestall got away. Harris was yelling that you were a dead man. I was so frightened for you. You’ve been such a big help. The evacuations aren’t going well and the weather is getting worse. I don’t know what to do.”They looked out the door. All they could see was snow.Mike glanced at Sara, standing there silently, and looked down at Amanda. He had his hand on her shoulder to comfort her. Life was going to be very interesting for him.
Man! It Is Cold Outside! – Epilog
Life went on in the areas that weren’t under the newly forming glaciers. Wars were fought for the possession of warm, safe, areas. Mexico, by force of arms, was made a part of the United States. Canada ceased to exist as a nation. For over five hundred years Mike’s descendants from both lines, ruled The Facility as a Benevolent Monarchy. In 2525 the snow melted away completely before it snowed again on the site of the former Jefferson City, Missouri capitol building. Life began to head north again.
End ********Copyright 2005
Jerry D Young

The following is from a quote from the following article
“The administration and Congressional anti-gunners have declared war on gun rights,” Gottlieb said. “The press seems deliberately blind to the statements from Pelosi and Holder, who blame our gun rights for their incompetence in dealing with crime. More than 90 million gun owners haven’t hurt anybody, and they are tired of being treated like criminals.”
I would say more like "deliberately in agreement and support to the satements from Pelosi and Holder"then blind, but that is just my 2 cents (6 dollars when adjusted for inflation, this year)
Pelosi: 'We Want Registration'; Holder: 2A Won't 'Stand in the Way'; SAF: 'Gloves Are Off'
http://finance.yahoo.com/news/Pelosi-We-Want-Registration-bw-14883186.
BELLEVUE, Wash.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Democrat House Speaker Nancy Pelosi on April 7 acknowledged that gun registration is on her agenda, days after Attorney General Eric Holder told reporters in Mexico that the Second Amendment would not “stand in the way” of administration plans to crack down on alleged gun trafficking to Mexico.“These are alarming remarks from Speaker Pelosi and Attorney General Holder,” said Second Amendment Foundation founder Alan Gottlieb. “It appears that the Obama administration and Capitol Hill anti-gunners have dropped all pretences about their plans for gun owners’ rights, and it looks like the gloves are coming off.”Pelosi’s revelation came during an interview on ABC’s Good Morning, America. While insisting that Congress “never denied” the gun rights of American Citizens, Pelosi told Roberts, “We want them registered. We don’t want them crossing state lines…” Gottlieb noted that citizens’ rights do not stop at state lines.“But that doesn’t really matter,” he observed. “History has shown that around the world, registration has always led to confiscation.”In Mexico, according to the Wall Street Journal, Holder was asked if the administration might encounter constitutional issues as it tries to crack down on alleged gun trafficking. His response: “I don’t think our Second Amendment will stand in the way of efforts we have begun and will expand upon.”“These comments belie administration promises and Democrat rhetoric that party leaders respect the rights of law-abiding Americans to own the firearm of their choice,” Gottlieb said. “They imposed registration of semi-autos in Pelosi’s California and it led to a ban, but it certainly didn’t disarm criminals, like the convicted felon who killed four Oakland police officers last month. We know from Holder that the Obama administration wants to renew the nationwide ban on such firearms, but that won’t prevent crime, either.“The administration and Congressional anti-gunners have declared war on gun rights,” Gottlieb said. “The press seems deliberately blind to the statements from Pelosi and Holder, who blame our gun rights for their incompetence in dealing with crime. More than 90 million gun owners haven’t hurt anybody, and they are tired of being treated like criminals.”The Second Amendment Foundation (www.saf.org) is the nation’s oldest and largest tax-exempt education, research, publishing and legal action group focusing on the Constitutional right and heritage to privately own and possess firearms. Founded in 1974, The Foundation has grown to more than 600,000 members and supporters and conducts many programs designed to better inform the public about the consequences of gun control.
http://frc4u.org/phpbb/index.php?topic=815.msg1445#msg1445

Inventor turns cardboard boxes into eco-friendly oven
When Jon Bohmer sat down with his two little girls for a simple project they could work on together, he didn't realize they'd hit upon a solution to one of the world's biggest problems for just $5: A solar-powered oven.
Inventor Jon Bohmer with the oven he has made out of a cardboard box.
The ingeniously simple design uses two cardboard boxes, one inside the other, and an acrylic cover that lets in the sun's rays and traps them.
Black paint on the inner box, and silver foil on the outer one, help concentrate the heat. The trapped rays make the inside hot enough to cook casseroles, bake bread and boil water.
What the box also does is eliminate the need in developing countries for rural residents to cut down trees for firewood. About 3 billion people around the world do so, adding to deforestation and, in turn, global warming.
By allowing users to boil water, the simple device could also potentially save the millions of children who die from drinking unclean water.
Bohmer's invention on Thursday won the FT Climate Change Challenge, which sought to find and publicize the most innovative and practical solution to climate change.
"A lot of scientists are working on ways to send people to Mars. I was looking for something a little more grassroots, a little simpler," Bohmer said Thursday.
Bohmer's contest win notwithstanding, solar cooking with a cardboard oven isn't new. Two American women, Barbara Kerr and Sherry Cole, were the solar box cooker's first serious promoters in the 1970s. They and others joined forces to create the non-profit Solar Cookers International -- originally called Solar Box Cookers International -- in 1987.
Further, the organization's executive director, Patrick Widner, said that the plans for a solar box cooker were found in a book published by the Peace Corps in the 1960s.
"We are pleased that Mr. Bohmer has taken up the cause and interest of the 95 member organizations and 160 individuals of the Solar Cookers Worldwide Network," Widner said. "It would be a pleasure to work with Mr. Bohmer in Kenya where we have been promoting the use of solar cookers for ten years."
Bohmer, a Norwegian-born entrepreneur based in Kenya, said he also had been looking at solutions "way too complex, for way too long."
"This took me about a weekend, and it worked on the first try," Bohmer said. "It's mind-boggling how simple it is."
The contest was organized by the Forum for the Future -- a sustainable development charity -- and the Financial Times newspaper. Among the judges were British business magnate Richard Branson and environmentalist Rajendra Pachauri. The public also voted on the finalists.
Bohmer's invention beat about 300 other entries, including a machine that turns wood and other organic material into charcoal, wheel covers that make trucks more fuel efficient by reducing drag, and a feed supplement for livestock that reduces the methane they emit by 15 percent.
Bohmer named his invention the Kyoto Box, after the international environmental treaty to reduce global warming.
The box can be produced in existing cardboard factories. It has gone into production in a factory in Nairobi, Kenya, that can churn out about 2.5 million boxes a month.
Bohmer has also designed a more durable version, made from recycled plastic, which can be produced just as cheaply.
He envisions such cardboard ovens being distributed throughout rural Africa.
"In the West, we cook with electricity, so it's easy to ignore this problem," he said. "But half the world's population is still living in a stone age. The only way for them to cook is to make a fire.
"I don't want to see another 80-year-old woman carrying 20 kilos of firewood on her back. Maybe we don't have to."
http://us.cnn.com/2009/TECH/04/09/solar.oven.global.warming/index.html

Eeyore's News and view

If you were smart you would be learning Spanish,
Almost 1 of 2 new Americans in 2008 was Latino
WASHINGTON – Hispanics made up nearly half of the more than 1 million people who became U.S. citizens last year, according to a Hispanic advocacy group.
The National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials said the number of Latinos who became Americans in fiscal year 2008 more than doubled over the previous year, to 461,317. That's nearly half of the record 1,046,539 new citizens overall in 2008, a 58 percent increase from 2007.
"Latinos who naturalize are eager to demonstrate their commitment to America by becoming full participants in our nation's civic life," said NALEO president Arturo Vargas, whose nonpartisan group works to improve the citizenship process and increase Latino participation in civic activities.
NALEO based its findings on Homeland Security Department data on the number of new citizens last year who immigrated from predominantly Spanish-speaking countries.
In a report released in March, the agency attributed the record number of new citizens to the nearly 1.4 million citizenship applications it received in 2007. Most were from people who wanted to beat a $265 increase in the citizenship application fee, from $330 to $595.
But the department also credited "special efforts" by Hispanic media, community groups and a union with high immigrant membership, all of which urged eligible permanent residents to pursue citizenship.
In fiscal year 2008, 231,815 people originally from Mexico became citizens, up almost 90 percent from 2007. Increases in citizenship among Latino immigrants from other countries were: 39,871 from Cuba, up 160 percent from the previous year; 35,796 from El Salvador, up 109 percent; 17,954 from Nicaragua, up 120 percent; and 17,087 from Guatemala, a 109 percent rise.
Most of last year's new Hispanic citizens lived in California, followed by Florida.
Vargas cited the data to encourage the Obama administration and Congress to ease the cost of applying for immigration benefits.
"Despite the record number of naturalizations, there are still millions of eligible legal permanent residents who have not yet applied for U.S. citizenship or who encounter barriers in the naturalization process," Vargas said.
On the Net:
National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials: http://www.naleo.org
Homeland Security Department statistical reports: http://www.dhs.gov/ximgtn/statistics/

I heard one commentator say we need to be using "contractors" for this kind of stuff.
US warship arrives as pirates' options dwindle
April 9, 2009 - 8:46am
NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) - A U.S. destroyer kept watch Thursday on a drifting lifeboat where Somali pirates were holding an American ship captain hostage, a day after bandits hijacked a U.S.-flagged vessel for several hours before 20 crew members overpowered them.
The pirates took Capt. Richard Phillips as a hostage as they escaped the Maersk Alabama into a lifeboat in the first such attack on American sailors in around 200 years. Negotiations were believed to be under way, a relative of the captain said, but it was not clear who was conducting them.
Kevin Speers, a spokesman for the ship company Maersk, said the pirates have made no demands yet to the company. He said the safe return of the abducted captain is now its top priority.
The USS Bainbridge had arrived off the Horn of Africa near where the pirates were floating near the Maersk, he said.
"It's on the scene at this point," Speers said of the Bainbridge, adding that the lifeboat holding the pirates and the captain is out of fuel.
"The boat is dead in the water," he told AP Radio. "It's floating near the Alabama. It's my understanding that it's floating freely."
The U.S. Navy has sent up P-3 Orion surveillance aircraft and has video footage of the scene.
One senior Pentagon official, speaking on grounds of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the situation, described the incident now as a "somewhat of a standoff."
Though officials declined to say how close the Bainbridge is to the site, one official said of the pirates: "They can see it with their eyes." He spoke on condition of anonymity due to the sensitivity of talking about a military operation in progress.
The Bainbridge was among several U.S. ships that had been patrolling in the region when the 17,000-ton U.S.-flagged cargo ship and its 20 crew were captured Wednesday.
Phillips' family was gathered at his Vermont farmhouse, anxiously watching news reports and taking telephone calls from the U.S. State Department to learn if he would be freed.
"We are on pins and needles," said Gina Coggio, 29, half-sister of Phillips' wife, Andrea, as she stood on the porch of his one-story house Wednesday in a light snow. "I know the crew has been in touch with their own family members, and we're hoping we'll hear from Richard soon."
Phillips surrendered himself to the pirates to secure the safety of the crew, Coggio said.
"What I understand is that he offered himself as the hostage," she said. "That is what he would do. It's just who he is and his response as a captain."
Coggio said she believed there were negotiations under way, although she didn't specify between whom.
With one warship nearby and more on the way, piracy expert Roger Middleton from London-based think tank Chatham House said the pirates were facing difficult choices.
"The pirates are in a very, very tight corner," Middleton said. "They've got only one guy, they've got nowhere to hide him, they've got no way to defend themselves effectively against the military who are on the way and they are hundreds of miles from Somalia."
The pirates would probably try to get to a mothership, he said, one of the larger vessels that tow the pirates' speedboats out to sea and resupply them as they lie in wait for prey. But they also would be aware that if they try to take Phillips to Somalia, they might be intercepted. And if they hand him over, they would almost certainly be arrested.
Other analysts say the U.S. will be reluctant to use force as long as one of its citizens remains hostage. French commandos, for example, have mounted two military operations against pirates once the ransom had been paid and its citizens were safe.
The Maersk Alabama, en route to neighboring Kenya and loaded with relief aid, was attacked about 380 miles (610 kilometers) east of the Somali capital of Mogadishu. It was the sixth vessel seized in a week.
Many of the pirates have shifted their operations down the Somali coastline from the Gulf of Aden to escape naval warship patrols, which had some success in preventing attacks last year.
International attention focused on Somali pirates last year after the audacious hijackings of an arms shipment and a Saudi oil supertanker. Currently warships from more than a dozen nations are patrolling off the Somali coast but analysts say the multimillion-dollar ransoms paid out by companies ensure piracy in war-ravaged, impoverished Somalia will not disappear.
The attacks often beg the question of why ship owners do not arm their crew to fend off attacks. Much of the problem lies with the cargo. The Saudi supertanker, for example, was loaded with 2 million barrels of oil. The vapor from that cargo was highly flammable; a spark from the firing of a gun could cause an explosion.
There is also the problem of keeping the pirates off the ships _ once they're on board, they will very likely fight back and people will die.
Pirates travel in open skiffs with outboard engines, working with larger ships that tow them far out to sea. They use satellite navigational and communications equipment, and have an intimate knowledge of local waters, clambering aboard commercial vessels with ladders and grappling hooks.
Any blip on an unwary ship's radar screens, alerting the crew to nearby vessels, is likely to be mistaken for fishing trawlers or any number of smaller, non-threatening ships that take to the seas every day.
It helps that the pirates' prey are usually massive, slow-moving ships. By the time anyone notices, pirates will have grappled their way onto the ship, brandishing AK-47s.
http://wtop.com/?nid=387&sid=1645156

I remember during the Olympics, China was disparaged in the press about shooting stuff in the atmosphere, to try and clear the smog. Here we are doing the same thing and yet it is ok for us to do it.
Obama to Look at Climate Engineering
WASHINGTON -- The president's new science adviser said Wednesday that global warming is so dire, the Obama administration is discussing radical technologies to cool Earth's air.
John Holdren told the Associated Press in his first interview since being confirmed last month that the idea of geoengineering the climate is being discussed. One such extreme option includes shooting pollution particles into the upper atmosphere to reflect the sun's rays. Mr. Holdren said such an experimental measure would only be used as a last resort.
"It's got to be looked at," he said. "We don't have the luxury of taking any approach off the table."
Mr. Holdren outlined several "tipping points" involving global warming that could be fast approaching. Once such milestones are reached, such as complete loss of summer sea ice in the Arctic, it increases chances of "really intolerable consequences," he said.
Twice in a half-hour interview, Mr. Holdren compared global warming to being "in a car with bad brakes driving toward a cliff in the fog."
At first, Mr. Holdren characterized the potential need to technologically tinker with the climate as just his personal view. However, he went on to say he has raised it in administration discussions.
Mr. Holdren, a 65-year-old physicist, is far from alone in taking geoengineering more seriously. The National Academy of Science is making climate tinkering the subject of its first workshop in its new multidiscipline climate challenges program. The British parliament has also discussed the idea.
The American Meteorological Society is crafting a policy statement on geoengineering that says "it is prudent to consider geoengineering's potential, to understand its limits and to avoid rash deployment."
Last week, Princeton scientist Robert Socolow told the National Academy that geoengineering should be an available option in case climate worsens dramatically.
But Mr. Holdren noted that shooting particles into the air -- making an artificial volcano as one Nobel laureate has suggested -- could have grave side effects and would not completely solve all the problems from soaring greenhouse gas emissions. So such actions could not be taken lightly, he said.
Still, "we might get desperate enough to want to use it," he added.
Another geoengineering option he mentioned was the use of so-called artificial trees to suck carbon dioxide -- the chief human-caused greenhouse gas -- out of the air and store it. At first that seemed prohibitively expensive, but a re-examination of the approach shows it might be less costly, he said.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123920773503201665.html


Lightning may predict hurricane intensity
Scientists have discovered a link between increased lightning and the strongest winds in hurricanes, a study reports online this week in the British journal Nature Geoscience.
Lead author Colin Price of Tel Aviv University in Israel and colleagues found a significant increase in lightning about a day before the most intense winds in the hurricanes they studied. The authors say this bit of advance warning could lead to better intensity forecasts.
Price and his team tracked the wind speeds of all Category 4 and 5 hurricanes, typhoons and cyclones around the world from 2005 to 2007 and compared them with global lightning data. (Category 4 storms have sustained wind speeds of 131 mph and above.) "Of the 58 hurricanes analyzed, only two showed no significant correlation between lightning and wind speed," the authors report.
Though hurricane track predictions have become significantly more accurate in recent decades, the accuracy of hurricane intensity forecasts have remained about the same.
"One of our biggest challenges is in providing skillful intensity prediction in our one- to five-day forecasts," Chris Landsea, science and operations officer at the National Hurricane Center in Miami, said in an e-mail. "So any method for assisting NHC in these predictions is welcome."
Price says real-time lightning data have become far more accessible in recent years and can now be monitored continuously at any location around the globe.
Other scientists agree that the study has merits but say additional research is needed to determine whether a link exists. "Can the authors' observations be translated into improved forecasts of hurricane intensity? Perhaps, but not without much more work," meteorologist John Brown of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration in Boulder, Colo., said in an e-mail.
Joe Golden, also an NOAA meteorologist, agrees: "This study is heavy on statistics and weak on the physical linkages between lightning and hurricanes."
http://www.usatoday.com/weather/research/2009-04-08-hurricane-lightning_N.htm

You need to ask first, i think the days of getting it free are over, but ask first or go to jail. It is a good thing trying to get grease for making bio-diesel, but ask first.
Duo accused of trying to steal restaurant grease April 8, 2009 - 9:22pm
WESTLAND, Mich. (AP) - Two Detroit-area men face larceny and trespassing charges after authorities say they tried to steal used restaurant grease. Westland police Sgt. Steve Borisch said 52-year-old Christopher Kind and 44-year-old Richard Tallent were arrested early Tuesday at a restaurant in the city 10 miles west of Detroit.
Borisch said an employee of a business that collects and recycles grease under contract with area restaurants had blocked the two with his truck. He told police 1,000 pounds of grease worth about $160 had been drained from a nearby eatery's grease tank.
The Detroit News and Detroit Free Press said Kind and Tallent are free on bond.
Borisch didn't immediately return a message asking if the suspects had attorneys.
http://wtop.com/?nid=456&sid=1645640

Eeyore's News and view

Italy quake death toll at 260; pope to visit area
By VANESSA GERA
L'AQUILA, Italy (AP) - Aftershocks from the earthquake that has killed at least 260 people in central Italy sent new fears through the tent camps that shelter thousands of survivors, and Pope Benedict XVI said Wednesday that he would visit the shocked and injured people of the area as soon as possible.
As rescue teams pressed ahead with their searches in the crumbled buildings, some of the almost 28,000 left homeless emerged from tents after spending a second night in chilly mountain temperatures.
"I slept so badly because I kept feeling the aftershocks," said Daniela Nunut at one of the tent camps set up across the city of L'Aquila. The 46-year Romanian-born woman said she and her companion plan to stay in the tent for now. "What can you do? You can't go into the building."
The magnitude-6.3 quake hit L'Aquila and several towns in central Italy early Monday, leveling buildings and reducing entire blocks to piles of rubble and dust.
The pope praised the relief operations as an example of how solidarity can help overcome "even the most painful trials."
"As soon as possible I hope to visit you," Benedict said Wednesday at the Vatican.
The Vatican said he would make the trip after Easter Sunday and that he does not want to interfere with relief operations.
Premier Silvio Berlusconi said 260 people have died, including 16 children. The premier, speaking in L'Aquila after a third day in the quake area, said nine bodies remained to be identified. He said about 100 injured were in serious condition.
Berlusconi said looting in the quake zone was on the rise and that the government was looking to increase penalties for the crime. He said details were still being worked out, adding the new penalties would be "very severe."
A funeral for the victims is scheduled for Friday morning, and is to be conducted by L'Aquila Bishop Giuseppe Molinari, the premier said. At least one victim's funeral was going to be held Wednesday in one of the small villages in the stricken area.
Berlusconi said about 17,700 people left homeless by the quake had found shelter in tent camps set up by authorities. An additional 10,000 people were housed in hotels along the coast, bringing the overall number of homeless to almost 28,000.
Fifteen people remain missing, officials said.
The ANSA news agency reported that four students trapped in the rubble of a dormitory of the University of L'Aquila had died.
By Tuesday evening, rescue crews gave up painstakingly removing debris from the dormitory by hand and brought in huge pincers that pulled off parts of the roof, balconies and walls, showering debris down.
"Unless there is a miracle, I've been told (by rescuers) that they probably are dead," university rector Ferdinando Di Orio said.
Since the quake early Monday, some 430 aftershocks have rumbled through, including some strong ones, said Marco Olivieri of the National Institute of Geophysics and Vulcanology in Rome.
A strong aftershock at 7:47 p.m. Tuesday rained debris on screaming residents and rescue crews, who ran from the site.
Many survivors at the camp said they had been cold during the night as heaters in some of the tents were not working. Some read a newspaper as they lined up for hot coffee or tea and a croissant.
To shelter the homeless against the chilly nights in the mountains, about 20 tent cities have sprouted in open spaces around L'Aquila and surrounding towns. Field kitchens, medical supplies - and clowns with bubbles to entertain traumatized children - were brought in.
Officials estimated Monday that 50,000 people had been left homeless by the quake. By Tuesday evening, that number was lowered to between 17,000 and 25,000, because many moved in with friends or relatives.
Rescue workers continuing their search still held out hope to find somebody alive. Interior Minister Roberto Maroni said the rescue efforts would likely continue until Easter Sunday, beyond the period originally indicated by Berlusconi.
"It all depends on the conditions, if the person under the rubble has any air or water," Cristian Martinez, from the Spanish rescue organization Unidad Canina, said as his dogs ran across a pile of rubble that had once been a four-story building in L'Aquila.
Martinez explained that his dogs, which have been sent across the world after quakes and other catastrophes, "would bark if they found a live body and would start digging if they found a dead body."
So far, the dogs had found no signs of any living human beings in the debris.
"But we don't give up hope," said Martinez, adding that his dogs had once found somebody alive 11 days after a quake in Pakistan.
On Tuesday, rescue officials pulled a young woman alive from a collapsed building about 42 hours after the main quake struck the mountainous region.
Eleonora Calesini, a 20-year-old student, was found alive in the ruins of the five-story building in central L'Aquila.
Officials said some 10,000 to 15,000 buildings were either damaged or destroyed in the 26 cities, towns and villages around L'Aquila, a city of 70,000 that is the regional capital of Abruzzo.
Teams started inspecting some buildings still standing Wednesday, including an 18th-century church in downtown L'Aquila, which had been damaged in the quake. Teams also began surveying houses to see if residents can move back in, Berlusconi said.
http://apnews.myway.com/article/20090408/D97EA01O0.html

From another news source and amazing recued person, what she did until rescued
Another of those rescued today was Maria D’Antuono, 98, who said that she had spent 30 hours knitting as she waited to be freed from her ruined home.

So much for being 5 years away
Iran to say mastering final stage of nuclear cycle
TEHRAN (Reuters) – President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is expected to announce Iran has mastered the final stage of nuclear fuel production when the Islamic state celebrates its National Nuclear Day on Thursday.
"I will have good nuclear news for the honored Iranian nation tomorrow (April 9)," Ahmadinejad said on Wednesday in a televised speech at the central city of Isfahan.
Foreign nuclear analysts believe Tehran has yet to prove it has mastered industrial-scale enrichment of uranium, the key to making fuel in large, usable quantities and the most technically difficult aspect of churning out nuclear energy.
Tehran has slowly expanded its Natanz enrichment plant in defiance of U.N. resolutions demanding it stop over concerns Tehran's goal is atomic bombs, something it denies.
But analysts expected Ahmadinejad to say that Iran has perfected the last of several phases of fuel output.
"A possible announcement will be production of natural uranium pellets (in Isfahan) for Iran's Arak heavy water reactor and also production of fuel rods and assembling rods into bundles," said an analyst who asked not to be named, citing the issue's political sensitivities. "It is the final stage in a long process to produce nuclear fuel."
The nuclear fuel cycle includes mining and milling of uranium ore, uranium enrichment, fabrication and use of nuclear fuel, reprocessing of used fuel, and disposal or management of radioactive waste or unreprocessed spent fuel.
In a February 19 report, the International Atomic Energy Agency said it could not verify Iran's planned Arak heavy water reactor was being designed only for peaceful uses because Tehran had been denying visits by IAEA inspectors since August.
CONCERNS OVER HEAVY-WATER REACTOR
The report said Iran's fuel fabrication plant in Isfahan had begun producing fuel rods and that a process line for making uranium pellets was ready for operations.
Tehran says the Arak complex will be geared to making only isotopes for medical care and agriculture.
Western powers fear Iran may configure the Arak reactor to derive plutonium from spent fuel rods as another possible source of bomb-grade fuel, besides its Natanz uranium enrichment plant, which is under daily IAEA surveillance.
Iran's student news agency ISNA said, without giving a source, that Ahmadinejad would inaugurate the nuclear fuel manufacturing facility.
Nuclear energy chief Gholamreza Aghazadeh said in 2007 that Iran had produced and tested fuel pellets of enriched uranium.
Iran has long been working on its uranium enrichment capability to fuel its developing nuclear power program.
The U.N. Security Council has so far issued three sanctions resolution against Tehran for defying its demand to suspend all activities related to enrichment and fuel reprocessing, which could also be turned to producing nuclear weapons.
Iran, the world's fourth largest oil exporter, says its nuclear program is only aimed at generating electricity.
U.S. President Barack Obama is striving for a "new beginning" in bilateral ties with Iran and could play a role in mending bridges almost three decades after Washington severed all relations soon after Iran's 1979 Islamic revolution.
Iran has responded cautiously to the overture, saying Washington must show real policy change toward Iran. "If you (Obama) say you are after change ... change your method, change your literature and your way," Ahmadinejad said.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20090408/wl_nm/us_iran_nuclear

Everything is fine Russia say they are not a threat to us, so all is well. After all we have Russia's word on it.
Iran poses no threat to US: Russia
Iran poses no threat to the United States, Russia said Tuesday, rebuffing a key argument of President Barack Obama on whether to go ahead with a European missile shield bitterly opposed by Moscow.
Former president George W. Bush had infuriated Russia by striking a deal to install 10 missile interceptors in Poland and related radar stations in the Czech Republic, saying they were needed to counter "rogue states" such as Iran.
The Obama administration says it is reviewing the shield project, studying whether it is militarily justified and cost effective.
But Sergei Kislyak, the Russian ambassador to the United States, said that the Iran threat was a myth.
"I don't see any threat to the United States coming from Iran anytime soon," Kislyak told a conference of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.
He said the shield in the former Soviet bloc nations also failed to cover all of the NATO alliance.
"It didn't accomplish a single stated goal that we were told was the reason to deploy. If that was the case, that means there was something else behind this," Kislyak said.
Western nations widely suspect that Iran is developing nuclear weapons, although Obama has also reached out to try to repair relations with the Islamic republic.
Kislyak said that Russia was encouraged by Obama's approach. Under Bush, Russia engaged in some of the harshest rhetorical attacks on the United States since the Cold War.
"We sense that the American administration is willing at least to engage in serious discussions and we welcome this," he said.
"We are looking forward to these discussions because things which have been developing so far were of great concern to us," he said.
Russian President Dmitry Medvedev hailed Obama as "my new comrade" after their first face-to-face talks last week, saying the new president "can listen."
Obama also met on his recent European trip with leaders of Poland and the Czech Republic who pressed him to go ahead with the missile shield.
http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=CNG.89f94643ff57e11b42acfa11b92f8e26.fd1&show_article=1

Pirates hijack ship with 20 Americans onboard
By Daniel Wallis
NAIROBI (Reuters) - Somali pirates hijacked a U.S.-flagged, Danish-owned container ship on Wednesday with 20 American crew on board in a major escalation in attacks at sea off the Horn of Africa nation, officials said.
Andrew Mwangura, coordinator of the Mombasa-based East African Seafarers' Assistance Program, told Reuters the 17,000 ton Maersk Alabama had been seized off Mogadishu far out in the Indian Ocean, but all its crew were believed to be unharmed.
Denmark's A.P. Moller-Maersk confirmed that the U.S.-flagged Maersk Alabama had been attacked by pirates about 500 km (300 miles) off Somalia and had probably been hijacked. The company said it had 20 American crew on board.
A spokesman for the U.N.'s World Food Program (WFP) in Nairobi told Reuters that among the vessel's cargo were 232 containers of WFP relief food destined for Somalia and Uganda.
In the latest wave of pirate attacks, gunmen from Somalia seized a British-owned ship on Monday after hijacking another three vessels over the weekend.
In the first three months of 2009 just eight ships were hijacked in the Gulf of Aden, which links the Indian Ocean to the Red Sea and is used by ships traveling between Europe and Asia.
Last year, heavily armed Somali pirates hijacked dozens of vessels, took hundreds of sailors hostage -- often for weeks -- and extracted millions of dollars in ransoms.
MORE ATTACKS
Foreign navies rushed warships to the area in response and reduced the number of successful attacks. But there are still near-daily attempts and the pirates have also started hunting further afield near the Seychelles.
On Monday, they hijacked a British-owned, Italian-operated ship with 16 Bulgarian crew on board.
Over the weekend, they also seized a French yacht, a Yemeni tug and a 20,000-tonne German container vessel. Interfax news agency said the Hansa Stavanger had a German captain, three Russians, two Ukrainians and 14 Filipinos on board.
The Maersk Alabama is owned and operated by Maersk Line Ltd, a Norfolk, Virginia-based subsidiary of A.P. Moller-Maersk and the world's biggest container shipper.
A Moller-Maersk spokesman said it had been transporting general goods to Mombasa from Djibouti when it was attacked.
The pirates typically launch speed boats from "mother ships," meaning they can sometimes evade warships patrolling the strategic shipping lanes and strike far out to sea.
They then take captured vessels to remote coastal village bases in Somalia, where they have usually treated their hostages well in anticipation of a sizeable ransom payment.
Pirates stunned the shipping industry last year when they seized a Saudi supertanker loaded with $100 million worth of crude oil. The Sirius Star and its 25 crew members were freed in January after $3 million was parachuted onto its deck.
Last September, they seized a Ukrainian cargo ship carrying 33 Soviet-era T-72 tanks and other heavy weapons. It was released in February, reportedly for a $3.2 million ransom.
Many of the pirates are based in northern Somalia's semi-autonomous Puntland region, where the authorities called on Wednesday for more funds to tackle the gangs onshore.
"It's better for the international community to give us $1 million to clear out the pirates on the ground, instead of paying millions of dollars to keep the warships at sea," Puntland's security minister, Abdullahi Said Samatar, told Reuters.
http://www.reuters.com/article/topNews/idUSTRE53721Z20090408

Update on the latest Samonella
FDA: Recall of tainted pistachio nuts far from over
The recall last week of 2 million pounds of pistachios because of concerns about salmonella contamination has been expanded, and federal officials say more recalls of foods containing pistachios are on the horizon.
Setton Pistachio of Terra Bella, the California company that is the nation's second-largest processer of pistachios, originally had recalled all of its pistachios harvested since September.
The recall was expanded this week to cover Setton's entire 2008 crop, except for raw in-shell pistachios. Most pistachios sold in stores are roasted.
Setton spokeswoman Fabia D'Arienzo said she did not know how many pounds of pistachios were involved in the expanded recall.
"This is going to resemble the peanut recall in that products are going to be added every day as companies discover they used Setton pistachios," says Caroline Smith DeWaal of the non-profit Center for Science in the Public Interest. "It's going to take a while for the dust to settle."
Products are still being recalled that contained peanuts or peanut paste produced by the Peanut Corp. of America, the processor tied to a salmonella outbreak this year that sickened almost 700 people.
No illnesses from pistachio consumption have been reported. The salmonella was detected in testing by an Illinois foodmaker that buys from Setton.
Setton had been processing raw and roasted pistachios on the same production lines without adequate cleaning between uses, says David Acheson, the FDA's associate commissioner for foods, adding: "Not a good idea." A Setton official said earlier that roasted pistachios may have picked up salmonella from contact with raw nuts.
Federal and state inspectors have found salmonella in the plant, including on machines used to feed pistachios through the production line.
"There were a number of other factors that demonstrated a lack of microbiological control in the facility," Acheson says.
The FDA is telling consumers and industry to not use any pistachios or foods with pistachios unless the agency can confirm that the products do not contain nuts recalled by Setton. In addition to selling in the USA, Setton sold to Canada, Korea, Hong Kong, Germany, Australia, Switzerland, the United Kingdom, France, Cyprus, Greece, Lebanon, Norway, Ukraine and Ecuador.
Setton did not respond to detailed questions, but Acheson says it's his impression that the company is "really busting to try to clean up the facility."
The FDA has fast-tracked research into one possible solution. The chemical propylene oxide was proven an effective pasteurization method for almonds in 2004 after salmonella outbreaks in almonds alerted growers and producers to the risk of bacterial contamination.
There is no proven process in pistachios for using propylene oxide, but FDA has a contract with the University of California-Davis to create one and hopes to have at least initial information within a month, Acheson says.
Customers can call Setton Pistachio at (888) 228-3717 for more information.
http://www.usatoday.com/news/health/2009-04-07-pistachio-salmonella_N.htm

Eeyore's News and View

Iranian nuke plot vaporized in the city: NY banks unwittingly aided in material transfers, says DA
The Manhattan district attorney's office has smashed a sinister plot to smuggle nuclear weapons materials to Iran through unwitting New York banks, the Daily News has learned.
Officials plan to unseal a 118-count indictment Tuesday accusing a Chinese national of setting up a handful of fake companies to hide that he was selling millions of dollars in potential nuclear materials to Tehran.
"This case will cut off a major source of supply to Iran and it shows how they are going ahead full steam to get a nuclear bomb. Long-range missiles they pretty much have already," a law enforcement source close to the case said.
"We think it is one of the largest suppliers of weapons of mass destruction to Iran."
Experts say Iran, under the leadership of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, appears close to amassing enough nuclear material to make an atom bomb. A United Nations embargo bans Iran from acquiring the high-tech metals needed to make a long-range nuclear weapon a reality.
The indictment will outline the financial conspiracy behind 58 different transactions, including shipments of various banned materials from China to Iran between 2006 and late 2008.
Among them:
33,000 pounds of a specialized aluminum alloy used almost exclusively in long-range missile production.
66,000 pounds of tungsten copper plate, which is used in missile guidance systems.
53,900 pounds of maraging steel rods, a superhard metal used in uranium enrichment and to make the casings for nuclear bombs.
The recipient is believed to have been a subsidiary of the Iranian Defense Ministry.
The suspect, who is not believed to be in the U.S., set up four bogus import-export companies that did business with six Iranian shell firms, one source said.
"They took elaborate steps to conceal the identity of the shipper and the recipient," the source said.
The deals went through "several" New York banks, which cooperated when the alleged plot was uncovered.
"The New York banks were completely unaware," the source said.
Authorities first stumbled over the scheme seven months ago in an unrelated probe into Iranian money-laundering through Lloyd's, a British bank.
In January, Lloyd's paid a $350 million fine to settle accusations it "stripped" information from Iranian money transfers to New York banks, hiding where the cash came from.
Officials said they suspected that money was also used to finance Iran's nuke program.
"The important thing is to put sunlight on these deals," the law enforcement source said.
http://www.nydailynews.com/news/2009/04/07/2009-04-07_iranian_nuke_plot_vaporized_in_the_city_-2.html

I posted two articles from the 411man, today the first here and the other at the bottom of the page
The Economy Is Contracting A Lot More Rapidly Than The Government Is Reporting, Per TrimTabs
Posted by Tyler Durden at 3:53 PM
TrimTabs is out with their most recent employment data, which compares to the earlier ADP report, that the market forgot about after the first 30 minutes of trading. According to TrimTabs "the U.S. economy lost 700,000 to 750,000 jobs in March as wages and salaries plunged 4.5% year-over-year. TrimTabs estimated that the economy shed 4.3 million jobs in the past 12 months, the largest annual job loss since 1970."
"Job losses have been accelerating in recent months," said Charles Biderman, CEO of TrimTabs. "Investors who think the economy is bottoming out are going to get quite a shock this spring." TrimTabs uses daily income tax withholdings into the U.S. Treasury to estimate changes in employment. According to TrimTabs, the country lost 2.1 million jobs in the past three months and 3.4 million jobs in the past six months.
Much more interestingly, TrimTabs estimates that Joe Schmoe's conviction that the market has bottomed is translating into returns to good ole spending behavior and savings rates are in fact lower than reported, meaning the as savings rates inevitably run up, the pain for the economy will just get so much worse.
TrimTabs reported that the personal savings rate in February was much lower than the 4.2% reported by the Bureau of Economic Analysis. "Real-time income tax data indicates that personal income is plummeting and that the savings rate was no more than 0.9% in February," said Biderman. "The only reason the savings rate was positive was that income tax refunds were up sharply relative to last year."
And to add to the gloom and doom, which Zero Hedge does not disagree with, TrimTabs concludes: "The key macroeconomic and liquidity indicators TrimTabs tracks show no sign of a bottom for the economy. The economy is still contracting a lot more rapidly than the government is reporting."
http://frc4u.org/phpbb/index.php?topic=792.0;topicseen

Salmonella found in central Calif. pistachio plant
April 7, 2009 - 6:39am
FRESNO, Calif. (AP) - Federal officials confirmed Monday they found traces of salmonella in a central California pistachio processing plant that sparked a nationwide recall of the nut.
The Food and Drug Administration said state and federal inspectors discovered the bacteria in "critical areas" at Setton Pistachio of Terra Bella, Inc., the second-largest pistachio processor in the nation.
FDA officials also said they found places at the facility where raw and roasted nuts could have become cross-contaminated with salmonella.
Setton Pistachio, which sells its nuts to Kraft Foods Inc. and 35 other wholesalers across the country, temporarily shut down after voluntarily recalling more than 2 million pounds of nuts last week.
The company expanded its recall on Monday to include all raw and roasted pistachios from its 2008 crop. A company spokeswoman did not immediately return messages seeking further details.
"The company is working closely with the FDA on this matter and is cooperating fully," Setton spokeswoman Fabia D'Arienzo said in a statement. "Setton Pistachio of Terra Bella, Inc. is committed to quality products and consumer safety, and is taking aggressive action to prevent the need for any future recalls."
Federal regulators say consumers should avoid eating pistachios or foods made with the nuts until they can determine that they don't contain any nuts that Setton has recalled. The FDA on Monday also advised wholesalers, retailers, and operators of restaurants and food service establishments against selling or serving any pistachios or pistachio products until they can figure out whether they came from Setton.
No illnesses from consumers eating tainted pistachios have been reported.
The contamination was discovered by a Kraft manufacturer in Illinois, where workers doing routine testing found the bacteria in roasted pistachios about to go into trail mix. Officials traced the source back to the Terra Bella plant that supplied the nuts.
Pistachios are used in everything from ice cream to cake mixes, and the FDA believes more recalls are imminent.
Salmonella, the most common cause of food-borne illness, causes diarrhea, fever and cramping. Most people recover, but the infection can be life-threatening for children, the elderly and people with weakened immune systems.
Roasting is supposed to kill the bacteria in nuts. But problems can occur if the roasting is not done correctly or if roasted nuts are re-contaminated.
http://wtop.com/?nid=104&sid=1637137

Fed announces credit lines with 4 central banks
WASHINGTON (AP) — Five central banks in Europe, Japan and the United States have agreed currency swap lines that enable the Federal Reserve to provide euro, yen, sterling and Swiss francs to U.S. financial institutions, the Fed said Monday.
Under the agreement, the Bank of England, the European Central Bank, the Swiss National Bank and the Bank of Japan would offer their domestic currencies to the Fed for lending to U.S. financial institutions, should the need arise, the Fed said.
The Fed said it will provide up to $45 billion to the Bank of England, $108 billion to the European Central Bank, $99 billion to the Bank of Japan and $35 billion to the Swiss National Bank.
Under currency swap arrangements, which were common last fall when the credit crisis intensified, the Fed provides dollars in exchange for reserves of the other nations' currencies.
The credit lines are intended to improve credit conditions in global financial markets by increasing the international availability of U.S. dollars.
http://www.usatoday.com/money/economy/2009-04-06-fed-swap_N.htm

Found this one Posted by 411man at FRC
World Bank President Admits Agenda For Global Government http://www.infowars.com/world-bank-president-admits-agenda-for-global-government/
Paul Joseph Watson Prison Planet.com
Wednesday, April 1, 2009
World Bank President and Bilderberg elitist Robert Zoellick openly admitted the plan to eliminate national sovereignty and impose a global government during a speech on the eve of the G20 summit.
Speaking about the agenda to increase not just funding but power for international organizations on the back of the financial crisis, Zoellick stated, “If leaders are serious about creating new global responsibilities or governance, let them start by modernising multilateralism to empower the WTO, the IMF, and the World Bank Group to monitor national policies.”
In other words, give global institutions the power to regulate national policy as part of the creation of global government.
What Zoellick is outlining is essentially the end of national sovereignty and the reclassification of national governments as mere subordinates to a global authority that is completely unaccountable to the voting public of any country.
The more cynical amongst us would call this a global dictatorship. Zoellick couches the plan in flowery rhetoric of helping the poor and alleviating poverty, but as we have documented for years, the global elite’s goal of world government has little to do with saving the planet and everything to do with creating a global fascist state.
Zoellick, former Executive Vice President of Fannie Mae and advisor to Goldman Sachs, is a top elitist who was intimately involved in the Enron scandal and the 2000 presidential election debacle. He was also a signatory to the Project For A New American century document that called for invading Iraq as part of implementing a brutal world empire in 1998. He was later a foreign policy advisor to George W. Bush.
As to be expected, Zoellick is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and the Trilateral Commission. He also attended the annual invitation-only conferences of the Bilderberg Group in 1991, 2003, 2006 and 2007.
Meanwhile, British Prime Minister Gordon Brown will use the G20 summit in London to extend an olive branch to China, offering them a central role in the construction of a new world order and a global government, according to reports.
“Brown will hold talks with Hu Jintao, China’s president, following discussions with Barack Obama, amid signs that developing countries see the G20 summit as a chance to impose a new world order and end the era of Anglo-European dominance,” reports the Guardian.
Under the proposal, China will vastly increase its IMF funding in return for more voting rights.
A central focus of the G20 summit will be the proposal to supplant the dollar with a new global currency. Both the IMF and the United Nations threw their weight behind the implementation of a new global reserve currency system to replace the dollar, in the same week that Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner told CFR globalists that he was “open” to the idea.
China and Russia brought the issue to the forefront of this week’s G20 when they jointly called for a new global reserve currency a week ago.
Brown has consistently called for global regulation of the financial system as a means towards global governance. In a speech at St Paul’s Cathedral in London yesterday he again called for a new “global society”.
http://frc4u.org/phpbb/index.php?topic=750.0

Eeyores News and View

Blogger claims police search of home was a threat
by Michael Ferraresi - Mar. 19, 2009 12:00 AM
The Arizona Republic
Police officers accused of drunken driving. A female officer's alleged promiscuity and infidelity. A commander whose critics labeled his son a child molester.
Jeff Pataky said he uses negative complaints and anonymous tips to fuel his blogging crusade against Phoenix police. A headline on his Web site suggests rewards would be provided for "dirt" on police indiscretions.
Pataky, a former software sales and marketing executive who now focuses his energy shoveling content on www.badphoenixcops.com, said he believes his online criticism of the department - along with past criticisms of police investigations - led officers to serve a search warrant at his home last week.
Police officials said Wednesday that a Phoenix detective prompted the investigation after complaining about harassment, though they declined further comment.
Pataky said he felt the investigation was a response to a lawsuit he filed on Monday in U.S. District Court saying he was maliciously prosecuted by police in 2007 after his ex-wife accused him of harassment, a case later dropped. In his lawsuit he's asking for an unspecified amount for damages. City officials declined to comment on pending litigation.
Pataky's blog is known in law-enforcement circles for its off-color language that, according to the blogger, is aimed at Phoenix Police Chief Jack Harris, Maricopa County Andrew Thomas and other public officials.
"Too bad. They need to get over it," Pataky said. "They are held to a higher accountability."
Pataky said he edits the blog and works with four or five people who receive tips from a variety of sources, including sworn and retired officers.
Investigators confiscated computer material and other items from Pataky's north Phoenix home, which he considered a threat to quit writing.
"We have heard internally from our police sources that they purposefully did this to stop me," Pataky said. "They took my cable modem and wireless router. Anyone worth their salt knows nothing is stored in the cable modem."
Phoenix Assistant Chief Andy Anderson said the harassment case is unique because of the connection to an unaccredited grassroots Web site. He said the blog is one part of the case, though he did not provide specifics of the ongoing investigation.
"This isn't about the blog," Anderson said. "That's just where the investigation led."
Police also served a separate search warrant at the home of former homicide Detective David Barnes, one of the investigators on the "Baseline Rapist" case.
Barnes was demoted from the homicide unit to patrol after he went public one year ago with claims of mismanaged evidence at the city's crime lab.
Mark Spencer, president of the Phoenix Law Enforcement Association, said he was concerned about questionable probable cause to enter Barnes' house. The union, which claims no affiliation with Pataky's blog, will represent Barnes through the internal investigation.
http://www.azcentral.com/arizonarepublic/local/articles/2009/03/19/20090319copsblog0319.html
Silvio Berlusconi threatens news blackout after reports of latest gaffes
The Italian premier has accused newspapers and television stations of slandering him and damaging the country's reputation by highlighting his alleged faux pas.
He said he was considering taking "hard measures" against reporters, without specifying what that might entail.
On Saturday Mr Berlusconi was accused of snubbing German Chancellor Angela Merkel by turning his back on her and talking on his mobile telephone as Nato leaders gathered for a group photograph on a bridge spanning the Rhine.
As Mrs Merkel waited to receive heads of state on a red carpet, the Italian premier wandered off with his mobile telephone pinned to his ear.
Mr Berlusconi later insisted he had been talking to his Turkish counterpart, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, in an attempt to convince him to drop Ankara's objections to Danish leader Anders Fogh Rasmussen being named Nato secretary general.
It was the second gaffe in almost as many days. At the G20 summit on Thursday in London, Mr Berlusconi boisterously shouted a greeting to US President Barack Obama during a photo shoot, apparently earning a rebuke from the Queen, who turned round in apparent annoyance and said: "Why does he have to shout?"
An exasperated and angry Mr Berlusconi said he was fed up with the way the media treated him and threatened a news blackout. "I will no longer talk to you. I am working for Italy while you work against it. I will no longer give news conferences."
He later added: "Enough with this. Go to the devil! This is slander towards me and disinformation to newspaper readers.
"I don't want to say that I'm calling for direct and tough action towards certain newspapers and members of the press. But frankly I'm tempted. One shouldn't behave like this," said Mr Berlusconi.
"The Italian press, with their stories of my gaffes, harm the reputation of Italy. The story of my gaffe with Queen Elizabeth is absurd. And now the same thing with Mrs Merkel. I said to her 'I'm talking to Erdogan' and she said 'Go ahead, go ahead'.
"The Italian press seems to have no other objective than to say that I made bad impressions or gaffes."
The president of an Italian journalists' union, Roberto Natale, described Mr Berlusconi's remarks as "words of an unprecedented seriousness".
The National Press Federation's secretary, Franco Siddi, said: "When journalists report on the basis of observed facts, they are doing their duty. They cannot be accused of disloyalty or, worse than that, slander."
An Italian political analyst, Nando Pagnoncelli, said that while Mr Berlusconi may be regarded as an embarrassment by his political opponents, his clowning and sense of humour is well received by his right-wing supporters.
His antics "raise eyebrows in the public opinion of the Left, (but) they are endearing to the Right," Mr Pagnoncelli told La Repubblica newspaper.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/italy/5110631/Silvio-Berlusconi-threatens-news-blackout-after-reports-of-latest-gaffes.html

Communities print own currencies to keep cash flowing
A small but growing number of cash-strapped communities are printing their own money.
Borrowing from a Depression-era idea, they are aiming to help consumers make ends meet and support struggling local businesses.
The systems generally work like this: Businesses and individuals form a network to print currency. Shoppers buy it at a discount — say, 95 cents for $1 value — and spend the full value at stores that accept the currency.
Workers with dwindling wages are paying for groceries, yoga classes and fuel with Detroit Cheers, Ithaca Hours in New York, Plenty in North Carolina or BerkShares in Massachusetts.
Ed Collom, a University of Southern Maine sociologist who has studied local currencies, says they encourage people to buy locally. Merchants, hurting because customers have cut back on spending, benefit as consumers spend the local cash.
"We wanted to make new options available," says Jackie Smith of South Bend, Ind., who is working to launch a local currency. "It reinforces the message that having more control of the economy in local hands can help you cushion yourself from the blows of the marketplace."
About a dozen communities have local currencies, says Susan Witt, founder of BerkShares in the Berkshires region of western Massachusetts. She expects more to do it.
Under the BerkShares system, a buyer goes to one of 12 banks and pays $95 for $100 worth of BerkShares, which can be spent in 370 local businesses. Since its start in 2006, the system, the largest of its kind in the country, has circulated $2.3 million worth of BerkShares. In Detroit, three business owners are printing $4,500 worth of Detroit Cheers, which they are handing out to customers to spend in one of 12 shops.
During the Depression, local governments, businesses and individuals issued currency, known as scrip, to keep commerce flowing when bank closings led to a cash shortage.
By law, local money may not resemble federal bills or be promoted as legal tender of the United States, says Claudia Dickens of the Bureau of Engraving and Printing.
"We print the real thing," she says.
The IRS gets its share. When someone pays for goods or services with local money, the income to the business is taxable, says Tom Ochsenschlager of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants. "It's not a way to avoid income taxes, or we'd all be paying in Detroit dollars," he says.
Pittsboro, N.C., is reviving the Plenty, a defunct local currency created in 2002. It is being printed in denominations of $1, $5, $20 and $50. A local bank will exchange $9 for $10 worth of Plenty.
"We're a wiped-out small town in America," says Lyle Estill, president of Piedmont Biofuels, which accepts the Plenty. "This will strengthen the local economy. ... The nice thing about the Plenty is that it can't leave here."
http://www.usatoday.com/money/economy/2009-04-05-scrip_N.htm

Sounds more and more like his predecessor all the time
Obama declares US not at war with Islam
April 6, 2009 - 11:19am
ANKARA, Turkey (AP) - Barack Obama, making his first visit to a Muslim nation as president, declared Monday the United States "is not and will never be at war with Islam."
Urging a greater partnership with the Islamic world in an address to the Turkish parliament, Obama called the country an important U.S. ally in many areas, including the fight against terrorism. He devoted much of his speech to urging a greater bond between Americans and Muslims, portraying terrorist groups such as al Qaida as extremists who do not represent the vast majority of Muslims.
"Let me say this as clearly as I can," Obama said. "The United States is not and never will be at war with Islam. In fact, our partnership with the Muslim world is critical ... in rolling back a fringe ideology that people of all faiths reject."
The U.S. president is trying to mend fences with a Muslim world that felt it had been blamed by America for the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.
At a news conference earlier with President Abdullah Gul, Obama dealt gingerly with the issue of alleged genocide committed by Turks against Armenians during World War I. He urged Turks and Armenians to continue a process "that works through the past in a way that is honest, open and constructive."
Al Jazeera and Al Arabiyia, two of the biggest Arabic satellite channels, carried Obama's speech live.
"America's relationship with the Muslim world cannot and will not be based on opposition to al Qaida," the president said. "We seek broad engagement based upon mutual interests and mutual respect."
"We will convey our deep appreciation for the Islamic faith, which has done so much over so many centuries to shape the world for the better, including my own country," Obama said.
The president spoke for about 25 minutes from a small white-marble-and-teak rostrum in the well of a vast, airy chamber packed with Turkish lawmakers in orange leather chairs.
Except for a few instances of polite applause, the room was quiet during his speech. There was a more hearty ovation toward the end when Obama said the U.S. supports the Turkish government's battle against PKK, which both nations consider a terrorist group, and again when he said America was not at war with Islam. Lawmakers also applauded when Obama said the United States supports Turkey's bid to join the European Union.
Earlier, Obama said he stood by his 2008 assertion that Ottoman Turks had carried out widespread killings of Armenians early in the 20th century, but he stopped short of repeating the word "genocide."
Gul said many Turkish Muslims were killed during the same period. Historians, not politicians, Gul said, should decide how to label the events of those times.
In his 2008 campaign, Obama said "the Armenian genocide is not an allegation," but rather "a widely documented fact supported by an overwhelming body of historical evidence."
Now that he is president, the genocide question may not be Obama's best issue for taking a tough stand that antagonizes a key ally. It is important in U.S. communities with large numbers of Armenian-Americans, but it has a low profile elsewhere.
In his speech to the parliament Monday, Obama said the United States strongly supports the full normalization of relations between Turkey and Armenia. He also noted that the United States "still struggles with the legacy of our past treatment of Native Americans."
And the president also urged Turkey to help Israel and Palestine live "side by side in peace and security."
Obama's visit is being closely watched by an Islamic world that harbored deep distrust of his predecessor, George W. Bush.
In talks with Gul, and Turkey's prime minister, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Obama hoped to sell his strategy for melding U.S. troop increases with civilian efforts to better the lives of people in Afghanistan and Pakistan.
At end of meeting later in the day with Erdogan, Obama said: "Turkey is a critical strategic partner of the United States, not just in combating terrorism but in developing the kind of ecnoomic links, cultural links and political links that I think will help the world prosper."
Obama recognized past tensions in the U.S.-Turkey relationship, but said things were on the right track now because both countries share common interests and are diverse nations. "We don't consider ourselves Christian, Jewish, Muslim. We consider ourselves a nation bound by a set of ideals and values," Obama said of the United States. "Turkey has similar principles."
Obama's trip to Turkey, his final scheduled country visit, ties together themes of earlier stops. He attended the Group of 20 economic summit in London, celebrated NATO's 60th anniversary in Strasbourg, France, and on Saturday visited the Czech Republic, which included a summit of European Union leaders in Prague.
Turkey has the largest army in NATO after the United States. It and tiny Albania, recently admitted, are the only predominantly Muslim members of NATO.
Turkey opposed the war in Iraq in 2003 and U.S. forces were not allowed to go through Turkey to attack Iraq. Now, however, since Obama is withdrawing troops, Turkey has become more cooperative. It will be a key country after the U.S. withdrawal in maintaining stability, although it has long had problems with Kurdish militants in north Iraq.
Turkey maintains a small military force in Afghanistan, part of the NATO contingent working with U.S. troops to beat back the resurgent Taliban and deny al-Qaida a safe haven along the largely lawless territory that straddles Afghanistan's border with Pakistan. Turkey's participation in fighting Islamic extremism carries enormous symbolic importance to the Muslim world, and Turkey has diplomatic leverage with Pakistan and Afghanistan.
http://wtop.com/?nid=116&sid=1638387

Eeyore's news and view

Here are three of the many gun uses by criminals that will help the government usher in the most devastating gun laws we have ever seen. The first two also used body armour, that will also be taken from the citizen next or maybe at the same time.
Gunmen Kills Three Pittsburgh Police Officers PITTSBURGH (KDKA/AP) ―
Police officers leave the scene of a shooting April 4, 2009, in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
A man opened fire on officers during a domestic disturbance call Saturday morning, killing three of them, a police official said.
Friends said 23 year-old Richard Poplawski feared the Obama administration was poised to ban guns.
Three officers were killed.
Police planned to release more details at a 3 p.m. news conference Saturday.
Poplawski was arrested after a several-hour standoff.
One witness reported hearing hundreds of shots.
The shootings occurred just two weeks after four police officers were fatally shot March 21 in Oakland, Calif., in the deadliest day for U.S. law enforcement since Sept. 11, 2001.
Poplawski's friends at the scene described him as a young man who thought the Obama administration would ban guns.
One friend, Edward Perkovic, said Poplawski feared "the Obama gun ban that's on the way" and "didn't like our rights being infringed upon."
Another longtime friend, Aaron Vire, said he feared that President Obama was going to take away his rights, though he said he "wasn't violently against Obama."
Perkovic, a 22-year-old who said he was Poplawski's best friend, said he got a call at work from him in which he said, "Eddie, I am going to die today. ... Tell your family I love them and I love you."
Perkovic said: "I heard gunshots and he hung up. ... He sounded like he was in pain, like he got shot."
Vire, 23, said Poplawski once had an Internet talk show but that it wasn't successful.
Vire said his friend had an AK-47 rifle and several powerful handguns, including a .357 Magnum.
Another friend, Joe DiMarco, said Poplawski had been laid off from his job at a glass factory earlier this year.
DiMarco said he didn't know the name of the company, but knew Poplawski had been upset about losing his job.
The officers were called to the home in the Stanton Heights neighborhood at about 7 a.m.
Tom Moffitt, 51, a city firefighter who lives two blocks away, said he heard about the shooting on his scanner and came to the scene, where he heard "hundreds, just hundreds of shots. And not just once - several times."
Rob Gift, 45, who lives a block away, said he heard rapid gunfire as he was letting his dog out.
He said the neighborhood of well-kept single-family houses and manicured lawns is home to many police officers, firefighters, paramedics and other city workers.
"It's just a very quiet neighborhood," Gift said.
http://kdka.com/local/officers.shot.Stanton.2.975820.html

FAILED LIFE FOR KILLER 'COWARD'
The lunatic behind the Binghamton massacre was a pathetic, gun-loving coward who got divorced, lost his job and was driven to depression because he could barely speak English after many years in the United States, officials and people who knew him said yesterday.
His life in the pits, Jiverly Wong, 41, became a regular at Gander Mountain, a sporting goods store, in the six months leading up to the rampage, buying and returning as many as six guns after firing each a few times.
Wong -- who has a daughter in California, according to a coworker -- would get agitated when staffers had trouble with his broken English.
"He would get frustrated," Dave Henderson, who taught a class at the store, told the Press & Sun Bulletin of Binghamton. "There was times I wouldn't even talk to him anymore."
It was not clear if that was where he bought the two guns found on his body after Friday's massacre: 9mm and .45-caliber pistols.
His former co-workers at the ShopVac vacuum-cleaner assembly facility were equally frustrated by his communication problems, and were worried about his gun-loving ways.
On Mondays, when asked about his weekends, Wong routinely replied, "I went to a shooting range," said ex-colleague David Carrico, 18.
"He liked shooting guns. I was worried he would come into work one day, get angry and shoot us all."
It wasn't until five months after his November firing from ShopVac that he finally did snap -- but he directed his rage elsewhere, at the language school from which he essentially flunked out.
Wong on Friday picked up a pair of guns, hoisted a bulging sack of ammunition and marched maniacally into the American Civic Association, killing 13 people before turning the gun on himself. Another four victims remain hospitalized, but are expected to survive.
A clearer picture emerged yesterday of Wong's tale of woe before his grisly end.
The last 10 years of his sorry life included cocaine addiction, a bank-heist plan that never came to fruition, a divorce and lost jobs in New York and California.
Wong -- who at one point changed his last name to Voong, and also sometimes went by the name Linh -- was born in Vietnam to an ethnic Chinese family.
He came to the United States in the early 1990s with his family and became a naturalized citizen.
Wong quickly wound up in trouble, as court records in Los Angeles show that he was charged with forgery in 1992. It's not clear what became of the case. His family finally settled in Binghamton.
He got a gun permit in the mid-1990s.
New York officials investigated him in 1999 after an informant said that he was planning to rob a bank and had a "crack or cocaine" habit, Binghamton Police Chief Joseph Zikuski said. Nothing came of the allegations.
A couple of years later, Wong left for California, where he got a job driving a delivery truck for Kikka Sushi and lived in a cheap Inglewood motel. At the fleabag pay-by-the-month joint -- near the airport with bars on the windows -- all he had in his room was a bed and a 52-inch TV, fellow tenant Eric Sherman told The Post.
"All he would do is sit inside his apartment and chain-smoke," he said. "He didn't talk much and I just thought he didn't talk because he didn't really speak English."
Los Angeles court records also show that Wong was married. He was divorced in July 2005.
That was quickly followed by his abrupt departure from Kikka Sushi -- and the West Coast altogether.
Wong complained he was disgruntled at the company, where he made $500 per week.
Back in Binghamton, Wong was able to hold down a steady job at ShopVac until he was laid off, but was again upset over his low pay.
"I work so hard, but they only pay me $8 an hour," he complained to colleague Donald Ackley.
He was also tormented by some coworkers and sat alone in the lunchroom.
"Sometimes they picked on him a little bit," he said. "They would say, 'It's wrong, it's Wong, it's wrong, it's Wong.' "
Depressed and angry, he tried to better himself in the area where he was most vulnerable: his lack of English skills. He enrolled in an intermediate-level class at the association.
But once again he failed by hardly bothering to show up.
"His attendance was so erratic, he was dropped," said Elisabeth Hayes, his English teacher, who was out on vacation on the day of the massacre. Her substitute, Roberta King, 72, wound up dead.
"This was a nasty act of irrationality. Why did he have to do that?" Hayes asked. "We could have been there for him if he needed support. The class was kind to him.
"It's a true American nightmare."
In his final months, Wong -- who wore a hearing aid, according to driving records -- was miserable, surviving on $200 in unemployment benefits and living in his parents' gritty home.
By the time he was ready to commit his cold-blooded crime, the only place he found solace was at a gym, a pal said.
"He seemed a little depressed," said Son Quach, a grocery-store owner who had worked out with him at the Court Jester gym in nearby Johnson City.
He also griped about a recent break-up with his girlfriend, but would not elaborate.
Wong was inconsolable and often whined about his "bad luck."
"We picked up that apparently people were making fun of him and he felt that he was being degraded because of his inability to speak English and he was upset about that," Zikuski said.
The police chief said Wong's suicide was his final act of failure.
Police believe Wong planned to go out in a blaze of glory in a gunfight with cops, but got cold feet when he heard sirens and put a bullet between his eyes.
"He must have been a coward," Zikuski said.
"We speculate that when he heard the sirens, he decided to end his own life. He was heavily armed, had a lot of ammunition on him and, thank God, before more lives were lost, that he decided to do that."
http://www.nypost.com/seven/04052009/news/nationalnews/failed_life_for_killer_coward_162952.htm
Murder Of 5 Children Shocks Wash. Trailer Park
Children, Ages 7 To 16, Found Dead In Home; Father's Body Found Miles Away
GRAHAM, Wash. (AP) ―
KIRO-TV Local Coverage Authorities were still puzzling Sunday over what might have driven a man to slaughter his five children inside their home.A single bouquet of flowers was left on a cinder block Sunday morning at the mobile home where the children were slain, apparently by their father, 34-year-old James Harrison, who also took his own life.The neighborhood was quieter Sunday morning. The dozens of investigators who swarmed the scene after the bodies were discovered Saturday had gone.A few people drove slowly past in the neatly kept mobile home, in a quiet park nestled among towering evergreens. The home's front yard was still littered with toys: bicycles, a swing set, a trampoline and a basketball hoop."How could something like this happen?" asked Mary Ripplinger, whose kids were playmates of the slain children. "Everyone's asking: Why did he do it? It's not right."A relative visiting the family's doublewide trailer at the Deer Run mobile home park Saturday couldn't get anyone to answer the door but looked through a window and glimpsed a child lying motionless on a bed.Pierce County deputies called to the home 15 miles southeast of Tacoma found four children murdered in their beds and the fifth slain in the bathroom. The four girls and the youngest child, a 7-year-old boy, apparently had been shot."This was not a tragedy. It was a rotten murder," Pierce County Sheriff Paul Pastor said. "This appears to be the terrible work of the biological father. If that doesn't break your heart, I don't know what does."Earlier Saturday, police found Harrison dead in his still-running car near the Muckleshoot Casino in Auburn, about 18 miles north of Graham and 30 miles south of Seattle.He had apparently killed himself with a rifle, Auburn Police Sgt. Scott Near said. No note was left in the car.The mother's aunt, Penny Flansburg, identified the couple as Angela and James Harrison and the children as Maxine, Samantha, Heather, Jamie and James. Harrison worked as a diesel mechanic and his wife works at Wal-Mart, Flansburg said.She was at a loss to explain the crime."They were pleasant together," Flansburg said. "We can't even figure out why."Ryan Peden, a classmate of the eldest daughter, who was 16, said she told him Friday night that her parents had gotten into a fight and her mother had left. The father followed the mother and tried to get her to return, said Peden, 16.Carolyn and Raymond Bader, former neighbors of the family, told The Seattle Times they often heard the father yelling at the children. The Baders said they called the sheriff's department and Child Protective Services several times with their concerns."We did all we could to help these kids," Raymond Bader said. "We tried to protect these kids. We did what we could."
http://cbs3.com/national/father.kids.dead.2.976262.html

This is an email i received just this past week, kind of goes a long with the first three articles, so take it for what it is worth
Here they go...please send this to everybody on your list...
Blair Holt Firearm Licensing & Record of Sale Act of 2009.
Very Important for you to be aware of a new bill HR 45 introduced into
the House.
This is the Blair Holt Firearm Licensing & Record of Sale Act of 2009.
Even gun shop owners didn't know about this because it is flying under
the radar.
To find out about this - go to any government website and type in HR 45
or Google HR 45 Blair Holt Firearm Licensing & Record of Sales Act of
2009. You will get all the information.
Basically this would make it illegal to own a firearm - any rifle with
a clip or ANY pistol unless:
• It is registered
• You are fingerprinted
• You supply a current Driver's License
• You supply your Social Security #
• You will submit to a physical & mental evaluation at any time of
their choosing
• Each update - change or ownership through private or public sale must
be reported and costs $25 - Failure to do so you automatically lose
the right to own a firearm and are subject up to a year in jail.
• There is a child provision clause on page 16 section 305 stating a
child-access provision. Gun must be locked and inaccessible to any
child under 18.
They would have the right to come and inspect that you are storing your
gun safely away from accessibility to children and fine is punishable
for up to 5 yrs. in prison.
If you think this is a joke - go to the website and take your pick of
many options to read this. It is long and lengthy. But, more and more
people are becoming aware of this. Pass the word along. Any hunters in
your family - pass this along.
Peter Boyles is on this and having guests. Listen to him on KHOW 630
a.m. in the morning. He suggests the best way to fight this is to tell
all your friends about it and "spring into action". Also he suggests
we all join a pro-gun group like the Colorado Rifle Association,
hunting associations, gun clubs and especially the NRA.
This is just a "termite" approach to complete confiscation of guns and
disarming of our society to the point we have no defense - chip away a
little here and there until the goal is accomplished before anyone
realizes it.
This is one to act on whether you own a gun or not.
If you take my gun, only the criminal will have one to use against me.
HR 45 only makes me/us less safe. After working with convicts for 26
years I know this bill, if passed, would make them happy and in less
danger from their victims.

http://thomas..loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/z?c111:H.R.45:

http://www.opencongress.org/bill/111-h45/show

http://www.govtrack.us/congress/bill.xpd?bill=h111-45

You know that this was an honest mistake. The only way that it would have been a crossed line with Ms. Clinton's line if it would have been a lesbian sex line.
Reporters call Hillary Clinton, get phone sex line" (CNN) – Journalists who dialed in to a White House conference call Thursday hoping for a media-friendly reception got a far friendlier response than they were counting on.
Instead of hearing Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and National Security Advisor Jim Jones on the other end laying out foreign policy and security threats, reporters were greeted by a recording on a phone sex line.
"Do you have any hidden desires? If you feel like getting nasty, then you came to the right place," said a suggestive-sounding woman.
The White House says an aide merely mistyped the 800-dial in number — a mistake not likely to happen again.
It's a new administration, but an old problem: Some homeowners seeking mortgage relief from a Bush administration hotline in 2007 instead reached a Texas-based group that provides Christian education after President Bush slightly jumbled the correct number at a press briefing.
http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2009/04/02/reporters-want-hillary-clinton-get-phone-sex-line/

Last week my boy Hugo is hugging Irans president and now he is going to China, he is trying to become a big player and is worth watching.
Venezuela's Hugo Chavez to visit China
April 5, 2009 - 2:50pm
BEIJING (AP) - Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez will pay a two-day visit to China starting Tuesday, the Foreign Ministry in Beijing said.
No other details of the visit were given in a brief ministry statement issued Sunday, although Chavez has said he plans to hold talks with Chinese President Hu Jintao.
Venezuela sees China as a partner in diversifying oil sales away from the United States, which buys about half the South American nation's heavy crude despite political tensions. The two countries plan to build four oil tankers and three refineries in China capable of processing Venezuelan crude.
China and Venezuela have invested in a $12 billion fund to finance joint development projects in areas including oil production, infrastructure and agriculture and to boost Venezuelan oil exports to China from 330,000 barrels to 1 million barrels a day by 2015.
The visit by Chavez follows a sweep through the Middle East last week, including a stop in Iran where he said on Wednesday that he has little hope of better relations with Washington under President Barack Obama because the United States was still acting like an "empire" in his eyes.
http://wtop.com/?nid=111&sid=1642602