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LSD Pickard Russian coercion
A man charged with laundering money for William Leonard Pickard - a former Mill Valley man convicted of running a massive LSD lab inside a defunct Kansas missile silo - says his indictment should be dismissed because federal authorities relied on witness statements coerced by Russian agents.
Stefan Wathne, a wealthy New York-raised Icelander, was arrested in New Delhi last year on a federal grand jury indictment from San Francisco. The indictment charges Wathne with conspiring to launder the proceeds from Pickard's LSD lab between spring 1996 and November 2000.
Pickard, a Harvard graduate and former drug policy researcher at the University of California, was convicted in 2003 of possession with the intent to distribute and conspiracy to manufacture and distribute LSD. Pickard was sentenced to life in prison; an accomplice, Sunnyvale resident Clyde Apperson, was sentenced to 30 years.
Pickard and Wathne, who moved to Moscow after graduating from Harvard, met in the mid-1990s through a Harvard friend. Unbeknownst to Wathne, according to defense attorneys, Pickard agreed to pay the mutual friend a 10 percent commission for any drug proceeds he could launder through Wathne.
"In 1999, Pickard became the assistant director of UCLA's Drug Policy Analysis Program," Karen Snell, an attorney for Wathne, wrote in a recent motion. "It is the government's theory that Pickard funded his position by giving approximately $140,000 to Stefan Wathne, who then gave it to two Russian businessmen, who sent it to UCLA as 'donations' to support Pickard's work."
As federal investigators pursued the case, they contacted Russian authorities for their assistance in locating Wathne and interviewing potential witnesses. According to defense attorneys, a team of U.S. investigators traveled to Russia and allowed Russian agents to detain and interrogate Wathne and numerous witnesses according to their own harsh and coercive standards.
"The use of beatings, intimidation and blackmail to gain confessions is widely understood to be common throughout Russia," Snell said. "As a result, abuse is both feared and expected by nearly every Russian who finds himself in police custody in whatever capacity."
The American investigators used the information gathered by the Russians to prepare their case for the U.S. grand jury without telling the jurors how it was obtained, according to Wathne's lawyers. As a result of this prosecutorial misconduct, defense attorneys said, Wathne's constitutional rights were violated and the indictment should be dismissed.
A hearing on the motion to dismiss the indictment is scheduled for Aug. 12 before Chief Judge Vaughn Walker of U.S. District Court in San Francisco.
"We have no comment," said Josh Eaton, a spokesman for the U.S. attorney's office in San Francisco.
Wathne, whose family owns a prosperous high-end apparel company, is free on $5 million bail.
Pickard was a champion of education and freedom, when his lab was busted he had enough LSD to dose everyone in the world twice, and enough raw material to make the same amount again. His work changed the lives and minds of Millions of people around the world. He deserves a presidential pardon. A man charged with laundering money for William Leonard Pickard - a former Mill Valley man convicted of running a massive LSD lab insi... more -
Study confirms six degrees of separation
"six degrees of separation has been largely corroborated by a massive study"
The "small world theory," embodied in the old saw that there are just "six degrees of separation" between any two strangers on Earth, has been largely corroborated by a massive study of electronic communication.
With records of 30 billion electronic conversations among 180 million people from around the world, researchers have concluded that any two people on average are distanced by just 6.6 degrees of separation, meaning that they could be linked by a string of seven or fewer acquaintances.
The database covered all of the Microsoft Messenger instant-messaging network in June 2006, or roughly half the world's instant-messaging traffic at that time, researchers said.
"To me, it was pretty shocking. What we're seeing suggests there may be a social connectivity constant for humanity," said Eric Horvitz, a Microsoft researcher who conducted the study with colleague Jure Leskovec. "People have had this suspicion that we are really close. But we are showing on a very large scale that this idea goes beyond folklore."
In recent years, the massive databases yielded by cell phone records have been exploited by researchers to better understand human movements and social networks. Stripped of text messages and personally identifiable information, the records indicate users' location and patterns of contact.
Enter Kevin Bacon
The Microsoft research focused on the popular concept that has inspired games such as Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon and a well-known play by John Guare. A "degree of separation" is a measure of social distance between people. You are one degree away from everyone you know, two degrees away from everyone they know, and so on.
But proof of the theory has been thin.
Its origins lie in the work done in the '60s by Stanley Milgram and Jeffrey Travers. In an oft-cited 1969 work, they put the figure at 6.2, though they never referred to it as "degrees of separation."
Their finding was based on asking 296 people in Nebraska and Boston to send a letter through acquaintances to a Boston stockbroker.
The subjects were told to send the letter to an acquaintance who could best advance the letter to the target, but most failed: Only 64 of the original 296 letters reached the stockbroker. Of those letter chains that were complete, the average number of degrees of separation was 6.2. The high failure rate, and the possibility that the incomplete chains reflected much more distant relationships, led some to question the results. Also, all of the subjects were in the United States. What would happen if the test was expanded to the planet?
Takes off worldwide
The idea was taken up again, this time on a global scale, by Columbia University researchers in a 2003 report of an e-mail experiment. More than 24,163 volunteers agreed to try to send an e-mail through acquaintances to one of 18 target persons in 13 countries. Only 384 of those 24,163 letter chains were completed. Of those completed chains, the average number of steps was 4, and using statistical techniques, the researchers estimated that the average length in all of the chains was between five and seven steps. Still, it was an estimate.
The Microsoft Messenger project, which was presented at a technical conference in Beijing in April, went further.
Click for related content
Newsvine: Discuss your 'small world' experiences
"To our knowledge, this is the first time a planetary-scale social network has been available to validate the well-known '6 degrees of separation' finding by Travers and Milgram," the researchers said.
For the purposes of their experiment, two people were considered to be acquaintances if they had sent one another a text message. They found that the average length was 6.6 steps and that 78 percent of the pairs could be connected in seven hops or less. "six degrees of separation has been largely corroborated by a massive study" ... more -
Florida bank closed by FDIC - Aug. 1, 2008
Federal regulators closed Florida's First Priority Bank on Friday, marking the eighth bank failure of the year.
The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp., which was named the receiver of the failed bank, entered into an agreement with Atlanta-based SunTrust Bank (STI, Fortune 500) to assume the insured deposits of First Priority.
All six branches of the Bradenton, Fla.-based bank will reopen on Monday as branches of SunTrust. First Priority depositors will automatically become depositors of SunTrust, the FDIC said.
First Priority had assets of $259 million and total deposits of $227 million, according to the FDIC. That includes $13 million in uninsured deposits held in approximately 840 accounts that potentially exceeded the federal insurance limits.
Account holders with more than the $100,000 insured limit will essentially "become a creditor" of the failed bank, said FDIC spokesman Andrew Gray.
Those accounts will be credited as the FDIC sells more of the failed bank's assets, Gray said.
SunTrust Bank will purchase approximately $42 million of the failed First Priority's assets, which are made up of mainly cash, cash equivalents and securities.
And LNV Corp. of Plano, Texas, a subsidiary of Beal Bank Nevada, will purchase $14 million in First Priority's assets.
The remaining $171 million in assets will be sold by the FDIC. Proceeds of these sales will be used to pay creditors including bank clients whose accounts exceed the $100,000 limit. Federal regulators closed Florida's First Priority Bank on Friday, marking the eighth bank failure of the year. ... more -
Criminals in the Justice Department
Justice Officials Repeatedly Broke Law on Hiring.
Former Justice Department counselor Monica M. Goodling and former chief of staff D. Kyle Sampson routinely broke the law by conducting political litmus tests on candidates for jobs as immigration judges and line prosecutors, according to an inspector general's report released todayGoodling passed over hundreds of qualified applicants and squashed the promotions of others after deeming candidates insufficiently loyal to the Republican party, said investigators, who interviewed 85 people and received information from 300 other job seekers at Justice. Sampson developed a system to screen immigration judge candidates based on improper political considerations and routinely took recommendations from the White House Office of Political Affairs and Presidential Personnel, the report said.
Goodling regularly asked candidates for career jobs: "What is it about George W. Bush that makes you want to serve him?" the report said. One former Justice Department official told investigators she had complained that Goodling was asking interviewees for their views on abortion, according to the report.
Taking political or personal factors into account in employment decisions for career positions violates civil service laws and can run afoul of ethics rules. Investigators said today that both Goodling and Sampson had engaged in "misconduct."
The improper personnel moves deprived worthy candidates of promotions and damaged the credibility of the Justice Department, investigators wrote. An experienced counterterrorism prosecutor, for example, was kept from advancing in favor of a more junior lawyer who lacked a background in terrorism. The procedures imposed on immigration judge candidates caused serious delays in appointing judges at a time when the courts suffered under a heavy workload, the report said.
Goodling, who resigned in 2007 amid a scandal over the department's politicized hiring, is a central figure in the long-running investigation into the way politics infused decision-making at the department. Sampson, who had served as a top aide to former Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales, also left the department last year and now works at a law firm in the Washington area. . Justice Officials Repeatedly Broke Law on Hiring. ... more -
Record '09 Deficit of $482 Billion
White House forecasts deficit of $389 Billion in 2008
The Bush administration forecasts the nation's budget deficit will hit $389 billion this year, increasing to a record $482 billion next year, reflecting shrinking tax revenue brought on by a weakened economy.
The projected budget shortfall in the fiscal year ending Sept. 30 is $21 billion less than President George W. Bush forecast five months ago while next year's shortfall is expected to come in 18.4 percent higher than the $407 billion in the earlier projection.
``These projected deficits are both manageable and temporary if spending is kept in check, the tax burden remains low and the economy continues to grow,'' White House Budget Director Jim Nussle said in the report delivered to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Democrat of California.
``Despite the recent slower economic growth'' brought on by declines in the housing market, disruptions in the credit markets and higher food and energy prices, ``the nation's economy has continued to expand and remains fundamentally resilient,'' the report said.
Even so, the White House lowered its forecast for U.S. economic growth this year and next. The budget office said the gross domestic product is being reduced to a 1.6 percent rise this year, compared with a 2.7 percent increase estimated five months ago.
Next year, the economy may expand 2.2 percent, instead of the 3 percent increase projected in February. White House forecasts deficit of $389 Billion in 2008 ... more -
San Bernardino 19,000 Plants Seized
Four individuals were arrested today and 5,600 marijuana plants were seized from five homes in San Bernardino, Riverside and Los Angeles counties as part of an investigation into clandestine indoor marijuana grow operations.
Today’s arrests and seizures are the result of a year-long investigation that has led to the discovery and dismantling of 33 clandestine indoor marijuana grow operations and the seizure of more than 19,000 marijuana plants.
Each of the indoor grows was similar in construction and was bypassing local utility meters and stealing electricity to support growing operations. Entire houses were converted into marijuana grow operations. As part of the grows, carpets throughout the houses were pulled up and stored in walk-in closets; holes were cut through floors, ceilings, walls, and doors to accommodate electrical wires, water lines, and ventilation duct work; every room contained either growing marijuana plants or, in the case of closets and bathrooms, light ballasts, extra chemical supplies, and fertilizer; windows had drywall covering them on the inside, as did any sliding glass doors. Most of the homes identified in this investigation were located in new construction areas and were purchased for $500,000-$800,000.
Each grow house was capable of generating, based on average plant counts found during the execution of search warrants, approximately $3 million a year. Based upon the number of clandestine indoor grows identified in this investigation, it is estimated these growing operations had the potential to generate more than $60 million annually in illegal drug proceeds.
Search warrants were conducted at the following residences today:
• 14015 Seven Hills Drive, Riverside, California (grow operation)
• 7422 Cobble Creek Drive, Corona, California (grow operation)
• 20460 Tam O’ Shanter Drive, Walnut, California (grow operation)
• 10084 Klingerman Street, South El Monte, California
• 4916 Glickman Ave, Unit B, Temple City, California
• 1766 Mozart Street, Los Angeles, California
• 14271 Larkspur Street, Hesperia, California (grow operation)
• 1743 Cross Gateway Street, Hemet, California (grow operation)
Those arrested today are:
• Jennifer Zhang, 44, of Temple City
• Sehn Nguyen, 41, of Los Angeles
• Quan Vi To, 51, of El Monte
• Sang Vong Din, 47, of Temple City
Those arrested today are expected to make their initial court appearances this afternoon in United States District Court in Los Angeles.
CONTACT: DEA Public Information Officer Sarah Pullen
(213) 621-6827
Sarah.e.pullen@usdoj.gov
U.S. Attorney Office spokesman Thom Mrozek
(213) 894-6947
Thom.mrozek@usdoj.gov
I posted their names if there are any lawyers out there that want to help these people.
Join the conversation and make your thoughts known by commenting below. Four individuals were arrested today and 5,600 marijuana plants were seized from five homes in San Bernardino, Riverside and Los Angel... more -
McCain blames high oil on Obama
Apparently the whole reason we're in this oil crisis is because of one man ! ! !
According to this add endorsed by Senator John McCain we have Barack Obama to blame for our energy crisis.
In wanting to remain impartial on this issue I am asking you to comment below and join the conversation. What do you think about this latest video? Apparently the whole reason we're in this oil crisis is because of one man ! ! ! ... more -
The DEA's rent control
THE DRUG ENFORCEMENT Administration has notified more than 150 Los Angeles property owners that their fortunes and their sacred honor are forfeit to the state. What crime must a landlady commit to deserve this punishment? Renting to a tenant who operates a medical marijuana dispensary. The DEA sent out letters last week notifying owners that they stand to lose their properties and face 20 years in prison for allowing their buildings to be used for "unlawfully distributing or using a controlled substance."
The only good news in this deplorable new bullying tactic by the federal drug cops is that if you're a property owner, your least-bad option is fairly clear. You can honor the will of California voters, allow the dispensary to stay and lose your property, or you can evict the tenant and risk a costly lawsuit. You're better off taking your chances with the lawsuit, although the DEA will not admit this. A representative of the agency's L.A. office uses the Orwellian phrase "these letters were merely to educate property owners," but concedes that in fact the letters serve to weaken the legal position of landlords.
That's because the Civil Asset Forfeiture Reform Act of 2000 specifies that landlords must have provable knowledge of drug activities to be subject to asset forfeiture. The DEA's letter-writing campaign establishes that paper trail, while coyly avoiding giving property owners any advice about what to do. The agency confirms, however, that the "long-term goal" is to get landlords to evict dispensaries. Nor is this strictly a private property matter; public property is at risk, as the city of West Hollywood found out a few years ago when the DEA seized $300,000 the city had provided to help purchase a building for a dispensary.
As they have for the last several years, Reps. Dana Rohrabacher (R-Huntington Beach) and Maurice D. Hinchey (D-N.Y.) are sponsoring an amendment that would kill funding for federal efforts to preempt state medical marijuana initiatives, and although Congress should in general avoid this kind of procedural finagling, it would at least halt the DEA's efforts to thwart the will of voters and legislatures in 12 states. And if the DEA refuses to listen, Congress should consider doing away with civil asset forfeiture altogether THE DRUG ENFORCEMENT Administration has notified more than 150 Los Angeles property owners that their fortunes and their sacred honor ... more -
Doors guitarist becomes addiction counselor
Marc Benno once played with psychedelic rockers The Doors, but these days he's helping people find sobriety.
The Texas guitarist who played on The Doors' "LA Woman" album and whose own band featured a young Stevie Ray Vaughan, has opened a private chemical dependency clinic focused on helping artists and performers.
Benno, who started drinking at age 13 and got sober at age 41, said drugs and alcohol eliminated some of the opportunities he had as a musician.
"It was the '60s, Woodstock. You felt left out if you didn't drink and take drugs. There was a lot of peer pressure, and I tried everything," said Benno.
The 61-year-old began working as a counseling intern several years ago before deciding to open his own practice in Kerrville. Marc Benno once played with psychedelic rockers The Doors, but these days he's helping people find sobriety. ... more -
Marijuana addiction
News from Narconon - TransWorldNews press release. It's not an ad or an anti-drug article ... Read it ...
Marijuana is addictive!
Narconon is an international drug rehabilitation organisation which claims a presence in 26 countries around the world. It is involved in a range of anti-drug activities, including lectures to schools, educational programmes and providing residential drug rehabilitation therapy for addicts. It claims extraordinarily high success rates - anything up to 85% - for those undergoing its treatment programme. Narconon is very energetic in publicising its claims and, over the years, it has managed to persuade a number of state and national governments to fund its activities. Founded in 1966, the modern Narconon programme is the work of the late L. Ron Hubbard, the science fiction author and founder of the Church of Scientology. It combines what might be termed his moral philosophy with his theories on the nature of drug addiction and his solutions to the problem, providing a mixture of educational and therapeutic activities.
What is the Narconon programme?
* Narconon's clients go through four stages designed to detoxify their bodies and reform their lives and practices:
Drug-Free Withdrawal - equivalent to "cold turkey", stopping all drug taking and tackling the resulting physical and mental pain with vitamin doses and "assists", a form of spiritual healing.
Therapeutic TRs Course - a series of drills performed with another person which aim to "bring about interaction between the individual and the existing physical universe".
New Life Detoxification Program - an intensive programme of running, massive overdoses of vitamins and very long sauna sessions, designed to "run out" drugs and radiation from the body.
Life Improvement Courses - a series of short courses which aim to improve a person's ability to study, communicate and exercise moral judgements.
* The overall cost of the Narconon programme is a flat fee of about $15,000. It takes between 3 months and up to a year to complete.
"Many baby-boomers recall their younger years fondly," comments Mary Rieser, Executive Director for Narconon Drug Rehab in Georgia. "Part of the culture was the summer of love, and marijuana was passed around freely. As they grew up, and moved on, most left pot behind and became responsible adults.
"They would be in for a shock today. With THC content of modern commercial marijuana in some cases 15 to 20 times more powerful than the marijuana produced in the 60's and 70's, marijuana addiction is a real threat.
"Don't let kids or others fool you: It's not 'just pot' any more. These levels of THC now make marijuana extremely dangerous, extremely powerful, extremely addictive."
Don't get too scared by the rhetoric ... They've convinced our government that it's OK to rehab addicts into their church too.
Post Script:
I think some people were confuse after reading this article. I posted it to dramatize the narco-industrial complex in this country. If only all business could market their products based on lies.
Join the conversation by commenting below. News from Narconon - TransWorldNews press release. It's not an ad or an anti-drug article ... Read it ... ... more -
Hydrogen Fuels Destroy Earth?
Combustion Engines are a problem. Even hydrogen ones. Hydrogen is being touted as the new oil, but I have some questions:
Where Does Hydrogen Come from?
Hydrogen comes from water or from fossil fuels.
* Electrolysis of water - Using electricity, it is easy to split water molecules to create pure hydrogen and oxygen. One big advantage of this process is that you can do it anywhere. For example, you could have a box in your garage producing hydrogen from tap water, and you could fuel your car with that hydrogen.
* Reforming fossil fuels - Oil and natural gas contain hydrocarbons -- molecules consisting of hydrogen and carbon. Using a device called a fuel processor or a reformer, you can split the hydrogen off the carbon in a hydrocarbon relatively easily and then use the hydrogen. You discard the leftover carbon to the atmosphere as carbon dioxide.
What happens when we use up all of our water?
Has anyone posed that question?
We're searching all over the Universe for signs of water.
So what's our brilliant new plan for energy so we can drive and heat our homes?
Lets use up the source of life........ water...... ?
And there's an problem with the math when it comes to electricity to produce the hydrogen.
Where will the electricity for the electrolysis of water come from?
Right now, about 68 percent of the electricity produced in the United States comes from coal or natural gas. All of that generating capacity will have to be replaced by renewable sources in the hydrogen economy. In addition, all of the fossil fuel energy now used for transportation (in cars, trucks, trains, boats, planes) will have to convert to hydrogen, and that hydrogen will be created with electricity, as well. In other words, the electrical generating capacity in the country will have to double in order to take on the demands of transportation, and then it will all have to convert from fossil fuels to renewable sources. At that point, and only at that point, will the flow of carbon into the atmosphere stop.
In the United States, about 20 percent of the power currently comes from nuclear and 7 percent comes from hydroelectric. Solar, wind, geothermal and other sources generate only 5 percent of the power -- hardly enough to matter.
We recall that hydrogen combustion does resolve the environmental problems of fossil fuels due to excessive emission of carcinogenic substances and carbon dioxide. However, hydrogen combustion implies the permanent removal from our atmosphere of directly usable oxygen, a serious environmental problem called oxygen depletion, since the combustion turns oxygen into water whose separation to restore the original oxygen is prohibitive due to cost. We then show that a conceivable global use of hydrogen in complete replacement of fossil fuels would imply the permanent removal from our atmosphere of 2.8875x107 metric tons O2/day. Fuel cells are briefly discussed to point out similarly serious environmental problems, again, for large uses. International Hydrogen Energy Forum 2000, Munich, Germany, September 11-15, 2000 http://www.citebase.org/fulltext?format=application%2Fp...
Please join the conversation by commenting below. Combustion Engines are a problem. Even hydrogen ones. Hydrogen is being touted as the new oil, but I have some questions: ... more -
Mexican military losing drug war support
OJINAGA, Mexico - This hardscrabble Mexican border town welcomed 400 soldiers when they arrived four months ago to stop a wave of drug violence that brought daytime gunbattles to its main street.
But then the soldiers themselves turned violent, townspeople say, ransacking homes and even torturing people.
The frustration boiled over this week. More than 1,000 people marched through the streets carrying signs begging President Felipe Calderon for protection from his own troops.
Ojinaga, across the Rio Grande from Presidio, Texas, is not alone. People in cities on the front lines of Mexico's battle against trafficking say they are increasingly frustrated with military tactics — a shift in opinion that threatens to undermine Calderon's nationwide crackdown.
Reports of abuse
Mexico's National Human Rights Commission says it has documented more than 600 cases of abuse since Calderon sent 20,000 soldiers across the nation to take back territory controlled by drug lords.
Mexico's attorney general argues the cases are isolated incidents. The army says it investigates all allegations and punishes those found to have to violated the law.
But many people say the soldiers have become part of the problem.
A poll published June 30 by the newspaper El Diario of Ciudad Juarez found that only 18 percent of those living in Juarez completely approved of the army's presence. Two months earlier, the number was 65 percent. The poll, by Confirme, had a margin of error of 5 percentage points.
"These guys don't care about anything," said Lalo Lucero, 44, as he watched soldiers in the city detain a neighborhood youth recently. "They came into my house without a warrant, searched through everything and told me to sit on a couch and not say anything."
Battles between rival drug cartels killed 4,000 people nationwide in the first 18 months of Calderon's presidency. At least 10 people have been gunned down this year in Ojinaga, a town of 20,000.
"I'm sure that the army has come here to fight a war against the drug traffickers, and we are very much in agreement with that," said Mayor Cesar Carrasco. "But we also hope that all the authorities will respect the individual rights of every Ojinaga citizen."
Sharing stories
At Wednesday's march, protesters swapped stories of masked soldiers breaking down doors and ransacking homes.
"I'm not against what they do. I'm against how they do it," said Martha Leyva, 44. She said her family was awakened one night in May when soldiers with machine guns but no warrant broke down her door. They said an anonymous call had directed them to her house.
Janeth Lopez, a 28-year-old hairdresser, said she came home last month to find eight masked soldiers rifling through her belongings.
"If they come and knock on the door of your house and you have nothing to fear, you're going to open the door and tell them, 'Come in and look around,'" Lopez said. "But if you're up to no good, you're going to run away."
Case of 'suffering'
Roberto, a 25-year-old man who didn't want his last name used for fear of retribution, said he, five other men and a teenage boy were returning from a nearby town recently when they were stopped by soldiers.
Roberto said they were beaten, bound, blindfolded and taken to a military camp.
He said soldiers wrapped their heads in plastic bags, beat and kicked them, and hung some of the members of the group upside down. Soldiers also forced some of them — including Roberto's 20-year-old cousin — to drop their pants, and then applied pliers to one man's testicles, Roberto said.
"It was always the same question: 'Where did you hide the drugs? Where did you hide the drugs?'" Roberto said. "I told them, 'If I knew, I would say instead of suffering through all this.' "
He said he and his friends were released without charge and reported their detention to human rights officials. OJINAGA, Mexico - This hardscrabble Mexican border town welcomed 400 soldiers when they arrived four months ago to stop a wave of drug... more -
Abandoned mines pose big risks
WASHINGTON - The government has endangered the public's health and safety by failing to clean up abandoned mines on federal land in the West, according to a scathing audit released Friday.
The Interior Department's inspector general found dangerous levels of arsenic, lead and mercury, along with gaping cavities, at dilapidated hard-rock mining sites easily accessible to visitors and residents.
Bureau of Land Management supervisors told staff to ignore the problems, and employees who tried to report contaminated sites were threatened with retaliation, the audit said.
At least 12 people were killed in accidents at abandoned mine sites between 2004 and 2007, and "the potential for more deaths and injuries are ominous," it said.
BLM under fire
The mines are mostly in California, Nevada and Arizona. The California Department of Conservation estimates there are about 47,000 abandoned mines in California. Other surveys have estimated about 500,000 such sites nationwide, where gold, silver, copper, lead and other minerals were mined, often decades ago.
Environmentalists have estimated cleanup costs as high as $72 billion. But the inspector general's audit noted that simple precautions could be taken, such as fences and warning signs. So far, the audit indicates, the Bureau of Land Management has hardly been up to the job.
"BLM's abandoned mines program has long been undermined, neglected and marginalized by poor management practices and insufficient staffing and resources," said the report.
In response, BLM issued a statement defending its abandoned mine program as "highly effective." The statement did not address specific circumstances raised in the audit.
"The BLM has an active program in place to identify and address (abandoned mine land) hazards on its lands," said spokesman Matt Spangler. "The agency worked closely with the IG audit team over the last year in examining the abandoned mine site challenges that it faces. The BLM accepts the IG's recommendations and will work diligently to implement them."
'Quick call to action'
BLM is part of the Interior Department and administers 258 million acres of public land primarily in 12 Western states. The majority of abandoned mine sites within Interior Department jurisdiction are on BLM land.
Last year, 13-year-old Rikki Howard died and her younger sister was injured after they accidentally drove their all-terrain vehicle into an open 125-foot mine shaft near BLM's Windy Point Recreation Area in Kingman, Ariz.
The mine shaft is on a small piece of private property surrounded by BLM land. Only after the accident, BLM provided a fence and warning signs for the site. Yet when auditors visited the area, they found two other deep mine shafts nearby, one unfenced and one only partially fenced, and with no warning signs. WASHINGTON - The government has endangered the public's health and safety by failing to clean up abandoned mines on federal land ... more -
US removes oil giant from Burma sanctions
The US oil giant Chevron will continue to do business in Burma after a provision to stop it operating there was removed from the latest round of US sanctions on the country.
The new sanctions plan, approved yesterday by Congress and expected to receive quick approval from the White House, prevents the sale of Burmese gems and timber in the US via third parties – bringing the US into line with EU and Canadian policy. Profits from those products have enriched Burma's oppressive military regime.
But Congress chose not to sanction Chevron, the largest US business still operating in Burma. An early version of the plan would have forced the company to give up its 28% stake in the Yadana natural gas field, which the regime considers a crucial political priority.
Human rights advocates have linked the Yadana project to ongoing abuses by the regime, including forced labour, rapes and land confiscation to make room for the natural gas pipeline which is slated to run from Burma to Thailand.
The requirement that Chevron leaves Burma was softened to a non-binding recommendation for divestment after the company protested. The US stake in Yadana would be handed over to Chinese or Indian companies if Chevron was forced to sell, the company argued.
The Burma sanctions plan was proposed in Congress last year in response to the regime's bloody quashing of peaceful protests by Buddhist monks and other pro-democracy activists. Not until Cyclone Nargis caused widespread devastation in Burma in May, however, did the legislation move forward.
Howard Berman, the Democratic chairman of the foreign affairs committee in the House of Representatives, lamented that the regime is morally bankrupt "but unfortunately is far from financially bankrupt".
"While the Burmese people live in abject poverty, Burma's military leaders continue to take Burma's vast natural resources as their own," Berman added. The US oil giant Chevron will continue to do business in Burma after a provision to stop it operating there was removed from the lates... more -
Judiciary hearing on Bush "impeachment"
A boisterous crowd has already gathered for today's hearing in the House Judiciary Committee on the case for impeaching Presidnent Bush and Vice President Cheney.
Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D-Ohio) has been leading the charge on the issue, and although Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers (D-Mich.) have said there will be no formal impeachment hearings, they've given Kucinich and his allies a session today to make the case.
There are at least 100 people on line to attend the hearing, and the committee has announced that there will be two "overflow" rooms to accomodate everyone who wants to watch the proceedings.
The crowd is definitely in a festive mood, and appears to be a merging of the anti-Iraq war and Bush-hater crowds, if they aren't already one body anyway.
But the Capitol Police aren't expect a lot of problems during today's session. ""This is a happy crowd," once Capitol Police officer told another as they discussed arrangements for the hearing. "They love what is happening here so it shouldn't be too bad." A boisterous crowd has already gathered for today's hearing in the House Judiciary Committee on the case for impeaching Presidnen... more -
Man threatens to jump from Senate office building
CBS News:
#
"An unidentified man is threatening to jump off the seventh floor of the atrium inside the Hart Senate Office Building. The Capitol Police have sealed off the area and are trying to talk the man off the railing, according to Senate sources.
"The man's identity is unknown but the Capitol Police are reportedly searching for the a Chinese translator... Sen. Barack Obama's (D-Ill.) office is on the seventh floor of the Hart Building."
Update: Roll Call (registration required) ...
#
"A crisis negotiator is on the scene, as are officers from the Metropolitan Police Department and D.C. Fire and Emergency Medical Services, Schneider said. Three men in white coats could also be seen on the atrium floor.
"Dozens of Capitol Police officers have also flooded the building, which is enveloped in an eerie quietness, while staffers continue to leave for the day as if nothing extraordinary is happening."
Update: The Hill ...
#
"Police have dealt with the man previously... declined to comment further until the situation was resolved."
"Police have closed the atrium but have not called for an evacuation."
Update: CBS News ...
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"Update 3: A translator has been found and is talking to the man now.
"Update 4: Capitol Police have now removed all reporters from the Hart Building, saying the Senate has adjourned and the building is officially closed. A press conference is scheduled shortly."
Update: The Hill ...
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"At 10:00 pm, Capitol Police spokeswoman Kimberly Schneider sent out the following information: No changes. Individual remains on the 7th floor railing of the Hart Bldg. USCP Crisis Negotiation Team along with language translators continue to talk to him and work to bring this to a safe conclusion." CBS News: # ... more -
War Video Warning:Graphic
7 years!
I have gathered an exhibition of graphic and bloody videos. 30 in all.
I believe you'll find them sickening and hard to watch.
I encourage you to view as many as possible go gain insight into the issue I'm presenting.
Watch and learn about the reality of war.
Barack Obama and John McCain want this to continue...
How can anyone see the sense or goodness in this.
Please add any links you have.
Let others know your thoughts by commenting below. 7 years! I have gathered an exhibition of graphic and bloody videos. 30 in all. ... more -
McCain attended zero Afghanistan hearings in the passed two years
ABC News reports that McCain has attended zero of his Senate committee's six hearings on Afghanistan in the last two years:
The McCain campaign criticism of Sen. Barack Obama's hearing record on Capitol Hill led us to put the shoe on the other foot.
It turns out that presumptive Republican nominee Sen. John McCain, has attended even fewer Afghanistan-related Senate hearings over the past two years than Obama's one. Which is a nice way of saying, McCain, R-Ariz., the top Republican on the Senate Armed Service Committee, has attended zero of his committee's six hearings on Afghanistan over the last two years...
...The findings are surprising given the fact that the McCain campaign loudly criticized Obama this week for failing to schedule any hearings on Afghanistan in the last year and a half. Obama chairs the European Affairs Subcommittee of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, which has oversight of military operations in Afghanistan.
The American public believes the war in Afghanistan is far more essential to the war on terror than the war in Iraq: 51% believe the U.S. must win the war in Afghanistan to succeed in the war on terror, whereas only 34% feel the same about the Iraq war. ABC News reports that McCain has attended zero of his Senate committee's six hearings on Afghanistan in the last two years: ... more -
Phil Gramm's Porn Past
Phil Gramm's recent disparaging of "a nation of whiners" complaining about a "mental recession" did more than offend the sensibilities of economically struggling Americans. His gaffe also served as a reminder that McCain had appointed one of the most reactionary, venal, and destructive political figures in recent times as his top econ man. By Sunday, the damage to the McCain campaign had grown so severe it announced that Gramm's role had been significantly reduced.
While the destruction Gramm has caused is felt across the country, little is known about the seedy business schemes that preceded his political career. Before Gramm joined the Christian Coalition's Ralph Reed to call for the defunding of the NEA, before he attacked an opponent for taking money from a gay rights group, and before he was interviewed by the white supremacist Southern Partisan magazine, Gramm was an avidly active investor in soft-core pornography movies. Phil Gramm's recent disparaging of "a nation of whiners" complaining about a "mental recession" did more than... more -
Jesse Ventura Tells Larry King That He Is Not Running For Senate In Minnesota (VID...
Jesse Ventura announced on Larry King Live Monday that he would not be running for Senate from Minnesota (although he reserved the right to change his mind if God came and told him to run between Monday and the filing deadline Tuesday at 5pm). Jesse Ventura announced on Larry King Live Monday that he would not be running for Senate from Minnesota (although he reserved the rig... more
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