News items from Citizens for Legitimate Government

From: “CLG_News” <•••@••.•••>

Subject: 5.1 magnitude quake hits Japan 80km from Fukushima nuclear plant

Date: December 31, 2013 9:15:21 AM GMT

To: “CLG News” <•••@••.•••>

Breaking News and Commentary from Citizens for Legitimate Government
31 Dec 2013
http://www.legitgov.org/
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5.1 magnitude quake hits Japan 80km from Fukushima nuclear plant 31 Dec 2013 A shallow 5.1-magnitude earthquake has hit eastern Japan, the US Geological Survey says, but there are no local reports of any damage. The quake hit at 10.03am (1203 AEDT) in Ibaraki prefecture, 146 kilometres northeast of Tokyo, the agency said. The tremor was 9.9 kilometres deep, USGS said. Located roughly 80 kilometres southwest of the Fukushima nuclear plant, the quake was strong enough to gently rock high-rise buildings in the capital.

 

Japan’s homeless recruited for Fukushima radiation clean-up 29 Dec 2013 Seiji Sasa hits the train station in this northern Japanese city before dawn most mornings to prowl for homeless men. The men in Sendai Station are potential laborers that Sasa can dispatch to contractors in Japan’s nuclear disaster zone for a bounty of $100 a head. This is how Japan finds people willing to accept minimum wage for one of the most undesirable jobs in the industrialized world: working on the *35 billion, taxpayer-funded effort to clean up radioactive fallout across an area of northern Japan larger than Hong Kong.

 

Bald eagle deaths in Utah alarm; Fukushima radiation possible cause – wildlife officials –Deaths of at least 20 bald eagles in northern and central Utah in recent weeks worry scientists, who are struggling to find the cause. 28 Dec 2013 Bald eagles are dying in Utah — 20 in the last few weeks alone — and nobody can figure out why. Earlier this month, hunters and farmers across five counties in northern and central Utah began finding the normally skittish raptors lying, listless, on the ground…Officials at the Wildlife Rehabilitation Center have their own theories about the sickness. Some point to radiation from Japan after the 2011 meltdown[s] at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant.

 

Secret pre-Iraq War talks between Blair and Bush to be published 30 Dec 2013 Tony Blair and George Bush exchanged voluminous correspondence prior to the start of military operations in Iraq. Now, the UK is moving to declassify details of the talks for an inquiry into Britain’s involvement in the conflict, British media reported. The release, set for the upcoming year, is expected to include more than 100 documents, described as a collection of notes, records of 200 minutes of ministerial level talks, telephone conversations and private meetings between the British prime minister and American president [sic], The Independent reported. This will give the green light for the Chilcot Iraq Inquiry to publish an account of the conflict, where much attention will be given to decisions made by then Prime Minister Tony Blair.

 

US announces six drone test sites 30 Dec 2013 The US aviation regulator has announced the six states that will host sites for testing commercial use of drones. The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) picked Alaska, Nevada, New York, North Dakota, Texas and Virginia. The sites are part of a programme to develop safety [Yeah, right!] and operational rules for drones by the end of 2015.

 

ACLU sues for details of U.S. surveillance under executive order 30 Dec 2013 The American Civil Liberties Union filed a lawsuit Monday seeking to force the U.S. government to disclose details of its foreign electronic surveillance program and what protections it provides to Americans whose communications are swept up. The lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court in New York, came three days after the ACLU lost a bid to block a separate program that collects the phone calls of millions of Americans…The lawsuit follows a series of requests to U.S. agencies for the information under the Freedom of Information Act, which it said have not resulted in substantive responses.

 

British Ex-Spy Launches Fund to Support Whistleblowers Like Snowden 29 Dec 2013 (Hamburg) A new foundation to support whistleblowers is being launched by former British intelligence agent Annie Machon, whose resignation and revelations about U.K. spying activities in the 1990s sparked controversy echoing this year’s NSA news. Speaking at the Chaos Communication Congress (CCC) here, Machon said the foundation would be called the Courage Fund to Protect Journalistic Sources. Machon’s experience in the 1990s in some senses prefigured what sources such as Edward Snowden and Chelsea Manning are going through today.

 

Russia: Suicide attack takes death toll to 31 31 Dec 2013 Olympic chiefs are monitoring the safety and security situation in Russia after a second suicide bomb hit the city of Volgograd, killing at least 14 people. The suicide bombing on a trolleybus in the southern Russian city of Volgograd came a day after 17 people died in another suicide attack at the central station in the city…The security zone created around Sochi stretches approximately 60 miles along the Black Sea coast and up to 25 miles inland.

 

Second blast in Russia’s Volgograd city kills 10 30 Dec 2013 At least 10 people were killed when a bomb blast ripped through a trolleybus on Monday in the second deadly attack in the Russian city of Volgograd in two days, law enforcement authorities said. The explosion came a day after a suicide bomber killed at least 17 people in the main railway station of the southern city 40 days before Russia is to hold the Winter Olympics in the Black Sea resort of Sochi.

 

Colorado school shooter entered through propped-open door –Arapahoe County Sheriff Grayson Robinson said he did not know who had left the door open that day. 30 Dec 2013 The teenager who [allegedly] fatally shot a fellow student at his suburban Denver high school this month entered through a door that was supposed to be locked but had been propped open, the sheriff said Monday. Karl Pierson, 18, was [allegedly] carrying a shotgun, more than 125 shotgun shells, a machete and three homemade firebombs, investigators say. The door was one of the few new details released Monday at a news conference on the investigation into the Dec. 13 assault on Arapahoe County High School in the southern suburb of Centennial.

 

Police kill suspect wanted in cop’s death; he also threatened Obama 29 Dec 2013 A gun battle outside a Phoenix bank over the weekend ended with the death of a suspected serial bank robber accused of killing a police officer and wounding another in a previous heist in Mississippi, officials said Sunday. According to federal court records, the man also had threatened to kill President Obama in 2010 and was ordered by a judge to receive mental health treatment…Mario Edward Garnett, 40, was released from prison July 19 for the threat against Obama, according to U.S. prison records.

 

U.S. Officials Urging Evacuation Near ND Derailment 31 Dec 2013 Authorities are evacuating part of a North Dakota town near the scene of a fiery oil train derailment. Cass County Sheriff’s Sgt. Tara Morris says as many as 300 Casselton residents may be evacuated. BNSF Railway Co. says it believes about 20 cars caught fire after its oil train left the tracks about 2:10 p.m. Monday.

 

How’s that deregulation workin’ for ‘ya? Train explodes in North Dakota, residents of Casselton urged to evacuate 31 Dec 2103 Authorities have urged residents to evacuate a town in North Dakota after a 1.6-kilometre train carrying crude oil derailed and exploded. The Cass County sheriff’s office said on Monday night it was “strongly recommending” that the 2,400 residents of Casselton and anyone living 8km to the south and east evacuate. The sheriff’s office said the National Weather Service was forecasting a shift in the weather that would push down a plume of smoke from the train wreck, which could increase the risk to health.

 

Mercury levels rising in expanse around Alberta oilsands 29 Dec 2013 Mercury wafting out of oilsands operations is impacting an area – or “bull’s-eye” – that extends for about 19,000 square kilometres in northeast Alberta, according to federal scientists. Levels of the potent neurotoxin found near the massive industrial operation have been found to be up to 16 times higher than “background” levels for the region, says Environment Canada researcher Jane Kirk, who recently reported the findings at an international toxicology conference. Mercury can bioaccumulate in living creatures and chronic exposure can cause brain damage.

 

‘Cheap’ nuclear power a myth, suggests economist –San Onofre site to continue costing consumers millions per year 29 Dec 2013 The long-touted economic benefits of using nuclear energy may turn out to have been a pipe dream for customers of the San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station (CA) and other nuclear plants nationwide, according to newly released findings from economic analyst Mark Cooper of the Vermont Law School Institute for Energy and the Environment. Missing from calculations regarding the true cost of nuclear energy, Cooper says, are the dollars spent by consumers dealing with the long-term storage of radioactive waste generated by power plant reactors…There are three ways the public pays for nuclear waste, Cooper said in comments submitted to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission on December 16.

 

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