20 May 2011, Tokyo Electric Power Company says they will resume nitrogen injection in Fukushima Daiichi’s reactors 2 and 3. There is a fear that hydrogen gas is building to explosive levels.
The explosions of the reactor buildings, back in March, is blamed on hydrogen gas build up. TEPCo also said they were installing lead shields in Reactor 3, because of extremely high radiation levels.
Scotland has oil, lots of it. And the Scottish people say they’re tired of the English controlling it. After all they were told they would benefit, but they haven’t. Scottish rebels point to Norway as an example: “Scotland and Norway discovered oil at the same time. Some years ago, Scotland was turned into an industrial desert and Norway has transformed its society and its economy, they have billions in the bank, whereas we have seen ours wasted on missiles and weapons of mass destruction and illegal wars.”-Kenny MacAskill, Scottish Justice Minister
The recent Scottish elections saw the Scottish National Party dominate. The SNP ran on a promise to make Scotland independent: “We have been elected with two mandates: one is to pursue our claim for an independent Scotland in the right for a referendum. Equally, we have been elected as a government to make Scotland a better place and we seek to do that by driving our economy forward and making our country a fairer, greener, safer, wealthier and healthier.”-Kenny MacAskill
President Barak Obama wants to write off $1 billion in debts that Egypt owes the U.S. Then he wants to give Egypt another $1 billion in credit!
Here’s two reasons taxpayers of the United States should be pissed off: According to the U.S. Department of State: “U.S. military aid to Egypt totals over $1.3 billion annually.” And: “…the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) has provided over $28 billion in economic and development assistance to Egypt since 1975.”
In other words Egypt is getting a deal that no creditor will give the average U.S. citizen! Forgive our debts AND give us money? Obama is playing with our tax money! Why can’t he use our tax money to give us a break?
Canadian Imperial Oil (a subsidiary Exxon Mobil Corp) has massive equipment, called modules, stuck in Lewiston, Idaho. They need to get it to their Kearl oil sands project in northern Alberta, Canada.
The problem is their size. Idaho Transportation Department has yet to approve transportation of the equipment through Idaho, one of the problems is that the modules won’t fit under any overpasses in Idaho. Oil company officials say they will have to cut them in half.
In Montana, there are lawsuits to stop the transportation through its territory. Montana officials say the size of the Imperial Oil equipment will require burial of overhead power lines, upgrading existing roads and building new turnouts (who’s gonna pay for that?). Montana environmentalists say the company needs to do an environmental impact assessment.
Imperial Oil is complaining that their construction schedule is being compromised. Maybe they should have worked this out before hand?
Imperial Oil does not have a good business track record, or a good safety track record. Recently they’ve apologized for the release of a mile-long plume of sulfur dioxide, in Ontario, Canada.
The J.A. and Kathryn Albertson Foundation is donating $21 million to help fund the Idaho SchoolNet program.
The Albertson Foundation is a supporter of current Idaho education reforms. They felt the donation was necessary after state legislators cut taxpayer funding for the SchoolNet program.
The Foundation says the $21 million donation is part of a total $25 million grant for the next school year.
“Those whose certificates are suspended or revoked can no longer be employed by an Idaho public school.”-Tom Luna, Superintendent of Public Instruction
Idaho Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Luna, is warning educators they could lose their jobs if they continue to use public property to promote their personal politics.
Luna claims his office has received reports that teachers are using school district emails to campaign against the state’s new education policy. He also claims (and I have a daughter in school who can testify to this) that teachers are “proselytizing” in the classroom concerning political activities, and using students as political couriers.
A teacher who does so is in violation of state policies, and could result in losing their job, or teaching certificate.
State Legislator Brian Cronin thinks Luna is threatening the teachers: “I think the superintendent is using fear and intimidation to stifle the opposition.”
Other education officials say Luna’s statement came after his office got flooded with complaints from parents: “We’ve received phone calls and emails with complaints from parents and legislators and others about this happening in their schools and we wanted to send a reminder to school districts about this provision in the code of ethics. It really honestly was a reminder because we’ve received so many phone calls.”-Melissa McGrath, Department of Education
Voice of America reporting that farms along the Mississippi flood zones are destroyed. Some farmers were able to harvest some of their crops before the flooding.
Many farmers did not have crops to harvest, but were about to plant, and now that’s not going to happen: “…this is unprecedented because of the amount of water that is backed up and out over areas that normally do not flood.”–Randy Ouzts, Horizon Ag
One of the biggest U.S. exports are crops. The harvest is shipped to New Orleans, on barges that sail the Mississippi river. Ouzts says getting the harvested crops out could be a problem: “The issue we are having at the moment is wheat delivery, and also fertilizer and fuel deliveries, and the problem is loading. The facilities were not built to accommodate this much water.”
Israeli media reporting that Facebook group Third Palestinian Intifada, is calling for a massive pro-Palestine demonstration after Friday prayers, May 20.
Reports say Palestinians in Gaza and West Bank are planning to demonstrate as well.
Four of the U.K.’s biggest unions say they will hit the streets with at least 800,000 angry workers and taxpayers, on June 30.
They will protest the massive social cuts their government has enacted. Union officials say the government austerity cuts has actually driven more Britons into the ranks of the unions.
“It remains the case that a way must be found for us to leave nuclear power behind as soon as possible.”-Norbert Rottgen, Environment Minister
Because of the ongoing nuke disaster reactor at Japan’s Fukushima Daiichi plant, Germany ordered ‘worst case scenario’ testing of all its nuclear plants. They all FAILED!
The report was published by Der Spiegel. It was discovered that all of Germany’s nuke plants lack the “required safety features” to withstand a level three disaster. Not only that, but four of the plants failed simulations involving small aircraft crashing into them.
The highest safety standard rating for nuclear plants in Germany, is a level three rating. The report says most of the plants can’t even meet level two safety standards.