A murder/suicide in Ammon, Idaho, made news in Iran.
Iranian news outlet, Press TV, aired the story of the murder of two women, two children, and the suicide of the man who shot them. The man is from Iowa, and tried to set the house on fire before shooting himself.
Iranian media picked up the story after the British news outlet, Reuters, ran the story.
An Idaho political commentator was interviewed by Iranian PressTV, which aired on May 13.
Controversial Mark Glenn, high school teacher turned political commentator, stated that United States foreign policy is controlled by corporate America, and Israel: “…with Tel Aviv as well we have to keep in mind that this is a two-headed beast, it’s not just the U.S. and her political/business interests.”
Glenn also said that corporate capitalism and true democracy are not compatible: “Where there is freedom as far as capitalism goes where there is true freedom to choose, capitalism cannot thrive. Capitalism as much as we are told it is a supporter of a free market and competition, in true essence it is not. We do not want the people to have the opportunity to choose for themselves to make choices in their own best interests and so America at the highest political level is not in the least bit interested to have any form of democracy- it is the iron fist in a velvet glove.”
Events in the Middle East and North Africa will only make the U.S. government more aggressive: “…if the U.S. and Israel manage to lose control of these governments in that part of the world they are going to up the ante as the saying goes and they are going to apply even more desperate measures to maintain the kind of control that they have enjoyed…”
Starting in 2012, Florida will cut back the maximum number of weeks that unemployed people can collect benefits.
This is not to save the state money, but the corporations. Like Idaho, companies in Florida are the ones who pay into the unemployment system. Florida lawmakers said by reducing the number of weeks a person can collect benefits, it will reduce the cost to the companies paying into the unemployment plan.
In Idaho, companies actually get a refund at the end of the year, if they don’t have over a specific number of unemployment claims filed against them. The idea is to encourage companies not to let workers go, but it hasn’t helped reduce Idaho’s high unemployment, which is holding steady at 9.7%.
The Bosnian Serb government is refusing to recognize the Bosnian national government. This over the country’s national court, which has been hearing cases of war crimes.
Austrian Valentin Inzko, is the supreme decision maker in Bosnia, and has ordered the Serbs to back off their plans to officially refuse to recognize the Bosnian national government. In retaliation, Bosnian Serb leader Milorad Dodik, sent a letter to the United Nations accusing Inzko of abusing his power.
Since the end of the Bosnian Civil War, the Idaho Air & Army National Guard has supported several peacekeeping missions to Bosnia.
“…it is Easter morning. Here at the Lucky Friday Mine in Northern Idaho we have been hoping for a miracle for more than a week, but have now informed Larry Marek’s family that we believe hope for his survival is gone.”-Phil Baker, Hecla CEO
Officials say they are no longer trying to rescue Larry Marek, it is now a recovery.
“Words cannot express the deep sorrow we feel at the tragic loss of our friend, colleague and 30-year veteran of the mining industry. Our thoughts and prayers are with his family, loved ones and friends.”-Hecla press release
“Crews have been progressing safely and quickly. However, as the crew advances closer (to where Marek may be), the work involved will become much more difficult, time consuming with new materials, equipment and supplies in order to advance the tunnel into potentially unstable ground.”-Hecla press release
Four firefighters from Yellowstone National Park and Gallatin National Forest were sent to help fight the fires in Texas.
The ‘Pipeline’ wildfire, one of many in Texas, is burning on the Big Thicket National Preserve. The local firefighters were sent in because of a inter-agency request. Officials believe the ‘Pipeline’ fire was started by people.
Rescuers used a tiny camera to see if Larry Marek was behind the cave in debris. No such luck.
Rescuers also pumped in air and water, through the holes they drilled. They’re hoping that Marek is in the open space found behind the rubble of last Friday’s cave in.
They’re still trying to dig alternate tunnels. They had to stop digging through the cave in rubble because the ground was unstable.
Rescuers at the Lucky Friday Mine cleared about 71 feet of debris, in their attempt to get to where Larry Marek might be. They still have another 149 feet to go. They’ve also started to drill a third air hole.
Nearly 200 people gathered in a local school to hold a vigil for the trapped miner.
Robots from the Idaho National Laboratory have been searching through the damaged reactor buildings at Fukushima Daiichi.
They have discovered temperature and radiation levels too high for humans. Tokyo Electric Power Company officials say they will have to use air conditioners, and filtration systems, to bring heat and radiation levels down enough for workers to operate inside the buildings. Latest NHK video