“We won’t complete doing what we need to do until about 2016, 2017.”-USA Lieutenant General William Caldwell
General Caldwell made his statement at the Brookings Institute on June 6. His reasons are that only one in six Afghans, who join the Afghan government forces, can read and write. Caldwell says that means it will take longer than expected for the U.S. military to train up Afghan troops to a level U.S. officials will feel secure with.
The official U.S. unemployment rate is currently 9.1%, but that does not count those unemployed who dropped off the official lists, or those who are discouraged job seekers.
Fadhel Kaboub, an economics professor at Denison University in Ohio, says when you take into account people who are no longer counted by official sources, the actual unemployment rate is 17%.
The U.S. Department of Labor said 14 million people are officially unemployed, but Kaboub believes it’s actually 20-23 million.
He said the reason the stock markets reacted badly to the May job creation numbers, is because the only way there can be a recovery is if Corporate America creates 500,000 new jobs every month. That has yet to happen, and as demonstrated by the May numbers, jobs creation is actually going down.
Idaho based women’s apparel retailer, Coldwater Creek, lost another $30 million. That’s their loss for the quarter ending April 2011. They also lost $37 million in the previous quarter.
Coldwater Creek has 371 stores, with 9,400 employees, across the U.S.
The beginning of June and eastern Idaho is under a frost warning. Temperatures could get down to 30 Fahrenheit.
On top of that the rivers are still flooding. We might be experiencing Climate Change, but there’s no Global Warming here.
Mazda announced that it will stop production of its Mazda6, at a Ford plant in Michigan. Mazda will move production of the Mazda6 back to Japan.
The Michigan plant is a joint venture between Ford and Mazda, known as AutoAlliance International. The joint venture has been losing money ever since the ‘credit crisis’.
Mazda also plans to build cars in Mexico, mainly for the booming Latin American car market. Some Mexican built Mazdas will be sold in the United States. Rumors are that Mazda wants out of its joint venture with Ford.
“We usually consider that a rare complication, and to have 470 is absolutely extraordinary. This is a new public health problem.”-Robert Tauxe, CDC
Center for Disease Control believes three people in the U.S. have picked up the latest deadliest form of e-coli. They had returned from Germany.
Michael Osterholm, at the University of Minnesota, says the e-coli outbreak in Europe is the deadliest on record. 1,624 cases are being reported by hospitals, but the actual number of infected people could be ten times higher.
Chinese scientist, working with German scientist, says the new e-coli strain is not only “super toxic”, but is resistant to treatment. The strain is similar to the 0104:H4 strain, except for its resistance to antibiotics, which is why scientists think this is a new strain.
Earlier the Food and Drug Administration said it was inspecting vegetables from Europe for e-coli, but it’s been reveled that the FDA can not test for the new strain. The FDA tests for e-coli 0157 strain (which is also deadly).
Recently Idaho newspaper circulation directors speculated that the increase in thefts of newspaper coupons were due, in part, to people trying to save money and deal with high gas prices.
Here’s a solution, that unfortunately for me ends up being free promotion for two stores; shop at Fred Meyer or Smiths.
Both these stores give away thousands of free in store coupons. Also, if you join their points club (free to join) you get discounts on their already competitive gas prices, and a quarterly rebate based on how much you shop during that quarter.
Actually, at the Fred Meyer in Pocatello, their gas prices are usually the cheapest, even before the points discount for club members (again the club is free to join). Take advantage, save some money, and don’t be a coupon thief!
“Political leaders and public figures should have the courage to articulate publicly what many of them acknowledge privately: that the evidence overwhelmingly demonstrates that repressive strategies will not solve the drug problem, and that the war on drugs has not, and cannot, be won.”-Drug Policy report
The Global Commission on Drug Policy has declared the War on Drugs a failure. The 19 member commission includes former U.S. Secretary of State George Schultz, and former Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Volcker.
Anti drug policies are to blame for the failure, especially in the United States. The report points out that while huge efforts are made to stop drug trafficking, most people who end up in prison are the users of drugs, not the sellers. The report said studies show that users “do no harm to others.” So why is so much time and money being spent to put them in jail?
The Global Commission on Drug Policy wants anti-drug policies to focus on health and human rights issues, and even consider making some illegal drugs legal.
“This is a new strain, O157 was almost certainly one of its parents. It’s also got material from another type of E-coli. So you’ve got this germ that’s like O157 but has this extra weaponry, that makes it more nasty.”-Paul Hunter, University of East Anglia in England
E-coli O157 destroys your blood cells and kidneys, and might be the parent of the latest, deadliest form.
German press reports say World Health Organization officials have identified the e-coli, that has killed 17 Germans so far, as a new mutant strain, spawned by two deadly forms of e-coli. The new strain has been seen before, but not at the level of an outbreak.
E-coli is a bacteria, and everyone has it (in our intestines), at least the non-lethal kind, but there are some very bad versions out there that will kill: “The vast majority of strains are harmless, but there are a select few that are armed and dangerous because of the particular genes they happen to have. These genes produce those toxins. If they produce these toxins, the outcome of infection, rather than just being a tummy upset, can be far more serious.”-Ian Jones, a professor of virology at the University of Reading in England
Now health officials are trying to found out where the new e-coli spawned. Originally Spanish vegetables were thought to be the carriers (vegetables from Denmark and the Netherlands are suspect as well), but the epicenter of the outbreak is around Hamburg, Germany. More than 1,000 people in Germany are sick, 470 have reached the stage where kidney failure could occur.
Spain has two cases, but officials say those people had just returned from Germany, prompting Spanish politicians to point the finger of blame to Germany.
Sweden is now reporting cases; one death of a woman who went to Spain, 43 people sick. The United Kingdom reports seven cases. Denmark has 14. Netherlands has eight. Austria, France, Norway and Switzerland are reporting cases, most of the people had just got back from trips to Germany.
Russia and the United Arab Emirates have banned vegetables from European Union. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration says it’s increasing inspections of vegetables coming from Europe.
Since e-coli is usually found on the surface of vegetables, the best way to protect yourself is to wash them before eating.
Daren Palmer plead guilty, in a Federal court in Pocatello, Idaho, to running a ponzi scheme which cost investors $76 million.
The FBI spent two years investigating, and last month criminal charges were filed against Palmer. He will be sentenced in August.
The SEC, and CFTC filed civil cases against Palmer, which resulted in an order for Palmer to pay fines and restitution of $90 million.
U.S. Federal attorney’s say Palmer wanted to plead guilty last year. Some of his neighbors were in the Federal courtroom when he plead guilty, they say he’s a nice guy and believe he just “made a mistake”.