Tag Archives: economy

Influenza

H5N1: Bird flu kills more than 15,000 in Nepal, Hong Kong finds more victims, yet more human cases in Indonesia

Nepal’s Animal Health Directorate reported that bird flu is spreading like wild fire in their country.  So far 15,160 chickens have died on just one farm.

Test results have finally come in, and confirmed it was bird flu. Now officials will begin killing off the rest of the poultry on farms that have had cases of bird flu.

This is devastating to Nepal’s poultry industry, and could result in a food shortage.

In Hong Kong, another wild bird was found dead.  The crow tested positive for H5 avian influenza.  Hong Kong has seen a number of wild birds dying from the virus, normally it’s domesticated poultry.

The wild birds had not been found near poultry farms.  The crow was found in a planter at a gas station.

Indonesia continues to have more human cases.  According to the UN’s World Health Organization, 18 people have become sick, with ten dying in the 2011-2012 flu season.

The latest death was a 24 year old woman who got sick with fever on February 23.  She died on 01 March 2012.  She worked at a poultry farm where chickens were infected.

 

 

Business/Economics, Idaho, International, Technology, U.S.

Idaho’s Hoku Materials better get its rear in gear, Customers who have prepaid are getting impatient could go elsewhere

“For Hoku and its majority shareholder Tianwei New Energy Holdings, things cannot be worse.”-Rober Dydo, CEO of Solar PV Investor

March 18, 2012, customers who have pre-paid for Hoku’s polysilicon are getting restless.  One buyer, Jinko Solar, has already reduced their original purchase contract of ten years down to eight.  And there’s rumors they want to reduce it even more.

Hoku also owes two other buyers, Hanwha Solar One and Solargiga.  In total the three customers already paid Hoku $140 million!

To make matters worse, Jinko Solar is the only Chinese customer that is not in trouble financially.  This means that Hanwha Solar One, and Solargiga, are more likely to cancel their contracts all together.

To top everything, Hoku Materials, in Pocatello, Idaho, is still not ready for production and the delays are only costing more money: “The current estimate for the cost of facility is now $600 million to complete Phase I of 2,500 metric ton (MT) of capacity. Phase II with the complete capacity of 4,000 MT will cost another $100 million to complete. All told the $700 million dollar price tag is 70.7% more than its previous estimate…“-Michael Lofing, CPA and market analyst

IDAHO’S HOKU MATERIALS LOSES $28 MILLION, BLAMES IDAHO POWER. 

Business/Economics, U.S.

Corporate Evil: Proof that there are plenty of skilled laborers in the U.S., Ford just doesn’t want to pay them what they’re worth. Mike Rowe patsie for Corporate America

“….we’re surprised that high unemployment can exist at the same time as a skilled labor shortage.”-Mike Rowe, testimony to Senate Commerce Committee

Don’t be so surprised Mike Rowe.  Your sponsor, Ford, is a prime example of why there is not a skilled labor shortage, only a shortage of skilled laborers who want to get paid less than what they’re worth!

Ford has forced 1,700 skilled employees to take early retirement.  The last day for those employees will be June 1, 2012.

Last autumn Ford announced they were cutting their skilled workforce.  Ford officials said they have too many skilled employees!!!

But wait, Ford isn’t in trouble, in fact they’re planing to hire hundreds of new skilled workers, why?  Because Ford will pay them much less than experienced employees.

An announcement by Ford, and the United Auto Workers union, said the move to push out experienced skilled workers is so Ford can replace them with new hires at half the cost!!!

This is another proof that there are plenty of skilled workers in the United States!  That’s right Mike Rowe, it’s not about any lack of skilled workers, it’s all about paying them less and less!!!

Business/Economics, Technology, U.S.

Government Evil & Corporate Welfare: Republican controled Congress gives Oil Industry $4 billion in taxpayer subsidies

How would you like to own a business that’s making money hand over fist, and get paid by the government on top of that?  The Oil Industry is!

People are literally going hungry in the United States, and Republican controlled congress keeps cutting welfare for the poor, yet the Oil Industry gets 4 billion of your tax dollars every year!!!

“…the United States government provide a heavy public subsidy to petroleum companies, with major tax breaks at virtually every stage of oil exploration and extraction, including for the costs of oil field leases and drilling equipment.“-WikiPedia

Now realize the Oil Industry has been reporting record profits for the past few years.  Recently Exxon Mobil CEO, Rex Tillerson, said his company is spending billions to extract new sources of oil.  But wait, if the U.S. taxpayer paid subsidy is supposed to cover those costs, then who’s money is really going where?

On top of the $4 billion taxpayer subsidy, here are a few more tax breaks for the Oil Industry, and its investors:

Enhanced oil recovery credit. Covers the costs to “enhance” a well’s oil or natural gas production.

Non conventional source fuel credit. Tax credit for production of “qualified” fuels such as oil shale, tight formation gas, and certain synthetic fuels produced from coal.

Lease Operating Expense. Covers the day to day costs involved with the operation of a well, and re-entry, or re-work, of an existing producing well.

Intangible Drilling Costs. Labor, drilling rig time, drilling fluids etc.

Intangible Completion Costs. Labor, completion materials, completion rig time, fluids etc.

Depletion Allowance. Investors in a producing well are allowed to shelter some of the gross income derived from the sale of that oil/gas.  Generally 15% of the well’s annual production can be sheltered from income tax.

So don’t feel sorry for the A-holes!

Business/Economics, Idaho, U.S.

Idaho’s Republican governor pays his female officials less than his male officials, much less

Governor Butch Otter pays the females in his administration an average of $20,000 less than his male administrators.

“Director Gould is about $38,000 under the newly employed Jeff Sayer. You can’t argue she doesn’t have as many employees. Our state is no different than the national averages that show women reach a ‘glass ceiling’ for promotion and pay.”-Representative Wendy Jaquet of Ketchum

Idaho Agriculture Director, Celia Gould, has worked for Butch Otter since 2007.  She’s paid $106,621 per year.   Jeffrey Sayer, Commerce Director (running a smaller agency), has worked for Butch Otter since October 2011, yet he gets paid $145,018 per year.

The median salary for females in Butch Otter’s cabinet is $85,446.  The median salary for males is $103,002.

Oh, but Idaho is a Right to Work state.

Business/Economics, U.S.

What Economic Recovery? 20,000 Teachers laid off, $4.8 billion in more cuts could be coming

March 18, 2012, California has notified at least 20,000 teachers that they will not be coming back to work.

Tom Torlakson, California’s Superintendent of Public Instruction, says the notices reflect a financial emergency: “Though the very future of our state depends on California’s teachers …(they) will now spend months in limbo, worrying about their futures and the future of their students.”

It could be worse.  In November elections, Californians will decide if they can afford a huge tax increase, that could keep even more teachers from losing their jobs.

If the tax increase fails to get the vote, then a $4.8 billion trigger cut to education funding will go into effect, which could result in another 55,000 teachers being laid off!

Beware the old saying: “As California goes, so goes the nation.”

 

Technology, U.S.

United Police States of America: CIA will spy on you through your TV, radio, computer, etc

“Items of interest will be located, identified, monitored, and remotely controlled through technologies such as radio frequency identification, sensor networks, tiny embedded servers, and energy harvesters, all connected to the next generation internet using abundant, low cost, and high power computing. The latter now going to cloud computing, in many areas greater and greater supercomputing, and, ultimately, heading to quantum computing.”-David Petraeus, CIA boss, statement made at meeting of In-Q-Tel, the CIA’s venture capital firm

Technology, U.S.

United Police States of America: Utah National Guard base to become site of largest personal data center in the U.S. You are the target!

Photo via National Security Agency, 28DEC2011.

This is a 2011 photo of the  National Security Agency’s $340-million Gordon Regional Security Operations Center at Fort Gordon, Georgia, and it wasn’t big enough so they’re building a bigger one in Utah.

“this is more than just a data center….Everybody’s a target; everybody with communication is a target.”-unnamed intelligence official

Camp Williams is expanding by 240 acres to become Utah Data Complex, run by the National Security Agency. It will be the biggest ever, and should be completed by 2013.

The center will not only spy on, and collect, domestic emails and phone calls, but even what you buy!

The domestic spy center is costing taxpayers $2 billion to build.

Business/Economics, International, Technology, U.S.

Whistleblower & Wikileaks founder Julian Assange running for Australian Senate, hosts Russian TV show

Despite being under house arrest in United Kingdom, Assange is getting a new TV show, and running for political office in Australia.

Assange is scheduled to host The World of Tomorrow for RT (Russia Today): “Assange to record TV series for RT while under house arrest – I am sure it will be an amazing show!” -Margarita Simonyan, RT editor in chief

Assange is also running for a seat in Australia’s Upper House.  Wikileaks is also sponsoring a candidate to challenge Prime Minister Julia Gillard.

 

 

Business/Economics, International

Cadmium contaminated farmland takes 30 years to replace

30 years ago, 1,600 hectares (3,953.6 acres) of farmland in Gifu Prefecture, Japan, was contaminated with cadmium.  The cadmium came from a mine.

What happened was that the mine was dumping cadmium into the river, the local farms used the river for irrigation.  The contamination caused a debilitating condition among local residents, called “itai-itai disease“.

A ceremony was held in Toyama City, on March 17, 2012, to mark to end of 30 years of replacing the contaminated soil!  It is considered the biggest restoration project for farm land in history!