The government of Japan has already banned beef shipments from Fukushima and Miyagi Prefectures. Now Iwate Prefecture is being considered for such a ban after cows there have been found contaminated with cesium.
At least 12 prefectures are voluntarily checking their own cows. The national government is says it will cover the cost of the testing. It is now believed that at least 3,000 contaminated cows made it to consumer markets.
It is becoming very clear that the damaged Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant has been, and still is, spreading massive amounts of cesium across Japan.
Last week the national government of Japan ordered all cattle shipments from Fukushima Prefecture halted, now they have done the same with cattle from Miyagi Prefecture.
It turns out that the majority of cesium contaminated beef came from Miyagi Prefecture. The cows were fed hay contaminated with thousands of becquerels of cesium. The national safe limit is 500.
In another sign that radiation is spreading across Japan, officials say the contaminated cows did not come from specific areas within the prefectures, but from all over.
The city of Pocatello is back to the drawing board after voting against buying $6.2 million worth of water rights. The deal would have been made with Portneuf Marsh Valley Canal Company. City officials backed out after credible threats of lawsuits from water users “downstream”.
Water is a big issue for Pocatello. Its main source of water is the Lower Portnuef Valley Aquifer, and it’s running dry. The Portneuf River flows through Pocatello, but it does not recharge the aquifer, and the city does not take any water from it.
To add to the problem, the city of Pocatello is not the only one using the Aquifer, the city of Chubbuck also gets its water from the same source.
For a long time it was thought that surface water runoff made its way to the ground water (Aquifer), but now its known that most surface water runoff just ends up in rivers heading out to the oceans (although some recharging comes from Mink Creek, and snow).
Geoscientists believe the Lower Portnuef Valley Aquifer was created 17,000 years ago when a natural dam broke, releasing a huge sea into the area (Bonneville Flood). Part of that sea was trapped in what is now known as Lower Portnuef Valley Aquifer.
Another issue is that while many aquifers are held in small rock formations, even pebbles and sand, the Lower Portnuef Valley Aquifer is trapped by huge boulders, which were part of the natural dam holding back the ancient sea. You can see huge boulders around the area now. Every time a housing development goes in they end up spending a lot of time digging out the boulders in order to put in basements. It has also resulted in lucrative local rock mining businesses.
The water in the Aquifer is almost finite, it does not easily recharge as was once thought.
However, while most rain ends up in rivers, any water from slow melting snow, or used on farms or residential properties can get into the Aquifer. The problem is that large boulders do not filter the incoming surface water, like sand or pebble aquifers. This means the Lower Portnuef Valley Aquifer is very vulnerable to contamination.
To add to that, the soil is only about 2 to 8 feet thick, before you hit rock. I can attest to that since I’ve done a lot of landscaping here, and I grow vegetables and fruits. I can dig the depth of a shovel blade and hit rocks 4 inches in diameter or bigger. The thin soil means if you dump used motor oil on the ground, or use chemicals on your garden, it’s almost instantly heading for the Aquifer.
There is a three part (boring, basically a college lecture from 2010) video explanation of the Lower Portnuef Valley Aquifer issue, presented by Glenn Thackray of Idaho State University:
Thackray explains that the cities, residents, farmers and businesses take out more water from the Lower Portnuef Valley Aquifer, per year, than what flows into the Aquifer. This has been going on for a long time, and is why we’re running out of water. Add to that the fact that we’ve had some very dry winters, with less than normal snowfall (a big source of recharge, because it melts into the ground, unlike rain that runs off). The water level has been dropping since the 1990s.
Pocatello city officials say they are taking this issue seriously, and are being proactive about finding a solution.
The USPS lost $8.5 billion in 2010. It lost $3.8 billion in 2009. So far this year the USPS has lost $2.2 billion. The result; the United States Postal Service will make public a list of post offices that could be closed this year, as many as 3,653.
The United States Postal Service does notmake money off taxpayers, they are solely funded by the postage they charge. The problem is that Congress controls the postage they are allowed to charge, and so far Congress has refused to allow postal rates to reflect the actual operating cost of the USPS.
On top of that, Congress overcharged the USPS $75 billion for the Federal Employees Retirement System plan. The Postmaster General asked for that money to be returned, but Congress refused (you think they already spent it?).
As a result of incompetence (or is it on purpose?) by our elected officials in Congress, thousands more USPS employees will lose their jobs.
“The FAA employees who will be furloughed perform critical work for our nation’s aviation system and our economy. These are real people with families who do not deserve to be put out of work during these tough economic times.”-Randy Babbitt, FAA Administrator
Because the U.S. Senate failed to approve the House tax plan to fund the Federal Aviation Administration, about 4,000 people will be laid off. As usual, both republicans and democrats blame each other!
However, the democrat controlled Senate might have a point, because the republican controlled House plan added on pork spending ($16.5 million worth), basically subsidizing commercial airline operations in ten states.
On 22 July 2011, the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant lost external electrical power to reactors 3 and 4. This affected cooling operations, but they were able to get back up generators working.
Tokyo Electric Power Company announced that the power loss was due to an incorrectly wired circuit breaker. They say the circuit breaker was set up to handle only one third the amount of electricity that was actually needed to run the reactor’s cooling systems.
This comes after TEPCo officials held a conference claiming that Yakuza (organized crime; aka gokudō, aka bōryokudan or aka ninkyō dantai) could be infiltrating the ranks of employees at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant. TEPCo also says they think Yakuza are taking over rebuilding efforts in the quake and tsunami damaged parts of Japan. TEPCo offered no proof. They implied that Yakuza were causing the delays in controlling the damaged nuke plant, and other problems. Again, Tokyo Electric offered no proof of their claim, and it sounds more like they’re trying to use Yakuza as scape goats for their own incompetence.
Brazil’s unemployment rate in June hit a low of 6.2%. Compare that to June of 2002 when Brazil’s unemployment rate was 11.6%.
Officials credit the drop in unemployment to new job creation. Last year alone half a million (512,000) new jobs were created in Brazil. Also, the average wage went up 4% since last year.
Take into account that Brazil counts employment only in the six largest cities, officials admit there are still at least 1.5 million Brazilians out of work.
Even though Idaho’s unemployment rate is still 9.4% (for several months now) it actually edged up by 500 newly unemployed, for the month of June.
To make matters worse, the Idaho Department of Labor says most of the 15,000 people who found jobs in June, are filling existing positions. In other words almost no new jobs were created.
Sadly the 15,000 who found work is the highest number since October 2010, yet still far below the average hirings before the 2007/8 credit crisis.
Idaho officials also said that 1,800 unemployed people stopped looking for work in June.
Grocery chain operator Ito-Yokado says it sold over 2,600 kilograms (5,732 pounds) of beef contaminated with cesium. The beef was sold at 94 outlets in Tokyo and several surrounding prefectures, as well as on the northern island of Hokkaido, between April and July.
Ito-Yokado is not the only store that has admitted to selling the contaminated beef. Two other grocery/department store operators, Seiyu and Isetan Mitsukoshi Holdings, have admitted to selling the meat.
Consumers are being asked to bring the meat back, but many analysts think that too much time has gone by and that most of the beef has been eaten.
Japan’s Education Minister Yoshiaki Takaki is demanding action after it was discovered that three elementary schools served children beef contaminated with cesium. The schools are located in Chiba, east of Tokyo.
Takaki has ordered local schools to check the source of the food they serve.
