Posted: September 4, 2012
BOONE, Iowa - The holy grail of seed companies - drought-tolerant corn - will reach farmers in the next few months, offering hope should record hot, dry summers return.
The new seed lines were popular attractions at the DuPont Pioneer, Monsanto and Syngenta exhibits early last week at the Farm Progress Show in Boone. The show displays the latest technology in agriculture.
Drought tolerance will be the latest gee-whiz addition to seed offerings, going beyond the pest and weed resistance made commonplace by the genetic biotech revolution. Iowa yields have increased around 35% to 40% since the late 1980s, helping satisfy a greater demand for corn for food, feed and fuel.
The new seeds won't completely erase the impact of drought. The companies limit their claim to yield increases of 5% to 15% above what non-drought tolerant corn would yield in the kind of heat Iowa endured this summer.
Read more here: http://www.usatoday.com
Posted: September 3, 2012
Big Agriculture and food companies are shelling out gobs of cash ahead of November's election to convince Californians to vote against a proposed law that would require businesses to label products that contain genetically modified organisms.
Proponents of Proposition 37 applaud the strict labeling requirements and say it will help consumers make better purchasing decisions. Opponents say that the labels are misleading and overly burdensome to food producers. Not only that, they claim, but compliance would be costly -- an expense that would likely drive up the price of goods in the grocery store.
The money is behind the opposition, literally.
Read more here: http://www.dailyfinance.com
Posted: September 3, 2012
When ingesting food that has been genetically modified, you are gambling with your health.
The ill effects of genetically modified organisms (GMOs) - including corn, soybeans, tomatoes and, yes, even potatoes - are well documented but ignored by the powers that be. In the case of GMOs, the Food and Drug Administration has ruled that food that has been genetically altered is no different from "regular" food.
Not so, says Jeffrey Smith, author of "Genetic Roulette - the Documented Health Risks of Genetically Engineered Foods" (Yes! Books, 2007). In case after case - from the United States to the United Kingdom, India and Russia - it has been well documented that GMOs are harmful to health. There are those individuals who apparently can eat darned near anything with no bad results, just as there are those who don't get the flu or who don't suffer from copious ingestion of E. coli.
But there is no way of knowing who is and who isn't immune from the ill effects of eating GMO foods. That's why consumption of genetically altered foods is such a gamble. Illnesses, sometimes fatal, occur only after eating altered products.
Read full article here: http://www.columbiatribune.com
Posted: September 3, 2012
Law enforcement efforts are supposed to serve and protect the public, but what happens when the methods used actually harm innocent members of the public? As AllGov reported last November, the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) has greatly increased the use of full body x-ray scanning machines at airports and other locations, even as critics point out how even low levels of radiation can cause cancer and other serious health problems. In fact, TSA agreed late last year to conduct a new study of the health effects of x-ray body scanners like the 250 used in U.S. airports, and the European Parliament in July 2011 passed a resolution in favor of banning the machines.
Nevertheless, law enforcement agencies are continuing to expand their use of x-ray scanners, including machines that expose people to as much as 50 times more radiation than an airport scanner, and are sometimes using them on people without their knowledge or consent. U.S. Customs and Border Protection is currently installing 35 drive-through X-ray gates to scan vehicles at the border with their passengers still inside; New York City has used specially equipped vans to scan vehicles for drugs or weapons; and prisons have started using x-rays that can see through the body to detect contraband hidden inside the bodies of prisoners...and jail employees.
Read full article here: http://www.allgov.com
Posted: September 3, 2012
SACRAMENTO - A patient lost a leg below the knee to methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus she contracted at a Kaiser Foundation hospital, she claims in Superior Court.
Original article found here: http://www.courthousenews.com
Posted: September 3, 2012
SANTA, ANA, Calif. - Coca-Cola bombards customers' cell phones with spam text messages "long after they have opted out" from its so-called "rewards" program, a class action claims in Federal Court.
Original article here: http://www.courthousenews.com
Posted: August 31, 2012
Bay City News Service - A helicopter may be seen flying at low-level altitudes over parts of San Francisco, Pacifica and Oakland this week, but authorities say the public shouldn't be alarmed. The helicopter isn't searching for suspects on the loose, but rather is taking measurements of naturally occurring radiation, Oakland police said.
The helicopter appeared to be flying over parts of Berkeley and the North Oakland hills this afternoon (Wednesday).
The flyovers, which are taking place Monday through Saturday, are a part of a joint research project by the Department of Homeland Security's Domestic Nuclear Detection Office and the National Nuclear Security Administration to assess natural background radiation levels.
Read more here: http://berkeley.patch.com
Posted: August 31, 2012
CHICAGO (CN) - Thirty-six states will split $181 million from Janssen Pharmaceuticals and Johnson & Johnson, which were accused of pushing the schizophrenia drug Risperdal for off-label uses.
Doctors are allowed to prescribe drugs for off-label uses, but drug companies cannot push the drugs for that.
Janssen's corporate parent Johnson & Johnson did not admit it did anything wrong.
States settled for varying amounts. According to the lawsuits in the Courthouse News database, Illinois sought $50,000 for each consumer law and/or deceptive trade violation; Oregon sought $25,000 per violation, Texas $20,000 per violation, Delaware and Hawaii $10,000 per violation, Alabama $2,000 per violation.
Read more here: http://www.courthousenews.com
Posted: August 31, 2012
Former Navy SEAL Matt Bissonnette is going to tell his version of events surrounding the death of Osama bin Laden, even if the Pentagon sues him for every last penny.
Last night, the Defense Department's top attorney wrote a letter to Bissonnette threatening to use "all remedies legally available" against him for the publication of No Easy Day, his firsthand account of the mission to kill bin Laden in Pakistan.
"You are in material breach and violation of the nondisclosure agreements you signed," wrote Pentagon general counsel Jeh Charles Johnson. The letter hinted at a criminal prosecution of Bissonnete for disclosing classified information and threatened to seize the royalties from his book and go after his publisher Dutton, an imprint of Penguin Group. In a written response, a lawyer representing Bissonnette denied his client breached his nondisclosure agreement in a letter to the Pentagon. (The letter, obtained by The Atlantic Wire, refers to Bissonnette under his pen name Mark Owen.)
Read more here: http://www.theatlanticwire.com
Posted: August 31, 2012
COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) -- A man stole a physician's identity and pretended to be a doctor for a year in South Carolina, and now investigators are combing through medical records to see whether he harmed any of the hundreds of patients he treated, authorities said.
Ernest Addo of Austell, Ga., is charged with unlawful practice of medicine and obtaining goods under false pretense, authorities said.
Addo doesn't have a medical license in the U.S. But he assumed a doctor friend's identity, getting a driver's license and presenting the massive amount of paperwork needed to prove he was a doctor.
Read more here: http://hosted.ap.org
Posted: August 31, 2012
The impasse in Japan's parliament has raised fears among investors that the world's third largest economy is being driven towards a "fiscal cliff", Reuters reported.
"The government running out of money is not a story made up. It's a real threat," Finance Minister Jun Azumi told a news conference, making a last-ditch appeal for cooperation by opposition parties to pass the bill.
"Failing to pass the bill will give markets the impression that Japan's fiscal management rests on shaky ground," he said.
Read more here: http://www.telegraph.co.uk
Posted: August 30, 2012
Up to 1 million mangoes are being recalled voluntarily because they may be contaminated with Salmonella, as a preventive measure in the wake of 103 infections nationwide, a food distributor announced Thursday.
The mangoes bear the Daniella brand sticker with one of the following PLU numbers: 3114, 4051, 4311, 4584 or 4959, said Splendid Products of Burlingame, California.
The mangoes were sold as individual fruit throughout the country, including at Costco, Save Mart Supermarkets, Food 4 Less, Ralph's, Topco stores, El Super, Kroger, Giant-Eagle, Stop & Shop, Aldi, and some Whole Foods stores, the produce firm said.
Read more here: http://thechart.blogs.cnn.com
Posted: August 30, 2012
(Reuters) - The Pentagon warned on Thursday that it was considering legal action against a former U.S. Navy SEAL for material breach of non-disclosure agreements with his first-hand account of the raid that killed Osama bin Laden.
In a letter obtained by Reuters, and subsequently released by the Pentagon, the Pentagon's top attorney said the Department of Defense was also considering legal action against anyone "acting in concert" with the author. It hinted that the book's royalties might be subject to government claims.
The letter, addressed to "Mark Owen," the pseudonym under which the book was written, identified two separate non-disclosure agreements he signed with the Navy that legally committed him to never divulge classified information, which is a crime.
Read more here: http://www.reuters.com
Posted: August 30, 2012
WASHINGTON (AP) - A firsthand account of the Navy SEAL raid that killed Osama bin Laden contradicts previous accounts by administration officials, raising questions as to whether the terror mastermind presented a clear threat when SEALs first fired upon him.
Bin Laden apparently was shot in the head when he looked out of his bedroom door into the top-floor hallway of his compound as SEALs rushed up a narrow stairwell in his direction, according to former Navy SEAL Matt Bissonnette, writing under the pseudonym Mark Owen in "No Easy Day." The book is to be published next week by Penguin Group (USA)'s Dutton imprint.
Bissonnette says he was directly behind a point man going up the stairs in the pitch black hallway. Near the top, he said, he heard two shots, but the book doesn't make it clear who fired them. He wrote that the point man had seen a man peeking out of a door on the right side of the hallway.
Read more: http://www.washingtontimes.com
Posted: August 30, 2012
A Taiwanese minister has caused widespread debate on hygiene by suggesting that men should sit down while urinating instead of standing up.
Stephen Shen, Environmental Protection Administration (EPA) minister, said that sitting on the toilet like women do creates a cleaner environment.
This has generated a lot of online debate, says the BBC's Cindy Sui.
Officials are to ask local governments this week to put up notices in public places advising men to sit.
Read the full story here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-19390785
Posted: August 30, 2012
On departing the RNC in Tampa yesterday, Ron Paul, his wife and grand-daughter were subjected to harassment by the TSA at a small airport in Clearwater, Florida.
Eight TSA goons told the Paul entourage they would need to be screened before they would be allowed to leave because Mitt Romney might be nearby.
The insinuation was obvious - Paul and his family pose a threat to the GOP presidential candidate.
After a protracted examination of Ron Paul's credentials, the agents demanded they be allowed to check the airplane for explosives.
The incident ended after Ron Paul's wife, Carol, who has a pacemaker, refused to be screened by the TSA and an aide started taking video.
http://www.prisonplanet.com
Posted: August 29, 2012
***UPDATE: Yahoo just announced they have terminated Chalian effective immediately.
ABC News reached out to Breitbart News to name the man heard mocking the Romneys during this ABC News livecast: David Chalian (pictured) of Yahoo! News. Chalian is a former political director with ABC News, but according to ABC News has no association with the network now. The headline has been changed to reflect this update, as has the story itself.
Here's a look at the black, bitter, bitter, ugly and biased souls of our corrupt media during ABC News' live-feed coverage yesterday. The moment in question occurs in the first ten seconds. Listen closely to the video provided at the following site: http://www.breitbart.com
Posted: August 29, 2012
From Food Democracy Now:
Dow Chemical is back at it again! Last week Dow Chemical donated $1.2 million to defeat Prop 37 to label genetically engineered foods, which will appear on the ballot in California this fall. At the same time, they happen to be petitioning the U.S. Department of Agriculture for the approval of a new genetically engineered "Agent Orange" soybean that tolerates the extremely toxic chemical herbicide 2,4-D, a major component of the Vietnam War era defoliant Agent Orange.
Not only does Dow Chemical not want you to know what's in your food, but now they want to dump more toxic chemicals on it too! Numerous studies have linked exposure to 2,4-D toserious health problems that include cancer (particularly non-Hodgkin's lymphoma), lowered sperm counts, liver disease and Parkinson's disease. In addition, dozens of peer-reviewed studies have found the use of 2,4-D to contribute to hormone-disrupting activity linked to reproductive problems and thyroid dysfunction.
Now Dow AgroScience wants to spray this toxic chemical on our food and in our fields in unprecedented amounts. To help put a stop to this and read more, go here: http://action.fooddemocracynow.org
Posted: August 29, 2012
Millionaire vaccine inventor and mandatory vaccine advocate Paul Offit recently released a short VIDEO for doctors on medscape. Here is a transcript of the speech. Please read it before moving along. It is only one page long. This statement that outlines Offit's personal belief system could be a prelude to the legal removal of all philosophical and religious vaccine exemptions in the United States of America. This is something that Offit has been working toward for years, and the likely end-purpose of his series of books.
Paul Offit believes that exempting your child from vaccination is morally reprehensible. He considers himself an authority on autism, all infectious diseases, morality, history, every religious system, and infant immunology. You may also recognize Dr Offit as the one who says that all vaccines are perfectly safe and infants can tolerate theoretically 10,000 of them at once:
"A more practical way to determine the diversity of the immune response would be to estimate the number of vaccines to which a child could respond at one time.... each infant would have the theoretical capacity to respond to about 10, 000 vaccines at any one time." [1]
Read more here: http://www.vaccinationcouncil.org
Posted: August 28, 2012
MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) - If you see military helicopters flying low over Minneapolis, don't be alarmed. They're just training in an urban environment.
The U.S. Special Operations Command will be conducting exercises until the beginning of September. This week they're using helicopters, including Black Hawks.
They're not giving out their exact training locations because they don't want crowds to gather.
But you may get a glimpse of the helicopters flying low between 7 p.m. and midnight.
Read more here: http://minnesota.cbslocal.com
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