Tuesday, May 31, 2011
Earthquake caused boom in N.E. Philly
http://m.philly.com/phillycom/pm_101980/contentdetail.htm?contentguid=bNfb3QV7
- What happens when the big one comes along? We are not ready.
Monday, May 30, 2011
Sunday, May 29, 2011
Lockheed Martin Hit by Cyber Attack
Only a matter of time before America is hit by a devastating Cyber Attack. It will happen because the government, media and business are not taking the threat more seriously:
Hackers launched a "significant and tenacious" cyber attack on Lockheed Martin, a major defense contractor holding highly sensitive information, but its secrets remained safe, the company said Saturday.
Lockheed Martin, the Department of Homeland Security and the Pentagon confirmed that the contractor's information systems had come under attack. Lt. Col. April Cunningham, speaking for the Defense Department, said the impact on the Pentagon "is minimal and we don't expect any adverse effect."
Still, the concerted attempt to breach the contractor's systems underscored the risk to the nation's critical defense data.
Ralph Nader: Revitalizing the AFL-CIO
This comes from a true champion of the people:
At a perilous period for both working and unemployed Americans, facing deep recession, corporate abandonment to China and other repressive regimes, and the Republicans’ virulent assault on livelihoods and labor rights, Kelber believes that AFL-CIO should be on the ramparts. Instead, he sees it as moribund, hunkering down, with control of the power and purse concentrated in the hands of the silent and Sphinx-like Federation officers and the tiny clique of bureaucrats who run the show.
“In the AFL-CIO, the rank-and-file have no voice in electing their officials, because only the candidates of the Old Guard can be on the ballot,” he writes.
Certainly, the AFL-CIO is not reflecting the old adage that when “the going gets tough, the tough get going.” They recoil from any public criticism of Barack Obama, who disregards or and humiliates them by his actions.
Mr. Obama promised labor in 2008 to press for a $9.50 federal minimum wage by 2011, and the Employee Free Choice Act, especially “card check,” and then forgot about both commitments. He has not spoken out and vigorously fought for an adequate OSHA inspection and enforcement budget to diminish the tens of thousands of workplace related fatalities every year. He’s been too busy managing drones, Kandahar and outlying regions of the quagmire of our undeclared wars.
Nothing Obama does seems to publically rile the AFL-CIO. In February, he crossed Lafayette Square from the White House with great fanfare to visit his pro-Republican opponents at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce yet declined to go around the corner and visit the AFL-CIO headquarters. Where was the public objection from the House of Labor?
1 in 10 Soldiers Have Lost Limbs in Current Wars
- source: CNN
Saturday, May 28, 2011
Friday, May 27, 2011
California Teacher in Chloroform Case Arrested Again on Explosives Rap
ABC:
A popular California teacher, accused earlier this week of helping students inhale chloroform, was arrested again when explosive material was found inside her chemistry classroom.
A bomb squad detonated a small vial of the highly explosive compound nitroglycerin after it was discovered at Livingston High School, south of Stockton.
Rights group says extrajudicial killings by Venezuela’s police officers escalating
Ortega called the rise in the number of killings part of “a progressive disappearance of institutional conduct” within Venezuela’s municipal, state and federal police forces.
Venezuelans are generally distrustful of police. The government of President Hugo Chavez recently dissolved the Metropolitan Police in the capital of Caracas due to rampant corruption, violent crime by officers and widespread rights abuses.
The government created a new city police force — the National Bolivarian Police — last year as part of an effort to regain the trust of citizens and it plans to expand the force, establishing precincts in other cities.
Ortega’s group is closely examining 81 cases of extrajudicial killings between 2000 and 2009, but rights activists say many more such killings were committed during that period. Provea, another Venezuelan rights group, counted 199 extrajudicial killings between October 2009 and September 2010.
Cofavic’s study said few police officers responsible for unwarranted killings faced prosecution, which Ortega said has spurred an increase in such slayings.
“Less than 4 percent of the cases go to trial in Venezuela and that obviously creates a situation of institutional break down,” Ortega said.
Police responsible for killings frequently threaten or attack the relatives of victims seeking to intimidate them into not reporting the slayings to government authorities, Ortega said.
Copyright 2011 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Thursday, May 26, 2011
Wisconsin Union Law Struck Down By County Circuit Judge
- One for our side. This battle has been won. But the war continues.