DECEMBER 2010

Today In History Friday December 31, 2010
1775 - The British repulsed an attack by Continental Army generals Richard Montgomery and Benedict Arnold at Quebec. Montgomery was killed in the battle.
1841 - The State of Alabama enacted the first dental legislation in the U.S.
1857 - Britain's Queen Victoria decided to make Ottawa the capital of Canada.
1862 - U.S. President Lincoln signed an act admitting West Virginia to the Union.
1877 - U.S. President Rutherford B. Hayes became the first U.S. President to celebrate his silver (25th) wedding anniversary in the White House.
1891 - New York's new Immigration Depot was opened at Ellis Island, to provide improved facilities for the massive numbers of arrivals.
1897 - Brooklyn, NY, spent its last day as a separate entity before becoming part of New York City.
1923 - In London, the BBC first broadcast the chimes of Big Ben.
1929 - Guy Lombardo and his Royal Canadians played "Auld Lang Syne" as a New Year's Eve song for the first time.
1946 - U.S. President Truman officially proclaimed the end of hostilities in World War II.
1955 - General Motors became the first U.S. corporation to earn more than one billion dollars in a single year.
1960 - The farthing coin, which had been in use in Great Britain since the 13th century, ceased to be legal tender.
1961 - In the U.S., the Marshall Plan expired after distributing more than $12 billion in foreign aid.
1974 - Private U.S. citizens were allowed to buy and own gold for the first time in more than 40 years.
1978 - Taiwanese diplomats struck their colors for the final time from the embassy flagpole in Washington, DC. The event marked the end of diplomatic relations with the U.S.
1979 - At year end oil prices were 88% higher than at the start of 1979.
1997 - Michael Kennedy, 39-year-old son of the late U.S. Sen. Robert F. Kennedy, was killed in a skiing accident on Aspen Mountain in Colorado.
1999 - Russian President Boris Yeltsin resigned. Prime Minister Vladimir Putin was designated acting president.
1999 - Five hijackers left the airport where they had been holding 150 hostages on an Indian Airlines plane. They left with two Islamic clerics that they had demanded be freed from an Indian prison. The plane had been hijacked during a flight from Katmandu, Nepal to New Dehli on December 24.
1999 - Sarah Knauss died at the age of 119 years. She was the world's oldest person. She was born September 24, 1880.

Child cancer cluster confounds tiny Ohio town
Mysterious tumors have sickened dozens of kids in recent years in Clyde, Ohio. After three years of exhaustive investigation, no cause is known. Investigators have tested wells and public drinking water, sampled groundwater and air near factories and checked homes, schools and industries for radiation. They also set up a network of air monitors across eastern Sandusky County, finding cleaner air than in most places around Ohio, the health department said. Nothing unusual was detected. Not even a hint. Read More...

Blizzard delays $1 billion in retail spending
The blizzard that swept through the Northeast on Sunday and Monday delayed $1 billion in retail spending, according to research firm ShopperTrak, but won't derail a holiday shopping season expected to be the best since 2007.

Meat, poultry to have nutrition labels by 2012
Nutritional labels will be mandatory on 40 popular cuts of meat and poultry products beginning in 2012, a measure the U.S. Department of Agriculture said on Wednesday will make it easier for consumers to understand the content of the foods they buy.

$8 Million Worth Of Equipment 'Lost Or Misplaced' By The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
The report was released this week by the inspector general for the Department of Health and Human Services, the parent agency of the CDC. In 2007, the auditors checked on 200 randomly sampled items and found 15 were lost or not inventoried, including a $1.8 million hard disk drive and a $978,000 video conferencing system.

16 U.S. cities that could face bankruptcy in 2011
2011 will be the year of the municipal default. At least that's what analysts like Meredith Whitney predict, as do bond investors that have been fleeing the muni market.There are many reasons to be worried. First, the expiration of Build America Bonds will make it harder for cities to raise funds.
Second, city revenues are crashing and keep getting worse. Property taxes haven't reflected the total damage from the housing crash. High joblessness is cutting into city revenues, while increasing costs for services.

Shanghai Pushing Gold to $1,600 Thwarts Fight to Shut Mines
China displaced South Africa as the world’s biggest gold producer in 2007, the same year Li was diagnosed. Its imports through October also rose almost fivefold from the total shipped in last year, surprising analysts including Yuichi Ikemizu, the head of commodity trading at Standard Bank Plc in Tokyo. “China is the biggest bullish factor in the gold market,” says Ikemizu, who forecasts gold may hit $1,600 an ounce next year. The price hit a record $1,431.25 an ounce on Dec. 7. “Gold doesn’t have much room to go down.”

The Lull Before the Storm
This week—what with Christmas on one end and the new year’s celebration on the other, and everthing in between covered in snow—nothing much is gonna happen: It’s a week that’s about as dead as Dillinger. So I figured I should take stock of where we are—and more importantly, where we’re going.

'No Refusal' DUI Checkpoints Could Be Coming to Tampa
Tampa, Florida-- With New Year's Eve only days away, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration expects this to be one of the deadliest weeks of the year on the roads.

Report From Iron Mountain; Using Fear to Make People Subservient to Government
The substance of these stratagems [for the weakening of the United States so it can be more easily merged into a global government based on the model of collectivism] can be traced to a think-tank study released in 1966 called the Report from Iron Mountain.

Jobless Claims: Hairy Hissmas And A Crappy New Year (12/30)
Yeah, ok. Amusing number, really - the DOL invented 133,000 seasonal adjustment jobs! That is, the unadjusted, actual number was 521,834. That's up 24,879 from the previous week. This is particularly troublesome to me for a number of reasons - with the week shortened by Christmas Eve (offices closed to a large degree) we should have seen fewer unadjusted claims and the adjustment should have been upward, not downward, to account for the holiday closures.

American Eagle Silver Coin Sales are Temporarily Suspended
Production of United States Mint American Eagle Silver Uncirculated Coins continues to be temporarily suspended because of unprecedented demand for American Eagle Silver Bullion Coins.

Initial Claims Print at 388K, Far Lower Than Expectations of 418K, Non- Seasonally Adjusted Claims Jump to 521K
And the year end seasonal divergence starts: while seasonally adjusted claims came at 388,000, a 34,000 drop from the prior week, and 30k below consensus, it is the Non-Seasonally adjusted number which probably provides a far better indication of what is happening: and at 521,834 it was a 24,879 increase from last week's 497k.

South Korea; North Korea Builds Up Special Forces
SEOUL, South Korea—North Korea has faster, more powerful tanks prowling the world's most heavily armed border and 200,000 special forces poised to carry out assassinations and cause havoc in South Korea, a major military review said Thursday.

Palestine Today: A Reality of Justice Denied
"Israeli military kills 20-year old Gazan for herding animals too close to buffer zone.

Experts: Food and Fuel Shortages Imminent as New Ice Age Dawns
With an Ice Age comes abrupt change, and with change comes death—sometimes death on a massive scale.

Nigeria's Deal to Drop Cheney Charges Called Illegal
Lawyers and media pundits in Nigeria are accusing the government of acting illegally by agreeing to settle criminal bribery charges against Dick Cheney out of court.

Terrorist Watch List: One Tip Now Enough to Put Name in Database, Officials Say
A year after a Nigerian man allegedly tried to blow up a Detroit-bound airliner, officials say they have made it easier to add individuals' names to a terrorist watch list and improved the government's ability to thwart an attack in the United States.

UK Winter May Be Coldest in 1000 Years
BRITAIN’S winter is the coldest since 1683 and close to being the chilliest in nearly 1,000 years.

Sanitation Workers Selfishly Slowed Down the Clean-Up
Selfish Sanitation Department bosses from the snow-slammed outer boroughs ordered their drivers to snarl the blizzard cleanup to protest budget cuts -- a disastrous move that turned streets into a minefield for emergency-services vehicles, The Post has learned.

Rare Hurricane-Strength Winds Batter LA Area; More Snow and Ice On Way
A rare blast of hurricane-strength winds was topped by a 94 mph gust measured by the National Weather Service at 3:57 a.m. Thursday at Whitaker Peak.

President and Family on Multi-Million Dollar Christmas Vacation in Hawaii ( And we pay for this! Where is our vacation?)
President Obama and his family are enjoying a delightful Christmas vacation with friends and family in the chief executive's home state of Hawaii.

Internet Groups Fear UN Could Threaten Cyberspace
Autocratic governments like China and Iran attended the meeting, as did several democratic ones. Despite protests by Portugal and the United States, they voted to staff a working group on the future of the Internet Governance Forum -- an important theatre of discussion on matters of cyberspace -- by governments alone.

Oil Could Push to $110
It's "certainly possible" that the price of a barrel of oil will push above $100 a barrel, Daryl Guppy, CEO of Guppytraders.com, told CNBC Thursday.

3.8 Magnitude Earthquake Hits North Central Indiana
An earthquake about 5 miles below the ground hit north central Indiana shortly before sunrise today.

China Preparing for Armed Conflict 'In Every Direction'
China is preparing for conflict 'in every direction', the defence minister said on Wednesday in remarks that threaten to overshadow a visit to Beijing by his US counterpart next month.

Gold Hits Three-Week on Weak Dollar
Weakness in the US dollar and a year-end flurry of investment in commodities pushed gold to its highest in three weeks on Thursday, while palladium hit fresh nine-year highs after having almost doubled in price this year.

Hundreds of Herbal Products to Be Outlawed Against Across EU in Early 2011
The global effort to outlaw herbs, vitamins and supplements is well under way, and in just four months, hundreds of herbal products will be criminalized in the UK and across the EU. It's all part of an EU directive passed in 2004 which erects "disproportionate" barriers against herbal remedies by requiring them to be "licensed" before they can be sold.

Human Exposure to BPA Grossly Underestimated
People in the United States are probably exposed to levels of the hormone-disrupting chemical bisphenol A (BPA) at levels far higher than previously believed, according to a study conducted by researchers from the University of Missouri and published in the journal Environmental Health Perspectives.

Today In History Thursday December 30, 2010
1853 - The United States bought about 45,000 square miles of land from Mexico in a deal known as the Gadsden Purchase.
1887 - A petition to Queen Victoria with over one million names of women appealing for public houses to be closed on Sundays was handed to the home secretary.
1903 - About 600 people died when fire broke out at the Iroquois Theater in Chicago, IL.
1911 - Sun Yat-sen was elected the first president of the Republic of China.
1919 - Lincoln's Inn, in London, admitted the first female bar student.
1922 - The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) was formed.
1924 - Edwin Hubble announced the existence of other galactic systems.
1927 - The first subway in the Orient was dedicated in Tokyo, Japan.
1935 - Italian bombers destroyed a Swedish Red Cross unit in Ethiopia.
1936 - The United Auto Workers union staged its first sit-down strike, at the Fisher Body Plant in Flint, MI.
1940 - California's first freeway was officially opened. It was the Arroyo Seco Parkway connecting Los Angeles and Pasadena.
1944 - King George II of Greece proclaimed a regency to rule his country, virtually renouncing the throne.
1947 - King Michael of Romania abdicated in favor of a Communist Republic. He claimed he was forced from his throne.
1953 - The first color TV sets went on sale for about $1,175.
1972 - The United States halted its heavy bombing of North Vietnam.
1980 - "The Wonderful World of Disney" was cancelled by NBC after more than 25 years on the TV. It was the longest-running series in prime-time television history.
1993 - Israel and the Vatican established diplomatic relations.
1996 - About 250,000 striking workers shut down vital services across Israel in protests against budget cuts proposed by Prime Minister Netanyahu.
1997 - More than 400 people were massacred in four villages in the single worst incident during Algeria's insurgency.

US Foreclosures Jump in Third Quarter
U.S. home foreclosures jumped in the third quarter and banks' efforts to keep borrowers in their homes dropped as the housing market continues to struggle, U.S. bank regulators said on Wednesday.

Oil Juggernaut Unleashed
The prevalence of crude is undeniable. You might dabble in green-think cultism or you might drive an obnoxious monolith of a Hummer (what I like to call an “overcompensation-mobile”), but neither philosophy of consumption dares to contradict that this world runs on oil.

Consumer Confidence Falls Yet Retail Sales Rise as Christmas Miracles Continue
The market continues to putter along in the last trading week of a year that has thoroughly confused Money McBags like the subprime meltdown confused Ben Stein, the cosmological constant confused Einstein, or a grocery store freezer confused Carrie Harkness.

Pentagon's Revolving Door Guarantees Conflicts of Interest
When a general-turned-businessman arrives at the Pentagon, he is often treated with extraordinary deference — as if still in uniform — which can greatly increase his effectiveness as a rainmaker for industry. The military even has name for it — the “bobblehead effect.’’

If Housing Prices Keep Falling This Fast, the Economy is Screwed
Housing guru Robert Shiller says the decline in October's Case-Shiller house-price index was much worse than expected (over 10% annualized).

New Research Reveals Your Hand Soap Could Kill You
Death by hand soap? It's no joke and worried researchers are trying to get the word out to the public about this latest health risk.

Petro Fracking Booms NAFTA Oil Resources
Why this is really interesting is that it is not just petroleum byproducts, but liquefied propane. That is something that we know will happily come back up the well in the gas portion of the product stream.

Iraqi Prime Minister Says US Forces Must Leave On Time
BAGHDAD—Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki ruled out the presence of any U.S. troops in Iraq after the end of 2011, saying his new government and the country's security forces were capable of confronting any remaining threats to Iraq's security, sovereignty and unity.

Pope to Issue New Finance Rules
The Vatican will issue new rules Thursday designed to make its financial transactions more transparent after a money laundering probe resulted in the seizure of €23 million ($30.2 million) from a Vatican account.

Yen's Gain Worsens Government Woes
Japan's finance minister described the yen's recent rises as "one-sided" and threatened to intervene again in the currency market to curb its strength, as the yen marked three-week highs against the dollar—a cause for nervousness among Japanese exporters.

US Drone Strikes Kill 25 in North Waziristan
A pair of US drone strikes in the Mir Ali village of North Waziristan have left at least 25 people dead. The drones targeted a pair of vehicles but also appear to have killed a number of people around those vehicles as well.

Stranded Fliers Might Not Get Home Until Thursday
The nightmare continued Tuesday for travelers trying to fly to or from the Northeast. Airports opened but there were plenty of delays, even more lines and fears that delays could stretch on for days.

Rain, Possible Mudslides for Los Angeles, San Diego Areas
Rain spreading over Los Angeles and San Diego today could trigger new mudslides and flooding problems as many residents are still cleaning up from last week's barrage of storms.

White House Plans to Push Global Warming Policy, GOP Vows Fight
After failing to get climate-change legislation through Congress, the Obama administration plans on pushing through its environmental policies through other means, and Republicans are ready to put up a fight.

Forecasters Keep Eye on Looming 'Solar Max'
The coming year will be an important one for space weather as the Sun pulls out of a trough of low activity and heads into a long-awaited and possibly destructive period of turbulence.

Are You Prepared for the Inevitable?
Well, we’ve almost reached the end of another year. Much has been written and published by a host of commentators about the ominous signs ahead for our country’s government, economy, health and spirituality.

Food Safety Bill Invokes Codex Harmonization and Grant FDA Authority to Police Food Safety of Foreign Nations
Of all the talk about S.510, virtually no one has actually read the language in the bill -- especially not those lawmakers who voted for it.

Pomegranate Juice Components Block Cancer Cell Migration
One of the most dreaded consequences of cancer is when the disease metastasizes -- meaning it spreads from the primary site where it started to other parts of the body.

Obscene, Threatening Comments Posted at Anti-TSA Website Traced to Homeland Security Servers
Officials from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) seem to now be going on the offensive against those who oppose its new invasive and unconstitutional airport security protocols being carried out by agents of the U.S. Transportation Security Administration (TSA).

Vitamin D Levels Found to be Extremely Low in Women With Breast Cancer
Vitamin D deficiency may contribute to the development of breast cancer, according to a study conducted by researchers from the University of South Carolina and presented at the Third American Association for Cancer Research Conference on the Science of Cancer Health Disparities in Miami.


Today In History Wednesday December 29, 2010
1812 - The USS Constitution won a battle with the British ship HMS Java about 30 miles off the coast of Brazil. Before Commodore William Bainbridge     ordered the sinking of the Java he had her wheel removed to replace the one the Constitution had lost during the battle.
1813 - The British burned Buffalo, NY, during the War of 1812.
1837 - Canadian militiamen destroyed the Caroline, a U.S. steamboat docked at Buffalo, NY.
1845 - U.S. President James Polk and signed legislation making Texas the 28th state of the United States.
1848 - U.S. President James Polk turned on the first gas light at the White House.
1860 - The HMS Warrior, Britain's first seagoing first iron-hulled warship, was launched.
1888 - The first Performance of Macbeth took place at the Lyceum Theatre.
1890 - The U.S. Seventh Cavalry massacred over 400 men, women and children at Wounded Knee Creek, SD. This was the last major conflict between Indians and U.S. troops.
1934 - The first regular-season, college basketball game was played at Madison Square Garden in New York City. New York University defeated Notre Dame 25-18.
1934 - Japan renounced the Washington Naval Treaty of 1922 and the London Naval Treaty of 1930.
1940 - During World War II, Germany began dropping incendiary bombs on London.
1945 - Sheb Wooley recorded the first commercial record made in Nashville, TN.
1949 - KC2XAK of Bridgeport, Connecticut became the first ultrahigh frequency (UHF) television station to begin operating on a regular daily schedule.
1952 - The first transistorized hearing aid was offered for sale by Sonotone Corporation.
1975 - A bomb exploded in the main terminal of New York's LaGuardia Airport. 11 people were killed.
1985 - Phil Donahue and a Soviet radio commentator hosted the "Citizens’ Summit" via satellite TV.
1989 - Following Hong Kong's decision to forcibly repatriate some Vietnamese refugees, thousands of Vietnamese 'boat people' battled with riot police.
1996 - The Guatemalan government and leaders of the leftist Guatemalan National Revolutionary Union signed a peace accord in Guatemala City, ending a civil war that had lasted 36 years.
1997 - Hong Kong began killing 1.25 million chickens, the entire population, for fear of the spread of 'bird flu'.
1998 - Khmer Rouge leaders apologized for the 1970s genocide in Cambodia that claimed 1 million lives.

More than 25% of Kids and Teens in the U.S. Take Prescriptions on a Regular Basis
Children and teens are also taking a wide variety of other medications once considered only to be for adults, from statins to diabetes pills and sleep drugs, according to figures provided to The Wall Street Journal by IMS Health, a research firm. Prescriptions for antihypertensives in people age 19 and younger could hit 5.5 million this year if the trend though September continues, according to IMS. That would be up 17% from 2007, the earliest year available.

VIDEO: Ron Paul Competing Currencies Can 'End the Fed' Softly
The distinguished gentleman from Texas Ron Paul explaining why freedom in currencies is the best way to have wealth for the American citizen.

Half of the Emergency Federal Reserve Credit Facility Funds Went to Foreign Banks
File under: The raping of U.S. taxpayers in an effort to bailout foreign banks.

Housing Starts Seen Rising to 3-Year High With Boost for Jobs
Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke may be about to get help in his attempt to boost the economy, from an industry at rock-bottom: housing.

The US Government Can't Account for Billions Spent in Afghanistan
KANDAHAR CITY -- In its bid to win the hearts and minds of Afghanistan’s teeming population, the United States has spent more than $55 billion to rebuild and bolster the war-ravaged country.

"People affiliated with our organization have already been assassinated," Assange Claims
Assange may have been referring to two WikiLeaks writers that were assassinated in Kenya last year.

The Subway Sheeple Freeze
This is incredible. Over 400 people, last night, spent over 9 hours stuck on a NYC subway, on an elevated track, in freezing conditions.

Counter-Terror 'Expert' Tells Cops: Kill Militant Muslims, Including Children
A counter-terrorism consultant told a meeting of law enforcement officials that the way to combat militant Muslims is to "kill them ... including the children," says a news report.

$5 For a Gallon of Gasoline in 2012
The former president of Shell Oil, John Hofmeister, says Americans could be paying $5 for a gallon of gasoline by 2012.

Unemployment Rate - To Set New Post Great Depression Record
A week ago I posted some questions for next year: Ten Economic Questions for 2011. I'm working through the questions and trying to add some predictions, or at least some thoughts for each question before the end of year.

Some Bailed-Out Banks May Fail Anyway
OK, so the bailout cost taxpayers trillions of dollars, and the economy is still struggling -- but at least the banks themselves are back on their feet, right?

Illegal Steroid Use Among Police Officers a 'Big Problem'
The badge and a steroid-filled syringe -- it's not the typical image most have for the abuse of performance-enhancing drugs.

New Hawaii Governor Wants to Put Obama Birther Debate 'To Rest'
Enough is enough. Hawaii's new governor, Neil Abercrombie, wants to put to rest the so-called birther controversy, possibly by releasing additional information to confirm that President Obama was indeed born in the 50th state on Aug. 4, 1961.

Conservative Chorus Calling for States' Right to Declare Bankruptcy
A chorus of conservative pundits are calling for bankruptcy laws to be changed so that all 50 US state governments might have the chance to restructure their debts, an ability currently limited to corporations, municipal entities, and private citizens.

Baby Boomers Near 65 With Retirements in Jeopardy
Through a combination of procrastination and bad timing, many baby boomers are facing a personal finance disaster just as they're hoping to retire.

Biometric Security Coming to Android
Mobile application developer, BluePlanet Apps, has announced it is developing a biometric security application for the Android mobile operating system, according to an Android Headlines article.

Need to See Some ID, Please?
Proving my identity in the States only requires my driver's license and social security number. Now that I'm ping-ponging across the U.S./Canadian border, I have a slew of identity documents.

WikiLeaks Set to Reveal US_UFO War In Southern Ocean
A new report circulating in the Kremlin today prepared for President Medvedev by Russian Space Forces (VKS) 45th Division of Space Control says that an upcoming WikiLeaks release of secret US cables details that the Americans have been “engaged” since 2004 in a “war” against UFO’s based on or near the Continent of Antarctica, particularly the Southern Ocean.

Nations's Poorest State Spent Over $500,000 on Governor's Travel
Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour's use of the state's pricey jet plan has mixed state business with pleasure and national politics, according to a Politico review of the jet's flight log.

North American Integration Back on the Front Burner
President Obama has continued and expanded the Merida Initiative. The U.S. and Mexico have further broadened and deepened their cooperation.

Prescription Drug Use in Children and Teens
Gage Martindale, who is 8 years old, has been taking a blood-pressure drug since he was a toddler. "I want to be healthy, and I don't want things in my heart to go wrong," he says.

Almost Everything is a Crime in America
Doesn't it seem like almost everything is becoming a crime in America now?

China Has Carrier-Killer Missile, US Admiral Says
China's military is deploying a new anti-ship ballistic missile that can sink U.S. aircraft carriers, a weapon that specialists say gives Beijing new power-projection capabilities that will affect U.S. support for its Pacific allies.

N Korean Troop's New Uniform Alarms S Korea
Some North Korean troops stationed along the border have donned a camouflage uniform similar to that worn by South Koreans, apparently to practise intrusion drills, a defence ministry official said Tuesday.

Lack of Moisture Threatens Winter Wheat Crop
That’s why many will shrug off this year’s bad start to the winter wheat crop, still resting on the little bits of hope for moisture they keep alive.

Price Tag for 2010 Disasters: $222B
The global economic losses from natural catastrophes and man-made disasters equaled $222 billion in 2010, more than triple the $63 billion lost in 2009, according to reinsurance company Swiss Re.

With Food Safety Bill, US Government Will Spend Nearly $1 Million Per Person to Prevent Food-Borne Illness Deaths
The recently-passed Food Safety Modernization Act, which was passed in order to prevent food-borne illness deaths in the USA, will cost $1.4 billion over the first five years.

Junk Science Alert: Researchers Declare Alternative Therapies Dangerous to Children Based on Scant Evidence
The headline emblazoned across a new British Medical Journal (BMJ) press release proclaims this alarming warning: Complementary medicines can be dangerous for children!

Patients Injected With Flu Vaccine Even If They Don't Want It
Even those who deliberately chose to forego vaccination against the H1N1 swine flu last year will have to receive the shot if they want protection against the seasonal flu.

Feds Target Airline Pilot for Exposing TSA Security Sham on Youtube
A Sacramento-based airline pilot is the subject of a federal investigation for exposing what he says are serious flaws in the U.S. Transportation Security Administration's (TSA) airport security protocols.

Swine Flu Pandemic Outleak Sweeping Through Britain Even Though 70 Percent Were Vaccinated Last Year
A swine flu pandemic is sweeping through Britain despite the fact that 70 percent of Britain's over-65 population was vaccinated against swine flu last year.

Former TSA Agent Gets Probation, Not Jail Time, For Stealing Passengers' Computers
Americans might want to exercise more caution when dealing with the potential terrorists operating the security lines at the airport than those allegedly trying to get through them and onto planes.


Today In History Tuesday December 28, 2010
1832 - John C. Calhoun became the first vice president of the United States to resign, stepping down over differences with President Jackson.
1836 - Mexico's independence was recognized by Spain.
1846 - Iowa became the 29th state to be admitted to the Union.
1869 - William E. Semple, of Mt. Vernon, OH, patented an acceptable chewing gum.
1877 - John Stevens applied for a patent for his flour-rolling mill, which boosted production by 70%.
1879 - In Dundee, Scotland the central portion of the Tay Bridge collapsed as a train was passing over it. 75 people were killed.
1902 - The first professional indoor football game was played at Madison Square Garden in New York City.
          Syracuse defeated the Philadelphia Nationals 6-0.
1908 - An earthquake killed over 75,000 at Messina in Sicily.
1912 - The first municipally-owned street cars were used on the streets of San Francisco, CA.
1937 - The Irish Free State became the Republic of Ireland when a new constitution established the country as a sovereign state under the name of Eire.
1945 - The U.S. Congress officially recognized the "Pledge of Allegiance."
1950 - The Peak District became Britain's first designated National Park.
1981 - Elizabeth Jordan Carr, the first American test-tube baby, was born in Norfolk, VA.
1991 - Nine people died in a rush to get into a basketball game at City College in New York.
2000 - U.S. District Court Judge Matsch held a hearing to ensure that confessed Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh understood that he was dropping his appeals. McVeigh said that he wanted an execution date, set but wanted to reserve the right to seek presidential clemency.

Former GOP Congressman Predicts New Sedition Act
Desire to stop secrets outlet WikiLeaks from disclosing more US documents could lead to a new Sedition Act, according to former Rep. Bob Barr (R-GA).

Obama to Give Manhatten Back to Native Americans
President Obama is voicing support for a U.N. resolution that could accomplish something as radical as relinquishing some U.S. sovereignty and opening a path for the return of ancient tribal lands to American Indians, including even parts of Manhattan.

98 TARP Recipients Close to Failure
The Wall Street Journal reports 98 shaky TARP recipients are on the verge of failure as bad loans pile up. Please consider Bailed-Out Banks Slip Toward Failure.

ONDCP Specifically Exempted From Scientific Integrity Policy
If the science says that legalization is even a viable option, the Drug Czar is required by law to ignore, obfuscate, lie, or whatever else is necessary to oppose any attempts to legalize.

ACLU Placed on Tennessee Terror Map for Letter to Schools
The ACLU of Tennessee says it ended up on a map of potential terrorist threats after it sent a letter to school superintendents asking them to be "inclusive" in their holiday celebration

'Homeland' Security Coming to Hotels, Malls
The United States is stepping up security at "soft targets" like hotels and shopping malls, as well as trains and ports, as it counters the evolving Al-Qaeda threat, a top official said Sunday.

Home Prices Probably Fell, Baring Weak Link in Accelerating US Recovery
Home prices probably dropped in October, a sign housing will remain a weak link as the U.S. recovery accelerates into the new year, economists said before reports this week.

License Plate Readers Help Catch Suspects But Worry Privacy Advocates
The high-tech cameras can scan 1,800 plates a minute and run them through crime databases. Some fear the government will use the technology to track innocent people.

Ceiling Lights in Minnesota Send Coded Internet Data
Flickering ceiling lights are usually a nuisance, but in city offices in St. Cloud, they will actually be a pathway to the Internet.

US Threatens China With WTO Case on Rare Earth Exports
US trade officials Thursday threatened trade action against China over exports of rare earth materials, one day after embarking on a separate case before the World Trade Organization (WTO) against wind power subsidies.

Swine Flu Pandemic Outbreak Sweeping Through Britain Even Though 70 Percent Were Vaccinated Last Year
A swine flu pandemic is sweeping through Britain despite the fact that 70 percent of Britain's over-65 population was vaccinated against swine flu last year.

Blizzard Paralyzes New York City, Boston
A powerful winter storm slammed the I-95 corridor from Philadelphia to Boston on Sunday.

Snow Strands Subway Passengers In 'A' Train for Nearly 11 Hours In Queens
For many New Yorkers, getting stuck on a subway train for more than a couple of extra minutes can be a serious annoyance – and the thought of being stuck for hours is a nightmare.

Storms Strands Buses, Planes, Trains on East Coast
A powerful East Coast blizzard marooned thousands of would-be air, rail and road travelers Monday, shutting down major airports and rail lines for a second day, stranding buses on buried highways, and forcing New York City subway riders to spend a cold night in unheated trains.

Terror in Rome: Multiple Embassies Report Suspected Bombs Days After Previous Explosions
A package bomb has been found at the Greek Embassy in Rome, three days after mail bombs exploded at two other embassies injuring two people.

Ancient Human Remains Found in Israel
Israeli archaeologists said Monday they may have found the earliest evidence yet for the existence of modern man, and if so, it could upset theories of the origin of humans.

New Global Banking Rules Proposed on Banker's Pay
New banking rules are being proposed by an influential global regulatory panel that would give investors a better idea of when CEOs and other high-paid executives get bonuses even when their companies are lagging.

Return of the Death Panel
The New York Times ran a fascinating Christmas Day story online, to appear in today's print edition, about the return of the “death panels” for ObamaCare. The term comes from a famous Sarah Palin Facebook post from 2009, in which she said:

Iron, Folic Acid Supplementation During Pregnancy Results in Children With Better Motor Skills
A new study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association highlights the importance of getting plenty of the right vitamins, minerals and nutrients during pregnancy.


Today In History Monday December 27, 2010
1703 - The Methuen Treaty was signed between Portugal and England, giving preference to the import of Portuguese wines into England.
1845 - Dr. Crawford Williamson Long used anesthesia for childbirth for the first time. The event was the delivery of his own child in Jefferson, GA.
1927 - Leon Trotsky was expelled from the Communist Party.
1945 - The World Bank was created with an agreement signed by 28 nations.
1947 - The children's television program "Howdy Doody," hosted by Bob Smith, made its debut on NBC.
1951 - In Cincinnati, OH, a Crosley automobile, with a steering wheel on the right side, became the first vehicle of its kind to be placed in service for mail delivery.
1965 - The BP oil rig Sea Gem capsized in the North Sea, with the loss of 13 lives.
1978 - Spain adopted a new constitution and became a democracy after 40 years of dictatorship.
1979 - Soviet forces seized control of Afghanistan. Babrak Karmal succeeded President Hafizullah Amin, who was overthrown and executed.
1985 - Dian Fossey, an American naturalist, was found murdered at a research station in Rawanda.
1992 - The U.S. shot down an Iraqi fighter jet during what the Pentagon described as a confrontation between a pair of Iraqi warplanes and U.S. F-16 jets in U.N.-restricted airspace over southern Iraq.
1996 - Muslim fundamentalist Taliban forces retook the strategic air base of Bagram, solidifying their buffer zone around Kabul, the Afghanistan capital.
1997 - In Northern Ireland, Billy Wright was assassinated. He was imprisoned as a Protestant paramilitary leader.
2001 - U.S. President George W. Bush granted China permanent normal trade status with the United States.
2002 - North Korea ordered U.N. nuclear inspectors to leave the country and said that it would restart a laboratory capable of producing plutonium for nuclear weapons.
2002 - Clonaid announced the birth of the first cloned human baby. The baby had been born December 26.
2002 - In Chechnya, at least 40 people were killed when suicide bombers attacked the administration of Grozny.

The Bosian Experience
When the things started to go bad, we were under impression that we would be okay; since we are on the farm and that we can just live there until everything was over.

The US Defends Permits for Iran Deals in Sanctioned Nations
The Treasury Department on Thursday defended its issuance of special licenses for American companies to do business with Iran and other blacklisted nations, in response to a New York Times report on deals made despite sanctions and trade embargoes.

Rahm Emanuel Gets Green Light to Run for Chicago Mayor
Former White House chief of staff Rahm Emanuel got a victory in his run for Chicago mayor on Thursday, with a decision by an election board that he meets the residency requirement to be on the February ballot.

Those on DHS 'Terror Watch Lists' Disqualified From 9/11 First Responder Help
Congress finally passed the 9/11 first responders bill, officially called the James Zadroga 9/11 Health and Compensation Act of 2010, H.R. 847, on December 22nd.

TSA to Give Drink Containers Closer Look at Airports
U.S. authorities are warning air travelers to expect greater scrutiny of thermoses and other insulated drink containers at security checkpoints after intelligence suggested they could be used to hide explosives.

Sacramento-Area Pilot Punished for Youtube Video
An airline pilot is being disciplined by the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) for posting video on YouTube pointing out what he believes are serious flaws in airport security.

The Explosion in Sudden-Loan Debt
“I know I have to pay ‘em. I-- I-- I know and I will,” McCarthy said, sobbing. “I just-- I-- I never said I wouldn’t, you know?”

Fresh Humiliation for Euro Zone as China Says It Will Bail Out Debt-Ridden Nations
China has said it is willing to bail out debt-ridden countries in the euro zone using its $2.7trillion overseas investment fund.

Bombs Explode at Switzerland and Chile Embassies in Italy
Two people were seriously hurt yesterday in postal bomb attacks on diplomatic missions in Rome.

France's Sarkozy Says Time to Consider SDR Role
French President Nicolas Sarkozy said on Monday that his G20 agenda to reform the international monetary system would look at widening the role of the IMF's Special Drawing Rights and tackling international capital flows.

I-95 Blizzard From New Jersey to Maine
A northward-moving strengthening storm will unleash a paralyzing blizzard along a vast swath of the I-95 Northeast corridor into Monday.

Snow Storm Bears Down on Mid-Atlantic, Northeast
A band of frigid weather snaking its way up the East Coast on Sunday threatened to bring blizzards and a foot of snow to New York City and New England, while several states made emergency declarations as the storm caused crashes on slick roads.

Cables Show DEA's Global Reach
The Drug Enforcement Administration has been transformed into a global intelligence organization with a reach that extends far beyond narcotics, and an eavesdropping operation so expansive it has to fend off foreign politicians who want to use it against their political enemies, according to secret diplomatic cable

Naploitano: Get Used to Airport Pat-Downs
The use of full-body scanners and invasive pat-downs at airports around the U.S. will not change for the "foreseeable future," Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano said in an interview broadcast Sunday.

This Is By Far the Most Important Financial Development of 2010
Since November 1, long-term U.S. Treasury bonds have fallen 7% in value. That's not supposed to happen. But it's happening.

Swine Flu Epidemic Fear as Hospital Admissions Soar by 250 Percent In a Week
The Department of Health figures reveal the extent of the worsening crisis and show that the number of critical care beds being used by flu patients has risen by more than half in three days.

Federal Reserve Bank Orders Oklahoma Bank to Remove All Symbols of Christian Faith
What right does a privately owned bank. Not a government agency have the jurisdiction to tell another privet owned bank to remove all vestiges of Christianity from this bank

After Nearly Two Years of Searching, TrimTabs Still Can't Figure Out Who Is Buying Stocks
A year after Charles Biderman's provocative post first appeared on Zero Hedge, in which he asked just who is doing all the buying of stocks as the money was obviously not coming from retail investors (and came up with one very notable suggestion), today Maria Bartiromo invited the TrimTabs head once again (conveniently in CNBC's lowest rated show, during Christmas Eve eve, at a time when perhaps 5 people would be watching) in an interview which disclosed that after more than a year of searching, Biderman still has no idea who actually buying.

Sheriff Babeu Authorizes Lethal Force Against Cartels, Bandits
Sheriff Paul Babeu has announced he plans to use deadly force, if necessary, to drive smugglers and border bandits out of his part of the desert.

Crops Absorb Pharmaceuticals From Sewage Sludge Spread on Farmlands
Agricultural crops can absorb pharmaceuticals found in the water used to irrigate them or the sewage sludge used to fertilize them, according to a study conducted by researchers from the University of Toledo-Ohio and published in the journal Environmental Science & Technology.

The Amazing Benefits of Pink Grapefruit Essential Oil
Pink Grapefruit Essential Oil is cold pressed from the rind of the grapefruit. This beneficial essential oil is not only a cleansing and revitalizing oil, but its bright aroma energizes and uplifts the spirit.

Oil Of Oregano Fights Harmful Bacteria, Cancer
A new report out of the University of Arizona (UofA) says that oil of oregano is a powerful nutrient for fighting harmful bacteria and preventing cancer.

Grocery Stores Erect Fake 'Farmers Markets' in Parking Lots to Trick Shoppers
Grocery stores across the country have begun appropriating the term "farmer's market" as a way to appeal to more environmentally and socially conscious consumers.

Vermont Drafts Food Sovereignty Resolution to Protect Health, Food Freedom
In response to the recent passage of "food safety" bills S. 510 and corresponding H.R. 2751, the Vermont Coalition for Food Sovereignty has drafted its own resolution called "The Vermont Resolution for Food Sovereignty."

Hershey's Brings Non-GMO Confections to Europe, But Not US
The Hershey Company is expanding its confectionery market to Europe.

Diabetes Drug May Promote Bladder Cancer
The FDA has begun investigations into whether the widely used diabetes drug pioglitazone (marketed as Actos) may increase the risk of bladder cancer.

US Surgeon General Lies by Omission: Smoking One Cigarette Can Kill You? Seriously?
In what can only be called a bizarre leap of pseudoscience, U.S. Surgeon General Dr Regina M. Benjamin recently announced that smoking one cigarette can kill you.

Fluoridated Water Causes Brain Damage in Children
A new study pre-published in the journal Environmental Health Perspectives confirms that fluoridated water causes brain damage in children.
 

Today In History Thursday December 23, 2010
1783 - George Washington returned home to Mount Vernon, after the disbanding of his army following the Revolutionary War.
1788 - Maryland voted to cede a 100-square-mile area for the seat of the national government. About two-thirds of the area became the District of Columbia.
1823 - The poem "A Visit from St. Nicholas" by Clement C. Moore (" 'Twas the night before Christmas...") was published.
1852 - The Theatre of Celestial John opened on Telegraph Hill in San Francisco, CA. It was the first Chinese theatre in the U.S.
1880 - Thomas Edison incorporated the Edison Electric Light Company of Europe.
1888 - Following a quarrel with Paul Gauguin, Dutch painter Vincent Van Gogh cut off part of his own earlobe.
1913 - The Federal Reserve Bill was signed into law by U.S. President Woodrow Wilson. The act established 12 Federal Reserve Banks.
1919 - The first ship designed to be used as an ambulance for the transport patients was launched. The hospital ship was named USS Relief and had 515 beds.
1922 - The British Broadcasting Corporation began daily news broadcasts.
1941 - During World War II, American forces on Wake Island surrendered to the Japanese.
1942 - Bob Hope agreed to entertain U.S. airmen in Alaska. It was the first of the traditional Christmas shows.
1953 - Soviet secret police chief Lavrenti Beria and six of his associates were shot for treason following a secret trial.
1957 - Dan Blocker made his acting debut on television in the "Restless Gun."
1968 - Eighty-two crewmembers of the U.S. intelligence ship Pueblo were released by North Korea, 11 months after they had been captured.
1981 - NASA approved a plan to continue the Voyager II spacecraft on a trajectory that would take it within 66,000 miles of Uranus on July 24, 1986.
1986 - The experimental airplane Voyager, piloted by Dick Rutan and Jeana Yeager, completed the first non-stop, around-the-world flight without refueling as it landed safely at Edwards Air Force Base in California.
1987 - Lynette "Squeaky" Fromme, serving a life sentence for the attempted assassination of U.S. President Ford in 1975, escaped from the Alderson Federal Prison for Women in West Virginia. She was recaptured two days later.
1995 - A fire in Dabwali, India, killed 540 people, including 170 children, during a year-end party being held near the children's school.
1997 - Terry Nichols was convicted by a Denver jury on charges of conspiracy and involuntary manslaughter in the 1995 federal building bombing in Oklahoma City. The bomb killed 168 people.
1998 - Guerrillas in south Lebanon fired dozens of rockets at northern Israel.

News Blackout in DC: Pay No Attention to Those Veterans Chained to the White House Fence
There was a black-out and a white-out Thursday and Friday as over a hundred US veterans opposed to US wars in Afghanistan and elsewhere around the world, and their civilian supporters, chained and tied themselves to the White House fence during an early snowstorm to say enough is enough.
** Related Article: US arrests over 135 anti-war protesters

ATF's New Border Long-Gun Rules Unconstitutional
A new proposed rule will, for the first time, establish the precedent that licensed firearms dealers will be required (by administrative fiat) to report to the government the sale of two or more semi-automatic rifles that are .22 caliber or greater, can accept a detachable magazine, and are purchased by the same person within five business days.

Obama Prepares Executive Order For Indefinite Detention
First president Obama becomes Bush in all but name with respect to his predecessor's economic policies, and now he follows by espousing Bush's interpretation of "civil rights" as well. According to Pro Publica, the White House is preparing an Executive Order for indefinite detention.

US Announces Yet More Iran Sanctions
With Iran expressing a more conciliatory attitude and Turkey making a serious effort to negotiate a serious third party enrichment deal that will satisfy all those involved, the Obama Administration has responded, as so often before, with a new round of sanctions.

Time-Lapse Video: Winter Solstice Lunar Eclipse
Lunar eclipses, like pretty much all readily visible astronomical events, are indisputably awesome.

Government to Control the Net - Good Luck With That!
Should the government interfere with the Internet?

White House Drafts Executive Order for Indefinite Detention
But the order establishes indefinite detention as a long-term Obama administration policy and makes clear that the White House alone will manage a review process for those it chooses to hold without charge or trial.

EPA and Bayer's Recklessness
Bayer’s clothianidin is thoroughly implicated as the causation of colony collapse disorder (CCD) and I said so then.

No Congress Since 60's Makes as Much Law Affecting Most Americans as 111th
However history judges the 535 men and women in the U.S. House of Representatives and Senate the past two years, one thing is certain: The 111th Congress made more law affecting more Americans since the “Great Society” legislation of the 1960s.

US Teen Birth Rate at All-Time Low, Economy Cited
The U.S. teen birth rate in 2009 fell to its lowest point in 70 years of record-keeping — a decline that stunned experts who believe it's partly due to the recession.

Travel-Trained: Americans Take Security With a Sigh
Explosive snow globes? You've got to be kidding, Robyn Burford thought when security inspectors at the Portland, Ore., airport demanded she hand over her two glitter-filled souvenirs.

Fast Growth in States With No Income Tax
For those of us who are demographic buffs, Christmas came four days early when Census Bureau director Robert Groves announced on Tuesday the first results of the 2010 census and the reapportionment of House seats (and therefore electoral votes) among the states.

The Army: Be All That You Can't Know
Nearly one-fourth of the students who try to join the U.S. Army fail its entrance exam, painting a grim picture of an education system that produces graduates who can’t answer basic math, science and reading questions, according to a new study released Tuesday.

Defend Food Sovereignty In Your State
WHEREAS The basis of human sustenance rests on the ability of every natural person to save seed, grow, process, consume and exchange food and farm products; and....Read More....

WikiLeaks Next Target is BofA
WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange said Tuesday the Swedish women who have accused him of sexual assault had got into a "tizzy" about the possibility they had caught a sexually transmitted disease from him.

Skype Goes Down, Millions Impacted, Skype Responds
Updated with response from Skype: If you are one of Skype’s many users who use the service to make a living or to talk to your remote users, then you may be straight out of luck.

Banks Accused of Illegally Looting Homes
When Mimi Ash arrived at her mountain chalet here for a weekend ski trip, she discovered that someone had broken into the home and changed the locks.

VIDEO: California Storms Prompt Rescues, Evacuations

California Rain Storms: State of Emergency Declared as Rains Spark Mudslides and Flood Roads
California is bracing for another monster storm tonight after days of relentless rainfall forced officials to evacuate hundreds of homes in America's so-called Golden State.

Obama Signs 'Don't Ask, Don't Tell' Repeal
President Barack Obama signed a new law Wednesday that will allow gays for the first time in history to serve openly in America's military. And he urged those kicked out under the old law to re-enlist.

Why It's Cold Here But Warm Over Greenland: Diverted Jet Stream Letting Icy Blast in From the Artic
The freezing conditions that have blasted Britain are being blamed on a series of weather patterns that are bringing Arctic temperatures to much of western Europe, California and even Australia.

Senate Ratifies New US Russia Nuclear Weapons Treaty
The U.S. Senate on Wednesday approved a new nuclear arms-reduction treaty with Russia, the broadest such pact between the former Cold War foes in nearly two decades.

Government Liabilities Rose $2 Trillion in FY 2010
The U.S. government fell deeper into the red in fiscal 2010 with net liabilities swelling more than $2 trillion as commitments on government debt and federal benefits rose, a U.S. Treasury report showed on Tuesday.

Italian Students March Against Education Law
Thousands of Italian students marched in protest against a university reform law on Wednesday but police prevented a repetition of last week's violent clashes in Rome by blocking off parts of the city centre.

Oil Rises Above $90 Amid US Crude Supply Drop
Oil prices rose above $90 a barrel Wednesday in Asia after a report showed U.S. crude supplies dropped more than expected for a second week, which suggests demand is improving.

China Bars English Words In All Publications
Chinese newspapers, books and websites will no longer be allowed to use English words and phrases, the country's publishing body has announced, saying the "purity" of the Chinese language is in peril.

South Korea Military: South Korea Begins Massive New Military Drills
In a move that many fear will provoke an already testy North Korea, Seoul officials Wednesday announced the start of massive new live-fire drills involving troops, tanks, fighter jets and anti-aircraft guns — as well as six naval ships and Lynx anti-submarine helicopters.

Heathrow Nightmare Just Gets Worse and Worse
Another 100,000 passengers contemplated Christmases ruined and holidays wrecked by the partial closure of Heathrow, as snow and ice kept its second, southerly runway closed until 5.30pm yesterday.

Senate Passes Revised 9/11 Responders Health Bill
The Senate on Wednesday passed a bill to pay for the health care of first responders to the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks after reaching a bipartisan agreement to slash the price tag.

Counterterror Officials: Terror Chatter on the Rise During Holiday Travel Season
With the busy holiday travel season already in motion, the nation's top counterterror officials are seeking to assure the public of their efforts to safeguard the homeland even as they acknowledge real dangers.

Problems Continue at the Silver Comex/JP Morgan Finds Allies to Hide the Silver Shorts
Gold closed today up by $2.70 to $1388. 20. Silver finished the day up by 2 cents to $29.37.

PIMCO Says 'Untenable' Policies Will Lead to Eurozone Break-Up
Pimco, the world's largest bond fund, has called on Greece, Ireland and Portugal to step outside the eurozone temporarily and restructure their debts unless the currency bloc agrees to a radical change of course.

Scientists Cite 'Atmospheric River' for New Continuous Rain
It's the rain that just won't stop -- day after day. It's almost as continuous as the flow of a river, tropical moisture funneled into California by what scientists have come to call an "atmospheric river."

There's A Mini Ice Age Coming, Says Man Who Beats Weather Experts
Well, folks, it's tea-time on Sunday and for anyone involved in keeping people moving it has been a hell of a weekend.

Terrorist May Poison the Food Supply (But the Food Companies Already Have)
Always on the terror streak, the mainstream media is now warning Americans that terrorists may strike the food supply by dumping poison into restaurant salad bars and buffets, for example.

Canada Passes Codex Food Law That Permits Police to Trespass, Seize Private Property Without Warrant
The Canadian Parliament recently passed its own form of legislation S. 510, the draconian U.S. "food safety" bill that threatens to eliminate the freedom to grow, sell and buy clean food. Bill C-36, deceitfully branded by the Canadian mainstream media as a "consumer protection" law, is actually part of the larger CODEX Alimentarius food tyranny plan.

Congress Sticks It To US Farmers With Passage of Food Safety Bill That Will Actually Cause Fresh Produce to be More Dangerous
The U.S. House of Representatives passed H.R. 2751 yesterday with a 216 to 144 vote (yes, many members of the House did not even vote). The so-called Food Safety Modernization Act now heads to the President to be signed into law.

WikiLeaks Exposes Pope as Supporter of GMO's
Though the Vatican refuses to issue a public stance on genetically-modified organisms (GMO), several leaked cables have revealed that Pope Benedict XVI secretly favors GMOs and believes more should be done to encourage their spread around the world.

Simple Manure Replacing Toxic Chemicals as Fertilizer of Choice
Long the standard used in supposed "science-based" agriculture, chemical fertilizers have largely become the norm in modern farming.

Magnesium prevents diabetes according to study
Eating a diet high in magnesium may significantly lower your risk of developing Type 2 diabetes, according to a study conducted by researchers from the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill and published in the journal Diabetes Care.


Today In History Wednesday December 22, 2010
1775 - A Continental naval fleet was organized in the rebellious American colonies under the command of Ezek Hopkins.
1807 - The U.S. Congress passed the Embargo Act, designed to force peace between Britain and France by cutting off all trade with Europe.
1864 - During the American Civil War, Union Gen. William T. Sherman sent a message to U.S. President Lincoln from Georgia. The message read, "I beg to present you as a Christmas gift the city of Savannah."
1894 - The United States Golf Association was formed in New York City.
1894 - French army officer Alfred Dreyfus was convicted of treason in a court-martial that triggered worldwide charges of anti-Semitism. Dreyfus was eventually vindicated.
1895 - German physicist Wilhelm Röntgen made the first X-ray, of his wife's hand.
1910 - U.S. Postal savings stamps were issued for the first time. They were discontinued in 1914.
1943 - Sporting goods manufacturers received permission to use synthetic rubber for the core of baseballs.
1941 - British Prime Minister Winston Churchill arrived in Washington for a wartime conference with U.S. President Franklin Roosevelt.
1956 - The last British and French forces evacuated Egypt.
1961 - James Davis became the first U.S. soldier to die in Vietnam, while U.S. involvement was still limited to the provision of military advisers.
1989 - Romania's hard-line Communist ruler, Nicolae Ceausescu, was overthrown in a popular uprising.
1990 - Lech Walesa was sworn in as Poland's first popularly elected president.
1991 - The body of Lt. Col. William R. Higgins, an American hostage murdered by his captors, was found along a highway in Lebanon.
1996 - A car bomb exploded in Belfast, injuring a known IRA supporter. Police suspected that Protestant loyalists were responsible for the attack.
2001 - Thirty Afghans, including two women, were sworn in as part of the new interim government in Afghanistan. Hamid Karzai was the head of the post-Taliban government.

Magnesium prevents diabetes according to study
Eating a diet high in magnesium may significantly lower your risk of developing Type 2 diabetes, according to a study conducted by researchers from the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill and published in the journal Diabetes Care.

Congressman Higgins Announces Passage of Food Safety Bill
Today, Congressman Brian Higgins (NY-27) joined the House of Representatives in approving H.R. 2751, the FDA Food Safety Modernization Act. The bipartisan bill, providing sweeping protections to the nation's food supply, will now move to the President's desk for his signature.

Feds Force Okla. Bank To Remove Crosses, Bible Verse
Federal Reserve examiners come every four years to make sure banks are complying with a long list of regulations. The examiners came to Perkins last week. And the team from Kansas City deemed a Bible verse of the day, crosses on the teller’s counter and buttons that say "Merry Christmas, God With Us." were inappropriate. The Bible verse of the day on the bank's Internet site also had to be taken down.

US Threatened 'Retaliation' to Bully EU Into Accepting Biotech Crops, Cable Shows
Reacting to a French pledge to represent the "common interest" in considering biotech foods, a former US ambassador recommended publishing a "retaliation list" of European locations where genetically modified organisms (GMOs) were being grown in hopes that activists would destroy them and "cause some pain" for officials, a leaked diplomatic cable shows.

START Treaty: RINO Republicans are Surrendering Our National Security Like the Cowards They Are!
What the hell are our elected Senators doing? Why are they rushing forward with the START treaty without a full debate on the ramifications of this treaty and the threat to our national security from communist Russia that it poses.

VIDEO: Dog In Germany Gives Birth To 17 Puppies

VIDEO: Iraq's New Government Approved
After nearly a year fraught with political infighting, Iraq finally has a new government.

Japan Bio-Scientists Produce 'Singing Mouse'
Japanese scientists said Tuesday they had produced a mouse that tweets like a bird in a genetically engineered "evolution" which they hope will shed light on the origins of human language.

Is the End Game of WikiLeaks Internet Censorship?
One of F. William Engdahl’s latest articles is titled “Wikileaks, a Big Dangerous US Government Con Job”.

Snowed In: A Photo Journey Across a Paralyzed Europe
Traveling to Europe? Not so fast. Most airports in western and central Europe are at best open on an intermittent basis, and at worst completely shut down, with the UK taking the brunt of the storm.

Foreclosures in Most US States Bypass Judges, Easing Way for Evictions
Two years before dementia forced her to move into a nursing care facility, Dorothy Halstien obtained a $73,000 loan from Washington Mutual Inc. secured by her house on Whidbey Island, north of Seattle.

Euro Declines Versus Dollar as Debt Ratings Reviews May Hinder Borrowing
The euro dropped against most of its major counterparts as more possible downgrades to the region’s debt boosted concern about some countries’ ability to tap the international bond market.

Government Announces Deadline for Phasing Out Paper Benefit Checks Including Social Security
Before too long, the government check will no longer be in the mail.

Lunar Eclipse/Winter Solstice Photos/Video
The extremely-rare lunar eclipse which coincided with 2010's winter solstice for the first time in over 400 years happened just a few hours ago.

Monitoring America
Nine years after the terrorist attacks of 2001, the United States is assembling a vast domestic intelligence apparatus to collect information about Americans, using the FBI, local police, state homeland security offices and military criminal investigators.

Is JP Morgan Shifting Its Silver and Gold Shorts to Non-Us Domiciled, and Thus Unregulatable Banks?
Going through recent bullion bank shorting information, Adrian Douglas has stumbled across a nugget that may explain the sudden willingness of JPM to admit to the FT, via proxies as obviously the bank would never expose itself to even remote market manipulation claims, that it has collapsed its silver short.

FCC Approves Net Neutrality Regulations
In a highly controversial vote, the Federal Communications Commission on Tuesday approved new regulations for Internet access designed to prevent large telecommunications companies from squashing competitors.

Attorney General Eric Holder's Blunt Warning Terror Attacks
Attorney General Eric Holder has an urgent message for Americans: While he is confident that the United States will continue to thwart attacks, "the terrorists only have to be successful once."

FCC Gives Government Power to Regulate Web Traffic
Federal telecommunications regulators approved new rules Tuesday that would for the first time give the federal government formal authority to regulate Internet traffic, although how much or for how long remained unclear.

Man on Facebook Is Not the 'Kensington Strangler'
Philadelphia police say someone posted false information on Facebook identifying a city man as the Kensington Strangler. Now, police want to get the word out to protect the man from vigilante justice.

WikiLeaks Boss Julian Assange Turns On Everyone
JULIAN Assange, the man behind WikiLeaks, today launched a wide ranging series of attacks on both his enemies and allies as he defended his public and private conduct.

So This Is Christmas
National embarrassment deepened to abject humiliation last night as more than half a million Christmas travelers remained stranded in the UK.

Snow Flurries and Heavy Rain in Hawaii?
It's not just congressional action that is likely to put a damper on the first family's Christmas vacation - bad weather in Hawaii may also get President Obama's vacation off to a less than ideal start.

Dramatic Satellite Image Shows Huge Storms Heading Toward LA
A satellite image of the Pacific Ocean offers a dramatic preview of the storms that are expected to batter Southern California on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday.

Wintry Weather Brings Snow to Australia in Midsummer
Australia normally experiences temperatures of 86F (30C) at this time of year, but the chances of a rare white Christmas have increased after plunging temperatures and snow swept across the east of the country.

China's State Grid Signs $1 Billion Deal for 7 Brazil Power Firms
State Grid Corp. of China has agreed a deal worth nearly $1 billion to buy seven Brazilian power distributors, the latest in a series of big bets by Chinese companies that rapid economic growth in South America will ignite energy demand.

Feds Order Farmer to Destroy His Own Wheat Crops: The Shocking Revelations of Wickard vs Filburn
In arguing for S.501, the "Food Safety Modernization Act," there are all sorts of attorneys, legislators and internet commentators who keep claiming, "The government won't try to control the food production of small farms." They say, "Your backyard garden is safe" and that the feds won't come knocking on your door to control your seeds or foods.

Warning for Future Generations - Pre-Natal BPA Exposure May Cause Female Infertility
The U.S. government is so concerned with health safety and hell-bent on supposedly protecting people from consuming certain natural foods (like raw milk), you can rest assured that Americans are not being exposed to well-documented chemical dangers in the food supply, right? Wrong.

People Often Mistake Sugary Sports Drinks as Healthy
Manufacturers of sports drinks appear to have successfully deceived children and their parents into believing that their products are healthy, according to a study conducted by researchers from the University of Texas Health Science Center and published in the journal Pediatrics.

More Teens Now Turning to Weight Loss Surgery While Still Eating Junk Foods
Weight loss surgery is becoming increasingly popular among teenagers, according to a study published in the journal Pediatrics, raising concerns about potentially unknown side effects in this younger population.


Today In History Tuesday December 21, 2010
1898 - Scientists Pierre and Marie Curie discovered the radioactive element radium.
1909 - McKinley and Washington schools of Berkeley, CA, became the first authorized, junior-high schools in the U.S.
1913 - The "New York World" Sunday edition included a crossword puzzle. It was the first crossword puzzle to be published.
1937 - Walt Disney debuted the first, full-length, animated feature in Hollywood, CA. The movie was "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs."
1944 - Horse racing was banned in the United States until after the end of World War II.
1945 - U.S. Gen. George S. Patton died in Heidelberg, Germany, of injuries from a car accident.
1948 - The state of Eire (formerly the Irish Free State) declared its independence.
1951 - Joe DiMaggio announced his retirement from major league baseball.
1958 - Charles de Gaulle was elected to a seven-year term as the first president of the Fifth Republic of France.
1968 - Apollo 8 was launched on a mission to orbit the moon. The craft landed safely in the Pacific Ocean on December 27.
1978 - Police in Des Plaines, IL, arrested John W. Gacy Jr. and began unearthing the remains of 33 men and boys that Gacy was later convicted of killing.
1988 - 270 people were killed when Pan Am Boeing 747 exploded over Lockerbie, Scotland, due to a terrorist attack.
1990 - In a German television interview, Saddam Hussein declared that he would not withdraw from Kuwait by the UN deadline.
1991 - Eleven of the 12 former Soviet republics proclaimed the birth of the Commonwealth of Independent States.
1995 - The city of Bethlehem passed from Israeli to Palestinian control.
1996 - After two years of denials, U.S. House Speaker Newt Gingrich admitted violating House ethics rules.
1998 - The first vaccine for Lyme disease was approved.
2001 - The Islamic militant group Hamas released a statement that said it was suspending suicide bombings and mortar attacks in Israel.
2002 - Larry Mayes was released after spending 21 years in prison for a rape that maintained that he never committed. He was the 100th person in the U.S. to be released after DNA tests were performed.

$24.5 Trillion In US National Debt, $144 Trillion In Unfunded Liabilities In...2015
By now everyone has seen and played with the US debt clock via usdebtclock.org whereby anyone who so wishes, can find every little detail about America's current sad fiscal state.

Sheriff: Evidence Indicates Banker Killed Himself
All evidence still indicates that bank CEO David Widlak shot and killed himself. That’s according to Macomb County Sheriff Mark Hackle, who spent about an hour, Monday afternoon, explaining to reporters just how investigators reached the conclusion that the missing banker self-inflicted the gunshot wound found at the base of his neck. However, the case remains open. “We still can’t say with certainty — because I don’t know that any one of us… no one was a witness to it. None of us can actually say, definitively, that he actually committed suicide,” Hackle said.

Attorney General's Blunt Warning on Terror Attacks
Attorney General Eric Holder has an urgent message for Americans: While he is confident that the United States will continue to thwart attacks, "the terrorists only have to be successful once." "What I am trying to do in this interview is to make people aware of the fact that the threat is real, the threat is different, the threat is constant," he said.

Food Safety Sneak Attack! Passed By Unanimous Consent
How many times does Congress have to stick it to us before we realize that this body politic has no other function than to obey its corporate masters?
Related Article: Food-safety measure passes Senate in Sunday surprise

Amendment Sought to Empower States to Repeal Federal Law
The same people driving the lawsuits that seek to dismantle the Obama administration’s health care overhaul have set their sights on an even bigger target: a constitutional amendment that would allow a vote of the states to overturn any act of Congress.

Tests show probable carcinogens in drinking water of 31 U.S. cities
Cancer-causing chemical found in 89 percent of cities sampled by Environmental Working Group (EWG).
According to the National Toxicology Program, chromium-6 in drinking water has clear evidence of carcinogenic activity in laboratory animals, which increases the risk of gastrointestinal tumors

Coldest December since records began as temperatures plummet to minus 10C bringing travel chaos across Britain
And tonight the nation was braced for another 10in of snow and yet more sub-zero temperatures - with no let-up in the bitterly cold weather for at least a month, forecasters have warned.

Los Angeles Public Schools Open Doors to 'Corporate Brand Identity'
This algebraic equation, brought to you by Coca-Cola?

NYPD Implements Iris Scan Technology
The NYPD has begun to implement iris scanners to create a bio-metric database of criminal suspects as they are processed through central booking.

Riots Erupt In Bangladesh After Stock Market Plunges 6.7%
For what may be the best look at the future of the world's most recent Banana republic entrant (the U.S.S. of A. for the confused) has to look forward to, we need to merely shift our attention at another one, which has had the privilege of experimenting with its Banana status for far longer: Bangladesh.

IMF Director Says IMF 'Forces Coordination' and There's 'No Other Solution' to Greek-Style Austerity
Speaking to Triple Crown Charlie (CFR and Trilateral Commission member and Bilderberg attendee) Rose on December 16, 2010, IMF Director Dominique Strauss-Kahn ran cover for failed Euro and IMF interventionist policies.

Bank of America Sued By Arizona, Nevada Over Fraud In Mortgage Modification Program
Legal actions against Bank of America are piling up, this time from Attorneys General in Nevada and Arizona, housing bubble ground zero.

Gold, silver could go ballistic by year-end

Latest Terror Threat in US Aimed to Poison Food
In this exclusive story, CBS News chief investigative correspondent Armen Keteyian reports the latest terror attack to America involves the possible use of poisons - simultaneous attacks targeting hotels and restaurants at many locations over a single weekend.

Massive Selling of US Currency Lies Ahead
“The earlier all-time high of $850.00 of January 21, 1980 would be $2,391 per troy ounce, based on November 2010 CPI-U-adjusted dollars, and would be $7,840 per troy ounce in terms of SGS-Alternate-CPI-adjusted dollars. In like manner, the all-time high price for silver in January 1980 of $49.45 per troy ounce has not been hit since, including in terms of inflation-adjusted dollars. Based on November 2010 CPI-U inflation, the 1980 silver price peak would be $139 per troy ounce and would be $456 per troy ounce in terms of SGS-Alternate-CPI-adjusted dollars.

Video: Why People Don't Buy Gold

Intel to Introduce Processor With Remote Kill Switch
Intel is preparing to launch its Sandy Bridge processors at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in January. The most interesting thing about these new processors is the kill switches that are built into them.

No free lunch: States seek ways to repay jobless benefits
As U.S. employers brace for higher state unemployment insurance taxes next year, business groups are urging Congress to delay interest penalties on $42 billion states have borrowed to continue paying jobless benefits during the recession. Thirty states and the Virgin Islands have exhausted their unemployment insurance trust fund reserves and are using U.S. treasury funds to maintain benefit checks for millions of workers who lost jobs through no fault of their own.

California Greenlights Cap and Trade Emission Rules
California's regulators Thursday voted in favor of the first cap-and-trade rules in the United States to tame greenhouse gas emissions.

The FCC's Threat to Internet Freedom
Tomorrow morning the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) will mark the winter solstice by taking an unprecedented step to expand government's reach into the Internet by attempting to regulate its inner workings. In doing so, the agency will circumvent Congress and disregard a recent court ruling.

Feds Want Reporting for High-Powered Rifle Sales
The federal agency that monitors gun sales wants weapons dealers near the Mexican border to start reporting multiple sales of high-powered rifles, according to a notice published in the Federal Register.

Napolitano Says DHS to Begin Battling Climate Change as Homeland Security Issue
At an all-day White House conference on "environmental justice," Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano announced that her department is creating a new task force to battle the effects of climate change on domestic security operations.

$2tn Debt Threatens to Bring Down 100 US Cities
More than 100 American cities could go bust next year as the debt crisis that has taken down banks and countries threatens next to spark a municipal meltdown, a leading analyst has warned.

French AAA Grade at Risk as Downgrades Sweep Europe
France risks losing its top AAA grade as Europe’s debt crisis prompts a wave of downgrades that threatens to engulf the region’s highest-rated borrowers, with Belgium also facing a possible cut.

Probable Carcinogen Hexavalent Chromium Found in Drinking Water of 31 US Cities
An environmental group that analyzed the drinking water in 35 cities across the United States, including Bethesda and Washington, found that most contained hexavalent chromium, a probable carcinogen that was made famous by the film "Erin Brockovich."

Bitter Summer Freeze Bites Eastern States as Summer Gives Way to Snow and Cold
THONGS and board shorts gave way to beanies and scarves yesterday as summer gave way to a wintry blast of snow and icy temperatures in the country's southeast.

Chinese Endure Power Shortages as Coal Runs Short
Communities in central and northern China are facing power cuts and rationing as winter coal supplies fall short of surging demand.

Early Signs That America's Gloom is Lifting
US business leaders are feeling more cheerful lately, and with reason. Last week’s tax deal is a fillip – not because it provides stimulus on the scale its proponents and critics say, but because it avoids an inadvertent tightening of policy that could have strangled the economy just as it was starting to revive. Other economic news has been good too.

More Record Shattering Rain in Store for California
Torrential rain soaked the West Coast over the weekend, and little will change for Californians today.

Mammoth California Snow: 162 Inches, 164 MPH Winds
13.5 feet (162 inches) of snow has fallen at Mammoth Mountain, helping set a new record for snowiest December, and 74" has piled up at Aspendell. Here's a photo of Mammoth's "sun deck" early this morning:

Temperatures Set to Hit Low of -26C
Millions of Christmas travelers face further chaos today with an extra eight inches of snow expected to fall.

Fraudulent Herbal Immune Supplement Fails to Reduce Flu Symptoms for 99 Percent of People
In an independent review published in a peer-reviewed medical journal (see below), a popular herbal immune supplement called "ImmunoFlu Remedy" was found to fraudulently marketed as a "flu prevention supplement."

Former TSA Workers Arrested on Child Pornography Charges
The very same U.S. Transportation Security Administration (TSA) agents that grope and naked body scan you and your children when you fly may also be illegally accessing and sharing child pornography.

UN Considers Establishing Global Internet Police Force to Regulate the Web
The internet truly is the last bastion of free speech that has yet to be taken over by corporate or political forces and censored, at least in the U.S.

Vitamin D Found to Protect Against Obesity-Induced Cancer
Higher levels of vitamin D appear to protect women against obesity-related cancer of the uterus, according to a study conducted by researchers from the Georgetown Lombardi Comprehensive Cancer Center and published in the journal Comprehensive Cancer Research.


Today In History Monday December 20, 2010
1790 - The first successful cotton mill in the United States began operating at Pawtucket, RI.
1803 - The United States Senate ratified a treaty that included the Louisiana Territories from France for $15 million. The transfer was completed with formal ceremonies in New Orleans.
1820 - The state of Missouri enacted legislation to tax bachelors between the ages of 21-50 for being unmarried. The tax was $1 a year.
1860 - South Carolina became the first state to secede from the American Union.
1864 - Confederate forces evacuated Savannah, GA as Union Gen. William T. Sherman continued his "March to the Sea."
1879 - Thomas A. Edison privately demonstrated his incandescent light at Menlo Park, NJ.
1928 - Mail delivery by dog sled began in Lewiston, ME.
1946 - In Indochina (Vietnam), full-scale guerrilla warfare between Vietnam partisans and French troops began.
1963 - The Berlin Wall was opened for the first time to West Berliners. It was only for the holiday season. It closed again on January 6, 1964.
1989 - General Noriega, Panama's former dictator, was overthrown by a United States invasion force invited by the new civilian government. The project was known as Operation Just Cause.
1995 - An American Airlines Boeing 757 en route to Cali, Colombia, crashed into a mountain, killing all but four of the 163 people aboard.
1996 - Doctors reported that a Cypriot woman who had taken fertility drugs was carrying about 11 embryos.
1998 - In Houston, TX, a 27-year-old woman gave birth to the only known living set of octuplets.
1999 - Sovereignty over the colony of Macao was transferred from Portugal to China.
2001 - The U.S. Congress passed a $20 billion package to finance the war against terrorism taking place in Afghanistan.
2001 - Argentina's President Fernando De la Rua resigned after two years in power.
2001 - The first British peacekeepers arrived in Afghanistan to help the nation heal after decades of war.

US Drone Strikes Kill Around 60 People in Khyber Within 24 Hours
A series of US drone attacks killed around 60 alleged militants in a span of 24 hours in Khyber tribal district, according to officials.

FBI Agents Train Garbage Collectors to Report Suspicious Activity
Former FBI agents are helping local authorities train thousands of garbage collectors across the country as a nationwide internal spy force to report "suspicious activity" to police in yet another example of how America is turning into an East German-style informant society as the country decays from within.

Holiday Terror Warning Cites Car Bomb and Small Arms Attack
Federal law enforcement terror bulletins have become as much a part of the holiday season in the past decade as egg nog and department store Santas.

Silver at $40 Will Be Best 2011 Metals Bet
Silver, the leading performer in metals this year, is likely to repeat its success in 2011, reaching $40 an ounce on new applications and industry demand, said the head of commodity trading in Japan at Standard Bank Plc.  Read More...

S 773: Cybersecurity Act of 2009

Wal-Mart Raising Prices on Toys, Squeezing More Out of Holidays
Wal-Mart Stores Inc., the world’s largest retailer, raised prices on hundreds of toys this month, squeezing more out of sales during the biggest shopping period of the year. Wal-Mart managers in the U.S. received instructions to mark up an average of 1,800 types of toys per store, according to a company e-mail dated Nov. 30 obtained by Bloomberg News. The e- mail didn’t disclose specific increases. The prices were changed “to better enable your store and the company to have a successful financial month,” according to the e-mail.

Ron Paul rides again
The Revolution is here! Searching for leadership, congressional Republicans have finally turned to Ron Paul. Well, to chair the House subcommittee on domestic monetary policy, at least. But that does put Congress's leading critic of the Federal Reserve in charge of the panel that oversees the central bank.

Food Safety on Life Support
Someone asked if he knew a Republican co-sponsor was saying it was dead, and Durbin said: "I would have said the same thing an hour ago."

Payrolls Drop in 28 US States, Joblessness Rises in 21 in Labor Setback
Payrolls decreased in 28 U.S. states and the unemployment rate climbed in 21, showing most parts of the world’s largest economy took part in the November labor- market setback.

Time for Christians to Shred Their Bibles
Many of us grew up in Sunday School and church. We have heard the great Bible stories over and over.

Conservation Easements (CE's): Read the Fine Print Before You Sign
A basic Constitutional tenet of private property ownership in America is the landowner’s right to determine the use and disposition of his or her land.

US News Poll: 96% Believe the TSA is Going too Far With Security Measures
US News has an unofficial poll for its readers on a point-counterpoint article about TSA treachery.

DC Scanners and the Bankster and Global Elite
Washington D.C. metro police are about to launch random bag checks on the D.C. metro system. A prominent D.C. blogger, who serves on the Riders' Advisory Council, calls it "security theatre" that wastes money without stopping terrorists.

Nightmare On 1st Street - The Dream Act That Died
The DREAM nightmare didn’t survive another cloture vote – meaning that it could easily have been filibustered and Harry knew it wasn’t time to push it forward.

Northern Hemisphere Freezes
In case you have missed it, the entire Northern Hemisphere is getting whacked with severe early winter conditions.

Napolitano Says DHS to Begin Battling Climate Change as Homeland Security Issue
At an all-day White House conference on "environmental justice," Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano announced that her department is creating a new task force to battle the effects of climate change on domestic security operations.

VIDEO: 9/11 Joe Lieberman - WTC 7 Did Not Occur...I Do Not Support a New Investigation

Banksters Give German Chancellor Her Marching Orders
The debt crisis in Europe that is impacting many countries is now being used by banksters to (surprise) put banksters in even more control of European affairs.

Federal Government Cuts Off Recession Relief Money to States
Despite soaring unemployment and the 19 million Americans currently living in "deep poverty," federal funds for the Temporary Assistance For Needy Families (TANF) program have entirely dried up for the first time since 1996, leaving states with an average of 15 percent less federal funding for the coming year to help an ever-increasing number of needy families.

Senate Votes to End Ban on Openly Gay Troops
In a historic vote for gay rights, the Senate agreed on Saturday to do away with the military's 17-year ban on openly gay troops and sent President Barack Obama legislation to overturn the Clinton-era policy known as "don't ask, don't tell."

13M Get Unexpected Tax Bill From Obama Tax Credit
"This provision was specifically intended to help taxpayers through the severe economic downturn by putting more money into their hands right away, in each paycheck," wrote Richard Byrd, commissioner of the agency's wage and investment division.

US House Votes to Extend Gov't Funding
The House of Representatives voted on Friday to extend government funding through Dec. 21 to avoid a shutdown after lawmakers failed to agree on a long-term solution.

2010's World Gone Wild: Quakes, Floods, Blizzards
Earthquakes, heat waves, floods, volcanoes, super typhoons, blizzards, landslides and droughts killed at least a quarter million people in 2010 - the deadliest year in more than a generation.

Temperatures Plummet to -10c Bringing Travel Chaos Across Britain
Swathes of Britain skidded to a halt today as the big freeze returned - grounding flights, closing rail links and leaving traffic at a standstill.

Solstice Lunar Eclipse
The luster will be a bit "off" on Dec. 21st, the first day of northern winter, when the full Moon passes almost dead-center through Earth's shadow. For 72 minutes of eerie totality, an amber light will play across the snows of North America, throwing landscapes into an unusual state of ruddy shadow.

Solstice-Eclipse Overlap in 456 Years
This year's winter solstice — an event that will occur next Tuesday — will coincide with a full lunar eclipse in a union that hasn't been seen in 456 years.

Regulators Close Banks in Ga, Fla, Ark, and Minn
Regulators on Friday shuttered three small banks in Georgia and one each in Florida, Arkansas and Minnesota, raising to 157 the number of U.S. banks brought down this year by the struggling economy and soured loans.

North Korea Threatens More Attacks on South
North Korea warned Friday that it would attack South Korea more violently than it did last month if Seoul proceeds with plans to test-fire artillery from the island Pyongyang shelled.

N Korea Says War With South Would Go Nuclear
North Korea warned that another war with South Korea would involve nuclear weapons, as diplomatic efforts continued Friday to ease high tensions over its atomic ambitions and deadly artillery attack.

VIDEO: Julian Assange Calls ABC News Reporter 'Tabloid Schmuck'

DHS Implementing No Work List: Citizens Must Get Government Approval to Work in Private Sector Jobs
You’ve heard of no fly and no buy lists – get ready for no work lists. Millions of workers now must apply to the DHS and prove they are not terrorists in order to be granted permission by the government to work.

Trusted Traveler Program Lets Mexicans Skip Airport Security
As violent drug cartels take over Mexico and expand their criminal enterprises north, the United States has signed a “trusted traveler” agreement that allows pre-screened Mexican airline passengers to bypass lengthy airport security checkpoints.

22 Arrested in LA Foreclosure Protest at Chase
Police arrested 22 demonstrators who blocked entry to a downtown Chase bank branch Thursday to protest what they said were unfair home foreclosures.

TSA Screenings Miss Loaded Handguns, Bombs, Says Report
Getting through the airport security line with dangerous weapons is far easier than most people might think, according to a recent ABC News report.

Beet Juice Provides Incredible Cardiovascular Benefits That Improve Active Function
Beetroots, also known as beets, are packed with blood pressure-reducing, heart disease-preventing nutrients that help maintain healthy active function and boost overall endurance levels in those that consume them.

Vision Breakthrough: Eye Exercises Improve Elder's Vision in Two Days to See As Well As College Kids
For decades, some natural health advocates have claimed you could actually enhance and improve vision (and sometimes get rid of your glasses) by "training" your eyes to see better.

More Than a Million Europeans Sign Petition to Stop GMO Approvals
The European Union (EU) has typically been far slower than the U.S. to approve the plantings and use of genetically-modified organisms (GMO).

Teens Who Play Sports Feel Significantly Healthier and Happier About Life
Playing team sports is good for teenagers' mental as well as physical health, according to a study conducted by researchers from West Virginia University and published in the journal Applied Research in Quality of Life.

Warning: Christmas Colored Chips, Cookies and Treats May Be Poisoning Your Children
Those Christmas-colored snack chips and store-bought cookies may look festive, but watch out: Eating them may cause side effects such as hyperactivity, especially in children.

Drink Your Sleep Troubles Away: Tart Cherry Juice Helps Beat Insomnia
Millions of Americans have difficulty falling asleep or staying asleep, resulting in excessive fatigue and even more serious consequences.

Seaweed Extract Found to Prevent H1N1 Infection
New research published in the journal PLoS ONE has found that a red seaweed-based compound known as Carrageenan is an effective treatment against the common cold, viruses and even H1N1 influenza.

C-Section Birth Rate Skyrockets in USA as Mothers Surrender to Convenience of Doctors
The c-section rate in the United States continues to climb, a phenomenon increasingly attributed to impatience on the part of women and doctors.

Today In History Friday December 17, 2010
1777 - France recognized American independence.
1895 - George L. Brownell received a patent for his paper-twine machine.
1903 - The first successful gasoline-powered airplane flight took place near Kitty Hawk, NC. Orville and Wilbur Wright made the flight.
1944 - The U.S. Army announced the end of its policy of excluding Japanese-Americans from the West Coast which ensured that Japanese-Americans were released from detention camps.
1953 - The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) decided to approve RCA’s color television specifications.
1957 - The United States successfully test-fired the Atlas intercontinental ballistic missile for the first time.
1969 - Television history was made when Tiny Tim and Miss Vicki Budinger were married on "The Tonight Show" with Johnny Carson.
1973 - Thirty-one people were killed at Rome airport when Arab guerillas hijacked a German airliner.
1975 - Lynette Fromme was sentenced to life in prison for her attempt on the life of U.S. President Ford.
1978 - OPEC decided to raise oil prices by 14.5% by the end of 1979.
1986 - Davina Thompson became the world's first recipient of a heart, lungs, and liver transplant.
1992 - U.S. President H.W. Bush, Canadian Prime Minister Brian Mulroney and Mexican President Carlos Salinas de Gortari signed the North American Free Trade Agreement.
1996 - The Red Cross pulled all but a few of its western staff out of Chechnya after six foreign aid workers were killed by masked gunmen.
1997 - U.S. President Clinton signed the No Electronic Theft Act. The act removed protection from individuals who claimed that they took no direct financial gains from stealing copyrighted works and downloading them from the Internet.
2002 - U.S. President George W. Bush ordered the Pentagon to have ready for use within two years a system for protecting American territory, troops and allies from ballistic missile attacks.
2002 - The insurance and finance company Conseco Inc. filed for Chapter 11 protection. It was the third-largest bankruptcy in U.S. history.
2004 - U.S. President George W. Bush signed into law the largest overhaul of U.S. intelligence gathering in 50 years. The bill aimed to tighten borders and aviation security. It also created a federal counterterrorism center and a new intelligence director.

Tax Cut Bill Passes Senate On 81-19 Vote
The Senate Wednesday overwhelmingly passed a sweeping tax package that would save millions of Americans thousands of dollars in higher taxes while also reducing their Social Security taxes and extending jobless benefits.

Man boards plane at IAH with loaded gun in carry-on & never was detected
Houston businessman Farid Seif says it was a startling discovery. He didn't intend to bring a loaded gun on a flight out of Houston and can't understand how TSA screeners didn't catch it. TSA screeners at Bush Intercontinental Airport somehow missed a loaded pistol, one that was tucked away inside a carry-on computer bag. "I mean, this is not a small gun," Seif said. "It's a .40 caliber gun." Seif says it was an accident which he didn't realize until he arrived at his destination.

ECB Boosts Captial as EU Leaders Set Crisis Fund
The ECB, in charge of monetary policy in the 16-nation euro area, said it would almost double its capital to 10.76 billion euros (9.2 billion pounds) to cope with bigger credit risk and market volatility.

IMF Approves Ireland Loan But Open to Re-Negotiation
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) approved a 22.5 billion euros (19 billion pound) loan for Ireland on Thursday and said it was open to re-negotiating parts of the bailout package with a new government provided its overall targets were adhered to.

START Clears Senate Hurdle
The Senate will take up debate of START on Thursday morning, after eight Republicans crossed the aisle in an initial vote Wednesday.

Justice Department Sues BP
President Obama is not getting any more popular with oil companies.

Ron Paul: Fed 'Monopoly' Could Be Broken If Americans Use Gold, Silver as Currency
As the incoming chairman of the House monetary policy subcommittee, Rep. Ron Paul (R-TX) will hold the bully pulpit when it comes to the nation's money woes.

In Praise of Junk Silver by Ol' Remus
It's doomsday plus a few weeks. Say you need to bribe the border guards at the state line but they seem to have all the wristwatches and free range eggs they can use.

CNN's Morgan Freeman death blunder: The actor is very much alive
CNN: Breaking News: actor Morgan Freeman has passed away in his Burbank home." NOT!!! Twitter death hoaxes are about as common these days as Justin Bieber related hashtags, but they're rarely started by respected, trusted news sources... until today. CNN's official twitter posted the above update on Thursday, Dec. 16 -- prompting fans and admirers to begin to post a flurry of quotes from the actor and an onslaught of R.I.P. tweets. One problem? Morgan Freeman was - and is - very much alive. CNN subsequently deleted their tweet, but nothing is ever truly erased from the internet and the damage was already done.

Approval of Internet Traffic Rules Likely - Analysts
Contentious Internet traffic rules facing a vote next week are likely to be adopted without radically veering from a proposal unveiled earlier in the month, telecommunications policy analysts said on Wednesday.

After Dozens of Deaths, Drop-Side Cribs Outlawed
It's the end of the traditional crib that has cradled millions of babies for generations.

IRS Audits Jump By 11%; Wealthiest Targeted
The Internal Revenue Service is making it a bit riskier to cheat on your taxes.

As Mortgage Rates Go Parabolic, Home Prices Will Soon Be Latest Shoe to Re-Drop
The negative convexity loop in mortgages is starting to see casualties left and right.

Claims: Around the Merry-Go-Round
Remember folks, claims is a "fuzzy" number. It tells you who claimed but it doesn't tell you who found jobs. Well, now we know. And now we also know where the unemployment stats for November, where we lost an actual 500,000 jobs on the household survey, came from.

CFTC Admits Will Miss Deadline on Position Limits
The futures regulator acknowledged on Wednesday it will miss the January target for issuing a final rule on limiting the amount of contracts a trader can control in agricultural, energy and metals markets.

Totally Busted: The Truth About Goldman's Bailout by the Fed
Eric Fry has put together the pieces, searched the articles and has done the timeline that show's how the Fed shoveled money into the coffers of Goldman Sachs. Even to help Goldman pay off its TARP debt.

Canadian Government Advances Codex Alimentarius with New Laws
'This evening, December 13, 2010, a piece of draconian legislation was passed into law by the Canadian senate.

The US Is Free Falling Into Bankruptcy
And never in the history of the world have so many assets created so little cash flow.

Science of Man-Made Life Can Proceed
The White House on Thursday said the controversial field of synthetic biology, or manipulating the DNA of organisms to forge new life forms, poses limited risks and should be allowed to proceed.

Bank of America in Mortgage Settlement Talks
Bank of America Corp., after vowing to fight requests that it repurchase certain loans, has begun potential settlement discussions with some of its largest mortgage investors.

'No Body Scanners at ABIA'
Austin's Airport Advisory Commission approved a resolution on Tuesday night advising the city council to oppose airport body scanners and invasive body searches.

Pelosi Scrambles to Save Obama Tax Package After Scrapped Vote
Democratic leaders are scrambling to save President Obama’s tax proposal after a liberal insurrection forced House leaders to postpone a planned vote on the measure Thursday.

TSA Choir Has Holiday Spirit Down Pat at LAX
Travelers passing through Los Angeles International Airport are finding that security officers have more than a scan or pat-down for them this holiday season. They're offering musical entertainment, too.

GOP Will Paralyze Senate Floor With Reading of 1,924 Page Spending Bill
Republicans will paralyze the Senate floor for 50 hours by forcing clerks to read every single paragraph of the 1,924-page, $1.1 trillion omnibus spending bill.

Food Prices Rise Sharply - and There's More to Come
For the first time since 2008, inflation is hitting consumers in the stomach.

Missile Defence Failure: Long-Range Ballistic Program Test Fails for Second Time This Year
America's long-range missile defence system has failed for the second time this year in a test over the Pacific.

Shocker: North Korea's Got Way More Secret Nuke Sites
When an American scientist returned from Pyongyang to report that North Korea had started a uranium-based path to nuclear weapons at its Yongbyon nuclear complex, experts immediately assumed that the North must be working elsewhere to enrich uranium as well.

Chinese Take-Out of the US Economy, Debt Crisis Triggering Reserves Conversion Into Gold and Silver
The Chinese really must think the American strategy and behavior to be brain dead and self-destructive.

Cinnamon May Be a Treasure of Green Nanotechnology
Gold nanoparticles, so incredibly tiny they can't be seen by the naked eye, are used in electronics, healthcare products and as pharmaceuticals in some cancer treatments.

NYC To Start Billing Residents When Ambulances Show Up to Treat Your Injuries
The City of New York is considering a new proposal that would directly charge its residents for using emergency services like ambulances and fire trucks that respond to vehicle accidents.

Drug Recalls Surge as Big Pharma's Dangerous Medications are Increasingly Exposed
The number of drug recalls in the United States has surged in recent years, raising concerns about the overall safety of pharmaceutical products.

Introducing Google Body: The new 3D medical browser that will make us all doctors
Called Google Body Browser, the hi-tech 3D application has been hailed as a breakthrough in the study of anatomy that could revolutionise our understanding of the human body and even fast-track medical research. The gadget, yet to be officially released, lets you explore the human body in much the same way you can navigate the world on Google Earth.


Today In History Thursday December 16, 2010
1773 - Nearly 350 chests of tea were dumped into Boston Harbor off of British ships by Colonial patriots. The patriots were disguised as Indians. The act was to protest taxation without representation and the monopoly the government granted to the East India Company.
1835 - In New York, 530 buildings were destroyed by fire.
1850 - The first immigrant ship, the Charlotte Jane, arrived at Lyttleton, New Zealand.
1901 - "The Tale of Peter Rabbit," by Beatrix Potter, was printed for the first time.
1912 - The first postage stamp to depict an airplane was issued was a 20-cent parcel-post stamp.
1944 - During World War II, the Battle of the Bulge began in Belgium. It was the final major German counteroffensive in the war.
1950 - U.S. President Truman proclaimed a national state of emergency in order to fight "Communist imperialism."
1960 - A United Air Lines DC-8 and a TWA Super Constellation collided over New York City, killing 134 people.
1981 - The U.S. Congress restored the $122 minimum monthly social security benefit for current recipients.
1991 - The U.N. General Assembly rescinded its 1975 resolution equating Zionism with racism by a vote of 111-25.
1993 - The United Nations General Assembly adopted a resolution calling for negotiations on a comprehensive test ban.
1995 - Many U.S. government functions were again closed as a temporary finance provision expired and the budget dispute between President Clinton and Republicans in Congress continued.
1995 - NATO launched a military operation in support of the Bosnia peace agreement.
1996 - Britain's agriculture minister announced the slaughter of an additional 100,000 cows thought to be at risk of contracting BSE in an effort to persuade the EU to lift its ban on Britain.
1998 - The U.S. and Britain fired hundreds of missiles on Iraq in response to Saddam Hussein's refusal to comply with U.N. weapons inspectors.
2000 - Researchers announced that information from NASA's Galileo spacecraft indicated that Ganymede appeared to have a liquid saltwater ocean beneath a surface of solid ice. Ganymede, a moon of Jupiter, is the solar system's largest moon. The discovery is considered important since water is a key ingredient for life.
2000 - U.S. President-elect G.W. Bush selected Colin Powell to be the first African-American secretary of state. Powell was sworn in January 20, 2001.
2001 - In Tora Bora, Afghanistan, tribal fighters announced that they had taken the last al-Quaida positions. More than 200 fighters were killed and 25 captured. They also announced that they had found no sign of Osama bin Laden.
2001 - Cuba received the first commercial food shipment from the United States in nearly 40 years. The shipment was sent to help Cuba after Hurrican Michelle hit Cuba on November 4, 2001.
2001 - A British newspaper, The Observer, reported that a notebook had been found at an al-Quaida training camp in southern Afghanistan. The notebook contained a "blue print" for an bomb attack on London's financial district.
2002 - Canada ratified the Kyoto Protocol. The 1997 treaty was aimed a reducing greenhouse gas emissions.
2009 - Astronomers discovered GJ1214b. It was the first-known exoplanet on which water could exist.

Chavez Seeks Power to Rule by Decree
Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez on Tuesday asked congress to grant him special powers to enact laws by decree for one year, just before a new legislature takes office with a
larger contingent of opposition lawmakers.

Economic Crisis in America Mounting Household Debts, Threat to Pension Funds and Social Security by Bob Chapman
The experts’ keep telling us how great shopping is this Christmas Season when only 17% of shoppers are using credit cards. That is a drop of 50% from last year, and the lowest usage in 27 years. We guess buyers have unloaded the cookie jar and pulled their savings from under the mattress. The consumer sentiment index has risen 2.6, but we will wait to see if attitudes turn into sales. Home buying intentions continue to fall as interest rates hit 4.66% for a 30-year fixed mortgage this past week, putting a further damper on future sales. Read More...

TSA song by local artist Steve Vaus goes viral
The tune, titled “Help You Make it to Your Flight,” was recorded Nov. 18 at a sound studio in Escondido and posted on YouTube soon afterward, along with a slide show.

Elected Tea Partier Allen West Calls for Mass Censorship of US Media
The government should censor news agencies that report on US documents leaked by websites like WikiLeaks,

$1 million approved for ID scanners in child care facilities
Children or their guardians would need to scan their fingers when they arrive at and leave child care facilities, a move that is meant to give the state assurance that it is paying only for children who actually attend day care.

Chinese rush to gold as inflation fears bite
Indications from China suggest that the surge in gold buying, which has already led to the country's imports rising dramatically, is turning into a rush.

Chinese Official: Mentally Ill Workers were Enslaved
A Chinese official said Tuesday that authorities were on their way to rescue a group of mentally ill workers who state media reports said were enslaved in a factory and given dog food to eat. State media reports have said 11 workers, including eight mentally ill people, were sold to a building materials factory in Xinjiang to work without pay. The reports cited authorities as saying the workers were given no protective gear and ate the same food as the factory leader's dogs.

China Sells Long-Term Bonds in October
The October TIC Data is out (although courtesy of the total and ridiculous redesign of the Treasury's website, is a complete nightmare to navigate).

When Americans Lose Everything, They Start to Lose It
As Gerald Celente has often warned, when Americans lose everything, they will start to lose it, and nowhere was that more apparent than in the case of Clay Duke, the 56-year-old gunman who opened fire on school board members in protest against his wife being fired and his unemployment benefits running out.

Yuan-Ruble Trading Starts on Moscow's Micex as Russia, China Shun Dollar
Moscow’s Micex exchange started trading the yuan against the ruble for the first time today, as Russia and China seek to reduce the use of dollars in trade.

Assange's UK Lawyer Says Half of Bail Cash Raised
A lawyer for WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange said on Wednesday his backers had raised around half of the 200,000 pounds ($317,400) cash he needs to secure bail after he was accused of sex crimes in Sweden.

Fed Policy on Buying Treasury Bonds Stays on Track
Interest rates are marching upward, making it more expensive to take out a mortgage or get a loan to expand a business, and diluting efforts by Congress and the Federal Reserve to strengthen the economy.

Bloodbath in Muni Bond Funds; Reasons for the Muni Sell Off; Will It Continue?
However, now that the government guarantee is gone, yields are poised to rise, especially with increased default risk rising.

Republican Members if FCIC to Promote Crisis Urban Legends, Shift Blame From Banks
The New York Times reports that the Republican members of the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission are going to pre-empt the report (due in mid-January) and issue their own 13 page screed later today focusing blame for the crisis on…Fannie and Freddie, and no doubt the CRA too.

Senate to Vote on Tax Cut Deal; House Dems Weigh Amending Estate Tax
The Senate prepared Wednesday to push through a sweeping tax package negotiated by the White House and congressional Republicans, and House leaders - who were looking to amend the measure in a way that would satisfy liberals without unraveling the deal altogether - said a House vote could follow as soon as Wednesday evening.

10 Signs That Confidence In US Treasury Is Dying and Financial Armageddon Approaches
The financial community is concerned the tax deal Barack Obama is pushing will dramatically increase U.S. government budget deficits over the next two years.

Senate Spending Bill Contains Thousands of Earmarks
Weeks after swearing off earmarks, many senators stand to gain tens of millions of dollars for pet projects in a massive spending bill that could be their last chance at the money before a more conservative Congress begins next month.

Man With HIV Cured (Stem Cell Transplant, First of It's Kind)
An HIV-positive man who underwent a stem cell transplant in 2007 has been cured as a result of the procedure.

Deadly New Chili Pepper: One Bite May Kill You
The Naga Viper, now officially rated as the world's hottest chili pepper is so hot it could kill you with one bite.

Lies, Lies, Lies: The New Foundation of the Financial System
The days are dwindling down fast now. There are only a precious few left in 2010. The Dow rose 40 points on Friday. Gold fell off $7.

Warrant Needed to Snoop on Your Emails, Court Finally Rules
After many years of legal uncertainty, a federal appeals court has finally declared that emails have the same Fourth Amendment protections as regular mail and telephone calls.

Congress' Job Approval Rating Worst in Gallup History
Americans' assessment of Congress has hit a new low, with 13% saying they approve of the way Congress is handling its job. The 83% disapproval rating is also the worst Gallup has measured in more than 30 years of tracking congressional job performance.

'Perverse' Carbon Payments Send Flood of Money to China
In order to offset their own greenhouse gases, companies and utilities in Europe that are subject to the emission limits of the Kyoto Protocol have been paying vastly inflated prices to Chinese companies to destroy hfc 23, and in the process have been providing the Chinese government with hundreds of millions of dollars in tax revenue to compete against Europe’s own “green” industries.

US Air Force Blocks NY Times, Guardian Over WikiLeaks
The U.S. Air Force has blocked access for computers on its network to The New York Times (NYT.N), the Guardian, and at least 23 other websites carrying WikiLeaks documents, a spokesman said on Tuesday.

Democrats' Budget Bill: $1.1 Trillion; 1,900 Pages
Defying the political odds, Senate Democrats rolled out a year-end, governmentwide spending bill Tuesday that cuts more than $26 billion from President Barack Obama’s 2011 requests even as it holds firm to thousands of the appropriations earmarks so adamantly opposed by critics of Congress.

Obama Tax Deal Clears a Hurdle by Passing Senate
A deal struck by President Barack Obama and Republicans to extend expiring tax cuts for millions of Americans and stimulate the sluggish U.S. economy got the needed majority of votes for passage in the Senate on Wednesday.

Reeling From Riots, Italy Faces Uncertainty
Italians voiced shock on Wednesday after violent protests set off by Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi's narrow victory in a vote in parliament that leaves his government hanging by a thread.

Greek Police Clash With Anti-Austerity Protesters
Greek protesters clashed with police and set fire to cars and a hotel in central Athens on Wednesday as tens of thousands marched against austerity measures aimed at pulling the country out of a debt crisis.

Obama Plans 2011 Staff Makeover
President Barack Obama has delayed the most significant staff shuffle of his presidency until after New Year’s — but the changes may be more sweeping than anticipated and could include the hiring of high-profile Democrats defeated in the midterms.

Mountain House Confirms Freeze Dried Food Shortage
Oregon based Mountain House, a division of Oregon Freeze Dry, Inc., has confirmed reports of shortages in their freeze dried food product line.

Ex-US Intel Chief Foresees S Korea Military Action
The former chief of US intelligence has warned that South Korea has lost its patience with provocations by North Korea and "will be taking military action."

Lakin Guilty on 3 Counts
Lt. Col. Terrence Lakin, the officer who raised questions about Barack Obama's eligibility to be president only to be struck down by a military court's banishment of evidence about his concerns, was convicted yesterday by Judge Denise Lind on three counts of disobeying orders during the first day of hiscourt martial.
** Military court determines all orders must be obeyed, legal or not
Lakin: 'I chose the wrong path' - Army doctor questioning Obama's eligibility convicted on all counts

Obama quietly erasing borders
Acting quietly, below the radar of U.S. public opinion and without congressional approval, the Obama administration is implementing a key policy objective of the Security and Prosperity Partnership of North America, or SPP, to erase the border with Mexico and Canada.

US-China Tensions Mount Amid Widening War Exercises
A late night Sunday telephone call between US President Barack Obama and his Chinese counterpart Hu Jintao underscored the mounting tensions between the two countries in the wake of last month’s military clash between North and South Korea.

Omega-3s Are Incredibly Potent Anti-Inflammatory Supplements
Omega-3 fatty acids are "incredibly potent" anti-inflammatories, which may explain why they have been linked with lowered rates of diabetes and heart disease, according to a study conducted by researchers from the University of California-San Diego and published in the journal Cell.

TIME Magazine Asks Is the FDA on Drugs?
Reflecting on the undue influence that drug giant GlaxoSmithKline appears to have exhibited over the FDA's decision-making process regarding the diabetes blockbuster Avandia, Time magazine author Massimo Calabresi asks, "Does the FDA have a drug problem?"

Germany Bans Cultivation of GM Corn
The German government has banned the cultivation of genetically modified (GM) corn, calling it "a danger to the environment."

Why Gold-Backed Currencies Help Prevent Wars
Contrary to the 19th century, the 20th century was a century of inflation, hyperinflation, trade and currency wars, waves of speculation, military conflicts, two
world wars, hundreds if not thousands of local wars, hundreds of millions dead, annihilation of entire nations, mass migrations, economic ruin, and, finally, the decline of civilization. Read More...

Everything Washington Touches by Gerald Celente
While the public was being punished with austerity measures, the "too big to fail" bankers, hedge fund hustlers, and Wall Street high rollers, blamed for creating conditions necessitating austerity by making the biggest, most crooked and worst of financial gambles – were rewarded with a king’s ransom.


Today In History Wednesday December 15, 2010 - Bill of Rights Day
1791 - In the U.S., the first ten amendments to the Constitution, known as the Bill of Rights, went into effect following ratification by the state of Virginia.
1854 - In Philadelphia, the first street cleaning machine was put into use.
1877 - Thomas Edison patented the phonograph.
1890 - American Sioux Indian Chief Sitting Bull and 11 other tribe members were killed in Grand River, SD, during an incident with Indian police working for the U.S. government.
1925 - The third Madison Square Gardens opened.
1938 - U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt presided over the ground-breaking ceremonies for the Jefferson Memorial in Washington, DC.
1939 - "Gone With the Wind," premiered at Loew's Grand Theater in Atlanta. The movie starred Vivien Leigh and Clark Gable.
1941 - U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed into practice Bill of Rights Day.
1944 - American forces invaded Mindoro Island in the Philippines.
1961 - Former Nazi official Adolf Eichmann was sentenced to death in Jerusalem by an Israeli court. He had been tried on charges for organizing the deportation of Jews to concentration camps.
1961 - The U.N. General Assembly voted against a Soviet proposal to admit Communist China as a member.
1964 - Canada's House of Commons approved a newly designed flag thereby dropping the Canadian "Red Ensign" flag.
1965 - Two U.S. manned spacecraft, Gemini 6 and Gemini 7, maneuvered within 10 feet of each other while in orbit around the Earth.
1973 - J. Paul Getty III was found in southern Italy after being held captive for five months, during which his right ear was cut off and sent to a newspaper in Rome.
1978 - U.S. President Carter announced he would grant diplomatic recognition to Communist China on New Year's Day and sever official relations with Taiwan.
1979 - In a preliminary ruling, the International Court of Justice ordered Iran to release all hostages that had been taken at the U.S. embassy in Tehran on November 4, 1979.
1981 - The U.S. Congress passed $200 billion spending bill. At the time it was the largest in U.S. history.
1983 - The last 80 U.S. combat soldiers in Grenada withdrew. It was just over seven weeks after the U.S.-led invasion of the Caribbean island.
1992 - El Salvador's government and leftist guerrilla leaders formally declared the end of the country's 12-year civil war.
1995 - The U.N. Security Council authorized NATO to take over the peacekeeping operations in Bosnia.
1996 - Boeing Co. announced plans to pay $13.3 billion to acquire rival aircraft manufacturer McDonnell Douglas Corp.
1999 - Syria reopened peace talks with Israel in Washington, DC, with the mediation of U.S. President Clinton.
2000 - The Chernobyl atomic power plant in Kiev, Ukraine, was shut down.

Assange Granted Bail, But Sweden Appeals
WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange was granted bail Tuesday after a hearing at Westminster Magistrate's Court in London, but a lawyer representing Swedish prosecutors immediately filed an appeal.

North Korea - Heating Up
Is this going to go past a tipping point, or is this just posturing and positioning in order to cement the new heir’s position?

Pilot Faked His Way as a Prestigious Doctor for 20 Years, Duping AMA and Receiving Millions in Medical Grants
Dr William Hamman is a prestigious cardiologist with high-ranking posts at universities and hospitals.

Halliburton Reportedly Agrees to Pay Nigeria $250 Million to Drop Bribery Charges Against Cheney, Firm
The massive industrial conglomerate Halliburton has reportedly offered to pay $250 million to settle charges against its former chief executive, ex-Vice President Dick Cheney, in a multi-million dollar bribery case.

Michelle Obama on Deciding What Kids Eat: ‘We Can’t Just Leave it Up to The Parents'
Speaking at Monday's signing ceremony for the “Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act”-- a law that will subsidize and regulate what children eat before school, at lunch, after school, and during summer vacations in federally funded school-based feeding programs -- First Lady Michelle Obama said of deciding what American children should eat: “We can’t just leave it up to the parents."

JPMorgan cuts silver short; copper holding eyed
JP Morgan is reducing a large position in U.S. silver futures, the Financial Times reported on Tuesday, citing a source familiar with the matter. Two months ago the bank and HSBC Holdings Plc (HSBA.L: Quote) were sued by investors who accused them of conspiring to drive down silver prices.
 ** Water, Meet Blood - JP Morgan Admits To, Reduces Massive Silver Short Position, Proves Millions of Conspiracy Theorists Correct
In the latest example that virtually every conspiracy theory is almost always inevitably proven to be fact, the Financial Times reports that JP Morgan, the firm targeted by thousands of "tin foil hat" wearing, conspiratorially-oriented "gold bugs", has cut back on its US silver futures.

Major Investors and Sovereigns Are Just Starting Their Move Into Gold
Cazenove Capital -- widely assumed to be a broker to the British royal family -- remains bearish on U.S. stocks and bullish on gold.

Will the Fed be able to survive Ron Paul?
The question should be will Ron Paul survive the Fed!!!

Grocer A&P Files for Bankruptcy
The Great Atlantic & Pacific Tea Co., once the nation's largest grocer, filed for bankruptcy protection Sunday after years of struggling with enormous debt and rising competition from low-priced peers. It said all its 395 stores, which employ 41,000 people, will remain open. Loyalty programs and other promotions will continue.

What Ike Got Right
LAST week the National Archives released a trove of drafts and notes that shed new light on President Dwight D. Eisenhower’s farewell address, in which he warned America about the “military-industrial complex.” The release comes just in time for the speech’s 50th anniversary next month. And so while scholars and historians use these documents to scrutinize the evolution of the speech’s famous phrase, it’s worth asking a broader question: does America still have a military-industrial complex, and should we be as worried about it as Eisenhower was?

PHOTOS: The Most Amazing Science Images of 2010

What Trips Gold Up? – Answers to Your Letters
Reviewing the comments and Terry’s responses, I remain convinced that until there is a fundamental shift in how our government operates, the gold bull market will continue. That’s not to say that there won’t be a shift – as Terry comments, in time they’ll be forced to it.

Court to Hear Case of Birther Who Wouldn't Deploy
A military court was set to hear the case Tuesday of an Army doctor charged with refusing to deploy to Afghanistan because he says he doubts whether President Barack Obama was born in the U.S. and therefore questions his eligibility to be commander in chief.

Where's the Note? Leads BAC to Ding Credit Score
Let’s imagine the following scenario: You have a Jumbo mortgage with Bank of America. You are a good customer, do your banking with BofA, and you have never missed a payment. In fact, you always send your mortgage in on time.

Chances Are Dimming for Patriot Act Reform
The USA PATRIOT Act is up for renewal in February, but civil libertarians wanting major changes shouldn't get their hopes up just yet, says a libertarian think tank.

November Retail Sales and PPI
Truth: Auto sales, building materials and garden supplies, gasoline, sporting goods and food service places (restaurants) were all down on an unadjusted basis.

Riots Break Out In Rome
Protesters set fire to cars, threw paint and smoke bombs at the Italian parliament and clashed with riot police today in Rome's worst violence for years after prime minister Silvio Berlusconi survived a confidence vote.

Cap and Trade by Stealth: US States Partner With Foreign Governments
While Americans w ere battling cap-and-trade legislation at the national and international levels, global-warming alarmists were quietly building regional systems between state and local governments, private industry, and even foreign governments that basically achieve the same effect — higher energy prices for consumers and more money for governments.

Richard Holbrooke Dies: Veteran US Diplomat Brokered Dayton Peace Accords
Last Words "Stop This War' - Longtime U.S. diplomat Richard C. Holbrooke, whose relentless prodding and deft maneuvering yielded the 1995 Dayton peace accords that ended the war in Bosnia - a success he hoped to repeat as President Obama's chief envoy to Afghanistan and Pakistan - died Monday in Washington of complications from surgery to repair a torn aorta.

Canadians With More Debt Than US Spark Policy Makers' Warning
Canada’s top economic officials yesterday urged households to be wary of taking on too much debt after data showed the indebtedness of Canadians surpassed U.S. levels for the first time in 12 years.

Obama Officials Warn of 'Devastating Consequences' if Mandate Struck Down
A day after a Virginia judge struck down the healthcare reform law's individual mandate, Obama administration officials warned in a Tuesday op-ed that there would be "devastating consequences for everyone with health insurance" if the ruling is upheld.

UK Weather: Big Freeze Returns Tomorrow and It's Going to Last for a MONTH
Temperatures will plummet tomorrow and will stay bitterly cold for the next month, forecasters have warned.

The Bitter Bite of Winter, Food Shortages Coming?
Almost six months ago an Italian physicist was showing satellite photos of a diminishing Gulf current because of the oil disaster and now below you will see a video interview of an actual Earl of Sterling talking extensively about its collapse.

Post Mortem for the World's 'Reserve Currency'
Paul Volcker is worried about the future of the dollar and for good reason. The Fed has initiated a program (Quantitative Easing) that presages an end to Bretton Woods 2 and replaces it with different system altogether.

Father Harassed By CPS for Feeding Kids Organic Food
A father of two was harassed and investigated by Child Protective Services and police for feeding his daughters organic food, refusing to make them drink fluoride-poisoned tap water and not having them injected with mercury-laden vaccines, all of which constitutes “suspicious activity” in the new Sovietized America, a foretaste of what’s to come once Big Sis’ Wal-Mart spy campaign gets up and running.

UN & Big Business Call for Global Light Bulb Ban to Save Climate
The United Nations and its corporate allies called for a global ban on incandescent light bulbs and kerosene lamps Wednesday at the COP16 global-warming summit in Cancun, claiming in a new study that “energy-efficient” lights would reduce the amount of carbon dioxide emissions.

Healthy Hips Require Plenty of Vitamin D
Healthy bones cannot be maintained without adequate levels of vitamin D.

Sunscreen Chemicals Absorbed into Body, Found In 85 Percent of Human Milk Samples
Before you apply creams, lotions, cosmetics and sunscreens to your skin, it might be a good idea to find out what's really in them.

Ovarian Cancer Screenings are Essentially Useless
A new study published in the peer-reviewed journal of the American Cancer Society (ACS) Cancer has found that current ovarian cancer screening technologies do virtually nothing to decrease the overall death rate from the disease.

Everyone is Suspect at Walmart
This is pretty painful. I actually feel sorry for the people that have to work under both the TSA and DHS, and for the people who work at Walmart.


Today In History Tuesday December 14, 2010
1799 - The first president of the United States, George Washington, died at the age 67.
1819 - Alabama joined the Union as the 22nd state.
1896 - Gen. James H. Doolittle, who led the first air raid on Japan during World War II, was born.
1903 - Orville Wright made the first attempt at powered flight. The engine stalled during take-off and the plane was damaged in the attempt. Three days later, after repairs were made, the modern aviation age was born when the plane stayed aloft for 12 seconds and flew 102 feet.
1911 - Norwegian explorer Ronald Amundsen became the first man to reach the South Pole.
1918 - For the first time in Britain women (over 30) voted in a General Election.
1939 - The Soviet Union was dropped from the League of Nations.
1945 - Josef Kramer, known as "the beast of Belsen," and 10 others were executed in Hamelin for the crimes they committed at the Belsen and Auschwitz Nazi concentration camps.
1946 - The U.N. General Assembly voted to establish the United Nation's headquarters in New York City.
1983 - The U.S. battleship New Jersey fired on Syrian positions in Lebanon for the first time after American F-14 reconnaissance flights were fired on.
1986 - The experimental aircraft Voyager, piloted by Dick Rutan and Jeana Yeager, took off from California on the first non-stop, non-refueled flight around the world. The trip took nine days to complete.
1988 - The first transatlantic underwater fiber-optic cable went into service.
1995 - The presidents of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia, Croatia signed the Dayton Accords to end fighting in Bosnia.
1995 - AIDS patient Jeff Getty received the first-ever bone-marrow transplant from a baboon.
1997 - Cuban President Fidel Castro declared Christmas 1997 an official holiday to ensure the success of Pope John Paul II's upcoming visit to Cuba.
1998 - Hundreds of Palestinian leaders renounced a call for the destruction of Israel.
1999 - U.S. and German negotiators agreed to establish a $5.2 billion fund for Nazi-era slave and forced laborers.
1999 - Charles M. Schulz announced he was retiring the "Peanuts" comic strip. The last original "Peanuts" comic strip was published on February 13, 2000.
2000 - It was announced that American businessman Edmond Pope would be released from a Russian prison for humanitarian reasons. Pope had been sentenced to 20 years in prison
after his conviction on espionage charges.
2001 - European Union leaders agreed to dispatch 3,000-4,000 troops to join an international peacekeeping force in Afghanistan.
2001 - The first commercial export, since 1963, of U.S. food to Cuba began. The 24,000 metric tons for corn were being sent to replenish what was lost when Hurricane Michelle
struck on November 4.

Ukraine's Hijacked Weapons: A Discreet Deal for the War in Sudan
US dispatches have cleared up one of the most baffling weapons affairs of the recent past. In 2008, pirates hijacked a ship full of tanks and other military hardware. Kenya apparently intended to send the materiel on to Southern Sudan. But they were unprepared for the US reaction. Sometimes things get so bad they're almost funny. Take, for example, when criminals hold up arms traffickers, and when politicians subsequently lie and are abandoned by their supposed friends -- even though they secretly do the same thing themselves. That's exactly what happened in the so-called Faina affair, one of the most baffling cases of weapons smuggling in recent memory -- an affair which has only now come to light due to the leaked US diplomatic cables.

Til Death Due Us Tax
Weiner, Hoyer, Pelosi, Clyburn and the rest have proven that no matter what – you can’t get away from them. Even death do you not part.

Ukraine to Open Chernobyl Area to Tourists in 2011
Want a better understanding of the world's worst nuclear disaster? Come tour the Chernobyl nuclear power plant.

State Wants Illinoisans to Pay Web Taxes
Many Illinois taxpayers are dodging state and local sales taxes by buying Christmas gifts online, but the state hopes to get them to eventually pay those taxes in 2011.

Money Laundering Scandal Rocks Vatican Bank
This is no ordinary bank: The ATMs are in Latin. Priests use a private entrance. A life-size portrait of Pope Benedict XVI hangs on the wall.

Judge in Va. Strikes Down Federal Health Care Law
A federal judge declared the foundation of President Barack Obama's health care law unconstitutional Monday, ruling that the government cannot require Americans to purchase insurance. The case is expected to end up at the Supreme Court.

Italian PM Warns Israel May Nuke Iran
In a meeting with Defense Secretary Robert Gates, Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi warned that he believed “no one including Obama” could stop Israel from launching an attack against Iran once it had made up its mind.

Former US Spy Chief: South Korea May Attack North
Speaking today on CNN’s “State of the Union,” former Director of National Intelligence Dennis Blair said he believed South Korea will probably launch some attacks against North Korea in the near future, but that it doesn’t necessarily mean a major war will start.

Oil Prices Rally Above 91 Dollars
Crude oil prices jumped above 91 dollars here on Monday as the market digested OPEC's move over the weekend to maintain the cartel's output levels.

Record-Breaking Warmth Grips Los Angels, Phoenix
Several records were broken throughout the West on Sunday. The unusually warm weather will persist in the Southwest today.

New Cold Blast Invading Eastern US Even More Brutal
While not everyone across the eastern half of the country dealt with snow or a blizzard this past weekend, they will all be facing brutal cold soon if not already.

Allan Ritter Quits Dems
If Rep. Aaron Pena hoped he was going to be the first rat to jump ship, tough luck: Rep. Allan Ritter, D-Nederland, had announced he is quitting the Democratic party and joining the House Republicans, giving them the supermajority they craved.

India Protests Frisking of Top Diplomats at US Airports
The foreign ministry has protested to Washington after reports two of New Delhi's diplomats were frisked at US airports, describing the searches as serious breaches of protocol.

Payroll Tax Cut Worries Social Security Advocates
President Barack Obama's plan to cut payroll taxes for a year would provide big savings for many workers, but makes Social Security advocates nervous that it could jeopardize the retirement program's finances.

The New York Police Department Starts Using Iris Scans on Suspects
In a move questioned by the New York Civil Liberties Union and some of New York's top lawyers, the New York Police Department is now using machines to photograph and scan the irises of prisoners as they pass through New York Central Booking. The department claims that this new high-tech identification program is part of a failsafe measure meant to prevent escapes as suspects move through New York's complex and winding court system

Nine Month Old Twins Die Just Minutes After Measles Vaccination
A pair of nine-month old twin girls died within minutes of being given a measles vaccine at a private clinic in Ghaziabad, India.

German Troops in France for First Time Since WWII
A battalion of German combat troops was officially stationed in eastern France on Dec. 10 for the first time since Nazi forces ended their occupation after World War II.

Canada, US on Verge of North American Trade, Security 'Perimeter'
A landmark deal is at hand between Canada and the United States to form a trade and security perimeter around the continent with an eye to easing the flow of goods and people across the border, the National Post is reporting.

Obama's Tax and Unemployment Package: Moody's May Cut US Rating on Tax Package
Moody's warned Monday that it could move a step closer to cutting the U.S. Aaa rating if President Obama's tax and unemployment benefit package becomes law.

Richard Holbrooke, American Diplomat, Dead at 69
Richard Holbrooke, a forceful presence in American diplomacy for more than 45 years, died tonight in Washington, D.C. He was 69.

Tax Cut Bill Draws Wide Support in Senate
Democratic opposition to President Barack Obama's plan to avert an across-the-board income-tax increase Jan. 1 crumbled in the Senate on Monday, as a large bipartisan majority backed the legislation.

Wall Street Sees Record Revenue in '09-10 Recovery From Government Bailout
Wall Street’s biggest banks, rebounding after a government bailout, are set to complete their best two years in investment banking and trading, buoyed by 2010 results likely to be the second-highest ever.

N Korea Threatens S Korea With Nuclear War
North Korea warned Monday that U.S.-South Korean cooperation could bring a nuclear war to the region, as the South began artillery drills amid lingering tension nearly three weeks after the North's deadly shelling of a South Korean island.

Real-Life Da Vinci Code: Tiny Numbers and Letters Discovered on the Mona Lisa
But the Mona Lisa was at the centre of a new mystery yesterday after art detectives took a fresh look at the masterpiece – and noticed something in her eyes.

Obama's New Tax On...Rainwater?!
Would President Obama’s Environmental Protection Agency really force Americans to pay a tax on “rainwater runoff” from homes and small businesses?

Study Verifies That There is No Value in Any Flu Vaccine
A remarkable study published in the Cochrane Library found no evidence of benefit for influenza vaccinations and also noted that the vast majority of trials were inadequate.

Researchers Find a Way to Assemble Full Genome of Fetus
The discovery, made using a sample of the mother's blood, could offer a safer alternative to invasive screening procedures used to detect genetic problems in fetuses, experts say.

Florida Cold Snap Will Likely Drive Food Prices Even Higher
With an oncoming unstoppable international food shortage already predicted by the United Nations this year we can lump another frozen harvest of Florida crops to the mix of shorted food supplies.

General Mills Cuts Sugar Content in Children's Cereals But Still Uses GMO's
Breakfast cereal giant General Mills recently announced plans to slightly cut the sugar content in its children's cereals in accordance with overall pressures on major food producers to fight childhood obesity and its related diseases by making healthier products.

Treat Depression With Omega-3 Fatty Acids
Researchers from the University of Illinois at Chicago have confirmed that omega-3 fatty acids exhibit powerful antidepressant and brain boosting benefits that have not received the high level of attention they deserve.

Memory Loss Is Not a Normal Part of Aging
Memory loss is always a sign of disease or injury, and should never be attributed to the natural course of aging, according to a study conducted by researchers from the Rush University Medical Center in Chicago and published in the journal Neurology.

Julian Assange Wined and Dined at US Embassy
To the United States, Julian Assange may now be Public Enemy Number One. Some American politicians have even called for his execution.

35,000 Deaths Fear in New Arctic Blizzards - UK
Experts predict a dramatic increase in cold-related fatalities as we suffer the bitterest winter in a century, causing 12 deaths every hour.

Sand and Snow Cause Chaos in Middle East
Winds, rain, sandstorms and hail battered the southern and eastern Mediterranean on Sunday, killing at least five people, closing ports and disrupting traffic in the Suez Canal.
 

Today In History Monday December 13, 2010
1769 - Dartmouth College, in New Hampshire, received its charter.
1809 - The first abdominal surgical procedure was performed in Danville, KY, on Jane Todd Crawford. The operation was performed without an anesthetic.
1862 - In America, an estimated 11,000 Northern soldiers were killed or wounded when Union forces were defeated by Confederates under General Robert E. Lee, at the Battle of Fredericksburg.
1883 - The border between Ontario and Manitoba was established.
1884 - Percy Everitt received a patent for the first coin-operated weighing machine.
1913 - The Federal Reserve System was established as the first U.S. central bank.
1918 - U.S. President Wilson arrived in France, becoming the first chief executive to visit a European country while holding office.
1921 - Britain, France, Japan and the United States signed the Pacific Treaty.
1944 - During World War II, the U.S. cruiser Nashville was badly damaged in a Japanese kamikaze suicide attack. 138 people were killed in the attack.
1978 - The Philadelphia Mint began stamping the Susan B. Anthony U.S. dollar. The coin began circulation the following July.
1981 - Authorities in Poland imposed martial law in an attempt to crackdown on the Solidarity labor movement. Martial law ended formally in 1983.
1991 - North Korea and South Korea signed a historic non-aggression agreement.
1998 - Puerto Rican voters rejected U.S. statehood in a non-binding referendum.
2000 - U.S. Vice President Al Gore conceded the 2000 Presidential election to Texas Gov. George W. Bush. The Florida electoral votes were won by only 537 votes, which decided the election. The election had been contested up to the U.S. Supreme Court, which said that the Florida recount (supported by the Florida Supreme Court) was unconstitutional.
2000 - Seven convicts, the "Texas 7," escaped from Connally Unit in Kenedy, TX, southeast of San Antonio, by overpowering civilian workers and prison employees. They fled with stolen clothing, pickup truck and 16 guns and ammunition.
2001 - The U.S. government released a video tape that showed Osama bin Laden and others discussing their knowledge of the terrorist attacks on the United States on September 11, 2001.
2001 - U.S. President George W. Bush served formal notice to Russia that the United States was withdrawing from the 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty.
2001 - Israel severed all contact with Yasser Arafat. Israel also launched air strikes and sent troops into Palestine in response to a bus ambush that killed 10 Israelis. 

Ron Paul, Author of ‘End the Fed,’ to Lead Fed Panel
Representative Ron Paul, Texas Republican and author of “End the Fed,” will take control of the House subcommittee that oversees the Federal Reserve. House Financial Services chairman-elect Spencer Bachus, an Alabama Republican, selected Paul, 75, to lead the panel’s domestic monetary policy subcommittee when their party takes the House majority next month, said the committee chairman.

VIDEO: Glenn Beck Warns Of Food Riots, Martial Law & Gun Confiscations

Blizzard Dumps 20 Inches of Snow In Parts of Midwest
A powerful snowstorm socked the upper Midwest on Saturday with as much as 20 inches of snow, forcing authorities to close roads across five states as heavy winds made for treacherous driving conditions.

Johnson & Johnson Rolaids recall expands to Canada
The company's McNeil Consumer Healthcare business said it is voluntarily pulling all Rolaids Ultra Strength Softchews and Rolaids Ultra Strength Softchews plus Gas Relief off the market because consumers reported finding metal and wood particles.

GM Accelerates Toward Chinese Business, Plug-Ins
Two years ago, General Motors was on the brink of bankruptcy. But the U.S. government stepped in and took control. Since then, as part of its restructuring, GM shed thousands of jobs and billions in debt. And last month, the company took the first step in shedding its "Government Motors" image by launching a successful IPO, which raised billions of dollars and allowed the government to reduce its stake in GM by half.

CFTC Commissioner Bart Chilton Reveals 'One Trader' Controls 40% of Silver Market, As Silver Holdings of SLV Hit All Time Record
After we reported a week ago that JPMorgan was trying to corner the copper market, many noted this was not surprising, considering the bank's comparable approach in manipulating various other precious metal markets.

Swedish Police: Explosions Were Terrorism
Two blasts that shook a busy shopping street in central Stockholm were an act of terrorism, officials said Sunday, in what appeared to be a suicide bombing.

Hackers steal Walgreens e-mail list, attack consumers
Pharmacy giant Walgreens had to swallow some bitter medicine on Friday when it told customers that a computer criminal had stolen its e-mail marketing list. The criminal used the list to send out realistic-looking spam that asked recipients to enter their personal information into a Web page controlled by hackers.

The 10 Most Depressing Jobs in America
Read the list of people with the saddest jobs!

Something’s Wrong in the Silver Pit: But It’s Much Bigger than J.P. Morgan
There are a total of 417 Billion notional in Gold derivatives outstanding – AND THE GOLD / SILVER Price RATIO is 49:1 – then WHY are outstanding notional silver derivatives 127 Billion???? These BIS numbers suggest that the proper gold / silver ratio should be roughly 3.3:1 or silver priced TODAY at 1,400 / 3.3 = 424.00 per ounce.

Obama's Evergreen Revolution a Ploy to Push GMO's
The Obama Administration is working towards a second "Green Revolution" in agriculture known as the "Evergreen Revolution".

Madoff's Eldest Son Hangs Himself in NYC Apartment
Disgraced financier Bernard Madoff's eldest son hanged himself by a dog leash in his apartment Saturday, exactly two years after his father's arrest in a multibillion-dollar Ponzi scheme that swindled thousands of investors of their life savings.

Post-Meltdown, Banks Still Rule Derivatives Trade
On the third Wednesday of every month, the nine members of an elite Wall Street society gather in Midtown Manhattan.

Fairbanks Militia Leader Schaeffer Cox Questions Alaska Courts Authority
A defiant Schaeffer Cox, facing a misdemeanor weapons charge, told a judge Friday he will not attend another court hearing until the court system explains its authority over him.

Tax Cuts Meet Pork Layoffs
What you have to realize is that some of these people can’t help themselves.

Head Blast Protection
One of the more poignant tales out of the Second World War reports on a bitter cold winter’s night in which a Finnish unit was bracing for a heavy soviet assault coming from over a rise to the front.

Justice Department Prepares for Ominous Expansion of 'Anti-Terrorism' Law Targeting Activists
In late September, the FBI carried out a series of raids of homes and antiwar offices of public activists in Minneapolis and Chicago.

Morality is Modified in the Lab
They identified a region of the brain just above and behind the right ear which appears to control morality.

Building a Communitarian Planned Police State
Community (communitarian) Oriented Policing plays a key role in building a new world. Community police are in almost every nation now, and they are directly involved in ALL Local Agenda 21 neighborhood planning efforts.

Homeland Security Recruiting Neighborhood Busybodies as Informants
There were the infamous Gestapo, Stazi and Red Guard.

Suicide Bomber Kills 6 Troops in Afghanistan
Six U.S. troops were killed Sunday when a man rammed a minivan packed with explosives into a newly built military installation in Kandahar Province, U.S. and Afghan officials said.

Democrats Try to Salvage Pride in Lame-Duck Session
Having navigated the thickets of thickly drawn party lines on taxes, President Obama now must overcome a potent force inside his own Democratic Party: pride.

Venezuela Acquires 1,800 Antiaircraft Missiles From Russia
Russia delivered at least 1,800 shoulder-fired antiaircraft missiles to Venezuela in 2009, U.N. arms control data show, despite vigorous U.S. efforts to stop President Hugo Chavez's stridently anti-American government from acquiring the weapons.

US Posts $150.4 Billion November Budget Deficit
The U.S. government ran its 26th straight monthly budget deficit in November amid wrangling over a package that would extend big tax cuts to Americans trying to recover from recession.

Prisons Cut Costs With Recycled Underwear
Prisons in Washington are issuing inmates with used uniforms, recycled underwear and shorter socks in an effort to cut costs, the Seattle Times reported Friday.

Storm Slams Midwest, Cancels Flights, Closes Roads - Minnesota Metrodome Collapses
A powerful, gusty storm is dumping mounds of snow across the upper Midwest.

Israel's Leader Does Not Want to Share Jerusalem
Israel's leader on Sunday dismissed a call from a key government partner to share the holy city of Jerusalem with the Palestinians, a reminder of the obstacles facing already troubled peacemaking efforts.

Two Bank Failures Bring Year's Tally to 151
One bank failure in Pennsylvania and one in Michigan brought the year's tally of failures to 151, according to the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. Friday.

N Korea 'Will Rely on Nuclear Might for Defense'
Pyongyang will rely on nuclear might to defend itself against the United States and South Korea, North Korea's Foreign Minister Pak Ui Chun told Russia's Interfax news agency Friday.

Rahm's Residency Battle Gets a Status Hearing
Election officials have scheduled a status hearing for Rahm Emanuel as the continue to sort through more than 30 challenges to his mayoral eligibility.

Social Security Advocates Fear Payroll Tax Cut
President Obama's plan to cut payroll taxes for a year would provide big savings for many workers but makes Social Security advocates nervous that it could jeopardize the retirement program's finances.

US Life Expectancy Continues to Plummet, But Not Becauseof Inadequate Health Care
A new report published in the journal Health Affairs says the U.S. has dropped to 49th place in overall life expectancy among the nations of the world.

Drinking Alcohol May Reduce Symptoms of Arthritis
Regular alcohol consumption may reduce the severity of rheumatoid arthritis, according to a study conducted by researchers from the University of Sheffield, England.

Principle of Astrology Proven to be Scientific: Planetary Position Imprints Biological Clocks of Mammals
Mention the word "astrology" and skeptics go into an epileptic fit.

Mainstream Media Agrees That Food Safety Bill Will Do Nothing to Improve Food Safety
A recent editorial in Forbes magazine online slams the recent U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) "Food Safety Modernization Act" for being a huge waste of taxpayer money, and an effort that will do absolutely nothing to actually improve food safety.

Hospitals to Begin Publicly Reporting Preventative Infections, Deaths They Cause
Millions of preventable infections occur at U.S. hospitals every year, and hundreds of thousands of patients needlessly die or become severely diseased from them.

Parents Can't Seem to Figure Out Right Dosage for Their Children
More than 60 percent of all parents give their children the wrong dose of liquid medicines, potentially placing their health at risk, according to a study conducted by researchers from the University of Sydney, Australia, and presented at the International Pharmaceutical Federation in Lisbon, Portugal.

GMO Canola Contaminates Majority of Land on Organic Farm
Just as many in the natural health community have been saying for years, a recent report out of Australia explains that genetically-modified organisms (GMO) are fully capable of spreading to and contaminating nearby non-GMO and organic crop fields.

Most Women Skip Mammograms, Even When Insurance Will Pay for Them
Millions of U.S. women are apparently ignoring government recommendations and taking breast health into their own hands.

Grocery Store Chain A&P Files for Bankruptcy
Once the largest U.S. grocer, the owner of about 400 stores under brands such as A&P, Waldbaum's and Super Fresh filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in New York with more than $1 billion in assets and more than $1 billion in debt, according to court documents.

Asian Stocks Rise, Dollar Up On Upbeat US Data
Investors appeared intent on ending the year on a bright note, with Asia Pacific stocks up some 10 percent so far this year .MIAP00000PUS, outperforming an 8 percent rise in global equities .MIWD00000PUS.

Even Dem Foes of Tax Cut Plan See It Passing Soon
The White House expressed confidence Sunday that President Barack Obama's deal with Republicans will pass by year's end, averting a Jan. 1 increase in income taxes for nearly all Americans, even the highest earners.

Cyber Attacks by WikiLeaks Defenders Hit Online Traders Badly
Online retailers have been reporting worrying shortfalls in their orders this week after hackers wreaked havoc with credit card systems. In one of the busiest weeks pre-Christmas, attacks on MasterCard, PayPal and Amazon, the freezing weather and unrelated issues at the processing intermediary Sage Pay have left many online merchants far short of expected sales.

FDA to Reexamine Use of Mercury in Dental Fillings
Prodded by consumer and dental activists, the Food and Drug Administration is reviewing the scientific evidence underlying its pronouncement less than 18 months ago that dental fillings containing mercury do not cause harm to patients.

Formaldehyde in Wrinkle-Free Clothes May Pose Skin Risks
The iron, that relic of households past, is no longer required to look neat and freshly pressed.


Today In History Friday December 10, 2010
1817 - Mississippi was admitted to the Union as the 20th American state.
1869 - Women were granted the right to vote in the Wyoming Territory.
1898 - A treaty was signed in Paris that officially ended the Spanish-American War. Also, Cuba became independent of Spain.
1901 - The first Nobel prizes were awarded.
1941 - Japan invaded the Philippines.
1941 - The Royal Naval battleships Prince of Wales and Repulse were sunk by Japanese aircraft in the Battle of Malaya.
1948 - The United Nations General Assembly adopted its Universal Declaration on Human Rights.
1953 - Hugh Hefner published the first "Playboy" magazine with an investment of $7,600.
1958 - The first domestic passenger jet flight took place in the U.S. when 111 passengers flew from New York to Miami on a National Airlines Boeing 707.
1964 - In Oslo, Norway, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. received the Nobel Peace Prize. He was the youngest person to receive the award.
1990 - The U.S. Food & Drug Administration approved Norplant, a long-acting contraceptive implant.
1992 - Oregon Senator Bob Packwood apologized for what he called "unwelcome and offensive" actions toward women. However, he refused to resign.
1993 - The crew of the space shuttle Endeavor deployed the repaired Hubble Space Telescope into Earth's orbit.
1994 - Yasser Arafat, Shimon Peres and Yitzhak Rabin received the Nobel Peace Prize. They pledged to pursue their mission of healing the Middle East.
1995 - The first U.S. Marines arrived in the Bosnian capital of Sarajevo to join NATO soldiers sent to enforce peace in the former Yugoslavia.
1998 - Six astronauts opened the doors to the new international space station 250 miles above the Earth's surface.
1999 - After three years under suspicion of being a spy for China, computer scientist Wen Ho Lee was arrested. He was charged with removing secrets from the Los Alamos weapons lab. Lee later pled guilty to one count of downloading restricted data to tape and was freed. The other 58 counts were dropped.
2003 - The U.S. Supreme Court upheld new restrictions on political advertising in the weeks before an election. The court did strike down two provisions of the new law that involved a ban on political contributions from those too young to vote and a limitation on some party spending. (McConnell v. FEC, 02-1674)
2003 - The U.S. barred firms based in certain countries, opponents of the Iraq war, from bidding on Iraqi reconstruction projects. The ban did not prevent companies from winning subcontracts.
2007 - Cristina Fernandez was sworn in as Argentina's first elected female president.

MUSIC VIDEO: Becky Kelley - Where's the Line to See Jesus

Royal car attacked as student rioters run riot in London
PRINCE Charles and his wife Camilla came under attack and several government buildings were damaged during violent clashes between protesters and police after MPs voted narrowly to allow English universities to increase tuition fees.

FAA Loses Track of 119,000 Aircraft
The Federal Aviation Administration is missing key information on who owns one-third of the 357,000 private and commercial aircraft in the U.S. - a gap the agency fears could be exploited by terrorists and drug traffickers.

You won't believe what you paid for GM bailout
President Obama will have lost many billions of dollars – the estimates include figures in the range of $30 billion in cash – of taxpayer funds by the time the bailout of General Motors is sorted out, paid up and put on a balance sheet, according to experts who have analyzed the unprecedented takeover of an American company by a president.

Assange Accuser Flees to Middle East, May Not be Cooperating With Police
One of the two Swedish women who have filed sex complaints against the founder of WikiLeaks has reportedly left Sweden and may no longer be cooperating with the criminal investigation.

WikiLeaks' Hackers 'Operation Payback' Cyber War Targets Swedish Government
Computer hackers have sent two of the world’s biggest credit card companies into meltdown in revenge for cutting off payments to the WikiLeaks website.

The Subprime Shakeout: Federal Home Loan Bank of Pittsburgh Scores Important Early Victory in Pennsylvania Lawsuit
In the first substantive decision handed down in any of the five major lawsuits by the Federal Home Loan Banks (FHLB) over RMBS losses, the Hon. Stanton Wettick, Jr. of the Court of Common Pleas of Allegheny County, Pennsylvania dealt a blow to JPMorgan Chase, Countrywide and other securitizers of subprime and Alt-A mortgage loans, while letting the ratings agencies largely off the hook. In the Order on Defendant's Motion to Dismiss (full copy available here), Judge Wettick found that the FHLB's claims for fraud, negligent misrepresentation and Securities Act violations could proceed against J.P. Morgan Securities, Inc., the entity that actually offered the mortgage backed securities for sale to investors and put together the securities' offering documents.

Social Security’s Effect On The Treasury: Why We Are “Effed”
So that’s why we’re screwed. The Social Security system is now a net negative drain on Treasury. While some accounting statement smoke and mirrors can make it seem “solvent”, the overall effect is that more borrowing has to be done to support SS obligations. It is no longer a self-supporting bureau. And given that it is going to be one of the major, non-negotiable expenses of the government going into the boomer retirement era, this is very bad.

Jim Richards: At Least One Swiss Bank Has Started Refusing to Hand Over Physical Gold to Clients
Jim Rickards of Omnis has an interesting anecdote about global gold mania.

Q3 Flow of Funds: Household Real Estate Assets Declined $650 Billion in Q3 2010
The Federal Reserve released the Q3 2010 Flow of Funds report this morning: Flow of Funds.

Check out Photos of the Insane Student Riots Happening in London
British students are protesting today in central London against government plans to triple tuition fees.

JP Morgan's Great Silver Caper Could Come Crashing Down
There’s a lot of rumor, buzz, innuendo, chitchat and scuttlebutt about the precious metals markets these days.

U.S. Home Values to Drop by $1.7 Trillion This Year, Zillow Say
The drop in home values pushed more buyers underwater, meaning they owe more on their mortgages than their homes are worth, Zillow said. The percentage of homeowners with mortgages with so-called negative equity reached 23.2 percent in the third quarter, up from 21.8 percent at the end of 2009.

Ron Paul, Author of `End the Fed,' to Lead Panel Overseeing Central Bank
Paul, who has introduced legislation to abolish the Fed, became nationally known during his 2008 presidential campaign. His campaign to audit the Fed picked up steam as the central bank deployed trillions of dollars in emergency loans in the midst of the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression. Paul’s bill gained the support of 320 of 435 members of the House and a portion of the measure ended up in the Dodd-Frank financial regulatory overhaul enacted this year.

Massive Dark Object 'Lurking on Edge of Solar System Hurtling Comets at Earth'
A massive dark object may be lurking on the edge of our solar system, according to scientists.

Democrats Delay Action on Young Immigrants Bill
The Senate moved Thursday to delay a politically charged showdown vote on legislation carving out a path to legal status for foreign-born youngsters brought to this country illegally, putting off but probably not preventing the measure's demise.

Pelosi Pledges to Win Changes as House Dems Reject Tax Deal
The House Democratic Caucus on Thursday rejected the tax deal negotiated between the White House and Senate Republicans.

Senate Fails on Repeal of 'Don't Ask, Don't Tell' Included in Defense Authorization Bill
The Senate on Thursday dealt a severe blow to the repeal of the “Don’t ask, don’t tell” law, dimming the chances for the Clinton-era ban to be scrapped this year.

Jobless Claims: US Weekly Claims Fall 17,000 Amid Slow Jobs Recovery
Applications for unemployment benefits dropped last week to the second-lowest level this year, fresh evidence that companies are cutting fewer jobs.

Final House Race Decided; GOP Net Gain: 63 Seats
It was a roller-coaster ballot-counting process that saw several lead changes and court hearings over the past 36 days, but Bishop’s ultimate margin of victory was 263 votes out of more than 194,000 cast in the Long Island district.

Massive Budget Bill Faces Opposition in Senate
The fate of House legislation to freeze the budgets of most Cabinet departments and fund the war in Afghanistan for another year is now in the hands of the Senate, where it faces uncertain prospects.

US Treasurys: Bond Prices plunge for 2nd Day on Deficit Fears
U.S. Treasurys plunged Wednesday, extending Tuesday's sharp losses and pushing benchmark yields to a six-month high, after a deal in Washington to extend tax cuts fueled fears of inflation and a swelling budget deficit.

Midwest Storm Could Be Winter's Worst
This story has been updated. For the latest information from AccuWeather.com, click here.

Glastonbury's 2,000-Year Old Holy Thorn Tree Hacked Down by Vandals
Standing proudly on the side of an English hill, its religious roots go back 2,000 years. But a single night of vandalism has left an ancient site of pilgrimage in splinters.

China, North Korea Tout 'Consensus' Amid US Anger
North Korean leader Kim Jong-Il and a top Chinese envoy Thursday touted "consensus" between the communist allies regarding the region's worst crisis in years, official media reported.

CBOT Corn Review: Climb Higher as Tight Supply Outlooks Underpin
U.S. corn futures ended higher Wednesday, rising on expectations for tighter supply estimates in Friday's government crop report.

US May Have 'Problem' Meeting Surging Wheat Demand, FAO"S Abbassian Says
The U.S., the world’s largest wheat shipper, may not have the logistical capacity to meet rising global demand after rains cut the quality of the harvest in Canada and Australia, the United Nations said.

US State Governments' Debts Soar
Some of the measures include releasing the prisoners early or laying off police officers. Some analysts, though, believe the root of the problem is that government employees have traditionally been overpaid.

Israel Launches Strikes, Warns on Gaza
Israel launched retaliatory air strikes on the Gaza Strip Thursday hours after its top soldier warned troops to be prepared for possible "wider action" on the enclave's volatile border.

S 510 Food Safety Bill is Still Alive and May Unleash a New Army of FDA Agents
The U.S. government wants to know where your greenhouse is.

Study Finds Money Contaminated With BPA
A new test conducted by the Washington Toxics Coalition and Safer Chemicals, Healthy Families has revealed that the plastics chemical bisphenol-A (BPA) is most likely lurking in your wallet.

Taking Bone Drugs May Give You Cancer
Osteoporosis drugs, already coming under fire for actually weakening people's bones rather than strengthening them, may pose another risk: esophageal cancer.

Purple Foods Ward Off Degenerative Diseases
A new study published in the journal Archives of Toxicology explains how many degenerative diseases are caused by poorly-bound iron in the body that reacts with various bodily components to generate toxins.

Senate Republicans Block 9/11 Health Bill
Senate Republicans on Thursday blocked a bill that would provide medical care for firefighters and other responders to the September 11, 2001, attacks who developed illnesses from breathing toxic, dust-filled air.


Today In History Thursday December 9, 2010
1783 - The first executions at Newgate Prison took place.
1879 - Thomas Edison organized the Edison Ore Milling Company.
1884 - Levant M. Richardson received a patent for the ball-bearing roller skate.
1907 - Christmas Seals went on sale for the first time, in the Wilmington, DE, post office.
1917 - Turkish troops surrendered Jerusalem to British troops led by Viscount Allenby.
1940 - During World War II, British troops opened their first major offensive in North Africa.
1940 - The Longines Watch Company signed for the first FM radio advertising contract with experimental station W2XOR in New York City.
1941 - China declared war on Japan, Germany and Italy.
1958 - In Indianapolis, IN, Robert H.W. Welch Jr. and 11 other men met to form the anti-Communist John Birch Society.
1975 - U.S. President Gerald R. Ford signed a $2.3 billion seasonal loan authorization to prevent New York City from having to default.
1984 - Iranian security men seized control of the plane ending a five-day hijacking of a Kuwaiti jetliner, which was parked at the Tehran airport.
1990 - The first American hostages to be released by Iraq began arriving in the U.S.
1992 - U.S. troops arrived in Mogadishu, Somalia, to oversee delivery of international food aid, in operation 'Restore Hope'.
1993 - The U.S. Air Force destroyed the first of 500 Minuteman II missile silos that were marked for elimination under an arms control treaty.
1993 - Astronauts aboard the space shuttle Endeavor completed repairs to the Hubble Space Telescope.
1994 - Representatives of the Irish Republican Army and the British government opened peace talks in Northern Ireland.
1994 - U.S. President Clinton fired Surgeon General Joycelyn Elders after learning that she had told a conference that masturbation should be discussed in school as a part of human sexuality.
1999 - The U.S. announced that it was expelling a Russian diplomat that had been caught gathering information with an eavesdropping device at the U.S. State Department.
2002 - United Airlines filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy after losing $4 billion in the previous two years. It was the sixth largest bankruptcy filing.

From Bad to Worse: The Economy Today, and Tomorrow
At first, we were told the American economy was a freight train; invincible.

US Yields Slip As Selloff Pauses, Dollar Down
U.S. Treasury prices edged up on Thursday as bargain hunters entered the fray after a violent two-day surge in yields, pulling the dollar lower, while Asian stocks rose on hopes added fiscal stimulus will help the U.S. economy in the near term.

GM Offers $60,000 Buyouts to 2,000 Skilled Workers at 14 Plants
General Motors Co., the largest U.S. automaker, said it will offer early-retirement packages worth $60,000 each to about 2,000 skilled-trades workers at 14 U.S. plants.Eight of the 14 plants are scheduled to close and two may shut if GM doesn’t need them.

The World Trade Organization panel backs US tariffs on Chinese tires
The WTO has ruled that Washington acted within its rights when it raised import taxes on Chinese tires to reduce their flow into the United States.

House Passes Dream Act Immigration Bill
The House of Representatives approved a controversial measure on Wednesday providing a path to citizenship for illegal immigrants who came to the United States before age 16.

House Democrats Push Massive Budget Bill
A widely backed food safety bill is hitching a ride on the legislation. The measure passed the Senate by a 73-25 vote last week but got caught in a snag because it contained revenue provisions that, under the Constitution, must originate in the House.

Democrats Attempt to Revive Food Safety Bill
Food safety legislation stalled by a constitutional snag could be revived as part of a giant year-end budget bill.

Rex Murphy on Cancun
Here is a favorite Canadian commentator taking on the recent global warming conflab been held at Cancun. It has collapsed to farce and we have the Japanese formally abandoning the Kyoto Accord and a rewrite been pushed that will include India and China.

Urbanization in China and India
This work quantizes the scale of urbanization in South East Asia. It represents a massive capital investment and it will quickly achieve the GDP per capita of the present developed world which will also be transforming itself into better lifeways.

The Wall Street Pentagon Papers: Biggest Scam In World History Exposed - Are The Federal Reserve's Crimes Too Big To Comprehend?
What if the greatest scam ever perpetrated was blatantly exposed, and the US media didn’t cover it?

You're Paying Your Mortgage....WHY?
Now comes this lawsuit out of Texas alleging that Bank of America not only tried to collect on a PAID IN FULL mortgage but refused to listen to the fact that it had been paid in full and in fact threatened that the owners were "going to lose their home."

Jim Rogers: 'Bernake has been wrong every time he's opened his mouth'
Jim Rogers has labeled Washington D.C. and Ben Bernanke the biggest threats to the global economy is comments made at the Reuters Investment Outlook Summit today.

In Obama Tax Plan, Boost for Job Creation
A year ago, President Obama and the Democrats made the mistake of assuming that an economic recovery was under way.

NY Agency Sued Over GPS Tracker On Worker's Car
The New York Civil Liberties Union has sued the state on behalf of a labor department worker who was fired after investigators used a GPS device to track his car and show he falsified his time sheets.

Armed Services are Urged to Stock Kitchens With Gulf Seafood
Navy Secretary Ray Mabus, who doubles as President Barack Obama's point man on Gulf Coast oil spill recovery, is pressing America's armed services to consume as much Gulf seafood as possible.

Chinese Government Money is Buying One of USA's Biggest Mines
It seems like there’s not much hope for Mt. Hope in Nevada.

Fingerprint Scanner Use Raises Privacy Concerns in NC
Next month, 13 law enforcement agencies in the region will begin using a new handheld device that lets an officer scan a person's fingerprints and seek a match in an electronic database - all without going anywhere.

US Fiscal Health Worse Than Europe's: China Adviser
Li Daokui, an academic member of the central bank's monetary policy committee, said that U.S. bond prices and the dollar would fall when the European economic situation stabilized.

Police Arrested Twelve Year Old Boy for Refusing Vaccine at School
A child of twelve was charged with ‘threatening behaviour’ at his school in Bowmanville, East of Toronto last week.

Euro at Risk of Collapse Say Treasury Watchdog as Economic Crisis Sweeps Europe
The Euro is at risk of collapse as economic crisis sweeps the continent, Britain’s independent Treasury watchdog warned last night.

China's Credit Bubble on Borrowed Time as Inflation Bites
The Royal Bank of Scotland has advised clients to take out protection against the risk of a sovereign default by China as one of its top trade trades for 2011. This is a new twist.

WikiLeaks: Stop Us? You'll Have to Shut Down the Web
The arrest and detention of Julian Assange Tuesday on charges of rape and sexual assault was at the least a convenient development for government leaders who've sought ways to contain the leader of the controversial website Wikileaks.

The Anger of Barack Obama
President Obama, long criticized by many in his own party for lacking appropriate passion, delivered a blunt and confrontational message to his liberal critics during a press conference today.

Republicans Slam DREAM Act for Including Immigrants With Criminal Records
With both chambers of Congress cruising toward a vote on the DREAM Act as early as Wednesday afternoon,

Food Stamp Rolls Continue to Rise
More people tapped food stamps to pay for groceries in September as the recession and lackluster recovery have prompted more Americans to turn to government safety net programs to make ends meet.

Fed´s QE Ponzi Scheme begins to Backfire
Copper might begin to outpace gold, amid rapidly dwindling stockpiles in London, and speculation that a large trader is hoarding around two-thirds of existing supplies. Stockpiles monitored by the London Metals Exchange have declined 30% this year to 352,200-tons, the lowest level since October 2009. That small stockpile could be mostly wiped-out, since global demand for copper is expected to outstrip production by 250,000-tons next year, and lead to panicked buying from China. Comment: Start saving those pre-1982 pennies. They could be like the silver dimes in the coming months.

Jim Rogers: Fed understates inflation
"If the world economy gets better, commodities are going to go up in price because there are shortages. If the world economy does not get better, you should own commodities, because (central banks) are going to print more money," he said. "Real assets are the way to protect yourself. Rogers also said the price of gold will rise eventually above $2,000 an ounce. The price of spot gold on Tuesday hit a record high of $1,430.95 an ounce before falling back to close at $1,409.35.

Half of Americans Say Housing Recovery at Least Two Years Away
Almost six in 10 U.S. adults say a housing recovery is at least two years away, and more than a third say flawed lender practices are partially to blame, according to a survey by Trulia Inc. and RealtyTrac Inc.

Tax Appeals Swamp US Cities, Towns as Property Prices Plunge
A fiscal flood that threatens to swamp local government budgets across the U.S. overflows from file cabinets in the office of Patty Halm, chair of the Michigan Tax Tribunal.

President Obama's Scorecard on Promises Kept, Broken
Some Democrats are angry over President Obama's compromise on the Bush-era tax cuts and the president is suggesting they should cool down and take a closer look at the promises he's kept as commander-in-chief, and even since the campaign trail.

Kansas Growers Worry About Wheat Crop, But It's Early
Despite worsening crop conditions in the nation’s leading wheat state, it’s way too early to count out the 2011 Kansas winter wheat crop.

Authorities Make Arrest in Alleged Plot to Blow Up Military Recruitment Center
A man was arrested Wednesday for plotting to blow up a military recruitment center in the Baltimore area, authorities said.

More Than Half of Americans Want Fed Reined In or Abolished
A majority of Americans are dissatisfied with the nation’s independent central bank, saying the U.S. Federal Reserve should either be brought under tighter political control or abolished outright, a poll shows.

Massive Dark Object 'Lurking on Edge of Solar System Hurtling Comets at Earth'
A massive dark object may be lurking on the edge of our solar system, according to scientists.

American Retirement Funds at Serious Risk of Being Seized
The news of Hungary effectively seizing private pension fund assets to pay for the debt obligations of the state last week should come as yet another reminder of the urgent need to get tax-sheltered retirement savings away from the clutches of the state before it's too late.

US Military Prepares for Economic Collapse
Skeptics who continue to assert that the economic plight of the United States has been overstated need not look further than the Pentagon to find out just how wrong they are. CNBC has learned that the Pentagon is currently playing out “war games” pertinent to an American economic meltdown.

Antibiotics Largely Pass Through Body Unabsorbed and Pollute Environment
A Virginia Tech researcher and her colleagues recently discovered that the vast majority of common antibiotic drugs end up passing through the body without breaking down and metabolizing.

H1N1 Vaccine Linked to 700 Percent Increase in Miscarriages
Recent data presented to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's (CDC) Advisory Committee on Children's Vaccines has revealed some shocking information about the effects of the H1N1 / swine flu vaccine on pregnant women.

TSA Refuses to Release Inspection Reports About X-Ray Machine Safety
Airports have become a minefield of health hazards, and an investigation into airport safety has revealed that radiation emitted from various scanning machines is sometimes much higher than intended, putting workers and passengers at serious risk.

Organic Farms Have Better Soil
Organic farms have healthier soil than farms getting regular inputs of synthetic fertilizers, according to a study conducted by researchers from the Center for Ecology and Hydrology in England, and published in the journal Environmental Microbiology.

Walking Beats Cancer All By Itself (Even Without Pink Ribbon Fundraisers)
Nearly 10,000 cancers could be prevented in the United Kingdom alone if people took several brisk walks per week, according to a report from the World Cancer Research Fund.


Today In History Wednesday December 8, 2010
1793 - The Louvre Museum, in Paris, opened to the public for the first time.
1805 - The "Corps of Discovery" reached the Pacific Ocean. The expedition was lead by William Clark and Meriwether Lewis. The journey had begun on May 14, 1804, with the goal of exploring the Louisiana Purchase territory.
1887 - Doc Holliday died at the age of 35. The gun fighting dentist died from tuberculosis in a sanitarium in Glenwood Springs, CO.
1889 - Montana became the 41st U.S. state.
1895 - Wilhelm Roentgen while experimenting with electricity discovered the scientific principle involved and took the first X-ray pictures.
1910 - William H. Frost patented the insect exterminator.
1923 - Adolf Hitler made his first attempt at seizing power in Germany with a failed coup in Munich that came to be known as the "Beer-Hall Putsch."
1933 - The Civil Works Administration was created by executive order by U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt. The organization was designed to create jobs for more than 4 million unemployed people in the U.S.
1942 - The U.S. invaded Morocco and Algeria.
1942 - During World War II, Operation Torch began as U.S. and British forces landed in French North Africa.
1950 - During the Korean conflict, the first jet-plane battle took place as U.S. Air Force Lt. Russell J. Brown shot down a North Korean MiG-15.
1956 - After turning down 18,000 names, the Ford Motor Company decided to name their new car the "Edsel," after Henry Ford's only son.
1966 - Edward W. Brooke of Massachusetts became the first African-American elected to the U.S. Senate by popular vote.
1966 - Ronald Reagan was elected governor of California.
1979 - U.S. Senators John Warner (R-VA) and Mac Mathias (R-MD) introduced legislation to provide a site on the National Mall for the building of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial.
1980 - Scientists at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California announced that they had discovered a 15th moon orbiting the planet Saturn.
1985 - A letter signed by four American hostages in Lebanon was delivered to The Associated Press in Beirut. The letter, contained pleas from Terry Anderson, Rev. Lawrence Jenco, David Jacobsen and Thomas Sutherland to President Reagan to negotiate a release.
1990 - U.S. President H.W. Bush ordered more troop deployments in the Persian Gulf, adding about 150,000 soldiers to the multi-national force fighting against Iraq.
1991 - The European Community and Canada imposed economic sanctions on Yugoslavia in an attempt to stop the Balkan civil war.
2000 - In Florida, a statewide recount began to decide the winner of the 2000 U.S. presidential election.
2000 - Waco special counsel John C. Danforth released his final report that absolved the government of wrongdoing in the 1993 seige of the Branch Davidian compound in Texas.

The Unemployed Slaughtered: 13 Month Extension A Complete Lie
This President just stood in front of the nation and told an outright lie.

Gasparino: Bank of America Is Worried Next WikiLeaks Dump Will Contain Evidence of Fraudulent Countrywide Loans
Fox Business Network's Charlie Gasparino told Shep Smith today that Bank of America has set up a "legal swat team" in case the next big WikiLeak is directed at them.

Defeating Cancer Naturally - Vitamin B17
It is becoming increasingly obvious that just about everyone I know is either suffering from cancer, has suffered from it, or knows someone who is, or has suffered from it.

Is JP Morgan Getting Squeezed in Silver 'Market'
It is widely known that J.P. Morgan (JPM) holds a giant short position in silver. Furthermore, some observers are accusing the bank of acting as an agent for the Federal Reserve in the market - every tick higher in the price of silver undermines confidence in the U.S. Dollar.

The Decline and Fall of the American Empire by Tom Engelhardt and Alfred W. McCoy
But have no doubt: when Washington's global dominion finally ends, there will be painful daily reminders of what such a loss of power means for Americans in every walk of life. As the economy cools, political temperatures rise, often sparking serious domestic unrest.

The Discourse of Involuntary Servitude: A Short Primer on the Manipulation and Opportunity of Silver and the Campaign to Bankrupt JP Morgan
It might not be this month, it might not be in the next 6 months BUT when the scheme is finally overcome by the market (the same way the London Gold Pool was overcome by the market) the price of gold and silver will skyrocket and there exists a very, very real possibility that the dollar will crash as the USD is “re-priced” by the market against the universal constants of gold and silver. BTW, this has happened before!  Read More...

North Korea On Own
It is clear from this data that China recognizes that North Korea is no longer advancing any interest of China and that a united Korea under Seoul control would be beneficial to China, let alone the slaves of North Korea.

Bank of Ireland and ATM Systems Fail, Customers Unable to Access Cash
Strange. On the day of the big budget vote, ATMs and online banking systems of the Bank of Ireland are down, according to the BBC.

VIDEO: Julian Assange Arrested: WikiLeaks Founder Taken Into Custody
WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange has been arrested by British police as part of a Swedish sex-crimes investigation.

What If Your Bank Account Disappeared?
It all started a week ago. National Australia Bank, one of the largest in the country, had a technical malfunction in its core system.

Hackers Take Down Website of Bank That Froze WikiLeaks Funds
A group of Internet activists calling themselves Operation Payback have taken credit for shutting down the website of a bank that earlier Monday froze funds belonging to WikiLeaks.

Euro Collapse 'Possible' Amid Deepening Divisions Over Bail-Out
It is feasible that the euro will not survive the current sovereign debt crisis sweeping Europe, one of the Treasury's leading independent forecasters has said.

WikiLeaks: Julian Assange's 2 One-Night Stands Spark a Worldwide Hunt
A winter morning in backwoods Scandinavia and the chime of a church bell drifts across the snowbound town of Enkoping. Does it also toll for WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange?

More Health Waivers
The Obama Administration has quietly granted even more waivers to one provision of the new federal health reform law, doubling the number in just the last three weeks to a new total of 222.

Pelosi Attacks Obama-GOP Tax Plan
House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer said Tuesday there was “no consensus or agreement reached by House leaders” on the deal Obama negotiated with the GOP, while Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) criticized GOP provisions in the agreement.

Spiraling Out of Control: The Risk of a New Korean War
An artillery duel between North and South Korean forces on November 23 has set in motion a series of events which threaten to spiral out of control.

New Rules: You and the IRS This January
The new ObamaCare1099 rule for reporting of all cash, credit and check business transactions of $600 or more is scheduled to begin January of 2012.

Net Neutrality, the FCC, WikiLeaks and the Future of Internet Freedom
Regardless of what you think about the Wikileaks release of state secrets, there's no debating the astonishing fact that the internet made these leaks possible.

Lack of Vitamin D Makes Kids Fat
Why are American kids so often overweight and even downright fat to the point many are developing type 2 diabetes, a disease that used to be unheard of except among middle-aged folks?

US War Veterans Being Killed With High-Dose Psychiatric Drugs
Questions are being raised over whether a widely prescribed anti-psychotic drug may be contributing to the deaths of traumatized U.S. war veterans.

Pomegranates Prevent Infections
Pomegranates have been found to be one of the most antioxidant-rich fruits in the world, and a new Israeli study has demonstrated the fruit's amazing ability to fight and prevent infection.

TSA: No More Oversees Airmail Package Over One Pound Allowed
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) continues to tighten the noose of tyranny around the collective neck of America with a recent announcement from the Japan Post Services Co. (JPSC), the Japanese postal service, that no more airmail packages over one pound will be permitted for shipment into the U.S.

Health Care Bankrupting California as Schwarzenegger Declare Fiscal Emergency
Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger declared a fiscal emergency in California today, then immediately called for $9.9 billion in spending cuts; mostly from health benefits and health-related services. Gov. Schwarzenegger has come to realize what NaturalNews has been warning readers for years:


Today In History Tuesday December 7, 2010
1787 - Delaware became the first state to ratify the U.S. constitution becoming the first of the United States.
1796 - John Adams was elected to be the second president of the United States.
1836 - Martin Van Buren was elected the eighth president of the United States.
1926 - The gas operated refrigerator was patented by The Electrolux Servel Corporation.
1941 - Pearl Harbor, located on the Hawaiian island of Oahu was attacked by nearly 200 Japanese warplanes. The attack resulted in the U.S. entering into World War II.
1971 - Libya announced the nationalization of British Petroleum's assets.
1972 - Apollo 17 was launched at Cape Canaveral. It was the last U.S. moon mission.
1982 - Charlie Brooks Junior, a convicted murderer, became the first prisoner in the U.S. to be executed by injection, at a prison in Huntsville, TX.
1987 - Soviet leader Mikhail S. Gorbachev set foot on American soil for the first time. He had come to the U.S. for a Washington summit with U.S. President Reagan.
1987 - 43 people were killed when a gunman opened fire on a fellow passenger and the two pilots aboard a Pacific Southwest Airlines jetliner.
1993 - Energy Secretary Hazel O'Leary revealed that the U.S. government had conducted more than 200 nuclear weapons tests in secret at its Nevada test site.
1996 - The space shuttle Columbia returned from the longest-ever shuttle flight of 17 days, 15 hours and 54 minutes.
1998 - U.S. Attorney General Janet Reno declined to seek an independent counsel investigation of President Clinton over 1996 campaign financing.
2002 - In Mymensingh, Bangladesh, four movies theaters were bombed within 30 minutes of each other. At least 15 people were killed and over 200 were injured.
2003 - A 12-inch by 26-inch painting of a river landscape and sailing vessel by Martin Johnson Heade was sold at auction for $1 million. The painting was found in the attic of a suburban Boston home where it had been stored for more than 60 years.

Celebrity-branded perfumes loaded with toxic petrochemicals
Even high-end perfumes are made with cocktails of dangerous and untested chemicals that may produce problems from allergies to hormone disruption, a study by the Environmental Working Group and the Campaign for Safe Cosmetics has found.

USPS job cuts barely dent $49B payroll
As the U.S. Postal Service keeps racking up massive losses, top executives regularly tout their success in cutting employee work hours. But those cuts so far aren't paying off in cash savings, according to figures from the agency's latest annual report.

Boeing Receives US Army Contract for Tactical Intelligence Aircraft
ST. LOUIS-Boeing has announced that it has received a two-year engineering and manufacturing development contract for the Enhanced Medium Altitude Reconnaissance and Surveillance System (EMARSS) from the U.S. Army. EMARSS is a manned, airborne intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance system. It will provide a persistent capability to detect, locate, classify/identify and track surface targets in nearly all weather conditions, day or night, with a high degree of timeliness and accuracy.

Mounting Debts by States Stoke Fears of Crisis
While next year could be even worse, there are bigger, longer-term risks, financial analysts say. Their fear is that even when the economy recovers, the shortfalls will not disappear, because many state and local governments have so much debt — several trillion dollars’ worth, with much of it off the books and largely hidden from view — that it could overwhelm them in the next few years. “It seems to me that crying wolf is probably a good thing to do at this point,” said Felix Rohatyn, the financier who helped save New York City from bankruptcy in the 1970s.

Yields: The Dominant Theme For 2011
When I look around at the current investor makeup of the gold market I don’t see much evidence that the public is heavily participating in this bull market. I see well-to-do investors participating but the public hasn’t really bought into this gold bull run yet. Even silver, which is the traditional “poor man’s gold,” isn’t exactly a hot commodity with the small investor (notwithstanding the mini-mania for owning silver coins a couple of years ago). Until we see broad participation from the retail crowd, I don’t believe we’ll see gold’s bull market ending anytime soon.

White House, GOP Lawmakers Near Broad Deal on Tax Cuts
The White House and Republican lawmakers were close to an agreement on a broad tax package that would extend the Bush-era rate cuts, reduce worker payroll taxes for one year and give more favorable treatment to new business investments.

JP Morgan Revealed as Mystery Trader That Bought 1Bn Worht of Copper on LME
The $1.5bn (£1bn) trade was described in the LME's daily update as "between 50pc and 80pc" of the 350,000 tonnes in reserves. This pushed up the price for the immediate delivery of copper to $8,700 – its highest level since the financial crisis in October 2008.

No, the Big Banks Have Not 'Paid Back' Government Bailouts and Subsidies
The big banks claim that they have paid back all of the bailout money they received, and that the taxpayers have actually made money on the bailouts.

Ted Turner Urges Global One-Child Policy to Save Planet
Climate change and population control can make for a politically explosive mix, as media mogul Ted Turner demonstrated Sunday when he urged world leaders to institute a global one-child policy to save the Earth’s environment.

Cable Reveals US Behind Airstrike That Killed 21 Children in Yemen
A diplomatic cable released by WikiLeaks shows that the US military covered up the killing of dozens of civilians during a cruise missile strike in south Yemen in December 2009.

Tension Grows Between Calif. Muslims, FBI, After Informant Infiltrates Mosque
Before the sun rose, the informant donned a white Islamic robe. A tiny camera was sewn into a button, and a microphone was buried in a device attached to his keys.

Bernake - More Fed Bond Buys 'Certainly Possible'
The Federal Reserve could end up buying more than the $600 billion in government bonds it has committed to purchase if the economy fails to respond or unemployment stays too high, Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke said.

Schumer Wants to Outlaw Images Body Scanners Aren't Supposed to be Able to Store in the First Place
Somebody is going to figure out how to get the images off one of these scanners and they are going to go public with them. This law will be used to prosecute the whistleblower, not the rogue TSA agent who downloaded them for jollies, and not the government themselves who is probably cataloging all of these images as we speak.

State Department Official Warns Students Against Discussing WikiLeaks on Facebook, Twitter
A State Department official warned students at Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs this week that discussing WikiLeaks on Facebook or Twitter could endanger their employment prospects.

Big Sis Invades Wal-Mart: 'If You See Something, Say Something'
/Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Janet Napolitano today announced the expansion of the Department’s national “If You See Something, Say Something” campaign to hundreds of Walmart stores across the country—launching a new partnership between DHS and Walmart to help the American public play an active role in ensuring the safety and security of our nation.

Post-Recession Unemployment 'Scariest Ever' Job Chart Show Its Worse Than WW2
As unemployment in the U.S. nears the dreaded 10 per cent mark, it is a chart to chill the bones of any job hunter.

Federal Pay Freeze Plan Wouldn't Stop Raises
President Obama spoke of the need for sacrifice last week when he announced a two-year pay freeze for federal employees.

Senators Unveil Anti-WikiLeaks Bill
Sens. John Ensign (R-Nev.), Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.) and Scott Brown (R-Mass.) introduced a bill Thursday aimed at stopping WikiLeaks by making it illegal to publish the names of military or intelligence community informants.

US Forced to Shake Up Embassies Around the World After WikiLeaks Revelations
Battered by a scandal which seems to provide a fresh wave of embarrassment with each passing day, the US government is being forced to undertake a major reshuffle of the embassy staff, military personnel and intelligence operatives whose work has been laid bare by the whistle-blowing website WikiLeaks.

Motorists Could See $3 Gas at Pumps by Christmas
Barring a steep drop in crude prices, U.S. motorists can expect to see gas prices exceeding $3 per gallon, if they are not seeing such prices already, according to a new survey of filling stations.

Britain Is Freezing to Death
MIDDLE class families are among millions of Britons who cannot afford to heat their homes this winter, as elderly ride on buses all day to stay in the warm.

WikiLeaks Cables Reveal How US Manipulated Climate Accord
Hidden behind the save-the-world rhetoric of the global climate change negotiations lies the mucky realpolitik: money and threats buy political support; spying and cyberwarfare are used to seek out leverage.

Rangel Accused of Misusing Funds on His Defense in Previous Ethics Investigation
The Federal Election Commission is investigating a complaint that Rep. Charles Rangel improperly used his National Leadership PAC to fund his legal defense on ethics charges for which he was censured Thursday, The Post has learned.

Euro's Worst to Come as Trichet Fails to Calm Crisis, Top Forecasters Say
The most accurate foreign-exchange strategists say the euro’s worst annual performance since 2005 will extend into next year as the region’s sovereign-debt crisis saps economic growth.

US Documents Detail How Arab Allies Fund Terror Groups
Saudi Arabia has made "important progress" in aggressively trying to curtail the flow of funds to terrorist groups, but the oil rich kingdom and its Gulf Arab neighbors still remain major sources of financing for militant movements like Al Qaeda and the Taliban, according to leaked U.S. government documents.

Global Elites Reveal the Final Plan
“The black bull of power and evil began circling on the field of conflict generations ago. Its blood red eyes of hate and lust for power zeroed in on the man sent to slay him and end his rein of terror.

'Twas the Eve Before Destruction
'Twas the eve before destruction, when all through the land
Not a creature was stirring, under homeland securities hand;
The alarm systems enabled by families with care,
In hopes that the fed's wouldn't come around there;

Celebrity-Branded Perfumes Loaded With Toxic Petrochemicals
Even high-end perfumes are made with cocktails of dangerous and untested chemicals that may produce problems from allergies to hormone disruption, a study by the Environmental Working Group and the Campaign for Safe Cosmetics has found.

Artificial 'Naon-Food' Could Soon Show Up at a Store Near You
The scientific community has once again caught food-tampering fever.

Hormone Gel Could Regrow Teeth Cavities
A new hormone gel that may stimulate teeth to grow back the tissue destroyed by tooth decay, according to a study conducted by researchers from the National Institute for Health and Medical Research in Paris and published in the American Chemical Society's journal ACS Nano.

Over Half of China's Water Polluted Beyond Drinkability
More than half the water in China is so polluted as to be undrinkable, and nearly a quarter is so toxic that it is unsafe for even industrial use, according to the latest survey by the country's Ministry of Environmental Protection.


Today In History Monday December 6, 2010
1790 - The U.S. Congress moved from New York to Philadelphia.
1865 - The 13th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution was ratified. The amendment abolished slavery in the U.S.
1877 - Thomas Edison demonstrated the first gramophone, with a recording of himself reciting Mary Had a Little Lamb.
1884 - The construction of the Washington Monument was completed by Army engineers. The project took 34 years.
1889 - Jefferson Davis died in New Orleans. He was the first and only president of the Confederate States of America.
1917 - More than 1,600 people died when two munitions ships collided in the harbor at Halifax, Nova Scotia.
1917 - Finland proclaimed independence from Russia.
1923 - U.S. President Calvin Coolidge became the first president to give a presidential address that was broadcast on radio.
1947 - Everglades National Park in Florida was dedicated by U.S. President Truman.
1957 - America's first attempt at putting a satellite into orbit failed when the satellite blew up on the launch pad at Cape Canaveral, FL.
1973 - Gerald R. Ford was sworn in as the vice-president of the United States after vice-president Spiro Agnew resigned.
1989 - Egon Krenz resigned as leader of East Germany.
1990 - Iraq announced that it would release all its 2,000 foreign hostages.
1994 - Orange County, CA, filed for bankruptcy protection due to investment losses of about $2 billion. The county is one of the richest in the U.S. and became to largest municipality to file for bankruptcy.
1998 - In Venezuela, former Lieutenant Colonel Hugo Chavez was elected president. He had staged a bloody coup attempt against the government six years earlier.
1998 - Astronauts aboard the space shuttle Endeavour connected the first two building blocks of the international space station in the shuttle cargo bay.
2002 - Officials released the detailed plans for a $4.7 million memorial commemorating Princess Diana. The large oval fountain was planned to be constructed in London's Hyde Park.

Domestic Operational Law Handbook, 2009 for Judge Advocates - Center for Law and Military Operations

Sycamore company recalls 72K cans of chicken salad products
72,000 pounds of canned chicken salad products that may contain foreign materials, the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) announced Sunday. The Suter Company, Inc. is recalling two canned chicken salad products, both under the Bumble Bee label, after consumer complaints about finding hard plastic in the product, a release from the USDA said. The FSIS has not received any reports of injury at this time. Anyone concerned about an injury from consumption of this product should contact a physician, the release said.

Which Banks Got Fed Loans During the Meltdown?
The Fed released detailed data on more than 21,000 loans worth trillions of dollars made through a dozen emergency programs created during the financial crisis.

Health officials report a decline in residents receiving flu shots this season
A major provider of flu shots in southeastern Wisconsin is reporting a 40% decline in vaccinations - at a time when public health officials say they're confident the shot is a good match to protect against the strains expected to dominate this year's season.

Is The College Debt Bubble Ready to Explode?
Kelli Space, 23, graduated from Northeastern University in 2009 with a bachelor's in sociology — and a whopping $200,000 in student loan debt.

Adam Levitin Shreds American Securitization
For readers who have not followed this wee saga, mortgage securitization abuses are increasingly looking to be a mess of Titanic proportions. The securitization industry created complex and specific procedures for getting the loans into the securitization legal vehicle, a trust.

Deadline Looming on Closures of Your Favorite Mountain Getaways
It's your land, and mine, and our neighbor's. But, within months, we could all be restricted from its beckoning call. The U.S. Forest Service machine is ratcheting limitations into citizen's free movement within our National Forests; our beloved Rim Country and White Mountains.

Urban Gardening in Detroit
This is doable, city folks! The first segment shows the community garden, and the second shows a backyard garden, along with a compost bin, chicken coop, and start of a greenhouse all made from pallets.

South Korean Trade Deal Signed: Bend Over America
In what would seem a coincidence at the federal level, within days of S.510 the fake food safety bill sailing through the Senate, an agreement was finally reached on the South Korean Trade Agreement.

VIDEO: Madison Co. to Evict Man from Camper

BLS to Monkey with Birth/Death Index
One notorious "adjustment" factor the BLS uses in its calculation of monthly unemployment is the birth/death index, in which the BLS "estimates" the number of jobs created at small firms that were just "born", and how many jobs were lost beacuse of the "death" of firms.

Food City Starts Midnight Sales
Samantha Taylor waited for the clock to tick past 12:01 a.m. Wednesday as she stood next to a cart loaded with groceries in a checkout line at the Euclid Avenue Food City.

Substance in Cosmetics, Hair Shampoos Can Cause Eczema
What can a hair shampoo do for you besides cleaning, conditioning, and making your hair smell great?

Documents Reveal One Bank's Plan to Squeeze Customers for More Overdrafts
In recent months, rules from the Federal Reserve [1] have made it harder for banks to impose hefty overdraft fees when customers try to make debit transactions or ATM withdrawals without enough money in their checking accounts.

Climate Groups Retool Argument for Global Warming
The number of Americans who believe that global warming is a scientific fact has been dropping, and environmental groups and climate scientists who say the evidence for warming is clear are scratching their heads over this reversal and scrambling to find a new strategy.

Rising State Debts Stoke Fears of Crisis
While next year could be even worse, there are bigger, longer-term risks, financial analysts say.

China is 'Scared' of US Monetary Policy, Rogoff, Rickards Say
Policy makers in China, which holds $883.5 billion in U.S. Treasuries, are concerned the nation with the world’s biggest economy is debasing its currency, according to Kenneth S. Rogoff and James Rickards.

Jobless Recovery? 25 Unemployment Statistics That Are Almost too Depressing to Read
Guess what? Unemployment is up again! That's right - even though Wall Street is swimming in cash and the Obama administration is declaring that "the recession is over", the U.S. unemployment rate has gone even higher.

WikiLeaks Founder Assange Has Encrypted Guantanamo Documents, Will Release Them If Arrested
WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange has circulated across the internet an encrypted “poison pill” cache of uncensored documents suspected to include files on BP and Guantanamo Bay.

WikiLeaks Cables Reveal How US Manipulated Climate Accord
Hidden behind the save-the-world rhetoric of the global climate change negotiations lies the mucky realpolitik: money and threats buy political support; spying and cyberwarfare are used to seek out leverage.

Feds Warrantlessly Tracking Americans' Credit Cards in Real Time
Federal law enforcement agencies have been tracking Americans in real-time using credit cards, loyalty cards and travel reservations without getting a court order, a new document released under a government sunshine request shows.

Ford, BMW, Toyota Took Secret Government Money
In the depths of the financial collapse, the U.S. Federal Reserve pumped $3.3 trillion into keeping credit moving through the economy. It eventually lent $57.9 billion to the auto industry — including $26.8 billion to Ford, Toyota and BMW.

McConnell Says Tax Cuts Will Be Extended
The Senate Republican leader says it's become clear now that taxes will not be raised for anyone during the current economic downturn.

Senate Minority Whip Jon Kyl (R-Ariz.): 'Recipe' for Tax Compromise is Likely to Include Unemployment Benefits
Senate Minority Whip Jon Kyl (R-Ariz.) said Sunday that he expected the "recipe" for a tax-cut compromise to included extensions of unemployment benefits and Bush-era tax rates for all income brackets.

South Korea Warns North Will Attack Again to Bolster Succession
"There is a high possibility that the North will make another attack," Won Sei-hoon, director of South Korea's National Intelligence Service told a parliamentary committee meeting in Seoul.

Sesame Street Rolls Out Superfood Muppets Sponsored by Merck
Now even Sesame Street is jumping on the superfoods bandwagon by introducing four new muppets called "the Superfoods."

Industry, Government Push GMO Oranges as Solution to Pest Problems
Problem, reaction, solution: that's the name of the game in the U.S., and it's how sweeping changes that would otherwise never happen end up coming to pass.

CDC and EPA Caught Withholding Truth About Toxic Drinking Water
A recent story from The Washington Post reveals that the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) knowingly dragged their feet on releasing an important report about the dangers of contaminated drinking water supplies

It's Amazing! Scottish Doctors Now Warning People to Get More Sunshine and Vitamin D
The Scottish government has begun distribution information urging people to get enough vitamin D in an effort to reduce rates of rickets, cancer and autoimmune diseases.

Swimming in Chlorinated Pools Increases Your Risk of Cancer
Going for a swim may increase your risk of cancer if you use a chlorinated pool, according to a series of studies conducted by researchers from the Center for Research in Environmental Epidemiology in Barcelona, Spain, and published in the journal Environmental Health Perspectives.

County Sues Farmer for Growing Too Many Crops
A Georgia farmer is being sued by the county for growing too many vegetables on his land, in a case local food critics say is indicative of the backwardness of many local zoning laws.

Professor Who Lost Weight on Twinkies Only Proves That Even Nutrition Educators Can be Ding Dongs
Over the last month or so, the mainstream media has been making a huge deal about Kansas State nutrition professor Mark Haub who lost 27 pounds eating mostly Doritos, Twinkies and other junk food while drinking Diet Mountain Dew.

Canadian Biotech Company Pushes USDA to Approve GMO Apples
Okanagan Specialty Fruits (OSF), a British Columbian biotechnology company, is petitioning the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) to approve a genetically-modified (GM) variety of apple that the company says does not brown after being sliced.

Consume More Omega-3s to Protect Your Eyesight
A new study published in the journal Ophthalmology confirms that omega-3 fatty acids help to maintain eye health and protect against age-related eye diseases like macular degeneration.

Eight-Hundred Percent Increase in Weight- Loss Surgeries Since 2003
The number of weight-loss (bariatric) surgeries in the United Kingdom has increased 800 percent over the course of five years, according to the National Health Service (NHS) Information Center.

Radiation Scientists Agree TSA Naked Body Scanners Could Cause Breast Cancer and Sperms Mutations
The news about the potential health dangers of the TSA's naked body scanners just keeps getting worse. An increasing number of doctors and scientists are going public with their warnings about the health implications of subjecting yourself to naked body scanners.

Oh Mylanta! Yet Another Johnson & Johnson Recall
On Wednesday, Johnson & Johnson (J&J) announced yet another recall of two more of its over-the-counter (OTC) drug products.

Why Pregnant Women Should Avoid Diet Sodas
Pregnant women who drink artificially sweetened soft drinks are more likely to give birth prematurely, according to a study conducted by researchers from researchers from the Statens Serum Institut in Copenhagen, Denmark, and published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition.

Demand for Food is Destroying the Earth
Rising demand for food -- especially meat -- is taking a bigger and bigger toll on the planet, analysts are warning.


Today In History Friday December 3, 2010
1818 - Illinois was admitted as the 21st state of the union.
1828 - Andrew Jackson was elected president of the United States.
1833 - Oberlin College in Ohio opened as the first truly coeducational school of higher education in the United States.
1931 - Alka Seltzer was sold for the first time.
1948 - The "Pumpkin Papers" came to public light. The House Un-American Activities Committee announced that former Communist spy Whittaker Chambers had produced microfilm of secret documents hidden inside a pumpkin on his Maryland farm.
1950 - Paul Harvey began his national radio broadcast.
1967 - In Cape Town, South Africa, a team of surgeons headed by Dr. Christian Barnard, performed the first human heart transplant on Louis Washkansky. Washkansky only lived 18 days.
1980 - U.S. Representatives Frank Thompson, Jr. (D-NJ) and John Murphy (D-NY) were convicted on Abscam charges.
1982 - Doctors at the University of Utah Medical Center removed the respirator of Barney Clark. The retired dentist had become the world's first recipient of a permanent artificial heart only one day before.
1991 - After nearly five years, Shiite Muslim radicals in Lebanon released American hostage Allen Sutten.
1992 - The UN Security Council unanimously approved a U.S.-led military mission to help starving Somalians.
1992 - The Greek tanker "Aegean Sea" ran aground at La Coruna, Spain and spilled 21.5 million gallons of crude oil.
1993 - Britain's Princess Diana announced she would be limiting her public appearances because she was tired of the media's intrusions into her life.
1994 - Rebel Serbs in Bosnia failed to keep a pledge to release hundreds of UN peacekeepers.
1997 - In Ottawa, Canada, more than 120 countries were represented to sign a treaty prohibiting the use and production of anti-personnel land mines. The United States, China and Russia did not sign the treaty.
1997 - South Korea received $55 billion from the International Monetary Fund to bailout its economy.
1999 - Tori Murden became the first woman to row across the Atlantic Ocean alone. It took her 81 days to reach the French Caribbean island of Guadeloupe from the Canary Islands.
1999 - The World Trade Organization (WTO) concluded a four-day meeting in Seattle, WA, without setting an agenda for a new round of trade talks. The meeting was met with fierce protests by various groups.
1999 - The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) lost radio contact with the Mars Polar Lander as it entered Mars' atmosphere. The spacecraft was unmanned.

Scientist Urges Army to Study 'Smart Drugs' for Soldiers
A prominent neuroscientist is urging the Army to study the effects of cognitive-enhancing pharmaceuticals -- so-called "smart drugs" -- on soldiers in the battlefield.

Arlington finds 8 sets of remains in 1 grave
The Army has launched a criminal investigation after Arlington National Cemetery officials found eight sets of cremated remains buried in a single grave with a headstone marked "unknown."  Read More...

Nigeria to Charge Dick Cheney in Pipeline Bribery Case
Nigeria will file charges against former U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney and officials from five foreign companies including Halliburton Co. over a $180 million bribery scandal, a prosecutor at the anti-graft agency said.

Obama White House Pressured Spain to Drop Bush Torture Prosecution, Leaked Cable Shows
The Obama administration went to the mat to defend its predecessors from a torture prosecution in Spain last year, a leaked State Department cable shows.

Delaying Tax Vote Could Crash Stock Market
Failure by Congress to extend the Bush tax cuts, especially locking in the 15 percent capital gains tax rate, will spark a stock market sell off starting December 15 as investors move to lock in gains at a lower rate than the 20 percent it would jump to next year, warn analysts.

Morgan Stanley, China's Hangzhou to launch yuan PE
Morgan Stanley (MS.N) has joined global buyout firms such as Blackstone Group (BX.N) and Carlyle Group CYL.UL in a rush to tap China's booming private equity market, partnering with the eastern city of Hangzhou to launch yuan-denominated funds.

Amazon kicked WikiLeaks off its servers - Glenn Greenwald on Joe Lieberman's Thuggish, Authoritarian Attack on WikiLeaks
Yesterday, in response to pressure from Joe Lieberman's office, Amazon kicked WikiLeaks off its servers. In a statement Lieberman pompously declared "I call on any other company or organization that is hosting Wikileaks to immediately terminate its relationship with them." Because Joe Lieberman doesn't actually have control over the entire Internet though, the site was back up within hours. "WikiLeaks servers at Amazon ousted. Free speech the land of the free--fine our $ are now spent to employ people in Europe." WikiLeaks tweeted.

WikiLeak? Or Pre-Planned Scare Tactic
I do not believe for one minute that one low ranking individual somehow accessed and transferred hundreds of thousands of government documents without someone detecting this.

Finance And Economics: Dollars to gold ratio
To get back to a ratio of ten, gold has to move up to $4,500, at which level the dollar is still over-issued on any historic basis. This assumes no further dollar issuance, does not include off-balance sheet issuance (such as to finance military and political objectives in Iraq and Afghanistan), and that the US actually owns the 8,133.4 tonnes it says it has.

Why Eric Sprott sees silver as the next big investing windfall
Gold has traded at a ratio of 16-to-1 to silver in terms of price, but today it trades in the range of 50 to 1. I think the gold-to-silver ratio is going to go back to 16 to 1 given the passage of time, say three to five years. And I bet you that silver overshoots. The gold-to-silver ratio may even get down to 10 to 1. I believe that the price of silver has been suppressed.

Bankrupt Germany Now Plays The Terror (Hoax) Card To Distract From Homemade Financial Disaster
This post is essential reading for every liberty-loving human who opposes the trend of increasingly fascist governments that only focus on a bail-out of banks while completely ignoring that the people in the streets consider this the last priority in an environment where the once lauded social peace is in immediate danger to give way to a revolt of the sovereign in most European countries.

US State Department Tells Employees Not to Read WikiLeaks
The US State Department has directed its staff around the world not to surf the WikiLeaks website, according to employees.

Death Penalty May Be Ruled Unconstitutional in Texas
At a hearing scheduled for Monday, December 6, a district court in Texas will decide whether the death penalty is unconstitutional in the state based on the disproportionately high risk of wrongful convictions in Texas.

Fed Trying to Make It Harder for Homeowners to Fight Mortgage Fraud by Gutting Truth in Lending Laws
As reported by the Washington Post, the Fed turned a blind eye for years and allowed massive fraud in the mortgage market.

Federal Reserve's 'Astounding' Report: We Loaned Banks Trillions
The Federal Reserve has lifted its veil of secrecy regarding special lending programs during the financial crisis, responding to a mandate from Congress by revealing the specifics of transactions with firms like Goldman Sachs and Citigroup.

Trillions In Secret Fed Bailouts For Global Corporations And Foreign Banks – Has The Federal Reserve Become A Completely Unaccountable Global Bailout Machine?
In this way, the Federal Reserve is now essentially acting like some kind of financial god. They decide who survives and who fails. Dozens and dozens and dozens of small to mid-size U.S. banks are failing, but the Federal Reserve does not seem to have much compassion for them. It is only when the "too big to fail" establishment banks are in trouble that the Federal Reserve starts handing out gigantic sacks of nearly interest-free cash. Just think about it. Which financial institution do you think is in a better competitive position - one that must survive on its own, or one that has a "safety net" of nearly unlimited free loans from the Federal Reserve?

Soda Ban Gets a Key Backe
Bucking his traditional supporters, Public Advocate Bill de Blasio is endorsing Mayor Michael Bloomberg's proposal to bar recipients of food stamps from using them to buy soda or other sugar-sweetened drinks. Mr. de Blasio, a Democrat from Brooklyn who won citywide elective office last year with the help of liberal voters, sent a letter this week to the U.S. Department of Agriculture urging approval of Mr. Bloomberg's proposal for a two-year pilot program excluding sugary drinks from food-stamp purchases in the five boroughs. Comment: While we would applaud the health aspect of this, something else is happening here. This is a baby step in the government telling the people what it can and cannot eat.

Chinese Gold Imports Surge by 500% Through October
All who thought that China was merely posturing when it announced a few days back it was creating a fund to allow its domestic investor base to allocated capital to foreign gold ETF, may wish to reconsider after it was disclosed late last night that China gold imports jumped by 500% in the first 10 months compared to all of 2009 on concerns of rising inflation according to the Shanghai Gold Exchange.

Post Spill Gulf Sickness
I have nothing but respect for those who charge toward danger to help their community. Where I get annoyed is when those who have responsibility avoid acknowledging that what is been attempted is possibly dangerous and actually counter productive.

Federal Reserve May Be 'Central Bank of the World' After UBS, Barclays Aid
Federal Reserve data showing UBS AG and Barclays Plc ranked among the top users of $3.3 trillion from emergency programs is stoking debate on whether U.S. regulators bear responsibility for aiding other nations’ banks.

TSA Frisks Groom Children to Cooperate With Sex Predators, Abuse Expert Says
An expert in the fight against child sexual abuse is raising the alarm about a technique the TSA is reportedly using to get children to co-operate with airport pat-downs: calling it a "game".

New Data Shows Foreign Banks Biggest Recipients of Fed Money
The Federal Reserved released documents Wednesday identifying the recipients of $3.3 trillion in emergency aid provided at the height of the financial crisis.

Deficit-Cutting Plan Attracts Support
In a likely symbolic victory for the leaders of President Barack Obama's deficit commission, a controversial deficit-cutting proposal that would raise the retirement age and scale back tax deductions appears on track to win support from a majority of the panel — but fall short of the votes needed to adopt it.

House Passes Legislation to Extend Only Some Tax Cuts
The House voted 234-188 Thursday to pass legislation that would extend only some of the expiring Bush-era tax cuts, sending the bill to the Senate.

Camden City Council Approves Massive Police and Fire Layoffs
Camden City Council, as expected, voted Thursday to lay off almost 400 workers, half of them police officers and firefighters, to bridge a $26.5 million deficit.

Left Out in the Cold
Today, House Democrats Voted To Raise Taxes On Small Businesses. (H.R. 4853, Roll Call Vote # 604, 12/2/10)

NASA Announcement: Life in Space? No, but Life That Thrives Off of Arsenic
Scientists at NASA's Astrobiology Institute report they have found bacteria -- in Mono Lake, Calif., not in space -- that could be made to live on arsenic. The organism is called GFAJ-1.

40 Believed Killed in Huge Israel Forest Fire
Around 40 people are believed to have been killed in a devastating forest fire raging out of control near Israel's northern city of Haifa, the country's ambulance service said on Thursday.

Jaw-Dropping Image of Enormous 'Supercell' Cloud in Glasglow, Montana
The photograph is just one image from the portfolio of electrician Sean Heavey. The supercell cloud was photographed in July west of Glasgow, Montana, USA.

Army Investigating 8 Sets of Remains Buried in Single Gravesite at Arlington
Army criminal investigators are probing how eight sets of cremated remains came to be buried in a single gravesite at Arlington National Cemetery, the latest in a series of revelations that have marred the reputation of the country's most prestigious military burial ground.

New Vitamin D Recommendations Promote Nutritional Deficiency, Protect Cancer Industry
Earlier this week, the Institute of Medicine finally got around to reluctantly admitting that people need more vitamin D.

Poor Labeling on Children's Medications Causing Overdoses
Parents who give their children over-the-counter medicines need to be highly cautious when doing so, say researchers from the New York University School of Medicine.

TSA Now Setting Up Nazi-Style 'VIPER' Security Checkpoints at Bus Terminals
Terrorizing innocent travelers at airports is simply not enough for the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS).

Green Leafy Vegetables Reduce Risk of Diabetes
A diet high in green leafy vegetables can reduce your risk of Type 2 diabetes, according to a study conducted by researchers from Leicester University in the United Kingdom, and published in the British Medical Journal.

Chemical Food Additives Can Be Replaced by Natural Extracts
As NaturalNews has covered previously and extensively, one of the unhealthiest things you can eat is processed meats.

Broccoli Extracts Prevent Stomach Disorders
Extracts from broccoli and plantain may help boost the stomach's defenses against infection, according to a study conducted by researchers from the University of Liverpool in collaboration with Scottish and Swedish researchers, and published in the journal Gut.


Today In History Thursday December 2, 2010
1804 - Napoleon was crowned emperor of France at the Cathedral of Notre Dame in Paris.
1816 - The first savings bank in the U.S., the Philadelphia Savings Fund Society, opened for business.
1901 - Gillette patented the first disposable razor.
1917 - During World War I, hostilities were suspended on the eastern front.
1927 - The Ford Motor Company unveiled the Model A automobile. It was the successor to the Model T.
1954 - The U.S. Senate voted to condemn Sen. Joseph R. McCarthy for what it called "conduct that tends to bring the Senate into dishonor and disrepute." The censure was related to McCarthy's controversial investigation of suspected communists in the U.S. government, military and civilian society.
1961 - Cuban leader Fidel Castro declared in a nationally broadcast speech that he was a Marxist-Leninist and that he was going to lead Cuba to communism.
1969 - The Boeing 747 jumbo jet got its first public preview as 191 people flew from Seattle, WA, to New York City, NY. Most of the passengers were reporters and photographers.
1982 - Doctors at the University of Utah implanted a permanent artificial heart in the chest of retired dentist Barney Clark. He lived 112 days with the device. The operation was the first of its kind.
1990 - The Midwest section of the U.S. prepared for a massive earthquake predicted by Iben Browning. Nothing happened.
1991 - American hostage Joseph Cicippio was released by his kidnappers. He had been held captive in Lebanon for over five years.
1993 - The space shuttle Endeavor blasted off on a mission to fix the Hubble Space Telescope.
1994 - The U.S. government agreed not to seek a recall of allegedly fire-prone General Motors pickup trucks. Instead a deal was made with GM under which the company would spend more than $51 million on safety and research.
1994 - In Pensacola, FL, Paul Hill was given two life sentences for murdering a doctor and security guard outside an abortion clinic in July 1994.
1995 - NASA launched a U.S.-European observatory on a $1 billion dollar mission intended to study the sun.
1997 - U.S. Attorney General Janet Reno declined to seek an independent counsel investigation of telephone fund-raising by President Clinton and Vice President Gore. It was concluded that they had not violated election laws.
1998 - Microsoft Corp. chairman Bill Gates donated $100 million to help immunize children in developing countries.
1999 - The British government transferred political power over the province of Northern Ireland to a the Northern Ireland Executive.
2001 - Enron Corp. filed for Chapter 11 reorganization. The filing came five days after Dynegy walked away from a $8.4 billion buyout. It was the largest bankruptcy in U.S. history.

Half a million contact lenses recalled
Johnson & Johnson, which has been beset by product recalls, on Wednesday confirmed that it recalled nearly five times as many contact lenses as the 100,000 boxes it announced in August due to eye stinging. J&J said that in late October the recall of its 1 Day Acuvue TruEye lenses, which took place primarily in Japan, was expanded to a total of about 492,000 boxes.

Teacher Bans Students From Bringing Pencils To School
The memo said students would no longer be allowed to bring writing implements to school. It said pencils would be provided for students in class and any students caught with pencils or pens after Nov. 15 would face disciplinary action for having materials 'to build weapons.' This note was was written without district approval.

US court orders GMO beets destroyed
A federal judge has ordered what is believed to be the first-ever destruction of a genetically modified crop in the United States, saying that the altered sugar beets were planted illegally.

Fed's Emergency-Loan Borrowers Ranged From Bank of America to McDonald's
The Federal Reserve’s emergency lending during the financial crisis spanned the global economy, from the largest U.S. financial firms to community banks, hedge funds and a fast-food company. The Fed, in compliance with orders from Congress, today named recipients of $3.3 trillion in emergency aid. Among them were U.S. branches of overseas banks, including Switzerland’s UBS AG; corporations such as General Electric Co. and McDonald’s Corp.; and investors like Pacific Investment Management Co. and computer executive Michael Dell.

China Gold Imports Soar Almost Fivefold on Inflation
China’s gold imports jumped almost fivefold in the first 10 months from the entire amount shipped in last year as concern about rising inflation increased its appeal as a store of value, said the Shanghai Gold Exchange. Imports gained to 209 metric tons compared with 45 tons for all of 2009, Shen Xiangrong, chairman of the bourse, told a conference in Shanghai today. China, the world’s largest producer and second-biggest user, doesn’t regularly publish gold-trade figures and rarely comments on its reserves.

House May Block Food Safety Bill Over Senate Error
A food safety bill that has burned up precious days of the Senate’s lame-duck session appears headed back to the chamber because Democrats violated a constitutional provision requiring that tax provisions originate in the House.

Sherrie's Blog: Is The Govt. trying to Find out, Who has What now?
I ask, because - Child Services Interviewed My Child - Wanted to Know if We Had Solar Panels, Exactly Where We Go Camping and Hiking , If have Alternative Energy, If Food Stored, Then Came to my House!

D.C. water may still be contaminated
The water in almost 15,000 D.C. homes that were repaired during a massive effort to remove lead pipes may still be contaminated by dangerous levels of the metal, according to a report released Wednesday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Holidays About Survival as Jobless Benefits End
Shawn Slonsky's children know by now not to give him Christmas lists filled with the latest gizmos.

Fed to Name Recipients of $3.3 Trillion in Aid During Crisis
The Federal Reserve, under orders from Congress, plans today to identify recipients of $3.3 trillion in emergency aid the central bank provided as it fought the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression. The Fed intends to post the data on its website at midday in Washington to comply with a provision in July’s Dodd-Frank law overhauling financial regulation. The information spans six loan programs as well as currency swaps with other central banks, purchases of mortgage-backed securities and the rescues of Bear Stearns Cos. and American International Group Inc.

Deutsche Bank and Credit Suisse: The Two Top Beneficiaries of Fed Mortgage Buying
Thanks to Zerohedge, we know that the banks which were the top beneficiaries of the Agency Mortgage-Backed Securities (MBS) Purchase Program were two foreign-based banks.

US, Panama Sign New Tax Information Exchange Agreement
In a ceremony at the U.S. Department of the Treasury on Tuesday, November 30, Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner and Panamanian Vice President and Minister of Foreign Affairs Juan Carlos Varela signed a tax information exchange agreement (TIEA) between the United States and Panama.

Observations In Progress On the Fed Data Dump
As we are going through the excel sheets from the Fed dump, we will share our key findings. Keep in mind this is very raw data and will need far more processing before conclusions can be derived.

US Court Orders GMO Beets Destroyed
A federal judge has ordered what is believed to be the first-ever destruction of a genetically modified crop in the United States, saying that the altered sugar beets were planted illegally.

S 510: Three Blind Mice and a Willful Act of Treason
S 510 moved through its Senate processes raising hoopla amongst the masses, misdirected from arguing the facts pursuant to substantive and procedural law by countless organizations and their respected attorneys.

Putin: Failure to Ratify START Would Be 'Dumb'
Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin is warning that his country will find it necessary to build up its nuclear forces, if the United State's doesn't ratify a new arms reduction treaty.

Va. Judge Dismisses Challenge to Obama Health Care
A federal judge on Tuesday dismissed Liberty University's lawsuit challenging the Obama administration's new federal health care law, declaring that a provision requiring most individuals to obtain insurance is constitutional.

Here It Comes: US Gives Green Light On IMF-Mediated Rescue of Europe, EURSD Goes Parabolic
From Reuters: "US official says US would be ready to back larger European financial stability fund via increased IMF commitments."

WikiLeaks Chief Said He Has 5GB of Secret Docs on Bank of America
In an interview published Monday, Wikileaks founder Julian Assange revealed that his whistleblower website intends to publish a trove of secret documents exposing the corruption of a major American bank.

The Deficit Commission Wants to Cut Your Tax Rate, but Kill Most Exemptions
You read that right, the deficit commission proposal would reduce and simplify personal tax rates. Just three brackets: 12%, 22% and 28%.

Iranians Furious After Finding Jewish Symbol Hidden in Plain View
Ahmadinejad and his antisemitic cronies are fuming with anger after discovering the Star of David on the roof of Iran Air headquarters at Tehran's airport. The building was originally built by Israeli engineers prior to the the Islamic Revolution.

Foreclosure Inventories Rise to All Time Highs
Foreclosure inventories rose to all-time highs last month, according to the October Mortgage Monitor report released by Lender Processing Services.

Fed to Name Recipients of $3.3 Trillion in Aid During Crisis
The Federal Reserve, under orders from Congress, plans today to identify recipients of $3.3 trillion in emergency aid the central bank provided as it fought the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression.

Foreclosure Bombshell
With all the attention stories such as WikiLeaks and Irish bailout have gotten the last few days, a bombshell judgment against Bank of America in a New Jersey foreclosure case has been overlooked.

Congress Clears Indian, Black Farmer Settlements
American Indian landowners and black farmers who for years have waited for Washington to address their claims of government mistreatment won a hard-fought victory Tuesday as Congress cleared legislation to pay the groups $4.6 billion to settle a pair of historic class-action lawsuits.

Tea Party Leader: Restricting Vote to Property Owners 'Make a Lot of Sense'
Tea Party Nation President Judson Phillips said denying the right to vote to those who do not own property "makes a lot of sense" during a weekly radio program.

NASA Creates Buss With 'Extraterrestrial' Announcement
The US space agency has created a buzz with its announcement of a press conference Thursday to discuss a scientific finding that relates to the hunt for life beyond the planet Earth.

Treasurys Lower on Data, Europe Aid Report
Treasurys tumbled on Wednesday, sending yields higher, weighed by some strength in global economic data and speculation the U.S. would support extending aid to Europe.

US Treasury: No Talks Now on Bigger EU Fund
The U.S. is not currently discussing a proposal that would have the International Monetary Fund provide more aid to Europe through an additional contribution to European Financial Stability Facility, a U.S. Treasury official said Wednesday.

Barack Obama Reverses on Offshore Drilling
The White House’s uneasy on again, off again relationship with offshore oil drilling is off again.

High Court Questions Broad Use of FOIA Exemption
The Supreme Court is questioning the government's broad use of an exemption in the federal Freedom of Information Act to withhold documents from the public.

Organ Wagon Pilot Program
It might sound a little disturbing to some people but a new pilot program will attempt to recover kidneys from people who die at home in Manhattan.

Women Accused of Hiding Merchandise in Body Fat
Two women are arrested for shoplifting and police say they used their bodies to conceal the goods. Edmond police authorities say it was at the Edmond TJ Maxx that loss prevention officers found the duo stuffing items under their belly fat and breasts.

FCC Chairman to Propose Plan for Net Neutrality
The chairman of the Federal Communications Commission plans to announce Wednesday a controversial proposal that would prohibit Internet providers from favoring or discriminating against any traffic that goes over their networks.

Smithsonian Pulls Piece from Landmark LGBT Exhibit
Yesterday, the National Portrait Gallery pulled a video installation from the exhibit “Hide/Seek: Difference and Desire in American Portraiture” following an uproar from conservative groups. The four-minute video, “A Fire in My Belly” by late artist David Wojnarowicz, depicts ants crawling over Jesus Christ, symbolizing the pain suffered by AIDS victims.

North Korea Says It Has Thousands of Nuclear Centrifuges
North Korea claimed Tuesday that it is has "thousands of centrifuges" working to create nuclear energy for peaceful purposes.

Bolton: Military Strike Only Way to Stop Iran Nukes
John Bolton is mulling a run for president because he believes the US needs to recover its international standing and be more assertive, including being willing to bomb Iran and scrap the two-state solution.

The FDA vs Raw Milk and the Constitution
The Farm-to-Consumer Legal Defense Fund (FTCLDF), an organization whose mission includes “defending the rights and broadening the freedoms of family farms and protecting consumer access to raw milk and nutrient dense foods”, recently filed a lawsuit against the FDA for its ban on interstate sales of raw milk.

Patriots are Eyeball to Eyeball With the Illuminati
It has taken the better part of two and a quarter centuries for the people of the United States of America to arrive again on the domestic field of battle.

Industry Bought Congressional Votes to Pass S 510 Food Safety Bill
Despite an incredible outpouring of public opposition to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) "Food Safety Modernization Act", or S. 510, the Senate voted 73 to 25 to pass the bill anyway.

US Senator Caught Admitting That Lame Duck Session is 'Rigged'
The recent passage of Senate Bill 510, the so-called "Food Safety Modernization Act" took place during the Senate's "lame duck" session -- the time after the fall elections, but before the new members of Congress have been installed, where Congress reconvenes to discuss various business matters and pending legislation.

Don't Fall for It: US and Canadian Governments Unleash Propaganda Campaign Against Vitamin D
Vitamin D deficiency is widespread. In fact, there have been so many studies linking many of today's disease epidemics to inadequate blood levels of vitamin D that to deny a connection is utter foolishness.

Canadian Vaccine Company Receives $2 Million Grant From US Government
Medicago Inc. has received a $21 million grant from the U.S. government's Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) to build a 90,000-square-foot vaccine-production facility in North Carolina.

How many stars are there? More than you thought
Red dwarf stars are far more common than astronomers have believed -- in fact, they may make up 80 percent of the star population, scientists said in a study on Wednesday that triples the number of stars in the universe.


Today In History Wednesday December 1, 2010
1835 - Hans Christian Andersen published his first book of fairy tales.
1913 - Ford Motor Co. began using a new movable assembly line that ushered in the era of mass production.
1913 - The first drive-in automobile service station opened, in Pittsburgh, PA.
1941 - In the U.S., the Civil Air Patrol was created. In April 1943 the Civil Air Patrol was placed under the jurisdiction of the Army Air Forces.
1942 - In the U.S., nationwide gasoline rationing went into effect.
1952 - In Denmark, it was announced that the first successful sex-change operation had been performed.
1955 - Rosa Parks, a black seamstress in Montgomery, AL, refused to give up her seat to a white man. Mrs. Parks was arrested marking a milestone in the civil rights movement in the U.S.
1965 - An airlift of refugees from Cuba to the United States began.
1969 - The U.S. government held its first draft lottery since World War II.
1984 - A remote-controlled Boeing 720 jetliner was deliberately crashed into California's Mojave Desert to test an anti-flame fuel additive. The test proved to be disappointing.
1986 - U.S. President Ronald Reagan said he would welcome an investigation of the Iran-Contra affair if it were recommended by the Justice Department.
1987 - NASA announced four companies had been given contracts to help build a space station. The companies were Boeing Aerospace, G. E.'s Astro-Space Division, McDonnell Douglas Aeronautics, and Rocketdyne Division of Rockwell International.
1990 - Iraq accepted a U.S. offer to talk about resolving the Persian Gulf crisis.
1991 - Ukrainians voted overwhelmingly for independence from the Soviet Union.
1991 - Shiite Muslim kidnappers pledged to release American hostage Joseph Cicippio within 48 hours.
1992 - Russian President Boris Yeltsin survived an impeachment attempt by hard-liners at the opening of the Russian Congress.
1994 - The U.S. Senate gave final congressional approval to the 124-nation General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade.
1997 - Michael Carneal, 14 years old, fired upon a morning prayer group at Heath High School in West Paducah, KY. Three students were killed and five were wounded. Carneal pled guilty but insane and was sentenced to life in prison with no chance for parole for 25 years.
1998 - Exxon announced that it was buying Mobil for $73.7 billion creating the largest company in the world to date.

CIA Implanted Electrodes in Brains of Unsuspecting Soldiers, Suit Alleges
A group of military veterans are suing to get the CIA to come clean about allegedly implanting remote control devices in their brains.

Senate Passes Overhaul of Food Safety Regulations
The Senate on Tuesday passed a sweeping overhaul of the nation’s food-safety system, after recalls of tainted eggs, peanut butter and spinach that sickened thousands and led major food makers to join consumer advocates in demanding stronger government oversight.

List of US Senators Who Voted for S 510
Senate Bill S 510 - the "Food Safety Modernization Act" - was passed by the U.S. Senate today.

Top ten lies about Senate Bill 510
Here are the ten biggest lies that have been promoted about S.510 by the U.S. Congress, the food industry giants and the mainstream media...Read More...

DARVOCET, DARVON BANNED BY FDA AFTER INCIDENCES OF HEART ARRHYTHMIA
Darvocet, Darvon, and other drugs containing propoxyphene are banned by the Food and Drug Administration for causing deadly heart rhythms, according to WebMD.com.

During Food Safety Vote: Hot mic catches senator saying agenda is 'all rigged'
A hot mic left on during a Senate vote Tuesday morning on the Food Safety Act caught a senator complaining that process of setting the agenda during the lame-duck session is “rigged".

2 million lose jobless benefits as holidays arrive
Extended unemployment benefits for nearly 2 million Americans begin to run out Wednesday, cutting off a steady stream of income and guaranteeing a dismal holiday season for people already struggling with bills they cannot pay. Unless Congress changes its mind, benefits that had been extended up to 99 weeks will end this month.

Distemper Outbreaks in Dogs Call for Natural Prevention
Recent increases in outbreaks of distemper around the country are cause for alarm among dog owners. A dog that has been exposed to distemper will come down with the disease in less than five weeks.

Fiji Water reopens after agreeing to tax
The US-owned bottled water firm Fiji Water Wednesday reopened its operations in military-ruled Fiji, saying it would comply with a new tax law it had previously branded "untenable". Fiji Water shut down operations in the Pacific nation on Monday, saying the country was "increasingly unstable" and a risky place to do business. But in a statement released from the US it said it had restarted production of the brand, which has soared in popularity since celebrities such as Justin Timberlake and Mary J. Blige have been seen holding its palm-adorned bottles.

BofA Mortgage Morass Deepens After Employee Says Trustee Didn't Get Notes
Testimony by a Bank of America Corp. employee in a New Jersey personal bankruptcy case may give more ammunition to homeowners and investors in their legal battles over defaulted mortgages.

Canadian vaccine company receives $21 million grant from U.S. government
Medicago Inc. has received a $21 million grant from the U.S. government's Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) to build a 90,000-square-foot vaccine-production facility in North Carolina.

New US Army Rifles Use Radio-Controlled Smart Bullets to Be Used in Afghanistan
The U.S. army is to begin using a futuristic rifle that fires radio-controlled 'smart' bullets in Afghanistan for the first time, it has emerged.

Ron Paul to be appointed Committee Chair overseeing Federal Reserve
In what can only be described as a huge victory for the libertarian wing of the GOP, word is leaking out of Washington that Congressman Ron Paul of Texas is about to be appointed Chairman of the Financial Services subcommittee. The committee has near complete oversight of the Federal Reserve.

YouTube: The Day the Dollar Died

Case Shiller Confirms House Market Deterioration Accelerates
The Case Shiller Home Price index declined to 145.47% YoY compared to 146.64 previously.

Aussie bank's computer glitch leaves millions without money
A freak computer glitch at Australia's biggest bank froze cash machines and left millions of people struggling to access their money. National Australia Bank (NAB) said a corrupted file wiped out a huge number of transactions, including salary payments and transfers, and crashed some ATMs, angering many customers who were facing a weekend without money. This could easily happen here!!!

WikiLeaks Hit by Powerful Internet-Based Cyberattack
The WikiLeaks website said it came under a forceful Internet-based attack on Tuesday morning, making some of the content, including the controversial “Cablegate” documents, inaccessible for hours to users in the U.S. and Europe.

Exclusive: WikiLeaks Will Unveil Major Bank Scandal
First WikiLeaks spilled the guts of government. Next up: The private sector, starting with one major American bank. In an exclusive interview earlier this month, WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange told Forbes that his whistleblower site will release tens of thousands of documents from a major U.S. financial firm in early 2011. Assange wouldn't say exactly what date, what bank, or what documents, but he compared the coming release to the emails that emerged in the Enron trial, a comprehensive look at a corporation's bad behavior.

Stream of U.S. jobs flows overseas
For the six months that ended Sept. 30, workers at about 1,200 offices and plants nationwide were approved for federal Trade Adjustment Assistance. That's about 20 percent more approvals than in the same six-month period last year, according to the U.S. Labor Department. In addition, the most recent Commerce Department data show that employment at the foreign subsidiaries and affiliates of U.S. multinational firms grew by 729,000 in two years, to 11.9 million in 2008 from 2006. Over that same period, domestic employment by such firms slipped by 500,000 jobs, to 21.1 million. "The paradigm has shifted," said John Challenger, chief executive of outplacement and consulting firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas. "Most companies see the next phase or era of growth as global. ... That'll still create jobs here, just not on the scale when they were focusing on growth in the U.S." Comment: This is THE perfect case for imposting tariffs.

Sealed With a Kiss
What does modern North Korea, 1600 ~ 1853 Imperial Japan and the USA have in common?

Corporate Bond Sales Collapse, Corporates on Pace for Worst Monthly Returns Since October 2008
Bernanke's QE II policy did nothing for jobs, nothing for bank lending, nothing for the real economy and had negative benefits for small businesses.

WikiLeaks Next Target: 'A Big US Bank'
Honest distributor of leaked data or a clever PsyOps front, one can not deny that whatever it is, Wikileaks does share some unique information with the world (as to how it is interpreted is a different story).

WikiLeaks Founder Could Be Charged Under Espionage Act
Federal authorities are investigating whether WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange violated criminal laws in the group's release of government documents, including possible charges under the Espionage Act, sources familiar with the inquiry said Monday.

'Bank Run 2010' Aims to End 'Criminal, Corrupt' Financial System
In what may be the most subversive reaction yet to global outrage over the financial crisis, a European soccer star has inspired an international "bank run" protest aiming to collapse the global financial system.

Pot Raid at School Turns Up Tomatoes
Police last month raided an Española-area school looking for marijuana growing in a greenhouse, but all they found there were tomatoes.

Senate Votes Down Ban on Earmarks, 39-56
The Senate on Tuesday morning defeated a proposal from Sen. Tom Coburn (R-Okla.) to ban congressional earmarks.

Tempers Flare As Unemployment Benefits Near Expiration
Unemployment benefits for more than 100,000 people in both Kentucky and Indiana could run out in a matter of days if Congress doesn't act.

Russian Missiles Fuel US Worries
The U.S. believes Russia has moved short-range tactical nuclear warheads to facilities near North Atlantic Treaty Organization allies as recently as this spring, U.S. officials say, adding to questions in Congress about Russian compliance with long-standing pledges ahead of a possible vote on a new arms-control treaty.

Lights Out for Incandescents
Yes, this is not new news, but a reminder if you want to continue using incandescent light bulbs, now is the time to stock up. More nanny-state America is about to descend on us.

US Chases Foreign Leader's DNA, WikiLeaks Shows
Foreign potentates and diplomats beware: the United States wants your DNA.

Life After the Oil Crash
Judging from a lot of the comments, many people seem to think that the rest of the planet might not offer any good places for American former middle class persons to continue to pretend that they are successful. I don't find this particularly relevant; the life of a refugee is rarely comfortable.

High Levels of Natural Plant Antioxidant Alpha-Carotene are Associated With Fewer Deaths From All Causes
Picture this: a chemical is discovered that has amazing health-protecting powers.

Treat Stomach Viruses With Probiotics
The foundation of good health lives in the digestive system, where countless billions of beneficial microflora protect against harmful pathogens, assist in proper digestion, and generally guard the body against foreign invaders that cause disease.

Chinese Medicine Herbs Scientifically Proven to Help halt Cancer
A 1,800-year old Chinese herbal remedy for an upset stomach may boost the effectiveness of chemotherapy while reducing its side effects, according to a study conducted by researchers from Yale University and published in the journal Science Translational Medicine.

Corn-Based Ingredient Could Replace BPA in Plastics
Oil and grain conglomerate Archer Daniels Midland has announced that the chemical isosorbide could function as a replacement for the embattled petroleum derivative bisphenol A (BPA).

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