BP to Blame for Exxon Valdez: Environmental Disaster 25 Years Later | Interview with Greg Palast

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BP to Blame for Exxon Valdez: Environmental Disaster 25 Years Later | Interview with Greg Palast

Japanese architect honored for creating temporary housing for disaster victims

At Alternate Viewpoint, the privacy of our visitors is of extreme importance to us (See this article to learn more about Privacy Policies.). This privacy policy document outlines the types of personal information is received and collected by Alternate Viewpoint and how it is used.

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Japanese architect honored for creating temporary housing for disaster victims

Florida Sheriff: Stand Your Ground Law a "Recipe for Disaster"

A Florida sheriff says he bucked his fellow officers in not supporting the state’s controversial Stand Your Ground law because it’s a “recipe for disaster.”

“An individual certainly has the right to defend his life or anyone else’s life in his or her house and . . . in public as well,” Boward County Sheriff Scott Israel told “The Steve Malzberg Show” on Newsmax TV.

“I don’t believe that an individual should participate in the conflict or escalate the conflict if he or she can safely escape or safely get out of that controversial situation and not have a violent encounter,” he said Wednesday.

Last week, the Sunshine State’s law, which gives persons the right to use deadly force to defend themselves without needing to retreat, received unanimous support from the Florida Sheriffs Association.

While Israel was unable to attend the meeting where the vote was taken, he says he would have voted it down.

“If a prudent person would come to the conclusion that you can safely escape … then I believe it is incumbent upon you not to engage.

“We have accidental shootings, deputies and police officers throughout our nation get killed each year by their own handgun . . . It’s just a recipe for disaster,” he said.

“This is not the days of Tombstone, Arizona, the OK Corral. If you can’t safely escape and you’ve got to fight the fight, then I support that, but when we can safely escape . . . we need to do that.”

Israel says the case of George Zimmerman, in which the Neighborhood Watch volunteer was acquitted of murder in the death of Trayvon Martin, does not fall under Stand Your Ground.

“I don’t think Stand Your Ground was an issue there,” Israel said. “I believe it was more about race and was more about poor judgment.”

See “The Steve Malzberg Show” on Newsmax TV each weekday live by clicking here now.

© 2014 Newsmax. All rights reserved.

Newsmax – America

Florida Sheriff: Stand Your Ground Law a "Recipe for Disaster"

Rachel Maddow slams handling of West Virginia water crisis: ‘A disaster of the ongoing variety’

By Arturo Garcia
Thursday, February 6, 2014 0:32 EST

MSNBC host Rachel Maddow pointed out on Wednesday night that the issues surrounding West Virginia’s water supply have not abated, despite the assurances by Gov. Earl Ray Tomblin’s (D) administration that the problem would be resolved quickly.

“If that is where you left the story, if you figured, ‘Oh, water’s back on, that must be the end of it,’ then what you missed in this story was this situation going from really bad to even worse to ‘Oh my God, how is this happening?’,” Maddow said.

In the days since she first highlighted the toxic Jan. 9 spill at a Charleston facility — which left 300,000 residents without water — Maddow pointed out that not only have officials been forced to reverse course on at least one directive that the water was safe again, but that Freedom Industries, the company in charge of the plant, reported that a second chemical had leaked 19 days after the initial incident.

In the latest incident, Maddow pointed out that two schools reported “the return of the syrupy smell” emanating from their water pipes, forcing them to be flushed again. Meanwhile, residents suffering from liver or kidney illnesses or immune system difficulties have been advised not to drink the water.

Regardless, Tomblin and officials from the Center for Disease Control and the Environmental Protection Agency insisted to the public that the water is safe, leading to a scene at a press conference where local reporters pushed back against their claims.

“There’s a big issue in the community — there’s no faith,” one reporter was heard saying in a clip played by Maddow. “There’s no faith in the water. There’s no faith in the system. Clearly, one of the issues is, people would like their homes tested. They’re worried about the pipes.”

However, Tomblin initially balked at the prospect of having officials test water pipes for residents statewide, before apparently backtracking on that Wednesday afternoon.

“This has been worse than an accident in West Virginia,” Maddow charged. “This has been a disaster of the ongoing variety.”

Watch Maddow’s commentary, as aired Wednesday on MSNBC, below.

Arturo Garcia

Arturo R. García is the managing editor at Racialicious.com. He is based in San Diego, California and has written for both print and broadcast media, including contributions to GlobalComment.com, The Root and Comment Is Free. Follow him on Twitter at @ABoyNamedArt

The Raw Story

Rachel Maddow slams handling of West Virginia water crisis: ‘A disaster of the ongoing variety’

Pelosi acts as if she is powerless in disaster ‘Daily Show’ appearance

Pelosi acts as if she is powerless in disaster ‘Daily Show’ appearance
http://pixel.quantserve.com/pixel/p-89EKCgBk8MZdE.gif

By Jamie Weinstein | The Daily Caller

Judging from her interview on “The Daily Show” Thursday, you wouldn’t be able to tell that Nancy Pelosi is one of the most powerful figures in Washington.

Throughout her discussion with Jon Stewart, the House minority leader passed the buck for the government’s failures and acted as if she is completely removed from any position of responsibility.

“I don’t know,” Pelosi said when asked by Stewart why it was so hard for the government to “get a company to execute” something like building HealthCare.Gov “competently?”

“Well, let me get the House minority leader here, I can ask her, hold on,” Stewart said through laughter, mocking her answer. “Wait. What do you mean you don’t know? How do you not know?”

“It’s not my responsibility,” Pelosi said.

Read more at The Daily Caller. 

Here’s the video:

The Daily Show
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Please, feel free to “steal our stuff”! Just remember to credit Watchdog.org. Find out more

Watchdog.org

Read more about Pelosi acts as if she is powerless in disaster ‘Daily Show’ appearance and other interesting subjects concerning Internet Spying and Secrecy at TheDailyNewsReport.com

FEMA Preparing For Disaster Oct Urgent Warning DHS Building Up A Hugh Army Stockpiles Bullets Food

Featured Video: Conspiracy Theorist News and Updates –

Japanese Gangsters Hiring Homeless To Clean Up Fukushima Disaster Area

By Matt Staggs on December 30, 2013 in News

Pic: Sean Wilson (PD)

Organized crime controlling construction and waste disposal? That sounds familiar. Crime bosses in Japan are recruiting the nation’s homeless and paying them next to nothing to clean up the deadly remains of the Fukushima disaster.

Japan’s three biggest crime syndicates have established illegal recruitment under construction powerhouse Obayashi, a top contractor. Reuters speaks to one man paid by a gangster to collect potential homeless workers: Seiji Sasa would find men at a local train station and get them work through a number of smaller contractors that eventually reported to Obayashi (which has not been fingered in the scheme). The workers would be paid less than minimum wage after middlemen skimmed some and deductions were taken for food and housing; in other cases, those deductions were taken from their scant pay, leaving the workers with no money, or even in debt.

Keep reading at Newser.

disinformation

Japanese Gangsters Hiring Homeless To Clean Up Fukushima Disaster Area

VIDEO: Reports Place Philippines" Typhoon Death Toll at 10,000

Officials estimate at least 10,000 people are dead after Typhoon Haiyan’s destructive rampage through the Philippines.

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VIDEO: Reports Place Philippines" Typhoon Death Toll at 10,000

Good Grief… Government Awards Even MORE Contracts To Canadian Company That Produced HealthCare.Gov Disaster

A dog returns to its vomit.

Since the ObamaCare exchange website launched on Oct. 1, government officials have signed at least five different agreements with CGI totaling $ 7 million, according to USASpending.gov, a government website that lists government contracts. The contracts were for computer and software development at the Department of Health and Human Services, the Department of Commerce, and the Environmental Protection Agency.

One contract, for instance, was signed Oct. 19 by Department of Commerce officials that gives CGI Federal $ 266,164 to provide “IT and Telecom Systems Development” for the Patent Office.

I want to say I’m surprised here, but honestly I’m now only surprised if/when government doesn’t make such awful, irresponsible decisions. This sort of madness is now very normal in American government.

LibertyNEWS.com » Today’s News

Good Grief… Government Awards Even MORE Contracts To Canadian Company That Produced HealthCare.Gov Disaster

900,000 to lose health insurance in California as Obamacare disaster spreads

(NaturalNews) “If you like your plan, you can keep it.” These famous words, which were literally stated by Usurper Obama dozens of times during his Affordable Care Act hawking days, have proven to be a blatantly bald-faced lie. As reported by SFGate, some 900,000 Californians are expected to lose their existing healthcare coverage come December 31, adding to the millions of others from other states who will also reportedly lose their plans.

Peter Lee, Executive Director of “Covered California,” California’s Obamacare health insurance exchange, recently told the editorial board of the San Fransisco Chronicle that the individual market for health insurance is “changing dramatically.” Lee admitted, though sheepishly and with his own heavy dose of glossy rhetoric, that Usurper Obama essentially lied about people being able to keep their coverage and that many people will have to choose new plans.

When asked if the nearly 1 million Californians losing their coverage will have to pay more under Obamacare, Lee ‘fessed up that “some individuals will pay more.” But he was unable to delineate who would have to pay more, and how much more they would have to pay. Instead, he quickly changed the subject to Obamacare’s other alleged improvements over private insurance, which are all presumably lies just like the “if you like your plan, you can keep it” nonsense.

Usurper Obama’s rhetoric “may have been an inarticulate way of describing what the realities are,” Lee is quoted as saying, in what may be the grossest political understatement of the year.

Meanwhile, U.S. Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Kathleen Sebelius is taking the fall for the ongoing Obamacare nightmare. During a recent testimony before Congress, Sebelius told the listening crowd to blame her, not Obama, for all of Obamacare’s problems, which she openly admitted will only get worse. She actually referred to Obamacare’s “disruption of the existing health insurance market” as being “far broader than recent media coverage implied.”

But it gets worse. A recently unearthed report that was quietly filed in the Federal Register back in 2010 explains how the Obama administration knew all along that the illegal legislation would create massive chaos. In fact, the report explains that Obama officials were fully aware some three years ago that nearly one-third of all Americans would lose their coverage, which means that Usurper Obama has repeatedly lied under oath with his infamous statement about people keeping their existing coverage.

“It turns out that in an obscure report buried in a June 2010 edition of the Federal Register, administration officials predicted massive disruption of the private insurance market,” writes Avik Roy for Forbes. “As to the number of people facing cancellations, 51 percent of the employer-based market plus 53.5 percent of the non-group market (the middle of the administration’s range) amounts to 93 million Americans.”

So much for keeping your coverage if you like it. In reality, Obamacare will force tens of millions of Americans to either sacrifice their existing health coverage or pay far more for a rough equivalent. If ever there was a time to impeach the Usurper for his egregious offenses against the working and middle classes of America, this time is now.

“If private insurance was already unaffordable for many — which it was — then how could anyone with a brain imagine that adding layers of government bureaucracy, and subsidizing those who can’t afford insurance, could possibly do anything except cause premiums to go up drastically, and cause some insurers to drop out of providing individual coverage entirely?” asks one articulate commenter at SFGate.com.

Sources for this article include:

http://blog.sfgate.com

http://www.forbes.com

http://nymag.com

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900,000 to lose health insurance in California as Obamacare disaster spreads

Radiation-Resistant Swimwear and Underwear a Reality in Wake of Fukushima Disaster

IntelliHub – by Shepard Ambellas

JAPAN (INTELLIHUB) — After the Fukushima nuclear disaster, one can never be too safe, so recently Yamamoto has launched the world’s first radiation-resistant clothing line able to block both radioactive beta and gamma rays.

The outfit comes in 2-parts, an underwear section and a wetsuit like swimwear section as depicted in a recent “press release”.  

When a human is equipped with both sections the suit is quite effective at blocking radiation and will likely usher in a new wave of radiation-resistant clothing. Possibly even stylish trends.

Although the suit is designed for use in radioactive emergency situations as well and may possibly aid divers in future disaster scenarios.

News.CNet.com reported, “It consists of a top and bottom and is made of lead-based fabric. Weighing 7.5 pounds and probably not very comfortable, it will be priced at about $ 825 when it goes on sale, according to Yamamoto.

Meanwhile, a wet suit-style garment it showed off recently can apparently block nearly 100 percent of beta rays.

Weighing some 6.6 pounds, the swimsuit is made of rubber embedded with carbon to block the radiation. It’s priced at about $ 1,073 and is slated to go on sale in late November.”_[2] 

Sources:

[1] Fukushima nuclear power plant contaminated water measures shielding clothes was held a press announcement – Yamamoto-bio.com

[2] Japan unveils $ 800 radiation-proof underwear - News.CNet.com

Writer Bio:

Shepard Ambellas founder, director and editor-in-chief of Intellihub.com, is a researcher, investigative journalist, radio talk show host, activist, and filmmaker. Follow him onTwitter.

For media inquires, interviews, questions or suggestions for this author, email: shepard@intellihub.com or telephone: (347) 759-6075.

http://intellihub.com/2013/10/19/radiation-resistant-swimwear-underwear-reality-wake-fukushima-disaster/

Radiation-Resistant Swimwear and Underwear a Reality in Wake of Fukushima Disaster

Obamacare: Ongoing Disaster With No End In Sight

no comments

by Michael Thomas
October 31st, 2013
Updated 10/31/2013 at 10:15 am

Affordable Care Act has all the hallmarks of a ‘Lead Zeppelin’

No one has ever seen anything like it in the history of this nation! Nothing even comes close. We’re talking about the proverbial “Crash & Burn“, but on a truly epic scale.

Obamacare has proven to be the most disastrous piece of legislation in American history, bar none. And it just keeps getting worse. Yes, worse, even when you thought that they couldn’t “sink the Titanic a second time“.

How did we get here?

Let’s start by considering the following quote from Nancy Pelosi, a purported congresswoman from the Bay area. We say purported because a congressperson is supposed to represent his or her constituency. We wonder how she was doing that while uttering the following preposterous comment:

 

– Spoken by Nancy Pelosi in March 2010 when she was Speaker of the House

You can’t make this stuff up!

Can you imagine passing the most costly and expensive, far-reaching and expansive, cumbersome and unwieldy, untested and unproven, flawed and defective, massive and consequential piece of legislation in the wake of the greatest economic recession (really depression) since the founding of the republic? !

That’s exactly what these elected representatives did. In the face of the greatest public outcry ever seen from the body politic.

Look at the list of groups who have weighed in — vehemently — against this oppressive and ill-thought-out law.

Why do people hate Obamacare?

Why America still hates Obamacare

Why is ObamaCare so unpopular? 4 theories

Why are so many people against Obamacare?

5 Reasons America’s Young May Hate Obamacare

Why doctors hate ObamaCare

Labor Groups against ObamaCare

The Catholic Church vs. ‘ObamaCare’

Groups Rally Against The Affordable Care Act

9 Reasons Why Many Liberals Absolutely Hate Obamacare

9 Valid Concerns We Can All Have About Obamacare, Without Thinking It Will Literally Bring Hell On Earth

Obamacare: Worst Law Passed in Four Decades Must Be Stopped, Says Stockman

GOP Senators Rail Against Obamacare Before Obama Meeting

The Case Against Obamacare: Health Care Policy Series for the 112th Congress

This very limited list of Obamacare haters does not include the most significant demographic of all.

Can you imagine that, during this relentless economic downturn and jobless faux recovery, the average citizen is forced to pay for Obamacare even though he or she may be so destitute they cannot fund it out of pocket. Under threat of IRS penalty, these same folks then suffer the indignity of having to pay a fine when they cannot even buy enough food to eat or gas up the car!

Truly, tha ACA has proven to be a disaster on every front … without exception!

Here are some other sentiments expressed through the headlines of the US mainstream media which tell an even worse story, if that’s possible.

Consumer Reports to Readers: Avoid Obamacare

Obamacare Will Increase Health Spending By $ 7,450 For A Typical Family of Four [Updated] – Forbes

Obamacare Is Another Private Sector Rip-Off Of Americans

Obama under fire as Americans lose prior health plans

Report: Obama administration knew millions would be forced to change insurance

Democrat aide does about-face on Obamacare

Sebelius Thrust Into Firestorm on Exchanges

Wolf Blitzer Sides With GOP: Delay Obamacare For A Year

Obama blames ‘bad apple’ insurers for canceled coverage

But perhaps its greatest weaknesses are found in its implementation.

Here are the headlines coming in from around the country for the past month or so.  They come from both blue states and red states.  They appears in both liberal newspapers as well as conservative publications.   One really wonders how the ACA was allowed to get this point of shockingly incompetent implementation? To describe it as an ongoing train wreck would be a gross understatement, but we must call a train wreck a train wreck”.

Another Democrat Calls ObamaCare Implementation a “Real Disaster”

U.S. Obamacare data hub ‘experiencing an outage’, Connecticut says

Obamacare Website Failure Threatens Health Coverage For Millions Of Americans

Flaws in Obamacare, online exchange meltdown are disasters of Obama’s own making

Obamacare’s Website Is Crashing Because It Doesn’t Want You To Know How Costly Its Plans Are

When so many headlines graphically depict so much that is wrong with the catastrophic ‘Affordable’ Care Act, we wonder when those who have the power to remedy this situation will step up to do so?  There is no question that lacking the resolve to reverse the current Obamacare course will lead to every manner of disaster that is portrayed in the MUST SEE video shown at the following link.  It’s also quite entertaining!

8 Reasons ObamaCare is an Epic Disaster

State of the Nation 2013
October 31, 2013
admin@stateofthenation2012.com

Author’s Note:
There must be something very deep and profound behind Obamacare that is completely hidden from view, yes?
Obamacare: The Hidden Agenda

References:
Obama Flaunts The Most Flawed Legislation In US History

©2013 State of the Nation 2013
Permission is granted to post this essay as long as it is linked back to the following url:
http://stateofthenation2012.com/?p=2294

Tags: ACA, Affordable Care Act, featured, latest, obamacare, secondary

Category: Health, US

Storyleak

Obamacare: Ongoing Disaster With No End In Sight

Brit Hume: "Shutdown Is A Disaster For Republicans Because They Will Be Blamed"

BRIT HUME, FOX NEWS SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: Well, what you saw — you saw it in the interviews that you just did, is how the two sides view this. Senator Lee kept saying this is a bad law. And (inaudible) reasons why. Senator Kaine kept saying don’t shut down the government. In fact, it was only Senator Kaine who mentioned the shutdown, and that’s because the Democrats believe that shutdown is a disaster for the Republicans because they will be blamed. And if history is any guide, they will indeed be blamed. So that’s sort of where we are and neither side I think feels it has an incentive to move forward with a compromise. Now, it’s possible, Chris, with an 11th hour deal where you pass a continuing resolution that doesn’t have any of the contentious additions to it for a matter of several days to give us more time. But unless some compromise emerges that both sides seem likely to agree on, I don’t think that would do anything which would delay the inevitable. That’s where we are. Shutdown appears to be where we’re going.

RealClearPolitics Video Log

Brit Hume: "Shutdown Is A Disaster For Republicans Because They Will Be Blamed"

Brit Hume: "Shutdown Is A Disaster For Republicans Because They Will Be Blamed"

BRIT HUME, FOX NEWS SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: Well, what you saw — you saw it in the interviews that you just did, is how the two sides view this. Senator Lee kept saying this is a bad law. And (inaudible) reasons why. Senator Kaine kept saying don’t shut down the government. In fact, it was only Senator Kaine who mentioned the shutdown, and that’s because the Democrats believe that shutdown is a disaster for the Republicans because they will be blamed. And if history is any guide, they will indeed be blamed. So that’s sort of where we are and neither side I think feels it has an incentive to move forward with a compromise. Now, it’s possible, Chris, with an 11th hour deal where you pass a continuing resolution that doesn’t have any of the contentious additions to it for a matter of several days to give us more time. But unless some compromise emerges that both sides seem likely to agree on, I don’t think that would do anything which would delay the inevitable. That’s where we are. Shutdown appears to be where we’re going.

RealClearPolitics Video Log

Brit Hume: "Shutdown Is A Disaster For Republicans Because They Will Be Blamed"

The right’s toxic back-to-school disaster

On the Facebook memorial page for Ana Marquez-Greene, one of the young victims of the Newtown, Conn., shooting, her parents posted a picture of her and her older brother on the first day of school last year. The realities of Newtown and its potential to be repeated became apparent in Atlanta two weeks ago when a lone gunman entered a school with a bag full of guns and 500 rounds of ammunition, prepared to massacre a group of elementary school children.

Today marks the start of a new school year. As I reflect on a long and discouraging summer in progressive politics — capped off by another national non-commemoration of Labor Day, even as service workers strike all over the country — I am reminded of the kinds of volatile physical and intellectual conditions that shape public school systems in urban areas throughout the country.

In Atlanta, school clerk Antoinette Tuff found herself face-to-face with the gunman, 20-year old Michael Hill who came dangerously close to re-creating Newtown in a Southern, urban, predominantly black setting. For nearly an hour, Tuff used her Christian faith to create a context of radical empathy with the mentally ill Hill, who confessed that he had not taken his meds. Tuff convinced Hill to lay down his weapons and surrender to police, but not before he exchanged a round of gunfire with them. Her act of heroism points to the mostly invisible but incredibly impactful labor that school service personnel perform for students on a daily basis.

Still, her heroism is no substitute for a comprehensive gun control policy in this country. The Tuff-Hill encounter came on the heels of Atlanta Public Schools opting to spend $ 10.1 million to hire and train 73 armed school resource officers. The first wave of “resource” officers began this year. Such solutions are problematic because they cast the students as a threat, rather than dealing with the broader culture of guns that embolden people like Michael Hill and Adam Lanza.

By contrast, in Philadelphia, school officials have laid off nearly 4,000 teachers, staff, counselors and classroom aides, in addition to closing 23 public schools. Although they could not find $ 304 million to close the budget shortfall, city officials were able to find $ 400 million to build a new prison. Chicago students also started school with more than 50 school closings.

---

---

In Louisiana, the federal government filed suit against the state for issuing school vouchers to subsidize students attending segregated private schools in districts that fall under federal desegregation statutes. Gov. Bobby Jindal has been incensed at the federal resistance to using public funds to subsidize racially segregated education.

In higher education, states continue to slash the budgets for public colleges and universities in places like Alabama, California and New Jersey, while passing that cost along to young college students, who will be saddled with huge amounts of student loan debt upon graduation. Though I have the fortune of working in a university with a strong union that advocates for all faculty, whether tenure track or not, many of my colleagues at other institutions do not have access to unions. Universities are increasingly relying on adjunct and non-tenure track labor to staff ever-expanding college classrooms. It is nearly impossible to make a living as a full-time adjunct professor, when you are frequently only paid between $ 3,000 and $ 5,000 per course, per semester. Moreover, transient adjunct labor creates challenges for departments and programs, particularly in progressive and interdisciplinary fields, like ethnic studies and gender studies.

The defunding of public secondary schools significantly reduces the level of ability of the students who step into my classroom. Although they are generally enthusiastic, students are often poor writers and poor critical thinkers. Many students have a lack of curiosity, which has been disciplined away through years of languishing in poor public schools that function more like prisons than places of learning. Students have often been actively discouraged from asking questions, formulating opinions and taking intellectual risks. Igniting a fire in students, creating an environment that invites them to ask questions, challenging a system that wants to turn them into mindless laborers rather than engaged citizens, is part of the invisible labor that every good teacher does. Good teachers encourage students to think their way in, question their way through, and write their way out.

These are the moments I live for in teaching. It is the reason that I have structured my entire life around being both a student and an educator. Yet, I know as an educator, that if we do not begin to address the structural threats to public education in primary and secondary school, the university will suffer.  So will the nation.

Access to a quality public education at all levels has been a key and consistent pathway into the middle class, especially for African-Americans. Unfortunately, the increasing national disdain for all things “public” is increasingly becoming a barrier for people of color. Public education offers options in the midst of urban contexts that threaten to steal possibility. Universities also participate in this project by creating the ethical and intellectual context for helping the nation to be its best self.

When all of these institutions are under assault, when opportunities decline, when self-actualization cannot be realized through education, work and family, then war-mongering and imperial behaviors become an increasingly attractive option for regaining power, not only in foreign contexts, but also in domestic ones. The creation of an underskilled, uneducated, anti-intellectual citizenry is a threat to our very existence, and we should not stand by and watch it happen.

Salon.com

The right’s toxic back-to-school disaster

Italian bus crash kills 38; second European transport disaster in five days

MONTEFORTE IRPINO, Italy (Reuters) – Thirty-eight people were killed and 10 injured when a bus plunged off a viaduct in southern Italy in one of the country’s worst road accidents.

Reuters: Top News

Italian bus crash kills 38; second European transport disaster in five days

Italian bus crash kills 38; second European transport disaster in five days

ROME | Sun Jul 28, 2013 8:11pm EDT

ROME (Reuters) – At least 36 people died after a coach plunged more than 15 meters (49 feet) off a viaduct in southern Italy on Sunday, a spokesman for the fire service said.

Eleven people were pulled out alive from the stricken coach and taken to hospital, some with serious injuries, the spokesman said.

Rescue operations are ongoing, he said.

The coach was carrying about 48 people back to Naples after visiting Telese Terme in the southern region of Campania, Italian daily La Repubblica reported.

“The situation is dramatic,” the spokesman for the fire service said, adding that several other vehicles were also involved in the accident.

(Reporting By Catherine Hornby; Editing by Alistair Lyon, Philip Barbara and Stacey Joyce)

Reuters: Top News

Italian bus crash kills 38; second European transport disaster in five days

Quebec town takes small steps toward normalcy after train disaster

LAC-MEGANTIC, Quebec, July 12 – Shell-shocked residents of Lac-Megantic in Quebec took a small step toward normalcy on Friday after homes and businesses reopened just yards away from the lakeside town’s devastated center.

Reuters: Top News

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Walmart Senior VP Asks "Where are All the Customers? And Where’s Their Money?"; "February MTD Sales a Total Disaster"

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Here’s an interesting story from Friday regarding sales at Walmart that just came my way: Wal-Mart Executives Sweat Slow February Start in E-Mails.

Wal-Mart Stores Inc. had the worst sales start to a month in seven years as payroll-tax increases hit shoppers already battling a slow economy, according to internal e-mails obtained by Bloomberg News.

“In case you haven’t seen a sales report these days, February MTD sales are a total disaster,” Jerry Murray, Wal-Mart’s vice president of finance and logistics, said in a Feb. 12 e-mail to other executives, referring to month-to-date sales. “The worst start to a month I have seen in my ~7 years with the company”

Murray’s comments about February sales follow disappointing results from January, a month that Cameron Geiger, senior vice president of Wal-Mart U.S. Replenishment, said he was relieved to see end, according to a separate internal e-mail obtained by Bloomberg News.

“Have you ever had one of those weeks where your best-prepared plans weren’t good enough to accomplish everything you set out to do?” Geiger asked in a Feb. 1 e-mail to executives. “Well, we just had one of those weeks here at Walmart U.S. Where are all the customers? And where’s their money?”

Murray declined to comment and Geiger didn’t return telephone and e-mail messages seeking comment.

Both executives attributed the performance to increased payroll taxes and delayed tax returns, which Geiger called “a potent one-two punch,” according to the e-mails.

Mike “Mish” Shedlock
http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com

Mike “Mish” Shedlock is a registered investment advisor representative for SitkaPacific Capital Management. Sitka Pacific is an asset management firm whose goal is strong performance and low volatility, regardless of market direction. Visit http://www.sitkapacific.com/account_management.html to learn more about wealth management and capital preservation strategies of Sitka Pacific.

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Walmart Senior VP Asks "Where are All the Customers? And Where’s Their Money?"; "February MTD Sales a Total Disaster"