Since the 1996 introduction of genetically engineered crops — crops that are altered with inserted genetic material to exhibit a desired trait — U.S. agribusiness and policymakers have embraced biotechnology as a silver bullet for the food system. The industry promotes biotechnology as an environmentally responsible, profitable way for farmers to feed a growing global population. But despite all the hype, genetically engineered plants and animals do not perform better than their traditional counterparts, and they raise a slew of health, environmental and ethical concerns.
Genetically Engineered Food: An Overview
Reactors could fail during an earthquake, maker says
GE Hitachi Nuclear Energy said 35 reactors it built for utilities from New York to Washington may not shut down properly during an earthquake. The likelihood of failure is "low," the company said in an advisory to customers on additional actions to take.
GE Hitachi, which made First Energy Corp.'s Perry, Ohio, plant on Lake Erie, about 120 miles northwest of Pittsburgh, and Exelon Corp.'s Oyster Creek plant in New Jersey, is recommending testing to determine what level of friction would prevent control rods from fully inserting into the reactor core during an earthquake, according to filings with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
Environmentalists: Pipeline review biased
E-mails between lobbyists for a firm proposing a Canada-U.S. oil pipeline and the State Department reveal a sometimes-cozy relationship, environmentalists say.
The New York Times reports environmental groups say the e-mails show "complicity" between TransCanada, the pipeline company, and U.S. State Department officials charged with evaluating its environmental impact.
Romney: I Would ‘Absolutely’ Support State Constitutional Amendment To Define Life As Beginning At Conception
Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney (R) told Fox News host Mike Huckabee this weekend that he would support an amendment to his state’s constitution to define life as beginning at conception, which would outlaw abortion and potentially many forms of contraception as well.
Noting that the state supreme court forced the inclusion of abortion coverage in Romney’s universal health care law, the GOP presidential front-runner said the only way to undo the decision would be a constitutional amendment. Asked if he would support such a move, Romney replied, “absolutely”:
State for Sale: How a conservative multimillionaire has taken control in North Carolina
n the spring of 2010, the conservative political strategist Ed Gillespie flew from Washington, D.C., to Raleigh, North Carolina, to spend a day laying the groundwork for REDMAP, a new project aimed at engineering a Republican takeover of state legislatures.
Gillespie hoped to help his party get control of statehouses where congressional redistricting was pending, thereby leveraging victories in cheap local races into a means of shifting the balance of power in Washington.
Challenge to Masonic Control of Canadian Justice
Canadian courts stonewall a case demanding judges, lawyers and government officials reveal if they are Freemasons. The case claims Freemasons conspire against non-Masons.
The judicial manipulations of Freemasonry are now under review by the Supreme Court of Canada in a precedent setting case that could result in the banishment for Freemason lawyers and judges from Canada's courts and set an international legal precedent with far reaching implications.
This unique case, that is not reported in the Canadian media, arose when I was convicted of tax evasion and served 12 months in jail as a result of a selective prosecution intended to make me, in the words of a Canada taxation officer, "the poster girl for the de-tax movement in Canada".
Nazi Expert: 'I Have Proof Hitler Died In 1960s'
Although official history contends Hitler committed suicide with his newlywed wife, Eva Braun, on April, 30 1945 and their corpses were burned by others in the Berlin bunker, Abel Basti claims proof the story is a fabrication.
According to Basti's meticulous research, the leader of the Third Reich spent his last years as an art dealer and had facial plastic surgery to change his appearance.
"Basti wrote that A. Hitler, E. Braun, and Führer's closest aides flew from the burning Berlin to Spain...and then crossed the Atlantic Ocean by three submarines and reached Argentina.
Koch Brothers Flout Law Getting Richer With Secret Iran Sales
In May 2008, a unit of Koch Industries Inc., one of the world’s largest privately held companies, sent Ludmila Egorova-Farines, its newly hired compliance officer and ethics manager, to investigate the management of a subsidiary in Arles in southern France. In less than a week, she discovered that the company had paid bribes to win contracts.
“I uncovered the practices within a few days,” Egorova- Farines says. “They were not hidden at all.” She immediately notified her supervisors in the U.S. A week later, Wichita, Kansas-based Koch Industries dispatched an investigative team to look into her findings, Bloomberg Markets magazine reports in its November issue.
Gas Industrial Complex Series: Speech suppression against scientists becoming standard operating procedure
For more than a year the gas industry has been at war with those raising concerns about the hydraulic fracturing process. Hydraulic fracturing, or fracking as many know it, is a process where large quanties of a water/chemical mixture are injected at high pressures into the ground to get at previously inaccessible gas pockets.
For nearly a year the Checks and Balances Project has reported on several individuals whose reputations and careers have been put in jeopardy following studies that reflected poorly on the gas industry. Many of these individuals have gained national attention for their findings.
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