Topic: WE'RE STUFFED!!!

[Shamaya]

Salmonella> Salmonella Outbreak Investigations > Investigation of Outbreak of Infections Caused by Salmonella Saintpaul
Investigation of Outbreak of Infections Caused by Salmonella Saintpaul


Information updated June 12, 2008

Click Here for Advice to Consumers

CDC is collaborating with public health officials in many states, the Indian Health Service, and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to investigate an ongoing multi-state outbreak of human Salmonella serotype Saintpaul infections. An epidemiologic investigation comparing foods eaten by ill and well persons has identified consumption of raw tomatoes as the likely source of the illnesses. The specific type and source of tomatoes is under investigation; however, the data suggest that illnesses are linked to consumption raw red plum, red Roma, and round red tomatoes, and products containing these raw tomatoes.

Since April, 228 persons infected with Salmonella Saintpaul with the same genetic fingerprint have been identified in 23 states: Arizona (19 persons), California (2), Colorado (1), Connecticut (1), Florida (1), Georgia (7), Idaho (3), Illinois (29), Indiana (7), Kansas (5), Michigan (2), Missouri (2), New Mexico (55), New York (1), Oklahoma (3), Oregon (3), Tennessee (3), Texas (68), Utah (2), Virginia (9), Vermont (1), Washington (1), and Wisconsin (3). These were identified because clinical laboratories in all states send Salmonella strains from ill persons to their State public health laboratory for characterization. Among the 161 persons with information available, illnesses began between April 10 and June 1, 2008. Patients range in age from 1 to 88 years; 47% are female. At least 25 persons were hospitalized. No deaths have been officially attributed to this outbreak. However, a man in his sixties who died in Texas from cancer had an infection with the outbreak strain of Salmonella Saintpaul at the time of his death. The infection may have contributed to his death.

Only 3 persons infected with this strain of Salmonella Saintpaul were identified in the country during the same period in 2007. The previous rarity of this strain and the distribution of illnesses in all U.S. regions suggest that the implicated tomatoes are distributed throughout much of the country. Because of inherent delays in reporting and because many persons with Salmonella illness do not have a stool specimen tested, it is likely many more illnesses have occurred than those reported. Some of these unreported illnesses may be in states that are not on today’s map.

Clinical features of Salmonella Infection
Most persons infected with Salmonella develop diarrhea, fever, and abdominal cramps 12–72 hours after infection. Infection is usually diagnosed by culture of a stool sample. The illness usually lasts 4 – 7 days. Although most people recover without treatment, severe infections may occur. Infants, elderly persons, and those with impaired immune systems are more likely than others to develop severe illness. When severe infection occurs, Salmonella may spread from the intestines to the bloodstream and then to other body sites, and can cause death. In these severe cases, antibiotic treatment may be necessary.

Advice to consumers
At this time, FDA is advising U.S. consumers to limit their tomato consumption to those that are not the likely source of this outbreak. These include cherry tomatoes; grape tomatoes; tomatoes sold with the vine still attached; tomatoes grown at home; and red plum, red Roma, and round red tomatoes from specific sources listed at: http://www.fda.gov/oc/opacom/hottopics/tomatoes.html*. Consumers should be aware that raw tomatoes are often used in the preparation of fresh salsa, guacamole, and pico de gallo, are part of fillings for tortillas, and are used in many other dishes.

Customers everywhere are advised to:

Refrigerate within 2 hours or discard cut, peeled, or cooked tomatoes.
Avoid purchasing bruised or damaged tomatoes and discard any that appear spoiled.
Thoroughly wash all tomatoes under running water.
Keep tomatoes that will be consumed raw separate from raw meats, raw seafood, and raw produce items.
Wash cutting boards, dishes, utensils, and counter tops with hot water and soap when switching between types of food products.
FDA recommends that U.S. retail outlets, restaurants, and food service operators offer only fresh and fresh cut red plum, red Roma, and round red tomatoes and food products made from these tomatoes from specific sources listed at: http://www.fda.gov/oc/opacom/hottopics/tomatoes.html#retailers*. Cherry tomatoes, grape tomatoes, and tomatoes sold with the vine still attached from any source may be offered.

FDA information on this investigation can be found at: http://www.fda.gov/oc/opacom/hottopics/tomatoes.html*

[Michael]

didn't i say, watch out for those tomatoes

[tangerine dream]

didn't i say, watch out for those tomatoes

LOL
You did!
 

[erik]

Tomato

[Michael]

I was talking to a man from Iran a few days ago - a very refined person with a distinctly honest and genuine mien, very proud of his culture's heritage.

But actually, things look grim. I can't see it not happening, as I said some time back - they won't let it go by, and I feel they are ready to strike. Iran has been bothering the powers for some time, and these people don't muck around.

We in for rough ride.

[erik]

Estonian tomato

[nichi]

I was talking to a man from Iran a few days ago - a very refined person with a distinctly honest and genuine mien, very proud of his culture's heritage.

But actually, things look grim. I can't see it not happening, as I said some time back - they won't let it go by, and I feel they are ready to strike. Iran has been bothering the powers for some time, and these people don't muck around.

We in for rough ride.

On top of it, the us president has written in one of those edicts ... that in the event of a new war, elections (or inaugurations) may be postponed. A man with an agenda he is, and I suspect its name is Iran.

To boot, he's proposing drilling now, now that gas is up to 4.50 a gallon and rising, in offshore and arctic places about which had been voted 'no' and protested prior to 9/11.

A conspiracy theorist could easily present him as a man-with-a-plan. Could it be so, that an elected president would bring war and choke out the country's economy, all to carry out some plan he had all along? Needless to say, profits are tremendous in the oil biz.

[xero]

9/11 was a orchestrated Pearl Harbouring of conspirators.

[nichi]

Ohio board votes to ax teacher accused of branding
By DOUG WHITEMAN
Associated Press Writer

In this photo released by Mount Vernon, Ohio, City Schools as a part of independent investigation report, a Mount Vernon student with a branded cross on his arm is shown. A public school teacher taught creationism in his science class and used a device to burn the image of a cross on students' arms, according to a report by independent investigators. Mount Vernon Middle School teacher John Freshwater was insubordinate in failing to remove a Bible and other religious materials from his classroom and continued to preach his Christian beliefs despite complaints by other teachers and administrators, the report also said.


Mount Vernon City Schools
In this photo released by Mount Vernon, Ohio, City Schools as a part of independent investigation report, a Mount Vernon student with a branded cross on his arm is shown. A public school teacher taught creationism in his science class and used a device to burn the image of a cross on students' arms, according to a report by independent investigators. Mount Vernon Middle School teacher John Freshwater was insubordinate in failing to remove a Bible and other religious materials from his classroom and continued to preach his Christian beliefs despite complaints by other teachers and administrators, the report also said.

The school board of a small central Ohio community voted unanimously Friday to fire a teacher accused of preaching his Christian beliefs despite staff complaints and using a device to burn the image of a cross on students' arms.

School board members voted 5-0 to fire Mount Vernon Middle School science teacher John Freshwater. Board attorney David Millstone said Freshwater is entitled to a hearing to challenge the dismissal.

Freshwater denies wrongdoing and will request such a hearing, the teacher's attorney, Kelly Hamilton, told the Mount Vernon News.

School board members met a day after the consulting firm H.R. On Call Inc. released its report on the teacher's case.

The report came a week after a family filed a lawsuit in U.S. District Court in Columbus against Freshwater and the school district, saying Freshwater burned a cross on a child's arm that remained for three or four weeks.

Freshwater's friend Dave Daubenmire defended him.

"With the exception of the cross-burning episode. ... I believe John Freshwater is teaching the values of the parents in the Mount Vernon school district," he told The Columbus Dispatch for a story published Friday.

Several students interviewed by investigators described Freshwater, who has been employed by the school district located 40 miles northeast of Columbus for 21 years, as a great guy and their favorite teacher.

But Lynda Weston, the district's director of teaching and learning, told investigators that she has dealt with complaints about Freshwater for much of her 11-year term at the district, the report said.

A former superintendent, Jeff Maley, said he tried to find another position for Freshwater but couldn't because he was certified only in science, the report said.

Freshwater used a science tool known as a high-frequency generator to burn images of a cross on students' arms in December, the report said. Freshwater told investigators he simply was trying to demonstrate the device on several students and described the images as an "X," not a cross. But pictures show a cross, the report said.

Other findings show that Freshwater taught that carbon dating was unreliable to argue against evolution.
 

Teacher accused of burning cross on student's arm
   
From Nkechi Nneji, CNN

(CNN) -- School administrators in Ohio voted Friday to begin the process of firing a middle school teacher accused of burning a cross into a student's arm and refusing to keep his religious beliefs out of the classroom.
A middle school student in Ohio says his teacher branded a cross on his arm.

The Mount Vernon School Board passed a resolution to terminate the employment of John Freshwater, an eighth-grade science teacher for the past 21 years.

Freshwater, according to an independent report, used an electrostatic device to mark a cross on the arm of one of his students, causing pain to the student the night of the incident and leaving a mark that lasted for approximately three weeks.

According to the Ohio Department of Education, the student's family has filed a lawsuit.

Freshwater was also reprimanded several times for refusing to move his Bible from his classroom desk and teaching creationism alongside evolution, according to the 15-page independent report. The report also cites evidence that Mr. Freshwater told his students that "science is wrong because the Bible states that homosexuality is a sin and so anyone who is gay chooses to be gay and is therefore a sinner."

The Board of Education of the Mount Vernon City School District met in special session Friday to address the case.

Freshwater has the option to contest the process by requesting a formal hearing before the Board of Education. Neither Freshwater nor his attorney could be reached by CNN for comment.

[nichi]

From Three Days of the Condor


Higgins: It's simple economics. Today it's oil, right? In ten or fifteen years, food. Plutonium. Maybe even sooner. Now, what do you think the people are gonna want us to do then?

Joe Turner: Ask them?

Higgins: Not now - then! Ask 'em when they're running out. Ask 'em when there's no heat in their homes and they're cold. Ask 'em when their engines stop. Ask 'em when people who have never known hunger start going hungry. You wanna know something? They won't want us to ask 'em. They'll just want us to get it for 'em!

WASHINGTON — President Bush urged Congress on Wednesday to end a federal ban on offshore oil drilling and open a portion of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge for oil exploration, asserting that those steps and others would lower gasoline prices and “strengthen our national security.”
Skip to next paragraph

Bush’s father signed a presidential executive order in 1990 banning coastal oil exploration, and Mr. Bush’s brother Jeb was an outspoken opponent of offshore drilling when he was governor of Florida.

Now, though, President Bush is considering retracting his father’s order. Although the chief White House spokeswoman, Dana Perino, said Mr. Bush “is not taking any executive action” on Wednesday, two people outside the White House said such a move was under serious consideration, and a senior White House official did not dispute their account.

“This is a strong point of discussion inside the White House,” said Representative John E. Peterson, a Pennsylvania Republican who has been asking Mr. Bush for years to rescind his father’s action. Mr. Peterson is also leading an effort in Congress to repeal its ban.

Offshore drilling is blocked by two bans, one imposed by Congress and the other by the first President Bush’s executive order. Asked why the current President Bush did not act at once to lift the order imposed by his father, Keith Hennessey, the director of the president’s economic council, told White House reporters, “He thinks that probably the most productive way to work with this Congress is to try to do it in tandem.”

But the Institute for Energy Research, a nonprofit research organization that promotes “free-market energy and environmental policy,” has called for Mr. Bush to rescind the executive order and chided him on Wednesday for not doing so. “The president has chosen to speak softly when American consumers need him to wield a big stick,” the group’s president, Thomas J. Pyle, said in a statement on Wednesday. “This was a missed opportunity.”

Later, a White House spokesman, Tony Fratto, defended Mr. Bush’s refusal so far to lift the executive order. “The President turning his key alone isn’t going to do it,” Mr. Fratto said. “But he made perfectly clear that he will turn that key, that he will lift, or that he will announce the withdrawal if Congress can take action.”

With oil selling for more than $130 a barrel in the commodity markets and no end in sight to high gasoline prices, Mr. Bush, a former oilman from Texas who came into office vowing to address an impending energy shortage, does not want to end his presidency in the midst of an energy crisis.

No one knows for certain how much oil is in the moratorium area. The federal Energy Information Administration estimates that roughly 75 billion barrels of oil in the United States may be found in all areas of the country that are now off limits for development, and that 21 percent of this oil — or about 16 billion barrels — is covered by the offshore moratorium.

Mr. Bush’s new stance on offshore drilling will inject him squarely into the presidential campaign, by putting the full weight of the White House behind Mr. McCain at a time when the candidate is trying to demonstrate presidential stature. But it will also expose Mr. McCain to accusations from Democrats that a McCain presidency would be akin to a Bush third term.

At the same time, the move will put the onus on Democrats, many of whom have long been staunchly opposed to offshore drilling. And it is likely to exacerbate the 30-year-old standoff in Washington over whether domestic drilling or conservation is the way to end American dependence on foreign oil.

That debate has grown especially acute in recent weeks, with the White House in “I told you so” mode. In a speech to the United States Chamber of Commerce last week, Vice President Dick Cheney said, “We should hear no more complaining” from opponents of domestic drilling, whom he called “part of the problem.”

Senator Reid responded by calling the vice president “Oil Man Cheney,” saying: “So all that Cheney can talk about, the Oil Man Cheney can talk about, is drilling, drilling, drilling. But there is not enough oil in America to make that the salvation to our problems.”

After hearing of Mr. Bush’s proposal on Tuesday night, Mr. Reid affirmed his opposition, saying, “The Energy Information Administration says that even if we open the coasts to oil drilling that won’t have a significant impact on prices.”

After President Bush’s remarks on Wednesday, Mr. Reid said: “The facts are clear. Oil companies have already had ample opportunity to increase supply, but they have sat on their hands. They aren’t even using more than half of the public lands they already have leased for drilling. And despite the huge tax breaks President Bush and Republican Congresses have given oil and gas companies to invest in refineries, domestic production has actually dropped.” And the House speaker, Nancy Pelosi, said, “The president’s proposal sounds like another page from the administration’s energy policy that was literally written by the oil industry: give away more public resources to the very same oil companies that are sitting on 68 million acres of federal lands they’ve already leased.”

The Congressional moratorium was first enacted in 1982, and has been renewed every year since. It prohibits oil and gas leasing on most of the outer continental shelf, 3 miles to 200 miles offshore. Since 1990, it has been supplemented by the first President Bush’s executive order, which directed the Interior Department until 2000 not to conduct offshore leasing or pre-leasing activity in areas covered by the legislative ban. In 1998, President Bill Clinton extended the offshore leasing prohibition until 2012. One person familiar with the deliberations inside the White House said that Mr. Bush was briefed on Tuesday by his top aides, including Joshua B. Bolten, the chief of staff, and that the aides recommended lifting the executive order.

On Capitol Hill, Republicans are proposing several bills to undo the ban. They differ on how close to shore drilling could begin, but all would give states a veto on oil exploration within 100 miles of their coastlines. Ms. Perino said Mr. Bush believed Congress should pass one of the bills, so the federal government and the states could work together to share revenues from exploration.

The issue does not fall entirely along party lines. One prominent Republican opponent of drilling, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger of California, does not intend to change his stance, a spokesman said Tuesday. In Houston, meanwhile, Mr. McCain, who has long been at odds with Mr. Bush on another environmental issue, climate change, tried to distance himself from the White House.

In a speech to oil industry executives and business and community leaders, the senator implicitly criticized Mr. Cheney, who in 2001 dismissed conservation as a “personal virtue.” Mr. McCain said the next president would have to break with the policies of the past, adding, “In the face of climate change and other serious challenges, energy conservation is no longer just a moral luxury or a personal virtue.”

On the issue of offshore drilling, Douglas Holtz-Eakin, Mr. McCain’s domestic policy adviser, said the senator had supported the moratorium until a compromise was reached in late 2006 between the federal government and Gulf Coast states that permitted oil and gas exploration in a vast area mostly 100 miles from shore.

“Prior to that, he favored the moratorium as a way to support states’ opposition to exploration,” Mr. Holtz-Eakin said.

But Mr. Obama, campaigning in Michigan, swiftly pointed out that Mr. McCain had supported the moratorium during his 2000 presidential run. “His decision to completely change his position and tell a group of Houston oil executives exactly what they wanted to hear today was the same Washington politics that has prevented us from achieving energy independence for decades,” Mr. Obama said in a statement.

Idea of Offshore Drilling Seems to Be Spreading

Article Tools Sponsored By
By DAMIEN CAVE
Published: June 19, 2008

MIAMI — Gov. Charlie Crist stepped on the third rail of Florida politics this week when he abandoned his opposition to drilling offshore for oil and natural gas. But surprise, surprise, he did not die.
His call for cautious reconsideration, in fact, is spreading.

In the Capitol and along the coast here minds once closed to offshore drilling have been cracked open by the prospects of safer drilling technology and an awareness that dependency on foreign oil has heavy costs.

“It’s something we need to do because of the bigger picture,” said State Senator Burt L. Saunders, chairman of the Senate Environmental Preservation and Conservation Committee. “We need more energy independence.”

Governor Crist’s position appears to line up with Senator John McCain’s call for an end to the federal moratorium that prevents coastal drilling. With President Bush now in support, Democrats say the proposal is a gimmick that will blow back against the Republicans.

But the public debate over drilling suggests that the political landscape has changed.

Several elected and appointed Florida Republicans have publicly shifted their positions in the past week. Senator Mel Martinez said Tuesday that he would consider drilling as long as it is at least 50 miles off the coast. Nicki Grossman, vice chairwoman of the Florida Tourism Commission, said Wednesday that the high price of gasoline might be more of a threat than drilling.

Mr. Saunders, a Republican from Naples, said his opinion started to change after oil rigs near Louisiana survived Hurricane Katrina without major spills that reached the shore.

He did not mention that Hurricanes Katrina and Rita did cause 124 smaller spills that released more than 700,000 gallons of petroleum products, according to Coast Guard estimates.

But, he said, the cost-benefit analysis has changed because current proposals would push drilling up to 150 miles offshore.

“Initially, we were talking about drilling very close to the Florida coastline and we were talking about technology that had not necessarily been proven,” he said. “Not anymore.”

Most of the discussion about Florida drilling has centered on the Gulf Coast. The National Petroleum Council estimates that beneath the Gulf of Mexico’s eastern edge, there might be 36.7 trillion cubic feet of natural gas and 5.2 billion barrels of oil — numbers that would require extensive exploration to verify.

In the area’s beach communities, opposition to drilling has been a constant. Environmentalists have long predicted a catastrophe, with ruined beaches and marine ecosystems.

But some people wonder whether the conventional wisdom has become outdated. Dan Rowe, president of the Panama City Beach Convention and Visitors bureau, said, “You can no longer just dismiss it out of hand” because gasoline prices and drilling technology have changed.

In Mexico City Beach, a three-mile strip of sand and water with about 1,200 residents, some were unsure. “Before, it didn’t seem like the way to go,” said Jason Adams, 38, the owner of Marquardt’s Marina. “Now I have to think about it a little bit more.”

Mr. Adams said he knew it would take years for drilling to produce results.

A 2007 Department of Energy study found that access to coastal energy deposits would not add to domestic crude oil and natural gas production before 2030 and that the impact on prices would be “insignificant.”

But Mr. Adams said he was studying the issue because when it comes to energy “we need to be more independent.”

Similar views could be heard in California, where 33 offshore oil operations are part of the daily vista for residents of the south and south-central coast.

“I work at the beach, I wouldn’t want anything to jeopardize that,” said Pat Kennedy, 23, a lifeguard on the Buena Ventura State Beach south of Santa Barbara. But, he said, “we probably need to drill here to be less dependent on foreign countries.”

The shifting opinions may reset if oil prices drop. Ms. Grossman at the Florida Tourism Commission said many business owners still fear that drilling will ruin the state’s beaches. “Now, the only possible mitigating factor is that we’re also afraid of losing business because of gas prices,” she said.

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger of California and some other Republicans opposed to drilling have also held their ground. Ray Sansom, who is in line to become speaker of the Florida House, representing the coastal town of Destin, said Wednesday that he still opposes drilling. And former Gov. Jeb Bush, in an e-mail message, said that while he supported Mr. Bush’s efforts to develop domestic energy sources, “this does not diminish the long-term need to conserve and develop alternative sources of energy.”

Democrats, meanwhile, have pounced. The Florida Democratic Party said Tuesday that Governor Crist switched sides because he is “desperate to be Mr. McCain’s running mate.”

Then on Wednesday the state’s Democratic delegation in Congress released a statement accusing Republicans of pandering to the public’s frustration with gasoline prices and selling out to “big oil.”

Representative Kathy Castor, a Democrat from Tampa, said drilling could become a reality because the Republicans are breaking ranks.

“It used to be a unified front,” she said. “What’s particularly frustrating is there is now a crack in the armor.”

Felicity Barringer contributed reporting from San Francisco, and Christine Jordan Sexton from Tallahassee, Fla.

[nichi]

  UN chief: Strike on Iran would cause conflagration in Mideast
The Associated Press

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates: The U.N. nuclear watchdog chief warned in comments aired Saturday that any military strike on Iran could turn the Mideast to a "ball of fire" and lead Iran to a more-aggressive stance on its controversial nuclear program.

The comments by Mohamed ElBaradei, head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, came in an interview with an Arab television station aired Saturday, a day after U.S. officials said they believed recent large Israeli military exercises may have been meant to show Israel's ability to hit Iran's nuclear sites.

"In my opinion, a military strike will be the worst... it will turn the Middle East to a ball of fire," ElBaradei said on Al-Arabiya television. It also could prompt Iran to press even harder to seek a nuclear program, and force him to resign, he said.

Iran on Saturday also criticized the Israeli exercises. The official IRNA news agency quoted a government spokesman as saying that the exercises demonstrate Israel "jeopardizes global peace and security."

Israel sent warplanes and other aircraft on a major exercise in the Eastern Mediterranean earlier this month, U.S. military officials said Friday.

Israel's military refused to confirm or deny that the maneuvers were practice for a strike in Iran, saying only that it regularly trains for various missions to counter threats to the country.

But the exercise the first week of June may have been meant as a show of force as well as a practice on skills needed to execute a long-range strike mission, one U.S. official said, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak on the record on the matter.

The New York Times quoted officials on Friday as saying that more than 100 Israeli F-16s and F-15s staged the maneuver, flying more than 900 miles, roughly the distance from Israel to Iran's Natanz nuclear enrichment facility, and that the exercise included refueling tankers and helicopters capable of rescuing downed pilots.

Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has said he prefers that Iran's nuclear ambitions be halted by diplomatic means, but has pointedly declined to rule out military action.

The United States also says it is seeking a peaceful, diplomatic resolution to the threat the West sees from Iran's nuclear program, although U.S. officials also have refused to take the threat of military action off the table.

U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice refused to comment on the Israeli maneuvers in an interview with National Public Radio aired Saturday but said: "We are committed to a diplomatic course."

Russia's foreign minister warned Friday against the use of force on Iran, saying there is no proof it is trying to build nuclear weapons with the a program, which Tehran says is for generating power.

One Israeli lawmaker on Saturday urged caution, saying that the world should first do more to toughen and broaden the sanctions against Iran to persuade its leaders to halt the nuclear program.

Tzahi Hanegbi, chairman of the powerful Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee in Israel's parliament, suggested steps including banning Iranian planes, ships and sports delegations from entering Western countries.

"There's a long way to go before diplomatic efforts are exhausted," Hanegbi said. "The sanctions aren't very strong, they are very shallow, there's a lot of room for enhancing them."

In an interview with the German magazine Der Spiegel published Wednesday, Olmert said the current international sanctions against Iran would probably not succeed alone, saying there were "many things that can be done economically, politically, diplomatically and militarily."

Asked if Israel was capable of taking military action against Iran, Olmert said, "Israel always has to be in a position to defend itself against any adversary and against any threat of any kind."

Meanwhile, reaction to the Israeli exercises rippled across other parts of the Gulf.

In Dubai, the government-owned Khaleej Times newspaper warned in an editorial Saturday that an attack on Iran by Israel or the United States would have "disastrous consequences for the region."

"A nuclear Iran is in nobody's interest, but military action and armed rehearsals will also not be tolerated," the paper said.

The U.S. and many Western nations accuse Iran of seeking a nuclear bomb. Iran has rejected the charges saying its nuclear program is aimed at generating electricity not a weapon.

A U.S. intelligence report released late last year concluded that Iran has suspended its nuclear weapons program, but Israeli intelligence believes that is incorrect and that work is continuing.

There is precedent for unilateral Israeli action. In 1981, Israeli jets bombed Iraq's Osirak nuclear facility to end dictator Saddam Hussein's nuclear program. And last September, Israel bombed a facility in Syria that U.S. officials have said was a nuclear reactor being constructed with North Korean assistance.

Continued at http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2008/06/21/africa/ME-GEN-Iran-Israel.php

[nichi]

Flooding strands 100-plus barges on Mississippi

By BETSY TAYLOR, Associated Press Writer 1 hour, 12 minutes ago

WINFIELD, Mo. - The flooding in the Midwest has brought freight traffic on the upper Mississippi to a standstill, stranding more than 100 barges loaded with grain, cement, scrap metal, fertilizer and other products while shippers wait for the water to drop on the Big Muddy.

"We're basically experiencing total shutdown," said Larry Daily, president of Alter Barge Line Inc. of Bettendorf, Iowa.

While the bottleneck is costing him and other barge operators tens of thousands of dollars in lost revenue per day, June is a slow shipping period on the river compared with the late-summer harvest, the shutdown is expected to last only a few weeks, and it involves primarily non-perishable goods. So no major damage to the economy is expected.

Among the freight being held up: corn and soybeans headed downstream for New Orleans, where grain is loaded onto ships for export. Construction supplies and petroleum products headed upstream on the Mississippi are not getting through either.

Because of the high water, the Army Corps of Engineers has closed 13 locks along the upper Mississippi since June 12. As of Friday, nine locks remained closed, a roughly 215-mile stretch between Illinois City, Ill., and Winfield, Mo., northwest of St. Louis.

The situation along the Mississippi in Missouri was improving Friday as government forecasters predicted crests sharply below 1993's record levels. Several communities up and down the Mississippi were still under inundated, however, including Lincoln County, Mo., where 300 to 350 homes were flooded after the water flowed over or through the levees.

In Old Monroe, 45 miles north of St. Louis, retired steelworker Bob Scott watched as the river puddled at the edge of his front yard. But he said he thought the river had stopped rising and his home might come through the flood unscathed.

"It's kind of harrowing, a lot of sleepless nights, worried about your property," said Scott, 61. "You work all your life for what little bit you get."

The locks use huge electric motors to open and close gates and valves, floating the barges up and down to different levels of the river as they make their way up and down the river. When the river floods, the Corps removes the motors to protect them from the water. When the locks shut down, barges can still move between them, but no farther.

Typically, a towboat pushes as many as 15 barges, each of them 12 feet high and 200 feet long, lashed together with steel cable. A single barge carries the equivalent of about 55 tractor-trailers.

Last year, between June 12 and July 1, 180 tows (a "tow" is a towboat and its set of barges) carried more than 2.5 million tons of goods through now-closed Lock 25 at Winfield. During that same period, 166 tows carrying 2.3 million tons of cargo passed through Lock 19, at Keokuk, Iowa, now closed, too.

As of Thursday, eight to 10 tows were stranded or sidelined on the upper part of the Mississippi River, said Lynn Muench, senior vice president at American Waterways Operators, an industry group.

"On a typical day at this time of year, there would be 40 to 60 tows on the upper Mississippi River, and the average tow carries the equivalent of 900 semi-trucks of product," she said.

Daily, the Iowa barge operator, said that he had 100 barges and two boats stranded at places along the river with such cargo as corn, soybeans, fertilizer, cement, animal feed, scrap metal and wind turbine towers. He estimated his business was losing $25,000 a day, and said that could rise to $40,000 when two more of his boats go idle soon.

The federal Maritime Administration Office said a long shutdown could add millions to the cost of moving grain and other commodities, but since the jam is expected to last only a few weeks, "no significant economic impact is foreseen for the region."
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080621/ap_on_re_us/midwest_flooding_stranded_barges

[Jahn]

From Three Days of the Condor

Strange coincidence, I recalled this movie at the dinner an hour ago and we talked a bit about it. Max von Sydow that has a small part in it is a Swedish actor, trained by Bergman ("The Seventh Seal" for instance). I said "actors usually wants to play the bad guy" and took that movie and Sydows role as an example. It was a good film, so long ago it is worth to watch again.

btw about films and TV series I am just checking out the "Singing Detective" from 1986 at Amazon com and I will probably order it tomorrow. Highly recommended as one of the most crazy entertainment pieces in the old detective genre.

The Singing Detective

[nichi]

Von Sydow made the movie! He was great. You're right: the movie does hold up after all this time.

(Not familiar with the "Singing Detective" -- tell us how it is!)

[Jahn]

Von Sydow made the movie! He was great. You're right: the movie does hold up after all this time.

(Not familiar with the "Singing Detective" -- tell us how it is!)

The Singing Detective is a TV-serie of Dennis Potter from -86 about a detective Philip Marlow. Potter suffered from severe psoriasis and the head charadter (played by Michael Gambon) has the same disease and are hospitalized. It is a strange mix when doctors and nurses suddenly start to sing and the lines between dreams, fiction and reality is erased. Surrealistic and well made (BBC).


"As a result of constant pain, a fever caused by the condition, and his refusal to take medication, Marlow falls into a fantasy world involving his Chandleresque novel, The Singing Detective, an escapist adventure about a detective (also named "Philip Marlow") who sings at a dance hall and takes "the jobs the guys who don't sing" won't take."

"Several of the actors play different parts: Marlow and his alter-ego, the singing detective, are both played by Gambon. Marlow as a boy is played by Lyndon Davies. Patrick Malahide plays three central characters - the contemporary Finney (who Marlow thinks is having an affair with his ex-wife, played by Janet Suzman); the imaginary Binney (a central character in the murder plot); and Raymond, a friend of Marlow's father who has an affair with his mother (Alison Steadman). Steadman plays both Marlow's mother, and the mysterious "Lili", one of the murder victims."