Michigan raises concerns about nuclear waste storage plan in Ontario

Posted on May 25, 2013 by Jack

Sarnia Mayor Mike Bradley

SARNIA, ON – Mayor Mike Bradley is encouraged that Michigan’s state senate has endorsed a resolution that could delay the approval process for an underground nuclear waste repository in Ontario near the eastern shore of Lake Huron.

“This helps. We need more time for debate,” Bradley said after Sen. Hoon-Yung Hopgood successfully pushed through a resolution that urges Congress to champion Michigan’s concerns.

Ontario Power Generation (OPG) wants Canada’s first deep geologic repository to bury low-and intermediate-level waste 680 metres underground. It would be located adjacent to the Bruce Power site near Kincardine, ON, about one kilometre from Lake Huron.

For the past 40 years, the waste has been stored in several buildings even closer to the lake at the Bruce site.

OPG considers an underground repository a safer solution and one that will last for hundreds of thousands of years, protected from earthquakes and tornados.

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Afternoon Update May 25th, 2013 (10)

Posted on May 25, 2013 by Jack

CANADA

#1 — CNews | Rizzuto associate pleads guilty to cocaine trafficking in N.Y.

MONTREAL — Alessandro Taloni, a former jet-setting Mafia associate who ran a $1 billion cross-border drug ring, pleaded guilty to cocaine trafficking in a New York court.

[...]

#2 — CTV | Atlantic Canada should prep for ‘active’ hurricane season: officials

HALIFAX — The Canadian Hurricane Centre is backing U.S. predictions of an active season this year, telling residents in the Atlantic provinces to brace themselves for a handful of major hurricanes.

[...]

#3 — LFP | Premier believes there are ‘systemic issues’ inside corrections, including the troubled EMDC

Premier Kathleen Wynne publicly acknowledged Friday the province needs to make changes to Ontario’s corrections system, including London’s troubled jail.

[...]

#4 — WFP | Premier defends PST hike at NDP convention

BRANDON — Premier Greg Selinger acknowledged his government’s decision to raise the provincial sales tax is unpopular, but he defended it as necessary to maintain key services and build the economy.

[...]

#5 — Star | Toronto Zoo elephants won’t fly south earlier than fall, says Canadian military

National Defence officials in Ottawa have given the thumbs down — for now at least — to providing a transport plane to fly three of the Toronto Zoo’s elephants to California, saying the earliest a move could happen would be the fall.

[...]

WORLD

#6 — BBC | France begins first stage of Mali military withdrawal

France has begun the first major stage of its military withdrawal from Mali, four months after sending troops to push Islamist rebels out the north.

[...]

#7 — CNN | Bearing down: How safe is that bridge you’re driving over?

(CNN) — Like millions of other Americans, Dan and Sally Sligh packed up their vehicle and headed out for a Memorial Day weekend trip. As they crossed the Interstate 5 bridge over the Skagit River outside Seattle, Washington, the bridge gave way and their pickup truck plunged into the frigid waters.

[...]

#8 — Fox | Illinois lawmakers approve plan to allow concealed carry for gun owners

SPRINGFIELD, Ill. – Gun owners could carry concealed weapons in Illinois, the last state in the nation to prohibit it, under legislation that swept through the House Friday with the backing of the powerful Democratic speaker from Chicago, a city torn by violence despite what critics claim are the nation’s toughest firearms restrictions.

[...]

#9 — DM | Bitter-sweet truth about cockroach survival skills

Scientists may have discovered why cockroaches are so hard to stamp out.

[...]

#10 — WT | N. Korea ‘snubbed’ in Beijing, caves to Chinese demands on nuke talks

A North Korean delegation to China appears to have been gently snubbed ahead of a meeting Friday with Chinese President Xi Jinping, according to one regional analyst, who say the visitors’ treatment is part of Beijing’s effort to reign in its troublesome, isolated and poverty stricken neighbor.

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EU slips up with olive oil ban, reverses course (10)

Posted on May 25, 2013 by Jack

The European Commission has torn up new rules on how restaurants should serve olive oil less than a week after unveiling them, following widespread ridicule and accusations of unwanted interference.

Last week, the Commission said restaurants would be banned from serving oil to diners in refillable glass jugs or dipping bowls from next year. Instead, to protect consumers from fraud, restaurants would have to use sealed, non-refillable bottles that must be disposed of when empty.

Thursday’s u-turn shows how sensitive the EU executive is to accusations of unnecessary meddling in people’s lives, at a time when surveys show voters are losing faith in the European Union over its perceived mishandling of the bloc’s debt crisis.

At a summit on Wednesday, the new olive oil rules were firmly criticised by Britain and the Netherlands.

“This is exactly the sort of area that the European Union needs to get right out of, in my view,” said British Prime Minister David Cameron, who wants to claw back powers from Brussels ahead of a potential referendum on Britain’s EU membership in 2017.

“It shouldn’t even be on the table, to make a false pun.”

Announcing the climb-down, EU farm commissioner Dacian Ciolos told a news briefing that he had taken the decision once it became clear that consumers were against the plans.

“This is crucial in my view, so I’ve decided to withdraw this proposal and not submit it for adoption,” he said.

“I wanted to come here today to demonstrate that I’ve been very alive to the current debate in the press.”

[More]

See Also:

#1 — IMF chief questioned for 2nd day

#2 — How much more must Spain suffer for the sake of the Brussels elites?

#3 — France says ‘non’ to globalisation

#4 — As the market panic demonstrates, central banks are stuck on a treadmill of money printing

#5 — German Exporters Expect Bleak Future

Afternoon Update:

#6 — Towards a ‘less wasteful’ public service

#7 — EADS offers huge defense investment to South Korea

#8 — UK and France to join global anti-corruption initiative

#9 — IMF chief Christine Lagarde key witness in Tapie case

#10 — Tourism arrivals confirm record expectations

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Noonan: A Battering Ram Becomes a Stonewall (5)

Posted on May 25, 2013 by Jack

“I don’t know.” “I don’t remember.” “I’m not familiar with that detail.” “It’s not my precise area.” “I’m not familiar with that letter.”

These are quotes from the Internal Revenue Service officials who testified this week before the House and Senate. That is the authentic sound of stonewalling, and from the kind of people who run Washington in the modern age—smooth, highly credentialed and unaccountable. They’re surrounded by legal and employment protections, they know how to parse a careful response, they know how to blur the essential point of a question in a blizzard of unconnected factoids. They came across as people arrogant enough to target Americans for abuse and harassment and think they’d get away with it.

So what did we learn the past week, and what are the essentials to keep in mind?

We learned the people who ran and run the IRS are not going to help Congress find out what happened in the IRS. We know we haven’t gotten near the bottom of the political corruption of that agency. We do not know who ordered the targeting of conservative groups and individuals, or why, or exactly when it began. We don’t know who executed the orders or directives. We do not know the full scope or extent of the scandal. We don’t know, for instance, how many applicants for tax-exempt status were abused.

[More]

See Also:

#1 — Stratfor Email: Brennan Behind ‘Witch Hunt’ of Journalists Reporting Leaks

#2 — EPA Email Scandal Is Worse than Originally Thought

#3 — Holder OK’d search warrant for Fox News reporter’s private emails, official says

#4 — The Real Voter Suppression of 2012

#5 — There’s a fly in my soup

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Strong: Bin Laden Raid vs. Benghazi

Posted on May 25, 2013 by Jack

Deputy National Security Adviser Ben Rhodes isn’t afraid to talk to the press. After the Navy SEAL raid in which Osama bin Laden died, he spoke to The New Yorker, Newsweek, the Washington Post,National Journal, and Vanity Fair — at least. He also helped coordinate access for the filmmakers of Zero Dark Thirty.

He recently cooperated with a New York Times profile of himself, and his mother, Jane Rhodes, answered questions for a GQ feature about him and his brother, CBS News President David Rhodes — the byline of which included Ben’s former White House colleague Reid Cherlin.

But when Fox News camped out on his doorstep to interview him about his role in scrubbing the infamous Benghazi talking points of key information about the attack, all they got was a shot walking into his apartment complex, his dry cleaning slung over his shoulder.

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Senate Speaker’s ruling doesn’t go Mac Harb’s way

Posted on May 25, 2013 by Jack

OTTAWA — Sen. Mac Harb lost one available avenue to have a critical Senate report on his spending quashed after the Speaker of the Senate ruled Thursday the report itself didn’t damage Harb’s ability to do his job.

In a five-page ruling, Harb was told the Senate had the power to do whatever it wanted to protect itself as an institution, with the personal reputation of any senator coming a distant second.

“The Senate can implement measures intended to safeguard its public reputation, even if it appears to be detrimental to the interest of individual members,” Speaker of the Senate Noël Kinsella told the Senate Thursday afternoon.

According to Senate rules, Kinsella said, the rights and privileges of senators are “subordinate” to those rights of the Senate itself “in order to protect the collectivity against any abuses by individual members.”

“That is to say,” Kinsella said, “that the privileges exercised by the Senate itself take precedence over those of individual senators.”

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Dog years: The calculator

Posted on May 25, 2013 by Jack

Working out your dog’s true age used to be a case of simply multiplying it by seven. But it’s more complicated than that, and here’s a handy calculator to do it for you.

A recent Magazine feature explained that:

  • Different breeds of dog age at varying speeds
  • Dogs age at varying speeds at different stages of their lives

With that in mind, we’ve built a calculator for you to work out your dog’s true age – its age in “dog years”.

Alternatively, you can find out how old you would be if you were a dog. You can choose to be a labrador, a spaniel, a whippet, or any one of 20 breeds.

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Charbonneau Commission: Two witnesses expose Laval’s seedy underbelly (1)

Posted on May 25, 2013 by Jack

MONTREAL – Exploding cars, intimidating phone calls and clandestine meetings in the dead of night.

The Charbonneau Commission was presented with a dark and unflattering portrait of the city of Laval on Thursday, with two witnesses describing their involvement in a well-organized system of collusion in the municipality that was both profitable and dangerous.

Laval may have been a vibrant, modern metropolis on the surface, the inquiry heard, but at some point in the late 1990s, the city’s construction industry morphed into a kind of Wild West where the strongest survived and those who didn’t fall in line received “messages” that convinced them to reconsider.

Gilles Théberge, a former high-ranking executive at construction company Sintra, was the recipient of one such message in the early-morning hours of June 15, 2000, when his car erupted into a ball of flame in his driveway.

[More]

See Also:

#1 — UPAC carries out more raids in Montreal

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Owens: Barack Obama, World’s Greatest Gun Salesman

Posted on May 25, 2013 by Jack

The United States is the most heavily armed nation in world history, and it seems we have President Barack Obama to thank for it.

Before you ask: we’re not talking about the U.S. military, we’re talking about the firearms owned by the general population. The National Rifle Association’s Institute for Legislative Action (NRA-ILA) estimates that there are roughly 300 million firearms in the United States — and of those, nearly 40 million new firearms have been sold just since Barack Obama came into office in 2009.

This is a staggering jump of more than 15 percent in just over four years, in a nation 237 years old.

Other estimates put the number of firearms in this nation much higher, such as the 310 million figure cited by the Congressional Research Service. An estimated 10 million firearms now enter the domestic market each year, and the majority of them are semi-automatics designed for personal defense.

To put these forty million new guns sold (along with up to 30 million used guns sold) in just over four years into context: the M1 Garand — the primary rifle of the U.S. military through the full mobilization of the country during World War II and the Korean War — saw just 6.25 million produced in its 21-year production run from 1936-1957.

Under Obama, Americans have purchased nearly seven times that number of new firearms — in just over four years.

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Lilley: Code of silence crosses party lines

Posted on May 25, 2013 by Jack

Is there anyone left on Parliament Hill with clean hands?

Canadians have been treated to a daily parade of outraged MPs fuming over the Senate expense scandal. Demands for audits followed by demands for more answers on edited reports, secret deals, resignations and a cheque issued by the prime minister’s chief of staff to then-Conservative Sen. Mike Duffy.

All the while MPs have known about abuse in their own ranks and remained silent.

The reason for the silence is the behind-the-scenes treatment MPs give themselves. Believe it or not, the code of silence crosses party lines and most MPs appear to want to keep it that way.

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Morning Update May 25th, 2013 (10)

Posted on May 25, 2013 by Jack

CANADA

#1 — CNews | Ex Lt.-Gov. of Quebec will face trial for fraud

OTTAWA — It appears that former Quebec lieutenant-governor Lise Thibault isn’t above the law after all.

[...]

#2 — CTV | Ottawa threatens ‘retaliatory measures’ over new U.S. meat labelling regulations

WASHINGTON — A Canada-U.S. trade war is apparently looming as Ottawa threatens “retaliatory measures” against the United States in a continuing dispute over meat labelling.

[...]

#3 — Globe | Luka Magnotta Berlin arrest a fluke prompted only by police cadet training: report

Berlin police might never have arrested Montreal crime suspect Luka Magnotta but for the fact that their officers were with a group of trainees and “had to give a good example,” a new report says.

[...]

#4 — WFP | CRTC hits Alberta’s Wildrose Party with $90,000 fine for robocalls in 2011, 2012

EDMONTON – Alberta’s Opposition Wildrose Party says it has paid a $90,000 penalty imposed by federal regulators for violating automated phone call rules.

[...]

#5 — Star | Star investigation: Drugged horses slipping through ‘inadequate’ food system

The horse “passport” Canada relies on to keep toxic meat off dinner tables around the world is open to fraud and error, a Star investigation reveals.

[...]

WORLD

#6 — BBC | Powerful earthquake off east coast of Russia

A powerful earthquake has struck off the Kamchatka peninsula in Russia’s far east.

[...]

#7 — CNN | Rescue group brings relief in the form of barbecue

For most people, a barbecue emergency would entail running out of buns or over-charring the chicken wings. For the men and women of Operation BBQ Relief, that means it’s time to drive into a disaster zone, fire up their smokers and serve hot meals to people on worst day of their lives.

[...]

#8 — Fox | Homeland Security bulletin warns 3D-printed guns may be ‘impossible’ to stop

EXCLUSIVE: A new Department of Homeland Security intelligence bulletin warns it could be “impossible” to stop 3D-printed guns from being made, not to mention getting past security checkpoints.

[...]

#9 — DM | Stop giving air time to ‘idiots and nutters’, Warsi tells TV

TV stations should not give airtime to preachers of hate who are ‘idiots and nutters’, a leading minister said last night.

[...]

#10 — WT | Stockholm on fire as youths burn cars, schools

Stockholm is in chaos, as hundreds of youths on Friday set fire to nearly a dozen cars, two schools and a police station as violent protests in Sweden’s capital city enter their fifth day.

[...]

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