Letter to Iran, Land to the Cowlitz, Right to Work Hits Wisconsin & The Reverend Billy

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Produced by: 
KBOO
Program:: 
Air date: 
Thu, 03/12/2015 - 10:00am to 10:15am
The Week's Interviews: Savitri G, Robert Kraig, Bill Iyall of the Cowlitz, then Robert Naiman & Jim

Today's Headlines
And the whole Week's Audio plus The Reverend Billy of the Church of Stop Shopping...Live and Uncut!!!

Listen or Lose Your Soul!!!

1, Port of Longview commissioners unanimously rejected the proposed Haven Energy propane export terminal Tuesday morning, voicing concerns about the safety and the true economic impact of the $300 million project.
Commissioners Lou Johnson and Darold Dietz said they would support the project, but not at the proposed 24-acre site near Berth 4. Commissioner Bob Bagaason said it came down to a matter of trust.
It was not immediately clear whether the vote killed the project,.
 
2,  The Oso Landslide's one year anniversary is coming up on March 22nd.  And the company that undertook the investigation is GEER.  The work of the GEER Association, in general, is based upon work supported in part by the National Science Foundation through the Geotechnical Engineering Program under Grant No. CMMI-0825734. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the NSF. The GEER Association is made possible by the vision and support of the NSF Geotechnical Engineering Program Directors: Dr. Richard Fragaszy and the late Dr. Cliff Astill. GEER members also donate their time, talent, and resources to collect time-sensitive field observations of the effects of extreme events.
 
3,  The most detailed published scientific account of the mudslide, which was the deadliest in U.S. history, suggests that the disaster was years in the making in a valley with a history of huge landslides dating back thousands of years.   The report doesn't offer a definitive explanation for why the mountainside collapsed on that day. But it describes a devastating chain reaction sparked by rain and groundwater on a hillside left unsettled by years of smaller slides.
The report comes from a team of university and private-sector researchers who are part of the Geotechnical Extreme Events Reconnaissance (GEER), a National Science Foundation-funded initiative to quickly dispatch scientists to evaluate natural disasters.
 
4,   Who doesn't love Medicare?  I guess we are about to find out...Aides to top House Republicans and Democrats are trying to negotiate a bipartisan compromise on the popular entitlement.   And yet every year there are threats to permanently revamp the program and introduce cuts in Medicare payments to doctor.   including a 21 percent reduction set to take effect April 1.  Really. That april 1st.As part of the talks, bargainers are considering budget cuts that could offset part, but not all, of the measure's costs, according to lobbyists following the negotiations. The estimated 10-year price of repealing the annual Medicare cuts is roughly $175 billion.
The lobbyists said Wednesday that the package also might provide money for a children's health program that would otherwise run out of money Oct. 1.
 
 
5,  North Carolina’s environmental officials have hit Duke Energy with a record $25 million fine over its role in contaminating local groundwater with pollution from a pair of coal ash pits at a disused power plant.   The Duke Energy power plant site in Sutton, North Carolina has a pair of unlined dumps estimated to hold 2.6 million tons of coal ash – the waste that’s left after burning coal for electricity – which contains arsenic, mercury, lead, and over a dozen other heavy metals, many of which are toxic.
Monitoring wells near the dumps showed the pollution – which is considered a public health risk – included nine metals, among them boron, thallium, selenium, iron, manganese, and other chemicals that exceed state groundwater standards. Thallium was used for decades as the active ingredient in rat poison until it was banned due to being highly toxic.
 
 
6,  Jim  Lobe of LobeLog.com and has written extensively on the “neo-cons.” 
He recently wrote "OMG! Cotton is Kristol’s Protege" and "GOP’s Man of the Moment Promoted by RJC’s Singer and Adelson," which states: "If Senator Tom Cotton (R-AR) wasn’t the face of GOP Iran hawks, he is now. His letter making common cause with Iran’s hardliners to scuttle a nuclear deal puts Cotton, along with his 46 Republican co-signatories, in uncharted territory. ...
 
7,  Scarlet Letter anyone? Any letter Scarlet legislators? Any red stae senator got a stamp? So, this:  Iran is playing a helpful role against Islamic State militants in Iraq now, but once the extremists are vanquished, Tehran-backed militias could undermine efforts to unify the country, the top U.S. military officer said Wednesday.
Army Gen. Martin Dempsey told lawmakers that any move to counter IS is a 'positive thing." But he said there are worries about whether those Shiite militias will later turn against Sunni or Kurdish Iraqis and hamper efforts to bridge ethnic and political divisions that have made peace elusive in Iraq.
 
8,  Sounds like a fun weekend:  drones and off-roaders - plus guns of course.  Yesterday The United States said that it is sending small unarmed drones, armored Humvees and other assistance to Ukraine in its fight against Russian-backed separatists. Lethal weapons were not included, to the dismay of some U.S. lawmakers.  The White House said President Barack Obama is still considering whether to send weapons to Ukraine's military, weighing the risks that such aid could further inflame conflict in which more than 6,000 people have died.  Risks?  Risks?  There are very likely an assortment of nukes still floating around the region  
 

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