Citizens for Legitimate Govt:Radioactive waste in Washington

Tank storing radioactive waste leaking in Washington 15 Feb 2013 A tank storing radioactive waste at the Hanford Nuclear Reservation in southeast Washington is leaking liquids to the tune of 150 to 300 gallons per year, the governor said Friday. "This is an extremely toxic substance, and we have to have a zero-tolerance policy for leaks of radioactive material into the ground and potentially groundwater of the state of Washington," Gov. Jay Inslee said. The Hanford site is a 586-square-mile area that once played a major part in U.S. plutonium production.

Washington: Storage Tank at Nuclear Site Is Leaking 16 Feb 2013 A tank that holds radioactive liquid at the Hanford Nuclear Reservation, the nation's most contaminated nuclear site, is leaking, Gov. Jay Inslee said Friday. The news raises concerns about the site's other storage tanks, which hold millions of gallons of a highly radioactive stew left from decades of plutonium production for nuclear weapons. Mr. Inslee said the leak could be in between 150 and 300 gallons a year.

Palisades Nuclear Plant Shuts Down Again 16 Feb 2013 The Palisades nuclear power plant in southwestern Michigan has been shut down for repairs after workers spent several days trouble-shooting its cooling water heat exchanger system. The plant was disconnected from the state's electrical grid just before 5 p.m. Friday. There was no timetable given for the repairs at the plant along Lake Michigan’s shoreline in Covert Township. The plant, owned by New Orleans-based Entergy Corp., has been under extra scrutiny by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission after numerous safety issues and shutdowns.

Guards ransacked, seized Guantanamo defendants' legal documents 15 Feb 2013 While the prisoners accused of plotting the [Bush-Cheney-Rice-Rumsfeld-'Lucky Larry' Silverstein] September 11 attacks were in the Guantanamo Bay courtroom this week, guards seized confidential legal documents, books, photos and even toilet paper from their cells, according to a prison camp lawyer. Defense lawyers said some defendants returned to their cells after court sessions earlier in the week to find that bins containing their legal documents had been ransacked and confidential papers relating to their defense were missing. The seizures happened while the camp's top legal adviser was on the witness stand giving assurances that no one was reading those private legal documents, said Cheryl Bormann, an attorney for defendant Walid Bin Attash.

Karzai to decree ban on foreign air-strike assistance during Afghan ops --Afghan president says under 'no condition' will security forces be allowed to request Nato aerial bombardments 16 Feb 2013 Afghan security forces will be banned from calling for Nato air strikes in residential areas to 'help' in their operations, President Hamid Karzai said on Saturday, three days after 10 civilians died in such a strike in the east of the country. Nato air strikes and civilian casualties have become a significant stress point in the relationship between Karzai and his international backers. Addressing a conference at Kabul's National Military Academy, Karzai expressed his anger about the strike and said he would issue a decree on Sunday preventing any resort to such measures by his forces.

Blasts kill at least 18 in Baghdad's Shia districts 17 Feb 2013 At least 18 people have been killed and dozens of others wounded in a series of blasts that hit Shia-populated districts across the Iraqi capital, Baghdad.

Ex-Israeli foreign minister to stand trial on charges of fraud 17 Feb 2013 An Israeli court will put on trial former Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman on charges of fraud and breach of trust. The trial will began on Sunday in the presence of three judges in al-Quds (Jerusalem). The charges of fraud and breach of trust focused on Lieberman's efforts to promote an Israeli envoy in 2009, after the diplomat relayed information to him about a criminal investigation into the former minister's business dealings.

Looks like Obama may get his death panels after all: CIA nominee open to special drone court 15 Feb 2013 The White House nominee to run the CIA said setting up a special court to oversee deadly drone strikes against American citizens is worth considering but raises difficult questions over how much authority it would have in decisions currently made by the president. Expanding on his testimony a week ago, John Brennan said the White House and other agencies had discussed the idea, when coming up with the process to determine which al-Qaida targets go on a capture-or-kill lists for the CIA and the military. Committee Chairwoman Dianne Feinstein (D) has said she is considering legislation to set up a special court system to regulate [?] drone strikes. It would be similar to the court that [always] signs off on government surveillance in espionage and terrorism cases.

Cornel West: President Obama a 'war criminal' --'It's been over 200 children so far. These are war crimes.' 15 Feb 2013 Princeton professor Cornel West says President Obama is a "war criminal." West, the prominent black academic and activist who has consistently been a harsh Obama critic, took issue with the White House's covert drone program, saying that "the chickens are coming home to roost." "We've been talking about this for a good while, the immorality of drones, dropping bombs on innocent people," West said on his "Smiley & West" radio show with Tavis Smiley. "It's been over 200 children so far," West said. "These are war crimes."

NORAD scrambles fighter jet, helicopter to intercept small plane in Florida 16 Feb 2013 The North American Aerospace Defense Command, or NORAD, scrambled an F-16 fighter jet and a U.S. Coast Guard helicopter to intercept a Cessna 152 Saturday morning. NORAD, based at Peterson Air Force Base in Colorado Springs, says the Cessna briefly entered FAA-restricted airspace over Palm City, Florida.

Havana restores monument to victims of USS Maine 15 Feb 2013 It was a little before 10 p.m. that February night in 1898 when a fiery explosion roiled the normally calm waters of Havana Harbor, blowing out windows in the city and sinking the USS Maine to the bottom of the bay, just the mast and some twisted metal wreckage left to poke above the waves. Havana's monument to the 266 U.S. sailors who died that night was dedicated 27 years later as a tribute to lasting Cuban-American friendship, a thank-you for Washington's help in shedding the yoke of Spanish colonial rule. The restoration project is fraught with symbolism, with the monument's scars telling the story of more than a century of shifts in the complex relationship and changing interpretations of the marble structure.

Secret funding helped build vast network of climate denial thinktanks 14 Feb 2013 Conservative billionaires used a secretive funding route to channel nearly $120m (£77m) to more than 100 groups casting doubt about the science behind climate change global warming, the Guardian has learned. The funds, doled out between 2002 and 2010, helped build a vast network of thinktanks and activist groups working to a single purpose: to redefine climate change from neutral scientific fact to a highly polarising "wedge issue" for hardcore conservatives. The millions were routed through two trusts, Donors Trust and the Donors Capital Fund, operating out of a generic town house in the northern Virginia suburbs of Washington DC. Donors Capital caters to those making donations of $1m or more.

Jeremy Hammond's legal team seeks judge's recusal 15 Feb 2013 Hacker Jeremy Hammond is accused of being part of the Stratfor breach. Presiding judge Loretta Preska's husband, Thomas Kavaler, appears on a list of Stratfor 'victims'. Hammond's legal team says this creates an appearance of partiality, and has demanded that Preska be recused. Hammond is accused of being part of the AntiSec team, led by FBI informant Hector Monsegur (Sabu), that hacked Stratfor. The hack is best known for the subsequent publication of the stolen 'Global Intelligence Files' by WikiLeaks... In November, Judge Preska refused Hammond bail and said that, if found guilty, he faces a jail term of between 30 years and life. Hacktivist group Anonymous rapidly responded with a demand that Preska recuse herself, claiming that "Judge Loretta Preska's impartiality is compromised by her Husband's involvement with Stratfor."

Feds stop would-be terrorist from detonating FBI agent's inert bomb 08 Feb 2013 The FBI has carried out another terror sting operation involving a would-be terrorist attempting to detonate an inert bomb, the Justice Department said in a press release Friday. Matthew Llaneza, 28, of San Jose, Calif., was arrested Friday morning after he attempted to use a car bomb to blow up a Bank of America branch in near the Oakland, Calif., airport, according to a court complaint. He had constructed the bomb with an undercover FBI agent and the FBI ensured the device could not explode, the complaint says.

Protesters at LAPD Headquarters: We Stand With Christopher Dorner 16 Feb 2013 A protest in response to the death of fired LAPD officer Christopher Dorner – the subject of an extensive manhunt who is accused of killing four people – brought out about two dozen protesters in front of police headquarters in downtown Los Angeles Saturday. Organizers said the demonstration would be peaceful and expected about 200 participants to show up by noon. The demonstrators called themselves "We Stand With Christopher Dorner."

The Execution of Christopher Dorner --The State of the Union Amidst the Ashes of Extrajudicial Death 13 Feb 2013 If the murder of Oscar Grant on an Oakland transit platform marked the dawn of the Obama era, the cold-blooded murder of former Naval reservist and Los Angeles Police officer Christopher Dorner might just mark the end of whatever optimistic hope people can muster in his administration. Whether an innocent young man just trying to get home, shot in the back after being racially profiled and slurred, or a man driven to his breaking point after being fired from a similar police force that operates according to its own warped morality and overarching objectives, the state of the union is a powder keg whose wick has gotten shorter due to decades of looking the other way. Just minutes before Barack Obama began his state of the union address, San Bernardino County Sheriffs, knowing full well what they were doing, burned Christopher Dorner to death.

Facebook Gets Multibillion-Dollar Tax Break 15 Feb 2013 It hasn't drawn much attention, but Facebook's first annual earnings report contains an accounting gem: a multibillion-dollar tax deduction for the cost of executive stock options and share awards. Even though Facebook reported $1.1 billion in pre-tax profits from U.S. operations in 2012, it will probably pay zero federal and state taxes -- and even receive a federal tax refund of about $429 million -- according to a Feb. 14 statement from Citizens for Tax Justice. [Start reading.]

7-year-old girl gets flu vaccine, dies 4 days later --CDC 'investigating' 12 Jan 2013 Her family shares the last pictures ever taken of Kaylynne Matten. "Some days it feels real but most days are like a bad dream. You're just still waiting to wake up," mom Nicole said. The photos of the 7-year-old were snapped at a Christmas party on Dec. 4. They're more precious than ever to this family. Kaylynne died two days later. "She was always 100 percent healthy," dad Justin said. Kaylynne's death came just four days after a doctor's visit where she got her annual flu shot during a routine checkup.

Bird flu found at German farm; ducks slaughtered 16 Feb 2013 About 14,000 ducks at a German farm are being slaughtered following a bird flu outbreak. A federal laboratory confirmed Friday the H5N1 virus was detected at the farm near Seelow, east of Berlin -- the first such finding in Germany in more than three years. On Saturday, officials started slaughtering the farm's ducks. Local council spokesman Tobias Seyfarth told news agency dpa that all poultry within a one-kilometer (half-mile) radius of the facility will be kept under observation for the next 21 days, with owners told to keep their birds where they are and report any symptoms.

Meteor explodes over Russian city of Chelyabinsk with force of more than 30 Hiroshima A-bombs --The Friday morning explosion that injured 1,200 residents with its blast shockwave was caused by a 10,000-ton fireball that burned brighter than the sun as it unleashed nearly 500 kilotons of energy over Russia's Urals region. 15 Feb 2013 To Russia with force, hellfire rained from the heavens with nuclear proportions. The meteor that plunged toward Russia struck Earth's atmosphere with the intensity of 30 Hiroshima bombs, NASA scientists said. "It had an energy greater than (all) the weapons used in World War II," Bill Cooke, leader of the Meteoroid Environments Office at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center, told the Daily News.

About 1,100 injured as meteorite hits Russia with force of atomic bomb 15 Feb 2013 A meteor streaked across the sky and exploded over Russia's Ural Mountains with the power of an atomic bomb Friday, its sonic blasts shattering countless windows and injuring about 1,100 people. The meteor -- estimated to be about 10 tons and 49 feet wide -- entered the Earth's atmosphere at a hypersonic speed of at least 33,000 mph and shattered into pieces about 18-32 miles above the ground, the Russian Academy of Sciences said in a statement. The meteor released several kilotons of energy above the region, the Russian science academy said.

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