China receives infrastructure contracts in United States

Is our media corrupt, lazy or stupid? Last week China Daily announced another infrastructure contract that the largest contractor in China — China State Construction Engineering Corp – won for a Manhattan, New York subway ventilation project worth around $100 million.

Yet, not a hint of this from our US media — short of a reference to “the Wall Street Journal quoted a source as saying”. I have yet to find the WSJ article.

China’s largest contractor, has, in fact, landed three infrastructure orders in the United States this year. A $410-million Hamilton Bridge project and a $1.7-billion entertainment project in the United States will be fulfilled by this Chinese contractor.

China State Construction has signed on as contractor for a high school, a railway station and the Chinese embassy in the US.

According to China’s Ministry of Commerce, overseas project contracts have increased 22.7 percent to $100.15 billion in the first 10 months of this year.

Stimulus money going towards Chinese causes include: International Research Experiences for Students (IRES) U.S.-China Collaboration on Dinosaur Eggs and Education ($141,000 to date); HIV and Related High-risk Behaviors among Commercial Sex Male Clients in China ($90,484); Study of Coseismic Damage and Post-mainshock Healing on the Longmen-Shan Fault Ruptured in the 2008 M8 Wenchuan Earthquake in China ($108,558); Is the Tibetan Plateau Rising? ($327,277); Bioactive Compounds from the Biodiversity of China Vietnam ($400,000); see other entries here and inserting “China” as the keyword.

Is this the kind of bailout you expected with our tax dollars?

Additionally, China’s Suntech plans to build a solar panel assembly plant in the United States now that our government has announced $2.3 billion in tax credits to clean energy equipment manufacturers.

Other articles of interest:
How ClimateGate (global warming) affects YOU
ClimateGate uncovers GoogleGate?

Obama brother Mark releases book – talks about Obama Senior

President Obama’s younger half brother, Mark, who lives in China, has just released a book about the infamous Obama family.

Barack wrote fondly of his father in what some call a mythical biography, “Dreams From My Father.”

Brother Mark has another story to tell.

Last week, Mark Okoth Obama Ndesandjo self-published the autobiographical novel, “Nairobi to Shenzhen: A Tale of Love In The East.” (Order at Amazon.com)

Never reported in the US by the mainstream media, Mark confirms that Barack Senior was a violent drunk who died in an automobile accident in Africa bringing credibility to a very interesting must read January 2007 article by the DailyMail.co.uk

Barack stayed with his father Barack Senior until he was two while his half brother Mark stayed with his father until he was eight years old.

Baracks’ mother was wife number two. Marks’ mother was wife number three. Both were American women.

President Obama’s father, Barack Senior married his first wife Kezia at 18. Kezia was pregnant with their second child when he received his American-sponsored scholarship in economics. He was 23 years of age when he headed for the University in Hawaii.

While in Hawaii studying he met and married his second wife, who was 18, Barack Jrs mother, Ann.

Within two years of his entry to the US, Barack Sr. was accepted at Harvard whereupon he left behind the Barack Jr and his second wife.

Still legally married to Kezia and Ann, Barack Sr. met his future third wife while at Harvard. Marks mother, Ruth, is an American-born teacher who is still currently residing in Kenya

Obama Senior was born in 1936 in Nyangoma-Kogelo, Siaya District, Kenya and died in a car crash in Nairobi, Kenya in 1982. Yes, he was a goat herder. Technically. Obama Seniors father was a wealthy man who owned goats. But rather was raised a child of privilege, not privation. Obama Senior was a finance minister in Kenya. Read more about the Obama family.

Half brother Mark hopes his brother meets his Chinese wife while the President is in China. “My plan is to introduce my wife to him. She’s his biggest fan,” he said.

Other Obama family articles:

Obama’s Uncle Odinga: Prime Minister of Kenya

Brother Samson and the sex scandal

The Kenyan Ambassador  speaks out about Obama’s birth

The maize (corn) scandal in Kenya

China rejects US products

Our media has not fully addressed the initial story, inconvenient details nor the repercussions of our Presidents’ decision to impose special protectionist tariffs on tire imports from China less than two weeks ago.

China immediately responded to the September 11 decision by President Obama citing the U.S. violated World Trade Organization (WTO) and other related rules. Trade protection, which is strongly discouraged — especially during times of economic struggle — is an issue Obama had strongly spoke out against.

China and the United States are both the second-largest trading partners to each other.

China said this move would only slow world economic recovery and ultimately hurt the interests of the businesses and people of all countries.

Two days later China launched anti-dumping and anti-subsidies investigations into some automobile and chicken products originally produced in the United States.

This week China announced prominent PepsiCo and Mead Johnson among the companies blacklisted from a monthly report by a State Council watchdog in charge of product quality. The watchdog names unqualified imported goods which are either returned or destroyed. Does this have anything to do with the tire tariff? Who knows.

According to the list, a quarter of the substandard products came from the US.

PepsiCo: nearly 38 tons of frozen concentrated orange juice that the firm allegedly imported from Louis Dreyfus Citrus Trading LDA in Brazil in July were found with excessive yeast, according to the website of the General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine. Excessive yeast causes foods to spoil faster.

PepsiCo — which has it’s international branch based in New York — produces a vast array of products including Pepsi, Gatorade, Tropicana, Quaker, Doritos, Lipton, Propel, Ethos Water and Aunt Jemima.

Mead Johnson: allegedly imported 300 kg of baby formula in July with substandard protein content.

Mead Johnson — based in Illinois — is a global leader in infant and children’s nutrition. It’s a baby formula leader in China, the Philippines, Thailand, Malaysia and Mexico, five of the six largest children’s nutrition markets.

Obama pokes China in eye over tire tariff — what isn’t being reported

Updated 9/14/09 1AM ET
President Obama has poked China in the eye over tires manufactured in their country because of a petition filed by the Steelworkers Union. American consumers should likely expect to pay more for tires in the future because of the incident.

As an interesting sidenote:  Ron Bloom, a fierce advocate of the “Cash for Clunkers” program who served as special assistant to the President of the United Steelworkers Union since 1996 when assigned head of the Auto Recovery Task Force was named Manufacturing Czar to the White House on September 7 (Labor Day). The Pittsburgh-based United Steelworkers Union has 1.2 million members.

Chronicled by date — you’ll see  China has poked the United States back.

While the country continues to argue over health care, a more serious matter has been materializing this weekend. China has made a gesture of retaliation to our US government over the announcement of new trade protection tariffs to be imposed on China for tires.

Friday, September 11, 2009 — With a slow news cycle, the Obama administration announced late Friday that a hefty tariff would be levied against China for tires imported into our country. This move is referred to as trade protection which is strongly discouraged – especially during times of economic struggle.

In a petition filed by the Steelworkers Union, the US International Trade Commission placed an investigation of allegations that China is flooding the US marketplace with passenger car and light truck tires.

In response to the investigation, President Obama chose to impose a punitive tariff on China. Beginning Sept. 26, a 35 percent, 30 percent and 25 percent tariff will be imposed in the coming three years, respectively, on the tires in addition to the current 4 percent tariff in spite of negotiation attempts.

Saturday, September 12, 2009 — China’s Ministry of Commerce said the U.S. had violated the WTO (World Trade Organization) rule by this decision. Since the outbreak of the global financial crisis, commitments were made at the G-20 financial summit when leaders from around the globe – including President Obama — opposed trade protectionism because it would slow economic recovery.

China contends that since their tires primarily enter the maintenance market and the U.S. tire producers have  shown no apparent changes in their business situation there exists no direct competition between China’s tire products and the U.S. The slowdown in the US tire industry is the result of the global downturn rather than increased tire exports to the U.S.

China said U.S. lacked bases for the case because tire products exported to the U.S. from China had actually declined 16 percent in the first of this year, compared to the same period last year. China’s tire exports to U.S. in 2008 only rose 2.2 percent from 2007.

China’s tire exports to the U.S. tripled between 2004 and 2007 while, during the same period, U.S. tire manufactures doubled profits. Four U.S. tire companies –Bridgestone/Firestone, Goodyear, Michelin and Cooper — manufacture in China and account for two thirds of the exports to the U.S. It appears that the U.S. government is penalizing it’s own companies for stepping away from union jobs to make cheaper goods. Remember…the union filed the complaint.

China said it reserves the right to bring the case to the World Trade Organization and may not ship tires for the first tariff year.

On Sunday, September 13, 2009 – China launched anti-dumping and anti-subsidies investigations into some automobile and chicken products originally produced in the United States. In effect, China is now charging the US with the same allegations.

The announcement from China is termed under the same policies, laws and allegations that the US accused China of.

Allegations that the US goods entered China’s markets with an “unfair competition manner”, which harmed domestic industries. The investigation was in accordance with the World Trade Organization rules and China’s laws.

Additionally, China stated that it always firmly opposes protectionism. The country hoped all countries worked together to promote a quick recovery of the world economy.

China has pointed it’s proverbial middle finger back to the United States.

Not only has the US created an antagonism through what may result in trade wars – but lets not forget China is a major player in supporting funds for our debt by buying our US bonds.

China is the second largest trading partner with the U.S. and vice versa.

Alzheimer’s ‘distant cousin’ of mad cow? and other obscure news articles for the day

Obscure news for today include a study grant for further study on Alzheimers. Other news includes a new computer worm detected, an EPA representative admits in Senate hearings that US action alone won’t impact Co2 levels  (we’re downwind from China, who won’t participate. Neither will India)

Alzheimer’s ‘distant cousin’ of mad cow — A researcher at Novato’s Buck Institute for Age Research on Monday received a $1.5 million, four-year federal “Eureka” grant to further study his novel theory that Alzheimer’s Disease affects people in much the same way that mad cow disease acts in cattle [read it at Navato Advance]

Under cyberthreat: defense contractors — The defense industry faces “a near-existential threat from state-sponsored foreign intelligence services” that target sensitive IP, according to a report by the Internet Security Alliance, a nonprofit organization. Northrop Grumman experienced the implications of that threat firsthand recently [read it at Business Week]

Swiss vow to block UBS from handing data to U.S.  — UBS has refused a demand from U.S. authorities that it turn over the names of 52,000 American clients, arguing that to do so would be illegal under Swiss banking secrecy laws and would open it to prosecution at home [read it at New York Times]

Trend Micro discovers new ransomware ‘WORM_RANSOM.FD’ — According to Trend Micro security researchers, they have detected a new ransomware that proliferates through an e-mail on the internet [read it at Spamfighter]

Big banks don’t want California’s IOUs — A group of the biggest U.S. banks said they would stop accepting California’s IOUs on July 3, adding pressure on the state to close its $26.3 billion annual budget gap [read it at Wall Street Journal]

EPA admits cap and trade will fail — “I believe that essential parts of the chart are that the U.S. action alone will not impact CO2 levels,” stated Environmental Protection Agency administrator Lisa Jackson at the hearings held by The Senate Environment and Public Works Committee [read it at Heritage]

15 cameras now watching downtown Albany — Fifteen downtown Albany, Georgia, cameras got their first test with the city’s Fourth of July celebration and are now watching the area day and night [read it at WALB 10]

U.S., German intel: Al Qaeda plots multiple attacks on U.S.-, Israel-bound airliners — Western anti-terror agencies have warned that a group of 15-20 al Qaeda terrorists, who were trained in Pakistan and Algeria to hijack and blow up airliners, deployed secretly to at least six European and Middle East countries in early July [read it at Debka]

Administration issues new rules on egg safety — On July 7, the Presidential Administration released a rule to deal with the nation’s egg problem and used the moment to promise a sweeping overhaul of the system to ensure the safety of spinach, lettuce, tomatoes, melons, beef and chicken [read it at NY Times]

State health officials order clinic to stop performing surgeries — State public health officials ordered the Las Vegas Clinica de Mujeres medical clinic to shut down Tuesday because it was performing surgeries without a license [read it at Las Vegas Review Journal]

See archived obscure daily news

See archives of swine flu progress to date

If you’ve seen an obscure news article that deserves more readership –shoot me an e-mail at WillNeverGiveUp (at) Live.com

Customs sieze counterfeit sneakers out of China

Palm Beach, Fla. – On June 25, U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers detained a shipment of sneakers in order to determine if they were counterfeit and in violation of trade mark rights.

The shipment arrived from China and was in transit to the Bahamas. Once detained, samples were forwarded to the Import Specialists Branch for review and further investigation. After a thorough review CBP import specialists made the determination that the goods were indeed counterfeit. The items were determined to have a MSRP value of $300,000 and on July 7, all were seized.

 “The people who traffic in this type of crime not only steal from legitimate companies, but they also dupe the unknowing consumer into buying items that are substandard. In some cases a counterfeit item that does not meet the manufacturer’s specifications can even threaten the health or safety of a consumer. CBP Field Operations in Miami is committed to stopping trade in pirated and counterfeit goods,” said Director of Field Operations Harold Woodward.

“Do you earn more than a teacher?” and other obscure news for July 1

Obscure news for July 1st includes an article published stating that the US DOD mistakenly transferred intercontinental ballistic missile parts to Taiwan. More great articles given little media attention…

Do you earn more than a teacher? — No one seems to dispute the argument that school teachers are underpaid – but no one outside the education system seem to know how much they make [read it at the Examiner]

GAO: Arms sales program still flawed — In March 2008, the Department of Defense disclosed that it mistakenly transferred intercontinental ballistic missile parts to Taiwan through a U.S. program that sells pre-approved defense articles and services to foreign governments  [read it at Military.com]

‘Hacker’s hacker’ from San Francisco pleads guilty in $86 million fraud — A mild-mannered computer geek people once believed could do no wrong admitted Monday to stealing nearly 2 million credit card numbers, which he and others used to rack up more than $86 million in fraudulent charges [read it at Pittsburgh Live]

DOJ opposes antitrust immunity for Continental – According to the Justice Department, Continental and United plan to sell seats on each other’s U.S. flights, combine customer lounges, consolidate operations at airports… [read it at RTTnews]

Tom Davis says he doesn’t want cyber-coordinator job – “For this job to work you’d better get some understandings up front, if you’re the cyber czar and you want to have any clout in this,” Davis said [read it at Federal Computer Week]

China remains spam haven due to ‘bulletproof’ hosting —  An overwhelming majority of Web sites promoted through spam are hosted in China at service providers that many times choose to ignore complaints and allow illegal activity, according to research from the University of Alabama [read it at PC World]

Vontae Davis identity theft incident is another reminder for athletes — Identity theft and fraud affected nearly 10 million Americans last year at a cost of more than $48 billion, according to Javelin Strategy & Research [read it at Palm Beach Post]

AF tests missile in launch from Calif. Coast – It’s an unarmed Minuteman 3 intercontinental ballistic missile [read it at Air Force Times]

Unclear what happens to personal info with Clear  — Hundreds of thousands of people relinquished their personal information for faster passage through TSA – now the company holding your info is out of business – do you need to worry? [read it at Mercury News]

Pro-Iranian regime hackers invade U.S. computers — Hackers posted a caustic message telling the U.S. President to mind his own business and stop talking about the disputed Iranian election on a U.S. university home page on June 24. Attempts to access the Oregon University System’s Web site were automatically redirected to another page… [read it at Enterprise Security Today]

Drowning of the Mississippi Delta due to insufficient sediment supply and global sea-level rise – LSU researchers have concluded that  Coastal restoration projects doomed to fail . Even under best-case scenarios for building massive engineering projects to restore Louisiana’s dying coastline, the Mississippi River can not possibly feed enough sediment into the marshes to prevent ongoing catastrophic land loss, two Louisiana State University (LSU) geologists conclude [read it at nature.com]

See archived obscure daily news

See archives of swine flu progress to date

If you’ve seen an obscure news article that deserves more readership –shoot me an e-mail at WillNeverGiveUp at Live.com

Interesting news for June 18

Alot of interesting news for June 18. Todays’ news covers a discovery of a new strain of the flu, cocaine smuggling in sharks, the F-22, US cattle quarantined and much more! 

FDA taking steps to improve contact lens safety — To support proper cleaning and storage of contact lenses, the FDA has developed a new video on contact lens safety [read it on this site]

New strain of swine flu found — BRAZILIAN scientists have identified a new strain of the H1N1 virus after examining samples from a patient in Sao Paulo, a research institute says. The variant has been called A/Sao Paulo/1454/H1N1 [see it at Perth Now]

Cocaine haul found in frozen sharks — Mexico’s navy has seized more than a ton of cocaine stuffed inside frozen sharks, as drug gangs under military pressure go to greater lengths to conceal narcotics bound for the United States [see photos & read it at Weekly World News]

Microsofts Bing.com is gaining popularity fast — Features that make searching more convenient include the video search result — when you scroll over a video result in Bing, the video will start playing in the same preview size [try this new search engine at Bing.com ]

City clubs 37,500 dogs to death — Officials in a northern Chinese city have clubbed 37,500 dogs to death since May to contain an outbreak of rabies amid an online outcry over animal cruelty [read it at Perth Now]

Air Force ready for F-22 expert version – The Air Force is prepared to create a version of the F-22 Raptor that the U.S. could sell to foreign countries if it gets the go-ahead from Congress and the State Department, according to one of the service’s top acquisition officers [read it at Air Force Times]

32 herds quarantined because of Bovine TB fears — Concerns about bovine tuberculosis (TB) have led to the quarantine of 32 cattle herds with about 15,000 adult cattle in north-central Nebraska, officials said [read it at USAgnet]
 
Proper training, guidelines lacking at many VA clinics: report — Surprise inspections at 42 Veterans Affairs clinics across the United States revealed that fewer than half had proper training and guidelines for colonoscopies and other endoscopic procedures, says a report by the VA inspector general [read it at HealthDay]

Fort Collins tornado alert system fails – An estimated 100,000 phone numbers and e-mail addresses did not receive the notification from the city that would have alerted those in the south-central part of the city [read it at the Coloradoan]

Most viewed articles on this blog:

Videos every American should view

Kenyan Embassador talks on audio recording of Obama’s birthplace

African website promoting Obama for presidential election

Obama’s African family

Gun control legislation

Editorial by a person who knew Obama in his Chicago days

Editorial — Russian view of Obama

Fundraiser in Nigeria has money confiscated by authorities

Media finally talks about Obama’s other brother in sex scandal

June 17 obscure news

Alot of great stories today. On June 17 I’ve found such things as a semi full of ammonium nitrate stolen, geese slated to lose lives  for human air travel, future nuclear plants must withstand airliner crash, Nigerian rebels say they destroyed Chevron’s facility, China/US Navy “accident” questionable and a look at “that” administration versus “this” administration when releasing a news story. Great reads — all of them!

New strain of swine flu found — BRAZILIAN scientists have identified a new strain of the H1N1 virus after examining samples from a patient in Sao Paulo, a research institute says. The variant has been called A/Sao Paulo/1454/H1N1 [see it at Perth Now]

Police: Identity theft involves purchase of house in Davenport — Police say someone using the Social Security number of a Des Moines woman has obtained credit cards for two stores and has purchased a home in Davenport [read it at Des Moines Register]

Then and now — I did a little digging to see what the press reported under the same conditions — but a different president. I attached both articles for your amusement.  Data showing significantly higher cancer risks for US residents near coal-fired power plant ash dump sites were hidden for years by Bush Administration and today an article comes out stating locations of high-risk coal ash sites kept secret by Obama. Read both articles side by side to view the different reporting techniques used by the media. In the first article Bush is hiding information concerning citizen health. In the Obama article it’s being withheld for our own safety.

Process begins to define “meaningful use” of electronic health records — Building on the historic $19 billion investment provided through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Recovery Act), efforts continued today to further the national adoption and implementation of health information technology (HIT) [read it at HHS.gov]

Michelle Obama: Government alone can’t rebuild — [read it at Forbes]

White House revives FutureGen plant, will build it in Illinois — The U.S. Energy Secretary on June 12 said that his agency has reached an agreement with a group of coal producers, electric utilities and other companies to build a 275-MW coal-fired power plant equipped with carbon capture and storage technology in Matoon, Illinois [read it at Platts.com]

83 percent support checking voters’ photo ID — Earlier this month, the U.S. Department of Justice said the State of Georgia cannot check driver’s licenses and Social Security numbers to verify the citizenship of prospective voters. most Americans disagree with the Justice Department ruling according to a survey conducted [read it at fox news]

Stolen semi full of ammonium nitrate stopped in Kenly — The North Carolina State Highway Patrol and Homeland Security officials have arrested a man who they say stole a tractor trailer filled with ammonium nitrate. The truck was carrying an undisclosed amount of the chemical compound ammonium nitrate, which is commonly used as a fertilizer in farming [read it at NewsObserver.com]

DHS announces nearly $1.8 billion in fiscal year 2009 preparedness grants — U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Janet Napolitano announced today nearly $1.8 billion in Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) preparedness grants designed to help states, urban areas, tribal governments and non-profit agencies improve their readiness by enhancing protection, prevention, response and recovery capabilities for all disasters [read it on Homeland Security website]

Ohio has second-biggest hit from GM dealer closings — GM has notified 1,323 dealerships that they will not have their franchise agreement renewed, though it isn’t disclosing individual dealers. Pennsylvania has the most closures with 90, followed by Ohio with 79 [read it at BizJournals]

Congress is urged to add bankruptcy judgeships in the face of near-record case levels — Congress is told that the federal courts need additional bankruptcy judgeships in the face of near-record case levels to alleviate overcrowded dockets and to ensure that the bankruptcy system operates efficiently [read it at UScourts.gov]

Latest China-U.S. Navy incident with destroyer USS John S. McCain is part of rising trend – China has called the latest collision between Chinese and U.S. naval vessels an accident, but many of the elements echo previous altercations that have raised concerns that China’s navy is growing increasingly aggressive in its patrols of the waters off its coast [read it at Cleveland.com]

Edison to decommission coal-fired Nevada power plant – The owners of the shuttered Mohave Generating Station in Laughlin, Nevada, said on June 10 that they will decommission the coal-fired power plant that once supplied electricity to 1.5 million homes [read it at the Native Times]

Nigerian rebels say they destroyed Chevron’s facility — Nigerian rebels said they destroyed the Abiteye oil-pumping station run by Chevron Corp. in the Niger River delta, in the third attack on the company’s facilities in the past three days [read it at Bloomberg]

New nuclear plants must withstand aircraft crash — The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) published a final rule in the Federal Register Friday to require all new nuclear power reactors to design their facilities to withstand the impact of a large airplane [read it at HStoday.us]

Credit Union users target of text scam — The UVA Credit Union is warning customers about a text message scam targeting their accounts. Credit union officials say the bogus text message claims that a member’s debit card has been blocked and that they need to call a phone number to verify their information [read it at NBC29.com]

New York to gas geese near airports —  The hunt will take place during summer molting season when the geese can’t fly  [read it at LiveScience.com]

Horses quarantined in Raytown: potentially fatal disease confirmed at Raytown Equestrian Park — Missouri State agriculture officials have issued a quarantine order for the Raytown Equestrian Park. A seven-year-old quarter horse stabled at the facility tested positive for equine piroplasmosis, a potentially fatal disease, officials said [read it at KCTV5.com]

Connecticut man arrested for threatening Obama — Police say the 39-year-old suspect pulled up to an Enfield auto dealership where a film crew was shooting and spoke with people there. During the conversation, the suspect allegedly made comments about the President, saying that somebody should kill him [read it at MyStateline.com]

Busted: international telephone hacking conspiracy — An indictment was unsealed on June 12 against three individuals who allegedly hacked into the telephone systems of large corporations and entities in the United States and abroad and sold information about the compromised telephone systems to Pakistani nationals residing in Italy [read it at DarkReading.com]

Library Journal’s notable federal government documents  — Each year, Library Journal (LJ) selects what it considers to be the most notable Government documents published by Federal, state, and local governments [see the list at US Gov bookstore]

See links to obscure news from days past

June 2 Obscure news

Volunteering opportunities – For volunteer opportunities in your community, check out www.volunteermatch.org or www.americorps.gov

Hacked public bicycle kiosk shows porn movie, extra benefits of public transport – A photo snapped as proof that a computer kiosk used to control public bicycle lending in Zamora, Spain wasn’t displaying the usual touch screen software, but rather, a full screen porn [read it at gizmodo.com]

‘New GM’ unveiled in breaking advert — A ‘New GM’ aims to educate the public about its reorganisation in the wake of filing for bankruptcy with 60-second advert to begin airing on Wednesday (June 3, 2009) . The ad has already appeared on Facebook and YouTube [read it at UTalkMarketing.com]

 State leads nation in confirmed swine flu cases – Unlike seasonal influenza, which affects large numbers of elderly people, only 1 percent of the swine flu cases have occurred in people 65 years and older. Approximately 75 percent of the confirmed cases are in persons age 19 and younger [read it at the Fond du Lac Reporter]

RFID (radio frequency identification) raises profits at plant nursery — After developing and deploying an RFID system to track trays of seedlings at its own greenhouse, Knox Nursery plans to market the solution to other plant growers as well [read it at RFIDjournal.com]

New rules to quiz blood donors over sex habits — tests showed that a large quantity of unused blood supply was contaminated by HIV and other infectious diseases in Thailand [read it at the BangkokPost.com]

Global body lifts age limit on beef trade with respect to BSE+ (mad cow) – The World Organization for Animal Health resolved to lift the 30 month cattle age limits for beef exports and imports with regard to mad cow disease [read the AP story at Product Design and Development]

New travel rules kick in June 1 amid concerns over RFID-tagged passport cards — Critics of the passport card maintain that those features that makes the card convenient to use also pose security and privacy risks [read it at computerworld.com]

World even closer to H1N1 pandemic, says WHO Chief — “Now we are not in phase 6 yet. But we are closer to phase 6 today than we were last week,” World Health Organization (WHO) Director-General Dr Margaret Chan said on Thursday, referring to the highest level of the WHO’s pandemic alert scale [read it at xinhuanet.com]

Chinese economists deem huge holding of US bonds “risky,” split on way out — On the first day of U.S. treasury secretary Timothy Geithner’s visit to China, the Beijing-based Global Times published a survey of 23 famous Chinese economists on Sunday, saying that the majority of them deemed the vast holding of U.S. bonds “risky.” [read it at xinhuanet.com]

US gives Vietnam protective bird flu equipment — The US will provide Vietnam with 4,000 sets of personal protective equipment and 100 boxes of biodegradable disinfectant powder to help cope with future bird flu threats [read it at Thanh Nien News]

Ariz. Official Says Politics Are Behind Federal Investigations of His Department — Driscoll wrote in his letter, referring to the sheriff’s office, “When one law enforcement agency becomes subject to three federal investigations in a matter of weeks immediately after a shift of political control in Washington, it is difficult not to speculate that politics played a role in the decision or that policy differences related to hot-button topics such as local law enforcement’s vigorous enforcement of immigration related crimes are being litigated through enforcement actions.” [read it at The Washington Post]

From Willnevergiveup archives: Editorial — Russian view of Obama

Fun fact: The US birth rate is 13.82 births/1,000 population (2009 est.)

View archived news on this site