news on the march

US says it will increase efforts against 'tax defiers'
from new york times: If you think paying taxes is unfair, illegal or unconstitutional, then watch out - the Justice Department is after you. Just as the Internal Revenue Service is getting into its perennial tax-season tough talk, Justice Department officials weighed in Tuesday with a vow to ramp up efforts against “tax defiers.”

texas woman threatens bank tellers with morgellons
from alice echo news: A woman claiming to have Morgellons, a skin disease, drove through the Wells Fargo motor bank downtown and threatened the tellers by rubbing the bank canister on her sores and sending it through the tube. "A customer went through the drive-thru and threatened the bank staff to give them a contagious disease," said investigator David Valadez with the police department.

venezuela axes 'the simpsons' as bad for kids
from reuters: Venezuela has forced U.S. cartoon "The Simpsons" off its airwaves, calling the show a potentially bad influence on children, and filled its morning slot with reruns of the beach-and-bikini show "Baywatch."

'ruthlessness gene' discovered
from nature news: Selfish dictators may owe their behaviour partly to their genes, according to a study that claims to have found a genetic link to ruthlessness. The study might help to explain the money-grabbing tendencies of those with a Machiavellian streak - from national dictators down to ‘little Hitlers’ found in workplaces the world over.

activists want screeners on camera
from washington times: Religious, minority and civil rights activists are asking Homeland Security officials to screen their own airport screeners using video cameras to check whether passengers are being subjected to bias or profiling. "We believe such controls are critical to ensuring that our nation's [screeners] are focused squarely on security threats and not distracted by any personal bias," the organizations said in a letter...

US irked by iran's joining of shanghai cooperation organization
from press tv: The US says it will use all means to prevent Iran's influence in the region including its membership in Shanghai Cooperation Organization... Washington would not remain silent if there were signs the grouping was evolving in the direction of forming a military cooperation.

army conduct waivers double
from stars & stripes: The percentage of recruits requiring a waiver to join the Army because of a criminal record or other misconduct has more than doubled since 2004 to one for every eight new soldiers, USA Today reported...

40 nasa workers on same floor have cancer
from newsnet5: There are 40 cases of cancer among people who work in the same building at NASA Glenn Research Center. Dozens of the employees fear that their cancer was triggered by years of working in the developmental engineering building, NewsChannel5 reported... "What we've seen in the way of cancer here has just been astronomical on this third floor alone and we're just a little scared," said Dennis Pehotsky, of the Lewis Engineers and Scientists Association.

washington licenses to get rfid
from jerome corsi: The state of Washington announced a pilot project to introduce a driver's license "enhanced" with a radio frequency identification, or RFID... the enhanced license is intended to be an alternative way of complying with the Western Hemisphere Travel Initiative mandated by the Intelligence Reform and Terrorism Prevention Act of 2004.

continuity of government & the 'endgame' scenario
from global research: Back in 1987 during joint congressional hearings into the Iran-Contra affair, Rep. Jack Brooks (D-TX) asked Lt. Col. Oliver North, Reagan's point-man on the National Security Council:

Since those 1987 hearings, the "arrangements" alluded to by Sen. Inouye about this prickly topic, Continuity of Government (COG), have yet to result in an open hearing before relevant congressional committees. Why?

dhs wants permanent checkpoint in vermont
from wcax: Homeland Security wants to build a permanent immigration checkpoint in central Vermont. An exact location has not been revealed, but officials say it would be similar to this one that used to be on Interstate 91 in Hartford. Agents use the check points to search for illegal immigrants, drugs smugglers and terrorists.

dhs ponders microwave raygun missile defences at airports
from the register: The US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) will consider fitting high-power microwave electropulse rayguns at US airports, in order to defend against the threat of terrorists firing portable anti-aircraft missiles at airliners. American defence heavyweight Raytheon would partner with Israel's Rafael and Kongsberg of Norway to provide the technology, according to a report in Flight International. The proposed kit is known as "Vigilant Eagle", and is competing for DHS securo-dollars with defensive systems that could be fitted to the airliners themselves - for instance BAE Systems' JetEye.

study shows high levels of toxic chemical in wv residents' blood
from ap: Thousands of West Virginia and Ohio residents have elevated levels of a chemical used to make the nonstick coating Teflon, according to preliminary data from a study... DuPont agreed to fund health screenings for up to 70,000 residents who claimed releases of the chemical C8 from the Washington Works plant near Parkersburg had contaminated public and private wells.