police state updates: fire, fusion, foia

20% of our genes are already patented by private companies*
iris scanners create the most secure city in the world. welcome, big brother*
the return of civil disobedience*
obama signs border bill to increase surveillance*
tea party groups converge on mexican border to back immigration law*
rasmussen: nearly half say US will be nuked*
fire-breathing bartenders arrested, face 45 years*
homeland security, home depot, fusion centers & a local hardware store*
foia: army spy planes not used to track times square time bomber*

biowars/envirohealth: toxic takeovers & objective eugenics

due to public outcry, coast guard rescinds ban of reporters & photographers from oil spill*

bp oil spill corexit dispersants suspected in widespread crop damage*
shoot bp: the amazon-to-arctic investigation*
bp rumormill: sunday times reports exxon/chevron get green light from obama to plot takeover*
bp readying super weapon to avert escalating gulf nightmare?*
bp stops flow of oil into gulf of mexico*

depopulation fanatics, eugenicists launch 'objective' global population study*
plutonium cleanup in washington state could take millennia*
vatican radio waves blamed for high cancer risk*
vitamin & nutritional-supplement maker nbty agrees to be acquired by carlyle group in $3.5b deal*
tesla to deliver prototype electric autos to toyota this month*

previous: coverup, chemtrails & corporatocracy

2/25 newspurge: drugwar, geopolitiks, history/mystery & media/memes

drugwar updates:
medical marijuana patients suffering police harassment*
dispensaries targeted for simply selling weed; pot shop owner arrested for sales*

geopolitiks:
dutch govt falls over afghanistan mission*
brown praises new world order, again*
military seize power in nigerian coup*
courthouse bombed in northern ireland*
fresh detentions over turkey coup 'plot'*
suicide bombers kill 17 in kabul*
cnn poll: 7 in 10 believe iran has nukes*
green prince, son of hamas founder spied for israel*

history/mystery:
fbi closes anthrax case,
gives more details about scientist labeled a killer*
anthrax investigators looked at 1,000 suspects*
a bullet-proof case - not ivins, the fbi cover-up*
aclu sues usaid for refusing to release docs relating to religious programs*
a million library books to be sent down the mines*
sibel edmonds: the traitors among us*
video: margaret sanger, planned parenthood & eugenics*

econocrash updates: worst. decade. ever.

last decade was the worst ever in the stock market
from wsj: The US stock market is wrapping up what is likely to be its worst decade ever. In nearly 200 years of recorded stock-market history, no calendar decade has seen such a dismal performance as the 2000s. Investors would have been better off investing in pretty much anything else, from bonds to gold or even just stuffing money under a mattress. Since the end of 1999, stocks traded on the New York Stock Exchange have lost an average of 0.5% a year thanks to the twin bear markets this decade. The period has provided a lesson for ...?

small-business bankruptcies rise 81% in california
from latimes: The Obama administration's new plan to give a boost to small businesses reflects continued trouble in that sector, which is facing new failures even as much of the nation's economy is stabilizing. As credit lines have shrunk and consumers have cut back on spending, thousands of small businesses have closed their doors over the last year. The plight of struggling firms has been aggravated by the reluctance of banks to lend money, said Brian Headd, an economist at the Small Business Administration's office of advocacy. "While bankruptcies are up, overall, small-business closures are up even more," Headd said. California has been particularly hard hit. The latest data show small-business bankruptcies up 81% in the state for the 12 months ended Sept. 30, compared with the previous year. Filings nationwide were up 44%, according to the credit analysis firm Equifax Inc. The actual number of small businesses in trouble is probably higher, experts said, because many owners file for personal bankruptcy rather than seek protection for the business.

video: arrow trucking co. collapses, shuts off fuel cards, leaves truckers stranded around US

comcast to buy control of nbc universal in $30b transaction

from latimes: In a momentous shift in the balance of power of the entertainment industry, cable television giant Comcast Corp. on Thursday made it official by announcing that it was buying control of NBC Universal from General Electric Co. The proposed $30-billion transaction is the culmination of the longtime ambition by Comcast's chief executive, Brian Roberts, to transform his family-controlled Philadelphia company from a passel of distribution pipes into a leading producer of movies and TV shows and owner of prominent cable channels. The deal underscores how the high profit-margin business of cable TV - not a broadcast network or a Hollywood movie studio - has become the financial backbone of media conglomerates. "Cable channels are the best part of the media business today; they are really the crown jewels of any entertainment company," Comcast Chief Operating Officer Steve Burke told analysts in a conference call.

flashbacks: comcast caps, feds say comcast violates internet rules & fcc fines comcast for airing fake news

econocrash: another day, another dollar

US national debt now tops $12 trillion
from afp: The US public debt topped 12 trillion dollars for the first time in history, Treasury officials disclosed Tuesday, moving past a key barrier that raised hackles in Congress. Treasury data showed Monday's outstanding debt at 12.031 trillion dollars, up from 11.999 trillion on Friday. The ballooning debt reflects the massive deficit spending by the government in an effort to revive an ailing economy over more than one year. The public debt topped 10 trillion dollars in September 2008. The debt is quickly approaching the statutory limit of 12.104 trillion dollars, meaning Congress would have to raise the ceiling to prevent a shutdown of government operations.

trade deficit in US increases by most since 1999*
commodity rally drives mining stocks higher as dollar drops*

oregon's defazio says fire geithner & summers
from raw story: President Barack Obama "is being failed by his economic team" and should replace Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner and White House economic policy director Larry Summers, says US House Rep. Peter DeFazio... "I think there is a growing consensus in the [Democratic] caucus [that] we need a new economic team that cares more about jobs, Main Street and the American people than it does about Wall Street and huge bonuses ... reclaim the unspent funds ... reclaim some of the funds that are being paid back, which will not be paid back in full, and we use it to put people back to work rebuilding America's infrastructure... We may have to sacrifice just two more jobs to get millions back for Americans," DeFazio said.


6 congressmen demand complete audit of fed over aig fiasco*

merciless ikea memoir packs a punch
from independent: The wholesome Scandinavian image of furniture and lifestyle giant Ikea has been rudely shaken by a new book which claims the company is hostile to foreign employees and uses Stasi-style secret police methods to spy on its thousands of staff worldwide. The explosive charges are made by a former senior Ikea executive Johan Stenebo, a Swede who started working for the company at one of its German outlets outside Hamburg over 20 years ago and rose to a senior management position. He resigned last year. His book, entitled Sanningen om Ikea (The Truth about Ikea), contains wide-ranging allegations about a company which has become a global household name. Justifying the book to Gemany's Der Spiegel magazine, he said: "I did not want to go along with it any more, but I could not stay silent."

wal-mart takes steps to prevent more black friday chaos & tragedy*

senate health bill said to cost $849b over 10yrs
from nytimes: The Senate majority leader, Harry Reid, put forward his version of sweeping health care legislation on Wednesday, which a Senate aide said would cost $849 billion over 10 years. Mr. Reid promised that it would reduce the federal budget deficit while covering most of the uninsured and adding new benefits to Medicare. The senior Senate Democratic leadership aide said the bill’s costs would be more than offset by new taxes and reductions in government spending, particularly on Medicare, so that the legislation would reduce future federal deficits by $127 billion. The official cost analysis by the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office was not immediately available, but if the cost projection holds up, it would meet President Obama’s requirement that the bill’s costs be held to about $900 billion. Mr. Reid presented the bill at a meeting with his fellow Democrats. The measure includes a so-called public option allowing people to buy into a new government health insurance plan, but states could opt out of that.

derivatives legislation 'probably written by jpmorgan & goldman'

bank of america, ubs, jpmorgan sued over derivatives
from bloomberg: Bank of America Corp., UBS AG and JPMorgan Chase & Co. were sued by a California public utility over claims they rigged sales of municipal derivatives and shared illegal profits through kickbacks. The lawsuit, filed by the Sacramento Municipal Utility District, is based on federal and state antitrust claims. It alleges Charlotte, North Carolina-based Bank of America and more than a dozen other banks conspired to pre-select winners of municipal derivative auctions, coordinated their pricing, and accepted kickbacks disguised as fees from co-conspirators... The banks engaged in “allocating customers and markets for municipal derivatives, rigging the bidding process by which municipal bond issuers acquire municipal derivatives, and conspiring to manipulate the terms that issuers received,” according to the lawsuit.

lehman sues barclays for $5b plus damages*
money stunt causes chaos in paris*
at least one central bank held fake gold*
mauritius buys two metric tons of gold from imf*
video: celente says US losing everything to fascist oligarchs*


11/19 updates:
wal-mart's black friday plan:
cheap tv's & ipod touch with $50 gift card*
jobs saved or created in congressional districts that don't exist*
new tale of detroit’s woe: pontiac silverdome sold for $583,000*
video: 32% inflation in ucla tuition causes near riots*
ron paul's amendment to audit the federal reserve approved*
geithner savaged on unemployment during fiery capitol hill hearing*

envirohealth: climate control & carbon indulgences

al gore's 'truth' sequel stresses spiritual argument on climate*
(or: man-made global warming is the new world religion)
gore’s dual role: advocate & investor*
gore admits co2 does not cause majority of global warming*
copenhagen agreement & a scary united nations power grab*
video: 'friends of the earth' attacks carbon trading*
video: glenn beck-lord monckton debate global warming*
oil companies support global warming alarmists, not skeptics*
terahertz wave body scanners destroy dna*
beijing's first snow of season 'artificially induced'*
carbon traders deny sub-prime crisis brewing*
only 6% of scientists are republicans: pew poll*
bikini-clad miss earth contestants push climate propaganda*

at the base of the pyramid: creating the market for poor consumers

from wall st journal: Around the world, four billion people live in poverty. And Western companies are struggling to turn them into customers.

For the past decade, business visionaries have argued that these people, dubbed the Base of the Pyramid, make up an enormous, untapped market. Some of the world's biggest, savviest corporations have aimed to address their basic needs—by selling them everything from clean water to electricity.

But, time and again, the initiatives have quietly fizzled out. Why? Because these companies were looking at it all wrong.

Put most simply: The Base of the Pyramid is not actually a market. True, those billions of low-income people have a lot in common. But they don't have two of the vital characteristics you need to have a consumer market. They haven't been conditioned to think that the products being offered are something one would even buy. And they haven't adapted their behaviors and budgets to fit the products into their lives. A consumer market is nothing less than a lifestyle built around a product.

Think of an example close to home. In the 1970s, bottled water was a foreign idea to most Americans—it wasn't part of American consumers' lifestyle. It took decades for large numbers of consumers to accept the notion of buying something you could get free out of a faucet—and turn bottled water into a big business. For many poor consumers, paying for clean water or sanitation products seems just as outlandish.

The answer? Companies must create markets—new lifestyles—among poor consumers. They must make the idea of paying money for the products seem natural, and they must induce consumers to fit those goods into their long-held routines...

One final thought: When marketing to the Base of the Pyramid, companies should be positive. Instead of telling consumers that a product will alleviate their hardships, companies should stress how the product will make their lives more enjoyable.

econocrash: dead malls, dead dollars & dead ceo's

the world's largest shopping mall - is empty*
uk faced 'bank runs, riots' as rbs & hbos neared collapse*
timmy's telephone travesty:
geithner only talks to goldman, citi & morgan*
'death bonds': wall street’s shocking new plan to reap billions off dying americans*
kaptur: there has been a financial coup d'etat*
US dollar: condition terminal*
dollar reaches breaking point; banks shift reserves*
gold: the big picture*
debunking the 'too big to fail' myth*
media mogul sumner redstone to sell nearly $1b in stock, maintains empire*
dow closes above 10k for 1st time in more than a year*
geithner aides made millions on wall street*
lazard ceo bruce wasserstein dies at 61*
goldman sachs breaks record with $16.7b bonus pot*
ongoing coverup of the truth behind the financial crisis may lead to another crash*
oil settles above $75, sets new 2009 high*
video: federal reserve exposed by richard belzer*

update: fdic fund in the red until 2012*

econocrash: 10 looming bankruptcies + fdic & unemployment

10 big companies teetering towards bankruptcy
from business insider: A new report by Audit Integrity identifies some high-profile names "that have the highest probability of declaring bankruptcy among publicly traded firms." ...

1. Hertz: When you have tons of debt financing your fleet of cars, falling rental demand really hurts.
2. Textron:What a tough time to be selling business jets.
3. Sprint/Nextel: Sprint Nextel is bleeding customers, and could lose as many as 4.4 million net post-paid subscribers this year.
4. Macy's: Does anyone even shop at department stores anymore?
5. Mylan: In a classic case of management empire building, Mylan overpaid big time when it bought Merck’s generic business back in 2007 and is now stuck with $5 billion of long-term debt as a result.
6. Goodyear: Demand for Goodyear tires has sunk, and the company is saddled with massive debt and pension obligations.
7. CBS: Weak advertising and falling license fees have sent CBS's earnings off a cliff in 2009.
8. Advanced Micro Devices: When will AMD actually make money again? The question is becoming more important by the day since it carries over $5 billion in long-term debt.
9. Las Vegas Sands: Las Vegas Sands over-expanded and over-levered in the last few years and now has over $10 billion in debt to deal with.
10. Interpublic Group: As one of the largest advertising and marketing companies in the world, IPG was slammed by the global recession.

in other econocrash news:
fdic to consider ways to replenish deposit fund*
regulators seize 2 banks in kentucky & ohio; 94 failures this year*
california & nevada reach record unemployment levels*
unemployment in california reaches 70yr high*
goldman & jpmorgan gobbling up media outlets*
new world currency order starts to unfold*
new world economic order takes shape at g20*

2 more suspicious deaths surrounding banksters

rockefeller chief james mcdonald dies in apparent suicide
from bloomberg: James McDonald, chief executive officer of New York investment firm Rockefeller & Co., died Sunday from a single gunshot wound that was probably self- inflicted, officials in Massachusetts said. His body was found in a car behind an auto dealership in Dartmouth, Mass., said Gregg Miliote, a spokesman for the Bristol County district attorney’s office in New Bedford. While police didn’t find a note, McDonald had called his wife earlier in the day, Miliote said. McDonald, who was 56, headed Rockefeller & Co. for more than 8 years, building the former family office founded by oil man John D. Rockefeller in 1882 into a wealth manager with $25 billion in client assets. Paris-based Societe Generale SA last year bought 37% of Rockefeller Financial Services, parent of Rockefeller Co., to add wealthy clients in the U.S.

former beneficial ceo finn caspersen dies in apparent suicide
from bloomberg: Finn M.W. Caspersen, the former chairman and chief executive officer of Beneficial Corp., was found dead from an apparently self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head, authorities said. He was 67. Police, responding to a call to check on him, found Caspersen on Sept. 7 behind an office building in the Shelter Harbor community of Westerly, Rhode Island, where he owned a home, said spokesman Edward St. Clair. He died from a single gunshot wound, the medical examiner said. “Finn was always a gentleman and always made his resources available,” said Rhode Island state Senator Dennis Algiere, who represents the seaside region, just across the state line from Connecticut. “He was a very charitable individual. He donated a lot of time and money to various organizations in our community over the years.”

update: casperson may have hidden millions abroad

related: 2 suspicious deaths surrounding banksters & blagojevich

mouse meet spider: disney to buy marvel entertainment for $4b

from ap: The Walt Disney Co. is buying Marvel Entertainment Inc. for $4 billion in cash and stock, bringing such characters as Iron Man and Spider-Man into the family of Mickey Mouse and WALL-E. Under the deal, which was announced Monday and is expected to close by the end of the year, Disney will acquire the rights to 5,000 Marvel characters. Many of them, including the Fantastic Four and the X-Men, were co-created by the comic book legend Stan Lee. Disney CEO Robert Iger said Marvel's comic books, TV shows, movies and video games amounted to "a treasure trove of content." Iger said the deal would bring benefits like the ones Disney got from buying "Toy Story" creator Pixar Animation Studios Inc. for $7.4 billion in stock in 2006. "The acquisition of Marvel offers us a similar opportunity to advance our strategy," Iger said, and "to build a business that is stronger than the sum of its parts."

interview w/ albert lanier on crisis in journalism & new alt media

in this latest special interview episode from media monarchy, we talk to albert lanier about the current state of crisis in journalism & the emergence of the new alternative media. albert lanier is a freelance writer/journalist who has written 100s of articles for more than a dozen newspapers & magazines over his 14yr career in hawaii, washington & california. in this amazingly infotaining interview, we discuss everything from dan rather, samuel huntington and the 'shock doctrine' of disaster journalism to assimilation into the mainstream media borg & the news entertainment industrial complex - and, most importantly, what we can do about it. because remember: 'if you're listening to this: you are the resistance.'

download mp3*

cyber/space\war: antisocial networking & the coming cybercom

denial-of-service attack knocks twitter offline*
twitter crashes: hackers to blame?*
what's on the pentagon's mind? facebook*
marines ban twitter, myspace, facebook*
skype could be cut off for good over dispute*
google ceo resigns from apple board*
apple & google: collusion or sleeping with the enemy?*
white house cyber adviser melissa hathaway resigns*
'cyber czar' resigns;
let's not replace her*
white house struggles to fill cyber czar post*
observers ponder new cyber adviser*
desperately seeking cyber skills*
cdt wants US govt to detail computer monitoring program*
e-verify could add biometrics*
uk pentagon hacker & 9/11 truther, gary mackinnon,
loses extradition appeals to avoid trial in US*
video: buzz aldrin on c-span: monolith orbiting mars*
100s of isp's refuse to go along with big brother spy system*
flashback: video: lawrence lessig on an i-9/11*

ceo barry diller says free internet content is a myth

from bloomberg: Barry Diller, chairman and chief executive officer of IAC/InterActiveCorp, said Web users will have to pay for what they watch and use, joining the refrain of media moguls who say an era of free Internet content is ending. The media and technology executive, whose company runs the Ask.com search engine and the Match.com dating service, said it’s “mythology” to view the Internet as a system of free communications. “It is not free, and is not going to be,” Diller said today at the Fortune Brainstorm conference in Pasadena, California. In addition to IAC, he is chairman of Expedia Inc., the online travel service, and Ticketmaster Entertainment Inc. Diller, 67, joined a group of media chiefs, from Liberty Media Corp.’s John Malone to Walt Disney Co. CEO Robert Iger, who are challenging the accepted model that consumers pay for Internet access and then content is free. Diller predicted there will be three revenue streams: advertising, subscriptions and transactions. Disney, the world’s biggest media company, is developing a subscription-based product for the Internet, Iger said on July 22 at the conference. The Burbank, California-based company has opportunities to increase sales from the Web, Iger said. Online advertising can be improved, and marketers can target consumers by tracking their activities and interests. Subscription products are particularly promising to the company.

flashback: internet 'absolutely' will be 'paid system' within 5yrs

history/mystery: unspeakable, kennedys, elites & freemasons

oliver stone, the relaunch of 'jfk & the unspeakable' & 9/11*

flashback: 'jfk & the unspeakable' author speaks in portland*
shocking revelations of US business & nazis*
some suspect conspiracy in holocaust museum case*
it's a very nice house in the country (but not for an orgy)*
bohemian grove protest 2009*
freemasons jailed in fiji over sorcery claims*
jfk jr.'s death: 10yrs later*
video: 10yrs already since jfk jr died*

flashback: the assassination of jfk jr*

graves go missing as west virginia coal companies expand

from ap: Walter Young can't find his great-grandmother's grave. The coal company that had it moved doesn't know where the remains ended up.

"It always looked like a safe, good place nobody would bother," the 63-year-old retiree said of the cemetery along Pigeon Creek where his relative, Martha Curry, was buried. "It was up on a hill."

But that hill was in West Virginia's southern coalfields, and over the years, it changed hands. The land around and under the cemetery passed from one coal company to another as mines grew up around it. Now, no one is sure where Young's great-grandmother was ultimately laid to rest.

The loss is a problem that resonates across West Virginia as small family cemeteries and unmarked graves get in the way of mining, timbering and development interests. Advocates are asking state lawmakers this year to enact regulations that would require better tracking of the graves and protect families who believed that their loved ones wouldn't be disturbed.

"We just keep hearing about more and more cases of it," said Carol Warren, a project coordinator with the Ohio Valley Environmental Coalition...

Bill Raney, president of the West Virginia Coal Association, says coal operators follow the law and try to be sensitive when cemeteries get in the way, treating families with dignity. However, he can't say how often such disputes arise.

International Coal Group's Patriot Mining Co. is currently in court in northern West Virginia, seeking approval to relocate a cemetery where the last burial occurred more then 70 years ago. Patriot received permission last year to move a nearby cemetery.

does the united states make anything anymore?

from ap: It may seem like the country that used to make everything is on the brink of making nothing. In January, 207,000 U.S. manufacturing jobs vanished in the largest one-month drop since October 1982. Factory activity is hovering at a 28-year low. Even before the recession, plants were hemorrhaging work to foreign competitors with cheap labor. And some companies were moving production overseas.

But manufacturing in the United States isn't dead or even dying. It's moving upscale, following the biggest profits, and becoming more efficient, just like Henry Ford did when he created the assembly line to make the Model T.

The U.S. by far remains the world's leading manufacturer by value of goods produced. It hit a record $1.6 trillion in 2007 - nearly double the $811 billion in 1987. For every $1 of value produced in China's factories, America generates $2.50.

So what's made in the USA these days?

The U.S. sold more than $200 billion worth of aircraft, missiles and space-related equipment in 2007. And $80 billion worth of autos and auto parts. Deere & Co., best known for its bright green and yellow tractors, sold $16.5 billion worth of farming equipment last year, much of it to the rest of the world. Then there's energy products like gas turbines for power plants made by General Electric, computer chips from Intel and fighter jets from Lockheed Martin. Household names like GE, General Motors, IBM, Boeing, Hewlett-Packard are among the largest manufacturers by revenue.

econocrash: hack n' slash

goldman, jpmorgan not affected by executive-salary caps
from bloomberg: Executives at Goldman Sachs Group Inc., JPMorgan Chase & Co. and hundreds of financial institutions receiving federal aid aren’t likely to be affected by pay restrictions announced yesterday by President Barack Obama. The rules, created in response to growing public anger about the record bonuses the financial industry doled out last year, will apply only to top executives at companies that need “exceptional” assistance in the future. The limits aren’t retroactive, meaning firms that have already taken government money won’t be subject to the restrictions unless they have to come back for more.

global atm caper nets hackers $9m in 1 day
from threat level: A carefully coordinated global ATM heist last November resulted in a one-day haul of $9 million in cash, after a hacker penetrated a server at payment processor RBS WorldPay, New York's Fox 5 reports.

scandinavian airlines system to cut 8,600 jobs
from wikinews: Sweden-based airline Scandinavian Airlines System (SAS) said it will reduce payrolls by 8,600 jobs as part of its "Core SAS" restructuring plan. The airline will cut 3,000 staff directly and eliminate 5,600 by divesting business ventures, reducing the workforce by 40% to 14,000.

macy’s to cut 7,000 jobs & slash dividends
from ap: Retailer Macy’s says it will cut 7,000 jobs, or four percent of its work force, and slash its dividend as it looks to lower expenses. Cincinnati-based Macy’s Inc. says the work force reduction includes positions in offices, stores and other locations. The cuts will include some unfilled jobs.

panasonic to cut 15k jobs & shut plants
from ap: Panasonic Corp., sinking into its first annual loss in six years, said Wednesday it was slashing about 15,000 jobs and shuttering 27 plants worldwide, joining a string of Japanese companies making deep cuts as they cope with the global slowdown.

ibm invites laid-off US employees to work in india
from raw story: Redefining the possibilities of the word "offshore," IBM has invited its recently laid-off U.S. workers to find work with the storied company in developing countries like India – where salaries are a fraction of what Americans are used to. While the invitation is likely more than most U.S. companies have offered the 2.6 million Americans laid off in 2008, the company's standing offer is probably cold comfort to most newly minted ex-IBM employees.

anthrax hoax linked to market losses
from washington times: A New Mexico man sent dozens of threatening letters in an anthrax hoax to Chase Bank and government agencies as revenge for money he said he lost in the stock market because of the current financial crisis, prosecutors said Tuesday. Richard Leon Goyette, 47, was arrested Monday on charges of sending 65 threatening letters, 64 of which contained a white powder that was later determined to be nonhazardous.

the financial collapse put to music
from cryptogon: Melodies derived from Stock Charts, arranged with Songsmith, the Microsoft Composition Tool. By Johannes Kreidler. www.kreidler-net.de

phelps unites pot smokers

from raw replay: CNN’s Jeanne Moos reported that the photo of Michael Phelps smoking a bong has united pot smokers on the internet. This video is from CNN’s American Morning, broadcast Feb. 4, 2009.

related: phelps takes a hit
flashback: a positive drug story

update: kellogg drops phelps over pot smoking photo
from ap: Cereal and snack maker Kellogg Co. says it will not renew its sponsorhip contract with Olympic swimmer Michael Phelps because he has acknowledged smoking marijuana last fall. The Battle Creek, Mich.-based company said Thursday that Phelps's behavior - caught on camera and published Sunday - is "not consistent with the image of Kellogg." The company put Phelps on boxes of its Frosted Flakes and Corn Flakes. Phelps has kept the backing of many sponsors since the photos surfaced that showed him inhaling from a marijuana pipe. Phelps's agent was not immediately available to comment. Kellogg says its contract with Phelps expires at the end of the month.