from cba/ap: Florida officials are abuzz as to how millions of honey bees were killed in Brevard County. Several beekeepers in the county have reported lost colonies this week. Charles Smith of Smith Family Honey Company told Stuart News Thursday he lost 400 beehives. He says the bees appeared to have been poisoned. “I’ll never get completely compensated for this unless someone handed me 400 beehives,” Smith told Stuart News. “I lost the bees, the ability to make honey and the ability to sell the bees.” Smith told Florida Today that he lost $150,000 from the incident. State officials are testing the bees to determine what type of chemicals contributed to their deaths. Experts say pesticides might be behind the lost beehives. “The fact that it was so widespread and so rapid, I think you can pretty much rule out disease,” Bill Kern, an entomologist with the University of Florida’s Research and Education Center, told Florida Today. “It happened essentially almost in one day. Usually diseases affect adults or the brood, you don’t have something that kills them both.” The case in Micco, 18 miles south of Melbourne, is being investigated by state agriculture officials and the sheriff’s office.
from mcclatchy: A year ago the headline was "It's hot, hot, hot on the summer solstice." This year the solstice weather is much more confused. You have drought in Mississippi, snow in the Rocky Mountains, the mid-Atlantic sits under blanket of heat and humidity, and in the Pacific Northwest, cold and wet. In Kentucky you had a flood that left one 4-year-old asking, "Daddy are we going to die today?" A round-up of weather solstice stories from McClatchy:
Magnificent images were captured by the KCBS news helicopter in L.A. around sunset Monday evening. The location of the missile was about 35 miles out to sea, west of L.A. and north of Catalina Island. A Navy spokesperson told KFMB it wasn't their missile. He said there was no Navy activity reported in the area Monday evening.
On Friday night, Vandenberg Air Force Base, in California, launched a Delta II rocket, carrying an Italian satellite into orbit, but a sergeant at the base told KFMB there had been no launches since then.
Ellsworth said such tests were carried out in the Atlantic to demonstrate America's power to the Soviets, when there was a Soviet Union, but he doesn't believe an ICBM has previously been tested by the U.S. over the Pacific.
In June the Army announced that it would be replacing the term “psychological operations” to the less ominous-sounding “Military Information Support Operations.”
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the dollar will be 'utterly destroyed' from blacklisted news: The dollar will "utterly get destroyed" and become "virtually worthless", said Damon Vickers, chief investment officer of Nine Points Capital Partners. Due to the huge wage disparities between the United States and emerging markets like China, Vickers said that may resolve itself in some type of a global currency crisis.
"If the global currency crisis unfolds, then inevitably you get an alignment of a global world government. A new global currency and a new world order, so we may be moving towards that," he said.
from ap: It's a big number that only tells part of the story. The number of banks that have failed so far this year topped 100 on Friday — hitting 106 by the end of the day — the most in nearly two decades. But the trouble in the banking system from bad loans and the recession goes even deeper.
Dozens, perhaps hundreds, of other banks remain open even though they are as weak as many that have been shuttered. Regulators are seizing banks slowly and selectively — partly to avoid inciting panic and partly because buyers for bad banks are hard to find.
Going slow buys time. An economic recovery could save some banks that would otherwise go under. But if the recovery is slow and smaller banks' finances get even worse, it could wind up costing even more.
This year's 106 bank failures are the most in any year since 181 collapsed in 1992 at the end of the savings-and-loan crisis. On Friday, regulators took over three small Florida banks — Partners Bank and Hillcrest Bank Florida, both of Naples, and Flagship National Bank in Bradenton — along with four elsewhere: American United Bank of Lawrenceville, Ga., Bank of Elmwood in Racine, Wis., Riverview Community Bank in Otsego, Minn., and First Dupage Bank in Westmont, Ill.
from north coast chronicle: For lunch Monday, Elyria High School served up pepperoni pizza to the students who came back for the first day of classes. But instead of students handing over cash, some placed their index fingers on small scanners and walked away with their lunches. “I’m just really glad I don’t have to remember a number every day or have a card or something,” said 14-year-old Korey Gallaher. “All you have to do is put your finger down and go.” With the start of the new school year well under way at the high school, a new lunch system is being piloted that will use student fingerprints instead of cards or personal identification numbers to access lunch accounts. “As long as there is money in my account, I won’t have to worry about anything,” said 14-year-old Stephanie Nieves. “It’s going to make lunch that much easier.” As of Monday, just the freshman class is using the fingerprint program, but by this time next week the entire student body — roughly 2,100 students — and staff will have a scan of their index fingers on file. “When it’s really up and running it will make things go a lot smoother and faster,” said Bill Jett, general manager of Sodexo, the district’s food service provider.
banks in georgia, north carolina & kansas closed by regulators from bloomberg: Banks in North Carolina, Georgia and Kansas with combined assets of $1.5 billion were seized by regulators last week, costing the U.S. insurance fund $363 million and pushing this year’s tally of failures to 40. Southern Community Bank of Fayetteville, Georgia, and 111- year-old Cooperative Bank in Wilmington, North Carolina, were closed June 19 by state officials, and the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency shut First National Bank of Anthony, Kansas. The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. was named receiver.
unemployment at highest level in 25yrs from washington times: The turmoil ravaging General Motors and Chrysler generated big jumps in joblessness last month throughout the Midwest, sending Michigan's unemployment rate above 14 percent and pushing three nearby states into double digits. Jobless rates in Illinois and Indiana surpassed 10 percent, while Ohio's approached 11 percent, according to data released Friday in a Labor Department report. The half-percentage-point jump in the national unemployment rate rippled throughout the country as 48 states and the District of Columbia reported increases in their jobless rates in May. The U.S. unemployment rate rose from 8.9 percent in April to 9.4 percent in May, its highest level in more than a quarter-century. The rate was 10.8 percent near the end of 1982.
cia recruiting laid-off bankers in nyc from newsmax: Laid off from Wall Street? The CIA wants you -- as long as you can pass a lie detector test and show that you are motivated by service to your country rather than your wallet. The Central Intelligence Agency has been advertising for recruits and will be holding interviews on June 22 at a secret location in New York. "Economics, finance and business professionals, if the quest for the bottom line is just not enough for you, the Central Intelligence Agency has a mission like no other," one radio advertisement for the agency says. "Join CIA's directorate of intelligence and be a part of our global mission as an economic or financial analyst. Make a difference in your career and for your nation," it says.
financial dictatorship spreads to europe from steve watson: The European Union is set to mirror moves in the US to overhaul the economic regulatory oversight system, in a move that will see national regulators superceded by European supervisors. “The proposals involve creating three pan-European watchdogs next year to ensure countries introduce new rules on supervision.” Reports the London Telegraph. “Under the proposals, there is to be a European Banking Authority in London, an Insurance Authority in Frankfurt, and a Securities Authority in Paris. All European leaders agreed today to their creation.” These three new bodies will have the authority to dictate and implement decisions on regulatory standards across the board in every member state. Furthermore, the deal will see the creation of a European Systemic Risk Board, that would “monitor the build up of risks”, issue recommendations for action and oversee their implementation. The chairmanship of this new body will be elected by members of the general council of the European Central Bank. This mirrors plans in the US to hand the private Federal Reserve powers to simply seize and take over any company it defines as a risk to the economy. Of course, we shouldn’t be surprised by the move given that, for the most part, the Federal Reserve and the European Central Bank are run by the same private globalist banking corporations.
bankster 'holiday' planned for september? from kurt nimmo: Bob Chapman’s influential International Forecaster is reporting on the possibility of a so-called “bank holiday” planned for late August or early September. According to Chapman’s sources, U.S. embassies around the world are selling dollars and stockpiling money from respective countries where they operate. “Some US embassies worldwide are being advised to purchase massive amounts of local currencies,” writes Harry Schultz, “enough to last them a year.” Schultz publishes the Harry Schultz Letter, an international investment, financial, economic, and geopolitical newsletter named as “Newsletter of the Year” by Peter Brimelow of Market Watch in 2005 and 2008. Schultz believes the global elite are in the process of engineering an FDR-style “bank holiday” of undetermined length in order to “sort-out the bank mess” and impose new bank rules. On March 5, 1933, in the depths of the banker engineered “Great Depression,” newly elected Franklin Roosevelt declared a “bank holiday” that forced banks closed for four days. Roosevelt then rammed the Emergency Banking Act through the legislature. Passed by Congress on March 9, the act granted FDR near dictatorial control over the dealings of banks. It also allowed the Secretary of the Treasury the power to compel every person and business in the country to relinquish their gold and accept paper currency in exchange.
numbers on welfare see sharp increase from wsj: Welfare rolls, which were slow to rise and actually fell in many states early in the recession, now are climbing across the country for the first time since President Bill Clinton signed legislation pledging "to end welfare as we know it" more than a decade ago. Twenty-three of the 30 largest states, which account for more than 88% of the nation's total population, see welfare caseloads above year-ago levels, according to a survey conducted by The Wall Street Journal and the National Conference of State Legislatures. As more people run out of unemployment compensation, many are turning to welfare as a stopgap. The biggest increases are in states with some of the worst jobless rates. Oregon's count was up 27% in May from a year earlier; South Carolina's climbed 23% and California's 10% between March 2009 and March 2008.
condo dwellers finding empty buildings from miami herald: Joshua Hamann jokingly compares himself to the last human in a city overrun by zombies. He's not suggesting his neighbors are zombies. The problem is, he has no neighbors. Hamann dwells in a newly opened condo. And in the six weeks since moving into the gleaming new Everglades on the Bay in downtown Miami, he has felt pretty lonely. Hamann occupies one of only about 50 sold condos in his 49-story tower, out of 409 units. A couple miles north at Midtown Miami, Alisha Marks knows the same feeling. "It was pretty much a ghost town when I got here," she says.
US sailor shot at fifth fleet headquarters from dpa: A US Navy sailor was injured early Saturday by a gunshot at the US Navy's Fifth Fleet Command headquarters in Manama, Bahrain. The sailor, aged 19, was said to be in a stable condition after he suffered a wound to the neck. He was rushed to a local hospital, but US authorities declined to reveal how the incident occurred. "A US Marine is in stable condition following an accidental discharge of a small firearm weapon at the base," base spokesman Lieutenant Nathan Christensen said.
de naald attack: 8th person dies from copycat effect: An eighth person has died in the wake of the assassination attempt on the Dutch Royal Family. The De Naald (in English The Needle), is the obelisk monument in the Dutch city of Apeldoorn that became the final resting place for Karst Tates' automobile... The car rammed into a stone monument (the Masonic structure pictured above) after speeding through the crowd, narrowly missing an open-topped bus carrying Queen Beatrix and other royal family members. Police say the car's driver, identified by Dutch media as Karst Tates, admitted attempting to attack the popular monarch shortly after his car came to a halt. He did not give a motive. The attack on the Queen's Day national holiday raised questions in the Netherlands about the level of security surrounding the royal family. For more on the symbolic linkages, copycat evidence, and video concerning this attack, please click here.
US soldier kills 5 fellow troops in iraq shootout from danger room: Shocking news from Iraq: An American soldier killed five fellow troops in a shooting incident at Camp Liberty, the heavily-fortified U.S. base complex that abuts Baghdad International Airport. Details at this point are scarce, but this looks like an ugly case of fratricide. The Associated Press reports that the shootings happened at a Camp Liberty stress clinic, where troops can receive counseling for combat-related stress or other personal issues. The shooter is reportedly in custody. As The Wall Street Journal’s Yochi Dreazen notes, this is the most deadly single incident involving U.S. troops in Iraq since a truck bomb killed five soldiers in Mosul last month. Camp Liberty is ringed by heavy security, and it’s rather zealously guarded by Ugandan contractors, real sticklers for checking badges. The greatest danger to these mega-bases, at least inside the perimeter, is usually rocket or mortar fire. Unlike the Vietnam War, when “fragging” became commonplace, such cases of fratricide have been extremely rare in Iraq.
massacre in moscow supermarket from russia today: A Moscow police officer who went on a shooting massacre through a supermarket on Monday has caused outrage from human rights activists and lawmakers in Russia, who are calling for stricter gun controls and police reform. Denis Yevsyukov shot dead three people and wounded another six.
5 killed in 'assassination attempt' on dutch royal family
from times online: The Dutch Royal Family looked on in horror yesterday as a car ploughed into a crowd of wellwishers, killing five and injuring twelve. The car smashed through two police barriers in an apparent attempt to ram the open-top bus carrying the royal party, which included Queen Beatrix, 71. Dutch media reported that the driver, a 38-year-old man, had been fired from his job and faced eviction from his home. He was slumped at the wheel when he was arrested. Police said that the man, who was in a critical condition, had no history of mental illness and had acted alone. No explosives were found in the vehicle. The Royal Family had been visiting Apeldoorn, 60 miles (96 km) east of Amsterdam, as part of the festivities for the annual Queen’s Day holiday. In a rare television address Queen Beatrix offered her condolences. “We are speechless that something so terrible could have happened,” she said, looking shaken. “My family and I think everybody in the country sympathises with the victims, their families and friends. What began as a great day has ended in a terrible tragedy.” On Queen’s Day, which commemorates the birth of Queen Beatrix’s mother, millions of people take the day off, dress in orange wigs and hats and hold street parties. Last night the parties were cancelled and flags were at half-mast. Ludo Goossens, a justice official, said: “At the moment of first contact with police on the ground, the man indicated that his action was aimed against the Royal Family.”
azerbaijan gunman kills 13 at college from guardian: Thirteen people were shot dead and another 13 injured today after a student went on the rampage at his campus in Baku, the capital of the oil-rich Caspian state of Azerbaijan. The student – identified as Nadir Shirhanoglu – opened fire after a dispute with other members of his college faculty, witnesses said. He then shot himself in the head.
when this story first broke, i saved a pdf of the original guardian article which mentioned:
"Russian news agencies identified the gunman as a Georgian citizen, Mursal Gamidov. The shootings may have broken out following a row between a rival group of foreigners at the college and Azeri students, the agencies suggested. The Azeri press agency this morning quoted a senior police officer as saying that the gunmen were "terrorists" who had been "neutralised". A student told the news agency Reuters he believed two gunmen were involved."
needless to say, that's all gone down the memory hole...
regulators shut banks in georgia, michigan, california & idaho from bloomberg: Regulators seized banks in Georgia, Michigan, California and Idaho with total assets of $2.3 billion, bringing the tally of failures in the U.S. this year to 29, exceeding the total for all of 2008. American Southern Bank of Kennesaw, Georgia; Michigan Heritage Bank in Farmington Hills; and First Bank of Beverly Hills in Calabasas, California, were shut by state agencies. First Bank of Idaho in Ketchum was closed by the Office of Thrift Supervision. The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. was named receiver of all four. The seizures will cost the FDIC’s insurance fund a total of $698.4 million, with more than half of that tied to the failure of the California bank. While banks in the other three states are being taken over by institutions in their regions, the FDIC couldn’t find a buyer for First Bank of Beverly Hills, forcing the regulator to assume the company’s $1.5 billion in assets.
protesters, police clash near imf meetings in dc from afp: Seven people were arrested near the International Monetary Fund's Washington headquarters on Saturday as they tried to stop meetings taking place inside, police said. "Six people were detained for vandalism offenses and a seventh was detained for assaulting a police officer," Washington police spokesman Quentin Peterson told AFP. Two banks were attacked in disturbances that began early on Saturday morning and were aimed at disrupting the spring meetings of the IMF and World Bank. Police did not offer an estimate for the number of people involved in the disturbances, but organizer David Combs of the the Global Justice Action group said protesters numbered 300. Local media put the figure at closer to 100. "The aim of the protests was to express outrage at the IMF's long-standing (habit) of ignoring human rights and environmental concerns," Combs said. Protesters carried banners berating the Bretton Woods institutions and calling for an end to capitalism. They carried placards stating that "Capitalism is Crisis" and shouted slogans calling for the IMF to be shut down, before clashing with police. Law enforcers had earlier announced road closures around the IMF - which lies in central Washington, not far from the White House - until Sunday when meetings are scheduled to conclude. The World Bank on Saturday launched a 55-billion-dollar infrastructure investment program as part of efforts to help developing countries weather the worst global slump in decades.
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