Published on Nov 26, 2012 by RussiaToday

Thousands of dairy farmers on Monday protested low prices for their product, choking traffic in the Belgian capital with their tractors and spraying European Union headquarters and police with milk.

One group started a fire in the street, but despite some pushing and shoving with police, there was no major violence.

Farmers from several EU nations are demanding higher prices for milk, which currently is often being sold at below production costs, threatening the survival of their farms.

RT LIVE http://rt.com/on-air

Article by: LARRY OAKES , Star Tribune
Updated: November 23, 2012 - 8:22 AM

BEMIDJI, MINN. - Joe Lueken spent 46 years becoming a successful grocer and community benefactor here. Finally, at 70, he's ready to sell the business, travel the world with his wife, Janice, and reap some of what they've sown.

So when he strides into his south Bemidji supermarket and 2 1/2-year employee Maria Svare smiles broadly and asks him, "How do you like my store today?" it might sound like a joke. But it's not. And that's part of why hundreds of Bemidji residents are thankful this holiday season for Joe Lueken.

On Jan. 1, Lueken's Village Foods, with two supermarkets in Bemidji and another in Wahpeton, N.D., will begin transferring ownership to its approximately 400 employees through an Employee Stock Ownership Program (ESOP).

Lueken said he had multiple offers to sell to large independent chains and might have gotten more money that way. But he and his family believe that selling to workers will be better for them, the business and this north-central Minnesota city of 13,000 people.

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The Examiner
August 12, 2012
By: Deborah Dupre


Bayou Corne sinkhole area butane-filled well
explosion calculated to be more than that of
an H-bomb
Credits: Alex Wellerstein, NUKEMAP


A possible breach of a butane-filled well 1500 feet from Bayou Corne's sinkhole, the size of three football fields,* is so "very serious," it has Assumption Parish sheriff and local residents ordered to evacuate worried about a catastrophic explosion, one according to scientists in an Examiner investigation, would be in the range of one and a half B83 thermonuclear (hydrogen) bombs, the most powerful United States weapons in active service.

“The disaster is made all the more worrisome because the hole is believed to be close to a well containing 1.5 million barrels of liquid butane, a highly volatile liquid that turns into a highly flammable vapor upon release,” CNN reported Friday about Louisiana's declared State of Emergency.

Earlier it was reported the butane-filled well is only 1500 feet from the sinkhole and it will not be emptied. A breach of that well, Assumption Parish Sheriff Mike Waguespack said, could be "catastrophic,” CNN reports. If ignited, the butane well would release as much explosive energy as 100 Hiroshima bombs, Deborah Dupré's scientist sources told her Sunday.

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[font color=red]* - Note this article was written 3 months ago and the sinkhole has grown to over 8 acres presently (see videos below).[/font]

See also:

Officials: We’ve been advised that increased seismic activity has been recorded near Louisiana sinkhole
07:11 PM EST on November 21st, 2012 link

New flyover of giant sinkhole shows more crude oil coming to surface (VIDEOS)
05:40 PM EST on November 21st, 2012 link

Local TV runs ‘Breaking News’ report on poisonous gas below giant Louisiana sinkhole (VIDEO)
02:54 PM EST on November 21st, 2012 link

Officials: High levels of ‘extremely dangerous gas’ reported near giant sinkhole — Newspaper removes ‘poisonous’ from headline
01:12 AM EST on November 21st, 2012 link

Expert: In all honesty things have taken so long because of problems getting staff to come work sinkhole area — Thanksgiving week off starts today? (VIDEO)
04:37 PM EST on November 20th, 2012 link

Published on Nov 16, 2012 by ReutersTV

Questions are flowing after Washington and Colorado legalized recreational use of marijuana. Where can you buy it? How much can you carry? Police in Seattle put together a guide, "Marijwhatnow?", written by spokesman Jonah Spangenthal-Lee, to answer those questions and more. (November 16, 2012)

TreeHugger.com
Mat McDermott
Business / Environmental Policy
November 9, 2012


Taylor Russell/CC BY-SA 2.0

One very interesting ballot initiative we missed: Examiner reports San Juan County, Washington passed Initiative Measure No. 2012-4, making it illegal to "propagate, cultivate, raise or grow plants, animals and other organisms which have been genetically modified."

Exceptions are allowed for GMO cultivation for research and health care use. The initiative does not prohibit the sale of products containing GMO ingredients, nor require labeling of those products made with them.

Violating the order results in a fine for first offense, increasing to a gross misdemeanor charge on the third offense.

For those not up on their Washington State geography, San Juan County consists of several islands in the Salish Sea, roughly equidistant between the city of Bellingham to the northeast and the Canadian city of Victoria to the southwest.

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Paula Broadwell discusses with Jon Stewart about the time she spent (''embedded'' - Jon Stewart's term, not mine) with General David Petraeus in war-torn Afghanistan while researching her book "All In."

Video Link

Helaine Olen, Contributor
11/08/2012 @ 4:25PM

The next time you have the misfortune of hearing a Wall Street titan or other one-percenter whine about how their trickle-down contributions are not appreciated by the masses remember this tidbit, courtesy of Garrett Haake at NBC:

From the moment Mitt Romney stepped off stage Tuesday night, having just delivered a brief concession speech he wrote only that evening, the massive infrastructure surrounding his campaign quickly began to disassemble itself.

Aides taking cabs home late that night got rude awakenings when they found the credit cards linked to the campaign no longer worked.

No doubt a whole host of Boston taxi drivers found themselves stiffed when it came to tips early Wednesday morning. That’s what happens when the money trickles up, not down and it’s why healthy economies don’t depend on the trickle down whims of overlords. The minute Richie Rich decides he doesn’t need all that stuff staff … well, that’s that.