Saturday, March 29, 2014

some news late March 2014

UPDATE: a couple great songs I heard this week:


It has been a busy week in current news. In the US there were some California Democratic politicians arrested by the FBI after an investigation lasting several months. Also a Charlotte, NC mayor accused of corruption was arrested.

Maddow also looks again at the problems in testing of Air Force officers involved in the nuclear weapon launch program [8 min video]. Nine were fired, dozens will be investigated.

A massive avalanche near Oso in Washington state has destroyed a square mile of prime real estate. Twenty-five people at least are dead and 150 more are still missing. Some blame logging industry for triggering the landslide.

The BP oil spill in Lake Michigan is twice as large as they first reported.

Embattled New Jersey Governor Chris Christie had a press conference announcing the retirement of the Port Authority chief David Samson and touting his own innocence as stated in a report and press conference made by his own lawyers. [71 min video] In that report they lay most of the blame for the #bridgescandal on his former chief of staff Bridgett Kelly. That same night her lawyers attacked the report as 'venemous' and demeaning to their client and later she was reported to have announced she would speak only to US Federal prosecutors who are currently investigating the many claims against Governor Christie. The timing of the retirement of Samson, the Christie picked Port Authority chief, seems suspicious to many as he, acording to emails was aware of the traffic problem on the bridge and in the town of Fort Lee, New Jersey that lasted for four days last September. It is also clear that Gov Christie wants to move on from the scandals as he went to Las Vegas today to try to get donations from wealthy Republican casino king, Sheldon Adelson. At heart of #bridgescandal is the question who and how would anyone benefit from bottling up one of the most heavily trafficked bridges out of Manhattan. All this has been near the top of the news for months as he is seen as a possible presidential contender for 2016. But Christie's Friday pressconference, Samson resigning and the Brigett Kelly responses have pushed this again to the forefront of the media shows.

POTUS Barack Obama spent the week in Europe, mostly discussing the ongoing crisis in Ukraine and Crimea and ended his trip with a visit to pope Francis in Rome. They gave each other gifts.

NSA chief steps down but doesn't mention Snowden at ceremony. POTUS says there should be changes at the agency including stopping the phone dragnet. We'll see what this means or maybe they will say they will stop it and just trim around the edges.

Meanwhile everyone is tense over the standoff in Ukraine. Last week's vote annexed Crimea to Russia, according to the Russians. Rest of world is not accepting this vote as valid. Military exercises continue in the east of and around Ukraine.

Turkey's PM ordered to shut down twitter and youtube ahead of elections Sunday in that country.

Really remarkable twenty segment audio collection of sights, sounds & stories from Mexico-US border, from npr

No comments: