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bananas's JournalBirds Find An Unlikely Resting Place In Drought-Stricken California
Birds Find An Unlikely Resting Place In Drought-Stricken California
By Joanna M. Foster on January 28, 2014 at 4:05 pm
As California braces for what is shaping up to be its driest year on record, millions of birds are winging their way down through the Golden State’s parched Central Valley along the migratory route known as the Pacific Flyway. But with just 5 percent of the historic wetlands of the region remaining, habitat for migratory shorebirds in need of a rest and a meal is in short supply.
Fortunately for tuckered ducks and spent sandhill cranes, the Nature Conservancy and rice farmers are teaming up to create temporary wetlands exactly where the birds need them most.
Ordinarily, rice farms, flooded through the winter to help decompose leftover rice straw, are drained at the end of January to prepare the ground for spring planting. But this year, over 40 rice farms in the valley will let 2 to 4 inches of water stand in their fields through February and March — creating 10,000 additional acres of wetlands.
Only 250,000 acres of wildlife refuges and managed wetlands exist in the Valley.
The Nature Conservancy used the vast data set on bird spring arrival dates and locations compiled through the popular birdwatcher app, eBird to pinpoint when and where wetland habitat needed to be created. The Conservancy then asked rice farmers along the flyway to submit bids on how much it would cost to keep their fields flooded for a few extra weeks — essentially renting out habitat for birds at around $45 an acre.
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Snow delays sentencing for nun, Y-12 protesters
Source: The Tennessean
Unexpected snow Tuesday in East Tennessee delayed the sentencing of an 83-year-old Catholic nun and two other anti-nuclear activists convicted of breaking into one of the U.S. government's most secure nuclear facilities and defacing a uranium-processing building with human blood.
The federal courthouse in Knoxville, Tenn., closed early Tuesday and the trio's sentencing hearing will continue Feb. 18, said Sharry Dedman-Beard, a spokeswoman for U.S. Attorney William Killian.
But before shutting down court proceedings for the day, a federal judge ordered the three to pay nearly $53,000 in restitution for damaging government property during the 2012 protest.
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The three have garnered worldwide attention. Dozens of people gathered Tuesday in Knoxville, Tenn., with temperatures in the teens for a chance to get a seat inside the courtroom for the sentencing, the Knoxville News Sentinel reported. And thousands of letters of support have poured in from around the world.
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Read more: http://www.tennessean.com/article/20140128/NEWS/301280107
Once-in-a-generation winter storm descends on Deep South
Source: NBC News
A brutal winter freeze began to descend on the Deep South early Tuesday with a huge swath of the region in the crosshairs of a storm that forecasters called "potentially paralyzing."
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Weather Channel meteorologist Nick Wiltgen described it as a "potentially paralyzing winter storm." And the forecaster’s winter weather expert, Tom Niziol, said the South was in for weather "that many parts have not seen in years" — perhaps the biggest winter weather event in a generation.
The nasty weather will reach so far south that Johnson Space Center, in Houston, said it would be closed.
The the biggest snow threat lay in eastern and central Texas, including Houston, and stretched to southeast Virginia. Eastern North Carolina and southeast Virginia would have the greatest chance of getting more than six inches of snow, according to The Weather Channel.
The winter storm is traveling south-eastwards and the wintry mix will dip as low as the Florida Panhandle on Tuesday. By Wednesday, it will have started to bend up the East Coast, where it will travel as far north as Providence, Rhode Island, before moving offshore by lunchtime.
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Read more: http://usnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2014/01/27/22466322-once-in-a-generation-winter-storm-descends-on-deep-south?lite
Peace activists deserve leniency; actions exposed dangerous security flaws
Guest column: Peace activists deserve leniency; actions exposed dangerous security flaws
Posted at 3:53 pm January 27, 2014
By Danielle Brian, executive director of Project on Government Oversight
If justice is served Tuesday, a federal judge will exercise leniency when he sentences Sister Megan Rice, Greg Boertje-Obed, and Michael Walli for their non-violent protest at the Y-12 nuclear facility in Oak Ridge in July 2012.
The three peace activists did much more to raise awareness about the security gaps at Y-12 than any harm committed when they breached the compound’s outer fence.
Important lessons were learned about the nuclear weapons complex’s security failings and, more importantly, the failings were discovered through non-violent methods.
We hope the court will take into account that the only real impact their protest had was to expose the extremely flawed and dangerous security at Y-12.
For background on the case, go to http://www.pogo.org/blog/2013/05/20130509-y-12-protestors-exposed-security-failures-found-guilty-1.html
Founded in 1981, POGO is a nonpartisan independent watchdog that champions good government reforms. POGO’s investigations into corruption, misconduct, and conflicts of interest achieve a more effective, accountable, open, and ethical federal government.
Scores brave bitter cold to get seat for Y-12 protesters' sentencing
Source: Knoxville News Sentinel
Photo by Michael Patrick
Supporters line up to go through security for a seat in the courtroom as three Y-12 protesters -- Sister Megan Rice, Michael Walli and Greg Boertje-Obed -- are sentenced by U.S. District Judge Amul R. Thapar at the Howard H. Baker Jr. Federal Courthouse Tuesday, Jan. 28, 2014. (MICHAEL PATRICK/NEWS SENTINEL)
Scores of people braved bitterly cold temperatures Tuesday morning to get a seat for the sentencings of three Plowshares protesters who broke into the Y-12 nuclear weapons plant.
Space inside the U.S. District courtroom downtown was limited.
Sister Megan Rice, an 83-year-old Catholic nun, who’ll turn 84 in two days, and Michael R. Walli, 64, are both from Washington, D.C.; Greg Boertje-Obed, 58, is from Duluth, Minn., were convicted in May on federal charges of attempting to injure the national defense and depredation of government property.
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The veteran activists have said they hoped to draw the world’s attention to the continued manufacture of nuclear weapons at the Oak Ridge plant and the government’s plans to spend billions of dollars on a new production facility at the site.
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Read more: http://www.knoxnews.com/news/2014/jan/28/scores-brave-bitter-cold-to-get-seat-for-y-12/
Abe eager to meet Obama, Xi at Nuclear Security Summit
Source: Kyodo
Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is considering attending the Nuclear Security Summit in the Netherlands in March, government officials said Monday.
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If a Japan-U.S. summit takes place in The Hague, Abe is expected to explain his abrasive visit in December to Yasukuni Shrine, which served as the spiritual center for Japan’s war of aggression, they said. Abe’s angered China, South Korea and was criticized by the United States.
The officials said Abe is hoping to “secure U.S. understanding” of his shrine visit and buttress the Japan-U.S. alliance amid China’s more assertive stance over the Japanese-administered Senkaku Islands in the East China Sea.
Since China has rejected Abe’s calls for a summit with Xi amid soured ties over the islets, as well as differences on history, the two governments do not anticipate talks between the two leaders in the near future. The leaders, however, might have an informal exchange if Abe attends the summit.
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Read more: http://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2014/01/27/national/abe-eager-to-meet-obama-xi-at-nuclear-security-summit/
Chinese ships create post-Davos stir
Source: AFP-JIJI, Kyodo
Chinese Coast Guard ships entered Japan’s 12-nautical-mile zone near one of the Senkaku Islands in the East China Sea on Monday, days after Prime Minister Shinzo Abe caused an international stir by comparing Sino-Japanese relations with British-German ties in the runup to World War I.
The Japan Coast Guard said the Chinese vessels encroached at around 9 a.m. and left the area about two hours later.
It came as Abe was in New Delhi, where he and Indian counterpart Manmohan Singh affirmed plans to strengthen defense cooperation, including joint maritime exercises on a “regular basis with increased frequency.”
His three-day visit to India is being keenly watched by China, analysts say. Beijing is sometimes uneasy about what it sees as an attempt by the U.S.-backed Japan to encircle it.
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Read more: http://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2014/01/27/national/chinese-ships-create-post-davos-stir/
Return arms-grade plutonium: U.S.
Source: Kyodo
Washington has been pressing Tokyo to return over 300 kg of mostly weapons-grade plutonium given to Japan for research purposes during the Cold War era, Japanese and U.S. government sources said Sunday.
President Barack Obama’s administration, which is keen to ensure nuclear security, wants Japan to return the plutonium supplied for use as nuclear fuel in a fast critical assembly in Tokai, Ibaraki Prefecture, the sources said.
The highly concentrated plutonium could be used to produce 40 to 50 nuclear weapons.
Japan has strongly resisted returning the plutonium, which it says is needed for researching fast reactors. But it has finally given in to repeated U.S. demands, the sources said.
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Read more: http://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2014/01/27/national/return-arms-grade-plutonium-u-s/
New NHK boss ignites a firestorm, Momii's debut speech puts sex slave row back in spotlight
Source: Kyodo, AP, JIJI, Japan Times Staff Report
The new chairman of NHK expressed regret Monday for his earlier comments that seemed to defend the nation’s wartime use of sex slaves, calling his words “extremely inappropriate.”
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Momii, also former president of Nihon Unisys Ltd., told reporters Monday in Tokyo that while the remarks represented his personal opinion, “even as an individual opinion, it’s not something I should have said.”
“It was my first time (speaking) at such an occasion and I did not know the rules,” he said.
Momii, rumored to have been the preferred choice of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe for the top NHK post, said he will continue to deal with the fallout from his comments and devote himself to the role of president.
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Read more: http://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2014/01/27/national/new-nhk-boss-ignites-a-firestorm/
He regrets he said it - but he hasn't changed his mind, it's still his opinion.
Neocon Abe wants regressive assholes like this to head NHK, where they can affect how the news is reported.
Abe: No fallout from remarks in Davos about World War I
Source: Asahi Shimbun
Prime Minister Shinzo Abe dismissed any negative impact from his comparison of Japan-China ties with Europe before World War I, saying his intention was clear to all media members who heard him.
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The remarks in question came on Jan. 22 in front of about 30 senior media representatives on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum’s annual Davos meeting in Switzerland. Abe compared the soured Japan-China relationship to Britain and Germany in 1914, noting that despite their strong economic ties, the two European countries fought each other in World War I.
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Jiang Jianqing, co-chair of the Davos meeting and chairman of the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, said Jan. 25 that whether an armed conflict erupts between the two nations depends on Japan’s actions.
Jiang mentioned that Japan had already invaded China by 1914, when World War I broke out, and encroached further inland after the war ended.
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Read more: http://ajw.asahi.com/article/behind_news/politics/AJ201401270066
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