Breaking News Wed. April 20, 2011

Happy 4/20!
In honor of the day, I found this for us on wikihow.
enjoy!
WikiHow: How to Grow Medical Marijuana
and don't miss...
MotherJones: Mitch Daniels Was Once Caught With 2 Shoeboxes Full of Weed?
When it comes to pot, we've come a long way from the days of "I did not inhale." Fifteen states (plus the District of Columbia) currently permit the use of marijuana for medicinal purposes, and according to a recent Pew survey, 45-percent of Americans say they'd support legalizing marijuana outright—a 29-point increase from just two decades ago.
Hope everyone is having a good day. Going to go ahead and post this as I have to go to the art supply store for goodies! LOL will be back later and update as necessary.
thanks rj for the links. i'll add more of them when I get back. you guys should check out rj's blog if you haven't already.

Japan
ibtimes:Contaminated Water Levels Fall; TEPCO Plans Re-UseTEPCO outlined plans Monday to take about 10,000 cubic meters of contaminated water from the turbine building of reactor unit 2, and move it to a treatment plant that will be built on site. The plan is to use the treated water to cool the reactors, so that new water need not be brought in and TEPCO can stop dumping radioactive water into the ocean.
BBC News - Japanese exports fall 2.2% in March due to tsunami: "Japanese exports fell more than expected in March, as damage from last month's earthquake and tsunami affected shipments. According to the finance ministry exports declined 2.2% from a year earlier, the first drop in 16 months.

Global Conflict
BBC: Libya: France and Italy to send officers to aid rebelsFrance and Italy have said they are to send small teams of military officers to advise Libyan rebels who are seeking to topple Col Muammar Gaddafi.
ibtimes: Fresh violence in Yemen after UN fails to agree on statement on crisisYemen has been struck by fresh new violence, one day after a summit in the United Nations failed to reach a consensus on the nation’s crisis.
WashingtonPost: Gunmen on motorcycles open fire on protesters’ camp in western Yemen port
SANAA, Yemen — Gunmen on motorcycles sped by and opened fire on hundreds of demonstrators camped out in the early hours of the morning Wednesday in a Yemeni port city, killing one and wounding several protesters, an opposition activist said.
TheAtlantic: Did Donald Rumsfeld Whitewash Massacre in Uzbekistan?

Financial News
Here's JPMorgan's Chilling Report On "The Domino Effect Of A US Treasury Technical Default"
ZeroHedge: ...And $45 (silver)

chrisMartenson: Daily Digest 4/20 - High Gas Prices Impact Car Sales, China Responds To U.S. Debt Move, 30 Homes Involved In Copper Theft
Reuters: Special Report: From Hannibal Lecter to Bernie Madoff 
PWC: Cash and debt management issues prevent employees from saving for retirement; 
nearly half of working US Adults find it difficult to pay household expenses on time
theEconomist: Is the Bank of England preparing to raise interest rates? 
Guardian: Pound plunges after Bank of England warns of fragile consumer spendingSterling loses 1% against euro and City analysts put back forecasts of interest rate rise until late in year
MyBudget360: Casino economics and tax myths – media forgets that people pay sales, property, Social Security, and Medicare taxes. How the financial class robs from the American people legally.
Cryptogon: Gold Futures Top $1,500 on Outlook for Escalating U.S. Debt, Dollar Slump
BBC: Toyota extends US production cuts due to parts shortage
CapitalGainsandGames: Debt Ceiling Increase is Likely To Fail at Least Once Before it's Finally Adopted  

Peak oil and Energy News
UPI: Iran sees high oil prices through 2011
OilPrice: Energy Breakthrough: One Step Closer to Extracting Hydrogen From Water 
Grist: Germans happily pay more for clean energy. Why don’t Americans?In the U.S., any policy that raises taxes on anyone or causes anyone to pay more for anything -- at least in a way that's visible or traceable -- has become verboten.  
TheOilDrum: Will the decline in world oil supply be fast or slow? 
FallschurchNews: The Peak Oil Crisis: Killing Off the Recovery 

Environmental News
Yahoo: Gulf oil spill one-year anniversary
DesMoinesRegiater: EPA chief has no plans to regulate farm runoff 
DemocracyNow: Voices From the Gulf: "One Year Later, We’re In The Same Situation As Last Year"One year after the BP Deepwater Horizon oil rig blowout in the Gulf of Mexico, residents of affected coastal communities have reported health ailments such as severe coughing, migraines and irritations that are consistent with common symptoms of chemical exposure.
ABCNews: Gulf Oil Spill: Fishermen Say They Are Sick from Cleanup; ABC News InvestigationBP Hired More Than 10,000 Fishermen to Help After Deepwater Horizon 
ClimateProgress: Hell: “Unprecedented drought” drives “never-before-seen wildfire situation in Texas”

 WSJ: Toxins found in gas drilling fluids - The drilling fluids used to recover natural gas and oil from deep shale formations contain substances identified as human carcinogens, or listed as hazardous under federal clean air or water rules, according to a report issued late Saturday by senior House Democrats. Democrats on the House Energy and Commerce committee described their report as the first comprehensive national inventory of chemicals used by companies that engage in a process known as hydraulic fracturing. The composition of hydraulic fracturing fluids has become a key point of tension between the oil and gas industry, which has been reluctant to disclose the specific contents of drilling fluids, and those who say such disclosure is necessary to determine whether hydraulic fracturing poses a threat to drinking water.
ClimateChangePsychology: James Hansen et al: Earth's energy imbalance and implications - Improving observations of ocean temperature confirm that Earth is absorbing more energy from the sun than it is radiating to space as heat, even during the recent solar minimum.

America in Decline
PopularMechanics: Should Cops Be Allowed to Scan Your Phone During a Traffic Stop?In Michigan, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) has filed a complaint alleging that Michigan State Police officers used forensic cellphone analyzers to snoop in drivers' cellphones during routine traffic stops. PM talked to a Fourth Amendment expert to sort through whether that amendment's protections against illegal search and seizure should stop an officer from scanning your phone.
ActivistPost: IOWA: Video cameras now lethal weapons: Republicans launch another attack on your rights
 Iowa is following in Florida’s footsteps and working on passing a bill making it a criminal offense to film or photograph the abuse of animals on farms or in commercial CAFO operations. Apparently it is ok to abuse your animals, to leave them in fetid conditions, or to treat them inhumanely . . . Iowa just doesn’t want you documenting that abuse.
TPM: Right-Wing Warns Of 'Homosexual Indoctrination' In Public Schools
Slate: The United States of InequalityKing was somewhat troubled to find that the richest 1 percent possessed about 15 percent of the nation's income. (A more authoritative subsequent calculation puts the figure slightly higher, at about 18 percent.)
Cryptogon: iPhone Keeps Secret Record of Everywhere You Go

Food and Water
USAToday: Volunteer gardeners share their bounty with food banks

Medical and Health
NewScientist: Sewage reveals drug habits in Paris and Adelaide WHILE sewage is not something you can set your watch by, it'll certainly tell you when the weekend has arrived.
WikiHow: How to Cope with TrichotillomaniaTrichotillomania is an irresistible urge to pull out hair from the scalp, eyebrows or other areas of one's body. Hair pulling from the scalp often leaves patchy bald spots, which people with trichotillomania may go to great lengths to disguise.[1] People often start compulsive hair-pulling around the early teenage years, though some people start earlier or later than this.

Other News
WashingtonPost: Global Fund says millions worth of donated malaria drugs stolen in Africa
USAToday: New terror-alert system announced; colored warnings scrapped 
RawStory: Anti-bomb plan for Pentagon annex posted online

The Forums
TinfoilPalace: Russian rich renounce civilization 
TinfoilPalace: Never too late to start on yer bucket list ). New stuff from TEPCO on the reactors  
TheOilAge: Sugar - The Bitter Truth
TheOilAge: Drought
Hubberts-Arms: Get Rid of Your Cell Phone
Hubberts-Arms: Iran wants sanctions lifted or they'll spike the price of oil.
SilentCountry: Probing Question: Do we romanticize the Amish?
SilentCountry: Saudi Oil Production to Plummet