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Wednesday, April 4, 2007 |
Salon: "Last month, the U.S. Department of Agriculture quietly released a ruling that alarmed organic certifiers and groups who work with third-world farmers. The decision tightens organic certification requirements to such a degree that it could sharply curtail the ability of small grower co-ops to produce organic coffee - not to mention organic bananas, cocoa, sugar and even spices. Kimberly Easson, director of strategic relationships for TransFair USA, the fair trade certification group, puts it bluntly: 'This ruling could wipe out the organic coffee market in the U.S.'"
11:51:26 AM 
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NYTimes: "Holly Yasui was far away when a federal judge in Brooklyn ruled last June that the government had wide latitude to detain noncitizens indefinitely on the basis of race, religion or national origin. The ruling came in a class-action lawsuit by Muslim immigrants held after 9/11. But Ms. Yasui, an American citizen of Japanese ancestry, had reason to take it personally.
Her grandparents were among thousands of Japanese immigrants in the United States who were wrongfully detained as enemy aliens during World War II. And her father was one of three Japanese-Americans who challenged the government's racial detention and curfew programs in litigation that reached the Supreme Court in the 1940s.
Now, Ms. Yasui, along with Jay Hirabayashi and Karen Korematsu-Haigh, a son and a daughter of the two other Japanese-American litigants, is urging an appeals court in Manhattan to overturn the sweeping language of the judge's ruling last year."
Historical background.
11:49:19 AM
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JPost: "The Dimona nuclear research center includes a heavy water reactor for producing plutonium or tritium, a facility to reprocess plutonium, another to reprocess uranium and create nuclear fuel, and yet another to enrich uranium, as well as storage for nuclear waste, according to Greenpeace."
JPost: "Ilan Pappe, a senior lecturer in the University of Haifa's Department of Political Science, says he is moving to the UK because it is 'increasingly difficult to live in Israel' with his 'unwelcome views and convictions'."
11:43:29 AM
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ThisIsLondon: "The Big Brother nightmare of George Orwell's 1984 has become a reality - in the shadow of the author's former London home.
It may have taken a little longer than he predicted, but Orwell's vision of a society where cameras and computers spy on every person's movements is now here."
Bradenton: "Republican presidential hopeful Rudy Giuliani said Saturday he should have done a better job investigating Bernard Kerik before recommending him to be the nation's Homeland Security secretary.
The former New York City mayor answered a series of questions about Kerik, the former New York City police commissioner and former business partner of Giuliani. Kerik pleaded guilty last June to a misdemeanor of accepting a gift from a company seeking city work and is still under investigation."
Heise: "The US Department of Homeland Security (DHS), which was created after the attacks on September 11, 2001 as a kind of overriding department, wants to have the key to sign the DNS root zone solidly in the hands of the US government. This ultimate master key would then allow authorities to track DNS Security Extensions (DNSSec) all the way back to the servers that represent the name system's root zone on the Internet. The 'key-signing key' signs the zone key, which is held by VeriSign."
11:36:12 AM
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BBC: "RAF pilots have been asked to consider the idea of flying suicide missions as a last-ditch tactic against terrorists."
Tony Blair can join George W. Bush in a Sopwith Camel and head for Afghanistan. Banzai!
11:21:32 AM
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