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Residents betrayed over radioactive waste plan for Kemps Creek

2011-10-27T21:51:00.000-07:00

OPPOSITION Leader John Robertson says two Liberals MPs have committed the "ultimate act of betrayal" over plans for a toxic waste dump in their electorate.

Premier Barry O'Farrell has said he doesn't want radioactive waste from a former northern Sydney uranium smelter transported to Kemps Creek in the city's west.

But earlier this week, NSW Finance Minister Greg Pearce ruled out transporting the waste interstate or overseas - leaving Kemps Creek as the only option unless the waste is treated on site in Hunters Hill.

Mr Robertson joined local residents at Kemps Creek today to demand the Government keep an election promise not to dump the waste locally.

He said the MP for Mulgoa, Tanya Davies, and the member for Smithfield, Andrew Rohan, had "committed the ultimate acts of betrayal to their local electorates".

"This is not just another broken promise from Ms Davies and Mr Rohan - this will see 5,000 tonnes of radioactive waste the north shore doesn't want dumped in the backyards of western Sydney residents," he said.

"Tanya Davies and Andrew Rohan have failed western Sydney. Simply saying you don't agree with your own government's decision isn't good enough.

"Ms Davies and Mr Rohan are putting their own political careers above their local electorates, voting with the government."

Prue Guilluame, a local campaigner, said residents felt betrayed.

"After only seven months in government, the Liberals are breaking their biggest promise to the people of western Sydney," she said in a joint statement with Mr Robertson.

"People have a right to raise their families in an area free from this radioactive waste."

On Tuesday, Mr O'Farrell said a decision had not yet been made on where the waste would be dumped.

"Whilst you might all want to jump to conclusions, I encourage you to wait until the decision is made," he said.

Source http://www.news.com.au/breaking-news/residents-betrayed-over-radioactive-waste-plan-for-kemps-creek/story-e6frfku0-1226179304436

Handsome Furs on rock ‘n’ roll life in the strangest places

2011-08-02T01:35:00.001-07:00

The Handsome Furs’ story starts like a rock ‘n’ roll fable: in 2003, a guy and a girl meet in a telemarketing office in Montreal; they hate their jobs and are desperate to travel. He’s a singer and guitarist, and she’s a writer, so they form a band and decide to live out their dreams.

But the fable goes off-piste: instead of the North American rock club circuit, Dan Boeckner and Alexei Perry find themselves playing on a beach in Macedonia with gypsy bands, at an underground show in Burma as kids with walkie talkies patrol the area to make sure the cops aren’t coming, and in an absurdly hot club in central China where the opening act’s bassist is struck by a rival bassist’s pellet gun. In the process, the Furs dispel a few rock ’n’ roll myths: that rock music has lost its links to rebellion, that songs written about touring are tedious and that happy couples in bands can produce only self-indulgent music.

Sound Kapital, the Furs’ third and latest album, is lean, danceable, political and unstoppably energetic, and it was largely written on extensive tours of eastern Europe and east and southeast Asia. It starts with what could be a manifesto for the band, which they sing together over jagged electronic beats: “When I get back home / I won’t be the same no more.”

For Perry, who plays keyboards, the best thing artists can do is not to impose themselves on the places they visit but to “be changed by the things that you’re seeing … to just keep seeing more and more and trying to make sense of it. And if you can’t make sense of it, some of that ambiguity about what you witness in the world is the stuff that feels most honest.”

In person, the Furs are a mix of defiant determination and open-minded humour. They’d stand out in a crowd in any country: Boeckner looks like a cross between Joe Strummer and Jonathan Rhys Meyers playing Elvis, and Perry, with her flaming red-orange hair and tattoo of a dress-wearing sawfish, is the colourful yang to his old-school rock-star yin. As they sit sipping Campari & sodas on the balcony of Toronto’s Gladstone Hotel, enjoying a rare night off from touring, they reflect on the seeming contradictions in their art.

They strive to be as unflinchingly direct as possible in their songs — not for them the “big, gauzy metaphors” Boeckner claims have become a lyrical default mode in indie rock — but they’re happy to let listeners lose themselves in danceable beats. Sound Kapital, with its lyrics inspired by the plights of friends in fellow bands under repressive or corrupt regimes in places like Burma and the Philippines, is less stark than its predecessors, Plague Park and Face Control; Perry’s lusher synth textures give the songs undertones of menace and glimmers of euphoria, often at the same time.

Their relationship with their audience is similarly complex. On one hand, the Furs aim to reach a wide range of people: they filmed a behind-the-scenes tour travelogue last year for cnn.com. Says Broeckner, “Friends were like, ‘Grrr! CNN! They whitewash everything, and it’s just [shots of] you guys eating food!’” Perry chimes in, “But it might give other people the opportunity to learn a little more, and they may seek out something, which is all you can hope for with anything you do.” On the other hand, the cover of Sound Kapital features a photograph of a naked woman standing beneath concrete overpasses in Portland, Oregon – an appropriate combination of human vulnerability and cold urban architecture for the album, but hardly an image to woo middle America.

In Canada, the cover has been partially masked by black stickers in HMV. Although the Furs acknowledge this is “a milder form of censorship” than those faced by the underground bands they’ve befriended in Asia, Perry says, “The parallel is there: you have to stick to your guns on what you think is beautiful and meaningful.”

The Furs have been influenced by the artists they’ve helped and befriended on tour, from the Burmese band Side Effect, whose broke drummer practises on pillowcases (and whose upcoming album was mastered in Montreal through the Furs’ connections) to the Beijing tour promoter who graduated from an experimental film school and will be shooting the Furs’ next video with an all-Chinese cast.

“It’s not a tactical, money-making career move,” Boeckner laughs. “None of our moves are,” Perry adds. Then again, as a married couple working with no manager and no other band members, they’re not subject to anyone else’s preferences — unlike, for instance, Boeckner’s other band, Wolf Parade, which is on “indefinite hiatus,” largely because not all of its members wanted to continue touring.

For their part, the Furs are eager to keep returning to places where few other Western bands ever venture, to maintain the friendships they’ve forged and the fanbases they’ve built. The tours sharpen the couple’s perspective on their art, their politics, and the Handsome Furs’ existence itself. Says Boeckner, “Instead of going into this band being like ‘We’re against this! We’re against that!’, it’s, ‘We’re against these things, but we also feel happy and positive that we’re able to make music.’”

Handsome Furs play The Horseshoe in Toronto Aug. 2. Sound Kapital is available on Sub Pop.

Source http://arts.nationalpost.com/2011/08/01/handsome-furs-on-rock-n-roll-life-in-the-strangest-places/

Obama to skip opening day for Nationals

2011-03-30T21:49:00.001-07:00

Nationals Park will feature all the patriotic trappings one would expect on opening day for the national pastime in its capital city. Everything, that is, except for the president of the United States.

Indeed, both the White House and the Washington Nationals say President Obama is skipping the Major League Baseball season opener, despite the standing invitation for the first fan to throw out the ceremonial first pitch.

Uniformed personnel representing all five service branches will fill in for their commander in chief, part of a tribute by the team to the U.S. military and their families before the game Thursday against the Atlanta Braves.

Former President George W. Bush threw out the first pitch when baseball returned to Washington in 2005, and again when the team opened its new stadium in 2008. The former Texas Rangers owner attended his fair share of ballgames across the country during his two terms, including Game 3 of the 2001 World Series in New York weeks after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

Obama was overseas for opening day in his first year as president, so Vice President Joe Biden did the honors at Baltimore's Camden Yards in 2009. The president did pitch in at that year's All-Star Game in St. Louis after being handed the ball by Hall of Famer Stan Musial, who this year was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom.

In 2010, Obama made his National Park debut, helping Major League Baseball mark the 100th anniversary of a U.S. president participating in opening day. The first was William Howard Taft, when the hometown team was the Senators.

Obama's delivery that day was not quite on target, though, and he also rankled some Nats fans by donning a Chicago White Sox cap after taking the field.

Obama has plenty keeping him away from the ballpark, of course. And he also appears to be smarting from criticism he faced for filling out his NCAA brackets on ESPN.

"A lot of folks focused on the fact that I filled out my bracket. Obviously I hadn't been spending that much time studying it since I don't have anybody in the Final Four," he told ABC's Diane Sawyer on Tuesday.

Source http://www.latimes.com/news/politics/la-pn-obama-opening-day-20110331,0,6693898.story

Obama defends use of nuclear energy despite calamity in Japan

2011-03-15T20:40:00.000-07:00

President Barack Obama on Tuesday defended the use of nuclear energy despite the calamity in Japan where a nuclear power plant leaked radiation in the wake of a devastating earthquake and tsunami.

The president told Pittsburgh television station KDKA that all energy sources have their downsides but that the U.S. — which gets 20 percent of its electricity from nuclear power — needs to look at the full array of them.

The president said facilities in the U.S. are closely monitored and built to withstand earthquakes, even though nothing’s failsafe. Proponents of nuclear power fear their efforts to win over the public to the safety of their industry have been dealt a tremendous blow by the disaster in Japan.

“I think it is very important to make sure that we are doing everything we can to insure the safety and effectiveness of the nuclear facilities that we have,” the president said in a second TV interview Tuesday, with KOAT in Albuquerque, N.M.

“We’ve got to budget for it. I’ve already instructed our nuclear regulatory agency to make sure that we take lessons learned from what’s happening in Japan and that we are constantly upgrading how we approach our nuclear safety in this country,” he said.

The president said he’s been assured that any radiation release from the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear plant along Japan’s northeastern coast would dissipate before reaching the U.S.

In Japan the crisis was spiraling as a fire broke out at a reactor a day after the plant emitted a burst of radiation. The government ordered people living within 20 miles of the plant to seal themselves indoors to avoid exposure.

At the White House Tuesday, spokesman Jay Carney said that unlike some other countries the U.S. was not recommending that American citizens leave Tokyo over radiation concerns. Carney said that U.S. officials have determined Americans in Japan should follow the same guidance Japan is giving to its own citizens.

Nonetheless, Austria said it is moving its embassy from Tokyo to Osaka and France recommended that its citizens leave the Japanese capital.

The U.S. Embassy in Tokyo has told Americans to avoid traveling to Japan.

Meanwhile more U.S. military crews were exposed to radiation Tuesday as the Pentagon ramped up relief flights over the reeling country.

The Defense Department said the Navy started giving anti-radiation pills to some of those exposed, and Americans on two military bases south of Tokyo were advised to stay indoors as much as possible.

With more aid for victims on the way, the U.S. Navy said it was redirecting three ships to work in the Sea of Japan on the country’s west coast rather than risk the hazards of radiation and the debris field in the waters off the east coast.

Sensitive air monitoring equipment on the aircraft carrier USS George Washington detected low levels of radioactivity from the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant as the carrier sat pier-side at Yokosuka, south of Tokyo, Cmdr. Jeff Davis, a spokesman for the U.S. 7th Fleet, said Tuesday.

Davis said that while there was no danger to the public from the radiation levels, the commander recommended as a precaution that military personnel and their families at the two bases, Yokosuka and Naval Air Facility Atsugi, limit their outdoor activities and seal ventilation systems.

The Navy said Monday that radiation was detected by another carrier, the USS Ronald Reagan, and that 17 helicopter crew members had to be decontaminated after returning from search and rescue duty. The Navy said more crews were exposed to very low levels of radiation Tuesday and had to be decontaminated.

Potassium iodide pills were given to a small number of those crew members as a precaution, said Col. Dave Lapan, a Defense Department spokesman.

A three-ship amphibious group, including the 31st Marine Expeditionary Unit aboard the USS Essex, was directed to position itself in the Sea of Japan and was to arrive Thursday for other relief duties.

Energy Secretary Steven Chu said his department has assembled a team of 34 people and sent 7,200 pounds of equipment to Japan to help monitor and assess the situation with the nuclear reactors.

Source http://www.washingtonpost.com/obama-defends-use-of-nuclear-energy-despite-calamity-in-japan/2011/03/14/ABJQPTV_story.html

Breast-feeding tax deductions stirring debate

2011-02-21T02:01:00.000-08:00

Do breast pumps have political leanings?

A recent decision by the Internal Revenue Service to recognize breast pumps and breast-feeding supplies as tax-deductible medical expenses has led some to question if breast-feeding has become part of a political agenda.

After Michelle Obama announced just before the IRS ruling that she would support breast-feeding as part of her campaign against child obesity, Rep. Michele Bachmann, R-Minn., pegged the first lady's position as "hard left" and suggested she was creating a "nanny state."

Sarah Palin made a similar jab at Ms. Obama in a speech Thursday, media outlets reported.

"No wonder Michelle Obama is telling everybody, 'You'd better breast-feed your baby,' " Ms. Palin said. "Yeah, you'd better, because the price of milk is so high right now."

Previously, the IRS did not classify breast-feeding supplies as tax-deductible because it viewed them as nutritional benefits instead of medical care expenses. Under the new ruling, nursing mothers can write off breast-feeding equipment if they have flexible spending accounts or if their total medical expenses exceed 7.5 percent of their adjusted gross income.

The American Academy of Pediatrics, which has pushed the IRS for years to classify breast-feeding supplies as medical expenses, strongly supports the ruling, said Richard Schanler, chair of the AAP's breast-feeding section.

"All mothers should have the ability to be able to provide milk for their babies," Dr. Schanler said. "There are tremendous benefits to breast-feeding."

Last month, U.S. Surgeon General Regina M. Benjamin issued a "Call to Action to Support Breast-feeding," stating that breast-feeding can protect babies from infections and illnesses, including pneumonia and diarrhea. Breast-fed babies are also less likely to develop asthma and to become obese, the report said.

The Allegheny County Health Department annually awards businesses and public places for accommodating nursing mothers. Department spokesman Guillermo Cole said the new tax ruling will financially benefit mothers who pay out of pocket for breast-feeding supplies.

"I don't know that it's going to cause a dramatic spike in the breast-feeding rate, but it's certainly helpful," Mr. Cole said. "It recognizes that this is an expenditure made that has a positive effect for the health of our community."

Mr. Cole said the department does not consider breast-feeding a political issue.

"I don't think there should be any partisanship at all in public health," Mr. Cole said. "There's no liberal or conservative way to do breast-feeding, and it benefits all, regardless of political persuasion."

Dr. Schanler said the AAP supports breast-feeding because of its medical benefits and not as part of a political agenda. He said it was "sad" that Ms. Palin and Ms. Bachmann were using breast-feeding for political leverage.

"These women could afford breast pumps, and they're mocking people that can't," Dr. Schanler said. "The government isn't legislating that women breast-feed, they're just making it easier, like they've made it easier to get antibiotics for all children."

Greenfield mother Laura McCarthy said she was glad to see Ms. Obama and the IRS supporting breast-feeding.

"I think anything that would be supporting mothers giving children the healthiest food available, that costs nothing, needs anything we should be doing to help," Ms. McCarthy said. "It doesn't seem like there's anything political about feeding your baby healthy food."

Ann Marie Miller, a mother in North Strabane, said she disagreed with the IRS ruling because she views breast-feeding as a choice and breast pumps as a luxury.

Ms. Miller, 29, said that although she is not opposed to breast-feeding, she chose not to breast-feed her children because she was nervous about becoming a mother. Government support of breast-feeding creates pressure on mothers, she said.

"There is a ton of pressure to breast-feed," she said. "I don't think it's fair or right to pressure moms to breast-feed, and they deserve to make the choice that's best for them and their families."

Classifying breast-feeding equipment as a medical expense is a slippery slope, Ms. Miller said.

"You could have same argument for car seats," Ms. Miller said. "Where's the line?"

Source http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/11052/1126906-84.stm

Obama's Budget: Something for Everyone to Hate

2011-02-10T23:40:00.000-08:00

As President Barack Obama prepares to send his 2012 budget to Congress on Feb. 14, Administration officials have fanned out to offer tantalizing glimpses of the goodies it will contain, including help for cash-strapped state unemployment programs, a method for consumers to immediately claim a $7,500 tax credit on electric vehicles, a six-year, $53 billion program for construction of a national high-speed rail network, and new investment in high-speed wireless services. Now, both parties are waiting to hear how he plans to pay for it.

While the President has made clear he is determined to get a handle on the ballooning U.S. deficit, he has given few specifics. His only substantive proposal so far—a federal spending freeze that would yield $400 billion in savings over 10 years—underwhelmed congressional Republicans, some of whom have called for $100 billion in cuts this year alone. As House Speaker John Boehner prepared to go to the White House on Feb. 9 to meet with Obama, he said he expected the budget to be more of the same: "too much spending, too much taxing, and too much borrowing."

He may be in for a surprise. Obama's budget won't win him a lot of friends, say sources familiar with the document, which is likely to be shot through with deep spending cuts in domestic programs that Democrats cherish, including heating oil assistance to the poor. Budget Director Jacob J. Lew outlined in a Feb. 5 New York Times op-ed some $775 million in 2012 cuts, including $350 million from community services funding, $125 million from the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative, and $300 million from Community Development Block grants—all programs close to the President's heart. The Defense Dept.'s budget request, meanwhile, will reflect cuts of $13 billion, the first slice of $78 billion in reductions over five years that Lew's office asked the Pentagon to make. In the op-ed, Lew said Obama will extract some savings by eliminating such programs as Boeing's (BA) C-17 military cargo plane.

In a Feb. 8 interview, Lew signaled Obama wouldn't back a specific proposal for overhauling corporate taxes in the budget blueprint, though he plans to continue discussions with lawmakers and corporate executives. "The best way to get to a positive outcome is get broad agreement on the goals and work toward them," Lew said.

Source http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/11_08/b4216027378260.htm

Music on TV This Week: Motorhead

2011-01-24T21:37:00.001-08:00

Heavy metal trailblazers Motorhead have been the embodiment of 'Rock n' Roll' now for 35 years, thanks in part to its hard living frontman Ian Fraser Kilmister, best known to the rock world as Lemmy. With two new releases for 2011 (The World is Yours, Motorhead's 20th release; and new one from the side project The Head Cat -- featuring Stray Cats' Slim Jim Phantom -- slated for later this year), and a full-fledged documentary currently running the film festival circuit, Lemmy has no intention of slowing down anytime soon.

While Motorhead play Conan this Wednesday in support of their release, it was also announced that VH1 would be debuting the aptly titled documentary Lemmy: 49% Motherf**Ker, 51% Son Of A Bitch, on February 11th, as part of their Emmy winning Rock Doc series. Besides telling the story of the rock icon, the film features interviews with a long list of rock's greats, including Ozzy Osbourne, Alice Cooper, Slash, Mick Jones (The Clash), Dave Grohl (Nirvana/Foo Fighters), Peter Hook (Joy Division/New Order), Dee Snider (Twisted Sister), Jarvis Cocker (Pulp) and more along with the great Lemmy himself.

Meanwhile, listening to the latest release from Cold War Kids, Mine is Yours, I get the impression that the band's artistic patience has been used up and they're more than ready to play whatever game it takes to push some product. To that end, they hired producer Jacquire King, who's experience in the indie-to-mainstream journey is undeniable, having worked on Modest Mouse's Good News for the People Who Love Bad News and, more relevant in this case, Kings of Leon's Only By The Night. Aside from the angular "Sensitive Kid," there's little here to remind us of the band's promising debut. Instead, when the Long Beach natives play Kimmel on Tuesday, they'll have their new polished mainstream sound on full display with "Louder Than Ever." Here's hoping it helps them pay the bills.

Elsewhere, Conan is welcoming plenty of acts we've previously featured in this space this month, with Iron & Wine on Monday (featured 01/03), Wanda Jackson with Jack White on Tuesday (featured 01/17) and The Ghost of a Saber Tooth Tiger on Thursday (featured 01/03). Is it possible Conan's music booker is reading this weekly post? I've been told somebody out there in the Internet is (you know who you are, and hello!).

Picks for the week
Monday, January 24
ABC: Jimmy Kimmel Live: The Script
CBS: Late Show With David Letterman: The Walkmen (REPEAT)
FUEL: The Daily Habit: Dawes
NBC: Late Night With Jimmy Fallon: Local Natives (REPEAT)
NBC: Last Call With Carson Daly: Menomena (REPEAT)
TBS: Lopez Tonight: Grace Potter & the Nocturnals
TBS: Conan: Iron & Wine
Tuesday, January 25
ABC: Jimmy Kimmel Live: Keri Hilson
CBS: Late Show With David Letterman: The Walkmen (REPEAT)
FUEL: The Daily Habit: Escape the Fate
NBC: The Tonight Show with Jay Leno: White Lies
NBC: Late Night With Jimmy Fallon: Iron & Wine (REPEAT)
NBC: Last Call With Carson Daly: Broken Bells (REPEAT)
TBS: Conan: Wanda Jackson
Wednesday, January 26
ABC: Jimmy Kimmel Live: Cold War Kids
CBS: Late Show With David Letterman: Cage the Elephant (REPEAT)
FUEL: The Daily Habit: The Duke Spirit
NBC: The Tonight Show with Jay Leno: Amos Lee
NBC: Late Night With Jimmy Fallon: Two Door Cinema Club (REPEAT)
NBC: Last Call With Carson Daly: Two Door Cinema (REPEAT)
SYNDICATION: The Ellen DeGeneres Show: One eskimO
TBS: Conan: Motorhead
Thursday, January 27
ABC: Jimmy Kimmel Live: Cage the Elephant
FUEL: The Daily Habit: The Damned
NBC: Last Call With Carson Daly: Fitz & the Tantrums (REPEAT)
PALADIA: Purple Rain: Prince, The Time
TBS: Conan: The Ghost of a Saber Tooth Tiger
Friday, January 28
CBS: Late Show With David Letterman: Greg Allman (REPEAT)
FUEL: The Daily Habit: The Damned (REPEAT)
NBC: Late Night With Jimmy Fallon: Neon Trees (REPEAT)
NBC: Last Call With Carson Daly: Matt & Kim (REPEAT)
Saturday, January 29
BBCAMERICA: The Graham Norton Show: Diddy
NBC: Saturday Night Live: Nicki Minaj
PALADIA: V Fest 2010: Passion Pit, Florence & the Machine, Mika, Kings of Leon
PBS: Austin City Limits: Lyle Lovett, Bob Schneider
Sunday, January 30
HDNET: Deep Purple at Montreaux: Deep Purple
OVATION: Lenny Kravitz: Universal Love Tour: Lenny Kravitz

drake lelane curator of the music/soundtrack blog thus spake drake