Banks in Calif., Ill., Fla., Texas are shut down

Regulators shut banks in Calif., Ill., Fla., Texas, putting US bank failures at 20 for year

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Regulators shut four banks from California to Florida on Friday, boosting to 20 the number of U.S. bank failures this year following the 140 closures last year in the worst financial climate in decades.

The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. took over La Jolla Bank, FSB, in La Jolla, Calif. The bank had 10 branches and about $3.6 billion in assets and $2.8 billion in deposits.

Also seized was George Washington Savings Bank in Orland Park, Ill. It had four branches and about $412.8 million in assets and $397 million in deposits.

The FDIC said OneWest Bank in Pasadena, Calif., agreed to assume all deposits and essentially all assets of La Jolla Bank. The takeover is expected to cost the deposit insurance fund an estimated $882.3 million.

The FDIC and OneWest will share losses on about $3.3 billion of the failed bank's loans and other assets.

Meanwhile, FirstMerit Bank, National Association of Akron, Ohio, agreed to take over deposits at George Washington Savings Bank. FirstMerit is also taking over essentially all the assets. For George Washington, the FDIC predicts the takeover will cost the insurance fund $141.4 million.

The loss-sharing agreement for George Washington covers $324.2 million in assets.

The other seized banks were smaller and located in Florida and Texas. They were Marco Community Bank, with a single office on Marco Island, a wealthy barrier island near Naples on Florida's Gulf Coast, and La Coste National Bank of La Coste, Texas.

Marco Community Bank had about $119.6 million in assets and $117.1 million in deposits. Mutual of Omaha Bank, a division of the big insurance company Mutual of Omaha, agreed to assume the assets and deposits of Marco Community Bank.

The failure of Marco Community Bank will cost the deposit insurance fund an estimated $38.1 million.

In addition, the FDIC and Mutual of Omaha Bank, which is based in Omaha, Neb., agreed to share losses on $104.8 million of the failed bank's loans and other assets.

Florida is among the states with the highest concentration of bank failures and where the meltdown in the real estate market brought an avalanche of soured mortgage loans. Last year saw the failure of 14 banks in the state. Also high on the list are California, Georgia and Illinois.

La Coste National Bank had a single branch and $53.9 million in assets. Deposits totaled $49.3 million.

Community National Bank of Hondo, Texas, agreed to buy the deposits and assets of La Coste National Bank -- whose failure is expected to cost the insurance fund $3.7 million.

As the economy has weakened, with unemployment rising, home prices tumbling and loan defaults soaring, bank failures have accelerated and sapped billions of dollars out of the federal deposit insurance fund. It fell into the red last year.

The 140 bank failures last year were the highest annual tally since 1992, at the height of the savings and loan crisis. They cost the insurance fund more than $30 billion. There were 25 bank failures in 2008 and just three in 2007.

The FDIC expects the cost of resolving failed banks to grow to about $100 billion over the next four years.

The agency mandated banks prepay about $45 billion in premiums last year, for 2010 through 2012, to replenish the insurance fund.

Depositors' money -- insured up to $250,000 per account -- is not at risk, with the FDIC backed by the government. Besides the fund, the FDIC has about $21 billion in cash available in reserve to cover losses at failed banks.

Banks have been especially hurt by failed real estate loans, both residential and commercial. Banks that had lent to seemingly solid businesses are suffering losses as buildings sit vacant. As development projects collapse, builders are defaulting on their loans.

Smaller banks are more vulnerable to the losses than their bigger Wall Street counterparts, because commercial real estate makes up a larger portion of their portfolio.

If the economic recovery falters, defaults on the high-risk loans could spike. Many regional banks hold large concentrations of these loans. Banks face as much as $300 billion in losses on loans made for commercial property and development, according to a report issued last week by the Congressional Oversight Panel, which monitors the government's efforts to stabilize the financial system.

The report said the defaults could crimp lending and cause the eviction of families from rental properties. Bank failures also could contribute to job losses and hurt the economic recovery.

President Barack Obama recently promoted a $30 billion plan to provide money to community banks if they boost lending to small businesses. The program, which must be approved by Congress, would use money repaid by banks to the $700 billion federal bailout fund.

Hundreds of banks, including major Wall Street institutions, received taxpayer support through that politically unpopular rescue program, enacted by Congress in October 2008 at the height of the financial crisis.

AP Business Writer Tim Paradis in New York contributed to this report.

On the Brink of a Bond Market Apocalypse

Trusting Washington and Wall Street is bankrupting millions of Americans … and now they’re at it again!

In the 1990s, Wall Street urged you to buy Internet stocks at 500 and 1,000 times earnings — and even tried to railroad you into stocks with no earnings at all.

Result: According to the Fed, nearly $6.6 trillion vanished into thin air when those stocks crashed and burned.

Then, in 2001, Washington got into the act — driving interest rates to their lowest levels since World War II … helping to create the greatest real estate bubble in history … and doing absolutely nothing when money-hungry bankers and brokers broke every rule in the book.

Result: The Fed’s latest report reveals another $15.5 trillion in losses the great real estate bust, credit crisis and recession.

The bottom line: In less than one decade, investors who trusted Washington and Wall Street were fleeced to the tune of $22.1 TRILLION!

Now, by bailing out bankers, brokers and CEOs, Washington has created the most dangerous bubble so far: The enormous and rapidly growing explosion of federal debt — U.S. treasuries — dumped on investors worldwide.

You don’t need a PhD in economics to know what’s next: Like the Tech Bubble and Real Estate Bubble that preceded it, this new bubble will also burst, wiping out trillions more dollars of invested wealth.

Three Compelling Reasons
Long-Term Bond Prices MUST Crash

Reason #1 — Exploding Federal Deficits: Washington’s current crop of drunken sailors is making some of their predecessors appear sober by comparison.

The 2009 budget deficit of $1.4 trillion was the worst in history — more than three times larger than the previous record.

Recently, the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) projected that, rather than shrinking, the 2010 deficit will be $1.4 trillion. Worse, Washington will sink a total of $7.4 TRILLION deeper in debt over the next ten years.

The White House’s Office of Management and Budget (OMB) quickly disagreed, pegging the 2010 deficit at $1.6 trillion and promising an $8.5 trillion gusher of red ink over the next decade.

The New York Times quickly chimed in, pointing out that about 80 percent of the government’s deficit forecasts over the past three decades were too optimistic.

In fact, just two years ago, the CBO said the 2010 deficit would be $241 billion. Now it’s likely to be at least $1.6 TRILLION — or over SIX TIMES MORE. Imagine if the government’s current ten-year debt estimates — already over $8 trillion — turn out to be equally far off-target!

Of course, that would be impossible. Bond investors would simply stop lending Washington money long before that could happen.

Reason #2 — An explosion in the supply of U.S. Treasury bonds: It would be bad enough if Washington only had to borrow enough to equal each year’s budget deficits. That would mean $1.6 trillion-worth of treasuries hitting the auction block this year alone, many times more than in prior record years.

But Washington also has to borrow enough to replace Treasuries that are maturing — and that means an even greater avalanche of Treasuries need to find buyers each year.

Already, total issuance of government debt already hit a stunning $922 billion in 2008. It then surged even higher to $2.1 trillion in 2009, and it’s on track to top $2.5 trillion this year. The size of just ONE WEEK’s debt auction has ballooned to almost $120 billion — more than the total supply hitting the market in a FULL year not long ago.

The laws of supply and demand dictate that when you get a massive increase in the supply of anything, its value plunges — and Treasury bonds are no exception.

Reason #3 — Global investors starting to rebel: So far, given the realities above, the U.S. treasury market has proven to be remarkably resilient because, in the global competition for investor funds, U.S. Treasuries are typically viewed as the “least ugly” alternative for many investors.

That’s why, so far, most foreign investors — now holding about 60 percent of all marketable U.S. Treasuries — have been willing to pay a relatively higher price for them and accept lower yields.

But now even that is changing! As Mike Larson reported on Friday, China, the single largest holder of U.S. debt, dumped more Treasuries than in ANY month since the government started tracking the data in 2000.

This may help explain why the Treasury auctions last week turned out to be a monumental dud, with demand extremely weak.

The 30-year auction was especially pathetic: Indirect bidders — mostly foreign governments and investors — took down just 28.5 percent of the bonds sold, compared to a ten-auction average of 43.2 percent percent.

Prices slumped. Yields surged. In effect, the U.S. Treasury had to bribe investors with higher yields to get them to buy.

Immediately alarm bells began ringing at the Fed. On Thursday, just a few hours after we presented Nine Shocking New Predictions for 2010-2012, the U.S. Federal Reserve raised the discount rate on loans made directly to banks. The 25-basis-point increase was the FIRST hike in the discount rate since early 2006.

Secretly, the Fed is in a panic to ward off a bond market collapse! They know that, sooner or later, they MUST send the message that they’re serious about cutting back on their mad money printing.

The danger of course, is that foreign investors will get an entirely different message: That Washington’s efforts to fight the most severe recession since the Great Depression are waning.

If that happens, you could see turmoil — not just in the bond market, but in every asset class imaginable.

This is PRECISELY why my team and I presented our Nine Shocking New Predictions for 2010-2012 …

And why we’ve decided to leave the video of this watershed strategy update online for a few more days.

In it, we deliver very specific — and shocking — new forecasts for stocks, bonds, currencies, precious metals, energy and other resources:

We expose the unvarnished facts about three disturbing new crises that already beginning to hit the investment markets like a ton of bricks …

We unveil nine shocking new short-term and long-term forecasts for stocks, bonds, currencies, gold, oil and more — each one of which will likely be worth substantial profits to you in the months ahead, and …

Wedemonstrate how you can know — with confidence — which asset classes are most likely to offer you the greatest profit potential in 2010, 2011, 2012 and beyond.

We provide step-by-step instructions on how you can create the optimal portfolio for the troubled times ahead — including the specific percentages of your money to put into stocks, gold, commodities, bonds and currencies right now.

In short, we give you both the indispensable investment intelligence and the essential, practical recommendations you need to protect yourself and prosper — both now AND over the next 36 months!

The video of this historic event is online now.
It is absolutely free to watch. It could make you — or save you — a king’s ransom in 2010 and beyond.
But we MUST take it offline soon!

It’s a shame that you were unable to join us when we presented this crucial information today. But the response from attendees is so enthusiastic, we’ve decided to leave the video of this watershed briefing online.

It’s only fair to warn you, though, that the information and recommendations in this video are so time-sensitive, we can NOT leave it online for more than just a few days — so be sure to view it as soon as you possibly can.

My advice: If you only watch ONE video about investing in 2010, make it this one.

Just turn up your computer speakers and click this link to view it while you still can!

Good luck and God bless!

Martin

Survey: 1 In 3 Detroit Homes Vacant

DETROIT, Mich. -- A survey that's expected to be an important tool as Detroit works to revitalize core neighborhoods and possibly shutter others finds about one third of residential lots are vacant or contain abandoned homes.The Detroit Data Collaborative on Saturday released the results of the block-by-block survey of Detroit's about 343,850 residential parcels.It found about 64 percent contained occupied housing.Detroit Mayor Dave Bing has proposed shrinking the city to make it more livable and wants to focus on repopulating and revitalizing core neighborhoods.That could include moving people from the worst areas.Bing's office says the survey will help in developing a land use plan.

Copyright 2010 by The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

The Nazis' Murder of Jews, Communists and Gypsies In Gas Chambers Was an AMERICAN Idea

Believe it or not, the Nazis' murder of Jews, communists and gypsies using gas chambers was actually an American idea.

As the San Francisco Chronicle wrote in 2003:

the concept of a white, blond-haired, blue-eyed master Nordic race didn't originate with Hitler. The idea was created in the United States, and cultivated in California, decades before Hitler came to power. California eugenicists played an important, although little-known, role in the American eugenics movement's campaign for ethnic cleansing.

Eugenics was the pseudoscience aimed at "improving" the human race. In its extreme, racist form, this meant wiping away all human beings deemed "unfit," preserving only those who conformed to a Nordic stereotype. Elements of the philosophy were enshrined as national policy by forced sterilization and segregation laws, as well as marriage restrictions, enacted in 27 states. In 1909, California became the third state to adopt such laws. Ultimately, eugenics practitioners coercively sterilized some 60,000 Americans, barred the marriage of thousands, forcibly segregated thousands in "colonies," and persecuted untold numbers in ways we are just learning. Before World War II, nearly half of coercive sterilizations were done in California, and even after the war, the state accounted for a third of all such surgeries.

California was considered an epicenter of the American eugenics movement. During the 20th century's first decades, California's eugenicists included potent but little-known race scientists, such as Army venereal disease specialist Dr. Paul Popenoe, citrus magnate Paul Gosney, Sacramento banker Charles Goethe, as well as members of the California state Board of Charities and Corrections and the University of California Board of Regents.

Eugenics would have been so much bizarre parlor talk had it not been for extensive financing by corporate philanthropies, specifically the Carnegie Institution, the Rockefeller Foundation and the Harriman railroad fortune. They were all in league with some of America's most respected scientists from such prestigious universities as Stanford, Yale, Harvard and Princeton. These academicians espoused race theory and race science, and then faked and twisted data to serve eugenics' racist aims.

Stanford President David Starr Jordan originated the notion of "race and blood" in his 1902 racial epistle "Blood of a Nation," in which the university scholar declared that human qualities and conditions such as talent and poverty were passed through the blood.

n 1904, the Carnegie Institution established a laboratory complex at Cold Spring Harbor on Long Island that stockpiled millions of index cards on ordinary Americans, as researchers carefully plotted the removal of families, bloodlines and whole peoples. From Cold Spring Harbor, eugenics advocates agitated in the legislatures of America, as well as the nation's social service agencies and associations.

The Harriman railroad fortune paid local charities, such as the New York Bureau of Industries and Immigration, to seek out Jewish, Italian and other immigrants in New York and other crowded cities and subject them to deportation, confinement or forced sterilization.

The Rockefeller Foundation helped found the German eugenics program and even funded the program that Josef Mengele worked in before he went to Auschwitz.

Much of the spiritual guidance and political agitation for the American eugenics movement came from California's quasi-autonomous eugenic societies, such as Pasadena's Human Betterment Foundation and the California branch of the American Eugenics Society, which coordinated much of their activity with the Eugenics Research Society in Long Island. These organizations -- which functioned as part of a closely-knit network -- published racist eugenic newsletters and pseudoscientific journals, such as Eugenical News and Eugenics, and propagandized for the Nazis.

***

The most commonly suggested method of eugenicide in the United States was a "lethal chamber" or public, locally operated gas chambers. In 1918, Popenoe, the Army venereal disease specialist during World War I, co-wrote the widely used textbook, "Applied Eugenics," which argued, "From an historical point of view, the first method which presents itself is execution . . . Its value in keeping up the standard of the race should not be underestimated." "Applied Eugenics" also devoted a chapter to "Lethal Selection," which operated "through the destruction of the individual by some adverse feature of the environment, such as excessive cold, or bacteria, or by bodily deficiency."

Eugenic breeders believed American society was not ready to implement an organized lethal solution. But many mental institutions and doctors practiced improvised medical lethality and passive euthanasia on their own. One institution in Lincoln, Ill., fed its incoming patients milk from tubercular cows believing a eugenically strong individual would be immune. Thirty to 40 percent annual death rates resulted at Lincoln. Some doctors practiced passive eugenicide one newborn infant at a time. Others doctors at mental institutions engaged in lethal neglect.

***

Even the U.S. Supreme Court endorsed aspects of eugenics. In its infamous 1927 decision, Supreme Court Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes wrote, "It is better for all the world, if instead of waiting to execute degenerate offspring for crime, or to let them starve for their imbecility, society can prevent those who are manifestly unfit from continuing their kind . . . Three generations of imbeciles are enough." This decision opened the floodgates for thousands to be coercively sterilized or otherwise persecuted as subhuman. Years later, the Nazis at the Nuremberg trials quoted Holmes' words in their own defense.

Only after eugenics became entrenched in the United States was the campaign transplanted into Germany, in no small measure through the efforts of California eugenicists, who published booklets idealizing sterilization and circulated them to German officials and scientists.

Hitler studied American eugenics laws. He tried to legitimize his anti- Semitism by medicalizing it, and wrapping it in the more palatable pseudoscientific facade of eugenics. Hitler was able to recruit more followers among reasonable Germans by claiming that science was on his side. Hitler's race hatred sprung from his own mind, but the intellectual outlines of the eugenics Hitler adopted in 1924 were made in America.

During the '20s, Carnegie Institution eugenic scientists cultivated deep personal and professional relationships with Germany's fascist eugenicists. In "Mein Kampf," published in 1924, Hitler quoted American eugenic ideology and openly displayed a thorough knowledge of American eugenics. "There is today one state," wrote Hitler, "in which at least weak beginnings toward a better conception (of immigration) are noticeable. Of course, it is not our model German Republic, but the United States."

***

During the Reich's early years, eugenicists across America welcomed Hitler's plans as the logical fulfillment of their own decades of research and effort. California eugenicists republished Nazi propaganda for American consumption. They also arranged for Nazi scientific exhibits, such as an August 1934 display at the L.A. County Museum, for the annual meeting of the American Public Health Association.

In 1934, as Germany's sterilizations were accelerating beyond 5,000 per month, the California eugenics leader C. M. Goethe, upon returning from Germany, ebulliently bragged to a colleague, "You will be interested to know that your work has played a powerful part in shaping the opinions of the group of intellectuals who are behind Hitler in this epoch-making program. Everywhere I sensed that their opinions have been tremendously stimulated by American thought . . . I want you, my dear friend, to carry this thought with you for the rest of your life, that you have really jolted into action a great government of 60 million people."

***

More than just providing the scientific roadmap, America funded Germany's eugenic institutions.

By 1926, Rockefeller had donated some $410,000 -- almost $4 million in today's money -- to hundreds of German researchers. In May 1926, Rockefeller awarded $250,000 toward creation of the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute for Psychiatry. Among the leading psychiatrists at the German Psychiatric Institute was Ernst Rüdin, who became director and eventually an architect of Hitler's systematic medical repression.

Another in the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute's complex of eugenics institutions was the Institute for Brain Research. Since 1915, it had operated out of a single room. Everything changed when Rockefeller money arrived in 1929. A grant of $317,000 allowed the institute to construct a major building and take center stage in German race biology. The institute received additional grants from the Rockefeller Foundation during the next several years. Leading the institute, once again, was Hitler's medical henchman Ernst Rüdin. Rüdin's organization became a prime director and recipient of the murderous experimentation and research conducted on Jews, Gypsies and others.

Beginning in 1940, thousands of Germans taken from old age homes, mental institutions and other custodial facilities were systematically gassed. Between 50,000 and 100,000 were eventually killed.

Leon Whitney, executive secretary of the American Eugenics Society, declared of Nazism, "While we were pussy-footing around ... the Germans were calling a spade a spade."

A special recipient of Rockefeller funding was the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute for Anthropology, Human Heredity and Eugenics in Berlin. For decades,

American eugenicists had craved twins to advance their research into heredity.

The Institute was now prepared to undertake such research on an unprecedented level. On May 13, 1932, the Rockefeller Foundation in New York dispatched a radiogram to its Paris office: JUNE MEETING EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE NINE THOUSAND DOLLARS OVER THREE YEAR PERIOD TO KWG INSTITUTE ANTHROPOLOGY FOR RESEARCH ON TWINS AND EFFECTS ON LATER GENERATIONS OF SUBSTANCES TOXIC FOR GERM PLASM.

At the time of Rockefeller's endowment, Otmar Freiherr von Verschuer, a hero in American eugenics circles, functioned as a head of the Institute for Anthropology, Human Heredity and Eugenics. Rockefeller funding of that institute continued both directly and through other research conduits during Verschuer's early tenure. In 1935, Verschuer left the institute to form a rival eugenics facility in Frankfurt that was much heralded in the American eugenics press. Research on twins in the Third Reich exploded, backed by government decrees. Verschuer wrote in Der Erbarzt, a eugenics doctor's journal he edited, that Germany's war would yield a "total solution to the Jewish problem."

Verschuer had a longtime assistant. His name was Josef Mengele.

***

Rockefeller executives never knew of Mengele. With few exceptions, the foundation had ceased all eugenics studies in Nazi-occupied Europe before the war erupted in 1939. But by that time the die had been cast. The talented men Rockefeller and Carnegie financed, the great institutions they helped found, and the science they helped create took on a scientific momentum of their own.

As Michel Crichton wrote in 2004:

Its supporters included Theodore Roosevelt, Woodrow Wilson, and Winston Churchill. It was approved by Supreme Court justices Oliver Wendell Holmes and Louis Brandeis, who ruled in its favor. The famous names who supported it included Alexander Graham Bell, inventor of the telephone; activist Margaret Sanger; botanist Luther Burbank; Leland Stanford, founder of Stanford University; the novelist H. G. Wells; the playwright George Bernard Shaw; and hundreds of others. Nobel Prize winners gave support. Research was backed by the Carnegie and Rockefeller Foundations. The Cold Springs Harbor Institute was built to carry out this research, but important work was also done at Harvard, Yale, Princeton, Stanford and Johns Hopkins. Legislation to address the crisis was passed in states from New York to California.

These efforts had the support of the National Academy of Sciences, the American Medical Association, and the National Research Council. It was said that if Jesus were alive, he would have supported this effort.

All in all, the research, legislation and molding of public opinion surrounding the theory went on for almost half a century. Those who opposed the theory were shouted down and called reactionary, blind to reality, or just plain ignorant. But in hindsight, what is surprising is that so few people objected.

***

The plan was to identify individuals who were feeble-minded --- Jews were agreed to be largely feeble-minded, but so were many foreigners, as well as blacks --- and stop them from breeding by isolation in institutions or by sterilization.
***

Such views were widely shared. H.G. Wells spoke against "ill-trained swarms of inferior citizens." Theodore Roosevelt said that "Society has no business to permit degenerates to reproduce their kind." Luther Burbank" "Stop permitting criminals and weaklings to reproduce." George Bernard Shaw said that only eugenics could save mankind.

***

Eugenics research was funded by the Carnegie Foundation, and later by the Rockefeller Foundation. The latter was so enthusiastic that even after the center of the eugenics effort moved to Germany, and involved the gassing of individuals from mental institutions, the Rockefeller Foundation continued to finance German researchers at a very high level. (The foundation was quiet about it, but they were still funding research in 1939, only months before the onset of World War II.)

Since the 1920s, American eugenicists had been jealous because the Germans had taken leadership of the movement away from them. The Germans were admirably progressive. They set up ordinary-looking houses where "mental defectives" were brought and interviewed one at a time, before being led into a back room, which was, in fact, a gas chamber. There, they were gassed with carbon monoxide, and their bodies disposed of in a crematorium located on the property.

Eventually, this program was expanded into a vast network of concentration camps located near railroad lines, enabling the efficient transport and of killing ten million undesirables.

After World War II, nobody was a eugenicist, and nobody had ever been a eugenicist. Biographers of the celebrated and the powerful did not dwell on the attractions of this philosophy to their subjects, and sometimes did not mention it at all. Eugenics ceased to be a subject for college classrooms, although some argue that its ideas continue to have currency in disguised form.

***

The scientific establishment in both the United States and Germany did not mount any sustained protest. Quite the contrary. In Germany scientists quickly fell into line with the program. Modern German researchers have gone back to review Nazi documents from the 1930s. They expected to find directives telling scientists what research should be done. But none were necessary. In the words of Ute Deichman, "Scientists, including those who were not members of the [Nazi] party, helped to get funding for their work through their modified behavior and direct cooperation with the state." Deichman speaks of the "active role of scientists themselves in regard to Nazi race policy … where [research] was aimed at confirming the racial doctrine … no external pressure can be documented." German scientists adjusted their research interests to the new policies. And those few who did not adjust disappeared.

Appendix 1, State of Fear (Avon 2004).

A Math Problem at the Labor Department?

Friday's inflation report generated all sorts of headlines about core consumer prices falling for the first time since 1982. In looking at the screen shot of the detailed data from the Labor Department below, there is clearly some sort of a math problem associated with changes that were recently made to category weightings (note that only the relevant data is included below from a much larger table).
Looking at the weighting (relative importance) and the indentation on the left to determine which categories are sub-categories of others it becomes clear that you can't get the large negative number of -0.5 percent circled in red from the data circled in blue.

It appears that they are mistakenly weighting the -2.1 percent decline for lodging away from home at a much higher level and, since housing is a major component of core inflation, the first negative reading in 28 years was the result.

Banks in Calif., Ill., Fla., Texas are shut down

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Regulators shut four banks from California to Florida on Friday, boosting to 20 the number of U.S. bank failures this year following the 140 closures last year in the worst financial climate in decades.

The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. took over La Jolla Bank, FSB, in La Jolla, Calif. The bank had 10 branches and about $3.6 billion in assets and $2.8 billion in deposits.

Also seized was George Washington Savings Bank in Orland Park, Ill. It had four branches and about $412.8 million in assets and $397 million in deposits.

The FDIC said OneWest Bank in Pasadena, Calif., agreed to assume all deposits and essentially all assets of La Jolla Bank. The takeover is expected to cost the deposit insurance fund an estimated $882.3 million.

The FDIC and OneWest will share losses on about $3.3 billion of the failed bank's loans and other assets.

Meanwhile, FirstMerit Bank, National Association of Akron, Ohio, agreed to take over deposits at George Washington Savings Bank. FirstMerit is also taking over essentially all the assets. For George Washington, the FDIC predicts the takeover will cost the insurance fund $141.4 million.

The loss-sharing agreement for George Washington covers $324.2 million in assets.

The other seized banks were smaller and located in Florida and Texas. They were Marco Community Bank, with a single office on Marco Island, a wealthy barrier island near Naples on Florida's Gulf Coast, and La Coste National Bank of La Coste, Texas.

Marco Community Bank had about $119.6 million in assets and $117.1 million in deposits. Mutual of Omaha Bank, a division of the big insurance company Mutual of Omaha, agreed to assume the assets and deposits of Marco Community Bank.

The failure of Marco Community Bank will cost the deposit insurance fund an estimated $38.1 million.

In addition, the FDIC and Mutual of Omaha Bank, which is based in Omaha, Neb., agreed to share losses on $104.8 million of the failed bank's loans and other assets.

Florida is among the states with the highest concentration of bank failures and where the meltdown in the real estate market brought an avalanche of soured mortgage loans. Last year saw the failure of 14 banks in the state. Also high on the list are California, Georgia and Illinois.

La Coste National Bank had a single branch and $53.9 million in assets. Deposits totaled $49.3 million.

Community National Bank of Hondo, Texas, agreed to buy the deposits and assets of La Coste National Bank -- whose failure is expected to cost the insurance fund $3.7 million.

As the economy has weakened, with unemployment rising, home prices tumbling and loan defaults soaring, bank failures have accelerated and sapped billions of dollars out of the federal deposit insurance fund. It fell into the red last year.

The 140 bank failures last year were the highest annual tally since 1992, at the height of the savings and loan crisis. They cost the insurance fund more than $30 billion. There were 25 bank failures in 2008 and just three in 2007.

The FDIC expects the cost of resolving failed banks to grow to about $100 billion over the next four years.

The agency mandated banks prepay about $45 billion in premiums last year, for 2010 through 2012, to replenish the insurance fund.

Depositors' money -- insured up to $250,000 per account -- is not at risk, with the FDIC backed by the government. Besides the fund, the FDIC has about $21 billion in cash available in reserve to cover losses at failed banks.

Banks have been especially hurt by failed real estate loans, both residential and commercial. Banks that had lent to seemingly solid businesses are suffering losses as buildings sit vacant. As development projects collapse, builders are defaulting on their loans.

Smaller banks are more vulnerable to the losses than their bigger Wall Street counterparts, because commercial real estate makes up a larger portion of their portfolio.

If the economic recovery falters, defaults on the high-risk loans could spike. Many regional banks hold large concentrations of these loans. Banks face as much as $300 billion in losses on loans made for commercial property and development, according to a report issued last week by the Congressional Oversight Panel, which monitors the government's efforts to stabilize the financial system.

The report said the defaults could crimp lending and cause the eviction of families from rental properties. Bank failures also could contribute to job losses and hurt the economic recovery.

President Barack Obama recently promoted a $30 billion plan to provide money to community banks if they boost lending to small businesses. The program, which must be approved by Congress, would use money repaid by banks to the $700 billion federal bailout fund.

Hundreds of banks, including major Wall Street institutions, received taxpayer support through that politically unpopular rescue program, enacted by Congress in October 2008 at the height of the financial crisis.

AP Business Writer Tim Paradis in New York contributed to this report.

Calling C-Span about monetary reform

It’s remarkable how nervous I get when calling Washington Journal on C-Span. I have no problem getting on a stage and speaking my mind. I make part of my living doing voice-overs –selling people things I don’t necessarily believe in. But get me on the phone talking to the whole country and my voice retreats to near-pubescent form and I can hardly make my thoughts become words. But anyway…..

This last Monday morning C-Span’s Washington Journal featured Don Peck, assistant Editor of The Atlantic, on for his latest article “How a New Jobless Era Will Transform America”. The thrust of his article was really pushed aside as callers to the program kept arguing about Obama’s stimulus package and other attempts to make the economy better. Peck was on the side of the stimulus. This brought a rash of callers against it–usually making the argument that we are placing the burden on future generations. I’m personally not against government stimulus–especially when directed at our infrastructure. But I do have a problem with the unsustainable economic system that restricts the government’s ability to spend money intelligently when necessary. So I called and surprisingly made it in as the last caller of the day:

To be fair–I don’t think Don Peck is qualified to respond to my comment. He probably didn’t even understand what I was saying. To think otherwise would require believing him a shill for the Federal Reserve, and I am not making that accusation. His response is the rote message of those given positions like his with no real understanding of how money is created in this economic system. If he understood what I was saying, he might answer “Yes–this would be the best thing that could happen, but because of (insert excuse) it won’t”.

For those that are ignorant, like Don Peck, I will briefly attempt to fill you in:

The U.S. government has two ways of getting the money it wants to spend: taxes (plus fees and tariffs) and borrowing. Of course, borrowing occurs when the government wants to spend more than it takes in in taxes and fees. To do this the government issues bonds and treasury bills backed by the faith in their ability to extract payments from the public and American businesses in the future. This system has been in place since 1913. At this point, our debt (of over 14 trillion) breaks down like this: About 1/4 is owed to foreign countries. Another 1/4 is owed to mutual funds, private savings bonds, private pension funds, state and local government pension funds, insurance companies, and other investors. And about 1/2 is owed to the Federal Reserve stock-holding member banks. These are basically all of the biggest banks in the country –you know–the ones we recently bailed out. And these member banks don’t just get 1/2 of the interest payments we make every year in the form of taxes, they also get to split up the profit the Fed makes on issuing new loan credits.

Why is it like this? Well, when examining the history one can take either the official government position or the conspiratorial view. The government says that in 1913 we set up The Fed to stop inflationary bubbles and money panics from spiking the American economy. The idea sold to the public was that we needed stable big money entities like Chase and Rockefeller to back up our Dollar. Without them we’d be doomed to continuous cycles of panic. The conspiracy theory is that the big banks engineered the panics to convince the government to let them have their way and set up the Fed for their own benefit.

Does this matter today? Not really. Whether you believe in the honesty of bankers in 1913 or the conspiracy theories surrounding them doesn’t matter today. What matters is that after nearly 100 years, the American Dollar has proven that it doesn’t need private backers to make it work. After all this time it should be apparent that the American people are what backs this currency. We’re all grown up now. We don’t need big banker Daddy’s blessing any more…..In fact, we had to bail Dad out of bankruptcy recently.

If a government can issue bonds, treasury bills and other I.O.U’s, why can it not simply create money? The answer is it can. And it can do it without creating debt. In this modern age, there is no reason (other than the greed of some elites) for a prosperous country to have any National Debt at all.

There is a lot more to this idea of making money work for The People instead of enslaving them. I encourage you learn about it. I also encourage you and everyone call shows like Washington Journal, radio shows, etc. and make this idea heard far and wide.

….Even if it makes you feel nervous.

–Jim Kuczkowski

Good sources:

http://www.webofdebt.com/

http://www.themoneymasters.com/

http://www.moneyasdebt.net/

http://www.secretofoz.com/

« Ron Paul Wins Presidential Straw Poll at CPAC

Sh*t is Now Officially Going Down! Joe Stack Plane Crash IRS Austin Texas

Click this link ...... http://eclipptv.com/viewVideo.php?video_id=10312

New York tries to dismiss 9/11 health laws

Click this link ...... http://eclipptv.com/viewVideo.php?video_id=10303

Report: Billions in liabilities are trouble for state

Michigan has at least $51.5 billion in unfunded liabilities for state pensions and retiree benefits which could require a tax increase or cuts to services if not corrected, according to a new Pew Center on the States report.

The shortfalls represent what the state was obligated to pay current and retired state employees as of the 2008 fiscal year.

Nationwide, there is a $1 trillion shortfall in the public sector's retirement benefits, according to the report that was released Thursday.

The report states Michigan has an $11.5 billion shortfall in unfunded pension fund liability, and a $40 billion shortfall in health-care and other retiree benefit contributions.

However, Michigan is far from being rated worst in the 50-state assessment.

By 2009, half of Michigan's state employees were on a defined-contribution, 401(k)-style plan, but public schoolteachers remained in a defined-benefit, or pension, plan, the report states.

Gov. Jennifer Granholm has proposed requiring state workers and teachers to pay more toward their retirement benefits in the fiscal year starting Oct. 1.

State data suggest Michigan won't be on the hook for $51.5 billion in any one given year, considering the relatively young state employee work force and its retirement eligibility, said David Zin, analyst for the Michigan Senate Fiscal Agency.

The average age of a Michigan state employee was 46.1 during the fiscal year that ended Sept. 30, according to the state Civil Service Commission's most recent report.

A total of 34.1 percent of state workers were eligible to retire in five years; 25.8 percent were eligible in three years; and 17.3 percent in one year.

A total of 1,543 state employees retired that fiscal year.

Zin said the state's pension and retiree health-care and benefits costs continue to rise while state revenue continues to decline, however. He said that makes it challenging for the state to meet required pension obligations.

Combined state pension and retiree health-care benefits are expected to increase from 33.3 percent of payroll this fiscal year to 37.4 percent next year. For someone making $50,000 per year, that amounts to an $18,700 state contribution next year.

The state faces a nearly $2 billion deficit in the fiscal year that begins Oct. 1.

"That is an expense that relates to the $1.8 billion budget deficit. That's money that the state has to come up with just like it has to come up with money to pay for a paycheck for somebody," Zin explained.

Granholm's office said it's important to take note of the hit pension took as a result of the market downturns in 2008 and 2009.

Spokeswoman Megan Brown said reforms, including reinstating a 3 percent contribution for state employees on the defined-benefit plans, and eliminating state-subsidized retiree vision and dental coverage for state employees retiring after Oct. 1, will help cut costs.

"Adequate pension funding is achieved by consistently making the annual required contributions over time, which the state has done. Additionally, reforms proposed by Governor Granholm will improve the sustainability of state pension systems," Brown said.

"The system remains financially sound and is positioned to meet its ongoing benefit obligations over time due, in part, to a prudent investment program, cost controls and strategic planning," she added.

Zin said it's little surprise the state's retirement health-care costs continue to rise, considering health-care costs rise much faster than pension contributions.

He noted that Michigan isn't constitutionally required to provide retiree health benefits. In other words, the state could chose not to pay its $40 billion retiree health-care deficit.

"If the state can't afford them, they can simply stop paying them," he said.

The state's pension costs are just one more demand on dwindling revenues, along with growing Medicaid, state assistance and unemployment compensation costs, however, Zin added.

He said Granholm's plan to have more than 6,000 state employees retire will work toward reducing the pension burden.

Starting in 2002, Michigan "consistently failed" to meet annual actuarially required contributions, dipping below 70 percent in 2004, according to the Pew report.

As of 2008, states had $2.4 trillion to meet $3.4 trillion in promised pension, health-care and other postretirement benefits, according to the report.

The gap may even be wider because the study didn't account for the full blow of investment losses in late 2008 during the stock-market downturn, and because many plans employ multiyear smoothing techniques to lessen the effect of a single year's losses.

"We have a significant problem now, but it's a problem that can be solved by taking relatively modest steps," said Susan K. Urahn, the center's managing director.

"If they don't do anything, if they wait, eventually, they will have an unmanageable crisis on their hands," Urahn said.

The cost of the trillion-dollar shortfall, which will be paid over the coming decades, is about $8,800 for each American household. The study did not include many city, county and municipal pension plans, which are thought to have similar underfunding.

About one in five private sector workers have traditional defined benefit pensions, compared with about 90 percent of public sector employees — including some that do not get Social Security.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

N.C. faces a $500 million gap

RALEIGH -- Top lawmakers say North Carolina will come up $500million short of its $19billion budget by the end of June.

"It would not surprise me if it hit $600[million] or $700million," said Sen. David Hoyle, a Gaston County Democrat and co-chairman of the Senate Finance Committee. "But $500million seems like a given."

Revenue at the end of January was $35million behind estimates. The state would be in a $300million hole if not for a special Revenue Department program that settled dozens of business tax disputes, bringing in a flood of money.

But income and sales tax collections continue to trail what the legislature's fiscal staff projected.

Barry Boardman, chief economist on the staff, said the state could face a $500million gap when the budget year ends June 30. He offered a little more optimism than lawmakers, though: He said if April tax collections are higher than anticipated, the shortfall could be cut in half. Those collections, though, are so difficult to predict that they could just as easily balloon the budget gap.

Gov. Bev Perdue ordered agencies to slice 5 percent from their budgets last summer, but further cuts could be necessary.

Boardman and many economists across the country predicted last spring that the economy would bottom out late in 2009 and start rebounding by now. It hasn't. The good news is there are hints that the bounce is beginning.

"There are some glimmers," said Sen. Richard Stevens, a Republican from Cary. "For example, with temporary employment up in consecutive months ... that's usually the first sign of hiring."

Boardman highlighted a couple of troubling trends:

Estimated tax payments are below estimates by about 5 percent. Those are income tax payments, primarily from wealthy individuals, that are spread out over the year instead of paid in lump sums in April.

Also, sales tax revenue is behind estimates by about 4 percent. Because the legislature added a penny to the sales tax, that revenue stream props up an even larger part of the budget. So a lag in sales tax translates into a larger dollar figure, a bigger problem than in preceding years.

Consumer confidence remains low, so people are spending less. Part of the damper is unemployment. The state has shed 24,000 jobs since July.

The Revenue Department's one-time program to settle tax bill disputes with corporations and businesses last year raked in $427million, well above the $150million projected. Rep. Mickey Michaux, a Durham Democrat and senior budget committee chairman in the House, said the extra money was a windfall that was quickly wiped out. "We keep coming up every day with other problems," Michaux said. Unexpected expenses in Medicaid very quickly drained the extra cash, he said.

State officials received a dose of good news Friday when President Barack Obama's administration announced it was cutting what states owe the federal government in the Medicare prescription drug plan.

North Carolina received a $150million reduction in its bill.

The biggest impact on state revenue, in either direction, will come in April with the payment of individual and corporate income taxes. That's the most volatile revenue source - the "April surprise" that officials anxiously await.

Michaux expects that it won't be pleasant. "It's going to be difficult to pick up the number of jobs we need" for income tax revenues to improve, he said.

Hoyle was equally tempered, mentioning that many small business owners have complained to him about a horrible year.

"We keep hoping and praying that the turnaround is here," he said.

Rail line shutdown looming in northern Maine

PORTLAND, Maine (AP) -- The collapse of the nation's housing market is being blamed for a railway's plans to abandon hundreds of miles of track in far-flung northern Maine that have served the region for more than a century.

The Montreal, Maine & Atlantic Railway has filed notice with the federal government that it intends to abandon 233 miles of track that stretch across the northern third of the state, from Millinocket to Madawaska.

Railroad President Bob Grindrod says freight revenue has plunged as shipments of lumber, logs and wood chips have fallen. The products are largely used in home construction.

State officials and legislators are trying to figure out how the tracks might be spared. If those efforts fail, train service could start shutting down in late June.

(Copyright 2010 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)

Asia-produced ozone making its way to U.S., study finds

WASHINGTON — A new study further bolsters concerns that pollution blowing across the Pacific Ocean from China and other rapidly developing Asian nations may swamp efforts to clean up the air in the Western United States and make it difficult for states and cities to meet federal standards.

The study, based on 100,000 measurements over 25 years and a computer model tracking air-flow patterns, found that during the spring, ozone from Asia reaches Washington , Oregon , California and other states west of the Rocky Mountains .

For the first time, the study links ozone in the air above the United States with Asian pollution, said Dan Jaffe , a professor of atmospheric and environmental chemistry at the University of Washington-Bothell and one of the study's authors.

"It is possible that emissions from emerging economies like China , with relatively limited emissions controls, are outpacing reductions in the developing countries," the report concludes. It says that the Asian emissions may "hinder the USA's compliance with its own ozone air-quality standard."

Previous studies have detected such pollutants from Asia as mercury, soot and PCBs reaching the United States . A National Academy of Sciences study last year pointed to increasing unease among regulators about a growing problem.

"Any air pollutant with an atmospheric lifetime of at least three to four days may be transported across most of a continent, a week or two may get it across an ocean, a month or two can send it around the hemisphere and a year or two may deliver it anywhere on Earth," the National Academy of Sciences said last year.

The academy's new report, prepared by the National Research Council , says the problem involves not only trans- Pacific pollution but also trans-Atlantic pollution, with emissions from the United States reaching Europe . The study zeroed in on ozone, particulate matter, mercury and persistent organic pollutants, which have been tracked by ground-based monitors, airborne monitors and satellite-borne sensors.

Among the federal agencies that are interested in the issue are the Environmental Protection Agency , the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration , NASA and the National Science Foundation .

The academy called for increased "fingerprinting" of pollutants, so that it's easier to locate their sources, and more detailed studies of emission totals and the atmospheric conditions that spread the pollution.

"The relative importance of long-range pollutant contributions from foreign sources is likely to increase as nations institute stricter air-quality standards that result in tougher emission controls on domestic sources," the academy's report says.

The study on ozone from Asia , authored by an international group of scientists, appears in the Jan. 21 issue of the journal Nature. It comes as the EPA is considering tightening ozone standards.

Ozone is the main ingredient in smog, which can cause health problems that range from burning in the eyes and throat to pulmonary inflammation and increased risk of heart attack. It's created when sunlight mixes with oxygen and nitrogen from vehicle tailpipes and other sources of combustion.

The study focused on an area two to six miles above the Earth known as the mid-troposphere. Pollution in the troposphere could affect the ground level.

While emissions of nitrous oxide, a precursor compound in ozone, have declined in the United States by about one-third since 1985, the study found that ozone levels had increased by 29 percent over the same period.

The study notes that from 2001 to 2006, ozone precursor emissions in east Asia were up 44 percent, and 55 percent in China .

"The changes we have seen over the past 25 years coincide with when China was transforming itself into an economic powerhouse," Jaffe said.

The study didn't pinpoint which Asian countries the ozone might be coming from, Jaffe said. Among the possibilities are China , India and Vietnam .

"What we can say is there has been a strong and significant increase in ozone in the mid-troposphere in the West and it doesn't seem the U.S. is contributing to the increase," said Owen Cooper , a research scientist at the University of Colorado attached to NOAA's Earth System Research Laboratory in Boulder, Colo.

Cooper said the study found that Asian emissions were adding to the ozone pollution in the Western United States , but scientists couldn't say by how much and which countries were involved.

"This is only the first step," Cooper said of the study.

The EPA , which regulates emissions through the Clean Air Act, is looking at international ozone transport, the agency said in an e-mailed statement.

"However, as the National Academy of Sciences concluded in its recent report, our current ability to fully characterize the impact of foreign sources on air quality in the United States is somewhat limited," the statement said.

The EPA said it was too soon to tell how the latest study might affect ozone standards.

ON THE WEB

The National Academy of Sciences report

The Environmental Protection Agency

The Jaffe Research Group at the University of Washington-Bothell

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Earth System Research Laboratory

MORE FROM MCCLATCHY

Obama, governors announce plan to capture global warming pollution from coal

In a first step, nations pledge to fix global warming

EPA proposes major smog cleanup to protect health

Follow the latest politics news at McClatchy's Planet Washington

THE 9/11 ANTHRAX FRAME-UP

An Army biological and chemical warfare facility in Utah has been quietly developing a virulent, weapons-grade formulation of anthrax spores since at least 1992, and samples of the bacteria were shipped back and forth between that facility and Fort Detrick, Md. ... The Utah spores, grown and processed at the 800,000-acre Dugway Proving Ground about 80 miles from Salt Lake City, belong to the Ames strain -- the same strain used in the deadly letters sent to media outlets and two senators in September and October. No other nation is known to have made weapons-grade Ames. [Washington Post]

The anthrax attacks in the United States were probably the work of a member of a U.S. biological warfare program, the magazine of environment pressure group Greenpeace Germany reported Wednesday. .. "The U.S. delegation believe it is an inside job. ... Their members also have more information than has been made public," Kirsten Brodde, a reporter for the magazine, told Reuters. The magazine said: "It seems the attacker ... wanted to force through an increase in the budget for U.S. research on biological weapons." [Discovery Channel]

Okay, by now you have probably gotten the point. The Anthrax letters came from inside the United States. The letters contained a specific type of weaponized Anthrax made by a United States military lab which had been claiming for a lot of years that it wasn't doing that sort of thing any more. "What? Oh, you mean THAT Anthrax over there! Sheesh, we thought you said 'Pamflax' and shuckies but we quit making that stuff a long time ago. Honest. Really. If we're lying may God strike us... a glancing blow." (Ahem) The pattern of the mailings of the Anthrax letters was also suspicious. Congress got their Anthrax letters just in time for the vote on the disingenuously named USA Patriot Act (aka the anti-terror bill) which the terrorized Senators voted into law without bothering to read. How convenient for the bill's sponsors that there was a terror attack on the Congress just when Congress was about to vote on the anti-terror bill. Eerie timing, isn't it? "After the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, the Bush Administration tried to ram the USA PATRIOT Act through Congress," [Francis A.] Boyle said in a radio interview with Austin-based talk-show host Alex Jones. "That would have set up a police state. Senators Tom Daschle (D-South Dakota) and Patrick Leahy (D-Vermont) were holding it up because they realized what this would lead to. The first draft of the PATRIOT Act would have suspended the writ of habeas corpus [which protects citizens from unlawful imprisonment and guarantees due process of law]. Then all of a sudden, out of nowhere, come these anthrax attacks." "At the time I myself did not know precisely what was going on, either with respect to September 11 or the anthrax attacks, but then the New York Times revealed the technology behind the letter to Senator Daschle. [The anthrax used was] a trillion spores per gram, [refined with] special electro-static treatment. This is superweapons-grade anthrax that even the United States government, in its openly proclaimed programs, had never developed before. So it was obvious to me that this was from a U.S. government lab. There is nowhere else you could have gotten that." [AfterDowningStreet] So now, knowing that the Anthrax letters came from an American source, take another look at the actual letters (click images for full size). There are several indications of deliberate deception in these items. A terrorist group seeking the maximum number of casualties would not advertise the fact that the letters contained a biological weapon, they would have enclosed an innocuous letter to ensure maximum spread of the agent - the letters are virtually shouting "seal off the area and get a doctor!" The addresses are written at a slight slant, oddly enough matching the look of the posters and flyers at the Post Office warning all America to "watch out for these". While the letters to Congress are intended to appear to be from fourth graders, the letters to the New York Post and Tom Brokaw have no need for such an artifice. Dates written by Middle Easterners begin with the day first, then the month, then the year, therefore the date should read 11-9-2001. The above letters follow the American convention for the dates shown. One of the letters is a photocopy of another. Most places which have copiers have typewriters or word processors, appliances whose operation is no mystery to the sort of people who go in and out of government laboratories. In short, the entire look of the letters is a contrived fake, creating what they thought a letter from a third world middle eastern terrorist would look like, so that the phrases "Death to Israel", and "Allah is Great" (a real Muslin says either "Allah Achbar" or "God is Great") would point the finger of blame for the Anthrax at the middle eastern Arabs. Except that we know for a fact that the Anthrax didn't come from the Middle East. It isn't Saddam's or Osama's, it's the very best high quality mil-spec Anthrax home grown at Fort Detrick, Dugway, and USAMRIID. It's our Anthrax. And that means that all the slanted writing, the extra crossings on the "T"s, the references to Allah and Israel are a carefully crafted hoax, designed to trick Americans into thinking that Arab Muslims from the middle east were to blame for the Anthrax letters. The above letters are not evidence of a terrorist attack but of a deception against the people of the United States; a deliberate frame-up of middle eastern Arabs perpetrated by the same party who owns the Anthrax. That a plan exists to frame Arab Muslims for the crimes of another party is now a proven fact. There are two suspects accused of being the source of the Anthrax letters. The first is Dr. Philip Zack, who was caught on camera entering the storage area where the Anthrax was kept without proper authorization. Documents from the inquiry show that one unauthorized person who was observed entering the [Fort Detrick] lab building at night was Langford's predecessor, Lt. Col. Philip Zack, who at the time no longer worked at Fort Detrick. A surveillance camera recorded Zack being let in at 8:40 p.m. on Jan. 23, 1992, apparently by Dr. Marian Rippy, a lab pathologist and close friend of Zack's, according to a report filed by a security guard. [ctnow] The second suspect is the more well known Dr. Stephen Hatfill, accused (and re-accused and re-accused) by Dr. Barbara Rosenberg although no actual evidence of his involvement has surfaced. But regardless of whether one thinks Dr. Zack or Dr. Hatfill is the culprit, neither man is an Arab Muslim, which again means that the above letters, written to appear to be from Arab Muslims, are proof of a plot to frame Arabs for terror attacks in the US. The only question is, did that plot extend to 9-11 itself. [As a footnote, Dr. Zack has a prior history of hostility towards Arabs and was reprimanded by his employer repeatedly on that issue.]

Sun-powered water splitter makes hydrogen tirelessly

Sunlight + water = hydrogen gas, in a new technique that can convert 60 per cent of sunlight energy absorbed by an electrode into the inflammable fuel.

To generate the gas Thomas Nann and colleagues at the University of East Anglia in Norwich, UK, dip a gold electrode with a special coating into water and expose it to light. clusters of indium phosphide 5 nanometres wide on its surface absorb incoming photons and pass electrons bearing their energy on to clusters of a sulphurous iron compound.

This material combines those electrons with protons from the water to form gaseous hydrogen. A second electrode – plain platinum this time – is needed to complete the circuit electrochemically.

New benchmark

Organic molecules have been used before to perform the same feat. But they are quickly bleached by the sunlight they are collecting, rendering them inefficient after a few weeks.

The inorganic materials used in the University of East Anglia's system are more resilient. Their first generation proof of concept is "a major breakthrough" in the field, they say, thanks to its efficiency of over 60 per cent and ability to survive sunlight for two weeks without any degradation of performance.

"In fact the 60 per cent figure is probably a worst-case scenario," says Nann. "This is still a preliminary study."

Bigger net

That high efficiency is largely thanks to the indium phosphide clusters being better at grabbing photons than organic molecules. "Think of them as a butterfly net for catching photons," says Nann.

By the standard measure of the probability that a material will absorb a photon that hits it, each cluster is 400 times better at netting photons than organic molecules used in previous systems. "That's why it works so well," says Nann.

He and colleagues now plan to refine the system, including lowering the cost by making it with less expensive materials. "There is no major reason for using gold or platinum," he says: those materials were used simply because they are common in the laboratory.

Welcome result

The Nann team's experiment has been welcomed by others in the field. "It's a significant result," says Vincent Artero at the Joseph Fourier University in Grenoble, France. There is still room to improve efficiency and reduce materials costs, but "my overall appreciation of this work is highly positive, both regarding the scientific level and the promises that are held by the new result", he says

Licheng Sun at the Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm, Sweden, agrees. "It will certainly [provide] future research topics for water splitting," he says.

The future of hyperinflation

Click this link ....... http://eclipptv.com/viewVideo.php?video_id=10315