Monday, January 25, 2010
New report feeds climate change skeptics
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NY dairy farmer's widow wants to keep farm going
COPAKE, N.Y. – The widow of a New York dairy farmer who methodically slaughtered 51 cows before taking his own life says she wants to figure out a way to keep the farm going.
Dean Pierson, 59, was found dead Thursday on the floor of his barn in Copake, a rural hamlet 115 miles north of New York City. Nearby, half his herd lay in their milking stalls, also dead of gunshot wounds.
Pierson left no explanation for what he'd done, just a simple note on the barn door warning whoever found it not to come in and to call the police.
But there appeared to be a method to his bloody work. He killed only the cows that required frequent milking, letting 50 others live, including heifers and calves.
Neighbors speculated that he was trying to spare his family the burden of caring for the animals.
He left no suicide note, said his wife, Gwynneth, who was home at the time of the shootings but heard nothing.
"No one knows why for sure," she told the Times Union of Albany, adding that her husband had been "talking a lot to his mom."
Now, she said, "We need to figure out how to keep the farm going ... It wouldn't be right for all that work he put into it to go to nothing."
On Friday, neighboring farmers used a backhoe and bulldozer to bury the animals, pushing them into a deep pit in the Columbia County soil.
Pierson had four children, but he milked the herd alone — once before sunrise and again at night, neighbors said. He kept mostly to himself, rarely visiting with other farmers.
"Dean had no help on the farm and he worked really hard to do it all himself," neighbor Susan Kiernan told the Times Union.
"It's hard to hang in now and a lot of dairy farmers are going out of business," she added. Kiernan's family has operated a dairy farm for three generations.
The gruesome scene in the barn was discovered at about 1 p.m. Thursday by a neighboring farmer
State police Capt. Scott Brown told the Rockford Register-Star that an investigation revealed that the farmer was having "personal issues."
The farm was founded by Pierson's father, a Swedish immigrant. He named the property High Low Farm.
Senate Dems Not Sure They Can Get Enough Votes to Reconfirm Bernanke
Amidst the voter anger at Wall Street and Washington, D.C., ABC News has learned that the Senate Democratic leadership isn't sure there are enough votes to re-confirm Ben Bernanke for another term as chairman of the Federal Reserve.
Bernanke's term expires on Jan. 31.
The White House did not respond to many requests for comment.
"The American people are disgusted with the greed and recklessness of Wall Street," Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., said in an interview with The Associated Press last month. "People are asking, 'Why didn't the Fed intervene at the appropriate time to stop the casino-type activities of large financial companies?'"
Sanders, Sen. Jim Bunning, R-Ky., Sen. Jim DeMint, R-S.C., and Sen. David Vitter, R-La., have all put holds on Bernanke's nomination, requiring 60 votes to proceed to a vote.
Voter anger is of heightened concern to members of Congress given the surprise victory of Sen.-elect Scott Brown, R-Mass., who rode a tide of voter discontent and economic anxiety to an upset victory in a special election earlier this week.
Last month, the Senate Banking Committee voted in favor of Bernanke's nomination by a vote of 16-7, not exactly a reflection of overwhelming positive feelings towards the Fed chair given the fact that he was first appointed in 2006 by President George W. Bush and nominated by President Obama for a second term last August.
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., at one point was planning on scheduling a vote on Bernanke for Friday, but the Senate is currently in the midst of a debate over raising the debt limit and the vote has been pushed.
The majority leader met with Bernanke earlier today and issued a statement saying that he believes "more pressure needs to be applied to banks to lend money to small businesses and keep more Americans in their homes." Reid said that the "American people expect our economic leaders to keep Wall Street honest and level the playing field for middle class families, and I will continue to hold their feet to the fire to ensure this happens. As the Senate prepares to take up Chairman Bernanke's nomination, I look forward to hearing more from him about how he intends to address these issues.”
Roll Call reported this week that at the Senate Democratic caucus meeting on Wednesday, "according to senators, liberals spoke out against confirming Bernanke for a second term. Those liberals tried to make the case that the White House needs to put in place fresh economic advisers to focus on 'Main Street' issues like unemployment rather than Wall Street concerns. Moderates were more reserved, senators said, but have similarly withheld their support for Bernanke."Five Banks Fail; Year's Total at 9
Regulators seized five banks in Florida, Missouri, New Mexico, Oregon and Washington, lifting the total number of failures this year to nine as financial institutions struggle with loan defaults and a weak economy.
Two of the five institutions had assets of more than $1 billion. The Florida bank, in Miami, was sold to an investment group that includes former North Fork Bancorp Chief Financial Officer Dan Healy. The deposits and assets of the New Mexico bank went to Texas billionaire Andrew Beal.
The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. estimated the Friday closings will cost the agency's cash-strapped deposit-insurance fund a total ...
DOLLAR HYPERINFLATION ONLY WAY OUT
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