Le Show; 2013-04-21

From deep inside your radio, ladies and gentlemen, you may have noticed that I only have an hour a week to be with you here in this little radio thing. It's not nearly enough time for me to spend most of it talking about myself. Now I'm not crazy. I spend plenty of time the rest of the week talking about myself, but I'm going to take a couple of moments here at the beginning of this program to discuss what's happened to this broadcast. The fact that you're hearing it right now means that whatever happened hasn't been particularly dire, but it is true as you may have heard that the Santa Monica radio station that has been the site of the Lachodome, and you can look up its call letters. It's on Stugel, that's Google for stupid stuff. The station I say has seen fit as of last Sunday to inform me that on their air and only on their air last week was the last broadcast of this program, homeless in the home of the

homeless. Radio listeners and Los Angeles are tuning in today at the regular showtime and are hearing something else, something way else. And they probably won't be told whether that's because of my or the station's choice, both the short notice and the refusal to allow me to say goodbye are sad to say characteristics of business practice in commercial radio, which public radio is growing to resemble more and more every day. The program continues in the hope that the rest of the stations will stick with us while we find a new radio home in LA. In case you're wondering, the show is not run as a business, no money changes hands between that erstwhile home station and me or any other station in me. So this is not about that. The Santa Monica station's sole explanation was that the online audience is growing and they want new voices on the broadcast side.

I love my online audience, ladies and gentlemen, and I am no Luddite about 70% of my own radio listening is done online, but broadcasting remains important to me and perhaps to you. Many people, especially in LA, listen to radio in their cars while driving, yes, people do a lot of driving in LA, somebody should tell management. And while I've figured out a way to get online radio into my car's audio system, lots of other folks haven't. And it became evident when the New Orleans Daily newspaper last year became a thrice weekly and it told people in search of more up-to-date news to check its website daily. Poor people and older people are still much less likely to be online or adept at all the tricks of the online world. Drivers, the poor and the elderly, who wants that audience well, gee, I do, additionally despite the modish productions that audio entertainment and information will all move online

rendering over-the-art broadcasting obsolete. Consider this, born from my experience in communities that have had exposure to effectively earthquakes and hurricanes or floods. When disaster strikes, the first things that go bluey are the electrical grid and the telephone system. In emergencies, your smartphone is dumb, your computer is dumber, and your battery-powered radio may be your best friend. So yes, this is a podcast and an online stream and all of that, but it starts out proudly as a radio program. The former home station manager has shared this bit of wisdom with listeners who've called or written to complain, quote, change is hard, unquote. She's got pretty almond eyes, up was taken by surprise, she was standing at the show, what I guess I'll never know.

Should I stay or should I go? You can't stay a little longer, you can't stay a little longer, you can't stay a little longer, stay a little longer as my heart grows fond of. You can't stay a little longer, you can't stay a little longer now, you can't stay a little longer, stay a little longer as my heart grows fond of.

I ain't gonna be your higher man, I ain't gonna take you by the head, I ain't gonna be your higher man, I ain't gonna take you by the head, I ain't gonna be your higher man, I ain't gonna be your higher man, I ain't gonna take you by the head. So break the poor boy down, cuz who's got words for times like this? You can't stay a little longer, you can't stay a little longer, you can't stay a little longer, stay a little longer as my heart grows fond of.

I ain't gonna be your idol, I ain't gonna take you all away, I ain't gonna be your idol man, but take me out of all your hands. I ain't gonna be your idol man, but I know who you are. I ain't gonna be your idol man, but take me out of all your hands. Sometimes you just have to kick out the jams and the jams is from London, England, home of the marathon.

I'm Harry Scherer, welcoming you to this edition of the show, an amazing week in the United States at least. And here too in Britain where I'm broadcasting from, they had the big Maggie Thatcher funeral. We didn't hear about that in the States so much because we had the other thing going on, a couple of other things going on. One of which I think the entirety of the coverage might be neatly summarized by this excerpt from Anderson Cooper in Boston. Listen to one of the uncles who clearly doesn't know much about these guys, I'm not sure how useful that was, but interesting nonetheless I suppose. Let's take a look at that particular thing, ladies and gentlemen. If ever old jokes came to life, this is the day.

Starbucks shops went dark as the city locked down spurred by the manhunt for the second marathon bombing suspect. But hometown coffee chain, Duncan Donuts stayed open law enforcement asked Duncan Donuts to keep some restaurants open in the lockdown communities to provide hot coffee and food like donuts to police and other emergency workers. Quote at the direction of authority select Duncan Donuts restaurants in the Boston area are open to take care of needs of law enforcement and first responders, said spokeswoman in email. I know you couldn't, we don't write them, we just read them, can't write that better. And now, ladies and gentlemen, we are proud to present, let us try a ballad of the US Army Corps of Engineers. Well, the tide got stemmed good in what he said is likely his last ruling involving living in flood wall failures in the wake of Hurricane Katrina in 2005.

US District Judge Stanwood DeVal lambasted the Army Corps of Engineers. The engineering decisions he says were responsible for those failures as well as the legal process that has granted the core immunity from paying for the billions of dollars in damage caused by the flooding. Quote, I feel obligated to note that the bureaucratic behemoth that is the US Army Corps of Engineers is virtually unaccountable to the citizens it protects despite the Federal Tort claims act. That's the Federal law governing damage claims. Still quoting Judge DeVal, the public will very possibly be more jeopardized by a lack of accountability than a rare judgment granting relief. The untold billions of dollars of damage incurred by the greater New Orleans area as a result of the levy failures speak eloquently to that point.

Unquote the judge had ruled in 2008 that the immunity clause did not extend to the Mississippi River Gulf outlet a navigation channel. And therefore he found the Corps of Engineers liable for the flood damage in St. Bernard Parish and the Lower Ninth Ward caused by the flooding related to the Mr. Go that was upheld by the US Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals. And then the same three judge panel six months later last year reversed itself. In his ruling last Friday, DeVal pointed out he had presided over quote this hydro like Katrina umbrella litigation for almost eight years. One central theme has been painfully obvious throughout this entire process. Many of the levies protecting New Orleans and the surrounding area were tragically flawed. However, he continued lamentably he continued lamentably there has been no judicial relief for the hundreds of thousands of people and tens of thousands of businesses impacted.

The flood control act of 1928 has interpreted over the years gives the United States Army Corps of Engineers virtually absolute immunity no matter how negligent it might have been in designing and overseeing the construction of the levies. Unquote federal judge Stanwood DeVal, folks in the Northeast who are turning to the United States Army Corps of Engineers for help post Sandy note those words. Remember them. Keep them in mind. Now news of the godly. When Reverend John Anthony Salazar arrived in Tulea, Texas in 1991. He was warmly welcomed by the Roman Catholic community in the Texas Panhandle.

What his new parishioners didn't know was that he'd been hired out of a treatment program for a pedophile priests. And that he'd been convicted for child molestation and banned from the archdiocese of Los Angeles for life. No, the feeling bad. Over the next 11 year, no, just about L.A. Over the next 11 years, Salazar would be accused of abusing four more children and young men in Texas, including an 18 year old parishioner who suffered teeth marks on his genitals, ladies and gentlemen, fear listening pleasure. Now he waits to trial and one molestation charge. Many of the details of his past are contained in a confidential personnel file that was on among the 120 such files. The archdiocese of L.A. made public this year. Those records tell only part of the story of this Tuesday. Attorneys return to court to argue over the release of records for about 80 priests, including Salazar, who belong to religious orders within the church that kept their own personnel files. More secrets coming out.

Disorder in the orders. The occluses chart, the hearing will address in what form and when those files will be made public involves orders such as the Jesuits, salegions, Vincentians and Dominicans. The document to critical understanding the full scope of the clergy abuse scandal says, uh, representative of L.A. Area victims. The Franciscans were forced last year to release confidential records on their members who had been accused of molestation. The papers revealed a culture of abuse, at least they got culture. A culture of abuse, I say, that affected generations of students at the seminary dedicated to training future Franciscans. Among the documents was a, quote, sexual autobiography penned by one priest as part of a therapy assignment that spelled out how he groomed children from molestation from a boy's choir that he founded. This report from ABC news news of the godly ladies and gentlemen copyrighted feature of this broadcast last week. I mentioned my interest in chagrin at sorry, chagrin at the apparently increasingly widespread use of the word so to begin a thought, especially in response to a question.

Replacing well or now or look or any of the other little verbal handles we've grown accustomed to so not concluding anything starting something. Well, during the past week, I was tipped off by a listener or two to the fact that there are actually academic articles in print. Now written about what is referred to as the initial so and since I thought maybe some listeners weren't quite familiar with the phenomenon. I decided, well, it just so happened, I stumbled upon quite a good selection this past week, these souls of the week.

Well, thanks very much for being here. So tell us where you were and what happened. So I was at the other corner of Copley Square, we're setting up a press conference. I've got John Latira here, he owns 200 bitcoins, explain to people what a bitcoin is. So a bitcoin is a digital currency that can be used once you purchase one online, you can use it for trading goods and services anywhere in the world. Not likely according to a report co-produced by NPR and pro-publica where at least day is director of research. First tell us how this would work. So return free would essentially work where certain taxpayers with simple tax situations could have the option to get a pre-filled tax return. Are they working with a kidney? So you still need a donor organ for these techniques. How have you been able to establish that?

So when we drilled the ice core, we were able to actually see these visual layers in the ice that we were pulling up. And when were the coolest conditions on that part of peninsula and the lowest amount of melt? So at this site where we drilled the ice core, the coolest conditions were about 600 years ago and the temperature was about 1.6 degrees cooler than what it is now. And looking at the fact that the most rapid melt has been the last 50 years, why do you think that is? So what the ice core shows which is quite interesting is that the changes in environment that happen when the climate warms don't necessarily have to happen gradually or in a nice linear way. So there you are. It's a thing. It's definitely a thing. Try to work it into your conversation. It will make you clearly. It will make you sound smarter as if you've been formulating this answer and just waiting to be asked. And then when you're asked it all just tumbles out as if part of a train of thought that you've been writing during the asking of the question. The so's of the week. And now let's follow the dollar.

First news of the new F bomb for closure last week, the general accounting office issued a second report on the topic of the independent foreclosure review. This was supposed to be reviewing how many homeowners had been hurt by illegal or improper foreclosures. The report revealed what was long suspected by many observers at the office of the comptroller of the currency and the federal reserve board had no interest in actually discovering what went wrong. You're four of the problems outlined by the GAO as reported in the nation. Regulators obfuscated abuses by failing to provide a consistent approach. The GAO report shows that regulators fail to design a single methodology for all of the consultants working on the review to use. Instead leaving it up to each consulting firm without a clear methodology set by the regulators, consultants had vastly different approaches, reviewed different categories of problems created data that could not be aggregated.

Second, lack of transparency in addition to failing to report problems across all the bank servicers. These are the companies that actually were deputized by the banks after the mortgages were securitized to collect the payments and for close if necessary. In addition to failing to report problems across all the bank servicers, the office of comptroller of the currency and the federal reserve also refused to disclose specifics about the individual servicers. You heard that in the colloquy between Senator Warren and officials of the two agencies here last week from an earlier hearing, the OCC misled the public about how many homeowners were harmed. He claimed that all of the foreclosure cases of all of the foreclosure cases reviewed. There were only errors made by the servicers 4.2% of the time. This number was immediately questioned by the press. The Wall Street Journal reported that the real error rates were far higher. Well as far goes, for example, at 11%.

The journal's report showed the OCC could have only arrived at their error rate by gaming the numbers. No report gives further credibility that journals claims by essentially reporting the OCC in the Fed couldn't have arrived at accurate estimates of the harm caused by borrowers even if they wanted to. They allowed the banks captured consultants. The consultants were employed and paid for by the banks to define what constituted harm to the borrower. And 4th missing documents were not considered errors. There'll be more about all this next week on this broadcast. Eve Smith will be our guest and we'll go into grotesque detail. I hope on the problems with the so-called independent foreclosure review. But now more by money following the dollar or the pound in this case, the chief executive of the prudential regulation authority. It's a British financial regulator said it was a source of some surprise to him that authorities had brought cases against junior bankers, but not higher ups. Still capable of surprise, are you mate? Speaking at a conference in London, he said it was not the job of the regulator, say if individuals should go to prison, but he added it is to my mind a very striking observation and difficulty with the crisis that no formal action has been taken against any chief executive or any chairman of a failed institution, not because I have a personal vendetta against them, but it is more than odd that action has been taken against people lower down in institutions, but not at the top.

The last to know the head of the prudential regulatory authority. All right, then. Always capable, always maintain your ability to be surprised, ladies and gentlemen, keeps you young. Following the dollar still further, David K. Johnson, who was a guest on this program about two years ago, reports that the internal revenue service has told employees. It's going to shut down entirely for five days because of the sequester. I was an IRS employees received an email on Friday that mentioned five specific dates and said, all public facing operations. Yes, that's what they call operations that have to deal with the public as opposed to wrangling among themselves. All public facing operations will be closed on these dates, including our toll free operations and tax pair assistance.

And tax pair assistance centers. Some mission essential IT and security personnel may need to work on these days. However, they will be taking furlough days on alternative dates within those pay periods. Everyone is covered by this furlough from the acting commissioner to managers and employees. The president of the union that represents workers of the IRS announced management has hinted it may shut down the agency on two other days as well. This means the IRS will fail to collect some taxes worsening the deficit that the sequester was designed to reduce. You see. The IRS, Johnston points out brings in virtually all of the federal government's revenue. The IRS budget is down 17% per capita since 2002 adjusted for inflation. So, um, so what we all wanted is here and more about the dollar growing concern at the International Monetary Fund over the long term side effects of interest rates close to zero.

Comes as some of the leading figures in central banking conceded. They're flying blind. When steering their economies, according to CNBC, Lorenzo Bini smoggy. Again, I don't write them. I just read them Lorenzo Bini smoggy. Oh, those smoggy days, the former member of the European Central Blank Banks executive board captured the mood at the IMF spring meeting saying, quote, we don't fully understand what is happening in advanced economies unquote. Now he tells us. In this environment of uncertainty about the way economies work and how to influence recoveries with policy, the outgoing governor of the Bank of England. The former urban king said there is the risk of appearing to promise too much or allowing too much to be expected of us. The central bankers were clear they'd got it wrong before the crisis, allowing themselves to be lulled by stable inflation into thinking they had eliminated financial vulnerabilities.

Central bankers, ladies and gentlemen, flying blind. And on a related subject. This is from an appearance by Professor Jeffrey Sachs. If the name sounds familiar, he's a he's at now at Columbia University, but about 20 years ago, he was at Harvard, and that said with respect, and he was an avid supporter of so-called free market economics, and it was he who went over to the then crumbling Soviet Union as it threw off the shackles of communism and advocated not just free market economics, but so-called shock therapy, that is to say very, very rapid transition from communism. To the other thing, it can therefore be said with some degree of fairness that all of the Russian oligarchs owe him big time for being billionaires. Anyway, now he's at Columbia. Now he's speaking at a conference at the Federal Reserve of Philadelphia this week, this past week called fixing the banking system for good.

And nowadays, here's what he's saying. A lot of what's happened, actually, and what's been revealed is, in my view, primafacial criminal behavior. It's financial fraud on a very large extent. There's also a tremendous amount of insider trading, and you can even watch it when you're living in New York. How about works? I take John Paulson, for example. Paulson worked together with Goldman Sachs to defraud massively many European banks, which bought the toxic mortgages that Paulson had put together. When this advocacy deal was taken up by the SEC, Goldman ended up paying a small fine. The chair of Goldman, of course, continued in his position and continued at White House state dinners. And Paulson wasn't even mentioned once in any of the proceedings that he took on a $1 billion paycheck. I believe we have a crisis of values that is extremely deep because the regulations and the legal structures need reform.

But I meet a lot of these people on Wall Street on a regular basis right now. I'm going to put it very bluntly. I regard the moral environment as pathological. I'm talking about the human interactions that I have. I've not seen anything like this. I've not felt it so palpably. These people are out to make billions of dollars, and nothing should stop them from that. They have no responsibility to pay taxes. They have no responsibility to their clients. They have no responsibility to people counter parties in transactions. They are tough, greedy, aggressive, and feel absolutely out of control in a quite literal sense. And they have gained the system to a remarkable extent. And they have a DASIL president, a DASIL White House, and a DASIL regulatory system that absolutely can't find its voice. It's terrified of these companies.

If you look at the campaign contributions, the financial markets are the number one campaign contributors in the US system now. We have a corrupt politics to the core. I'm afraid to say both parties are up to their necks in this. This has nothing to do with Democrats or Republicans. It really doesn't have anything to do with right-wing or left-wing, by the way. The corruption is as far as I can see everywhere. But what it's led to is this sense of impunity that is really stunning, and you feel it on the individual level right now, and it's very, very unhealthy. It reminds me of a couple years ago, that's Professor Jeffrey Sachs of Columbia. A couple years ago, a State Department official was trying to explain why we were having so much trouble with the corruption deal in Afghanistan. He said, well, see, they have a culture of impunity. Guess we both do.

In you and me, games of our own creation, fall on our hands and eat, stop the fight as you say. You could always stand it as for long, always wrong. So tell me what you're fighting for. You can stop the nights from turning on. You can stop the nights from turning on. You can stop the nights from turning on. You can stop the nights from turning on. You can stop the nights from turning on.

You can stop the nights from turning on. You can stop the nights from turning on. You can stop the nights from turning on. You can stop the nights from turning on. As she is coming for us, ask us to sleep in the floor. Tell your heart to reach for something more. Watch people spill the dreams. Let's explore the rest, it's in you and me. Guess we've created fall on our hands and eat, stop the fight as you say. You could always stand it as for long, always wrong.

We've created fall on our hands and eat, stop the nights from turning on. You can stop the nights from turning on. You can stop the nights from turning on. You can stop the nights from turning on. You can stop the nights from turning on. You can stop the nights from turning on. You can stop the nights from turning on. You can stop the nights from turning on. You can stop the nights from turning on.

You can stop the nights from turning on. You can stop the nights from turning on. Ladies and gentlemen, I don't know if you own an iPhone or if an iPhone owns you for that matter, but on the iPhone there is a service called Siri S-I-R-I, which is an automated computer-generated personal assistant so-called. You can talk to Siri and ask her to do things or ask her questions, and a lot of people use it. I don't use it all that often. It keeps your voice requests to Siri on file anonymized supposedly for up to two years, and that seemed interesting and perhaps worrisome.

So I thought today might be a good time to check with Siri to see in fact if that's true. Why not check with the source? Of course, basic journalistic principles. So I have my iPhone here. No manipulation of it. Just talking to Siri right now. Siri, do you keep my voice requests on file? Sorry, Harry. I can't look for places in the United Kingdom. Do you keep my voice files on file at Apple? I can't answer that. Well, does Apple keep my voice requests to you on file? Sorry, Harry. I can't look for places in the United Kingdom. Forget the United Kingdom. Just focus on this question. Does Apple keep my voice requests on file? Sorry, Harry. I can't look for places in the United Kingdom.

Let's start over. Siri, do you keep my voice requests on file? Sorry, Harry. I can't look for places in the United Kingdom. Forget the United Kingdom. Apparently she did. Siri, do you keep my voice files at Apple? Let me check on that. Would you like me to search the web for if you get Siri, do you keep my voice files at Apple? No. I'm asking you, do you keep my voice files after these conversations are over? I don't understand. No, I'm asking you, do you keep my voice files after these conversations are over? But I could search the web for it. Don't search the web. I'm just asking you, do you keep my voice requests on file for up to two years?

Searching the web for I'm just asking you, do you keep my voice requests on file for up to two years? Don't do that. I'm just asking you, Siri. I don't know what you mean by. Don't do that. I'm just asking you. How about a web search for it? Siri, do you keep my voice requests on file? This is about you, not me. Make a good presidential press secretary, don't you think? And now, the apologies of the week. It's so sorry. Not Siri, sorry. Sorry, sorry, sorry. Reuters news agency has apologized for mistakenly publishing a pre-written obituary of finance year and philanthropist. George Soros, the obituary was posted on the Reuters newsfeed with the headline, George Soros, enigmatic, financier, liberal, philanthropist dies at XX.

It was removed shortly thereafter, but not before attracting considerable social media ridicule for the news agency. Reuters regrets the error, the cliché of the news business. U.S. website Ashley Madison is apologized to Queen Sophia of Spain for using her photograph in an advertisement without official permission. The online dating site it encourages extramarital affairs sparked outrage last October by publishing a doctored image of the Queen with her arms draped around a semi-naked man. It also appeared alongside a slogan saying in Spanish, now you no longer have to spend the night alone. It's all apparently a spinoff of rumors about her consort, the king, having an extramarital affair a couple years ago. In an attempt to limit the backlash now, we get to the post-Boston marathon tweets, apologies, in an attempt to limit the backlash after a social media misfire.

Quote, our food tweets this morning were frankly insensitive, our deepest sincere apologies. The tweets never should have been sent, said. Spokesperson, we are extremely sorry. Its first reaction to the news was, our thoughts were with everyone in Boston, but what followed, left many readers confused and offended, including recipes from meatless Monday dinner best friends forever brownies in a celebratory tax day cocktail. Deadline St. Paul, Minnesota, a hospital apologized Wednesday for mishandling a still-born baby whose body was found in linens that had been sent to an offsite laundry service. Officials from regions hospital in St. Paul said the remains had been wrapped in linens in the hospital morgue and somehow were mistaken for laundry that was supposed to be set up for cleaning. The body was found by a laundry service employee. This was a terrible mistake and we are deeply sorry, said the hospital's chief nursing officer.

We have procedures in place that should have prevented this, but did not. We were working to identify the gap in our system. Hospital officials are still trying to reach the child's family. Good airline says it's resumed its operations after grounding all flights for several hours earlier this week because of a computer problem, which prevented it from checking passengers in and from booking flights. That's all. The carrier apologized to passengers, said it will not charge for changes to reservations. That's nice. And will provide refunds if travel plans are not flexible. They also apologized for any inconvenience. This makes prospects for the American and U.S. Airways merger look good because they're going to have to merge their computer systems and this was American's computer system going bluey. So why not go mega bluey while you're at it. Oakland Athletics Outfielder Josh Reddick tweeted Friday that the Boston Marathon bombing suspect should be tortured.

That's his word. Reddick, a former player for the Boston Red Sox said, what is going on in America? These people deserve to be tortured very slowly and make them big for their lives. And then finished with the hashtag America's strong. On Thursday Buffalo Sabers forward Steve Ott tweeted a similar sentiment quote the FBI is seeking help find these two and torture them in front of the world. No need for court. Reddick later apologized for advocating torture again via Twitter, the Twitter saying his first tweet was quote, a little harsh. I apologize, but I can't help it as patriotic as I am to see Americans treated like this. Nobody deserves to be put through with a city of Boston being put through. The people responsible deserve to be punished. I have my beliefs. So if this is offended anybody, I am sorry. And finally in the realm of marathon post marathon bombing tweet apologies comes this and Arkansas saw state representative Nate Bell created quite a stir when he attempted to score points on the gun control debate using Boston as an example. He tweeted quote, I wonder how many Boston Liberals spent the night.

Cowering in their homes, wishing they had an AR for 15 with a high capacity magazine. The tweet went viral. It took bell about four hours to offer an apology quote, I would like to apologize to the people Boston, Massachusetts for the poor timing of my tweet earlier this morning as a staunch and unwavering supporter of the individual right to self defense. I express my point of view without thinking of its effect on those still in time of crisis in hindsight given the ongoing tragedy that is still unfolding. It would be why it's ongoing. I regret the poor choice of timing. Please know that my thoughts and prayers with the people of Boston overnight and will continue as they recover from this tragedy. Apologies for the weak ladies and gentlemen. A copyrighted feature of this broadcast or website or web stream or podcast. You guess I have to say that now. And now news of the atom. Clean, safe, too cheap to meet. Safe, cheap, too cheap to meet.

Safe, too safe to meet. Safe, too safe to meet. Our friend Addy is here. Just flew in and boy, you're where my electrons tired. It's an old one, isn't it? But it's a good one. It is a good one. Power station bosses have looked to calm concerns after was confirmed the United Kingdom's nuclear plant in Kent. Dungeoness exactly has been leaking radioactive tritium for months. Tritium can't hurt you. We'll examine that assertion more closely, sir. He called me sir. Samples taken from near Dungeoness being nuclear power station revealed levels nearly eight times higher than expected, but the amounts leaking out of the plant are according to the bosses of the plant too low to prevent to prove any threat to public health. The owners of the plant EDF energy says it's unlikely contaminated water has seeped into the local domestic supply unlikely.

That's reassuring. It is almost almost reassuring. Tritium, as you know, is a radioactive isotope of hydrogen. It can occur naturally, although very rarely. We're just making a more common or helping Tritium's profile. Yuko, over in Japan, over Japan way, has been forced to take drastic measures to deal with the continual contamination of little thing called the Pacific Ocean from the crippled Fuk Daichi nuclear power plant to quell the transfer of contaminated marine soil. The utility worked to cover the ocean floor in the port of Fukushima with concrete. They later discovered that the fish life in the port was highly radioactive, which forced them to see the entrance of the port to prevent as much fish as many fish from escaping as possible. They're doing everything they can.

They are in July of 2012, Teppko workers sampled marine soil inside the port entrance of the facility this week, Teppko announced it had detected ladies and gentlemen plutonium 238 plutonium 239 and plutonium 40. And the marine soil of the port at Fukushima near the unit one water intake canal. That's the whole collection collect them all. The report showed that levels of plutonium 238 had been measured at point 21 beckrolls per kilogram where before levels had either been non detectable or under point 06 beckrolls per kilogram. According to data from the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology, that ministry's got its hands full. Prior to the nuclear disaster, plutonium 238 had not been detected offshore at the nuclear power plant and the densities of plutonium 238. Plutonium 239 and 40 to 40 were over double what they had been before this according to the good people at Teppko. Plutonium can't hurt you.

No, it's not tritium. It's plutonium. And this past Tuesday federal regulators announced that millstone power station was no longer receiving more scrutiny than normal for a nuclear plant after an inspection where it showed it had corrected an issue. In February of 2011, the NRC discovered a problem after an operator turned the dial the wrong way and increased the power to unit two instead of cutting it off. That anyone could do that. Apparently he was using alcohol. Anyone could do that. In November of 2011, millstone made a similar mistake according to the NRC, which would explain why it's called millstone. Clean, cheap, too safe to meet our friend, the atom. We now join the network. From CPR, continental public radio, the president's weekly address. Now, from his weekly address, the president, this week, what was supposed to be a celebration of humanity's highest aspirations, turned it to a nightmare for a great American city.

Nightmare ended only by the efforts of thousands of law enforcement folks, and the newly discovered ease of imposing but amounts to martial law in America. This has also been a week in which the high hopes kindled by an earlier tragedy, founded on the rocks of political obstructionism, as Republicans blocked common sense gun background checks. This happened in spite of the fact that we have adopted one of the basic principles of the Republicans, describing our legislative proposals as common sense too. And in spite of the fact that I started out our campaign for these proposals, by going over the heads of the Washington politicians, and then I actually decided to talk to those heads themselves. Well, the people of Boston are opening their doors again, and getting back to doing what they do best, spending most of their time outside their own homes. And the relatives of the victims of gun violence are going back from Washington with a new sense of how hard it is to make common sense progress, when we can't even agree on the meaning of common sense.

But I'm not going to ring my hands and defeat, and I'm not going to fail to prevent future events, like the attack of the Boston Marathon from occurring. So this week, my administration will start preparing, and will eventually introduce legislation to provide common sense control of purchases of pressure cookers. Whether this package of proposals includes background checks for pressure cooker purchasers, or a limit on the size of a pot, or a system of controlling private resales of pressure cookers, ending the so-called yard sale exemption, and that's for our experts to work out. One thing the package will not do is interfere with the rights of all Americans to own and use pressure cookers, as long as they do so responsibly. As soon as the emotions of the moment have cooled, we'll present those proposals to the Congress, and we'll see whether that lack of emotional momentum leads to the same old inertia. But when or lose, my administration is sending a clear message to the world.

You will not intimidate Americans, with stovetop kitchenware. Thanks, and have a good week. Funds for coverage of this event came from the plucking into pool feeds foundation. This is CPR continental public radio. And back here at the London Lachodom News of APAC. The Taliban fighters who blew up half a dozen US marine fighter jets on a sprawling NATO-based last fall reports the Washington Post were able to do so, were able to walk easily into the encampment, because the patrols of the perimeter had been scaled back and watchtowers were left unmanned, this according to senior military officials. After they attacked the US top US commander on the base didn't order a formal investigation into the security lapses or sanction any personnel responsible for guarding the facility, the officials said. Some US NATO leaders had insisted that Taliban got lucky by choosing to breach security where they did, but several officials with direct knowledge of the assault said in recent interviews that staffing decisions by US and British commanders weakened the bases defenses,

making it easier for the insurgents to reconnoiter the compound and adder without resistance, and then use grenades to destroy almost an entire squadron of harrier jets costing about 200 million. So let's trace the challenge of withdrawing troops from Afghanistan in the coming months, unlike Iraq, Afghanistan remains perilous, says the post. US intelligence officials say Taliban operatives are on the lookout for opportunities to strike if US and NATO commanders reduce security as they send home thousands of troops, something to look forward to. Foreign experts have failed to persuade Afghan farmers to stop planting opium, according to the BBC, three times as much opium was produced in Hellman province last year, as when British troops went there in 2006, and a new UN forecast says this year's crop will be even higher. Like many other farmers in Hellman province, one of these Hamidullah planted cotton last year, encouraged by the Brits and the Americans, but there was no market for it.

Any planted opium poppies again this year. He says the price of cotton doesn't cover the cost of production. And Asia Times reports as the deadline for ending the US combat mission approaches, US forces have been working with the Afghan National Army and the Afghan National Police to build their capacity to fight the Taliban and other insurgents elements. But even as the two forces cost US taxpayers billions a year, there's still a swath of the country that the National Army and police can't control. So US planners created another security entity, the Afghan local police and affordable short-term fix to fill the security vacuum. Members, although do not have police powers and essentially village militias armed with AK-47s. It was highlighted by General Petraeus in 2011 as arguably the most critical element in our effort to help Afghanistan develop the capacity to secure itself. Despite some success, the program has been plagued by such problems as Taliban infiltration and insider attacks, but most controversially, ALP units have been accused of committing serious human rights abuses against local populations with apparent impunity.

There's that old devil impunity again. Use of off-pack for your listening pleasure. Well ladies and gentlemen, that's going to conclude this week's edition of the show. The program returns next week at this same time over, I guess I should say, most of these same stations just to cover my bets.

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Would you already thank you very much. A tip of the La Show shaft motor, the San Diego pit spurred Chicago in exile and Hawaii desks. Thanks as always to Pam Hallstedt, thanks to Adrian Bodham, here at Global Radio in London for help with today's broadcast. It was sunny in London for a few hours this weekend. Yes, that is news. The email address for this broadcast and a list of the music heard here on. Just part of the banquet of online goodies for you at HarryShare.com. And post this podcast tweets incessantly at the HarryShare.

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