“The Iowa egg producer that federal officials say is at the center of a salmonella outbreak and recalls of more than a half-billion eggs has repeatedly paid fines and settled complaints over health and safety violations and allegations ranging from maintaining a ‘sexually hostile’ work environment to abusing the hens that lay the eggs. “In the past 20 years, according to the public record, the DeCoster family operation, one of the 10 largest egg producers in the country, has withstood a string of reprimands, penalties and complaints about its performance in several states …
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NSW Christian Democrat Senator and right-wing Christian fundamentalist Fred Nile, who has built a career as a “moral crusader”, was caught in a NSW parliamentary audit that revealed his parliamentary computer had been used to access pornographic sites.
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“A federal judge has blocked the Obama administration from funding human embryonic stem cell research, ruling that the support violates a federal law barring the use of taxpayer money for experiments that destroy human embryos … “The ruling stunned scientists and other advocates of the research, which has been hailed as one of the most important advances in medicine in decades because of its potential to cure many diseases …
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“An inquiry into the Sydney Harbour Foreshore Authority, a corruption finding against a NSW Maritime lawyer and, to top it off, the resignation of a cabinet minister who admitted accessing adult and gambling websites on his parliamentary computer. “Even by the standards of the eternally scandal-ridden Labor government, yesterday was a bad day for public administration in NSW.
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Over-fishing threatens caviar “Lovers of fine food face a shortage of Beluga caviar that may last more than a decade. Eurasian states are discussing a ban on catching sturgeon in the Caspian Sea. “Over-fishing has reduced the population of the fish that produces the delicacy by 90 per cent. “It has pushed the price up nearly sevenfold to $14,340 per kilogram, or $1434 for enough to make a sandwich. “The Caspian Sea is home to four-fifths of the sturgeon bearing the most sought after varieties of caviar ... -
Financial crisis? Rich get richer “The rich grew richer last year, even as the world endured the worst recession in decades. “A stock market rebound helped the world's ranks of millionaires climb 17 percent to 10 million, while their collective wealth surged 19 percent to $US 39 trillion, nearly recouping losses from the financial crisis, according to the latest Merrill Lynch-Capgemini world wealth report. “In North America, the ranks of the rich rose 17 percent and their wealth grew 18 percent to $US 10.7 trillion.” — June 23 Reuters article. -
Six US banks control 60% of GDP “They are Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, JPMorgan Chase, Citigroup, Bank of America, and Wells Fargo. They have assets equivalent to 60 percent of our gross national product. “And to put this in perspective, in the mid-1990s, these six banks or their predecessors, since there have been a lot of mergers, had less than 20 percent. Their assets were less than 20 percent of the gross national product.”
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Banks' price gouging profit bonanza "The Australia Institute has picked the week of another increase in mortgage rates to launch what it claims to be a comprehensive history of the price gouging habits of the big four banks. "Not only have [the
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US maternity death rate doubles in 20 years "Deaths from pregnancy and childbirth in the United States have doubled in the past 20 years, a development that a human rights group called 'scandalous and disgraceful' Friday ... "[Amnesty
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Good point, Peter, why not? "If [Tony Abbott] will add 1.7 per cent to the corporate tax rate to pay for maternity leave, why not another 1.7 per cent to improve Aboriginal health, and another 2.7 per cent for hospitals to trump Rudd's
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Chile earthquake 'chilling' ... for capitalists "The massive earthquake that hit Chile on Saturday, and put nearly a quarter of the world on tsunami alert, is a chilling reminder that investing in insurance companies is high risk." — Adele