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Just like Boulder city Council US House Votes to End Money for NPR, and Senate Passes Spending Bill
Mar 18th
In a stunning development, the US government has cut spending to NPR floowing a trend all across the USA. In 2007 The Boulder city council mis used COMCAST public access fees, then lined their own pockets with the money. No criminal charges were ever made. However, Seth Brigham a victim of the councils discrimination won a settlement for their free speech violations..
Readers of the Daily Camera overwhelmingly supported the end of free speech in Boulder. It is now coming to an end in the US house and Senate. this is a sad day for boulder and America
from NY Times: WASHINGTON — The House voted Thursday to cut off financing for National Public Radio, with Democrats and Republican fiercely divided over both the content of the bill and how it was brought to the floor.
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Jonathan Ernst/Reuters
Senator Jon Kyl of Arizona, the No. 2 Republican in the Senate, praised the spending measure and said that over 10 years, $10 billion in cuts over all would amount to $140 billion in savings.
Multimedia
SENATE VOTE 44
Passes Stopgap Budget
HOUSE VOTE 192
Approves Ban on NPR Funding
Ask the reporter a question on the move to defund NPR – which is almost certain to fail in the Senate – via Twitter. She will answer by video on Friday on The Caucus blog.
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Across the Rotunda, the Senate approved a short-term spending measure passed earlier in the week by the House that would keep the government financed through April 8. Members of both parties and chambers said the move, which once again averted a government shutdown, should be the last of its kind. The measure, which cut spending by $6 billion for this fiscal year, passed the Senate 87 to 13, with nine Republicans, three Democrats and an independent voting in dissent.
As in the House, some of the Senate’s more conservative members voted against the spending measure, known as a continuing resolution, arguing that its cuts were insufficient. Senator Rand Paul, Republican of Kentucky, offered his own plan, which he said would balance the federal budget in five years by eliminating the departments of education and energy, among other measures.
Senate Republican leaders backed the stopgap measure, praising the $6 billion in cuts that came on top of $4 billion in reductions contained in the current budget bill, which expires Friday. Jon Kyl of Arizona, the No. 2 Republican in the Senate, said that over 10 years, the $10 billion in cuts would amount to $140 billion in savings. “All in all, a good day’s work,” he said.
But Senator Daniel K. Inouye, the Hawaii Democrat who is chairman of the Appropriations Committee, said the continued cutting was bound to harm federal agencies. “How much more can we cut before we have no funds to pay employees to monitor our borders and ports?” he asked. “How much more before we have to cancel the construction of dams, bridges, highways, levees, sewers and transit projects and throw thousands of private sector workers onto the street?”
The NPR bill, sponsored by Representative Doug Lamborn, Republican of Colorado, would mean that stations could not buy programming from NPR or any other source using the $22 million they get from the federal government.
“The time has come for us to claw back this money,” said Representative Marsha Blackburn, Republican of Tennessee.
This was the second time that the House has moved to defund NPR; a rider was attached to a short-term spending bill passed last month by the House but rejected by the Senate. Thursday’s measure, which House Republicans rushed to the floor before a one-week recess begins, passed 228 to 192 ; all the Democrats who were there and seven Republicans voted against it and one Republican, Representative Justin Amash, voted present.
The bill, should the Senate even bring it to the floor, is almost certain to fail in that chamber. Democrats control the Senate, where members of both parties have expressed skepticism about cutting off NPR because it remains popular among many of their constituents.
The organization, in the crosshairs of Republican lawmakers for years, came under intense fire recently with the release of a video that showed one of its fund-raising executives criticizing members of the Tea Party, and the hasty firing of the commentator Juan Williams for remarks he made on Fox News about Muslims.
Representative Eric Cantor of Virginia, the Republican majority leader, said recently that the revelations of the video, made by a conservative advocate who posed as a potential donor to the entity “makes clear that taxpayer dollars should no longer be appropriated to NPR.”
Democrats said it was politics, not fiscal austerity, that drove the bill. “Why are we wasting valuable floor time on an ideological battle?” said Representative Louise Slaughter of New York.
The House debated the bill, and the procedure by which it was brought to the floor, for several hours Thursday. Republicans argued that NPR should be able to sustain itself through private donations, and Democrats countered that the cut would have negligible impact on debt reduction or the nation’s fiscal problems. They also accused Republicans of ignoring joblessness in lieu of attacking “Car Talk” and picking on Elmo.
Mr. Lamborn said that while he personally enjoyed NPR, “I have long believed it can stand on its own.” He added in a speech on the floor, “I want NPR to grow on its own, I want to see it thrive. Just remove taxpayers from the equation.”
Democrats objected to how the bill was brought to the floor. On Wednesday, the House Rules Committee held an emergency hearing to expedite the bill, and it went to the floor under a so-called closed rule, which does not allow for amendments, counter to the promise of more openness made by Speaker John A. Boehner. Republicans pointed out that the content of the seven-page bill had already been debated when it was part of the larger spending bill.
NPR expressed grave concern in a statement today about the impact of the bill on the entire public radio system, saying it was a direct effort to weaken it that would ultimately choke local stations’ ability to serve their audiences.
“At a time when other news organizations are cutting back and the voices of pundits are drowning out fact-based reporting and thoughtful analysis, NPR and public radio stations are delivering in-depth news and information respectfully and with civility,” Joyce Slocum, interim chief executive officer of NPR, said. “It would be a tragedy for America to lose this national treasure.”
Carl Hulse contributed reporting.
Lee Hill Drive to be closed during weeks of March 21, April 4
Mar 17th
Boulder County, Colo. – As improvements to Lee Hill Drive continue, the Boulder County Transportation Department will close the road from March 21-25 and April 4-7 to perform substantial work on the retaining walls and drainage culverts.
Access to Olde Stage Road from the city of Boulder will be cut off during these closures:
• Monday, March 21 through Friday, March 25. Lee Hill Drive will be closed south of Wagon Wheel Gap Road (between Wagon Wheel and Fourth Street) during daytime hours only (8:30 a.m.-4 p.m.). The closure is to accommodate rockwork on the hillside above the roadway along with retaining wall construction. No vehicles (including both bicycles and cars) will be allowed be allowed through the construction area. Wagon Wheel Gap Road will remain accessible from the north.
• Monday, April 4 through Thursday, April 7. Lee Hill Drive will be closed north of Wagon Wheel Gap Road (between Wagon Wheel and Olde Stage Road) 24 hours a day from 8:30 a.m. on April 4 until 4 p.m. on April 7. The closure may be extended until Friday if there are utility conflicts. The closure is to allow for the replacement of a large drainage culvert north of Wagon Wheel. No vehicles (including both bicycles and cars) will be allowed access between Wagon Wheel Gap Road and Olde Stage Road. Wagon Wheel will remain accessible from the south.
Both closures are tentative and are subject to change due to weather and/or other unanticipated factors. Even during the 24-hour closure, the road will be made accessible to emergency vehicles and responders should the need arise.
Message boards are located in the area to alert residents of any construction schedule changes and additional information is available at www.BoulderCounty.org/Transportation.
Japan death by Nuclear fallout 0 Death by Tsunami 10,000: two Boulder Scientists write
Mar 17th
In an effort to offset the inputs from the media talking heads I am forwarding comments from a friend that worked at several US nuclear plants and whose views I respect. The real tragedy of the Japanese earthquake and tsunaimi have been completely overshadowed by the events at the reactors. The current loss of life due to radiation is zero. Contrast that with the current death toll of over 10,000 that will likely run up closer to 25,000 when all are accounted for! Bill
http://www.world-nuclear-news.org/default.aspx
http://www.nukeworker.com/
http://pajamasmedia.com/blog/fear-the-media-meltdown-not-the-nuclear-one/?singlepage=true
Yes, media coverage is particularly bad on this one. I happened to have
spent a couple of years working in the bowels of Browns Ferry NP which
are identical units to those in Japan. GE Mk I BWRs.
To sum it up in a few sentences, this is essentially identical to TMI.
A Loss of Coolant Accident followed by failed fuel and probably
substantial fuel melt (there was at TMI). The huge hydrogen production
is from the zircalloy fuel cladding actually burning in the steam
environment, stripping the oxygen atom from water and releasing the
hydrogen. Same thing happened at TMI and there was a hydrogen
explosion, though since with a PWR, the entire reactor building is the
containment, the explosion was contained within the reactor building.
At TMI the core remained uncovered for about 24 hours, long enough for
the fuel to reach its maximum temperature and equilibrate with its
surroundings. The fuel that did melt simply flowed out of the core and
quenched in the water that remained below the fuel. It did not melt
through the reactor vessel. In fact it didn’t even scar the inside
surface of the vessel.
This is what I see happening in Japan. There has been partial or
complete fuel failure in both units. That is indicated both by the huge
hydrogen production and by the trace of Cs-137 and I-131 detected on the
outside.
There is a very large inventory of both isotopes in an operating
reactor. The plant design assumes that both are released as gases
during an accident and plan accordingly. That didn’t happen at TMI.
Once things cooled off enough that we could enter the containment, what
we found was that the Cs and I had reacted chemically to form cesium
iodide, a solid material. Most of it stayed in the reactor. Some came
out into the containment building and settled out on surfaces. A very
tiny amount escaped during the initial containment venting at TMI.
Again, the same thing is happening in Japan. The trace of Cs and I that
has been detected on the outside, if chemically analyzed, will be found
to be the compound cesium iodide. This compounding is why there is but
a tiny bit of material released despite practically constant containment
venting.
I don’t quite understand the pumping of sea water. That’s kind of a
last ditch decision because the salt in the seawater destroys the
stainless steel in the plant. Normally there are a few million gallons
of demineralized water on-site for emergency cooling. Maybe it got
contaminated by the tsunami. Maybe the piping from the storage tank(s)
got broken in the shake. I certainly can’t second-guess the on-site people.
I did see mention in one news report that they were using large diesel
construction pumps to pump the water. That indicates to me that the
plant is still completely blacked out. It’s possible that this is the
reason for using seawater – that none of the electric pumps in the plant
are working.
When all the dust has settled, I predict this to be identical to TMI.
An unmitigated disaster for the utility. No significant off-site
radiation exposure and no off-site contamination. In other words, a
non-event as far as the public is concerned. The massive evacuation
will prove to have been precipitous and un-necessary.
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Thank God they’re using good old fashioned traditional units
of dose (the Roentgen) instead of the execrable Sievert. (1 Sievert is
100 R) The only advantage that I have is my experience at Browns Ferry
and TMI.
I don’t quite understand why they’re trying to fill the #3 reactor
building with water unless they’re assuming a failed reactor vessel and
primary containment. Otherwise water from the reactor building could
not get through the primary containment boundary. Bombing the spent
fuel pit with water I can understand but not the reactor building.
The radiation readings at the plant boundary and that one value quoted
at a distance from the plant are from the noble gases, primarily at this
point Xe-133. It’s a rich gamma emitter with a high specific activity.
Fortunately it only has a 5.25 day half-life and so will decay quickly.
The other, at this point minor, contributor is Kr-85. It’s mostly a
beta emitter with a rare gamma. With about a 10.5 year half life it
will be the principle source of radiation around and inside the
containment vessels in the days to come.
Fortunately its low probability gamma means that it can be vented with
little consequence. At TMI we vented a few million curies prior to the
first reactor building entry and there was no change in the background
radiation level at the plant site boundary.
I’d give anything to be at the plant site boundary with a gamma
spectrometer. With that I could tell you want was going on in the core
and what was being emitted and how much. I’ll guarantee you that there
are people there from some agency doing just that. I don’t know why
that information isn’t filtering out.
John
