India vs. Monsanto: seeds of discord
By Vikram Singh

For the first time ever, a country – India – is accusing a multinational company of “bio-piracy”. That means stealing indigenous plants, and then trying to develop genetically modified versions of them, without giving any compensation back to the local people or nation where the plant originally came from. Our reporters travelled to one of the affected areas and spoke to those who say it’s their environment which has been stolen.

Read more.

Tuesday, September 27, 2011 4:01 PM EDT
Pilots Question United Continental Merger Issues in Wall Street Protest
By John Talty

More than 700 Continental and United Continental pilots took to Wall Street on Tuesday to protest slow contract negotiations and misinformation regarding merger integration. The demonstrating pilots marched together, quietly, in order and in full uniform, holding two signs.

“Merger Progress is More than Painting Airplanes,” said one sign.

“Management is Destroying our Airline,” said another sign.

Read more.

Peoples of the world are rising up to call for progressive change, which at its core requires economic justice. Now history is being made in the financial epicenter of the planet. Common people demanding liberation from oppressive banking policies, robber baron capitalism, war-based economy, and debt servitude have occupied Wall Street. Common people are demanding an end to fat-cat-bonuses for those who devastated our economy while the poverty rate climbs. Common people are demanding a future with true opportunity for all.

We must celebrate this bold action, provide a connection to New Yorkers, and help galvanize support for the courageous, committed, and yes, patriotic purveyors of economic justice in our midst.

Come to Epifaneo, the new gathering place for progressives, at 56 Walker Street in Tribeca, 1 block below Canal Street, between Broadway & Church Street, where will host a Celebrate the Occupy Wall Street Movement gathering this Thursday through Saturday beginning 7pm each night. We’ll have speakers, food, music, and conscious energy. The paradigm shift is ours to create. Be there!

Join us facebook.com/I.N.N.WORLDREPORT

Electrical problems trigger radioactive steam release at Palisades
By Eartha Jane Melzer | 09.26.11 | 2:47 pm

Entergy’s Palisades nuclear plant near South Haven is venting radioactive steam into the environment as part of an unplanned shutdown triggered by an electrical accident.

This shutdown, which began Sunday evening, came just five days after the plant restarted from a shutdown that was caused by a leak in the plant’s cooling system.

Nuclear Regulatory Commission spokeswoman Prema Chandrithal said that thecurrent shutdown happened because an object slipped during work on a circuit breaker and caused an arc that took out power for one of two DC electrical systems that power safety valves and other devices.

According to a notice filed with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, the plant is stable and “controlling temperature using Atmospheric Dump Valves.”

Read more.

Not that any far-right operatives would EVER use such means to steal elections in this country!

MCM

via BradBlog:

My New EXCLUSIVE at Salon:
National Security Lab Hacks Diebold Touch-Screen Voting Machine
by Remote Control With $26 in Computer Parts

Hack team leader: ‘Can do similar things on pretty much every e-voting machine’…

The Vulnerability Assessment Team (VAT) at the U.S. Dept. of Energy’s Argonne National Laboratory in Illinois has managed to hack a Diebold Accuvote touch-screen voting machine in what I describe at my exclusive today at Salon as perhaps “one of the most disturbing e-voting machine hacks to date.”

As noted by the computer scientists and security experts at Argonne’s VAT, largely all that’s needed to accomplish this hack is about $26 and an 8th grade science education.

“This is a national security issue,” VAT team leader Roger Johnston told me, echoing what I’ve been reporting other computer scientists and security experts telling me for years. “It should really be handled by the Department of Homeland Security.”

Johnston should know. While the VAT folks have been dabbling in the security (or lack thereof) of e-voting systems in their spare time of late, most of the work they do is related to issues like nuclear safeguards and non-proliferation.

What makes this hack so troubling — and different from those which have come before it — is that it doesn’t require any actual changes to, or even knowledge of, the voting system software or its memory card programming. It’s not a cyberattack. It’s a “Man-in-the-middle” attack where a tiny, $10.50 piece of electronics is inserted into the system between the voter and the main circuit board of the voting system allowing for complete control over the touch-screen system and the entire voting process along with it.

Add an optional $15 radio frequency remote control device, and votes can be changed, without the knowledge of the voter, from up to half a mile away…

MORE AT THE BRAD BLOG: http://www.bradblog.com/?p=8785
FULL EXCLUSIVE AT SALON: http://www.salon.com/news/politics/elections/2011/09/27/votinghack/index.html

1) U.S. Health Insurance Cost Rises Sharply, Study Finds
By REED ABELSON
Published: September 27, 2011
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/28/business/health-insurance-costs-rise-sharply-this-year-study-shows.html

2) HEALTH — September 27, 2011 at 12:05 PM EDT
Survey: Health Care Premiums Soar for Many Employees
BY: JASON KANE
http://www.pbs.org/newshour/rundown/2011/09/survey-health-care-premiums-soar-for-many-employees.html

Supporting Efforts to Preserve St. Mark’s Bookshop
St. Mark’s Bookshop at 31 Third Avenue (St. Mark’s Place/9th Street) is one of the oldest and most respected independent bookstores in New York.  For more than thirty years, St. Mark’s has stocked an incredible collection of books and periodicals, with a specialty in cultural theory, graphic design, poetry and small press publishing, film studies, and foreign and domestic periodicals and journals. In 2007, GVSHP awarded St. Mark’s aVillage Award, in recognition of the irreplaceable contribution they make to our neighborhoods’ quality of life.

Unfortunately, changing technology and the economic downturn has hurt St. Mark’s Bookshop, much as it has many of our local, independent booksellers.  Due to decreased business, St. Mark’s is appealing to Cooper Union, their landlord, to re-negotiate the terms of their lease in order to allow them to be able to stay.

1) Siegelman Sentence Delayed As DOJ Hides Conflict Data
By Andrew Kreig
http://www.justice-integrity.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=467:siegelman-sentence-delayed-as-doj-hides-conflict-data&catid=44:myblog

2) MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 26, 2011
Justice Department Continues to Play Hide and Seek with Siegelman Documents
http://legalschnauzer.blogspot.com/2011/09/justice-department-continues-to-play.html

Occupy Wall Street: ‘Pepper-spray’ officer named in Bush protest claim
Karen McVeigh
guardian.co.uk,
Monday 26 September 2011 19.46 EDT

A senior New York police officer accused of pepper-spraying young women on the “Occupy Wall Street” demonstrations is the subject of a pending legal action over his conduct at another protest in the city.

The Guardian has learned that the officer, named by activists as deputy inspector Anthony Bologna, stands accused of false arrest and civil rights violations in a claim brought by a protester involved in the 2004 demonstrations at the Republican national convention.

Then, 1,800 people were arrested during protests against the Iraq war and the policies of president George W Bush.

Read more.

Are NYC Police Protesting Abuse of Occupy Wall Street?
By Kevin ZeeseKevin Zeese – Posted on 26 September 2011

The report below is important for many reasons, but I found this in particular to be of interest: “Today we received unconfirmed reports that over one hundred blue collar police refused to come into work in solidarity with our movement. These numbers will grow. We are the 99 percent. You will not silence us.” This is what happens in non-violent actions, if protesters stay non-violent, some police refuse to participate in the violence against the protesters. It also shows the critical of importance of everyone attending being ready to film from their phone or other equipment. See The People Are the Media and our media page. We are all the media and that gives us power.

Read more.