Necessary News

All you need to know to sound brilliant

Did North Korea Help With Building The Syrian Nuclear Reactor?

• Remember the Syrian nuclear reactor that Israeli warplanes bombed last year? We know its been kept relatively hush-hush, but its back on the news. [Fox]
• Some people are speculating that the Syrians weren’t building it on their own.
• Photos released today by U.S. intelligence officials show that the facility was incredibly similar to a nuclear reactor in North Korea. [ABC]
• So wait, the North Koreans are mentoring the Syrians in how to build nuclear reactors?
• It’s possible. Aside from the practically identical designs, U.S. intelligence claims they have video evidence of North Koreans working at the Syrian facility just before its destruction last September. [New York Times]
• Video that was probably shot by Israeli intelligence, according to a source close to the administration. [CNN]
• However, there was no evidence that North Korea was supplying fuel for the reactor, and North Korea is refusing to admit any role in supplying or mentoring the facility.
• Why are the feds admitting it now after months of hushing rumors and classifying information?
• Many in the State department believe that Dick Cheney and other administration hawks hope that releasing the information might undermine a potential deal with North Korea that would take it off an American list of state sponsors of terrorism.
• Congress is holding several closed door briefings on the situation today, with a press conference expected either today or tomorrow. [FOX]

We’ll be watching to see what happens.

High Gas Prices Create Criminals

• More and more Americans have the answer to skyrocketing gas prices: Just steal it. [Reuters]
• According to the Petroleum Marketers Association of America, gasoline theft is becoming a huge issue across the country. Motorists drive up, pump their gas, then speed away without paying.
• It’s gotten so bad in some areas that gas stations may revert back to the old “pay-before-you-pump” rules of the 1970s.
• Last year, for example, gasoline theft cost the gas industry $134 million. (Experts say it would have been a lot more, but many stations went to pay-before-you-pump rules after the post-Katrina gas-price spike. [NACS Online]
• Before you stick it to the man and rip off your gas station, know this: it’s not their fault. In fact, motorists in New York were asked how much profit they thought their gas stations were making off them filling up their tanks. One person guessed $1.25 a gallon. Another guessed 65 cents. The reality? Less than a dime. [CNN]
• Here’s the breakdown: For every gallon of gas, 72% goes to the big gas companies (like Exxon and ConocoPhillips), 13% goes to taxes, 8% goes to refiners, and 8% is split between marketing, distribution and the gas stations.
• Stealing from your friendly neighborhood gas pumps isn’t the only crime fed by recent gas price hikes. Now the Mob’s involved. [Reuters]
• According to Attorney General Mike Mukasey, international organized crime has decided it wants a “taste” of all that money generated by high oil prices.
• Mukasey said a new Justice Department investigation found the global mafia groups “control significant positions in the global energy and strategic materials markets.”
• Mukasey: “They are expanding their holdings in these sectors, which corrupts the normal functioning of these markets and may have a destabilizing effect on U.S. geopolitical interests.”

Interesting fact: Gas thefts go up not when prices are high, but when they are first raised, showing it’s more a crime of anger than anything else.

Meet Stephen Johnson, EPA’s Alberto Gonzales

• He oversees a department that makes America great, but he’s surrendered it to a radical conservative agenda, rampant politicization, and corporate cronies.
• Alberto Gonzales at the Justice Department? Nope, Stephen Johnson, Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency. [Wonk Room]
• Yesterday, we told you about the rampant political pressure that EPA scientists feel under Johnson. [MicCheck]
• But his shoddy record doesn’t stop there. Here are some more examples of poor judgment and kow-towing to the very industries he’s supposed to be regulating:
• Disregarded the Supreme Court on Global Warming: When America’s highest court told the EPA that greenhouses gases weer a pollutant and had to be regulated under the clean Air Act, Stephen Johnson and President Bush...just ignored them. [Wonk Room]
• Overruled smog standards: When independent EPA scientists “tried to set a lower seasonal limit on ozone to protect wildlife, parks and farmland,” President Bush ordered the EPA to raise the limits, and Stephen Johnson went right along with it. [Washington Post]
• Ignored integrity standards: Johnson refused “to enforce the agency’s “Principles of Scientific Integrity” involving fluoride drinking water standards, organophosphate pesticide registration, and control of mercury emissions from power plants.” [Wonk Room]
• Closed libraries: Johnson oversaw “The shuttering of EPA’s network of technical libraries without waiting for Congressional approval in 2006 — to be reopened only with documents that undergo a political review.” [Wonk Room]
• What do all these things have in common? “Behind all these actions is service to corporate polluters above public health.”
• Our pals at the Wonk Room have much, much more: [Wonk Room]

We don’t need another Gonzo.

Good News, Bad News

Iceburg Lettuce Cost How Much?!?!

For anyone whose gone to a grocery store in the last couple months (which we’d hope is all of you folks), you know that the rising cost of groceries is getting out of control.Not only are prices on luxury items like organics and premium cuts of meat spiraling out of control, but even those basic staples are getting really pricey.With rising gas prices and concerns about global food shortages, don’t expect relief anytime soon.

Good

Maybe rising prices are the solution to the nation’s obesity crisis.

Bad

With grocery bills on the rise, we’re going to have to cut back on our weekly happy hour(s).

Quote Of The Day

“That is why we need to go back is to have a conversation about what to do -rebuild it, tear it down, you know, whatever it is.”

— John McCain, telling reporters that he would consider tearing down the Lower Ninth Ward if he is elected President. [CBS]

Speed Round

GOP NAZI

Tony Zirkl, a candidate for the GOP nomination in an Indiana house race gave a speech to a neo-nazi group on Hitler’s birthday. His rationale? He wanted to help them spread their message in more loving ways.

[Think Progress]

GOP SAYS NOOOOO

St. Joseph County Republican Chairman Chris Riley says, “The R next to his name doesn’t stand for Republican, it stands for repulsive.”

GLIMMERS

“Iraq’s largest Sunni bloc has agreed to return to Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki’s cabinet after a boycott that lasted nearly a year, several Sunni leaders said on Thursday, citing a recently passed amnesty law and the Maliki government’s crackdown on Shiite militias as reasons for the move.” [NY Times]

STOPPING THE JIM CROW OF THE FUTURE

“People learning through genetic testing that they might be susceptible to devastating diseases wouldn’t also have to worry about losing their jobs or their health insurance under anti-discrimination legislation the Senate passed Thursday.” [Washington Post]

HONK IF YOU BELIEVE

The state of Florida is considering allowing the first state-sanctioned religious license plate, featuring a church window, a cross, and the words “I Believe.” Because how will God know you believe in Him if you don’t have a fake, stained-glass license plate on your Hummer when you cut off people in traffic? [Fox News]

CHEATERS

More than 60,000 federal contractors owe nearly $8 billion in back taxes. [USA Today]

QUOTE OF THE DAY

New York Times Editorial: “Senator John McCain’s tax talk is particularly divorced from reality. The presumed Republican nominee has been offering a free-lunch extravaganza — hundreds of billions of dollars in new tax breaks per year, on top of extending President Bush’s tax cuts, with no credible way to make up for the money the government will lose. The more criticism he has faced, the more nonsensical his justifications have become.” [NYT]

$407,000

The amount of Sen. Larry Craig’s legal bills, racked up since his “wide stance.” [Washington Post]

THIRD TIMES A CHARM

After two mistrials in the case of the 7 so-called terrorists from Miami – who, remember, were mainly good at smoking pot and performing fake karate until the FBI showed up with money and al-Qaeda induction ceremony materials — federal prosecutors are going for a *third* trial. [NY Times]

BUZZ BUZZ

Want to get rid of teens loitering around your parking lot? Try annoying them with insanely high-pitched buzzing that your older, wiser ears can’t hear. (And while teens argue that its needlessly cruel, the adults just can’t hear either the buzzing or their complaints.) [CBS]

STILL NOT A RECESSION

Although sales of new homes plunged in March to the lowest level in 16 1/2 years, a quarter of Americans still believe we’re not in a recession. Then again, a quarter of Americans say they’ve seen a ghost and a quarter believe in Bigfoot. [ABC] [CBS News] [JSTOR]

QUESTIONABLE LOGIC

After selling a gun to Virginia Tech shooter Seung-Hui Cho, the owner of the internet-based gun store TGSCOM Inc. is now offering a student discount.“"This offer allows students and people who might not have otherwise been able to afford a weapon to purchase one at a hefty discount and at a significant expense to myself,” he says.Somehow, this doesn’t make us feel safer. [ABC]

DONKEYS OVER WOMEN

We know Brits care about their animals, but this is excessive.More than 7 million women in Britain have been affected by domestic violence, whereas 12,000 donkeys have been victims of harm. Yet Brits gave much more generously to a donkey sanctuary, over £20m, than to the top women’s aid group which received only £17m.[Feministing]

WHERE WAS MCCAIN?

Newsweek reminds us that when Bush was ignoring Hurricane Katrina, he was celebrating John McCain’s 69th birthday. [Think Progress]

HOW MANY CRACKBERRIES DOES ONE MAN NEED?

Secret Service caught a Mexican official pocketing six to seven BlackBerries left outside an important White House meeting in New Orleans yesterday. He almost made it to the airport when the addicted officials realized they were missing their connection to the outside world. [LA Times]