September 29, the Russian navy successfully launched a new submarine based ICBM. The Inter Continental Ballistic Missile was launched from the Tula nuclear powered submarine in the Barents Sea.
Russian officials say the warheads hit their targets in Kamchatka in the Russian Far East. It has longer range than older submarine based ICBMs, and can avoid the U.S. “missile shield”.
“This investigation and prosecution focused not only on the sellers, but also on the users because of the critical role that these employees play in manufacturing military aircraft.”-Zane David Memeger, U.S. Attorney General’s office
After a four year investigation, 37 current and former employees at the Boeing plant in Philadelphia, have been arrested for selling drugs. The plant builds CH-47 Chinook helicopters and V-22 Osprey tilt rotor aircraft.
Most of the drugs being sold were prescription pain killers. The customers were fellow Boeing employees.
Investigators say the drug dealing, and drug use did not affect production, however, in 2008 one employee sabotaged a Chinook by cutting 70 electrical wires.
September 30, Japan’s Mizuho Financial Group will invest big time in a major Vietnamese bank, Vietcombank, all in an effort to profit off Vietnam’s explosive economic growth.
Even officials with the U.S. bank Citigroup is amazed at how well Vietnam’s economy is doing.
Currently Vietnam’s GDP is at 6.11%. Very good, but less than their 2010 GDP, which was 7.18%. The annual GDP for the U.S. is stagnating between 1% and 2%!
The down side to Vietnam’s explosive growth, is that most Vietnamese are being left behind in the dust of poverty. Fast economic growth comes with the paradox of increased poverty, because most of the quick profits end up in the pockets of the few (and they do not trickle it down).
“The findings of this survey show declines in each category of economic measurement.”-Jim McNerney, Chairman of Business Roundtable and Chairman, President and CEO of The Boeing Company
September 29, according to Business Roundtable, more than half of the biggest companies in the United States will not hire any new employees for at least six months.
In a huge change of corporate confidence, the latest survey shows only 36% of U.S. companies plan to hire new employees. Just three months ago it was 51%. That’s a big drop, and remember, the survey covers the upcoming end of year holiday season.
140 Chief Executive Officers took part in the Third Quarter 2011 CEO Economic Outlook Survey. The survey showed not only declines in planned hiring, but in expected sales and corporate spending.
Two weeks later, instead of fizzling out like so many greedy corporate America loving right wing nut jobs predicted, the Occupy Wall Street protestors are still there, and they’re growing, nearly 2,000 at last count.
On top of that, ‘Occupy’ protests are spreading to other cities. Some have fizzled out, while others continue.
In Los Angeles, on September 26 protestors gathered when President Barack Obama arrived for a $35,000 per plate fundraiser. Most people in the LA area make less than $35,000 per year: “The ‘little man,’ the ‘American every man,’ just isn’t getting their voice heard. When you need $35,000 to donate to a campaign to get your voice heard, to have a meeting, that’s not democracy!”-protestor
Now, September 29, hundreds of union workers are demonstrating at LAX: “It’s just hard because the economy is bad as it is, even if they say the recession is supposed to be over, for too many people they are still in bad state and in dire need.”-Robert Branch, protestor
The Occupy Chicago rallies are in their 5th day. About 20 people started the protest on September 23, and some of them are still camped out in front of the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago. Some reports say the number of demonstrators are slowly increasing, about 40 as of September 28.
Several big name celebrities, and academics have made speeches during the Occupy Wall Street protests. Protestors in New York city say they will march on New York police headquarters. They say it’s in retaliation for the way police have been treating fellow demonstrators. So far 100 protestors have been arrested.
People are amazed at how many highly educated protestors there are: “These are the most over educated crowd of people that I’ve even seen in my life. People come out of college and there are no jobs.”-Daniel Levine, student at Baruch College
A university professor, and security expert, says the people of the United States don’t have the guts to turn their protests violent, like in Europe: “Americans have become too complacent with the way their society is being run.”-Patricia DeGennaro, World Policy Institute/New York University
If you don’t think the Occupy Wall Street protestors are in it for the long haul, then explain why they have formed a “winterization committee”.
The cost of getting a higher education in the United States has increased by 29% in just the past five years, and, despite the rhetoric from Corporate America and universities, many jobs taken by college graduates do not require a college degree!
First off, approximately two thirds of all college students graduate with student loans. For the first time in U.S. history the total amount of student loan debt now exceeds the total amount of credit card debt!
Secondly, at least one third of college graduates are working jobs that don’t need a college degree: There are more than 100,000 janitors that have college degrees. 317,000 waiters and waitresses have college degrees. Approximately 365,000 cashiers have college degrees. 24.5% of all retail salespersons have a college degree.
Next time a college recruiter pesters you, or your kids, ask them to guarantee, in writing, that they’ll get a job relating to their degree, and that it’ll pay enough to justify the student loan debt!
September 29, according to the Federal Bureau of Labor Statistics, last month Texas fired 900 people from education related jobs.
It’s part of the U.S.$4 billion in cuts to Texas public schools, that Governor Rick Perry approved this year!
As an example of how bad it’s getting in Texas; near Austin, two newly built schools are empty this year because the Leander school district can’t afford to put teachers in them.
“This unemployment situation we have, the jobs situation, is really a national crisis. We’ve had close to 10% unemployment now for a number of years and, of the people who are unemployed, about 45% have been unemployed for six months or more. This is unheard of!”-Ben Bernanke, Federal Reserve Chairman
September 29, the man in charge of the central bank of the United States now admits that what is going on with the U.S. economy has never been dealt with before.
Bernanke also admitted that the U.S. is no longer a free trade nation, and that it no longer cares about the people, when he said that the U.S. must learn from fast developing nations, like China, which has adhered to discipline budget policies, embraced free trade, made public investments and supported education.
The number of people sick and dying from cantaloupe contaminated with Listeria could hit record levels in the United States. In Idaho they were given away to the public after a grocery distributor decided they were not ripe enough to sell.
So far 16 people have died, and 56 people are sick across the country. The cantaloupe are from Colorado, but not all are labeled, so the CDC says if you’re not sure where it came from don’t eat it.
At the end of August 43,000 pounds of the cantaloupe were shipped to southeast Idaho. They were considered too ripe to sell and were donated to the public between August 28 and September 2.
Jensen Farms in Colorado says it shipped cantaloupes to 25 states. But, the FDA says illnesses have been discovered in several states that are not on the shipping list. The FDA has reversed an earlier statement about the fruit being shipped to Europe. They now say none of the cantaloupe left the U.S.
Listeria is more deadly than salmonella and E. coli. The bacteria can grow at room temperatures and even in your refrigerator. It can linger long after the source of the contamination is gone, people should clean and sanitize any surfaces the killer cantaloupe might have touched.
Symptoms of Listeria can show up as soon as three days after eating the contaminated fruit, or as long as 70 days later. Symptoms could include fever, muscle aches, headache, stiff neck, confusion, loss of balance, convulsions, diarrhea or other gastrointestinal symptoms.
“Ever since it was known that DAS would close down, lots of people started doing business and looking for ways to make a few bucks. Others started pilfering information as a kind of insurance, in case one day they would face a criminal investigation or disciplinary hearing.”-A former unnamed DAS detective
In retaliation for the shutting down of Columbia’s Departamento Administrativo de Seguridad (state intelligence agency), it appears that employees sold off secret documents to the highest bidders.
According to the Colombian magazine La Semana, over the past two years tens of thousands of classified documents have been sold to militias, foreign governments and drug traffickers.
The scandal came just days after the former head of DAS, Jorge Noguera, was sentenced to 25 years in prison for colluding with U.S. backed right wing paramilitary death squads.