Odd Stories: Hillrose Man Suffocates in Pile of Beans Near Brush

Brush, Colorado - A Hillrose area man died late Thursday morning after apparently suffocating in a large pile of beans in a warehouse outside of Brush.
 
Numerous agencies responded to the 11:20 a.m. report of a man buried under a pile of beans at Kelley Beans in the 28000 block of County Road S, Morgan County Sheriff Jim Crone said.
 
Raymond Segura Jr., 56, was dug out from near the bottom of what had been a pile of pinto beans 15-20 feet high one hour after the initial call. Morgan County paramedics and a Medevac Air Life crew pronounced Segura dead shortly thereafter.
 
When the enormity of the pile of beans was realized, numerous agencies and businesses responded to a call for manpower, with at least 55 people being on the scene. CHS Inc. from Brush brought a skid loader to help move beans away from the pile, and Ackley Building Supply immediately supplied shovels and masks for the rescuers.
 
Firefighters from Brush, Fort Morgan, Hillrose and Wiggins responded, along with several workers from the Brush Street Department, Morgan County Road and Bridge crews and four inmate workers from the county jail. Digger's Diner offered hamburgers to all those who responded.
 
The exact cause of how Segura ended up being trapped is still under investigation continues by the coroner and sheriff's office, OSHA investigators, and Kelley's safety team.
 
"The sheriff's office wishes to express it appreciation to all of those who responded and we applaud their efforts and hard work in difficult conditions in attempting to rescue Mr. Segura," Crone said. It was "a tremendous community response."

Odd Stories: Thieves Evade Lasers to Nab Italian Shipwreck's Bell

Rome - Underwater thieves have evaded an array of laser systems that measure millimetric shifts in the Costa Concordia shipwreck and 24-hour surveillance by the Italian coast guard and police to haul off a symbolic booty - the ship's bell.

The giant cruise liner capsized off the Tuscan island of Giglio after hitting a rock on January 13, killing at least 25 people. Seven people are still unaccounted for.

Prosecutors have accused Captain Francesco Schettino of causing the accident by bringing the multi-storey Costa Concordia, which was carrying more than 4,200 passengers and crew, too close to the shore.

Now prosecutors have opened an investigation to find out who filched the modern-day Titanic's bell.

Judicial sources said on Thursday thieves nabbed the ship's bell more than two weeks ago from one of the decks of the Costa Concordia, which is submerged in 8 meters (26 feet) of water.

Investigators suspect more than one person was involved in stealing the heavy bell, etched with the ship's name and 2006, the year it was christened. Ships bells were traditionally used to signal half-hour intervals in a four-hour watch.

"I can only guess that someone took it as a sort of morbid memento," Giglio's mayor, Sergio Ortelli, told Reuters.

"In my mind, the missing bell is of no importance. We have the ship's statue of the Madonna in our church, and that for us has much more symbolic meaning."

Divers recovered the meter-tall plaster statue of the Madonna in January from the ship's chapel and gave the statute to the parish priest of Giglio.

Odd Stories: Police: Attempt to Use Stolen Credit Card Was 'Comedy of Errors'

By Jennifer Todd

Manor Township - An employee at an area convenience store immediately recognized the credit card that a young man handed to her early Tuesday.

The clerk was familiar with the name on the card, and for good reason: It was her mother's.

She also recognized the young man. The two had attended the same school, she would later tell police.

Thus began a "comedy of errors" that would lead to charges against the teenage store patron.

After trying unsuccessfully to use a credit card to pump gas at the Turkey Hill at 1503 Columbia Ave. around 1 a.m., the young man was instructed to see the store's clerk, according to Manor Township police.

Examining the card, the clerk quickly determined it was her mother's, according to police.

Police said the employee confronted the man, who tried to give her an excuse about why he had the card. The clerk called police as the man fled.

Investigators said the employee told them that she had attended school with the man, and she identified him as Joshua Devonshire.

Soon after, officers responded to the home of the clerk's mother in the Pheasant Ridge development, which is about a quarter-mile away from the Turkey Hill.

The woman told police that, after her daughter notified her about the stolen card, she went to check her vehicle and saw a man near her car. She said the man, later identified as Devonshire, fled in a vehicle when she yelled at him. The woman told police that several bank cards were missing from her car.

Manor Township police Sgt. Jim Alexander said investigators believe Devonshire was attempting to put back items he had earlier stolen.

Around 7:30 a.m., another resident of Pheasant Ridge called police to report the theft of a diamond ring and $2,000 worth of professional hair-cutting tools from her vehicle.

And an hour later, officers returned to the development for a report of a male and a female sleeping in a vehicle. Police determined the male to be Devonshire.

Investigators said they observed several suspected stolen items in the vehicle.

Devonshire, 19, who has a last known address in Elizabethtown, was taken into custody and subsequently admitted to stealing the items from the vehicles, according to police. He also admitted to trying to use the stolen credit card at the Turkey Hill, they said.

He was charged with two counts of theft and one count of access device fraud and committed to Lancaster County Prison in lieu of $3,000 bail. The female in the vehicle was released without charges, police said.

"Not to make light of this, but, really, this entire incident was a comedy of errors," Alexander said. "Some people just aren't cut out to be criminals."

Odd Stories: Ben & Jerry’s Flavor Pro-gay Marriage

Montpelier, Vermont/England - Ice cream maker Ben & Jerry’s is supporting gay marriage in Britain by repackaging an apple pie flavor as “Apple-y Ever After.”

The Vermont-based subsidiary of the global food and cosmetics conglomerate Unilever is issuing the newly labeled ice cream in the United Kingdom as the British Parliament begins debating legislation that would allow same-sex couples to marry.

When Vermont passed such a law two years ago, the company celebrated by briefly repackaging its “Chubby Hubby” ice cream as “Hubby Hubby.”

Ben & Jerry’s has been involved in progressive political causes since its founding in 1978.

The company’s Liz Stewart says the gender of married spouses matters less than their love and commitment.

Odd Stories: Penguins Waddle Down Aisle on Plane

New York - Passengers flying from San Antonio to Atlanta and Atlanta to New York said they got an unexpected treat when two penguins waddled down the aisle mid-flight.

Pete and Penny, the penguins from SeaWorld, became the star attractions Wednesday, ABC News reported.

"When we reached cruising altitude, the captain allowed their handler to take them for a stroll up and down the aisle so that everyone could take a look at the cute, 1-foot-tall penguins and get some great photos and videos," passenger Jane Worthington Roth wrote on her YouTube page.

She uploaded three videos of the penguins on the plane.

The pilot and flight crew allowed trainers to let the penguins out of their kennels, to the delight of passengers.

"Oh my gosh! Look at him," one said.

"They're just so cute," said another.

"Pete and Penny are obviously enjoying their training to become flight attendants," Roth wrote. "You'll note that since they were sitting in first class, they are wearing their tuxedos!"

The two penguins were en route to New York for the premier of the upcoming Discovery Channel/BBC series "Frozen Planet."

"It's the first time I've ever seen everyone on a plane smiling at the same time!" Roth wrote.

Click "Play" to see the live Ustream of the penguins.

Broadcasting live with Ustream

Odd Stories: Lafayette Police: Cat Refuses to Jog Around Lake; Owner Ticketed for Leaving It Behind

By Heath Urie

Lafayette, Colorado - Police in Lafayette ticketed a 19-year-old man Wednesday on suspicion of tethering his cat to a rock after the pet refused to go jogging with him.

Lafayette police Sgt. Fred Palmer said the man, Seth Franco, of Lafayette, brought his cat on a leash to the path around Waneka Lake Park near Baseline Road and U.S. 287.

"Apparently, the individual was trying to jog with the animal on a leash and the animal was either unwilling or unable to keep up," Palmer said.

According to Palmer, Franco secured the cat's leash to a rock while he finished his run. A passerby saw the cat and called police. According to police radio traffic, the cat was being attacked by a flock of birds while it was tied to the rock.

Lafayette animal control officers responded and found Franco retrieving his cat. Franco was ticketed on suspicion of "domestic animal cruel treatment," a municipal offense.

"Our ordinance prohibits that kind of tethering," Palmer said.

The cat was not injured, so it was released to its owner, Palmer said.

A phone listing for Franco could not be located Wednesday.

Messages sent to a Facebook account for a Seth Franco in the Boulder area were not returned. The social media site contains numerous images of a rescued cat, Stella, including some with the cat on a leash outside.

Odd Stories: Utah Boy, 9, Takes 5-year-old Sister on Joyride

By Brian Skoloff

Ogden, Utah - An 8-year-old Utah boy made sure he and his 5-year-old sister buckled up before heading out on a middle-of-the-night drive in their mother's minivan, but they didn't get far.

The boy, who couldn't even see above the steering wheel, made it just a few hundred feet before crashing the vehicle into a line of trees along the Ogden River, about 40 miles north of Salt Lake City.

No one was injured and the children were returned to a stunned mother who awoke to police officers in her apartment at about 2 a.m. Thursday, authorities said.

"They had just come out of the driveway, went across both lanes, then hit those trees," said Ogden police Lt. Danielle Croyle. "It could have been much worse if they didn't have their seatbelts on. They were just too smart for their own good."

Authorities didn't identify the mother, and she did not answer her door on Thursday. No telephone number was listed for her.

Croyle said police have no previous history with the woman or her children, and neglect was not an issue. She called it an accident and said no charges were pending.

Witnesses said it was a shock.

"It was crazy," said Justine McDonald, 18, who heard the crash and ran outside with a friend to help.

"They looked a little freaked out. The kids just kept saying they were happy to be alive," McDonald said. "I said, 'Where's your mommy and daddy? Are they still in the car?' But she was at home asleep."

The young boy told Ogden police that his sister wanted to go to the store, so he grabbed the keys and headed out with his mother asleep in another room.

Several witnesses called 911 to report the crash.

"This kid wasn't even tall enough to see above the steering wheel," said neighbor Holly Maxwell, who also ran across the street to help. "They were worried their mother was going to be mad at them."

The 25-year-old said she held the little girl's hand and walked with police back to their apartment, along with McDonald.

An officer knocked repeatedly on the woman's door, then walked in, McDonald said.

"He called her name like four or five times," she said.

The woman eventually walked out from a back room.

"Did you know your kids took a joyride in your car?" McDonald said the officer asked the mother. "She just rubbed her head."

Odd Stories: German Celeb Bunny Meets Untimely Demise

Berlin - An earless baby bunny that was a rising star on Germany's celebrity animal scene had his 15 minutes of fame brought to an abrupt end when he was accidentally stepped on by a television cameraman.

The fate of 17-day-old Til, a bunny with a genetic defect, was plastered across German newspapers on Thursday, the same day a small zoo in Saxony was to have presented him to the world at a press conference.

The cameraman told Bild newspaper he hadn't seen Til, who had buried himself in hay, when he took the fateful step backward Wednesday.

Zoo director Uwe Dempewolf tells Spiegel magazine Til didn't suffer: "It was a direct hit."

Germany has been home to several global animal celebrities in recent years, including polar bear Knut and Paul the prognosticating octopus.

Odd Stories: Urology Practice Offers Pizza With Vasectomy

Barnstable, Massachusetts - Get a vasectomy, eat some pizza, and watch some basketball.

That's the idea behind a promotion by a Massachusetts urologists group that's offering a free pizza to vasectomy patients.

An administrator with Urology Associates of Cape Cod said it's a lighthearted way to raise awareness about the procedure and drum up business.Evan Cohen told the Cape Cod Times that getting a vasectomy during the NCAA basketball tournament is the perfect time because typically a day or two of recovery is needed following the simple operation, so it gives patients an excuse to lie on the couch and watch some hoops.

Dr. Evangelos Geraniotis, a urologist at the practice with offices in Hyannis, Sandwich and Nantucket, calls a vasectomy an "easy and less stressful" form of birth control.

Odd Stories: Kashmire Scientists Clone Rare Cashmere Goat

By Aijaz Hussain

Srinagar, India - Scientists said Thursday they have cloned a rare Himalayan goat in Indian-controlled Kashmir, hoping to help increase the number of animals famed for their silky soft undercoats used to make pashmina wool, or cashmere.

The March 9 birth of female kid "Noori," which means "light" in Arabic, could spark breeding programs across the region and mass production of the high-priced wool, said lead project scientist Dr. Riaz Ahmad Shah, a veterinarian in the animal biotechnology center of Sher-i-Kashmir University.

Cashmere wool, particularly made into shawls, is a major source of income for Kashmir, generating about $80 million a year for the Indian-controlled portion of the disputed mountain state. A shawl can cost $200 in Kashmir and much more when sold abroad — a boon given the average salary of $800 a year for Kashmir's 10.2 million people.

Cashmere goats — which take their name from the Kashmir region but include a number of breeds that produce the soft wool — are traditionally herded in small numbers across the Himalayas and the Tibetan plateau in cold and remote mountain areas.

They must live in harsh, windy climates to generate the soft undercoat, for which demand has always exceeded supply. Kashmir's goats are found in small populations in remote areas of the northwest border region of Ladakh.

Experts say their numbers are dwindling. In recent years, Kashmir has started importing cashmere from neighboring China to keep up with orders for the region's hand-woven shawls.

Shah and six other scientists took two years to clone Noori, using the relatively new "handmade" cloning technique involving only a microscope and a steady hand.

"We've standardized the procedure. Now it will take us half a year to produce another," said Dr. Maajid Hassan, another veterinarian who worked on the project, which was partly funded by the World Bank.

The team already has started work on more clones among the university's herd of goats.

"This is the cheapest, easier and less time-consuming" method of cloning, compared with conventional methods that use high-tech machinery and sometimes chemicals, Shah said. Noori is the first cashmere goat cloned by this method, though Shah earlier cloned a buffalo.

They plan to spread the goat-cloning knowledge across the Indian Himalayas so others can grow their own goats.

Eventually, Shah hopes to clone threatened species such as the critically endangered Kashmir stag, or hangul, the only surviving species of Asian red deer.

Isle Royale Wolves May Go Extinct

Traverse City, Michigan - Isle Royale National Park's gray wolves, one of the world's most closely monitored predator populations, are at their lowest ebb in more than a half-century and could die out within a few years, scientists said Friday.

Only nine wolves still wander the wilderness island chain in western Lake Superior and just one is known to be a female, raising doubts they'll bounce back from a recent free-fall unless people lend a hand, Michigan Tech University wildlife biologists Rolf Peterson and John Vucetich said in a report obtained by The Associated Press. There were 24 wolves — roughly their long-term average number — as recently as 2009.

"The wolves are at grave risk of extinction," Vucetich said in an interview.

Their crash apparently results from a run of bad luck rather than a single catastrophe. A shortage of females has cut the birth rate, while breakdown of several packs boosted inbreeding and weakened the gene pool. Other troubles include disease and starvation from a drop-off of moose, the wolves' primary food source.

Their population is the smallest since biologists began observing their interactions with moose in 1958, beginning what became the world's longest-running study of predators and prey in a single ecosystem, Vucetich said. Previously, the closest they came to extinction was during a parvovirus outbreak in the 1980s when their numbers plummeted from 50 to 12.

Unless the wolves rebound quickly, the National Park Service will face the thorny question of whether to intervene. Officials could bring in reinforcements from the mainland to salvage the existing population. Or they could let nature take its course and, if the wolves die, start over with a new group. They also could leave it to the wolves to repopulate the island if they can.

Agency experts have begun analyzing their options, Isle Royale Superintendent Phyllis Green said.

"We don't want to make a decision based on a single species without evaluating the effects on other species that have been a part of the ecosystem through time," Green said.

Scientists believe the island's first moose swam there from the Canadian mainland, 15 miles away, in the early 20th century and were so prolific that the island's balsam firs, aspens and other trees were severely overbrowsed. Wolves crossed an ice bridge to the island around 1950 and eventually formed packs that helped keep moose numbers in check.

Although wolf sightings are rare, their presence is treasured by park visitors who hope to catch a glimpse on a backcountry trail or hear their eerie howls at night.

"People like to know the wolves are there," said Peterson, who joined the study team in 1970. "It could be argued that this is the wolf's greatest refuge in the world. It's the only place they've never been killed by human beings."

Because Isle Royale is a federal wilderness area, hunting and trapping are prohibited.

Vucetich, Peterson and other scientists spend seven weeks on the island each winter, monitoring the wolves and moose by air. During their recently concluded visit, they discovered the wolf population had dropped from 16 last year to nine. The only intact pack had six members. One wolf wandered alone, while a couple — including the only known female — staked out territory and apparently mated.

The wolves' best hope may be that the female will bear a healthy litter of pups next month and help form a new pack, Peterson said. Another positive sign: moose numbers rose from an estimated 515 last year to about 750. But a shortage remains of elderly moose that are easiest for wolves to kill.

Prospects are increasingly remote that more wolves will find their way to Isle Royale without help, Vucetich said. A male is believed to have made the crossing on an ice bridge in the late 1990s and sired offspring, temporarily reinvigorating the gene pool. But a study published last week found that Great Lakes ice cover has declined 71 percent over the past 40 years.

Vucetich and Peterson said they'd prefer to let the wolves determine their own fate — even if it means extinction. But if that happens, the park service should airlift more wolves to the island to prevent moose from running rampant and damaging the ecosystem, they said.

Otherwise, "we'd be taking a vital wilderness and turning it into an overstocked barnyard," Peterson said.

Restoring wolves also would enable continuation of the study, which has yielded a wealth of discoveries about both species, he said.

In an essay scheduled for publication next month, Peterson and Vucetich acknowledge some scientists consider it unethical for humans to manipulate wildlife populations in wilderness areas. But they contend people have already changed Isle Royale's environment and the primary consideration should be protecting the ecosystem, for which wolves are essential as long as long as there are moose.

David Mech, a wolf expert with the U.S. Geological Survey, advocated a hands-off policy unless the wolves die out. Even in their diminished state, they could last a decade or more and may pull a surprise comeback, he said.

"This is a really unique opportunity to see what they can do," Mech said. "If there's any intervention, it destroys that potential."

But if more wolves were brought in before the existing ones disappear, they could interbreed to the benefit of all, said Philip Hedrick, an Arizona State University conservation biologist.

"Having the wolf eliminated for some period of time may result in secondary effects that would make it difficult to re-establish a population," he said.

Sperm May Feel the Weight of Extra Pounds: Study

By Genevra Pittman

Worldwide - Heavy men are more likely than their normal-weight peers to have low sperm counts or no sperm production at all, suggests a new report.

The review of past studies can't prove that overweight or obese men will have more trouble fathering a child. But researchers said that how many sperm men make is one of the key ways doctors measure their fertility.

"In general you expect that men with lower sperm counts will have a greater frequency of difficulty conceiving than men with higher sperm counts, but it's not completely straightforward," said Dr. Jorge Chavarro, from the Harvard School of Public Health, part of the collaborative group that put out the study.

How well sperm move, their shape and the quality of DNA they carry matter too, Chavarro said -- but previous studies have suggested some of those measures of sperm quality may be affected by obesity as well. For the new analysis, French researchers combined data from 14 studies that compared sperm count in samples of ejaculate from normal weight, overweight and obese men, as well as data from their own infertility center.

About one-quarter of the combined 10,000 men had a low sperm count. In another analysis, just over 250 out of almost 7,000 men had no sperm in their ejaculate at all.

Dr. Sebastien Czernichow, from the Ambroise Pare Hospital, Boulogne-Billancourt, and colleagues calculated that compared to normal-weight men, overweight men were 11 percent more likely to have a low sperm count and 39 percent more likely to have no sperm -- though it's possible the second finding was due to chance.

Obese men, on the other hand, were 42 percent more likely to have a low sperm count than their normal-weight peers and 81 percent more likely to have sperm-free ejaculate, the researchers reported in the Archives of Internal Medicine.

They proposed a number of different theories for the findings, including that male hormones may be converted into estrogen in fat tissue, affecting sperm-making down the line, or that more fat in the hips and stomach could make the scrotum too hot.

The results don't prove that overweight and obese men will have more fertility trouble -- although you wouldn't expect men who have no sperm at all to be fertile, Chavarro said. And it's possible that the obesity itself isn't to blame; rather, in some men, an underlying health condition causes them to gain weight and affects their sperm, said Dr. Stephen Winters, Professor of Medicine and Chief of the Division of Endocrinology, Metabolism and Diabetes at the University of Louisville.

Because of that, researchers can't say for sure whether heavy men could boost their sperm production by losing weight. Czernichow told Reuters Health in an email that losing weight improves fertility in women, but that there's not much data in men -- though small case reports have suggested weight-loss surgery may actually have a negative effect on sperm.

The findings jibe with a study from late last year which found that being overweight was tied to a lower sperm concentration and lower motility -- how well sperm swam.

The current report "is not conclusive, and the risks are not huge," Winters, who wasn't involved in the research, told Reuters Health. But fertility trouble, he added, "is there among the health risks of obesity."
"This appears to be yet another health outcome for which maintaining a healthy weight appears to be important," Chavarro told Reuters Health.

"It's not only about your cardiovascular disease risk, it's not only about diabetes and some forms of cancer. Obesity also seems to affect outcomes that may be manifested in younger men."

JPMorgan Chase Caught “Misrepresenting” Credit Card Collections; Whistleblower Fired

By David Wallechinsky and Noel Brinkerhoff

 

San Antonio - After cutting corners and relying on poor accounting, JPMorgan Chase shut down its legal operation against credit card debtors, some of whom may have been wrongly sued by the bank. It would appear to be another example of greed overcoming honesty. Ten years ago, Chase was recovering about $130 million a year in bad debt collections. By 2009, they were raking in $1.2 billion on credit card recoveries alone. The problem, legally and ethically, was that Chase was misrepresenting what they were selling to professional debt collectors. The increase in profits—and the decrease in ethical standards—would appear to have begun in 2008 when Edmond Helaire and his right-hand man, Jason Lazinbat, were put in charge of the credit card debt division in San Antonio, Texas.

 

A former bank employee, Linda Almonte, first drew attention to the problem after she was fired for complaining that Chase was selling credit cards debts with erroneous balances to collection companies. Almonte then filed a whistleblower lawsuit contending she was wrongfully terminated.

 

Almonte had barely settled into her new job at Chase’s credit card litigation support section in San Antonio in 2009 when she was given responsibility for organizing a parcel of almost $200 million worth of delinquent credit card bills to be sold to a debt collector. It did not take long for her to realize that many of the unpaid bills, or judgments, were not what they were supposed to be. She wrote to her superiors that almost half of the judgments were missing documents or lacked dates and signatures. In addition, for almost a quarter of the judgments, Chase was exaggerating the amount that was owed.

 

Another former bank employee, Howard Hardin, who oversaw a team handling tens of thousands of debt files, backed up Almonte’s story, telling American Banker his division “did not verify a single one” of the affidavits attesting to the amounts that the bank was seeking to collect. “We were told [by superiors] ‘We’re in a hurry. Go ahead and sign them,’” he said.

 

The revelations prompted the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency to launch an investigation. Chase also has stopped suing delinquent borrowers for the time being.

Cancer Costs Hit Young and Poor Hardest: Study

Washington - In a new survey, colon cancer patients younger than 50 and those with low incomes or unemployed were most likely to experience severe financial hardships as a result of the treatments meant to save their lives.

The study of Washington state residents who underwent colon cancer treatment found that compared with older people, patients under age 50 had more than 50-times greater chances of selling or refinancing their homes, having their income drop 20 percent or more, going into debt or having to borrow money from friends and family to meet expenses.

Patients with household incomes below $30,000 were about eight times more likely to face those financial problems than those who were better off.

"I think most oncologists have heard these stories where people are spending a lot on their treatments," said Dr. Veena Shankaran, the study's lead author and an oncologist at the University of Washington. "These anecdotes are things we always hear in clinics and I wanted to get a broader sense of what's going on."

The study also found that most patients didn't discuss the cost of their treatments with their doctors, and some even skipped or refused treatment because of the price tag.

To gauge the financial impact of cancer treatment, Shankaran and her colleagues sent a survey to 555 adults living in various parts of Washington State and diagnosed with advanced colon cancer between 2008 and 2010.

The questionnaire asked about the participants' financial situation, whether or not they had insurance and about their treatments

Of the 284 people who responded, 104 reported at least one serious financial hardship related to their cancer treatment.

Shankaran told Reuters Health that they did not go into this analysis with any specific expectations. But, she added, "To have nearly 40 percent of patients have these major financial changes was quite surprising to us."

They speculate that those groups have less savings and other resources to fall back on when copayments and denied reimbursement claims start adding up.

Another 27 percent of the survey respondents described lesser financial impacts, including having to sell stocks or withdraw from savings or retirement accounts, or experiencing a drop in income of less than 20 percent.

The researchers found a small number of the respondents who skipped or refused treatment because of costs -- about five percent and seven percent, respectively.

In an accompanying editorial in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Cathy Bradley, a health policy researcher at the Virginia Commonwealth University School of Medicine, in Richmond, says there are several ways for the health care system to avoid financial hardships brought on by cancer treatments.

One long-term strategy would be to invest in prevention, she writes. For immediate action, she says Medicare should be able to negotiate cancer drug prices or pay for the least costly alternative if the outcome is known to be about the same.

Other than that, Bradley says doctors should talk to their patients about costs and how much the patient would be expected to pay.

"They need to understand how much this is going to cost them and their families. They need to make an informed decision," Bradley told Reuters Health.

In her commentary, Bradley notes that eight-weeks of chemotherapy can exceed $30,000.

From their survey, Shankaran and her colleagues found only 42 percent of patients recalled talking about costs with their doctors.

"I think there are a lot of barriers," she said. "People may be embarrassed and they think the doctors shouldn't have to worry about this."

She added that patients may even think doctors might change their treatment recommendation if they mention costs.

"You wished they would have said something, because there are things we can do," Shankaran said.
Bradley believes the problem should be addressed through policy.

"I think this is a policy question, and the individual is caught in the middle… and I don't think there is much they can do about it."

However, Shankaran said, most oncologists have a financial counselor available in their offices and there are also resources available online.

Banks Hike Fees, Cut Costs to Boost Profits

By David Henry

United States - Jack up checking fees for bank customers who don't use direct deposit regularly. Replace tellers with self-service, touch-screen kiosks. Install new chairs and conference rooms to court well-to-do customers.

U.S. bank executives are handing down such orders to replace profits lost to recent regulatory reforms and low interest rates.

They hope these tactics will be more successful than Bank of America Corp's plan last fall to charge a $5 monthly fee for debit cards. The bank had to retreat amid howls of protest.

Having mostly stopped the losses from the financial crisis, banks are focused on lifting profits from levels below their own historic averages and those of many other industries.

Wells Fargo & Co, for example, has new account requirements that push customers to do more financial business with the company. Bank of America is testing new prices for basic services in three states.  JPMorgan Chase & Co is installing digital tablets and advanced ATMs to reduce the need for tellers and nearly one billion pieces of paper a year.

These three banks hold one-third of U.S. consumer deposits, and their price hikes, cost cuts and marketing to the rich are likely to influence the way Americans bank for years to come.

Increasingly, customers entering branches will be steered toward machines, much like airport ticket counters. More meetings with loan officers will take place by video conference. And nearly everyone, experts say, will need to be wary of new fees and pricing schemes.

Some customers are upset. Laurie Wittges of San Jose, California, said she is struggling to pay higher monthly charges from Wells Fargo. Unemployed, she can't maintain the balance of about $2,500 that the bank now requires to waive her fees.

"There are a bunch of people like me who can't afford this," said Wittges, 50. She lost a job as an executive assistant when the company where she worked closed last year.

CHECKING IS NOT FREE

As happens every decade or so, banks are intensifying efforts to increase pricing power, attract high net-worth customers and apply money-saving technology. While banks no longer lose money as they did in 2009, their stocks remain under pressure and executives are eager to raise profits.

Bank profits are simply too thin now to attract investors, said industry consultant Bert Ely. Return on equity, a key measure of profitability, in 2011 was 7.86 percent, which is below the 28-year average of nearly 10 percent and perhaps two-thirds as much as banks need to compete with other industries for capital, Ely said.
The outlook for the next few years is discouraging. One-time accounting adjustments boosted banks' 2011 results, and will need to be replaced for banks to increase earnings in 2012.

Regulators are on course to tighten limits on how much banks borrow to leverage up profits. And while bank stocks have rallied in the past six months, they are not hitting new peaks. The KBW Bank Index of stocks is no higher now than in August 2009 even though the Standard & Poor's 500 stock index is up more than 30 percent.

The Dodd-Frank Act, the law designed to address causes of the financial crisis, has curbed banks to the extent that there are fewer customers who bring enough revenue to cover the cost of serving them. Banks are barred from charging as much in overdraft fees as before, and from collecting from merchants all the money they used to get for debit-card transactions. Revenue from lending out customer deposits is down because of lower interest rates and loan demand.

Some executives regret marketing free checking accounts in the past. "As an industry, we have communicated with a generation of customers that this is all free, and there are costs," Wells Fargo CEO John Stumpf lamented at an investment conference in December.

The average cost to provide a checking account through a bank branch, according to Wells Fargo and JPMorgan, is roughly $300 a year, including spending to open branches, build computer systems, create websites and operate call centers. On that basis, about half of all U.S. households are unprofitable to the banks, according to JPMorgan.

Even when customers leave thousands of dollars on deposit in accounts, banks often do not make enough money on the funds to cover the costs. For example, an account with $4,000 that JPMorgan could have invested last year would have generated only about $140 in interest revenue for the bank. That's based on the 3.51 percent average rate the bank received on interest-earning assets and does not factor in its cost to make loans.

To be sure, banks are not going to dump half of their accounts. Serving additional customers does not cost much once banks have set up operations. Incremental costs for things like checks, debit cards and additional deposit insurance are so slight that they are covered by about 90 percent of accounts, according to JPMorgan. The banks also know that once interest rates rise and loan demand returns they will make money on the marginal accounts.

NEW PRICE PLANS

But banks are making a shift. Across all banks, 45 percent of non-interest checking accounts are now free, down from 65 percent in 2010, according to a Bankrate.com study released in September.

Banks are searching for an extra $5 here and $10 there. Bank of America, for example, since last year has been testing a menu of account choices in Massachusetts, Georgia and Arizona. The accounts, for new consumers, cost $6 to $25 per month. Most of the accounts provide ways to escape the fees, but customers must keep a minimum balance or use a credit card.

Wells Fargo eliminated free checking for new customers in 2010 and is gradually ending it for existing customers. In early March, the bank said it will charge current customers in six East Coast states $7 per month, unless they keep a $1,500 minimum daily balance or make direct deposits of $500 each month. The bank has already made the change in 24 western states.

Wells Fargo CEO Stumpf also aims to convince customers to do more business with the bank, like take out loans and use investment services, to pay their way. "We can give them package pricing," Stumpf told investors. "It is a better deal for them."

To cut costs, Bank of America is closing branches. Wells Fargo said it may shrink branches and reduce the number of tellers.

JPMorgan is installing new technology in branches to cut expenses and, executives hope, attract profitable
customers.

"We'll have more room for self-service, more room for rich people and business customers," Todd Maclin, JPMorgan's consumer banking chief, said at an investor conference last month.

The bank plans to coach customers in online and mobile banking, he said. Advanced ATMs will cash checks and dispense currency in multiple denominations, reducing the need for human tellers.

In six branches where JPMorgan is testing self-service kiosks, check cashing with tellers declined 40 percent. "Paperless tellers," people equipped with computer tablet touch screens, saved time and reduced errors in five branches where they are being tested, the bank said.

JPMorgan expects to use video conferencing to allow foreign language speakers and investment and loan experts to talk with customers in multiple locations. Some 58 branches now have machines that issue debit cards on the spot to save postage and time. The machines will soon spit out credit cards, too.

Still, new equipment and mobile banking apps can only do so much. About 90 percent of retail transactions with the bank are already automated, Maclin said. While the remaining 10 percent of transactions tend to have especially high costs that can be reduced, the estimated $500 million in annual savings falls short of the $800 million JPMorgan said it is losing to new regulations on consumer accounts and debit cards.

Bank of America CEO Brian Moynihan said in an interview that what is different for banks from past profit squeezes is that there are more ways to provide cost-effective services to customers, such as mobile banking.

That may be, but banks have failed with some technology investments in the past. In the late 1990s, First Union Corp, a North Carolina-based regional bank, flopped with a strategy called "Future Bank" intended to push customers away from tellers to phones, ATMs and computers. Customers grumbled about long waiting lines for tellers and in-branch phones that connected them to distant call centers. First Union lost deposits and had to rehire tellers.

Maclin of JPMorgan Chase vowed his bank will be careful as it pushes ahead. "We're not going to torture people in the process of getting them to go to self-service," he said.

Offshore Oil a 'Game-changer' for Falkland Islands

By Michael Warren

Stanley, Falkland Islands - Falkland Islanders are so accustomed to making do with what they've got that many still heat their homes with peat stoves, grow their own vegetables, repair their Land Rovers themselves and raise chickens for their soft-boiled eggs.

But now they've struck oil offshore — potentially vast stores of it. Billions of dollars in taxes and royalties could soon flow their way, creating an entirely unfamiliar challenge: the prospect of sudden and tremendous wealth.

If the first strike alone can attract the major investment needed to start producing crude, this closely knit community of 3,000 people mostly descended from sheep farmers, soldiers and sailors could find themselves richer than sheiks.

They'll rival the bankers of Liechtenstein and Lamborghini drivers of Qatar as the wealthiest people in the world.

Far from celebrating the millions of dollars that oil exploration is already pumping into their treasury, however, most islanders seem far more concerned about the troubles that rapid change might bring.

They like their way of life just like it is: tranquil, surrounded by nature and nearly crime-free.

"The important word here is 'potential' — bolded and underlined several times. I'm potentially a lottery winner," said Stephen Luxton, the government's mineral resources director. "Don't get me wrong: everybody's excited about it, but we're not going to spend money we don't have."

The reluctance comes from experience. Daunting political, technical, financial and environmental questions have kept the oil from flowing for years.

For one thing, Argentina still claims the "Islas Malvinas" despite nearly 180 years of British control and a failed occupation 30 years ago. President Cristina Fernandez is trying to use diplomatic and economic power to force Britain into sovereignty talks ahead of the April 2 anniversary of the 1982 invasion. Her Foreign Minister Hector Timerman said Thursday that Argentina will pursue "administrative, civil and criminal" penalties against the islands' "illegal" oil industry.

With neighbors like these, islanders hope Big Oil money will enable them to fund their own defense and gain leverage in global trade.

"Oil means security for us. If we go back to being sheep farmers again, would the U.K.government stick up for us as much? I'd like to think so, but maybe not," said Dan Fowler, a biologist born during the 1982 Argentine occupation.

Most islanders were tenant farmers who struggled to make a living on wool during their first 150 years as Britain's colonial subjects.

But now they are a self-governing British Overseas Territory, deciding for themselves how to tax and spend. 

And they will surpass Arab oil barons in per-capita wealth if they get even a fraction of the $10.5 billion in taxes and royalties some industry analysts predict will flow from the Sea Lion field, discovered north of the islands last year by Rockhopper Exploration PLC.

While Rockhopper seeks a $2 billion partner to move toward producing the crude, Borders & Southern Petroleum and Falkland Oil and Gas Ltd. are drilling two exploratory wells each this year in much deeper water south of the islands.

It's high-risk, high-reward, costing them $1.3 million a day with less than a 25 percent chance of success. 

But a big strike could prompt a rush to join what might be one of the world's last new sources of fossil fuels in an era of peak oil.

The southern basin could hold ten times more than the Sea Lion field's estimated 450 million barrels, with a potential payoff soaring above $100 billion, according to Edison Investment Research, a London-based financial analysis firm that published an optimistic "Falkland oils" report last month.

"It's a game-changer for the Falklands," said John Foster, a British board member of the Falkland Islands Company, the islands' largest private employer and a minority shareholder in Falkland Oil and Gas.

The money could go a long way in the rocky, wind-swept islands, where just a few gravel roads connect remote settlements to Stanley, the only town.

They need a permanent port for bigger oil, fisheries and cruise ships, and hotels and paved roads so visitors can stay long enough to see historic sites and wildlife. Expanded drilling will require a dedicated fresh water system, and economic growth will require more windmills for the wind energy that already provides a third of the islands' electricity.

Creature comforts might attract ambitious newcomers, creating a more sustainable and diverse economy. A bigger hospital could mean less travel to Chile or London for advanced care. More restaurants and a movie theater in Stanley would be welcome, and people naturally would like more money in their pockets.

But any windfalls will go straight into a sovereign wealth fund, islanders say. They don't plan to pay themselves dividends, and joke that no one should expect their ubiquitous Land Rovers to become gold-plated.

"It's not 'way-hay, party-time!' We're certainly thinking about the future," said Gavin Short, one of eight legislators. "We're not going to turn into a society where we all sit at home with our seven maids and gardener and watch the telly. We're all brought up to work."

Veterinarian Zoe Luxton, a distant cousin of Stephen's, has more fundamental concerns.

"Can this place survive it?" she asked. "Everything we're saying we're here for — not locking your doors, the freedom, the tranquility — can it survive so much money?"

The islanders are hiring experts to negotiate with major oil companies and plan for change, and examining how other small islands handled sudden wealth. Looking north of Scotland, they believe the Shetlands used oil royalties wisely to fund a vibrant economy, but that the Faroe Islands allowed oil to take over.

No one wants another Nauru, the Pacific "phosphate island" whose sudden mining wealth tripled the population, briefly making them the world's richest per-capita, but destroyed their way of life. Nauru's money disappeared through swindles and bad investments as the ground beneath them was shipped away. 

In less than a generation, the phosphate was gone, they had forgotten how to fish, and had to take in Australian inmates for income.

"They're broke, they've had it," Short said. "We've got only one shot at this and we've got to get it right. So we'll go out and hire the best expertise money can buy."

To attract investors, the Falklands promise some of the world's lowest royalties — 9 percent of the oil's value sold as crude, combining with taxes for a one-third take. Taxes and royalties top 40 percent in the U.S. Gulf of Mexico, 50 percent in Brazil, 70 percent in Norway and 80 percent in Malaysia, according to the Edison report.

Any royalties would still add up to far more than the current revenues of $40 million, mostly from fishing and oil industry fees.

Engineering and environmental challenges still abound in the frigid and stormy southern seas. The petroleum found so far is waxy when cold, so must be heated while shipped. Any major spill where penguins, whales, seals and other birds and marine mammals are drawn to unspoiled coasts could make Falklands oil a bad bet.

"The political fallout from any environmental damage would be toxic," Edison's otherwise bullish report noted.

Falkland Islands Company chairman David Huff, another British investor, said "you can't eliminate risk, it's a part of life."

But islanders have mixed feelings.

"You've got to be worried about it, haven't you? A couple of missing safety checks and human errors and you've got a major blowout for days," said Fowler, who hopes to make a career of studying wildlife in the islands. "On the other hand, where there is oil, there is more money to invest in environmental conservation."

Special U.S. Military Unit Hunts Mexico Border Drug Flights

By Curt Prendergast

United States/Mexico - A highly specialized U.S. military task force is using battlefield technology to help federal police hunt elusive drug traffickers slipping over the Mexico border in hard-to-detect ultralight aircraft, officials said on Thursday.

Joint Task Force North, a cadre of highly specialized Marines, soldiers, sailors and airmen, is using the military's cutting edge radar and optical technologies to help the U.S. Border Patrol nab the drug flights in southern Arizona and New Mexico.

Wily traffickers attach bundles of up to a few hundred pounds of marijuana to the small, lightweight aircraft, which are difficult to spot and often fly in areas not covered by the Federal Aviation Administration, officials said.

"We take great pride in being able to say, 'We own the night,'" task force spokesman Armando Carrasco told a news conference near Douglas, a remote ranching town on the Mexico border in Arizona, where the flights are a headache for law enforcement.

"We can deploy radars to where there's no FAA coverage ... Our purpose is to identify all aircraft crossing the border illegally. If it flies, we can identify it," he added.

U.S. authorities have recorded hundreds of ultralight incursions along the porous, nearly 2,000 mile border with Mexico in recent years. The smugglers often dump the drugs and head back south to Mexico without landing. At least two have crashed.

In January, President Barack Obama signed a law sponsored by former Arizona Representative Gabrielle Giffords levying new penalties on people who use the aircraft to smuggle drugs over the U.S. border.

Operation Nimbus II involves around 500 highly specialized personnel. They will use the military's Sentinel battlefield radar system, and the Avenger Air Defense System, which uses infrared heat-sensing technology to help detect intruders.

The systems are able to track unscheduled incursions both during the day and at night in remote mountain and desert terrain in southern Arizona and western New Mexico, among the areas most frequently probed by the clandestine drug flights.

The partnership is of mutual benefit to both the Border Patrol and the military task force, officials said. "We get additional eyes and they get training," said Steven Passement, a spokesman for Border Patrol's Tucson sector

"It's good training in a real-world environment," said Sergeant Mark Stark, who is trained on the Sentinel system.

The task force, which includes engineers, map makers, radar and intelligence specialists, currently aids the Border Patrol on the northern border with Canada, where it has used battlefield radar systems to target marijuana smugglers.

However, 70 percent of the more than 6,000 missions conducted by the task force since its creation in 1989 have been on the border with Mexico, Carrasco said.

Last year the group, which operates in an area between homeland security and defense known as "the seam," conducted 80 missions in support of federal police, with more than 50 of them on the southern border, he said.

These included using ground-penetrating radar systems to hunt for drug tunnels bored under the border to San Diego from Tijuana, Mexico, and road construction in various cities along the border, Carrasco said.

Both the Obama administration and the government of Mexican President Felipe Calderon have in recent years stepped up cooperation to curb the smuggling of drugs and migrants north over the U.S. border and of cash and guns south to Mexico, where about 50,000 people have been killed in drug violence in the past five years.

Illegal Fishing Plunders and Strains West Africa

Sierra Leone - On a recent mission pursuing pirate fishermen off Sierra Leone's coast, the head of the Fisheries Protection Unit found himself adrift on the high seas with six crew after their rented motorboat ran out of fuel.

"We started rationing the food and water," Victor Kargbo said. With no long-range radios to seek help, they improvised a makeshift sail from a tarpaulin, but with only one day's supply of food and water remaining, they feared the worst.

"Even if we should die in the process, we knew we had served the country well," Kargbo said.

Their ordeal, which ended when a U.N. helicopter spotted the stranded boat after two days, underscores the huge challenge facing impoverished West African states seeking to defend their waters from illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing.

West Africa, recognized as one of the world's richest fisheries grounds teeming with snapper, grouper, sardines, mackerel and shrimp, loses up to $1.5 billion worth of fish each year to vessels fishing in protected zones or without proper equipment or licenses.

Widespread corruption and a continuing lack of resources for enforcement mean huge foreign trawlers often venture into areas near the coast that are reserved exclusively for artisanal fishermen, allowing them to drag off tons of catch and putting at risk the livelihoods of millions of local people.

Experts say the annual plunder risks deepening instability in West Africa by driving communities that live off the sea toward crime, in the same way illegal fishing in Somalia in the 1990s encouraged locals there to turn to piracy, now a criminal enterprise that costs the world billions of dollars each year.

"Illegal fishing in West Africa is essentially out of control," said David Doulman, senior fisheries planning officer at the U.N.'s Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO).

The acts of piracy, particularly in and around the Gulf of Guinea, have spread and become more violent, U.N. officials say, threatening shipping activity from a growing source of oil, metals and agricultural commodities for Western markets.

While there is no clear evidence that local fishermen there are behind recorded hijacks of ships and sea-borne raids on banks in coastal cities, there are fears their declining livelihoods could push them into such activity.

"It would be reasonable to be concerned," Doulman said.

A study by the U.K.-based Environmental Justice Foundation showed that many of the culprits of the illegal fishing off West Africa are Chinese, South Korean and European-flagged vessels.

EJF says fish native to West Africa have shown up in market stalls in London, some in boxes "carrying the logo of CNFC, a state-owned Chinese company that owns many of the IUU (illegal, unreported, and unregulated) vessels operating in Guinea."

The European Union says it is working on the problem. An EU official said it seeks to curb illegal fishing as well as the sale of illegally caught fish in EU markets through a system of certification and a blacklist for violators.

China's Ministry of Agriculture, which oversees the fishing industry, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

OFFSHORE "REEFERS", INSHORE CANOES

In an ironic twist, Sierra Leone's Kargbo and his colleagues ended up being rescued by the same trawler suspected of illegal fishing that they had seized earlier in their troubled mission, the Marampa 803.

The 61-meter (200-foot) trawler, boarded by Kargbo's unit before the group raced off to intercept another suspect vessel, was one of several owned by local firm Sierra Fishing Company (SFC). Its management had been outsourced to a Canary Islands-registered company, Taerim Ltd, according to private equity firm ManoCap, which owns 40 percent of SFC.

"We took the decision to outsource management, and then didn't spend time looking at what the vessel was doing," ManoCap founder Tom Cairnes said, adding management of Marampa 803 would be changed.

A Sierra Leone patrol had spotted the ship twice in inshore waters reserved for artisanal fishermen before it was seized.

The illegal trawlers typically catch fish in off-limits waters near shore and 'launder' their catches by offloading far out at sea onto refrigerated vessels, sometimes European- or Chinese-owned, called "reefers".

Illicit fish catches off West Africa are part of a global problem straining world stocks. The United States and the European Union estimate illegal fishing yields as much as $23 billion worth of seafood worldwide annually.

But the ocean off West Africa presents a special case: it has the world's highest proportion of illegal catch at about 37 percent of the region's total, according to researchers, and as a result is at risk of collapse.

Lack of money to buy patrol boats, or even the fuel to run them, has crippled West African governments' efforts to crack down on the illegal fleets.

"At the end of the day we, the local fishermen, suffer a lot," said Philip Gabbidon, a 32-year-old from Sierra Leone's John Obey beach, where brightly painted canoes are drawn up on the sand and women stack freshly caught fish in wicker baskets.

Other forms of illegal fishing in the region include the use of a single license for multiple vessels or small-mesh nets - nets whose holes are smaller than regulations stipulate and which end up catching even the smallest fish.

Sometimes local fishermen become part of the illegal fishing enterprises. The interlopers employ them with their canoes to access the off-limits near-shore zones along the vast stretch of coast without triggering suspicion.

On the cliff-lined beach at Ouakam just outside Senegal's capital Dakar, Mamadou Seck rests among the wooden pirogues - canoes hand-built from local timbers - after months working for South Korean ships.

He said a typical sortie involves several large pirogues and their crews leaving from Senegal's northern port of St. Louis, being picked up by a South Korean-flagged trawler at sea, and then travelling thousands of km (miles) south to fishing grounds as far away as Gabon near the equator.

"In the mornings, we are lowered and in the evening we return to the ship and sell them our catch at a discount," he said, adding the pirogues often venture close to shore to catch grouper. "It is hard work, but it used to pay well. Now it is more difficult because the sea has fewer fish."

LOCAL AUTHORITIES STRUGGLE

Like Sierra Leone, other regional countries like Liberia, Ivory Coast and Guinea are also losing the fight to what their officials call "pirate fishing". Guinea alone loses some $100 million per year in catches, according to the EJF.

In Ivory Coast, authorities have seized only four vessels found fishing illegally since 2007, even though local fishermen say run-ins with foreign ships are a near daily occurrence. Captured ships are typically held at port until their owners pay a fine to release them.

"When we go out, we see Chinese vessels and they take everything in their path," said local Ivorian fisherman Balima Hyacinthe, 29, who lives in a coastal village on the outskirts of the commercial capital Abidjan.

Ivory Coast, which is trying to recover from a 2011 civil war, is being deprived of some 55,116 tons of fish by illegal fishing every year, fisheries minister Kobenan Kouassi Adjoumanil told Reuters.

The country is in talks with a French aerospace firm, Thales SA, about using satellite technology to monitor its territorial waters, and is also seeking more high-speed patrol boats to intercept suspect vessels.

"A big problem is access to resources to patrol zones and to do the things you need to do," said the FAO's Doulman.

"There is also often very outdated fisheries legislation, so if you get caught in some countries you pay $100, and off you go. And thirdly, you have this endemic problem in the region, what we used to call 'unprofessional behavior', but which we now call corruption," he said.

CASH BRIBES

When suspect vessels are intercepted by local patrol boats, their captains and crews often offer West African soldiers and fisheries officers bribes to look the other way, local officials and fishermen say.

"In general they pay money in cash and carry on," a military source in Guinea, who asked not to be named, said. He said the bribes offered are typically in the thousands of dollars.

Sierra Leone has faced a similar problem with graft.

"Certainly in the past there have been issues that have taken place that have indicated some corruption," said Soccoh Kabia, Sierra Leone's minister of fisheries. But he added the country was trying to toughen its stance on illegal fishing.

West Africa's fisheries sector accounts directly and indirectly for up to a quarter of the region's employment, according to the FAO. So any deterioration in the livelihoods of coastal communities from Mauritania down to South Africa could have a devastating impact on social conditions in countries already struggling to overcome poverty and unemployment.

West Africa is already a transshipment point for South American narcotics bound for Europe, with traffickers often employing local boats and fishermen to offload and stash their drug cargoes along the unpatrolled jigsaw of mangrove-lined creeks and islands that makes up much of the rugged coast.

"The problem is that when fishing becomes more difficult, people will look for easier ways to make money, maybe piracy, maybe drug trafficking," said Ibrahima Niamadio, West Africa Fisheries program manager at the World Wildlife Fund.

Scotts Miracle-Gro Pleads Guilty to Selling Poisoned Bird Seed

By Sarah Parsons

United States - Scotts Miracle-Gro products are known for zapping weeds dead. But it turns out they could be killing decidedly more attractive creatures — birds.

Scotts pled guilty this Tuesday to charges that the company illegally put insecticides in its “Morning Song” and “Country Pride” brands of bird seed. That’s right: The company knowingly coated products intended for birds to eat with substances toxic to birds and wildlife.

According to court records, in 2008, Scotts distributed 73 million packages of bird seed coated with the insecticides Storcide II, containing the active ingredient chlorpyrifos, and and Actellic 5E, containing the active ingredient pirimiphos-methyl, intended to keep insects from destroying the seed.
The company continued to produce and market the insecticide-coated seeds despite being alerted to toxicity dangers by a Scotts staff chemist and ornithologist.

And here’s the icing on the toxin-loaded cake: Storcide II, one of the insecticides in Scotts seed, comes with a huge warning label that reads: “Toxic to birds, toxic to wildlife” and “Exposed treated seed may be hazardous to birds.” Must be that a senior exec at Scotts got shat on by a pigeon one day and took it real personal.

In addition to the bird seed, Scotts is in big trouble for selling chemical-loaded gardening products without first obtaining registration from the EPA. The federal government alleges that a Scotts manager even went so far as to fabricate documents and correspondence with the agency. It seems they find forgery easier than just not poisoning wildlife.

The judge hasn’t decided what, exactly, Scotts’ punishment will be yet, but the company has proposed paying a $4 million fine and donating $500,000 towards wildlife conservation. Maybe all the house finches, sparrows, and mourning doves Scotts has poisoned over the years will file a class-action lawsuit and push for a lot more than that.

Azerbaijan Arrests 22 of Their Own Citizens for Allegedly Being Iranian Spies

By Madison Ruppert

Azerbaijan - The Azerbaijani government has announced that they arrested 22 of their own citizens who they claim are Iranian spies.

The tensions between Iran and neighboring Azerbaijan have only increased over recent months and this latest announcement is, without a doubt, not going to make anything less heated.

Late last month, Iran complained of “creeping Zionist influence” in the Caucasus, a jab which was clearly aimed at Azerbaijan. This came after Azerbaijan signed a shockingly large $1.6 billion weapons deal with Israel.

The Associated Press reports that security services in Azerbaijan arrested the individuals who they claim were hired by Iran to carry out multiple terrorist attacks against both the American and Israeli embassies and other entities linked to the West.

Back in 2007, Azerbaijan convicted 15 individuals who were accused of being part of an alleged spy network linked to Iran which was supposedly transmitting intelligence on the Western and Israeli activities in the country.

Just last month, Azerbaijan announced that they arrested another alleged terrorist group who was supposedly working under Iranian security forces.

In January, an additional two people were arrested and accused of planning to murder two teachers at a Jewish school in the capital city of Azerbaijan, Baku.

The latest individuals who were arrested are accused of being trained in Iran directly by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).

The statement did not reveal when these 22 individuals were arrested, or how they were captured or discovered. As of now they have been charged with treason in addition to the purchase and possession of weapons and explosives.

Interestingly, this alleged plot brings both Russia and Syria into the mix.

Azerbaijan’s security ministry claimed in their official statement that an alleged operative of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps identified as Akper Pakravesh recruited individuals who he met with in the Russian capital of Moscow and the Syrian capital of Damascus, at which time they were given finances and equipment.

Azerbaijani officials claimed that they found espionage equipment grenades, automatic assault rifles, ammunition and other explosives when capturing the alleged terrorists.

Alleged targets included the offices of an unnamed Jewish organization, Western and Israeli diplomatic missions, the local headquarters of behemoth oil corporation BP as well as, oddly enough, an American-themed fast food restaurant.

Like the alleged plots in both Georgia and India, these targets do not make much sense when one attempts to assume the mindset of a terrorist.

The only targets that might actually make an impact would be diplomatic missions but even then, chances are that the only result would be a hellacious assault on Iranians.

It seems highly unlikely that the IRGC, a group which the Western establishment media loves to characterize as some superhuman crack squad of terrorist handlers, would choose targets like a fast food restaurant.

Obviously such an attack would only give more reasons for warmongers to cite when attempting to justify a war with Iran, while accomplishing absolutely nothing.

I’m not one to think that violence can accomplish anything truly meaningful, but blowing up cheeseburgers and milkshakes seems especially pointless, especially given the inevitable repercussions which would follow.
The Associated Press points to Iran’s constant denials of any links to the attacks which are blamed on them, however they write that Iran “accuses Israel of directing the slayings of Iranian scientists.”


It isn’t just Iran accusing Israel of directing the assassinations of Iranian scientists linked to their nuclear program, indeed anonymous American officials have confirmed that the Israeli Mossad is indeed training and running the assassinations.

The statement alleges that some of the individuals who were supposedly involved in the plot were recruited as early as 1999, while one of the brothers of the accused called the allegations, “unfounded and fabricated.”

It will be interesting to see if the likes of the Prime Minister of Israel Benjamin Netanyahu and his warmonger cronies will jump on this as another questionable justification for a strike on Iran.