Ohio Lawmakers Introduce Legislation To Allow Voters To Recall Tea Party Governor John Kasich
April 12, 2011 No CommentBuyer’s remorse, anyone ? Last month, Ohio Gov. John Kasich’s (R) approval ratings plummeted to 30 percent after just two months in office. Kasich has repeatedly balked at transparency, reneged on his own promises to vulnerable constituents, insulted law enforcement and minorities , and muscled through a highly unpopular anti-union bill that dramatically restricts 350,000 workers’ rights. In response to Kasich’s disastrous reign, Democratic state Reps. Mike Foley and Bob Hagan will introduce legislation this week to make Ohio the 20th state to allow voters to remove and replace state officials, including the governor and legislators. The legislation requires a petition signed by 15 percent of the votes cast for that office in the last election. In Kasich’s case, they would need more than 577,870 signatures. While acknowledging that the bill is unlikely to pass in a GOP-led legislature, Hagan said Ohioans deserved a chance to recall a governor who is “hurting the people in this state” Speaking as a Californian, having the ability to recall a governor is a double-edged sword. While I’m sure that Ohioans are chomping at the bit to rid themselves of the union-busting , stimulus money-rejecting , Medicaid-slashing Kasich before he plummets Ohio’s economy even worse for the sake of corporations and the uber-wealthy , you have to remember the law of unintended consequences .
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Brent council votes in favour of closing Kensal Rise – along with five others – to improve services at its remaining libraries The author Zadie Smith’s campaign to save a north-west London library opened by Mark Twain in 1900 has ended in failure after Brent council voted in favour of closing half the libraries in the borough. In a noisy meeting, lobbied by demonstrators, the council’s executive Labour group voted to close six libraries, including Kensal Rise, which Smith and several fellow authors had campaigned to save, in favour of improving services at its remaining libraries and opening a large central library near Wembley stadium in two years’ time. Smith, the author of the best-selling novel White Teeth, had argued that studying at the library had helped her academic career. Her fellow author Philip Pullman said: “It is a sad day for Brent that the council has not been persuaded, despite all the arguments put forward.” A third author, Deborah Moggach, told the protesters: “Libraries are beyond price, they are our street corner universities. They are a centre for the community.” The council argues that its remaining libraries will have more facilities and be better equippedbe open seven days a week and have ebooks and audio, free wireless and internet access, an online reference library and more books to borrow. One Liberal Democrat councillor told the council some residents would have to walk two miles to get to a library in future: “It’s devastating,” said the councillor, Jack Beck. Opponents claim that most residents oppose the plans, but the council said that although 82% of those who responded to its survey were against the closures, they represented fewer than 1% of borough residents and a petition still amounted to only 4%: mostly from residents opposing particular closures. The Harrow Observer reported that Morris Cohen, 90, a Neasden resident, told the meeting: “Elderly people use the library as a home, not just a library. Neasden used to be a no-go area and the library has been a positive influence.” But James Powney, the council cabinet member responsible for environmental and cultural issues, said: “In two years’ time more people will visit Brent libraries, more people will borrow books and a wider proportion of our population will use them.” Libraries Public sector cuts London Local government Zadie Smith Stephen Bates guardian.co.uk
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The ‘new’ MG is a car doing its best to be the very model of a modern Sino-British sports saloon Let’s be clear. This is not an MG that many, if any of us, will recognise. The “new” MG6 is a rebadged Roewe 550, a British-engineered car that made its debut at the 2008 Beijing Motor Show. Although styled by a British designer – Tony Williams-Kenny, formerly with the Japanese car maker, Mitsubishi – the Roewe is manufactured by SAIC (Shanghai Automotive Industry Corporation), the state-owned Chinese company that took over the Nanjing Automobile (Group) Corporation that bought out MG Rover in 2005. Confused? You will be when you see the MG6, a car doing its best to be the very model of a modern Sino-British sports saloon. Even then, the MG – assembled at Longbridge from body shells, engines and gearboxes shipped from the People’s Republic – has something of the look of a new German Audi crossed with a Korean airport rental car. Only the time-honoured octagonal MG badge prominent on the car’s nose and in the centre of its steering wheel suggests that this is, somehow, a distant relation of the quintissentially British cars once made at Abingdon and Longbridge. Perhaps, it doesn’t matter. The original MG vanished a long time ago, although fans of the marque remain as die-hard as ever. Now spring is here, just look how many MGBs with their crisp Anglo-Italian styling (a bit of Frua, a lot of Don Hayter) and distinctive hollow exhaust note are out on the roads. The rebadged SAIC Roewe 550 with its global looks and hard, drab interior does at least offer engineering jobs in the West Midlands and there will be many there who will back the car to the hilt. The MG6 brochure says: “In every detail you’ll find a fond nod to MG’s glory days – Le Mans, Goodwood, land speed records and true British sporting endeavour.” You won’t, yet if the car succeeds, might worthy successors to fondly remembered sporting machines from Abingdon be on the cards? Who knows, but as the old Chinese proverb says, you must persevere to accomplish seemingly impossible tasks. Design Automotive industry Manufacturing sector Motoring Jonathan Glancey guardian.co.uk
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• Refresh this page for all the latest action • Emnail your thoughts to barry.glendenning@guardian.co.uk • Follow Barry on Twitter • Follow our Shakhtar Donetsk v Barcelona minute-by-minute 3 min: John Terry carelessly misplaces a five-yard pass, ceding possession to Park just outside his own penalty area. The South Korean pings the ball to Rooney, who sends a sweeping pass out the right for Hernandez to chase. His cross is wayward and allows Chelsea to clear their lines. It’s all United in these early stages. 1 min: Game on, Chelsea are playing into the Stretford End in the first half. They’ve lined up with Ramires and Michael Essien behind a slightly advanced Frank Lampard in a three-man midfield, playing behind Nic Anela and Florent Malouda on the flanks behind lone frontman Fernando Torres. United have Michael Carrick and Ryan Giggs bookended on the right and left by Nani and Park Ji-Sung in a four-man midfield, with Wayne Rooney playing off the shoulder off Javier Hernandez up front. Not long now: The teams march out and line up for the Champions League music, with both sets of players kitted out in their customary colours: Manchester United in red shirts, white shorts and white socks with black trim; Chelsea in blue shirts, blue shirts and blue socks Old Tafford is far from full yet, due in no small part to vast swathes of supporters having trouble making it up from London due to assorted bits of motorway being gridlocked and closed, according to Jeff Stelling. He might be mature enough to avoid making jokes about this affecting more fans of Manchester United than Chelsea, but I’m not. Despite the fans that many fans are struggling to make it to the ground on time, kick-off is at 7.45pm. It wouldn’t do to upset the TV companies now, would it? Good God: On Sky Sports 2, Rio ” @RioFerdy5 ” Ferdinand is extolling the virtues of Twitter. “It’s good to interact,” he says. “You can get your views across without them being twisted.” By “views”, I presume he’s talking about engaging in unspeakably tedious banter with Robbie Savage and Piers Morgan, or telling people not to “lynch” grown men for roaring obscenities down television camera. Why are so many footballers such tiresome, deluded, self-absorbed bozos? Team news we’ve plucked from the wires: Carlo Ancelotti gambles Chelsea’s Champions League future – and possibly his own – on Fernando Torres in tonight’s must-win quarter-final second leg at Manchester United. Ancelotti has opted for the Spaniard, who goes into the game having not scored for 817 minutes, over Didier Drogba, while Alex is handed his first start since November after recovering from knee surgery. United made two changes from their 1-0 first leg win at Stamford Bridge, with Nani and John O’Shea in for Antonio Valencia and the injured Rafael. Man Utd: Van der Sar, O’Shea, Ferdinand, Vidic, Evra, Nani, Carrick, Giggs, Park, Rooney, Hernandez. Subs: Kuszczak, Brown, Berbatov, Smalling, Scholes, Valencia, Gibson. Chelsea: Cech, Ivanovic, Alex, Terry, Cole, Ramires, Essien, Lampard, Anelka, Torres, Malouda. Subs: Turnbull, Benayoun, Drogba, Mikel, Zhirkov, Ferreira, Kalou. Referee: Olegario Bartolo Benquerenca (Leiria) Good evening everybody. If Chelsea are to advance in their quest to win Roman Abramovich’s Holy Grail of the Champions League trophy this season, they’re going to have to do what no other club has done this season: beat Manchester United at Old Trafford. It’s a tall order, but far from impossible. And considering many of the impossibly imbecilic idiots in the YouTube clip above have been gulled into believing a hippy-dippy Jesus-a-like can heal them just by looking at them, Chelsea fans are entitled to believe their representatives on Old Trafford’s green earth can overturn a one-goal deficit … although they might have to do a bit more than just stand around looking beatific and serene to pull it off. For anyone who’s interested, here’s Michael “Guardian Chalkboards” Cox’s (aka Zonal Marking’s) ridiculously thorough pre-match preview . Elsewhere, the tactical Obi-Wan Kenobi to his Luke Skywalker, Jonathan Wilson, ponders The Question: Why Is Fernando Torres Struggling? Champions League Manchester United Chelsea Barry Glendenning guardian.co.uk
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• Number of victims reaches 10 as police comb scrubland • Criminalisation, not Craigslist ads, to blame, say sex workers Within a few weeks the summer rush will have begun on Jones Beach, a barrier island linked to Long Island that boasts the most popular beaches on the east coast of the US. Some six million sun lovers will descend along this 10-mile stretch of sand, paddling in the Atlantic, working on their tans, munching on burgers and fried onions in a pleasure-seeking exodus from the heat of New York city. This week though, the narrow spit of land exuded a very different impression. It was shrouded in thick sea fog under which cordons of men and women dressed in space-aged silver body suits were battling their way through the thick scrubland flanking Ocean Parkway, which runs along the island. They were some of the 125 police officers now scouring the area inch by painful inch, assisted by cadaver dogs, horses and fire engines whose hydraulic ladders have been extended above the head-high brush to give an aerial view. On Tuesday, their grisly search bore fruit with the discovery of a set of bones and a skull — the remains it is thought of two human beings. The new finds – the third set of human remains discovered on the island since December – bring the number of victims of what is assumed to be a serial killer, or killers, operating in the New York region to 10. “We have eight sets already, we have two more now. It’s all very startling,” the local police department said. The dawning realisation that a serial killer was at work began a year ago when a prostitute called Shannan Gilbert went missing following a job in Oak Beach, a gated community a few miles east of the current search. She was last seen before dawn on 1 May, knocking on a stranger’s door and screaming: “Help me! He’s trying to kill me!” Gilbert has been missing ever since, but the ongoing search for her led the police to their present manhunt. In December, a detective looking for Gilbert stumbled on the first of four bodies found near Gilgo Beach on the eastern end of the island. They were each laid above the ground, wrapped in burlap (or hessian) about 200 metres apart. The murders dated from as long ago as July 2007 to as recently as September. The bodies were so badly decomposed it took a month to identify them, at which point similarities became clear. They were all women in their twenties, and all worked as prostitutes using cheap hotels in nearby towns for business. There was a further common denominator. They had all found clients through the website Craigslist — as had Shannon Gilbert on the night she disappeared. When the search resumed earlier this month after the snow had thawed, a further four bodies were found about a mile away from the first set. The second group of remains had been killed longer ago and were set further back from the road. “Maybe the killer was more confident when he dumped the second lot, or maybe by then he was older and less physically able to drag the bodies into the brush,” said Vincent Garcia, a detective with the local Nassau county police involved in this week’s search. Identifications of the new remains, including this week’s finds, are still pending, but a profile of the likely killer has started to emerge. Joseph Pollini, a professor of criminal justice at John Jay college in New York and a former New York police detective, said statistically he was likely to be white and male, as are most serial killers. The way he dumped the bodies suggests he was comfortable working in the area and probably lived locally. “He almost certainly dumped the bodies at night. He chose a very straight stretch of road along the beach which would have allowed him to see cars coming from long distances because of the lights.” The use of such tricks has detectives thinking that they may be dealing with a killer well-versed in covering his tracks. The New York Times reported that the suspected murderer had made a string of taunting calls to his victims’ relatives, and had used techniques to disguise his movements that were so sophisticated they raised the possibility he might even be a police officer or other law enforcement official. Pollini added that the killer’s apparent use of Craigslist to find the first four victims was also significant. Prostitutes increasingly advertise their services via internet sites, allowing them to cut out the middle man or pimp thus increasing their personal income, but also increasing their exposure to risk as a result. “It’s much more dangerous now for prostitutes as they are taking more chances. They aren’t integrating a third person for their protection, which makes them more vulnerable and makes it harder for police to track down violent punters as there is no pimp to identify the punter,” he said. Networks of women working as prostitutes say that the full picture is more complicated. Rachel West of the US PROStitutes Collective said it was too easy to blame Craigslist for violence against sex workers, when a far more pressing factor was the criminalisation of their trade. “The problem isn’t Craigslist, it’s the lack of protection and the criminalisation of prostitutes that force them underground. Women are afraid to come forward and report violence against themselves for fear they’ll be arrested or deported if they are undocumented immigrants. Violent men know that and target prostitutes because of it.” The trend is borne out by the tragic statistics. If the current spate of murders proves to be the work of a serial killer it would be the third such predator who targeted women working as prostitutes on Long Island over the past two decades. In 1993, Joel Rifkin confessed to killing 17 women; in 1996 Robert Shulman was convicted of killing five prostitutes. In 2006, four women working as prostitutes were murdered in a suspected unsolved serial killing in Atlantic City in neighbouring New Jersey, and other multiple killings of sex workers have been recorded in states across the US. Vivian, a woman operating in the New York region, said that the grim discoveries on Long Island had spread fear among her fellow sex workers. “Whenever anything like this happens it reasserts the danger we live with every day and it makes the fear much more palpable.” She said the women she mingled with were all taking extra precautions to vet new clients to make sure they were safe. She would not go into details of the precise methods, but said the main one was only to take new clients through trusted recommendation. Vivian said that apart from fear, the prevalent emotion in the wake of the Long Island killings was anger. “It makes me angry to see sex workers stigmatised and criminalised on a daily basis to the point that they are seen as a target population for a killer,” she said. “These victims may have been prostitutes, but they were also women, individuals, mothers, wives, sisters. What other group is so marginalised simply for taking up a profession?” New York United States Prostitution Craigslist Ed Pilkington guardian.co.uk
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Witnesses claim soldiers who disobeyed orders in Banias were shot by security services as crackdown on protests intensifies Syrian soldiers have been shot by security forces after refusing to fire on protesters, witnesses said, as a crackdown on anti-government demonstrations intensified. Witnesses told al-Jazeera and the BBC that some soldiers had refused to shoot after the army moved into Banias in the wake of intense protests on Friday. Human rights monitors named Mourad Hejjo, a conscript from Madaya village, as one of those shot by security snipers. “His family and town are saying he refused to shoot at his people,” said Wassim Tarif, a local human rights monitor. Footage on YouTube shows an injured soldier saying he was shot in the back by security forces, while another video shows the funeral of Muhammad Awad Qunbar , who sources said was killed for refusing to fire on protesters. Signs of defections will be worrying to Syria’s regime. State media reported a different version of events, claiming nine soldiers had been killed in an ambush by an armed group in Banias. Activists said not all soldiers reported dead or injured were shot after refusing to fire. “We are investigating reports that some people have personal weapons and used them in self-defence,” said Tarif. The reports came as a leading Syrian opposition figure said pro-government gunmen had attacked two villages close to Banias, 25 miles south of Latakia, which has become the latest focus of violence since protests on Friday. Haitham al-Maleh told AP attackers were using automatic rifles in Bayda and Beit Jnad. Human rights organisations said at least five protesters in Banias had been killed since Sunday including one on Tuesday. In Bayda witnesses reported that security thugs had beaten up men in the central square, and rights groups said hundreds of people had been arrested, including students who took part in an unprecedented rally at Damascus University on Monday. Violence in the port cities of Banias and Latakia has become increasingly messy as locals report the involvement of pro-government thugs and private militias. One witness, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said “shabiha” (pro-government thugs) had attacked in cars decorated with photos of the president, Bashar al-Assad, on Sunday. Residents of Banias said there was a shortage of bread, and electricity and communications were intermittent. Syria’s leading pro-democracy group, the Damascus Declaration, urged the Arab League to impose sanctions on the regime and said the death toll from more than three weeks of unrest had topped 200. Tens of thousands of people have taken to the streets to protest against Assad’s authoritarian rule. Assad blames the violence on armed gangs and has vowed to crush unrest. He has made a series of overtures to appease anger, including sacking officials and granting Syrian nationality to thousands of Kurds, a long-ostracised minority. But the gestures have failed to satisfy protesters, who demand political freedoms and an end to the decades-old emergency laws that allow the regime to arrest people without charge. On Tuesday Human Rights Watch condemned security forces for barring access to medical care. UK citizens were warned against “all but essential” travel to Syria and all travel to Banias, where residents are now holding a three-day strike. Katherine Marsh is a pseudonym for a journalist living in Damascus Syria Arab and Middle East unrest Protest Middle East guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …Coulter claims only ‘liberal’ media are promoting the Trump ‘Birther’ story. Then Van Susteren lets Trump do his thing
April 12, 2011 No Comment
Click here to view this media Ann Coulter had an interesting theory about Donald Trump’s Birtherism, which she explained last night to Sean Hannity. It seems that it’s all a plot by the liberal media to discredit conservatives: COULTER: Well, I think maybe I’ve been watching too much Charlie Sheen, because Donald Trump seems perfectly sane to me. Um, I don’t know where he gets this two million dollars Obama has spent to keep his birth certificate quiet — he posted his birth certificate on his Web page. I am glad that Donald Trump is bringing it up, so that people who haven’t really been paying attention and don’t know that the American Spectator, Human Events, Fox News, ummm — you know, every conservative outlet has already shot down this rumor — which, by the way, was started by the Hillary Clinton campaign. Now they will have a chance to find out this is Donald Trump’s Pierre Salinger moment — you can’t believe everything you read on the Internet, Obama has produced his birth certificate, there were announcements that ran in two contemporaneous Hawaiian newspapers at the time, the head of the Hawaiian medical records has announced, ‘I have seen the long form you all want,’ um — I don’t know why the long form is considered more credible than the short form, they’re both from the same office. The State Department accepts the short form — or as we call it, the birth certificate. Hawaii accepts the birth certificate, short form — so it is a conspiracy theory that won’t die on the Internet, but every responsible conservative organization to look at it has shot it down. Which is why you normally hear it being talked about exclusively on the liberal cable stations. HANNITY: Well, it’s an interesting point, and one of the main people demanding it be released is, interestingly, thrill-up-our leg Chris Matthews … why don’t they just release it? It does raise a question. But you bring up good points, not the least of which — we’re going to talk to Donald Trump on this show later this week, we’ll ask him — I think a broader, bigger issue here is that, all of a sudden an issue that was on the periphery a little bit, he hits it, hits it hard, and people take note. So what is it about him that, you know, when he speaks, people listen — and you know, those issues resonate. COULTER: Well, two things. I think the main thing is, no conservative who talks on TV or has a column or has a magazine has mentioned the birth certificate, because we’ve looked at it and have discounted it. You have people who want to get hits to their Website or want to get listeners to their radio show will keep ginning people up about this. But it is one of the rare conservative con — well, I suppose it’s more conservative than liberal, only because it’s anti-Obama, but I don’t even know that these are conservatives promoting it. As I say, this came out of the Hillary Clinton campaign. So Donald Trump is the only person who would be invited on a TV show who is pushing the Birther thing. That’s why it’s getting attention and of course, liberals are delighted. I know Obama is delighted. … No, you’ll notice who’s asking him about it — it’s the liberal media. They want to keep talking about it because it helps discredit all opposition to Obama. There are a lot of reasons to think Obama is a very bad president who is doing very bad things to this country. The idea that he was born in Kenya is not one of them. But it allows liberals, the mainstream media, the White House itself to go, well, the opposition is these crazy birthers. Well, no it isn’t. You haven’t heard that on Fox News. You haven’t heard it in Human Events and National Review or American Spectator — all of which have shot it down. Too bad that the right-wing media themselves kinda shoot down Coulter’s theory. You’ll notice, for instance, that Coulter conspicuously omits from her list of “responsible” right-wing news organs WorldNutDaily , the center of the Birther Universe and — last we checked — a self-proclaimed “conservative” outlet. Indeed, its writers regularly appear on, you guessed it , Sean Hannity’s show. Oh, and they also publish Coulter’s syndicated column. Indeed, all this rant really proves is that Coulter doesn’t watch Fox. Because if she did, she would know that Trump has been given free rein to spout his theories on Fox . And as if to drive that point home, who should appear on Fox the very next hour? Donald Trump , phoning in to Greta Van Susteren’s show and trumpeting his Birther theories yet again — with only murmurs of contradiction from Van Susteren. Of course, this isn’t the only time Trump has been on Fox News promoting these theories with only the slightest hint of pushback, and certainly no tough questions. He had another phone-in with Van Susteren that produced more of the same nonsense. When he went on Bill O’Reilly’s show , the pushback was almost unnoticeable, especially by O’Reilly standards. And it isn’t relegated to just Trump appearances. When Sarah Palin went on Jeanine Pirro’s show this weekend, both she and the host thought Trump’s Birtherism was just peachy — giving it a Fox News endorsement, not the debunking that Coulter claims is the standard at Fox. For that matter, the most avid defender of Trump’s Birtherism at Fox has been — you guessed it — Sean Hannity himself. For three nights running one week, Trump’s Birther theories got big boosts from Hannity and his guests : Click here to view this media Guess he must have forgotten about that when Coulter tried to claim you “never hear that” on Fox News. And obviously, Coulter herself hasn’t been watching Fox.
Continue reading …NYT’s Tavernise Pines for D.C. Voting Rights, Autonomy on Abortion and School Vouchers
April 12, 2011 No CommentNew York Times reporter Sabrina Tavernise offered no voices opposed to the liberal cause of D.C. voting rights in Monday’s righteous “ Abortion Limit Is Renewed, as Is Washington Anger .” The sound and fury of last week’s budget debate came down to a dollar figure that some members of Congress could have covered by writing a personal check. Elective abortions for poor women in the District of Columbia — a central bargaining chip in the deal — have cost the city $62,300 since August, city officials say. In a national budget that is measured in trillions of dollars, that might not seem like much. But for this city, which raises $5 billion in tax revenue each year but does not have the final say over how to spend it, the compromise — which restores a ban on the use of local taxpayer money for abortions — served as a bitter reminder of its powerlessness. Tavernise looked to left-wing Eleanor Holmes Norton, D.C.’s sole congressional delegate, as its main expert. ….Washington remains a political anomaly, more than a city but not quite a state, collecting federal taxes but having no senators or votes on the House floor. “The district becomes a sitting duck,” Ms. Norton said. Tavernise also quoted D.C. mayor Vincent Gray and a law student opposing Congress using the state as a guinea pig for “pet social policies” like school vouchers, which Gray and the teachers unions oppose. Tavernise’s next paraphrase was hard to swallow: Republican lawmakers say they tinker mostly because they can. “Because D.C. is primarily financially under Congressional oversight, I think people feel more empowered to specifically have input there more so than other states,” said Representative Tim Scott, a freshman from South Carolina who is on the Republican leadership slate in the House. “I don’t think there is much more to it than that.” Does the G.O.P. really “tinker” with D.C. out of nothing but hostile boredom, or is there a chance that Republicans may actually be promoting what they consider good government policy? It's not as if the local D.C. government has covered itself in glory (they re-elected felon Marion Barry as mayor). Julia Shaw at National Review Online made the opposite point succinctly : “The Founders wisely crafted a federal district for the seat of government. They made the capital independent from, and therefore not subservient to, the authority of a particular state. If we take the Constitution seriously, the seat of the federal government cannot and should not be located in a state.”
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Minamisoma straddles the 20km perimeter from Fukushima plant, and residents are divided on whether to stay or go The debris strewn along the coastal neighbourhoods of Minamisoma should be proof enough of the devastation wrought by the tsunami that hit Japan’s north-east coast on 11 March. But for the past month this sprawling town in Fukushima prefecture has been confronted by a second, more insidious threat: radiation. Minamisoma is a town living in a state of nuclear limbo. Its southern reaches lie just inside the 20km (12 mile) radius from the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant that has been declared an evacuation zone. Farther north, residents have been told to remain indoors or consider leaving. Thenon Tuesday the government announced that five additional communities, possibly including more neighbourhoods inside Minamisoma, are to be included in an expanded evacuation zone amid fears over the long-term effects of radiation seeping from the Fukushima plant. Even before that advice was issued, the majority of Minamisoma’s 71,000 people had voted with their feet. The first hydrogen explosion at the plant prompted an exodus that saw the population plummet to just 10,000. Petrified residents barely had time to mourn the 1,470 local people listed as dead or missing before abandoning their homes. Shops and restaurants closed, suppliers refused to enter the town, and for a few chaotic days the only vehicles on the streets were self-defence force trucks and dozens of buses laid on to take evacuees to hundreds of temporary shelters across Japan. The government’s chief spokesman, Yukio Edano, said the crisis had not caused any direct damage to the health of people living near the plant. “The accident itself is very serious, but we have set our priorities so as to avoid damage to people’s health.” His claim is backed by a recent radiation reading in Minamisoma that measured 0.9 microsieverts per hour – or 7,884 microsieverts per year – which is little more than that received in a chest CT scan and, say experts, poses no immediate threat to health. But the new evacuation plans have added a layer of uncertainty to a community already gripped by fear. Some residents who initially evacuated are now returning to the area, reassured by data showing that radiation is well below dangerous levels. At a local health centre medical workers in protective clothing offer free radiation checks for residents and visitors. “People here are already traumatised by memories of the tsunami and the struggle to survive the nuclear crisis,” said Kyohei Takahashi, a gynaecologist who initially left Minamisoma but returned a few days later. He came back to find patients deprived of essential care and hospitals emptied of staff. “At the start we had no food or medicine – we couldn’t even administer intravenous drips,” said Takahashi, 72. “At first the streets were dead. But now there are a few cars on the road and some shops have reopened. Radiation levels are very low, but people are still anxious about the future. “It could be months before things settle down. Until then, all I can do is my job. If we all work together we can make something of this town, even if it takes years. But it will never be the same again.” The emergency at Fukushima Daiichi, now rated on a par with the Chernobyl disaster in its severity, has split the community he serves. Yoshitaka Okawa, who has worked for a subcontractor at the plant for 19 years, is one of the few residents who have remained in the city throughout the crisis. He loses sleep not over radiation, but over the friendships that he fears may have been irreparably damaged by his pleas to neighbours not to abandon the town of his birth. “I’ve been working at Fukushima Daiichi for almost two decades. I know all about millisieverts and microsieverts [of radiation], and I have never considered leaving,” says the 60-year-old, an employee of a firm that decontaminates nuclear plant workers. Okawa has not been back to the plant since 11 March, when he fled the No 5 reactor building following the 9.0-magnitude earthquake. “I’m due to retire, so I won’t be going back. As things are, I couldn’t even if I wanted to. “But other people in the town don’t think rationally. When the media report that radiation is several thousand times above legal limits, they panic. “The people I feel sorry for are farmers whose lives have been ruined by radiation scares, and the old people who have been unable to leave. When I see people in Tokyo panic-buying water or choosing not to buy certain produce, I wonder if they have any feelings for fellow Japanese who are genuinely in need of help.” Minamisoma’s plight drew worldwide attention last week after its mayor, Katsunobu Sakurai, pleaded for help in an 11-minute YouTube video with English subtitles. “We are left isolated,” said a clearly exhausted Sakurai, dressed in his familiar crisis uniform. “I beg you, as the mayor of Minamisoma, to help us.” The town’s commercial infrastructure, he said, lies in tatters. “The only places open are local banks and credit unions,” he said in an interview with the Mainichi Daily News. “The supermarkets are still not running. There are no daily supplies that people living here desperately need. “If the city doesn’t maintain its essential services, evacuated residents won’t know which way to turn. The government must do all it can to address the nuclear accident and give us an idea of when it will be resolved.” But as Japan’s prime minister Naoto Kan has acknowledged, it is a question to which no one knows the answer. And for all his optimism over the radiation threat, Okawa concedes that the unease it has generated has changed Minamisoma beyond recognition. “As long as the power plant is in trouble, this town might as well be dead. You walk to the station and everything is shuttered. At night the streets are dark and empty. This used to be a fun, lively place to live. But not any more.” Japan disaster Japan Justin McCurry guardian.co.uk
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Arianna Huffington faces $105m lawsuit from unpaid contributors over her sale of the Huffington Post to AOL Arianna Huffington, her website and AOL were on the receiving end of a $105m (£64.5m) lawsuit by a group of angry bloggers unhappy that she sold the Huffington Post for $315m without them being paid a penny. The class action is led by Jonathan Tasini, a writer and trade unionist, who wrote more than 250 posts for Huffington Post on an unpaid basis until he dropped out shortly after the news and comment site was sold to AOL earlier this year. Tasini complained that “Huffington bloggers have essentially been turned into modern day slaves on Arianna Huffington’s plantation” and said he was bringing the action because “people who create content … have to be compensated” for their efforts. The complainant and his lawyers estimate about 9,000 people wrote for the Huffington Post on an unpaid basis – and argue that their writings helped contribute about a third of the sale value of the site, the basis of their $105m claim for compensation. Tasini was behind a successful lawsuit on behalf of freelance journalists against the New York Times a decade ago. He won a 2001 supreme court judgment that concluded copyright for print and online versions of an article were separate – meaning writers have to assign permission for a publisher to use both. Huffington Post was founded in 2005 by Huffington and Ken Lerer – initially recruiting some high-profile writers such as Alec Baldwin and Larry David. But their ranks were swelled by a team of less well-known unpaid bloggers to boost output. Their combined efforts helped improve traffic and revenues – which totalled $31m last year – until the site became a takeover target for AOL. Huffington and Lerer are thought to have taken the lion’s share of the $315m payout, although the exact amounts has not been disclosed. The Huffington Post said any class action lawsuit would be “completely baseless”. In a statement, the website said: “Our bloggers utilise our platform to connect and ensure that their ideas and views are seen by as many people as possible. It’s the same reason hundreds of people go on TV shows – to broadcast their views to as wide an audience as possible.” Last month, when visiting London, Huffington defended her policy further. She said “there’s got to be a distinction between everybody who works for a media company and everybody who blogs for a media company”, and noted that all media organisations depended on unpaid contributions. “If people go on Newsnight, they don’t get paid,” she added. However, Tasini promised to wage a passionate campaign, saying he was “pissed off and angry” and that he would “picket her home” in his campaign. New York law firm Kurzon Strauss is advising Tasini on the suit, which has been filed in the southern district court of New York. A spokesman for the Huffington Post said the lawsuit was without merit. He added: “Bloggers use our platform – as well as other unpaid group blogs across the web – to connect and help their work be seen by as many people as possible. It’s the same reason people go on TV shows: to promote their views and ideas. HuffPost bloggers can cross-post their work on other sites, including their own.” • To contact the MediaGuardian news desk email editor@mediaguardian.co.uk or phone 020 3353 3857. For all other inquiries please call the main Guardian switchboard on 020 3353 2000. If you are writing a comment for publication, please mark clearly “for publication”. • To get the latest media news to your desktop or mobile, follow MediaGuardian on Twitter and Facebook . Huffington Post Arianna Huffington Digital media Media business Media law Intellectual property United States AOL Internet Blogging Dan Sabbagh guardian.co.uk
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