Dodgers radio KABC 790 AM is now airing Union Ad Calling Arizona's Immigration Law 'Wrong'

LOS ANGELES, May 14  Dodgers radio KABC 790 AM is now airing a 30-second ad created byLos Angeles labor unions calling out the racial profiling aspect of Arizona’s new immigration law as “wrong.” In baseball, the ad notes, “the umpire must call the play the same way, no matter what uniform the player is wearing.” But according to Arizona’s new law, local police officers will have to “call things differently.” Based on skin color or appearance, a person “might be arrested as a suspected undocumented immigrant.” The ad contrasts the prejudice and racial profiling encouraged by theArizona law with the achievements of Jackie Robinson and Major League Baseball in breaking the color barrier in 1947.

“L.A. unions stand united against Arizona’s immigration law that targets brown people as suspects,” says Maria Elena Durazo, Executive Secretary-Treasurer of the Los Angeles County Federation of Labor, AFL-CIO, “What Arizona poses as a solution is no more than ethnic and immigrant scapegoating. It is not what the United States is based on, and it is wrong.“Our Dodgers’ ad expresses L.A. Labor’s united opposition as part of a rising tide against Arizona’s unfair and mean-spirited immigration law,” Durazo continues. “We call on our federal government to step up to the plate and enact comprehensive immigration reform that deals with the real issues of jobs and families, and fixes our current broken system that drives down wages and working conditions for all workers in our country. This is a federal issue and we must have federal reform.”

The Dodger radio ads are sponsored by the L.A. County Federation of Labor, AFL-CIO, which represents more than 800,000 working men and women in Los Angeles County.  The ad can be downloaded and heard by using this link:

LA Labor’s Dodger Ad Against AZ’s SB 1070More than 10,000 L.A.-area union members marched in downtown L.A. on May 1 for comprehensive immigration reform. Labor’s delegation hailed from the building trades, public sector, hotel and service industries, the security and carwash industries, transportation and truck driving, education, health care, telecommunications and the food and commercial sectors.

SOURCE Los Angeles County Federation of Labor, AFL-CIO

Rio de Janeiro The most torrential rains in decades has caused flooding and landslides that killed at least 79 people in the state of Rio de Janeiro

Rio de Janeiro The most torrential rains in decades has caused flooding and landslides that killed at least 79 people in the state of Rio de Janeiro, stop the transport and trade in Tuesday’s second city in Brazil. Landslides sweep over the huts on the hillside slums of Rio, the city was an important change of the lake and the sea became brown after 15 hours of heavy rain.

Morning flights in and out of the city of six million people who will be hosting the Olympics in 2006 were canceled or seriously delayed, and many neighborhood cut off from electricity and transportation. Most victims were killed at least 180 landslides caused by rain, the government said. According to a spokesman for Rio fire department, at least 40 people were injured have been taken to the hospital and that they are looking for others who were reported missing.

“The situation is critical. The streets flooded and blocked,” said Mayor Eduardo Paes told Reuters. “We recommend people to stay home.” Paes explained to reporters that at least 26 people were killed in the metropolitan area, and firefighters said that all 79 people had died. The mayor claimed 10,000 homes remained at risk, mostly in slums where about a fifth of the population of Rio live, often in huts which are highly vulnerable to heavy rains. Heavy rains that began Monday night in Rio was the worst recorded in 30 years, according to authorized parties. In less than 24 hours, the clouds have float  28.8 cm of rain in the city.

Meteorology experts say that more than the number that is expected during the month of April. The science of weather experts predict more rain in the coming few days, causing landslides will again. Floods and transport chaos last may renew attention on the city’s poor infrastructure when the city was preparing to carry out the 2014 football World Cup and the Olympics in 2006.(Reuters)

license application for new US uranium mill

The Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment (CDPHE) received the radioactive materials license application and environmental report from Energy Fuels on 18 November. The application will undergo a comprehensive technical review process including technical evaluations, a review of the environmental report and two public hearings. Public comments will also be accepted throughout the review process, which Colorado law stipulates must take no more than 14 months. Energy Fuels has previously mentioned the possibility of starting construction of the mill by the second quarter of 2011.

Steve Tarlton, radiation program manager for CDPHE, said the review would consider short- and long-term impacts of the proposed mill, including radiological and non-radiological impacts to water, air and wildlife, as well as economic, social and transportation-related impacts. “Our job is to ensure that the licence, if approved, will protect public health and the environment,” he said.Energy Fuels plans to build the Pinon Ridge mill near Naturita on land that it bought in 2007. The 500 tonnes per day mill would be the first new uranium mill to be built in the USA in over a quarter of a century. Energy Fuels president and CEO George Glassier said he was confident that the “thorough and accurate” license application would meet all CDPHE’s regulations. “In progressing to this final stage of approvals, Energy Fuels is clearly moving forward on its plan to construct the first new uranium mill in the US in more than 25 years,” he said.

Energy Fuels Resources Corp is part of Toronto-based Energy Fuels Inc, which has a portfolio of uranium and vanadium properties in Colorado, Utah, Arizona, Wyoming, Idaho and New Mexico, as well as Canadian exploration properties in Saskatchewan’s Athabasca Basin. The company has been working to refurbish and reopen some of its formerly producing mines, including former uranium-vanadium mines in the Urania mineral belt in western Colorado. Energy Fuels has near-term uranium projects at Whirlwind and Tenderfoot Mesa in Colorado and also at nearby Energy Queen in Utah. Although permitted to restart, the company placed the Whirlwind project on standby in late 2008 as part of a “capital preservation strategy”, although the company said at the time it would be maintained in a state of readiness to ramp up to full production at 30 days’ notice.

Powertech queries groundwater rules

Meanwhile, another would-be Colorado uranium producer has queried the legality of proposed state rules on groundwater protection. According to press reports, Power-tech USA says that proposed rules on groundwater quality and reclamation forming part of legislation on  leach mining are currently too broad. A specific issue of concern is the proposed requirement for a “baseline” for water quality, defined before mining began, which would become the standard for future reclamation, with no scope to revise the requirements at a later date.The Colorado Division of Reclamation, Mining and Safety is due to hold a public meeting on the rules in early December.