Protesting is the American way.

I saw people are protesting Obama at overpasses with "Impeach Obama" signs. A couple of guys were arrested last weekend at an overpass in Missouri. They basically had their First Amendment rights impeded upon and the police said that it was a failure to obey orders. If the police are violating your Constitutional rights, and you are breaking no valid law, then you have every right to express yourself and anything they say or do is superseded by your Constitutional rights. If they order you to go jump off a building, you don't have to.





And by the same token I have seen people associated with the right of the Republican Party here in North Carolina getting beyond upset over the people on the left of the Democrat Party protesting through what they call "Moral Mondays" and thinking that government officials should forcibly put a stop to it.

The Moral Monday Protesters - Civitas - Database
Art Pope-funded group launches database targeting Moral Monday arrestees - Facing South

Protesting is the American way. I don't necessarily agree that these protests are effective, but I do believe in these people's right to protest. Expressing oneself about issues one is passionate about is a healthy exercise in Democracy. Freedom of expression is one of the founding principles of this nation and yet we see every side of the political spectrum, especially those in power, aiming to shut those that they disagree with down. We see people on the left wanting to see people on the right arrested and people on the right wanting to see people on the left arrested. Would you want to be arrested for lawfully protesting what you oppose?

We should be tolerant of one another and do more listening. In the above examples we see that this authoritarian desire to control others and suppress expression has become all to prevalent in our modern culture. In my opinion, the final outcome of shutting people down if those in power do not agree with them takes us to a very bad place.

Newsletter about the City Council meeting of August 20, 2013

` I began recording the City Council late last year, because of my desire that the City do it on their own as any modern 21st century community began doing long ago. I had people tell me that they couldn't make it to the meetings, but they would like to see what is going on. I was also told by some council members that my summaries did not truly reflect the record, so having a video/audio recording cannot be misinterpreted.

So below is the City Council meeting. Beside each agenda item, you will see the minute:second. You can drag the marker on the video display to the point in the broadcast that you are interested in seeing.

Due to a technical difficulty the Video starts at the 5:49 mark



   
Agenda about the City Council meeting of August 20, 2013

Special Presentations

A. (2:30) Presentation of the Carolina Cycle Challenge by Mandy Pitts and John Link
* Carolina Cycle Challenge Website

Hound: (Brett's father responds to this in the comment section. I did not mean to say that the bike ride that Vicar Powell created at Mt. Olive was Brett's Ride or she had anything to do with it. Sorry if I caused a misunderstanding in my writing. My point was in my personal disappointment about Brett's name being taken off of the ride.

It is a shame to me that this bike ride will no longer be known as Brett's Ride. The origins of a bike ride were at my church, Mount Olive Lutheran. Vicar Vickie Powell (now Reverend) back in 1999 helped to create a bike ride as part of her mission. Each Vicar has to fulfill a mission during the year they spend with us before heading back to the Lutheran Theological Southern Seminary in Columbia, South Carolina. Brett was a teenager and participated in it and like the many young people at Mt. Olive he really enjoyed it. Brett's Grandfather Walter Hitchcock was a Pastor at Mount Olive for 24 years.

We had the Bike Ride at Mount Olive for a few years. When Brett faced his battle with cancer, he was asked what he wanted to do and this Bike Ride was part of his mission. He was a brave young man and an inspiration to all who face the ultimate adversity. He had so many friends. My cousin's were his age and knew him very well. His name needs to always be synonymous with this bike ride. 

(In the comments section, Brett's father explains the origins of the bike ride and why they decided to take Brett's name off of the Bicycling event. Thank You for the information Mr. Gosnell. Sorry for having some of this wrong.)

Mr. Gosnell comment,
"Brett’s family preferred that his name not be associated with the new ride. We believe that the new event would be better served developing their “brand.” Quite frankly, many members of the Brett’s Ride committee, including Brett’s family, were exhausted after nine years of planning and organizing the event. Since none of Brett’s family planned to be involved with the new ride and Brett wasn’t around to approve the use of his name, we felt it was better that they give the event another name.
Brett’s family, as well as the Brett’s Ride Committee, strongly supports the Carolina Cycle Challenge. We are honored that the Rotary clubs and the City of Hickory decided to continue an annual cycling event. I am very much looking forward to riding in the coming event – something I was never able to do at Brett’s Ride."

B. (10:15) Business Well Crafted Award: Lenoir-Rhyne University by Alan Jackson and Lenoir-Rhyne University President Wayne Powell 

Hound: Lenoir - Rhyne is a vital part of this community. It is also "THE" Lutheran University here is the mid atlantic region. So many of us have a connection with family members, friends, and associates who received their formal education at LR. They do deserve recognition for their work in the community. 

* Lenoir-Rhyne a "Business. Well Crafted." - Hickory Inc. Statement
* Business Well Crafted - Lenoir Rhyne Web Page

C. (19:20) Announcement of a Community Gift to the City by Andrea Surratt, Robert Lackey, and Robert Lackey Jr.

* Hickory Inc. statement on this gift of property development at Geitner Park
* Deidra Templeton Lackey obituary from December 2011
* Donation to expand Geitner-Rotary Park announced at Hickory City Council meeting - Hickory Daily Record - John Tinkelenberg - August 20, 2013

Hound: This is an amazing gift and legacy provided by the Lackie family to the people of Hickory. And it would be wonderful if other's could/would be generous in such a fashion related to benevolent endeavors in the community going forward.


Persons Requesting to Be Heard
A. (43:00) Cliff Moone thanked City Staff Attorney for providing some information about the City's Video Recording of Council meetings that he had requested.


New Business - Public Hearings
1. (44:45) Voluntary Satellite Annexation of Property Located at 1076 Fox Chase Drive containing .42 acres.

New Business - Departmental Reports:
1. (49:50) Vacant Building Revitalization and Demolition Grant Agreement for ZLoop Knitting Mill, LLC. 

Hound Comment on the meeting
Wonderful  coincidence that what I have mentioned as part of the 21st Century Hickory Platform was incorporated into this meeting. John Link talks about Fitness Well Crafted, where I have mentioned Dr. Jody Inglefield's Wellness Well Crafted. It is more than words folks. It is actions. And the City Inc. has nothing to do with this bike ride other than providing some police officers to monitor it and propaganda.

Then we have the mention by Alan Jackson of Microlending. Microlending came from Harry Hipps campaign four years ago. And we have seen the actions taken upon this subsequently - none. Joe Brannock is taking up this cause along with Dr. Inglefield. As a person who has a finance background it is something I truly believe in and that is probably the reason why it hasn't seen the light of day. Mayor Wright and Mick Berry are smothering the opportunity. The BDC can talk about it all day long, but talk is cheap. We need people that can help them facilitate such endeavors.

Platform for a 21st Century Hickory - Better Dialogue with the Public

7) Dialogue - we need all Hickory governmental agencies and their staff to be open, truthful, honest, helpful and transparent. Willing to discuss and carry on open dialogues with the citizens.

In speaking with Jeff Brittain about his Mayoral Candidacy, he espoused his support to have regular townhall meetings with the people of Hickory. This is something that I have believed in for years, but I was told by City Council members that they had reservations, because they didn't want to sit through an attack session. I honestly don't think that people are going to verbally attack the City Council during such a meeting. People might express disagreements with the council, but I wouldn't expect shouting matches.

The problem is that this Mayor and Council seem to have an obsession about controlling messages. Somehow saying the same talking points over and over again is supposed to lead to results. Constantly spinning the message is supposed to keep the message on track until the final desired outcome is achieved.

Unfortunately that isn't how life works. You have to cite the goal you are looking to achieve and allow open input and free thinking methodology to define, design, and map out processes and then keep all options available moving forward. There must be defined targets of accountability along the way to assess whether you are on the path towards successfully achieving the goal. Adaptability, Flexibility, and Nimbleness are the keys towards successful endeavors in life.

Public officials should listen to everyone, whether they are actual supporters or not. Just because people have different ideas than you may have does not mean that they want to tear down the City. You must get outside of the group of like minded friends and yes men to find out what is really going on around here socially and economically. Having open-minded, democratic governance brings buy-in and acceptance from the public at-large versus doing things behind closed doors and manipulating processes to avoid input, which leads to ambivalence and eventually hostility when you are seen as picking winners and losers and the winners are always the circle that surrounds you. Any wonder why we don't have "Unity" in the Comm"UNITY"?

Jeff Brittain for Mayor Flyer
Click on the Flyer and Ctrl+ will magnify it.

Platform for a 21st Century Hickory - Public Information

Platform for a 21st Century Hickory - Helping Small Business, Start-ups, and Entrepreneurs

Platform for a 21st Century Hickory - an Agenda on Health and Wellness

Platform for a 21st Century Hickory - Learn from National Studies & Surveys

Platform for a 21st Century Hickory - Independent Boards and Commissions

Platform for a 21st Century Hickory - Term Limits

Platform for a 21st Century Hickory - Public Information

6) Public Information should be user-friendly, open, and accessible in accordance with North Carolina General Statute 132. We understand that when legal issues and private negotiations related to Economic Development arise that there will be a need to keep certain information secret, but as those issues are resolved that information should be immediately accessible. To the greatest extent possible, information should be available electronically online. When information is from the pre-electronic era, it should be made accessible for a minimal cost (10-cents per page) and within 5 business days of the request being made. The key is that there should not be games played with Public Information.

Hickory Incorporated has long played fast and loose with the spirit of the law when it comes to providing Public Information. This led to the arrest of Rebecca Inglefield on September 13, 2012. Most people walk away in frustration when they find obtaining information to be riddled with such obstacles. Some people seem to think that this is alright and people should have to jump through hoops to obtain information or that they should not be provided information. If that is the case, then kiss free society goodbye. The level of control of information defines the level of Liberty (less) versus Tyranny (more).

Hickory City Officials tell you that the information you are going to get is the information you are entitled to under the law. What they don't tell you, but imply, is that it is going to be their interpretation of what they can get away with under the law and not a gram or an inch more. If you are a regular citizen and you don't understand the information, then tough, you'll have to go get a lawyer. If you are a lawyer, then you will have to meet them in court, because they aren't going to be forthright until a judge orders them to be and they have exhausted all appeals.

I don't want to say this. No one wants to say this, but it is what we have experienced as we have sought the costs associated with the Sails on the Square project. We have sought the actual and associated costs of the fabric the "Sails" are made of and we have met a stone wall every step of the way.

Any of the candidates who embrace this platform will help to tear down that wall!
 

(Play Song)   John Crone’s new single “Blurred Lines” featuring TI, Pharrell, Robin Thicke, and Rudy Wright


I am in no way associated with the site that created the song above. I have been accused of being the creator of this tumblr site, but it is very raw and has vulgar material. These vulgarities damage the credibility of the message, but I don't think the author cares, because it is a parody site. 

I think whomever created the site is very creative, but way over the top when it comes to the message. They took my material and the Conover Crusader's material and enhanced it in a very creative way. So I wanted to allow you to be able to hear the song without going to the actual site, because it fits very well with what we are discussing when it comes to the Hickory Incorporated relationship with Citizens and the spirit of Public Information Laws.

Platform for a 21st Century Hickory - Helping Small Business, Start-ups, and Entrepreneurs

5) We need to do what we can to help small business, start up businesses, and local Entrepreneurs move forward. This encourages entrepreneurship, which puts people to work. We will find a way to create and facilitate a microlending-entrepreneurial plan in this community. We think this is a vital mission and purpose that the city's Business Development Commission should embrace.

The BDC needs to be diverse and aggressive in its work. Marketing and promoting current business is fine, but it will not grow an economy that has lost thousands of jobs over the last several years. The BDC should be trying to attract “magnet” large businesses and focus on Cluster and Niche Economic Development that feeds off of the manufacturing and technical service skills of local citizens. This will generate “spin off” supportive small businesses. The Goal would be to expand and empower the scope of the BDC to facilitate tangible Economic Activity.

Hickory City Government has stood in the way of all of this. Rudy Wright has specifically stood in the way of this as he espoused on Hal Row's radio show in May 2011. The City Manager actually told a local citizen that it was illegal for Hickory Incorporated to get involved in a Microlending function, even though there are other local governments and other governmental agencies involved in such Economic Mechanisms/Activities.



This is a new day and we must think in a new way!

Platform for a 21st Century Hickory - an Agenda on Health and Wellness

4) an Agenda on Health and Wellness...  The Gallup-Healthway study is a prime example of a valid scientific study that casts a negative light on Hickory. How do we address what this study finds? Dr. Jody Inglefield admits that he doesn't have all of the answers, buts says that is why we need local health professionals to weigh in, but what does stand out is the negative issues this community faces involving health.

31.2% of the people in this community are defined as Obese and this does not include those who are overweight. A recent Gallup survey, related to the Well-Being index, from July 22 of this year shows that the Heart Attack Rates Double in Low-Wellbeing Metro Areas - Average of 5.5% in metros with lowest wellbeing have had heart attack. The Hickory Metro is ranked as the 5th lowest Metro area in the country in relation to Gallup's Well-Being study. In the survey on Obesity, we are the 19th most obese metropolitan area in the nation with 31.2% of the residents of this area defined as obese. Our community is the lowest ranked metro in North Carolina when it comes to obesity and also physical activity.

We need an Agenda on Health and Wellness. "Wellness Well Crafted" would encourage, not mandate, healthy lifestyles. We do this by creating programming and opportunities to exercise, eat right, create personal health goals, and preventative care that are user friendly and can be maintained through the various stages of life.

We talk about people having a negative outlook in the community. Healthy people tend to have better mental attitudes. That is a fact. When you take away opportunities for people to be active and lead healthy lifestyles and turn a blind eye towards people leading unhealthy lifestyles, then it leads to what we have here in Hickory. Parks, Greenways, and recreation programming need to become a key component of this wellness agenda.

According to an article from the Live Science Website entitled The Skinniest and Fattest US Cities Revealed - Jeanna Bryner, LiveScience Managing Editor - March 07, 2012

Supporting an abundance of research linking obesity with a long list of health ailments, those living in the 10 most obese areas were much more likely, compared with the skinniest cities, to report chronic diseases, including diabetes, high blood pressure, high cholesterol and depression, at some point in their lives. For instance, compared with people living in the lowest-obesity cities, residents of the most obese areas were 70 percent more likely to report diabetes, 58 percent more likely to have had a heart attack, 30 percent more likely to report a diagnosis of depression, and 23 percent more likely to report high cholesterol, Gallup noted. [Infographic: Diabetes & Obesity in US]

Obesity not only plagues the individual, it can also drain Americans' wallets, with the National Institutes of Health estimating the average incremental health-care cost for an obese person is $1,429 every year. With that number, Gallup estimates that in the 10 metro areas with the highest obesity rates, Americans cumulatively pay about $1 billion more in annual health-care costs than if those states had obesity rates of 15 percent.

For example, the McAllen-Edinburg-Mission metro area pays more than $400 million in unnecessary health-care costs each year because of its high obesity rate. If it reduced the obesity rate to 15 percent, the area could potentially save more than $250 million annually, Gallup estimates.

We are paying a price for not seriously investing in the community's health. You can read the above and see that serious investment in fitness pays for itself many times over. And yet, over the past decade we have seen recreational and fitness facilities/opportunities reduced and destructed. Exercise and Recreation should be more than afterthoughts in a city budget.

There are direct links that show that Health Disparities Across Incomes Are Wide-Ranging (Gallup - October 18, 2010); comparing those making less than $24,000 per year versus those with more income. Those in the lower income strata have greater chances of obesity, diabetes, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, heart attack, asthma, cancer, depression...

Those with more wealth do not seem to understand that the overall physical health of the community, as a whole, affects the economic health of the community and thus their own  individual personal well-being.  These are investments well worth making.

Economic Stories of Relevance in Today's World -- August 18, 2013

Ron Paul "The Drug Companies And Insurance Companies Are The Ones Who Write These Laws!"




Ron Paul Dismantles Corporate Boondoggle Known as Obamacare - Brainchild of the insurance and pharmaceutical industries - Infowars.com - August 16, 2013 - Back in 2009, when Obamacare first began coagulating in the halls of government, Bill Moyers described Fowler as follows: “She used to work for WellPoint, the largest health insurer in the country. She was Vice President of Public Policy. And now she’s working for the very committee with the most power to give her old company and the entire industry exactly what they want: higher profits, and no competition from alternative non-profit coverage that could lower costs and premiums.”                     “Competition is a sin,” quipped John D. Rockefeller, a maxim as relevant to corporate mammoths like Wellpoint – the largest managed health care, for-profit company in the Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association – as it was in Rockefeller’s day.                Senator Max Baucus and his aide, Elizabeth Fowler.                     The so-called public option, the idea that the government will create its own health insurance agency to compete with corporate leviathans, was never a serious consideration and was indeed anathema. It was a ploy crafted to trick persistently gullible Democrats into supporting yet another corporate swindle, this time enforced by the most violent and ruthless player on the block, the federal government.                      After Obamacare was rammed through Congress, Baucus, one of the biggest recipients in Congress of campaign cash from the healthcare industry, boasted about the architect of the legislation, Liz Fowler.                      “I want to single out one person,” Baucus said, “Liz Fowler is my chief health counsel. Liz Fowler has put my health care team together… She put together the White Paper last November 2008, [the] 87-page document which became the basis, the foundation, the blueprint from which almost all health care measures in all bills on both sides of the aisle came. She is an amazing person. She is a lawyer; she is a Ph.D. She is just so decent. She is always smiling, she is always working, always available to help any Senator, any staff. I just thank Liz from the bottom of my heart.”                     Finally, Baucus admitted earlier this year that Obamacare will result in a train wreck. Not because it is a corporate boondoggle enforced at gunpoint, but because, thanks to opponents of the legislation (which Baucus never bothered to read) and widespread criticism, primarily in the alternative media, millions of Americans oppose the scheme.                         “The American public is left to ponder if this would be happening if Senator Baucus didn’t consider reading the bill he was adamantly advocating as a waste of time,” writes Shoshana Weissmann.                         In fact, it wouldn’t have made a lick of difference because Baucus, and the rest of Congress, are in the pocket of the bankers and corporations. They are grocery clerks for the corporate state, that is to say the fascist state, as Mussolini characterized all such arrangements.


Obama's Economic Approval Slips to 35% - Was 42% in June; decline mirrors drop in overall approval - Gallup - by Lydia Saad - August 15, 2013 -

A Blunder at the Money Factory - The New Yorker - David Wolman - August 13, 2013 -
For the past few years, the Federal Reserve has been preparing to introduce a redesigned hundred-dollar bill into circulation. It will have a Liberty Bell that changes color, a new hidden message on Ben Franklin’s collar, and tiny 3-D images that move when you tilt the bill this way or that. But delay has followed delay. And now again: The New Yorker has learned that another production snafu has taken place at one of the country’s two currency factories, according to a document from the Bureau of Engraving and Printing.                    The cause of the latest blunder is something known as “mashing,” according to Darlene Anderson, a spokeswoman for the bureau. When too much ink is applied to the paper, the lines of the artwork aren’t as crisp as they should be, like when a kid tries to carefully color inside the lines—using watercolors and a fat paintbrush.                     Anderson said this happens “infrequently.” Still, this foul-up is only the latest embarrassment for the bureau. The redesigned hundred-dollar bill was meant to be released in early 2011, but has been delayed for the past two years because of a massive printing error, separate from the recent mashing problem, in which some notes were left with a blank spot.                     This time, recent batches of cash from the Washington, D.C., plant contained “clearly unacceptable” bills intermixed with passable ones, according to a July memo to employees from Larry Felix, the bureau’s director. So the Fed is returning more than thirty million hundred-dollar notes and demanding its money back, Felix wrote. Another thirty billion dollars’ worth of paper sits in limbo awaiting examination, and Fed officials have informed the bureau that they will not accept any hundred-dollar notes made at the Washington, D.C., facility until further notice.                            Felix’s letter says internal quality-control measures should have prevented the bureau “from delivering defective work,” and that those responsible would be held accountable. The bureau now has to race to meet an October 8th deadline for delivering the year’s cash orders and to finally get the new hundred-dollar bill into circulation as promised. To that end, Felix has ordered the country’s other money factory, in Fort Worth, Texas, to accelerate its efforts. “There are dire consequences involved here because BEP sells Federal Reserve notes to the Board to finance our entire operation,” he wrote in the memo. “If the BEP does not meet the order, the BEP does not get paid.”                          The financial toll from the recent bungle is tough to know: the Treasury and the Fed have little interest in calculating it, let alone being transparent about it. Still, the direct cost probably isn’t greater than the sum of what the bureau pumps out in a few days. “Central banks are a bit like other businesses,” said Ben Mazzotta, a researcher at the Fletcher School’s Institute for Business in the Global Context who focusses on the costs of different forms of money. “They can draw down inventories or order additional product.”                       There are other costs, though. Taxpayers will have to pay to inspect, correct, produce, transport, and secure all the additional money that will replace the botched notes. Disposing of the bad bills? That’s on taxpayers, too, as are the additional hours spent making up for the mistake by employees of the bureau....


Fukushima apocalypse: Years of ‘duct tape fixes’ could result in ‘millions of deaths’- RT - August 17, 2013 - Even the tiniest mistake during an operation to extract over 1,300 fuel rods at the crippled Fukushima nuclear power plant in Japan could lead to a series of cascading failures with an apocalyptic outcome, fallout researcher Christina Consolo told RT.                         Fukushima operator TEPCO wants to extract 400 tons worth of spent fuel rods stored in a pool at the plant’s damaged Reactor No. 4. The removal would have to be done manually from the top store of the damaged building in the radiation-contaminated environment.                      In the worst-case scenario, a mishandled rod may go critical, resulting in an above-ground meltdown releasing radioactive fallout with no way to stop it, said Consolo, who is the founder and host of Nuked Radio. But leaving the things as they are is not an option, because statistical risk of a similarly bad outcome increases every day, she said.                        RT: How serious is the fuel rod situation compared to the danger of contaminated water build-up which we already know about?                   Christina Consolo: Although fuel rod removal happens on a daily basis at the 430+ nuclear sites around the world, it is a very delicate procedure even under the best of circumstances. What makes fuel removal at Fukushima so dangerous and complex is that it will be attempted on a fuel pool whose integrity has been severely compromised. However, it must be attempted as Reactor 4 has the most significant problems structurally, and this pool is on the top floor of the building.                     There are numerous other reasons that this will be a dangerous undertaking.

Fukushima's Radioactive Water Leak: What You Should Know - National Geographic - Patrick J. Kiger - August 7, 2013 - Tensions are rising in Japan over radioactive water leaking into the Pacific Ocean from Japan's crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant, a breach that has defied the plant operator's effort to gain control.                          Prime Minister Shinzo Abe on Wednesday called the matter “an urgent issue” and ordered the government to step in and help in the clean-up, following an admission by Tokyo Electric Power Company that water is seeping past an underground barrier it attempted to create in the soil. The head of a Nuclear Regulatory Authority task force told Reuters the situation was an "emergency." (See Pictures: The Nuclear Cleanup Struggle at Fukushima.”)                             It marked a significant escalation in pressure for TEPCO, which has come under severe criticism since what many view as its belated acknowledgement July 22 that contaminated water has been leaking for some time. The government now says it is clear that 300 tons (71,895 gallons/272,152 liters) are pouring into the sea each day, enough to fill an Olympic-size swimming pool every eight days.  (See related, “One Year After Fukushima, Japan Faces Shortages of Energy, Trust.”) While Japan grapples with the problem, here are some answers to basic questions about the leaks:

Q: How long has contaminated water been leaking from the plant into the Pacific?

Shunichi Tanaka, head of Japan’s Nuclear Regulation Authority, has told reporters that it’s probably been happening since an earthquake and tsunami touched off the disaster in March 2011. (See related: "Photos: A Rare Look Inside Fukushima Daiichi.") According to a report by the French Institute for Radiological Protection and Nuclear Safety, that initial breakdown caused "the largest single contribution of radionuclides to the marine environment ever observed." Some of that early release actually was intentional, because TEPCO reportedly had to dump 3 million gallons of water contaminated with low levels of radiation into the Pacific to make room in its storage ponds for more heavily contaminated water that it needed to pump out of the damaged reactors so that it could try to get them under control.                           But even after the immediate crisis eased, scientists have continued to find radioactive contamination in the waters off the plant. Ken Buesseler, a senior scientist with the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution who has analyzed thousands of samples of fish from the area, said he’s continued to find the high levels of cesium-134, a radioactive isotope that decays rapidly. That indicates it’s still being released. "It’s getting into the ocean, no doubt about it," he said. "The only news was that they finally admitted to this." (See related: "Photos: Japan's Reactors Before And After.")

Q: How much and what sort of radiation is leaking from the plant into the Pacific?

TEPCO said Monday that radiation levels in its groundwater observation hole on the east side of the turbine buildings had reached 310 becquerels per liter for cesium-134 and 650 becquerels per liter for cesium-137. That marked nearly a 15-fold increase from readings five days earlier, and exceeded Japan’s provisional emergency standard of 60 becquerels per liter for cesium radiation levels in drinking water. (Drinking water at 300 becquerels per liter would be approximately equivalent to one year’s exposure to natural background radiation, or 10 to 15 chest X-rays, according to the World Health Organization. And it is far in excess of WHO’s guideline advised maximum level of radioactivity in drinking water, 10 becquerels per liter.)  Readings fell somewhat on Tuesday. A similar spike and fall preceded TEPCO’s July admission that it was grappling with leakage of the radioactive water. (See related: "Would a New Nuclear Plant Fare Better than Fukushima?")...

The Middle Class Future