Block buyout of Smithfield Foods by Chinese firm

Shuanghui International, a well-heeled Chinese firm, has offered to buy Smithfield Foods Inc. for $7.1 billion. Currently, Smithfield controls 26 percent of U.S. pork processing and 15 percent of hog production.

Allowing China to own more than one-fourth of U.S. processing is concerning, considering China?s poor food safety record. In 2008, milk and baby formula processed in China were tainted with melamine, which led to infant deaths and thousands hospitalized.

Our question: Why would the United States go down the road of allowing a sale that would impact the nearly 35,000 direct jobs and 515,000 indirect jobs generated by the pork industry, plus the $34.5 billion that goes to this country?s GDP?

Here are some facts of concern:

? In 1980, there were 660,000 hog farms. Today there are 67,000.

? Only 2 percent of Food and Drug Administration-regulated food imports were inspected in 2010.

? The Food Safety and Inspection Service (USDA) has reduced its evaluations of foreign meat suppliers by 60 percent since 2008.

? 17 percent of the U.S. food supply is imported.

Minnesota Farmers Union is concerned about how American farmers and consumers would be treated by a foreign owner, considering the history of tainted food, hog disease, trade imbalance and concentration ? risks too high to take. If you agree, call your members of Congress and ask them to oppose the sale of Smithfield Foods.

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Doug Peterson, president, Minnesota Farmers Union

Source: http://www.startribune.com/opinion/218173362.html

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President Obama Speaks on the Middle Class

President Obama on?Tuesday proposed a "grand bargain for middle-class jobs" during a speech at an Amazon warehouse in Tennessee.

The president spoke on creating tax incentives for manufacturers, closing tax loopholes, and making the creation of middle-class jobs a priority.

Below are links to Pew's relevant research and news?on these topics:

The Middle Class

Economic Recovery

Tax Incentives

Source: http://www.pewstates.org/news-room/press-releases/president-obama-speaks-on-the-middle-class-85899492381

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SPORTS: Marathon: Q & A

Photos:

Cullen Kane

Q: Could yoga help runners as they prepare and train for the upcoming marathon? If so, in what ways?

A: Yoga is a wonderful complement to any running program. Running is a repetitive exercise and can cause excessive tightness. Tightness in one or more muscle groups can lead to weakness and instability in other muscle groups. Using yoga as a cross-training method will help the body to loosen and lengthen, creating better flexibility and stability through better alignment.

Running is a leg-dominant activity, but runners need more than strong legs. Yoga provides a full-body workout that increases overall strength, including core and upper body. A strong core and upper body allow for better running posture. This helps combat fatigue, decreases risk of injury and allows better breath control.

Breath awareness is a major component of yoga. By consciously connecting the breath to movement, a runner?s pace can become more efficient. Yoga and running are similar in that both require focus and mindfulness. A regular yoga practice gives runners experience in tuning into the body?s signals while helping them keep their mental edge.

? Kate Connor

Columbus yoga and fitness instructor

Do you have a question about running, or more specifically running a half- or full marathon? Send your question by email to running@therepublic.com and we will provide an answer.

Think your friends should see this? Share it with them!

Source: http://www.therepublic.com/view/local_story/Marathon-_1375584864

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Discarded NYC theater prop sparks bomb scare

NEW YORK (AP) ? A New York City playwright who directed a show called the "American Suicide Bomber Association" unwitting sparked a bomb scare when he threw a prop from the production into the trash at his home.

Playwright Ethan Fishbane tells The New York Post (http://bit.ly/16Pymas ) he wasn't thinking when he discarded the fake bomb while cleaning out his Manhattan apartment Tuesday.

A building superintendent saw the prop the next morning and called police.

That brought out the bomb squad.

It didn't take long for investigators to figure out what had happened.

Fishbane says he was stunned when officers knocked on his door, but he praised the department for its quick response, saying it was "wholly appropriate."

The 23-year-old wrote the play while attending New York University's Tisch School of The Arts.

___

Information from: New York Post, http://www.nypost.com

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/discarded-nyc-theater-prop-sparks-bomb-scare-155356528.html

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Death and the Moon | 10,000 Hours

As I was driving home from the gym, a little tired and a little sweaty, I saw the most beautiful moon. It sat on the shoulder of Mt. Hood, glowing its usual pale yellow in a pink hazy sky, but it was huge. I think it is what people call a harvest moon. I don?t really know, and even though I have the internet at my fingertips I don?t really feel like looking it up.

It seems more romantic to say, ?Harvest moon.?

I was listening absent-mindedly to NPR. ?A play was on?one of those one acts. It was a scene between a mother and a son. They were in Rome on vacation, and the mother was uninhibited. All she could talk about were her orgasmic dreams and how she thought the guy at the bar had deliciously large hands. I wasn?t listening that close to begin with, I was paying more attention to that moon. But slowly their conversation threw a lasso around my ears. It turns out that mom was dying of cancer, and her son had given her this vacation.

Pretty soon I was crying.

Son was explaining that he had planned this trip to show her all she had to fight for?to give her hope for the future. But then she started explaining that she wanted to die in room. She was sick of the experimental drugs and the false medical hope. ?She was so gentle as she explained that all the hope she could ever want was in dying exactly the way she wanted. In Rome with her son, drinking aperitif and ogling men with big hands.

I have been thinking a lot about death lately. I am a Hospice volunteer. I only have one patient at a time, and I meet with them once a week until they die and then I get a new patient. That sounds a little callous, but it is anything but. Then for the Portland Book Review I was given a book that traces the evolution of the medical industry and the resulting approach we as a society have towards those who are dying. ?Then there are personal experiences with aging family members, and of course the play that I just listened to.

It got me thinking about cancer, and the big questions: What If? What if?

Would I want to fight till I am a sack of bones in a bed in a hospital? Would I take the odds at face value and go live as hard as I can until I can?t anymore? I don?t know. But?The Inevitable Hour: A History of Caring for Dying Patients in America?by Emily K Abel, drove the point home that while medicine has become adept at postponing death, it hasn?t concurred it and as such maybe dying needn?t be something sterile and unpleasant. Maybe it can be something at home, something simpler, with family.

But that is simplifying things a bit. It was just an errant train of thought. Just something to think about. Maybe it was the moon that pulled all the separate?thoughts together: Hospice, books, family, plays about cancer. Ever see Moonstruck? Moons have power. Just look at it:

?

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Tagged: aging family, beautiful moon, Cancer, Death, dying of cancer, hazy sky, hospice volunteer, La Luna, life, Moons, NPR

Source: http://nikmariegreen.wordpress.com/2013/08/02/death-and-the-moon/

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Microsoft's seven indie games for summer

Published by Ewan Spence at 10:50 UTC, August 3rd 2013

Over on the Official Windows Phone Blog, Michael Stroh has taken a look inside the Windows Phone Store to pick out some great indie games to load up on your smartphone for the summer.

The seven recommended titles are:

You wont hear any complaints from me on those choices. But if I had to pick one of those, it would be Bridge Physics that catches my eye - no fancy graphics, jus a blueprint and the goal of making a bridge strong enough for a car, a truck, and a train to travel over. Level based physics puzzles that sound like a disaster movie from the seventies? I'm so there.

It's also nice to see that these are indie titles, as opposed to the expected picks from the Xbox Live catalogue. Now Microsoft needs to think about making the upgrade process for indies to get into the XBox system far easier, accessible, and something that developers would strive for.

You can get all the details from the Official Windows Phone Blog.

Source / Credit: Windows Phone Blog (Microsoft)

Filed: Home > Flow > Microsoft's seven indie games for summer

Platforms: Windows Phone 8
Categories: Games
?

Source: http://allaboutwindowsphone.com/flow/item/18068_Microsofts_seven_indie_games_f.php

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Lawyer: Snowden has a place to live in Russia

In this still image taken on Thursday, Aug. 1, 2013 and released by Russia24 TV channel, shows Russian lawyer Anatoly Kucherena, second right in the center, and National Security Agency leaker Edward Snowden, center back to a camera, as Snowden leaves Sheremetyevo airport outside Moscow, Russia, on Thursday, Aug. 1, 2013. Snowden has received asylum in Russia for one year and left the transit zone of Moscow's airport, his lawyer said Thursday. Kucherena said that Snowden's whereabouts will be kept secret for security reasons. (AP Photo/Russia24 via Associated Press Television) TV OUT

In this still image taken on Thursday, Aug. 1, 2013 and released by Russia24 TV channel, shows Russian lawyer Anatoly Kucherena, second right in the center, and National Security Agency leaker Edward Snowden, center back to a camera, as Snowden leaves Sheremetyevo airport outside Moscow, Russia, on Thursday, Aug. 1, 2013. Snowden has received asylum in Russia for one year and left the transit zone of Moscow's airport, his lawyer said Thursday. Kucherena said that Snowden's whereabouts will be kept secret for security reasons. (AP Photo/Russia24 via Associated Press Television) TV OUT

A street cafe visitor reads a fresh Russian newspaper "Izvestia" with a front page pictures of Russian lawyer Anatoly Kucherena, center, and National Security Agency leaker Edward Snowden, center left, taken on Thursday, Aug. 1, 2013 at Sheremetyevo airport outside Moscow, Russia, on Friday, Aug. 2, 2013. Snowden has received asylum in Russia for one year and left the transit zone of Moscow's airport, his lawyer said Thursday. Kucherena said after meeting with the fugitive at Moscow's Sheremetyevo airport, where he was stuck since his arrival from Hong Kong on June 23, that he handed him the papers proving his status. Kucherena said that Snowden's whereabouts will be kept secret for security reasons. (AP Photo/Alexander Zemlianichenko)

In this image taken form Russia24 TV channel, Russian lawyer Anatoly Kucherena shows Snowden's a temporary document Russia while speaking to the media after visiting National Security Agency leaker Edward Snowden at Sheremetyevo airport outside Moscow, Russia, on Thursday, Aug. 1, 2013. National Security Agency leaker Edward Snowden has received asylum in Russia for one year and left the transit zone of Moscow? airport, his lawyer said Thursday. Kucherena said after meeting with the fugitive at Moscow?s Sheremetyevo airport, where he was stuck since his arrival from Hong Kong on June 23, that he handed him the papers proving his status. Kucherena said that Snowden?s whereabouts will be kept secret for security reasons. (AP Photo/Russia24 via APTN) TV OUT

MOSCOW (AP) ? National Security Agency leaker Edward Snowden has a place to live in Russia after being granted temporary asylum, but he still hasn't decided what he wants to do next, his lawyer said Friday. The big question may be how much choice he actually has.

Russia granted a year of asylum to Snowden on Thursday, allowing him to quietly slip out of the Moscow airport where he had been holed up for almost six weeks as he evades charges of espionage in the United States. Authorities have suggested he will have wide freedom to work, but Kremlin watchers believe his moves are likely being closely controlled by Russian intelligence.

Snowden "is in a safe place," but the location will remain secret out of concern for his security, his lawyer, Anatoly Kucherena, told Russian news agencies. The systems analyst who revealed himself as the source of reports in the Guardian newspaper of a vast U.S. Internet surveillance program needs time after his ordeal in airport limbo to figure out his next steps.

He was seen only once in his weeks in the transit zone of the Sheremetyevo airport. Despite troops of photographers and reporters camped out inside and outside the airport, no one apparently saw him leaving, except for someone who snapped a photo of Kucherena talking to blurry figures who the attorney later said were Snowden and Sarah Harrison, a WikiLeaks staffer who has been advising him.

Kucherena said he expects Snowden to speak to journalists soon. "As soon as he decides what he will do, I hope he will announce it himself," the ITAR-Tass news agency quoted the lawyer as saying.

The move to grant Snowden asylum infuriated the Obama administration, which said it was "extremely disappointed" and warned that the decision could derail an upcoming summit between President Barack Obama and Russian President Vladimir Putin.

U.S. Ambassador Michael McFaul on Friday met with Putin's foreign policy aide Yuri Ushakov to discuss matters including Snowden, the U.S. Embassy said on its Twitter account. There were no further details.

The asylum decision gives Russia cover to depict itself as a defender of human rights, pointing a finger to deflect criticism of its own poor record on rights including free speech. But the secrecy that surrounded Snowden's time at the Moscow airport and his unwillingness so far to talk to the press indicates he is being controlled by Russian intelligence, Andrei Soldatov, a Russian journalist who co-authored a book on the Russian intelligence services said.

"Does he have independent sources of information and communication? My impression is that he has none, which means he's not his own master," Soldatov said.

He said Kucherena's statements about concerns for Snowden's safety do not hold water.

"We are all perfectly aware that Snowden, who has just received asylum, does not face any danger in Russia," Soldatov said. "American intelligence does not kidnap or assassinate people in Russia, that's a fact. This is a just a pretext."

One of the reasons for keeping Snowden isolated may be to prevent him from speaking about the people he met and what really happened to him during the 39 days he spent in the airport's transit zone, Soldatov said. For the same reason, Soldatov said he expected Russian authorities to find a job for Snowden that will prevent him from having contacts with journalists.

Putin has denied that Russia's security services have worked with Snowden, either before or after he arrived in Moscow on a flight from Hong Kong. But security experts have said that Russia's intelligence agencies would not have passed up a chance to at least question a man who is believed to hold reams of classified U.S. documents and could shed light on how the U.S. intelligence agencies collect information.

Snowden's temporary asylum allows him to work in Russia, with some restrictions, said immigration lawyer Bakhrom Ismailov.

"Snowden has the same rights for employment as a Russian citizen except that he is not allowed to work as a public servant or take a job in law enforcement agencies," said Ismailov, a managing partner at Yurinvestholding. The founder of Russia's Facebook-like social network site VKontakte, has already made what sounded like a job offer on Twitter.

The law on temporary asylum says a person with this status is entitled "to receive assistance" in traveling out of Russia. Ismailov said that this assistance could mean issuing a travel document, but this is not normally done for people with temporary asylum.

Venezuela, Nicaragua and Bolivia had offered Snowden asylum and he told human rights figures during a meeting in mid-July that he wanted to visit all those countries. But Kucherena said Thursday that Snowden no longer has such plans.

_____

Associated Press writer Lynn Berry in Moscow contributed to this report.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/cae69a7523db45408eeb2b3a98c0c9c5/Article_2013-08-02-NSA-Surveillance-Snowden/id-2b7a585027704158a1b875d6e0a73285

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