Tuesday, July 14, 2009

A California wildfire has reached Interstate 5, just 40 miles northwest of downtown Los Angeles.

The fire has burned 400 acres of grassland in the Angeles National Forest, and continues to blaze in the Pyramid Lake area.

According to the forest spokeswoman Dee Dechert, the fire is 50 percent contained, but it has damaged Southern California Edison power lines, causing traffic jams. The two right northbound lanes on Interstate 5 had to be shut down, backing up traffic for several miles; they were still closed Tuesday morning. However, no homes or other structures are at risk.

As of 7 pm local time on Tuesday, 500 people, mostly from Los Angeles County Fire Department, were working to contain the fire in heat that exceeded 100 °F (38 °C). According to authorities, four helicopters and six air tankers were also on the scene to control the flames, which are being pushed northeast by a 5 miles (8 km) per hour wind.

The wildfire began around noon on Monday, just northwest of Castaic near the Golden State Freeway. The cause is not currently known, but it is expected to be 100 percent contained by 6 pm on Tuesday.

The only injury reported so far occurred when a firefighter was stung by a bee.

Tuesday, February 26, 2008

Neverland Valley Ranch, owned by Michael Jackson, is to be sold at auction on March 19, 2008, unless Jackson pays over US$24 million.

Financial Title Company, the trustee of his Santa Barbara County, California, home and amusement park, has foreclosed on the property. They notified Jackson of the foreclosure and sale on Monday. Jackson had only just recently paid an overdue property tax bill of $600,000.

The court filing, addressed to Jackson, says, “You are in default of a deed of trust … Unless you take action to protect your property it may be sold at a public sale.” Fox News published the filing.

The foreclosure includes the ranch and all possessions on the property, inside or out.

The foreclosure auction will take place in front of the Santa Barbara County Courthouse in Santa Barbara. Jackson has until then to pay $24,525,906.61 he owes the title company.

In 2006, Jackson refinanced previous loans that had been bought up by Fortress Investment Group. The $300-million loan was secured with the aid of Sony Music Entertainment. However, the Neverland property was not part of that deal.

Jackson has not lived at Neverland since June 30, 2005, when he moved to Bahrain after a rape charge and subsequent acquittal.

Wednesday, October 31, 2007

Canadian Finance Minister Jim Flaherty announced a five-year program that could reduce taxes by a total C$60 billion.

The planned tax reduction measures include:

• Low-end personal income tax rates would be reduced from 15.5% to 15%, taking retroactive effect to the start of 2007;
• The basic personal exemption, the amount at which income is taxable, is raised from C$8,929 to C$9,600, also backdated to January 2007;
• Business tax rates are expected regularly drop from the current 20.5% to 15% in 2012;
• The Goods and Services Tax that applies to most purchases would be reduced from 6% to 5% as 2008 begins. This rate was previously reduced from 7% July 2006, shortly after Prime Minister Stephen Harper took office.

These measures will be brought before the House of Commons in Ottawa on Wednesday as a confidence motion. In Canada’s minority government situation, opposition parties could defeat these measures and likely prompt an election. However, opposition leader Stéphane Dion has expressed an unwillingness to defeat the government on this matter.

Monday, March 30, 2009

A light earthquake, measured at a magnitude of 4.3, struck the San Francisco, California region at 10:40 AM Pacific Standard Time (PST) on Monday morning. The earthquake was described as “short, but strong” by a dispatcher for the Morgan Hill Police Department. The quake was originally reported as having a magnitude of 4.4.

According to the US Geological survey, the epicentre of the quake was approximately eleven miles north of Morgan Hill, or about 16 miles southeast of San Jose.

No immediate damage has been reported, but Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) trains were delayed for five to ten minutes while inspectors searched for any damage.

The earthquake was felt as far away as Santa Rosa and Napa to the north and Soledad to the south.

Friday, May 25, 2007

Protesters in the Central Western New South Wales city of Bathurst gave Australian Prime Minister John Howard a cold reception as he arrived for a Liberal Party luncheon in the city.

Around 200 unionists and university students gathered to protest the Howard government’s new industrial relations regime called Workchoices, the lack of funding for higher education and the introduction of Voluntary Student Unionism.

Protesters claimed that the Howard government had ignored rural and regional Australia. Daniel Walton, the community campaign co-ordinator for Macquarie Your Rights at Work told Wikinews that Mr Howard was only interested in Bathurst after it had been moved to a marginal seat.

“In the 11 years Howard has been Prime Minister not once has he visited Bathurst”, he said.

“Now Bathurst is in the seat of Macquarie, which is seen as a marginal electorate, Mr Howard is suddenly interested in the city”.

The strongly blue-collar cities of Bathurst and Lithgow were relocated to the Macquarie electorate, previously considered a safe Liberal seat after an electorate redistribution.

Mr Howard was in Bathurst campaigning for the re-election of Kerry Bartlett and was a special guest at an invite-only Liberal Party fundraiser costing AUD$95 per person. The luncheon was attended by 400 members of Bathurst’s business community.

Unionists responded by offering a $0.95 “worker’s lunch” across the street.

Before the luncheon, Mr Howard held a community morning tea at the Mount Panorama motor racing circuit, promising funding of $10 million to investigate planning, engineering and environmental issues surrounding the construction of an expressway over the Blue Mountains following the Bells Line of Road route. Mr Howard said this funding was contingent upon the NSW government matching the federal government’s contribution and would be available under Auslink II from 2009.

Prior to the Prime Minister’s arrival at the luncheon, protesters called those attending the luncheon “Chumps”, booing at and calling MP Kerry Bartlett a “loser” when he walked outside. Unionists also chanted slogans such as “Workers united, we’ll never be defeated” and “Johnie Howard is a twerp, he wants to take our rights at work”.

As Howard arrived at the luncheon, protesters held up their placards and turned their backs on Mr Howard, claiming to be doing the same as his government had done to ordinary workers.

Michael Foggarty from the Public Service Association said while big business could afford luxuries such as a $95 lunch, workers were struggling.

“They might be able to afford $95 for lunch, but when you have workers on as low as $13 an hour that is a lot of money, ordinary workers are struggling under Workchoices”, he told Wikinews.

Mr Foggarty added that rising interest rates and petrol prices were having an impact on working families.

Giving a speech at the luncheon, Mr Howard said those wishing to dismantle the government’s industrial relations reforms were rolling back a “major economic reform”. Mr Howard said both Workchoices and the removal of unfair dismissal laws had reduced unemployment and generated prosperity.

Thursday, February 23, 2006

Almost half of all Australian primary school children are mild to moderately iodine deficient, researchers say. A new study documenting iodine nutritional status in Australian schoolchildren has revealed many are not getting enough iodine – which can lead to mental and growth retardation. The report’s authors say iodine deficiency is “the sleeper health issue in Australia”, and potentially a very serious one.

The results of the Australian National Iodine Nutrition Study published in the Medical Journal of Australia this week, revealed that children in mainland Australia are borderline iodine deficient. The report has prompted calls for all edible salt to be iodised. They say adding the mineral to salt is the simplest and most effective method of preventing iodine deficiency disorders.

A cross-sectional survey of 1709 schoolchildren – aged 8–10 years, from 88 schools – was carried out in New South Wales, Victoria, South Australia, Western Australia and Queensland, between July 2003 and December 2004. Tasmania was excluded from the study – where an voluntary iodine fortification program using iodised salt in bread, is ongoing.

The authors say the results confirm the existence of inadequate iodine intake in the Australian population. They call for “urgent implementation of mandatory iodisation of all edible salt in Australia.” Most iodine in food comes from seafood, milk and iodised salt.

Professor Cres Eastman, Director of the National Iodine Nutrition study, and Chairman of the Australian Centre for Control of Iodine Deficiency Disorders, says it is crucial that children and pregnant women in particular have an adequate intake of iodine. Iodine deficiency can lead to serious health problems including brain damage, stunted growth and deafness.

Professor Eastman says manufacturers could easily remedy the situation by using iodised salt in their products in line with the United States and most European countries. “I suspect they won’t do that on a voluntary basis, we’ve tried so far and haven’t succeeded, so we’ve convinced the Food Standards of Australia and New Zealand| that all salt should be iodised,” he said.

The report says the decline in iodine intake appears to be due to changes in the dairy industry, where chlorine-containing sanitisers have replaced iodine-containing sanitisers. Iodine released from these chemicals into milk has been the major source of dietary iodine in Australia for at least four decades, but is now declining. Another contributory factor has been the decreasing consumption of iodised salt used in foods. The report states that few if any food manufacturers use iodised salt in the preparation and manufacture of foods.

Professor Eastman says iodine is added to only 10 per cent of Australian salt in contravention of a World Health Organisation recommendation that all salt be iodised. He says authorities are reacting slowly to his urgent calls for mandatory iodised salt.

“The effects of iodine deficiency are dependent upon how severe it is and when it occurs. So if we go to the pregnant woman, she doesn’t get enough iodine, she won’t make enough thyroid hormone, and the foetus won’t get the amount of thyroid hormone it needs for adequate and proper development of the brain, so you’ll then see consequences being loss of IQ, learning difficulties, hearing difficulties and other neurological problems,” Professor Eastman said.

“If an infant’s not getting enough iodine… brain development won’t be completed and they won’t grow normally, and as you get older the problem will be that you will develop a goiter and your thyroid won’t function as well as it should, so that may have all sorts of pernicious effects upon normal function in life.”

More than two billion people around the world live in areas prone to iodine deficiency, and yet the problem is easily fixed. The World Health Organisation (WHO) recommends that every country should iodise all edible salt. The most well known effects of IDD are visible goiter and cretinism, a condition characterised by severe brain damage occurring in very early life. WHO say Iodine deficiency is the world’s most prevalent, yet easily preventable, cause of brain damage.

Professor Eastman said he is alarmed by what they found. “Pregnant women in Australia are getting about half as much as what they require on a daily basis. So that alarms me, because there’s quite serious potential for adverse effects and brain damage in the next generation of children born in this country,” he said. “If Iodine deficiency is serious you lose 15 IQ points, on average. There shouldn’t be anyone suffering from iodine deficiency in a developed country like Australia.”

Lydia Buchtmann for Food Standards Australia New Zealand, says they are looking at mandatory guidelines on iodine by the end of the year. She says the issue is complicated and will take time to get right. We need to “make sure there’s sufficient iodine added into the food supply, to help those people with a deficiency. But at the other end of the scale we’ve got to make sure the people who eat a lot of food – we all know the teenage boy who comes home from school and eats a whole loaf of bread – that those people don’t get too much and get overdose,” Ms Bauchtman said. “One of the reasons that iodine is going down is because people are taking that good healthy eating message and not adding salt during cooking.”

Senior researcher Mu Li, of the University of NSW’s school of public health, said “it is reasonable to assume that pregnant women and breastfeeding mothers are also iodine deficient, putting the next generation of children born in this country at risk of the neuropsychological consequences of iodine deficiency.”

Tuesday, April 8, 2014

The death of Scottish artist Alan Davie was announced on Sunday. Davie, 93, was known for his colourful abstract paintings.

Davie’s career also saw turns as a jeweler, a jazz musician, a lecturer, and a poet. Born in Grangemouth, near Falkirk, in 1920, he studied painting from 1938 to 40 at Edinburgh College of Art.

His father was a teacher who dabbled in art and his mother’s family was musically inclined. Upon seeing Coleman Hawkins performing in a music shop in Edinburgh, Davie borrowed £600 from his father to buy himself a saxophone. After serving in the Second World War, at which time he wrote much poetry later transcribed by his father, Davie toured with Scottish jazz bands.

Davie’s work was admired by the likes of Jackson Pollock, Mark Rothko and David Hockney. Davie himself collected non-Western art and liked tattoos, graffiti, and ‘outsider art’. His final interview before death, with The Telegraph, gave an insight into how he viewed art: “It’s an urge, an intensity, a kind of sexual need[…] something I do from an inner compulsion, that has to come out.”

He initially avoided painting as a career at all, then spent several years earning money by other means whilst his paintings failed to sell. His exhibitions in the late 1950s, however, were highly successful and launched his career. He was in the habit of choosing titles for his art only after completion.

Despite a strong presence owing to his lengthy red beard and off-beat humour, he was shy; his international fame waned. Recent years have seen a revival of interest with price increases for his early art. London alone is host to three exhibitions this month including at the Tate.

Tate Britain calls Davie “one of the first British artists after the war to develop an expressive form of abstraction” producing “kaleidoscopic canvases[…] that the artist relates to his love of jazz”.

Monday, September 24, 2007

Russ Aegard is running for the Green Party of Ontario in the Ontario provincial election, in the Thunder Bay-Atikokan riding. Wikinews’ Nick Moreau interviewed him regarding his values, his experience, and his campaign.

Stay tuned for further interviews; every candidate from every party is eligible, and will be contacted. Expect interviews from Liberals, Progressive Conservatives, New Democratic Party members, Ontario Greens, as well as members from the Family Coalition, Freedom, Communist, Libertarian, and Confederation of Regions parties, as well as independents.

Monday, October 11, 2010

Wikinews interviewed author Amy Scobee about her book Scientology – Abuse at the Top, and asked her about her experiences working as an executive within the organization. Scobee joined the organization at age 14, and worked at Scientology’s international management headquarters for several years before leaving in 2005. She served as a Scientology executive in multiple high-ranking positions, working out of the international headquarters of Scientology known as “Gold Base”, located in Gilman Hot Springs near Hemet, California.