By: RT.com, 12/13/2013

The Dallas City Council passed Wednesday new restrictions that bar hydraulic fracturing within 1,500 feet of a home, school, church, and other protected areas. The new rules effectively ban the practice within the city. The council approved the ordinance in a vote of 9-6, with Mayor Mike Rawlings voting for it. The city is on the edge of the Barnett Shale area, predicted to be a treasure trove of onshore natural gas reserves. However, the new limit placed on hydraulic fracturing - known as fracking - effectively bans the practice.

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By: Daisy Luther, 12/09/2013

If you had a business selling something that made you well over a hundred billion dollars per year, would you take steps to eradicate the need for your business? Or would you make every effort for that money continue rolling in? Take cancer, for example.  Don’t let all the media hype about “The Cure” fool you.  No one who is in a position to do so wants to end cancer because they are all making a killing on the big business of treatment, while ordinary people go broke, suffer horribly, and die.

There will never be a “cure” brought to market because there just isn’t enough profit in eradicating the disease entirely.  There will never be a governing body that protects consumers from being subjected to known carcinogens, because that too, will stop the cash from rolling in. A great deal of research is covered up and many potential cures are ignored and discredited because there is far more money in perpetuating illness than in curing it. In 2012, the reported spending on cancer treatment was 124.6 billion dollars.  Blood money.

One year after its launch into orbit, the US Air Force’s secret space drone continues to circle the Earth as the goal of its mission and its payload remain a mystery.

The X-37B Orbital Test Vehicle, which resembles a small unmanned version of the space shuttle (one forth in size), was blasted into orbit from Cape Canaveral, Florida, on December 11, 2012.

“It’s obvious the Air Force is finding some value there,” Brian Weeden, a former Air Force officer and expert in space security at the Secure World Foundation, said. “Otherwise, they wouldn’t keep sending vehicles up.”

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While TPP negotiators had hoped to finish off the negotiations in Singapore over the past few days, it appears that did not happen, though they claim to have made substantial progress and will meet again next month. From the reports of people there, the negotiators made sure that public interest groups were excluded from even the press briefing about the negotiations, which should tell you all you need to know about what the negotiators think of the public. But, in case you weren't sure, the USTR, Michael Froman, has finally explained why the TPP negotiating positions must be kept secret. Apparently, all of us in the public, are too fucking stupid to understand the important work that he's doing, and we might "misunderstand" it. Therefore, we peons must be kept in the dark, while important people like himself negotiate on our behalf. According to Jamie Love:

Froman said if the text was public, people would misunderstand "negotiating positions."

In other words, the USTR is not a fan of democracy.

If you think the public is too stupid to understand the public policy positions you're negotiating for, then you shouldn't be in that job.

China has blocked a fifth cargo of US corn since mid-November after testing found a strain of genetically-modified (GMO) corn not yet approved for import. Three more cargoes may also be refused.

A cargo of 59,100 tons was turned away on Tuesday in the eastern Chinese province of Zhejiang after quarantine officials found MIR 162 — an insect-resistant GMO strain which the country’s agriculture ministry has yet to warrant, Reuters cited an official as saying.

China, the world’s second largest corn consumer, has refused 180,000 tons of grain since mid-November. Observers believe it has less to do with the corn and more to do with other trade quarrels between the two countries.

“It is really causing big trouble and it seems to be related to bilateral trade conflicts,” a domestic corn trader told Reuters.

In November, China fought US accusations that it was blocking a World Trade Organization technology deal that would cut tariffs on products. US Trade Representative Michael Froman said later that month that China’s demand to exempt over 100 products from the deal risked breaking negotiations.

More on: RT.com