Will this false flag be their excuse to start the war with Iran?

Though we loathe to admit it, the truth is that false flag events have been repeatedly used to justify wars around the world. Check out the video below for more specific information. Let’s stay informed!

What is our country coming to? Housing’s last resort for those who are flat broke.

When we look at the state of our nation closely, the reality betrays a far different situation than the one painted by mainstream media. Homelessness is on the rise. Young families having to move back with mum and dad or grandparents. Unemployment numbers of 20% or more in many places. Cities emptying and halving their populations and for more and more Americans long term stay hotels with paper thin walls are becoming home. Read more below!

A long way down the US housing ladder, beneath the grisly ‘projects’ of The Wire and the trailer parks hymned by Eminem, beneath the slums of New Orleans and the ghettos of Detroit, you’ll find the long-stay hotel. Cheap, not very cheerful, and pretty much a last resort, these institutions provide four walls and a roof, for a few hundred bucks a month. It’s some of the cheapest accommodation you’ll find anywhere in the US, aside from a cardboard box.

Long-stay hotels can be found in almost every major American city. They offer none of the privacy of trailer parks, and even less of the permanency. Guests make do with postage stamp-sized rooms, paper-thin walls, and nylon sheets. You’ll rarely find them listed in tourist guides, even the section of a Lonely Planet devoted to ‘rock-bottom dives’. Staying in one isn’t exactly what you might call a holiday. It is, however, an experience. So says Kalpesh Lathigra, whose compelling photo-essay on the Wilmington Hotel in Long Beach, Southern California, is published on these pages.

A British documentary photographer, he stumbled upon the place while looking up relatives during a family holiday to Los Angeles (it is owned by his uncle, Bachu), and has since re-visited for extended periods, building close relationships with its most colourful and well-established residents.

“The hotel is one of those places with a feel that you know just has to be recorded,” he says. “There’s something in the ether. I remember walking in for the first time, and straight away realising that it had this weird character that cried out to be photographed.

“The carpet looked like it was bought in the 1970s. The doors are this ugly blue. My idea of American hotels and motels was of a place where you came and stayed for a night or two. But here, every room was occupied by someone who had been living there long-term. It felt like one of those places that has a real story to tell.”

Lathigra’s images capture some of the unlovely realities of life at the $150-a-week Wilmington, which is situated a stone’s throw from the industrial fug of Long Beach port, and a half-hour’s drive from the mansions of Beverly Hills and the Hollywood sign. They show peeling paint, filthy curtains, and nicotine-stained walls – not to mention the battle-scarred men and women who have ended up inhabiting the building’s 30-odd rooms.

Every long-stay hotel revolves around rules. Residents must forego drugs (though alcohol is allowed). They must pay their rent on time, and agree not to hog the shared bathrooms. Every 28 days, so as not to breech hotel licensing rules, they must clear everything out of their rooms, and check in all over again. There is no room service and chambermaids are non-existent: guests make their own beds and wash their own sheets.

Yet for all the superficial grimness, there is also a tangible sense of community to the Wilmington. Residents adorn their rooms with rudimentary tokens of homeliness, from family photos to kettles, computers, televisions, stoves and objets d’art.

They build relationships, looking after neighbours’ children and watching each other’s backs. You’d be hard pressed to call their situation happy, but most hold out hope for a better future, and still buy into the American dream.

“A lot of them have come from broken families, or bad situations. And this is what they’re left with. It’s pretty much the last resort, the only one they could afford,” says Lathigra.

“But they still have good relationships, play together, listen to music, and party. There’s a weird dynamic: people keep their doors open and neighbours can walk

in and make themselves at home. You could say that they rely on each other for family.”

Every resident has a story. Mike, known as ‘Jesus of Wilmington’, was working as a roofer, but lost his job in the 2008 recession. He is currently doing casual jobs in Long Beach port, hoping to save enough to buy a truck and get his career back on track.

Sandra, who suffers drug and alcohol problems, recently had the children in her photograph taken into care until she can complete a course of rehab. Ron, the dapper gentleman standing in a hallway, is a former war hero who can barely scrape by on his Air Force pension.

“I love America, but there’s this side to it that’s never mentioned to you, and I hope these photos capture that,” says Lathigra. “Here’s a place, a short drive from the Hollywood Hills, where you have people eating spaghetti four nights a week because it’s all they can afford. The US is such a seductive, successful, wealthy society, but it also has these big cracks, and I guess this kind of place shows people fall through them all the time.”

If you like this site and other health sites, take action now to keep them up !!! Our free speech is truly threatened

Our friends at Natural News are uniting fellow conscious citizens to actively oppose SOPA and PIPA which are direct threats to our freedom of speech. These laws up for passage would allow the U.S. government to shut down websites it claims “endanger public health.” Their version of pharmaceutical mind numbing drugs and vaccines health that is.

On Wednesday, January 18, 2012, NaturalNews.com went “dark” to protest SOPA, the “Stop Online Piracy Act” that is actually a thinly-veiled government censorship effort. We are also protesting PIPA, the “Protect IP Act,” which is similarly destructive in its effects. You may have arrived at this page from our mock “seizure” index page which depicts what might happen if SOPA becomes law.

This is crucial for all NaturalNews readers and fans to understand: If SOPA becomes law, NaturalNews.com will be shut down. In fact, the proposed law contains a specific provision — section 105 — which allows the U.S. government to shut down websites it claims “endanger public health.”

Given that NaturalNews openly and repeatedly advocates things like natural sunlightandvitamin C– both of which the government has said are dangerous — our website could be seized by the government under SOPA. And that doesn’t even consider our public stance against routine vaccinations, processed food chemicals and dangerous prescription medications (which the government is always trying to push on the public to kill people before they live long enough to collect social security).

If passed into law, SOPA would shut down NaturalNews, InfoWars, Drudge, Lew Rockwell, Reddit and many other alternative news websites

Make no mistake about the seriousness of this issue: If SOPA (or PIPA) becomes law, it will sooner or later result in the government seizure and shutdown of virtually all alternative news websites — especially those that disagree with the criminality of the current corrupt political regime in Washington.

Imagine an internet without NaturalNews.com. Imagine the liberty movement without InfoWars.com. Imagine the entire world wide web being “sanitized” by the government to remove any websites that do not agree with the government’s official position on finance, the war on drugs, the war on terrorism, pharmaceuticals and vaccines. That’s what we’re facing if SOPA becomes law: A virtual wipeout of all truth across the internet, leaving only theliesof “official” government information… the Ministry of Truth, in other words.

The Internet is the vehicle for restoring freedom and crushing tyranny

* A d v e r t i s e m e n t
*

Why is the U.S. government working so feverishly to crush independent, truthful information on the internet? Because the globalist controllers realize that the internet is the last bastion of freedom in a world run by global elite corporatists.

While the global elite own and run the mainstream (corporate whore) media, and they own Congress, and they own all the influential non-profits such as the wholly corrupt American Cancer Society, they do not yet control the internet! This freaks them out, especially when they see so much truth being produced by liberty-loving individuals who are exposing the neocons, the socialists, and the criminal-minded thugs who run Wall Street and the White House.

They are desperate to crush internet freedom and SOPA is the tool they hope to use to accomplish that. This is why your opposition to SOPA is absolutely crucial. It’s also why internet giants such as Wikipedia and Reddit have joined in this one-day protest against the tyranny of SOPA and what is fast becoming a government-sponsored “information terrorism” campaign against free speech.

Take action NOW – or you will lose internet free speech forever

This is an absolute must:Take action today to voice your opposition to SOPA. Here’s how you can do that:

Click this link to email your Representative:

http://house.gov/htbin/findrep

(Use the little envelope icon that appears to the right of the picture to send them an email.)

And click here to email your U.S. Senator:

http://www.senate.gov/general/contact_information/senators_cfm.cfm

(Use the “web form” link.)

Send your representatives and Senator a short message that covers the following fundamental points:

* You oppose SOPA.
* You will not support or vote for any candidate that supports SOPA.
* Urge them to vote against SOPA.

You can also call the capitol switchboard at: (202) 224-3121 and ask to be connected with your representatives.

Obama may sign SOPA even if he says he opposes it

It is crucial that you take action now, because even though SOPA has been “shelved” and Obama has withdrawn his support for it, remember that Obama also promised he would veto the NDAA, yet he quietly and sneakily signed that on New Year’s Eve, stripping Americans of their due process rights (http://www.naturalnews.com/034537_NDAA_Bill_of_Rights_Obama.html).

Just because Obama says he opposes something doesn’t mean he won’t sign it! And believe me, the tactics of all these evil minions in Washington is to operate in darkness, meaning they will delay SOPA when people are paying attention but then, a few months later, after public awareness has waned, they will insidiously attach it to some spending bill and quietly make it law. One day you will wake up and all your favorite websites will simply be GONE. Remember, the government hasalreadyshut down 84,000 websites with no due process (http://torrentfreak.com/u-s-government-shuts-down-84000-websites-by-mista…).

That’s why you need to voice your opposition to SOPA right now and take a stand for internet Free Speech.

If you don’t, you may very well wake up one day and find NaturalNews.com shut down, InfoWars.com removed from the ‘net, and then your only remaining news options will be CNN, Fox, MSNBC and all the other sources of complete mind-controlled drivel that the corporate “sellout” establishment wants to drill into your head.

Finally, share this article on Facebook, Twitter and other social networks. Spread the word about SOPA. Encourage others to take action. Remember: The internet is the last bastion of freedom in our modern world. If we lose the internet, the corrupt criminals and tyrants who run Wall Street and Washington D.C. will have total, unrelenting control over all information, and your freedom will be suffocated under a police state agenda of total disinformation.

Spread the word. Take action. Protect freedom! Protect the People against government censorship!

Learn more about SOPA:
Wikipedia explanation:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stop_Online_Piracy_Act

Details about PIPA:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PROTECT_IP_Act

Mashable.com: Why SOPA is dangerous:

http://mashable.com/2012/01/17/sopa-dangerous-opinion/

Full text of the bill:

http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/z?c112:H.R.3261:

Sergey Brin, Other Notable Founders Speak Out Against SOPA

http://www.webpronews.com/sergey-brin-other-notable-founders-speak-out-ag…

William Gibson Calls SOPA “Draconian”

http://blogs.wsj.com/speakeasy/2012/01/17/william-gibson-calls-sopa-draco…

The Guardian: Stop SOPA or the web really will go dark

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/cifamerica/2012/jan/17/stop-sopa-…

Stop American Censorship:

http://americancensorship.org

Reddit.com SOPA page:

http://www.reddit.com/r/SOPA/

Infowars: SOPA dead on arrival

http://www.infowars.com/dead-on-arrival-sopa-shelved-indefinitely-obama-s…

Boycott against GoDaddy (Victory! GoDaddy pulled their support for SOPA)

http://godaddyboycott.org

SOPA-related videos:

New IAEA study is another sign of a ramping up for war

In an essential repeat of what preceded the Iraq war, the IAEA’s recent report on Iran looks like more of the same. In this video below learn more of what is really going on.

The IAEA- the International Atomic Energy Agency says Iran might be working on developing
nuclear weapons.

The International Atomic Energy Agency doesn’t really have any intelligence capabilities of its own. It is relying on reports that are coming from others like Israel and the United States.

It’s all based on ‘suspicions’ and ‘hunches’. It’s all speculation
and grainy satellite photos. It’s so similar to the build up to the
Iraq war it might as well be an instant replay on ESPN.

In fact, the UN nuclear watchdog has found NO smoking gun, but has
succeeded nonetheless in providing a pretext for war.

Former CIA officer Philip Giraldi speaks with RT and expresses
grave doubts about the value of the IAEA report…

When truth becomes a crime, democracy might be next to go!!!

In this video song by Graham Nash and James Raymond about the arrest and detention of Bradley Manning, who faced treatment that flies in the face of military prisoner detention law, you will see more reasons why we must rise up against the tyranny amongst us. Music can be a powerful tool in our struggle to expose and transform tyranny!

Fracking is really causing problems here in the US, Ohio specifically.

The fracking nightmare is once again showing itself to be a dangerous reality, with earthquakes proven in Oklahoma and the UK already and now Ohio. Check out this article below to see more on what is going on!

Since March, a hydraulic fracturing operation near Youngstown, Ohio, has been shaking things up. In the past nine months, 11 earthquakes have originated within two miles of the well. The latest, which struck on Saturday, was also the largest, measuring 4.0 on the Richter scale- strong enough to be felt in Toronto, reported the New York Times.

The Ohio Department of Natural Resources asked for a temporary shut down of the operation on December 24, after a 2.4 magnitude quake; D&L Energy Group, which owns the well, complied voluntarily. Officials brought in to investigate the cause of the seismic activity (in a usually calm area) speculate that the water and other liquids pumped thousands of feet into the ground have reduced friction among fault lines, causing them to slip.

There’s no word yet on when the well might reopen, or what the ramifications for hydraulic fracturing in the area would be if the earthquakes are definitively linked to the operation. But this is not an isolated incident: fracking caused 50 earthquakes in Oklahoma and two more in England.

It also poisons plants and trees and makes drinking water flammable.

Who got missiles for Christmas?

In this video below you will learn more info in addition to a post last year on US plans to further militarize the Persian gulf, a serious hot spot in the Middle East.

Here is the video;

The new FBI rape definition is fairer to victims and exposes TSA as blatant offenders

In this natural news article by MIke Adams, MIke helps us understand just how far this bogus government agency has gone in the direct assault on we the people.

 

(NaturalNews) The definition of “rape” was expanded this week by the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s (FBI) Criminal Justice Advisory Policy Board, following a barrage of emails from feminist activists who demanded change. The old definition was too narrow, many women argued, and needed to be updated. For one thing, it didn’t cover rape by women against women, or men against men, and we’ve all seen just how much of that goes on these days thanks to organizations like Penn State and the Catholic Church.

So in October, the FBI’s UCR subcommittee Advisory Policy Board voted to recommend the definition be expanded. The new definition of rape, which looks set to be “officially” adopted by the FBI in 2012, is as follows:

“Rape” is: …penetration, no matter how slight, of the vagina or anus with any body part or object, or oral penetration by a sex organ of another person, without the consent of the victim.”

FBI’s definition ensnares TSA agents as serial rapists

Here’s the kicker in all this: According to this definition of rape, the federal government’s TSA agents are serial rapists.

That’s because, in the course of carrying out their lewd, improper and entirely illegal strip-searches and “enhanced pat-downs,” they are engaged in precisely the acts covered in the FBI’s definition of rape. Namely, entering the vagina and anus with their fingers without consent of the victim.

This means the next time you are fingered by a TSA agent in an airport you should seriously call the FBI and report a sex crime. In fact, it is illegal for you to not report a sex offender committing a crime of which you are directly aware. Failure to do so could make you an accomplice in that person’s next sex crime, legally speaking.

Is the TSA really committing these sex crimes in America today? Yes, absolutely. Gov. Jesse Ventura’s lawsuit against the TSA goes into great detail about precisely these kinds of violation. Here’s another story about a woman who was sexually molested by the TSA: http://www.theagitator.com/2011/09/…

Former Miss USA was also technically molested by the TSA: http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2011/04/…

And now three elderly women have stepped forward and claimed they were forced to remove their underwear and strip-searched by TSA agents at JFK (http://www.naturalnews.com/034323_N…). Countless women are being raped every single day by the TSA, and most are too shamed by the incident (or intimidated by TSA thugs) to step forward.

What we’re looking at here is government-sanctioned sex offenders who are feeling up our children, teenage daughters, wives, mothers and grandmothers, routinely raping them, and then getting away with it day after day! And, astonishingly, there are only a handful of alternative media people who seem to care about this, with myself being one of the most outspoken. What I have learned in all this is that feminist groups don’t care if their women get raped by government agents because they don’t say a word against it.

Where are women’s’ organizations in taking a stand against serial rapists working at the airport?

In recent protests about expanding the definition of rape, one woman held up a sign that read, “TAKE RAPE SERIOUSLY.”

Except, not if the government is raping people, apparently. Because when the government rapes women in plain daylight, women’s groups remain eerily silent and don’t take it seriously at all.

In a recent article, I called out the National Organization for Women (NOW) for its total silence on the issue of government TSA agents molesting and physically abusing women at airports (http://www.naturalnews.com/034323_N…). Why is rape wrong in the workplace, but rape is totally acceptable at the airport as long as it’s carried out by a government agent?

One of the activist groups behind the FBI’s recent expansion of rape is the Feminist Majority Foundation. They have a campaign called “RAPE IS RAPE” and their protesters march the streets holding up signs that say things like “STOP VIOLENCE!” See photos at: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art…

But where is the Feminist Majority Foundation on the issue of the TSA raping women all across America? Dead silence…

So I guess rape isn’t rape then, is it? Not if you’re working for the TSA, it isn’t, apparently. And “STOP VIOLENCE” actually means “…except if the government is committing that violence against women,” in which case all these feminist groups seem to be perfectly okay with it.

Feminist.org caught hosting job listings for TSA serial rapists

In fact, the Feminist.org website even hosts a job listing for a TSA security directory at the L.A. airport! Listed under “feminist jobs and internships” and touting a tag line in the header that reads, “Equality around the world,” this job listing promises that “your success is critical to national security” and says you’ll make up to $172,000 a year (http://feminist.org/911/jobs/jobdes…). But what it doesn’t say is that part of your job involves leading a team of serial rapists who physically and psychologically abuse women on a day-to-day basis while getting paid inflated government wages to do so. And this is woman-on-woman rape, so it’s really feminists raping other women! How sick can this get?

So feminist.org is apparently not opposed to the TSA raping women every single day in America, and it’s actively helping the TSA recruit more feminist women who will then rape other women! Is that the new feminism in America? I hope not…

NaturalNews challenges Feminist.org and NOW to denounce the TSA serial raping of women

As the editor of NaturalNews.com, I personally challenge these two women’s organizations to publicly denounce the TSA serial raping of women, as defined by the FBI.

If these two organizations will not publicly denounce the ongoing raping of women in America, they are total frauds who are betraying the very women whose rights and “equality” they claim to be fighting form. Maybe by “equality” they just mean that all women are equally raped at the airport or something similarly perverted…

Here at NaturalNews, we believe rape is wrong, and unlike NOW and Feminist.org, we don’t make exceptions for federal employees committing those acts of rape. We think rape is ALWAYS wrong, whether you’re at an airport, a restaurant, a dental chair or a late-night party where you had a little too much to drink or your sex offender creep boyfriend dropped a little Rohypnol in your cup.

It is stunning to find that we, an alternative news organization, actually possess a stronger sense of opposing rape than these feminist groups. And it makes you wonder: If they believe rape is acceptable when committed by federal employees at the airport, under what other conditions would they also support the serial raping of women?

When is it okay to rape women? When you work for the government! (Sick!)

If they already believe it’s okay for federal employees to rape women, would they also say it’s okay for local law enforcement officers to rape women, too? Or is this just a federal right or some sort? Or how about dentists? Can dentists rape women after giving them a little too much anesthesia? Or is that not okay? Somebody clarify this for me, please, because I’m finding all sorts of inconsistencies with the “RAPE IS RAPE… but not always” explanations of these feminist groups.

Oh, or maybe I’m just too stupid to figure this out. I see. I’m not “smart” enough to know that when TSA agents stick their fingers inside your anus and vagina, against your will, somehow that’s NOT rape. Okay, wow. So I must be really stupid or something because I thought rape was always rape. I thought NO meant NO. Maybe I’m just not “trendy” and “metrosexual” enough to stay up with the latest fads, I guess. Maybe the feminists today are actually advocating being raped by government agents and nobody told me about that trend, so here I am like an idiot fighting against the raping of American women when nobody gave me the memo that reads, “Rape is now socially acceptable as long as the rapist claims to be fighting terrorism.”

Well then, if rape is okay now then I suppose if a TSA agent carries a badge to a night club, then he can rape all the women he wants there, right? Because government agents are allowed to rape at will, right? All they have to do is claim they’re “fighting terrorism” while they rip your underwear off, right? That’s what they do to 88-year old women at JFK.

Oh wait, maybe you mean they’re only allowed to rape women at the airport, not at night clubs or bars. Ah, I get it. So now airports are legalized rape zones, and that’s why it’s okay to rape women there, then, right? Am I getting this yet? This sounds really complicated, because I thought rape was rape, no meant no, and I had no idea airports were “legalized rape zones.” Maybe they should put up a sign to indicate that, huh?

Silly me. All this time I’ve been operating from the apparently whacko belief that your vagina or your anus was your own private business and that nobody had the right to violate your body without your express consent. I guess I’m just not up to speed on the latest feminist philosophy, which defends the “administrative right” of government agents to commit serial sex offender crimes at will as long as such crimes are committed at airport security checkpoints in the name of “national security.”

Hitler would have been proud. Yet even though Hitler’s soldiers gassed Jewish women by the millions, even they didn’t rape them first! For that level of psychopathic perverted sickness, you gotta come to the USA, folks. No wonder tourism in the USA has plummeted to record lows. Maybe tour companies should advertise a “free raping!” on their brochures as part of the “bonus” of flying through the United States of America which now features “legalized rape zones” known as international airports.

Where is your outrage?

I hope you see what I’m doing here. I’m trying to evoke your justified outrage at the verifiable fact that women are being raped by the TSA every single day in America — and no one is doing anything about it.

The tongue-in-cheek questions I ask above are lewd, insensitive and highly inappropriate — which is EXACTLY what you need to feel in your gut right now if you are to have any hope of responding to this situation with the proper degree of anger and indignation.

The raping of women in America’s airports is WRONG! It is ALWAYS wrong! There are no exceptions. No excuses. No “administrative rights.” No “we’re fighting terrorism” B.S.

RAPE IS WRONG. Even in the name of (false) security. And to all the women reading this, if you let the TSA rape you today, what else will they try tomorrow?

I mean, for all your fluoride-drooling morons out there who think raping women is perfectly okay because we’re “fighting terrorism,” do you also think that the TSA can rape little boys, too, as long as they claim to be fighting terrorism? So then, in your mind, the only thing that Sandusky did wrong at Penn States is that he wasn’t working for the TSA at the time he was allegedly raping those boys?

Really? Is that your sick, pathetic system of distorted logic?

You see, I recognize this situation for EXACTLY what it is. I have a clear head on this, and my eyes are wide open. I recognize the simple truth that women are being raped across America every single day in our nation’s airports, and even if I am the lone person shouting this across the country, I will continue to shout this simple, obvious truth for as long as it takes for enough people to wake up do something to stop it.

Regardless of the disturbing silence of the feminists on this subject, rape is unacceptable as a “security policy”, even when done by someone wearing a badge. I shouldn’t even have to spend my time covering this whole thing — this realization should be OBVIOUS if half the country weren’t so doped up on psychiatric drugs and vaccine poisoning side effects that their brains were already half-melted into a zombie-like state.

It’s absurd to even have to say this, but let’s stop the raping of women in America. And let’s arrest, indict and imprison the serial rapist sex offenders who are affectionately known as TSA agents. The only badge these goons should be wearing is a name badgein a psychiatric ward.

Reworking land to benefit the community. Denver school turns abandoned field into thousands of pounds of produce

I had written before about how we might choose to use public lands to grow our foods, such as portions of parks, your church’s immense lawns etc. Here is my previous article on taking back the land;

In this great article from Denver Colorado’s Doug Schepman a 7News reporter you will see a perfect example of this.

DENVER – Just eight months ago, a one-acre plot at the Denver Green School was an unused athletic field, but now that land has come to life with food-bearing vegetation.

“We have harvested over 3,000 pounds of produce from this ground. Lots of salad greens and root vegetables, tomatoes, eggplant, peppers,” said Megan Caley, the programs and outreach coordinator for Sprout City Farms.

“Kids are eating healthier,” said Frank Coyne, lead partner at the Denver Green School. “They are excited to eat the tomatoes on the salad bar, they are excited to eat the cucumbers.” Each week during harvest season, the farm produces 150 pounds of fresh, organic fruits and vegetables that end up in the school’s cafeteria.

Third-grader Justin Acosta said since the farm was built, he’s eaten more vegetables during lunch,

“Because it makes you healthy, it comes from the farm and we grew it together,” Justin said.

Building on the concept of community gardens on school grounds, Sprout City Farms created this project to introduce students to new foods and to show students where food comes from.

“One of my favorite parts was when we were digging the potatoes, and it’s just really interesting to put my hands on the vegetables and stuff,” said third-grader Stella Overby.

In addition to learning about agriculture, the farm helps teach other lessons as well.

“There are 180 kale plants here and they are in rows of three. So, we need to divide up 180 into three different groups,” said third-grade teacher Kartal Jaquette, who took his class outside to the farm for a math lesson.

“We wanted to be able to connect the outside world, the real world, to what’s happening inside the classroom,” Coyne said.

“It’s been extremely gratifying to see the kids out here. They are in constant awe and amazement of how food grows, and when they get to touch and really see how it happens, it’s a huge experience for them both educationally and emotionally,” said Chad Hagedorn, the farm manager for Sprout City Farms.

The farm was built at no cost to the Denver Green School. Sprout City Farms raised more than $20,000 for the project. Nearly half that amount came from “community supported agriculture” contracts, in which people pay a lump sum to receive fresh produce from the farm on a weekly basis.

The farm staff hopes the success at the Denver Green School inspires similar programs at other public schools.

“It’s a very replicable model and it could spread like wildfire throughout the state and country,” Caley said. “To turn this [land] into thousands and thousands of pounds of vegetables for the cafeteria is such a great use.”

Financial Meltdown Part 1

This and the following article should make very clear just how dangerous and fragile the financial system truly is right now…today!

 

 

MF Customer: $50M Commodity Account Gone

 

Highridge Futures Fund LP, a customer of the MF Global Inc. brokerage, said its $50 million account with the defunct company is “missing.”

James Giddens, the trustee liquidating the brokerage, has “failed and refused” to provide any information about the whereabouts of the account, Highridge said in a filing today in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Manhattan. Highridge asked the judge handling the case to order Giddens to locate and transfer the account, containing mostly cash and also unsettled commodity positions.

Highridge described itself in the filing as a registered commodity pool incorporated in Delaware, with a general partner that is an Illinois company.

Giddens has transferred about 38,000 commodity accounts to other firms, and said he plans to sell 330 securities accounts. Three transfers of collateral made and pending will give commodity customers about $4 billion of their assets, according to court filings.

“Highridge’s account was not among the accounts transferred,” the fund said. “This account is nowhere to be found.”

Kent Jarrell, a Giddens spokesman, said, “The trustee’s office has been in contact with Highridge and will continue to try to resolve the issue without the need for a judicial decision.”

Transfer Lists

Highridge said its account showed up twice on lists of accounts to be transferred to other future firms, first to Vision Financial Markets LLC, then to R.J. O’Brien.

CME Clearing, part of CME Group Inc., told Highridge on Nov. 29 that there was no information on the account because its unsettled positions were on the London Metal Exchange, which also had no information to give at the time.

“Twice Highridge was told the account was being transferred and twice the account was not transferred,” it said.

Separately, Queen’s Quay Avante Ltd., which opened a Canadian dollar account of $7 million at MF Global on Sept. 21, said it hadn’t received any money from the all-cash account, possibly because of the Canadian currency, or a failed wire transfer from Harris Trust & Savings Bank in Chicago, which was maintaining the account, to “a different bank.”

Account Shortfall

The shortfall in the MF Global brokerage’s U.S. segregated customer accounts may exceed $1.2 billion, more than double what was previously expected, Giddens has said. That would mean customer accounts are missing about 22 percent of their total of $5.4 billion.

The parent company’s Oct. 31 bankruptcy filing, the eighth- largest in U.S. history, listed assets of $41 billion. The firm said it has about $26 million in cash. Jon Corzine, the former co-chief executive officer of Goldman Sachs Group Inc. (GS), quit as MF Global’s CEO on Nov. 4.

The brokerage case is Securities Investor Protection Corp. v. MF Global Inc., 11-02790, U.S. District Court, Southern District of New York (Manhattan). The parent’s bankruptcy case is MF Global Holdings Ltd., 11-bk-15059, U.S. Bankruptcy Court, Southern District of New York (Manhattan).

To contact the reporters on this story: Linda Sandler in New York at lsandler@bloomberg.net; Thom Weidlich in New York at tweidlich@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: John Pickering at jpickering@bloomberg.net

 

Read Part 2 of the financial meltdown series and decide for yourself just how dangerous the ground we walk truly is today.

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