TheLatest.Net
News from Independent journalists

MarketCreative.com
YOUR BUSINESS ON THE INTERNET TOMORROW -- FREE!
Click here.
Collectors movies and TV shows for the price of a blank videocassette!
Click here.

Mike Shiloh News:                        
Mike Shiloh is a 20-year veteran  of broadcast and print news covering  politics, economics  and  American culture.

THE FEDERAL EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT AGENCY (FEMA) IS PREPARING FOR AN OUTBREAK OF "FOOT AND MOUTH" DISEASE IN THE UNITED STATES, which officials say is "highly likely." The CIA joined the US Departments of Agriculture and the Interior along with other agencies last week to go over plans for the day when the virus -- which has wiped out dozens of farms across England and threatens to wipe out as many as half all such farms --  hits our shores.

Also involved in planning is the Army's Department of Biological Warfare. There have been Internet rumors that the foot-and-mouth outbreak in England, which spread to other portions of Europe, may have originated as a biological terrorist action. Of course, there is better documentation that it may have started in a contraband shipment of beef from Thailand headed for a British Chinese restaurant.

USA Today quotes a FEMA official as saying the outbreak would be treated as another natural disaster, like a flood or an earthquake.

There hasn't been a recorded case of what used to be called "hoof and mouth disease" in the US in more than 70 years.

The European outbreak began in February and quickly spread to farms across Great Britain, then to France and the Netherlands.

The virus is not related to the foot-and-mouth "disease" commonly experienced by children.

Thousands of cattle have been and are being destroyed across Great Britain because the virus is so easily spread (it can be carried by shoes or on clothing from farm to farm and from herd to herd) and has the effect of rendering cattle, pigs and other cloven-hooved animals unfit for market.

A DIPLOMATIC COUP FOR THE BUSH ADMINISTRATION -- just three hours after Secretary of State Colin Powell condemned as harsh the 24-hour Israeli occupation of Palestinian-controlled areas of the Gaza Strip, Israeli troops began to withdraw overnight. 

Powell said Monday night that "there can be no military solution to this conflict," just hours after Israel launched attacks against Palestinian targets and troops moved into Gaza. This, following an Israeli raid on Syrian targets in Lebanon, both apparently as a response to mortar attacks on a southern Israeli town, called by Tel Aviv an escalation of the seven-months-old "uprising" by Palestinians. 

DISTRUST OF GOVERNMENT IN AMERICA REACHES NEW LEVELS -- families of the victims of the Columbine school shootings are alleging a coverup by local officials. Some of the families say the local Colorado sheriff's department botched the investigation into the tragic shootings and have destroyed documents, videotapes and other records.

Meanwhile, a new documentary short called "The F.L.I.R Project" concludes that the FBI fired upon Branch Davidians who were fleeing flames at their compound near Waco, Texas April 19, 1993, WorldNewsDaily says.

The evidence presented in the documentary contradicts the findings of a special counsel who looked into the matter at the request of Attorney General Janet Reno last year.

SADDAM HUSSEIN IS REBUILDING HIS BIOLOGICAL WEAPONS PLANTS, WorldNetDaily also reports.

MISSISSIPPI RESIDENTS HAVE VOTED TO KEEP THE CONFEDERATE SYMBOL IN ITS 1894 STATE FLAG. Some blacks have objected to the use of the symbol because they claim it's a reminder of slavery, since slavery was one of the issues being fought over in the Civil War. 

Only about a-third of voters favored drawing up a new flag, ,and only about 35-percent of Mississippi blacks favored replacing the flag, according to recent polls.        

The National Association For the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) is promising a boycott of the entire state if the flag isn't changed, something similar to actions by the NAACP last year against South Carolina when that state kept a Confederate flag over its statehouse, an action originated by a Democratic governor.

A number of historians argue that the Civil War was fought chiefly over markets and economics and only secondarily over slavery.

THE DOW INDUSTRIALS CLOSED UP 58 TUESDAY; the Nasdaq was up 14.

FLOODING ALONG THE MISSISSIPPI WON'T BE AS BAD AS MANY HAD PREDICTED. Many residents have fled their homes as the river rose beyond its banks, while others have been sandbagging. 

Melting snow and heavy rains upriver have been causing floods south of Minneapolis, but now NOAA officials say there's no need to be alarmed and some people may return to their homes within 48 hours. 

PHILADELPHIA -- A CON MAN BEING SENTENCED FOR HIS 21ST CONVICTION MADE A DEAL WITH THE JUDGE: DONATE A KIDNEY AND GET PROBATION. The recipient: the con man's sister. Back out, the judge told him, and you're going to prison.

The convict has been arrested 49 times under ten aliases yielding twenty-one convictions.

FORMER PRESIDENT REAGAN CONTINUES TO LOSE GROUND IN HIS FIGHT AGAINST ALZHEIMERS DISEASE. The 40th President had been going to his $18,000-a-month office (the lease is far below market value) regularly as late as last year, but as his Century City office lease comes up for renewal this year, word that the Reagan family won't be renewing because, as chief of staff Joanne Drake said Tuesday, "he doesn't come here anymore."

His office is in the building remembered as the glass-sided structure used for filming the Bruce Willis movie, "Diehard."

FIVE SUSPECTS WITH CONNECTIONS TO TERRORIST ORGANIZATIONS HAVE BEEN ARRESTED IN YEMEN in connection with the bombing of the USS Cole, in which 16 American sailors died.

TOUGHER ENVIRONMENTAL REGULATIONS -- companies using as little as 100 pounds of lead will now have to report it to the US Environmental Protection Agency; previously a company had to use at least 25-thousand pounds of lead before being required to report its activities.

Lead is considered a danger to many, especially children; the EPA wants better tracking of such dangers.

The new "100 pounds" legislation was originally implemented by ex-President Clinton in his final days in office.

Monday, the Bush Administration slapped stricter regulations on use of wetlands; that, too, was first implemented by Clinton.

The two new moves are in response to strong criticism by environmentalists who are upset up the opening up by the Bush Administration of some pristine Alaskan fields to oil exploration, among other issues.

A GALLUP POLL OUT TUESDAY INDICATES THE BUSH ADMINISTRATION IS TAKING CARE OF THE ENVIRONMENT. Forty-nine-percent of those asked say Bush is doing a good job of environmental protection; 41-percent believe the administration isn't doing enough.

CALL ST. JOHNS WORT A TREATMENT FOR DEPRESSION "LITE." A new Vanderbilt University study indicates the herbal medicine touted as a cure for depression doesn't work in severe cases. 

The study -- which not incidentally was funded by a manufacturer of prescription antidepressants -- says there may be a use for the ancient remedy in milder cases of depression. 

A more thorough study by the National Institute of Mental Health is due late this year.

CHINA PLANS TO TAKE A STRAIGHTFORWARD APPROACH TO WEDNESDAY'S TALKS WITH THE US over the downing of a US reconnaissance plane nearly three weeks ago. Chinese officials say they will use  Wednesday's scheduled meeting to call for an end to such flights just outside Chinese airspace, but US officials say the intelligence-gathering flights will continue.

KEY SENATORS OF BOTH PARTIES ARE CALLING FOR A TOUGHER US STANCE AGAINST CHINA. The taking by China of the downed US reconnaissance plane is equated by some in Washington with questioning US credibility as a world power. "That,"  New Jersey Democratic Senator Robert Torricelli said Sunday, "cannot stand."

Arizona Republican US Representative John Kyl said it's incumbent on President Bush to send a strong message to Chinese representatives that continued belligerence toward Taiwan -- and the US -- will not be tolerated.

Former Nixon Defense Secretary James Schlesinger says the Chinese military probably lied to civilian leaders about the details of the downing of the US plane, claiming the US plane was aggressive toward a Chinese jet.

Former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, who assisted in the last weeks' efforts to free 24 crewmen from the downed US plane, says the Chinese military played a strong role in negotiations for the release of the crew, which probably postponed that release for days.

LABOR SECRETARY ELAINE CHAO HAS HAD TO REVISE HER FINANCIAL DISCLOSURE FORMS because of vague ties to a website that itself is closely tied to China. Chao says she had little to do with the website and has since severed ties.

POP SUPERSTAR MICHAEL JACKSON HAS AGREED TO REUNITE WITH THE JACKSON FIVE at a concert September 7th at Madison Square Garden in New York City, celebrating his 30th anniversary in show business.

HOW'S THAT AGAIN? A Houston radio newscast: "Police officer shoots man with knife."

So help me.

--Mike Shiloh