Natives React: ‘Totally Overwhelmed’ by ‘Powerful’ Speech

On a Rocky Mountain night in an open air stadium, Barack Obama made history as the first African American to be nominated as the presidential candidate for a major political party and immediately promised to reform the “broken politics” of Washington.

Native Americans who were in a crowd of nearly 84,000 cheering Democrats at Invesco Field said Obama’s acceptance speech inspired them. A Southern Ute tribal member said she “felt totally overwhelmed” as the Illinois senator spoke 45 years to the day after Martin Luther King Jr. gave his “I Have a Dream” speech outlining the civil rights leader’s vision of racial equality.

But while recognizing the landmark anniversary, Obama stayed away from the issue of race and ethnicity to sound a theme of needed change and focused largely on the economy, the Iraqi war, energy and taxation.

He also took little time going after John McCain, who is expected to accept the Republican Party’s nomination for president next week in St. Paul, Minn. While paying respect to his rival’s military career, Obama tied McCain directly to the “failed presidency of George W. Bush” as a supporter of his policies “90 percent of the time.”

“America, we are better than these last eight years,” he told the crowd. “We are a better country than this.”

Obama, who was later joined onstage by vice presidential running mate Sen. Joseph R. Biden Jr. (Del.), also spoke about spiraling health care costs and a strained educational system while chiding those who question someone’s patriotism merely based on politics.

“The times are too serious, the stakes are too high for this same partisan playbook,” he said.

In outlining plans to cut taxes “for 95 percent of all working fam

Russia Deal May Fall, a Casualty of Conflict

By PETER BAKER Published: August 28, 2008 WASHINGTON — Just three months ago, President Bush reached a long-sought agreement with Russia intended to open a new era of civilian nuclear cooperation and sent it to Congress for review. Now, according to administration officials, Mr. Bush is preparing to scrap his own deal. The imminent collapse [...]

Belgium urges caution after nuclear iodine leak first downplayed

A Russian expert extracts radioisotopes from a container in Kaliningrad Related News Nuclear leak sparks safety alert The Press Association – 1 hour ago European Commission alerted over radioactive leak in Belgium Xinhua – 3 hours ago EU says Belgian nuclear authorities take steps after radioactive … Forbes – 5 hours ago Full coverage » [...]

Nuclear is not the answer

Nuclear is not the answer <!– –> <!––>29th August 2008, 10:30 WST <!––>At the Federal election last year, the people of Australia made it quite clear they wanted climate change addressed. Since then we have the Minister for Plastic Bags do nothing, and nothing but a lot of hot air has arisen from our Federal [...]

YUCCA MOUNTAIN: 4,000 seek rejection of license

A petition against the Yucca Mountain Project that has more than 4,000 signatures was sent to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission on Thursday, according to Nevada lawmakers.

The petition urges the nuclear safety agency to reject a Department of Energy application to build the nuclear waste complex 100 miles northwest of Las Vegas.

“It’s time for the NRC to listen to the collective voice of Nevada. The proposed Yucca Mountain dump is wrong, and we will not accept it,” said Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., who initiated the drive earlier this summer with other members of the state’s delegation.

The staff of the nuclear agency has been conducting a preliminary screening of the Energy Department’s 8,600-page licensing packet that was submitted in June.

Researchers Discover Atomic Bomb Effect Results in Adult-onset Thyroid Cancer

Radiation from the atomic bomb blasts in Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan, in 1945, likely rearranged chromosomes in some survivors who later developed papillary thyroid cancer as adults, according to Japanese researchers.

In the September 1, 2008, issue of Cancer Research, a journal of the American Association for Cancer Research, the scientists report that subjects who lived close to the blast sites, were comparably young at the time, and developed the cancer quickly once they reached adulthood, were likely to have a chromosomal rearrangement known as RET/PTC that is not very frequent in adults who develop the disease.

“Recent in vitro and in vivo studies suggest that a single genetic event in the MAP kinase-signaling pathway may be sufficient for thyroid cell transformation and tumor development,” said the study’s lead author, Kiyohiro Hamatani, Ph.D., laboratory chief, Department of Radiobiology and Molecular Epidemiology at the Radiation Effects Research Foundation (RERF) in Hiroshima.