A Goldilocks State of the Union: Not Too Big, Not Too Small, Just Right
Gloria Feldt, Truthout
"I am feeling so disempowered," the woman prefaced her question to me at a Passion to Action conference in Grass Valley, California, sponsored by the See Jane Do ... organization. But her face telegraphed very powerful emotions: anger, frustration, fear. It was a look we've seen on the faces of teabaggers as they shouted wild allegations and disrupted town halls across the nation.

In Digital Combat, U.S. Finds No Easy Deterrent
John Markoff, David E. Sanger and Thom Shanker, NY Times
On a Monday morning earlier this month, top Pentagon leaders gathered to simulate how they would respond to a sophisticated cyberattack aimed at paralyzing the nation’s power grids, its communications systems or its financial networks. The results were dispiriting. The enemy had all the advantages: stealth, anonymity and unpredictability. No one could pinpoint the country from which the attack came, so there was no effective way to deter further damage by threatening retaliation.

Unemployed in an Abnormal Business Cycle
Bill Bonner, Daily Reckoning
What sets off a crash? Yesterday was hardly a crash. But our Crash Alert flag still flies. Because this is a market in danger. It is a market looking for a reason to crash. You never know for sure when or why markets crash. At a certain point, markets become like drunks who want to play a game of Russian roulette. First, they have to find the revolver. Then, they find the trigger.

Military Outsources Rescue Ops, Secret Tagging Tech (Updated)
Noah Shachtman, Danger Room
In the American military, few missions are considered more important than rescuing missing or kidnapped troops. So it’s more than a little odd that U.S. forces in Iraq have decided to outsource that operation to a private company. The military’s Joint Contracting Command-Iraq/Afghanistan on Sunday handed out a one year, $11.3 million, no-bid contract to Blackbird Technologies Inc., declaring that the firm was "the only contractor that can currently provide the subject matter expertise needed" for personnel rescue operations.

Indian glaciologist fires back at skeptics
Keya Acharya, Asia Times
The embarrassing debacle over the projected date of disappearance of the Himalayan glaciers has clouded discussions on the poor state of these ice masses, especially the smaller ones..retired rural development civil engineer Chewang Norphel quietly refutes claims that there is insufficient scientific data to prove that India's glaciers are receding. "I am the scientific data," said Norphel. "I have seen, for instance, the size of the Khardung La glacier since I was a child: it was solid ice then," he told the international journalists' group in November 2009.

U.S. households struggle to afford food: survey
Charles Abbott, Reuters
Nationwide polling found 18.2 percent of households reported "food hardship" -- lacking money to buy enough food -- in 2009, according to the group. That is higher than the government's "food insecurity" rating of 14.6 percent of households, or 49 million people, for 2008. Households with children had a "food hardship" rate of 24.1 percent for 2009 compared with 14.9 percent among households without children. Twenty states had rates of 20 percent or higher. Seven Southern states led the list.

Cost of Iraq, Afghanistan tops $1 trillion
Reuters
The cost to U.S. taxpayers of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan since 2001 has topped $1 trillion, and President Barack Obama is expected to request another $33 billion to fund more U.S. troops this year. About two-thirds of the money has been spent on the conflict in Iraq since 2003. This year is the first in which more funds are being spent in Afghanistan than Iraq, as the pace of U.S. military operations slows in Iraq and quickens in Afghanistan.

6 amendments will be on Florida's 2010 ballot
Gainesville Sun
Six amendments have been certified for Florida's 2010 ballot, with the first three proposed by the Legislature and the second three through petition drives:
- Amendment 1: Would repeal a constitutional provision that requires public financing of campaigns for governor and the three Cabinet positions for those candidates who agree to spending limits.
- Amendment 2: Would require the Legislature to provide an additional homestead property tax exemption by law for military personnel including reservists and National Guard members deployed in the previous year outside the continental United States, Alaska, or Hawaii in support of military operations designated by the Legislature.
- Amendment 3: Would lower the cap on property tax assessment increases on businesses and other non-homestead properties from 10 percent to 5 percent and require the Legislature to provide an additional homestead exemption for people who have not owned a principal residence during the preceding eight years.
- Amendment 4: Would require voter approval of new city and county comprehensive plans or amendments to those plans.
- Amendment 5: Would require the Legislature to follow criteria designed to prevent gerrymandering when redistricting the Florida House and Senate.
- Amendment 6: Would require the Legislature to follow criteria designed to prevent gerrymandering when redistricting Florida's congressional seats.

E. Coli from Chicken Causes Urinary Tract Infections
Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine
Bacteria from chicken products may be a major cause of urinary tract infections, according to a new study published by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Researchers examined urine samples from women who had urinary tract infections and matched E. coli in the samples to E. coli from contaminated foods. They found that most of the E. coli was ingested through retail meat products (61 percent of which were chicken products) and ready-to-eat products (73 percent of which were meat products). The authors concluded that chicken was the main source of urinary tract infection-causing E. coli. Researchers also warned that animal product sources of E. coli might be drug-resistant which can require more costly and complicated treatments.
Ref: Vincent C, Boerlin P, Daignault D, et al. Food reservoir for Escherichia coli causing urinary tract infections. Emerg Infect Dis. 2010;16:88-95.
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