Boston Globe in Danger of Being Shut Down – Media US News Story – CNBC.com

Advertisements for The Boston Globe boast that a single news story can “take you away.” But after Friday, the newspaper itself may be taken away and shut down after 137 years of publication.

The New York Times, which bought the Globe for $1.1 billion in 1993, threatened at the start of April to shut the money-losing, award-winning broadsheet unless the paper’s 13 unions agree by Friday to $20 million in concessions.

As the deadline approaches, the future of one of America’s most acclaimed regional newspapers looks unclear, illustrating deepening problems for an industry that has few answers for an accelerating, long-term shift of advertising to the Internet.

Names of potential buyers have surfaced only to disappear nearly as quickly, some worrying about finding a profitable financial model for a newspaper that won 20 Pulitzer Prizes and dominates news coverage in the six-state New England region but has faced steep drops in circulation.

“It’s like trying to catch a falling knife,” said Jack Connors, the former head of Boston ad agency Hill Holliday who was part of an attempt to buy the paper several years ago. “I’m not a buyer” because of the Globe’s uncertain financial situation, he added. “I don’t know whether there’s an economic reason to own it.”

Full Story

Chrysler declares bankruptcy

By Jerry White

1 May 2009

Chrysler—the third largest US automaker—filed for bankruptcy in New York Thursday, announcing that it would close its manufacturing facilities until it emerges from a Chapter 11 reorganization. The move threatens the livelihoods of 54,000 hourly and salaried workers in the US and Canada and hundreds of thousands of retirees and workers at dealerships, parts suppliers and other related companies in Michigan, Ohio, Illinois and other states.

It is impossible to say how many, if any, of the closed factories will ever reopen again. Under the terms of Section 363 of the Bankruptcy Code, big investors can pick and choose what factories and assets to buy, while discarding others. Any workers who remain at a downsized Chrysler will be subjected to near-poverty wages and backbreaking conditions under the terms of the agreement signed by the United Auto Workers and rammed down the throats of Chrysler workers on Wednesday.

This outcome reveals what has been the aim of the government’s auto “bailout” from the start. The Obama administration and the UAW have conspired to reshape the industry in accordance with the dictates of finance capital.

The UAW functions as one of the corporate entities seeking to profit from the intensified exploitation of Chrysler workers. In return, the UAW will be given a 55 percent ownership stake in a “new” Chrysler, should it emerge from a bankruptcy process that reduces the company to a shadow of its former self and strips a much reduced work force of whatever gains remained from the struggles of previous generations of auto workers.

Full Article

Workers march in May Day rallies

May Day protests around the world

Labour unions in dozens of countries around the world are using traditional May Day marches to protest over the handling of the global economic crisis.

In central Istanbul, Turkish police used tear gas and water cannon to disperse several hundred demonstrators.

Overnight, German youths clashed with police in the capital Berlin.

Some 300 rallies are planned across France, which has already seen strikes from university academics, hospital staff and fishermen among others.

Marches have been held in several Asian nations, including Cambodia, Japan and the Philippines.

“Workers are reiterating their demand that the government should find a way to stop mass layoffs of workers and it should provide decent jobs, not short-lived jobs, not jobs for three months,” Leody de Guzman, of the Union of Filipino Workers, said.

BBC Full Article

Pakistan: Tens of thousands displaced by US-ordered offensive

By Keith Jones

30 April 2009

Tens of thousands of Pashtun-speaking villagers have been forced to flee from their homes in recent days as the result of the punishing offensive the Pakistani military has mounted against pro-Taliban militants in the country’s North-West Frontier Province.

The offensive—which has seen the Pakistani armed forces making heavy use of artillery shelling and strafing from helicopter gunships and fighter planes—was launched last Sunday after days of escalating pressure from Washington for urgent action to prevent the “Talibanization” of Pakistan (See: “US escalates threats against Pakistan”).

The military offensive began in Lower Dir, a North-West Frontier Province (NWFP) district situated between the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) and the Swat Valley. In two days of bombing and ground combat, the Pakistani military claims to have killed 75 Taliban insurgents and suffered 10 fatalities.

Then on Tuesday, the military launched a fresh offensive in Buner, an adjacent district some 100 kilometers (62 miles) northwest of the national capital, Islamabad.

Full Article

What happened in the skies over New York City?

By Alex Lantier

29 April 2009

On the morning of April 27, one of two Boeing 747 jetliners used by the US president flew at low altitude over downtown New York, escorted by fighter jets.

The official explanations and media commentaries concerning this extraordinary event raise more questions than they answer.

For half an hour the planes banked over the city, passing the Statue of Liberty, Lower Manhattan and the former site of the World Trade Center, where two jetliners crashed into the Twin Towers on September 11, 2001. CNN and YouTube videos show the planes passing only a few hundred feet above the New York skyline.

President Barack Obama was not on board the 747.

Residents and passers-by ran for cover, fearing that another terrorist attack might be in progress.

According to unnamed military and administration sources cited in the Wall Street Journal, the flight was a “secret” photo-op, of which only select officials at the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), the White House, the New York Police Department and New York City Hall had advance knowledge.

One Obama administration official told the Journal: “The mission was to send [the aircraft] up to get a picture of it flying around the Statue of Liberty. They said they needed to get a picture of it flying up around the Statue of Liberty. They said they needed to update their photo files.”

An FAA email, sent to New York City Hall and reviewed by the Journal, specified a “photo-op altitude of 1,000 to 1,500 feet.” It added that this information “shall not be released to the public.”

Full Article

U.S. Economy: GDP Shrinks in Worst Slump in 50 Years « Pak Alert Press

Bob Willis

Bloomberg

April 30, 2009

The U.S. economy plunged again in the first quarter, making this the worst recession in at least half a century.

Gross domestic product dropped at a 6.1 percent annual pace, weaker than forecast, after contracting at a 6.3 percent rate in the last three months of 2008, the Commerce Department said today in Washington. The report, which reflected a record slump in inventories and further declines in housing, came hours before Federal Reserve officials said the economy continued to contract at a “somewhat slower” pace.

Smaller stockpiles may set the stage for a return to growth in the second half of the year amid signs Fed efforts to reduce borrowing costs and unclog lending are starting to pay off. The contraction persisted even as lower gasoline prices and larger tax refunds helped bring an end to the worst slump in consumer spending in almost three decades.

“We are likely to emerge from this recession very slowly and the recovery will be very weak,” said Richard Berner, chief U.S. economist at Morgan Stanley in New York. “The aggressive policy response we have gotten will take time to work, but it will counter the still-strong headwinds holding the economy back.”

Read entire article

Fox News: Martial Law If It’s a Pandemic?

Paul Joseph Watson

Prison Planet.com

Thursday, April 30, 2009

A segment on Fox News’ Fox and Friends this morning explored the issue of whether a swine flu pandemic could result in a declaration of martial law in America and a suspension of constitutional rights.

“If it becomes a pandemic, you could lose some simple rights – like going to the movies,” said host Steve Doocy, before introducing legal analyst Peter J. Johnson, Jr.

“People in our government need to start thinking about how, if this actually becomes a pandemic, how it’s going to affect our daily life and our rights,” said Johnson, before asking if people who try to escape quarantines or refuse mandatory vaccinations would face jail time.

Johnson added that Americans were willing to give up rights in order to “stay alive” but that an orderly discussion of how that would happen needs to take place.

Closing schools, closing the border, forcibly quarantining Americans and eliminating the right to freely assemble, including preventing people from going to shopping malls, were all mentioned as possibilities.

“What about legislatures? What about the U.S. Congress? What about courts of law? What about not impaneling juries because we don’t want to have public assemblies?” asked Johnson.

“Plus the possibility of martial law, but that’s a whole other conversation,” added Doocy, with Johnson responding, “not going there”.

Watch the clip below.

Texas Doctor Claims Swine Flu Cases Far Worse Than Reported

Paul Joseph Watson

Prison Planet.com

Thursday, April 30, 2009

Up to 25 times more victims than official figure, hospitals overwhelmed, virus already at level 6 pandemic phase

A doctor in Texas claims that swine flu cases are at least ten times worse than officials are letting on, and that hospitals are becoming overwhelmed as the virus has already crossed the threshold to be considered a phase 6 global pandemic.

Dr. Marcus Gitterle, an emergency medicine physician based out of New Braunfels, Texas, sent out an e mail alert to his patients which contains several stunning claims about swine flu that, if true, officials have presumably sought to keep from the public.

“After I returned from a public health meeting yesterday with community leaders and school officials in Comal County and Hays County, (name removed) suggested I send an update to my patients in the area, because what we are hearing privately from the CDC and Health Department is different from what you are hearing in the media,” writes Gitterle.

The doctor claims that the actual number of confirmed cases of swine flu is 10 to 25 times worse than has been reported, and that people are not recovering easily, as has been claimed, but that many Americans are in fact seriously ill.

Full Article

WHO raises pandemic alert level

The UN’s World Health Organization has raised the alert over swine flu to level five – one short of a full-blown global epidemic, or pandemic.

A phase five alert means human-to-human transmission in at least two countries.

The move comes after a 23-month-old Mexican child died in Texas – the first death from swine flu outside Mexico, where the outbreak originated.

In Spain, officials confirmed the first case of swine flu in a person who had not travelled to Mexico.

Announcing the latest alert level after an emergency WHO meeting in Geneva, Director General Margaret Chan urged all countries to activate their pandemic plans, including heightened surveillance and infection-control measures.

BBC NEWS Full Article

Infowars Under Sophisticated Denial of Service Attack

Kurt Nimmo

Infowars

April 29, 2009

Earlier this evening, Alex Jones’ flagship website, Infowars.com, came under a concerted denial of service (DoS) attack. It is unavailable at the time of this report.

The attacks are coming out of Japan. A Whois database search reveals the origin to be the Asia Pacific Network Information Centre in Milton, Australia.

DoS attacks usually consist of concerted efforts to shut down a web server by flooding the computer with requests and consuming its resources so that it is no longer available to users. DoS attacks commonly constitute violations of the laws of individual nations.

Over the last few days, Alex Jones and his websites have covered the so-called swine flu “pandemic” and have built a solid case that the outbreak is part of a larger campaign by the government to frighten the populace and institute martial law as specifically detailed in the Department of Defense’s “Implementation Plan for Pandemic Influenza” and other government documents. Alex Jones is the primary media source calling the government’s bluff on the bogus “pandemic” elevated earlier today to a level 5 under World Health Organization guidelines.

Full Article