Wednesday, September 19, 2018

Transparency in the News - Or Not


Transparency is in the news and its also absent from the news.

First, lets look at a win for transparency in the news:
Michelle Ye Hee Lee and Robert Barnes (2018, Sep 18). Political nonprofits must now name many of their donors under federal court ruling after Supreme Court declines to intervene. The Washington Post, https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/political-nonprofits-must-now-name-many-of-their-donors-under-federal-court-ruling-after-supreme-court-declines-to-intervene/2018/09/18/851ea210-bb72-11e8-9812-a389be6690af_story.html?utm_term=.a6ba4cafc0ba&wpisrc=nl_headlines&wpmm=1

Advocacy groups pouring money into independent campaigns to impact this fall’s midterm races must disclose many of their political donors beginning this week after the Supreme Court on Tuesday declined to intervene in a long-running case.

It is great to hear that advocacy groups must disclose political donors beginning almost immediately!

That is a win for the transparency so critical for a functioning democracy.

Unfortunately, there is also a huge gap in transparency also apparent by its news deficit.

NO NEWS from the NRC on North Carolina's Brunswick nuclear power plant that was reported to be surrounded by flooded roads a couple of days ago (see here).

No new updates from the NRC are available on their webpage (https://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/doc-collections/event-status/event/2018/20180918en.html).

The latest news story available in a google news search is here and reports that water services have been disrupted. It is not clear whether offsite electricity has been disrupted.
Emergency declaration at Brunswick Nuclear Plant means intense workload, no reinforcements for staff (2018, Sep 18). https://portcitydaily.com/local-news/2018/09/18/emergency-declaration-at-brunswick-nuclear-plant-means-intense-workload-no-reinforcements-for-staff/

Yesterday, Brunswick County Chairman Frank Williams said flooding and road conditions in some areas could worsen as rivers and creeks are expected to crest. Williams described the county as split between three isolated “islands,” virtually inaccessible from each other. Regardless, Sipe said yesterday that flooding isn’t an issue.

“There is no storm-related flooding on the site,” she said. “Some employees have traveled to the site in personal vehicles and others have left the site to check on their homes.”
I cannot help but wonder whether the lack of off-site water could impact efforts to continuously cool reactor fuel that was scrammed (quick shut down) and fuel stored in the spent fuel pools.

Greater transparency would help locals impacted by flooding make better informed risk decisions regarding the advisability of evacuation.




4 comments:

  1. As far as nuclear goes muricans do not live in a democravy. That is just a goddamed joke. 1000 bombs open air bombe detonated on american soil to poison its own people. Then lie abou it. Fuko dont care. Hes busy deregulating the worst reactors, so theyll all blow sooner.
    U honestly think him and his ilk will tell ya bout it? Fuko supporyed the trillion dollar upgrade of nuclear weapons that can never be used and space wars

    Fuko supports all the right wing govts in europe that wanna go back to nuclear power.

    Fuko supports facist japanese president abe. Fuko ways nothing about abe shipping radioactive food to murica or anywhere else. Fuko says nothing about japan reponing the worst reactors in the worst places post fuku. Fuko says nothing about the olympics in japan or refugees in fuku or using slave labor at fuku and abusing them.

    ReplyDelete
  2. There is no transparency when it comes to nuclear in america when it comes to what they deem national secuity. So enough with that ind of misleading question and false rhetoric.

    Transparecy
    Ralph Nader: Questions, Questions Where are the Answers?


    By Ralph Nader In the Public Interest September 18, 2018



    In an oft-reported exchange between Gertrude Stein, an American widely known for her wisdom and glittering 1920s Parisian literary salon, and one of her earnest admirers, the admirer asked her – “What are the answers, Madame Stein?” She replied “What are the questions?”

    Within our media/political/corporate culture of self-censorship and taboo topics, we should restate Ms. Stein’s rejoinder—what are the questions of gravity and relevance that are chronically unasked?

    Here are some questions that should be asked, until answered!

    Why are Supreme Court nominees, including Judge Brett Kavanaugh, not asked by the Senate Judiciary Committee about corporate crime, tyrannical, one-sided fine print contracts, weakened tort law and U.S. violations of constitutional and international law affecting all Americans?”
    Why do reporters and elected and regulatory officials decline to ask questions about peer-reviewed studies concluding a minimum of 250,000 Americans are losing their lives every year due to preventable problems in hospitals? (see Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine’s May 2016 report). Five thousand fatalities a week on the average plus many more preventable injuries and illnesses should be an ongoing subject of urgent inquiry for action.
    Computerized billing fraud is rampant. Last year in the health care industry alone, computerized billing fraud amounted to about $350 billion dollars. The leading expert, Harvard’s Malcolm Sparrow, and a Congressional GAO report estimate at least 10% of all health expenditures are a result of fraudulent billings. Why aren’t the TV networks, PBS and NPR, and the major newspapers all over this massive ongoing heist?
    Sanctions imposed on foreign agencies and personnel are flying out of Washington. What are these sanctions, how are they enforced, are they legal under international law, is there any due process to protect the innocent or indirect victims, and how are they countered? There are regular stories about the U.S. government announcements of sanctions, but no follow-up questions about this burgeoning unilateral foreign policy.

    ReplyDelete
  3. The Taliban is composed of no more than 30,000 to 35,000 fighters without an air force, navy or heavy ground armor. Why are they holding down for over a decade U.S. forces and their allies many times their number, with advanced weaponry, and enlarging their territorial control? Is it because expelling foreign invaders motivates their astonishing determination? And who are all those suicide bombers and what is motivating them to stand in line waiting for the call?
    Why has the Congressional scrutiny of the wasteful, unauditable military budget crumbled as never before with the Democrats voting for more money than even Trump initially asked for in the last funding cycle? Over 50 percent of the federal government operating expenses goes to defense? Both parties act as if adequate money for infrastructure repair in this country is nowhere to be found.
    Why aren’t the hundreds of full-time reporters covering Congress demanding to know why members, or their staff, routinely do not reply to substantive letters, calls, or e-mails, without constant hammering by citizens? The exception is if you are a campaign donor. Why are Congressional offices often so unavailable during working hours? If you are lucky you can leave a message on the office voicemail. Inside the heavily guarded Russell Senate Office Building, Senator Rand Paul (R-KY) even locks the door to his suite of offices.
    Similar non-responsiveness holds true with government agencies in the executive branches at the federal and state levels. A group of citizens, including me, has been waiting for months to get a reply from the Justice Department about their request for the Department‘s position on starting a long needed corporate crime database. One would think that newspapers, begging for readers, would do regular, random surveys of these agencies who, after all, work for the people they are shutting out. Small wonder citizens are turned off government when they can’t get through to get answers to their critical inquiries. . .
    via Ralph Nader: Questions, Questions Where are the Answers?

    ReplyDelete
  4. These are the the questions this is the link. The other question u could ask Ralph about is why is there no transparency about Fukushima, the millions of tons of nuc waste. Ricket reactors that should be closed. San Onofre.  The silence at brunswick. Ralph is extremely interested in those things too. He is quite antinuke
    https://riseuptimes.org/2018/09/19/ralph-nader-questions-questions-where-are-the-answers/
    1. Why are Supreme Court nominees, including Judge Brett Kavanaugh, not asked by the Senate Judiciary Committee about corporate crime, tyrannical, one-sided fine print contracts, weakened tort law and U.S. violations of constitutional and international law affecting all Americans?”
    2.Why do reporters and elected and regulatory officials decline to ask questions about peer-reviewed studies concluding a minimum of 250,000 Americans are losing their lives every year due to preventable problems in hospitals? (see Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine’s May 2016 report). Five thousand fatalities a week on the average plus many more preventable injuries and illnesses should be an ongoing subject of urgent inquiry for action.
    3.Computerized billing fraud is rampant. Last year in the health care industry alone, computerized billing fraud amounted to about $350 billion dollars. The leading expert, Harvard’s Malcolm Sparrow, and a Congressional GAO report estimate at least 10% of all health expenditures are a result of fraudulent billings. Why aren’t the TV networks, PBS and NPR, and the major newspapers all over this massive ongoing heist?
    Sanctions imposed on foreign agencies and personnel are flying out of Washington. What are these sanctions, how are they enforced, are they legal under international law, is there any due process to protect the innocent or indirect victims, and how are they countered?
    4.There are regular stories about the U.S. government announcements of sanctions, but no follow-up questions about this burgeoning unilateral foreign policy.
    The Taliban is composed of no more than 30,000 to 35,000 fighters without an air force, navy or heavy ground armor. Why are they holding down for over a decade U.S. forces and their allies many times their number, with advanced weaponry, and enlarging their territorial control? Is it because expelling foreign invaders motivates their astonishing determination? And who are all those suicide bombers and what is motivating them to stand in line waiting for the call?
    5.Why has the Congressional scrutiny of the wasteful, unauditable military budget crumbled as never before with the Democrats voting for more money than even Trump initially asked for in the last funding cycle? Over 50 percent of the federal government operating expenses goes to defense? Both parties act as if adequate money for infrastructure repair in this country is nowhere to be found.
    6.Why aren’t the hundreds of full-time reporters covering Congress demanding to know why members, or their staff, routinely do not reply to substantive letters, calls, or e-mails, without constant hammering by citizens? The exception is if you are a campaign donor. Why are Congressional offices often so unavailable during working hours? If you are lucky you can leave a message on the office voicemail. Inside the heavily guarded Russell Senate Office Building, Senator Rand Paul (R-KY) even locks the door to his suite of offices.
    Similar non-responsiveness holds true with government agencies in the executive branches at the federal and state levels. A group of citizens, including me, has been waiting for months to get a reply from the Justice Department about their request for the Department‘s position on starting a long needed corporate crime database. One would think that newspapers, begging for readers, would do regular, random surveys of these agencies who, after all, work for the people they are shutting out. Small wonder citizens are turned off government when they can’t get through to get answers to their critical inquiries Rand Pauls door is locked

    ReplyDelete

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