Some groups say plan puts private, personal information at greater risk
By Malaika Fraley, MEDIANEWS STAFF
A federalized ID card plan based on state driver's licenses aims to increase security nationwide, but many fear the opposite at great cost to taxpayers.
The Real ID Act, signed by President Bush in 2005, requires every state to recertify driver's license and identification card holders over a five-year period beginning in May 2008. Recertification calls for an in-person visit to state offices, such as the California Department of Motor Vehicles, with a certified birth certificate, current U.S. Passport, Social Security card and proof of address in hand.
The act was passed by Congress and is supported by the 9-11 Commission and the Department of Homeland Security, said Homeland Security spokesman Russ Knocke.
"At the end of day, we've seen how state-issued driver licenses are vulnerable — we've been repeatedly exploited by criminals and perpetrators of identity theft," said Knocke, who noted that a number of the terrorists who carried out the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks carried fraudulently obtained driver's licenses.
"While the implementation of Real ID is going to require some burdensome steps and tough decision-making, it's righteous and something that we have ...   more »

By Jerome R. Corsi
Oklahoma state Sen. Randy Brogdon
The director of North America's SuperCorridor Coalition has gone to war against an Oklahoma state legislator, trying to distance the tri-national group from any identification with a new "NAFTA Superhighway" or any movement to evolve NAFTA into a North American Union.
The conflict began when Republican Oklahoma state Sen. Randy Brogdon entered an amendment to an Oklahoma bill (HB 1819) requiring the state's Department of Transportation "shall be prohibited from participating or entering any negotiations or agreement with NASCO."
Brogdon's amendment further specified, "No state funds or federal funds dedicated for state use, shall be used for any international, integrated, or multi-modal transportation system."
Brogdon also has sponsored Senate Concurrent Resolution 10, an Oklahoma legislature resolution urging the U.S. to withdraw from the Security and Prosperity Partnership of North America and any other activity that seeks to create a North American Union, and to oppose any NAFTA superhighways.
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Senate Concurrent Resolution 10 has passed the Oklahoma Senate and is now before the Oklahoma House.
Industry sources tell WND that NASCO Executive Director Tiffany Melvin is traveling to Oklahoma to argue her case directly with Oklahoma legislators, opposing both ...   more »

By SEAN POULTER
Genetically modified crops could be grown commercially in Britain within two years amid official efforts to water down policing of the controversial "Frankenstein food" technology.
Advisers to the Government claimed yesterday that the farming regulatory regime is unfairly weighted against the growing of GM crops.
ACRE - the Advisory Committee on Releases to the Environment - wants a lighter touch system that concentrates more on the claimed benefits of GM farming rather than any potential harm to the countryside and health.
It suggested GM crops could solve future food famines caused by climate change and population growth.
The committee, largely of scientists, also argued that GM crops could become the only effective alternative to using oil for producing plastics and other chemicals.
The chairman, Professor Chris Pollock, has been in the vanguard of efforts to overturn blanket consumer opposition to GM farming.
He believes that if GM crops with health benefits can be developed - such as wheat protein that protects against heart disease - the technology's negative image among consumers will be reversed.
However, GM critics such as Friends of the Earth dismissed the claimed benefits as "fantasy".
They said UK trials had found that GM ...   more »

With reports coming in about a scourge affecting honeybees, researchers are launching a drive to find the cause of the destruction. The reasons for rapid colony collapse are not clear. Old diseases, parasites and new diseases are being looked at.
Over the past 100 or so years, beekeepers have experienced colony losses from bacterial agents (foulbrood), mites (varroa and tracheal) and other parasites and pathogens. Beekeepers have dealt with these problems by using antibiotics, miticides or integrated pest management.
While losses, particularly in overwintering, are a chronic condition, most beekeepers have learned to limit their losses by staying on top of new advice from entomologists. Unlike the more common problems, this new die-off has been virtually instantaneous throughout the country, not spreading at the slower pace of conventional classical disease.
As an interested beekeeper with some background in biology, I think it might be fruitful to investigate the role of genetically modified or transgenic farm crops. Although we are assured by nearly every bit of research that these manipulations of the crop genome are safe for both human consumption and the environment, looking more closely at what is involved here might raise questions about those assumptions.
The most commonly transplanted ...   more »