Want to know where the dirty money is which is helping to make GMO labeling illegal?

Shockingly, or perhaps not to the individuals who have been observing the biotech charade, house members who voted to keep the public from knowing what is in their food in the latest land-slide win for Big Food supporters of The Safe and Accurate Food Labeling Act of 2015 (known to its critics as the DARK (Deny Americans the Right to Know Act)) were paid three times as much as representatives who voted to give us the right to label or ban GMO foods.

It seems odd that the bill would float through Congress so easily with a 275 to 150 vote when so many Americans have expressed a wish to have their food labeled. The Center for Food safety says that 93% of Americans want their food labeled if it contains GM ingredients. And that is just one of many surveys showing similar results:

Surveys repeatedly show that 80 percent to 95 percent of people want foods that contain genetically modified organisms to be labeled (in the least). Here is a simple breakdown of some reported polls on consumer demand for GMO labeling:

The New York Times: 93% found to be in support of labeling GMOs

MSNBC: 96% in support

Reuters/NPR: 93% in support of full labeling

Washington Post: 95% in support of full labeling

Consumer Reports: 95% agree GM animals should be labeled

ABC News: 93% want federal GM labeling mandate

Petition: STOP the DARK Act Which Would Make GMO Labeling Illegal!

Really – we label everything from pillows with warning labels – ‘this tag not to be removed’ to our pants. Why not GM foods? What is it that Big Ag is trying to hide from us?

Usually, if everyone wants to purchase something, the free market dictates that companies jump on the bandwagon and try to sell that something – but not with genetically modified food. Our rights have been trampled on, and you have the right to know who has bought in this recent landslide vote in favor of the biotech industry and business as usual that protects profits instead of people.

According to opensecrets.org, this is where the money trail leads:

…the campaigns of Reps. Collin Peterson (D-Minn.), Frank Lucas (R-Okla.), Rodney Davis (R-Ill.), Mike Conaway (R-Texas) and Kurt Schrader (D-Ore.), all cosponsors of the legislation (most of whom also sit on the House Agriculture Committee), received six-figure dollar amounts from providers of agricultural services and products — one segment of the agribusiness sector — during the 2014 election cycle. That put them high among the top 20 recipients of funds from the industry.

Cosponsors such as Reps. David Valadao (R-Calif.), Steve Fincher (R-Tenn.), Devin Nunes (R-Calif.) and Kevin Cramer (R-N.D.) aren’t on the Agriculture Committee, but nevertheless pulled in six-figure dollar amounts from the crop production and basic processing industry (another part of agribusiness; think Cargill Inc. and the National Corn Growers Association) during the midterm cycle — landing them among the 20 members who received the most from that industry.

Reps. Mike Pompeo (R-Kan.) and G.K. Butterfield (D-N.C.), two original sponsors of the legislation, were the top two current House members receiving the most money from the Grocery Manufacturers Association in 2014. The grocery manufacturers — who have spent $4.1 million lobbying on all issues so far this year, almost as much as they spent in all of 2014 — have lobbied on the bill more than any other organization, mentioning the measure on 14 lobbying reports this year.

Do you see your representative in this list? If you do, they certainly weren’t representing you.

Written by Christina Sarich of www.naturalsociety.com

Reuters Videos
Gay Pride participants struggle to understand stabbing

JERUSALEM (AP) — Revelers dancing and singing through the streets of Jerusalem during the holy city's annual gay pride parade were left shrieking in pain and panic Thursday night, as an anti-gay extremist lunged into a group leading the march and stabbed six people, Israeli police and witnesses said.

Police said the attacker, Yishai Schlissel, who was arrested at the scene for Thursday's attack, had been released from prison just three weeks ago, after serving a sentence for stabbing several people at the parade in 2005.

Six people were wounded in the attack, two of them seriously, Eli Bin of Israel's emergency service said.

The Gay Pride Parade was proceeding as planned with party music, Israeli flags and rainbow-clad marchers wending their way through central Jerusalem's barricaded streets, under a heavy police presence.

An Associated Press photographer witnessed the attacker enter the throng of people with his hand in his coat and within seconds raise a knife and begin stabbing people in the back. Police pounced on him and arrested him.

The crowd's carefree cheers suddenly gave way to screams. Panic ensued, and a bloody woman fell to the ground, an Associated Press photographer at the scene said.

A man with blood seeping from his back wandered around with a dazed look before collapsing. Another man with his shirt off also had blood dripping down his back. Medics quickly surrounded them both and applied pressure to stop the bleeding.

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Plainclothes Israeli police detain an ultra-Orthodox Jew after he attacked people with a knife durin …

Shocked revelers, some in tears, gathered along the sidewalk and hugged and comforted each other as ambulances and police on horses quickly arrived.

While the attack caused shock, it was not unprecedented: Schlissel was convicted of a similar stabbing attack that wounded several people at a gay pride parade in Jerusalem a decade ago.

On Thursday, media reports said that Schlissel hid in a nearby supermarket and jumped out to attack the march when it passed nearby.

Jerusalem police spokesman Asi Ahroni said there was a "massive presence" of police securing the parade but "unfortunately the man managed to pull out a knife and attack."

A medic that treated the wounded at the scene, Hanoch Zelinger, said one woman was stabbed in the back, chest and neck, and was lying unconscious on the ground.

Shaarei Tzedek Hospital said it was treating two victims with stab wounds, a man who was in serious condition and a woman in critical condition, both in their 20s.

Raw: Israel Gay Pride Stabbings Suspect in CourtPlay video

The parade continued after the wounded were taken for treatment, but in a far more somber atmosphere. Media reported that thousands of Jerusalem residents who had not initially participated in the parade joined in after the attack in solidarity.

"I do think that homophobia is rooted in the city, but that's the point of the parade," said Benny Zupick, 21, shortly after the attack. "We are trying to change that. And hopefully we will change that. It takes one man to create a scene like this. Hopefully he's a minority."

Condemnations of the attack poured in from the heads of Israel's ultra-Orthodox parties, along with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Defense Minister Moshe Yaalon and others across the Israeli political spectrum.

President Reuven Rivlin called the attack a "terrible hate crime."

"People celebrating their freedom and expressing their identity were viciously stabbed. We must not be deluded; a lack of tolerance will lead us to disaster. We cannot allow such crimes, and we must condemn those who commit and support them," Rivlin said.

Just a few thousand people usually attend the parade in Jerusalem, known for its rich religious history and tradition. A majority of Jerusalem's residents are observant Jews, Muslims or Christians, conservative communities whose members mostly frown on homosexuality. Previous parades in the holy city have drawn opposition.

Jerusalem's parade is much smaller and more restrained than the annual gay pride march in the secular Tel Aviv, which was attended by some 100,000 revelers last month. Tel Aviv has emerged as one of the world's most gay-friendly travel destinations recently. The Israeli city stands in sharp contrast to most of the rest of the Middle East, where gays are persecuted or even killed in some places.

Gays serve openly in Israel's military and parliament, and many popular artists and entertainers are gay, but gays still face hostility from some ultra-conservative religious communities.

Israel's Channel 2 TV aired an interview that Schlissel gave to an ultra-Orthodox Jewish site recently where he spoke out against the gay parade taking place in Jerusalem. His remarks were an eerie prelude to Thursday's attack.

"The struggle isn't over and the un-pure want to contaminate Jerusalem," he said. "They want to contaminate the people of Israel."

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AP writer Ian Deitch contributed.

Wochit
WikiLeaks: US Spied on Japanese Gov't, Companies

Tokyo (AFP) - The US spy agency targeted Japanese politicians, its top central banker and major firms for years, WikiLeaks said on Friday, in the latest revelations about Washington's snooping on allies.

The intercepts exposing US National Security Agency activities follow other documents released by the whistleblower group that revealed spying on allies including Germany and France, straining relations.

Japan is one of Washington's key allies in the Asia-Pacific region and they regularly consult on defence, economic and trade issues.

The leaks comes as Prime Minister Shinzo Abe moves to expand the role of Japan's military, a move applauded by Washington but deeply unpopular at home.

The claims of spying on trade officials could prove particularly sensitive after high-profile talks kicked off this week in Hawaii aimed at hammering out a vast free-trade bloc encompassing 40 percent of the world's economy.

The United States, Japan, and 10 other Pacific Rim countries are looking to finalise the most ambitious trade deal in decades.

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Senior members of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's government were targets of wiretapping by the US, …

But Washington and Tokyo -- the biggest economies in the negotiations -- have sparred over auto sector access and Tokyo's concerns about including agricultural products in the proposed Trans-Pacific Partnership.

"The reports demonstrate the depth of US surveillance of the Japanese government, indicating that intelligence was gathered and processed from numerous Japanese government ministries and offices," WikiLeaks said.

There was "intimate knowledge of internal Japanese deliberations" on trade issues, nuclear policy, and Tokyo's diplomatic relations with Washington, it said.

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe did not appear to be a direct target of wiretapping but senior politicians were, including Trade Minister Yoichi Miyazawa, while Bank of Japan governor Haruhiko Kuroda was also in the sights of US intelligence, WikiLeaks said.

Tokyo did not immediately react to the leaked documents.

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The US spied on Japanese politicians, its top central banker and major firms including conglomerate …

- Delicate situation -

The spying goes back at least as far as Abe's brief first term, which began in 2006, WikiLeaks said. Abe swept to power again in late 2012.

"If this is true, Japan is going to be asking for an explanation from the US side, but it's unlikely to have a major impact on the core of Japan-US relations," said Yoshinobu Yamamoto, a professor of international politics at the University of Niigata Prefecture.

The leaks may provoke a strong reaction from a public wary of Abe's bid to expand the military's role and push through a trade deal strongly opposed by Japan's politically powerful farm lobby.

"I think some interest groups and opposition parties will use this news to stick a spoke in the government's wheel," said Celine Pajon, a Japan specialist at the French Institute of International Relations.

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The US spied on Bank of Japan (BOJ) Governor Haruhiko Kuroda, leaked documents show (AFP Photo/Toru …

Japanese lawmakers are debating the controversial bills that would expand the role of the military and could possibly see troops fighting abroad in defence of allies -- chiefly the United States -- for the first time since the end of World War II.

Abe, stressing the Japan-US alliance as the cornerstone of its diplomacy, wants to enact the bills soon, but opponents say they will drag officially pacifist Japan into foreign wars.

WikiLeaks said there were also intercepts about "sensitive climate change strategy" and the "content of a confidential prime ministerial briefing that took place at Shinzo Abe's official residence".

One intercepted communication suggested Japanese agriculture ministry officials were alarmed at a possible backlash from Washington over a delay in importing US cherries.

Trading giant Mitsubishi's natural gas division and Mitsui's petroleum unit were targeted, while four reports were classified as "Top Secret".

One report was marked to indicate it could be released to allies Britain, Australia, Canada, and New Zealand.

"In these documents we see the Japanese government worrying in private about how much or how little to tell the United States, in order to prevent undermining of its climate change proposal or its diplomatic relationship," WikiLeaks editor-in-chief Julian Assange said in a statement.

"And yet we now know that the United States heard everything and read everything, and was passing around the deliberations of Japanese leadership to Australia, Canada, New Zealand and the UK."

Wochit
Maryland Governor to Shut Baltimore's Troubled Jail

BALTIMORE (AP) — Maryland's governor announced plans Thursday to immediately shut down Baltimore's state-run jail, where inmates and guards ran a criminal conspiracy inside vermin-infested, 19th-century walls and thwarted decades of attempted reforms.

Republican Gov. Larry Hogan said the state would save $10 million to $15 million a year by closing the Baltimore City Detention Center, which houses hundreds of inmates awaiting trial or serving short sentences. Current employees and inmates will be reassigned to other facilities, he said.

"There is plenty of capacity elsewhere in the system to meet this need," Hogan said. "Given the space that we have, it makes no sense whatsoever to keep this deplorable facility open."

While standing by the crumbling building where inmates could be heard shouting, Hogan sharply criticized his predecessor, former Gov. Martin O'Malley, for failing to take stronger action to prevent corruption at the facility and not closing it sooner. O'Malley is now seeking the Democratic nomination for president.

"Maryland taxpayers were unwittingly underwriting a vast criminal enterprise run by gang members and corrupt public servants," Hogan said. "Ignoring it was irresponsible and one of the biggest failures in leadership in the history of the state of Maryland."

A sweeping federal indictment in 2013 exposed a sophisticated drug- and cellphone-smuggling ring involving dozens of gang members and correctional officers at the jail. The investigation also exposed sexual relations between jailhouse gang leader Tavon White and female guards that left four of them pregnant.

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Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan, center, speaks alongside Maryland Secretary of Public Safety and Correcti …

Forty of the 44 defendants charged in the racketeering conspiracy were convicted, including 24 correctional officers. Thirty-five defendants pleaded guilty; eight defendants went to trial and one defendant died. White pleaded guilty and was sentenced to 12 years in prison.

The ACLU and the Baltimore-based Public Justice Center last month called on a federal judge to reopen a lawsuit against the state of Maryland over what the agencies described as substandard conditions.

According to the lawsuit, the jail's medical and mental health care possibly played a role in the death of seven inmates over the last couple of years. The groups allege inmates suffering from illnesses such as HIV and diabetes were denied life-sustaining prescription medication. The filing also described moldy showers, cells infested with mice and cockroaches, poor ventilation and broken toilets.

The agencies also said the state failed to cure systemic problems since taking control 25 years ago, despite entering into a 2007 agreement with the U.S. Department of Justice.

In response, Maryland Department of Public Safety and Correctional Services Secretary Stephen Moyer said he was committed to changes. He noted the state has spent more than $58 million over the past 10 years to improve the safety and security of inmates and staff.

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Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan, second from right, arrives at Baltimore City Detention Center, Thursday, …

David Fathi, director of the ACLU National Prison Project, said closing the facility would be a positive step, though he expressed concern about how hundreds of inmates would be transferred. For security reasons, their destinations will not be disclosed in advance.

"Given the jail's history of dysfunction we're concerned about implementation, where the prisoners will go and if that will generate crowding in other facilities," Fathi said. "We've consistently seen problems that when detainees are transferred from one facility to another, the ball often gets dropped with regard to their health care, sometimes with serious consequences."

The state has run the jail since 1991 and says it is one of the largest municipal jails in the country. Parts of the complex, which also has wings housing women and juveniles, date to 1859. Only the men's detention center is being closed. The men's facility had 841 pre-trial detainees on Thursday. About 750 are expected to be moved, because other buildings in the complex could accommodate some, said Mark Vernarelli, a spokesman for the Maryland Department of Public Safety and Corrections.

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Associated Press writers Juliet Linderman in Baltimore and David Dishneau in Hagerstown, Maryland, contributed to this report.