News Updates from CLG
20 January 2016
Saudi Arabia is buying up farmland in US Southwest | 15 Jan 2016 | [I-CIA-SIS best buds] Saudi Arabia and other Persian Gulf countries are scooping up farmland in drought-afflicted regions of the U.S. Southwest, and that has some people in California and Arizona seeing red. Privately held Fondomonte California on Sunday announced that it bought 1,790 acres of farmland in Blythe, California — an agricultural town along the Colorado River — for nearly 32 million. Two years ago, Fondomonte’s parent company, Saudi food giant Almarai, purchased another 10,000 acres of farmland about 50 miles away in Vicksburg, Arizona, for around 48 million…Back in Blythe, the purchase of farmland comes as urban residents of California face state-mandated water cutbacks due to a fourth year of severe drought.
Lock up all Muslim male refugees in asylum centers: Dutch MP | 18 Jan 21016 | Far-right Dutch lawmaker Geert Wilders says all Muslim male refugees should be incarcerated in their asylum centers in Europe, claiming it to be necessary for protecting women on the streets. Wilders made the remarks in a Monday video for his Freedom Party (PVV) following the recent sexual assaults against women in the German city of Cologne on New Year’s Eve. In the video released in both Dutch and English, he urged the Dutch government to shut the country’s borders to all "asylum-seekers from Islamic countries."
California officials delay plans to mitigate massive gas leak | 16 Jan 2016 | Southern California air quality officials on Saturday delayed plans to capture and burn off natural gas leaking from an underground well near an affluent Los Angeles neighborhood, citing the possible risk of a fire. The move came at a public hearing where Porter Ranch residents, many of whom have been displaced or sickened by the methane leaking from the underground storage well, expressed frustration over the failure of the state or the utility, Southern California Gas Co, to stop the leak. The leak was first detected on Oct. 23 at an underground natural gas field in Porter Ranch, which is home to more than 30,000 people.
Useless and risky: Flu vaccine reducing risk of illness by only 23 percent this year, CDC says| 15 Jan 2016 | The flu vaccine is barely protecting people this year – reducing the risk of serious disease by just 23 percent, federal health officials said Thursday. It’s not the worst year ever for the flu vaccine – there have been years when the flu vaccine was only 10 percent effective. But it’s not good news for people trying to avoid the flu.
Sarah Palin endorses Donald Trump | 19 Jan 2016 | Former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin endorsed Republican presidential front-runner Donald Trump Tuesday at an Iowa campaign stop, delivering a raucous speech full of Palin-isms during her return to the presidential campaign trail. The 2008 Republican vice presidential candidate said she was "proud to endorse" Trump. The official endorsement will be followed by a joint appearance on Wednesday morning in Tulsa, Oklahoma.
Donald Trump unloads on Ted Cruz: ‘Nasty guy…Nobody likes him’ | 17 Jan 2016 | With just two weeks before the Iowa caucuses, the battle between Republican presidential candidates Donald Trump and Ted Cruz is getting personal. During an interview Sunday on ABC’s "This Week," Mr. Trump took shots at Mr. Cruz’s character, saying the Texas senator is a "nasty guy" and a "hypocrite" and that "nobody likes him."