0906 INT Japan quake
Japan’s northern island Hokkaido has been hit by a 6.7 magnitude earthquake and several smaller aftershocks.
The quake resulted in a number of massive landslides that have trapped some residents in their homes and buried others.
Power was cut for a while to three million homes due to damage to the thermal electrical generating plant.
The disaster has come immediately following the advent of typhoon Jebi, the strongest in a quarter century, which had killed at least ten people amid significant damage.
Roads have crumbled and all rail traffic across the island has been halted.
According to Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, at least three hundred people were injured by the quake.
Early reports say there are at least nine people dead.
Seismology reports indicate that there will be no tsunami from the initial quake.
The Tomari nuclear power plant on Hokkaido, which was shut down after the Fukushima tsunami and nuclear disaster, had to switch to emergency diesel back-up power to keep its fuel cores cool.
The Tomari nuclear plant crisis crisis comes one day after the operators of the Fukushima nuclear plants claimed, without evidence, that only one person had died from the 2011 meltdowns and nuclear contamination disaster.
0906 OR Apple sales face trade war
Sales of Oregon and NorthWest apples and cherries face falling prices, as President Trump’s trade war with China are beginning to bite.
Today is the day the public comment period ends for the proposed tariffs against imported Chinese goods, and President Trump has said he intends to wait no longer to impose the fees.
The price of cherries sold in Hong Kong has already dropped by as much as forty percent.
The impact of China’s retaliatory tariffs could be as much as two-point-six billion, and producers are saying that the one-point-two billion dollars in compensatory purchases from the Trump Department of Agriculture will not be enough to hedge for the price impact.
Chinese Commerce Ministry spokesman Gao Feng [GOW FUNG] took a defiant attitude to the sanctions, saying QUOTE “If the US takes new trade measures against China … China will take necessary countermeasures… Any measures pressuring China [to yield] will be ineffective, as the trade war can’t solve any problems.”
According to market analysts Barclays Capital, trade volume with China is likely to drop by one hundred fifty six billion dollars under the 2017 rate.
President Trump has said he is willing to place a tariff on all of the five hundred billion dollars in annual trade with China.
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0906 US Roe V. Wade under Kavanaugh
Roe V. Wade, the landmark decision legalizing abortion in all fifty States, has come under a shadow as the Senate Supreme Court confirmation hearings proceed for Brett Kavanaugh.
An email from Kavanaugh that had been hidden by Senate Republicans as confidential, but revealed by an anonymous source to the New York Times, said: QUOTE “I am not sure that all legal scholars refer to Roe as the settled law of the land at the Supreme Court level since [the] Court can always overrule its precedent, and three current Justices on the Court would do so.”
The revelation flies in the face of Republican Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley, who has designated one hundred eighty nine thousand such documents as confidential and thus inaccessible to the Senate and the press.
The hearings have been fraught with protest from Democrats and some sixty members of the public, after Grassley convened the Senate procedure less than a day after releasing more than forty thousand pages of documents, ensuring that no one could analyze them before the gavel fell.
The National Abortion Rights Action League was quoted in the New York Times saying QUOTE “Brett Kavanaugh’s emails are rock solid evidence that he has been hiding his true beliefs and if he is given a lifetime seat on the Supreme Court, he will gut Roe v. Wade, criminalize abortion, and punish women.
“Everything he said yesterday in front of the Senate Judiciary Committee about ‘settled law’ was nothing but a show to mislead the Senate.”
The hearings on Russiagate with questions from Democratic Senator Kamala Harris of California, who wanted to know whether Kavanaugh had discussed the issue with President Trump’s lawyers.
JUDGE KAVANAUGH WOULD NOT RESPOND TO HARRIS, BUT LATER SAID TO REPUBLICAN SENATOR ORRIN HATCH OF UTAH THAT HE DIDN’T RECALL ANY SUCH CONVERSATIONS.
Kavanaugh also evaded questions of presidential privilege, executive pardoning power, and “dark money" contributions in promoting his nomination.
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0906 US Vancouver Peace Fair
The annual Vancouver Peace and Justice Fair and Concert is to be staged at Esther Short Park in Vancouver, Washington, this Saturday.
This will be the fifteenth year that the Fair has gone on, and it will include more than a hundred exhibitors.
Booths will promote the interests and views of Black Lives Matter, the Rachel Corrie Foundation, NARAL Pro-Choice, the Northwest Gender Alliance, Oregon Physicians for Social Responsibility, and others.
According to their website, QUOTE “The Vancouver Peace and Justice Fair builds community among the grassroots peace and justice groups in Southwest Washington.”
The fair will be held this Saturday, September 8th, from nine AM to four PM, at eighth and Columbia in Vancouver.
Further information may be found at vancouverpeaceandjusticefair.org.
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0906 INT Ethiopia Reopens Embassy in Eritrea
Ethiopia has reopened its embassy in Eritrea (AIR’ uh- TREE’- AH) for the first time in 20 years.
This move shows how much relations have improved between the two countries since they signed a peace accord earlier this year.
Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed and Eritrean President Isaias Afwerki both attended the reopening ceremony in Asmara (aS - mar’ – UH), the capital of Ethiopia.
Redwan Hussein has been appointed to the position of Ethiopian ambassador.
In July, Eritrea also reopened its embassy in Ethiopia and named Semere Russom as ambassador.
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0906 OR Apple sales face trade war
Sales of Oregon and NorthWest apples and cherries face falling prices, as President Trump’s trade war with China is beginning to bite.
Today is the day the public comment period ends for the proposed tariffs against imported Chinese goods, and President Trump has said he intends to wait no longer to impose the fees.
The price of cherries sold in Hong Kong has already dropped by as much as forty percent.
The impact of China’s retaliatory tariffs could be as much as two- point- six billion, and producers are saying that the one- point-two billion dollars in compensatory purchases from the Department of Agriculture will not be enough to hedge the price impact.
Chinese Commerce Ministry spokesman Gao Feng [GOW FUNG] took a defiant attitude about the sanctions, saying QUOTE “If the US takes new trade measures against China … China will take necessary countermeasures… Any measures pressuring China will be ineffective, as the trade war can’t solve any problems.”
According to market analysts Barclays Capital, trade volume with China is likely to drop by one hundred fifty six billion dollars under the 2017 rate.
President Trump has said he is willing to place a tariff on all of the five hundred billion dollars in annual trade with China.
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0906 OR Woman Sues After Raccoon Attack
A Portland woman is suing her apartment complex, saying that staff negligence led to a raccoon attack.
Heidi Schultz was walking her dogs at the Wimbledon Square apartments when a raccoon lunged toward her from under a car.
Schultz says she and other tenants have previously complained about trash outside the buildings.
Schultz is being represented by the law firm Kafoury and McDougal, which cited a dumpster fire last month as evidence of the trash problem.
Her lawyer, Jason Kafoury said, QUOTE “This place had insects, rodents, raccoons, running around because they had trash everywhere.”
Schultz says her medical bills are around twenty-six thousand dollars.
Prime Group, the Los Angeles based company that owns the apartments would not comment on the lawsuit.
they have been sued previously when a resident fell through a walkway after filing several complaints about the safety of the floor boards. The plaintiff was awarded twenty million dollars in damages.
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