» California Woman Charged with Insider Trading; Selling Secret Information for Over $200,000

AFP:

US prosecutors have charged a California woman with insider trading for selling secret information for over 200,000 dollars, the latest arrest in a widening probe, officials said.

Winifred Jiau, aka“Wini,” was arrested Tuesday on charges filed in New York and appeared in court in the western US state of California on Wednesday, the Justice Department said.

Specifically she allegedly conspired to commit securities fraud by selling non-public information about publicly traded companies to multiple hedge funds“for the purpose of executing profitable securities transactions.”

The alleged offences occurred between 2006 and December 2008, and involved information about publicly-traded companies including NVIDIA Corporation and Marvell Technology Group Ltd.

One of the hedge funds made profits of more than 820,000 dollars from trading in Marvell securities on the basis of the information provided by Jiau, who was arrested at her home in Fremont, California.

The charges were announced by Preet Bharara, US Attorney for the Southern District of New York, and Janice Fedarcyk, Assistant Director-in-Charge of the New York Office of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI).

The most serious of the charges— securities fraud— carries a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison and a fine of up to five million dollars.

Earlier this month US authorities announced the arrest of five people suspected of providing confidential information on companies, including Apple, as part of a massive insider-trading probe.

James Fleishman, an executive with“expert-networking” firm Primary Global Research, was among four people arrested for allegedly“conspiring to provide confidential information” to clients, which include hedge funds.

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» Coal Fires Burn in 20 States, Thousands Burn Worldwide

Christian Science Monitor:

The fire burning deep below Centralia, Pa., is just one of numerous coal fires burning in at least 20 states today, with thousands more worldwide. They gobble up resources, spew dangerous emissions, and scar the land. Yet little is known about their impact on climate change or human health due to carbon dioxide and mercury emissions, say experts.

Approximately 200 underground coal fires burn in about 20 states, according to Glenn Stracher, a researcher at East Georgia College in Swainsboro, Ga., A separate tally shows 112 fire sites in 21 states, according to Office of Surface Mining data analyzed by Dr. Stracher and fellow researcher Ann Kim.

Causes of such coal fires range from spontaneous combustion to lightning to wildfires that ignite coal seams that then move underground to smolder and burn at temperatures that can reach 500 degrees F. or more.

Analysis of heat-fused rock“clinkers” shows that coal fires are an ancient phenomenon.“We’ve been dating clinkers, showing coal fires have occurred for at least couple of million years, so they’re not new,” says Mark Engle, a researcher at the US Geological Survey,“but undoubtedly human activity has exacerbated it.”

In 2002, the US Environmental Protection Agency estimated that underground coal fires around the world emitted about48 tons of mercury annually.

Worldwide, thousands of underground coal fires burn, with perhaps 1,300 in Indonesia alone, says Dr. Stracher, who is editing a four-volume scientific compilation of coal and peat fires around the world. He estimates that fires are burning in at least 20 nations, but notes that researchers have little understanding of their environmental damage and the scope of their impact on human health.

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» 2010 Worst Year for Bank Failures Since 1992 (Savings and Loan Crisis)

Washington Post:

More banks failed in the United States this year than in any year since 1992, during the savings-and-loan crisis, according to the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.

Amid high unemployment, a struggling economy and a still-devastated real estate market, the nation is closing out the year with 157 bank failures, up from 140 in 2009. As recently as 2006, before the bubble burst, there were none.

Now, there are more on the horizon.

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» More Than 25% of Kids and Teens in the U.S. Take Prescription Drugs on a Regular Basis

Wall Street Journal:

These days, the medicine cabinet is truly a family affair. More than a quarter of U.S. kids and teens are taking a medication on a chronic basis, according to Medco Health Solutions Inc., the biggest U.S. pharmacy-benefit manager with around 65 million members. Nearly 7% are on two or more such drugs, based on the company’s database figures for 2009.

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» China Matches U.S. Space Launches for First Time

Wired:

Outwardly, it looked like just another big space launch— and those happen about once a week, from spaceports all around the world. But Friday’s blast-off of a rocket, carrying a Chinese GPS-style navigation satellite, from the Xi Chang Satellite Launch Center was different. It set a record for successful Chinese launches in one year: 15.

The launch represented another important milestone. For the first time since the chilliest days of the Cold War, another country has matched the United States in sheer number of rocket launches.

Related:China’s 302mph Train Leaves the Rest of the World Behind

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» Explosive-Laden California Home To Be Destroyed

AP:

Neighbors gasped when authorities showed them photos of the inside of the Southern California ranch-style home: Crates of grenades, mason jars of white, explosive powder and jugs of volatile chemicals that are normally the domain of suicide bombers.

Prosecutors say Serbian-born George Jakubec quietly packed the home with the largest amount of homemade explosives ever found in one location in the U.S. and was running a virtual bomb-making factory in his suburban neighborhood. How the alleged bank robber obtained the chemicals and what he planned to do with them remain mysteries.

Now authorities face the risky task of getting rid of the explosives. The property is so dangerous and volatile that that they have no choice but to burn the home to the ground this week in a highly controlled operation involving dozens of firefighters, scientists and hazardous material and pollution experts.

Authorities went into the home after Jakubec was arrested, but encountered a maze of floor-to-ceiling junk and explosives that included 13 unfinished shrapnel grenades.

Bomb experts pulled out about nine pounds of explosive material and detonated it, but they soon realized it was too dangerous to continue given the quantity of hazardous substances. A bomb-disposing robot was ruled out because of the obstacle of all the junk Jakubec hoarded.

That left only one option— burn the home down.

San Marcos Fire Chief Todd Newman acknowledges it is no small feat: Authorities have never dealt with destroying such a large quantity of dangerous material in the middle of a populated area, bordered by a busy eight-lane freeway.

“This is a truly unknown situation,” said Neal Langerman, the top scientist at the safety consulting firm, Advanced Chemical Safety in San Diego.“They’ve got a very good inventory of what’s in there. Do I anticipate something going wrong? No. But even in a controlled burn, things occasionally go wrong.”

He said the burning of the house would provide“an amazing textbook study” for bomb technicians in the future.

San Diego County authorities plan to burn the home Wednesday but need near perfect weather, with no rain, no fog, and only light winds blowing toward the east, away from the city. They have warned residents in the danger zone that they will be given less than 24 hours notice to evacuate their homes for a day, and that nearby Interstate 15, connecting the area to San Diego, will be closed.

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has declared a state of emergency, and hospitals will be on standby in case there is a rash of people getting sick, Newman said.

Some 40 experts on bombs and hazardous material from across the country and at least eight national laboratories are working on the preparations.

They have analyzed wind patterns to ensure the smoke will not float over homes beyond the scores that will be evacuated. They have studied how fast the chemicals can become neutralized under heat expected to reach 1800 degrees and estimate that could happen within 30 minutes, which means most of the toxins will not even escape the burning home, Newman said.

The county has installed 18 sensors that will measure the amount of chemicals in the smoke and send the data every two minutes to computers monitored by the fire and hazardous material departments.

Experts also have mapped how far the plume will travel and predict it will not go beyond Interstate 15. They calculate that if there is an explosion, it would probably throw the debris only about 60 feet.

“It certainly would not be a detonation that would level a neighborhood,” Newman said.

Crews are clearing brush, wood fences and other debris that could cause the blaze to spread beyond the property in a region hit by wildfires in recent years. They also are building a 16-foot-high fire-resistant wall with a metal frame between the property and the nearest home, which will be coated with a fire-resistant gel.

Firefighters, who will remain 300 feet away, are placing hose lines in the front and back yards and will have a remote-controlled hose aimed at the nearest neighbor’s home. Ambulances also will be parked nearby.

The Sheriff’s Bomb Squad will ignite the fire remotely with a sequenced series of incendiary devices, Newman said.

Air pollution control experts have installed a portable weather station on a nearby fire station that will tell them immediately when the weather shifts, while authorities observe the burn from helicopters overhead.

Afterward, officials will monitor the air and groundwater for toxins. Hazardous material crews will be brought in to remove the top layer of dirt on the half-acre property, possibly digging down as much as 6 inches.

“It’ll be a tedious process that will probably take a long time,” Newman said.

It also will be expensive, he said, although no one knows yet how much the price tag could run or who will pay for it. They could not be reached for comment.

Prosecutors said the chemicals in the house include hexamethylene triperoxide diamine (HMTD), erythritol tetranitrate (ETN), and pentaerythitol tetranitrate (PETN), which was used in the 2001 airliner shoe-bombing attempt. The home has been declared a public nuisance and therefore the county does not have to reimburse the owners, who were renting the house to Jakubec.

Authorities also found a grenade mold, a bag with pieces of metal, a jar with ball bearings, three wireless doorbells with remotes, molds of human faces, handguns and a blue Escondido police shirt, among other items, according to court records.

Jakubec, who is being held without bail, pleaded not guilty Monday to eight federal charges related to making destructive devices and robbing three local banks.

The federal grand jury alleges that Jakubec made nine detonators and 13 grenade hulls containing high explosives. They were discovered in the home after a gardener was injured in November in a blast that occurred when he stepped on chemical residue in the backyard, authorities said. Mario Garcia, 49, suffered eye, chest and arm injuries.

Little is known about Jakubec, a 54-year-old unemployed software consultant. His estranged wife has told the San Diego Union-Tribune that he became increasingly unstable since losing his job several years ago.

Worth a Read:The Larry C. Ford Case in Irvine, California

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» Gold: Fresh Record High

Bloomberg:

Gold futures jumped to a record $1,429.40 an ounce on concern the U.S. will pump more cash into the economy and Europe’s debt woes will spread, boosting the appeal of the metal as an alternative to currencies.

Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke said the central bank may boost Treasury purchases. European officials were split on containing the sovereign-debt crisis. Gold priced in euros and U.K. pounds also rose to records, and silver futures extended a rally to a 30-year high.

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» Submarine Dive Finds Oil, Dead Sea Life at Bottom of Gulf of Mexico

ABC News:

A mile below the surface in the Gulf of Mexico, there is little sign of life.

“It looks like everything’s dead,” University of Georgia professor Samantha Joye said.

In an exclusive trip aboard the U.S. Navy’s deep-ocean research submersible Alvin, ABC News was given the chance to observe the impact of this summer’s massive oil spill that most will never see.

The ocean floor appears to be littered with twigs, but Joye points out that they are actually dead worms and that Alvin is sitting on top of what is considered an 80-square mile kill zone.

Having taken nearly two dozen dives in the Gulf inside the tiny sub that helped discover the Titanic, Joye is leading a team of scientists who are investigating how much oily material is left on the sea floor.

Aboard the Alvin Thursday, Joye said she saw“about three to four inches of material.”

The devastation, she said, could last“years or decades.”

“It’s still there and it’s going to degrade very slowly,” she said.

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» The New Poor: Unemployed, and Likely to Stay That Way

New York Times:

The longer people stay out of work, the more trouble they have finding new work.

That is a fact of life that much of Europe, with its underclass of permanently idle workers, knows all too well. But it is a lesson that the United States seems to be just learning.

This country has some of the highest levels of long-term unemployment— out of work longer than six months — it has ever recorded. Meanwhile, job growth has been, and looks to remain, disappointingly slow, indicating that those out of work for a while are likely to remain so for the foreseeable future. Even if the government report on Friday shows the expected improvement in hiring by business, it will not be enough to make a real dent in those totals.

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» Court Ruling: Monsanto’s Genetically Engineered Sugar Beets Pose Risk of Irreparable Environmental Harm

AP:

A federal judge in California has ordered the removal from the ground of plants grown to produce seeds for genetically modified sugar beets, citing the potential for environmental harm.

The ruling by U.S. District Judge Jeffrey White has again raised questions about the use of genetically modified crops and what will happen if growers aren’t allowed to plant GMO seeds.

About 95 percent of the sugar beet crop has been genetically modified to resist the weed killer Roundup. The crop provides roughly half of the nation’s sugar supply.

In his decision, White cited,“a significant risk of environmental harm.”

White ruled in a lawsuit filed by environmental groups challenging a decision in September by the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Services to issue permits to seed companies to plant sugar beet stecklings. The young plants produce seeds that then are planted to grow sugar beets.

The agency decided to issue the permits despite an August ruling by White that put a hold on future planting of genetically modified sugar beets. The ruling allowed this year’s crop to be harvested and processed, but the current seed crop was not to be planted until the USDA reviewed the effects the crops could have on other food.

In his order Tuesday, White wrote that the environmental groups had shown that the genetically modified sugar beets could contaminate other crops, including through cross-pollination.

“The likely environmental harm is irreparable,” White wrote.

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» Atlanta: Hundreds Line Up For Help Heating Homes

Atlanta Journal Constitution:

As metro Atlanta’s temperatures grow colder, the demand for heat is, well, heating up.

A day after hundreds of people queued up outside a Marietta community center to apply for assistance with heat and power bills, hopeful applicants began lining up again around midnight, waiting in the sub-freezing temperatures for the doors to open Thursday morning.

This time, however, officials let those in line come into the Mansour Center on Roswell Street an hour early at 7:30 and get relief from temperatures that dropped to 27 degrees.

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» Delta Air Lines Hiring 1,000 New Flight Attendants; More Than 100,000 Applied

ABC News:

Delta Air Lines is having what might possibly be the most-popular job search in a long time: More than 100,000 people have applied for just 1,000 openings as flight attendants.

Part of the reason behind the huge turnout might be the nation’s persistently high unemployment rate, but the airline says that a lot of people just want to fly.

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