Please donate (see sidebar) to help recoup costs of the work to uncover and blog the information contained here

"THE ONLY THING NECESSARY FOR THE TRIUMPH OF EVIL IS FOR GOOD MEN TO DO NOTHING"
--Burke

Monday, June 13, 2011

donation of one or more parts for AMD quad computer build

The author of this blog has need of part(s) to build a faster computer
either dual or quad core. The parts-list (total $647$) is available if
you ask for donation of one or more of the various
parts-for-the-build. This computer has served ten years and has been
rebuilt.

This donation is not tax-deductible. But the majority of its use will
be as always for educational and charitable purpose as evidenced by the
years that this blog has been maintained for the betterment of the
community. The equipment will not go to waste.

Please contact me through the PayPal link.

Sunday, June 12, 2011

Asarco Mine worker Marine (no criminal history) killed by SWAT TEAM after his 12-hr shift: OATH KEEPERS Memorial Service for fallen Marine



"Note to Viewer: Be advised that this is a very emotionally difficult video to watch as it is a memorial service for a fallen Marine with his widow and other family and to remember our war dead. This should not be viewed lightly, but it goes to the heart of what it means to be an American and how high the stakes are for all of us in the struggle for our liberty."

Where is Justice? Where is Color of Law? Where is Environmental Justice? What is happening to our United States of America?

Asarco Mine Employee and three-tour Marine combat veteran NO CRIMINAL HISTORY shot dead at home by SWAT TEAM after 12 hour shift


ASARCO Arizona employee and MARINE (no criminal history) shot over sixty times in his home right after leaving his shift/going to bed. Wife and one young son were home. The safety was still engaged on his gun.


"Joe Waldman of Tucson's KGUN-TV says the SWAT team prevented paramedics from going to work on Jose Guerena for one hour and fourteen minutes."


SWAT TEAM HELMET CAM and shooting on this video:



Marine Guerena's wife's 911 call on the next video:



Las Vegas Review Journal article about Marine Jose Guerena's killing

Sunday, June 5, 2011

Asarco claiming that its historic smelter not responsible for Lead contamination (Hey El Paso Texas - doesn't this sound familiar??)

Associated Press - June 3, 2011 3:55 PM ET

"""OMAHA, Neb. (AP) - The Asarco mining company says the Environmental Protection Agency concealed records about lead contamination in Omaha that may clear the company from responsibility.Asarco filed a federal lawsuit against the EPA Friday because of new information that emerged about the source of the lead contamination found on nearly 6,000 Omaha properties.New records the agency released in response to a Union Pacific lawsuit suggest lead paint on houses, not Asarco's former lead smelter in Omaha, may have caused the contamination."....

Asarco's Omaha NE smelter shut down in 1997 just before the EPA and DOJ made the historic SECRET confidential-for-settlement-purposes-only ASARCO agreement that Rep. Reyes (Chair House Intelligence Committee) said "Asarco paid millions on the condition that the details of what it had done would never become public".    Asarco had been bringing in secret international and governmental wastes at Asarco Encycle in Corpus Christi TX (where they held the recent Asarco Bankruptcy proceedings).   The wastes were then illegally mixed and railed up to East Helena MT and El Paso TX for disposal.

Since the Omaha Asarco smelter was still running all those years - until 1997 -- is it possible that Asarco was sending secret stuff to that location also for disposal?  

Thursday, June 2, 2011

Authorities still snowballing Radioactive Isotope testing at El Paso TX, at the ASARCO industrial site

The Asarco El Paso site is being demolished as this is being written, and nothing is being done to list the actinides and radioactive isotopes that Asarco left there from its nearly ten (or more) years of secret hazardous waste incineration.   The El Paso Clean up Trustee wrote (email):

 "Asarco ...handled a wide variety materials including radioactive materials Given the scrutiny [not!] of the site from both state and federal authorities, we do not expect man-made radioisotopes, TENORM [technologically enhanced naturally-occurring radioactive material], byproducts or residues at levels above their respective natural levels.
There is no "scrutiny" of the site for radioactive isotopes!!  The Trustee and the Environmental Agencies refuse to test for these -- they are assuming that the levels were and are safe without producing the SCIENCE.  Ask them - they cannot produce *any* data to show the names of the radioactive isotopes present and their amounts.

Yet another "settlement" potentially related to Asarco activity (this time in Omaha NE)...

UP Settles Omaha Lead Dispute With EPA for $25M
OMAHA, Neb. June 2, 2011 (AP)
Union Pacific and the [Federal EPA] ... are ending their decade-long dispute over lead contamination in Omaha with a settlement that reduces the railroad's share of the cost to $25 million...The EPA blamed industrial sources of lead [i.e. ASARCO smelter, which closed 1997 - one year before the 1998 DOJ EPA Asarco confidential for settlement purposes only document secretly-detailing how ASARCO ran an illegal hazardous waste incineration operation in Corpus Christi, TX; East Helena MT and El Paso TX for nearly ten years] and Union Pacific argued lead house paint is the real problem. Last fall, Asarco tried to intervene in a federal lawsuit Union Pacific had filed against the EPA after the railroad learned that agency officials may have deleted some records related to the lead-contaminated properties in Omaha.... Asarco [wants to] recover compensation from companies that contributed to the contamination.
http://abcnews.go.com/Business/wireStory?id=13737687

Was this another secret Federal Department of Justice "settlement decree" like DOJ-Horizon Shipping Lines etc.?  Meanwhile neither ASARCO, the Federal DOJ, or the EPA are disclosing the details of what Asarco had done when it illegally disposed of hazardous wastes for nearly ten years.  Technology has been around for over 30 years that can determine exactly what metals are there, and where they came from.


Remember also that Grupo Mexico now owns ASARCO and wants to run a railroad line from Northern Mexico up through Santa Teresa N.M. border crossing, where U.P. Railroad and BNSF are building facilities (recent Sunland Park NM water treatment plant changes are said to accomodate the new UP facility).


Tuesday, May 24, 2011

UTEP invites their students to INTERN AT THE EL PASO ASARCO site without disclosing the illegal hazardous chemicals onsite first

UTEP invites their students to INTERN AT THE EL PASO ASARCO site without disclosing the illegal hazardous chemicals onsite first from the secret hazardous-waste disposal operation run at this site from 1992-1998 (EPA to DOJ confidential for settlement purposes only 73 page document, 1998 -- revealed by front page NYTIMES story, 10-2006):

"google alert:

ASARCO Internships
-ASARCO REMEDIATION PROJECT- Description and Requirements: The Center for Environmental Resource Management (CERM) at UTEP invites applicants for Student ...
answerpot.com/showthread.php?2603984-ASARCO...

"

Friday, May 20, 2011

ABC NEWS: "Tucson SWAT Team defends shooting Iraq Vet 60 Times" (just got off a 12 hour shift at the AZ ASARCO mine)

"Fwd: Google Alert - asarco
Tucson SWAT Team Defends Shooting Iraq Vet 60 Times
ABC News
"And the Pima County sheriff scolded the media for "questioning the legality" of the shooting. Jose Guerena, 26, died the morning of May 5. He was asleep in his Tucson home after working a night shift at the Asarco copper mine when his wife, Vanessa, ...
See all stories on this topic »
"

Wednesday, May 18, 2011

El Paso ASARCO: smartcode not so smart after all

An arsenic-expert in N.Carolina told me that he would not live next to a smelter - even a closed one - and leave any windows open.  You can't smell or taste arsenic, and even swamp coolers won't remove the smallest particles that go straight to the most inner places of our lungs.  El Paso TX has nearly 110 years of Arsenic deposited for 1000 square miles, and the worst of it is within ten miles of the smelter.  HUGE amounts of arsenic.

City Council just voted to make all the old ASARCO land and the WALMART-former-Asarco-land a "walking community".  This is the EPI-CENTER of 110 years of Arsenic-Land, across from a sewage plant, a Rock Quarry.  The poor Developer went from a traditional design to the smart-code "walkable community design" to please City Council. 

"If wishes made horses then poor men would ride" - and if wishes cleaned up Asarco then this smartcode could thrive...

However, because of the intense contamination all around for 10 miles-out-from-the-smelter, it should not have been zoned smart-code after all ---- because NO ONE SHOULD BE OUTSIDE.  It should be all motorized-traffic (no bicycles, walking, swimming outdoors), no windows open, no one outside EVER there -- refrigerated air and electrostatic filtered heated central air in winter.  

The Developer ought to get out now, before moving tons of dirt, and building according to "smartcode".  After all, it  is like planning a walkable community next to any hugely poisonous toxic no-man's land (Chernobyl comes to mind)  --- just not smart at all.

Asarco: nearly 1/2 Billion dollars available for Coeur d'Alene and only 55 million available for El Paso TX exposed to Asarco's secret haz-waste disposal operation

EPA funding will help assess proposed cleanup sites
Coeur d'Alene Press
"At this time, more than $494 million are available from the 2009 Asarco bankruptcy proceedings to help pay for environmental cleanup in the basin. ..."

Saturday, May 14, 2011

ASARCO worker shot dead in his home by no-knock warrant-SWAT team -- and, his rifle still had the safety on

A two-tour Marine, no criminal history, working 12 hour shifts at ASARCO in Tuscon -- suddenly is dead from a no-knock warrant raid by a SWAT team who shot over 60 bullets in 7 seconds into him.   His own rifle's safety was still on.   The SWAT Team thought no one but him would be home, but he hid his wife and son in the closet when she heard strange noises outside and woke him up...


Google Alert:
"
The Indiana Supreme Court decision makes less sense than before.
Pajamas Media
Jose Guerena, 26, a [twenty-six year old] former Marine [with two overseas tours of duty], was sleeping after the graveyard shift at Asarco Mission mine ..."

SWAT raid that killed Arizona ASARCO worker and Marine - recorded in 911 call

"Google Alert - asarco
SWAT raid fatal drama is revealed in 911 call
Arizona Daily Star
Jose Guerena, 26, a former Marine, was sleeping after the graveyard shift at Asarco Mission mine about 9:30 am when his wife woke him saying she heard ..."

Asarco continues to sue: BNSF

Asarco has recently sued:  the EPA (OK), the Rockefeller family (WA), and now BNSF 

Google Alert:
Asarco Sues BNSF Over $80M Cleanup - Law360
Asarco LLC sued BNSF Railway Co. and four others in Missouri on Thursday, seeking contributions toward an $80 million cleanup at a mining site the company ...
www.law360.com/.../asarco-sues-bnsf-over-80m-cleanup-


Thursday, May 12, 2011

Asarco worker shot dead at home after 12 hr shift by SWAT team who shot 71 shots in 7 seconds. The worker did not fire his gun.

"google alert:
SWAT team fired 71 shots in raid
Arizona Daily Star
... noise outside their home about 9 am Thursday and woke her husband who had just gone to bed after working a 12-hour shift at the Asarco Mine, she said. ..."

"The Pima County Regional SWAT team fired 71 shots in seven seconds at a Tucson man they say pointed a gun at officers serving a search warrant at his home.....Vanessa Guerena says she heard noise outside their home about 9 a.m. Thursday and woke her husband who had just gone to bed after working a 12-hour shift at the Asarco Mine, she said. There were no sirens or shouts of "police," she said.....Guerena told his wife and son to hide inside a closet and he grabbed the AR-15 rifle, his wife said....Tucson is notorious for home invasions and we didn't want to look like that," said Lt. Michael O'Connor of the Pima County Sheriff's Department. "We went lights and sirens and we absolutely did not do a 'no-knock' warrant."

"Horizon Lines' empty bankruptcy threat brings US DOJ to its knees....similarly EPA opted to take [x] claim in Asarco's Bankruptcy case...."


"Google Alert - asarco
Horizon Lines' empty bankruptcy threat brings US DoJ to its knees ...
Financial Times
Similarly, the EPA opted to take a USD 1.7bn repayment on its USD 6.5bn environmental remediation claim in Asarco's bankruptcy case. ...
"

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/2/4f212e9c-7c6b-11e0-b9e3-00144feabdc0.html#ixzz1M7sbEKBu

"...The DoJ’s value give-up in Horizon mirrors the compromise the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), a secured creditor, cut with unsecured hedge fund creditors in chemical company Tronox last year....

Rather than battle bondholders for more cash, the EPA agreed to take massive losses on its structurally senior claims. The Oklahoma-based company’s unsecured bondholders walked away with equity worth more than double the face value of their bond claims, while the EPA was left with a 30% recovery.

Similarly.... [the ASARCO] Arizona, US-based copper miner’s bondholders received 100% recovery on their claims, as well as accrued interest, when the company emerged from Chapter 11 in December 2009, while the sponsor, Grupo Mexico, continued to own its assets....""


Wednesday, May 11, 2011

Asarco 1999 Settlement with Denver CO gives another $126,484.90 to 107 people while EL PASO TEXAS COMMUNITY suffers silently

"Residents of south Globeville are receiving an additional $126,484.90 from Asarco mining company for contaminating their properties with arsenic and other pollutants, according to a press release from the attorneys who represented the residents.....The additional payments are part of a $12.3 million settlement the residents reached with Asarco in 1999....[also] South Globeville residents filed a class-action lawsuit in 2007 against Asarco when high levels of toxic contamination were found on properties. Asarco released arsenic as a stack emission from its Globe Plant smeltering facility for about 70 years starting in the 1920s."

Mitchell Byars: 303-954-1698 or mbyars@denverpost.com

South Globeville residents get additional money from Asarco settlement


From 2009: Verde Realty Completes Rail in Santa Teresa Intermodal Park

Verde Realty Completes Rail in Santa Teresa Intermodal Park
VerdeCorporate Realty Services announced that construction has been completed on 4,283 feet
of new railroad track and new switch in VerdeSanta Teresa Intermodal Park in Santa Teresa,
NM. The track and switch will service the master-planned park's first phase totaling 118 acres.
El Paso, TX (PRWEB) January 15, 2009 -- Verde Corporate Realty Services announced that construction has
been completed on 4,283 feet of new railroad track and new switch in Verde Santa Teresa Intermodal Park in
Santa Teresa, NM. The track and switch will service the master-planned park's first phase totaling 118 acres.
Verde Santa Teresa Intermodal Park is a 1,221 acre master-planned, rail-served industrial park that can
accommodate user requirements from 5 acres to 200 acres. When fully-built out, the park will have five rail
spurs directly connected to the Union Pacific Main Line. The park provides a further benefit to users in that it is
located within Foreign-Trade Zone No. 197.
The Verde Santa Teresa Intermodal Park is the only facility of its kind in the region capable of fulfilling
transloading, cross-border trailer staging and build-to-suit requirements. Construction of the new Foxconn
Technology Group manufacturing facility in San Jerónimo, Mexico, that is located immediately adjacent to
Santa Teresa, and Union Pacific's plans to build new facilities in Santa Teresa will generate meaningful
economic activity in the area and incremental demand for rail served facilities. This park will address the needs
that will arise from this activity.
Foxconn, the trade name for Taiwan-based Hon Hai Precision Industry Company Ltd., began construction in
July 2008 on a 440-acre manufacturing campus which will eventually employ 20,000 workers. The project's
first phase, a 650,000-square-foot facility, is scheduled to open in March 2009 and employ 5,300 workers
making computers, laptops and other electronic equipment for a variety of companies. Foxconn is an
electronics manufacturing giant that makes products for Apple, Nokia, HP, Motorola, Dell, and Sony, among
others, and more cell phones than any other firm in the world.
Union Pacific plans to initially invest $150 million in a 934-acre fueling, switching and intermodal yard to be
completed between 2010 and 2014. Once complete, it will be the largest fueling and intermodal facility on the
U.S.-Mexico border. When fully operational, the Union Pacific facility will employ 280 people.
In addition to Union Pacific's investment, Verde Corporate Realty Services' Director of Business Development,
Jay Kleberg said, "The development of Verde's Intermodal Park is a critical step in servicing the increased
demand by local and national manufacturers, suppliers, and distributors to efficiently transport goods from
coast-to-coast and service clients in Mexico."
Kleberg went on to note that, "The Park's location, five miles from the Santa Teresa Port of Entry, the new
Foxconn campus in San Jerónimo and Union Pacific's new refueling and intermodal yard is ideal for
transportation providers and suppliers doing business in Mexico. Verde has had numerous inquiries about the
availability of rail-served land and build-to-suit capabilities, and we look forward to accommodating the
corporate real estate requirements of our customers."
Verde Corporate Realty Services is a leading owner/operator of corporate facilities throughout the United
States/Northern Mexico border region. Verde's team of experienced bi-cultural professionals provides real
estate services from the design/ build phase through subsequent years of facility operation.
For more information, visit www.verdecrs.com/intermodal.
###

Tuesday, May 10, 2011

Ex Asarco Workers' Attorneys ask EPA to test for PCBs at the Asarco El Paso TX Legacy site

Google Alert:
"EPA, TCEQ asked to test for toxic compounds at Asarco (4:25 am)
Las Cruces Sun-News
The letter, sent by an attorney representing a group of former Asarco employees, asks that the Environmental Protection Agency and the Texas Commission on ..."

see also:

http://www.elpasotimes.com/news/ci_18022789
  

ASARCO Legacy slated to be developed into homes, playgrounds and elementary school if El Paso City Council TX ok's the rezoning today

El Paso City Council will vote to Rezone Contaminated ASARCO Land and Allow Development

Under Guise of Smartcode, the Rezoning Would Ignore
Undisclosed Poisons from Asarco's Secret-Waste Disposal Operation

EPgtlo demands that until governmental agencies disclose the hazardous-wastes from its illegal-waste-incineration that this land not be rezoned

El Paso, TX.El Paso City Council will vote this next Tuesday May 10 (Items 19A and 19B) on Ordinance to change zoning of Asarco from unrestricted manufacturing to "SCZ" (Smart code) and allow development.  Under the ownership of the ASARCO Texas Custodial Trust and the El Paso Trustee ASARCO Bankruptcy contract, the clean-up is not required to disclose or remediate the still undisclosed hazardous wastes from when Asarco ran the illegal and secret toxic-waste disposal operation (1992-1998 - NYTimes 10/2006).  As Representative Reyes said in a press statement (2006) "Asarco paid millions on the condition that the details of what it had done would never become public". 

  • The ASARCO Texas Custodial Trustee for El Paso stated that "Asarco, as a large integrated metal producer and refiner obviously handled a wide variety materials including radioactive materials." 
  • The International Joint Advisory Committee under the La Paz Accord/Treaty passed a Resolution recommending testing, but no testing has yet been done to determine what contamination remains in this region from Asarco's illegal hazardous-waste incineration.
  • EPA has not yet released the documents detailing those wastes.
EPgtlo demands that until governmental agencies disclose the hazardous-wastes from its illegal-waste-incineration that this land not be rezoned

                                                                      +++

Saturday, May 7, 2011

El Paso City Council will vote to Rezone Contaminated ASARCO Land and Allow Development

For Immediate Release, May 7, 2011

Contacts: 

Heather McMurray EPgtlo, (915) 539-3388, heamc@earthlink.net

El Paso City Council will vote to Rezone Contaminated ASARCO Land and Allow Development

Under Guise of Smartcode, the Rezoning Would Ignore
Undisclosed Poisons from Asarco's Secret-Waste Disposal Operation

El Paso, TX.El Paso City Council will vote this next Tuesday May 10 (Items 19A and 19B) on Ordinance to change zoning of Asarco from unrestricted manufacturing to "SCZ" (Smart code) and allow development.  Under the ownership of the ASARCO Texas Custodial Trust and the El Paso Trustee ASARCO Bankruptcy contract, the clean-up is not required to disclose or remediate the still undisclosed hazardous wastes from when Asarco ran the illegal and secret toxic-waste disposal operation (1992-1998 - NYTimes 10/2006).  As Representative Reyes said in a press statement (2006) "Asarco paid millions on the condition that the details of what it had done would never become public". 

  • The ASARCO Texas Custodial Trustee for El Paso stated that "Asarco, as a large integrated metal producer and refiner obviously handled a wide variety materials including radioactive materials." 
  • The International Joint Advisory Committee under the La Paz Accord/Treaty passed a Resolution recommending testing, but no testing has yet been done to determine what contamination remains in this region from Asarco's illegal hazardous-waste incineration.
  • EPA has not yet released the documents detailing those wastes.
EPgtlo demands that until governmental agencies disclose the hazardous-wastes from its illegal-waste-incineration that this land not be rezoned. 

                                                                      + + +