Announced earlier today by UVM: your new 2009 commencement speaker, Howard Dean…

http://www.uvm.edu/~uvmpr/?Pag…

I’d call that an upgrade.  

The new Entergy Yankee PR campaign has it’s work cut out .Rep. Tony Klein, D-East Montpelier,may be holding Entergy Yankee’s feet to the fire on the issue of the decommissioning fund .It is reassuring to read of a legislator proposing something that will take Yankee to task for not following its original agreements,before it is too late .An action like this coupled with the statewide publicity that could surround the discussion of Yankee’s future  at 40 + towns on Town Meeting day may complicate the new PR job

………. Rep. Tony Klein, D-East Montpelier

said Thursday that the company should be required to stock up its trust fund to begin immediate shutdown at the facility if lawmakers or the Nuclear Regulatory Commission orders it to do so in three years.

Entergy has less than half of the necessary funds in the account right now to shut down the plant and clean up the site. Since buying the facility in 2002, the company has not added any money to the fund.

The new arrival in Vermont,Entergy’s Vice President,for something,Jay Thayer makes this curious claim  “the original agreement with Vermont regulators when they purchased Vermont Yankee in 2002 was that the company could use the so-called “safe storage” approach to decommissioning.”



Douglas’s man at the Vermont Public Service board O’Brien stands up for Entergy and kicks the deadline far down the road into the future “Our position is that the fund should be capable of decommissioning the plant by 2032,” .

http://www.timesargus.com/arti…

President Barack Obama’s choice to head the CIA said on Thursday he would support “limited” prosecution of any agents who deliberately violated the law in interrogating terrorism suspects.

. . .

Panetta said he considered “waterboarding” to be torture, but did not support prosecuting agents who relied on high-level legal guidance allowing such techniques.

. . .

Panetta said he would if necessary ask Obama to allow harsher interrogations than those covered by the Army Field Manual, which the president last month set as the government standard. The manual bans techniques such as waterboarding.

“I would not hesitate,” to seek broader interrogation authority, Panetta said, adding “I think that this president would do nothing that would violate the laws that are in place.”

(Obama CIA pick may back “limited” abuse prosecution, Reuters, 02/05/09)

I love it when those pulling the strings talk about torture and legality in the same sentence, and yes they are serious.

Nope … no change from Obama here!