Mike Emanuel reports from D.C.
Wednesday, August 1, 2012
Massachusetts lawmakers finalize major transport bill
BOSTON (Reuters) - Massachusetts lawmakers on Tuesday finalized a $1.39 billion bill for transportation infrastructure projects, including highway and bridge repair and railway expansion. 
Former big union boss indicted in California
Union workers thought the dues they paid over the years supported California?s Service Employees International Union, the biggest union local in the state.
Bomb squad at old mustard gas factory
THE army's bomb disposal team were called in after a shell was found by construction workers on the site of an old mustard gas factory.
Workers at the Merebank site in Avonmouth came across the shell on Monday morning and informed police who cordoned off the area and informed the bomb disposal unit.
Waste operator Sita UK is currently building a recycling plant at the site off Kings Weston Road, part of the former Britannia Zinc smelting works which closed in 2003.
Works in the area where the empty shell was found have been suspended as police fear other shells may be buried, but construction on other areas of the site can continue.
A spokeswoman for Avon and Somerset police said: "We were alerted to the incident at Merebank development site in Avonmouth at about 10.45am on Monday. Construction workers had uncovered a possible incendiary device at the scene on an old mustard gas factory. We called EOD (the army's bomb disposal team) and a cordon was put in place. They attended and two devices were removed but it is believed there are a number of other devices that may be buried. These will be located and uncovered."
In February two workers reported nosebleeds while working on the site and work was suspended while a team of experts from the Ministry of Defence were called in. Fears had risen because of the site's history as the home of a mustard gas factory during the First World War.
The factory made 20 tons of dichlorethyl sulphide or mustard gas per day. Mustard gas was developed as a chemical weapon, and affects the skin and lungs in particular, causing severe blistering.
During the six months the Avonmouth site was running in 1918 the medical officer reported 1,400 illnesses in the 1,100 workers.
In June this year the expert team from the MoD's chemical weapons base at Porton Down gave the go-ahead after finding "no evidence of mustard gas or munitions".
But after the discovery on Monday morning some scheduled plans have had to be put on hold.
A spokesperson for SITA UK said: "On the morning of Monday, July 30 contractors working at a brownfield site in Avonmouth stopped work after seeing a suspicious metal object. The bomb squad were called and attended site. They removed two objects from site, a spent shell and another piece of metal. The MOD is to provide further advice to SITA UK about further works in the specific area where these items were found. In the meantime work is now suspended in that area, which has been isolated. "
A spokesman for the MOD said one empty shell was removed from the site and taken back to the EOD base at Tidworth in Wiltshire for disposal.
Film of Elvis Presley's 1972 New York City concert on new reissue
An hour’s worth of film shot by a fan during Elvis Presley’s 1972 performance at Madison Square Garden in New York City will be included in a new 40 th anniversary deluxe reissue of the live recording from that show. The package also includes two of Presley’s complete performances among four he gave over the course of three days in June 1972.
SaskOil to CNOOC ? Saskatchewan ownership to Chinese ownership
SaskOil began as a provincially owned Saskatchewan corporation in 1973. Privatization began in 1986. Eventually SaskOil assets became Canadian Occidental Energy (CanOxy) and finally Nexen in 2000. Chinese state owned CNOOC bought Nexen in July 2012.
London shows battle Olympics trade
UK tour operators are complaining of a plummet in advance bookings of visitors coming to London this Summer causing concern for theatres over the footfall through their doors despite the Olympics 
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