• attempt When John Ensign resigned from his position as Nevada’s junior senator on May 3rd, it was widely believed he was trying to halt an ethics investigation into his affair with a staffer, and subsequent alleged payoffs to her family.
• failure The Senate Ethics Committee isn’t letting their old buddy John off that easy. They’ve forwarded their findings to the U.S. Justice Department, saying they found that Ensign violated the law. Jeez, all that resigning for nothing. source

• Protest over the Mark 1 reactor The Mark 1 Nuclear Reactor, as we mentioned yesterday, has a long history of safety concerns, so much so that 35 years ago, General Electric scientist Dale G. Bridenbaugh and two of his fellow employees resigned in protest over the design. He worried that the containment system wasn’t prepared to deal with a massive loss of coolant, which seems on the spot.
• The high price of poor oversight Also unveiled by Wikileaks, a U.S. cable indicates that Tokyo opposed a court order relating to nuclear safety. The court ruled that an earthquake of a magnitude over 6.5 could cause radiation exposure. Japan’s rebuttal: “Japan’s Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency believes the reactor is safe and that all safety analyses were appropriately conducted.” source

Boron’s (possibly) stabilizing effect

• 52.6 tons of Boron that South Korea is giving Japan

• » That is, obviously, a lot of Boron. The Japanese are hoping this emergency shipment from the South Korean government will help them stabilize the reactor crises happening at the Fukushima Plant. The element, which is crucial in the process of stopping nuclear reactions, will be mixed into the seawater that’s being used to try to cool the fuel rods. South Korea is really coming through for Japan on this one; their own Boron stockpile has been mostly used up at Fukushima.

• FOX News’ Glenn Beck is doing an extraordinary job this week walking America behind the scenes of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue and outlining who is actually running the White House. Monday night he asked us to invite one friend to watch; tonight I invite all my friends to watch.
• Sarah Pa … SHUT UP SHUT UP SHUT UP … lin (sorry, we don’t know what came over us) • Discussing the fate of Glenn Beck and offering her support. Palin has become that rare politician who doesn’t have to have an elected office to have a huge impact in the media. Literally, she puts something on her Facebook page, and all of a sudden, it’s news. Man, we wish we could do that. • source