Free Republic

Cargill profits soar as grain prices surge Apr 15, 2008 04:30 AM Cargill Inc., the largest U.S. agricultural company, said fiscal third-quarter profit rose 86 per cent because of surging global demand for fertilizers, grains and food ingredients. Net income climbed to $1.03 billion (U.S.) in the three months ended Feb. 29, from $553 million in the same period a year earlier, Cargill said yesterday in a statement. Cargill, which processes and distributes grains, oilseeds and other agricultural commodities, is benefiting from increasing demand from emerging economies that has pushed prices to records. Wheat futures have soared 93 per cent...

When the San Diego Natural History Museum applied to Stephen Spielberg's foundation for a $100,000 grant to help bring the Dead Sea Scrolls to San Diego and produce a film on the famous Khirbet Qumran site, the foundation was happy to oblige. Did Spielberg know (1) that the museum's scrolls exhibit would be plagued by allegations of bias due to the curator's decision to exclude a major group of Jewish scrolls scholars from the museum's lecture series; (2) that the money would go to a graduate student who is also a minister trained at Pepperdine University, affiliated with the Churches...

Why on earth did it cost six million dollars to bring the Dead Sea Scrolls to San Diego, and why has this exhibit become submerged in controversy? Hoping to shed some light on these matters, I decided to take a closer look at the parties involved. What I found was surprising evidence that members of several Christian fundamentalist organizations played a major role in creating the exhibit and choosing its content, a fact carefully covered up in the media campaign surrounding the exhibit's opening. For details, see my linked article.

Robert Poole, a mechanical engineer who has advised the administrations of George H. W. Bush, Bill Clinton and George W. Bush to privatize U.S. highways, estimates that more than $25 billion in Public-Private-Partnership (PPP) highway projects are planned or approved in the United States. Now, a prominent Oklahoma state representative has invited Poole to promote his PPP toll road ideas, a move evidently designed to counter growing citizen opposition. Poole Lobbies for PPP Highways in Oklahoma Oklahoma House Speaker, Republican Lance Cargill, the founder of a group known as The 100 Ideas Initiative, has invited Poole to give a June...

SAO PAULO, Brazil (AP) -- Authorities shut down an important deep-water Amazon River port owned by Cargill Inc. on Saturday, saying the huge U.S. agribusiness firm failed to provide an environmental impact statement required by law. The move by federal police and environmental agents to close Cargill's controversial soy export terminal was a major victory for environmentalists in Santarem, a sleepy jungle city about 1,250 miles northwest of Sao Paulo. It came after a late Friday ruling by Judge Souza Prudente, police and the Agencia Estado news service said. "It was peaceful," federal police agent Cesar Dessimoni said of the...

(AgapePress) - A Virginia man has allegedly been fired from his job for supporting a state ballot initiative defining marriage as the union of one man and one woman. Luis Padilla was reportedly terminated from his employment at a Cargill Foods plant in Harrisonburg because of a written message on the rear window of his pickup truck that read: "Please, vote for marriage on Nov. 7." That is the day when voters in Virginia will be considering a proposed amendment to the state constitution protecting traditional marriage.

The McDonald's at 24th and Mission streets shut its doors for the day. At Monterey Bay Bouquet, a Watsonville floral wholesaler, 90 percent of production workers stayed off the job to attend rallies. In San Jose, employees of the Lincoln Glen Manor nursing facility came to work but sported red, white and blue armbands as a way to show support for immigrants.

This should be a list of who is planning to close their business on Monday, May 1 in response of the Great American Boycott. We should compile it and boycott them ourselves if possible! Remember to go shopping or work overtime on May 1!

From huge factories to small hotels, restaurants and supermarkets, many employers who support immigrants' rights plan to give employees Monday off so they can join the national rallies that day. "We think this is critically important," said Gilberto Villasenor, general manager of V & V Supremo Foods in Chicago's Pilsen neighborhood. He plans to give his more than 200 employees the day off with pay so they can attend the marches, speeches and rallies planned for Chicago. "We need to be heard," Villasenor said. His business, which makes cheese and other milk products, is dependent on the Hispanic market. Businesses...

<p>BLAIR, Neb. — He operates 90,000 feet of hissing pipes and dozens of enormous churning vats — an industrial jungle with a single, remarkable purpose: "Essentially," plant manager Bill Suehr says, "we've got corn coming in at one end and plastic coming out the other."</p>

WASHINGTON - Gay and transgender workers were more likely than ever to receive domestic-partner health benefits last year, and more companies are adopting nondiscrimination policies to protect them, a leading gay- activist group reported. But gays' workplace gains have slowed since the '90s, according to figures that the group, the Washington-based Human Rights Campaign, compiled for its annual "State of the Workplace" report. That's probably because of the rising costs of health benefits. Social conservatives said their resistance to such efforts was a factor. Fortune 500 companies were most likely to protect gay and transgender workers, according to the survey....