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AccuWeather is predicting a significant shortfall in United States corn production for 2019 as a result of continued flooding, wet weather and the upcoming forecast throughout key parts of the U.S. Corn Belt. AccuWeather predicts corn yield will be a significant 9% lower than an earlier U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) estimate. The USDA predicted 14.96 billion bushels – last year’s corn yield was 14.3 billion bushels -- but a just-released AccuWeather analysis estimates this year’s total at 13.6 billion bushels.

S Korea pension fund shuns US debt By Song Jung-a in Seoul, Andrew Wood in Hong Kong and Michael MacKenzie in New York Published: March 26 2008 19:39 | Last updated: March 26 2008 19:39 The world’s fifth-largest pension fund will no longer buy US Treasuries because yields are too low. The move signals what could be a big shift by financial institutions away from US government debt into higher-yielding assets. South Korea’s National Pension Service, which has $220bn in assets, said on Wednesday it wanted to broaden its range of overseas investments. “It is difficult to buy more US...

Senate Scraps Low-Yield Nuke Weapons Ban 2 hours, 32 minutes ago By KEN GUGGENHEIM, Associated Press Writer WASHINGTON - The Senate agreed Tuesday to end a 10-year-old ban on research and development of low-yield nuclear weapons, rejecting Democratic claims that lifting the prohibition would be a step toward nuclear war. A Democratic amendment to keep the ban was defeated in a 51-43 procedural vote. After the vote, Democrats were offering a compromise that would allow research on the weapons to begin, but prohibit their development. The Bush administration's request to lift the research and development ban is part of a...

Tiny Nukes America's first-strike nuclear weapons: How they work. Who's in the crosshairs. As a horrified nation watched the twin towers and Pentagon dissolve in flames, a realization more chilling than the audacity of the attack gripped the nation's defense planners. The Saudi and Egyptian terrorists who turned hijacked airliners into human-guided missiles had attacked far more than the edifices of the nation's financial and military power. Although not obvious to most watching the unfolding drama, the assault also pulverized the keystone of America's strategic defense policy--the concept of nuclear deterrence. "Deterrence, the promise of massive retaliation against nations, means...