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Microbial contaminants can be killed by cooking, but chemical residues aren’t destroyed by heat. In fact, some of these residues break down into more dangerous substances when heated, according to the FSIS National Residue Program for Cattle, a recent report by the USDA’s Office of the Inspector General.

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“… The national residue program is not accomplishing its mission of monitoring the food supply for harmful residues,” the report says, noting that thresholds for many dangerous substances, like copper and dioxin, have yet to be established. “We also found that FSIS does not recall meat adulterated with harmful residues, even when it is aware that the meat has failed its laboratory tests.”

The routes by which veterinary drugs make it into human food trace a disturbing portrait of how large dairy farms operate. Sick dairy cows are given medications to help them recover, but if it appears an animal will die, it’s often sold to a slaughterhouse as quickly as possible, in time to kill it before it dies. That way, “[the dairy farmer] can recoup some of his investment in the animal,” according to the report.

In such cases, medications may be consumed along with the meat. Such drugs include Ivermectin (which can act as a neurotoxin in humans), Flunixin (which can damage kidneys), and penicillin (which can cause life-threatening allergic reactions in some people).

The meat from sick dairy cattle is low-grade, and is usually turned into burger and sold to the sorts of buyers who stretch their dollars furthest, like fast food chains and school lunch programs. But veterinary drugs are also finding their way into an upper echelon of meat: veal.

Hundreds of thousands of deaths took place throughout these countries. Did they take place? And are they in all cases attributable to US foreign policy? The answer is yes they did take place and they are attributable to American foreign policy. But you wouldn’t know it.

Houston, Texas-based Halliburton said that Boots & Coots stockholders will receive $3.00 per share for each share of Boots & Coots common stock they hold, comprised of $1.73 in cash and $1.27 in Halliburton common stock.

Founded in 1978 and also based in Houston, Boots & Coots provides integrated pressure control services to onshore and offshore oil and gas exploration companies around the world. Its products and services include well intervention services designed to enhance production for oil and gas operators and its services consist primarily of hydraulic workover and snubbing services.

Boots & Coots’ equipment services segment provides high pressure, high temperature rental tools. The company’s pressure control services are designed to reduce the number and severity of critical events such as oil and gas well fires, blowouts or other incidences due to loss of control at the well.

Boots & Coots had extinguished about one third of the more than 700 oil well fires set by retreating Iraqi soldiers in Kuwait during the infamous Gulf War. In 2007, it diversified from emergency response services to well intervention services, which now generates a majority of its revenue.

Following completion of the transaction, Halliburton will create a new product service line to include Halliburton’s existing coiled tubing and hydraulic workover operations and Boots & Coots’ intervention services and pressure control business.

Halliburton will retain Boots & Coots’ management to run the business after it has been integrated as Halliburton Boots & Coots product line.

Marc Edwards, Halliburton’s senior vice president of completion and production, said, “Optimising economic production levels in both mature assets and unconventional gas resources requires increasing levels of pressure control and well intervention.

The combination of Halliburton’s global hydraulic workover and coiled tubing deployed technologies, together with Boots & Coots’ well intervention and pressure control services will help us improve full life cycle returns for our customers.”

The number of unemployed jumped by 280,200 to 4.61 million, more than in Germany which has nearly twice Spain’s population, for a jobless rate of 20.05 percent. The unemployment rate rose from 18.83 percent in the fourth quarter.

The last time the unemployment rate topped 20 percent in Spain was in the fourth quarter of 1997 when it hit 20.11 percent.

Spain’s jobless rate has soared since the global credit crisis hastened the collapse of its labour-intensive construction industry at the end of 2008.

The procedure had been performed immediately after she gave birth, by doctors who did not ask her consent. On learning she could not bear children, her husband left her.

“Not a day passes without me crying,” she said. “I was outraged when I found out what they had done. How could they do such a horrible thing without asking me?”

According to human rights groups, tens of thousands of young women like Zavidova have been sterilised without their consent in the authoritarian former Soviet state of Uzbekistan.

Uzbek sources say the measure was ordered by Islam Karimov, the president, who has ruled with an iron fist for 20 years. The policy is aimed at keeping down the country’s poor population — with 28m people, it is Central Asia’s most densely populated state.

Activists say mass sterilisation began in 2003, but was eased after two years following an outcry. It is said to have restarted in February this year, when the health ministry ordered doctors to recommend sterilisation as an “effective contraceptive”. Critics claim every doctor was told to persuade “at least two women” a month to have the procedure. Doctors who failed faced reprisals and fines.

“We estimate that since February, about 5,000 women have been sterilised without consent,” said a local human rights campaigner who fears detention if she is named.

Alexik, who was arrested on June 3, 2010, plead guilty to five felony charges; possession for sale of cocaine and methamphetamine; possession of “concentrated cannabis”; possession for sale of a controlled substance while armed; and forgery. Several additional weapons charges were dropped.

Police have been looking for Brian Alexik for nearly two months, ever since they allegedly found weapons and counterfeit cash inside his loft, which is located right outside the Federal Reserve building in downtown L.A.

LAPD sources told The Times that police surrounded a hotel off Hewitt Street near Little Tokyo and eventually detained Alexik as well as a girlfriend. He is now being questioned.

When fire and police officials arrived at unit 701 shortly after 6 p.m., the man inside, 33-year-old Brian Alexik, refused to open the door. After unlocking the door with a key, the door remained blocked by a homemade contraption that functioned as a second lock. By the time police broke down the door with a battering ram, Alexik had fled his unit, apparently escaping via a fire escape.

The source of the fumes was immediately apparent: Alexik, who police say sometimes went by the name Ken Shurin and is of Russian descent, had been using a gasoline-powered electric generator. But the generator was perhaps the least surprising thing authorities found.

Also in the apartment was approximately $15,000 in counterfeit money and the equipment used to make it. Police officials said the fake bills were of “high quality.” Additionally, there was an AK-47, a sawed-off shotgun and other evidence that suggests Alexik was manufacturing weapon parts. He also had an array of fake identification documents.

Other details in the apartment paint a curious if difficult to interpret portrait of Alexik. Inlaid on the floor was a handmade tile mosaic replica of the Central Intelligence Agency seal; it was about five feet in diameter. Hovering over the CIA emblem was a large, framed portrait of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez.

As of Los Angeles Downtown News’ press time on April 30, the LAPD and Secret Service were still trying to track down Alexik. Capt. Steven Sambar, who heads the LAPD’s Major Crimes Division, said Alexik should be considered “very dangerous.” Three felony charges have been filed, two for possessing the AK-47 and the shotgun, and one for possessing firearms as a convicted felon.

One Arrest

Police seemed to get their first break in the investigation on Thursday, April 29, when they arrested 32-year-old Gregory Koller, who officials suspect has ties to Alexik. Officials served a search warrant of Koller’s residence — a converted warehouse at 38th Street and Grand Avenue — at about 6 a.m. and discovered “items consistent with manufacturing weapons,” said Sambar.

The raid also yielded drugs including methamphetamine, and counterfeit currency, “the same items that directly link back to Alexik,” Sambar said. Koller was expected to be booked on narcotics charges, and likely faces additional charges tied to the recovered contraband, Sambar said.

Almost two weeks after law enforcement first responded to the Reserve Lofts, many residents of the building were still wondering why dozens of police, firemen and Secret Service agents had responded en masse on April 19.

“People are completely on edge,” said a resident who asked not to be identified because tenants had been asked by the landlord not to speak and feared retaliation.

In the days after Alexik’s door was knocked in, an unsigned letter went up in the building elevator, asking, “What really happened on the nights of April 19 and 20 at 409 W Olympic Unit 701?” It went on to make a slate of allegations — including illegal weapons possession and counterfeiting — that police echoed in a press release more than a week later.

Residents also noted the ironic parallels between Alexik’s alleged counterfeit operation and the 81-year-old building’s history. Converted into 78 live-work units in 2006, the building was the former Los Angeles branch of the Federal Reserve Bank.

It’s not yet clear what authorities are making of Alexik’s choice to live at the Reserve Lofts. But Commander Jose Perez, who oversees Central Bureau, pointed out that Alexik’s unit overlooks the current Los Angeles branch of the Federal Reserve Bank, next door at 950 S. Grand Ave.

Perez, who is not actively involved in the investigation, termed the proximity to the active Federal Reserve location as “suspicious.”

Firefighters knocked on the neighbor’s door but he refused to let them in. They called police, who broke down the door of the penthouse just as the man inside was escaping through a back window and down a fire escape carrying duffel bags.

“He escaped like Jason Bourne,” said LAPD Deputy Chief Mike Downing of the Counter-Terrorism Bureau, referring to the movie spy character.

What they found next began a weeklong mystery.

The apartment contained sophisticated counterfeiting equipment as well as a cache of weapons including an AK-47. They also found stacks of counterfeit $100 bills totaling $15,000 and a camera tripod.

But detectives’ interest was really heightened when they looked outside the window and saw that the penthouse balcony had a spot-on view of the U.S. Federal Reserve building on Grand Avenue.

Detectives now are searching for the suspect, who leased the $3,400-a-month penthouse, paying one year in advance using stacks of cash.

Detectives are not sure what Brian Alexik, a 33-year-old New Jersey man, was up to and what role, if any, the Federal Reserve might have played in his schemes. They are not exactly sure whom they are dealing with because detectives found multiple identifications, including passports, listing different aliases for the man.

“The curiosity in this case is the strategic location in which he chose to operate,” Downing said.

Photos found at the apartment show Alexik with significantly different looks. In one photo, he’s clean-shaven, holding up a glass of wine and smiling. Another shows him somewhat heavier, with a beard and bandanna covering his forehead.

Police are now working with the U.S. Secret Service. Experts who have reviewed the counterfeit money say it’s of extremely high quality.

It appears Alexik kept to himself. The apartment manager declined to comment on the case.

The LAPD served search warrants at several downtown locations and Thursday announced the arrest of a man whom officials describe as an “associate” of Alexik. Gregory Koller, 32, was booked on suspicion of narcotics possession. Police said a search of his home and a downtown warehouse found evidence of “items consistent with manufacturing weapons.”

LAPD Capt. Steven Sambar, head of the department’s major crimes division, said there evidence was also found linking Koller to Alexik.

Detectives said they were puzzled about many aspects of the case. Sambar said it appeared that the pair were involved in weapons and drugs as well as counterfeiting — but it was unclear how large the operation was or whether it was connected to a larger criminal enterprise.

Sambar said the location of Alexik’s apartment overlooking the Federal Reserve “causes me great concern.”

The Federal Reserve bank in downtown L.A. is one of several branches of the 12th District of the Fed, which is based in San Francisco. According to the Fed’s website, the L.A. branch has 316 employees and serves financial institutions in Southern California, Arizona and southern Nevada.

The 12th District as a whole processed 17.2 billion currency notes in 2008, or about 68.4 million notes per business day. No breakdown was available for currency handled specifically by the L.A. office.

It all leaves many intriguing possibilities.

Budde calculated that while Lehman reported Fuld’s RSUs as worth $146 million, the real figure, based on the Section 16 reports, was $409.5 million. Lehman had counted just 2 of 15 RSU awards…

Considering his options, Budde decided to go to the SEC as a whistleblower. He sent a detailed two-page e-mail on April 14, 2008, to the SEC’s Enforcement Division, under the subject line “Possible Material Noncompliance with New Executive Compensation Disclosure Rules.”…

He got a standardized form thanking him for his letter in return. He never heard anything else…

While Fuld said he earned less than $310 million from 2000 through 2007, he actually had received $529.4 million, according to Budde’s calculations.

In direct contradiction to Fuld’s claim to Waxman that he had not sold the majority of his shares, Budde estimates that Fuld earned $469 million from stock sales between 2000 and 2008.

Budde’s numbers are almost identical to the numbers already published by Lucian Bebchuk, so they are credible on their face. And Budde clearly knows what he’s talking about.

It comes down to this: Fuld claimed that he was paid less than $310 million over the years in question, and lost nearly all of it. In fact, according to Budde, he was paid $529 million, and kept $469 million — more than he said he was paid in total.

Any probe by the Justice Department, if underway, would be in a preliminary stage. No Goldman Sachs employees involved in the mortgage-related transactions that are the focus of the SEC case have been interviewed by Justice Department prosecutors or the FBI agents who often conduct probes on behalf of prosecutors, according to a source familiar with the matter. The sources spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the matter publicly.

The Justice Department usually investigates high-profile cases of securities fraud, but the threshold for criminal prosecution is significantly higher than that of civil cases. The SEC files only civil cases.

The Wall Street Journal and Bloomberg News reported Thursday night that the U.S. attorney’s office in Manhattan had followed up on the request and opened a criminal probe. The office declined to comment.

“Given the recent focus on the firm, we’re not surprised by the report of an inquiry,” said Goldman spokesman Lucas Van Praag. “We would cooperate fully with any request for information.”