[WND] President Donald Trump has submitted a request for funding, some $152 million, to refurbish and reopen the famed Alcatraz prison on an island near the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco.
Currently, the nation's most secure facility is the "Alcatraz of the Rockies" in Florence, Colorado, where a number of infamous murders are housed, and then of course there's the plan for the "Alligator Alcatraz" in Florida for illegal alien criminals.
The BBC reported Trump's new plan for "The Rock," which has been a tourist attraction for a number of years. He's trolling. They took the bait
#1
California to benefit with addition of prison jobs. I recommend a temporary 10% per gallon increase in California gasoline and diesel fuel tax to cover the cost.
Yes he was Jewish. Yes he was a Zionist. Nonetheless, everyone concluded he didn’t steal the uranium from Israel, which was known to have gotten the stuff from South Africa, back at a time when the American powers that be were not yet interested or supportive of Israel, so would not have fudged results in her favour.
[Grokipedia] The Apollo affair, also known as the NUMEC affair, was a scandal involving the unexplained disappearance of hundreds of kilograms of highly enriched uranium (HEU) from the Nuclear Materials and Equipment Corporation (NUMEC) processing plant in Apollo, Pennsylvania.
In 1965, a routine Atomic Energy Commission (AEC) inventory first uncovered a shortfall of about 100 kilograms of U-235 after accounting for processing losses, with cumulative unaccounted losses later estimated at over 300 kilograms—sufficient for multiple nuclear devices—far exceeding discrepancies at comparable facilities.[2][3] NUMEC, founded and led by chemist Zalman M. Shapiro, who maintained extensive professional and personal ties to Israeli officials including intelligence operatives, operated under lax U.S. regulatory oversight that permitted inadequate accounting, security, and employee vetting, enabling potential insider-assisted removal of materials.[1] Key evidence included documented 1968 visits to the plant by Israeli intelligence figures such as Mossad agent Rafael Eitan and Shin Bet officials, a former employee's 1980 FBI account of witnessing HEU-loaded shipments to Israel via Zim shipping lines around 1965, and CIA environmental sampling detecting U.S.-origin HEU near Israel's Dimona reactor in 1968.[2][3] Multiple U.S. agencies, including the AEC, FBI, CIA, and Nuclear Regulatory Commission, conducted investigations across administrations from Lyndon Johnson to Jimmy Carter, uncovering these anomalies but ultimately declining prosecution due to insufficient court-admissible proof, despite internal assessments—such as 1970s CIA briefings to NRC leaders—concluding likely Israeli acquisition.[1] NUMEC reimbursed the government for the losses but disputed inventory methods, while declassified documents released as late as 2015 reinforced suspicions without resolving redactions on sensitive intelligence.[2] The affair highlighted vulnerabilities in early nuclear materials safeguards and remains debated, with expert analyses asserting the missing HEU plausibly accelerated Israel's nuclear capability amid its urgent weapons development in the 1960s.[3]
AEC calculations at the time identified a broader deficit of about 200 kilograms of U-235 between the HEU supplied to NUMEC and the amounts returned in processed products, with roughly 100 kilograms remaining unexplained even after adjustments for documented processing losses such as scrap, waste, and hold-up in equipment.[1] [2] NUMEC acknowledged the shortfall and compensated the government for the missing material, though company officials later contested the AEC's loss estimates, attributing the unexplained portion to underreported processing inefficiencies rather than diversion.[1] Subsequent inventories amplified the discrepancies: a 1967 General Accounting Office report documented cumulative U-235 losses through December 31, 1966, totaling around 260 kilograms, while by 1969 the unaccounted HEU had risen to 269 kilograms.[1] These early discoveries highlighted NUMEC's unusually high loss rates compared to other facilities handling similar materials, prompting scrutiny of accounting practices, security measures, and potential unauthorized removals, though initial AEC reviews emphasized procedural lapses over criminal intent.[2]
The timeline of potential diversion aligns with Israel's covert nuclear buildup at the Dimona reactor, with U.S. intelligence assessments pointing to clandestine transfers likely completed by 1965, prior to the inventory audit that exposed the gaps.[12][2] While official reports emphasized accounting inadequacies rather than proven theft, declassified CIA evaluations in the 1970s concluded that the scale—potentially 100—200 kilograms of usable HEU—matched quantities needed to jumpstart Israel's plutonium production cycle, though definitive proof of timing or method remained elusive due to limited forensic recovery.
EC officials, including Assistant General Manager Howard Brown, emphasized in internal discussions that there was "no evidence or suspicion that diversion had occurred," opting against FBI involvement to avoid public scrutiny that could undermine confidence in civilian nuclear programs.[14] Subsequent audits revealed escalating unaccounted amounts, reaching 269 kilograms by 1969 and over 330 kilograms by the facility's decommissioning in the late 1970s, yet AEC maintained its stance on accounting errors without pursuing criminal probes.
February 1976, CIA Deputy Director Carl Duckett briefed senior NRC officials, asserting the agency's belief that Israel had illegally acquired HEU from NUMEC for its nuclear program, prompting NRC Chairman William Anders to notify the White House.
FBI surveillance documented visits to the Apollo facility by Israeli nationals linked to intelligence operations, including Avraham Hermoni, Ephraim Beigon, Abraham Bendor, and Raphael Eitan on September 10, 1968, with Eitan later identified as part of Israel's LAKAM scientific intelligence unit.[1] Key surveillance incidents and findings included:
A clandestine meeting on June 20, 1969, at Pittsburgh airport between Shapiro and Jeruham Kafkafi, a subordinate of the Israeli science attaché.[1]
Frequent visits and hosting at Shapiro's home and the NUMEC facility by Israeli intelligence-linked officials, including Rafi Eitan, who later directed the Jonathan Pollard espionage operation, and Avraham Hermoni, who held a senior role in Israel's nuclear program.[1] [2]
The 1966 investigation into whether Shapiro was required to register as a foreign agent, given NUMEC's joint ventures with the Israeli Atomic Energy Commission.
Declassified wiretap transcripts documenting discussions of business opportunities in Israel.
Wiretaps and employee interviews revealed Shapiro's strong pro-Israel sympathies and discussions of potential relocation, alongside tips about uranium shipments disguised in food irradiators, but FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover suspended active efforts in September 1969 after AEC declined to revoke Shapiro's clearance, citing insufficient grounds for prosecution.[1] A 1976 criminal probe, directed by Attorney General Edward Levi, extended into the early 1980s and included a March 1980 interview with a former NUMEC employee who claimed to have observed highly enriched uranium (HEU) canisters loaded onto a truck destined for Israel via the Zim shipping line in early 1965; however, the FBI assessed these as circumstantial indicators without substantive proof of theft, leading to no indictments.
Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited
[Regnum] The brightest comet of the year was engulfed by the Sun. This was reported on April 5 by the Solar Astronomy Laboratory of the Space Research Institute (IKI) of the Russian Academy of Sciences.
The organization noted that comet C/2026 A1 disappeared yesterday around 2:30 PM Moscow time and never returned to the field of view of space observation equipment.
"This means that the celestial body no longer exists—it has been absorbed by the Sun, becoming part of it," the institute reported on its Telegram channel.
According to their data, the comet's volatiles dispersed in the solar corona, and large rock fragments fell onto the star's surface.
On March 31, scientists at the Space Research Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences (IKI RAS) recorded record-breaking luminosity from comet C/2026 A1. The day before, this celestial body, estimated to be billions of years old, officially became the brightest object for Earth-based observers. The institute noted that Russians may witness an explosion from its destruction near the Sun in early April.
[InsideTheGames] Six months after the agreed deadline, the city and the LA28 organising committee still have not finalised the agreement setting out which extraordinary public services will be provided in 2028, how much they will cost and when they will be reimbursed.
That’s not good.
The delay has heightened concern within an administration that acts as a safety net if the Los Angeles Olympic Games organisation slips into deficit, a responsibility it shares with the state of California and one that has deepened fears that any overrun in the costs of security, cleaning, transport or additional staffing could ultimately fall on the public finances. No, reeeeeaally?
The Enhanced City Resources Master Agreement was supposed to be ready by 1 October 2025 and is the instrument meant to give concrete form to the promise of privately funded Games. The general agreement signed in 2021 had already established that LA28 would bear the additional public-service costs linked to the event, but negotiations have stalled over the small print that distinguishes ordinary services from extraordinary ones. According to the news website LAist, at a council meeting held in December that boundary was debated even through an example as specific as traffic control.
The city's chief legislative analyst Sharon told the California outlet that discussions remain open over cost estimates, service levels and reimbursement deadlines. "We continue to work diligently with LA28 to finalize the agreement. I do not have an anticipated completion date at this time," she said. In response, LA28 Vice-President of Communications Jacie Prieto Lopez said that "We remain engaged in good faith negotiations and look forward to our continued partnership with the City of Los Angeles".
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
