Elms Progressive Media

Republicans in California are on life support. Will they pull the plug themselves? Last year, they lost all eight statewide offices for the second time in the last three general elections. While the GOP was cleaning up elsewhere in the country, they also lost a Republican Assembly seat, and failed to take out any Democrats in Congress or the state Senate. U.S. Sen. Barbara Boxer, always a top GOP target, beat her well-financed Republican adversary by 10 points -- the eighth straight loss for the Republicans in California U.S. Senate races. How much lower can they go? Based on the 2010 census data , California Republicans probably have not hit bottom yet -- and if they're not careful, could go the way of the Whigs. And Democrats are not their biggest enemy. Demographics are. California Is Changing The Political Landscape

Alerts have been issued on radiation levels in Japanese milk, spinach, leeks and tap water. Food shipments from four prefectures around the Fukushima nuclear power plant have been suspended . So how hazardous are the radiation levels found, and should people panic about what they're eating? Which goods have been contaminated? Today the Japanese government ordered four prefectures to stop selling spinach and leeks after levels of radiation above the legal limit were picked up in them. The affected prefectures were Fukushima, where the nuclear plant damaged by the tsunami is based, and the nearby Ibaraki, Tochigi and Gunma prefectures. Traces of radioactive iodine-131 were discovered in Tokyo tap water on Sunday . In Iiate, a village in Fukushima prefecture, there was so much in the water that the health ministry advised the village's 3700 residents not to drink it. The water here contained 965 becquerels of radiation per kilogram – treble the "safe" legal ...