Deadly Texas plant explosion being treated as crime scene Sgt. Patrick Swanton, public information officer of the Waco Police Department said the deadly, massive blast at a fertilizer plant is being treated as a crime scene until the possibility of wrongdoing is ruled out.
Swanton also said in a 4 a.m. press conference that 5-15 fatalities have resulted from the Wednesday evening blast. He said three to five volunteer firefighters who went to the initial fire call are still missing.
Deadly Texas plant explosion being treated as crime scene Sgt. Patrick Swanton, public information officer of the Waco Police Department said the deadly, massive blast at a fertilizer plant is being treated as a crime scene until the possibility of wrongdoing is ruled out.
Most fires of this type are treated as a crime scene until an investigation has been conducted, especially in fires where there is a loss of life.
Um... no brainer here... to find arson you first have to investigate to determine if arson was committed.
The modern conservative is engaged in one of man's oldest exercises in moral philosophy; that is, the search for a superior moral justification for selfishness. John Kenneth Galbraith
AP Firefighter conduct search and rescue of an apartment destroyed by an explosion at a fertilizer plant in West, Texas By Alexandra Berzon
As details emerge about the Texas fertilizer plant that was the site of Wednesday’s fatal explosion and fire, a few tidbits can be gleaned from a 2007 lawsuit that the plant’s owners filed against agribusiness giant Monsanto Co.
The suit, filed as a potential class action in U.S. District Court for the western district of Texas, claimed that Monsanto had artificially inflated prices for its herbicide Roundup through anti-competitive actions. The suit did not relate to storing fertilizer, believed to be at the root of Wednesday’s blast.
The suit was filed by Texas Grain Storage Inc. The company now calls itself West Fertilizer Co.
In the suit, the company said that it was started in 1957 as a grain-storage business by the Plasek family in the town of West, Texas. It later built a small fertilizer-blend plant and started selling fertilizer to area farmers.
Zak Covar, executive director of the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality, told a news conference Wednesday that the fertilizer storage and blending facility had been there since 1962.
In 1970 it started selling other agricultural products, including some from Monsanto, and by 1997 it had struck a deal with Monsanto to directly purchase Roundup each year.
A court filing in 2008 indicated that Texas Grain Storage recently had been sold. Emil Plasek is listed as a former owner. Texas Grain Storage said it monitored the Roundup, stored in a stainless steel tank, through a telephone connected to the tank, the company said.
Many documents in the case are sealed, and the public documents don’t reveal the names of the plant’s then-current owners. Texas corporation records list the president of the company as Donald R. Adair, and show a business operating as Adair Grain Inc. at the same address.
Texas Grain Storage was represented by roughly 30 lawyers at 12 firms, according to court records. One lawyer who represented Texas Grain said the suit stalled in 2010 after a magistrate judge denied a request to certify the case as a class action. The lawyer said Texas Grain appealed the ruling, and that a district judge has yet to rule on the appeal. The last public filing in the case was in 2010.
Monsanto responded to Texas Grain’s complaint by saying the company didn’t have standing to bring the case and was barred by the statute of limitations. Thursday, a Monsanto spokesman said, “The long dormant lawsuit filed by Texas Grain had nothing to do with fertilizer or the operation of the West, Texas plant.”
...you are a product of your environment, your environment is a product of your priorities, your priorities are a product of you......
The replacement of morality and conscience with law produces a deadly paradox.
STOP BEING GOOD DEMOCRATS---STOP BEING GOOD REPUBLICANS--START BEING GOOD AMERICANS
those who control the food supply control the masses
Quoted Text
Are Monsanto and CF Industries the Best of the Best? By Ken McGaha - April 6, 2013 | Tickers: CF, MON, POT, MOS | 57 Comments
Ken is a member of The Motley Fool Blog Network -- entries represent the personal opinion of the blogger and are not formally edited.
Imagine owning a business producing something every single person in the world has to have to survive! Not only that, imagine it is a product that has to be supplied by your business every year. Do you think a business like that would be worth owning?
The product everyone must have to survive
The product everyone in the world must have to survive is food, and not only does everyone need it to sustain life, as the population grows, more of it is required each year than was needed the previous year. As the less developed world becomes more developed and prosperous, people will demand more and better food as well. But as more land is developed into residential and industrial applications, less land is available for agricultural use.
Producing more food within the same amount of space requires increased yields and that requires better methods. Today, we are identifying businesses that increase food production by improving the soil and reducing the amount of loss experienced from pest infestation and disease. However, to truly be of interest, they must provide investors with the opportunity for substantial profits as well.
Better dirt and just dirt cheap
Producing food requires a lot of dirt; but not just any dirt. Efficient use of land for agriculture requires that the soil possess the characteristics necessary to sustain high crop density and healthy plants. Very few places have these conditions naturally, and even those that do can be depleted by constant use, but the right fertilizer can make the dirt better and it seems you can make a lot of money making dirt better.
CF Industries (NYSE: CF), Mosaic (NYSE: MOS), PotashCorp (NYSE: POT) make fertilizers designed to improve soil conditions and crop yields. They seem to be pretty good at making money as well. Fertilizers tend to fall into one of the three broad categories of phosphates, potash, or nitrogen. Without these products, it is inconceivable that the world’s agriculture industry could come close to feeding the population as effectively as it does today.
PotashCorp spreads its products across all three of the major fertilizer types. At 2 times its projected 5-year earnings growth rate of 6.6%, it is somewhat expensive, but it pays a dividend that produces a very respectable yield of 2.85%. With a somewhat conservative payout rate of 29% for the dividend, it should be considered safe at the current level and investors have a reasonable expectation for increases, given the 700% increase since April 2008 when it was only $0.03/share.
Mosaic focuses its production in the phosphate and potash product arenas. It carries a slightly lower valuation than PotashCorp at 1.56 times the 5-year projected earnings growth rate of 8.9%; but a lower dividend yield of 1.72%. However, given the fact that it has a price to cash flow valuation that is 20% lower, it is probably somewhat more attractive than PotashCorp in terms of potential returns.
CF Industries focuses its product offerings in the nitrogen and phosphate fertilizer offerings, and appears to be by far the most attractive opportunity for investors today in terms of valuation. It currently trades at a PEG ratio slightly below 1, and has a five year projected earnings growth rate of 8.1%. While the current dividend yield is only 0.86%, CF has increased this payout from $0.50/share in 2008 to $1.60/share last year.
In addition to the increased dividends being paid, the payout ratio is only 5%, allowing ample room for increases and management is building a history of doing just that. Since the shares are currently trading at only 5.1 times cash flow (less than half that of PotashCorp or Mosaic) CF Industries is just dirt cheap.
Good food takes more than good dirt
Once the dirt is ready, we must have something to plant. Monsanto (NYSE: MON) provides the world’s best seeds that have been engineered to be resistant to diseases, insects, droughts, and all sorts of other maladies that used to decimate yields in the agriculture industry.
We all think of biotechnology in terms of developing cutting edge treatments for maladies affecting the human condition, but Monsanto takes the same approach and applies it in the realm of plants.
Through the science of genetic engineering, they have taken production of food to levels not thought possible just 30 or 40 years ago, when widespread famine and starvation were being predicted due the looming inability to produce enough food to feed a growing population. Monsanto has played a major role in helping avoid those dire predictions.
That is all very nice, but can we make money from this business? I believe so. Monsanto has just released operating results for the most recent quarter that beat analysts’ expectations. I believe it will continue to do so for a long time to come.
Monsanto’s seeds are a superior product that produce a superior return to the users by reducing loss due to disease and infestation. The ability of the plants produced to resist insect infestation also reduces the material and labor cost involved in spraying insecticides; a general benefit to everyone as reduced spraying results in less contaminated rain runoffs.
At a 2 times multiple of the 5-year projected earnings growth rate, Monsanto is expensive, if the estimates are correct. Even if the analysts are right, Monsanto is providing the market with a product that is critical in providing the food we eat, and we will not have enough without them. There are times when you just have to pay a bit more to buy the best. This stock is a must own for the long-term investor, and will produce high returns in both capital appreciation and improved crop yields for a very long time to come.
Foolish conclusion
It is hard to go wrong buying the best businesses in an industry everyone needs, and CF Industries and Monsanto are the best of the best.
More Expert Advice from The Motley Fool With less and less arable land available around the world, increasing yields from existing plots will become increasingly important to keep up with expected population growth. Cheap and effective fertilizers could be the key to achieving this goal. As the global leader in potash production, PotashCorp has several barriers-to-entry established that make it nearly impossible for competition to break through. Click here now to access The Motley Fool's new premium research report on PotashCorp, in which we cover precisely what these barriers-to-entry are and detail several other key reasons why this company presents such a compelling investment opportunity today.
...you are a product of your environment, your environment is a product of your priorities, your priorities are a product of you......
The replacement of morality and conscience with law produces a deadly paradox.
STOP BEING GOOD DEMOCRATS---STOP BEING GOOD REPUBLICANS--START BEING GOOD AMERICANS
Another official drill goes live after Texas fertilizer plant explosion TEXAS EXPLOSIONAPRIL 18, 2013BY: JEFFREY PHELPSSubscribe
Just like the OK City bombing, 9/11, the 7/7 Londing bombings and the Aurora theater and Sandy Hook school shootings, identical or related official drills were scheduled at the same time and place in both Boston and now Texas. Coincidence?
Just days after an official bombing simulation went live during the Boston Marathon, a massive Texas Hospital drill goes live Thursday after a gigantic nearby industrial explosion.
The amazing coincidences just keep pouring in. One giant disaster or terrorist attack after another seems to always magically coincide with some sort of government-related or official drill, practicing the very same scenario, that just so happens to be scheduled at the same time and at the same location, or very nearby.
When the INSANE are running the ASYLUM In individuals, insanity is rare; but in groups, parties, nations and epochs, it is the rule. -- Friedrich Nietzsche
“How fortunate for those in power that people never think.” Adolph Hitler
Another official drill goes live after Texas fertilizer plant explosion TEXAS EXPLOSIONAPRIL 18, 2013BY: JEFFREY PHELPSSubscribe
Just like the OK City bombing, 9/11, the 7/7 Londing bombings and the Aurora theater and Sandy Hook school shootings, identical or related official drills were scheduled at the same time and place in both Boston and now Texas. Coincidence?
Just days after an official bombing simulation went live during the Boston Marathon, a massive Texas Hospital drill goes live Thursday after a gigantic nearby industrial explosion.
The amazing coincidences just keep pouring in. One giant disaster or terrorist attack after another seems to always magically coincide with some sort of government-related or official drill, practicing the very same scenario, that just so happens to be scheduled at the same time and at the same location, or very nearby.
And even more proof of an FBI False Flag Operation... There were TWO yes count them TWO FBI Agents in Boston who's first name was JOHN! YES TWO! AND There were also TWO firefighters in West Texas who's first names were also JOHN!
COINCIDENCE? I think NOT!
It's a government plot to flood the world with government operatives named JOHN! (the B@stards!)
The modern conservative is engaged in one of man's oldest exercises in moral philosophy; that is, the search for a superior moral justification for selfishness. John Kenneth Galbraith
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