"The nuclear industry took steps ... to head off a growing public relations -- if not health -- problem, promising to closely monitor leaks of slightly radioactive groundwater at power plants," reports AP. "Water containing tritium has been released into groundwater at half a dozen plants over the past decade," including in Illinois, Arizona and New York. The industry group Nuclear Energy Institute is launching "a voluntary program to closely monitor such leaks." A recent AlterNet article describes the Global Nuclear Energy Partnership, an industry / Bush administration plan to "dramatically expand nuclear energy production at home, encourage new nuclear generation abroad and import other countries' spent fuel for reprocessing in the United States." And a new website by our European colleagues at SpinWatch, called Nuclear Spin, tracks "key pro-nuclear advocates in the UK," where the government's energy review was criticized as window dressing for plans to expand nuclear power.

Hill & Knowlton will head "a complex $3.8M PR effort" for the U.S. State Department, "targeting Afghan citizens and stakeholder groups to dissuade Afghan farmers from cultivating poppies and boosting global drug trade." Poppy production has soared since the 2001 U.S. invasion. Afghanistan provided 86 percent of the world's heroin in 2005, and "planting has significantly increased in 2006," according to a State Department official. Hill & Knowlton will "deploy communications through seven Afghan provinces" and "build capability" within the Agriculture, Interior and Counter-narcotics Ministries, by providing "communications professionals" and developing each ministry's own communications office. "Foreign and domestic media will be brought along" on poppy eradication missions, and "alternative livelihood efforts" will be promoted in the PR campaign. Current messages include, "Growing poppies is against Islam and harmful for the reputation of Afghanistan." Previous U.S.-funded PR work, by the Rendon Group and others, has been called costly and ineffective by Afghan officials.

We're happy to say that the premier U.S. fake news show covered our report, "Fake TV News: Widespread and Undisclosed." On May 10, Daily Show commentator Lewis Black held forth on video news releases (VNRs), showing footage from the Stiefel Laboratories VNR promoting its new prescription-strength skin cream (better for your skin than sitting in a tub of ranch dressing, said Black) and from the Siemens VNR touting the "ethanol boom." Considering Medialink Worldwide publicist Kate Brookes -- who appeared on screen on at least four TV stations that aired that VNR, as though she were a reporter -- Black suggested that, like ethanol, she could be considered a renewable resource. Hmmm... we never thought of it quite like that.