Wnd dec 22

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POPE PLAYED CRUCIAL ROLE IN US-CUBA RAPPROCHEMENT

Pope Francis blows candles on a birthday cake on the occasion of his 78th birthday as he arrives for his weekly general audience in St. Peter’s Square at the Vatican, Wednesday, Dec. 17, 2014

VATICAN CITY (AP) -- The crucial role played by the Vatican in bringing Cuba and the United States together signals that history’s first Latin American pope is willing to put the Holy See on the front lines of diplomacy.

The Vatican, which has long championed the cause, said Wednesday that Francis wrote to President Barack Obama and Cuban President Raul Castro in recent months and invited them to resolve their differences over humanitarian issues, including prisoners.

In addition, the Vatican hosted U.S. and Cuban delegations in October `’and provided its good offices to facilitate a constructive dialogue on delicate matters, resulting in solutions acceptable to both parties,” the Vatican said in a statement.

A LOOK AT ‘ CUB AN 5 ’ AGENTS WHO WERE JAILED IN US

Volume 003 Issue 50

Established 2012

OBAMA: US RE-ESTABLISHING R E L AT I O N S W I T H C U B A

WASHINGTON (AP) -- President Barack Obama announced the re-establishment of diplomatic relations with Cuba on Wednesday and declared an end to America’s “outdated approach” to the communist island in a historic shift aimed at ending a half-century of Cold War enmity.

Washington Wednesday morning, accompanied by his wife and a handful of U.S. lawmakers. He went immediately into a meeting with Secretary of State John Kerry, who said he looked forward to becoming the first U.S. secretary of state in 60 years to visit Cuba.

“These 50 years have shown that isolation has not worked,” Obama said in remarks from the White House. “It’s time for a new approach.”

Licensed American travelers to Cuba will now be able to return to the U.S. with $400 in Cuban goods, including tobacco and alcohol products worth less than $100 combined. This means the long-standing ban on importing Cuban cigars is over, although there are still limits.

As Obama spoke to Ameri- President Barack Obama speaks in the Cabinet Room of the White House in Washington, cans, Cuban President Raul Wednesday, Dec. 17, 2014, to announce the U.S. will end its outdated approach to Cuba that has Castro addressed his own na- failed to advance U.S. interests. tion from Havana, saying that while the two countries still have profound differences in areas such as human rights and foreign policy, they must learn to live together “in a The U.S. is also increasing the amount of money Americans can send to Cubans from $500 to $2,000 every three months. Early in his presicivilized manner.” dency, Obama allowed unlimited family visits by Cuban-Americans and Wednesday’s announcements followed more than a year of secret talks removed a $1,200 annual cap on remittances. Kerry is also launching a between the U.S. and Cuba, including clandestine meetings in Canada review of Cuba’s designation as a state sponsor of terror. and the Vatican and personal involvement from Pope Francis. The re-establishment of diplomatic ties was accompanied by Cuba’s release of Obama said he continued to have serious concerns about Cuba’s human American Alan Gross, who had been imprisoned for five years, and the rights record but did not believe the current American policy toward the swap of a Cuban who had spied for the U.S. for three Cubans jailed in island was advancing efforts to change the government’s behavior.

Florida. Gross spoke with Obama from the plane carrying him back to “I do not believe we can keep doing the same thing for over five decades the U.S. and expect a different result,” he said.

Obama’s plans are sweeping: He aims to expand economic ties with Cuba, open an embassy in Havana, send high-ranking U.S. officials to Some on Capitol Hill disagreed with his move. visit and review Cuba’s designation as a state sponsor of terrorism. The U.S. also is easing restrictions on travel to Cuba, including for family Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., said the new U.S. policy would do nothing to visits, official U.S. government business and educational activities. But address the issues of Cuba’s political system and human rights record. tourist travel remains banned.

“But it potentially goes a long way in providing the economic lift that the Obama’s action marked an abrupt use of U.S. executive authority. How- Castro regime needs to become permanent fixtures in Cuba for generaever, he cannot unilaterally end the longstanding U.S. economic embargo tions to come,” Rubio said. on Cuba, which was passed by Congress and would require action from Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., said that while he remains lawmakers to overturn. concerned about human rights and political freedom inside Cuba, “I supIn a statement, the Vatican said Pope Francis “wishes to express his warm port moving forward toward a new path with Cuba.” congratulations” for the efforts taken by Cuba and the U.S. “with the aim of overcoming, in the interest of the citizens of both countries, the diffi- U.S. officials said Cuba was taking some steps as part of the agreement to address its human rights issues, including freeing 53 political prisoners. culties which have marked their recent history.”

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon called the news “very positive” and thanked the U.S. and Cuban presidents “for taking this very important step.”

Obama said Gross’ imprisonment had been a major obstacle in normalizing relations. Gross arrived at an American military base just outside

People walk past a billboard showing “The Cuban Five” that reads in Spanish “End the injustice. Freedom now.” in Havana, Cuba, Wednesday, Dec. 17, 2014. The men, who are hailed as heroes in Cuba, were convicted in 2001 in Miami on charges including conspiracy and failure to register as foreign agents in the U.S. On Wednesday, Dec. 17, 2014, three of the five Cubans were released by the U.S. in exchange for U.S. citizen Alan Gross and an unnamed Cuban man who was imprisoned for nearly 20 years for spying for the United States. Two of the Cuban Five had previously been released after finishing their sentences.

Cuba also released a non-American U.S. intelligence `asset’ along with Gross. Officials said the spy had been held for nearly 20 years and was responsible for some of the most important counterintelligence prosecutions that the United States has pursed in recent decades. That includes continued on page 2

AMERICAN RELEASED FROM C U B A WA S ‘ T R U S T I N G F O O L’ try to set up Internet access for the island’s small Jewish community, access that bypassed local restrictions and monitoring. Cuba considers USAID’s programs illegal attempts by the U.S. to undermine its government. Gross was tried and sentenced to 15 years in prison.

HAVANA (AP) -- The “Cuban Five” refers to intelligence agents whose so-called “Wasp Network” operated in Florida in the 1990s. They were arrested in 1998 and later convicted on charges including conspiracy and failing to register as foreign agents.

In court in Cuba, Gross called himself a “trusting fool” who never meant any harm to the Cuban government. But reports he wrote about his work showed he knew it was dangerous.

Cuba insists they were not acting against U.S. sovereignty, only keeping tabs on militant exile groups that Havana blames for terror attacks on the island, including a string of hotel bombings. However, prosecutors argued they also tried to penetrate military bases, including the U.S. Southern Command and facilities in the Florida Keys.

“This is very risky business in no uncertain terms,” he wrote in one report. A 2012 investigation by The Associated Press found he was using sensitive technology typically available only to governments.

For years, Havana has made them an official cause celebre, rivaling the case of Elian Gonzalez, the boy rafter who in 2000 was caught in a tugof-war between his Cuban father and family in Miami.

The “Five Heroes,” as they are known in Cuba, are fixtures in state media and their faces grace billboards across the island. Schoolchildren are taught their names and take part in public acts demanding their release.

However the five are reviled as spies by many exiles in South Florida.

Dec 15 thru Dec 22, 2014

James L. Berenthal, jailed American Alan Gross poses for a photo during a visit by Rabbi Elie Abadie and U.S. lawyer James L. Berenthal at Finlay military hospital as he serves a prison sentence in Havana, Cuba. AP sources: American Alan Gross released from Cuba after 5 years in prison.

During the five years he was imprisoned, family members said, Gross never grew angry at the Cuban people. He watched Cuban baseball and even jammed with his jailors on a stringed instrument they gave him.

He kept in touch with family through weekly phone calls and passed the time reading books and magazines sent by his wife. The Economist, The Atlantic and Washingtonian were favorites.

On Friday nights, Gross, who is Jewish, would take out a picture of a group of friends celebrating the Jewish sabbath, and he would say the prayers they would say together.

One, Gerardo Hernandez, had been serving a life sentence on charges of murder conspiracy related to the Cuban air force’s 1996 shoot-down of two planes flown by Brothers to the Rescue, an exile organization that sought to aid migrants at sea and also dropped propaganda leaflets.

ARLINGTON, Va. (AP) -- Alan Gross has called himself a “trusting fool” for going to Cuba in the first place. Family and friends described him with other words: gregarious and outgoing, with a talent for picking up and playing any musical instrument.

Rene Gonzalez, a dual U.S.-Cuban national, became the first of the agents to walk free in October 2011 after completing about 13 years behind bars. He was initially ordered to serve three years of supervised parole and remain in the United States, but in 2013 a judge allowed him to return to Cuba and renounce his U.S. citizenship.

Gross, 65, was freed from prison Wednesday as part of an agreement that included the release of three Cubans jailed in the United States, officials said.

But prison was tough on Gross. While in Cuban custody, he lost more than 100 pounds, developed problems with his hips and lost most of the vision in his right eye. In April 2014, after an AP story revealed that USAID secretly created a “Cuban Twitter” communications network to stir unrest on the island shortly after Gross was arrested, he went on a hunger strike for more than a week.

His wife, Judy Gross, has called him a humanitarian and an idealist, someone who was “probably naïve” and did not realize the risks of going to Cuba as a subcontractor for the federal government’s U.S. Agency for International Development.

His mother, who was in her 90s, convinced him to start eating again.

But she died in June 2014. Despite pleas from his family, Gross was not allowed to return to the United States for her funeral. After her death, he became withdrawn.

Gross was arrested in 2009 while working in the Communist-run coun-

continued on page 2

Fernando Gonzalez, who is not related to Rene Gonzalez, was released in February 2014 after serving more than 15 years, and quickly deported to Cuba. The last three still in American lockups were Hernandez, Antonio Guerrero and Ramon Labanino.

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The Weekly News Digest, Dec 15 thru Dec 22, 2014

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STOCKS GAIN MOST IN MORE THAN A YEAR ON FED, OIL their losses for the year to 13 percent.

The sector was down as much as 17 percent in the year-to-date as of Monday.

NEW YORK (AP) -- The U.S. stock market had its best day in more than a year after the Federal Reserve said it would to remain “patient” in its approach to raising interest rates.

The price of U.S. oil rose Wednesday after the U.S. Energy Department reported a decline in inventories, a reversal of an earlier report of increased inventories from an industry group.

Stocks rose from the open on Wednesday, led by energy companies, as oil prices showed signs of stabilizing from a big slump. The market’s gains were extended after Fed policymakers released a statement following the end of a two-day meeting.

Benchmark U.S. crude rose 54 cents to close at $56.47 a barrel. Brent crude for February delivery, a benchmark for international oils used by many U.S. refineries, rose $1.17 to close at $61.18 a barrel. The January Brent contract expired Tuesday at $59.86.

A near six-year bull run for the U.S. stock market has been helped by The facade of the New York Stock Exchange, Thursday, Oct. 2, 2014. Global the Fed’s huge stimulus, which has stocks were mostly lower Wednesday Dec. 17, 2014 as oil prices tumbled again while investors waited for a U.S. Federal Reserve statement on monpushed down borrowing costs At the etary policy. start of the month investors worried Stocks that were linked to Cuba surged after President Barack Obama that signs of a strengthening economy would lead policymakers to announced the re-establishment of diplomatic relations with the bring forward the start of rate increases. But on Wednesday, the central country on Wednesday. He declared an end to America’s “outdated bank said it foresaw no rate hike in the first three months of 2015. approach” to the communist island in a historic shift aimed at ending a half-century of Cold War enmity.

“The Fed is going to be our friend for a very long time,” said Burt White, chief investment officer for LPL Financial. “Growth continues to be good and corporate America is healthy. If you mix all that togeth- Copa Airlines, a Panama City-based carrier, and one of the most successful airlines in Latin America, jumped. Its stock rose $6.36, or 7.2 er it translates to rising stock prices.” percent, to $94.48 on the news.

The Standard & Poor’s 500 index rose 40.15 points, or 2.04 percent, to The Herzfeld Caribbean Basin Fund, a closed-end fund designed 2,012.89. That was the biggest gain for the index since October 2013. to take advantage of greater trade with Cuba, surged $1.97, or 28.9 percent, to $8.78.

The Dow Jones industrial average gained 288 points, or 1.7 percent, to 17,356.87. The Nasdaq composite climbed 96.48 points, or 2.1 In corporate news, FedEx was one of the biggest losers in early trading percent, to 4,644.31. after in the shipping company reported earnings that fell short of Wall Street’s expectations. The company said a jump in plane maintenance Stock investors have had a wild ride in the final quarter of the year. costs blunted gains the company reaped from managing costs, lowering The market plunged at the start of October on concerns that global its pension expense and growing its export package revenue. The comgrowth was slowing. Then it rebounded and surged to record levels at pany’s stock dropped $6.48, or 3.7 percent, to $167.78. the start of December, before falling sharply last week as the price of oil collapsed, dragging down energy stocks.

Russia also remained in focus on concerns about the impact of the recent slide in the ruble. The currency has lost more than 50 percent Despite the heightened volatility, long-term investors should stick to their long-term goals, rather than jump in and out of stocks and sectors, of its value this year. After falling again early Wednesday, the ruble recovered and was 10 percent higher at 62.37 rubles to the dollar. said Jeff Lancaster, a principal of San Francisco-based Bingham, Osborn & Scarborough.

Russian authorities Wednesday indicated that they would sell foreign currency to relieve pressure on the ruble. The Russian currency has “I don’t see anything that looks so tempting, or so perilous, that you suffered in the wake of sliding oil prices and sanctions imposed over should lurch to the left or the right,” Lancaster said.

Russia’s involvement in Ukraine’s crisis.

On Wednesday, energy stocks led gains for the S&P 500 index as the In U.S. government bond trading, prices fell. The yield on the 10-year price of oil steadied. Stocks in the sector jumped 4.2 percent, cutting benchmark Treasury note, which rises when prices fall, climbed to 2.14 percent from 2.08 percent a day earlier.

CUBA RELATIONS continued from page 1

convicted Cuban spies Ana Belen Montes, Walter Kendall Myers and Gwendolyn Myers and a group known as the Cuban Five.

Children Incorporated 4205 Dover Road Richmond, VA 23221-3267

www.childrenincorporated.

The three Cubans released in exchange for the spy are part of the Cuban Five - a group of men who were part of the “Wasp Network” sent by Cuba’s then-President Fidel Castro to spy in South Florida. The men, who are hailed as heroes in Cuba, were convicted in 2001 in Miami on charges including conspiracy and failure to register as foreign agents in the U.S. Two of the five were previously released after finishing their sentences.

Gross was detained in December 2009 while working to set up Internet access as a subcontractor for the U.S. Agency for International Development, which does work promoting democracy in the communist country.

It was his fifth trip to Cuba to work with Jewish communities on setting up Internet access that bypassed local censorship.

Bonnie Rubinstein, Gross’ sister, heard the news from a cousin, who saw it on television.

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“We’re like screaming and jumping up and down,” she said in a brief telephone interview from her home in Texas.

Cuba considers USAID’s programs illegal attempts by the U.S. to undermine its government, and Gross was tried and sentenced to 15 years in prison.

Gross’ family has said he was in ailing health. His wife, Judy, said in a statement earlier this month that he had lost more than 100 pounds, could barely walk due to chronic pain and had lost much of the sight in his right eye.

He walked without assistance after he arrived back in the United States.

www.redcross.org

The price of gold was little changed from Tuesday at $1,194.50 an ounce. Silver rose 18 cents to $15.93 an ounce and copper rose a penny to $2.87 a pound.

TRUSTING FOOL continued from page 1

His wife and youngest of two daughters visited him in prison earlier in the year and he said goodbye.

“Life in prison is not a life worth living,” he told his lawyer, Scott Gilbert.

He vowed that his 65th birthday, which took place in May, would be the last one he celebrated in Havana, “one way or the other.”

Earlier, he had dreamed of getting out and planned what he would do.

His older sister, Bonnie Rubinstein, said in 2012 that he wanted to watch a Cuban baseball game as a free man. He also wanted to eat ribs and drink scotch when he got out of prison.

His brother-in-law, Rubinstein’s husband, even purchased a 12-year-old single-malt scotch he planned to save until his brother-in-law got home.

On Wednesday, a spokeswoman for the family said Gross and his wife walked hand-in-hand onto a military plane for the trip home. Onboard were bowls of popcorn, another thing he had missed, and a corned beef sandwich on rye. When the pilot announced they were leaving Cuban airspace, Gross stood up and took a deep breath.

His first telephone calls were two his two daughters.

“I’m free,” he told them.

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________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ The Weekly News Digest, Dec 15 thru Dec 22, 2014

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ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) -- Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s administration will move to prevent fracking in the state, citing unresolved health issues and dubious economic benefits of the widely used gas-drilling technique.

Cuomo said the debate over fracking was the “most emotional” he has had to deal with as governor, topping even such hot-button issues as same-sex marriage and gun control. He said the issue led to some heated encounters with people on both sides of the debate. Within 30 seconds of talking about fracking with opponents, tempers typically flared, Cuomo said.

The move is likely to buoy opponents of fracking nationally who have previously only managed to win local bans. Industry representatives expressed disappointment but also have downplayed New York’s potential as a major source of natural gas.

“They’re not listening and they’re not hearing and they’re yelling,” he said. “You speak to the pro-frackers, same thing.”

Zucker and Martens on Wednesday summarized the findings of environmental and health reviews that concluded that shale gas development using high-volume hydraulic fracturing carried unacceptable risks that haven’t been sufficiently studied.

The gas drilling boom in the Marcellus Shale, a rock formation underlying southern New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio and West Virginia, was made possible by fracking, or high-volume hydraulic fracturing, which releases gas from rock by injecting wells with chemically treated water at high pressure.

The drilling technique has generated tens of billions of dollars and reduced energy bills and fuel imports. But it’s also brought concerns and sparked protests over air and water pollution, earthquakes, property devaluation, heavy truck traffic and health impacts.

New York has had a ban on shale gas development since the environmental review began in 2008.

Zucker said he had identified “significant public health risks” and “red flag” health issues that require long-term studies before fracking can be called safe. He likened fracking to secondhand smoke, which wasn’t fully understood as a health risk until many years of scientific study had been done.

called land-men who secure drilling rights in the region: “The quickest way to lose your job is to get acreage in New York.”

Martens said the Department of Environmental Conservation will put out a final environmental impact statement early next year, and after that he’ll issue an order prohibiting fracking.

Environmental Commissioner Joe Martens said Wednesday that he was recommending a ban, and Cuomo said he would defer to Martens and Acting Health Commissioner Howard Zucker in making the decision.

Martens said the Department of Environmental Conservation will put out a final environmental impact statement early next year, and after that he’ll issue an order prohibiting fracking.

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Zucker said the decision came down to one question: Would he want to live in a community that allows fracking?

New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo watches a presentation on hydraulic during a cabinet meeting at the Capitol on Wednesday, Dec. 17, 2014, in Albany, N.Y. Cuomo’s administration will move to prohibit fracking in the state, citing unresolved health issues and dubious economic benefits of the widely used gas-drilling technique.

Martens noted the low price of natural gas, the high local cost of industry oversight and the large areas that would be off-limits to shale gas development because of setback requirements, water supply protections, and local prohibitions. He said those factors combine to make fracking less economically beneficial than had been anticipated.

David Spigelmyer, president of the industry group Marcellus Shale Coalition, said last week that drilling wouldn’t be likely to take off anytime soon in New York even if restrictions were lifted because of the uncertainty around regulations and legal challenges and the huge amount of promising drilling locations that remain in fracking-friendly Pennsylvania.

The location of the rock is enticing to producers because of its proximity to major demand centers of New York City and New England, which is paying relatively more for natural gas due to delivery constraints. But the uncertainty remains too high to commit to the region.

Spigelmyer said there is a saying circulating among companies and so-

RUSSIANS FLOCK TO STORES TO PRE-EMPT PRICE RISES

“My answer is, no,” he said.

He added, “We can’t afford to make a mistake. The potential dangers are too great.”

Cuomo referred to Wednesday’s presentation by his agency chiefs as “very factual,” but said he’s anticipating lawsuits being filed “every which way from Sunday.”

Karen Moreau, executive director of New York’s branch of the American Petroleum Institute, said the Cuomo administration was denying thousands of landowners the right to develop their mineral resources.

“The secretary of energy, the U.S. EPA administrator and President Obama recognize the benefits of fracking, and yet the Cuomo administration simply did not want to anger their activist base,” Moreau said.

COLOMBIAN REBELS ANNOUNCE UNILATERAL CEASE-FIRE

posting fresh losses early Wednesday, the ruble rallied more than 10 percent to around 60 per dollar at 9 p.m. Moscow time (1800 GMT, 1 p.m.

EST).

Analysts credited a series of reassuring statements from the Central Bank and the government for the improving ruble backdrop.

First, Deputy Finance Minister Alexei Moiseyev said the government will sell foreign currency from its own reserves “as much as necessary and as long as necessary.”

Then the Central Bank announced an expanded series of measures to help calm the situation such as giving banks more freedom to increase interest rates on retail deposits and offering them more flexibility to deal with the ruble’s depreciation on their balance sheets.

People wait in a line to pay for their purchases at the IKEA store on the outskirts of Moscow, Russia, Wednesday, Dec. 17, 2014. The collapse of the national currency triggered a spending spree by Russians desperate to buy cars and home appliances before prices shoot higher. Several car dealership were reported to have suspended sales, unsure how far down the ruble will go, while Apple halted all online sales in Russia

Neil Shearing, chief emerging markets economist at London-based Capital Economics, said the “authorities have at last started to develop a strategy for containing the effects of the ruble’s collapse on the banking system and wider economy.”

MOSCOW (AP) -- Russian consumers flocked to the stores Wednesday, frantically buying a range of big-ticket items to pre-empt the price rises kicked off by the staggering fall in the value of the ruble in recent days.

Tom Levinson, chief foreign exchange and rates strategist at Sberbank CIB, agreed, saying the Central Bank could ease pressure on the ruble, even without massively spending its reserves.

As the Russian authorities announced a series of measures to ease the pressure on the ruble, which slid 15 percent in the previous two days and raised fears of a bank run, many Russians were buying cars and home appliances - in some cases in record numbers - before prices for these imported goods shoot higher.

“If they can provide measures that help secure the banking sector, provide confidence to investors and also to the population as a whole ... that could be the first toward stabilizing the situation,” Levinson said in an interview.

“Long way to go, but we are seeing some positive steps at last.”

The Swedish furniture giant IKEA already warned Russian consumers that its prices will rise Thursday, which resulted in weekend-like crowds at a Moscow store on a Wednesday afternoon.

Shops selling a broad range of items were reporting record sales - some have even suspended operations, unsure of how far the ruble will sink.

Apple, for one, has halted all online sales in Russia.

“This is a very dangerous situation. We are just a few days away from a full-blown run on the banks,” Russia’s leading business daily Vedomosti said in an editorial Wednesday. “If one does not calm down the currency market right now, the banking system will need robust emergency care.”

Alyona Korsuntseva, a shopper at IKEA in her 30s, said the current jitters surrounding the Russian economy reminded her of the 1998 Russian crisis when the ruble tumbled following the government’s default on sovereign bonds.

“What’s pressuring us is the fact that many people (back then) rushed to withdraw money from bank cards, accounts,” she says. “We want to safeguard ourselves so that things wouldn’t be as bad they were back then.”

Consumers are buying durable goods as they are seen as better investments than most Russian stocks. And, an overwhelming majority of Russians cannot afford to buy land or real estate.

Earlier this week, the ruble suffered catastrophic losses as traders continued to fret over the combined impact of low oil prices and Western sanctions over Russia’s involvement in Ukraine’s crisis.

Some signs emerged Wednesday that the ruble’s freefall may have come to an end and the currency could recover, at least in the short-term. After

The ruble’s tailspin continued Tuesday, despite a surprise move by Russia’s Central Bank to raise its benchmark interest rate to 17 percent from 10.5 percent - a move aimed to make it more attractive for currency traders to hold onto their rubles.

Should the current attempts to shore up the ruble fail, then the Russian authorities could be imposing capital controls.

However, Russia’s Economic Development Minister Alexei Ulyukayev has denied the government is considering doing so. While easing pressure on the ruble, the move would shatter Russia’s already tarnished reputation to investors.

Russian officials, meanwhile, have sought to project a message of confidence on state television, dwelling on the advantages of ruble devaluation, such as a boost to domestic manufacturing.

There are fears that the ruble could come under further pressure this week as President Barack Obama is expected to sign legislation authorizing new economic sanctions against Russia.

Whatever happens with the ruble, the Russian economy is set to shrink next year by 0.8 percent, even if oil prices stay above $80 per barrel. If oil prices stay at the current level of around $60, the Central Bank said the Russian economy could contract by nearly 5 percent.

The German government’s coordinator for relations with Russia, Gernot Erler, said the economic crisis in Russia was largely the result of the drop in oil prices, not the sanctions imposed by the West.

“It’s an illusion to think that if the sanctions were to fall away tomorrow, the Russian economy would suddenly be all right again,” Erler told rbb-Inforadio on Wednesday.

Humberto de la Calle, the head of Colombia’s government peace negotiation team, center, turns over a shovel full of dirt during the ceremonial planting of the “Tree of hope for peace and reconciliation in Colombia,” while Ivan Marquez, chief negotiator for the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, third from right, and representatives of victims of Colombian conflict and mediators look on, in Havana, Cuba, Tuesday, Dec.

HAVANA (AP) -- Peace negotiators for Colombia’s largest rebel group announced an indefinite, unilateral ceasefire Wednesday, saying guerrillas will refrain from staging attacks so long as they aren’t targeted by the U.S.-backed military.

The Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia made the announcement in Cuba at the end of another round of peace talks aimed at ending Latin America’s oldest insurgency.

In its statement, the FARC expressed the hope that the ceasefire beginning at midnight Dec. 20th would “transform into an armistice,” and said it would seek the support of several Latin American nations and the international Red Cross to verify its enforcement.

Although the FARC have declared temporary cease-fires before, around Christmas and elections, this would be the first time they’ve offered to indefinitely lay down their weapons nationwide since the 1980s.

It remains to be seen whether the government will respond in kind. In two years of talks, President Juan Manuel Santos’ government has steadfastly refused to agree to a two-way truce, fearing the rebels would use the opportunity to rearm as they have in past.

Still, the number of rebel attacks has dwindled notably since 2012, a sign to many analysts that the FARC are negotiating in earnest and an end to a half-century of fighting is within reach.

The two sides have already reached agreements on agrarian reform, political participation for the FARC and how to jointly combat illicit drugs in what was long the world’s largest cocaine producer.

But some of the thorniest issues remain unresolved, including how the FARC will lay down their arms and whether commanders will face prosecution for atrocities and drug-trafficking.

Those concerns prompted thousands of Colombians led by powerful former President Alvaro Uribe to march over the weekend in the capital Bogota and other cities to reject a possible amnesty for rebel leaders and demand the government hold them accountable for mass killings, kidnapping and drug trafficking.

Uribe, whose conservative government launched the military offensive credited with pushing the FARC deeper into the jungles, on Wednesday called the guerrillas’ conditioning of its ceasefire on the government’s withholding of its own firepower a form of “blackmail.”

In November, the talks were briefly suspended after the FARC took hostage a Colombian general and two others while traveling in a remote part of the South American country.

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The Weekly News Digest, Dec 15 thru Dec 22, 2014

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F L O R I D A C R A S H S TAT I S T I C S S e p a r a t e c r a s h e s c a u s e m a j o r d e l a y s o n I - 7 5

The Florida Highway Patrol has reopened the left lane after completely shutting down the roadway. A second crash then occurred at I-75 and Moccasin Wallow Road, just north of I-275. The Florida Highway Patrol has since reopen[...]

C r a s h o n I - 7 5 n e a r m i l e m a r k e r 1 1 6 i s c l e a r e d The scene is cleared according to FHP after a crash and debris on I-75 near mile marker 116, southbound slowed traffic this morning.[...]

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Southbound I-75 is completely shut down in Dade City after yet another wrong-way crash.[...]

OCT 10, 2014 06:18AM

Tr a c t o r t r a i l e r, c a r c r a s h o n I - 5 9 5 i n D a v i e ; o n e p e r s o n i n j u r e d One person was taken to a hospital Wednesday afternoon after a tractor trailer and a car crashed on Interstate 595 in Davie, according to the Florida Highway Patrol.[...]

OCT 10, 2014 05:30AM

Truck stopped by Nassau County before school bus crash A truck slammed into the back of a school bus from Starke Elementary School in Bradford County. Shannon Sherrell Ford, 35. Shannon Sherrell Ford, 35.[...]

OCT 10, 2014 07:39AM

Lakeland Man Sentenced to 1 2 Ye a r s I n D U I M a n s l a u g h t e r Case The woman who caused a car crash on Interstate 4 that killed a 30-yearold Lakeland father of two in 2012 has been sen A 31-year-old Lakeland man was sentenced Friday to 12 years in prison for DUI manslaughter in a crash that killed a teenage boy who[...]

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________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ The Weekly News Digest, Dec 15 thru Dec 22, 2014

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A R K A N S A S ’ M O D E L M E D I C A I D E X P E R I M E N T I N J E O P A R D Y LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP) -- Arkansas became the first southern state to expand its Medicaid program in a way that many Republicans found acceptable. The state bought private insurance for low-income people instead of adding them to the rolls of the Medicaid system, which GOP lawmakers considered bloated and inefficient.

But the Republican Party made major gains nationally in the midterm election by running hard against the federal health care law. Democrats in Arkansas, who have been unanimous in their support for the expansion, were routed. Beebe is leaving office in January because of term limits.

Now Arkansas could be on the brink of another distinction: becoming the first to abandon its Medicaid expansion after giving coverage to thousands of people.

A wave of newly elected Republican lawmakers who ran on vows to fight so-called “Obamacare” - including the state’s “private option” Medicaid expansion - has raised doubts about the future of a leading model for conservative states to gradually adapt to the federal health care law. Arkansas’ incoming Republican governor, Asa Hutchinson, is remaining mum on the plan’s fate.

“I think there’s one thing that’s clear and that’s the private

SPRINT ACCUSED OF BILLING FOR U N WA N T E D S E RV I C E S

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Federal regulators are accusing Sprint Corp. of illegally billing its wireless customers hundreds of millions of dollars in charges for text message alerts and other services that they didn’t order.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau said Wednesday that it has sued the third-largest U.S. cellphone carrier over billing for unauthorized charges, a practice known as “cramming.” The agency said Sprint failed to oversee third-party companies, allowing illegal charges to be put on customers’ bills. Over a decade, consumers were charged for items like cellphone ringtones or horoscope text messages they didn’t want and didn’t sign up for, the regulators said.

Because Sprint profited from the billing system, receiving up to 40 percent of the revenue from the charges, “there was little incentive for (Sprint) to put a stop to them,” CFPB Director Richard Cordray told reporters in a conference call.

Sprint, based in Overland Park, Kansas, disputed the government’s allegations, saying in a statement that “We strongly disagree with (the CFPB’s) characterization of our business practices” and invited customers to contact the company if they thought they had been charged improperly.

Hutchinson has acknowledged the expansion’s benefit to hospitals, which wound up caring for fewer uninsured patients, but said he’s worried about Arkansas’ eventual share of the costs, which begins at 5 percent in 2017 and rises to 10 percent by 2020.

Arwen Dover is interviewed near her employer’s store in Little Rock, Ark. Dover participates in a program in Arkansas that expand its Medicaid program in a way that many Republicans found acceptable.

option is not going to exist in its current form,” said Senate President Jonathan Dismang, one of several Republicans who helped craft the program and is pushing for its continuation.

What happens when the Legislature meets next month could show whether there’s a way forward for anti-Obama states to adopt parts of the health care law.

The prospect of losing their new insurance is already causing anxiety among some of the 213,000 people in Arkansas who got coverage.

“There’s a cost aspect to it which I’ve said throughout the campaign needs to be measured,” said Hutchinson, who said he won’t reach a decision before late January.

Continuing the program will also require a three-fourths vote in the House and Senate. Supporters barely cleared that threshold in the last session, and that was before the arrival of the newly committed anti-Obamacare candidates.

“I don’t believe we can afford it,” said Republican David Wallace, one of the new House members.

Supporters say the program will at least need to change, but offer little details on what they’re considering.

“It’s a big concern,” said Arwen Dover, who works at a Little Rock store that sells flags and has been seeing a doctor for high blood pressure. “Right now, I’m dependent on the medicine I am taking. To lose it completely would be like starting all over again.”

Executives of hospitals are pushing hard for the program’s continuation.

Twenty-seven states and the District of Columbia, most of them dominated by Democrats, agreed to expand their Medicaid programs to cover more low-income people under the health overhaul. The states that rejected the expansion, and the federal funds that came with it, were mostly Republican-leaning. A few GOP-led states looked for compromises. This week, Tennessee’s Republican Gov. Bill Haslam announced plans for an alternative model to expand coverage.

The fight in Arkansas mirrors the larger fight within the GOP over whether to focus on changing the health law or just repealing it.

“I think the private option is working exactly as intended,” said Bo Ryall, president of the Arkansas Hospital Association.

“Arkansas is going to be ground zero for which side of the argument wins,” said Joan Alker, executive director of the Georgetown University Center for Children and Families.

Arkansas’ hybrid approach was worked out by outgoing Democratic governor Mike Beebe and the Republican-controlled Legislature. The program uses money that would otherwise go to expanding Medicaid to purchase the private insurance for the newly eligible.

Yvonne Rosebud, a housekeeper who lost her job at a West Memphis hospital that closed earlier this year, said she’s uncertain what she would do if she loses the coverage she’s receiving under the private option. Rosebud makes $255 a week in unemployment payments, and said she wouldn’t be able to afford insurance on her own.

Subsequently, Arkansas, which has a high poverty rate, experienced the largest drop in uninsured in the country - from 22.5 percent in 2013, to 12.4 percent, according to a Gallup survey released in August.

“I wouldn’t have been able to go to the doctor like I should without this,” said Rosebud, 61, who has high blood pressure and diabetes. “With this insurance, it’s really helping.”

The bureau said the unauthorized charges ranged from one-time fees of 99 cents to $4.99, to monthly subscriptions costing $9.99 a month. It said some third-party merchants tricked consumers into providing their cellphone numbers to get “free” digital content, and then charged them for it. Many consumers didn’t know that third parties could put charges on their phone bills.

In its lawsuit filed in federal court in New York’s Manhattan, the CFPB is seeking an unspecified money penalty against Sprint.

The Wall Street Journal reported that the Federal Communications Commission is expected to fine Sprint a record $105 million for the alleged violations.

FCC spokesmen declined to comment on that Wednesday. But the agency said in a statement that it is pursuing actions with the CFPB “to protect consumers from unauthorized fees on their wireless bills.”

Sprint said in its statement that it took “considerable steps to protect wireless customers from unauthorized third-party billing and is an industry leader in proactively preventing unauthorized charges. ...

We consistently have encouraged any customers who think they may have incurred an unauthorized third-party charge on their phone bill to contact Sprint to resolve the issue.”

Federal regulators have been targeting cellphone cramming in recent years. The Federal Trade Commission has pursued seven cases since 2013. In October, the FTC won a $105 million settlement from AT&T Mobility, a subsidiary of telecom giant AT&T. The settlement included $80 million in refunds to customers.

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The Weekly News Digest, Dec 15 thru Dec 22, 2014

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C U B A N E X I L E C O M M U N I T Y DIVIDED OVER OBAMA CHANGES branches in Havana and enabling U.S. visitors to use credit and debit cards on the island.

MIAMI (AP) -- Some Cuban exiles in Miami are outraged, but others are elated that President Barack Obama secretly arranged prisoner exchanges with Cuban leader Raul Castro as part of an effort to normalize relations.

Ramon Saul Sanchez, who runs a group dedicated to helping new arrivals from Cuba, said he had suspected Obama was ready to take a “radical step,” but had no idea of its magnitude. “This isn’t a setback it’s actually a challenge” for an exile community accustomed to business as usual, he said.

Obama’s moves are “a betrayal not only of the Cuban people but of the American people,” said businesswoman Remedios Diaz-Oliver, a board member of the U.S.-Cuba Democracy PAC that lobbies for a hard line against the Cuban government.

Jose Basulto runs Brothers to the Rescue, a group of pilots who dropped leaflets promoting democracy over the islands until one of their planes was shot down by a Cuban fighter jet. He said he’s glad to see former USAID subcontractor Alan Gross come home from a Cuban prison, but dismayed that three Cuban spies were released in the swap, including one serving a life sentence in connection with the shoot-down.

“This is Bay of Pigs Two,” she said, comparing it to the ill-fated U.S.backed invasion of the island in 1961, when President John F. Kennedy failed to provide promised backup to Cuban exile fighters.

But some younger Cubans were thrilled.

“This is like a new age. It has reinvigorated the talks surrounding U.S.-Cuba relations, and for me that’s the more important thing,” said Daniel Lafuente, the 27-year-old founder of tech hub LAB Miami.

Lafuente grew up hearing tales of suffering from his exiled mother and grandfather, and watched the Arab Spring uprisings with dismay because U.S.-Cuba policies seemed so frozen in the past.

“Now there’s going to be a greater enthusiasm for trying out new means of interacting economically, socially, culturally. It’s a really big step.

Cuba is back on the map,” he said.

Miami’s Little Havana neighborhood has been the heart of the Cuban exile community for half a century, the go-to place for protests against Cuban leaders Fidel and Raul Castro and demonstrations in favor of the U.S. embargo on trade and travel with the island.

But there was little immediate reaction in the streets to Obama’s surprise announcement that he’s pursuing an end to more than 50 years of U.S. attempts to isolate the island - just a small group of vocal activists outside Versailles, the popular Cuban-American restaurant on Eighth Street.

Crowds watched closely on TV as Obama and then Raul Castro announced the changes. At the El Pub restaurant, waitresses paused and one server wiped a tear from her eye as she clasped her hands, overcome with emotion at changes no one believed would come.

Down the street at a barber shop, patrons briefly applauded after Obama

Anti-Castro activists Osvaldo Hernandez, right, and Miguel Saavedra, second from right, chant anti-Obama slogans in the Little Havana area of Miami, Wednesday, Dec. 17, 2014. Hernandez and Saavedra express their disagreement with a surprise move announced by senior Obama administration officials that could pave the way for a major shift in U.S. policy toward the communist island nation.

finished speaking, but then spoke in more measured tones about how these are just first steps toward real change.

After so many years of heartbreak and strained expectations, Cuban Americans are less likely than they have been in the past to insist on trying to isolate Cuba’s communist government.

Younger generations and the more recently arrived tend to be more open to exchange and dialogue. Older exiles whose relatives were killed or imprisoned following the 1959 revolution seemed stunned by the prisoner release, and then shocked even more by Obama’s other executive actions.

But there are exceptions at all ages: Cuban-born Raul Hernandez, 60, has lived in Miami for 35 years and has two brothers still in Cuba. Travel restrictions kept him from seeing his parents before they died. “I think the embargo has not been good for the Cuban people because the government never changed,” he said.

“I am happy for Gross, but on the other hand, it is incredible that the Obama government has played so lightly with the U.S. justice system,” he said.

Still, many of Obama’s moves have been recommended by a growing number of Cuban Americans in recent years, including business leaders.

“We have long advocated for steps that improve human rights and opportunity for the Cuban people and which break the isolation between our two countries. The steps taken today by the governments of the U.S. and Cuba are historic,” said Carlos Saladrigas, chairman of the business-backed Miami-based Cuba Study Group.

OBAMA: AS A BLACK MAN HE’S BEEN MISTAKEN FOR VALET

Obama said he would work with Congress to end the U.S. embargo, but meanwhile will act on his own to encourage a freer flow of travel, commerce and information. He announced talks on reopening both embassies, improving telecommunications, and even opening U.S. bank

O N K I C K S TA RT E R , E V E RY O N E WA N T S T O B E ‘ S T A F F P I C K ’ The picks vary widely. Recent ones include a company that makes jewelry from wool, a maker of homemade marshmallows and a company that makes an electric toothbrush that tells users if they are brushing their teeth correctly.

But Kickstarter does offer some clues. Earlier this year, it started using its blog to tell readers what kinds of projects its employees like. Those from Missouri have a chance of impressing staffer Shannon Ferguson. “I basically just try to back projects from my home state of Missouri,” she said in a July post.

Another employee, Katie Needs, says she backed Nerdwax, a wax that can be rubbed on eye glasses to keep them from falling off the nose, because she’s “a lifelong four-eyes.”

Ferguson and Needs didn’t respond to an interview request.

Kickstarter rival, Indiegogo, says it does not pick favorites. Instead, projects get promoted to the front page of its website and in emailed newsletters based on what projects are popular among its users.

Shelley Harper, from Woodinville, Wash., works at her ConQuest Adventure Journal booth during the first day of New York Comic Con, at the Javits Convention Center.

Harper raised nearly $12,000 to make her ConQuest Adventure Journals, a book for Comic Con attendees to store autographs, photos and other mementos, after it was chosen as a Kickstarter Staff Pick

NEW YORK (AP) -- Want your project to get selected as a “Staff Pick” on crowdfunding site Kickstarter?

Good luck with that.

Entrepreneurs and other users have been seeking the secret to getting their projects selected as a “Staff Pick” - a designation that one of Kickstarter’s 98 employees can give a project based on his or her personal tastes.

Charming a staffer has perks. Staff Picks can get prime placement on the website, be promoted to Kickstarter’s 2 million followers on Facebook and Twitter, or appear in Kickstarter’s “Projects We Love” email, which reaches more than 4 million inboxes every week. That promotion can increase donations. Users get in on the promotional activity by updating their pages to add a bright green badge or banner they create themselves, even though Kickstarter discourages the practice.

Kickstarter’s employees can also donate their own cash to a project. And earlier this year, Kickstarter started using company money to give cash to projects it favors.

That has users scrambling to figure how to get picked.

Shelley Harper scoured Google, read blog posts and studied past Staff Picks before launching a Kickstarter campaign for her business, ConQuest Adventure Journal, which makes journals for fans of comic book convention Comic-Con, to store autographs, photos and other mementos. Her research turned up no answers.

An email sent to Kickstarter went unanswered. Then, weeks after her campaign launched, it was selected as a Staff Pick. She still has no idea why.

“It’s like this magical thing and nobody knows how it happens,” says Harper, who raised nearly $12,000 in July to help pay for the printing of more ConQuest journals.

Kickstarter spokesman Justin Kazmark did not make other employees available to be interviewed, but says workers spend a big part of their day keeping up with projects that are posted on the site and pick ones that have a good video, give colorful updates about the project or have an imaginative idea.

The company says there is no science to how its employees choose their favorite projects. Users find out they were selected in an email: “Someone on the Kickstarter team loves your project,” it says.

Why the difference?

Kickstarter wants to play a bigger role in the success of startups, says Paul Levinson, a professor of communications and media studies at Fordham University. It can claim to be an earlier supporter of a startup if it makes it big. A success can help build Kickstarter’s reputation as the place to go to raise cash, says Levinson.

Some Staff Picks have become very successful. Oculus VR, a maker of virtual reality headsets, raised more than $2 million on Kickstarter and later sold itself to Facebook Inc. for $2 billion.

But owners of some past Staff Picks say it’s not as big as a windfall as they hoped. Harper says ConQuest got a 4 percent bump in donations a week after it was picked, much lower than she expected. Elemoon, a maker of high-tech bracelets that light up to alert wearers of a call or text, says just 11 percent of its $122,725 in donations came directly from being featured prominently as a Staff Pick on Kickstarter’s technology page.

Still, every dollar counts on Kickstarter. If a project doesn’t reach its financial goal, the creator doesn’t get to keep any of the money pledged. For example, if someone aims to raise $10,000 in 30 days, but only makes it to $9,990, the project gets no funding. If a project doesn’t reach its goal, Kickstarter feels the pain too. It doesn’t get to charge its 5 percent fee unless a project passes its goal.

The chances of a project getting successfully funded jumps to 92 percent if it’s a Staff Pick, up from about 50 percent for non-Staff Picks, according to Ethan Mollick, a business professor at The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. He studied 48,000 projects, but isn’t sure if Kickstarter picks projects that would have been successful anyway.

Kickstarter has also started showing its love by opening its pocketbook. Since March, Kickstarter has given money to nearly 180 projects.

It gave Dr. Stadnyk’s Hot Sauce $30, a day after the hot sauce company was also selected as a Staff Pick. It raised $10,089, above its $6,000 goal, to bottle more hot sauce flavors.

Alex Stadnyk, a co-owner of the company, sent three bottles of the hot stuff to Kickstarter’s Brooklyn offices, a reward that comes with the $30 donation.

“I guess I’m doing something right if they backed it,” says Stadnyk.

ONLINE: Kickstarter’s Staff Picks: https://www.kickstarter.com/discover/recommended Projects Kickstarter has backed: https://www.kickstarter.com/profile/kickstarter

President Barack Obama speaks in the Roosevelt Room of the White House in Washington. He may be president now, but Barack Obama says he’s a black man who has been mistaken for the valet. Obama tells People magazine that every black professional male his age has had someone hand over their keys while waiting outside a restaurant. That happened to him, he said.

WASHINGTON (AP) -- He may be president now, but Barack Obama says he’s a black man who has been mistaken for the valet and worries his daughters could face stereotypes.

“There’s no black male my age, who’s a professional, who hasn’t come out of a restaurant and is waiting for their car and somebody didn’t hand them their car keys,” Obama told People magazine in an interview out Wednesday. That happened to him, he said.

First lady Michelle Obama said her husband also once was mistaken for a waiter at a black-tie party and asked for coffee. She said even when she went to Target as first lady, a fellow shopper asked her to get something from a shelf.

“I think people forget that we’ve lived in the White House for six years,” she said. “Before that, Barack Obama was a black man that lived on the South Side of Chicago, who had his share of troubles catching cabs.”

The first couple spoke about their experiences with racism amid protests nationwide over the deaths of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri, and Eric Garner in State Island, New York. Mrs. Obama said they have long talked to their girls about racism and the issues that have been raised in the wake of the two men’s deaths.

“These conversations aren’t new to us,” she said. “I mean, when you’re raising black kids you have to talk about these issues because they’re real.”

The president said his daughters have grown up in a time of enormous progress and take for granted that it makes no sense to treat someone differently for their race, sexual orientation or disability.

He said he and the first lady remind them that prejudices are still there and that they should reflect on any hidden biases they may have, including about themselves as black girls. “We don’t want them to be constrained by any of these stereotypes,” he said.

“So when something like Ferguson or the Trayvon Martin case happens, around the dinner table we’re pointing out to them that too often in our society black boys are still perceived as more dangerous or riskier, they get less benefit of the doubt, and that it will be part of their task, their generation’s task, to continue to try to eradicate some of those old stereotypes,” Obama said.

The president said although racial relations have gotten better, more progress is needed.

“The small irritations or indignities that we experience are nothing compared to what a previous generation experienced,” Obama said. “It’s one thing for me to be mistaken for a waiter at a gala.

It’s another thing for my son to be mistaken for a robber and to be handcuffed, or worse, if he happens to be walking down the street and is dressed the way teenagers dress.”

_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ The Weekly News Digest, Dec 15 thru Dec 22, 2014

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R E P U B L I C A N W I N S A R I Z O N A H O U S E S E A T A F T E R R E C O U N T

PHOENIX (AP) -- Republicans will have their largest U.S. House majority in 83 years when the new Congress convenes next month after a recount in Arizona gave the final unresolved midterm race to a Republican challenger.

the months before she was wounded in the shooting that killed six and wounded her, Barber, and 11 others.

Barber was next to her when a gunman opened fire, striking her in the head and him in the face and leg.

Retired Air Force Col. Martha McSally won a House seat over Democratic incumbent Ron Barber by 167 votes out of nearly 220,000 cast, according to results released Wednesday.

Barber said he won’t consider whether to run again until after the holidays. “The bottom line about this experience, it’s been the most incredible honor of my life,” he said.

Barber was district director for Rep. Gabrielle Giffords when he and the congresswoman were wounded in a mass shooting at apolitical event in Tucson in January 2011. Barber then won a special election to fill out the remainder of Giffords’ term after she stepped down in early 2012.

He went on to defeat McSally in that year’s general election to win a full term in Congress, in a race separated by fewer than 2,500 votes.

Barber said he wouldn’t contest the results and that he called McSally to congratulate her. “I want her to be successful because the people of southern Arizona deserve that,” he said.

McSally said it was time to unite after a long campaign battle and that she plans to focus on economic development and border security.

“These things are not politically charged, and really it’s where the majority of people that I talk to, where they want my focus to be,” she said.

“So my intent is to represent them on the things that unite us and not the things that divide us.”

Giffords and her husband, retired Navy captain and NASA astronaut Mark Kelly, congratulated McSally and reminded her that they support more gun control, an issue that came up in the campaign when their political action committee attacked McSally for not backing a law banning misdemeanor-convicted stalkers from buying guns. The ad was pulled after McSally said she had been a victim of stalking and supported keeping guns out of stalkers’ hands.

“While it’s no secret that we supported our friend Congressman Ron Barber in this hard-fought race, we are pleased that this campaign

Barber said extremely low Democratic turnout was a big factor in his loss, but McSally said her campaign was much more organized and experienced this year.

“Last time I only had 205 total days as a candidate from when I decided to step up and run for office with no political experience,” McSally said.

“I don’t think we were really taken seriously as a candidate last time, so we kind of snuck up on them and almost pulled it off in 2012.” retired Air Force Col. Martha McSally testifies on Capitol Hill in Washington. Republicans will have their largest U.S. House majority in 83 years when the new Congress convenes next month after a recount in Arizona gave the final outstanding race to the Republican challenger McSally who won a House seat over Democrat Ron Barber by 167 votes out of about 220,000 cast, results released Wednesday, Dec. 17, 2014, show.

included an important and substantive debate on how to reduce gun violence in our communities,” their statement read.

McSally, 48, was the first woman to fly in combat for the Air Force.

Her victory came in a year that saw the GOP make big gains across the country. The results of the mandatory recount mean Republicans will hold their largest House majority since the administration of President Herbert Hoover, controlling 247 seats to 188 for Democrats.

The 2nd District was the last outstanding congressional race from the Nov. 4 general election.

The Tucson-area district is one of the most competitive in the nation.

Giffords narrowly won her 2010 race over a Republican challenger in

14 CHARGED IN M E N I N G I T I S In this Nov. 14, 2012, file photo, New England Compounding Center President, co-owner, and Director of Pharmacy Barry Cadden takes the fifth amendment option and declines to testify on Capitol Hill in Washington before the House Energy subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations hearing about the Fungal Meningitis Outbreak. Cadden was among 14 people from the Framingham, Mass., pharmaceutical company arrested at their homes Wednesday, Dec. 17, 2014. Tainted steroids manufactured by the pharmacy were blamed for a fungal meningitis outbreak that killed 64 people across the country.

BOSTON (AP) -- In the biggest criminal case ever brought in the U.S. over contaminated medicine, 14 former owners or employees of a Massachusetts pharmacy were charged Wednesday in connection with a 2012 meningitis outbreak that killed 64 people.

The nationwide outbreak was traced to tainted drug injections manufactured by the now-closed New England Compounding Pharmacy of Framingham.

Barry Cadden, a co-founder of the business, and Glenn Adam Chin, a pharmacist who was in charge of the sterile room, were hit with the most serious charges, accused in a federal racketeering indictment of causing the deaths of 25 patients in seven states by “acting in wanton and willful disregard of the likelihood” of death or great bodily harm.

Among other things, Cadden, Chin and others are accused of using expired ingredients, failing to properly sterilize drugs and failing to test them to make sure they were pure. The other defendants were charged with such crimes as fraud and interstate sale of adulterated drugs.

U.S. Attorney Carmen Ortiz said NECC was “filthy” and failed to comply with even basic health standards, and employees knew it. For example, she said, they falsified logs on when labs were cleaned.

“Production and profit were prioritized over safety,” Ortiz said.

More than 750 people in 20 states were sickened - about half of them with a rare fungal form of meningitis, the rest with joint or spinal infections - and 64 died. The steroids given were for medical purposes, not for bodybuilding; most patients received the injections for back pain.

In reaction to the outbreak, Congress last year increased federal

The 2nd District this election was considered a battleground, and millions of dollars in outside advertising poured into the race, on both sides. “They knew we were a serious threat this time,” she said.

McSally led Barber by 161 votes after all ballots were counted last month. But the margin was so small it triggered an automatic recount that added six votes to her margin.

Maricopa County Superior Court Judge Katherine Cooper announced the results in court Wednesday.

Barber, 69, had fought in several venues to get additional votes counted but was turned away at every effort. Separately, a group of voters tried to get the state Supreme Court to halt the recount because of the computer program used. That too was rejected.

McSally’s win gives the GOP a 5-4 advantage in the Arizona congressional delegation.

D E A D L Y 2 0 1 2 WASHINGTON GOVERNOR O U T B R E A K PROPOSES CAP ON

oversight of so-called compounding pharmacies like NECC, which custom-mix medications in bulk and supply them directly to hospitals and doctors.

Linda Nedroscik of Howell, Michigan, said her husband, John, survived the tainted injection. But she said the 64-year-old “still struggles, has nightmares.”

CARBON POLLUTION

SEATTLE (AP) -- Washington Gov. Jay Inslee on Wednesday proposed an ambitious cap-and-trade program to require the state’s largest industrial polluters to pay for every ton of carbon they release.

“It’s hard to say it’s a relief because it doesn’t change anything for us in our physical lives,” she said of the indictment, “but it takes a burden off emotionally.”

The proposal was part of a broader package that the Democrat said would help the state meet a 2008 mandate to drastically reduce greenhouse gas emissions blamed for global warming. It sets an overall limit on heat-trapping gases similar to a program that California launched nearly three years ago.

Chin’s lawyer, Stephen Weymouth, said he was stunned that prosecutors charged his client with second-degree murder under the racketeering law.

“It is primarily and foremost an issue of health for our children and our grandchildren,” said Inslee, who was flanked by Democratic lawmakers and other supporters at a news conference at REI in Seattle.

“He feels hugely remorseful for everything that’s happened - for the injuries and the deaths - but he never intended to cause harm to anybody,” Weymouth said. “It seems to be a bit of an overreach.”

Messages were left for lawyers for 11 other defendants. Lawyers for two defendants could not immediately be located.

“It’s not only a good idea, it’s the law,” he added.

After the outbreak came to light, regulators found a host of potential contaminants at the pharmacy, including standing water, mold and dirty equipment. The business filed for bankruptcy after it was bombarded with hundreds of lawsuits from victims or their.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Stuart Delery said the defendants showed “not only a reckless disregard for federal health and safety regulations, but also an extreme and appalling disregard for human life.”

“Every patient should have the peace of mind knowing that their medications are safe,” he said.

Gregory Conigliaro, another co-founder, was among 12 of the 14 arrested at their homes around the state. Chin had been charged with mail fraud in September.

All those charged were expected to make an initial court appearance later Wednesday.

NECC was founded in 1998 by brothers-in-law Cadden and Conigliaro.

Cadden earned a pharmacy degree from the University of Rhode Island.

Conigliaro is an engineer.

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Inslee said the program will cover about 85 percent of all the state’s carbon emissions.

The proposal still needs to be approved by the Legislature, and is certain to face resistance. Republicans will have outright control of the Senate after picking up seats in the November election.

Inslee, who has made tackling climate change a key issue since taking office two years ago, said the plan would raise nearly $1 billion in its first year, which would begin in July 2016.

Money raised by selling allowance to pollute would pay for transportation projects, education-funding requirements imposed by the state Supreme Court, and assist low-income families and industries that are most affected by higher energy costs.

Inslee dangled the money as one way to bring along lawmakers in Olympia. Legislators in both parties will have to come to grips with stark realities, as they confront a projected budget gap of more than $2 billion during the next two-year period.

“They may conclude it’s better to tax pollution than voters, that it’s better to tax polluters than drivers,” Inslee said.

Sen. Doug Ericksen, R-Ferndale, who chairs the Senate environment committee, said the governor’s plan “would make it more expensive to take a family vacation, drive your kids to soccer practice and heat your home.”

Ericksen called it “a general fund tax increase” that will hurt working families and businesses, and said he would work to come up with clean energy solutions that aren’t so costly.

Under cap-and-trade, the state would set an overall cap on carbon emissions and require the state’s largest polluters to pay for each metric ton of pollution emitted. The price would be set at an auction. Polluters that cut emissions below the cap can sell leftover permits to others who pollute more.

The proposal will apply to about 130 large facilities, including refineries, power plants and steel mills, or those that emit more than 25,000 metric tons of greenhouse gases a year.

The overall cap on greenhouse gases would decrease over time, so fewer permits are issued, increasing their value on the market.

Companies may decide to pay for every metric ton they permit, or find that there’s more financial incentive for them to cut their pollution by becoming more energy efficient or finding newer technologies to reduce pollution.

8

The Weekly News Digest, Dec 15 thru Dec 22, 2014

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P A K I S T A N B U R I E S V I C T I M S O F S C H O O L M A S S A C R E

TURMUS AYA, West Bank (AP) -- A Palestinian Cabinet member died Wednesday shortly after he and other protesters scuffled with Israeli troops near a West Bank village. The forces also fired tear gas close to the demonstrators, witnesses said.

soldiers, and that soldiers fired tear gas toward the legs of the Palestinians.

He said one soldier hit Abu Ain in the chest with his rifle butt. An Associated Press photographer and an Israeli reporter at the scene said they did not see Abu Ain being hit with a rifle butt.

During the scuffle, a member of Israel’s security forces held Ziad Abu Ain, 55, by the neck. Abu Ain later collapsed, received first aid and died en route to a hospital, witnesses said.

What killed the Palestinian official remains unclear and his body will undergo an autopsy attended by Palestinian, Jordanian and Israeli pathologists, the Israeli army said. But death of Abu Ain, the first Palestinian Cabinet member to die immediately after a protest, likely will enflame simmering tensions that remain after U.S.-brokered peace talks fell apart earlier this year.

Later Wednesday, a 12-year-old Palestinian boy was shot in the head and seriously wounded in a confrontation with Israeli soldiers in the nearby Jalazoun refugee camp, said Ahmed Bitawi, the head of Ramallah Hospital. The Israeli military said it was checking the report.

Abu Ain, his face pale, sat the ground after the clash, leaning against a rock and holding his chest. Abu Sassaka said an Israeli soldier administer first aid to Abu Ain before protesters carried him away. An ambulance later took Abu Ain to Ramallah Hospital and he died en route, Abu Sassaka said.

This Wednesday, Dec. 17, 2014 combination of undated pictures provided by their families shows some of the students of the Army Public School who were killed on Tuesday when Taliban militants stormed their school in Peshawar, Pakistan. Pakistan mourned as the nation prepares for mass funerals Wednesday for over 140 people, most of them children, killed in the Taliban massacre in the military-run school in the country’s northwest in the deadliest and most horrific attacks in years, officials said.

and urged Israel to carry out an immediate, transparent investigation.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas was to meet with senior officials from the Palestine Liberation Organization and his Fatah movement later Wednesday to discuss a possible response to Abu Ain’s death. In a statement, Abbas called the death a “barbaric act,” but added that he would wait for the results of the investigation before deciding on a response. He also called for three days of mourning in the Palestinian territories.

Wednesday’s events began with a march by several dozen Palestinians who headed to agricultural land near the West Bank village of Turmus Aya to plant olive tree saplings, participants said.

The land is close to an unauthorized Israeli settlement outpost, Adei-Ad, one of dozens in the West Bank, and mostly off limits to the village’s farmers, protesters said.

Some called for suspending Palestinian security coordination with Israel in the West Bank, but it was not clear if that option would be considered.

As the marchers walked toward the land, Israeli soldiers fired tear gas and threw stun grenades at the Palestinians, said Kamal Abu Sassaka, an assistant to Abu Ain who said he was by the Cabinet member’s side the entire time.

In Brussels, EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini called for an independent investigation and said that “reports of excessive use of force by Israeli security forces are extremely worrying.”

Abu Ain told an Israeli officer that this was a peaceful protest, but was told the group could not move further, said Abu Sassaka.

The U.N. envoy to the region, Robert Serry, appealed for calm

He said there was pushing and shoving between marchers and

C O L O R A D O F U N D S M E D I C A L MARIJUANA RESEARCH, A FIRST other five are “observational studies,” meaning the subjects will be providing their own weed.

Among the projects poised for approval Wednesday: - Two separate studies on using marijuana to treat post-traumatic stress disorder ($3.1 million) - Whether adolescents and young adults with irritable bowel syndrome benefit from marijuana ($1.2 million) - Using marijuana to relieve pain in children with brain tumors ($1 million)

Matt Figi hugs and tickles his once severely-ill seven year old daughter Charlotte, as they walk together inside a greenhouse for a special strain of medical marijuana known as Charlotte’s Web, which was named after the girl early in her treatment for crippling severe epilepsy, in the mountains west of Colorado Springs, Colo. Colorado is poised to award more than $8 million for medical marijuana research, a step toward addressing complaints that little is known about pot’s medical potential. Among the research projects poised for approval on Wednesday, Dec. 17, 2014, are one for pediatric epilepsy patients, and another for children with brain tumors.

- How an oil derived from marijuana plants affects pediatric epilepsy patients ($524,000) - Comparing marijuana and oxycodone for pain relief ($472,000) The money is coming from Colorado’s medical marijuana patient fees, not Colorado’s new taxes on recreational pot.

DENVER (AP) -- Colorado awarded more than $8 million for medical marijuana research Wednesday, a step toward addressing complaints that little is known about pot’s medical potential.

Last year, lawmakers authorized $10 million from reserves for “objective scientific research regarding the efficacy of marijuana and its component parts as part of medical treatment.”

The grants awarded by the Colorado Board of Health will go to studies on whether marijuana helps treat epilepsy, brain tumors, Parkinson’s disease and post-traumatic stress disorder. Some of the studies still need federal approval.

A group of medical marijuana patients announced a lawsuit Wednesday challenging Colorado’s marijuana research. They say Colorado’s medical marijuana law requires excess cash to be refunded to patients who paid the fees, not diverted to other research.

Though the awards are relatively small, they represent a new frontier for marijuana research. That’s because the Colorado grants will be spent to explore the drug’s medical potential, not the health downsides of marijuana.

Colorado received 57 applications for research grants. An advisory board whittled those to eight proposals totaling $7.6 million. The Board authorized the spending of up to $8.4 million, in case the projects run over budget.

“This is the first time we’ve had government money to look at the efficacy of marijuana, not the harms of marijuana,” said Dr. Suzanne Sisley, a Scottsdale, Arizona, psychiatrist who will help run a study on marijuana for veterans with PTSD. Sisley plans to do her research in private practice after previously working for the University of Arizona.

One of the researchers poised to study marijuana and PTSD called the Colorado awards groundbreaking because the state is providing money without federal red tape.

Federal approval to study marijuana’s medical potential requires permission of the Food and Drug Administration, the Drug Enforcement Administration and the National Institute on Drug Abuse. And there’s only one legal source of the weed, the Marijuana Research Project at the University of Mississippi.

Twenty-three states and Washington, D.C., allow marijuana use by people with various medical conditions. But under federal law, pot is considered a drug with no medical use and doctors cannot prescribe it.

Dr. Larry Wolk, Colorado’s Chief Medical Officer, says the lack of research on marijuana’s medical value leaves sick people guessing about how pot may help them and what doses to take.

“There’s nowhere else in medicine where we give a patient some seeds and say, `Go grow this and process it and then figure out how much you need,’” Wolk said.

“We need research dollars so we can answer more questions.”

Three of the eight research projects, including the veterans study, will still need federal clearance and access to the Ole Miss marijuana. The

“The opportunity in Colorado is an amazing one,” said Marcel Bonn-Miller, a psychiatrist with the University of Pennsylvania who leads the Substance Abuse and Anxiety Program for the U.S. Veterans Affairs Department. The VA is not participating directly in his marijuana studies.

Colorado has about 117,000 medical marijuana patients who pay $15 a year to be on the registry. The number has grown slightly since Colorado voted two years ago to make marijuana legal for recreational purposes, not just medical purposes.

The Israeli military said that about 200 “rioters” gathered in Turmus Aya and that troops prevented them from reaching Adei-Ad, using “riot dispersal means.” That typically means tear gas and stun grenades.

The Israeli military also said it proposed to Palestinian officials that they conduct a joint investigation into Abu Ain’s death.

Earlier Wednesday, the Israeli rights group Yesh Din filed a court appeal, demanding that the Israeli military enforce long-standing orders to dismantle the settlement outpost.

Yesh Din attorney Shlomy Zachary told Israel’s Channel 10 TV that the outpost was established in 2000 and now effectively controls large areas around it, including lands of Turmus Aya, because the military prevents access to villagers for fear of friction with the settlers.

Abu Ain headed a Palestinian Authority department dealing with Israeli settlements and the Israeli separation barrier, and had the rank of Cabinet member. Previously, he served as deputy minister for prisoner affairs.

Abu Ain was a member of Fatah and had spent several years in Israeli prisons. He was arrested in the United States in 1979 and extradited to Israel two years later. There, he was sentenced to life for being a member of a cell that planted a bomb that killed two Israelis. Abu Ain was released in a 1985 prisoner swap.

During the second Palestinian uprising in 2002, he spent a year in administrative detention without trial or charges.

THE MYSTERY OF WHERE EARTH’S WATER CAME FROM DEEPENS SEATTLE (AP) -- Washington Gov. Jay Inslee on Wednesday proposed an ambitious cap-and-trade program to require the state’s largest industrial polluters to pay for every ton of carbon they release.

The proposal was part of a broader package that the Democrat said would help the state meet a 2008 mandate to drastically reduce greenhouse gas emissions blamed for global warming. It sets an overall limit on heat-trapping gases similar to a program that California launched nearly three years ago.

“It is primarily and foremost an issue of health for our children and our grandchildren,” said Inslee, who was flanked by Democratic lawmakers and other supporters at a news conference at REI in Seattle.

“It’s not only a good idea, it’s the law,” he added.

Inslee said the program will cover about 85 percent of all the state’s carbon emissions.

The proposal still needs to be approved by the Legislature, and is certain to face resistance. Republicans will have outright control of the Senate after picking up seats in the November election.

Inslee, who has made tackling climate change a key issue since taking office two years ago, said the plan would raise nearly $1 billion in its first year, which would begin in July 2016.

Money raised by selling allowance to pollute would pay for transportation projects, education-funding requirements imposed by the state Supreme Court, and assist low-income families and industries that are most affected by higher energy costs.

Inslee dangled the money as one way to bring along lawmakers in Olympia.

Legislators in both parties will have to come to grips with stark realities, as they confront a projected budget gap of more than $2 billion during the next two-year period.

“They may conclude it’s better to tax pollution than voters, that it’s better to tax polluters than drivers,” Inslee said.

Sen. Doug Ericksen, R-Ferndale, who chairs the Senate environment committee, said the governor’s plan “would make it more expensive to take a family vacation, drive your kids to soccer practice and heat your home.”

Ericksen called it “a general fund tax increase” that will hurt working families and businesses, and said he would work to come up with clean energy solutions that aren’t so costly.

Under cap-and-trade, the state would set an overall cap on carbon emissions and require the state’s largest polluters to pay for each metric ton of pollution emitted. The price would be set at an auction. Polluters that cut emissions below the cap can sell leftover permits to others who pollute more.

The proposal will apply to about 130 large facilities, including refineries, power plants and steel mills, or those that emit more than 25,000 metric tons of greenhouse gases a year.

The overall cap on greenhouse gases would decrease over time, so fewer permits are issued, increasing their value on the market.

Companies may decide to pay for every metric ton they permit, or find that there’s more financial incentive for them to cut their pollution by becoming more energy efficient or finding newer technologies to reduce pollution.

_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________

The Weekly News Digest, Dec 15 thru Dec 22, 2014

9

I S R A E L S U F F E R S S H A R P R E B U F F S F R O M E U R O P E 1967 borders, with Jerusalem as the capital of both.

BRUSSELS (AP) -- Israel suffered back-to-back diplomatic setbacks in Europe on Wednesday as Palestinians headed to the United Nations to try to set a two-year deadline for an Israeli withdrawal.

Heilprin reported from Geneva. Mohammed Daraghmen in Ramallah, West Bank; Peter Enav in Jerusalem; Fares Akram in Gaza City, Gaza Strip; Angela Charlton in Paris; and Lara Jakes in Washington contributed to this report.

In Geneva, the international community delivered a stinging rebuke to Israel’s settlement construction in the West Bank and east Jerusalem, saying the practice violates Israel’s responsibilities as an occupying power.

THE MYSTERY OF WHERE EARTH’S WATER CAME FROM DEEPENS

The declaration adopted by the conference of the Fourth Geneva Convention, which governs the rules of war and military occupation, emphasized a prohibition on colonizing occupied land and insisted that international humanitarian law be obeyed in areas affected by the conflict between Israel and Palestinians. It called for “all serious violations” to be investigated and those responsible for breaches to be brought to justice.

“This is a signal and we can hope that words count,” said Swiss ambassador Paul Fivat, who chaired the one-day meeting. The U.S. and Israel did not take part.

Israel’s U.N. Mission blasted the gathering, saying: “It confers legitimacy on terrorist organizations and dictatorial regimes wherever they are, while condemning a democratic country fighting terrorism in accordance with international law.”

In Luxembourg, meanwhile, a European Union court ordered the Palestinian group Hamas removed from the EU terrorist list for procedural reasons but said the 28-nation bloc can maintain asset freezes against Hamas members for now.

The Islamic militant group, which calls for the destruction of Israel, hailed the decision, but Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu expressed outrage.

“It seems that too many in Europe, on whose soil 6 million Jews were slaughtered, have learned nothing,” Netanyahu said, adding that Israel would continue to defend itself “against the forces of terror and tyranny and hypocrisy.”

The EU court ruled that the terrorist listing of Hamas was based on press and Internet reports and not on “acts examined and confirmed in decisions of competent authorities.”

The EU, which has two months to appeal, was considering its next step.

In New York, an Arab-backed draft resolution on ending Israel’s occupation of lands captured in 1967 was being submitted later Wednesday to the U.N. Security Council for a vote, the Palestinian foreign minister said.

BOSTON (AP) -- Not even J.R.R. Tolkien could dream up rings as precious as these.

Palestinians carry the body of 20-year-old Mahmoud Abdalla Mahmoud Abdalla, who was killed in clashes with Israeli troops, during his funeral in the Qalandia refugee camp near the West Bank city of Ramallah, Tuesday, Dec. 16, 2014. The Israeli military said Palestinians threw explosive charges and opened fire at soldiers during an arrest operation and that they responded with fire of their own, killing one man, and wounding another.(

Israel fiercely opposes any suggestions that the Security Council can set a framework for Israeli-Palestinian negotiations, which broke down again in the spring after the two sides couldn’t agree on the ground rules.

The United States was scrambling Wednesday to avert a showdown at the Security Council. U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry was talking to European and Arab foreign ministers about a potential meeting this weekend in the Mideast, possibly with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.

In Washington, State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki said the Obama administration is studying the EU’s court decision but the U.S. continues to consider Hamas as a terrorist organization.

The U.S. hasn’t said how it would respond to the Jordanian resolution, but Kerry took a hard line in meetings this week in Europe against any effort that could interfere with Israel’s elections in mid-March.

“We want to find the most constructive way of doing something that therefore will not have unintended consequences, but also can stem the violence,” Kerry told reporters in London on Tuesday. He said the situation marks “a particularly sensitive moment” given rising tensions between Israel and Palestinians.

However, minister Riad Malki said the actual vote might be put off, suggesting a compromise is in the works to avoid a clash in the council.

Israel did one win diplomatic engagement in Europe on Wednesday, this one at the European Parliament. The lawmakers meeting in Strasbourg, France, stopped short of pushing for an outright recognition of a Palestinian state, urging renewed peace talks instead.

The current draft, sponsored by Jordan on behalf of the Palestinians, sets November 2016 as a deadline for an Israeli withdrawal from war-won lands the Palestinians are seeking for a state.

Legislators voted 498-88 in favor of a compromise resolution supporting “in principle recognition of Palestinian statehood” - but as part of a twostate solution with Israel. The resolution supports two states on the basis of

N Y C P R E M I E R E O F R O G E N F I L M C A N C E L E D A S T H R E A T S F L Y dance revenue is completely lost for Carmike for “The Interview,” that could cost the chain 1.5 percent to 1.9 percent of fourth quarter revenue - not a major loss - but if there is an event that happens in a theater, that would swell dramatically.

“Unfortunately, there is a lot of uncertainty that this brings into play for all exhibitors this holiday season,” he said. “The question is whether or not moviegoers are willing to see another movie in its place ... or if this box office and associated attendance is just a loss.”

Benchmark Co. analyst Mike Hickey said other chains are likely to follow suit and pull the movie.

Toppled merchandise rests on the floor of a Pak N Save supermarket looted by anti-police protesters on Tuesday, Dec. 9, 2014, in Emeryville, Calif. Several hundred demonstrators marched for the fourth consecutive day with some occupying a freeway and looting at least two stores.

NEW YORK (AP) -- The blow that the hacking attack has dealt Sony is spreading beyond the entertainment corporation itself to theater chains and movie goers alike. And the financial toll is adding up too.

Threats of violence against movie theaters. The New York premiere of “The Interview” canceled. Leaks of thousands more private emails. Lawsuits by former employees that could cost tens of millions in damages.

The fallout from the Sony Pictures Entertainment hack that began four weeks ago exploded Tuesday after the shadowy group calling themselves Guardians of Peace escalated their attack beyond corporate espionage and threatened moviegoers with violence reminiscent of the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001.

The Department of Homeland Security said there was “no credible intelligence to indicate an active plot against movie theaters,” but noted it was still analyzing messages from the group, dubbed GOP. The warning did prompt law enforcement in New York and Los Angeles to address measures to ramp up security.

Those security fears spurred Sony to allow theater chains to cancel showings of the Seth Rogen and James Franco comedy “The Interview,” that has been a focus of the hackers’ mission to bring down Sony.

A spokesperson for Landmark Sunshine cinemas said the New York premiere of “The Interview,” scheduled for Thursday night, has been canceled. Carmike Cinemas, which operates 247 theaters across the country, was the first to cancel its planned showings of the film, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

B. Riley analyst Eric Wold estimates that if box office and atten-

“We have a hard time believing any theatre exhibitor would choose to show the movie on Christmas day, and risk the overhang of potential ramifications from a successful implemented terrorist attack from the hacker group or a random extremist that may have ancillary motivation,” he said.

GOP also released a trove of data files including 32,000 emails to and from Sony Entertainment CEO Michael Lynton in what it called the beginning of a “Christmas gift.”

And two former Sony film production workers filed lawsuits alleging the Culver City, California company waited too long to notify nearly 50,000 employees that data such as Social Security numbers, salaries and medical records had been stolen.

The filing follows another lawsuit this week from two other former Sony employees accusing the studio of being negligent by not bolstering its defenses against hackers before the attack. It claims emails and other leaked information show that Sony’s information-technology department and its top lawyer believed its security system was vulnerable to attack, but that company did not act on those warnings. Sony potentially faces tens of millions of dollars in damages from a class-action lawsuit, said Jonathan Handel, an entertainment law professor at the University of Southern California Gould School of Law. In “The Interview,” Rogen and Franco star as television journalists involved in a CIA plot to assassinate North Korean leader Kim Jong Un. Speculation about a North Korean link to the Sony hacking has centered on that country’s angry denunciation of the film. Over the summer, North Korea warned that the film’s

A former Salvation Army bell ringer is paying $21,000 for a diamond engagement ring and wedding band that a widow placed inside a red donation kettle in Boston. A note accompanying the rings asked that the jewelry be sold and the proceeds used to buy toys for poor children.

This heartwarming Christmas story gets even better: The anonymous woman redeeming the rings is also a widow, and she wants to return them to the woman who originally donated them.

“I want to be involved in this because it’s about the spirit of Christmas, the spirit of giving,” the buyer told the Salvation Army, which announced the rings’ sale Monday.

“My wish is that the rings can be returned to this woman who gave them up in memory of her husband for the sake of children at Christmas.”

The fellowship of these rings began earlier this month, when the charity emptied one of its trademark kettles outside Boston’s North Station and found the rings wrapped inside a letter.

The widow who gave them recalled her late husband as an especially giving soul, especially during the holidays, and said she was donating her rings in his memory.

“I’m hoping there’s someone out there who made lots of money this year and will buy the ring for 10 times its worth. After all, there’s no price on love or the sentimental value of this ring. But money will help the kids,” her note read.

Massachusetts Salvation Army Major David Davis said the diamond ring alone was valued at $1,850. In keeping with the donor’s wish, the organization spread the word, and Davis said the rings got multiple offers.

“One expression of love has inspired another grand gesture to help those in need during the holiday season,” he said. “Because of these two amazing individuals, our Salvation Army officers, staff and individuals will be able to extend our outreach to the many families and children in need. We are dedicated to fulfilling the sentiment behind these two heartfelt donations.”

In the end, the winning bidder offered more than 10 times the rings’ worth. The woman, identified only as a former Salvation Army volunteer, told the charity she was inspired in part because she, too, lost a beloved husband.

“I miss him dearly, but my husband would be happy that I am doing this,” she said.

The Salvation Army doesn’t know who the original donor is but hopes she’ll come forward, spokesman Drew Forster said.

“We’re hoping this incredibly generous person reaches out so we can set up a very quiet meeting” to return the rings, he said.

release would be an “act of war that we will never tolerate.” It said the U.S. will face “merciless” retaliation.

The film was slated to hit theaters nationwide on Christmas Day. It premiered in Los Angeles last week.

But on Tuesday, Rogen and Franco pulled out of all media appearances, canceling a Buzzfeed Q&A and Rogen’s planned guest spot Thursday on “Late Night With Seth Meyers.” A representative for Rogen said he had no comment. A spokeswoman for Franco didn’t respond to queries Tuesday.

The FBI said it is aware of the GOP’s threats and “continues to work collaboratively with our partners to investigate this matter.”

FBI director James Comey last week said that investigators are still trying to determine who is responsible for the hack.

Los Angeles Police Chief Charlie Beck said his department takes the hackers’ threats “very seriously” and will be taking extra precautions during the holidays at theaters. The National Association of Theatre Owners had no comment on the developing situation.

Neither Sony nor representatives from individual theater chains, including Carmike, responded to requests for comment.

Since the hack surfaced late last month, everything from financial figures to salacious emails between top Sony executives has been dumped online.

The nearly 32,000 emails to and from Sony Pictures Entertainment CEO Lynton leaked Tuesday include information about casting decisions and total costs for upcoming films, release schedules for Sony films through 2018 and corporate financial records, such as royalties from iTunes, Spotify and Pandora music services. They include information about new electronics devices such as DVD players and cellphones. They also include budget figures for the Motion Picture Association of America, of which Sony is a member, and at least one email about a senior Sony executive who left the company. The emails also include banal messages about public appearances, tennis matches, home repairs, dinner invitations and business introductions.

In their warning Tuesday, the hackers suggested Sony employees make contact via several disposable email addresses ending in yopmail.com. Frenchman Frederic Leroy, who started up the yopmail site in 2004, was surprised to learn the Sony hackers were using yopmail addresses. He said there was no way he could identify the users.

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The Weekly News Digest, Dec 15 thru Dec 22, 2014

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U S T R AV E L I N D U S T R Y C A R E F U L LY E Y E I N G C U B A T O U R I S M charters are a way of “just understanding what happens, if in fact there’s a normalization.”

NEW YORK (AP) -- Cuba was once a haven for sun-seeking American tourists. Beautiful beaches, lively casinos and late-night dancing made it the perfect getaway, only an hour’s flight from Miami.

Delta Air Lines, which operated more than 240 charter flights between October 2011 and December 2012, said it has no immediate plans to fly to Cuba. But, spokesman Anthony Black noted that “having served there through our charter operations, the groundwork has been laid for us to possibly serve the market if an opportunity becomes available.”

But the Cuban revolution led by Fidel Castro and the subsequent Cold War embargo of the communist island nation put an end to that.

President Barack Obama’s announcement Wednesday of plans to re-establish diplomatic ties with Cuba doesn’t suddenly lift the ban on U.S. tourism. It does, however, give hope to airlines, hotel chains and cruise companies - all which have been quietly eyeing a removal of the travel ban - that they soon will be able to bring U.S. tourists to the Caribbean nation.

“Cuba is the largest country in the Caribbean, so there’s some exciting possibilities,” said Roger Frizzell, spokesman for Carnival Corp. He said “some infrastructure for cruising already exists in the country,” although other issues “need to be taken into consideration if this market opens up.”

A handful of international companies already operate in Cuba. For instance, Spanish hotel chain Melia has 26 properties on the island.

U.S. companies, like Hilton Worldwide and Marriott International - the two largest chains by rooms - say they welcome any future opportunities to include Cuba in their rapidly growing global footprint.

“We will take our cues from the U.S. government, but look forward to opening hotels in Cuba, as companies from others countries have done already,” Marriott CEO Arne Sorenson said via an emailed statement.

While most Americans are prohibited from traveling to Cuba and spending money there, close relatives of Cubans, academics and people on accredited cultural education programs can visit. And there is a tiny, but robust business in transporting people to Cuba.

Most operators are tiny storefront travel agents in the Miami area with names like Alina’s Travel Co. and Gina’s Travel Services.

Those agents then charter planes from carriers like American Airlines to transport the groups.

About 170,000 authorized travelers made the trip last year, according to the Department of Commerce.

“Once people get a glimpse of Cuba, they always want to see more,” said Katharine Bonner, a senior executive at Connecticut-based tour operator Tauck, which runs tours there under a cultural exchange license. “Americans are very curious about a country

M C C O N N E L L WA N T S TO S TO P C O A L R U L E S

tourists ride in classic cars along Havana’s Malecon. President Barack Obama’s announcement Wednesday, Dec. 17, 2014, of plans to re-establish diplomatic ties with the Caribbean nation gives hope to airlines, hotel chains and cruise companies _ all which have been quietly eyeing a removal of the travel ban _ that they soon will be able to bring tourists to Cuba.

that is 90 miles off our coast but has been off limits for so long.”

It is that isolation, in part, that is so appealing. There’s no McDonalds, no Starbucks. Bonner said once travel opens, there will be a rush to see Cuba before its gets “Americanized.”

“It’s almost like a country that has been frozen in time,” she said.

“There’s going to be a desire to see Cuba before it changes.”

The challenge for the industry will be to offer trips to Cuba for eager tourists without alienating anti-Castro Cuban-Americans who stay in hotels or take cruises elsewhere. Regardless, for now, senior Obama administration officials say that travel to Cuba for tourist activities will remain prohibited.

U.S. airlines have been quietly dipping their toes in Cuba’s warm waters for years.

American Airlines dominates many of the routes to Latin America with its hub in Miami. It’s run charters to Cuba for more than 15 years, according to spokeswoman Martha Pantin. It now operates 20 weekly flights from Miami to Havana, Holguin, Santa Clara and Cienfuegos and from Tampa to Havana and Holguin.

JetBlue Airways started flying Cuba charters in September 2011.

It’s a very small part of the airline’s business; just three weekly flights on Airbus A320s with 50 to 80 customers, either to Havana or Santa Clara.

Airlines are granted the right to fly international routes through bilateral agreements between U.S. and foreign governments. A similar agreement would need to be reached with Cuba first. There is one dating back to 1953 - it was last updated on July 30, 1957 - that allows specific routes from New York, Washington D.C., Houston, New Orleans and the Florida cities of Miami, St. Petersburg, Tampa, Fort Lauderdale and West Palm Beach.

The one immediate change for licensed travelers: they will now be able to return to the U.S. with $400 in Cuban goods, including tobacco and alcohol. Limited amounts of Cuban cigars might be the new hot souvenir.

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CEO David Barger told The Associated Press last year that the “So for the president to pursue his crusade at the expense of the people of my state is completely unacceptable, and I’m going to do any and everything I can to stop it,” McConnell said.

McConnell also was cool to the administration’s plans to normalize ties with Cuba. He said he defers to Republican Sen. Marco Rubio, a Cuban-American from Florida, on the issue because he said Rubio is an expert on U.S.-Cuban matters.

Rubio has said that Obama’s approach will help the Castro government while doing nothing to further human rights and democracy.

“Sounds like the correct response to me,” McConnell said. “I think he knows more about this than almost anybody in the Senate if not everybody in the Senate and I wouldn’t differ with his characterization.”

On immigration, McConnell stopped short of pledging that Congress would block Obama’s recent executive actions curbing deportations for millions of people who are in the United States illegally.

Incoming Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell of Ky., talks about his agenda for a GOP-controlled Congress during an interview with The Associated Press on Capitol Hill in Washington, Wednesday, Dec. 17, 2014. McConnell says approving the Keystone XL pipeline will top the Senate agenda in January.

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Incoming Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., pledged on Wednesday to do all he can to stop President Barack Obama’s coal plant regulations, saying a White House “crusade” has devastated his state’s economy.

The Environmental Protection Agency “has created a depression in my state and it’s done a lot of damage to the country all across the country with these efforts to essentially eliminate coal fired generation,” he said in an Associated Press interview.

“I couldn’t be angrier about it and whatever we can think of to try to stop it we’re going to do. ... I know it won’t be easy with Barack Obama in the White House.”

McConnell takes over the Senate leadership and its new Republican majority in January. He reaffirmed plans to make approving the Keystone XL pipeline, which would run from Canada to Texas, as the first order of business.

He said other moves to counter Obama’s environmental policies await, but he did not offer details.

The Obama administration is trying to get fossil-fuel fired power plants to reduce carbon dioxide emissions by 30 percent from 2005 levels by 2030.

The White House also recently announced a deal with China to curb the greenhouse gases blamed for global warming.

Asked if the Senate had any obligation to address global warming, McConnell said, “Look, my first obligation is to protect my people, who are hurting as the result of what this administration is doing.”

He said that despite the administration’s “phony deal” with China, “coal is booming elsewhere.”

“Our country, going down this path all by ourselves, is going to have about as much impact as dropping a pebble in the ocean,” McConnell said.

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Republicans strongly oppose Obama’s move and are gearing up for a fight on the issue in February, when money runs out for the Department of Homeland Security, which oversees immigration matters. But the GOP’s options appear limited, and “exactly how the February episode unfolds I couldn’t tell you at this point,” McConnell said.

McConnell promised to restore a more open process of legislating and amendments in the Senate, which has been tightly run under outgoing Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev. McConnell said he did not think the presence of several potential presidential candidates, including Rubio, would affect the chamber’s work.

“I think the Senate can survive presidential ambition,” McConnell said.

“Serious adults are in charge here and we intend to make progress. ... We’re going to change the Senate’s behavior, and hopefully change the country in the process.”

h t t p : / / w w w . l i p t o n t o y o t a . c o m /

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The Weekly News Digest, Dec 15 thru Dec 22, 2014

11

SONY CANCELS ‘THE INTERVIEW’ DEC. 25 RELEASE

NEW YORK (AP) -- Cuba was once a haven for sun-seeking American tourists. Beautiful beaches, lively casinos and late-night dancing made it the perfect getaway, only an hour’s flight from Miami.

It is that isolation, in part, that is so appealing. There’s no McDonalds, no Starbucks. Bonner said once travel opens, there will be a rush to see Cuba before its gets “Americanized.”

But the Cuban revolution led by Fidel Castro and the subsequent Cold War embargo of the communist island nation put an end to that.

“It’s almost like a country that has been frozen in time,” she said.

“There’s going to be a desire to see Cuba before it changes.”

President Barack Obama’s announcement Wednesday of plans to re-establish diplomatic ties with Cuba doesn’t suddenly lift the ban on U.S. tourism. It does, however, give hope to airlines, hotel chains and cruise companies - all which have been quietly eyeing a removal of the travel ban - that they soon will be able to bring U.S. tourists to the Caribbean nation.

The challenge for the industry will be to offer trips to Cuba for eager tourists without alienating anti-Castro Cuban-Americans who stay in hotels or take cruises elsewhere. Regardless, for now, senior Obama administration officials say that travel to Cuba for tourist activities will remain prohibited.

“Cuba is the largest country in the Caribbean, so there’s some exciting possibilities,” said Roger Frizzell, spokesman for Carnival Corp. He said “some infrastructure for cruising already exists in the country,” although other issues “need to be taken into consideration if this market opens up.”

A handful of international companies already operate in Cuba. For instance, Spanish hotel chain Melia has 26 properties on the island. U.S. companies, like Hilton Worldwide and Marriott International - the two largest chains by rooms - say they welcome any future opportunities to include Cuba in their rapidly growing global footprint.

U.S. airlines have been quietly dipping their toes in Cuba’s warm waters for years.

Indian women participate in a march in “Defense of Mother Earth” in Lima, Peru, Wednesday, Dec. 10, 2014. Thousands marched in support of Mother Earth as they chanted slogans against illegal mining, and logging operations, as well as oil drilling.

They asked that the exploitation of resources in their ancestral lands be stopped immediately.

Most operators are tiny storefront travel agents in the Miami area with names like Alina’s Travel Co. and Gina’s Travel Services. Those agents then charter planes from carriers like American Airlines to transport the groups.

“We will take our cues from the U.S. government, but look forward to opening hotels in Cuba, as companies from others countries have done already,” Marriott CEO Arne Sorenson said via an emailed statement.

About 170,000 authorized travelers made the trip last year, according to the Department of Commerce.

While most Americans are prohibited from traveling to Cuba and spending money there, close relatives of Cubans, academics and people on accredited cultural education programs can visit. And there is a tiny, but robust business in transporting people to Cuba.

“Once people get a glimpse of Cuba, they always want to see more,” said Katharine Bonner, a senior executive at Connecticut-based tour operator Tauck, which runs tours there under a cultural exchange license. “Americans are very curious about a country that is 90 miles off our coast but has been off limits for so long.”

US GLOBAL AID CHIEF TO RESIGN; O V E R S AW S E C R E T C U B A P R O G R A M S priorities, including ending global poverty, championing food security, promoting health and nutrition, expanding access to energy sources, and supporting political and economic reform in closed societies.”

USAID describes itself as the lead U.S. government agency working to fight poverty and promote democracy around the world. Shah said Wednesday he was “more confident than ever in the lasting effect of our work.”

F E D T O A R A T E Administrator for the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) Raj Shah speaks in the James S. Brady Press Briefing Room in White House in Washington. The head of the U.S. Agency for International Development says he will step down from the post in February. Shah has led the agency since 2010. In a statement released Wednesday morning, he said he had “mixed emotions” but gave no reason for his resignation.

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The head of the nation’s global development agency said Wednesday he will step down from his post in February, following an announcement by the U.S. government that it would start talks toward restoring diplomatic relations with Cuba.

Rajiv Shah, the administrator for the U.S. Agency for International Development, gave no public reason for leaving the agency he’s led since 2000. In a statement released Wednesday morning, he said he had “mixed emotions” but did not elaborate.

Shah’s announcement also came hours before U.S. officials confirmed on Wednesday that USAID contractor Alan Gross was freed from a Cuban prison. He was arrested in December 2009 and later sentenced to 15 years after Cuban authorities said he tried to smuggle illegal technology into the country.

USAID, under Shah, drew intense criticism from some U.S. lawmakers and the Cuban government for its Cuba programs. An AP investigation this year revealed the agency - with the help of another Washington-based contractor - created a Twitter-like service, staged a health workshop to recruit activists and infiltrated the island’s hip-hop community.

Shah was confirmed Dec. 24, 2009, three weeks after Gross’ arrest. At the time, the AP found, a USAID-run program in Cuba continued despite internal warnings that travel was dangerous because of Gross’ detention.

Following the AP’s disclosures, the agency prepared internal rules that would effectively end risky undercover work in hostile countries. The AP found USAID and its contractor, Creative Associates International, concealed their involvement in the Cuban programs - setting up front companies, routing money through overseas bank transactions and fashioning elaborate cover stories.

That subterfuge put at risk the agency’s cooperation with foreign governments to deliver aid to the world’s poor. USAID recently pledged more than $140 million to fight Ebola in West Africa, part of its $425 million effort against the epidemic.

“For the past five years, Raj Shah has been at the center of my administration’s efforts to advance our global development agenda,” President Barack Obama said in a statement Wednesday. Obama said the administrator “embodied America’s finest values by proactively advancing our development

American Airlines dominates many of the routes to Latin America with its hub in Miami. It’s run charters to Cuba for more than 15 years, according to spokeswoman Martha Pantin. It now operates 20 weekly flights from Miami to Havana, Holguin, Santa Clara and Cienfuegos and from Tampa to Havana and Holguin.

JetBlue Airways started flying Cuba charters in September 2011. It’s a very small part of the airline’s business; just three weekly flights on Airbus A320s with 50 to 80 customers, either to Havana or Santa Clara.

CEO David Barger told The Associated Press last year that the charters are a way of “just understanding what happens, if in fact there’s a normalization.”

Delta Air Lines, which operated more than 240 charter flights between October 2011 and December 2012, said it has no immediate plans to fly to Cuba. But, spokesman Anthony Black noted that “having served there through our charter operations, the groundwork has been laid for us to possibly serve the market if an opportunity becomes available.”

Airlines are granted the right to fly international routes through bilateral agreements between U.S. and foreign governments. A similar agreement would need to be reached with Cuba first. There is one dating back to 1953 - it was last updated on July 30, 1957 - that allows specific routes from New York, Washington D.C., Houston, New Orleans and the Florida cities of Miami, St. Petersburg, Tampa, Fort Lauderdale and West Palm Beach.

The one immediate change for licensed travelers: they will now be able to return to the U.S. with $400 in Cuban goods, including tobacco and alcohol. Limited amounts of Cuban cigars might be the new hot souvenir.

B E ‘ P A T I E N T ’ A B O U T H I K E ; S T O C K S S O A R

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Federal Reserve is edging closer to raising interest rates from record lows given a strengthening U.S. economy. But it will be “patient” in deciding when to do so.

That was the message sent Wednesday as the Fed ended a meeting amid heightened expectation about a forthcoming rate increase. At a news conference afterward, Chair Janet Yellen said she foresaw no rate hike in the first quarter of 2015.

The Fed said in a statement that a “patient” approach to raising rates is consistent with its previous guidance that it would keep its key rate near zero for a “considerable time.”

Yellen said the strength of U.S. economic data and the level of inflation, not a calendar date, will dictate when it raises rates. At a time of global economic turmoil and collapsing oil prices, she stressed that the Fed was making no policy changes.

“The Fed is sending the message that the broader U.S. economy is on the path toward healing,” said Steven Ricchiuto, chief economist at Mizuho Securities.

“They don’t know how fast it will heal, but it’s on the mend.”

The Fed chair said she’s prepared to let the U.S. unemployment rate fall from its current 5.8 percent to exceptionally low levels because doing so could help cause inflation to rise closer to the Fed’s 2 percent target.

Uncertainty about when the economy will fully heal from the ravages of the Great Recession, which officially ended 5 1/2 years ago, is why the Fed’s policy statements remain vague, Ricchiuto added.

“There was no signal that rates are on the cusp of liftoff,” noted Joseph LaVorgna, chief U.S. economist at Deutsche Bank.

Stock investors cheered the Fed’s message. The Dow Jones industrial average, which had been up about 160 points before the Fed issued its statement, roared higher to close up 280 points. The stock market tends to applaud low rates because they make it easier for individuals and businesses to borrow and spend, and they cause many investors to shift money into stocks in search of higher returns.

Most economists think the Fed’s first rate increase will occur in June as long as its inflation outlook doesn’t remain persistently below its target rate of 2 percent. In an updated economic forecast Wednesday, the Fed lowered its inflation forecast for next year to between 1 percent and 1.6 percent.

Energy prices have plunged since the Fed last met in October, with oil reaching a five-year low. That price drop is reducing inflation further below the Fed’s 2 percent target, which could heighten the pressure to delay a rate hike

until inflation rebounds. On Wednesday, the government said consumer prices rose just 1.3 percent in November compared with 12 months ago.

But Yellen noted that oil price spikes in the past had only temporarily raised inflation and suggested that a corresponding drop will likely also have only a “transitory” effect on inflation.

She was more optimistic about the benefits of lower oil prices for the U.S. economy.

“The decline we have seen ... is likely to be on net a positive,” Yellen said.

“It’s something that’s certainly good for families, for households. It’s putting more money in their pockets... It’s like a tax cut that boosts their spending power.”

The Fed’s statement was approved on a 7-3 vote. The three dissents reflected the sharp divisions inside the Fed as it transitions from an extended period of ultra-low rates to a period in which it will start to raise rates. The Fed has not raised rates in more than eight years.

The dissents included Presidents Richard Fisher of the Dallas Fed and Charles Plosser of the Philadelphia Fed, who have long stressed the need for the Fed to prevent high inflation over the need to maximize employment.

But Narayana Kocherlakota, president of the Fed’s Minneapolis regional bank, also dissented for a different reason. He thinks the Fed needs to do more to boost inflation to its 2 percent target level.

The Fed’s decision to say both that it will be “patient” about a rate hike and that this is consistent with rates staying ultra-low for a “considerable time” was a surprise. Most economists had expected its statement to drop “considerable time” in favor of saying only that the Fed would be “patient” in assessing the economy’s ability to withstand higher rates.

Since the Fed’s last meeting, the job market and other sectors of the economy have strengthened. Employers added 321,000 jobs in November, sustaining the healthiest year for job growth since 1999. The current 5.8 percent unemployment rate is close to the 5.2 percent to 5.5 percent range that the central bank considers maximum employment.

The Fed’s key short-term rate has been at a record low near zero since December 2008. When the Fed does begin raising rates, the expectation is that it will do so gradually and leave consumer and corporate loan rates at historically low levels for a while.

In October, the Fed ended its bond buying program, which had been intended to keep down long-term borrowing rates. The bond purchases boosted the Fed’s investment holdings to close to $4.5 trillion - more than four times its level when the financial crisis hit in the fall of 2008.

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The Weekly News Digest, Dec 15 thru Dec 22, 2014

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R E P O RT: A R C T I C L O S E S I C E ; A B S O R B S M O R E

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Arctic and its future are looking dimmer every year, a new federal report says.

now. The continued summertime darkening of Greenland, particularly in a year when surface melt did not reach record levels, is worrisome, and sets up the potential for record surface melting in future years.”

In the spring and summer of 2014, Earth’s icy northern region lost more of its signature whiteness that reflects the sun’s heat. It was replaced temporarily with dark land and water that absorbs more energy, keeping yet more heat on already warming planet, according to the Arctic report card issued Thursday.

NAPSTER CO-FOUNDER TO INVEST IN ALLERGY RESEARCH

Spring snow cover in Eurasia reached a record low in April. Arctic summer sea ice, while not setting a new record, continued a long-term, steady decline. And Greenland set a record in August for the least amount of sunlight reflected in that month, said the peer-reviewed report from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and other agencies.

Overall, the report card written by 63 scientists from 13 countries shows few single-year dramatic changes, unlike other years.

“We can’t expect records every year. It need not be spectacular for the Arctic to continue to be changing,” said report lead editor Martin Jeffries, an Arctic scientist for the Office of Naval Research, at a San Francisco news conference Wednesday.

The report illustrates instead a relentless decline in cold, snow and ice conditions and how they combine with each other. And several of those have to do with how the Arctic reflects sun heat The Arctic’s drop in reflectivity is crucial because “it plays a role like a thermostat in regulating global climate,” Jeffries said, in an interview.

As the bright areas are replaced, even temporarily, with dark heat-absorbing dark areas, “That has global implications.”

The world’s thermostat setting gets nudged up a bit because more heat is being absorbed instead of reflected, he said.

The Arctic has been affected more by man-made warming than the rest of the globe, Jeffries and the report said. But it comes in spurts, pauses

In this June 2014 photo provided by Gotham Whale, a humpback whale breaks through the surface of the Atlantic Ocean just off a beach on the Rockaway peninsula near New York City. Humpbacks have been approaching the city in greater numbers than in many years; there were 87 sightings in nearby waters from a whale-watching boat in 2014.

and drops. Not every year will be a record, Jeffries said.

For example, the Arctic sea ice’s lowest point this year wasn’t as small as 2012 and was only the sixth lowest since 1979. But the last eight years have all had the eight lowest amounts of summer sea ice on record, Jeffries said.

While Greenland’s ice sheet lost 474 billion tons of ice in 2012, it only lost 6 billion tons in the past summer, the report said. While the U.S. East Coast shivered during January’s cold snap from a polar vortex that slipped south, parts of Alaska were 18 degrees warmer than normal.

Polar bear populations in parts of the Alaska region were shrinking but elsewhere they were more or less stable, the report said.

“Eight years ago, 2014 would have been considered an alarming year,” said University of Colorado ice scientist Ted Scambos, who didn’t contribute to the report. “With 2007 and 2012 behind us, not so much

B O E I N G 7 3 7 FA C TO RY TO M O V E TO CLEAN ENERGY The utility’s energy mix in 2013 was about 50 percent hydro, wind and other renewable sources, according to state figures. Natural gas and coal made up the other half, and that’s the portion Boeing plans to replace with renewable energy credits.

“It will cost us a little more in the short term. We think the investment makes sense for the environment, our employees and the community,” said Beverly Wyse, vice president and general manager of the 737 program.

Boeing officials declined to say how much more they’re paying, or how much energy the factory uses. Boeing assembles 42 planes a month at the Renton site, which includes about 4.3 million square feet of building space.

A worker walks down stairs next to the nose of a Boeing 737-800 airplane being assembled Tuesday, Dec. 16, 2014, at Boeing’s 737 facility in Renton, Wash. Boeing and Puget Sound Energy announced Tuesday that Boeing plans to switch to using all-renewable energy at the factory, by buying more wind power credits and continuing to use hydropower.

RENTON, Wash. (AP) -- Boeing said Tuesday it plans to buy renewable energy credits to replace fossil-fuel power at the factory in Washington state where it assembles its 737 commercial airplanes.

The aerospace company and the utility, Puget Sound Energy, said the plan will move the Renton factory near Seattle toward an all-renewable energy mix.

Boeing Co. says it will offset electricity from coal and other fuels by paying a premium to buy wind power credits tied to the Bellevue-based utility’s Wild Horse Wind and Solar Facility near Ellensburg.

Energy produced in the region from multiple sources gets pooled to the regional grid, so it’s difficult to track the source of a particular electron that ends up being used at a home or a business. So Boeing may still technically get some coal-fired electricity to that plant.

“You can’t direct an electron to any one location. It goes to the power pool,” said Heather Mulligan with the utility. Renewable energy credits “are a way to basically put some ownership on that green electron at the point of use.”

Marc Krasnowsky, a spokesman for NW Energy Coalition that has pushed for more renewable energy use, praised the company for looking at becoming all-renewable.

“They’re basically turning their fossil power green, and that’s laudable,” he said.

UK PROPOSES RULES FOR EMBRYOS MADE FROM 3 PEOPLE LONDON (AP) -- New rules proposed in Britain would make it the first country to allow embryos to be made from the DNA of three people in order to prevent mothers from passing on potentially fatal genetic diseases to their babies.

In a statement issued on Wednesday, the department of health said it had taken “extensive advice” on the safety and efficacy of the proposed techniques from the scientific community. “(This) will give women who carry severe mitochondrial disease the opportunity to have children without passing on devastating genetic disorders,” Dr. Sally Davies, the U.K.’s chief medical officer, said in a statement.

Experts say that if approved by parliament, these new methods would likely be used in about a dozen British women every year who are known to have faulty mitochondria - the energy-producing structures outside a cell’s nucleus. Defects in the mitochondria’s genetic code can result in diseases such as muscular dystrophy, heart problems and mental retardation.

The techniques involve removing the nucleus DNA from the egg of a prospective mother and inserting it into a donor egg, where the nucleus DNA has been removed. That can be done either

S N O W, H E A T

Sean Parker, co-founder of Napster, speaks at Web. 2.0 Conference in San Francisco. The Silicon Valley entrepreneur and philanthropist has announced one of the largest private donations to allergy research through the establishment of the Sean N. Parker Center for Allergy Research at Stanford University.

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Don’t blame man-made global warming for the devastating California drought, a new federal report says.

A report issued Monday by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said natural variations - mostly a La Nina weather oscillation - were the primary drivers behind the drought that has now stretched to three years.

Study lead author Richard Seager of Columbia University said the paper has not yet been published in a peer-reviewed scientific journal. He and NOAA’s Martin Hoerling said 160 runs of computer models show heat-trapping gases should slightly increase winter rain in parts of California, not decrease.

“The conditions of the last three winters are not the conditions that climate change models say would happen,” Hoerling said. But he said the La Nina, which is the cooler flip side of the warming of central Pacific ocean, can only be blamed for about one-third of the drought. The rest of the causes can be from just random variation, he said.

Some outside climate scientists criticized the report, saying it didn’t take into effect how record warmth worsened the drought. California is having its hottest year on record, based on the first 11 months of the year and is 4.1 degrees warmer than 20th-century average, according to the National Climatic Data Center.

“This study completely fails to consider what climate change is doing to water in California,” wrote Kevin Trenberth, head of climate analysis at the National Center for Atmospheric Research. He said the work “completely misses” how hotter air increases drying by evaporating more it from the ground.

In droughts, extra heat from global warming enhances the drying in a feedback effect, Trenberth and others said. But Hoerling said that is less of a factor in California because it is so near the ocean and its rain comes in storms coming off the Pacific.

Peer-reviewed studies are divided on whether the drought can be blamed on climate change. Others published earlier this year point more directly to changes in pressure of the Pacific that blocked rain from coming into California, but Hoerling and Seager dismissed them as not adequate.

Hoerling, who specializes in the complicated field of studying the cause of climate extremes, in the past has downplayed other scientists’ claims that regional droughts are caused by man-made warming. However, Hoerling acknowledges that climate change is happening, will worsen weather in the future and has produced past studies attributing strange weather - such as more frequent Mediterranean droughts - to heat-trapping gases from the burning of fossil fuels.

Scientists can’t even agree on how bad the drought is. Hoerling said the drought isn’t even in the top five worst for California. But a new peer-reviewed study in the journal Geophysical Research Letters by researchers at the University of Minnesota and Woods Hole Oceanographic calls this “the most severe drought in the last 1,200 years.”

Deke Arndt, climate monitoring chief for NOAA’s National Climatic Data Center, said by some drought measures, the current California drought “is slightly more intense than, but still comparable to, the late 1970s episode.

I’d put them at 1a and 1b on the list of historical multi-year drought episodes affecting California in modern times.”

before or after fertilization.

The resulting embryo would end up with the nucleus DNA from its parents but the mitochondrial DNA from the donor. Scientists say the DNA from the donor egg amounts to less than 1 percent of the resulting embryo’s genes. But the change will be passed onto future generations, a major genetic modification that many ethicists have been reluctant to endorse.

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Critics say the new techniques are unnecessary and that women who have mitochondrial disorders could use other alternatives, such as egg donation, to have children.

“Medical researchers are crossing the crucial ethical line that will open the door to designer babies,” said David King of Human Genetics Alert, a secular group that opposes many genetics and fertilization research.

British law currently forbids any genetic modification of embryos before being transferred into a woman.

Earlier this year, the U.S. Food and Administration held a meeting to discuss the techniques, and scientists warned it could take decades to determine if they’re safe.

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