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GOOGLE PROVIDING CAR INSURANCE QUOTES IN LATEST EXPANSION SAN FRANCISCO (AP) -- Google is helping California drivers shop for car insurance as part of a new service that could foreshadow the Internet company’s latest attempt to shake up a long-established industry. The feature unveiled Thursday compares auto insurance quotes from up to 14 carriers that are participating in the comparisons. The policies can then be bought online or through an agent. Google will receive a cut from the insurance sales. The Mountain View, California, company says the size of the commissions won’t influence how it ranks the price quotes. Google Inc. plans to provide car insurance quotes in other states and sign up more carriers, too. The list of initial participants in California includes MetLife, Mercury Insurance and 21st Century Insurance. Some of the largest auto insurance providers, including State Farm, Allstate, Progressive and Geico, haven’t joined Google’s service. Progressive and Allstate’s esurance.com also provide auto insurance price comparisons. The major auto insurers may be leery of Google, which has been using
D E M O C R AT S U P S E T WITH GOP EFFORT TO FAST-TRACK IRAN BILL
Volume 004 Issue 09
Established 2012
FATE OF OBAMA HEALTH LAW SUBSIDIES RESTS WITH 2 JUSTICES
insurance based on where they live.
WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Supreme Court argument over subsidies that help millions of people afford their health insurance suggests that the Obama administration has two chances to attract one critical vote.
If Carvin is right, “this is just not a rational choice for the states to make and ... they’re being coerced,” Kennedy said. “And that you then have to invoke the standard of constitutional avoidance.”
The justices will gather in private Friday to cast their votes in the case. The outVerrilli agreed with Kennedy come after Wednesday’s arthat he was raising yet another gument appears to be in the reason for the court to adopt hands of two conservative the administration’s view. justices - one who voted with the court’s four liberals to upNot everything the justice hold the law in 2012 and the said, though, cut in the adFormer Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius speaks with reporters outside the Supreme other who joins the liberals Court in Washington, Wednesday, March 4, 2015. The Supreme Court heard arguments in King v. Burwell, a ministration’s favor. He told more often, but who would major test of President Barack Obama’s health overhaul which, if successful, could halt health care premium Carvin there may be no other subsidies in all the states where the federal government runs the insurance marketplaces have killed the whole thing reasonable way to read the three years ago. provision at issue. “It may If Justice Anthony Kennedy had his way in 2012, there would be no well be that you’re correct as to these words, and there’s nothing we health care case because there would be no Affordable Care Act. Ken- can do. I understand that,” Kennedy said. He also did not sound pernedy, whose vote often is decisive in cases that divide the court’s lib- suaded by Verrilli’s portrayal of the law to allow subsidies nationerals and conservatives, was one of four dissenters who would have wide. struck down the entire law. Kennedy’s comments could give both sides reason to hope. Chief But on Wednesday, Kennedy at least left open the possibility that he Justice John Roberts said so little that Carvin told reporters after the would not vote the same way again because of a legal concept known argument, “It would be a fool’s errand to infer anything from silence.” as constitutional avoidance. The idea is that judges should avoid interpreting a law in a way that raises constitutional problems if there’s Roberts disappointed Carvin and other conservatives when he cast the any other reasonable way to view it. decisive vote in favor of the health care law in 2012. The dispute focuses on four words in the massive health law, “established by the state,” which the challengers say is clear evidence that Congress intended subsidies to go only to people in states that created their own health insurance marketplaces, or exchanges. The idea was to have a carrot-and-stick approach, the challengers’ lawyer, Michael Carvin, said. Congress wanted states to establish their own exchanges and held out generous subsidies to the residents of those that did. But Kennedy said such a scheme would raise a serious constitutional question about whether the federal government was trying to coerce the states to act. Kennedy told Carvin that “if your argument is accepted, the states are being told either create your own exchange or we’ll send your insurance market into a death spiral.”
WASHINGTON (AP) -- A Republican effort to quickly pass legislation allowing congressional oversight on any Iran nuclear agreement is angering Democrats. A key Democratic sponsor of the legislation, which would allow a congressional vote on any deal the United States signs with Iran to curb its nuclear program, said Tuesday night that he’s outraged that GOP leaders want to fast-track the bill. Hours after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu blasted the nuclear negotiations in a speech on Capitol Hill, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell decided to bypass the committee process and send the bill straight to the floor for debate and a vote. “What happened to putting aside political posturing and partisanship?” asked New Jersey Sen. Robert Menendez, the ranking Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. “Frankly, this is not what was intended and it certainly is against my better judgment, against procedure, against any understanding we might have had to take the politics out of our effort to establish congressional oversight of any nuclear agreement with Iran. “I am more than disappointed. I’m outraged.” The bill would require President Barack Obama to submit any agreement reached with Tehran to Congress within 5 days. It also would give Congress 60 days to review it before any economic sanctions against Iran could be eased. The measure was introduced by Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Bob Corker, R-Tenn. Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid of Nevada echoed Menendez’s comments. “Partisan politics are cheap and ephemeral but the state of Israel must last forever,” Reid said. “For congressional leaders, building and preserving the broadest possible bipartisan coalition to stand against Israel’s enemies should be our guiding principle.” Another Democrat, Tim Kaine, of Virginia said: “Congress should weigh in on any Iranian nuclear deal that impacts the statutory sanctions we’ve enacted. But we need to demonstrate that our review will be thoughtful and deliberate rather than rushed and partisan.
March 9 thru March 16, 2015
He repeated his concern when Solicitor General Donald Verrilli Jr. defended the administration’s view that subsidies are available everywhere because Congress did not want a law designed to reduce the number of uninsured Americans to leave people unable to afford
The chief justice never has trouble getting a question in during arguments, so his quiet approach Wednesday could only have been deliberate. Each side in the case argues that the law unambiguously supports only its position. However, one other option for the court would be to declare that the law is ambiguous when it comes to subsidies, and therefore defer to the Internal Revenue Service’s regulations making tax credits available nationwide. Verrilli advanced this point as his backup argument, provoking one of Roberts’ few comments. If the court finds that the law is ambiguous and bows to the current administration’s take on the law, Roberts said, “that would indicate that a subsequent administration could change that interpretation.” It will be late June before it is clear whether the remark was a signal to either side. The case is King v. Burwell, 14-114.
CONGRESS SENDS HOMELAND BILL TO OBAMA WITHOUT CONDITIONS Homeland Security Department headquarters in northwest Washington, Tuesday, Feb. 24, 2015. Bitterly admitting defeat, House Republicans on Tuesday abandoned their attempts to use the Homeland Security Department’s spending bill to force concessions from President Barack Obama on immigration, and sent him legislation to fund the agency through the end of the budget year with no strings attached.
WA S H I N G T O N (AP) -- Bitterly admitting defeat, the Republican-controlled Congress sent legislation to President Barack Obama on Tuesday that funds the Department of Homeland Security without any of the immigration-related concessions they demanded for months. Obama promised to sign the bill as soon as he received it, while criticizing Congress for taking “far too long” to pass it. “Sanity is prevailing,” said Rep. Peter King, R-N.Y., a former chairman of the Homeland Security Committee, before the House voted 257-167 in favor of the $40 billion spending bill. All 182 Democrats present voted for the bill, while it received only 75 Republican “yes” votes. “I am glad that House Republicans finally came to their senses,” said Rep. Loretta Sanchez of California, a top Democrat on the Homeland Security Committee. The outcome averted a partial agency shutdown which would have begun Friday at midnight. It was a major victory for Obama and the Democrats, and a wholesale retreat for Republicans, who have spent months
railing against an “unconstitutional overreach” by Obama in extending deportation stays and work permits to millions of immigrants in this country illegally. In the end, Republicans who’d tried to use the DHS spending bill to undo Obama’s actions had little to show but weeks of gridlock and chaotic spectacle on Capitol Hill in the wake of assuming full control of Congress in the November midterm elections. The turmoil brought the Homeland Security Department to within hours of a partial shutdown last Friday before Congress passed a one-week extension, and raised questions about Republicans’ ability to govern responsibly. On Tuesday morning, addressing an uncharacteristically subdued gathering of House Republicans, Speaker John Boehner indicated he was out of options. “I am as outraged and frustrated as you at the lawless and unconstitutional actions of this president,” Boehner told his caucus. “I believe this decision - considering where we are - is the right one for this team, and the right one for this country.” “Our Republican colleagues in the Senate never found a way to win this fight,” he said, noting that the matter is now in the courts. A federal judge last month put Obama’s directives on hold, a ruling the White House is appealing. Conservative lawmakers who humiliated Boehner last week by voting down a three-week spending bill he proposed did not speak up in the private meeting to dissent or ask questions, people present said. Afterward, they said they were disappointed but had no more moves to make. “I don’t know that there is one,” said Rep. Steve King, R-Iowa. “This is the signal of capitulation.” continued on page 3
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US FINDS RACIST, PROFIT-DRIVEN PRACTICES IN FERGUSON ST. LOUIS (AP) -- A federal investigation into the police killing of an unarmed, black 18-year-old in Ferguson, Missouri, lays bare what officials contend are racist, profit-driven law enforcement practices in the small St. Louis suburb.
While the Department of Justice cleared Officer Darren Wilson of federal civil rights charges in the August death of Michael Brown, it also called for sweeping changes in a city where officers trade racist emails, issue tickets mostly to black drivers that generate millions of dollars in revenue, and routinely use what investigators called excessive force on people stopped for minor or non-existent offenses.
Holder said the city collected more than $1.3 million in fines and court fees in 2010, but $3 million more is projected for the current fiscal year.
“Our review of the evidence, and our conversations with police officers, have shown that significant pressure is brought to bear on law enforcement personnel to deliver on these revenue increases,” Holder said.
Protestors block traffic outside the Ferguson, Mo., police department, Wednesday, March 4, 2015, in Ferguson. The Justice Department on Wednesday cleared a white former Ferguson police officer in the fatal shooting of an unarmed black 18-year-old, but also issued a scathing report calling for sweeping changes in city law enforcement practices it called discriminatory and unconstitutional.
Attorney General Eric Holder said Wednesday that the department “found a community that was deeply polarized; a community where deep distrust and hostility often characterized interactions between police and area residents.” Ferguson Mayor James Knowles III said steps are already being taken to correct problems. “We must do better not only as a city, but as a state and a country,” Knowles said. The shooting of Brown sparked a national dialogue on race and law enforcement. Separate federal investigations into the shooting and the police department began soon after Brown was killed. In pairing the announcements on the investigations’ results, the Obama administration sought to offset community disappointment over the conclusion that the shooting was legally justified with a message of hope for Ferguson’s majority-black citizens. Officials announced 26 recommendations, including training officers in how to de-escalate confrontations and banning the use of ticketing and arrest quotas. Wilson was cleared in November by a state grand jury, a decision that set off protests, looting and fires. The federal report concurred that there was no evidence to disprove Wilson’s testimony that he feared for his safety. Nor were there reliable witness accounts to establish that Brown had his hands up in surrender when he was shot, Justice Department lawyers said. An attorney for Wilson, Neil Bruntrager, described the officer as “very happy” with the outcome. Ben Crump, the attorney for Brown’s parents, said the family was “extremely disappointed. This underscores the need for change and reform when there is continued use of excessive deadly force on people of color by police officers.”
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About 30 protesters braved sub-freezing weather Wednesday night to gather outside Ferguson’s police station. Four of them who ignored police warnings to clear the road were handcuffed and taken into custody. By 10:30 p.m., most of the protesters had dispersed. While the federal government declined to prosecute Wilson, it raised grave concerns about the operation of Ferguson’s police department and municipal court. Though about two-thirds of the city’s 21,000 residents are black, only four of 54 commissioned officers are African-American. That lack of diversity undermines community trust, the Justice Department’s report said. It also found Ferguson relies heavily on fines for petty offenses, such as jaywalking, to raise revenue.
CAR INSURANCE QUOTES continued from page 1
POTECTING SPEICIES worldwildlife.org
the power and profits from its dominant Internet search engine and other popular digital services to challenge the status quo in other industries. Google already has designed a driverless car that is still being tested on a private track and is financing various projects in medical research. It’s also building high-speed Internet access networks in cities scattered across the U.S. and preparing to sell wireless data plans directly to consumers later this year. Google is probably using its auto insurance comparison service to learn more about how the industry works so it can eventually underwrite and sell policies on its own, said Forrester Research analyst Ellen Carney. “They are getting all the data that they need to do it,” Carney said. “I
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He cited a 2007 case where a woman received two parking tickets costing $152. Because of court fees and other expenses, she has paid $550 so far, spent six days in jail, and still owes $541.
Another woman, Tiffany Tunstall, 34, told The Associated Press that she received “threatening” letters for nearly two years after paying off traffic tickets through an installment plan. “I didn’t want to have anything to do with the city I was raised in,” she said. “I felt disrespected.” Activist John Gaskin III, a member of the national NAACP board of directors, said lines outside of municipal court are often long. “You’d think we’re buying tickets to a Beyoncé concert,” Gaskin said. “The common theme is: Everyone there is African-American.” Federal investigators found many other examples of discrimination. A lawful protest was broken up with a police warning of “everybody here’s going to jail.” And a black man sitting in a car with tinted windows was accused without cause of being a pedophile by an officer who pointed a gun at his head. Between 2012 and 2014, black drivers were more than twice as likely as others to be searched during routine traffic stops, but 26 percent less likely to be carrying contraband. The report also included seven racially tinged emails that did not result in punishment. The writer of one 2008 email stated that President Barack Obama would not be in office for long because “what black man holds a steady job for four years.” Knowles said three employees were responsible for those emails. One was fired Wednesday, and the other two are on administrative leave pending an investigation, he said. He did not take questions, and Police Chief Tom Jackson was not at the news conference where the mayor spoke. The report’s recommendations, if accepted by city officials, could lead to an overhaul of basic practices by police officers and court officials. Those include improving officer supervision, better recruiting, hiring and promotion and new mechanisms for responding to misconduct complaints. Federal officials described Ferguson leaders as cooperative and open to change and said there were already signs of improvement. The city, for example, no longer issues failure-to-appear warrants, has eliminated a fee for towing cars and rescinded warrants for nearly 600 defendants. Under Holder, the Justice Department has investigated roughly 20 police departments over alleged civil rights violations. Some have led to the appointment of independent monitors and have been resolved with agreements in which police commit to major changes. “It’s quite evident that change is coming down the pike. This is encouraging,” Gaskin said. “It’s so unfortun
think there is definitely more to come here.” A Google spokesman, however, said the company has no plans to sell or underwrite insurance. The debut of Google’s insurance price comparison service validated a prediction that Carney made two months ago about Google’s intentions. In a blog post, Google said it is just trying to give people a better understanding of financial products. The company already has been offering a tool that compares credit cards.
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U S R E P O R T F I N D S B I A S I N F E R G U S O N
Benjamin Crump, the attorney for the Brown family, said that if the reports about the findings are true, they “confirm what Michael Brown’s family has believed all along - and that is that the tragic killing of an unarmed 18-year-old black teenager was part of a systemic pattern of inappropriate policing of African-American citizens in the Ferguson community.”
The report, which Ferguson city officials said would be released Wednesday, marks the culmination of a months-long investigation into a police department that federal officials have described as troubled and that commanded national attention after one of its officers shot and killed an unarmed black man, 18-year-old Michael Brown, last summer.
The full report could serve as a roadmap for significant changes by the department, if city officials accept its findings. Past federal investigations of local police departments have encouraged overhauls of fundamental police procedures such as traffic stops and the use of service weapons. The Justice Department maintains the right to sue police departments that resist making changes. The city of Ferguson released a statement acknowledging that Justice Department officials supplied a copy of the report to the mayor, city manager, police chief and city attorney during a private meeting Tuesday in downtown St. Louis. The statement offered no details about the report, which the city said it was reviewing and would discuss Wednesday after the Justice Department makes it public.
HOMELAND SHUTDOWN continued from page 1
In a statement, Homeland Secretary Jeh Johnson thanked Democrats and Republicans who voted for the bill and, “in particular, those in Congress who showed the leadership necessary to get the job done.” In his own statement, Obama praised Homeland Security employees as “law enforcement professionals and brave patriots who do a remarkable job, and deserve our gratitude and respect. Today, after far too long, Congress finally voted to fully fund their mission.” The measure passed Tuesday funds the Homeland Security Department through the Sept. 30 end of the budget year. It pays for numerous priorities including Transportation Security agents, the Coast Guard, the Secret Service, a host of immigration-related functions and grants to local governments. There have been suggestions that Boehner would face an insurrection by tea party-backed conservatives if he brought a “clean” DHS bill to the floor. But Boehner’s opponents seemed resigned, and there was little sign of a brewing coup. Indeed, several Republicans said Tuesday that the outcome was inevitable. Many had campaigned for re-election last fall on promises to stop Obama on immigration, and cheered when Boehner promised to fight the president’s moves “tooth and nail.” Yet several acknowledged they never had a viable plan to do so, given Obama’s veto pen and Senate Democrats’ opposition. The GOP strategy was especially risky given the Homeland Security Department’s anti-terrorism responsibilities, which gave Democrats an opening to accuse Republicans of putting national security at risk. “We all knew how this was going to end,” said Rep. Charlie Dent, R-Pa. “If somebody wants to make an argument against those of us who are doing our duty and governing responsibly, they can feel free to have the argument. We are prepared to defend ourselves and I believe the Speaker will come out of this just fine.”
A boy walks past a memorial for Michael Brown, who was shot and killed by Ferguson, Mo., Police Officer Darren Wilson last summer, Tuesday, March 3, 2015, in Ferguson, Mo. A Justice Department investigation found sweeping patterns of racial bias within the Ferguson police department, with officers routinely discriminating against blacks by using excessive force, issuing petty citations and making baseless traffic stops, according to law enforcement officials familiar with the report.
The investigation, which began weeks after Brown’s killing last August, is being released as Attorney General Eric Holder prepares to leave his job following a six-year tenure that focused largely on civil rights. The findings are based on interviews with police leaders and residents, a review of more than 35,000 pages of police records and analysis of data on stops, searches and arrests. Federal officials found that black motorists from 2012 to 2014 were more than twice as likely as whites to be searched during traffic stops, even though they were 26 percent less likely to be found carrying contraband, according to a summary of the findings. The review also found that blacks were 68 percent less likely than others to have their cases dismissed by a municipal court judge. And from April to September of last year, 95 percent of people kept at the city jail for more than two days were black, it found. Of the cases in which the police department documented the use of force, 88 percent involved blacks, and of the 14 dog bites for which racial information is available, all 14 victims were black. Overall, African-Americans make up 67 percent of the population of Ferguson, about 10 miles north of downtown St. Louis. The police department has been criticized as racially imbalanced and not reflective of the community’s demographic makeup. At the time of the shooting, just three of 53 officers were black, though the mayor has said he’s trying to create a more diverse police force. Brown’s killing set off weeks of protests and initiated a national
SIZE MATTERS: PHONES AS BIG AS THEY CAN GET FOR EASY USE -sid era senohp egdE 6S dna 6S yxalaG wen eht 5102 dekcapnU yxalaG gnusmaS a gnirud deyalp ssergnoC dlroW eliboM eht fo eve eht no tneve a saw erehT .niapS ,anolecraB ni wohs sseleriw regral gnitteg senohp no tnuoc dluoc uoy emit -kam taht yrrow srekam enohp ,woN .raey hcae .esu ot drah oot meht ekam lliw gib oot meht gni
The department has conducted roughly 20 broad civil rights investigations of police departments during Holder’s tenure, including Cleveland, Newark, New Jersey, and Albuquerque, New Mexico. Most such investigations end with police departments agreeing to change their practices. Several messages seeking comment from Ferguson Police Chief Tom Jackson and Mayor James Knowles III were not returned. A secretary for Jackson said he is not doing media interviews, and Jackson left the police department Tuesday afternoon without comment. Knowles has previously said the city is attracting a large pool of applicants to police jobs, including minority candidates seeking the position left vacant by Wilson’s resignation. John Gaskin III, a St. Louis community activist, praised the findings, saying, “Ferguson police have to see the light in how they deal with people of color. “It’s quite evident that change is coming down the pike. This is encouraging,” he said. “It’s so unfortunate that Michael Brown had to be killed. But in spite of that, I feel justice is coming.” CHANGING COMPETITION It might not be a coincidence that Android phone makers are playing down phone size just as Apple has caught up by making its iPhones bigger, a move that eliminated a key advantage Android phones had long enjoyed. Now, Android phone makers are looking at other ways to persuade consumers to upgrade. For the Flex, it’s a curved screen, along with self-repairing capabilities when the back gets scratched. Camera improvements are touted in the new Samsung and HTC phones. The new Samsung S6 phones also have better screen resolution even as the size remains the same. FICKLE CONSUMERS
But consumers want something comfortable to hold. Ramchan Woo, a vice president and head of mobile product planning at LG Electronics Inc., said the 6-inch display of the original G Flex was both a chief compliment and a chief complaint.
So, how much does size matter?
“The size of the phone really is at the sweet spot,” said Drew Bamford, corporate vice president of HTC Creative Labs, which studies how consumers use phones. Bamford said a larger phone would be too cumbersome to use with one hand.
Congress passed a full-year spending bill for the rest of the government, but kept the Homeland Security Department on a short leash to use its spending bill as the vehicle to oppose Obama.
That was also the thinking at Samsung, which has long promoted its phones as “the next big thing.”
“I believe this is a sad day for America,” said Rep. Matt Salmon, R-Ariz., one of the hardliners. “If we’re not going to fight now, when are we going to fight?”
Among the report’s findings was a racially tinged 2008 message in a municipal email account stating that President Barack Obama would not be president for very long because “what black man holds a steady job for four years.”
That’s the worry of some smartphone makers, and the reason why many of the new models this year didn’t grow. LG even shrank the G Flex 2 to a 5.5inch screen, as measured diagonally, compared with 6 inches before.
The fight was set up last fall, when Boehner and GOP leaders persuaded House conservatives to wait until this year to try to overturn Obama on immigration, when the GOP would command control of the Senate and bigger majorities in the House.
In the end, the House contingent that opposed Boehner had little to do but bemoan what had become a foregone conclusion. As the drama neared its conclusion Tuesday they offered a few final procedural moves - forcing the reading clerk to read part of the bill out loud, and offering a motion to table - but they had no hope of prevailing.
The practice hits poor people especially hard, sometimes leading to jail time when they can’t pay, the report says, and has contributed to a cynicism about the police on the part of citizens.
Consumers do like larger displays as they rely increasingly on mobile devices for entertainment and information. The larger screens also make typing easier. Preferences for larger phones can be seen in the high demand for both the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus, which made Apple the world’s top smartphone maker in the final three months of 2014, according to Gartner.
JUST THE RIGHT SIZE
That helped unify Democrats against it, and Senate rules did the rest. Republicans command only 54 votes in the chamber, not the 60 needed to advance most legislation, and Senate Democrats blocked the House bill repeatedly.
The report says there is direct evidence of racial bias among police officers and court workers, and details a criminal justice system that issues citations for petty infractions such as walking in the middle of the street, putting the raising of revenue from fines ahead of public safety. The physical tussle that led to Brown’s death began after Wilson told him and a friend to move from the street to the sidewalk.
NEW YORK (AP) -- There was a time you could count on phones getting larger each year. Samsung’s runaway success with the big-screen smartphone even spurred Apple to release a supersized model last fall. But if phones get any bigger will they be too hard to use?
The drama unfolded as a lesson in the limits of divided government.
Republicans predicted that the handful of Senate Democrats who’d voiced concerns about Obama’s immigration actions would join them. But the DHS spending bill the House passed in January was yanked to the right by conservatives, undoing not only Obama’s most recent executive actions but an earlier directive, from 2012, that extended protections to immigrants brought illegally to the country as children.
R A C I A L P O L I C E
dialogue about police officers’ use of force and their relations with minority communities. A separate report to be issued soon is expected to clear Darren Wilson, the officer who shot Brown, of federal civil rights charges. A state grand jury declined to indict Wilson in November, and he resigned from the department.
WASHINGTON (AP) -- A Justice Department investigation found sweeping patterns of racial bias within the Ferguson, Missouri, police department, with officers routinely discriminating against blacks by using excessive force, issuing petty citations and making baseless traffic stops, according to law enforcement officials familiar with its findings.
It chronicles discriminatory practices across the city’s criminal justice system, detailing problems from initial encounters with patrol officers to treatment in the municipal court and jail. Federal law enforcement officials described its contents on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly before the report is released.
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Hong Yeo, a senior designer at Samsung, said those who really need a larger screen could turn to other models, such as the 5.7-inch Galaxy Note 4. For the S6, 5.1 inches was “the perfect size for what we want to do,” he said. IDC analyst Ramon Llamas said the ideal display size tends to be 4.5 inches to 5.5 inches these days.
That said, what’s acceptable “has been in flux to some degree for the past few years,” HTC’s Bamford said. A few years ago, the “sweet spot” was closer to 4 inches. Now, it’s at about 5 inches. He said that as people see what they can do with larger screens, they are willing to put up with more. Shoneel Kolhatkar, senior director of U.S. product marketing at Samsung, said that while the company believes the phone’s size is right for now, he will “never say it will never increase.” There are some regional variations, too. Bamford said Asian markets tend to accept bigger phones, possibly because people there are more likely to carry bags, rather than use pockets to carry phones. --MORE THAN THE SCREEN SIZE
“Screens have grown faster than hands,” said Rick Osterloh, Motorola’s president.
One trick to giving consumers a larger display without decreasing comfort: Shrink the phone’s frame so that the overall size isn’t bigger. But the frame is already minimal, and doing more poses an engineering challenge - and could make phones more expensive.
The company’s new Moto E phone is just slightly larger - with a display measuring 4.5 inches, compared with 4.3 inches for last year’s model. Samsung’s Galaxy S6 stays at 5.1 inches, while the new HTC One remains at 5 inches.
“The key innovation that we’re driving toward is more screen as a percentage of the surface area,” Motorola’s Osterloh said. “We just try to make it more and more screen.”
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The Weekly News Digest, Mar 9, thru Mar 16, 2015
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M I C H I G A N C R A S H S TAT I S T I C S Man Struck, Killed While Helping Relative Stopped Along Road A 35-year-old man who stopped to help a relative with car trouble along a Allegan County road has been struck and killed by another vehicle.
SMART Bus Driver Charged With Killing Pedestrian Investigators say the 37-year-old woman was walking in a marked crosswalk when she was struck by the bus.
‘Crash-and-grab’ thefts go residential Several recent ‘crime alert’ email newsletters in my Northwest Side neighborhood have contained evidence of an alarming trend.[...]
Fourth teen dies after vehicle crash in Jones County
Jones County Sheriff Alex Hodge said four teenagers have died in a car wreck in the Calhoun community.[...]
Saline school bus driver blames crash on brake failure, but police say driver still at fault PITTSFIELD TWP -- The driver of a Saline school bus told police that brake failure is to blame for a Feb. 27 accident that resulted in minor injuries for a number of Saline Middle School students.[...]
Crash snarls traffic on eastbound I-94 near U.S. 12
A crash appears to be causing traffic backups on eastbound I-94 near Michigan Avenue.[...]
State Police wrap up investigation into I-94 pileup Kalamazoo
KALAMAZOO, Mich. (NEWSCHANNEL 3) - Michigan State Police have just wrapped up their accident reconstruction of the 193 car pile-up on I-94 last month.[...]
Man injured in Friday’s fatal accident on Michigan Avenue in good condition BRIDGEWATER TWP. -- A Tecumseh man who was severely injured in a Friday morning car accident that took the life of a Washtenaw County
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N E TA N YA H U WA R N S U S ‘ B A D D E A L’ W O U L D P U T I R A N O N N U C L E A R PAT H WASHINGTON (AP) -- In a direct challenge to the White House, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu stood before Congress on Tuesday and bluntly warned the U.S. that an emerging nuclear agreement with Iran “paves Iran’s path to the bomb.” President Barack Obama pushed back sternly, saying the U.S. would never sign such a deal and Netanyahu was offering no useful alternative.
He said the U.S. and the other five nations in talks with Tehran should keep pressuring with economic sanctions because Tehran needs the deal most.
In the U.S. spotlight for a day, the Israeli leader showed no uncertainty. “This is a bad deal. It is a very bad deal. We are better off without it,” he declared in an emotionally charged speech that was arranged by Republicans, aggravated his already-strained relations with Obama and gambled with the longstanding bipartisan congressional support for Israel.
More than four dozen House and Senate Democrats said in advance they would not attend the event, highly unusual given historically close ties between the two allies. Many of Netanyahu’s comments were greeted by loud applause from U.S. lawmakers, but not everyone was persuaded by his rhetoric.
Two weeks ahead of voting in his own re-election back home, Netanyahu took the podium of the U.S. House where presidents often make major addresses, contending that any nuclear deal with Iran could threaten his nation’s survival.
Pelosi issued a statement saying she was “near tears throughout the prime minister’s speech - saddened by the insult to the intelligence of the United States.”
In a tone of disbelief, he said that Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Khamenei, “tweets that Israel must be annihilated - he tweets.” Republicans loudly cheered Netanyahu in the packed chamber, repeatedly standing. Democrats were more restrained, frustrated with the effort to undercut Obama’s negotiations. House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., did little to hide her unease and later issued a blistering statement criticizing what she called Netanyahu’s condescension. At the White House, Obama said there was value in the current economic sanctions against Iran and also in the negotiations in Switzerland aimed at
APPLE, ANDROID B R O W S E R S VULNERABLE TO ‘FREAK ATTACK’
“Now, if Iran threatens to walk away from the table - and this often happens in a Persian bazaar - call their bluff. They’ll be back, because they need the deal a lot more than you do.”
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu waves after speaking before a joint meeting of Congress on Capitol Hill in Washington, Tuesday, March 3, 2015. In a speech that stirred political intrigue in two countries, Netanyahu told Congress that negotiations underway between Iran and the U.S. would “all but guarantee” that Tehran will get nuclear weapons, a step that the world must avoid at all costs.
restraining Iran’s nuclear ambitions.
Sen. Mark Kirk, R-Ill., who has co-authored sanctions legislation, said Netanyahu’s speech would sway more lawmakers to support his bill.
“Sanctions alone are not sufficient,” Obama said. “If Iran does not have some sense that sanctions will be removed, it will not have an interest in avoiding the path that it’s currently on.”
“I think that’s why Pelosi is crying so much on TV,” Kirk said.
The administration says there is no deal yet, but Netanyahu insists he is privy to what is being put forth.
The legislation he has introduced with Sen. Robert Menendez, D-N.J., was approved by the Senate Banking Committee. Kirk predicted it would garner the 67 votes in the Senate that would be enough to override a presidential veto. “It really doesn’t matter what the president does,” he said.
“If the deal now being negotiated is accepted by Iran, that deal will not prevent Iran from developing nuclear weapons. It would all but guarantee that Iran gets those weapons - lots of them,” he declared. He acknowledged that any deal would likely include strict inspections, but he said “inspectors document violations; they don’t stop them.”
Rep. Peter King, R-N.Y., called Netanyahu’s speech “electrifying.” Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, R-Fla., called it “phenomenal” in clearly stating “why this deal is going to be very damaging for world security, U.S. interests in Israel.”
Obama declined to meet with the leader of Israel, a key U.S. ally, during this visit. Vice President Joe Biden was on a trip to Central America and so his seat as president of the Senate was filled by Republican Orrin Hatch of Utah, the Senate president pro tempore. As Netanyahu spoke, Secretary of State John Kerry was holding a threehour negotiating session with Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif in the Swiss resort of Montreux in hopes of completing an international framework agreement later this month to curb Tehran’s nuclear program. According to Netanyahu, the deal on the table offers two major concessions: Iran would be left with a vast nuclear infrastructure and restrictions on Iran’s nuclear program would be lifted in about a decade. “It doesn’t block Iran’s path to the bomb,” Netanyahu thundered. “It paves Iran’s path to the bomb.”
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) -- Millions of people may have been left vulnerable to hackers while surfing the web on Apple and Google devices, thanks to a newly discovered security flaw known as “FREAK attack.” There’s no evidence so far that any hackers have exploited the weakness, which companies are now moving to repair. Researchers blame the problem on an old government policy, abandoned over a decade ago, which required U.S. software makers to use weaker security in encryption programs sold overseas due to national security concerns. Many popular websites and some Internet browsers continued to accept the weaker software, or can be tricked into using it, according to experts at several research institutions who reported their findings Tuesday. They said that could make it easier for hackers to break the encryption that’s supposed to prevent digital eavesdropping when a visitor types sensitive information into a website. About a third of all encrypted websites were vulnerable as of Tuesday, including sites operated by American Express, Groupon, Kohl’s, Marriott and some government agencies, the researchers said. University of Michigan computer scientist Zakir Durumeric said the vulnerability affects Apple web browsers and the browser built into Google’s Android software, but not Google’s Chrome browser or current browsers from Microsoft or Firefox-maker Mozilla. Apple Inc. and Google Inc. both said Tuesday they have created software updates to fix the “FREAK attack” flaw, which derives its name from an acronym of technical terms. Apple said its fix will be available next week and Google said it has provided an update to device makers and wireless carriers. A number of commercial website operators are also taking corrective action after being notified privately in recent weeks, said Matthew Green, a computer security researcher at Johns Hopkins University. But some experts said the problem shows the danger of government policies that require any weakening of encryption code, even to help fight crime or threats to national security. They warned those policies could inadvertently provide access to hackers. “This was a policy decision made 20 years ago and it’s now coming back to bite us,” said Edward Felten, a professor of computer science and public affairs at Princeton, referring to the old restrictions on exporting encryption code.
Dont Text and Drive
But Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., said the Senate would debate next week on legislation that would allow a congressional vote on any deal reached with Iran. He said legislation for stiffer sanctions could well be considered.
On the other side, Democrats said “alarmist” predictions by Netanyahu have been wrong before, most notably on the Iraq war. “This is a prime minister who’s never seen a war he didn’t want our country to fight,” said Rep. Jared Huffman, D-Calif. Netanyahu’s speech reverberated in Israel, too. Said Isaac Herzog, who is running against Netanyahu: “The painful truth is that after the applause, Netanyahu remains alone and Israel remains isolated and the negotiations with Iran will continue without Israel. It won’t change the (U.S.) government’s position and will only widen the divide with our great friend and our only strategic ally.” In Tehran, spokeswoman of Iranian foreign ministry, Marzieh Afkham said Netanyahu’s speech was a “deceitful show” and part of a campaign by hardliners in Tel Aviv ahead of the election in Israel.
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The Weekly News Digest, Mar 9, thru Mar 16, 2015
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FA C T C H E C K : G O T O O F A R
D I D N E TA N YA H U I N U S S P E E C H ?
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu overstated Iran’s domination of the Middle East and understated the timespan of the nuclear deal taking shape with Tehran, while neglecting the role of Congress in lifting Iranian sanctions, in his speech to U.S. lawmakers Tuesday.
NETANYAHU: “The second major concession creates an even greater danger that Iran could get to the bomb by keeping the deal, because virtually all the restrictions on Iran’s nuclear program will automatically expire in about a decade... Iran would then be free to build a huge nuclear capacity that could produce many, many nuclear bombs.”
On the whole, Netanyahu largely adhered to what is known about the nuclear negotiations between world powers and Iran, even if he predicted far direr consequences for the Middle East and the world if a deal is reached this month. His calculations on how close that might leave Iran to nuclear weapons capacity rested on solid footing.
THE FACTS: Netanyahu is playing loose with the timespan for a deal. American and Western officials say the full ledger of restrictions in an agreement would stay in place for at least a decade, and only then would Iran’s program be allowed to gradually expand. The total life of the agreement would be at least 15 years. Even after the full agreement expires, all sanctions against Iran won’t be lifted and certainly not those pertaining to Iranian terrorism links, human rights violations and development of advanced missile technology. Some enrichment restrictions also would stay in place. These include the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty’s additional protocol, which Iran is likely to sign, and perhaps even more stringent constraints. The protocol serves as an early warning mechanism for infractions.
Still, Netanyahu exaggerated at times for dramatic effect. On the length of an agreement, he wrongly asserted that restrictions on Iranian nuclear activity would come to a sudden end after a decade. Some constraints will be phased out while others will remain. And the Obama administration immediately disputed his account of an accord paving Iran’s “path to the bomb” and noted how short his address was on viable alternatives for dealing with Iran’s program. A look at how some of Netanyahu’s arguments adhere to the facts as known, or the best public information detailing the confidential nuclear negotiations with Iran: --NETANYAHU: “The first major concession would leave Iran with a vast nuclear infrastructure, providing it with a short breakout time to the bomb... . Because Iran’s nuclear program would be left largely intact, Iran’s break-out time would be very short - about a year by U.S. assessment, even shorter by Israel’s. And if Iran’s work on advanced centrifuges, faster and faster centrifuges, is not stopped, that break-out time could still be shorter, a lot shorter.” THE FACTS: “Short” is debatable. The Obama administration argues that a year is plenty long enough for international inspectors and intelligence agencies to pick up on any effort by Iran to surreptitiously “break out” toward nuclear weapons. Netanyahu said his government’s understanding of the agreement means that window would be narrower. He didn’t specify by how much, however. On advanced centrifuges, Netanyahu noted that their installation would cut the timespan even more. But he didn’t mention that a deal is likely to restrict Iran to its basic centrifuge model, at least over the first decade. --NETANYAHU: “According to the deal, not a single nuclear facility would be demolished. Thousands of centrifuges used to enrich uranium
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu speaks before a joint meeting of Congress on Capitol Hill in Washington, Tuesday, March 3, 2015. In a speech that stirred political intrigue in two countries, Netanyahu told Congress that negotiations underway between Iran and the U.S. would “all but guarantee” that Tehran will get nuclear weapons, a step that the world must avoid at all costs.
would be left spinning. Thousands more would be temporarily disconnected, but not destroyed.” THE FACTS: Though vague, Netanyahu’s assessments on facilities and centrifuges are reasonable. Instead of dismantlement, officials have spoken of Iran converting its underground uranium enrichment site at Fordo into a research facility. A planned heavy water reactor at Arak seems likely to be redesigned to produce far less plutonium than first envisioned. Plutonium, like uranium, can be used in nuclear warheads. Negotiators say Iran could reduce its centrifuges enriching uranium to 6,500 - significantly less than the 9,000 that operate now and the thousands more sitting offline. --NETANYAHU: “True, certain restrictions would be imposed on Iran’s nuclear program and Iran’s adherence to those restrictions would be supervised by international inspectors. But here’s the problem. You see, inspectors document violations; they don’t stop them.” THE FACTS: The U.N. nuclear agency has little enforcement power to eliminate noncompliant Iranian activity. But by publicizing infractions, the agency would put the world on notice. Documented violations with the United Nations’ imprimatur would give the U.S. ample justification for re-imposing suspended sanctions, bringing the matter to the U.N. Security Council or even considering military options.
--NETANYAHU: “In the Middle East, Iran now dominates four Arab capitals: Baghdad, Damascus, Beirut and Sanaa. And if Iran’s aggression is left unchecked, more will surely follow. So at a time when many hope that Iran will join the community of nations, Iran is busy gobbling up the nations.” THE FACTS: Iran’s army hasn’t invaded any capitals and the government hasn’t annexed territory, even as its influence across the Middle East has widened. The Syrian government is dependent on Iran in its civil war, but the others, less so. Lebanon isn’t totally in the grips of Hezbollah. Yemen’s Houthis, while Shiite, have assigned limited credit to Iran for their coup. And Shiite militias may be “rampaging through Iraq,” as Netanyahu says, but they’re doing so alongside the Iraqi army and in battle against Islamic State terrorists. --NETANYAHU: “If Iran’s intercontinental ballistic missile program is not part of the deal, and so far, Iran refuses to even put it on the negotiating table, well, Iran could have the means to deliver that nuclear arsenal to the far-reach corners of the Earth, including to every part of the United States.” THE FACTS: Just last month, a senior U.S. negotiator said Iran’s ballistic missile program would be addressed in any agreement. Iran has brushed aside U.N. requirements in the past, however, and closely guards its research and development efforts at military installations.
7 2 P A S S E N G E R S R E A C H PLANE SKIDS OFF RUNWAY S E T T L E M E N T S I N A S I A N A C R A S H AT LAGUARDIA,CRASHES Air Cruisers Co. were not immediately returned. The July 6, 2013, crash of Asiana Flight 214 killed three Chinese teens and left nearly 200 people injured. The Boeing 777 traveling from South Korea slammed into a seawall at the end of a runway during final approach to San Francisco International Airport. The impact ripped off the back of the plane, tossed out three flight attendants and their seats, and scattered pieces of the jet across the runway as it spun and skidded to a stop. U.S. safety investigators blamed the pilots, saying they bungled the landing approach by inadvertently deactivating the plane’s key control for airspeed, among other errors. In this July 6, 2013, aerial file photo, the wreckage of Asiana Flight 214 lies on the ground after it crashed at the San Francisco International Airport in San Francisco. On Tuesday, March 3, 2015, more than 70 passengers aboard an Asiana Airlines flight that crashed in San Francisco two years ago have reached a settlement in their lawsuits against the airline.
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) -- More than 70 passengers aboard an Asiana Airlines flight that crashed in San Francisco two years ago have reached a settlement in their lawsuits against the airline, attorneys for the passengers and airline said in a court filing Tuesday. The settlement with 72 passengers who filed personal injury claims also includes Boeing Co., which made the airplane, and Air Cruisers Co., the New Jersey company that made its evacuation slides. The filing did not include the settlement’s financial terms, and plaintiffs’ attorney Frank Pitre said those details are confidential. This is the first set of lawsuits stemming from the crash to be resolved, he said. Dozens of additional cases involving more than 70 plaintiffs are still pending in federal court in Northern California. “This is the first positive step for these passengers to be able to get closure on a tragic, catastrophic crash and hopefully try to get their lives back together,” Pitre said. “We’re pleased we’ve been able to get this first phase resolved.” Boeing spokesman Miles Kotay said the aircraft maker does not comment on pending litigation. Calls to attorneys for Asiana and
FENCE
NEW YORK (AP) -- A plane from Atlanta skidded off a runway at LaGuardia Airport while landing Thursday, crashing through a chain-link fence and sending passengers saddled with bags and bundled up in heavy coats and scarves sliding down an inflated chute to safety on the snowy pavement. Delta Flight 1086, carrying 125 passengers and five crew members, veered off the runway at around 11:10 a.m., authorities said. Emergency responders are still assessing people, but any injuries appear to be minor, the Fire Department of New York said. Images show the plane resting in several inches of snow. Passengers trudged through the snow in an orderly line after climbing off the plane.
But the National Transportation Safety Board also said the complexity of the Boeing 777’s auto-throttle and auto flight director - two of the plane’s key systems for controlling flight - contributed to the accident. The NTSB also faulted materials provided to airlines by Chicago-based Boeing, saying they fail to make clear the conditions in which the auto-throttle doesn’t automatically maintain speed.
Atlanta-based Delta Air Lines said the passengers were bused to a terminal. It said the airline will work with authorities to figure out what caused the crash.
Pitre said the passengers who settled had injuries that were less serious and have stabilized. At least 14 of the people with whom settlements were reached are minors, requiring the court to approve the agreements, according to Tuesday’s filing.
The National Transportation Safety Board is headed to LaGuardia.
Joe Pentangelo, a spokesman with the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, said the plane is apparently leaking fuel. Another Port Authority spokesman, Steve Coleman, said both the airport’s runways are closed until further notice, which is standard procedure after such incidents. He said everyone on the plane has now gotten off.
The Delta flight was landing on LaGuardia’s main runway - a stretch of pavement that is 7,003 feet long and 150 feet wide. On the right side of the runway are a taxiway and the airport terminals. On the left is a berm, fence and then the waters of Flushing Bay. In 2005, a safety buffer was added to the end of the runway at LaGuardia, according to the Federal Aviation Administration. It was updated just last year. Called an engineered material arresting system, the buffer is typically a crushable material that can extend 1,000 feet beyond the runway. It is designed to slow or stop a plane that overruns, undershoots or veers off the side of the runway. The tires of the aircraft sink into the lightweight material and the aircraft is slows as it rolls through the material. In the case of Flight 1086, it appears that the jet didn’t end in the buffer zone but instead veered off the runway and into the berm separating the airport from Flushing Bay. LaGuardia is one of the nation’s most-congested airports. It’s also one of the more difficult ones to land at due to its close proximity to three other busy airports. When rain or snow reduces visibility, the number of landings slows down. The same occurs during high winds. The airport has had its share of planes mishaps. In July 2013, the front landing gear of a Southwest Airlines flight arriving at the airport collapsed right after the plane touched down on the runway, sending the aircraft skidding before it came to a halt. Ten passengers had minor injuries. Federal investigators found that the jet touched down on its front nose wheel before the sturdier main landing gear in back touched down. The last deadly crash at LaGuardia happened March 23, 1992, when a US Airways jet carrying 51 people crashed while trying to take off in a snowstorm. The plane skidded part way into the frigid waters of Flushing Bay and 27 people died.
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BAGHDAD (AP) -- Iranian-backed Shiite militias and Sunni tribes have joined Iraq’s military in a major operation to retake Saddam Hussein’s hometown from the Islamic State group, while the U.S.-led coalition has remained on the sidelines.
town of Jurf al-Sukhr, on Baghdad’s outskirts, from the militants in October. Soleimani, the Iranian general leading the Tikrit operation, was a key player in both of those campaigns. But Iraqi and Kurdish officials and Shiite militia fighters all acknowledge the crucial role the coalition airstrikes played in their modest victories.
The campaign for Tikrit is a dress rehearsal for the real contest: The fight to recapture Mosul, Iraq’s second-largest city and the extremists’ biggest stronghold. But can a large-scale ground offensive alone succeed, without U.S.-led air support?
With the military operation to retake Mosul planned for as early as April, many are skeptical about whether the Iraqi military will be ready for the fight. Efforts to recruit Sunni tribes - seen as crucial for rooting out the militants from their strongholds - have yielded few results. Training and arming of Iraqi soldiers have also stalled.
The Tikrit operation is aimed at stopping Islamic State fighters from closing in on Samarra, a Shiite holy city just to the south that tens of thousands of Shiite militiamen rushed to defend during the extremists’ blitz across northern Iraq last June. One of the biggest campaigns in the heart of militant-controlled Iraq, the battle for Tikrit involves a complex mix of several Iraqi military brigades and thousands of Shiite militiamen and Sunni tribal fighters. Directing the offensive with the aid of dozens of Iranian military advisers is a powerful Iranian general, Ghasem Soleimani, commander of the elite Revolutionary Guard’s Quds Force. Glaringly absent are the U.S.-led coalition forces whose air campaign since last summer has nearly halted the Islamic State rampage across Iraq. Pentagon spokesman Army Col. Steve Warren said this week that the U.S. is not providing air power in the Tikrit operation “simply because the Iraqis haven’t requested us to.” Liberating the city without the backing of coalition airstrikes will put Iraq’s security forces to the ultimate battle-readiness test since any operation to recapture Iraq’s densely-populated cities - including Mosul and Fallujah - will have to rely almost entirely on ground forces to minimize civilian casualties. However, more of a concern for the U.S.-led coalition is Iran’s prominent role in the fight against the Islamic State militants. Iran has long been influential in Iraq, but never so much so as over the past year, when the Iraqi military collapsed in the face of the Sunni extremists’ onslaught. Iraqi officials have noted Iran’s quick response to their urgent requests for weapons and frontline assistance even as they accuse the coalition of falling short on commitments on the ground. Embedding coalition advisers and forward air controllers - the
In this image made from video, smoke rises from an explosion as Iraqi forces, Shiite militiamen and Sunni tribal fighters battle Islamic State militants for control of Tikrit, Iraq, Tuesday, March 3, 2015. Backed by Shiite militias and Sunni tribal fighters as well as Iranian advisers, the government forces made little progress on the second day of a large-scale military operation to recapture Tikrit, which fell to the Islamic State group last summer, two local officials said.
officers who call in airstrikes - with Iraqi military units presents a twofold challenge. Frontline positions would put their lives in danger at a time when risk aversion is at its peak. But it also raises the potential for coalition forces and Iranian soldiers to share a battlefield, a politically untenable prospect for the U.S. given the uncertain future of ongoing nuclear talks with Tehran. However, the U.S.-led mission has hit a roadblock in its efforts to support the Iraqi government. Both the Iraqi and U.S. government agree that airstrikes have pushed the militants back and the group has struggled to gain territory since airstrikes began. But there will come a point where airstrikes alone will not be enough. Most of the battlefield successes in Iraq have been coordinated efforts, with Iraqi and Kurdish forces and Shiite militias fighting on the ground and the U.S.-led coalition providing air power. The siege on the village of Amirli just north of Baghdad, when many feared the capital itself might fall, was broken last year with the help of U.S.led airstrikes and a fighting force of mainly Shiite militias. Shiite militiamen backed by a coalition air campaign also retook the
E M A I L I S S U E R E V I V E S O L D QUESTIONS ABOUT CLINTONS In the new matter, she provided the State Department with emails from her personal account last year when asked, but only she and the relevant members of her staff know if she turned over all of them. “The presidency is ultimately about trust, and whether it’s this latest series of ethical lapses that have come to light or the decades of secrecy surrounding the Clintons, it’s clear Hillary Clinton is someone with an awful lot to hide,” asserted Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus. Clinton provided the emails to the State Department after the department asked several former secretaries, including Madeleine Albright, Colin Powell and Condoleezza Rice, last year for records that should be preserved, said Department spokeswoman Marie Harf.
Hillary Rodham Clinton speaks at the State Department in Washington. Clinton used a personal email account during her time as secretary of state, rather than a government-issued email address. Deputy State Department spokesperson Marie Harf says the department asked former secretaries of state last year for records that should be preserved. In response to that request, Clinton provided emails from her time as the nation’s top diplomat.
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Hillary Rodham Clinton is facing a new set of questions about ethics and transparency - the sort that have dogged her and husband Bill for decades. The latest disclosure, that Clinton used a personal email account while serving as secretary of state, comes on the cusp of her likely second bid for president. Combined with recent news about her family foundation raising money from foreign governments while she was at the State Department, it added fresh fuel Tuesday to the longstanding charge the Clintons play by their own rules. “Does she believe that leadership means acting outside the law?” said Carly Fiorina, the former technology executive who is weighing a 2016 GOP presidential bid. “Does she believe that leadership can exist without transparency?” Clinton’s aides were quick to dispute the notion that there was anything illegal or improper about her use of a personal email account for government work, noting that she was hardly the first secretary of state to do so. Meanwhile, her allies praise the work of the Clinton Foundation - and note that it isn’t required to disclose its donors but does so anyway. Still, for the Clintons, it’s difficult for complicated explanations about allegations to compete with the simplicity of political perception. Bill Clinton’s rise through Arkansas politics and his two terms in the White House were sometimes accompanied by allegations of questionable business dealings and by ethics controversies, culminating in his 1998 impeachment for perjury and obstruction of justice. Hillary Clinton was caught up in some of them, including the Whitewater investigation into the couple’s real estate investments. Officials at the Clinton Foundation did recently acknowledge an instance where they failed to seek State Department approval for a foreign government’s donation as required.
Harf said the agency already had the “vast majority” of Clinton’s emails, because they were sent to or came from department employees using official addresses. No classified information was sent or received over the email account, she said. “Like secretaries of state before her, she used her own email account when engaging with any department officials,” said Clinton spokesman Nick Merrill. “For government business, she emailed them on their department accounts, with every expectation they would be retained.” People familiar with Clinton’s private email address said it was known to about 100 people, but was not widely distributed throughout the department. Clinton also used a private email account while in the Senate, though senators’ emails and other private records are not required to be archived. The people familiar with her email spoke only under condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the matter publicly.
The failure so far to make headway in Tikrit does not bode well. Iraqi forces are bogged down on the outskirts of the city, unable to penetrate the extremists’ defenses. On Tuesday, a suicide bomber drove a military vehicle into a checkpoint manned by government forces and Shiite fighters south of Tikrit, killing fou r troops and wounding 12, authorities said. The stalemate persists despite assurances from Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi that momentum is on Iraq’s side after recent successes in the oil refinery town of Beiji - an operation that received heavy aerial support from the U.S.-led coalition. The Islamic State group, which controls a third of Iraq and neighboring Syria in its self-declared caliphate, has littered major roadways with mines that slow any ground advance and require painstaking clearance operations before troops can safely move through. Kurdish and Iraqi forces frequently cite bomb-detecting equipment as one of their biggest shortfalls on the battlefield. The battle for Tikrit is likely to involve Iraq’s first serious urban warfare challenge, involving street battles that Iraqi security forces are not trained for. Concerns are also mounting over the Shiite militias’ battlefield conduct in a largely Sunni region where some residents are said to have initially welcomed the Islamic State militants as a better alternative to the Shiite-led government in Baghdad. In their earlier battlefield successes, the Shiite fighters often flattened towns and villages so as to prevent Sunni residents from returning home. Winning over the Sunni tribes is essential because they know the terrain of the Sunni-majority areas under Islamic State control and can fight with and advise the Shiite fighters. But animosity has reached a peak and fragile battlefield alliances could be short-lived once the common enemy is eliminated. And heavy Iranian involvement only threatens to exacerbate sectarian tensions.
Details of Clinton’s State Department email use, first reported by The New York Times, put the White House in the awkward position of defending its record on transparency and standing by Clinton. Spokesman Josh Earnest said administration guidance to agency employees specifies that they “should use their official email accounts when they’re conducting official government business.” He repeatedly sidestepped questions Tuesday about whether Clinton had broken any laws by not using official email, which must be archived under the Federal Records Act. Earnest wouldn’t say whether President Barack Obama, who is an avid Blackberry and iPad user, had ever emailed with Clinton, though he said it was likely others at the White House had. Clinton’s advisers insist she has learned lessons from the past and is determined to run a disciplined campaign that would reflect her competency for the presidency. That mission has been complicated by her desire to put off an official campaign announcement until at least spring, leaving her with a skeleton staff that is often left playing defense and scrambling to respond to criticism. Meanwhile, those who plan to seek the Republican nomination are moving ahead. Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush made a show of transparency last month by making available more than 275,000 emails sent to and from his personal account during his time in office, even though they had long been available to the public at the Florida state archives. Bush didn’t miss the chance to draw a contrast with Clinton, tweeting “Transparency matters. Unclassified (at)HillaryClinton emails should be released.” He included a link to the website he set up to view the emails.
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R I N G L I N G B R O S . P H A S I N G ICONIC ELEPHANT ACTS BY phants, Feld replied, “No, it wouldn’t.”
POLK CITY, Fla. (AP) -- The Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus will phase out the show’s iconic elephants from its performances by 2018, telling The Associated Press exclusively that growing public concern about how the animals are treated led to the decision.
This week, Feld said, “Things have changed.” “How does a business be successful? By adapting,” he said.
Executives from Feld Entertainment, Ringling’s parent company, said the decision to end the circus’s century-old tradition of showcasing elephants was difficult and debated at length. Elephants have often been featured on Ringling’s posters over the decades. The decision is being announced Thursday.
Feld noted that when his father bought the circus in 1967, there was still a human sideshow featuring acts such as the bearded lady and other human oddities. His father did away with that, he said. “We’re always changing and we’re always learning,” he said.
“There’s been somewhat of a mood shift among our consumers,” said Alana Feld, the company’s executive vice president. “A lot of people aren’t comfortable with us touring with our elephants.”
In 2008, Feld acquired a variety of motor sports properties, including monster truck shows, motocross and the International Hot Rod Association, which promotes drag races and other events. In 2010, it created a theatrical motorcycle stunt show called Nuclear Cowboyz. Roughly 30 million people attend one of Feld’s 5,000 live entertainment shows every year.
Within two hours of the announcement, animal rights groups took credit for the decision, saying that the pressure put on the circus ultimately led to Feld’s decision. “For 35 years PETA has protested Ringling Bros.’ cruelty to elephants,” Ingrid E. Newkirk, president of People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, wrote in a statement. “We know extreme abuse to these majestic animals occurs every single day, so if Ringling is really telling the truth about ending this horror, it will be a day to pop the champagne corks, and rejoice. ... If the decision is serious, then the circus needs to do it NOW.” Feld owns 43 elephants, and 29 of the giant animals live at the company’s 200acre Center for Elephant Conservation in central Florida. Thirteen animals will continue to tour with the circus before retiring to the center by 2018. One elephant is on a breeding loan to the Fort Worth Zoo. Another reason for the decision, company President Kenneth Feld said, was that certain cities and counties have passed “anti-circus” and “anti-elephant” ordinances. The company’s three shows visit 115 cities throughout the year, and Feld said it’s expensive to fight legislation in each jurisdiction. It’s also difficult to plan tours amid constantly changing regulations, he said. “All of the resources used to fight these things can be put towards the elephants,” Feld said during an interview at the Center for Elephant Conservation. “We’re not reacting to our critics; we’re creating the greatest resource for the preservation of the Asian elephant.” In Asheville, N.C., city leaders recently prohibited wild and exotic animals from performing at the U.S. Cellular Center, the city’s municipal venue. And in Los Angeles in 2014, the City Council banned the use of bullhooks by elephant trainers. Animal rights activists say bullhooks are cruel and abusive, while circus leaders say they’re needed for safety and point to federal approval of the devices. The circus will continue to use other animals - this year it added a Mongolian troupe of camel stunt riders to its Circus Xtreme show. It will likely showcase more motorsports, daredevils and feats of humans’ physical capabilities. Ringling’s popular Canada-based competitor, Cirque du Soleil, features human acts and doesn’t use wild animals. “There are endless possibilities,” said Juliette Feld, another executive vice president of the company and a producer of Feld’s Marvel Universe Live, Disney on Ice and Monster Jam shows, among others. Feld owns the largest herd of Asian elephants in North America. It costs about $65,000 yearly to care for each elephant, and Kenneth Feld said the company would have to build new structures to house the retiring elephants at the center,
a performer waves as elephants with the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey show, pause for a photo opportunity in front of the Capitol in Washington, on their way to the Verizon Center, to promote the show coming to town. The Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus will phase out the show’s iconic elephants from its performances by 2018, telling The Associated Press. exclusively that growing public concern about how the animals are treated led to the decision.
located in between Orlando and Tampa on a rural, ranchlike property. Kenneth Feld said initially the center will be open only to researchers, scientists and others studying the Asian elephant. Eventually, he “hopes it expands to something the public will be able to see.” “I want everybody’s grandkids to be able to see Asian elephants,” he said. The center’s youngest elephant is Mike, who will be 2 in August, and the oldest is Mysore, who is 69. One elephant, 6-year-old Barack, was conceived by artificial insemination. Since the center opened in 1995, 26 elephants have been born there. Ringling’s elephants have been at the center of lawsuits and ongoing complaints from animal rights activists. In 2014, Feld Entertainment won $25.2 million in settlements from a number of animal-rights groups, including the Humane Society of the United States, ending a 14-year legal battle over unproven allegations that Ringling circus employees mistreated elephants. The initial lawsuit was filed in 2000 by a former Ringling barn helper who was later found to have been paid at least $190,000 by the animal-rights groups that helped bring the lawsuit. The judge called him “essentially a paid plaintiff” who lacked credibility and standing to sue. The judge rejected the abuse claims following a 2009 trial. Kenneth Feld testified during that trial about elephants’ importance to the show. “The symbol of the `Greatest Show on Earth’ is the elephant, and that’s what we’ve been known for throughout the world for more than a hundred years.” When asked by a lawyer whether the show would be the same without the ele-
GOOGLE SELLING WIRELESS PLANS TO GET MORE PEOPLE ONLINE “Our goal here is to drive a set of innovations which we think the ecosystem should evolve and hopefully will get traction.” Pichai compared Google’s latest move to its decision to launch its own line of Nexus smartphones, which he said Google uses not to compete with other smartphone makers, but to introduce innovations in mobile hardware. Finding a way to provide a “seamless” Internet connection when a device moves from Wi-Fi to cellular coverage as one example of goals Google would like to target, Pichai said. He also noted that Google is also working on “Android Pay,” a mobile payment system similar to “Apple Pay,” that will work across all Android-powered devices. Sundar Pichai, senior vice president of Android, Chrome and Apps, talks during a conference during the Mobile World Congress, the world’s largest mobile phone trade show in Barcelona, Spain, Monday, March 2, 2015.
BARCELONA, Spain (AP) -- Search giant, self-driving car developer, smartphone and tablet maker. Turned data plan provider? Google wants more people to get online so they can search around and click on its ads. And it’s shaking up the telecom world to do it. The company said Monday at the wireless show in Barcelona, Spain, that it will soon sell data plans for smartphones and tablets in the U.S. The announcement confirmed leaks and media reports in late January that Google planned to enter the telecom market. More information will be released “in the coming months,” Sundar Pichai, Google Inc.’s senior vice president of products, said during his presentation. The move into the wireless market mirrors what Google has been trying to do for hard-wired Internet access at home. The Mountain View, California, company currently sells an ultra-fast fiber-optic Internet service in a handful of markets scattered across the U.S. in an attempt to pressure long-established broadband providers to improve their prices and cut their prices. Google conceivably do something similar for wireless by offering discounted data plans that would pressure major carriers such as AT&T Inc. and Verizon Communications to offer better deals and services or risk losing customers to a powerful rival. “Any time there is a new entrant with the resources and imagination of Google, it most definitely could shake up the market,” said Gartner analyst Bill Menezes. Pichai downplayed the competitive threat that Google might pose. “We don’t intend to be a network operator at scale,” he said.
O U T 2018
Google plans to be a “mobile virtual network operator,” which means it will lease space on an existing system. Pichai didn’t name Google’s wireless partners, but previous media reports have identified Sprint Corp. and T-Mobile US Inc. Neither of those carriers has confirmed those plans yet. Selling Google access to their wireless networks would help Sprint and T-Mobile recoup some of their extensive investments. If Google’s entry into the wireless market is successful, the company may even try to take over Sprint or T-Mobile, Menezes said. “This could end up being a `try it and then buy it’ strategy,” he said. T-Mobile already has been lowering its prices and rolling out other wireless plans that have undercut the status quo. Some of those changes have prodded AT&T and Verizon to take steps that have helped their existing customers save money. Google is constantly looking for ways to get more people online in an effort to drive more traffic to its Internet-leading search engine, Gmail and YouTube video site. All those services display the ads that generate most of Google’s revenue. Google also collects commissions on millions of ads distributed to other sites. The company is using solar-powered drones and a fleet of high-altitude balloons to beam Internet service in some parts of the world.
WHY IS RINGLING REMOVING ELEPHANTS FROM THE CIRCUS? KIEV, Ukraine (AP) -- In a long-awaited development, Ukrainian forces and separatist fighters both announced Thursday they are pulling back heavy weapons from the front line in eastern Ukraine. Ukraine’s Defense Ministry said it reserved the right to revise its withdrawal plans in the event of an attack by rebel forces, however. The pullback was supposed to have started over a week ago under a peace deal agreed upon earlier this month by the leaders of Russia and Ukraine to end the fighting in eastern Ukraine that has killed nearly 5,800 people since April. The intensity of fighting has declined notably in recent days, despite daily charges by both sides that the other is violating the Feb. 15 cease-fire. Military spokesman Anatoly Stelmakh told the Interfax-Ukraine news agency that government forces on Thursday started moving 100-mm anti-tank guns back to the 25-kilometer (16-mile) minimum stipulated by the peace deal. AP reporters on Thursday also saw rebel forces moving at least six 120-mm self-propelled howitzers from the front line near Olenivka, a town south of the rebel-held stronghold of Donetsk. Monitors from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe planned to report later on the progress of the withdrawal. The OSCE has hundreds of monitors in the region. In Rome, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said he welcomed indications of reduced fighting but renewed claims that Russia has supplied separatists with large quantities of weapons. “Russia has transferred in recent months over 1,000 pieces of equipment - tanks, artillery, advanced air defense system - and they have to withdraw this equipment and they have to stop supporting the separatists,” Stoltenberg told reporters Thursday. Russia denies charges that it arms and supports the rebels. Michael Bociurkiw, a spokesman for the OSCE monitoring mission, said the weapons withdrawal required both sides to inventory their arms and provide details about how and where they are to be relocated. “It’s not enough to be invited to follow the removal process part of the way. It has to be complete,” he said. “It’s not a shopping list, you cannot pick and choose.” Ukraine’s military said Thursday its positions had not been shelled the previous night but military spokesman Col. Andriy Lysenko spoke of isolated armed confrontations, including ones near Donetsk. The rebels claimed Tuesday to have begun their heavy weapons pullback, but that has not been independently confirmed. Eduard Basurin, spokesman for the separatist forces, told the Russian TV station LifeNews that withdrawals from five locations were planned for Thursday, monitored by the OSCE. The locations he named included Olenivka, where AP journalists saw the 120 mm self-propelled howitzers being moved. “The OSCE mission has been provided with all the documents they requested, which detail where equipment would be transported from and in which direction,” Basurin told LifeNews. Kiev has until now demurred from pulling back its heavy weapons, insisting that the separatists fully observe the cease-fire. That stand was dismissed as “ridiculous” by Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov. “Everyone understands that there isn’t an ideal truce and an ideal regime of ceasing fire,” Lavrov said Thursday.
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The Weekly News Digest, Mar 9, thru Mar 16, 2015
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MAN SHOT BY LOS ANGELES POLICE USED ASSUMED FRENCH IDENTITY was a moment of silence, and participant Patrisse Cullors declared the shooting site to be “sacred ground.”
LOS ANGELES (AP) -- A French official says a homeless ex-con who was killed by Los Angeles police had stolen the identity of a French citizen and was living under an assumed name.
Footage showed the homeless man reaching toward the rookie officer’s waistband, Beck said. The officer’s gun was later found partly cocked and jammed with a round of ammunition in the chamber and another in the ejection port, indicating a struggle for the weapon, Beck said.
Axel Cruau, the consul general for France in Los Angeles, says 39-yearold Charley Saturmin Robinet applied for a French passport in the late 1990s to come to the United States to pursue a career in acting.
“You can hear the young officer who was primarily engaged in the confrontation saying that `He has my gun. He has my gun,’” Beck said. “He says it several times, with conviction.”
When he was convicted of bank robbery in 2000, the consulate initially provided him with the support they would give any other citizen. Cruau says officials ultimately realized Robinet is not French and the real Charley Robinet is still living in France.
The three other officers then opened fire.
A law enforcement official identified Robinet as the man killed in a scuffle with police. The official wasn’t authorized to speak publicly and spoke with The Associated Press on condition of anonymity. THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back soon for further information. AP’s earlier story is below. A homeless ex-convict killed on Skid Row by Los Angeles police had an active warrant for violating probation in a bank robbery case, a U.S. marshal said Tuesday. The federal warrant was issued Jan. 9 for 39-year-old Charley Saturmin Robinet after he didn’t provide monthly reports to a probation officer in November, December and January, Deputy U.S. Marshal Matthew Cordova said. A law enforcement official identified Robinet as the man killed Sunday by police. The official wasn’t authorized to speak publicly and talked to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity. Robinet was released from prison on May 12 after being convicted in 2000 for holding up a Wells Fargo branch and pistol-whipping an employee to pay for acting classes. During the confrontation Sunday, Robinet tried to grab a probationary officer’s gun before three officers shot him, authorities said. Robinet was identified as a French national when he was convicted of three federal charges. He served roughly 13 years in prison for the bank robbery and then spent six months in a halfway house before being released, said Ed Ross, a spokesman for the Bureau of Prisons. Robinet acknowledged 15 years ago that he was in the U.S. illegally but his immigration status at the time of his death is unknown. He was arrested in the bank robbery along with an accomplice and a getaway driver after they tried to rob the bank in Thousand Oaks, about 40 miles west of downtown Los Angeles.
The man who was shot was black, as is the rookie officer who was just short of completing his probationary year on the force, police said. Los Angeles Police detective Meghan Aguilar points at photos released by police that could indicate evidence of a suspect holding a police officer’s gun, seen in a video grab scene shot by a witness at the scene of the shooting of a homeless man on Skid Row of Los Angeles, displayed at a news conference at police headquarters Monday, March 2, 2015. Chief Charlie Beck says officers fatally shot a homeless man on Skid Row after he grabbed an officer’s holster during a struggle. Three Los Angeles police officers shot and killed the man on Sunday, as they wrestled with him on the ground, a confrontation captured on video that millions have viewed online. Authorities say the man was shot after grabbing for an officer’s gun.
The three officers who fired their weapons on Sunday in the videotaped struggle were veterans of the Skid Row beat who had special training to deal with mentally ill and other people in the downtrodden area, police leaders said. But the rookie officer who cried out that the man had his gun, leading to the shooting, had considerably less experience, and police didn’t immediately say how much training he had received in dealing with mentally ill people. All officers must go through at least an 11-hour course. Police Chief Charlie Beck said some of the veteran officers had “completed our most extensive mental illness training over a 36-hour course.” Initial signs showed the officers used what they had learned during the confrontation, despite the outcome, he said.
The violence had echoes of the August police shooting of 25-year-old Ezell Ford, whose death in a struggle with Los Angeles officers brought demonstrations in the city. Ford was unarmed. Police said he was shot after reaching for an officer’s gun. Video was taken came from multiple perspectives, including two witnesses recording from their phones and cameras worn by two of the officers who fired their weapons. Beck said officers had arrived to investigate a robbery report and the homeless man refused to obey their commands and became combative. A security camera outside a homeless shelter about 75 feet away showed the man pushed over a neighbor’s tent and the two people had a dispute. When officers arrived, they tried to speak to the suspect. He turned and jumped into his tent, and officers appeared to pull it up and over him to roust him from inside. The man jumped out flailing and kicking before ending up on the ground. Beck said officers didn’t know if the suspect was arming himself. Stun guns “appeared to have little effect, and he continued to violently resist,” Beck said.
“The way you have conversations, the way you offer options, the way that you give some space, the body language that you portray, the way that you escalate, all of that is part of the training,” Beck said Monday. “I will make judgment on that when I review the totality of the investigation, but on the face of it, it appears they did try all of that.”
One witness began filming from a closer perspective.
The shooting was captured on video but exactly what happened remained unclear. The footage has been viewed by millions of people online.
The Los Angeles Police Department’s inspector general and the city’s district attorney are investigating the shooting.
Several dozen people rallied Tuesday in protest of the shooting. There
As the man took swings, four officers wrestled him to the ground. The struggle became blurry and distant, but shouting could be heard, followed by five apparent gunshots.
Two of the officers suffered minor injuries, including the rookie officer, who is on crutches. All four officers are on paid leave.
I N D I A O R D E R S T V S T A T I O N S N O T EL NINO FINALLY HERE; T O G I V E R A P I S T A P L A T F O R M BUT THIS 1 IS WEAK, official said on condition of anonymity as he was not authorized to W E I R D A N D L AT E talk to reporters. Activists noted that Singh showed no remorse for the crime, and that broadcasting his comments would be an insult to the memory of the woman. The woman and a male friend were returning home from seeing a movie at an upscale mall when they were tricked by the men into getting on the bus, which the men had taken out for a joyride. The attackers beat her friend and took turns raping the woman. They penetrated her with a rod, leaving severe internal injuries that led to her death two weeks later.
British filmmaker Leslee Udwin addresses a press conference on her documentary film “India’s Daughter,” about the Dec. 16, 2012 gang rape in a moving bus, in New Delhi, India, Tuesday, March 3, 2015. Mukesh Singh, one of the men convicted of raping and killing a woman in the brutal 2012 gang attack on a New Delhi bus said in a TV documentary that if their victim had not fought back she would not have been killed. The film will be shown on March 8, International Women’s Day, in India, Britain, Denmark, Sweden and several other countries.
NEW DELHI (AP) -- Indian authorities ordered television stations Tuesday not to broadcast a documentary about a gang rape on a New Delhi bus in which one of the attackers blames the victim and says she could have avoided being killed if she had not fought back, a government official said. The order followed an outcry over giving a convicted prisoner a nationwide platform to express repugnant views about a horrific crime that shocked Indians and prompted hundreds of thousands to take to the streets in protest. In response to the 2012 attack, India’s government rushed through legislation doubling prison terms for rapists to 20 years and criminalizing voyeurism, stalking and the trafficking of women. “What is there in spreading the views of a rapist?” said activist Vrinda Adiga. The documentary, “India’s Daughter” by British filmmaker Leslee Udwin, was to be shown on Sunday, International Women’s Day, in India as well as in Britain, Denmark, Sweden and several other countries. The New Delhi Television, a private news channel, had indicated it would air the program. The documentary includes a jailhouse interview from 2013 with Mukesh Singh, who was among four men convicted and sentenced to be executed for the crime. A transcript of the interview was released Tuesday, and New Delhi Police Commissioner B.S. Bassi said police would ask a court to block the documentary’s broadcast. Later Tuesday, India’s Information and Broadcasting Ministry ordered television channels not to air the documentary, a government
Singh and three other men were convicted in 2013 in an unusually fast trial for India’s chaotic justice system. They confessed to the attack but later retracted their confessions, saying they’d been tortured into admitting their involvement. Appeals against their death sentences are pending in the Supreme Court. Singh, who was driving the bus for much of the time that the 23-year-old woman was being attacked, told the interviewer that she should have remained silent and allowed the rape. “A girl is far more responsible for rape than a boy,” Singh said. “A decent girl won’t roam around at 9 o’clock at night. ... Housework and housekeeping is for girls, not roaming in discos and bars at night doing wrong things, wearing wrong clothes.” He suggested that the attack was to teach the woman and her friend a lesson that they should not have been out late at night. The death penalty, he said, would make things even more dangerous for women. “Now when they rape, they won’t leave the girl like we did. They will kill her,” Singh said. A spokesman at the New Delhi jail objected to the filmmakers releasing the documentary without their approval, saying Udwin had agreed to allow them to screen the video first. “We want to see the documentary, as it can be screened only after it is approved by authorities,” said Tihar Jaill spokesman Mukesh Prasad. Udwin, however, said she had obtained necessary clearances from jail authorities and India’s home ministry for her documentary and for interviewing the convicts in the prison. “I had first submitted an unedited version of the documentary and later an edited version as demanded by prison authorities,” Udwin told reporters in New Delhi. She expressed surprise at the jail spokesman’s claim and said she had not received any communication from prison authorities along those lines.
WASHINGTON (AP) -- A long anticipated El Nino has finally arrived. But for drought-struck California, it’s too little, too late, meteorologists say. The National Weather Service on Thursday proclaimed the phenomenon is now in place. It’s a warming of a certain patch of the central Pacific that changes weather patterns worldwide, associated with flooding in some places, droughts elsewhere, a generally warmer globe, and fewer Atlantic hurricanes. El Ninos are usually so important that economists even track them because of how they affect commodities. But this is a weak, weird and late version of El Nino, so don’t expect too many places to feel its effects, said Mike Halpert, deputy director of the weather service’s Climate Prediction Center. He said there may be a slight decrease in the number of Atlantic hurricanes this summer if the condition persists, but he also points out that 1992’s devastating Hurricane Andrew occurred during an El Nino summer, so coastal residents shouldn’t let their guard down. There’s about a 50 to 60 percent chance the El Nino will continue through the summer, NOAA predicts. Ever since March 2014, the weather service has been saying an El Nino was just around the corner. But it didn’t quite show up until now. Meteorologists said the key patch of the Pacific was warming but they didn’t see the second technical part of its definition - certain changes in the atmosphere. Halpert said he didn’t know why this El Nino didn’t form as forecast, saying “something just didn’t click this year.” “What we’ve learned from this event is that our definition is very confusing and we need to work on it,” Halpert said. Last year, some experts were hoping that El Nino would help the southwestern droughts because moderate-to-strong events bring more winter rain and snow to California - even flooding and mudslides during 1998’s strong El Nino. But this El Nino arrives at the end of California’s rainy season and is quite weak, Halpert said. “This is not the answer for California,” Halpert said. The U.S. Southeast may see some above average rainfall, which is typical for an El Nino, Halpert said. This is the first El Nino since spring of 2010. Allan Clarke, a physical oceanography professor at Florida State University, said as far he’s concerned, El Nino has been around awhile and the weather service didn’t acknowledge it. But he agrees that this doesn’t look like a strong one. That fits with the pattern the last 10 years, when El Nino’s flip side, a cooling of the central Pacific called La Nina, has been more common. From 2005 to 2014, there have been twice as many months with a La Nina than with El Nino, weather records show. More than half of the time, the world has been in neither.
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The Weekly News Digest, Mar 9, thru Mar 16, 2015
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M A J O R S U RV E Y S H O W S M O S T A M E R I C A N S S U P P O R T S A M E - S E X M A R R I A G E person should be allowed to teach at a college or university, 88 percent now say that is all right.
WASHINGTON (AP) -- In the late 1980s, support for gay marriage was essentially unheard of in America. Just a quarter century later, it’s now favored by clear majority of Americans. That dramatic shift in opinion is among the fastest changes ever measured by the General Social Survey, a comprehensive and widely respected survey that has measured trends on a huge array of American attitudes for more than four decades.
The release of the 2014 survey comes as federal courts have rapidly increased the number of states where same-sex couples can legally marry, and as marriages licenses are now being issued in at least 36 states. The U.S. Supreme Court is expected before July to rule on whether states can legally exclude gay and lesbian couples from marrying, or if those bans violate the U.S. Constitution.
Support for a right of same-sex couples to marry has risen 8 percentage points in the past two years and jumped 45 points since the question was first asked in 1988, when only 11 percent of Americans said they agreed with the idea. The survey now finds that only a third of Americans are opposed to gay marriage.
The survey found that 56 percent of Americans overall now agree that gay and lesbian couples should have the right to get married, up from 48 percent who said so in 2012.
The largest shift in support since 2012 has come among Republicans, just under half of whom - 45 percent - now support marriage rights for same-sex couples. That’s a jump of 14 percentage points since 2012.
Protestors block traffic outside the Ferguson, Mo., police department, Wednesday, March 4, 2015, in Ferguson. The Justice Department on Wednesday cleared a white former Ferguson police officer in the fatal shooting of an unarmed black 18-year-old, but also issued a scathing report calling for sweeping changes in city law enforcement practices it called discriminatory and unconstitutional.
“Many things don’t change a lot. Most things change very slowly,” said Tom W. Smith, director of the General Social Survey. “This is one of the most impressive changes we’ve measured.”
Data from the 2014 survey was released this week, and an analysis of its findings on gay marriage was conducted by The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research and the General Social Survey.
The General Social Survey is conducted by NORC, an independent research organization based at the University of Chicago, with funding from the National Science Foundation. It is a highly regarded source of data about social trends because of its long-running and comprehensive set of questions about the demographics and attitudes of the American public.
As support for same-sex marriage has risen, the survey found, so has acceptance for gays and lesbians and for their relationships. Although 4 in 10 Americans still say sexual relationships between members of the same sex are always wrong, that’s half as many as said so in 1987. And while in 1976 only about half of Americans - 53 percent - said a gay
EX-CREW RECOGNIZES PHOTOS O F S U N K E N J A PA N E S E B AT T L E S H I P planes from Allied aircraft carriers. The naval battle, considered the largest of World War II, crippled the Imperial fleet, cut off Japanese oil supplies and allowed the U.S. invasion of the Japanese-held Philippines. “The discovery of the Musashi was really a nice surprise,” Haraguchi said. “It was as if the spirits of her crewmembers who sank with her were telling us to remember them for the 70th anniversary.”
Although the largest growth in support came among Republicans, Democrats and independents are still more likely than Republicans to support marriage rights for gay and lesbian couples. And Democrats, too, are more likely to support marriage rights now - 65 percent- than they were two years ago, when this held favor with 59 percent of Democrats. Support held steady among independents, 54 percent of whom support marriage rights for gay couples. When the GSS first asked Americans the question in 1988, support for gay marriage hovered in the range of 1 to 10 percent in all three groups. The survey also found a double-digit increase in support over the past two years among 50 to 64 year olds, half of whom now favor marriage rights for gay couples, and among 18 to 34 year olds, more than 7 in 10 of whom support it. At least half of Americans in all age groups, except those aged 65 and over, now favor legal same sex marriage, the survey found. The General Social Survey is administered by NORC at the University of Chicago, primarily using in-person interviewing. The GSS started in 1972 and completed its 30th round in 2014. The typical sample size was 1,500 prior to 1994, but increased to 2,7003,000 until 2008, and decreased to 2,000 for the most recent surveys. Resulting margins of error are between plus or minus 3.1 percentage points for the smaller sample sizes and plus or minus 2.2 percentage points for the larger sample sizes at the 95 percent confidence level. The 2014 survey was conducted March 31-Oct. 11, 2014 among 2,538 American adults. The GSS 1972-2014 Cumulative File was utilized to produce the statistics presented.
E U R O P E A N C E N T R A L B A N K : RECOVERY IS STRENGTHENING This Sunday March 1, 2015, image provided by Microsoft co-founder and philanthropist Paul Allen and captured with a high-definition camera mounted on an underwater probe, shows what Allen’s team believes is a catapult system from a massive Japanese World War II battleship off the coast of the Philippines. In a statement Allen’s team says it found the battleship just off the Sibuyan Sea, using an autonomous underwater vehicle in its third dive after narrowing down the search area using detailed undersea topographical data and other locator devices. Japanese experts said that they were eager to study the images to try to confirm the ship’s identity.
over government debt in countries such as Greece, Portugal, Ireland, Spain and Italy. Growth is returning, overcoming the drag from government spending restraint and higher taxes. But progress is lagging on reforms by member countries such as France to cut regulations on hiring and firing and reduce red tape that discourages business growth. And Greece is still struggling to avoid a default on its debts that could force it to leave the euro. A Greek departure could undermine belief in the solidity of the currency union and hurt governments’ ability to borrow affordably.
TOKYO (AP) -- A former crewmember on a Japanese battleship that sank during World War II said Thursday he recognized photos of wreckage discovered this week off the Philippines by a team led by Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen.
“It is clear that the ongoing risk of a Greek exit from the eurozone, and the financial fallout in other vulnerable economies, continues to pose a risk to confidence in the eurozone and firms’ willingness to invest and create jobs,” said Tom Rogers, senior economic adviser to the EY eurozone forecast.
Shizuhiko Haraguchi served as a gunnery officer on the Musashi, one of the largest battleships in history, when it was being fitted in Japan before it departed for the Pacific in 1943. He said he recognized underwater photos taken by Allen’s team of a large gun turret and a catapult system used to launch planes. “I recognized that main turret, which I was assigned to,” Haraguchi, 93, said in a telephone interview from his home in Nagasaki in southern Japan where the ship was built, fitted and tested. “I felt very nostalgic when I saw that.” The Musashi had nine 46-centimeter (20-inch) guns, which were each 20 meters (66 feet) long, he said. Haraguchi said other details released by Allen convinced him that the wreckage was that of the Musashi. He said a round base shown in a photo of the bow was where a chrysanthemum decoration used to be, an Imperial seal that only battleships were allowed to carry. Allen said his team found the battleship at a depth of 1 kilometer (3,280 feet) in the Sibuyan Sea using an autonomous underwater vehicle following more than eight years of study. Allen called the Musashi an “engineering marvel” and said he was honored to have found a key ship in naval history. Historians and military experts praised the apparent discovery of the legendary battleship after 70 years, saying it would help promote interest in World War II studies. A group supporting navy veterans said survivors would want to hold a memorial service at the site. Haraguchi left the ship just before its departure because he was transferred to an aviation unit in eastern Japan. The apparent discovery on Sunday of the battleship comes as the world marks the 70th anniversary of the war’s end. The Musashi, commissioned in 1942, sank in October 1944 in the Sibuyan Sea during the Battle of Leyte Gulf, losing about half of its 2,400 crew members. Only a few hundred eventually returned home alive. The ship was repeatedly hit by torpedoes and bombs dropped by
Dont Text and Drive
The currency union’s economy grew 0.3 percent in the last three months of 2014 from the quarter before. Unemployment has started to fall but remains high at 11.2 percent. NICOSIA, Cyprus (AP) -- The European Central Bank will unleash its 1.1 trillion euro ($1.2 trillion) stimulus program on Monday - and says the prospect is already boosting the eurozone economy. Mario Draghi, the bank’s president, said consumers and businesses in the 19 euro countries are benefiting not only from cheaper energy prices but also from optimism over the coming stimulus.
In an effort to bolster confidence in the recovery, the ECB said it will keep buying bonds until September next year, and in any case until inflation rises from levels considered dangerously low. Economists say hopes for the stimulus program are one reason the economy is showing signs of life. Lower oil prices are another, and so is a weaker euro, which helps exporters.
He cited “a significant number of positive effects” from the January announcement of the massive stimulus plan, on top of previous efforts to loosen credit to businesses. Borrowing conditions are already considerably easier, he noted.
The euro traded at a 12-year low against the dollar at $1.1000 after Draghi’s comments.
“Looking ahead, we expect the economic recovery to broaden and strengthen,” Draghi told reporters after the bank kept its key interest rate on hold at its monthly meeting Thursday. The comments helped push up European stocks and sent the euro to a 12-year low.
Draghi underlined the central bank’s commitment to support Greece, but within the ECB’s rules. Greece is trying to find a way to win more bailout loans from the other eurozone countries, and has four months to submit a convincing plan to turn its economy and finances around.
The ECB raised its eurozone growth forecast for this year to 1.5 percent from 1.0 percent amid signs credit is flowing more easily. Draghi cautioned that some member states’ failure to make pro-growth reforms would dampen the recovery.
Draghi said the ECB “stood ready” to once again permit Greek banks to use junk-rated Greek government bonds as collateral to get credit from the ECB. That would happen as soon as the bank assesses that Greece is likely to successfully complete a creditor review of its progress.
He said the ECB would on Monday start buying 60 billion euros ($67 billion) a month in government and corporate bonds. The purchases with newly printed money aim to drive down market interest rates, stimulating lending and growth and raising the rate of inflation, which is dangerously low at minus 0.3 percent.
Inability to use the bonds as collateral has forced the banks to rely on more expensive emergency credit from the Greek central bank.
The currency union still faces serious risks as it tries to recover from a crisis
The ECB held its meeting in Nicosia, the capital of the Mediterranean island state of Cyprus, one of two meetings per year it holds away from its headquarters in Frankfurt, Germany.
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The Weekly News Digest, Mar 9, thru Mar 16, 2015
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U K R A I N E B L O C K A D E O F R E B E L TERRITORY FOSTERS RESENTMENT
KURAKHOVE, Ukraine (AP) -- Tears welled up in Vera Pavliy’s eyes as she stood outside the bank, looking as if she had just gotten lost. The 76-year-old was stuck behind the battle lines in the east Ukraine town of Kurakhove with no money and no way to get home.
He filed for his permit on Jan. 30. After his documents were lost, he had to file a new application and finally got the permit on Monday. “I don’t know how this is supposed to improve security, but they have made things difficult for people,” said Alexander, who asked for his surname to be withheld for fear of prosecution for criticizing the government. “It’s just another headache.”
The war that brought death and destruction to the region has largely abated, but the misery remains. In fact an effective government blockade on separatist-held areas is only getting worse. The goal is ostensibly to choke the rebel economy and force the separatist front to yield, but for now Kiev’s actions are fostering only resentment.
Many rebel-held areas have defied expectations of significant food shortages. The shops that did not shut down have until recently been sporadically but adequately stocked.
For months, banking services have been suspended by state fiat. Civilian movement is limited by a cumbersome permits system. Trucks brimming with supplies stand marooned at army checkpoints and in neighboring towns. The interruption of banking services forces hundreds of thousands in rebel territories to embark on trips across the front lines to draw pensions or cash aid from friends and family. This week, Pavliy arrived in government-held Kurakhove from the rebel stronghold of Donetsk only to learn the transfer of 4,500 hryvnia ($167) she hoped to find on her account had not gone through. Now, she says, she has no money for the bus to return home. “I feel alien here ... because nobody cares about me,” Pavliy sobbed, standing outside a branch of state-run Oshchadbank in a well-worn sheepskin coat. Government suspension of banking services in November compounded economic hardship caused by the shuttering of businesses alarmed by the erratic rule of the Russian-backed separatists. Cash machines in Donetsk flicker idly with no money to give and shops and restaurants cannot take cards. Many, like 36-year old Irina Ryazhenko, travel to Kurakhove or nearby towns several times a month just to withdraw cash. She was told Monday that the new bank card she applied for in August is still not ready. Making the trip has been complicated in recent weeks by a new requirement for people entering government-held territory to obtain a travel permit to cross back into the rebel-held east - effectively turning them into foreigners in their own country. For those living just west of Donetsk, applying for a permit requires a bumpy, 35-kilometer (20-mile) drive to a police station in the sleepy town of Velyka Novosilka, held by government forces. One recent afternoon, around 20 people were lined up glumly outside the station in the damp and cold to ask about the status of their applications. Chatter among those waiting was confined to grumbles about the bureaucratic chaos that often compels applicants to stay away from home for more than 10 days. When approached by reporters, people clam up in fear that criticism of
That began to change in mid-February, according to suppliers and vendors on both sides of the front line. Earlier this week, some 40 goods trucks were parked by a gas station near the government checkpoint outside Kurakhove - the last major hurdle before entering Donetsk. In this picture taken on March 3, 2015, Vera Pavliy, 76 year-old, dressed in a worn-out sheepskin coat, cries outside a bank in the town of Kurakhove, Ukraine, just a few miles away from the area controlled by Russia-backed rebels. The 76-year-old was stuck behind the battle lines with no money and no way to get home. The war that brought death and destruction to the region has largely abated, but the misery remains. In fact an effective government blockade on separatist-held areas is only getting worse. The goal is ostensibly to choke the rebel economy and force the separatist front to yield, but for now Kiev’s actions are fostering only resentment.
Ukrainian authorities could see them deprived of the pass. Still, the anger is palpable and talk quickly turns to yelling at the thought of the expenses that are piling up. “I came here once and spent 200 hryvnias ($7). I came a second time and spent 200 hryvnias, and it’s still not done! Now I have to spend another 200 to get this blasted pass,” said one woman from Donetsk, who gave only her first name, Valentina, for fear of having her application rejected. “I’m not a millionaire’s daughter. My pension is 1,000 hryvnias.” Others in line said they have been waiting to get their passes for a month. Some are lucky enough to have families in nearby towns and villages that can offer hospitality. Ukrainian officials insist the permits are a necessary safety precaution for areas bordering rebel territory. “In the current situation we simply haven’t got any other option,” said Lt. Colonel Volodymyr Kachanovetsky, an officer with the Border Guards Service in Velyka Novosilka. “We cannot control the situation over there, that’s why these additional measures will help to improve the situation there, as well as here.” Alexander, who is wheelchair-bound, lives with his elderly father in the government zone, while his wife and child remain on the other side. He said he needed the permit to travel back to the rebel town of Shakhtarsk and get medical papers allowing him to receive treatment on the Ukrainian side.
S U P R E M E C O U R T C A S E A G A I N S T O B A M A’ S H E A LT H L AW those who otherwise couldn’t afford it. Independent studies by the Urban Institute and the Rand Corporation estimate that 8 million people would lose insurance if the court rules for the plaintiffs. A RISK FOR BOTH SIDES If the U.S. government loses the case, a key pillar of Obama’s health care program would crumble. But a win for the plaintiffs also carries risks for Republicans because the majority of consumers who would lose their subsidies live in states with Republican governors who refused to set up state-run exchanges. Nearly two dozen Republican senators facing re-election next year are also from those states. Already, some Republicans are throwing around ideas to help subsidy recipients temporarily until the law can be rewritten. But that would only open the door to another long and bitter partisan fight over government-backed health care. This Jan. 25, 2012, file photo, shows the U.S. Supreme Court Building in Washington. The U.S. Supreme Court, during the week of March 2, 2015, hears a challenge to President Barack Obama’s health care overhaul. If successful, the lawsuit would cripple Obama’s prized domestic achievement, a program that has brought the U.S. as close as it has ever come to universal health care. The Affordable Care Act passed Congress in 2010 without a single Republican vote in favor.
NEW YORK (AP) -- The U.S. Supreme Court this week hears a challenge to President Barack Obama’s health care overhaul. If successful, the lawsuit would cripple Obama’s prized domestic achievement, a program that has brought the U.S. as close as it has ever come to universal health care. The Affordable Care Act passed Congress in 2010 without a single Republican vote in favor. An explanation of the legal case:
SURVIVOR OF BOSTON AT TA C K R E C A L L S LOCKING EYES WITH BOM B ER
HOW IMPORTANT ARE THE SUBSIDIES TO THE HEALTH PROGRAM? Extremely. The goal of Obama’s health care program was to provide universal insurance coverage at a time when an estimated 50 million Americans lacked it. That number has declined to an estimated 36 million. The initiative also aimed to drive down soaring health care costs. Critical to that goal is keeping plenty of healthy people in the pool of insured. And a key component is providing financial help for
“We drivers have got all the right paperwork, but they still turn us down,” he said, referring to the Ukrainian troops. “What can you do? They have guns, and I don’t.” While anecdotal evidence of a mounting blockade on the rebel east is abundant, exact figures on the extent to which supplies to the east have dwindled are hard to obtain. But vendors in rebel zones are feeling the heat. A few large supermarkets in Donetsk appear to be relatively well-stocked, but outdoor markets, smaller grocery stores and pharmacies are struggling. The second floor of a small grocery store in the city center was closed for business one recent afternoon. There simply weren’t enough goods to put on display, shop manager Irina Baranova said. “The suppliers say the trucks are waiting at checkpoints and are not being allowed through,” she said. Baranova’s store had dairy, bread, alcohol and tinned goods on display, but juice and bottled water were nowhere to be seen. A pharmacist at a drugstore a few miles away said no supplies had been brought in for a week. As prices for medicine increase almost daily, customers have been hoarding whatever is available, she said. Kachanovetsky, the Ukrainian border official, made the procedure for getting through checkpoints sound simple. Tax officials inspect the cargo and check drivers’ documents and give the green light to all those with the right documentation, he said. Evidence on the ground suggests things are not that easy. At Donetsk’s sprawling, domed Soviet-era food market, rows of stalls where farmers once sold their produce and cheerfully plied would-be customers stand empty and silent. One of the remaining vendors, meat farmer Vladimir Vasko, sells his own wares as well as goods delivered from the government side.
Bauman later described Tamerlan Tsarnaev to the FBI from his hospital bed. Tsarnaev, 26, died in a gun battle with police days after the bombing. Bauman testified at the trial of Tsarnaev’s younger brother, Dzhokhar, who could get the death penalty if convicted of charges he helped carry out the 2013 bombings that killed three people and wounded more than 260. Before testimony began Thursday, Tsarnaev’s lawyers complained to the judge that the survivors’ testimony from the previous day was too gruesome and should be limited. Defense attorney David Bruck objected specifically to the testimony of three women who described their injuries in detail and what they saw in the aftermath of the attack. Bruck said that under the federal death penalty law, victim-impact testimony is supposed to be presented during the second phase of the trial, when the jury decides on the punishment. Prosecutors denied that any of the survivors gave victim-impact testimony and said they merely described what they saw. U.S. District Judge George O’Toole Jr. agreed with prosecutors and refused to limit survivors’ testimony. The trial opened on Wednesday, with Tsarnaev attorney Judy Clarke bluntly admitting to the jury that her client took part in the attack. But in a bid to save Tsarnaev’s life, she argued that he was influenced by his older brother.
FOUR WORDS DETERMINE THE LAW’S FUTURE The lawsuit focuses on the health insurance marketplaces, or exchanges, that allow people to find coverage if they don’t get insurance through their jobs or the government. The federal government, through the HealthCare.gov website, runs the exchanges in 37 states - largely those led by Republicans who declined to set up state-based systems. The distinction between state-run and federally run exchanges is crucial to the Supreme Court case because of four words in the nearly 1,000-page law. The challengers say the law allows subsidies - in the form of tax credits - only for people who get their insurance through an exchange “established by the state.” The plaintiffs interpret the phrase to mean that Congress intended to make the subsidies available only on the condition that states set up their own marketplaces. The Obama administration says that interpretation is far too narrow: If Congress was trying to make health care affordable to all Americans, why would lawmakers have worded it in such a way that omits help for so much of the country?
Ihor Suleiman, a driver from Kharkiv, said he had been waiting for five days to clear that checkpoint.
The first witness to testify Thursday was a policeman who was the first officer to reach 29-year-old Krystle Campbell, one of those killed. Officer Frank Chiola said he ran across the street to help the victims as soon as he heard the explosions. As he reached Campbell and began doing chest compressions, he said, smoke came out of her mouth. He said she appeared to be in a lot of pain.
Emergency Medical Services EMT Paul Mitchell, left, Carlos Arredondo, center, and Devin Wang, rear, push Jeff Bauman in a wheelchair after he was injured in one of two explosions near the finish line of the Boston Marathon in Boston. Bauman testified Thursday, March 5, 2015, in the federal death penalty trial of Dzhokhar Tsarnaev in Boston, charged with conspiring with his brother to place twin bombs near the finish line of the race, killing three and injuring 260 people.
BOSTON (AP) -- A man who became one of the lasting images of the Boston Marathon bombing when he was wheeled away, ashen-faced, his legs severely injured, testified Thursday that he locked eyes with the bomber’s older brother before the explosives went off. “He was alone. He wasn’t watching the race,” said Jeff Bauman, who walked slowly into court on two prosthetic legs. “I looked at him, and he just kind of looked down at me. I just thought it was odd.”
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The Weekly News Digest, Mar 9, thru Mar 16, 2015
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S P A C E WA L K I N G A S T R O N A U T S A F E A F T E R WA T E R L E A K S I N T O H E L M E T PASADENA, Calif. (AP) -- A NASA spacecraft is about to reach the end of a nearly eight-year journey and make the first rendezvous with a dwarf planet.
miles across - is thought to possess a large amount of ice, and some scientists think there may have been an ocean lurking below the surface. Dawn will study Ceres for 16 months. At the end of the mission, it will stay in the lowest orbit indefinitely, said Mase, adding that it could remain there for hundreds of years.
The Dawn craft will slip into orbit Friday around Ceres, a dwarf planet the size of Texas. Unlike robotic landings or other orbit captures, the arrival won’t be a nail-biter. Still, Dawn had to travel some 3 billion miles to reach the largest object in the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter.
Scientists will get a glimpse of another icy dwarf planet this summer when New Horizons arrives at Pluto. Once considered the ninth planet, Pluto was demoted to dwarf planet in 2006, seven months after New Horizons was launched.
“It’s been a roller coaster ride. It’s been extremely thrilling,” project manager Robert Mase of the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory said Monday.
A N TA R C T I C A’ S SPECTACULAR GLACIERS M E LT I N G FA S T E R
Ceres is the first of two dwarf planets to receive visitors this year. NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft is barreling toward one-time planet Pluto where it will arrive in July. Dwarf planets are worlds that are spherical in shape. But unlike traditional planets, dwarf planets share the same space with other similar-sized celestial objects. Launched in 2007, Dawn made the first stop of its journey at the asteroid Vesta. It beamed back more than 30,000 images of the rocky world inside the asteroid belt before heading to its final destination. Dawn began its approach to Ceres in December, and last month it snapped pictures of the dwarf planet that revealed two mysterious bright spots inside a crater. Scientists will have to wait until the craft spirals closer to the surface in the coming months to get sharper images. It will get as close as 235 miles above Ceres’ surface, or roughly the distance of the International Space Station above Earth. Last year, European researchers not connected with the mission detected water plumes spewing from two regions on Ceres. The source of the plumes remains unclear. Deputy project scientist Carol Raymond said the shiny patches - possibly exposed ice or salt - were a surprise and could be related to the plumes. Dawn carries an instrument that should be able to detect the plumes if the surface is still active. “The team is really, really excited about this feature because it is unique in the solar system,” Raymond said of the spots. “We will be revealing its true nature as we get closer and closer to the surface. So the mystery will be solved, but it is one that’s really got us on the edge of our seats.” The $473 million Dawn mission is the first to target two different
This Feb. 19, 2015 image shows the swarf planet Ceres provided by NASA, taken by the agency’s Dawn spacecraft from a distance of nearly 29,000 miles (46,000 kilometers). It shows that the brightest spot on Ceres has a dimmer companion, which apparently lies in the same basin, seen at center of the image. Dawn is preparing to rendezvous with the largest object in the asteroid belt located between Mars and Jupiter, scheduled to go into orbit Friday, March 7 after a three-year journey. Dawn is about 590 miles (950 kilometers) in diameter.
celestial objects to better understand how the solar system evolved. It’s powered by ion propulsion engines, which provide gentle yet constant acceleration, making it more efficient than conventional rocket fuel. With its massive solar wings unfurled, it measures about 65 feet, the length of a tractor-trailer. Vesta and Ceres reside in a zone between Mars and Jupiter that’s littered with space rocks that never grew to be full-fledged planets. The two are “literally fossils that we can investigate to really understand the processes that were going on” during the formation of the solar system, Raymond said.
In this Jan. 22, 2015 photo, Gentoo penguins stand on rocks near the Chilean station Bernardo O’Higgins, Antarctica. Here on the Antarctic peninsula, where the continent is warming the fastest because the land sticks out in the warmer ocean, 49 billion tons of ice (nearly 45 billion metric tons), is lost a year according to NASA.
Dawn entered orbit around Vesta in 2011 and spent a year photographing the lumpy surface and taking measurements of the second massive object in the asteroid belt from different altitudes.
CAPE LEGOUPIL, Antarctica (AP) -- From the ground of this extreme northern part of Antarctica, a spectacular white and blinding ice seemingly extends forever. What can’t be seen is the battle raging below to reshape Earth.
Unlike rocky Vesta, Ceres - discovered in 1801 and measuring 600
VILLARRICA VOLCANO ERUPTS IN SOUTHERN CHILE, THOUSANDS FLEE to be careful. “This is not a fireworks show,” Alvarez said, calling on people to obey official prohibitions to stay away from the volcano. “It’s an unstable volcano, all of its borders are altered,” Alvarez added. President Michelle Bache let arrived in Pucon amid cheers and boos later Tuesday to check on safety preparations, and declared an agricultural emergency to help local farmers. “You never know when an eruption will take place but what we do know is that the activity is lower, that’s visible,” Bachelet said after flying over the affected areas and meeting local authorities.
The Villarica volcano erupts near Pucon, Chile, early Tuesday, March 3, 2015. The Villarica volcano erupted Tuesday around 3 a.m. local time (0600 GMT), according to the National Emergency Office, which issued a red alert and ordered evacuations.
PUCON, Chile (AP) -- One of South America’s most active volcanoes erupted early Tuesday in southern Chile, spewing heavy smoke into the air as lava surged down its slopes, prompting authorities to evacuate thousands of people. The Villarrica volcano erupted around 3 a.m. local time, according to the National Emergency Office, which issued a red alert and ordered evacuations. Local media showed images of the volcano bursting at the top, glowing in the dark amid heavy smoke and rivers of lava. Authorities worried that mudslides caused by melting snow could endanger nearby communities, but no injuries were reported. The 9,000 foot (2,847-meter) volcano in Chile’s central valley, 400 miles (670 kilometers) south of Santiago, sits above the small city of Pucon, which has a population of about 22,000 people. “It was the most amazing thing I’ve ever seen,” 29-year-old Australian tourist Travis Armstrong said in a telephone interview from Pucon. “I’ve never seen a volcano erupt and it was spewing lava and ash hundreds of meters into the air. Lightning was striking down at the volcano from the ash cloud that formed from the eruption.” Chilean authorities had issued an orange alert on Monday because of increased activity at the volcano. About 3,500 people have been evacuated so far, including tourists, said Interior and Security Minister Rodrigo Penailillo. Penailillo warned that the eruption was causing numerous rivers in the area to rise as snow along the sides of the volcano began melting. Villarrica is covered by a glacier cap covering some 40 square kilometers (15 square miles) and snow from about 1,500 meters (about 5,000 feet) on up. Authorities were keeping an eye on four nearby communities that could be endangered by mudslides as the snow melts. Officials were also monitoring nearly 200 people who were cut off from main roads when two bridges were destroyed by rising waters from nearby rivers. Rodrigo Alvarez, director of the National Service of Geology and Mining, issued a warning for people in the area, especially at tourists,
Witnesses said Pucon looked like a deserted town at dawn. But as the volcanic activity decreased, some local residents had decided to return to their homes, more cars were seen in the streets, and some people had even decided to sunbathe at a nearby lake. By midday, the community’s bus terminals, banks, restaurants and other businesses were operating normally. The eruption “was something beautiful and amazing. We’re still a bit shocked but the volcano has calmed down so I’m going to continue with my vacation,” Alejandra Paz Bustos, 29, said as she sunbathed at nearby lake Villarrica. Jose Manuel Reyes, the 37-year-old manager of La Bicicleta hostal in downtown Pucon, said visitors from France, Canada, Australia, South Africa and Brazil watched the early morning eruption from the building’s terrace. “We’re still a bit nervous because we don’t know what’s happening,” said Reyes. “There was nervousness, but we haven’t seen any panic.” Tourists flock to the area around Villarrica for outdoor activities like kayaking, horseback riding, fishing and hiking around the volcano, which last had a major eruption in 1984. Dozens of tourists were among those evacuated. Officials said late Tuesday that about 15,000 people living in rural areas near the volcano were suffering water shortages after the eruption, and kept the red alert for nearby areas. The Villarrica has a crater of about 200 meters (yards) in diameter and a lake of lava about 150 meters (yards) deep. It has periodic eruptions every 10 or 15 years. Chile has more than 2,000 volcanoes in the Andes cordillera and about 90 of them remain active. Villarrica is considered among the country’s most dangerous.
Water is eating away at the Antarctic ice, melting it where it hits the oceans. As the ice sheets slowly thaw, water pours into the sea, 130 billion tons of ice (118 billion metric tons) per year for the past decade, according to NASA satellite calculations. That’s enough ice melt to fill more than 1.3 million Olympic swimming pools. And the melting is accelerating. In the worst case scenario, Antarctica’s melt could push sea levels up 10 feet (3.3 meters) worldwide in a century or two, recurving heavily populated coastlines. At its current rate, the rise from Antarctica would only lift the world’s oceans a barely noticeable one-third of a millimeter a year. But if all the West Antarctic ice sheet that’s connected to water melts unstoppably, as several experts predict, there won’t be time to prepare. Scientists estimate it will take from 200 to 1,000 years to melt enough ice to raise seas by 10 feet, maybe only 100 years in a worst-case scenario. For a dozen days in January, in the middle of the chilly Antarctic summer, The Associated Press followed scientists from different fields searching for alien-like creatures, hints of pollution trapped in ancient ice, leftovers from the Big Bang, biological quirks that potentially could lead to better medical treatments, and perhaps most of all, signs of unstoppable melting. A zodiac boat carried a team of international scientists to Chile’s station Bernardo O’Higgins, and a group of penguins stood on a rock near the mission. Scientists collected samples on Deception Island, and elsewhere in Antarctica during the visit.