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JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) -- Missouri lawmakers expanded the potential for teachers to bring guns to schools and for residents to openly carry firearms, in a vote Thursday that capped a two-year effort by the Republican-led Legislature to expand gun rights over the objection of the Democratic governor. The new law will allow specially trained school employees to carry concealed guns on campuses. It also allows anyone with a concealed weapons permit to carry guns openly, even in cities or towns with bans against the open carrying of firearms. The age to obtain a concealed weapons permit also will drop from 21 to 19. A more far-reaching measure that sought to nullify federal gun control laws had died in the final hours of the legislative session in May. Gov. Jay Nixon had vetoed a similar bill last year that could have subjected federal officers to state criminal charges and lawsuits for attempting to enforce federal gun control laws. The new regulations, which this time garnered the two-thirds majority needed to override Nixon’s veto, take effect in about a month. Missouri school boards already have the power to allow employees with concealed gun permits to carry weapons on their campuses. The new law requires the state Department of Public Safety to establish training guidelines for schools wanting to designate a teacher or administrator as a “school protection officer” authorized to carry a concealed gun or self-defense spray. “I think it’s important that we train those individuals if they are going to be carrying,” said state Sen. Sen. Will Kraus, R-Lee’s Summit, who sponsored the bill. The vote makes Missouri the 10th state to pass legislation allowing armed school employees since 20 children and six adults died during a mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut, in 2012. States such as New York, California and Connecticut ramped up gun restrictions since the shooting, opinion echoed by Democratic members of the state Senate. “The reality is we’re making our cities les safe,” said state Sen. Jolie Justus, D-Kansas City. Conservative states, including Missouri, did the opposite.
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Volume 003 Issue 36
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AIRSTRIKES IN SYRIA? OBAMA OUTLINING MIDEAST PLANS
WASHINGTON (AP) -- In a high-stakes address to the nation Wednesday night, President Barack Obama planned to outline a broad expansion of the U.S. military role in combating extremists in Iraq and Syria, including a call for arming Syrian opposition forces and potentially launching airstrikes in both countries.
advisers. He also spoke by phone with Saudi King Abdullah, ahead of a gathering of Arab leaders on their contributions to a global coalition against the Islamic State. Secretary of State John Kerry was traveling to Saudi Arabia and Jordan this week. He first made a stop in Baghdad to meet with Iraq’s new leaders and pledge U.S. support for eliminating the extremist group and the threat it poses.
Obama has told congressional lawthis image made through a window of the Oval Office, President Barack makers that he has the authority to In Obama speaks on the phone to Saudi Arabia’s King Abdullah from his proceed with much of his plan with- desk at the White House in Washington, Wednesday, Sept. 10, 2014, of his address to the nation tonight regarding Iraq and Islamic State Republicans have pressed Obama out their formal approval. However, ahead group militants. to be specific about his plans. he is seeking authorization from Congress for the train-and-equip operation for Syrian rebels, a Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell called Obama “a request he first made earlier this summer. rather reluctant commander in chief” and urged him to outline House Republicans threw a potential roadblock in front of a military strategy to defeat the terrorists and any funding and those plans Wednesday by not including the measure in a tem- authorization he needs. porary funding measure. It was unclear whether Republicans were rejecting the request completely or would leave open an- “It’s pretty clear to me at least that the American people fully appreciate the nature of this threat,” McConnell said. “After other avenue. the beheadings of two American citizens, they don’t want an On the Senate floor, Democratic leader Harry Reid urged quick explanation of what’s happening. They want a plan. They want authorization of the president’s request to help arm moderate some presidential leadership.” opposition forces in Syria. He also backed another key element of Obama’s proposal: the formation of a coalition of countries Meanwhile, Francis Taylor, the Homeland Security Departin Europe, the Middle East and elsewhere that would also con- ment’s undersecretary for intelligence and analysis, told lawmakers U.S. officials are currently unaware of any credible tribute military and political assistance. threat of a potential attack in the United States by the Islamic “Going it alone is not going to work,” Reid said. “We must State. But Taylor testified that the militants are a serious threat have the support of the international community if we’re to rid to the Middle East and could attack U.S. targets overseas with little or no warning. the world of ISIS” - an acronym for the Islamic State group. For Obama, a sustained U.S. intervention in the Middle East is at odds with the vision he had for the region when he ran for president on a pledge to end the war in Iraq, where the role of American fighting forces drew to a close nearly three years ago. The timing of his announcement Wednesday night was all the more striking, just hours before anniversary commemorations of the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.
Obama has long resisted deepening U.S. involvement in Syria. But recent events, including the Islamic State’s beheading of two American journalists, has changed his calculus, putting him on the brink of launching airstrikes in Syria.
Earlier Wednesday, Obama met with his national security
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The U.S. is already launching airstrikes against Islamic State targets inside Iraq, undertaken at the invitation of the Iraqi government and without formal authorization from Congress. But
PUTIN PROMISES NEW WEAPONS TO F E N D W E S T E R N T H R E AT S focus on building a new array of offensive weapons to provide a “guaranteed nuclear deterrent;” re-arming strategic and long-range aviation; creating an aerospace defense system and developing high-precision conventional weapons.
The difficulties faced by the Russian arms industry have been highlighted by the long and painful development of the Bulava intercontinental ballistic missile, which has suffered repeated launch failures. Its designers finally seem to have cured the glitches, and the navy boasted of a successful launch of the Bulava from a nuclear submarine on Wednesday. Two more launches are set for the fall.
WASHINGTON (AP) -- No Silicon Valley company better embodies the promise and the pitfalls of working in health care than DNA testing firm 23andMe. Launched in 2006 to a flurry of media coverage, the Mountain View, California-based company seemed to have every strategic advantage: millions in startup cash, celebrity endorsements, and a chief executive married to one of the co-founders of Google. 23andMe CEO Anne Wojciicki laid out a bold plan to make genetic testing affordable to the general public, while simultaneously building a massive archive of DNA results for use in medical research. More than 700,000 people have used the company’s test kit, a small plastic tube that customers fill with spit and return to the company for processing. But last November, the Food and Drug Administration ordered the company to stop marketing its personalized health reports, which purported to tell customers if they were genetically predisposed to more than 250 diseases and medical conditions. Now, 23andMe is working to win FDA clearance for its health tests one at a time, a process that will take years. Wojciicki spoke to the Associated Press about operating under FDA oversight and the future of her company: COST OF AN FDA WARNING
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Russian President Vladimir Putin meets with Altai region acting governor in the city of Gorno-Altaisk, Siberia, Russia, Friday, Sept. 5, 2014.
MOSCOW (AP) -- Russia is developing an array of new nuclear and conventional weapons to counter recent moves by the U.S. and NATO, President Vladimir Putin said Wednesday as the military successfully tested a new intercontinental ballistic missile launched from a nuclear submarine.
Putin said potential threats must be thoroughly analyzed to avoid overburdening the economy with excessive military spending. He would not elaborate on prospective weapons, but he and other officials have repeatedly boasted about new Russian nuclear missiles’ capability to penetrate any prospective missile shield. Putin’s emphasis on high-precision conventional weapons reflected government concerns about the U.S. and other NATO countries enjoying a significant edge in that area.
Putin accused the West of using the crisis in Ukraine to reinvigorate NATO, warning that Moscow will ponder a response to the alliance’s decision to create a rapid-reaction “spearhead” force to protect Eastern Europe.
The comparative weakness of Russia’s conventional arsenals have prompted Russia to rely increasingly on a nuclear deterrent, with the nation’s military doctrine envisaging the possibility that Russia may use nuclear weapons first in response to a conventional aggression.
His comments came as Russia’s relations with the West have plunged to their lowest point since the Cold War due to Russia’s role in the crisis in Ukraine. They appear to show that the Russian leader is determined to pursue a tough course in the face of more Western sanctions.
Talking about potential threats, the Russian president specifically pointed at the U.S. missile defense program and Washington’s plans to develop new conventional weapons that could strike targets anywhere in the world in as little as an hour with deadly precision.
Addressing a Kremlin meeting on weapons modernization, Putin ominously warned the West against getting “hysterical” about Moscow’s re-arming efforts, in view of U.S. missile defense plans and other decisions he said have challenged Russia’s security.
Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin, who is in charge of weapons industries, told reporters after the meeting that Russia will respond to the U.S. challenge by developing its strategic nuclear forces and aerospace defenses. Deputy Defense Minister Yuri Borisov said the military will focus on developing defensive systems to counter the new U.S. programs, according to the Interfax news agency.
“We have warned many times that we would have to take corresponding countermeasures to ensure our security,” Putin said, adding that he would now take personal charge of the government commission overseeing military industries. He said Russia’s weapons modernization program for 2016-2025 should
Russia inherited most of its arsenal from the Soviet Union and has struggled to develop new weapons systems after the post-Soviet industrial meltdown. With hundreds of subcontractors going out of production, Russian arms manufacturers often had to make components themselves, swelling
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As the economy has started to improve, as sentiment has started to improve, we’ve seen their earnings begin to recover, we’ve seen them begin to reinvest in their businesses. Not all business owners are using loans to invest; some are taking advantage of the savings they set aside. Many don’t want to become too leveraged. But we’ve seen our demand pick up. Our application levels are at pre-recessionary levels. We’ve been growing every year. And we’ve been able to meet that demand.
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In this Tuesday, Aug. 19, 2014 photo, Keri Gohman of Capital One Financial speaks during an interview with The Associated Press in New York. Gohman says small business owners are reporting better earnings and are reinvesting in their businesses and that’s translating into a rebound in loan demand.
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NEW YORK (AP) -- Based on what she’s seeing among the bank’s more than three million small business customers, Capital One’s Keri Gohman is upbeat.
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Capital One is more confident about lending to small businesses that many lenders considered a bad bet during and after the recession. But if it can’t give a loan to a company, Capital One will help it find alternatives.
Business owners are reporting better earnings and reinvesting in their businesses and that’s translating into a rebound in loan demand, says Gohman, the head of small business banking at the McLean, Virginia-based bank, which has But there’s still caution out there. When it comes to reinvesting, many small business owners are taking advantage of cash they set aside. “We’re seeing them coming back from the recession smarter and more thoughtful about their business plans,” says Gohman.
Gohman spoke recently with The Associated Press about the small business climate. Here are excerpts, edited for brevity and clarity: Q. How has your small business lending grown since the recession? A. We went through the Great Recession and we saw our business owners really pull back. We saw that reflected in small business sentiment. They were concerned about the future. We saw them begin to save their cash.
A I R S T R I K E S continued from page 1
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U.S. officials said Obama was expected to loosen those limitations and open a broader counterterrorism campaign against the militants in Iraq. Obama also told foreign policy experts at a private dinner Monday that the Islamic State must be viewed as one organization, not two groups separated by a border raising expectations that he would press into Syria. Administration officials and others familiar with Obama’s thinking spoke only on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to be identified.
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Even as he ramps up airstrikes, Obama has continued to rule out sending U.S. troops into ground combat operations in the Middle East. Instead, the administration is focused on bolstering the capacity of the Iraqi security forces and Syrian opposition. The U.S. already has been running a smaller CIA program to train the rebels, but Obama is seeking approval for a more overt military effort that could involve staging training locations in countries near Syria. Administration officials said Obama also sees a congressional authorization for a Syrian train-and-equip message as sending a strong signal to allies who are considering similar efforts. Germany has decided to send assault rifles, ammunition, an-
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A. No, we have continued to be incredibly focused on being responsible lenders. We have business bankers who are expert in credit management and who are specialists dedicated to working with our small business owners. We spend time talking to owners about whether now is the time is appropriate, whether it’s something that might be appropriate down the road and how to prepare for it. Or how to structure a loan. It’s in our best interest to partner with small businesses to make sure they are making well-informed choices. We continue to have very high standards when it comes to underwriting and we’re seeing small business owners really thoughtful. They don’t want to be overextended either. We see business owners looking for lines of credit, which have a lot of flexibility. And many business owners at an earlier stage of their business or coming out of the Great Recession and who are just starting to rebuild their business might take a smaller line of credit and then begin adding to it as they get a more established track record or feel more comfortable taking on more credit risk. Another part of our business growth is in loans backed by the Small Business Administration. They help us provide loans to companies that might not otherwise qualify or that might not be ready for a conventional loan. In our last survey, we found that while 80 percent of small business owners were aware of SBAbacked loans, a much smaller percentage - under 10 percent - were actually taking advantage of them. Q. What happens when a loan officer at a branch encourages a company to seek a loan, but underwriters then reject the application? A. The process starts with our understanding a small business, its business plans, its goals, how it has performed historically. That’s the local relationship. We view our loan officers, our team members that are working with the business owner on a dayto-day business as part of a team. They’ll communicate with a team of underwriters and a team of support professionals. All of us have a goal to make a responsible decision for that customer. We go to great lengths to try to find a way to support the business owner as best we can. We have a process where, if we can’t do a conventional loan, we see if there is a way to make this work with an SBA-guaranteed loan. We also have a huge number of (small loan program) partners like Kiva, like Accion and we’ll partner with them to see if they can help that business owner if they’re not quite ready for a conventional loan. If they’re not ready for a loan today, we ask, how do we make sure if they want a loan in the future, they make sure they’re prepared? That becomes a whole system that supports the business owner.
ti-tank weapons and armored vehicles to Kurdish forces in Iraq fighting the Islamic State, breaking with Berlin’s previous reluctance to send weapons into conflicts. The deliveries haven’t started, but last week Germany sent a first planeload of military equipment such as helmets, protective vests, field glasses and mine-searching devices to Iraq. Following a meeting between Obama and congressional leaders Tuesday, an aide to House Speaker John Boehner said the Ohio Republican expressed support for efforts to increase the effectiveness of the Iraqi security forces and for equipping the Syrian opposition. Boehner also said he would support the deployment of U.S. military personnel to Iraq in a training and advisory role and to “assist with lethal targeting” of Islamic State leadership. In a shift for a war-weary nation, new polls suggest the American people would support a sustained air campaign. A Washington Post-ABC News poll released Monday showed 71 percent of Americans support airstrikes in Iraq, up from 54 percent just three weeks ago. And 65 percent say they support extending airstrikes into Syria.
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BAGHDAD (AP) -- Secretary of State John Kerry said Wednesday that neither the United States nor the rest of the world will stand by and watch the Islamic State militant group spread its evil.
ed States is prepared to do, together with many other countries in a broad coalition, in order to take on this terrorist structure, which is unacceptable by any standard anywhere in the world.”
“This is a fight that the Iraqi people must win, but it’s also a fight that the rest of the world needs them to win,” Kerry told reporters. “It’s a fight the United States and the rest of the world needs to support every step of the way.”
Kerry also met with new Iraqi parliament Speaker Salim al-Jabouri, one of the country’s highest-ranking Sunnis, who expressed hope that Iraq will overcome terror threats and establish a vital democracy - two issues that have dogged the nation for years.
Kerry was in Baghdad to meet with Iraq’s new leaders and pledge U.S. support for eliminating the extremist group and the threat it poses.
“We are before a very critical and sensitive period in the history of Iraq,” al-Jabouri told Kerry.
He said President Barack Obama would later outline Wednesday in specific detail what steps the U.S. is prepared to take to defeat the Islamic State, which has overrun parts of northern Iraq and Syria. Kerry did not reveal Obama’s plans. But he predicted a coalition of at least 40 nations ultimately will eliminate the Islamic State and said Obama will “lay out with great specificity a broad strategy” to deal with the Islamic State group. With a new Iraqi government finally in place and a growing Mideast consensus on defeating insurgent threats, Kerry pressed Iraq’s Shiite leader to quickly deliver more power to wary Sunnis - or jeopardize any hope of defeating the Islamic State group. At his news conference after the talks here, Kerry declared now that there is a new, inclusive government in Baghdad, “it’s full speed ahead.” Kerry also said the U.S. is also pledging another $48 million Wednesday to U.N. agencies and other humanitarian aid organizations to help ease suffering of 1.8 million people who have been displaced by the Islamic State. “The United States and the world will simply not stand by and watch as ISIL’s evil spreads,” he said. “We all know, I think we come to this with great confidence, that ultimately our global coalition will succeed in eliminating the threat from Iraq, from the region and the world.” Kerry landed in the Iraqi capital just two days after newly sworn Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi seated his top government ministers, a crucial step toward restoring stability in a nation where security has spiraled out of control since the beginning of the year. As Kerry and al-Abadi were meeting, two car bombs exploded simultaneously in the southeastern neighborhood of New Baghdad, killing 13 people. The trip marks the first high-level U.S. meeting with al-Abadi since he become prime minister, and it aimed to symbolize the Obama administration’s support for Iraq nearly three years after U.S. troops left the war-torn country. But it also signaled to al-Abadi, a Shiite Muslim, that the U.S. was watching to make sure he gives Iraqi Sunnis more control over their local power structures and security forces, as promised.
Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi meets with U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry in Baghdad, Iraq, Wednesday, Sept. 10, 2014. Kerry is traveling to the mideast this week to discuss ways to bolster the stability of the new Iraqi government and combat the Islamic State militant group that has taken over large swaths of Iraq and Syria.
Al-Abadi’s predecessor, former Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, for years shut Sunnis out of power and refused to pay tribal militias salaries or give them government jobs - and in turn sowed widespread resentment that Islamic State extremists seized on as a recruiting tool. Al-Abadi hosted Kerry in the ornate presidential palace where Saddam Hussein once held court, and which the U.S. and coalition officials later used as office space in the years immediately following the 2003 invasion of Iraq. In brief remarks following their meeting, al-Abadi noted that Iraq’s violence is largely a spillover from the neighboring civil war in Syria, where the Islamic State militants have a safe haven. “Of course, our role is to defend our country, but the international community is responsible to protect Iraq, and protect the whole region,” al-Abadi said, speaking in English. “What is happening in Syria is coming across to Iraq. We cannot cross that border - it is an international border. But there is a role for the international community and for the United Nations ... and for the United States to act immediately to stop this threat.” Kerry praised the new Iraqi leadership for what he described as its “boldness” in quickly forming a new government and promising to embrace political reforms that would give more authority to Sunnis and resolve a longstanding oil dispute between Baghdad and the semi-autonomous Kurdish government in the nation’s north. “We’re very encouraged,” Kerry said. He assured al-Abadi that President Barack Obama will outline plans later Wednesday “of exactly what the Unit-
DAD TO BE CHARGED WITH MURDER IN DEATH OF 5 KIDS This Sunday, Sept. 6, 2014 photo made available by the Smith County Sheriff’s Office shows Timothy Ray Jones Jr. On Tuesday, Sept. 9, 2014, authorities said the father of five children whose bodies were found in Alabama has been charged with child neglect and that other charges are pending.
Alabama, authorities said Wednesday.
LEXINGTON, S.C. (AP) -- A South Carolina man confessed to killing his five children, ages 1 to 8, then dumping their bodies wrapped in trash bags in a secluded clearing along a rural road in
Timothy Ray Jones Jr., 32, will be charged with five counts of murder, and officials believe he acted alone, Acting Sheriff Lewis McCarty of Lexington County said. Authorities think all five children were killed at the same time, but they said they don’t yet know how or why. Autopsies were scheduled to begin Thursday. The case has unfolded over the past two weeks, covering five states and about 700 miles in what the sheriff called a “logistical nightmare.” It wasn’t until Tuesday afternoon - when authorities made the gruesome discovery of the children’s bodies - that they went public with the case. “We were trying to balance the children and the investigation against the releasing of information,” McCarty said. “I am a police officer. I’m not a politician. My job basically is to get this job done.” Jones was stopped at a traffic checkpoint in Mississippi on Saturday, authorities said. A deputy spotted bleach, blood and children’s clothes in his Cadillac Escalade. It would be another three days before the children’s bodies were discovered. He was charged with driving under the influence and possession of a controlled substance. When authorities ran his license plate, they discovered Jones and his five children had been reported missing by their mother. Jones was taken into custody that day, and late Monday he confessed to deputies that he had killed his children and dumped their bodies, said Charlie Crumpton, sheriff of Smith County, Mississippi. On Tuesday, Jones led authorities to the bodies off a dirt road in central Alabama.
Jones’ father told officials his son was highly intelligent, but Crumpton said he had difficulty reading Jones’ emotions during the confession. “Sometimes he was up, sometimes he was down on himself,” Crumpton said. The children were last seen Aug. 28. The older children were at school, and Jones picked up his younger kids at daycare. He was to return the children to their mother’s home Sept. 2, but never showed up. Their mother, Jones’ ex-wife, reported them missing Sept. 3. State Law Enforcement Division Chief Mark Keel said authorities did not issue an Amber Alert because the case didn’t meet the criteria - Jones had legal custody of his children. On Wednesday, food and other garbage were piled up outside Jones’ mobile home south of Lexington. The yard was overgrown, with broken toys strewn about. A sign on font door said, “Is there life after death? Trespass here and find out” with a photo of a gun. Jones - who worked as an engineer with Intel, with his 2013 divorce record showing he made more than $70,000 a year- was awaiting extradition from Mississippi on Wednesday. The children’s bodies have been brought back to South Carolina for the autopsies. Officials won’t comment on any causes of death until the autopsies are completed. The children’s mother, Jones’ ex-wife, is in shock and distraught, McCarty said. “I’m sure everybody wants to know the answers,” Jones’ father, Timothy Jones Sr., told The Associated Press in a phone interview from Amory, Mississippi. “It’s just a terrible tragedy.” “They were wonderful. They were happy,” Jones’ stepmother, Julie Jones said of the five children as she cried. “They were wonderful, beautiful.”
NEW WEAPONS continued from page 1
costs and affecting production quality. Putin said Russian defense industries must rid themselves of a dependence on imports and quickly become capable of producing key components at home. Faced with a pro-Russian insurgency in the east backed by Moscow, Ukraine has already cut arms exports to Russia. They include missile components, helicopter engines and turbines for naval ships that Russian arms makers may find hard to replace. Western nations also have cut exports of military components to Russia.
Kerry’s trip comes on the eve of a meeting in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, where he and Arab leaders across the Mideast will discuss what nations can contribute to an ever-growing global coalition against the Islamic State. The U.S and nine other counties - Canada, Australia and across Europe - agreed last week to create a united front against the mostly Sunni extremist group that has overrun much of northern Iraq and Syria. Thursday’s meeting in Jeddah seeks to do much of the same and will gauge the level of support from the Sunni-dominated Mideast region. Kerry also was to visit Jordan. Meanwhile, in Paris, French government spokesman Stephane Le Foll said all five permanent members of the U.N. Security Council - the U.S., the United Kingdom, France, Russia and China - would take part in a conference in the French capital Monday that will focus on stabilizing Iraq. During a French Cabinet meeting Wednesday, Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius brought up the issue of whether Iran would be invited to the Paris conference, but it “has not yet been decided,” according to Le Foll. The U.S. already has launched about 150 airstrikes on Islamic State militants in Iraq over the past month, a mission undertaken at the invitation of the Iraqi government and without formal authorization from Congress. And it has sent military advisers, supplies and humanitarian aid to help Iraqi national troops and Kurdish forces beat back the insurgents. It was not clear what, if any, military action Obama would be willing to take in Syria, where he has resisted any mission that might inadvertently help President Bashar Assad and his government in Damascus, which has so far survived a bloody threeyear war against Sunni rebels. Obama has ruled out putting U.S. combat troops on the ground.
FEW CRITICS AS N E VA D A M U L L S T E S L A TA X B R E A K S CARSON CITY, Nev. (AP) -- Critics say Nevada lawmakers are gambling with taxpayers’ money, but they clearly were in the minority as legislators moved forward with an unprecedented package of up to $1.3 billion in incentives they hope to approve in the days ahead to bring Tesla Motors’ $5 billion battery factory to the state. Republican Gov. Brian Sandoval urged legislators in the two Democrat-controlled houses to seize an “extraordinary opportunity” to land the electric car maker’s “gigafactory” and the tens of thousands of jobs he said would help pull Nevada from the worst economic crisis in state history. Legislative leaders, who convened in a special session, expected to approve the package of tax breaks and other incentives by Thursday night or Friday. The leader of the Assembly’s Republicans, Pat Hickey of Reno, was among those predicting it would pass by an “overwhelming” margin. Even opponents conceded it was unlikely they’d stop the huge corporate giveaway, which they say won’t benefit typical middle-class Nevadans. “All the lobbyists for various interests say that unless you have a hand in the Tesla deal, it’s not good for you,” said Bob Fulkerson, state director for the Progressive Leadership Alliance of Nevada. “But everybody then also says that it’s a done deal,” he told The Associated Press on Wednesday night. State senators spent nearly 10 hours in negotiations behind closed doors Wednesday before following the Assembly’s lead and adjourning about 10 p.m. The Senate bill requires Tesla spend $3.5 billion within 10 years. It mandates half the jobs go to Nevada residents, at both the factory expected to employ 6,000-plus and among the 3,000 projected construction jobs. The Senate planned to return Thursday to begin debate on the biggest part of the incentive package for the electric-car maker: up to $1.1 billion to finance the abatement of Tesla’s various property, sales and use taxes, in some cases for up to 20 years. Before it adjourned about 9 p.m., the Assembly completed public hearings on two smaller pieces of the incentive package. One would extend electricity discounts for Tesla and other large, qualifying companies that move into the state. The other clarifies that Tesla would be able to sell the cars it manufactures at Tesla-owned dealerships in Nevada. The latter was one of the hurdles Tesla had identified in Texas before announcing last week it had picked Nevada for the battery factory in a competition that also included California, Arizona and New Mexico. The Assembly also completed a hearing on a key part of the plan to offset nearly $200 million in tax credits for Tesla by ending a tax credit that’s been provided for 43 years to insurance companies that locate their home office in Nevada. Chris Nielsen, secretary of the Nevada Board of Equalization, said only 1 percent of the approximately 1,200 insurance companies doing business in the state qualify for the credit and that eliminating it would save $125 million over five years. Kirkpatrick said she long has favored ending the credit that initially was enacted on a temporary basis in 1971, and Sandoval’s administration agreed that economic development incentives should be temporary ways to bring business to the state. “Something that lasts for 43 years or longer is not an incentive. In our view it is a subsidy,” said Steve Hill, director of the Governor’s Office for Economic Development. Fulkerson’s alliance was part of a coalition of unions, teachers, environmentalists and minority activists who urged lawmakers to slow the rush to approve the package they said was 14 times bigger than any previous subsidies the Legislature has approved.
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R E G I O N A L A I R L I N E S N O T S H A R I N G I N M A J O R S ’ S U C C E S S DALLAS (AP) -- For passengers traveling between smaller cities and large hub airports, the ticket may say Delta, American or United, but they’re likely flying on a regional airline whose planes are painted in the major carrier’s colors.
can re-negotiate their contracts with the major airlines, Becker says. She recently predicted that Envoy and SkyWest’s ExpressJet unit could be shut down as the sector consolidates. Competition among the regionals is fierce.
This arrangement helps the big airlines pack their planes more cheaply and contributes to recent record profits.
“The biggest cost they can control is what they pay their labor,” says William Swelbar, an aviation researcher at MIT and board member at Hawaiian Airlines. “You need to squeeze labor to be competitive and win flying contracts.”
It isn’t as wonderful for the regional airlines, however. Their profits are shrinking, costs are rising, and they’re having trouble finding enough pilots to work for the salaries they pay. Consumers should be concerned. Fares could rise as regional airlines are forced to raise pilots’ pay. Aviation experts predict that some regional airlines may fail, which could lead to reduced service at smaller airports. This week, an airline industry group said that 86 communities - from former hubs such as Cleveland and Memphis to small cities like Dickinson, North Dakota, and Hollis, Alaska - have lost at least 10 percent of their flights since last year. Regional airlines say the trend will get worse this winter and next year because of a pilot shortage. About half of all passenger flights in the U.S. are operated by regional airlines. The planes don’t say Republic, SkyWest or Mesa on the side - they are painted in the colors and logos of brands such as Delta Connection, American Eagle or United Express. A decade ago, many of the regionals were earning steady profits. That began to change when several of the big airlines went through bankruptcy and rewrote their contracts with regional airlines to cap the small guys’ profit margins. Regionals that boasted 20 percent profit margins in the late 1990s suddenly had their margins capped at around 12 percent, a level some don’t even reach, says Robert Mann, an airline-industry consultant. The most successful regional airlines are still making money, but far less. SkyWest, which earned at least $110 million each year from 2005 through 2008, made just over $50 million each of the past two years. Republic earned about $80 million a
American Eagle jet taxis to a gate past the control tower after landing at the Abraham Lincoln Capital Airport in Springfield, Ill. The regional airline industry may soon face the kind of consolidation that thinned the ranks of the largest airlines from eight between 2008 and the end of 2013.
year from 2006 through 2008, but earned just $26.7 million last year. It lost money in 2010 and 2011.
Many regional pilots look to move up to the bigger airlines and better pay - after a few years. But with recession, the 9-11 attacks, retrenchment at the big airlines, and an increase in the pilot retirement age to 65, it turned into “a lost decade” of career stagnation, says William Sprague, a pilot for American’s Envoy Air subsidiary. He expected to spend five years at a regional; it has turned into 17. Now American is shrinking Envoy’s fleet in a cost-cutting squeeze. “The future of our carrier looks bleak. I’ve never seen morale lower,” says Sprague, who is also a union leader. He says many pilots are bolting for low-cost carriers like Spirit, Allegiant and Frontier, or even to fly corporate planes. The regional airline industry may soon experience the kind of consolidation that thinned the ranks of the largest airlines between 2008 and the end of 2013. Helane Becker, an analyst for Cowen and Co., says the regionals face a basic problem: Their fares are set by their contracts with big-airline patrons. That leaves them little control over revenue and limited ability to pass along higher costs. “When fuel prices go up, the major airlines can raise ticket prices,” but the regionals must wait several years until they
SENIOR AMERICANS BURDENED W I T H S T U D E N T D E B T multiple jobs - she’s now at the University of California, Santa Cruz - to pay off credit card debt and has renegotiated terms of her home mortgage, but hasn’t been able to make a student loan payment in eight years. The amount she now owes has ballooned to $126,000. “I find it very ironic that I incurred this debt as a way to improve my life, and yet I still sit here today because the debt has become my undoing,” Anderson said in prepared testimony for the hearing. Despite not making payments, she’s managed to keep the education debt in good standing, she said.
Rosemary Anderson of Watsonville, Calif., testifies on Capitol Hill in Washington, Wednesday, Sept. 10, 2014, before the Senate Aging Committee hearing to examine Older Americans and student loan debt. Anderson could be 81 by the time she pays off her student loans. After struggling with divorce, health problems and an underwater home mortgage, the 57-year-old anticipates there could come a day when her Social Security benefits will be docked to make the payments. Like Anderson, a growing percentage of aging Americans struggle to pay back their student debt. Tens of thousands of them even see their Social Security benefits garnished when they cannot do so.
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Rosemary Anderson could be 81 by the time she pays off her student loans. After struggling with divorce, health problems and an underwater home mortgage, the 57-year-old anticipates there could come a day when her Social Security benefits will be docked to make the payments. Like Anderson, a growing percentage of aging Americans struggle to pay back their student debt. Tens of thousands of them even see their Social Security benefits garnished when they cannot do so. Among Americans ages 65 to 74, 4 percent in 2010 carried federal student loan debt, up from 1 percent six years earlier, according to a Government Accountability Office report released Wednesday at a Senate Aging Committee hearing. For all seniors, the collective amount of student loan debt grew from about $2.8 billion in 2005 to about $18.2 billion last year. Student debt for all ages totals $1 trillion. “Some may think of student loan debt as just a young person’s problem,” said Sen. Bill Nelson, D-Fla., chairman of the committee. “Well, as it turns out, that’s increasingly not the case.” Anderson, of Watsonville, California, amassed $64,000 in student loans, beginning in her 30s, as she worked toward her undergraduate and graduate degrees. She said she has worked
Ed Boltz, a bankruptcy attorney in Durham, North Carolina, who is president of the National Association of Consumer Bankruptcy Attorneys, said in an interview that many of the seniors he sees with student loan debt are also struggling with challenges such a medical problems, job loss or divorce. Some, he said, went back to school with hopes of making a higher salary and that didn’t pan out, or the children they helped fund to attend school are not in a position to help the parent in return. “They are stuck with these debts and they can’t try again,” Boltz said. “There’s no second act for them. It holds off on people retiring.” The GAO found that about 80 percent of the student loan debt by seniors was for their own education while the rest was taken out for their children or other dependents. It said federal data showed that seniors were more likely to default on loans for themselves compared with those they took out for their children. It’s unclear when the loans originated, although the GAO noted that the time period to pay back such debt can range from a decade to 25 years. That means some older Americans could have taken out the loans when they were younger and they’ve accumulated with interest, or got them later in life such as workers who enrolled in college after a layoff in the midst of the economic downturn. The GAO found that about a quarter of loans held by seniors ages 65 to 74 were in default. The number of older Americans who had their Social Security benefits offset to pay student loan debt increased about fivefold, from 31,000 to 155,000, from 2002 to 2013.
The result is that pay for regional first officers, or co-pilots, starts around $22,000 a year, according to the Air Line Pilots Association. That’s after applicants might spend more than $100,000 for education and flying time to qualify. Union officials say such low wages discourage many qualified pilots from signing up. The regional airlines blame the pilot shortage on a new federal rule that requires shorter days and more rest for pilots, and another that raised the amount of flight time needed for beginning airline pilots from 250 hours to 1,500 hours. That narrowed the pipeline of potential pilots, according to Roger Cohen, president of the Regional Airline Association, the industry’s trade group. “Even if you were to double or triple the salaries tomorrow, that is not going to increase the pipeline of pilots overnight,” Cohen says. Regional airlines have cited the shortage in cutting service this year. Republic grounded 27 planes, and a smaller regional, Great Lakes Airlines, ended government-subsidized service to several small communities. The regionals agreed to the current conditions, so they can’t whine - they just have to adapt, says Bryan Bedford, the CEO of Republic Airways Holdings Inc. If pilot salaries rise, Bedford says, it is his job to find offsetting costs and live within the contract. “It’s not Delta’s problem, it’s not United’s problem, it’s not American’s problem - it’s Republic’s problem.”
“As the baby boomers continue to move into retirement, the number of older Americans with defaulted loans will only continue to increase,” the GAO said. “This creates the potential for an unpleasant surprise for some, as their benefits are offset and they face the possibility of a less secure retirement.” Typically, student loans can’t be discharged in bankruptcy. In addition to docking Social Security, the government can use a variety of tools to recoup student loans, such as docking wages or taking tax refund dollars. Sandy Baum, a senior fellow at the Urban Institute, said these seniors having their Social Security docked likely don’t have much discretionary income and Congress should consider taking away this option. There’s a limit to how much Social Security can be docked, but some seniors are left with benefits below the poverty level, the GAO said. “It’s not an issue that affects large numbers of people,” Baum said. “It’s a very big issue for people who are affected by it.”
AIRLINE DISASTERS continued from page 1
One of 23andMe’s highest priorities is to amass a database of 1 million customers’ genetic profiles for use in medical research. With that goal in mind, 23andMe ramped up promotion and dropped the price of its saliva-based test kit to $99 from $299 in 2012. But last year’s FDA warning letter put a damper on that effort. Wojciicki says 23andMe sales have fallen 50 percent since November. 23andMe continues to sell genetic ancestral information and raw, uninterrupted DNA data. RISING TO THE CHALLENGE OF REGULATION In the aftermath of the FDA letter, 23andMe has brought in four new executives with backgrounds in the health sector. “This has actually been a really good experience for 23andMe because it’s taking us up a level,” Wojciicki says. “And if we can define this and if the FDA can set out the structure and the path forward, then they are going to enable an incredible amount of innovation.” SHYING AWAY FROM HEALTH CARE? In recent months, several leading technology executives have bemoaned the difficulties of navigating government health regulations. Wojciicki says Silicon Valley’s reluctance to back health care ventures is a real issue. “When I go to some of the big health care entrepreneur conferences you see that there is definitely apprehension about the regulatory landscape in health and how aggressive you can actually be. The fact that there’s potentially always something lurking makes startups nervous.
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The Weekly News Digest, Sept 8 thru Sept 15, 2014
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FERRARI PRESIDENT MONTEZEMOLO T O L E A V E T H E C O M P A N Y
MARANELLO, Italy (AP) -- After more than two decades presiding over one of the biggest and most successful teams in Formula One, Luca Di Montezemolo is stepping down as president of Ferrari.
Marchionne said. “We need to return to the top. That will give a support to the rest of Ferrari. Winning on the track is something that is not negotiable.”
The 67-year-old Montezemolo spent 23 years as president of the Italian car manufacturer, and oversaw Michael Schumacher winning five F1 titles and Kimi Raikkonen another.
Despite next month’s stock listing, Marchionne said Ferrari would not move its production to the United States. “There’s not the slightest intention of integrating Ferrari into Fiat-Chrysler,” Marchionne said. “I want to protect Ferrari’s integrity, not let it be contaminated in a mass market car industry. Ferrari’s success is due in great part to that.
But a recent decline, culminating at last week’s Italian Grand Prix where Ferrari failed to put a car on the podium in its home race for the first time since 2008, led to Montezemolo’s departure. “We are coming out of an awful year because we underestimated the difficulty and the importance of the new motors,” Montezemolo said on Wednesday at Ferrari headquarters. “There are all the foundations for relaunching a new cycle in Formula One. There are all the foundations to start winning again. “We have had extraordinary and difficult moments. I thank the fans and I am convinced that there will be the maximum effort to take Ferrari back to where it belongs.” Montezemolo will officially leave on Oct. 13, about the same time as the stock listing of merged parent company Fiat-Chrysler, and will be replaced by that company’s CEO, Sergio Marchionne. Fiat has a 90 percent controlling stake in Ferrari. Montezemolo will receive nearly 27 million euros (nearly $35 million) in compensation from Ferrari as his severance package. That figure includes a post-mandate indemnity - which was agreed in 2003 - of 13.7 million euros ($17.7 million), payable in 20 years, as well as the sum of 13.2 million euros ($17.1 million) which is to be paid by the end of January and is “in consideration of his commitment not to engage in activities in competition with the Fiat Group during the period to March 2017.” Montezemolo joined Ferrari four decades ago, brought in by founding father Enzo Ferrari as his assistant. After a brief period away from the company, he returned as president in 1991 and the team won six drivers’ titles and eight constructors’ titles. “It’s an important day because after 23 years (as president), which have
“The idea that Ferrari could be produced elsewhere is obscene, simply inconceivable.” Russian President Vladimir Putin waves after a wreath laying ceremony at the monument to Soviet Marshal Georgy Zhukov in Ulan Bator, Mongolia, Wednesday, Sept. 3, 2014. As the Ukraine crisis intensifies, the NATO countries closest to Russia have been pushing the alliance to set up permanent bases with troops on their land _ with historical fears of Moscow heightened by new Russian aggression. But as the alliance holds a summit this week where the Polish and Baltic request will be discussed, it’s looking increasingly unlikely they will get that.
passed very quickly, today I’m presenting my resignation from Ferrari,” Montezemolo said at a news conference, often appearing to be struggling to hold back tears. “I’m resigning because I think a very important era for the company has ended. Thanks to the results, thanks to the strength of Ferrari itself, another cycle is opening and I hope it will be even more important, new and different.”
Montezemolo is the second high profile executive to leave the team this year following the departure of team principal Stefano Domenicali in April. “We need to give credibility to Ferrari on the track. I’m fixed on that,”
“They are asking for bribes to rescue us,” said one man, trembling with rage.
The Chenab River overflowed early Wednesday, threatening the nearby Pakistani district of Jhang in the worst flooding in the region in years. Survivor Haleema Bibi, 65, sobbed as she climbed out of a boat. Her granddaughter was to be married in the coming days but the floodwaters swept her dowry away. She appealed to the rescuers to go back to the village, saying her grandson was stranded there. “I have lost everything,” Bibi cried out. The flooding began earlier this month in Kashmir, which is claimed by both India and Pakistan. It caused landslides and submerged much of the main city of Srinagar on the Indian-administered side. The water is now rushing out of the mountains of the Himalayan region, affecting communities downstream and threatening to force nearly 700,000 people from their homes. From the air, Srinagar looked like a giant, muddy lake, with row after row of rooftops peeking out of the murky water. Frightened survivors clung to tree tops and waited for rescue helicopters to save them. An Associated Press reporter, trapped in his home for four days, said rescue boats picked up relatives of army and government officials before saving stranded civilians.
ASIA ARMS UP TO COUNTER GROWING CHINESE MIGHT
Marchionne was clearly frustrated during the weekend and said no one was indispensable, but Montezemolo said he had told Ferrari he was ready to stay on for another three years.
Tempers frayed as residents grew increasingly anxious over the fate of missing loved ones. In one Srinagar neighborhood, angry survivors heckled a former government minister and fought with rescue workers.
JHANG, Pakistan (AP) -- Raging monsoon floods across India and Pakistan that have killed more than 450 people poured into the plains of eastern Punjab province on Wednesday, sending a major river over its banks and threatening to force hundreds of thousands from their homes.
“It’s a possibility but until mid-October I’m very focused here,” Montezemolo said. “Then we will talk about it. We’ll see. It’s still premature.”
On Sunday at the Italian GP, Ferrari driver Fernando Alonso retired due to a rare mechanical problem and Raikkonen finished ninth.
M A J O R R I V E R O V E R F L O W S , THREATENING PAKISTAN CITY
An aerial view showing buildings partially submerged in Srinagar, Indian-controlled Kashmir, Wednesday, Sept.10, 2014. Raging monsoon floods sweeping across India and Pakistan have killed more than 440 people, authorities said Tuesday, warning hundreds of thousands more to be prepared to flee their homes as helicopters and boats raced to save marooned victims.
Montezemolo, who was slated to remain president through 2017, has been mentioned as a possible candidate for the presidency of struggling Italian airline Alitalia, which recently joined with Etihad Airways.
In this May 24, 2014 photo, China’s Harbin (112) guided missile destroyer takes part in a week-long China-Russia “Joint Sea-2014” navy exercise at the East China Sea off Shanghai, China. Several Asian nations are arming up, their wary eyes fixed squarely on one country: a resurgent China that’s boldly asserting its territorial claims all along the East Asian coast. The scramble to spend more defense dollars comes amid spats with China over contested reefs and waters. Other Asian countries such as India and South Korea are quickly modernizing their forces, although their disputes with China have stayed largely at the diplomatic level.
BEIJING (AP) -- Vietnam has nearly doubled its military spending, Japan is requesting its biggest-ever defense budget and the Philippines is rushing to piece together a viable navy.
Officials said it was dangerous for rescue boats to reach some parts of the city.
Several Asian nations are arming up, their wary eyes fixed squarely on one country: a resurgent China that’s boldly asserting its territorial claims all along the East Asian coast.
“Our entire effort has been focused on ensuring that we have adequate assets to rescue people,” Chief Minister Omar Abdullah said in an interview with CNN-IBN news channel.
The scramble to spend more defense dollars comes amid spats with China over contested reefs and waters. Other Asian countries such as India and South Korea are quickly modernizing their forces, although their disputes with China have stayed largely at the diplomatic level.
The rains have washed away houses, bridges, communication equipment and crops. In a statement, Pakistan’s National Disaster Management Authority said that rescuers so far had evacuated more than 127,000 people. It said civil authorities and troops were using 15 helicopters and 574 boats to move flood victims to safer places.
Asian countries now account for about half of the world’s arms imports, with China leading the way by quadrupling its annual military budget over the past decade. The growth in military spending has largely kept pace with economic expansion, although it’s been pulling ahead in China, Vietnam and several other countries this year.
The floods are the worst to hit Pakistan since 2010, when some 1,700 people died. Authorities say they have alerted troops in Pakistan’s southern Sindh province, where flooding was expected to reach later this week. More than 1.5 million people have been affected, with thousands losing their homes to the rising water.
China’s goal is to dislodge the U.S. as the dominant power in the Pacific, said Robert D. Kaplan, chief geopolitical analyst for the U.S.-based intelligence research firm Stratfor. Among the stakes are vital shipping lanes in the South China Sea and potentially lucrative pockets of oil and natural gas under East Asian waters. “The Chinese bet is that it can increase its military capacity in the South and East China seas faster than Vietnam and the Philippines can do so,” Kaplan said. “If China is able to move freely and exercise more control of its adjacent seas, it will become a full-fledged naval power.”
“We are focusing more on women, elderly people and children,” said Ahsan Ali, a rescue official in Pakistan’s Jhang district.
Beijing hasn’t yet caught up to the U.S., which at $665 billion a year, spends more on its military than the next eight countries combined and triple that of China, according to the Stockholm International Peace Institute, a think tank. Still, China’s spending nearly equals the total defense budgets of all 24 other countries in East and South Asia.
At least 257 people have died and another 461 have been injured in Pakistan and Pakistan-administered Kashmir in the floodin
Drawing the most attention is China’s submarine fleet, which is projected to match U.S. numbers by 2020, at 78 vessels each. Many of the Chinese submarines will be stationed at a giant underwater base on Hainan island, which juts into the South China Sea. China’s moves have spurred a submarine shopping spree across Asia. This year, Vietnam received the third of six submarines it ordered from Russia plus maritime patrol aircraft capable of hunting down Chinese subs. Russia is the top military exporter to Asia, followed by the U.S. and then European countries such as the Netherlands. Over the summer, Vietnamese and Chinese ships rammed each other repeatedly after China moved an oil rig into waters claimed by both countries. Vietnam’s military spending expanded by 83 percent over the past five years, making up 8 percent of government spending.
POTECTING SPEICIES
www.worldwildlife.org
Similarly, Japan is replacing its entire fleet with more modern submarines, South Korea is adding bigger attack submarines and India plans to build six new subs. “Submarines are seen as a potential for an underdog to cope with a large
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_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ The Weekly News Digest, Sept 8 thru Sept 15, 2014
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A P P L E P U S H E S D I G I T A L W A L L E T W I T H A P P L E P A Y
NEW YORK (AP) -- Apple is betting that people want to pay with a tap of the phone rather than a swipe of the card.
we’re focused on creating the best possible mobile experiences for our guests,” Senior Vice President Jason Goldberger said in a statement. “We’re thrilled to support Apple Pay to streamline how our guests pay in the Target app - this absolutely makes purchasing from Target’s mobile app easier than ever.”
The technology company on Tuesday introduced a new digital wallet service called Apple Pay that is integrated with its Passbook credential-storage app and its fingerprint ID security system. The announcement came as Apple introduced several new products including a new, larger iPhone 6 and a watch. Apple Pay is designed to let iPhone 6 owners use their smartphones to pay for purchases at brick-and-mortar stores as well as online via apps. The company says it’s easier and more secure than using a credit or debit card. And it puts Apple in direct competition with services like PayPal and Google Wallet. So-called mobile proximity payments are expected to grow exponentially over the next few years. Citi Investment Research analyst Mark May said they could grow from $1 billion in 2013 to $58.4 billion by 2017. Still, consumers will have to weigh the convenience of not pulling out a card with the possible danger of storing important financial information on their phones, particularly as retailers like Target and Home Depot report data breaches, and hackers crack celebrities’ iCloud accounts. In stores, the system uses a technology called near-field communication, which allows mobile phones to communicate with other devices at close range. Many Android phones already have a near-field communication antenna, but iPhones have not until now. Users will pay by holding a phone close to a contactless reader with their finger on the touch ID fingerprint system. It’s also set to work with the Apple Watch when that debuts in 2015. “Apple Pay will forever change the way we pay for things,” said Apple CEO Tim Cook. Apple addressed security concerns Tuesday, saying Apple Pay is even safer than using a plastic card. Eddy Cue, Apple’s senior vice president of Internet software and services, said credit card information will be stored on the phone via a secure chip and payments will use a one-time security code. The Find My iPhone service can erase the data if the phone gets lost or stolen - canceling a card will not be necessary. The service will be able to store Visa, MasterCard and American Express credit card information.
Gartner analyst Avivah Litah said the payment system will only succeed if major retailers get behind it. Apple’s security features are a plus for merchants, but it’s not clear if that will be enough.
Apple CEO Tim Cook introduces the new Apple Pay product on Tuesday, Sept. 9, 2014, in Cupertino, Calif.
“A cashier doesn’t see your name, credit card number or security code,” when you pay with Apple Pay, Cue said. He also said Apple won’t track people’s financial data. “Apple doesn’t know what you bought, where you bought it or how much you paid,” he said. “That transaction is between you, your merchant and your bank.” Contactless payment isn’t new: Retailers like Starbucks and McDonald’s already have their own contactless payment system in stores, and Apple Pay is similar to Google Inc.’s Google Wallet, which is available on Android smartphones and iPhones. But Apple Pay adds some security features and makes a digital wallet option more accessible for iPhone users. About 15 percent of smartphones are iPhones, according to research firm IDC. The service will be available beginning in October. Retailers will need to invest in updating their cash registers and pointof-sale units. Apple said department stores like Macy’s and Bloomingdales, drugstores including Walgreen’s and Duane Reade, and other stores including McDonald’s, Staples, Subway and Whole Foods are participating in Apple Pay. But some of the largest retailers are not participating. Wal-Mart said it has no plans to participate. Amazon.com did not respond to a request for comment. And Target said it is currently participating only via its app. “We know mobile is becoming the front door to Target, and
A P P L E WAT C H L O O K S T O B E A N O T H E R W I N N E R it. As for using the dial to zoom in and out, Apple says that improves usability because you’re not blocking maps and other content on the screen the way pinching in and out would. That makes sense, though I’ll need more time with the watch to assess how well the dial works on its own. With your home screen, for instance, you still need to slide apps around. Another question mark is what kinds of apps will be available for it. Apple announced a few useful ones, including the ability to unlock your Starwood hotel room with a tap of your watch. That’s easier than pulling out your room key from your wallet. BMW also promises one to help you find your parked car in a crowded lot. If it works, that beats walking around in circles. A man photographs Apple Watches during the product release announcement event on Tuesday, Sept. 9, 2014, in Cupertino, Calif.
CUPERTINO, Calif. (AP) -- As computerized wristwatches go, the upcoming Apple Watch looks impressive. I like that it will come in two sizes, so the watch won’t feel giant on smaller hands, as some competing watches do. I also like that Apple will offer a variety of straps and materials, so fitness buffs can get a strap that’s stronger and sweat-proof, while those seeking a fashion accessory can opt for an 18-karat gold edition. Beyond looks, it’s great that the Apple Watch isn’t simply adopting the smartphone way of doing things. The operating system, Watch OS, was designed specifically for the watch, and its interface relies heavily on the dial to the right, known as the digital crown. Competing watches tend to emphasize the voice and touch controls found on phones. Of course, it’s premature to conclude that you need an Apple Watch. I had only about 45 minutes with the Apple Watch and other new products announced Tuesday. The watch I was allowed to try on was running in a demonstration mode. It’ll take more time with the watch - beyond a controlled environment - to make a solid conclusion. What I’m seeing so far, however, points to another winner for Apple. The home screen has all your apps, arranged in rows like a honeycomb. You use the dial to zoom in and choose one. The touch screen lets you slide the honeycomb around to see different portions of your app collection. I find this easier than swiping on a small screen to scroll through pages and pages of apps. With the Apple Watch, you can even rearrange apps so that your favorite ones are toward the middle. App developers will be able to decide what types of notifications appear on the watch and let you take actions such as replying to messages. That’s an improvement over existing smartwatches, which largely replicate the notifications sent to your phone. To be compelling, the watch shouldn’t duplicate your phone. It should enhance it. Apple seems to get
“It’s 50-50 if merchants will get on board,” she said. “The security aspects are attractive, but it’s not clear if the security features alone are going to be enough of a selling point.” IDC analyst James Wester said the move is in some ways Apple playing catch up to Google Wallet, but that the system uses Apple’s fingerprint technology is a plus. “It’s not that different than what other mobile wallets have done,” he said. “The important part is that it’s Apple. We’ve been waiting for them to get into this.” Citi analyst May said eBay Inc.’s PayPal is the closest competitor to Apple Pay, but PayPal shouldn’t be overly concerned since near-field communication and digital wallet payments are less than 1 percent of its business. In addition, consumer adoption of Apple Pay remains uncertain. “That said, Apple has raised the bar for the digital wallet category, not only for offline point-of-sale but potentially also for m-commerce, which is more directly competitive with PayPal today,” he said. For its part, PayPal’s chief product officer, Hill Ferguson, emphasized PayPal’s relationships with merchants and customer service, and the fact that it can work across devices. “Businesses and consumers don’t want to be restricted to a particular device or hardware,” he said. chances of breakage. The back will now be made of aluminum and feel more like an iPad. To improve one-handed use, both new models will have a feature called reachability. With two light taps of the home screen button, the icons, controls and content on the top half of the screen snap to the bottom, so you can reach them with the same hand. Once you make your selection, everything snaps back to the top. The iPhone 6 Plus also has new horizontal layouts to take advantage of the larger size. Of course, apps have long worked either horizontally and vertically. On the Plus, horizontal viewing extends to the home screen, and apps will be able to arrange content in two columns. When texting, for instance, contacts appear on the left and messages appear on the right. On smaller phones, including the regular iPhone 6, you get one or the other, not both side by side. It’s a small touch, but it shows that larger doesn’t necessarily mean making everything bigger. Windows phones also make use of larger screens by squeezing in more content, but with Android phones, text and images just get blown up. - MOBILE PAYMENTS
Apple does have a good track record in getting software developers to make good apps for its systems. Many apps come to iPhones and iPads first, and some have bonus features unavailable on Android. If that trend continues with the Apple Watch, I have no doubt customers will find more useful things to do with it than the smartwatches already out.
Few people use their phones to pay for goods and services at retail stores. That’s because it’s not difficult to pull out a plastic credit card, however insecure that technology might be. Apple is trying to change that with Apple Pay, which will come to the new iPhones in October and the upcoming Apple Watch when it’s out.
Apple Watch will require an iPhone 5 or later and will have a starting price tag of $349, higher than rival watches. Expect to pay even more for the 18-karat gold edition and other premium models. You’ll also have to wait until early next year, as Apple won’t have Apple Watch available in time for the holidays.
Apple improves over existing systems in a few ways:
As for products and services that will be available sooner:
In my brief tests, the phone grabbed my credit card numbers correctly, though I sometimes had to enter my name and expiration date myself because of poor lighting conditions. But grabbing those numbers is a good start, as I’m prone to make typos with 16-digit numbers otherwise.
- IPHONE 6 and IPHONE 6 PLUS Apple’s new 4.7-inch iPhone 6 and 5.5-inch iPhone 6 Plus are both larger than the current 4-inch models. They neutralize a key advantage Android phones have had: size. And Apple managed to make its new phones thinner, with edges that are curved and fit nicely in the hands. Gone is the glass back, reducing the
- Apple already has your credit card information from iTunes, so setting Apple Pay up with your first credit card is easy. To add additional cards, you can either enter the details or snap a photo.
- Apple uses the phone’s fingerprint identification system to authorize purchases. Other wallet apps require passcodes, which can make mobile payments take longer than simply pulling out your credit card. - Apple stores card information on a secure chip on your device, not on its servers. And it’s not even your real card number. Rather, Apple verifies your card information with your bank and then stores an alternative card number. That way, if a merchant’s system gets hacked, only the alternative number is compromised, and that number would require one-time security codes available only with the physical possession of your phone. - The system works with credit cards issued by a variety of banks, including all three of mine. A payment system called Softcard, formerly known as ISIS, doesn’t support any of my three banks. Amazon’s Fire phone has a wallet app, too, but it doesn’t even do credit cards, which is surprising for a retailer. It works only with gift cards. Apple Pay’s usefulness will be limited until more merchants install the necessarily equipment, but many chains already do and more are coming.
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The Weekly News Digest, Sept 8 thru Sept 15, 2014
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U K L E A D E R R U S H E S T O F E N D O F F S C O T T I S H I N D E P E N D E N C E GLASGOW, Scotland (AP) -- The British political establishment descended on Scotland on Wednesday to plead for a united United Kingdom, after polls suggested the once-fanciful notion of Scots voting to break from Britain has become a real possibility in next week’s referendum.
widely seen as out of touch. And like Cameron, he faces a predicament in the event of independence. Labour holds two-thirds of Scotland’s seats in the British Parliament, and their removal would make it harder for Labour to become the governing party again.
The leaders of the three main London-based parties - all of them unpopular in Scotland - wooed skeptical Scottish voters with the fervor of a rejected lover. But some Scots seemed unmoved, and increasingly confident independence leader Alex Salmond accused his opponents of succumbing to panic.
The politicians’ entreaties did little to impress committed Yes voters.
In a rare display of cross-party unity, Prime Minister David Cameron, Labour leader Ed Miliband and Liberal Democrat chief Nick Clegg all pulled out of a weekly House of Commons question session to make a campaign dash to Scotland, as polls indicated the two sides are neck-and-neck ahead of the Sept. 18 referendum. Cameron said Scottish independence would break his heart, in a personal plea aimed at preserving the 307-year-old Anglo-Scottish union - and preventing himself from going down in history as the last prime minister of Great Britain. He is likely to face pressure from his Conservative Party to step down if Scots vote to secede. “I would be heartbroken ... if this family of nations is torn apart,” Cameron told an invited audience at the Edinburgh headquarters of the Scottish Widows insurance firm. While Cameron has ordered the blue-and-white Scottish flag to be flown over his office at No. 10 Downing Street until the vote, his critics noted that he did not risk speaking before an uninvited audience of Scots on the street. Cameron’s Conservatives are deeply unpopular in Scotland, where the welfare cuts, unemployment and privatization of Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher’s time are remembered with bitterness. Many independence supporters cite the Cameron
“If Cameron, Clegg and Miliband really cared, they would have been up here campaigning to save the U.K. weeks ago and not just at the last minute when the polls suggest there’s a chance they could lose,” said Alistair Davidson, a computer programmer from Dunblane in central Scotland. Britain’s Prime Minister, David Cameron, points whilst speaking during a visit to a financial office in Edinburgh, Wednesday Sept. 10, 2014. Cameron made an impassioned plea to keep Scotland part of the union, saying he would be “heartbroken” if the United Kingdom was torn apart.
Salmond said the London-based politicians were only in Scotland because “they are panicking,” and predicted their visit would help his Yes campaign.
government’s budget-slashing policies as one reason they want to leave the United Kingdom.
“If I thought they were coming by bus, I’d send the bus fare,” he said.
Cameron insisted the vote was not about giving “the effing Tories” a kicking.
The wave of love from politicians was accompanied by ripples of unease about the economic impact of independence.
“This is not a decision about the next five years,” he said. “This is a decision about the next century.”
Britain’s currency, the pound sterling, and shares in Scotland-based financial institutions have both sagged amid uncertainty over what currency an independent Scotland would use and whether businesses and capital would flee across the border.
Like Cameron, Miliband sounded like a lover pleading for his partner not to leave, telling an audience of Labour supporters near Glasgow that he supported Scotland with “head, heart and soul,” and promising change if the union stuck together. “Please stay with us,” he said. “Stay with us because we are stronger together. Stay with us so we can change Britain together.” Though many Scots traditionally support Labour, Miliband is
L E T T I N G Y O U R C A R F I N D A S P O T A N D P A R K I T S E L F The system won’t let the car hit anything, Taleb says. And it can brake and even take action on its own to evade a hazard such as another moving car. A driver can even watch the car park through the cameras and software that simulates an aerial view. Although the technology is already available, there are hurdles. Only nine states allow driverless cars on public roads, and then only for testing purposes, said Scott Belcher, CEO of the Intelligent Transportation Society of America, the group holding the conference.
A Range Rover drives by itself toward a parking spot during a demonstration by Valeo on Sept. 8, 2014, in Detroit. Technology being honed by the French auto parts maker uses a dozen ultrasonic sound-wave sensors, 360-degree cameras and a laser scanner to allow a vehicle to safely park within a few centimeters of other vehicles.
Also, parking decks will have to be equipped with systems to communicate with cars. Radio frequencies haven’t been allocated yet by the federal government. The auto industry is vying with the cellphone industry for the bandwidth, for vehicle-to-vehicle and vehicle-to-infrastructure communication, Belcher said.
DETROIT (AP) -- With a thumb swipe on a smartphone, your car one day will be able to drive into a parking deck, find an open spot and back into a space - all by itself.
Cyber security guidelines and government regulations have to be put in place. And legal liability has to be sorted out if the car somehow gets into a wreck.
Technology being honed by French auto parts maker Valeo uses a dozen ultrasonic sound-wave sensors, 360-degree cameras and a laser scanner to safely park within a few centimeters of other vehicles. Then, when you’re done with dinner or a business meeting, the car will return to you after another swipe of the thumb.
What’s likely within five years is an interim step: The driver finds the space and the car then parks itself. Taleb wouldn’t say if an auto company is interested in buying the self-parking system.
The potential benefits are plenty. More orderly parking means less congestion. Drivers are spared the time and frustration of the hunt for a spot. Parking lots can squeeze more vehicles into limited space. The fully-automated system called “Connected Automated Valet Parking” is still about a decade away, however. More states must permit driverless cars and regulations have to be crafted. Equipment needs to be rolled out. Still, Valeo executives see it as a big step toward the day in the distant future when cars actually drive themselves with no one behind the wheel. Other companies have already demonstrated self-parking systems, but in most cases the driver has to find the spot and activate the system to make it work. The Valeo system, demonstrated Monday at an intelligent vehicle conference in Detroit using a Land Rover SUV, allows cars today to do tasks currently performed by human valets. “The car is able to do a much better parking maneuver than we as humans,” said Amine Taleb, Valeo’s project manager for advanced driver assistance systems. Here’s how it works: Drivers approach their destination and the system finds a deck with an open space. The driver goes to the deck and activates the system. The deck then tells the car where the open space is. The sensors, cameras and laser activate, letting the car drive itself about 3 miles per hour, winding its way to the space and backing in. The system can even find a space on its own without a signal from a deck.
The traffic benefits alone are tremendous. Omno Zoeter, a senior research scientist at Xerox, says some studies show as many as 30 percent of urban drivers are looking for parking at any given time. Eugene Tsyrklevich, the CEO of Parkopedia, an app that monitors more than 30 million parking spaces in 45 countries to help drivers park, predicts a decade of transition as cars and then parking garages adopt technology. “Driving around looking for a space is not dead yet,” said Tsyrklevich. “But it will be.”
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adversary,” said Siemon Wezeman, a senior researcher at the Stockholm institute. “They can move silently and deny aerial or maritime control.” Compared to Vietnam and Japan, the Philippines is lagging behind. After helplessly watching China build atop reefs in the Spratly Islands, which both countries claim, the Philippines welcomed U.S. troops back to its bases after 20 years away. And it plans to boost spending on maritime patrol aircraft, bombers and other hardware. “The Philippines is doing a lot of work to invest in military modernization,” said Jon Grevatt, Asia Pacific defense analyst at the research group IHS Jane’s. “For many years its economy has been growing and for many years it hasn’t been able to respond to these requirements.” India, which has territorial disputes with both China and Pakistan, has bought so many tanks and jet fighters that it’s become the biggest arms importer in the world. India has opened a 100,000-person-strong mountain corps near disputed stretches of its border with China.
Salmond’s administration argues that North Sea oil revenue, much of it in Scottish waters, will underpin the prosperity of an independent Scotland. Others say that view is based on an optimistic assessment of how much oil remains. The chief of the oil giant BP said Wednesday that remaining reserves are “smaller and more challenging to develop than in the past.” “Future prospects for the North Sea are best served by maintaining the existing capacity and integrity of the United Kingdom,” BP chief executive Bob Dudley said. Financial group Standard Life, which employs 5,000 people in Scotland, added to the jitters, announcing it is ready to move parts of its business to England if the Yes voters win. In a statement to shareholders, the company said it has put in place “precautionary measures,” including transferring pensions, investments and other long-term savings to England, to ensure they remain part of Britain’s currency and tax regime. Salmond said suggestions that Standard Life would pull jobs from Scotland were “nonsense.” But Murray Wilson, a mechanic from Livingston, west of Edinburgh, expressed the uncertainty that is driving some voters to reject independence. “It’s not that I don’t think Scotland could be independent,” he said. “But why take the risk?” Asked by The Associated Press about the regional arms buildup, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said Thursday that China’s growing military budget was “transparent and serves national defense exclusively.” “If you look closely at the details of the events that happened in the East China Sea and South China Sea over the past two years, you will find that it was not China but the countries you mentioned that created tensions and took provocative actions,” Hua said. “We have had to take measures necessary to defend our national sovereignty.” She added, “We hope the relevant countries can look at China’s growth with a normal mindset, work with China to develop bilateral relations and preserve peace and stability in Asia.” Despite the focus on marquee hardware, much of the action so far has involved Coast Guard ships that can easily jockey for control of disputed islands and fishing waters. In June, Japan agreed to donate six Coast Guard vessels to Vietnam, after pledging 10 to the Philippines last year. On its own, Vietnam has nearly doubled its Coast Guard fleet to 68 vessels over the past five years, according to the U.K.-based International Institute for Strategic Studies. And Japan has expanded its main Coast Guard fleet by 41 vessels, for a total of 389 ships. Japan has used such vessels over the past two years to defend its claims to several uninhabited islands it calls the Senkakus, which the Chinese claim as the Diaoyus. “Given that all the countries are trying to avoid outright military conflagration, they’ve been keeping things at the level of paramilitary forces,” said Sam Perlo-Freeman, head of the military expenditure program at the Stockholm institute. “They’re trying to establish some sort of armed presence without ramping things up to a much more dangerous level.” Japan, however, appears to be preparing itself for possible escalation. Last month, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s government requested his country’s biggest-ever military budget - $48 billion - with outlays for P-1 surveillance aircraft, stealth fighters and other U.S.-built hardware. In July, Abe’s Cabinet approved a reinterpretation of the country’s constitution allowing it to defend American and other foreign troops under attack. Earlier this month, Japan and India pledged to share defense technologies and hold joint military exercises. “If China is being more bellicose, it’s because they see winds of opportunity,” said Bernard Loo Fook Weng, a military studies expert at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies in Singapore. “This may all step toward a more violent situation.”
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________The Weekly News Digest, Sept 8 thru Sept 15, 2014
N E W S G U I D E : O F P R I M A R Y
H I G H L I G H T S E L E C T I O N S the U.S. Senate. She beat state Treasurer Steven Grossman and Donald Berwick, a former federal health care administrator, to win the Democratic nomination for governor.
Highlights from Tuesday’s primary elections in Delaware, Massachusetts, New York, New Hampshire and Rhode Island. ---
Gov. Deval Patrick, a two-term Democrat who is not seeking re-election, didn’t endorse any of the candidates.
TOP OF THE TICKET Former Massachusetts Sen. Scott Brown, a front-runner since he announced his bid in April, glided to an easy win Tuesday in the Republican primary for Senate in neighboring New Hampshire.
In the Republican primary, Charlie Baker, chief executive of Harvard Pilgrim Health Care, beat tea party-backed candidate Mark Fisher. Baker lost his bid to unseat Patrick four years ago, but he hopes a well-financed campaign and sharpened message can lead to a win in solidly Democratic Massachusetts.
Brown was one of 10 candidates on the Republican ballot seeking to challenge first-term Democratic incumbent Sen. Jeanne Shaheen in November. That race is among those expected to decide control of the Senate for the final two years of President Barack Obama’s term. Brown won a special election in 2010 in Massachusetts to finish the term of the late Sen. Edward Kennedy, but he lost his bid for a full term two years later to Democrat Elizabeth Warren. Late last year, he moved to New Hampshire and won praise for not taking this primary campaign for granted. “After six years of missed opportunities at home and growing dangers around the world, we need change,” Brown said in his victory speech Tuesday. Worth noting: Brown beat Massachusetts Attorney General Martha Coakley in that 2010 Senate race. She was also on the ballot Tuesday - and won her primary for governor of Massachusetts. --LONGTIME HOUSE MEMBER LOSES IN MASSACHUSETTS U.S. Rep. John Tierney conceded defeat to former Marine and Iraq war veteran Seth Moulton, bringing an end to his congressional career after 18 years in office. Tierney, who prides himself on his constituent service and his record on education, barely survived the 2012 election. He edged out Richard Tisei, a former state senator and openly gay Republican, by just 4,330 votes. Moulton will face Tisei, again the Republican nominee, in November. Moulton spent about a half-million dollars on campaign ads introducing himself to voters in the district, while VoteVets, a group dedicated to electing veterans to Congress, spent slightly more than that on an ad in which a World War II veteran praises Moulton - “a Marine from Marblehead,” the coastal town in the northeast Massachusetts district.
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- Rhode Island: Gina Raimondo beat Providence Mayor Angel Taveras and newcomer Clay Pell, husband of Olympic figure skater Michelle Kwan, to win the Democratic nomination for governor in Rhode Island. The state’s general treasurer trumpeted her leadership in overhauling the state’s troubled pension system, and in the process outraised and outspent both of her opponents, shelling out more than $5 million. Scott Brown, a former U.S. Senator from Massachusetts, waves to supporters after winning New Hampshire’s Republican U.S. Senate primary on Tuesday Sept. 9, 2014 in Concord, N.H. Brown will face incumbent Democrat Jeanne Shaheen in the general election in November.
Raimondo will face Cranston Mayor Allan Fung, who beat businessman Ken Block, founder of the Moderate Party, on the Republican side of the ballot.
But Teachout’s presence on the ballot nonetheless served as a referendum on Cuomo among liberals, highlighting his uneasy relationship with the party base. Cuomo won the race with ease, but he fell far shy of posting the kind of overwhelming victory that might have been expected from a popular incumbent aiming to win a second term in November.
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Teachout is a Fordham University law professor and former director of the good-government Sunlight Foundation who criticized Cuomo for his support for charter schools and business-friendly tax cuts, while saying he hasn’t done enough to address government corruption and income inequality. Cuomo spent most of the primary race publicly ignoring Teachout, refusing multiple requests to debate her and holding few campaign events. His campaign sought to kick Teachout off the ballot by challenging her New York state residency, a legal maneuver that many observers say backfired by giving Teachout’s campaign greater exposure. Cuomo moves on to face Republican Rob Astorino, the Westchester County executive, and Green Party candidate Howie Hawkins in November.
BUDDY CIANCI, PART III Law professor and former judge Jorge Elorza will face former Providence, Rhode Island, mayor and twice-convicted felon Buddy Cianci in November after winning the Democratic primary. Cianci, running as an independent, last held office in 2002 before being sent to prison for presiding over widespread corruption at City Hall. The mayoral race has centered on who can beat Cianci. Despite his criminal record, he is a formidable political force and has a network of supporters who credit him with revitalizing Providence during his 21 years in office. Elorza beat City Council President Michael Solomon, who said his experience after nearly eight years on the council put him in a better position to prevail in November. Elorza said he’s built a coalition of voters, including those in the city’s wealthy enclaves around Brown University and from the city’s growing Hispanic community.
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It’s a second comeback attempt for Cianci. He was forced from office in 1984 after an assault conviction, but he was re-elected in 1990.
THREE MORE RACES FOR GOVERNOR
Republican Dan Harrop will also appear on the ballot in November.
Three other states picked nominees for governor:
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“It’s time for a new approach to end the gridlock in Washington,” Moulton told supporters. “It’s not enough to blame the Republicans for the lack of progress at a time when our country faces so many challenges.”
-New Hampshire: Retired defense industry executive Walt Havenstein secured the support of the Republican establishment early and beat tea party activist Andrew Hemingway and two others.
UP NEXT
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Havenstein said his leadership at defense contractors BAE Systems and SAIC gives him the experience to run a state and manage multibillion-dollar budgets. He now faces first-term incumbent Democratic Gov. Maggie Hassan.
The 35-year-old businessman and Harvard graduate credited his win Tuesday in part to voter frustration with Congress.
CUOMO CHALLENGED FROM THE LEFT New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo didn’t end up having much to worry about when it came to winning his Democratic primary against Zephyr Teachout, a largely unknown liberal activist.
-Massachusetts: Coakley won some measure of political redemption after her loss to Brown, a defeat that ended the Democrats’ supermajority in
A G U I D E T O T H E O V E R T E X A S ’ V O T E R
A Range Rover drives by itself toward a parking spo In this May 22, 2012, file photo, NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell pauses during a new conference in Atlanta. A law enforcement official says he sent a video of Ray Rice punching his then-fiancee to an NFL employee three months ago, while league executives have insisted they didn’t see the violent images until they were published this week. The person played The Associated Press a 12-second voicemail from an NFL office number confirming the video arrived on April 9. A female voice expresses thanks for providing the video and says: “You’re right. It’s terrible.” Goodell sent a memo on Wednesday, Sept. 10, 2014, to the 32 teams reiterating that the NFL never saw the video until Monday, Sept. 8. t during a demonstration by Valeo on Sept. 8, 2014, in Detroit. Technology being honed by the French auto parts maker uses a dozen ultrasonic sound-wave sensors, 360-degree cameras and a laser scanner to allow a vehicle to safely park within a few centimeters of other vehicles.
ATLANTIC CITY, N.J. (AP) -- A law enforcement official says he sent a video of Ray Rice punching his then-fiancee to an NFL executive five months ago, while league executives have insisted they didn’t see the violent images until this week. The person played The Associated Press a 12-second voicemail from an NFL office number on April 9 confirming the video arrived. A female voice expresses thanks and says: “You’re right. It’s terrible.” The law enforcement official, speaking to the AP on condition of anonymity because of the ongoing investigation, says he had no further communication with any NFL employee and can’t confirm anyone watched the video. The person said he was unauthorized to release the video but shared it unsolicited, because he wanted the NFL to have it before deciding on Rice’s punishment.
T R I A L I D L A W
Tuesday was the final primary election of the 2014 midterms until Election Day - for every state but Louisiana. The same day, Nov. 4, Louisiana holds a “jungle primary,” with all candidates on the ballot, even those of the same party. If no candidate receives 50 percent-plus-one vote during the primary election, a runoff election will be held on Dec. 6 between the top two vote-getters in the primary.
obscenities at each other, and she appears to spit at Rice right before he throws a brutal punch. After she collapses, he drags her out of the elevator and is met by some hotel staff. One of them can be heard saying, “She’s drunk, right?” And then, “No cops.”
The NFL has repeatedly said it asked for but could not obtain the video of Rice hitting Janay Palmer - who is now his wife - at an Atlantic City casino in February.
Rice had been charged with felony aggravated assault in the case, but in May he was accepted into a pretrial intervention program that allowed him to avoid jail time and could lead to the charge being purged from his record. A prominent New Jersey lawmaker called Tuesday for that decision to be reviewed.
The league says it has no record of the video, and no one in the league office had seen it until it was released by TMZ Monday. When asked about the voicemail Wednesday, NFL officials repeated their assertion that no league official had seen the video before Monday.
Hours after portions of the video were made public by TMZ, Goodell suspended Rice indefinitely and Baltimore terminated his contract. He had originally been suspended for two games, and team officials had praised him for his apologies and actions after his arrest for aggravated assault.
“We have no knowledge of this,” NFL spokesman Brian McCarthy said Wednesday. “We are not aware of anyone in our office who possessed or saw the video before it was made public on Monday. We will look into it.”
Goodell and team officials said they were taking more severe action because of the violence in the video.
The person said he sent a DVD copy of the security camera video to an NFL office and included his contact information. He asked the AP not to release the name of the NFL executive, for fear that the information would identify the law enforcement official as the source. NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell initially suspended Rice for two games following the February incident, but the Ravens released Rice on Monday and the NFL suspended him indefinitely after the website TMZ released the video. Goodell told CBS on Tuesday that “no one in the NFL, to my knowledge” had seen a new video of what happened on the elevator until it was posted online. “We assumed that there was a video. We asked for video. But we were never granted that opportunity,” Goodell said. In a memo to the NFL’s 32 teams on Wednesday, Goodell said that the league asked law enforcement for the video, but not the casino. “In the context of a criminal investigation, information obtained outside of law enforcement that has not been tested by prosecutors or by the court system is not necessarily a reliable basis for imposing league discipline,” he wrote. The video, shown to the AP on Monday, is slightly longer than the TMZ version, and includes some audio. Rice and Janay Palmer - now Janay Rice - can be heard shouting
T E S L A TA X B R E A K S continued from page 3
“We’re betting the house, and my grandfather said, `Never bet more than you can afford to lose,’” Fulkerson said in testimony before the Assembly. He questioned the governor’s claims that every $1 Nevadans invest in the package will bring a return of $80. “If that’s not true, then this house of cards could fall down.” The package also drew criticism from some conservatives, including Lee Hoffman, a retired miner and chairman of the Elko County Republican Party, who said the Legislature was in effect picking “winners and losers” by extending the tax breaks exclusively to Tesla Motors Inc. “They will benefit one specific company, one specific industry at the expense of other businesses, other taxpayers, other consumers,” Hoffman testified from Elko. Outside the Capitol, backers of a Nevada film tax credit that would be gutted to help pay for the Tesla tax breaks protested with signs that read, “Keep Nevada Film Alive” and “Movie Industry Jobs Are Now.” Sandoval, who ordered the special session, said the lithium battery factory and its 6,500 workers would generate more than 20,000 construction and other related jobs and up to $100 billion for Nevada’s economy over the next 20 years. Little legislative opposition has emerged since Tesla CEO Elon Musk announced alongside Sandoval on the Capitol steps last week that Nevada was his pick for the factory expected to open in 2017. The venture is critical to cutting costs for Musk’s next line of more affordable electric cars.
10 The Weekly News Digest, Sept 8 thru Sept 15, 2014
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I S L A M I C S TAT E U N S T O P P A B L E
G R O U P N O T A N J U G G E R N A U T Tens of thousands of Kurdish Peshmerga forces are fighting the group in Iraq.
BEIRUT (AP) -- The Islamic State group is often described as the most fearsome jihadi outfit of all: a global menace outweighing al-Qaida, with armies trembling before its advance.
The Islamic State group’s greatest shortcoming is that it lacks the means to fight airpower, meaning that U.S. airstrikes can go a long way in destroying its capabilities.
But while the group has been successful at seizing parts of Iraq and Syria, it is no unstoppable juggernaut. Lacking the major weaponry of an established military, it wields outsize influence through the fanaticism of a hard core of several thousand, capitalizing on divisions among its rivals, and disseminating terrifying videos on social media. President Barack Obama is outlining plans Wednesday for an expanded military and political effort to combat the group in Syria and Iraq, ushering in what is likely to be a long-term engagement by the U.S. and its allies to destroy the militants in those countries. It is useful to remember, though, that while it is a formidable force that controls roughly a third of Iraq and Syria, there also has been an inclination to exaggerate the group’s capabilities. “I think sometimes there’s been a tendency to sort of overestimate the technical sophistication of the Islamic State,” said Charles Lister, visiting fellow at the Brookings Doha Center. Lister, like many other analysts, said much of the power of the Islamic State group - also known by the acronyms ISIS or ISIL lies in its centralization of command and intense loyalty within the organization. That distinguishes the group from others, which are overstretched by years of conflict. In the case of the Syrian rebels, there are deep divisions that have hampered their cause. Militants from the Islamic State group have waged an aggressive social media campaign. They have released statements with detailed information on conquests and battles, and posted high-quality videos that often provide visual proof of their activities in regions that have suffered a media vacuum recently as the risks have become too great for journalists. In Syria, two American journalists were beheaded by the group in
M A R I J U A N A G O E T Z
Still, the Islamic State group has amassed a significant amount of weapons and hardware captured from Iraqi and Syrian military installations in recent months.
This undated file image posted on Aug. 27, 2014, by the Raqqa Media Center of the Islamic State group, a Syrian opposition group, which has been verified and is consistent with other AP reporting, shows a fighter of the Islamic State group waving their flag from inside a captured government fighter jet following the battle for the Tabqa air base, in Raqqa. Secretary of State John Kerry is to travel to the Middle East this week, with stops in Saudi Arabia and Jordan, to try to line up support for a coalition to take on the extremist Islamic State group. His trip follows Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel’s visit on Monday to Turkey to make the same case to Ankara, a regional heavyweight. Kerry will hold talks with officials from Jordan, Turkey and Egypt, as well as Saudi Arabia, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates and other Gulf nations.
the past month. The killings, posted on militant websites, were shot in high definition, featured embedded soundbites from Obama, and used wireless microphones to amplify statements from the masked, English-speaking militant and his victims. According to a senior Iraqi intelligence official, more than 27,600 Islamic State fighters are believed to be operating in Iraq, about 2,600 of whom are foreigners.
Most analysts, however, estimate the number of Islamic State fighters in both Iraq and Syria to be about 20,000.
The group has a few MiG 21s captured when it overran the Syrian army’s air base in Tabqa last month. Analysts say it is extremely unlikely that they could get any of them off the ground at this point.
The Iraqi military and police force are estimated at more than 1 million. The Syrian army is estimated at 300,000 soldiers. There are believed to be more than 100,000 Syrian rebels, including the al-Qaida-linked Nusra Front and the powerful Islamic Front rebel umbrella group, currently fighting the Islamic State group in Syria.
A study released this week by the London-based Conflict Armament Research said Islamic State group fighters have also amassed weapons supplied by the U.S. and other allied countries, including anti-tank rockets, by overrunning stocks belonging to mainstream Syrian rebels.
Goetz, 65, said he repeatedly offered simply to give the pot to a woman he didn’t realize was an undercover officer, but she insisted on paying. Then, another officer plainclothes approached and “tried to get me to punch him,” speaking aggressively and coming within two feet of him before backing off, Goetz said, adding that he hadn’t initially realized the man was an officer. “I’m very anti-crime - everybody knows that. This is just a waste of government resources,” he said after an April court date, arguing that prosecutors in general shouldn’t pursue low-level marijuana cases. In 1984, Goetz was branded the “subway vigilante” when he shot four black teens with an illegal handgun on a No. 2 train in Manhattan. At least one had a screwdriver, and they were asking him for $5. Goetz said it was self-defense and the youths intended to mug him. One of the teens was paralyzed. The shooting brought to the surface long-smoldering urban issues of race, crime and quality of life. It also thrust Goetz, a white self-employed electronics expert, into the role of spokesman for what some considered a justified form of vigilantism.
Goetz was busted in December on charges he sold $30 worth of marijuana to an undercover officer he’d been flirting with in Union Square park.
Richard Brennan, an Iraq expert with RAND Corporation and a former U.S. Department of Defense policymaker, said the Islamic State group has captured 155mm howitzers - artillery weapons the Iraqi army commanded. It also captured some old Soviet-era tanks. They also seized some heavy weapons, including 50-caliber machine guns.
“It’s a very nice thing for them to be able to show in the video. But for now, we’re unlikely to see an Islamic State air force anytime soon, or even just one working jet,” Lister said.
The district attorney’s office had no comment. A message left with Goetz wasn’t immediately returned.
NEW YORK (AP) -- A low-level marijuana case against 1980s subway shooter Bernie Goetz has been dismissed after a judge concluded the clock ran out for trying it.
In addition to those, the group earlier this year paraded in its Syrian stronghold of Raqqa what appeared to be a Scud missile, although it is unclear if the group has the capability to launch it.
In any case, the group is dwarfed by its foes in the Syrian and Iraqi armies - both in numbers and firepower.
C A S E V S . B E R N I E D I S M I S S E D
Bernard Goetz is arraigned in Manhattan criminal court, in New York. The low-level marijuana case against Goetz, the subway vigilant, who was charged with selling $30 worth of marijuana to an undercover officer he’d been flirting with in Union Square park, was dismissed on Wednesday, Sept. 10, 2014, after a judge concluded the clock ran out for trying it.
The Iraqi official, who declined to be identified because he is not authorized to brief the media, told The Associated Press that the group’s arsenal includes Kalashnikovs, machine guns, anti-aircraft guns and mortars, adding that they also have about 35 Iraqi military tanks, about 80 armored police vehicles and hundreds of Humvees.
Goetz was cleared of attempted murder charges and spent 250 days in jail in 1987 for a weapons conviction in the case. Returning to the headlines didn’t seem to bother Goetz. Speaking with reporters after his various court dates, the onetime mayoral candidate aired his views on instant runoff voting, vegetarianism, an ongoing debate over the future of the city’s carriage horses, and the policing of New York today, compared to the high-crime era when he first became a household name.
Theodore Karasik, a security and political affairs analyst at the Dubai-based Institute for Near East and Gulf Military Analysis, estimated the Islamic State can claim about 20,000 core fighters, and up to 30,000, if allied Sunni tribesman are included. Islamic State militants have shown the ability to operate commercially available drones, such as one that provided video over Islamic State group-occupied Fallujah. Perhaps just as important as what the group has acquired is its technical know-how, according to Karasik. “The main fact is they are very smart and they probably read every manual that the U.S. has put out on air doctrine and special operations doctrine, so they know what’s coming,” he said. Among the group’s most significant capabilities to emerge in the last six weeks or so, Lister said, has been the group’s ability to deploy artillery. The group has acquired M46 130mm field cannons from bases overrun recently in Syria’s Raqqa province. These weapons add to the U.S. M198 howitzers the group captured in Iraq. “Those are quite significant in terms of adding to the organization’s ability to bombard targets before they assault, and that does appear to have been fairly significant in terms of at least weakening a target before launching a ground assault,” he said. A recent report published by the Institute for the Study of War described the Islamic State group as “an institution comprised of many layers of tactical, operational, and strategic capability, and it is expertly led.” “ISIS has a critical capability to design military campaigns that outmatch those of rival militaries in Iraq and Syria, but those military strategies can be overmatched by U.S. strategists, planners and advisers,” it added.
He was offered a plea deal involving 10 days of community service. Goetz rejected it for a host of reasons, saying he felt coerced into taking the money from the undercover officer and that police are too aggressive nowadays. “If they want to get a conviction on me as a marijuana seller, they can take it to a jury and let a jury decide,” he said, calling the case “baloney” that he believed prosecutors wouldn’t want to bring to trial. His lawyer, Danielle Iredale, had asked a judge to dismiss the case for lack of a speedy trial. Under New York law, his type of misdemeanor case can be tossed out if prosecutors aren’t ready for trial within 90 days after the case starts. But the rules surrounding allowable delays are complicated and often disputed between prosecutors and defense lawyers. On Wednesday, Judge Laurie Peterson concluded that prosecutors missed the window by 14 days.
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____________________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________The Weekly News Digest, Sept 8 thru Sept 15, 2014
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COLORADO WOMAN MUST AID FBI A S P A R T O F T E R R O R P L E A
DENVER (AP) -- A 19-year-old Colorado woman pleaded guilty Wednesday to trying to help the militant Islamic State group under a plea deal in the terrorism case that requires her to give authorities information about other Americans with the same intentions.
During a visit to the Denver field office in August, FBI Director James Comey said stopping homegrown terrorists who radicalize through the Internet is a priority for the agency. He called Syria a safe haven and training ground for Westerners who emerge with “the worst kind of relationships and the worst kind of training.”
Shannon Conley, wearing a black and brown headscarf over her striped jail jumpsuit, entered the plea in federal court to one count of conspiracy to provide material support to a foreign terrorist organization. She could face up to five years in federal prison and a $250,000 fine when she is sentenced in January.
A Minnesota man recruited to fight for the Islamic State group was killed in Syria last month - five years after his high school friend died fighting for the terror group al-Shabab in Somalia.
Conley, a nurse’s aide from Arvada, said nothing in court, aside from acknowledging that she understood the terms of the plea that says she must divulge information about possible co-conspirators. Prosecutors said they will seek a lighter sentence if she cooperates. After the hearing, Conley’s public defender, Robert Pepin, said she has been horrified by the atrocities committed by the Islamic State group since her arrest and offered her condolences to those who have been caught up in its “slaughter and oppression.” “The fact that she was arrested may very well have saved her,” Pepin said of his client, whom he referred to as Halima, the name she adopted after her conversion to Islam. The FBI first became aware of her growing interest in extremism last November after Conley alarmed employees of an Arvada church by wandering around and taking notes on the layout of the campus, court documents say. The church, Faith Bible Chapel, was the scene of a 2007 shooting in which a man killed two missionary workers. Agents with the Joint Terrorism Task Force then met several times with Conley over eight months to discourage her and suggest she explore humanitarian work instead.
It is unclear how Conley became interested in jihad, or holy war. After her arrest, authorities say they found CDs by U.S.-born radical cleric Anwar al-Awlaki among her belongings.
Ana and John Conley, parents of defendant Shannon Conley, exit the U.S. Federal courthouse following their daughter’s plea hearing, at the U.S. Federal Courthouse, in Denver, Wednesday Sept. 10, 2014. Shannon Conley, a 19-year-old suburban Denver woman who federal authorities say intended to wage jihad has pleaded guilty under a deal that requires her to give authorities information about others with the same intentions.
Agents also encouraged her parents to talk to her about finding more moderate beliefs. But Conley said she wanted to use her American military training with the U.S. Army Explorers in a holy war overseas, even though she knew it was illegal, authorities said. She added that she would use her medical training to aid the group if she could not fight with them. Agents said they arrested Conley at Denver International Airport in April as she boarded a flight on her way to Syria, where authorities said she planned to marry a Tunisian suitor she met online and who was fighting with Islamic State, which controls parts of Syria and Iraq. A search of her home uncovered a list of contacts and shooting targets that noted distances and the number of rounds fired, authorities said. Authorities have said they were still investigating the suitor.
W E A P O N S WAT C H D O G : C H L O R I N E L I K E L Y U S E D I N S Y R I A 13 deaths and dozens of injuries. The report said that witnesses described “a dense, honey wax-to-yellow hue towards the center of the cloud rising from the impact of the devices.” “In courtyards, domesticated birds and animals died, and leaves on plants facing the point of impact withered and wilted `as autumn leaves,’” it cited witnesses as saying. “In one case, a child standing close to the impact site died later because of exposure to the toxic chemical, while showing none of the obvious physical trauma as that usually inflicted by a conventional explosive device.” mage taken from video obtained from the Shaam News Network, posted on April 16, 2014, an anti-Bashar Assad activist group, which has been authenticated based on its contents and other AP reporting, children are seen receiving oxygen in Kfar Zeita, a rebel-held village in Hama province some 200 kilometers (125 miles) north of Damascus. A toxic chemical, almost certainly chlorine, was used “systematically and repeatedly” as a weapon in attacks on villages in northern Syria earlier this year, the global chemical weapons watchdog said Wednesday, Sept. 10, 2014.
THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AP) -- A toxic chemical, almost certainly chlorine, was used “systematically and repeatedly” as a weapon in attacks on villages in northern Syria earlier this year, the global chemical weapons watchdog said Wednesday. The Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons said that a report by a fact-finding mission it sent to Syria based its conclusion on dozens of interviews with victims, physicians, eye-witnesses and others. The report does not apportion blame for the chlorine attacks on three villages in northern Syria, OPCW spokesman Michael Luhan said. A copy of the full report obtained by The Associated Press says that witnesses generally linked the chlorine attacks to helicopter-borne barrel bombs, but said the helicopters were flying too high for them to see any identifying markings on the aircraft. Both sides in Syria’s conflict blame one another for using chlorine, but dropping heavy explosives from helicopters is a tactic often blamed on forces of Syrian President Bashar Assad. Human Rights Watch said in May that it had strong evidence that in April this year Syrian army helicopters dropped bombs containing chlorine on the same rebel-held villages mentioned by the OPCW report. British Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond said the report’s findings “corroborate allegations that the Assad regime is continuing to use chemical weapons in Syria, in violation of the Chemical Weapons Convention.” “That the Assad regime continues to commit such atrocities against the people of Syria is an outrage,” Hammond added. The OPCW report blamed the chemical attacks for at least
Those exposed to the cloud suffered symptoms including burning or itchy eyes, a burning sensation on their skin and in their throats and a feeling of suffocation, nausea, disorientation and loss of consciousness. “All (witnesses) described the toxic chemical smell as being very strong, irritating, and of `chlorine,’” the report said. It said the descriptions led it to conclude, “with a high degree of confidence” that chlorine was the chemical used. An earlier report by the mission had said it likely was used as a weapon in Syria. Chlorine is a toxic industrial gas that is not specifically classified as a chemical weapon. The attacks earlier this year came as Damascus and the OPCW were involved in a complex mission to remove Syria’s stockpile of chemical weapons and precursor chemicals from the country. All of the poison gas, nerve agents and other chemicals declared by Syria have now been removed from the country and the most toxic parts of the arsenal destroyed. The OPCW said the fact finding mission would continue its work as there was “a spate of new allegations” of chlorine attacks in Syria in August.
Her parents, Ana and John Conley, declined to speak to reporters after the hearing. U.S. District Judge Raymond P. Moore ordered a mental evaluation of Conley before her sentencing and said it should include assessments of her personality and character traits. The chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, Rep. Mike Rogers, R-Mich., has said there are hundreds of Islamic Statetrained Americans who can pose a threat because they can return to the U.S. with their American passports. He said the U.S. is drafting a United Nations resolution that would strengthen the ability of governments to curb the flow of their citizens to war zones, he said.
U S T O S P E N D $328 MILLION ON C O N S E R VAT I O N E A S E M E N T S SAN FRANCISCO (AP) -- T-Mobile will sell more than 100 smartphone models that tap into Wi-Fi networks to make phone calls and send texts when customers can’t connect to the wireless carrier’s cellular network. The program announced Wednesday represents T-Mobile’s latest attempt to lure wireless subscribers away from three larger rivals, Verizon Wireless, AT&T Corp. and Sprint Corp. Over the past 18 months, T-Mobile has shaken up the industry by replacing two-year contract commitments with monthly installment plans to pay for smartphones and lowering the cost to upgrade device and stream digital music. “As part of our DNA, we want to make changes that don’t make us feel bad when rest of the industry copies us,” T-Mobile CEO John Legere said in an interview. T-Mobile is trying to exploit the hoopla surrounding the Sept. 19 release of Apple Inc.’s iPhone 6 with its new twist on Wi-Fi connections. The iPhone 6 latest options include the ability to begin a call on a Wi-Fi network and then automatically transfer the conversation to a cellular network without interruption when the device is on the move. T-Mobile is the only U.S. carrier offering this versatility on the iPhone 6. While other phones sold by T-Mobile will be able to start calls on Wi-Fi, they won’t be able to switch over to cellular network in mid-conversation. That means any call begun through a Wi-Fi connection on a device other than the iPhone 6 will have to be completed on the same Wi-Fi network. T-Mobile hopes to extend the capability to switch calls from Wi-Fi to cellular networks within the next few months. The list of smartphones equipped to call and text over Wi-Fi includes popular Android devices made by Apple rivals Samsung, Motorola, LG Electronics and HTC. All will be sold in T-Mobile’s roughly 3,000 U.S. stores. T-Mobile’s reliance on Wi-Fi networks for phone calls may be viewed as an attempt to make up for shortcomings in its cellular coverage. Verizon and AT&T, in particular, spend millions on advertising to promote the superiority of their cellular networks. Legere, though, frames the Wi-Fi calling feature as a sign of T-Mobile’s commitment to extend the scope of its wireless coverage so more people can make calls from rooms and other places with balky cellular connections. Toward that end, T-Mobile also plans to give its subscribers a special wireless router that can serve as the equivalent of a personal cell tower to make calls from home or other places where connections tend to drop off. The dedicated router for T-Mobile calls can supplement or replace wireless router and requires a $25 deposit. “This industry is not yet used to people doing things because they are good for their customers,” Legere said. “We think about pain points, and Wi-Fi (calling) solves a major pain point across the industry.” Legere also reiterated an earlier prediction that T-Mobile will overtake Sprint to become the third largest U.S. wireless carrier by the end of year. T-Mobile ended June with 50.5 million subscribers, a 15 percent increase from the previous year. Sprint, which mulled a potential buyout of T-Mobile before abandoning the idea last month, ended June with 54.6 million subscribers, up 2 percent from last year. In an effort to boost its growth rate, Sprint is offering special deals on Apple’s latest device. Buyers of the iPhone 6 or iPhone 6 Plus will be able to get a plan with unlimited calls, text and data for $50 a month, a $10 savings. The company is also introducing an iPhone leasing program: Pay $20 a month for the device, and get an option to exchange it for the latest model in two years. Rival carriers offer trade-in programs for all smartphones - not just iPhones but customers typically would have to pay more a month. A $650 iPhone, for instance, would cost $27 a month over 24 months. But those installment plans let you upgrade more often than every two years.
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The Weekly News Digest, Sept 8 thru Sept 15, 2014
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S C I E N T I S T S L A Y E R I S
S A Y T H E O Z O N E R E C O V E R I N G
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Earth’s protective but fragile ozone layer is beginning to recover, largely because of the phase-out since the 1980s of certain chemicals used in refrigerants and aerosol cans, a U.N. scientific panel reported Wednesday in a rare piece of good news about the health of the planet.
ten dark landscape” and send a message of hope to world leaders meeting later this month in New York for a U.N. climate summit. “The precedent is truly important because society is facing another serious global environmental problem, namely climate change,” said Molina, a professor in San Diego and Mexico City. The 71-year-old scientist said he didn’t think he would live to see the day that the ozone layer was rebuilding.
Scientists said the development demonstrates that when the world comes together, it can counteract a brewing ecological crisis.
Earlier this week, the United Nations announced that atmospheric levels of the main greenhouse gas, carbon dioxide, surged to another record high in 2013. The increase from 2012 was the biggest jump in three decades.
For the first time in 35 years, scientists were able to confirm a statistically significant and sustained increase in stratospheric ozone, which shields us from solar radiation that causes skin cancer, crop damage and other problems. From 2000 to 2013, ozone levels went up 4 percent in the key mid-northern latitudes at about 30 miles high, said NASA scientist Paul A. Newman. He co-chaired the every-four-years ozone assessment by 300 scientists, released at the United Nations. “It’s a victory for diplomacy and for science and for the fact that we were able to work together,” said chemist Mario Molina. In 1974, Molina and F. Sherwood Rowland wrote a scientific study forecasting the ozone depletion problem. They won the 1995 Nobel Prize in chemistry for their work.
This undated image provided by NASA shows the ozone layer over the years, Sept. 17, 1979, top left, Oct. 7, 1989, top right, Oct. 9, 2006, lower left, and Oct. 1, 2010, lower right. Earth protective but fragile ozone layer is finally starting to rebound, says a United Nations panel of scientists. Scientists hail this as rare environmental good news, demonstrating that when the world comes together it can stop a brewing ecological crisis.
The ozone layer had been thinning since the late 1970s. Manmade chlorofluorocarbons, called CFCs, released chlorine and bromine, which destroyed ozone molecules high in the air. After scientists raised the alarm, countries around the world agreed to a treaty in 1987 that phased out CFCs. Levels of those chemicals between 30 and 50 miles up are decreasing.
And in another worrisome trend, the chemicals that replaced CFCs contribute to global warming and are on the rise, said MIT atmospheric scientist Susan Solomon. At the moment, they don’t make much of a dent, but they are expected to increase dramatically by 2050 and make “a big contribution” to global warming.
The United Nations calculated in an earlier report that without the pact, by 2030 there would have been an extra 2 million skin cancer cases a year around the world.
The ozone layer is still far from healed. The long-lasting, ozone-eating chemicals still lingering in the atmosphere create a yearly fall ozone hole above the extreme Southern Hemisphere, and the hole hasn’t closed up. Also, the ozone layer is still about 6 percent thinner than in 1980, by Newman’s calculations.
Paradoxically, heat-trapping greenhouse gases - considered the major cause of global warming - are also helping to rebuild the ozone layer, Newman said. The report said rising levels of carbon dioxide and other gases cool the upper stratosphere, and the cooler air increases the amount of ozone.
Ozone levels are “on the upswing, but it’s not there yet,” he said. Paul Wapner, a professor of global environmental politics at American University, said the findings are “good news in an of-
B O D Y D O N A T I O N P R O G R A M S I N 3 S T A T E S S C R U T I N I Z E D Legacy said it cooperated with the subpoenas, issued in conjunction with a federal grand jury investigation in Michigan. “Health care is highly regulated by both state and federal agencies,” said Brian Terrett, a spokesman. “Legacy Health is regularly contacted by state and federal agencies for documents, and we completely comply with those requests.” Authorities requested that Legacy not share information about the investigation, Terrett said. FBI officials will say little about their investigations. “We have an investigation with respect to, out in Oregon ... the Legacy donation program,” said Special Agent David Porter, a spokesman for the FBI’s Detroit field office. “That is literally all I have said and that’s literally all I will say.”
SALEM, Ore. (AP) -- Authorities are investigating programs in at least three states that collect bodies donated for scientific research, medical training and other purposes. An FBI official in Detroit confirmed that the bureau is looking at an Oregon research center, and investigators have raided facilities in Michigan and Arizona. Besides confirming the existence of an investigation, authorities have been tight-lipped about what they are examining and why.
Porter also confirmed that agents executed a search warrant at the Michigan facility. He said he was unaware of the search of the Arizona site.
HIGH-TECH SURVEY EXPOSES HIDDEN S T O N E H E N G E
In February, Michigan suspended the mortuary license of Arthur Rathburn, alleging that he embalmed bodies at a Detroit address that doesn’t have a funeral home license. The move came after FBI agents in hazmat suits searched the site in December.
Authorities subpoenaed records from Portland, Oregon-based Legacy Health, a hospital chain that also operates Legacy Research Institute in Portland. The institute uses cadavers for research and to train doctors and nurses for surgery.
The initiative, using money provided in the new five-year farm bill, will buy conservation easements from farmers to protect the environment, help wildlife populations and promote outdoor recreation, the USDA said in its announcement. The agency selected 380 projects nationwide covering 32,000 acres of prime farmland, 45,000 acres of grasslands and 52,000 acres of wetlands. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack told reporters on a conference call that the agency received more than 1,450 applications totaling $546 million worth of requests covering 345,000 acres. He said the projects selected cover 129,000 acres, with 60 percent being farmland and grassland and 40 percent wetlands. “Obviously this is a popular program,” Vilsack said, adding that other assistance may be available for the projects that weren’t selected and that backers of those proposals can try again next year. The USDA said some of this year’s projects will improve water quality and wetland storage capacity in the heavily agricultural California Bay Delta region east of San Francisco Bay and south of Sacramento. They’re also designed to reduce flooding along the upper Mississippi River and Red River of the North in the Midwest. They also seek to provide and protect habitat for several endangered and at-risk species including sage grouse, bog turtles, Florida panthers, Louisiana black bear and whooping cranes. They’re also meant to protect prime agricultural land under high risk of development due to urban sprawl. The money will come through the new Agricultural Conservation Easement Program, which consolidates three former easement programs into two - one to protect farmlands and grasslands and one to protect and restore wetlands. The new program provides financial and technical assistance to help state, local and tribal governments and non-governmental organizations buy easements for varying time periods to protect working agricultural lands and limit their conversion to non-farm uses, as well as to restore and protect wetlands in farm country. Vilsack said the new program rules provide the agency greater flexibility for choosing projects than the old programs. Vilsack said the program complements another new effort, the Regional Conservation Partnership Program. He announced $1.2 billion in USDA funding over five years for that program in May. The agency will raise an equal amount from various partners to fund locally designed soil and water conservation projects nationwide. “It’s going to be very important for us to continue to look for creative ways to leverage and expand the use of conservation dollars to make the most and to get the biggest bang out of the buck that we spend and invest,” Vilsack said.
“New monuments have been revealed, as well as new types of monument that have previously never been seen by archaeologists,” said Professor Vincent Gaffney, the project leader.
The FBI and the Arizona attorney general’s office raided Biological Resource Center in January, owner Steve Gore says in a letter on the front page of the firm’s website. The company accepts donations of dead bodies and links tissues with researchers and educators, according to its website.
A woman who answered the phone at the center, who said she worked for the firm’s answering service, said the business has been suspended because of the investigation and nobody was in the office. A spokeswoman for the attorney general’s office did not respond to calls from The Associated Press on Tuesday.
MINNEAPOLIS (AP) -- The U.S. Department of Agriculture announced $328 million in funding Monday to protect and restore farmlands, grasslands and wetlands across the country.
to have been used for burial ceremonies, Birmingham University said Wednesday.
Phone numbers for Rathburn and his business, International Biological, were disconnected.
“Please be assured that the staff of Biological Resource Center of Arizona works diligently each day to serve and honor our donors and their families with dignity and respect,” Gore wrote. “We adhere to the Uniform Anatomical Gift Act, which governs anatomical donation.”
U S T O S P E N D $328 MILLION ON C O N S E R VAT I O N E A S E M E N T S
The project also discovered big prehistoric pits, some of which appear to be aligned with the sun, and new information on Bronze Age, Iron Age and Roman settlements and fields, the university said. An undated photo made available by the University of Birmingham, England, of Stonehenge where a hidden complex of archaeological monuments has been uncovered using hi-tech methods of scanning below the Earth’s surface.
LONDON (AP) -- There is more to Stonehenge than meets a visitor’s eye. Researchers have produced digital maps of what’s beneath the World Heritage Site, using ground-penetrating radar, high-resolution magnetometers and other techniques to peer deep into the soil beneath the famous stone circle. The project produced detailed maps of 17 previously unknown ritual monuments and a huge timber building, which is thought
Professor Wolfgang Neubauer of the Ludwig Boltzmann Institute for Archaeological Prospection and Virtual Archaeology in Vienna says the new maps makes it possible “for the first time, to reconstruct the development of Stonehenge and its landscape through time.” Archaeologists and others have been digging and theorizing at Stonehenge since the 1620s. The monument, 85 miles (140 kilometers) southwest of London, attracts more than 1.2 million visitors a year -including, last week, President Barack Obama. The universities of Nottingham, Bradford and St. Andrews in the U.K., and the University of Ghent in Belgium were also involved in the project.