tagged w/ Report
-
The increasing popularity of metal detectors has helped boost the number of treasure finds last year.
The Treasure Annual Report revealed that 749 objects in total were found last year.The increasing popularity of metal detectors has helped boost the number of treasure... more
-
-
ClareW
-
added this
-
3 years ago
- |
-
Of course this is a touchy subject and one that we will find an answer to. Lots of illegals do not pay taxes and there is a way to fix that. The illegals won't like it but I don't like being arrested for an ounce of marijuana and right across the street are 5, 10, 15, 20 or even more illegals standing on the street waiting for an American to hire them for work.
Immigration was hardly an issue in the presidential race. But immigrant rights activists have just finished a twenty-one-day “Fast for the Future” to call on President-elect Obama to change US immigration policy. We speak to two people from the immigrant rights community: Alex Sanchez of Homies Unidos and Janis Rosheuvel of Families for Freedom.
We turn now to immigration policy, an issue that all but disappeared during the last phase of the Presidential campaign. Immigrant rights activists in Los Angeles organized a rally Wednesday, the day after the election, following a 21-day ‘Fast for the Future.’ Noting the crucial importance of the Latino vote in Obama’s victory, they called on the President-elect to stop the brutal raids by the Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agency or ICE.
Under the Bush administration the country witnessed a dramatic buildup in border security and immigration enforcement. Programs initiated by Department of Homeland Security chief Michael Chertoff include Operation Community Shield that targets immigrant gang members, Operation Streamline, and the Secure Border Initiative. Amidst growing complaints of abuses in the system including reports of deaths of immigrants in detention, there has also been a sharp rise in the number and scale of ICE raids in communities across the country. Over a 1,000 people were arrested in two of the largest single workplace raids took place in Laurel, Mississippi, and Postville, Iowa earlier this year.
more@linkOf course this is a touchy subject and one that we will find an answer to. Lots of... more
-
-
Washington's ambitious $6 billion investment in wiping out Colombia's coca crops and cocaine production has been a failure, the GAO said in a report released Wednesday. The aid program, known as Plan Colombia, had a goal of reducing Colombian coca and cocaine production by half between 2000 and 2006, but instead of shrinking, coca production was up 15% and cocaine production was up 4%, the review found.
Or, as the GAO diplomatically put it: "Plan Colombia's goal of reducing the cultivation, processing, and distribution of illegal narcotics by 50 percent in 6 years was not fully achieved."
By all accounts, Colombia has been and remains the world's number one coca and cocaine producer. It is estimated that 90% of the cocaine reaching the US is from Colombia. Despite years of aerial eradication with herbicides, as well as manual eradication, Washington and Bogotá have been unable to put a serious dent in the Colombian coca and cocaine trade. The inability to suppress coca and cocaine production "can be explained by measures taken by coca farmers to counter US and Colombian eradication efforts," the report said.
The report was commissioned by Sen. Joe Biden (D-DE), chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. It could provide powerful ammunition for congressional foes of Plan Colombia, who are seeking to reduce US assistance to the government of President Alvaro Uribe, many of them citing human rights violations by the Colombian military and the right-wing paramilitaries, who have an ambiguous relationship with the Colombian government.
The report calls for aid cuts and advises US and Colombian officials to "develop a joint plan for turning over operational and funding responsibilities for US-supported programs to Colombia." It also called for USAID, which has administered more than $1.3 billion in alternative development funding, to come up with methods of measuring whether its efforts were having any impact.
The GAO did give Washington and Bogotá credit for improving Colombia's security climate "through systematic military and police engagements with illegal armed groups and by degrading these groups' finances." But, as we reported last week, Amnesty International has found that the human rights situation in Colombia remains atrocious, with thousands of killings each year and between two and three million Colombians displaced and living as refugees.
With Democrats in control of both Congress and the White House, Plan Colombia's days could be numbered, and a report like this one ought to kill the beast. But don't be surprised if it doesn't.Washington's ambitious $6 billion investment in wiping out Colombia's coca... more
-
-
A report released by the Corporate IT Forum claims that UK companies believe the government is not doing enough to tackle cyber crime.
57% of people questioned in the survey said they thought cyber crime in the workplace would not be dealt with properly by the police.
Many businesses are currently reporting that they are almost "under siege" by cyber criminals.
A report released by the Corporate IT Forum claims that UK companies believe the... more
-
-
ClareW
-
added this
-
3 years ago
- |
-
Gasoline prices in Canada are down for a fourth-straight week, according to a weekly report released Tuesday, with some locations showing average prices of less than $1 a litre.
Gasoline prices in Canada are down for a fourth-straight week, according to a weekly... more
-
-
riday's report from special investigator Stephen Branchflower to Alaska's Legislative Council answered some basic questions about the political and personal bog known as Troopergate.riday's report from special investigator Stephen Branchflower to Alaska's... more
-
-
B.C. is home to some of the biggest marijuana crops in the world. It is also a hot bed for the Hell's Angels. Go behind the scenes with Vancouver Sun reporter Kim Bolan for reports on crime.B.C. is home to some of the biggest marijuana crops in the world. It is also a hot bed... more
-
-
A local mayor said Monday the public will want an explanation for the bizarre death of a man who was found under the wheels of a transit bus late Friday after being dragged more than five kilometres along Highway 99
A local mayor said Monday the public will want an explanation for the bizarre death of... more
-
-
The Corporation is a 2003 Canadian documentary film critical of the modern-day corporation, considering it as a class of person and evaluating its behaviour towards society and the world at large as a psychologist might evaluate an ordinary person. This is explored through specific examples. The film was written by Joel Bakan, and co-directed by Mark Achbar and Jennifer Abbott. The documentary has been displayed worldwide, on TV and is also available on DVD. Bakan wrote the book, The Corporation: The Pathological Pursuit of Profit and Power (ISBN 0-74324-744-2), during the filming of the documentary. The film charts the development of the corporation as a legal entity from its origins as an institution chartered by governments to carry out specific public functions, to the rise of the vast modern institutions entitled to some of the legal rights of a person. One central theme of the documentary is an attempt to assess the "personality" of the corporate "person" by using diagnostic criteria from the DSM-IV; Robert Hare, a University of British Columbia Psychology Professor and FBI consultant, compares the profile of the modern, profit-driven corporation to that of a clinically-diagnosed psychopath. The film focuses mostly on corporations in North America, especially in the United States.
The film is composed of several vignettes examining and critiquing corporate practices, and drawing parallels between examples of corporate malfeasance and the DSM-IV's symptoms of psychopathy, i.e. callous unconcern for the feelings of others, incapacity to maintain enduring relationships, reckless disregard for the safety of others, deceitfulness (repeated lying to and deceiving of others for profit), incapacity to experience guilt, and failure to conform to the social norms with respect to lawful behaviors.The Corporation is a 2003 Canadian documentary film critical of the modern-day... more
-
-
A secret US intelligence report which says the political and military situation in Afghanistan is "grim" will be withheld from the public until after the election, a new report says.
Intelligence officials are finishing up the National Intelligence Estimate on Aghanistan, according to ABC's Brian Ross, "but there are 'no plans to declassify' any of it before the election," an official said.
Keeping the intelligence report under wraps would likely help Sen. John McCain (R-AZ). McCain has focused on what he sees as the success of the Iraq "surge," in which the US added troops to lessen violence. Attention to problems in Afghanistan would put the spotlight on President Bush's failures, which might rub off on the Republican presidential nominee.
"According to people who have been briefed, the NIE will paint a 'grim' picture of the situation in Afghanistan, seven years after the US invaded in an effort to dismantle the al Qaeda network and its Taliban protectors," Ross writes.
Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Admiral Michael Mullen told Congress last week the US is struggling to retain control.
"I'm not convinced we're winning it in Afghanistan," he said, adding, "we're running out of time."
"Absent a broader international and interagency approach to the problems there, it is my professional opinion that no amount of troops in no amount of time can ever achieve all the objectives we seek in Afghanistan," he said.
This aligns with the opinions of commanders on the ground. According to a report in Tuesday's Wall Street Journal, the US military expects the Taliban to launch a "winter offensive," which would mean a spike in violence in an area that has, at least for the recent past, been more quiet.
"I do think there will be an increase in violence by the enemy in order to maintain a general sense of insecurity," Brig. Gen. Mark Milley, deputy commander of the U.S. forces in eastern Afghanistan, told the paper. "The winter fighting season this year will be more violent than in previous years."
A spokesperson for the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, Vanee Vines, told Ross "it is not the [National Intelligence Director]'s policy to publicly comment on national intelligence products that may or may not be in production."
National Intelligence Director Mike McConnell has said that he doesn't believe intelligence estimates should be made public, though several have recently been released, including one that detailed the US intelligence community's position on Iran's nuclear program.
The National Intelligence Estimate reflects the consensus view of 17 government agencies.
A secret US intelligence report which says the political and military situation in... more
-
-
-
North Korea said today it was making "thorough preparations" to restart its nuclear reactor, accusing the US of failing to fulfil its obligations under an international disarmament-for-aid agreement.
It is the first time the communist nation has confirmed that it is reversing earlier steps to disable its nuclear programme, although it had previously threatened to do so because of Washington's refusal to quickly remove it from a US terrorism blacklist.
"We are making thorough preparations for restoration" of the Yongbyon nuclear complex, the deputy director-general of North Korea's ministry of foreign affairs, Hyun Hak Bong, said.
He did not say when Yongbyon might begin operating again. Hyun spoke to reporters in Panmunjom ahead of talks today with South Korean officials on sending energy aid to the North as part of the six-nation disarmament deal.
Under the 2007 pact, which involves the two Koreas, the US, China, Russia and Japan, North Korea pledged to disable its nuclear programme in a step toward its eventual dismantlement in exchange for diplomatic concessions and energy aid equivalent to one million tonnes of oil.
North Korea began disabling the Yongbyon complex last year, and the process was 90% complete, with eight of 11 key steps carried out "perfectly and flawlessly", Hyun said.
Major progress was made in the agreement in late June when North Korea submitted a long-delayed declaration of its nuclear activities and destroyed the cooling tower at Yongbyon in a show of its commitment to denuclearisation.
But the accord ran aground in mid-August when Washington refused to take North Korea off its list of states that sponsor terrorism until the state accepted a plan to verify its nuclear declaration.
North Korea responded by halting the disabling process and is now "proceeding with work to restore (Yongbyon) to its original status", Hyun said.
South Korean and US officials have said it would take at least a year for North Korea to restart the reactor if it was completely disabled.
Hyun warned Washington not to press the verification issue, saying it had never been part of the disarmament deal.
"The US is insisting that we accept unilateral demands that had not been agreed upon. They want to go anywhere at any time to collect samples and carry out examinations with measuring equipment," he said. "That means they intend to force an inspection."
He said forcing North Korea to comply with such an inspection would exacerbate tensions.
The six-nation talks last convened in July, and a new round has not been scheduled because of the current standoff between the US and North Korea.
However, today's talks between the two Koreas, which were proposed by the North, indicated the North did not want to completely scuttle the six-party negotiations, analysts said.
"The North is sending a message that it wants to maintain the six-party talks," said Koh Yu-hwan, a North Korea expert at Seoul's Dongguk University. "The North also wants to get the remaining energy aid with winter drawing closer."
Seoul's delegate at the talks, Hwang Joon-kook, assured North Korea that it would receive the remaining energy aid it was promised.
The South Korean foreign minister, Yu Myung-hwan, said North Korea's intentions remained unclear.
"It's still uncertain whether the North's measures are aimed at reversing the whole situation to the pre-disablement level" or are a negotiating tactic, he said.
The tensions come amid reports that North Korean leader Kim Jong-il has suffered a stroke. Kim, 66, has not been seen in public for more than a month and has missed two major public events: a military parade marking North Korea's 60th birthday and the Korean Thanksgiving holiday.
North Korea said today it was making "thorough preparations" to restart its... more
-
-
Nassau County officials are looking at what might seem like an improbable link between the mortgage foreclosure mess and the surge in West Nile virus this year in the central area of the county.
County health department officials say they are still evaluating the data. But they are looking at whether the incidence of the virus is higher in central Nassau because it is being spread by mosquitoes breeding in stagnant water, including untended backyard swimming pools, in the homes there under foreclosure.
David Pimentel, professor of entomology at Cornell University in Ithaca, said there was no doubt of the link between foreclosed homes and West Nile.
"Definitely. There is no doubt. The problem is going to occur where you have stagnant water, and that's what you're going to find around foreclosed homes, unattended for months at a time," Pimentel said.
Culex quinquefasciatus mosquito Photo The number of West Nile cases recently prompted the county to do aerial pesticide spraying on a broad swath of central Nassau. The decision provoked outrage from environmentalists and breast cancer advocates.
The spraying was conducted over a 50,000-acre section between the Long Island Expressway and the Southern State, and from the Queens border to the Seaford-Oyster Bay Expressway -- the same area where foreclosures have hit the county hardest.
"Clearly, the vast majority of abandoned, decrepit properties as a result of the foreclosure crisis are in central Nassau," Legis. David Mejias, chairman of the Health Committee, said at a meeting Monday.
Nassau County officials are looking at what might seem like an improbable link between... more
-
-
And fear of Internet gossip should not prohibit responsible journalism. The ABC News affiliate in Houston carried a video of investigative reporter Wayne Dolcefino confronting Texas governor Rick Perry about temporary “no-fly” zones for TV helicopters over parts of the Bolivar peninsula and west Galveston, the hardest hit areas. Later in the video, Dolcefino tells the ABC anchors:
After Katrina, we were able to go to Waveland, Mississippi, and Gulfport, and Biloxi, and places that were devastated, where there were, sadly, bodies on the road. Now that’s a horrible thing to see and a horrible thing to show, but people who live there, who have friends there, who have relatives there, have a fundamental right to know that stuff. They have a fundamental right to know, not just from the words of a politician or public official, but from the news media, which are independent of government and have also the responsibility of trying to help the public evaluate response…
We couldn’t get crews back on Galveston last night and this morning until we complained on the air for about twenty hours. And it’s not because we want to sightsee, guys, it’s because we have the responsibility of telling people… I made it as clear to [Gov. Perry] off camera as I did on camera that this is not going to be tolerated. You know, we hear about disasters in other countries—what was it, Burma, Myanmar—where they won’t let people in to see and you know, this is the state of Texas; this America. And we’re not trying to interfere with rescue and search operations, nor did anyone suggest we would be.
When asked why he thought the government was obstructing access, Dolcefino did not mince words:
I don’t think they want us to see images that may remind people… of the images that we saw in New Orleans. I don’t think they want us to see the images that were seen in Waveland, Mississippi or Gulfport… I think that’s the reality; they do not want us to see yet, until they can control what we see and how we see it. And that is simply, at least in my career, unacceptable. Maybe a lot of reporters won’t say it, but I will. I think they do not want us to see images of potential fatalities that may be on land or on water.
Other reporters didn’t think access was much of a problem. The Houston Chronicle’s Matthew Tresaugue said he wasn’t sure why TV choppers were prohibited from flying last Sunday, but that there were, in fact, reporters in the air. On SEJ’s list-serv he noted that:
The Chronicle had a photographer over Bolivar on Sunday about the same time as the televised confrontation. I flew with a photographer from High Island to Galveston’s west end to Surfside Beach in a Cessna yesterday, and one of our columnists and a photographer got a closer view of the same area from a helicopter. … I think the difference is the television guys wanted to take their helicopters, and we hitched rides. On my flight, I was able to see what I needed and even double back to take second looks. I can’t complain.
There's more..........
And fear of Internet gossip should not prohibit responsible journalism. The ABC News... more
-
-
Justice Officials Repeatedly Broke Law on Hiring.
Former Justice Department counselor Monica M. Goodling and former chief of staff D. Kyle Sampson routinely broke the law by conducting political litmus tests on candidates for jobs as immigration judges and line prosecutors, according to an inspector general's report released todayGoodling passed over hundreds of qualified applicants and squashed the promotions of others after deeming candidates insufficiently loyal to the Republican party, said investigators, who interviewed 85 people and received information from 300 other job seekers at Justice. Sampson developed a system to screen immigration judge candidates based on improper political considerations and routinely took recommendations from the White House Office of Political Affairs and Presidential Personnel, the report said.
Goodling regularly asked candidates for career jobs: "What is it about George W. Bush that makes you want to serve him?" the report said. One former Justice Department official told investigators she had complained that Goodling was asking interviewees for their views on abortion, according to the report.
Taking political or personal factors into account in employment decisions for career positions violates civil service laws and can run afoul of ethics rules. Investigators said today that both Goodling and Sampson had engaged in "misconduct."
The improper personnel moves deprived worthy candidates of promotions and damaged the credibility of the Justice Department, investigators wrote. An experienced counterterrorism prosecutor, for example, was kept from advancing in favor of a more junior lawyer who lacked a background in terrorism. The procedures imposed on immigration judge candidates caused serious delays in appointing judges at a time when the courts suffered under a heavy workload, the report said.
Goodling, who resigned in 2007 amid a scandal over the department's politicized hiring, is a central figure in the long-running investigation into the way politics infused decision-making at the department. Sampson, who had served as a top aide to former Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales, also left the department last year and now works at a law firm in the Washington area. . Justice Officials Repeatedly Broke Law on Hiring.
Former Justice Department... more
-
-
"Three homes and five vehicles were sprayed with anti-gay slogans in the 2800 block of NW 7th Ave in Wilton Manors early Friday morning.
One resident was using soap and water to wash out the anti-gay messages sprayed on his property that said "fag".
He explained to CBS4 Reporter Ted Scouten that he's not gay, which is all the more worrying why he was a target.
Another resident, Ron Helfrich, said his home and car were defaced, "They wrote gay on the door, in the living room, and on the couch."
''There's no reason for this to happen,'' Aaron Challancin said. ``We didn't do anything to anyone. We're normal people trying to live normal lives.
The incidents are being investigated by the Wilton Manors police department.""Three homes and five vehicles were sprayed with anti-gay slogans in the 2800... more
-
-
The South tips the scales again as the nation's fattest region, according to a new government survey.
More than 30 percent of adults in Mississippi, Alabama and Tennessee are considered obese. In part, experts blame Southern eating habits, poverty and demographic groups that have higher obesity rates.
Colorado was the least obese, with about 19 percent fitting that category in a random telephone survey done last year by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The 2007 findings are similar to results from the same survey the three previous years. Mississippi has had the highest obesity rate every year since 2004. But Alabama, Tennessee, West Virginia and Louisiana have also clustered near the top of the list, often so close that the difference between their rates and Mississippi's may not be statistically significant.The South tips the scales again as the nation's fattest region, according to a... more
-
-
Climate change puts US way of life at risk
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, under fire for apparently discounting the impact of climate change, on Thursday said global warming poses real risk to human health and the American way of life.
Risks include more heat-related deaths, more heart and lung diseases due to increased ozone and health problems related to hurricanes, extreme precipitation and wildfires, the agency said in a new report.
The study comes on the heels after an off the cuff remark from President George W. Bush at a G8 summit last week, where he ended a private meeting with the quip, "Goodbye from the world's biggest polluter," before punching the air.
The EPA doesn't agree.
"Climate change poses real risk to human health and the human systems that support our way of life in the United States," the agency's Joel Scheraga said in a telephone briefing.
The report does not specify how many people in the United States could die due to climate change, because that number can be changed by taking action, Scheraga said.
"We are not saying in this report that more people will die in the future due to climate change," he said. "What we are saying is that there's an increased risk of deaths due to heat waves in the future as the climate changes.
"We have an opportunity to anticipate these increased risks ... and to due to prepare for the future in order to mitigate these risks."
Limited to climate change impacts in the United States, the report found a likely increase in food and water-borne germs as the world warms and habitat ranges expand for some disease-causing organisms.
Also, the inequities now found in the U.S. health care system are likely to be exacerbated by global warming: "Many of the expected health effects are likely to fall disproportionately on the poor, the elderly, the disabled and the uninsured."
Global warming is expected to affect water supplies across the country, with reduced water flow in rivers, lower groundwater levels and more salt creeping into coastal rivers and groundwater, the report said.
People who live along the coasts will face the consequences of rising sea levels and severe weather events while city dwellers can expect higher energy demand to cool buildings -- though the demand for heat will probably decline.
The report covers much of the same substance as an EPA document released on Monday that found global warming endangers human health. This document was part of the agency's response to a 2007 Supreme Court ruling that found the EPA had the power to regulate climate-warming greenhouse gas emissions if it was found that they hurt human health.
However, the agency has indicated no action is likely before the Bush administration leaves office next January.
Stephen Johnson, head of the environmental agency, has been called to testify on July 30 before the Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on alleged White House interference with the agency. Researchers have repeatedly complained of White House censorship of environmental science.
Climate change puts US way of life at risk
The U.S. Environmental Protection... more
-
